Lovely spot by the river

 We're meeting up with D who lives in East Molesley, so we have booked into 1665 at the Mitre at Hampton Court. We had been due to go the previous week, but D had been "pinged" and had to self-isolate. No matter - the weather was better this week. We'd asked for a river view, and expected to be seated inside, but in fact we are taken outside right down to river-level. We'd read it had recently been refurbished, but seated outside we couldn't reach a judgement on that.  The sun is shining, the river is sparkling, geese are swimming around and various kayaks, sculls, launches etc pass by. There's even someone skimming along on a strange James Bond-like hydro-board. It is really a lovely spot. 

I order their South African Sauvignon Blanc at £32, but they have run out. Prices on the wine list escalate rapidly (there's a French SB at £53), so instead we just settle for the house white, an Italian Malvasia at £26. 

D arrives and we chat away. Service is attentive, but we have not decided what we want  until their third attempt to take our order.  There is a good range of choice, especially of starters, D has the roast duck with watermelon and cashew salad, which is a good sized portion. B's yellowfin tuna with pickled ginger and wasabi was more modest, but tasted very meaty. My crab "toastie" was full of flavour, and cumulatively the harissa sauce was quite a zing. 

The selection of main courses was a bit more ordinary, but did include special dishes such as a whole lobster or a rib of beef for 2. B was tempted by the crab and lobster tortellini with lobster bisque, but instead went for the pan-roasted trout with crab. This very red fillet of fish was also quite large - it must have been a monster catch. My chicken Milanese came with a deep yellow runny fried egg and "heritage" tomatoes, with which I'd also ordered truffle and parmesan fries. The meat was still juicy, the batter crisp and dry - and a size such that I struggled to finish it. D had the herb-crusted lamb fillet with "crushed" potatoes - another sizeable dish that she put away without difficulty!

We sit there for ages, enjoying the view and the wine (which is fine, if a little dull). Then D opts for the Chocolate Nemesis - gooey chocolate slice with honeycomb, marscapone ice cream and raspberries.  We did consider the flaming baked Alaska to share, but were really too full to do it justice.

With three bottles and a 500ml carafe the bill came to £250 including 12.5% service. To be fair the service had been very good, attentive and friendly. We'd had over three hours sitting chatting in a lovely sunny spot, eating and drinking well, so that seemed a pretty fair price. 

Two more places in Surbiton

 We'd got into a routine of Saturday being "curry night" at home, including some very nice ones from Cook!  But this week we decide to try The Gurkha Kitchen at the Ferry, a local pub.  We'd been in for a drink once before, and it seemed like a place full of locals. It's an odd combination of drinkers' pub and tables laid up smartly surrounded by semi-luminous paintings of Nepal. 

This time the proportion of smartly laid-up tables is higher and all of them duly fill up, though the small number of local drinkers are making most of the noise, at least until they move outside.  The house Shiraz at £18 is very reasonable, and they bring complimentary pappadums and pickles. 

The menu is very wide-ranging, with lots of unusual Nepalese dishes. After a little thought, we choose the special platter to share as our starter.  This comprises two large portions of chicken tandoori, some chicken tikka, one tandoori king prawn and lamb sekuwa - grilled lamb pieces.  It's very tasty, and not at all dry as I might have expected. There is a subtle kick to the lamb and to the tikka, and all the chicken has good flavour. 

For mains we have "Everest Lamb", which is in a thick garlic and ginger sauce, and a very attractively presented "Fewa prawn", which four butterflied king prawns in a lobster-shade tomato, yogurt and chilli sauce. Both dishes are very good, though the lamb, despite being "slow-cooked" is a little on the chewy side.  We also order a black dhal (a B favourite), which is a bit disappointing - I even wonder whether they'd given us the ordinary dhal instead - and mushroom rice. 

With a second bottle - most of which we take away - the bill comes to £83 without service charge. Service has been very efficient and as friendly as you can be when masked up. There has been a nice warm vibe to the place, and the dining tables have been full throughout with a second round of diners. Certainly worth another try to experiment with the wide range of unfamiliar dishes.

At the bottom of our road is the Thames Ditton Marina, which is home a new bar/restaurant called Hideaway, a new venture related to No 97 and Cento Uno in Maple Road. It's in a gorgeous location, with a terrace right alongside the river. We'd been a couple of times for drinks, and it's been very pleasant and welcoming. The menu didn't look especially appealing at lunchtime - more brunch than anything - but the evening was more a "small plates", tapas-style option. 

I've emailed and left a voice message to book a table, but no reply as late as 5pm. They are shut on Monday and Tuesday lunchtime, so that's just about understandable. So I ring again and get a rather harassed response - they can't do 7.30 pm but could do 8 pm. They can't guarantee seats on the terrace either - first come first served. It's been a lovely warm day, but we are warned to bring something to wrap up with as it gets cold (here by the river). 

There's no-one seated inside when we arrive, and outside looks pretty full. But we do get shown to a table for 3 outside, though it's not directly overlooking the river and more by the marina. We order the house white Trebbiano at £23 - having been stung by £32 for SB on a previous visit - which arrives promptly. As we mull over the menu, the manager comes out and asks us if we would mind moving as he now has a table for 2 by the river, and he has a group of 3 just arrived. Fine by us. It's a lovely spot as the light fades and ghostly lit boats drift by. 

We order 5 dishes, which are going to be a struggle to fit on the small table. It's not a huge menu, so the decisions aren't too hard - just 12 proper dishes. Garlic prawns was always going to be a choice - this version comes with roasted corn as well as the garlic and chilli, which are quite modestly represented. Crispy cod comes with a tomato sauce slapped across it, and is a bit limp and uninteresting.  The lamb skewer is fine, if a bit small, with the peri chicken livers being the best of the bunch - not heavily sauced as they often are, but with a neat hit of chilli in the peri-peri sauce.  The final selection was courgette fritter which comes, not like Italian zucchini fritti, but in a great wodge of fried, grated vegetable - quite good though. 

The setting remains super, and it doesn't get too cold. We are a bit distracted by a guy alone at the next table who wants to share his problems with us, but eventually he orders food too (burger and chips) and is then distracted. Service is attentive - and we order a couple more glasses to enjoy the view. Total bill is a reasonable £77 (incl 12.5%) , but although the five dishes have been filling enough, the food itself has been a bit disappointing.  As the nights draw in and the weather turns colder, the setting itself will lose its charm, and unless the menu becomes more interesting we may not want to go then.  The tapas menu would be fine for lunch perhaps, otherwise I fear for their prospects. 

 

Another riverside pub

 We are meeting D who lives over in East Molesley, so we agree to go to the Albany, roughly half-way between us, about a half-hour walk. The pub is right on the river, with plenty of outdoor seating, overlooking Hampton Court's back garden. The sun is shining, there are swans and even a great-crested grebe swimming around, as well as a succession of passing boats, kayaks, paddle-boarders and a punt from the Ditton Skiff and Punting club next door. Idyllic.   

We're shown to a table right by the river and, as the waitress clears it, order some Craggy Range SB from Marlborough - fuller flavour than many.  D arrives and we set to ordering our food, though B once again is unlucky in that her choice of steak salad is not available. This despite several other items already having been "redacted". 

D has mushroom on a sourdough crumpet to start. Oyster mushrooms and ordinary ones.  B has scallops - three large ones plus a prawn and crabmeat ball ("bonbon") - excellent. My sticky chipotle chicken is good too, really quite spicy.  

The crab and prawn fishcakes that D has are good too (much better than ones I had recently at Hart's Boatyard - the two menus are very similar) and come, after some debate about a side salad, with skinny fries, some of which get shared with the swans. B opted in the end for pork belly (without the optional scallops), which looks a bit heavy but she enjoys. She doesn't eat the mash though.  I have another spicy dish - prawn and crab linguine (clearly there's no shortage of prawns or crab) with plenty of chilli. Quite a zing and more pasta than I can eat.  

B's quite keen for us to share a "pornstar martini Eton mess", but is unlucky again, as that's "off" too. Nothing much else appeals, so we just move on to our third bottle of wine. 

Our waitress has been cheerful and efficient throughout. With the £30 government discount, the total comes to £134 - we leave a £15 tip.  It's not been haute cuisine, but very enjoyable in a lovely setting. A bit too much of a walk to become a regular perhaps, but certainly we'd be happy to go again. 

Riverside pub in Thames Ditton

It's forecast to be a nice day, so we book a table at Ye Olde Swan, a Greene king pub in Thames Ditton.  It's a bit of a walk - 20 to 25 mins - so we don't want to be turned away when we get there.  With loads of seating outside, distancing is not a problem, and we get to choose where to sit. We go for a table overlooking the river, right by the little (private) bridge across to the island.  

It's pretty idyllic, with the views to the island, the Canada geese, ducks, swans (and cygnet), and eventually a heron - though the geese see him off. Plenty of boats pootling up and down the channel (the main stream of the river is visible beyond), some deciding to moor up for lunch. 

We have the squid to start - curly-whirly bits with a chilli dipping sauce, quite spicy, cooked well.  For mains, B ordered the seabass fillet and scallops risotto - but it's "off". That means there aren't seabass fillets for the Caesar salad either, so she has the chicken Caesar  The chicken doesn't look that great but isn't as dry as it appears. Good sauce and nice anchovies.  I have the steak and ale pie with chips. This is a proper pastry pie, with a rich and tasty sauce. Sadly, though, you have to fish hard to find any actual meat.  Chips are good and hot. 

We have a couple of bottles of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc.  Total bill just £72.  So, pretty average pub food, but a splendid setting on a lovely day.   As we leave we see there is a whole strip of tables down at water-level, ideal for boaters. 

February round-up

India Dining

It’s Valentine’s Day so of course we take our neighbour out for dinner.  We get a taxi over to Warlingham (about 20 mins), though parking is difficult and we have to jump out rapidly.  Naturally the place is festooned with red balloons, but we are offered a table where we can easily move them aside.


We’d heard of it some time ago as a place run by a chef who used to work at the Cinnamon Club. K&I next door had been before and liked it too, so we were definitely looking forward to it.
It’s quite busy, so it is hard to track down a specific server, but we get our wine (the house Merlot at £17.95) quickly enough. There are some more interesting/expensive wines on the list, but it’s not unreasonable.


There is a special Valentine’s Day 4-course menu on offer, but we decide to go a la carte, which they are OK with. We get some poppadums (with nice chutneys), then order. K passes on a starter, so we share the chilli squid (deep-fried, with a good hit of chilli) and the yellow fin tuna between the three of us. The tuna comes as slices of seared tuna, along with a few pieces of tuna tartar – the seared tuna is good, but I’m less enamoured with the tartar.
For main course, K goes with the mixed tandoori grill – chicken, lamb, prawn – with a stuffed paratha. She says that is very good. B orders the Goan prawns (or “Gowan” as the menu has it), which are excellent: good prawn flavour, soft but not cotton-wool, and a seriously spicy sauce. I choose “Nihari raan” – lamb shank in yoghurt and spice sauce. This is fine, the sauce is delicious and the meat comes away from the bone easily, but somehow the combination doesn’t really work.  We also order rice, dhal and a garlic spinach dish.


We indulge in a couple of desserts. K chooses the gulab jamun, the sticky milk balls dish, and B the pistachio kulfi. Both good.


Service has been very good despite the busy evening. At one point a senior waiter took mock offence when after asking “didn’t I take your order?”, I reply “no, a young man did!”.
The bill presented was £136 – 10% service, 2 bottles of wine and a couple of cokes. It sounded OK, so I didn’t check it until later. They had forgotten to charge us for the poppadums and starters, but had charged us for an extra side dish and coke – on balance we were ahead! 
Worth the visit if there are enough of you to justify the taxi fare.
 

Chez Lindsay

I’ve reviewed this charming French bistro before, and again we are there with S&S. It may be that is not as much on offer as you’d expect, but we end up ordering just two different starters and two different mains between us. S and B love the whole crab starter, which of course takes an age to eat. S and I go for the smoked duck salad – good, not special.


Unusually we have all gone for galettes as mains – B for the gambas, and the rest of us for the fruits de mer.  We also have a crème brulee and a crepes suzette for dessert.
£244 for the food plus four bottles of Viognier at £25 and some water.  Happy to recommend that.

Red Farm

We’d been looking for a good Chinese centrally so when we hear of this place by Covent Garden we have to give it a try. It’s a tight small space with a long central table and a few others around the side. We get seated at a two-some table in what feels like a cramped place near the bar – nowhere to put coats other than the floor. The place is fairly busy with lively young people so, once we get used to the table, the atmosphere is OK.


It’s tricky to work out what to order from the menu – what is starter or main. Some dishes seem seriously pricey and dim sum are £10 a shot. In the end we go for a selection of starters/dim sum. We choose just 4 to start with.


The “pac man” prawn dumplings are unique – there are four different flavour dumplings plus a “pac man” shaped shrimp/potato fritter.  The individual dumplings are excellent, but pac-man himself a little dull.  The other dim sum is beef dumplings – spicy and slippery. We also have “Dingley Dell” pork belly – soft and full of flavour; and lamb skewers with chilli and cumin.
To be fair the dishes have been a good size and very tasty. We order another portion of the “pac man” a chicken dumplings, with mushroom and a duck gyoza.


Service was very slow to begin with. The head waiter apologised for the delay due to a technical problem – just before we got irritated.  In recompense he provided a tray of three vegetables, which were very tasty and didn’t charge us for the gyoza.


Wine wasn’t cheap either - £29 for a standard Chenin Blanc. The total of £136 (incl 12.5% ) was more than you would expect for an average Chinese dim sum – but then it was definitely well above average.  OK for small groups – not really a party destination.

Busaba, KIngston

We’ve been to this Thai restaurant on the river in Kingston before – in the summer when you could sit outside. Despite this remarkable February weather, this time we are inside in a very busy space.  We are offered one table close to a group of little kids, so decide instead to sit between two other tables, both of which were finishing up anyway.


Although the restaurant is busy, the service is good enough to get a wine order (Chenin Blanc at £22) in quickly, along with some Thai prawn crackers – so much better than the Chinese ones.
We share a Thai calamari to start – their “signature” dish with ginger and green peppercorns. It is remarkable, nothing like I’ve had before. The calamari is cooked just short of rubbery (no batter), and the sauce a mouthful of flavour. The peppercorns are on little stalks, infusing the whole thing. Top marks.


There are several main courses that sound very interesting, but in the end we go with chilli prawns and tamarind duck (which comes with rice) plus a “sweet and sour” cucumber salad.  The prawns have a serious kick and good flavour. The duck (which requires proper sharp knives to deal with) is also an impressive dish.  The only low note is the salad, which has far more lettuce and leaves and not enough cucumber for our taste.


With the usual 12.5% service (pretty much deserved) and a second bottle of wine, the bill comes to £97 – I’m pleased with that, it’s very good value.

Three January birthday celebrations

M&G invited us to lunch to celebrate B’s birthday, and came up with Northbank as a good venue, on the Embankment path just north of the Millennium Bridge.  We’d been there (or its predecessor) before, sitting outside for a drink with the great view, but hadn’t previously eaten in the main restaurant.

We have a bottle of Prosecco between us in the bar to start and then move on in to a surprisingly busy room for a mid-week lunchtime. The clientele is rather corporate-looking, as is the general design of the place – apart from a rather radical wallpaper design, replicated on the menu cover, featuring a mugging, a homeless person and police cars, against a background of London tourist sights!

G orders both some white, the enticingly named Original Sin Sauvignon Blanc, from La Vierge, South Africa, and the equally intriguing red  Saurus Select Malbec from  Familia Schroeder, Patagonia (though there were some votes for “The Idiot Shiraz”).  Both are excellent, though we later as we needed another bottle, we had some debate about whether there was such a thing as a second Original Sin!

For starter I have three excellent scallops served with black pudding and B has a rather simpler smoked salmon served with melba toast.  M’s potted chicken comes with some interesting gherkin pieces, while G’s grilled mackerel is also good. A pretty solid start.

Main courses are even better.  My pork belly has crackling that is perfect, better than any I’ve had – crisp, yet not teeth threatening, and comes with a luscious sauce.  B’s duck breast is also lovely – nicely pink and again with a good sauce. M chooses the fish of the day, whole plaice – another winner. G’s calves liver looks a little over-cooked to me, but he’s very happy with it.

We’re pretty full, but the Malbec remains enticing so we order a plate of cheese between the four of us to provide an excuse. The portions of the four distinctive cheeses (including Yarg) were quite small, but that was fine as they supported the wine excellently.

M&G generously paid (thanks, guys) so I’ve no idea what it cost – not cheap I suspect.  Apart from the slightly corporate atmosphere, this was an excellent place with some of the best food we’ve had in a while.

A couple of days later on a Friday night we find ourselves in Bam-Bou, a Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant in Percy St, at the junction with Charlotte Street.  It’s a gorgeously decorated place on several floors, with a cocktail bar at the top, which is where we join S for a drink.  We’ve had to book early, as the restaurant had said they were busy, so we’ve fallen in with the doors at 5.30pm. Obviously it’s pretty quiet then, but the bar fills up within half an hour. We each order cocktails (about £10 each) and then a bottle of Chenin Blanc at about £20. We’re joined by A who chooses a Japanese whisky from the extensive (and expensive) list.

We go to our table on the ground floor at 6.30pm – the room is only half full. In fact it never gets really full (though there is some turnover of tables) so we don’t quite get why we had to be there so early.  We make the mistake of allowing A to order the wines – his taste is a little on the pricey side, so by the end of the evening it all mounts up. Nonetheless you can’t say a word against the Cape Mentelle Sauvignon Blanc from Margret River or the Elderton Shiraz/Cabernet from Barossa Valley.

We share starters between the four of us – edamame beans while we order, then soft shell crab, crab and green mango salad, Hanoi ribs and grilled prawns. All were good without standing out, except perhaps the crab salad which was a very good fresh dish.

For my main course I had the slow braised ox cheek.  It was very tender but didn’t have much spiciness. B on the other hand had the very chilli-tasting wok prawns which was very good.  S had crispy quail which had a nice batter, and A had a vegetable noodle bowl, with some grilled aubergine.  We shared a rhubarb parfait and coconut panna cotta for dessert.

The service was very good (efficient and quiet) and the atmosphere excellent – buzzy and oriental.  Because of the cocktails and expensive wines the bill came to a whopping £377, two-thirds of which was booze.  £100 for food for four is not so bad, so more careful diners could manage to get good value for money.

On Monday we’re off to Ronnie Scott’s to see Billy Cobham (no, I hadn’t heard of him either, but he was good and the Guardian review liked him too).  So we try out Nopi, an Ottolenghi restaurant off Regent Street beforehand.

As we’re eating early, the place is nearly empty when we arrive, but we are still shown right to the back – obviously we’re not the beautiful people they expect.  The décor is restrained and relaxing beige, with light wood furniture.  We’ve opted for the main restaurant, though apparently you can eat downstairs to watch the “theatre kitchen”. 

We order some spicy roasted nuts and the cheapest white wine (Savia Viva Classico Blanco, Penedes - £25) while we consider the menu. Like Bam-Bou the wine list shoots up quite quickly (£140 for a Trebbiano anyone?).  Sparkling water is free though.

Like many places now, the approach is small sharing plates, so we order four.  The trouble is that each is the price of a main course in a more down to earth place.  The menu leans heavily on vegetarian dishes but we have two meat, one fish and a cheese dish.

The venison with caramelised yoghurt, blackberries and peanut crumble is very tender and tasty but not as interesting as the ingredient list suggests.  The “twice-cooked baby chicken” with chilli sauce is very moist and melting, with the chilli being a hint of flavour rather than dominating. Stone bass, urid dahl, hot and sour aubergine is similarly good with subtle supporting flavours. Burrata (a very soft light cheese) with coriander seeds and accompanied by blood orange is refreshing and tangy at the same time.

With an extra glass of wine each, this brings the total up to £97, broadly acceptable in the end. As we leave the place is full,  and the display of veggie dishes looks impressive.

To, at and from the Wirral

Just a few quick words about some places we came across during a trip up North for my niece’s 40^th birthday party.

Just off the M42/M5 on the way to Stourbridge, turn off for Clent. There you will find the Bell and Cross, at Holy Cross, county dining pub of the year for Worcestershire. It has a fair sized garden, but the weather was a bit iffy so we sat in one of the many little dining rooms, close enough to the open door to get a nice breeze.  B has the skewer of king prawns with chorizo – a nice skewers of 3 prawns and 3 pieces of spicy chorizo; the “Catalan salad” is nothing special, but the garlic dressing is good.  My choice of sticky shredded black bean chicken seems to be missing its pickled ginger (replaced by beansprouts and sliced carrot) and the accompanying “frazzled noodles” are like pieces of Styrofoam and simply make a mess on the table. All served on trendy slate of course.  With some wine and water, this makes it £42. It’s a handy stopping off point for an interesting lunch – not sure what a full evening meal would be like.

At Parkgate on the Wirral is The Ship.  A friendly pub by the riverside, it has a better than average pub menu. G has the lemon chicken stir fry, B has seafood red Thai curry (good) and I have beef rillettes in a “horseradish crust”.  The crust doesn’t really taste of horseradish, so I leave most of that, and the beef is a little dry, so I’m glad to share some of B’s curry sauce.  About £70 for the three of us with wine.

Lunch next day is at Sheldrakes, further up the coast.  As we arrive we can see there is a wedding party gathering, so we are shown upstairs. It’s a gloriously sunny day so we sit outside. The wedding party is gathered outside, and it turns out to be the actual ceremony, not just the reception.  B has the beef, pine nut and parmesan salad – excellent rare beef, and good accompaniments. G really enjoys his scallops and chorizo, while I have the confit duck tian with pineapple and coriander – also good.  For main G just has a duck tortilla wrap, while B and I share the summer paella – chicken, chorizo and mixed seafood. Plenty of protein and masses of rice, really enjoyable in the sunshine.  The service charge is a bizarrely reasonable 7% - never seen that before! So with 2 bottles of SB and a pint of lager the bill comes to £107 for the three of us.

On the way home, having stopped in Bromsgrove with friends overnight, we decide to stop for lunch at the Greyhound, Besselsleigh near Cumnor, outside Oxford.  It’s a very pretty spot, with lovely flower baskets out the front and an extensive garden out back.  We’re just grabbing a quick lunch en route – B has the salmon niçoise salad and I have a (warm) ham hock salad. Both are very good, and with some drinks we pay £45.  The place was heaving (it was a Sunday lunch), but the service at the bar had been excellent and the food arrived very promptly.

Hampton Court bistro – new incarnation

We’re meeting D for lunch in Hampton Court and have yet to decide exactly where.  So we take a look at the menu for the Mitre first (we went there back in July).  The riverside terrace is still closed after the floods and the restaurant menu doesn’t look that special. So we turn our attention to the Mute Swan, now occupying the space where Blubeckers used to be.

Their website describes it as 'English-dining-pub-meets-wine-bar', whatever that means.  We sit in the downstairs “bar” ( as opposed to the tablecloths upstairs), which is all stripped pine and eclectic chairs.  They’ve moved the bar to the other side of the room from before, but the central spiral staircase to the restaurant  and loos is still there.

There are specials on the board – mains, bar snacks (interesting-sounding, with black pudding scotch eggs),  wines and beers (a good range for real ale drinkers).  Service is very attentive, so we get “quick wine” – a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc at £18 – and have to send them away a couple of times before ordering food because we’re gossiping too much.

When I do go to the bar to order, I decide to move on to a French Marsanne Viognier at £19. For starters, D has the chicken liver pate with an odd-sounding rhubarb, apple and ginger chutney. This came as two good-sized slices of coarse pate,  and D thought the chutney was fine. B has seared  scallops with chorizo chips, with some mushy sauce – tasty, well-cooked scallops. My choice is the char sui pork belly which comes with pickled ginger salad. This is served as three attractively displayed chunks of meat surrounded by sauce and salad – very good.

The main course options are a combination of pub classics such as sausage and mash, steaks, and haddock and chips, and some more adventurous dishes like calves liver “saltimbocca”, spicy Vietnamese king prawn and rice noodle salad and open vegetable samosa.   D plays safe with smoked haddock and salmon fishcakes and a side order of mixed vegetables (a rather tedious standard selection).  OK but nothing special.  B goes for the prawn salad which comes with toasted cashew nuts, lime and chilli dressing – very nice, good-sized prawns, with some flavour, crispy noodles and interesting salad.  My five-spiced duck from the specials menu, also came with ginger (well, I like it) but was otherwise rather dry and uninteresting.

We finish off sharing a pudding plate of chocolate and hazelnut tart, salted caramel ice cream, lemon and passion fruit meringue and orange polenta cake, which was the highlight.  It seems we had 3 bottles of Viognier, taking the bill to a tad over £150. Service has been very friendly and attentive, so it was generally a pleasant lunch – maybe not one to win awards, but fine if you’re in the area. (It seems I said much the same about Blubeckers!).

Glorious view over the river at Richmond

Meeting up with friends S and S at Richmond station, we walk down to the river and along towards Petersham. We’re heading for the Petersham Hotel which sits just south of Richmond on a hill overlooking a curve in the river. It had rained earlier but by the time we arrive the sun is shining and everywhere looks crisp and clean.  We’d asked for a table by the window, so we get the super views down  to the river (though they do claim that you get good views from any table). The restaurant itself is “modern classy” – neither achingly fashionable nor traditionally olde worlde – maybe a 90’s design.

We start with a bottle of South African Viognier (Wide River, Robertson) which at £24.50 is one of the cheapest on the list. And settle down to choose from the Summer set lunch menu (which ends on 16^th October). As we do that we can see the Royal barge Gloriana is heading away down the river. There is a huge boat race on today, with literally hundreds of vessels apparently, so this is a really good spot to watch from (a bit far away perhaps).

For starters we have the cured mackerel and pancetta with a chick pea salad and yoghurt dressing, and calves liver with chorizo and a little risotto.  The mackerel is really fresh and zingy, and the calves liver pink (and the risotto green!). For main course I go off piste and choose the chicken escalope wrapped in prosciutto with mozzarella from the a la carte list. Very enjoyable. B has the stuffed skate, as does S, and the other choice was a honey roast duck.  All well cooked and presented simply, without too many frilly diversions.

For dessert , S and I have a bitter chocolate bombe, with caramelised banana and pistachio ice cream – excellent. The other S has a summer fruit parfait which was also good.  B sticks at 2 courses.

By now we’ve finished 3 bottles of Viognier, but when we order another to go with the coffee, they have no more – another place we’ve drunk dry. So we move up to a Hawke’s Bay NZ Sauvignon Blanc (£29.50).

Service has been very good – efficient and friendly without interfering. They manage the trick of keeping our wine glasses filled without seeming to be trying to get us to drink faster. (As you can see we drank enough anyway!).

The bill comes to £260 including 12.5% service. But it’s not till later that realise that they have charged us for three 3-course lunches at £26.95, one 2-course lunch at £22.95 AND £17.50 for my chicken as well.  Bit naughty.

So looking back, although we enjoyed ourselves and the view of the river and race was super, the food itself was probably only OK for that price.  As an evening venue with no views it may be less appealing.

Smart bistro by the Thames

With our friend H staying, we took ourselves off to Borough Market on Saturday. Wandering around for an hour was easily enough to stimulate our appetites, so we then set about finding somewhere for lunch. Fish! was full, so we tried La Cave in the shade of Southwark cathedral, where we found a table outside in the sunshine. The menu was scary though – wines at £20+ for 500 mls, starters over £12, main meals £18 upwards – plus 12.5% service. So we decided just to have some wine and olives and then move on.  But even that proved challenging, as first the wine, and then the olives took an age to arrive. Very unimpressive.

So we moved on to Hay’s Galleria, and Cote, one of a growing chain of upmarket French bistros. It was still sunny, so we wait for an outside table. Our earlier experience has made us a little impatient, but in fact we only have to wait about 5 minutes before the charming waitress found us a table.

And what a table! Just a little back from the river, we had excellent views of HMS Belfast, and of London Bridge pier, where ferries were constantly docking. Also view down to Tower Bridge (which opened a couple of times to allow tall-masted boats  to pass) and Canary Wharf, or back up to London Bridge and Cannon Street.

The menu is classic French bistro, and very extensive. Making a selection was proving difficult, as we quaffed the very good Viognier (@ £18.50). Finally, H settled on Moules Mariniere (this version served with cream), B had steak tartare (could have done with a little more tabasco), while I chose the tuna carpaccio, which was excellent – melt in the mouth with capers, garlic and a sauce vierge.

Moving on to main courses, H went for pan roasted pork belly, which came with figs and potato puree (mash!). She was very impressed, though personally was not that keen on the figs.  B had seafood linguine, which was stuffed full of mussels, clams, squid and prawns. My roasted duck breast was also good, though it maybe could have been a bit pinker. But the cherries and sauce that accompanied it, kept it moist and tasty, as did the parmentier potatoes.

The dessert manu was full of classics, all sounding very tempting, but we resisted. Service was excellent, charming and alert. With a second bottle of Viognier, and 12.5% service, the bill for the three of us was just £108 – excellent value for such a prime position and spot-on food. A superb place to recommend, especially for tourists.

Riverside in Vauxhall

After a long day in the sun at the Oval, we go back to Vauxhall and St George’s Wharf on the riverside. There is a big Fuller’s pub here, with lots of outdoor seating, and Aqua Brasserie, also with plenty of tables outside.  We have booked a table indoors, but as there’ve not been many chances to eat outside this year, we go and settle down in the rattan chairs. Very nice spot with views over the river, up to Battersea Power Station and down to the Houses of Parliament and the Eye.  Of course the trouble with eating outside these days is that you get all the smokers there as well, including in this case two portly men with large cigars just upwind!

The menu is rather limited: burgers, pizza, pasta, and a couple of salads. There’s also a “2 for 1” deal on pizza and pasta, which is needed because individually they’re expensive - £15/£16; so make sure you take a friend.  B has the spaghetti mare, which has plenty of prawns and calamari that comes in a heavy tomato sauce, livened up with lots of chilli and garlic. I have the pizza with chorizo and roasted vegetables, which is a very thin crust offering, with enough topping but not ample.  With a South African Chenin Blanc at £18.50, the bill is a modest enough £40 but includes a hefty 18% service charge – must cost a lot for the view!

Overall, rather disappointing, certainly not worth going out of your way for despite its position.  OK if you’re at Vauxhall and the sun is shining, though I think I’d go to the Fullers pub next time.