Sardinian in Victoria

 We are meeting T&K for the first time this year, and as they had liked Olivomare previously they suggest we went to the parent place, Olivo, also in Victoria.  As before, we meet up in the Lord Lucan pub, Plumber's Arms then take the short stroll to Eccleston Street.

We had been there many, many years ago, when the decor featured an internal tent, pastel walls and stencils. Now it is super-modern: black and lumpy like Lego bricks.  It remains a small place, with perhaps 50 covers and is pretty much full when we arrive at 1.30pm. 

The menu has many overlaps with its fishy offspring, and the wine list is the same, so we choose the Sardinian white Karmis again - still the cheapest on the native list at £34.50, only £1 more than when we went two years ago. 

Bread arrives - a mix of the carta da musica and good baguette style.  The menu has a tempting mix of interesting starters, pastas and meat and fish.   K has the small linguine with suckling pig with garlic and chilli - a modest amount of pasta with what she says is a very tasty rich sauce. T has the octopus stew he had at the other restaurant, which he too is pleased with - spicy and tender.  B's starter is Sardinian prosciutto with lots of char-grilled fennel - really full flavoured meat. I choose the white crabmeat salad with spicy dressing - very fresh and light.

B and K have the same main course - veal escalope with sauteed spinach. The large pieces of meat are presented rolled up and standing vertically - quite dramatic. But B isn't impressed, finding it tough as shoe soles. She does manage to eat it all though. T has the sweetbreads ("animelle") with ham and green beans. He is very pleased with that, though it seems he doesn't like beans as he passes most of them to K. I have the most expensive thing on the menu, sliced beef entrecote with spicy broccoli, which is very good - served on the rare side of medium/rare the meat is melt in the mouth and flavourful, while the broccoli is al dente with a good chilli kick. We also have a portion of deep-fried courgettes which gets polished off rapidly.

B and I are tempted to have a dessert - "Sebada" - a traditional Sardinian dish of crunchy, crispy deeply fried pastry filled with cheese and dipped in honey - lovely, surprisingly light. T&K go with a chocolate cake that looks rather heavy.

Service has been friendly and efficient without being intrusive. When serving the second bottle, the waiter said he had better put a couple more in the fridge - quite right! (Though we only have three in fact). Service charge is a whopping 15% - £50 - taking the total to £390 for the four of us. That seems a lot - I had enjoyed it but B less so. 

Kingston Thai and Sardinian fish place at Victoria

 After a shopping spree in John Lewis, we head to the river in Kingston for a late lunch. We decide on Busaba, a Thai place. We have been there before, but not recently.  There are workmen outside, and only a couple of other people in the place, so we get a seat at the window. 

From a short wine list we choose Cullinan View, a chenin from SA, at £27. The menu is quite interesting, but B spots that the single bowls are a lunchtime offer at £11 each so we decide to go for one of those each. B chooses chilli prawns with rice, coriander and Thai basil. I have Chicken Pad Thai. We also order edamame beans with chilli flakes and a som tam - green papaya, dried shrimp, cherry tomato, peanut and chilli.

B is really taken with her prawn dish. There are 6 good sized prawns, and the rice is good and spicy and flavourful. My Pad Thai is good too, less punchy, mainly soy sauce flavoured so a little salty, but plenty of chicken too. The salad could blow your head off - the waitress had warned us. 

With a couple more glasses of wine, the bill manages to get up to £87, despite service at only 10%. Service has been efficient and friendly, but it was quiet mid-afternoon. Very pleasant lunch.

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We have arranged to meet up with T&K, though decided to delay it a week because of rail strikes (even though they were in the end suspended). I'd been indecisive about where to go, offering them a choice of 9 places! Out of these, they went for Olivomare, a Sardinian fish restaurant just a stone's throw from Victoria station, which was one we had never visited. This is part of a small group of restaurants around Belgravia, headed by Olivo, that we went to many moons ago. It's interesting to note how coming out this side of the station puts you in a different world from the Vauxhall Bridge Road side. 

We meet first on the pub next door, The Plumber's Arms. Apparently, this is renowned for being the place Lord Lucan's wife ran into screaming and covered in blood, accusing him of trying to murder her and having killed the nanny.  A coincidence, as it had just been claimed that an AI facial recognition system had identified him in Australia.

The restaurant itself is bright and light, and pretty busy. We are offered a choice of tables, one isolated at the back, the other in the middle with others, so we chose that. There is a good buzz to the place, and the clientele fit a rather narrow well-heeled demographic - Prada handbags.

The wine list is pretty varied and quite expensive - house white is £30.50. There is a section on Sardinian wines, so I ask the waitress's help with choosing one of those. She suggests Karmis Vernaccia, at a reasonable £33.50, which is indeed very good. 

The menu is also impressive, with many dishes I would like to try. In the meantime, bread arrives - including the traditional Sardinian thin crispy "musica da carta" or "piano bread". Finally, we make our selections.

K starts with a crab salad - a bright light dish of white crabmeat with radicchio and celery. T's Sardinian baby octopus stew (moscardini) looks hot and steamy and very dense, that comes served with toast. B has steamed mussels with garlic and parsley - very good-sized mussels, "not messed about with", in just a little wine. My carpaccio of tuna, swordfish and small prawns is good, though rather all dominated by the lemon. 

For main course, K pushes the boat out with a lobster, chargrilled. It looks lovely, a very bright red, split open and well-presented - complete with crackers and utensils for the claws, and served with a green salad. T has fritto misto, a dish I rarely choose because it can be so disappointing. His looks excellent, lightly battered, good chunks of fish and prawns.  B chose the chargrilled monkfish fillet with courgettes - an elegantly dressed but smallish looking portion. Very good though.  I order orata - sea bream, because I remember having it in Sicily. They bring it whole to show me and ask whether I'd like it filleted or not - I do bottle out and ask them to do that. It looks like quite a small portion, but it takes me a while to work my way through as it is full of flavour.  

We also order some deep-fried courgettes - lovely little bites - and a tomato and basil salad - brilliant red cherry tomatoes, dressed with a little oil.

We decide against desserts, though I was tempted by the Sardinian cheese fritter drizzled with honey. Service has been very good, delivering what was needed without intruding.

Three bottles of wine, some water and a rather cheeky 15% service charge take the bill to just over £350. It's been a very good meal, up there with Michelin stars if you are a fish lover. But it's probably special occasions only.