Catching up!

Catching up – Dec/Jan

Meeting up with S, he chooses the one Italian option as opposed to four French ones.  This is Caraffini on Lower Sloane Street. There is an outside terrace, but that’s not suitable in December.

Inside is pretty much full. We get directed to a table, crammed in by a wine bucket, already full of other people’s wine. B complains, and reluctantly they do move it further away. And also we get our own wine bucket on the table for the Grillo at £38!

We say yes bread and olives, and then move on to starters. S has sardines, which look good; B has some odd pork rolls and I have prawns in garlic and chilli. For mains S has a very pink calves liver, B has scampi with asparagus, and I have lemon veal.

We go for some desserts – S had panna cotto and I have sgroppino (lemon sorbet, vodka and champagne).

Service has been good after the initial contretemps. As well as a second bottle of Grillo, we also a Barbera d’Alba at £48. 12.5% service takes to £340, but it has all been good.

 

We are staying at a hotel near St Pancras before an early start on a train to Bruges for Christmas. Having looked at the options, we settle on Supawan, a Thai place on the Caledonian Road. It’s pretty busy, so we get put into a smallish table sitting at 90 degrees. The décor is very unusual – not cliché Thai.

We order some prawn crackers while we order (large portion), along with Viognier at £35. For starters, we have grilled prawns on Betel leaves, with loads of tasty trimmings, ordering the extra portion as suggested to take it to two each. Excellent. Along with the inevitable soft-shell crab, quite meaty.

Main courses are stir-fried king prawns with lemongrass and garlic, and a spicy minced chicken dish, supported by a mound of jasmine rice.

All very good, with friendly service, but the prices did mount up. With a second bottle and 12.5% service we get up to £170, which seems a lot for a Thai.

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We meet up with E and J in Covent Garden for a visit to SushiSamba, and start off with edamame beans. The wine list escalates alarmingly – I manage to find a Verminto for £49. We have a round of jumbo prawns, tuna ceviche, and soft shell crab roll. The J wants to order the trio of meats - rib-eye, chorizo, filet mignon – “Churrasco del Rio Grande”.  E has the mushroom dish.

We later have a bottle of red chosen by J who is insisting on paying, so I don’t know how much the bill came to – it won’t have been cheap.

Before heading off to Paris for a few days, we treat ourselves to a late lunch at Mem’s, our newish place locally. They do a 2 course fixed price lunch for £43, which like its predecessor has a limited range of dishes.

We’re offered canape drinks and an amuse bouche, both very nice. Their house Chenin Blanc is a very reasonable £28 a bottle.

I have the duck rillette (solid) and treat myself to a surf and turf for a £15 supplement. The “surf” is two large tiger prawns.  B has Bluefin Tuna tartare followed by venison loin.

I have a couple of glasses of Malbec (not so reasonable at £15 each), while B has another glass of Chenin.

All in all, £190 including 12.5% service, which has been fine – we are the only ones in there most of the time.

 

Meeting up with P&M. P wanted to go to the new Battersea Power station complex, so after some research we settled on Brindisa. It’s not as attractive a venue as the one in Richmond, though sitting outside in the summer it might be better.

We are there first, so get the better view. We order a white Rioja (Veltiver) for £36, which goes down well. B and I order the garlic prawns, chicken with mojo rojo (a red sauce from the Canaries), chorizo on toast with pepper and rocket (excellent) and Iberico pork cheeks with chocolate and rioja (very tender, but got cold quickly). P&M add more prawns, tortilla and patatas bravas. We also have bread.

We move on to a couple of desserts. P has the ice cream, while I go for the almond tart.

Four bottles in all, a slightly cheeky 13.5% service (it’s not been great) and that takes us just shy of £300 for the four of us. Not expensive, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

Before the theatre, we’ve chosen a Vietnamese place in Garrick Street called Com Viet. It’s nearly full on the ground floor, but we get a table by the window. There is a larger room downstairs, but they were still turning people away.

For starters we have soft shell crab (OK) and something called Com Viet Cha. This is minced pork and prawns, with mint and coriander leaves, that you wrap in dipped rice paper, which resembles a condom. Very messy, but the fresh herbs make it very tasty.

Mains are stewed pork belly (rather fatty to my taste, but B likes it) and wok-tossed duck breast with lemongrass and chilli. There a lot of wok-tossed options, a few seabass ones and not much else to choose from.

We have a bottle and two glasses of NZ SB (£51 together) – total £115 with 12.5% service.

B was pleased with it, but I thought the pork was a downside.

 

  

Three recent excursions

 We're meeting up with T&K again, and after some deliberation have settled on El Pirata Mayfair, off Piccadilly, near Shepherd Market. We'd been a couple of times before, but it seems we also went with them after a wine-tasting - which we have no recollection of!

It's very busy again, and I give my name for the booking - only for T to point out he booked it, so is described by the waiter as "the fantastic Mr S" - but we are lucky to be shown to a table by the window. Even downstairs is pretty full - it is very lively. We do manage to flag down a waiter to order some wine - B and I have an SB "Inurrieta Blanco" (£31) while they have a red Tarima Organico (£30). 

We explore the menu and eventually settle on nine dishes plus some bread. In the end, the chipironnes (grilled baby squid with chickpeas stew) is "off",  First to arrive was the plate of 8 anchovies - only T and I tuck into those,  These were soon followed by the two croquettes dishes - ham and chicken - and the asparagus. Croquettes are fine, if not special, but the asparagus with tomato and manchego is really nicely cooked al dente. Next were the mussels and chorizo (small pieces) and two portions of gambas pil-pil (inevitably). Both really good - nicely charred garlic with the pil-pil. Garlic chicken and chorizo in red wine round off the order. The chorizo is good, but the garlic chicken a little dull, in a rather dark sauce. 

After a little pause, we order some more gambas and a plate of cheese, and re-order the bread which hadn't arrived. There are four different cheeses in the selection and it comes with quince jelly and little breadsticks. The garlic dip with the bread is also good. With this we have a second bottle of the red. 

Service is the increasingly common 13.5%. But they didn't charge us for the bread. So we end up with a total of £216. The waiters have been jolly and service pretty good for such a busy lunchtime. Very good lunch.

After a shopping trip to Kingston we head to a Vietnamese restaurant B had spotted online - Pho. This is part of a chain, with a dozen or so in and around London and others across the country.  When we get there - about 2pm on a Saturday - the place is heaving and it's not clear that we'll get a table. As the waitress goes to look, a small group comes in behind us and asks if we have a reservation, as they do. Well, you'll still have to wait. 

We get a table towards the back of the restaurant, near the back window, so quite pleasant. It takes a little while to flag down a waitress to order wine, but it comes fairly quickly after that - a French Viognier at £22.50. There's a very interesting range of starters on the menu - we order the pork meatballs, seafood spring roll and mango salad. But the mango salad is "off" so we have crispy squid instead.  We also order prawn crackers to keep us going.

The meatballs are very tasty, with lemongrass, and the peanut sauce we choose to have with it has a subtle kick that creeps up on you. The squid, as is often the case, is good while still hot, but looses its appeal a bit after that. They are small pieces, nicely cooked in thin batter, not at all rubbery, though I would have preferred garlic in the mayonnaise rather than lime. The spring roll accompanied by Vietnamese fish sauce is the least interesting despite apparently having king prawn and crab in it. The crackers don't appear at first, then the waitress tells us that they were hunting the store-room for sweet chilli sauce to go with them. Shortly later, the chef comes to tell us and the lads at the table next to us that they didn't have the sauce, but offered us a choice of ones he could do. The others choose the sriracha one, so we go with that too. It is very spicy indeed. 

The main course menu is dominated - appropriately enough - by pho dishes, though there are a few stir fries and curries too. B chooses the house version with prawns, chicken and steak, while I go for the steak and garlic one.  They are big steaming bowls of broth with loads of noodles, plus herbs to add to taste, to be eaten messily with chopsticks and a bamboo spoon. Not one for a first date.  The broth is excellent, and there is plenty of protein in both, though a couple of the pieces of steak in mine are rather tough. Far too many noodles to stand a chance of getting through them. 

With a second bottle of wine the bill comes to a bit over £100, including 12.5% service. The service has been good despite the unavailability of a couple of things, so I'm happy to fill in the feedback questionnaire at the end. An interesting lunch.

The following week we visit the Cezanne exhibition at Tate Modern. We're quite late so our favourite tapas nearby isn't open and our researches have not been very successful at finding anywhere else interesting. We settle on The Refinery, round the back on Southwark Street. It's a big place, but not very full when we arrive - though the waiter says they were busy earlier and are fully booked this evening. A good place for work groups I'd imagine - they do lots of cocktails. The wine list is fairly varied, but we just order the South African Chenin Blanc at £24. 

B fancies the venison scotch egg, but they don't have that, so we have the salt and pepper squid and the chicken skewers instead. The squid comes as quite a large portion, with lemon mayonnaise this time but it is rather rubbery.  The skewers come with "hot honey" - with a chilli kick - interesting, but rather too sweet. 

Main courses are crispy duck salad for B and chalkstream trout for me plus a side order of "Roman" fries, with parmesan and truffle. The salad is quite large, with a good amount of duck and a wide range of supplements - beansprouts, wonton and peanuts. But it is more crispy than duck. My trout though is very good indeed. Slightly undercooked perhaps, but with a lovely crust and lots of flavour.   

The service has been good and the music I think you might call "technobeat" - not too loud, though I'd guess it would be louder in the evening. We have a nice table by the window, so the feel has been good. Sparkling water and a second bottle of wine, a 50p charity donation and 12.5% service brings the bill to over £120. Probably the least good value of the three, but a reasonable enough option in an area surprisingly short on mid-range places. 

A tapas and an English

 We're going over to Teddington, so I do some research on restaurants there.  The Wharf looks likes it would be nice, overlooking the river. But it's closed on a Tuesday when we will be there. After looking at a few others, I decide on Bar Estilo, a tapas place, because the menu is very extensive.  

We arrive around 2pm - they are open all afternoon, though it closes at 7pm - and there are quite a few people in there, considering it's early in the week. You enter through a pair of heavy curtains, perhaps more French in style, into a large room, with several sections to it, including an empty smarter looking area and a bar.  There's a lot of wrought iron around and the feel is Moorish rather than Spanish. That's reflected in several of the dishes - lamb kofte mezze, and pinchos (skewers) in Moorish spices. Music is mainly a mix of Latin and Spanish (Santana and Rodriguez). 

We're welcomed by a cheeky young waiter who pretends they are fully booked. He keeps up the chatter throughout - saying he couldn't get the duck wrap to rap, only sing. More serious staff are around too.  We order the white Rioja (£26) and some garlic bread with cheese and chorizo to keep us going while we decide what to have.  It's suggested that we between us we order 2 dishes from each of the veggie, meat and fish columns, though the paella at a neighbouring table looks good too. In the end we are a bit more modest.

The bread is lovely. The melted cheese has loads of garlic in it, and a slice of chorizo on top - I'd expected it just to be small pieces mixed in.   Chicken livers is a sizeable dish in a piri-piri sauce, which has a nicely judged kick - clearly there, but too dominant. It's not densely reduced in sherry like the one in Mar y Terra, so is lighter, but it works well. Three lamb skewers are well-cooked through, though the "Moorish spices" aren't very evident.  Prawns pil-pil - always ordered if on the menu - come piping hot and sizzling. Lots of chilli, and garlic slices cooked to brown. The duck wrap is the least impressive - 4 pieces, but not very well filled and a somewhat heavy wrap. The accompanying sweet chilli sauce, however, is not the anonymous gloop you often get, but a good strong hit. We also have a very nice rocket and manchego salad. 

For us, this was plenty, though several other dishes were tempting too.  With a second bottle and a modest 10% service, this comes to just over £100, very good value. Definitely one to consider if you are in the area.

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Meeting up with old friend D at Hampton Court, she has suggested the Mute Swan. next to The Mitre. We have been there some years before, eating downstairs in the bar, but this time we are shown up the iron spiral staircase to a largely empty upstairs dining room. This means we get a choice of tables so can choose one by the window, with something of a view of the Palace. 

More people do arrive later, but it never gets busy and by the time we leave we are almost the only ones still there.  The waiter is attentive - he has nothing else to do - so we get our wine, a £25 Chilean SB quickly. 

B naturally has to have the scallops. Four large ones came with an interesting, slightly spicy sauce and chorizo pieces, which she thought was excellent. D has the chicken liver pate with four thick slices of toast, one of which I happily helped out with to soak up the butter with my garlic and chilli king prawns. All three starters resulted in clear plates. 

For main course, D has the fishcakes - two solid looking pieces with a mound of rocket. B's hake wrapped in proscuitto  is a little dry she says, but a good flavour. My choice of a "light bite" crispy beef salad with cashews is perhaps predictably less successful. There is nothing really wrong with the beef, other than you can't taste much meat in the crispy covering. But the salad is a mass of white cabbage and carrots, pretty tasteless even with a sort of soy sauce dressing and the nuts. It is filling though. We have sides of truffle and parmesan fries - nothing like as good as the Ivy - and a rocket and tomato salad that we don't really need. 

We share a single waffle, caramelised banana and ice cream pudding between us. With three bottles of wine and some water that brings the bill to just over £200 for three of us, including again a modest 10% service. It's been nice enough and fair value, but not somewhere I'd make a beeline for.

Two nights in Bristol

 I have to be in Bristol for some work on a Friday afternoon, so we decide to make a weekend of it. I have pre-booked for 3 of our 4 meal-times, in an area just 5-10 minutes from our hotel. 

So come Friday evening we make our way down by the harbourside to The Olive Shed. They make a great deal about their al fresco eating, but of course on a damp evening that's not for us. Downstairs there are just a few seats at the counter; we're shown upstairs to a cosy room with views over the harbour - though we don't get one of those tables, being given a large one near the stairs. It's not a big place - perhaps 40 covers - gently lit, and pretty full. Clearly a popular place, as there is also quite a turnover of tables.

The focus is on tapas, a relatively short list, though there are a couple of large plates - market fish, steak - on the menu too. We're told they have sold out of the fish.  There is a French SB at £26.50, which comes delivered fairly promptly. They seem to be obsessed with water though, as we get offered immediately, and twice more.

There's soft shell crab on the menu, so obviously that's B's first choice. Gambas pil pil is a no brainer too. Iberico bavette is on the specials board - the waiter declares it to be his favourite, so that's on the list; "croquette" (singular) is just £3, but we're assured there are two pieces - ham croquette today. Finally, we choose a sliced venison chorizo to round things off.

As often happens with tapas most of the dishes arrive at the same time, which means you tend to eat them rapidly while they are still hot. In fact, we could have been through in an hour.

The crab is a good enough size to be able to taste the meat rather than just batter. The prawns come in their shells and the meat doesn't come away very easily. They don't have a lot of flavour and the pil pil doesn't help much. The bavette comes sliced in a very nice jus and is indeed a good choice, tender and tasty. The croquettes are a reasonable size and very hot and gooey, also a good choice, and the venison chorizo quite good too.

We order a second bottle, have a bit of a pause, and then order more crab and croquettes. 

The staff have been busy scuttling up and down stairs all evening, but remain cheerful and friendly, despite the obsession with water. With service the total comes to £140, a fair price I'd say.

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After a visit to the SS Great Britain the following morning, we explore around the main harbour basin to find somewhere for lunch. Most of the places seem geared up for big groups and don't appeal much, but right at the end is moored a boat with what looks like an attractive dining room - Under the Stars. They say they are fully booked downstairs, but we can eat outdoors up top. The weather is quite bright, so we go for that. The menu is again tapas - or pizza. We have a bottle of Marlborough SB (£20), and then order food: hummus and bread, spiced lamb kofte and spider crab croquettes. B thought we'd agreed to have gambas as well, but I thought we'd said we wouldn't as we'd have prawns in the evening. So it ends up a modest lunch. The hummus was a little dry for B's taste, The kofte were really good, spicy with pine nuts and pickled red onion slices. The croquettes were pretty good too. Total £47.

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For the evening I have booked Salt and Malt, a fish restaurant in the collection of container sheds that is Wapping Wharf. There is a queue out of the door as we arrive, but it transpires this is for take-away fish and chips. The seating area is busy too, divided into smaller areas by strange screens. We get given what is a pretty rubbish table, where we can't see the rest of the restaurant. We can see the kitchen and chef though, and that becomes quite interesting. The menu has a good selection of starters, but fairly conventional fish and chips for mains. 

The wine list is short, so we opt for the cheapest, a Pecorino from Italy (£26). We have three starters. The scallop (just the one, but large) is attractively served on a shell, with a parsnip gratin - nicely cooked. Prawns pil pil are much better than the previous night, lots of kick to the sauce and fresh prawns. The Thai fishcakes with teriyaki sauce come more like croquettes, balls rather than cakes. But they are good and fishy too, decorated with a little chilli and garlic.  And from our table we had been able to watch the somewhat grumpy chef cook all these. The waiting staff were very pleasant though. 

For main, B had the haddock and chips, with crushed peas. It's a good sized portion, but as extreme as some cod and chips you get in pubs. It's a professional example of the dish - hot, good batter, firm fish. I have whole-tailed battered scampi, which also comes with crushed peas - they are rather good.  We order two glasses of wine, but they don't do the Pecorino by the glass, so we have Touraine Sauvignon at £8 each. B can't finish her fish so asks to take some away, which they are geared up to anyway. 

Total was £98, only 10% service. The poor table put a downer on things, though it was quite interesting watching our starters being cooked; the starters were good, but the mains not much more than average. Maybe a "tapas" selection of starters would have been a better choice. 

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Sunday lunchtime we are booked into another tapas place, again in Wapping Wharf, though upstairs - Gambas. This is apparently related to the Michelin star tapas, Paco Tapas. After last night's experience we approach with a due sense of dread. In fact, it is a very pleasant place, and we get a good central table, with a reasonable view down to the harbour. 

There are also outside tables. There's a nice warm buzz to the place, blackboards listing sherries, and a goodly number of staff. Again a short menu. 

We order the house wine, a Verdejo at £26. It's perfectly fine.  The dishes here arrive a little more spaced apart. First we get the bread and aioli, a luscious dip with serious garlic supporting half a loaf of tasty bread, and alongside it the cured trout ("fish of the day"), which is in a delicious green sauce. 

Shortly after come the calamares - hot, crispy; padron peppers - B gets a hot one first up; and the sausage croquettes (sobrasada). 

Finally the inevitable gambas pil pil - an easy to eat version with just the heads left on for decoration. We'd ordered an extra prawn to make it two each. And the Presa Iberica (pork shoulder), succulent slices in a tasty sauce, more mouth-melting than Friday's. 

All very pleasant, so I indulge in salted chocolate truffles as a dessert. £4 for 4, but they are excellent. 

With a second bottle of wine, this comes to £126, a better option than the Olive Shed. 

Some recent visits

 ESHER TAPAS BAR

We get the bus into Esher to visit Don Luis, a fairly new tapas bar. We have been there once before, but that was very early days. When we arrive at 2pm there is only one other table occupied. so we get a nice table by the window.

Wines are not cheap, so we go for the house white, Espeto Blanco, at £24.  As well as tapas, they do paella and steaks. We choose the paella mixta, but since this will take a while, precede it with a few tapas - sourdough with a really sharp ali-oli, squid tentacles, hot and crispy and a quite light chorizo tortilla. All very acceptable. The paella when it comes is a huge portion, mainly featuring chicken and mussels, though there are a couple of large prawns and a surprising amount of squid.  We fail to get through it, but they happily bring a pot for us to transfer the remains. 

Very chatty waiter - they're not busy. With second bottle this comes to £124 (including 12.5%). Worth a visit.

WARWICK

We have decided to break our journey to Wirral with the night in Warwick. We're staying at the Warwick Arms which is nice enough but nothing special.  It is central though, so it's easy for us to walk into the market square for a late lunch. We sit outside in the sun at the Tilted Wig. The menu looks interesting and we choose between the fish board or prawns, squid and ham croquettes, finally going for the latter.

I go in to order to find they don't have any more ham croquettes, so revert to the fish platter at £17. The Chilean SB is £17 too. We notice dishes coming out to other tables are quite large, and indeed our platter doesn't disappoint. There's chilli and garlic prawns, a pile of squid, a big dish full of whitebait, and several slices of smoked salmon.  These are accompanied by an interesting salad and several slices of attractive herby bread (which we don't touch as we're going out to dinner).  Very good value indeed.

I have booked us into 7 Square for dinner. We wander by to check on location and see it's attached to a wine bar - looks quite nice. We are shown in to a rather dull looking back room, with cheap looking tables. There's some interesting trompe d'oeil wall painting, merging into actual pictures. 

Looking at the menu, I wonder why on earth I'd booked here. It's a very limited choice of heavy-sauced French dishes. We choose a Muscat Viognier at £24, which is fine. B decides against a starter, and I have the goat's cheese bruschetta.  This is very good, with peppers, and excellent bread.

For main B has duck a l'orange. There are several slices of pink duck, but the sauce is too much. I order my rump steak medium-rare. It's a big thick chunk of steak, too tough to get through. So I ask for it to be cooked more, which does make it more tolerable, but again it is drenched in sauce - peppercorn.  Overall a disappointing experience for £100. 

BURNT TRUFFLE

We've been to the Burnt Truffle in Heswall before. It's a place for special occasions, so for this first meeting up with G&S since 2019 is a good place to go. 

It's quite a short menu, so it turns out that the girls order the same things, and G and I also have the same. 

Starters were a gorgeous terrine.

And a slightly more ordinary sea trout.

Mains were cod loin - excellent - and an equally good large portion of roast pork

Service is friendly and slick without being intrusive.  Total bill (several bottles of Viognier at £27) comes to a substantial £300 for 4, including tips, but it does feel like it was well worth it. 

PARKGATE

Lunch at The Ship in Parkgate is a last-minute decision. We'd gone in for a drink and to look at its refurbishment - including a lovely upstairs terrace.

Bur unfortunately it is a bit too chilly to sit up there. Instead we have a nice table in the window downstairs.  After last night's dinner we only want snacks so choose from the starters menu - potted salmon with sauce gribiche, and five spiced wild mushroom and water chestnut pancakes. Both VG. G&S have wild boar sausage roll and haddock arancini. 

Richmond tapas bar

 We're meeting S&S in Richmond again, but this time instead of our usual favourite Chez Lindsay, we going to Tapas Brindisa overlooking the river. We'd been there before in a previous incarnation as Jackson and Rye, but just for drinks. Brindisa is of course a small chain of places that spun off out of it's Borough Market branch and food shop. 

It's a lovely day, and we get a great table in the corner by the window, with fine views of the Thames. It's quite full, and a bit noisy, but overall this feels good. The wine list accelerates rapidly, so we settle for the house Macabeo at £25. 

The menu is wide-ranging, and as always at tapas places the challenge is to guess how many dishes to order. We eventually narrow it down to 7 dishes plus bread. Whether deliberately or not not, they end up serving us them in two courses, which is great as otherwise dishes can go cold, or you stuff yourself trying to eat them before they do.

The first round of dishes consists of the croquettes of the day (prawns), Iberico ham croquettes and gambas al ajillo, along with the bread and oil and vinegar. Both croquettes are very soft and gooey, but also full of flavour, and identifiable protein. The gambas comes sizzling, with loads of garlic slices - the sauce is ideal for mopping up with the bread.  

Next up comes the "pollo picante" - chicken thighs with a spicy sauce and hazelnuts, also good for dipping. Accompanied by the chorizo on toast with peppers and rocket, and two potato dishes. The patatas bravas come with spicy sauce and alioli quite separately so you can decide your preferred proportions.  The other was Huevos Rotos - potatoes with fried eggs. It's supposed also to come with Mallorcan black pig sobrasada (sausage) but that's not in evidence.  The chicken and chorizo are great; the patatas bravas good, and the huevos rotos fine, but a step too far - we couldn't finish that.

After a decent pause, we decide against desserts in favour of the cheese plate. Two ewe's cheese, one goat's and a blue - not enough biscuits. 

Service has been good: attentive, not familiar, alert to our need for another bottle of wine. We manage 4 in all. So with the usual 12.5% service, the bill gets up to £210 for the 4 of us, which seems pretty fair.  Seems we have another Richmond favourite. 

Indian "tapas" in Twickenham

 It's Varsity match day - in April, a major change in tradition. None of the usual gang can make it, so B says she'll come with me - another break in tradition. This means that the normal all-day breakfast at the Wetherspoon's before the game won't hack it, so I research some other options. 

I was looking for tapas, but the only one I could find was Indian "tapas" at Tsaretta Spice at the far end of  chi-chi Church Street.  When we arrive at 1pm, we are the only ones in there - later two other tables arrive. I had expected them to busy on a match day, so was pleasantly surprised to be offered the choice of tables, including ones for four. 

We order a French Viognier at £26 and settle down to choose the dishes. There is a wide selection, tapas and mains. So in the end we settled on just having the chef's meat tapas tasting platter, with a few extra additions - scallops, pappadums, dhal makhani and garlic naan.  

The pappadums come first - smaller, curly ones - with three dips, which are all interesting and quite spicy.  Could happily just munch on those all day. The platter is four dishes - grilled tiger prawns, tilapia fish fingers, fried chicken pieces and lamb meatballs in a particularly spicy and gooey tomato sauce. The scallops are small queen scallops, but served nicely in a shell with garlic lemon and shallots. The dhal is good and thick and creamy, and the naan visibly and nasally very strong on the garlic. 

All very good and served in a good friendly style. It's a modern style place with big windows and it seemed that there would be tables outside in the summer. Modern inoffensive music at low volume.  There's just a 10% service charge, so with a second bottle of wine it comes to £115. Not cheap but worth it. If you were local, then this would be a regular haunt I imagine. 

Out and about again

 As things return towards normal, we started getting out and about and meeting up with friends.  Here’s a few places we’ve been recently.

 Naturally Chinese

This local Chinese has been on our “to-do” list for some time, but it didn’t re-open last summer, doing a refurbishment instead. We planned to go after the farmer’s market, but as it was raining we gave that a miss and just turned up around 12.30.  The place was empty apart from the team eating their lunch, but nonetheless we were asked whether we had booked. We were given a small table for 2, and were a little irritated that later arrivals were shown to nicer, larger tables.

 They advertised dim sum – one of the attractions – but it was quite a limited selection, so we ordered the dim sum platter. This amounted to two pieces each of three different dumplings, prawns, scallops and veg. All fresh tasting and interesting. For main course we went with sizzling lamb and scallops and prawns, supported by Singapore noodles. Good sized portions, all tasty.

 Although several more people arrived, there was little atmosphere, and the décor avoided clichéd Chinese decoration. The bill came to £107 with two bottles of house white.  Worth another visit but perhaps not as exciting as we had hoped.

 Mezzet

Some of my Home Office ex-colleagues organised a break-away lunch at Mezzet in East Molesley (Hampton Court). Ten of us made it along, exploring the attractive little street on the way. The list of cold and hot mezze is quite long so several people chose the selection of mixed mezzes to save time. But B and I decided we would pick and choose. M had recommended the spicy nuts, so chose those. They were quite unlike what you might expect, being finely chopped with a big hit of chilli. We also chose the fig hummus (just hummus with fig in it), chicken livers and lamb sausages. Portions were really quite large so we struggled to finish them and ended up sharing with the others. We had also ordered a prawn provencale, but that wasn’t delivered, which was perhaps just as well.

 The waiter had talked us into a main course too, so we chose to share a mixed grill – chicken, kofta, lamb fillet.  This was a more sensible sized portion. We’d found a reasonably priced white wine, but some people went for Lebanese red, which was a little more pricey. At £132 for the two of us it was good value.

 Oxo Tower

It’s S’s birthday, so with two other couples we’ve arranged to go to the Brasserie at the Oxo Tower on Bank Holiday Saturday evening.  We arrive ahead of time to find S, H&J queuing to go into the bar, which seems very busy. It transpires there are only seats at the bar available, so we decide to go straight on in to the brasserie.

 This too is very busy, with our table being pretty much in the middle of the room. The décor is all hard surface so the acoustics are very harsh, and it is very loud. That’s not helped by our table being alongside the two guitarists, though they do take a break soon after we arrive.  Lots of large groups taking perhaps their first opportunity of meeting up and having a good, noisy time – not a good “setting” if you were still Covid-concerned.

 S orders some wine – Sancerre and a French Cabernet Sauvignon. I didn’t see the wine list, but looking online I’m guessing these were around £50 a bottle – the lower reaches of a frightening list. We’re waiting on the other couple who have been delayed, but get some nice bread in the meantime.

 It’s an intriguing menu, so choosing is a bit tricky. In the end I make the unusual choice of braised beef and oxtail with a Portobello mushroom and Welsh rarebit. It’s hearty flavour but not large; the rarebit gives it a lift. B has the “Josper-roasted” duck breast with rillette and salad.  She thinks this is good too, more delicate and the rillette adding extra flavour. Other choices included grilled goat’s cheese or tiger prawns.

 My main course is roast chicken with fregola and ndjua sauce. Nicely cooked chicken but it did need the spicy sauce to lift it. B was very pleased with her seabass with courgette mash. The other three men all went for red meat: veal T-bone, lamb rump and rib-eye steak. We didn’t make it to desserts.

 With starters at around £14/£15 and mains around £25 the bill came to just under £100 a head. The food probably justified that price, but I felt the experience was a little spoiled by the noise, as it was hard to keep up a conversation, and we were hardly able to speak to the other end of the table at all.

 The French Table

We’ve been showing off TFT to many of our friends but it has been hard to get a table since it re-opened. So when I found a table free I just booked it for 6 people without knowing who would be able to come. We invited M&G, who suggested M&P, who used to live in Surbiton and who knew the restaurant well.

 After some fizz at home, we wandered along and unsurprisingly found it full. Nonetheless we were welcomed warmly. It transpired that M&P knew Madame very well, having held a birthday party there as one their earliest customers 20 years’ ago.  We settled on the 5-course tasting menu quite quickly (everyone at the table has to have it) and ordered our usual Viognier at £28.  A light Burgundy was suggested as a red, but in the end we went with the Nero D’Avola (£24).

 We were all chatting when the amuse bouche came along so we missed some of the description – it was basically a pea soup with hazelnuts. First course was charred mackerel with curried cauliflower and a sliver of crispy,   toasted sourdough.  As usual, this was followed by a terrine – this time rabbit, ham and black pudding, with pistachio. The fish course was cod, with some mussels and smoked bacon – made a change from the usual hake. Next up was a trio of pork – fillet, back, and belly – which was quite filling with a rich Madeira sauce.  The meal was rounded off with a chocolate mouelleux with blackberries.   

 All good quality as usual. We decided it scored about an 80% Chez Bruce, the benchmark of French restaurants.  With 5 bottles of wine overall, some water and coffees this came to £75 a head.

 Sichuan Grand

For S’s birthday we are joining a gang over in Stratford, starting with drinks at a cocktail bar at Moxy’s. The restaurant wasn’t very full, some tables of Chinese people, but we were squeezed in to quite a small table, 3 either side and 2 at each end.

 The menu is challenging to say the least. I’ve seen curried whelks and crispy chicken feet on Chinese menus before, but sautéed cow’s aorta was a new one on me! We eventually agreed to have two portions of each of 5 starters: prawn dumpling, pork dumpling, vegetarian spring rolls, crispy squid (excellent when very hot), and pork belly salad (which we were warned would be cold).  Everyone chose their own main course and rice or noodles. We stuck with a fairly traditional fragrant hot king prawns, which were very tasty and a good sized portion; and an unusual-sounding cumin lamb, which wasn’t as interesting as it  sounded, supported by plenty of Singapore noodles. Others had ordered spare ribs, but not been impressed, though when we took home the doggy bag, they were OK we thought.

 We had a few bottles of house white wine. Service was friendly and helpful, and tolerant of our early indecision. Divvying up the bill made it £45 a head, pretty good.

 

Mondello

More birthday celebrations, this time M over in Shenfield. Mondello is a pleasant unfussy place near the station. M had booked earlier in the day, but the place wasn’t full on a Wednesday night.  I ordered scallops to start – three plump ones on a spinach and pancetta sauce. B had mussels, and M seafood linguine. My main course was veal escalope napolitana (black olives, capers) with saute potatoes – quite a strong flavour. B had king prawns with chilli and lemon – 8 big prawns butterflied in their shells, which she couldn’t finish. M had huge slab of steak, rib-eye I think as it had a chunk of bone.  With a couple of bottles of Verdicchio the total bill was £140.  A good local Italian.  

 

Don Luis, Esher (no website yet)

We decide to take a break and get a bus to Esher, to head to this tapas bar we’d seen once before.  It’s a nice sunny day so the two outside tables are occupied by ladies who lunch, the bi-fold doors are open and get a table just inside. Looking at the wine list, it seems to escalate quickly so I just order the house white – in fact I think we got the next one up (a Verdejo), at much the same price (£28).

 The challenge with tapas bars is how many dishes to order. We decide on 4 plus a salad. The garlic and chilli prawns were an automatic choice – there were 8 of them in a sizzling dish of oil and burnt garlic, hot and tasty in both senses. We also went for chipirones – battered baby squid with aioli. These were less successful, being mainly batter and not enough aioli. On the meat side we had the pinchos, lamb skewers. These were excellent – two skewers of three pieces of succulent lamb fillet, with a remoulade sauce making it all look attractive. Also the ham croquettes, which though crispy, didn’t really have enough ham in them. The salad choice was “Heritage” tomatoes and onions. This was a selection of dark red, yellow, cherry and ordinary tomatoes in a dressing with cumin seeds – these gave the dish a very interesting tang.

 With two bottles and 12.5% service we got away with under £110. The chatty manager said they were usually very busy on Thursday to Sunday evenings, though after the LWL left we were the only ones in there for most of the time.  There were lots of other dishes to try, so I expect we will give it a return visit some time.

 

 

Maple Road tapas

Surbiton Farmers' Market re-opened last Saturday, so we went along to check it out. It was fairly busy even at 12, with a new one-way system to help with distancing. We found some interesting stalls, notably one selling game - the Madras wild boar sausages were amazing. Also good were steak and kidney pies from another stall, and the chorizo bread from The French Tarte. 

Right by the exit is Gordon Bennett!, which is open lunchtime at the weekend only, so we took the opportunity to call in.  The waiter recognised my name (from the Track and Trace) as Welsh - he was from Dolgellau - and persuaded us to have a bottle rather than two glasses.  They do a Brunch menu up till 1pm, but then change the menu to a tapas-based one. It looked very interesting so we resolved to come back the following week.

This we duly did. The place was nearly empty, so not having booked wasn't an issue. If this was a typical Saturday crowd, the it's not surprising they don't open for lunch during the week. We were greeted by a very jovial chap, who brought the bottle of Slovenian sauvignon blanc (£22.75) quickly enough. Turned out that he was Nepalese. They recommended 2/3 dishes per person, so we chose 5 altogether, 3 fish and meat.  Our waiter tried to upsell us some fries, but when we resisted persuaded us to have some padron peppers. They are clearly trained in upselling! 

My compatriot brought the food, attractively presented in a variety of dishes - rounded triangle plates, hot-plate, tin bowls and a small kilner jar.  The soft-shell crab with Asian slaw was good, with enough crab flavour breaking through the batter. Prawns (5) wrapped in filo pastry I thought should have had a chilli dipping sauce, but B enjoyed them. The crayfish and avocado escabeche - in the kilner jar - was excellent. On the meat front we had steak bulgogi - slices of steak in a sweet sauce - which was much better than it sounded; and duck croquettes (also 5)with a plum sauce, which were very meaty indeed. Only one of the peppers, out of a large collection, proved to be at all spicy.  

We cleared all the plates, and resisted the waiter's attempt to sell us dessert. The one we fancied was "off" anyway. So we just settled for a second bottle. 

The tables and chairs were an assortment of old wooden furniture, giving the place a rather dark pubby feel - the menu seems a bit surprising for such a place. The only negative point was the background music, which was both a little too loud and an odd mix of poor covers and ambient jazz. 

The bill came to £83. We were pleasantly full, and had enjoyed everything, so that was pretty good value. Clearly going to become a regular weekend haunt, though Surbiton is coming up trumps with its interesting range of options.  

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. 

 

Late January

We’re in Kingston, house-hunting, and I’ve found a tapas bar near where we’re looking. So we head down an unattractive road and find the Pottery Bar, well off the beaten track. Not somewhere people just happen upon. And as it’s a mid-week lunch, we’re not surprised to find that, apart from a business meeting going on, we are the only ones in there.

 The drinks list doesn’t include any Spanish wines, so we order the house white Trebbiano at £21.  The menu isn’t especially tapas either. We order steak salad off the specials board (bizarrely itemised as lamb shank on the bill) plus garlic prawns, and chorizo, chick peas and goats cheese, plus some bread with oil and balsamic to keep us going.

 Despite there being no-one else in the food – including the bread – takes an age to arrive.  When it comes the bread is lovely, slightly warm, crusty and a good sized portion, though rather they rather skimped on the oil and vinegar.   The prawns had a hit of chilli along with the garlic, and the chorizo/cheese combination worked well. The salad is a very large portion, with tender steak and nicely dressed leaves.

 The service is friendly, and we chat a bit – the waiter describes one of their dishes as “weird”. We have two more glasses of wine. The bill (with just 10% service) comes to £78. Nice enough place, but probably only if you are in the area - not worth the detour.

 With S&S we return to our favourite, Chez Bruce at Wandsworth Common. As usual, we meet in the nearby pub, The Hope, for a drink first.  Unusually, the pub is packed, with lots of family groups and kids – we don’t normally come on a Sunday. The pub menu looks quite good itself.

 Chez Bruce is busy too, but well-organised. We have a nice table in the window.  Friendly and efficient service as always, with their lovely parmesan biscuits and excellent bread to start.   The other three all have crispy, deep-fried poached egg to start – lovely. I have the trout ceviche, very fresh and clean

 For mains, two (including B of course) have duck breast with foie gras. S has roast cod with mushrooms. After asking about how it’s done, I decide to be adventurous and order the pig’s trotter, despite being a little alarmed at twice being told that the skin will be gelatinous!  It’s stuffed with chicken mousse and chopped sweetbreads – and really tasty. Luckily I start at the right end and don’t come to the tiny bones until the end.

 Desserts are ice cream (including salted caramel), pear, and yoghurt parfait that comes with something akin to polystyrene.

 We have three bottles of Chilean Viognier for £105, some water and a coffee.  The “3 course weekend lunch” is £48.50 – considerably more than what we usually pay mid-week.  But it remains undeniably good.  So the total comes to £340 for the four of us.

 Still house-hunting, but this time in Surbiton, we return to Hart’s Boatyard, our favourite pub by the river.  We get a nice table overlooking the river.  I fail to find our usual Rothschild Viognier on the wine list, so order a Gavi.  But when the waitress comes she has the Viognier – wrong, but right!   B has the steak salad – a regular choice – and I have the pork belly.  This is quite fatty, but it comes with a crispy bacon slice and some rather good pork cheeks. A second bottle of wine takes the bill to £76.

 Then for my birthday, we book a table for lunch at The French Table, also in Surbiton. We’d been once before and had a lovely 5-course set lunch.  We get as far as Clapham Junction to find all the trains from Waterloo cancelled.  We hang around for a bit, as the information board suggests there might soon be a train, but it gets later and later, so eventually we decide to go to Victoria, and I ring to cancel.  Apparently they’d had a lot of cancellations because of the trains – such a shame.

 At Victoria we decide to go the new(ish) branch of Sticks ‘n’ Sushi in the Nova complex. On arrival it doesn’t look very prepossessing, but we are shown upstairs where it is busier, buzzier and more attractive.  The tables are close together though, so we have to fight to hear each other over the job interview next door. We order the Chenin Blanc (£28) and some edamame beans while we work what to have.  We decide to order in two phases – sushi then sticks. So we begin with beef tataki, which comes with a good spicy dip,  crab croquettes that are hot and gooey, and  scallops kataifi topped with roe.  These are closely followed by duck in rice paper (with the same dip) and spicy tuna maki roll with ginger and wasabi.  All very tasty.  Then we order a second bottle and the sticks: scallop and bacon, spicy chicken, and lamb. Again all good - though the second bottle takes a while to arrive.   Good friendly service – the waiter chats to us a bit as we are the last ones in there at 3pm.  Total, including 12.5% service, is £135 – perhaps a bit much for what it was, but then it is my birthday.

JANUARY OLD FAVOURITES

It’s been a busy month so far, and there’s more to come, with visits to Chez Bruce and The French Table planned. Mainly places we’ve been to before – oldies but goldies – so just brief update reports.  

Cinnamon Kitchen

As they have a £25-off offer on in January, we go along to Spitalfields for B’s birthday for a late lunch.  There are not many people in, and those that are generally leave fairly soon after, so there’s not a lot of atmosphere. One stalwart table orders more wine, then desserts and brandies, so we are not entirely alone.

We have shrimp pepper fry and chicken leg tikka to start. The chicken is very dense and almost gamey – very good indeed. The shrimp are more prawn-sized, and quite spicy.  For mains we have Tanjore prawns and, to B’s disgust, Chettinadu-style mutton curry.  But in fact the mutton is rich and tasty, and probably nicer than the rather predictable prawns. The prawns came with rice, so we just order one garlic naan, and inevitably the black lentils.  

With two bottles of Trebbiano – practically the cheapest on the list at £28 each – the total is £120, but with £25 off comes to £95.  Good value definitely – the offer is on until the end of the month.  

Cherwell Boathouse, Oxford

The team is celebrating a successful workshop last year, so we treat ourselves to lunch in Oxford.  There are five of us, and we get a nice table overlooking the river which is bathed in sunshine.  The restaurant is quite busy, but the staff are attentive and helpful – and very French. 

There is a set lunch menu, but only one of our number goes for that, choosing a big hunk of salt beef brisket as his main. The other four of us all have confit of duck leg with cassoulet for our main course.  It’s a large portion – must have been big ducks! – two people ask to take away what they couldn’t eat. The meat falls away from the bone very easily, and the cassoulet is warming, though rather salty. I had had rillettes of pork to start – very firm meat, but not a lot of flavour. Other choices included partridge scotch egg, and haddock and octopus terrine.  

D chooses a Duoro red (Touriga National) at £29.50 – which lasts us all lunch (two people were driving, but even so!).  So the bill works out at £36 a head.  It’s a lovely place, and overall the food was pretty good, but not exemplary.  

Rosa’s Thai

Eleven of us are meeting up because our friend B2 has come down from Wigan to watch the Orient.  So we have booked into the large space of Dim T in Wilton Road, Victoria.  We’ve settled in, got our wine, and are just deciding what to have when the fire alarm goes off. It’s very loud, making conversation almost impossible. The lead waiter tries to do something to shut it off, but can’t.  Eventually our waiter comes over and explains the alarm has been set off in one of the flats above us, and so for safety reasons the gas in the restaurant’s kitchen has been automatically turned off.  All they can do is salads! And we’d have to live with the noise. 

So we decide to go somewhere else, and luckily we can fit in to two adjoining tables at Rosa’s Thai just along the road.  This has a simple café vibe but the waitresses are helpful. The menu is very extensive, with a separate regional menu (Isaan, from North-East Thailand), and a couple of vegan specials.  We have 50/50 prawn and pumpkin crackers while we decide. After much deliberation, I have prawn tom yum soup to start. This has six large prawns in it, and is a really spicy broth. B (on the other table) has deep-fried crispy prawns – five very large prawns.  Starters generally are large.  

For main course I have spicy pork off the Isaan menu, and share some brown rice.  This is marked with two chillies on the menu (max is three) and it is certainly hot. It looks a smallish portion when it arrives, but in fact I can’t eat it all. The pork is a little tough, but the dish is very tasty.  B had the spicy steak salad (also two chillies) which she enjoys.  

We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc at each table along with some Thai beers (including their own-label “Thai PA”).  When we come to order more wine, the SB has run out, so we have Viognier.  That too runs out, so finally we have the Spanish house wine.  The bill comes to £43 a head including service (plus £5 a head for drinks in Dim T).  A more than acceptable substitute that everyone enjoyed. 

Brown Derby

I’ve arranged an afternoon meeting at the Oval, so decide to go along earlier and have lunch nearby at a rather quirky pub on Kennington Park Road, just two minutes from Oval tube.  It’s a little hard to describe – it has two oriental style fans on the ceiling, six leaf-shaped, bamboo “blades” each, gently wafting back and forth; it has a traditional old-style juke box (I don’t know if it works), though Miles Davis is playing on the sound system; there is a big clown-like mask behind the bar; mis-matched tables and chairs, including a child’s set with mushrooms as seats.  

The menu is unusual too. There is an all-day breakfast and a cobb salad with chicken and avocado, but they are the only typical pub dishes. Otherwise the choices are noodles or poke bowls (rice dishes) - I choose the spicy tuna poke bowl.  It’s a large bowl, with plenty of tuna, about a quarter of an avocado, edamame beans, coleslaw and tons of rice which I can’t finish. The tuna is nearly raw, but not that spicy.  With two glasses of SB, this comes to just over £20.  Worth a visit for the setting alone. 
 

We’ve been out and about locally too.  

The Argentinian Los 4 Locos  is always reliable. I have their “gourmet special” menu choosing empanadas and a chicken milanesa. B has her usual rib-eye with (runny) fried eggs.  Both are big portions and we take half way. We have one bottle, then two glasses of their lovely, velvety Tapiz Malbec (that’s £31 + £22). For some reason they are doing a 10% discount deal, that save us nearly £10, making the final total with service about £95.  

We’ve been a couple of times to Tulsi, the quite up-class (for Purley) Indian. The first time we have the usual king prawn dish, but also try a lamb jalfrezi. This is pretty spicy. On the second visit, I try a paneer starter (not a great success) and a lamb rogan josh, while B and K have two different chicken tikka dishes. Both times – as always – the portions are so large we take half away.  

And of course there is the always reliable Las Fuentes tapas bar. Old favourites are the wild boar skewer, gambas pil pil, and kidneys; newer choices are monkfish and prawns croquettes and minced beef “patties” (a bit like empanadas).  Typically if we have two bottles of Rioja, it comes to about £75 (only 10% service charge).

Classy tapas off Piccadilly

After a challenging session at the Anthony Gormley exhibition at the RA, we retire to the Chequers Tavern  for a much-need drink. It’s a remarkably quiet haven off Piccadilly, though with the good weather there were a lot of people drinking outside. Here we debate where to go for lunch, as the original interest in Japanese has waned.

 After a bit of Googling we settle on El Pirata, a classic tapas bar, round the back of the Athenaeum.  As we approach, we can see people sitting outside in the sunshine, but the one spare table is reserved. It’s 2pm and inside is packed. You’d have to say it was a “narrow demographic” - even compared with the RA. We are ushered to the sit at the bar (“counter”) which doesn’t really appeal, but it’s the only option. Others, having booked, or regulars known to the management do get tables.

 We order some wine – Paso a Paso, Sauvignon/Verdejo (at £25 near the cheapest on the list) – and consider the menu. There’s a wide range of options, including a special offer 2-dish lunch at £11.50, specials at around £15, paellas, and a tapas selection at £25. Or you could just choose a few dishes, which is what we did.

 The bread and aioli arrives first. Lovely soft bread, that was so tempting to keep dipping into the punchy garlic dip. Next comes the pan-fried medallions of steak in a tasty sauce.  Very tender, though the sauce wasn’t as garlic or peppery as might have been expected. With that is the chick peas with slow cooked aubergine, courgettes & peppers – a little odd, sharp and sweet at the same time.

 Then, both sizzling hot, come the gambas pil-pil and the chicken livers. Both excellent.  We had wondered whether these few dishes would be enough, but we are quite satisfied with them. Plenty of sauces to dip your bread into.

 The place is very buzzy and full, and doesn’t even start to empty out until well after 3pm. The décor is Picasso and Miro prints, with the classic display of spirits behind the bar.  Our neighbour at the bar has ordered dishes from the set menu, but his companion has failed to arrive, despite lots of calls. B decides that she must be very glamorous, as she is quite happy to keep her man waiting. He eats most of the food, but does manage to leave some for her. Eventually, a well-dressed slim Indian lady arrives – with suitcase – picks at the cold sardines and chicken croquettes, before pushing off in a taxi after no more than 30 minutes.

We order another bottle of wine while we survey the comings and goings.  Many of the dishes we’ve seen served look very good – the paella, Iberico ham, sardines, tomato bread; and there were plenty of other things on the menu we would have happily ordered.  

The final reckoning was a pretty reasonable £86 including service, given that £50 was wine.  Service at the bar had been prompt fairly friendly without being over-attentive.  It’s not in the most convenient of locations but in Michelin terms “worth a detour”. We’ll no doubt revisit, but make sure to reserve a table next time.

 

Re-opened old favourite

Our local tapas bar, Las Fuentes, has been closed for a while as the building it’s in is being re-developed.  It re-opened just before Christmas, though apparently it will need to close again while further work is done.

Previously it had been a very charming, very Spanish-looking restaurant with lots of blue tiles and friendly staff. Many of the same staff are back and are still as welcoming, but the atmosphere has changed as the décor is now much more ordinary.  The tiles are gone, and we just have a collection of simple wood tables, sitting underneath a ceiling of “industrial chic” air-conditioning tubing.

 We’re there with our neighbour K who for some reason is treating us. She wasn’t a regular of the place previously – unlike us, and another neighbour J who arrives with her son later. So the change in décor doesn’t worry her, though she’s not keen on the tubing.

 The menu is similar in content to before, though now organised by main ingredient (fish, lamb, beef etc) rather than tapas and mains. So you have to judge by the price what to order. They have always served relatively large portions for a tapas bar, and that seems to still be the case.

 We order the house white Rioja at £19, and the same wine as before arrives. K has a coke.  K wants us to suggest what we have, so we fall back on our usual selections – wild boar skewer (ordered with chips rather than polenta for K), kidneys, gambas pil pil and spicy mushrooms – plus a lamb cutlet each for K and me as that is one of her favourites.

 The wild boar, on its usual impressive vertically-hanging skewer, and the lamb cutlets arrive first.  The lamb doesn’t come away from the bone as well as you might like, and K declares it not as good as her favourite, Mekan.  We think the wild boar is very tender, but K seems to struggle, with some gristle and then losing interest.  The kidneys, despite arriving on a dish that is “too hot to touch”, are in fact lukewarm – still tasty but not the reliably warming dish I choose on cold days.  The prawns and the mushrooms are both excellent though – good hits of spice in both of them.

 K chooses ice cream for dessert, so I have a crème brulée to keep her company. It’s quite a good burnt topping, but the main body is far too chilled.

 K is paying so I don’t get a close look at the bill, but I think including service it is a little over £100 (2 bottles of wine).  It’s close enough back to its old ways for us to keep it as a regular, but I don’t think K was that impressed.

Catching up since July

I’ve been a bit remiss these last months, but here is a quick summary of places visited in the second half of the year. I no longer have all the details of what everyone had, and not all the prices, but I still have the memories!

India Club, Strand:  threatened with closure because of re-development, this throw-back to the 60s/70s was granted a reprieve. It used to be a traditional haunt of our Varsity match group, so we went along to celebrate. The room is basic – though the tables are no longer secured to the floor.  Drinks are obtained from the bar on the floor below – don’t expect anything beyond a Kingfisher or gin. Starters are standards – samosa, onion bhaji, plus a remarkably dangerous chilli bhaji. Mains are also fairly standard - lamb, butter chicken, dhal, aloo sag - but with good portions of rice and breads.  At £30 a head, it’s great fun.

Mar I Terra describes itself as “contemporary Spanish tapas”.  We’ve been before in the evening, but on this lunchtime visit after the Picasso exhibition at the Tate, we sit outside in the garden which is very pleasant.  Chilli prawns, crab-stuffed peppers, chicken livers, chorizo and morcilla with beans, chick peas are all good. Bill (with probably two bottles) comes to £92. Excellent – definitely recommend it if you are in the area. On a second visit in the early evening a couple of months later we have garlic prawns, sardines, chicken livers, beef, beans and jambon, chick peas (£75).

Guiseppe’s in Borough High Street has become B’s “go-to” restaurant. We went just the two of us first to research it, then as a group of 6, and then B went again with 4 other ex-colleagues. It’s as  clichéd as an Italian can be, short of candles in Chianti bottles. There are specials on the blackboard and all the traditional dishes you can remember.  Starters have included bresaola, scallops, prawns, calamari. Mains, spaghetti “My Way” (under a photo of Frank), veal Holstein, chicken Milanese with penne arrabiatta.  Good choice of Italian wines; generally around £50-£70 a head. Fine, convenient, but not sophisticated.

Ivy Market Grill . There are loads of Ivy spin-off places now, some of which have had unflatteringly reviews, but I think this in Covent Garden may have been the first one when the original restaurant closed for refurbishment for a while.  We went one lunchtime with S&L, and were sat next to Nicholas Lyndhurst (though he did ask to be moved!).  I had steak tartare followed by sea bass fillets and the bill came to £105 for the two of us. A very good experience. B went back again and that was good too.

Babur Brasserie I have reviewed before, but it remains worth the visit to Honor Oak Park.  Regional dishes feature strongly – this is no ordinary curry house. My meal this time was prawns and gourd to start followed by rabbit. At £106 for two this is good value.

The Oxo Tower Brasserie is a good place for a celebration. This time it was J’s 30^th, and there were 16 of us, on two tables of 8 with good river views. It’s not cheap though, and the wine does make the bill mount up. I had grilled crispy squid followed by chicken breast in a herb sauce and a tart.

Sticks ‘n’ Sushi, Wimbledon has rather less charm than its Covent Garden sister, the room being bigger and more open, with several refectory style tables, but has the same interesting menu and would be a nice reliable place to have on your doorstep. After the usual spicy edamame beans, we had beef tataki, crab croquettes, crudities and miso. Then shrimp rolls, crispy chicken rolls, duck breast and scallop and bacon sticks. With two bottles this is good value for £109

Chez Bruce:   I’ve reported on it several times, but it is still a reliable favourite for a good lunch. The parmesan crisps are still gorgeous and the atmosphere and service top-class. This time I had fishcakes with boquerones, followed by calf’s liver and then a caramel crisp. The set lunch price means this comes to £150 with a good amount of wine (though you have to hunt through the wine list to keep the cost down).

A Wong in Victoria has been around for a while, but though we’ve tried a couple of times we’ve not been able to get into this Michelin starred Chinese. So with S&L we book one evening and take on the challenging menu. It’s hard to decide how much to order, and I think in the end we were a bit conservative  for 4 Choices between us were prawn cracker, crab and prawn fritter;  duck and pancakes, lamb slider; kung pao chicken with peanuts, waygu beef, pork belly, “gold fish” dumplings, abalone, rice. £150 for two with not a lot of wine. Not yet convinced, but worth another try.

Our local tapas bar has been closed for refurbishment, but its sister, Las Fuentes in Selsdon was P&M’s choice for a birthday celebration for around 16 people. B and I had wild boar skewer, kidneys, chorizo, gambas pil pil and mussels. As good as the Purley version, with similar ambience.

After wine tasting we need something to soak up the alcohol, so twice in quick succession we go with T&K to Dim T in Victoria.  Each time we begin with beef wontons, chicken gyoza, edamame beans and various dim sum. The first time we go round again on the dim sum, but on the second visit we move on to firecracker prawns, special chicken stir-fry, chilli beef, pad thai, and Singapore noodles. It’s a big place, so generally no need to book. Coincidentally it cost £80 each time.

My colleagues organise a “round the world” series of lunches and this time we are in Jamaica at Cotton’s, Curtain Rd.   It’s a fairly basic place (though another outlet in Vauxhall is rather smarter) and being a “rum shack” does a good line in cocktails. I have the trio of vegetarian fritters followed by a lunchtime special of oxtail and bean stew with boiled rice. With one cocktail and a modest amount of wine my bill was £25.

Imperial China in Chinatown has become a regular dim sum place. After a wine tasting over in the City, we fetch up and order soft-shell crab followed by steamed king prawns, fillet beef and Singapore noodles. All for £100.

Masala Zone, Covent Garden  is another good place for a celebration, with lots of space and side rooms,  so we fetch up there for our housemate Christmas gathering. The Rajasthani  puppets dangling from the ceiling give it a great atmosphere, and despite the time of year we get good service too. There are 12 of us – any more and you have to have the set menu, but we are allowed to order individually. I have Delhi samosa, followed by Coondapur Duck, black dhal, spinach and steamed rice. With a good amount of wine this is £100 for two.  It would be interesting to try as a couple.