December outings

After a wine tasting at Tate Modern, we drift round the corner to our new nearby favourite,  Mar I Terra.  I’ve reviewed it before, but again it did not disappoint.  This time we are there on Friday evening, and it is pretty busy, which gives it a great atmosphere. Staff are friendly and welcoming. We start with a garlic bread (to soak up our wine) and then go for garlic prawns, braised beef Riojana, pork belly, and chick peas with spinach and cumin. There’s plenty of garlic around, and a fair bit of chilli too. The beef comes with piquillo peppers, which also have a good kick. The pork belly has a good portion of crackling and is really very succulent.  The Verdejo at £21 seemed good, but maybe our palettes were a little jaded.  At £63 including service, very reasonable indeed.

The following night we are off to a comedy gig at Union St chapel, with H.  Again we re-visit a favourite, La Petite Auberge, I’ve also reviewed before.  As we are eating before the show, the placed is quite quiet, though there is one larger group in. Service is a bit erratic, with no consistent waiter, and they seem more interested in getting the chairs in than actually bringing any wine! For starters I have the crevettes in garlic, which are more tiger prawns than crevettes, but perfectly fine.  B has bacon and chicken liver terrine – which hasn’t stuck in the memory! – and H moules mariniere.  Mains are stuffed guinea fowl for me (a bit claggy), stuffed chicken breast for H (which she thought a bit dull) and B has the gambas as before.  A couple of bottles of  Pays D’Oc Viognier at £24.50 bring the bill up to £130 including service.  But not as great a success as last time.

To complete an indulgent weekend, we are having our “131” lunch, with T&K, H and J, back from her travels.  After further unsuccessful attempts to book Dishoom again – I think I’m giving up on them for good – we are booked into Salt Yard  in Goodge St.  We are in the downstairs room, with a large, but fortunately fairly restrained, group nearby.  The charming waitress is all smiles and helpful, so we rapidly start in on the Campo Flores Verdejo/SB and a Honoro Vera (£25 and £24 each).  A first round of dishes includes grilled flatbread, sweet and spicy guindillas (big green chillies),  smoked almonds, boquerones (juicy) , padron peppers and caperberries. More substantial dishes follow: crab arancini, chorizo picante with chickpeas, marjoram salami, roast salmon, courgettes flowers and burrata. Also pork rillons (pork belly cubes), polenta with mushrooms and leeks, and paprika chicken, followed by a Spanish cheese selection.  With two bottles each of the white and red, and service this all comes to £270 for 6 people – pretty good I’d say.

The next week we meet S&L at Tiles, after their visit to “Spooky” the spiritualist.  This is a really old favourite, from before we were married. It’s midweek, but still pretty busy so we are downstairs with a couple of Xmas party groups.  The Viognier from Languedoc is £23 a bottle, and very creamy.   Starters include a baked aubergine parcel, cauliflower soup, and tuna tartare (my choice – pretty good).  For mains L and I both have pork medallions, which she is unable to finish – rich tasty, with Lyonaisse potatoes.  S has a chicken breast stuffed with roasted peppers and goats cheese and wrapped in pancetta – again too much for her. And B has the fisherman’s platter: deep-fried squid, prawns, salmon and cod with courgettes chips also too much. So we had quite a doggy basket – the portion of chips was unnecessary, but hot and crisp as they should be. Despite being busy the services has been fine – efficient rather than friendly perhaps.  Three bottles of wine and service take the total to £170

The next Monday I have a work meeting near Smithfields in the afternoon, so I stop off at St Bart’s Brewery for lunch first.  The small plates previously advertised on the website are not available in December, and a number of tables are booked for parties, so I end up in a low “comfy” chair.  Although predictably quiet when I get there at noon, plenty of people are coming in on spec, so it gets quite busy by 12.30.  I order the brisket brioche, which comes with a portion of red cabbage slaw and chipotle gravy with a surprising kick. A tin of good skin-on fries goes well. A couple of glasses of Vermentino help things along. £22 in total.

Next day we are meeting M&P in Sutton for lunch. It’s an ASLEF strike day on Southern, so it has to be a cab, which in the end means we get there early and stop off in the Old Bank for a drink first.  We catch up with our friends as we reach the restaurant – a classic-style Italian called Casa Nostra, one of their old favourites.  As well as an extensive standard menu, there is a good list of blackboard specials, which apparently contain regular dishes.  M&P don’t drink, so I order a bottle of Frascati, and B says she’ll have one too – the cheeky waiter brings both together! M&P both have the crab and avocado salad starter, which looks good, but perhaps has too much dressing on it. B has the garlic king prawns (obvs), which do seem very good, and I have squid ripieni (ie with black pudding and bacon on a bed of spinach), which is excellent – rich, flavoursome with the squid al dente. Filling though.  For main P has the turbot steaks off the specials board, M has sea bass fillets which she asks for with a passata sauce, and B has skate with lemon butter and capers off the specials too. My veal saltimbocca (with sage and parma ham) is excellent, in a good white wine sauce.  All the mains come with a selection of vegetables (aprt from B who opted for salad) which include some good sauté potatoes. Paying for the wine and splitting the food means we end up with £129 for the two of us.  It’s only Sutton and with few pretensions, but that’s still good value for what we had.

Thursday sees us at the M&G organised ex-BT Xmas gathering at the Morgan Arms  in Bow.  There are 18 of us, so we are at three tables, with strict instructions from M for the men to move around between courses.  Surprisingly that works quite well.  We have had to pre-order our food (fair enough), but the placecards have got mine and B’s confused.  She has game terrine to start, while I have confit duck leg (with red cabbage and juniper) which is close to being a full main course. For main, B has sea bass, while I have the venison steak, with sprouts and good roast potatoes. The venison is OK, but a little chewy, and again a large portion, so I fail to finish it.  For dessert I have the chocolate mousse (very runny, but tasty) and B has the trifle, which comes in a smallish glass.  I don’t know how much wine we consumed, but our share of the total came to a very reasonable £130.

As there’s another ASLEF strike on. I can’t get to a meeting on Friday, so we indulge again in a lunch in Purley at Mekan.   There’s a big table laid up for a party, but we manage to get one by the window, a little way away. The group doesn’t arrive till we’re about to leave anyway.  As usual, we have lamb’s liver and spicy sausage to start. And B has her usual Mediterranean prawns in garlic and white wine to follow. After some indecision, I opt for the lamb iskender barbequed lamb with yoghurt and pitta bread. They are out of our usual NZ SB, so instead we have a couple of bottles of Gavi at £23.  The waiter is very stern and unsmiling, but the waitress much more pleasant.  £80 all in.

We’ve no other meals planned before Xmas, though I expect we’ll fit in the tapas bar and a curry some time during the week.  So MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY READERS (if there are any!).

Late summer catch-up

Noble Rot

Five of us fetched up at Noble Rot wine bar in Lamb’s Conduit St on a hot summer’s day.  As we were shown to our table at the back of this maze of a place, our eyes gradually became accustomed the gloom, such a contrast to the weather outside.  It’s a charming spot for a winter’s day, or perhaps an illicit assignation. 

 

We settled on a bottle of Picpoul (£22) from an extensive, but not cheap, wine list. The charming young waiter explained the specials to us, including Thai Stingray.  He was unclear whether it was a starter or a main course, and insisted it wasn’t fish – I think the kitchen had been teasing him.  So after some confusion we manage to order.  I had cod and samphire to start, a smallish portion, but nicely done; others had smoked eel gazpacho (interesting) and mackerel.

 

For mains I had venison haunch, others had turbot and the Stingray – skate of course.  Three bottles of wine and £4 for some (admittedly, nice) bread took the bill up to £260 including service – which perhaps felt a little steep for a wine bar.  But it was a welcoming venue and well-produced food, so worth a visit if you’re in the area.

 

Oka

In Kingly Court, off Regent Street, near Senor Ceviche which I’ve reviewed before, the two of us decide to try the “Pan-Asian” sushi bar, Oka, for lunch. It’s a small, basic place, but the staff were very helpful and welcoming, finding us a nice table by the window. Sauvignon Blanc was £25.50, for a very nice NZ Marlborough, again perhaps a bit steep. We first ordered the spider roll, tuna tataki and the beef fillet with chimichurri sauce.  All excellent.  We followed up with the tiger king prawns, marinated salmon and some rice – again all good.  At £128 (2 bottles of SB), it again wasn’t cheap for an unpretentious place, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Tough call whether I prefer Senor Ceviche, but a good option for a change.

 

Brasserie Vacherin

I’ve reviewed our local French restaurant before and the service has sometimes been a bit mixed, but as they had (and still have) a 15% off food offer, we thought we’d give it another go.  Their Viognier from Languedoc was £24.50, but there are cheaper options available.  For starter, B had the Atlantic prawns – a sizeable portion of good-sized prawns, with garlic and parsley – while I had the reliable tuna tartare with wasabi.  Mains were lemon sole and fillet of sea bass, both good, fresh and simply done. The discount amounted to a little over £8, so the total with service was a just over £100.

 

The Refinery

After some culture at Tate Modern (Georgia O’Keefe, as you ask), we settle on The Refinery in the Blue Fin building round the back for a late lunch.  It’s a huge barn of a place, in the “industrial chic” style, and although there was one group of office workers in, we felt quite alone in the big back area.  The waitress was friendly, but after asking us for our order before we were ready then went AWOL.  We had managed to order a bottle of Chenin at £17.95 though, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.

 

For starters we had a flabby chicken satay with no oomph, and some weird prawn lollipops. The mains were a bit better – my chargrilled tuna was cooked competently, and B’s coconut prawn curry had some flavour. But overall not somewhere we’d rush back to. £79 (just one bottle and two glasses) was a fair price perhaps, but maybe it’s more somewhere to go for a regular quick lunch rather than a destination in itself.

 

Ken Lo’s Memories of China

Meeting up with S and L, we go first to the Grosvenor Hotel at Victoria station for a cocktail in their swish bar.  We’ve thought about going to about Ken Lo’s famous restaurant for many years, but now we have finally got round to it.  For a Tuesday night, it’s nicely busy and buzzy without feeling stressful; service is charming and helpful.

 

We order the Viognier at £27, and then our starters: prawn dumplings (standard), courgettes with prawns (super), smoked chicken (just OK), and a scallops, prawn and chicken in black bean sauce (excellent).  Mains are monkfish with asparagus, double cooked pork (my choice – very nice), medallions of beef, French beans and Singapore noodles.  A good, but perhaps not sensational, selection.  Just two bottles of wine means we get away with just £190 for the four of us  (13% service charge for some reason), so it feels like good value.  Worth another visit.

 

Richoux, St John’s Wood

We were at Lord’s for the climax of the County Championship (Middlesex v Yorkshire), and take a break for lunch. The Lord’s Tavern is fully booked, so we make our way to St John’s Wood, and decide on Richoux, with seats outside in the late September sun.  It’s only a light lunch, but both my “elegant rarebit” (ie with bacon) and B’s steak salad are super; the house fries were good too. (Oddly, a lady at another table also ordered the salad and had something quite different which she wasn’t very happy with).  With a bottle of Trebbiano at £17, we come away paying £44, and feeling very content – and Middlesex ended up winning.

 

Mar I Terra

After more culture at Tate Modern (the Philippe Parreno exhibit in the Turbine Hall, with moving boards, flashing lights and ambient music – what’s that smell? BS) we look at Gordon Ramsay’s Union St café, but decide against. Instead we find this little tapas bar tucked out of the way by the railway line. It perhaps seats about 30, and there were a dozen or so in.

 

The Volteo white (Verdejo-Sauvignon) at £19.50 is sharp and interesting.  The waiter recommends five dishes between two, so after some dithering over the pork belly, we decide on chick peas and spinach,  garlic prawns, grilled sardines, chicken livers and the criollo sausage off the specials menu.  Very enjoyable – the prawns had a good kick of chilli, the sardines were fresh with the flesh coming off the bones easily,  the chicken livers very intense in sherry and the chick peas with cumin; the special sausage was tasty but a little chewy.

 

Two bottles of wine takes us up to £95, including service.  This is likely to become a regular after Tate Modern visits.

Useful place for lunch and wine near Borough Market

We’re off to the National Theatre so we head up to London Bridge early to wander around. It’s a sunny Saturday, so Borough Market is heaving – every available space around Southwark cathedral is occupied with people munching their way through their take-aways. We stroll through and make our way to The Wine Wharf, the wine bar part of Vinopolis on the Borough Market side of the building.

Though everywhere else is really busy, the Wine Wharf is pretty quiet surprisingly. Maybe because it’s rather gloomy here indoors when people would rather be taking advantage of the spring sunshine – the window tables are taken too.  Still, the place has a nice character – stripped walls, lots of corks in jars, and upstairs some comfy settees.

There’s a choice of Viogniers, so we go for the Viogner Delas 2011 Pays d’Oc at £25 because it’s served by the glass as well.  The food selection has lots of tapas-style platters and light bites as well as a number of main dishes. We’re in a grazing mood, so we choose the garlic & chilli tiger prawns with char-grilled ciabatta  and the salt and pepper squid, and also take the “build your own platter” option: hummus, aubergine dip and stuffed chillies were our choice. On a whim as I order at the bar, I also go for some smoked almonds.

And I’m certainly glad I did. We’re waiting about half an hour for the food, despite the fact there’s hardly anyone else in the place.  When the food does finally come we’re brought an extra bowl of pitta bread as an apology – whoop-di-whoop!

The prawns were something of a disappointment, being rather cotton-wool, not very spicy and the char-grilled ciabatta made all soft by the oily sauce. On the other hand the squid were very good – a substantial portion, crisp batter and tender squid. The stuffed chillies were also nice and the hummus firm and nutty, though the aubergine was rather oily.

With a couple of extra glasses of Viognier the bill is £57 without service. Service has been friendly and attentive in its way, despite the initial delay.  There are plenty of options around Borough Market, but if you want something reasonable with good wine then the Wine Wharf is a good place to go.

April overview (1)

Catching up on some of the places I visited last month:

LAS FUENTES, High St, Purley
Our local tapas bar - very well-frequented. The welcome is always excellent here, with enthusiastic and lively waiters keen to help. We're so predictable in our choice of wine (the house white Rioja) that they are often ready to bring a bottle as soon as we've walked in the door - "quick wine" is what we like!

No sign of Gio, the proprietor, this time. He's still a keen cyclist, doing charity rides to Paris even though he's getting on a bit now. Used to have an eye for the ladies, though I've not seen him do that recently. The style of the place is classic Spanish tiling, with splendidly stocked bar.

Their speciality here is the skewers - lamb, beef, chicken or fish. This time we have the lamb - a good solid selection of nicely cooked meat, hanging over a plate of fried polenta. From their "specials" board (which doesn't change that much), we also have scallops and chorizo (comes with too many potatoes for my liking, but the chorizo is very good) and a relatively new addition, piquillo peppers stuffed with crabmeat. This is starting to become one of our regular choices.

Portions are always good, so 3 dishes between 2 works well enough. Good value as well - lunch usually works out around £50-£60 including plenty of wine.

It gets busy in the evenings, especially weekends. Also has a restaurant section with more formal meals.


WAGAMAMA Park Road Croydon
We're only recent converts to Wagamama, having struggled to find a suitable mix of dishes previously. We're also not that keen on the noodle dishes, so that rather limits things. The Croydon branch is much like the rest of the chain, with shared refectory tables and paper menus/placemats. On this visit it wasn't too busy, but if you're sitting near the back it can be claustrophobic here.

The food comes in the order it's ready, so that can be confusing. But this time it works OK. The spicy edmame beans are up first - good, but not as spicy as those at Dim T in Victoria. Next comes the duck gyoza (rolls) and the spicy squid. The gyoza is good and tasty, but the squid a bit of a disappointment - rather rubbery and no way spicy enough.

Mains come as hoped: beef and coriander salad and chicken tonburi(teriyaki) with a mound of boiled rice. Both good, the beef cooked well and the chicken covered in plenty of sauce. About £60 including wine, so pretty fair.


LE GARRICK WINE BAR Garrick St, Covent Garden
Meeting up with a group of friends for an annual memorial meal, at this cosy wine bar near Covent Garden. Downstairs has lots of nooks and crannies, and tables pretty close together - lovely wine bar atmosphere.

I had the calamari followed by magret de canard. Good service brought excellent French bread, and wines promptly. The calamari was good - sauteed in wine, tender and tasty. Magret de canard was correctly pink, with a fine red wine sauce and a few vegetables. A selection of chips from other people's dishes was also good - presented in the now predictable tin pots. The others all enjoyed their meals too - a very reliable place. Not cheap, as we had plenty of wine at around £20 a bottle, but fair enough to come away with £108 for 2.


AQUA South End, Croydon
It's the South Croydon Food Festival, so after wandering around looking at the stands, (surprisingly not buying anything), we fetch up at Aqua for a late lunch. Not surprisingly with all that's going on, it's pretty busy, and one room seems to have been taken over by a large group.

So to simplify things we order the mezze, while our friend H orders a mixed fish platter. The mezze is pretty impressive - first the dips, hummus, tara, tsatsiki, with plenty of pitta bread. Followed by the fish course: calamari and whitebait, both in batter - OK. Then a selection of keftedes (good and herby), dolmades, crumbly spinach pie, and tomato and halloumi. Finally comes the chicken and lamb souvlaki - a little dull, needed an enlivening chilli sauce. So a pretty filling experience overall.

Rashly we finish off with Metaxas. Outside of Greece this is rarely a good idea, and though we checked the number of stars ("25", said the waiter), the caramel flavour comes through really strongly. Not to mention the feeling the following morning!

£90 for two with lots of wine, was a pretty good result.