South Croydon Chinese

Since My Old China closed in Purley, we don’t have a local Chinese other than take-aways. Often we go to the Sichuan Cottage in Coulsdon, but one Monday when we fancied Chinese we thought we’d try out the South Croydon “strip” – or “Restaurant Quarter” as the Council would have us call it.

So after a short bus ride, we arrive at the Beijing Cottage. Not surprisingly it was pretty quiet inside, with just one other table of 6 occupied. Despite this it was quite a while before our wine order was taken, and the Sauvingon Blanc arrived. Not the “quick wine” we like!

The menu is very extensive, with many unusual dishes as well as the more traditional ones. After some dithering, we went for the prawn and chicken in lettuce and the soft shell crab to start. The former was a good size portion with plenty of crisp lettuce, and though tender was lacking in “oomph” – rather bland. The crab was tasty but not large, very crisply cooked.

Main courses were impressive. Particularly good was the paper-wrapped beef – succulent wrapped rolls of beef with plenty of ginger; maybe there could have been more, but a definite star.  Our other main course was sizzling king prawns; there were four options for sauce for this, so which we chose the in ginger and spring onion.  It was certainly sizzling loudly when it arrived, and the prawns were full of flavour – and again with lots of ginger.  Singapore noodles in support were spicy, with plenty of chicken and prawns mixed in.

After the slow start, service was fine, if not especially friendly.  £60 for the lot was a fair price, and so we drifted away impressed and well-fed.

 

Good Food Guide Indian

Babur Brasserie in Honor Oak Park has been open for 27 years now, and has featured in the Good Food Guide for some time.  To mark their anniversary, they were offering £27 off for a table of 4 or more, so with local friends we go along to celebrate. We’re a table of 6 on a Thursday night, and the offer seems to have appealed to many, as the place is quite full.  Our friends are regulars, so the waiters are chatty and relaxed.

The a la carte menu is quite unlike the usual curry house. A wide range of meats and vegetables in unusual combinations dominate – proper cooking. While choosing, we have a bowl of mixed pappadums – flaky, spicy, curly – with pickles.  The menu suggests matching wines with each dish, but  B and I choose a sauvignon blanc, while the others have beer, malbec and a martini.

B chooses the venison papli (patties) to start, while I go for the goat patties.   The venison is tasty enough, but such a small portion, while the goat doesn’t taste of a great deal at all.  Other starters include a beetroot “cutlet” and lamb tikka.  For main B has the marinated king prawns – very succulent and tasty, but again a modest portion. I have the coconut lamb – no problems with portion size there, tasty and rich. Sides include a dhal makhani (very creamy), okra in a tomato sauce and spicy spinach. Plus rice, naan and paratha.  

With the money off, the bill comes to £100 a couple – excellent value for such an interesting meal.  It’s always enjoyable here, but sometimes it doesn’t quite live up to the billing.

 

Borough market steak-house

We’ve been having a culture day at the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern – pretty strange, though the butterfly pictures are attractive. Naturally, we then have a glass upstairs in the bar, which has splendid views over to St Paul’s.  Well, it does as first, but when the rain comes, it’s impossible to see across the river except when highlighted by lightning striking the Old Bailey. That puts paid to the idea of a gentle stroll along the Southbank, so in a lull we hurry back towards London Bridge.

At the edge of Borough Market we call in at Black and Blue, an excellent steak-house. You can’t miss it – it has a huge model cow on the roof! It’s more or less the middle of the afternoon, so fairly quiet, so we get to sit in a booth, rather than slightly small standard tables.  It’s a nice room for a steak-house; light and airy rather than dark and warm, and the waitresses are very lively and attentive. B&B is now a small chain of seven restaurants in the smarter parts of London.

To start we have garlic king prawns – huge and succulent – and foie gras mousse, which comes with a sweetish brioche bread.  We share the cote de boeuf (600g) for main, served nicely rare on a wooden board with a few leaves as decoration, and a pot of very creditable chips. It’s a tidy piece of meat which we struggle to get through, and end up with a “doggy bag” to enjoy the following day.  The wine list offers several Malbecs and other Argentinian reds, but quite quickly goes up in price – we settle for a Tilia Malbec at £26.  The bill comes to a reasonably good value £85 – good if you like your steak.

Good Thai in Purley

With our friend H staying with us, I suggested that for a change we went to Baan Thai. We used to go quite frequently when they had a very funny and camp waiter who made it a fun evening. He left when the place changed hands and it never seemed quite the same. But this evening we fancy something spicy but not as heavy as a curry – so we give it a go.

It’s a very warm evening, so that also makes it a good choice, as this is the only restaurant with a garden in Purley, and luckily there is an outside table free for us.  The garden is like a temple garden, complete with Buddha. There’s now an outside gazebo thing, presumably for the smokers, which is used as an overflow for high-chairs etc, so it’s not a stylish as it could be – but very pleasant in the heat.

We decide not to have starters, so go straight into the mains – tamarind duck, tiger prawns in chilli oil, crying tiger (steak strips with chilli dip) and Singapore noodles.   The duck is really lovely -  tasty rich sauce on juicy meat. The tiger prawns are also excellent, tasty and juicy with a good kick to them.  The steak is probably the least successful, though still tender and interesting.  Singapore noodles have a good lot of chicken and prawns in them, and also have a kick.

Service is friendly and efficient, though not as much fun as before. With a couple of bottles of a Chilean sauvignon blanc (£15 each), this comes to around £60 (not sure exactly as H pays).  Very good value.

So a couple of weeks later, we make a return visit, just the two of us.  It’s a Saturday night, and pretty busy at 8pm, and not the weather for sitting outside – fortunately a couple are just leaving so we don’t have to wait for a table.  This time we have the Thai fishcakes and Thai dumplings to start. Not so impressive – the dumplings are a bit rubbery and the fishcakes on the leathery side; tasty though. For mains, B chooses the same tiger prawn dish, while I go for the spicy duck. We also have a beef salad and jasmine rice. The prawns are good as before, and the spicy duck pretty spicy. But the best dish is the beef salad – a very fresh tasting dressing which also is spicy.  Another good meal, at £56, so Baan Thai is now added to our list of favourite local haunts.

Back at the Derby Arms

Dodging the heavy showers, we catch the train again to Tattenham Corner, for Sunday lunch at the Derby Arms. Outside nearby was a huge puddle from the downpour, which managed the optical illusion of some of it being higher than the rest. Anyway we were lucky enough to remain dry and settle into our table spot on time at 2.30pm.

I’d been told when I booked that the table would be occupied at 12.30, and we would have to leave by 4.30pm.  I’m never very happy with this sort of policy, but in this case it was totally unnecessary as there were several tables free when we arrived, and even more free when we were ready to leave (actually before 4.30pm as it happened).  Maybe they’d had cancellations because Andy Murray was in the Men’s final.

Both the ladies had the scallops special starter. The pumpkin puree was more of a jus,  which was fine by them, and came with a tangy salad mix.  I ordered a chicken satay  “leaves”, which was a huge portion of rather dry chicken albeit with a good satay sauce.  As it turned out, this was a main course size – they happily changed the bill at the end.

Several huge plates of roast Sunday lunch were carried past – massive Yorkshire puddings – but we went for the normal menu. H had pork fillet wrapped is prosciutto and sage with a blue cheese sauce, which came with half an apple, and also ordered the green and broad bean dish.  As the seared tuna was “off”, B had the linguine with tiger prawns, crab and an attractively spicy chorizo .  I had the lamb rump, with a mound of butternut squash ratatouille – and some excellent piping hot chips.

Two bottles of Rothschild Viognier (£20) took the bill to £110 for 3 – pretty reasonable.

Return to the Fish and Grill

After the previous unhappy experience at the Fish & Grill in South Croydon, I wrote to complain, and got a very good reply from Malcolm John’s PA, with a welcome offer of a free bottle of champagne next time we visited. So as our friend H was visiting, we thought we’d share it with her.  The PA made the booking for us, and sure enough when we turned up the house champagne (normally £39) was on ice at the table.

It was a busy Friday evening, but the service was prompt and attentive with the bread basket (a very tasty selection) coming quickly, though the lead waitress still didn’t smile much.  The choice of starters is impressive, and mains live up to the restaurant’s name. In the end we had the scallops with pomegranate which were excellent, the yellow fin tuna tartare with ginger and white radish which is always very good and deep fried squid with courgettes and artichoke – OK but not so special.

The place was getting quite lively now, but the waiters were very good at keeping people happy and enjoying the evening, giving a nice feel to the place: smart but not formal.

The market fish of the day was Dover sole, which H went for.  It was a good sized fish, and came with a good pile of hot crisp chips. B’s choice was stir-fried Atlantic Prawns, also a good size, with plenty of depth of flavour. I had the seafood mixed grill – a fine selection of swordfish, sea bass, prawns and mussels – good but probably just the sum of its parts.  We washed this down with a couple of bottles of Argentinian Viognier at £23 each, bringing the total with service to £154 for a very pleasant evening.

So top marks to Malcolm John for handling our complaint well, and for another good meal.  The gesture won’t have cost them much, but has re-confirmed us as regulars there, and at his other restaurants.

Hampton Court bistro

Over at Hampton Court for the Flower Show, we go with our friend D to Blubeckers for a meal beforehand.  Blubeckers is now part of a small chain called Home Counties Pub Restaurants,  though this one is not pub-like at all, more bistro style: lots of moody black and white photos on the wall.  Quite a relaxed vibe, and perfectly situated for the Palace, as it is right across the road from the gates.

We arrived about 3.30pm, as D had a voucher for 20% off it we arrived before 4pm.   It was reasonably busy for that time of day, with several other people going to the show.  It’s a big place though, with an attractive upstairs reached by a spiral staircase.

D had the deep fried calamari to start – very nicely cooked in a dry batter, and supported by a chilli and garlic dip. B had the crab cakes which were also good, with lots of crab.  My tempura king prawns were less successful, the batter being rather soggy and the prawns not very flavourful; the mango salsa it came with was good though.

For mains, D had the Moroccan chicken which was a good sized portion with lots of sauce.  B had the salmon teriyaki, which was not such a good size, though it did have a good sauce.  My seabass fillets with prawns and ginger were good, though they could have done with more ginger.

With 2 bottles of a NZ Sauvignon Blanc (£18.95 each), this came to £100, less the £20 discount.  Certainly good value at that price, and pretty good anyway.   Probably not worth going out of your way for, but if you’re around there it’s a good choice.