The Chancery

Situated appropriately just off Chancery Lane, on a corner in Cursitor Street, The Chancery is a small, smart restaurant, clearly catering to a better class of lawyer.  All around are elegantly dressed men, virtually all in dark suits and sharp ties, and conservatively clad women. The place is full when we arrive for our “toptable” booking at 1.15 (having been specifically asked to come that crucial 15 minutes later).  Staff are welcoming and friendly enough, avoiding the formality that could easily spoil your fun in somewhere like this.

 

We arrive ahead of M&G, and struggle with the wine list. The Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier that featured at reasonable prices on the website are nowhere to be seen, and the prices seem to climb steadily.  We’re about to hedge our bets with a glass of Prosecco when the others arrive and we agree on a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet – a slightly fruity, off-dry white at around £25.

 

The a la carte menu is limited to 5 options per course at £28.50 for two, and £32.50 for three (though we’re on the “50% off food” offer).  The “limited a la carte” offers just three choices, but comes in at £39.50 for three courses – work that one out!   M and I decide to start with the cod cheeks in red wine while (after a last minute change of heart) G and B go for the duck’s egg.  The cod cheeks are small round disks of meat, with a rather unappealing dirty red tinge, served with a leek creation and cornichons – pleasant, rather than tasty.  On the other hand, the duck’s eggs had bright yellow yolks, were cooked to be runny and served with some cute little button mushrooms.

 

For main course, I chose the venison (£4 supplement) with beetroot. This came topped with beetroot slices and a small beetroot tart – a little odd. Apparently there was bitter chocolate in there somewhere, though I didn’t detect it – maybe that’s just as well. The meat itself though was excellent, just bloody with full flavour. B chose the plaice with razor clams and prawns, which came with a tasteless foam, and was rather dry and uninteresting.  Both M and Genjoyed the loin of pork rolled in ash, with creamed cabbage and pickled quince. M had also chosen a bottle of Dao at £26 to complement the meats – smooth and full.

 

To follow, G decided to try the rhubarb soufflé, while B and I shared the plate of French and English cheeses (£5 extra) which was good, with both bread and biscuit.  G was impressed with his soufflé which disappeared without trace.

 

Service had been a bit patchy: we’d waited a while to order (though this may have been partly due to G having to make a phone call outside), and one starter was delivered only to be whisked away again.

 

M&G generously paid the bill, so I don’t know the exact cost. But working on the fixed price menus, I think food would have nominally come to £132  - with our deal giving a saving of £66. The 4 bottles of wine were a little over £100, plus some water and coffee, so we’re looking at around £45 a head.  Good value at that price – a little more challenging if you added a further £16 each when paying full price.

 

A festive round-up

First up, mid-December on our way to a drinking reunion, we call in at Wahaca in Chandos Place (Charing Cross/Covent Garden).  I’d fancied the idea of going there for a while, and B had been to one down in Westfield Stratford, so as we’re up in the area, we decide to call in.  It’s a rather soulless entrance and a typical communal table with bench seats. There is quite a large group down the end, and a few other people around, but not what you’d call character.

We get a “quick” bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (£19), and set about choosing options from the limited permutations on the list. The bean soup and prawns that B had enjoyed in Westfield are nowhere to be seen. So we work through the options and choose a Barbacoa (beef) taco and a pork taco, a black bean tostada and chicken quesadilla – all stuff in a pancake of slightly different kinds.  To be fair the black bean is interesting and the pork nicely spicy.  We’re not full, so we try a main steak taco as well off the specials list – pretty good but £10.  That comes to a pretty modest £46 without service – cheap for Covent Garden – but I don’t think I’ll be rushing back.

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Nearer Christmas, we’re out with our young friends and ex-house-sharers. We meet at the Crown and Two Chairmen, a nice pub on Dean Street.  Trouble is, of course, that at this time of year the place is heaving, and we can hardly hear ourselves think.  So it’s a relief when the time is right for us to move on to our dinner venue – Floridita in Wardour Street. 

This is a grand multi-venue place, with the Cuban bar and restaurant downstairs. So we order some wine and mojitos (managing to navigate a tricky policy about running a tab), and head for our table. There are seven of us, and we get what seems a good horseshoe-shaped banquette centrally in front of the stage. But when the band starts up (good Cuban jazz) and the dancing warms up, conversation becomes a bit tricky again!

I have Chilean beef empanadas followed by lamb tenderloin skewer. The empanadas have a good bite to them, but the pastry is not as dry as that in our local Argentinian. The lamb skewer is a fair portion of nicely charred meat, with a good deal of flavour to it.  B has the shrimp and grouper ceviche and is impressed. Followed by lamb skewer too (there’s not a huge choice apart from steaks), and then a knickerbocker glory!  This is not served in the traditional tall glass with long spoon, but in a dish, but nonetheless scores top marks.  J has lobster and a baked cheesecake but I can’t recall what the others had. There were no doubt copious quantities of wine and cocktails consumed, so I was pretty surprised to see the total bill below £500 for seven. Excellent provided you don’t need to chat!

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We managed two visits to the Spice Market in Hotel W at Leicester Square.  First between Christmas and New Year with S & A late afternoon before a session at Ronnie Scott’s.  Then early in January with T&K and H.  There is a smooth bar with “cool” ambient music and dim lighting on the ground floor, serving a range of cocktails – which can get pretty pricey.   But if you’re meeting people, you need to be specific, because there is also a first floor bar of Hotel W – rather brighter and busier, but also expensive.

On the first visit we were a bit disappointed to see that the menu was not as extensive as that we’d seen online – because it was the holidays we were told; but it was the same menu the second time too.

On our first visit, I had the salmon sashimi with warm crunchy rice to start –very good.  B had the pepper shrimp, while S&A had the salt and pepper squid and the Vietnamese spring roll.  All perfectly fine.  S&A decided just to share a Vietnamese chicken curry with fried rice – and it was ample. B & I had the duck curry (huge, really tasy), sea bass fillet (good, but out of context) and ginger rice (again a full size portion).  Wine also not cheap at £27 a bottle, so the total was £170 – acceptable for Leicester Square.

On our second visit, for some reason quoting our friend T’s name seemed to guarantee special attention.  We were shown immediately to a good seat, and after an initial bottle, were treated to a bottle of house wine free!  Not sure what’s going on there!   Overall we managed three (four) bottles of the white and one red, so that did rack things up a little. 

T&K both chose the sharing plate of starters – the chicken samosas (surprisingly) came very recommended.  H had the crab dumplings, which were light with plenty of crab, B the shaved tuna (plenty of ginger) and I had the beef skewer (after my first choice was unavailable) – average meat with a tangy yoghurt sauce.

For mains B&I again had the duck curry (I said there was a limited menu), and the grilled chicken (simple but good). Others had the monkfish with cabbage and water chestnut, cod with Malaysian chili sauce and Vietnamese chicken curry – plus we had fried rice and a  chicken pad thai. Again the portions were generous and there was plenty left over.  I was impressed, but T less so, scoring it 6 to 7 out of 10.  It was only £300 including service for 5 of us, very close to Leicester Square, so for hungry eaters, I’d certainly recommend it.
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With P&M due to return to South Africa the following week, we met up again at Il Ponte Nuovo under the flyover in Croydon, where we’d been back in October . It being a Monday early in January, the place is pretty quiet, but we end up in a banquette down in the corner.

To start P&M share the calamari, which seems to go down well. B & I share the gamberoni diavola, which although appearing to be covered in tomato sauce, are actually full of flavour with a good chilli kick.

For mains I have the pork chops off the special menu, served with small roast potatoes and rosemary.  B has the “Spigola in crosta”  - oven baked fillets of sea bass “topped with a potato crust”. I’d assumed the potato would be  grilled mash, but in fact it is fine slices of lightly grilled potato. Overall this was a lovely delicate dish.  P has the two medallions of fillet steak -  one cooked with brandy & peppercorns, the other cooked with brandy & wholegrain mustard, served with roast potatoes.  Since he practically wipes the plate clean, I assume these were good too!  M’s choice of risotto with 4 cheeses off the special lunch menu was a very modest £6  - it seemed pretty filling though.   We also shared a cheese plate – four or five interestingly different choices.

With the inevitable 5 bottles of wine, this came to a pretty modest £195 including service.
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On B’s birthday, we’re up on Regent Street, having been “cultural” at the RA (Constable, Gainsborough and Turner and Landscape – something of a con, as there’s only one or two of each and a lot of other prints).   We’ve been to the Living Room in Heddon Street a few times before for drinks and always thought it looked nice, so that’s where we settle on for lunch.

It’s a nice big space with large windows out to Heddon Street. Further in are the more intimate bar areas.  It’s not that busy but the we’re shown to a table for 2 which is not that well positioned.  But on retrospect, it does have proper seats so maybe it’s a good choice. The waiter is very solicitous and helpful and buzzing around, so gets us our pre-prandial glasses of Prosecco pretty quickly.

He’s also very sharp at suggesting “specials”. And though we’d both been looking eyeing things up off the interesting menu, in the end we do both decide to for them. As we mull things over we order the edamame beans with ginger and chilli, in soy sauce to keep us going. This is very good, with long strips of ginger to go with the kick of the chilli on the beans.

For a starter we decide to share the crispy duck and pancakes.  This is unusual, different from the Chinese version in that the duck is in larger pieces, lightly cooked so that it still tastes of duck, and in a crispy coating, a bit like KFC (but in a good way!).

B’s “special” is crab on avocado puree. Technically a “light bite”, this is not a large portion, but OK for what she wanted.  She is very impressed at the freshness of the crab, and the sharp flavours that accompany it.  Mine is venison steak, left over from New Year’s Eve when they charged £35 for it, but to you sir it’s just £17.50 (actually, I’m impressed by the fact that the waiter meticulously spells out the price of the specials – something that’s often not done). The steak comes with broccoli spears, sugar snap peas, and roast potatoes.  I’ve asked for it medium-rare, and it comes looking beautiful, with parts of it red, glistening with blood.  The consistency of the steak can’t be faulted, just a smooth regular texture, and the venison tang excellent. As near as perfect a piece of meat as I’ve eaten.

The standard menu looks pretty good too, so this is clearly a place to come back to.  The bill (2 bottles of Viognier?) comes to a creditable £110.  Try it yourself.

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Up on Regent Street again, this time north of Oxford Circus, for a late lunch we call in at Ozer, a Turkish restaurant I’d read reviews about a few years’ back.  It’s quite a cavernous place, with little natural light. There’s quite a few people in for a workday at 2.30pm – some maybe ex-BBC having a reunion lunch, some Turkish, some singletons doing odd shifts perhaps. They claim an “Ottoman” style – but it just seems large to me.

Apparently Ozer is under the same ownership as the Sofra chain, but the menu reads rather more up-market. There’s a big selection of starters, hot and cold, and of mains, though some are a little repetitive. But you can’t fault the precision, when they tell you exactly how many king prawns you get in the  starter or main (6 or 12).

To start B has the marinated Malaysian prawns, which aren’t on the online menu. The four prawns were large, fresh and tasting of prawns, in a spicy sauce which overcame the tomato base.  My starter is the spicy crisp lamb liver – a large portion of well-cooked pieces of liver, with onions, but not that spicy.

Main courses are lamb on skewer for B: good lamb shish kebab, not actually served on the skewer, with a crisp salad. I go for the spicy fish pot, which is spicier than the starter but not excessive and with nice pieces of ginger. Lots of different fish in the broth, vegetables too, a healthy portion served with basmati rice.

Turkish coffee and a bottle of Viognier at £20 take the bill up to £76. More a steady meal than an excellent one perhaps, but certainly somewhere to consider if you’re in the area.

 

A couple of days in Brussels

A COUPLE OF DAYS IN BRUSSELS

We’re combining business with pleasure and staying a couple of nights in Brussels at the end of November.  It’s too early for the Christmas market, but there is a buzz to the place as preparations are under way in the Grand Place and all around.

We’ve arrived mid-afternoon and grabbed a taxi from the station.  Our hotel is clearly not one of the most-renowned however, as the driver clearly has little idea of where he’s going, and ends up dropping us near the Bourse, when we need to be right the other side of the centre. So we’re not in the best of moods on arriving at Hotel Mozart.  Close to the Grand Place, in the street of the giros”, this is a surreal place – all Moroccan tiles, and windy corridors, and a bedroom complete with a pole in the middle of it!  Somewhat regretting the “value” option!

We go out for a wander around – a vin chaude by the Manneken Pis,  free chocolates and a good value coupe of champagne in the Galleries Royales, and a beer in the Espagne de Roy in the Grand Place.

For dinner we have booked into Restaurant Vincent in Rue des Dominicains (just off the tourist strip) for 9pm – recommended in several guides and reviews.  The place is packed, buzzy, lively, with a couple of separate rooms, but our booking is recognised and we’re shown straight to our table. Tables are basic and very close together, so it’s not what you’d call grand – but perfectly fine.  The striking feature though is the decorative tiling on the walls. At one end there is a depiction of a small fishing boat struggling in the waves, with an old pecheur in a blue smock struggling with the sails.  On other walls are ducks and rural scenes – all very splendid.

Vincent has a reputation for its flambéed steak, though there’s an extensive range of seafood starters and fish dishes too.  So we decide to go large and order the double angus fillet, preceded by shrimp croquettes. A bottle of Brouilly at €32 seems a reasonable accompaniment.

The croquettes are excellent. We’re sharing, one each, but there is plenty of flavour here and not too heavy a potato base.  All around people are having a good time, with large plates of food appearing all over.  Service is very friendly and jolly.  Our meat is duly served up to the team at the flambé dish in the centre (we had thought it might be done at the table, but it isn’t that far away), and arrives with a tidy portion of frites. Full of flavour and texture, and cooked just bloody, it’s a beautifully executed piece of meat.

We look at desserts for interest, but are then tempted in by the Crepe Vincent.  This is fruity and sharp, crisp and juicy – a revelation.  So we’re happy bunnies when we set off back to our weird hotel, having just €122 on such a splendid meal.
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Breakfast at the Hotel Mozart is also an experience.  After following a maze of signs around the first floor, one emerges back on the ground floor, apparently next door to the hotel entrance.  There’s a bizarre copper dome over the bar area – which only comes to make sense when later in the day I see the breakfast room has been converted back into a Lebanese restaurant!  Breakfast itself, to be fair, is a simple but fresh combination of baguette and croissant, with strong coffee and fresh juice.

We meet later for a beer in the Galleries, and then do a little shopping. We call in Cirio, a splendidly old-style bar near the Bourse for a glass and some charcuterie, before deciding to stop for a light lunch. We’re trying the Danish Tavern – an unimpressive bar near the church, but it’s handy.  I have try the local speciality, Waterzooi Poularde, a sort of chicken soup with substantial portions of meat and root vegetables.  It’s an ideal warmer for a cold day. B just has the bacon and mushroom omelette (rather than mussels, which had been the point of choosing this place!!).  It’s all fine, full of shoppers, and with a loopy waiter who revels in teasing his colleagues. €42 with one bottle of rose.

This evening, we’ve decided to go for La Marmiton, at the corner of the Galleries and Rue de Bouchers.   It’s very nearly full, but we’re lucky to get a table. It’s another cosy place, a little classier perhaps, but still relaxed.  There’s a quiet Brit couple one side of us, and a group of 4 excitable, smartly dressed young things the other – Eastern European we think.   We order a bottle of French Sauvignon (@ €22), and I have the foie gras to start.  For mains, I have the Sole Ostendaise (with asparagus) and B steak tartare. We indulge a second bottle, so this all some to €113.

Day 3 and our train is not till late, so we decide to do some shopping up on Avenue Louise this morning.  A little way, there is a small lane down to some other smart shops, and rather oddly sitting by a grassy patch, an old building called the Green House.  In summer there must be seating outside as well.  It’s just noon, so we call in, to see several shoppers in already. Plus a couple of regulars chatting to the staff.  It’s a strange, but elegant style – colonial wood and teas.  We’re not eating but the dishes that do emerge look and smell interesting, and the range of choice includes some very unusual orientally-inspired dishes too – probably worth a try another time.

We walk back into town, and then on to St Catherine’s to find somewhere for lunch.  Several places were recommended the reviews, but we struggle to choose one.  When we do, the kitchen has closed. So too the next one, though they were doing fruits de mer standing up outside. So sadly we head back to the Grand Place, and choose one of the places in the tourist drag – La Porte de Bruxelles.  It’s indistinguishable from several others along the street, and transpires to be a sister place to the one across the way. So much so in fact, that all the meals are cooked over there and brought over, and the waiters are a bit grumpy at being in the second place.  It doesn’t have a great deal of charm, but it is fairly busy, and warm.   The food however does make up for things.  B has grilled garlic gambas – six huge prawns, in a liberal and enthusiastic garlic sauce, cooked gently and lightly.  I have the tomato stuffed with crevettes – a beast of a dish, with crevettes in a sauce with a little kick to it. Main courses were mussels frites for B (at last) and monkfish with leeks for me.  Both really good.  The second bottle of Sauvignon racked the price up to €149 which seemed a bit much for somewhere with little style, but the food was pretty good.

The best dim sum in London ?

THE BEST DIM SUM IN LONDON?

I’ve always fancied trying the dim sum at The Royal China Club on Baker Street, as it has always had great reviews, but for one reason or another never seem to have made it.  But today, we’ve been to a wine tasting at Lord’s and the bus is going right past, so now seems to be the time to go for it.

It’s about 3pm on  a Saturday, and the place is pretty busy with elegant looking people.  Although described as the smaller of the two Royal China restaurants on Baker St, it’s still quite large, and there’s no problem getting a table.

There are plenty of staff buzzing around taking orders, so we order Jasmine tea and a bottle of white Burgundy (£25), before settling down to review the extensive dim sum list.  There’s quite a range of things that you wouldn’t normally see in Gerard St, so it takes us a while to decide.  We select 7 or 8 dishes, including pan-fried duck breast, lobster dumplings and spicy crab cakes, as well as more usual steamed dumplings, sui mai and har gau.  The duck and the crab cakes arrive first – both are delicious. The rest of the dishes arrive steadily over the next 10 to 15 minutes, nicely paced, but fast enough to be tempting.  The thing that hits me is that the dumplings actually taste of something!   The dumplings themselves are light rather than chewy, and the fillings have a zing and zest which is remarkably fresh.

It’s starting to thin out a bit now, but we’re ready for another round: more lobster dumpling, sea bass rolls and pork puff, with some lotus leaf rice to bulk things out.  OK, so maybe we didn’t need all the rice, but it was good to have.

The 11 dishes, rice, wine and tea come to £103, plus 15% service, making £120.  That’s very good value for such tasty food, served smoothly and without fuss, in a lively atmosphere.  It’s the first time I’ve felt that dim sum was really tasty, rather than a vehicle for chilli sauce or soy.  We’d tried Yauatcha for my birthday back in January, and though that was good, it was rather poncy, and worked out at £158, so I think it comes second best to RCC.  Glad to have tried it at last – and to have been as impressed as I’d hoped I’d be.

High-tech oriental – not a great advert for technology

Looking for somewhere for a mid-afternoon “lunch” after a visit to the Bronzes exhibition at the RA (very good by the way), my researches threw up Inamo St James  in Lower Regent St (there is a sister Inamo Soho restaurant too).  It describes itself as an “Oriental fusion” restaurant and the menu looked interesting and pretty reasonably priced for that area.  But intriguingly all the comments on the Top Table website were about its interactive ordering system, called e-Table.  Not sure whether that’s a good sign or not (surely the food’s the point?) but I thought we’d give it a go.

It’s about 3pm on a Sunday when we get there.  There are more people in there than you might expect at that time, but it is a large place, so there should be no problems getting a table. But the waiter asks us to wait at the bar (without a drink!), so the stress levels start to rise.  

Eventually we do get shown to a table – not a great position, but never mind – and the fun starts.  The décor of place generally is very attractive – lots of smallish areas partitioned off by bamboo. But it is the table itself that is the speciality – it is interactive.  The waitress asks if we’ve eaten there before, and then proceeds to give as a quick demonstration of how the thing works.  Basically there is a touch pad for each of us which controls a cursor over the menu (ie system menu). From there you can select drinks, food, games etc, and a help/bill section.  You also get to change the “ambiance”, that is the background colour and design on the table if you wish – we stick with the bright snowflake design the waitress has chosen.

Now I like to think of myself as reasonably tech-literate, so I’m happy to give this a go.  I start by ordering some wine.  The cursor control is OK, but tapping the table to select seems a bit erratic. Anyway I do manage to find the white wine and scroll through in blocks of 4. Here one of the limitations of the system first appears – you can only see 4 options at a time, so can’t scan the whole list. Still, with wine that’s not too much of a problem, and I successfully order a Viognier at £26.

Then I start to order the “small plates”.  (Not “starters” as such, since we’re told the food arrives when it is ready).  Somehow random choices seem to pop up on my list, and I have to cancel them.  Again you can see only 4 options at a time (though you do get a big picture of one shining on your plate). This makes it harder to choose which combination to go for, but eventually we manage to select the crispy prawns, pork and apple dumplings and edamame beans (from the “sides” list).

Then comes the second limitation. The waiter arrives saying that they have run out of Viognier – it's not that interactive a system then.  A rapid review of the list is tricky to do, so I bail out and ask for a written wine list.  From there I choose the NZ Sauvignon Blanc (also £26) which had not appeared on the system. They’ve none of that either, so we end up with the Argentinian Torrontes at £19.

I now turn to the “larger plates” or main courses as we might say.  The 4 option limitation is really irritating now (bearing in mind we’ve not had a drink yet!), and stress levels are rising further.   I’m also struggling with tapping the table to select the option – softly and nothing happens, too hard and I feel I’m going to dislocate a finger.  (I once came away injured from trying to use an IcelandAir check-in terminal, as you had to hit the screen so hard –it took  4 months for my finger to recover!).  Soon I seem to have ordered a spatchcock chicken I didn’t want, and 4 portions of a beef dish. So I use the “Help” bell to call a waitress (logical problem here: if you can’t use the system you can’t call for help!). This seems to take a while and we’re on the point of leaving.  When the waitress does arrive, she says she’ll sort it out, and tells me not to hit the table so hard !

Finally I am able to order the cinnamon chicken, “beef beri bop”, and steamed rice. Actually there aren’t that many side dish options, so this feels a little limited.

The food – and drink – does now start to arrive. Small plates/starters do come first.  And very good they are too, though the projectionof the design onto the table makes the dishes look a funny colour.  The dumplings are full of melting pork, accompanied by a really flavourful apple and cinnamon/clove sauce on a spoon. The crispy prawns are in a nice light batter and come with a very spicy dip. And the edamame beans dish is ample, accompanied by a sweetish dip.  The Torrontes too is good –creamy and fruity – though perhaps anything would have seemed good by now!

As it turns out, the timing of the dishes works OK, as we’ve not long finished the starters (sorry) when the cinnamon chicken and steamed rice arrive.  The chicken (described as “poussin” on the detailed menu) is tender strips of breast, covered in a dark, dry crust, and accompanied by a spicy, dry salt on a spoon (again).  It’s very tasty indeed.

We’re making inroads into the chicken when the beef dish arrives.  This is the most spectacular of the lot.  The waiter brings a small hot dish containing slices of beef, rice, asparagus slices and a raw egg yolk. He pours over this a ginger and vinegar sauce and starts to cook the beef on the hot dish, and mix the rice and egg together.  The effect is nicely cooked slices of beef (not large or especially tasty, but quite good) on a tasty bed of rice, which has crunchy bits in it – presumably from cooked egg white. 

We polish off the beef, and the rest of the chicken, and indeed all the rice. Had we realised, we probably wouldn’t have ordered the extra rice, and maybe gone for spicy aubergines instead.

Finally I manage to ask for the bill through the system, and it duly arrives - £73. Given the location, we think that is very good value for very good food and a nice wine (even though it wasn’t what we originally chose) in pleasant surroundings, and I would certainly recommend what we had.

And the verdict on the technology?  Well, it feels like a gimmick really.  Its plus points are that you can see larger pictures of what you might choose, that you shouldn’t have to call a waiter, and that it is easy to ask for the bill. Minus points for the limitation of presenting 4 options at a time and the dodgy controls – and the lack of integration with stock control.  We didn’t play with the other features: I can’t see why you’d want to change the “ambiance”, especially with a “shuffle” option; a couple at the next table were using it to play games –duh!; and the “chef cam” option was only showing an empty room when I looked.   Without it all, we’d have come away impressed – as it was the stress levels had only just returned to normal when we finished our wine.

November - a few old favourites and couple of new ones

For once it’s a sunny Sunday, so we take the train to Tattenham corner for a walk round Epson Downs, and a visit to our old favourite, the Derby Arms.   It’s around 2pm by the time we get there, and the place is still pretty full, but we do manage to get a table.  Service is a bit slow and erratic – three different waiters are serving us – but cheerful.  In fact the whole place has quite a buzz going on.

The Derby Arms always have a special scallops dish on the menu – and mostly this is what B chooses. So it is today, as it comes with a spicy sauce.  I choose the soft shell crab, which comes with calamari, and as an extra go for the crispy aubergines with hummus from their “nibbles” list.  The crab is not great – the batter is supposedly tempura but is more corner-shop chippy, and the meat itself lacks much flavour.  The scallops though are excellent – big and cooked just right, with a tasty sauce. The revelation though is the aubergine dish. They are nicely crispy, dry not greasy, with a hazelnut crust and good garlicky hummus.

Our wine is a Rothschilds Viognier from France at just under £20 a bottle. Very round and fruity.

Main courses are roasted lamb rump for me, and spit-roasted chicken for B. The lamp comes with a chorizo dauphinoise, which adds a little kick, and is beautifully cooked, just pink and really tender. The chicken is also tasty, served with aioli, Asian slaw (crunchy with plenty of chilli) and chips.

                                                                                                          
So apart from the crab, we’re pretty pleased with the bill at about £80 as we wander out. Of course what we’d forgotten was that it’s dark early at this time of year, so the walk back to the station was a little hazardous!

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The following Friday evening, we decide it’s got to be Chinese. So we return to the Beijing Cottage in South Croydon’s “restaurant quarter”.  We used to go to the Sichuan garden in Coulsdon, but the service there can be so fast that you’re back home again within the hour. We’re hoping that being a Friday, the Beijing Cottage will be busy enough for a more leisurely evening. In fact there is only one table of 6 in there as we arrive – luckily a few more do arrive later – just as well as the place doesn’t have a lot of character.

To start we have the Beijing Dumplings, mixed meat skewer satay and, once again, spicy soft shell crab. The crab is a much better effort this time, though still doesn’t match B’s ideal (at Melati in Piccadilly).  The satay mix of three meats is a bit tough, and the dumplings in unremarkable.

Main courses are better: the paper wrapped beef is so moist and tender it melts in the mouth, and the “sea spicy ocean” a good and plentiful mix of seafood – prawns, squid, mussels – with a tasty but not overpowering sauce. Even the Singapore noodles were pretty good, with plenty of interesting bits, and we weren’t able to finish them all.

With an indulgent two bottles of cheapish Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, this all comes to £90 including tip.

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Returning from Morden one Sunday, we stop off at the Greyhound, the Young’s pub in Carshalton for a spot of lunch, even though B’s not that interested in a proper meal. It’s an attractive old building by the ponds, with lots of different bars etc, as well as a hotel area at the back. The bar menu is limited, so we go into the restaurant area, which as well as the inevitable Sunday roasts does boast an interesting menu on its blackboard. It’s busy, with several family tables with babies, fortunately not making too much noise. So we get a rubbish table in the dark room fairly near the cramped toilets. Service is slow as well – and the waitress gets the wine order wrong, blaming the bar staff.  She’s also not very helpful when another table asks about Christmas menus – they won’t be coming back.

As it’s a cold, damp day, I’m quite interested in the chicken curry which has an interesting description. But with encouragement I’m eventually tempted to go for the venison with blackberry sauce and parsnip crisps, while B just has a starter portion of fish cakes with chilli sauce.

The food is excellent, rescuing the whole experience. The venison is pink, but tender, the sauce sharp with whole blackberries dotted around, and the crisps good fun. It comes with a mustard mash which is not really necessary, but useful for soaking up some of the sauce. B’s fish cakes are not the leathery Thai variety but dollops of tasty salmon and white fish in a crunchy exterior – and the chilli sauce has a really envigorating zing.

Total bill including a reluctant tip comes to £55 – not cheap for what we had perhaps. The food was tasty, so my advice would be to avoid Sundays, be pushy about getting a good table and hope a more experienced waitress is on duty.

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It’s our wedding anniversary so, repaying hospitality from earlier in the year, we take our neighbours out for dinner at our favourite steak restaurant, just a couple of hundred yards down the road:   Buenos Aires. They are now building this up into quite a substantial chain, with a new restaurant in Watling St in the City being the sixth one to open.  And good luck to them – they’ll give Gaucho a run for their money.

Only the guys have starters – a chorizo sausage for me and beef empanadas for Mr R. The empanadas are always reliable with a great dry pastry and fillings full of flavour. The chorizo is quite soft and maybe not as spicy as some, but very enjoyable. Main courses naturally are dominated by steaks – it’s not a place to take a vegetarian, though they do now have some veggie and fish options for those who are not carnivores. Two of us have the 225g fillet (lomo), B has the 225g rib-eye and Mr R the “bife a caballo” – 300g sirloin with eggs. For those with bigger appetites they do steaks up to 340g (12oz) or larger if requested, and fantastic meat sampler selections. All the steaks were excellent, and the accompanying chips hot and fluffy. We also had some gratin vegetables and spinach, but these really weren’t necessary.

The other thing we really like at BA is their Tapiz Malbec. Rich, full of berries and strong, this is a lovely wine to accompany steaks – just shy of £25 a bottle.

With the ladies present, we had some desserts. A simple ice cream for Mrs R, and a pancake with toffee sauce (“dulce con leche”) for me.  Total of £200 for 4 including service – good value.

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Returning from a visit to Wisley,    as our favourite pub there, the Anchor, was full, we arrive at    The Bear  in Oxshott, another Young’s pub. There’s a nice warm pubby feel to the place as we arrive, and a surprisingly big range of spaces to sit. It’s late for lunch, but there are still several people in here midweek.

Again B only wants a light lunch, so she (inevitably) goes for the seared king scallops which come with crispy pancetta and beetroot crisps, and a splodge of some strange puree (celeriac apparently). The scallops are again cooked just right, and of a good size, and the whole thing is presented very elegantly for what is after all an upmarket pub.

The table next to us with young woman and elderly relative went for soup and charcuterie, both of which came presented on wooden boards accompanied by loads of fresh bread. Presentation is obviously their thing.

My selection was liver and bacon with bubble & squeak and curly kale – a very well-balanced combination, with the iron taste of the kale matching the slightly cloying liver.

With  mineral water and a bottle of French Viognier at £22.50, the bill comes to £60 including service (which had been friendly and efficient).

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We’d been to Napule e’… ,  a fairly new local Italian, in the first week it opened in January, and again shortly after. On neither occasion were we impressed, so it has taken until now to give it another try. We knew the patron from when he used to work in the local Pizza Express and he is always cheerful and positive, so it had seemed a shame we hadn’t been able to be more positive. Apparently the restaurant’s name is the title of a local folk song about Naples.

So one Sunday lunch we thought we’d give it another go. He’s been working hard with special offers and Sunday lunch deals to get the punters in, and with the closure of another local Italian, seems to be pulling them in pretty well. There is a large group of 12 or so down one end, several tables of 4 and one chap on his own behind the door with a good view of everything. So we get a cosy table for 2, one chair, and a sort of single banquette – odd but fine.

The menu is probably overlong – lots of pasta dishes, and plenty of main courses too. And on top of that, there is a selection of specials. So I decide I’ll see what his specials are like and choose the smoked salmon cured in fennel for 2 days top start, and the roast veal for main course. B meanwhile goes for the simpler mixed meats to start and a risotto marinara to follow.

First we’re proudly presented with a bowl of “home-made bread” – I think the waitress may have baked it herself. Just 4 small pieces, but it is good, and a welcome sign of enthusiasm. The smoked salmon is rather ordinary – the fennel does come through eventually, but the salmon itself was not of the highest quality. The mixed meat plate though was very generous – prosciutto, bresaoloa, salami, ham, with sun-dried tomatoes as well. Clearly not a test of the kitchen, but a creditable starter.

My main course veal is really good. The spirals of meat are very tender and come in an “Italian gravy” – a light sauce with rosemary. I’ve opted for the green beans instead of the spinach and there are boiled potatoes too. B’s risotto also passes the test – lots of seafood, mussels in their shells etc, and not too much rice (as had been the case back in January) – a case of less is more.   We opted for the soft Italian Merlot at £19 a bottle, so the bill comes to around £65 - it’s not a fancy place, so you don’t expect to pay a lot, but I think that’s a pretty good deal.

Interesting spot in Wimbledon Village

We’re over in Wimbledon, so we go up to Wimbledon Village to cruise round and have a relaxing lunch. We looked at a new place called the Lawn (geddit?), but instead decide on the Butcher and Grill.  This has an attractive meat counter at the front, with sundries such as gravy on sale too.  Disturbingly for a Friday lunchtime, there is no-one else in the place, but that doesn’t stop the waitress asking whether we’d booked! So we get the choice of seats, settling in a large booth for 6.  Despite the lack of people, there’s quite a nice atmosphere in here – lots of light from the atrium, cheery staff, and good blues and rock discreetly on the sound system.

The menu as you’d expect is one mainly for carnivores, and the specials list offers large porterhouse steaks and spare ribs for sharing – some even up to 1 kilo!  To start I have a very tasty coarse pork pate, which comes attractively served on a wooden platter, accompanied by gherkins, caramel onions and rocket.  B has the crispy pork belly, which surprisingly is crispy because of its batter, not its crackling and accompanied by a scallop.  Very enjoyable too.

Main courses  are veal escalope for me and grilled bream for B. These are less successful. My veal is rather chewy, so I only manage 2 of the 3 slices. The accompanying chips are really wedges with the skin on, served in a chipped (!) terracotta flowerpot, and on the stodgy side.  B’s fish looks impressive served whole but is difficult to manage and a bit overcooked.  Wine as £15.50, so the bill comes to £90, which feels a little steep given the experience, but I feel we were maybe a bit unlucky and would be prepared to give oit another try for full-blooded steaks.