A trio of places around Brighton

 We’re heading for Chichester with M&G, but the traffic forecast is bad, so we head off to Petworth instead. We fetch up at the Angel Inn – nothing much to look at from the outside, but a charming maze of rooms and a lovely garden out the back where we decided to sit in the sunshine. It’s very pleasant in the sunshine, and the mock wasp nests do a fair job of keeping the blighters away. Rather firm steel chairs are much improved when we spot the box of cushions we can use.

G has a pint of Hophead, M a soft drink and B and share the house Sauvignon Blanc. We’re only after a light lunch, so B has the shrimp skewer (good), G has fish and chips (huge, with crisp batter, M a chicken and bacon sandwich, while I have starter size paella and a portion of chips. The chips are excellent, and the paella interesting with tasty chorizo.  £62 all in. Definitely one to visit if you’re in the area.

Back in Hove, we go to the Foragers in the evening. It’s an ordinary looking place in a suburban area, and we’ve been warned there’s a DJ playing there this evening. We’re seated in the back about as far away as we can get, and in practice it’s not an issue.  There’s a special offer on the St Veran at £26, so we go for that.

B has smoked salmon to start (very good) while I have chicken livers, which are rich and warming, M&G have a fish mousse and corned beef hash. For mains B has mussels, in a light wine sauce with barely any cream, the way she likes it. My pink roasted duck does what it says on the tin.  The others have roasted chicken and a very nice piece of hake.

We finish off sharing the cheese plate and G and I have a couple of glasses of Malbec. With the 3 bottles of wine that comes to £190, excluding service. A very fine meal for a backwater place.

The following day we brave the wind to walk along the seafront and then turn up to Hove Place in First Avenue. It is nice and sunny though so we take opportunity to sit in the really nice garden – lucky to get a table really. G has a “Long Blonde” (cue predictable jokes), while the rest of us share the Sugar Loaf, NZ Sauvignon Blanc at £22.

We’re still full from yesterday, so we’re only going for snacks – in principle. B has the macaroni cheese, which comes piping hot and nicely browned. B’s crab cakes are unusual in that although they do have a lot of potato in them, it comes in big identifiable chunks which she can easily separate out and leave. I have the pastrami sandwich, which is very chunky and comes with several gherkins. M insists that we share a pork and black pudding scotch egg. This is cricket ball size and when cut open reveals a lovely bright yellow egg which oozes out over the meat covering – excellent. M herself has a platter of lomo, air-dried lamb, cheese and pickles.

With a second bottle and a second pint, the bill comes to £132, maybe not cheap, but a splendid experience. One worth seeking out.

Celeb spotting at the Wolseley

After a visit to the RA, we met up with M&G and C to go the Wolseley.  It’s a big barn of a place with hard surfaces everywhere, so the noise hits you as walk in.  We’re shown to a table up on a mezzanine level at the back, which while it runs the risk of being isolated from the service, is a good sport for celeb spotting. Between us we identify AA Gill, Melvyn Bragg and Michael Parkinson – plus a buxom Brazilian lady who insisted on hugging Parky.

I have the scallops with fennel puree to start – pretty good - and B has the “small” chicken salad – in fact a huge bowl of salad leaves with plenty of tasty chicken. Two other ladies had pea soup, and G had a beetroot salad. All declared themselves happy with those.

We’re drinking the house white, a Bordeaux Semillon/Sauvignon at £19.95, one of just 4 options under £30.  Surprisingly, the bill says we got through 4 bottles of sparkling water and just 3 of white wine – must have been a mistake there I think!  In fact, despite my worries about service, the waiter was very good at topping up wine glasses when needed.

For mains, B had the small tiger prawns which weren’t impressive – very cotton wool. My pork belly was excellent, the crackling crisp but not teeth-threatening.  Schnitzels are their signature dish: G’s Wiener Holstein was huge, while the ladies’ small ones were plenty big enough.  We had some frites and a tomato salad to go with it al, but no desserts.

The bill came to £270 for the 5 of us, including 12.5% service and a £2 per head cover charge (haven’t seen that for some time), but then I think they must have forgotten one bottle of wine. Probably worth it  for the experience, but it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to.

French "tapas" in Soho

Another early evening meal as we are off to Ronnie Scott’s with M&G.  M has read a review by Giles Coren in the Times and is keen to try Blanchette; Jay Rayner in the Observer at liked it too (not always a good sign!).   We arrive first and are shown past the bar area to a smallish corner table. The décor is decisively French, not complete clichés but not far off. Distressed walls, odd cookbooks, distinctive tins and pans with off-beat French brand names.  Music is also French, but low-key so not an issue.

The others arrive and we agree on a bottle of house white, a Pays d’Oc Sauvignon Blanc, at £18.50 notably cheaper than anything else on the list. It’s perfectly fine. The menu is a little complicated – the waitress explains the “concept” to us (I always thought the concept was that they brought you food to eat) – sharing plates again.  There are “snacks”, cheese and charcuterie;  fish, meat and vegetable.  We decide on 2 dishes each, and end up with effectively  4 starters and 4 protein dishes.

There’s not room on the table for all the dishes, but they do come in stages so it works OK.  The crispy frogs legs arrive in a little paper cone, and are good and hot, with the meat coming away easily, the batter light and dry, and a tasty little dipping sauce.  Duck rillettes, although a “snack”, is actually a good sized portion of tasty meat, served with cornichons.  The asparagus (“vegetable”) comes with a creamy cheese dip and a harder gruyere-like cheese, while the coppa ham is ungarnished but full of flavour.  We also have a bag (yes, a bag) of fresh bread – very good it is too.

The four main dishes are quite similar, all being uncooked or very rare. The “tartare of the day” is sea trout, with cucumber (quite a lot) and crème fraiche.  Seared tuna is very rare indeed with a great pepper crust;  smoked duck breast salad comes with tomatoes (“heritage” obvs), and the grilled beef rump with onion.   The meat and fish dishes are actually a fair size, so despite the lack of carbs (apart from the bread), and maybe because it was all nearly raw, I end up feeling pretty full.

The three bottles of wine have taken the total to £185 for the four of us; pretty good value, making it a useful place to know. The limited menu means you wouldn’t go that often, but as a one-off it’s very good.

Ceviche at Ceviche

On our way to the theatre we stop for an early dinner at Ceviche, a Peruvian restaurant on Frith Street.  We’ve always liked ceviche and I’d heard of this place a while ago, so it seemed a good chance to try it out. 

Arriving at 5pm, we found the place unsurprisingly pretty quiet. There’s a front bar area and a more usual room behind it, where we were seated. For some reason they insisted on sitting us near the only other people in the place, and as others arrived continued to fill up one side of the room first.  The tables were a reasonable distance apart and it did mean you could rubber-neck what others were having, but it did seem strange – just as well it wasn’t on board a boat!

We started with two Pisco Sours – a traditional Peruvian cocktail – and asked about the size of dishes (sharing plates mean different things to different people) and it was suggested that three each would be reasonable. In the end we ordered two ceviche,  one skewer, a salad and a couple of  “nibbles”. It was fairly modest and there are few carbs on the menu, so it’s probably not the place for hearty eaters.

But what we had was lovely.  The “Don Ceviche” house dish was seabass  in a sharp, lightly chilli sauce  with sweet potatoes and onion.  “Sakura Maru” was cured salmon with satsumas, so a much sweeter dish, but still light and fresh.  The skewer was chicken thighs, always a tasty part of the bird and very moist, served with a pepper jam.

These were complemented well by the quinoa salad with tomatoes (which dominated), avocado and butter beans.  Also good was the asparagus “nibble” in Huancaina sauce – a golden, creamy, slightly spicy sauce, apparently usually used to accompany potatoes, according to Wikipedia – with the asparagus having been griddled and with a good bite.  We also had the wonton fritters stuffed with chicken – nice in themselves but not really a good choice with the rest.

Service was very friendly and helpful, despite the odd seating policy (which didn’t matter so much by the time the place filled up).  With a bottle of unusual white Rioja, the bill came to £90. Certainly worth going to for a light pre-theatre meal – probably less successful as an evening in itself, unless you’re in a group.

 

A few places in Paris

We struck lucky with several good places on a two night stay in Paris:

La Coupe D’Or in Rue St Honoré for lunch: we enjoyed sitting in the sun watching the world go by, while eating a salade perigourdine (duck breast, gizzard, foie gras and mounds of salad) and quiche Lorraine (very eggy with lots of crisp lettuce . Service was fine contrary to many TripAdvisor reviews.

Aux Vieux Paris D’Arcole, Rue Chanoinesse for dinner: an amazing place a stone’s throw from Notre Dame.  Very welcoming host and family, charming old-style dining room. We had the 5-course set menu at €39 – a courgette fritter, foie gras, scallops and duck followed by a tart of some kind. Other tables were in raptures over the chocolate pudding and crème brulée.

Chez Francis, Place d’Alma for lunch (twice): we’d been to this place several times before.  A classic brasserie in a super location overlooking the Eiffel Tower, stunning décor inside and plenty of terrace tables for full meals or snacks.  B had steak tartare (vg but pre-mixed) and I had tuna tatami (also raw), with chips and spinach (which even I thought was super).  Second visit was just a club sandwich - which was huge.

                    

Flottes in Rue Cambon near Concorde/Tuileries for dinner:  another classic brasserie in a good location. Interesting décor in the rear dining room (try to avoid the corridor).  B had the grilled prawns and I had suckling pig.  Very good.

Capucine, in Boulevard des Capucines (Madeleine/Opera).  Another old haunt. More Art Nouveau décor.  Seafood tagliatelle for B and escalope of veal for me. Slightly less exciting perhaps but pretty reliable.

Bistro on Tooley Street

We’re meting up with a small gang at Cecil’s, a “speakeasy” hidden away near the railway arches off Tooley Street.  The place has a good sense of style and specialises in cocktails. It is really a “performance venue”, but tonight there’s nothing on, so it’s fairly quiet and there’s little sense of the atmosphere which may accompany livelier evenings.  We arrive later than the other three who are well into their cocktails and whisky, and take-away Chinese nibbles from around the corner.  But as there’s no real food here, we soon decide to move on.


I’ve often passed Brigade and thought it looked interesting, so I lead the way there. Fortunately there is a table for 5 available immediately.  On closer inspection the menu is a little limited with a number of classic English dishes and a small number of more interesting ones on the specials board. A orders the wine from an extensive list – a Spy Valley NZ Sauvignon Blanc (£36) and St Hallett Garden of Eden Shiraz from Barossa Valley (£33). The waitress takes an age, and then arrives with the wrong red. A second attempt also goes wrong, but eventually a more senior waitress manages to come up with the right thing.  It’s only then we realise that this is a semi-charitable venture with a group called Beyond Food Foundation, giving apprentices to vulnerable young adults – so some inexperience is to be expected.

I have a ham and egg croquette off the specials menu – interesting if a little heavy. Other starters chosen are scotch eggs with beetroot picalilli, crackling Cornish mackerel with pomegranate seeds and maunka honey. All are very much enjoyed.

My main course is the slow cooked lamb rump with white haricot beans – delicious and very tender.  B has roast salmon and crushed potatoes (also good), while others had shepherd’s pie, beef carpaccio and liver and bacon. As you can see not exactly ground-breaking stuff, but all were well executed and tasty.

We share a couple of desserts between us.  A very interesting, sharp dandelion and burdock jelly with sherbet meringue and lime sorbet is a revelation while the bitter chocolate tart does what is says on the tin.

After the initial confusion on the wine, service has been fine. The décor is pretty basic and you probably wouldn’t consider it a suitable venue for a smart dinner. A  was celebrating and generously picked up the bill, so I don’t know how much it cost. Mains were in the range £16 to £20, so if you chose more reasonably priced wines (of which there were several) you could probably get away with a good value meal.