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.

Dranatically opulent brasserie near Picadilly Circus

We’d read several reviews of Brasserie Zédel, the new Parisian-style brasserie by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King (of Wolseley fame) by Piccadilly Circus, so we head along for a midweek lunch with friends M and C.   Arriving at the modest entry and small upstairs bar, you have no idea of what waits below, down the Art Deco carpeted, mirrored staircase that must surely have featured in several episodes of Poirot.  Past the Bar Americain cocktail bar (closed lunchtime) and The Crazy Coqs cabaret, you arrive at the huge brasserie, packed full even midweek. Apparently this huge room was once the ballroom of the Regent Hotel, and it has been splendidly restored with marble and lovely original lighting.  It’s a buzzy, fabulously glamorous place, but what we know from the reviews is that it’s also cheap!  Starters from £2.50, most mains between £10 and £15; Prix Fixe from £8.75 for two courses!

We join our friends at the table and settle down to take in the view. There must be around 200 people in here, with “walk-ins” accommodated at the counter.  M spots Harry Enfield at one table, and later, Eleanor Bron arrives – not our usual dining companions.  

The wine list is resolutely French, starting at £16 a bottle, with nearly all available by the glass. We have the Picpoul de Pinet at £22.50, light and fresh.  The menu of course is also entirely French brasserie (assuming you count Alsacian choucroute as French – I don’t think I’ve seen a choice of 3 couchroutes anywhere before).  To start M chooses the Parfait de Foie de Volaille, which she likes immensely but declares rather rich – so we have to help out.  C has the Pâté de Campagne Maison which is good coarse terrine.  B’s tartare saumon is the most expensive of our starters at £6.50, and fairly small, but she thinks it’s very good.  I choose the Pissaladière, because I’d recently cut out the recipe from a paper and was thinking of doing it. It’s a pastry base covered with caramelised onions with anchovies and olives.  Sadly the base was rather stodgy and the onion lukewarm, so I wasn’t impressed, though in all honesty I don’t know whether it was typical of its kind.

M follows with pan-fried plaice, which is also good, while C has the confit de canard, with white beans, which she is less taken with – dryish with dull beans.  By coincidence, B and I have both chosen the couscous with skewers of lamb, lamb’s liver and merguez. This comes served together on one platter, with huge daggers eat it with.  Some of the liver is a little chewy and the couscous a bit watery, but overall an enjoyable dish. 

B and I have desserts: crème brulee for me (excellently creamy and too rich for me – M helps to scoop it up), Chocolate Liegeois for B, while the others have coffee.

With three bottles of wine, we’ve managed to push the bill up to £172, £43 a head. But for such an experience and quality food (if not Wolseley standard), it is certainly to be recommended, and you could get away with far less.

Modern Italian in Croydon

As the name might imply Il Ponte Nuovo is a new incarnation of Il Ponte, across the road from the original, under the Croydon flyover.  We’d only been to Il Ponte once for a fairly average pizza, but as we’re always looking for places to go in Croydon with our friends P&M, we thought we’d give it a try one Friday lunchtime.

We’re shown to an oval shaped booth behind the main bar, and are surprised at the size of the place. There are several large tables, which fill up with office groups, and a whole further area towards the back, and a private room to the side.  The style is very modern, rather harsh perhaps, with acoustics which are rather challenging.

Service is prompt and we are soon into our first bottle of an Italian Sauvingon Blanc at £18.25 (lunches with P&M are often a little on the alcoholic side!).  Ordering takes a little longer, as the menu (under the control of Sicilian-born head chef, Tindaro Casamento) is very extensive – lots of interesting sounding starters (including a smoked duck salad), pasta, pizza and a good list of fish and meat dishes.

In the end we decide against starters, and move straight into mains. M and I both have the veal escalope, served with spaghetti.  This is a good sized portion, nicely breaded and tasty, and the spaghetti prevents it being too dry.  B has the salmon and prawns: this is an oven baked salmon steak topped with smoked salmon & prawns. The accompanying lemon sauce is a bit overpowering, but the fish itself is really good.  P goes for the calves liver, served properly pink, with mash and a sage sauce.  We also have a side order of deep-fried courgettes.

We outlast most of the groups, so the place becomes quieter again – it’s a slightly odd atmosphere. Service has been good, and with the 4 bottles of wine the bill comes to a bit over £150 with service (ie well over 50% on wine!).

Despite my comments about the atmosphere, I did enjoy the food, so will probably be back to explore the starter menu.

Long weekend in New Forest and Bournemouth

We’re off to visit our friends P&M at their flat by the sea near Bournemouth, and plan to call in at B’s aunt and uncle’s in Lymington on the way back.  I decide to break our journey down with lunch in a pub in the New Forest, so after a bit of research in the Good Pub Guide, I settle on the Three Tuns in Bransgore.

Getting there however proves a bit more of a challenge. First we miss the turning off the A31, then nearly miss the next turning as well.  Approaching the village, we see signs for the Three Tuns Beer Festival which is on that weekend, but then encounter a Road Closed sign – looks like sewer works. So we turn round and follow the diversion signs, and come back into the village the other way – no sign of the pub. The Guide said the pub was opposite the church so we follow signs to a “Community church”, but that is clearly not the place, and then find ourselves on the wrong side of the roadworks again.

So putting pride aside, I wind down the window and ask a lady passing by – but she’s not a local and has no idea. Further on, I have to resort to getting out and asking a passing cyclist, and at last get some directions – “opposite the church”. Anyway we eventually find the place, an attractive thatched building, with a very full car-park. There are bouncy castles and slides outside but we go on  in to the bar. There is a restaurant area as well, serving more sophisticated dishes such as rabbit pie, pan-fried sea bass, and garlic prawns, but as we’re expecting to eat out in the evening, we settle for the bar menu.

The pub is pretty busy and the service at the bar very slow, but finally I get to order – venison pasty for me and chicken Caesar salad for B. There is a range of four local beers plus Doom Bar, but we have the Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and some water – that takes the bill to £37, so not a cheap place. The venison pasty is excellent – full of meat, and more like venison en croute. The accompanying chips though are only lukewarm, and the apple and shredded carrot garnish distinctly odd.  The Caesar salad is full of chicken, anchovies and fresh croutons, but the chicken itself lacking in flavour.

As the pub is “opposite the church” it fills up with guests for a wedding, including a giant of a man who fills the doorway and has to stoop under the low roof beams. The beer festival will feature various musicians, but there weren’t any there at the time. Outside the kids are playing happily, and a hog roast is doing good trade, as a steam traction engine pulls up. Clearly a fun place to be – once you find it.

That evening we are in Southbourne, and after a healthy walk along the promenade we head out to a little local Italian called Café Riva on Fisherman’s Walk, Boscombe overcliff.  The place is very simple, looking more like a beach café than a restaurant proper, but the menu is very varied, and the service prompt and friendly.  To start I have the beef carpaccio – a generous portion with rocket and onion garnish.  B has scallops and chorizo, which is excellent, coming with a tangy sauce. P goes for the mussels – a huge pot, in rich wine and cream sauce – while M decides she doesn’t want much, so chooses the melon and prosciutto, which nonetheless is also large.

For my main course I choose the fish of the day: brill. This turns out to be two large fillets, with green sauce, accompanied by excellent chips. Sadly I only manage to eat half, and although the waitress offers, we can’t really take the remainder away.  B orders the fillet steak, which comes a little more well done than the “rare” she ordered, but is still very good. P orders the extremely rich sounding chicken roulade – stuffed with spinach and cream cheese, in a creamy sauce – which he does manage to finish, but only just. M has the tagliatelle mediterrean – a vegetarian option, which she says is very good.   With three bottles of wine between us the bill is just under £130 for the 4 of us, excellent value for such good food served in unpretentious and friendly surroundings.

The next day we take a foot ferry across from Tuckton Bridge to Mudeford flats to see the £170,000 beach huts. Not for us I think. We arrive for an early lunch at the Beach House Cafe, another place that looks like a simple cafeteria. But in fact again the menu is interesting, and it is waiter service.  The starters look interesting (eg calamari) but we just have main courses.  I go for the fish of the day again – this time it’s hake on mushroom risotto. This is full of flavour, with the risotto an excellent support.  B has the mussels here, again in a creamy sauce, but not too rich. They’re tasty, but not as full and plump as she really likes them.  M has the fish pie which comes in a traditional steel dish, covered in thick golden topping with a huge prawn sticking out – seems like a fine example of the dish. P chooses the aubergine tian, which looks something of a mess on the plate. Lots of tomato sauce is topped with mushy looking aubergine and courgettes, but he seems to like it well enough.  B and I have a bottle of wine, while the others have a local cider – very pale looking, bringing the bill to about £75.

Day 3 and we head into Bournemouth and on the rich enclave of Sandbanks for a little nose around. Properties on offer at around £7 million, but there seem to be a lot for sale, so maybe you could drive a a hard bargain. From there we go into Poole, and choose the Banana Wharf,  overlooking the harbour for lunch. It’s a big place, but pretty quiet on a Monday lunchtime. The menu here is very extensive, so it takes us a while to choose. Eventually P decides on the marinara linguine, at which point the waitress points out there is a “two-for-one” offer on pasta and pizza. As M was going to choose pizza anyway, this is a good deal for us, but rubbish marketing, as there was no indication outside, and we’d been expecting to pay the full price.  The linguine is good, without masses of tomato sauce, and M’s pizza with tuna and anchovies, very thin and crispy.   B has the Eight King Prawns, hot in a garlic sauce – very good.  But the highlight in terms of presentation at least was the chicken fajitas I ordered. This arrives on a specially designed wooden tray, with the chicken (mounds of it) in a sizzling tray and the accompanying guacamole, soured cream, tomato relish and cheese in separate pots at the back, with the wraps folded in a rack on the side.  The wraps were a bit heavy, but the chicken really tasty. We have one bottle of wine (guess what, Chilean Sauvignon Blanc) while P&M have San Miguel.  This brings the bill to £66, again good value.

After lunch we say goodbye to P&M and head over to Lymington. J&E have booked us in for an early dinner at The Mill at Gordleton  just a short drive away. This is an almost ridiculously romantic setting, with a short walk from the car park over a little softly lit bridge across the mill stream to the hotel which is covered in creepers, with attractive steel sculptures spotlit in the garden.  There’s  a terrace area for summer meals, but this evening we are inside. We are first in, so get a lovely table by the window overlooking the garden, but the place does fill up pretty well for a Monday night.  Inside the décor is a combination of attractive paintings and some rather large and garish silk flowers, but the overall style is very polished – much more so than any of our other meals this weekend.

Three of us order from the set menu, but B chooses from “Signature” a la carte menu. She has the Asian spiced gravadlax of organic salmon with cucumber raita and chilli naan to start.  The salmon itself is nothing remarkable, but the accompaniments are good, and it is elegantly presented.  For main course she has the Devonshire duck breast in a cherry brandy sauce.  This is a large portion of beautifully pink duck, which comes with sweet potato fondant and  buttered greens. Definitely a good choice.  

Both J&E have the goats cheese starter, which is an ample portion, while I have the curried parsnip soup of the day – a rich warming broth. E and I then have the salmon and prawn “en pappiette”. This is a dramatic presentation of lightly charred parchment (not edible – we tried!) enfolding the fish, with potatoes and courgettes in a light sauce.  J orders the lamb, and asks for it not too pink, which is how it arrives. The main courses are accompanied by a dish of seasonal vegetables (ie nothing very interesting) nicely cooked al dente.

For dessert, I have the crème brulee – another large portion which I don’t finish – J has ice cream with ginger, and E a sorbet.

The wine list starts at £18 for the house wines (Pinot Grigio and Malbec), there are special offers on bin-ends, and a good range of wines by the glass. We chose an Argentinian Viognier (Alma Mora, San Juan 2009/10) at £22, and we also had two bottles of water and coffees.  

Several of the waiters were quite young and probably inexperienced, so were a little hesitant, but this didn’t really detract from a lovely evening. The owner was at one table with her daughter and friends, and happily chatting to the guests. And to top off the romantic style, as we were leaving we saw that one couple had been presented with a plate of chocolates, with “Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate around the edge.

The set menu was good value, so all this luxury came to just £174 for the 4 of us – you just need to find a romantic partner!