November catch-up

I’ve got a bit behind with my reviews so here are a few quick comments on recent places we’ve been.

Cay Tre, Vietnamese restaurant in Dean Street. A group of 8 of us descended on the interesting place recently. It’s lively and buzzy, maybe a bit canteen-like, more suited to a group than a couple. Lots of unusual dishes on the menu, especially starters. My choices perhaps weren’t the best – chicken and prawn pancake followed by a noodle bowl . But others’ dishes did taste good. Definitely worth a try at under £100 for 2.

Cape Town Fish Market in Argyll Street is ideally positioned for shopping or the Palladium. Part of a SA chain with a good reputation, this branch doesn’t quite hit the spot. It’s attractive enough with a big fish tank, but the service was poor, and the food unexceptional.  The salt and pepper squid was ordinary, though the queen scallops in the shell attractive and nicely cooked. Fish “potjie” (spicy pot dish) was bland and the salmon teriyaki ordinary. At £79 with a bottle of wine, it’s not expensive for where it is – but we won’t be rushing back.

PJ’s in Wellington Street is an old favourite, a warm welcoming straightforward brasserie in Covent Garden. There were 6 of us for dinner – I had duck spring roll “shots” – 3 spring rolls with different sauces served in shot glasses – very good. Other starters were Arbroath smokie, Gorgonzola and fig tart, scallops and pancetta, merguez sausage and lobster and crab pate.  My main course tuna loin was just the right shade of pink, while others enjoyed chicken cordon bleu, lamb tagine and tuna Nicoise salad. With 3 bottles of wine this came to £83 a couple, but there was a 50% off food offer (which they do quite often) which saved us £70 overall.

A weekend in Cardiff to watch Wales v Australia (enough said) started with dinner at Woods Brasserie in Cardiff Bay. Set in a lovely old building, this restaurant is quite stylish and modern. There was a limited choice on the set menu, but a la carte available as well, I had scallops followed by duck breast – very nice. B had venison carpaccio then fish and chips; others had game terrine (very meaty) and pulled pork.  With 2 bottles of wine and a couple of glasses this was £140 for 4. I was impressed; B less so.

Finding somewhere for lunch on match day was always going to be a challenge, but S remembered a tapas bar they’d been to before - Ten feet tall in Church St, off St Mary’s St. Remarkably this wasn’t very busy at all, though we did have to sit outside. Tapas were 3 for £10 or 6 for £18, so we had spare ribs, chilli prawns, chicken pesto, belly pork, Serrano ham, and meatballs.   There were 4 pieces of each but they were rather small. Tasty though.  With wine at £13 bottle, a useful place to know for a quick lunch.

We’d pre-booked Pica Pica in Westgate Street for after the match – just as well as not surprisingly it was heaving.  There was a set rugby tapas menu for 4 available at £25 a head. This included pizza tostadas and patatas bravas, potato wedges, grilled mushrooms, bread and taboulleh was so was high on the carbs. Dates in bacon (nice idea), lamb kofta, piri piri chicken, meze platter, whitebait and chicken wings were also included along with a bottle of wine.  Not as elegant as lunchtime, but tasty.  Somewhat disrupted by someone rushing in from the bar area and stealing a lamb kofta from my plate!!

Southwark and Kings Cross

SET LUNCH AT LA CAVE

M&G suggest lunch at La Cave in Southwark, as it has an offer of £15/head for 2 course lunch with a glass of champagne.  We’ve been there before and know it’s ticked away on the lower level near the cathedral, so we arrive promptly to find M already there. G is on his way – and inevitably gets lost, so arrives needing the glass of fizz to calm him down.  As the name implies, the restaurant feels underground, and is sparsely decorated.  When we arrive there are only a couple of other people there, mainly playing with a coffee and a laptop – a few more do come in over the lunchtime, but it’s never busy.

The set lunch menu is wider and more interesting than I’d feared.  B and G have the mussels to start – a good sized steaming bowl in a good marinière sauce (no cream!), though they have to ask for bread. M has the chicken liver pate which is also large, with plenty of gherkins and pickles, while I have the goat’s cheese in filo pastry with honey – very interesting.

Service is fine, very French – amused but not completely on the ball.

For mains, M and I have the seabream, which is very good, with crisp skin and good flavour. B has the chicken in prosciutto and G the bavette steak – both pronounced acceptable. We have two bottles of Spy Valley, NZ Sauvignon Blanc at £31 and an excellent red Cote du Rhone (Grenaches/Syrah) at £28.50 (both at the bottom end of the price range). So with some water and coffee and 12.5% service our £60 lunch comes to £186.30 – beware of special offers !

 UNUSUAL MENU AT THE GRAIN STORE

We’re meeting J&K, so somewhere near King’s Cross is the best bet, and J suggests the Grain Store. Looking at the menu online, we’re a bit wary as there are mainly vegetarian and vegan options, but with nothing else to suggest we go with it. The restaurant is round the back of the station, across the canal and effectively the Central St Martin’s canteen in Granary Square. The whole area is a major development, so soon it will be very busy. On a Sunday lunch the Grain Store is already very buzzy, a bright lively space, with big windows, exposed ducting in the ceiling and an “exploded” kitchen – not as terrifying as it sounds, just open to view.  The place is owned by Chef Bruno Loubet and The Zetter Group's Michael Benyan and Mark Sainsbury, following on from the popular Zetter Townhouse.

We’re there first so order the white Rioja at £23 – pretty much the cheapest.  off. J&K arrive and we’re chatting away for ages until we eventually order), which seems to irritate the waitress. It’s 2.30pm and we’re told the special from the “Josper”  oven (apparently a charcoal combination grill/oven) is “off”, but as it was rabbit, we probably wouldn’t have gone for it anyway. The menu is slightly confusingly arranged into starters, medium-sized brunch items and mains. K has the Jerusalem artichoke soup with lovage pesto – very thick and warming. J has the mushroom & duck liver pâté, with celeriac remoulade and mulled wine jelly, which she is pleased with. B and I share a brunch sized (actually quite modest) fried duck egg with creamed chestnut mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts – a good and warming dish as well. For mains course J tries the wood pigeon , which she’s not had before. This comes with fermented red cabbage, tea soaked golden grapes and a truffle dressing, and is served fairly pink.  Not quite her taste I think, but pretty nicely cooked. K has the smoked salt lamb with lime pickled potatoes, minted cucumber, and fried egg from the brunch list – again quite modest. B has ordered the sea trout with Vietnamese style salad, and squid à la plancha – to be told that there is no squid. She asks what she will get instead, to be told she may get a bit more salad!  When it arrives there are no obvious extras, and the fish is pretty ordinary.  My braised beef with four splodges of root vegetable purées and some roasted onions is falling apart and very tasty, though the vegetables add little. It’s now 4pm, so we’re sternly instructed to order dessert quickly as the kitchen is closing. J orders the apple, blackberry & elderberry crumble which apparently comes with olive oil ice cream though it tastes just like vanilla to us. I get the carrot cake with goji berries (so hip!) and chamomile ice cream- the cake is good and moist. With three bottles of wine, a couple of glasses of house white, some water and a coffee this comes to a bit shy of £200 including service, pretty good value.  The place is very fashionable and rather too self-aware, but certainly a good option if you’re in the Kings Cross area, and if you are entertaining a vegan.

 

Glorious view over the river at Richmond

Meeting up with friends S and S at Richmond station, we walk down to the river and along towards Petersham. We’re heading for the Petersham Hotel which sits just south of Richmond on a hill overlooking a curve in the river. It had rained earlier but by the time we arrive the sun is shining and everywhere looks crisp and clean.  We’d asked for a table by the window, so we get the super views down  to the river (though they do claim that you get good views from any table). The restaurant itself is “modern classy” – neither achingly fashionable nor traditionally olde worlde – maybe a 90’s design.

We start with a bottle of South African Viognier (Wide River, Robertson) which at £24.50 is one of the cheapest on the list. And settle down to choose from the Summer set lunch menu (which ends on 16^th October). As we do that we can see the Royal barge Gloriana is heading away down the river. There is a huge boat race on today, with literally hundreds of vessels apparently, so this is a really good spot to watch from (a bit far away perhaps).

For starters we have the cured mackerel and pancetta with a chick pea salad and yoghurt dressing, and calves liver with chorizo and a little risotto.  The mackerel is really fresh and zingy, and the calves liver pink (and the risotto green!). For main course I go off piste and choose the chicken escalope wrapped in prosciutto with mozzarella from the a la carte list. Very enjoyable. B has the stuffed skate, as does S, and the other choice was a honey roast duck.  All well cooked and presented simply, without too many frilly diversions.

For dessert , S and I have a bitter chocolate bombe, with caramelised banana and pistachio ice cream – excellent. The other S has a summer fruit parfait which was also good.  B sticks at 2 courses.

By now we’ve finished 3 bottles of Viognier, but when we order another to go with the coffee, they have no more – another place we’ve drunk dry. So we move up to a Hawke’s Bay NZ Sauvignon Blanc (£29.50).

Service has been very good – efficient and friendly without interfering. They manage the trick of keeping our wine glasses filled without seeming to be trying to get us to drink faster. (As you can see we drank enough anyway!).

The bill comes to £260 including 12.5% service. But it’s not till later that realise that they have charged us for three 3-course lunches at £26.95, one 2-course lunch at £22.95 AND £17.50 for my chicken as well.  Bit naughty.

So looking back, although we enjoyed ourselves and the view of the river and race was super, the food itself was probably only OK for that price.  As an evening venue with no views it may be less appealing.

Catching up - July

Hampton Court by the river

Back in the summer, we were off to the Hampton Court Flower Festival for their opening evening event.  So we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Mitre Hotel by the bridge. It was a lovely day, so we were pleased to find there was still a table available outside on the terrace by the river, even one with an umbrella to shade us from the sun. It’s a gorgeous place to be, watching the ducks and the boats, and the occasional paddle steamer pottering around.

We started with (what else?) a bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (£22.50), and some sparkling water.  B wasn’t that hungry so we shared a starter of chilli salt and pepper squid, which came with a good cucumber and onion salsa. It was lightly battered and gently cooked, so avoided the rubbery texture, and would have been an ideal snack at any time. For main course B had the spicy garlic lime chicken breast, lightly fried with rocket & red onion salad. The lime did really shine through, so this was a very refreshing summer dish.  I had the “Oriental style” fish and chips, which was strips of salmon deep fried with chilli, chips and a soy dipping sauce. An unusual variation on the classic, this was also a good dish for a hot day.

Not everyone was enjoying their meal however. One lady complained that the fish in her (ordinary) fish and chips wasn’t fresh.  The manager responded quickly (though at first believing it was we who had complained) and tried to assure her that it had been freshly delivered. Unimpressed the customer chose to switch to a risotto. Perhaps this reinforces the general rule of not ordering fish on a Monday.

Service generally was a little brusque, though with a change of shift we did get a more charming waitress eventually. All in all a pleasant place to be on a nice day, and at £70 pretty reasonable.

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Brasserie Vacherin

Malcolm John’s Fish and Grill has been re-branded as Brasserie Vacherin to match his other restaurant in Sutton and Le Vacherin in Putney, so we had to go along to see what this meant for the menu.  We are again eating early, this time ahead of a comedy show at the Fairfield Halls, and so it’s fairly quiet on a Sunday afternoon.  After Kir Royales to get us going, we order the Viognier, from Languedoc, at £23 – full of fruity flavour.

My favourite tuna tartare is still on the menu, but B beats me to it. It’s a fresh and zingy creation, with chilli and ginger, and more substantial than it looks. I start with scallops, cooked just right, with black pudding and bacon to make it heartier.   B’s sea bass is also a standard from the old days, and is still a sound version of the dish, presented quite simply. My supreme of hake off the specials list is rather flavourless in comparison, but meaty enough, accompanied by chips in the signature tin can.

Unusually for us we decide to share a dessert – crepe suzette.  This is a very fine example, retaining a good degree of sharpness in amongst the melting sauce.  With a 12.5% service charge added, this lot comes to £95, much the same price as it used to be.

Just 3 weeks later we decide to visit again, on a Saturday night so we have booked. The place is virtually full, and we’re rather shocked as we’re  to our table to find a live singer belting out the classics directly at us. It’s so loud you can hardly hear yourself think, and the choice of songs so hackneyed it makes Radio 2 look cutting edge.  The ladies night out at the table alongside him are lapping it up though.

We have Kir Royales and Viognier again and this time I get the tuna tartare. B has prawns with garlic and parsley, three of them nicely grilled in their shells. My main course veal escalope is rich and oozing. B has the grilled crab, again with chilli and ginger, which is a bit of a battle to extract from its shell. And again we have the crepes suzette – nothing too adventurous!

The couple at the table next to us are sharing the chateaubrand which comes served on a stand complete with bone marrow and saucer sized mushrooms. Even at £50 this looks like an excellent option.

This time we’ve racked the bill up to £120, with a couple of extra glasses of Viognier. Still pretty good, though I’d avoid Saturday night next time.

Two Holborn Italians

Meeting up one evening with friends G&P we go to an Italian they recommend in Red Lion Street - Isolabella.  It helps that there is a 50% off food offer! We were early so stopped for a quick glass in another Italian nearby, Bacco Restaurant and Wine Bar.  I’m not that familiar with Italian grape varieties, so I ask the friendly waiter for something similar to a Sauvignon Blanc, and he recommends the Pecorino Trabocchetto Talamonti . It is fruity and yet dry, so a pretty good choice at £7.50 a large glass.  We are also served a bowl of breads (even though we’d made it clear we weren’t having lunch there), including the wafer thin Sardinian bread, carta di musica.  The place was filling up even though it was early, so it may well be worth trying out another time.

 We see our friends go by, so drink up and go to find them in Isolabella.  We order the Verdicchio Classico, while G&P go for the Primitivo.  I had the Bresaola with rocket and parmesan, which was good,  while G and asparagus with egg, and P the smoked salmon.  For main course I have the liver Venezia, which has very caramelised onions; B has the fillet medallions with green pepper and brandy sauce, while G&P both choose Saltimbocca alla Romana. We also have side dishes of sautéed potatoes, garlic mushrooms and fried courgettes in a lovely light batter.

The place is pretty full, with a nice warm and relaxed atmosphere, and the waiters both friendly and efficient.   With the discount (which works out at just over £50), the bill is £122, so it would have been a bit pricey at full price.  But at the reduced price, It was a very enjoyable and satisfying evening.

Wine bar near Regent Street

WINE BAR NEAR REGENT STREET

Shampers in Kingly Street is an attractive little wine bar, tucked round the back just off Regent Street. It’s not a very big place and it’s always been very busy when we’ve been before, full of what appear to be regulars, so we’ve had to drink at the bar. This time four of us are having an early dinner before going to Ronnie Scott’s, so we have booked. There are a few empty tables, while the others are occupied by people finishing late and boozy looking lunches.

It has a very French feel, with posters and paintings for sale.  Actually it looks very similar to our old regular haunt, the Cork and Bottle in Leicester Square, and when we enquired apparently it was once part of the same group, but was sold off back in 1991.

We order the wine first, Montarels Viognier Côtes de Thongue Languedoc 2011 at £22 - very fruity. There’s quite a selection of specials on the board, as well as a fairly wide range on the menu.  For starters, S and V both have the pan-fried squid with chilli and ginger, which was well-received. B has the prawns , also with chilli, while I have the marinated anchovy fillets – both very good too.

Spinach featured strongly on the main course list.  S had calves liver and bacon with spinach and mash – she asked for it well done, and it came too pink, so she asked for it to be cooked some more, but even then it wasn’t to her taste.  B’s lamb fillet came with arrocina beans – and spinach – and was very tender.  To accompany my spinach, I had the char-grilled tuna steak with lentils – just this side of dry. Only V escaped, with her chicken sandwich (doorstep size) accompanied by chips and salad.

Between us we shared a pot au chocolat and a crème brulee for dessert – both very good.  So overall we were impressed with the food and the room. The only downside was the rather surly waitress, who was itching to get to the end of her shift.  With 3 bottles of wine and 12.5% service this came to £190 – less than £50 a head, so not bad for central London.

 

 

Short tour round Wales and the Cotswolds

We’d planned a few days away visiting friends and relatives, first to Cardiff, then to Bala, and back home via the Cotswolds. So one Wednesday we set off to South Wales along the M4. A couple of hours in, it’s lunchtime, so we find a pub in the Good Food Guide, the Neeld Arms in Grittleton  and leave the motorway at Junction 17. The village is a little way from the motorway, with buildings composed of very attractive Cotswold stone.

The pub itself is a 17^th century  building, proclaiming to be “proud to be a proper pub”, although it also has accommodation.  There is a simple open bar, moderately busy for a midweek lunchtime, so we find a seat near the back, with a less than attractive view over the back sheds.  There is quite a selection of interesting dishes on the specials board – fish, black pudding – and the standard menu has some unusual options too.  B is attracted by the antipasti selection with wild boar salami while I go for the pie special: steak and ale.  The landlord later tells us that they don’t have any wild boar salami, but B goes ahead anyway.  It is a very good antipasti plate, with three different meats and salamis, plus a range of salad. Some bread is served with it (though we’re not sure if this is extra – it is listed as such).  My pie is very good to, lots of meat, hot, and with a classic short-crust pastry- a proper pie.  With some wine and water, this comes to £37, pretty good value.

In Cardiff that evening, we recall a Thai restaurant we’d been to in the Brewery Yard, and return there – to find that is was an Indian, and had been when we’d visited before!  This is the Spice Quarter, with attractive contemporary  decoration, in a dimly lit series of rooms upstairs in the modernised block.  The menu has many unusual dishes, claiming to be “Authentic Indian Cuisine” – a selection of different poppadoms is the first sign of this. (We think we’ve ordered two portions, but in the end are charged for 4 – at £1 each).  To start B has Haryali fish – a crispy, pan-fried fish with interesting spices.  Normally wary of curried fish, B is pleased to find this a well-balanced and tasty dish. I kick off with the Peshawari lamb boti, a more conventional kebab style dish, despite its claims to “exotic spices”.

Main courses are a good if standard prawn jhalfrezi  and "Jalandhari duck” from the chef’s specials: roast duck in spicy sauce with cashew nuts, which comes with “lacche dar parantha”  - mint-flavoured bread. We also have “malai kofta” (cottage cheese dumplings), a dal, and mushroom rice.

The prawn dish featured good size prawns which actually had some flavour, and the duck was a deep, intense flavour, but lacking very many nuts. The cottage cheese had been a bold choice – which failed – but the other accompaniments were good. 

Service was understated,  just efficient enough, certainly not intrusive.  With two bottles of Sangiovese Malbec at £16.95 each the bill came to £95 including service, rather more than your average curry.  For the change from the ordinary you could regard this as reasonable – it felt just a little high in retrospect.

For the following day’s lunch  we’re at the Nant Ddu Lodge on the way to Brecon.  Situated in the National Park, near the reservoirs and with plenty of walking nearby, this is an attractive hotel and spa.  There is a restaurant area, but we eat in the bar, a small but pleasant space with stripped pine tables. There are plenty of specials on the board, and the standard menu is extensive with some unusual combinations.  B has the scallop linguine, which is very rich with too much sauce, while I have the stuffed trout, which is excellent. The bill is £57 including a bottle of Chenin Blanc.

Dinner the next day is at the Brytirion Arms, Llandderfel near Bala – “The Bryn”, my brother’s local.  It’s a simple, traditional pub in the Dee valley, with a couple of rooms. The restaurant area is only open in the evening, so we’re in the cosy bar which has a lovely wood fire in winter.  Of the five of us, only three have starters – Thai fish cakes for G&S, and a Thai trio for me – fishcakes, prawn roll, scallops.  All pleasantly cooked in a light batter, with a good spicy chilli sauce.  B has the grilled Gressingham duck with plum sauce for main – lovely pink slices in a balanced sauce.  I’m talked into having their signature dish the ‘Bryn bara’ – a mountain of bread  (literal translation) filled with local Welsh Black beef, mushroom and ale casserole.  Very rich and warming and no chance of finishing it!

Three ice-creams were also ordered which together with a range of drinks took it to £122 for the 5 of us – excellent value.

Our lunch stop on the way home was at the Lamb Inn in Burford, just down from Stow-on-the-Wold, another selection from the Good Pub Guide.  For a change it’s a lovely sunny day, we go through the lovely old building out into the extensive and attractive garden. I’m usually concerned about service when eating outside, but here there are staff in abundance, willing and eager to help. We’re late arriving so are lucky to get a table, as it’s obviously a popular summery spot.

B starts with asparagus and poached egg – fresh and well-executed. I have eggs benedict, also good, but perhaps more than I need. For main B has the dressed crab, which is also very good, but my crayfish risotto which, although tasty enough to begin with, is rather heavy and stodgy, and eventually a little dull.  A bottle of Chilean Luis Felipe Edwards Lot 66 Sauvignon Blanc at £19.00 and some water means the bill reaches a modest £67. With the lovely setting, the attentive service and generally good food, that’s a good result.