Catching up!

Catching up – Dec/Jan

Meeting up with S, he chooses the one Italian option as opposed to four French ones.  This is Caraffini on Lower Sloane Street. There is an outside terrace, but that’s not suitable in December.

Inside is pretty much full. We get directed to a table, crammed in by a wine bucket, already full of other people’s wine. B complains, and reluctantly they do move it further away. And also we get our own wine bucket on the table for the Grillo at £38!

We say yes bread and olives, and then move on to starters. S has sardines, which look good; B has some odd pork rolls and I have prawns in garlic and chilli. For mains S has a very pink calves liver, B has scampi with asparagus, and I have lemon veal.

We go for some desserts – S had panna cotto and I have sgroppino (lemon sorbet, vodka and champagne).

Service has been good after the initial contretemps. As well as a second bottle of Grillo, we also a Barbera d’Alba at £48. 12.5% service takes to £340, but it has all been good.

 

We are staying at a hotel near St Pancras before an early start on a train to Bruges for Christmas. Having looked at the options, we settle on Supawan, a Thai place on the Caledonian Road. It’s pretty busy, so we get put into a smallish table sitting at 90 degrees. The décor is very unusual – not cliché Thai.

We order some prawn crackers while we order (large portion), along with Viognier at £35. For starters, we have grilled prawns on Betel leaves, with loads of tasty trimmings, ordering the extra portion as suggested to take it to two each. Excellent. Along with the inevitable soft-shell crab, quite meaty.

Main courses are stir-fried king prawns with lemongrass and garlic, and a spicy minced chicken dish, supported by a mound of jasmine rice.

All very good, with friendly service, but the prices did mount up. With a second bottle and 12.5% service we get up to £170, which seems a lot for a Thai.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We meet up with E and J in Covent Garden for a visit to SushiSamba, and start off with edamame beans. The wine list escalates alarmingly – I manage to find a Vermintino for £49. We have a round of jumbo prawns, tuna ceviche, and soft shell crab roll. The J wants to order the trio of meats - rib-eye, chorizo, filet mignon – “Churrasco del Rio Grande”.  E has the mushroom dish.

We later have a bottle of red chosen by J who is insisting on paying, so I don’t know how much the bill came to – it won’t have been cheap.

Before heading off to Paris for a few days, we treat ourselves to a late lunch at Mem’s, our newish place locally. They do a 2 course fixed price lunch for £43, which like its predecessor has a limited range of dishes.

We’re offered canape drinks and an amuse bouche, both very nice. Their house Chenin Blanc is a very reasonable £28 a bottle.

I have the duck rillette (solid) and treat myself to a surf and turf for a £15 supplement. The “surf” is two large tiger prawns.  B has Bluefin Tuna tartare followed by venison loin.

I have a couple of glasses of Malbec (not so reasonable at £15 each), while B has another glass of Chenin.

All in all, £190 including 12.5% service, which has been fine – we are the only ones in there most of the time.

 

Meeting up with P&M. P wanted to go to the new Battersea Power station complex, so after some research we settled on Brindisa. It’s not as attractive a venue as the one in Richmond, though sitting outside in the summer it might be better.

We are there first, so get the better view. We order a white Rioja (Veltiver) for £36, which goes down well. B and I order the garlic prawns, chicken with mojo rojo (a red sauce from the Canaries), chorizo on toast with pepper and rocket (excellent) and Iberico pork cheeks with chocolate and rioja (very tender, but got cold quickly). P&M add more prawns, tortilla and patatas bravas. We also have bread.

We move on to a couple of desserts. P has the ice cream, while I go for the almond tart.

Four bottles in all, a slightly cheeky 13.5% service (it’s not been great) and that takes us just shy of £300 for the four of us. Not expensive, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

Before the theatre, we’ve chosen a Vietnamese place in Garrick Street called Com Viet. It’s nearly full on the ground floor, but we get a table by the window. There is a larger room downstairs, but they were still turning people away.

For starters we have soft shell crab (OK) and something called Com Viet Cha. This is minced pork and prawns, with mint and coriander leaves, that you wrap in dipped rice paper, which resembles a condom. Very messy, but the fresh herbs make it very tasty.

Mains are stewed pork belly (rather fatty to my taste, but B likes it) and wok-tossed duck breast with lemongrass and chilli. There a lot of wok-tossed options, a few seabass ones and not much else to choose from.

We have a bottle and two glasses of NZ SB (£51 together) – total £115 with 12.5% service.

B was pleased with it, but I thought the pork was a downside.

 

  

City Chinese

After a wine tasting at Vintner's Hall - a lovely venue - we've decided to try out a a Chinese, Kirin's in College Hill. Clearly our taste buds and discrimination may not have been quite up to scratch, but it was a remarkably good venue. 

The main room is slightly sunken from the road, but warm and welcoming. There must be 50 covers in the main room - there are two private dining rooms complete with karaoke systems! Several of the larger tables are occupied by groups of 8 or more. We are given a table more or less in the middle of the restaurant which offered good views of what was going on, and sensibly distanced from other tables.  

For starters,  we order the grilled pork dumplings and the salt and chilli soft-shell crab. The crab is described as "hot" on the menu and there are indeed loads of chilli pieces, and some smaller chilli flakes. But again although there was a good amount of crab-meat compared with some, there was not a great deal of flavour. The dumplings were fine, with light soy sauce. 

As we have our starters, we watch with amazement a huge dish placed at the next table, for three. Our first main course was prawns with scallops in XO sauce. This is a very fresh and light dish with a good amount of seafood. Our second dish was sauteed sliced beef in sizzling chilli oil - a huge dish like the table next door., there's no way we would ever make much impact on that. It's billed as "very hot", but it's not too over the top. The beef is tender and lean. We also have an egg-fried rice. 

Service has been prompt but largely anonymous. With a bottle of Chenin Blanc at £27 and some sparkling water, the bill comes to over £120 including 12.5% service which is a little surprising. We do however take away a large portion of the beef and at least half of the rice. It was also quite a classy place.

Smart and sophisticated

 We are going out with S a couple of days before his birthday. B's suggested we head to The Arlington, because she'd read about it in the paper.  It's on the site of Le Caprice, just round the corner from the Ritz, and is another one in the Jeremy King stable (The Ivy, Wolseley etc). Clearly the place to be seen.

The decor is all very black and white, gleaming counters, celeb photos (when we asked where the ladies was we were told "turn left at Michael Caine"). It's quite roomy, tables placed well apart, and has the nice gentle hum of people enjoying themselves. No celebs actually present though. 

There's quite an extensive wine list as you might expect, with lots of choice in the £50-£70 range. But we decide we'll stick with the Grillo, the cheapest on the list at £36 - it's perfectly fine. 

S decides to start with a tomato and basil galette. This comes as a big splodge, looking rather like a steak tartare. He's very pleased with it, and the accompanying bread. B has a crispy duck salad, which is quite a large portion, with good flavoured duck with plenty of cashews and zingy watercress. My bang bang chicken is good too - the peanut sauce has a good kick but doesn't drown the good, moist chicken. Plenty of peanuts in what is effectively a satay sauce. 

S's main is loin of tuna with spiced lentils. The tuna is cooked just right and the lentils apparently quite spicy. B settles for stonebass ceviche - really another starter, but apparently very rich and a good size. This comes with avocado and has a chilli kick. They each order a rocket and parmesan salad as a side dish. My calf's liver is another large portion - 5 or 6 slices of liver, with a few slices of very crisp bacon and a few piles of mash.  There is apparently a "sauce diable", but though it was good, I couldn't notice anything devilish. 

We decide we will go for dessert. S has the elderflower jelly with summer fruits which is fairly uninteresting. B and I share a "hokey pokey" - honeycomb with ice cream and chocolate sauce - which is good fun.

There have been lots of staff kicking around so service has been good, with glasses re-filled without fail. We had a second bottle of wine and some sparkling water, taking the bill to £243 - onto which they added a whacking 15% service, taking it up to £280. Still less than £100 a head, so for a classy place pretty fair. 

New, modern restaurant in Surbiton

 One of our frequent haunts, No 97, closed recently, but has now re-opened as Mem's. We had a free prosecco and raspberry as a promotion just before it opened, and we have sat outside before for a drink. But after a farmers' market  - which it is right by - we now decide to go there for lunch. 

It's a nice day, so we decide we will sit outside - there are a few others outside too.   We order a bottle of Chenin Blanc which at £24 is pretty good value, though it takes a little while to arrive. It transpires that our waitress was new. One of the downsides to No 97 had been that there were only 3 choices per course. At Mem's it's not much different - 4 or 5 choices - though they all sound lovely.

We decide we would share starters - bluefin tuna and cured sea bass. I order the guinea fowl as main, but B decides on just having a second starter, beef tartare. The waitress seems dubious as to whether that would be allowed! Of course, there is no problem. 

The tuna is nicely seared and pink. The accompanying wasabi slaw is not too strong, sesame and basil are good clean flavours. The sea bass comes with white crabmeat spiced with chilli - again quite subtly. Both are attractively presented, as No 97 used to do.

B's second starter is beef tartare. This comes beautifully presented on a slice of brioche toast. My guinea fowl is rather more ordinary in presentation, but lovely and moist, very well-judged cooking.  We also have a truffle Caesar salad - not much truffle but fine otherwise. 

A young couple come to sit outside with the remains of their wine and we get into a deep conversation about local restaurants. It's been very pleasant sitting in the sunshine, and after the false start the service was fine. With a second bottle of wine the total comes to £132 including 12.5% service. 

Cloth, near Bart's

 We are planning to meet up with G, so having recently read a Grace Dent review we decide to book in at Cloth in Cloth Fair,  right by St Bartholomew's the Great, the church used in the last wedding of Four Weddings and a Funeral.  I remember it as a restaurant called Betjeman's and I do overhear someone at another table say that it used to be Betjeman's house. 

The day before, G texts to say she can't come, there'd been a mix-up in dates. We decide to go ahead anyway, though we don't bother to alter the booking.  When we get there, a little early shortly after 1pm, the place is heaving - this is on a Tuesday.  There are a couple of cramped tables for 2 available in the first room - we get shown through to the second room where we get a nice table in the window, overlooking the church. It is laid for 3 people as per the booking, so we then have a lot of space (effectively a table for 4) rather than being squeezed in - a neat trick!

First impressions - everyone seems to be having lentils; the demographic is completely white and very grey; and it is extremely loud. G is rather hard of hearing so it might well have been very difficult for her - as it is, the two of us have enough trouble talking across the table. The volume is simply down to the voices of people crammed into the small rooms and hard surfaces all round, including marble-top tables. 

When we look at the menu it seems that lentils come with the set lunch, where lamb shoulder has been replaced with pork belly. We decide to go a la carte and choose the Iberico ham at £24 to share to start, which rather meanly doesn't come with bread so we have to order that extra. It takes a while to flag down a waitress (as we are in the furthest reaches of the restaurant)  We order the Zeuger Sauvignon Blanc which turns out to come from Austria. It's the second cheapest on the list at £43 - this clearly isn't going to be a cheap meal. The set menu is just £29 for three courses - hence all the lentils.

There are two types of bread - both delicious. The ham itself is slightly warm, glistening, and presented beautifully, with small slices positioned in circles on the plate. Crockery is eclectic, like being at your gran's.  The decor is eclectic too, walls packed with an odd collection of stylised "old" pictures and drawings with no apparent theme or logic. 

For main course B orders the crab risotto (£26). This comes as one mass on another odd plate. It's a plate of luxury - rich, warming, full of flavour. Although it looks a big portion, with every mouthful the same, B polishes it off with enthusiasm.  I have chosen the monkfish and langoustine, the most expensive item on the menu at £35. This too is a largish portion with plenty of firm monkfish and some less interesting seafood. The lobster bisque it comes in is excellent. 

Despite the size of the dishes, I decide to have dessert as I had seen a very pretty one on the neighbouring table. It's honey custard with lemon curd and honey and pistachio parfait biscuits - good biscuits, sharp lemon. 

Although some tables have been vacated, there are still people coming in at 2.30pm or later. At the end of the meal we ask the friendly waitress if it's always this busy. It seems that as well as the Guardian review, there had been a very good one in the Times, so it may be a slightly temporary situation. There was also someone at another table taking detailed notes, and being treated to wine selections by the owners, so probably another review to come.

We get the bill, but notice they had only charged us for one bottle of wine. Being honest souls we point this out. Service charge is the insidious 13.5%. Total, just over £200, which to be fair is about what Grace indicated (by the time you add in pricey wine).  It's been a very enjoyable, well-paced lunch, good to have experienced, but I think one only for special occasions with people able to cope with the noise. 

Surbiton Thai

 We've been in Surbiton 4 years now, but had yet to try the Thai restaurant, NayThai, preferring the Japanese, Boat, nearby. But we needed to find somewhere that did a range of vegetarian dishes for E who is staying with us, so as the Thai offers a vegetable option for all its soups, stir-fries and curries that seems like a good idea.  

On a Wednesday evening, the place is very nearly full, but we do get a good table. The decor is classically over-the-top Thai restaurant, with lots of elephants, dancing girls, buddhas and lotus flowers, with a typical sound track too.  The Spanish SB is their standard house white at £22. 

We have some the very good Thai prawn crackers, spicy with a sweet chilli sauce. For starters B and I share the Thai fish cakes and the pork and prawn dumplings. Both were a little stodgy, though the fish cakes better than many - not like ice hockey pucks. E has the Tom Yum soup, which is not as hot as she would have liked, despite having two chillies on the menu. This may have been a misunderstanding as she had asked how hot it was and they may have assumed she didn't want it hot. It did have a good interesting lemongrass flavour though.

One of the main courses we chose was the steak salad - though they brought it out along with the starters, and tried to clear it away with them too. This too was marked with two chillies - and it lived up to it, with loads of chilli pieces scattered all through it. Very tender too, with good fresh herbs. Our other dish was king prawns with tamarind - good sized prawns with a punchy dark sauce, plus some jasmine rice. E has noodles with chilli and bamboo shoots - two more chillies, but no complaints this time.

With a second bottle of wine, sparkling water and a modest 10% service (the two little waitresses were very efficient without being particularly friendly, but then it was busy) the bill comes to a very reasonable £135.

The following Saturday after the farmers' market we head to Boat for lunch, but for some reason it is closed. So we return to NayThai as it is so close.  It is quite busy but not as much as on Wednesday. We have the prawn crackers (a goodly sized portion) and the SB again before checking on the menu.

This time we do have a salad as a starter to share - the seafood one, packed with prawns, mussels, squid and the occasional scallop. This again is good and spicy - we need to ask for tap water.  For mains we have the duck with tamarind, a better combination than the prawns probably, but very rich and strong flavoured. We also have the steamed sea bass with loads of ginger, soy sauce, and mushrooms. This is excellent but rather too delicate a taste to be paired with the duck. It's also a very large portion, so we end up asking for a doggy bag to take it away, with some of the duck and crackers too. 

We have rice and two 250ml glasses of SB (priced very reasonably at almost exactly a third of a bottle) and some rice, making the bill a touch over £100.  Very good value for a full-flavoured meal. 

Two good central oriental restaurants

 We are heading to the Comedy Store off Leicester Square with B's niece E. As we don't fancy their pizza and don't know what time it will finish we decide to eat mid-afternoon, 4pm. E suggests Japanese, so I do some research and find one with a promising looking menu just round the corner in Panton Street - Machiya. 

E is already there when we arrive, drinking a cocktail - yuzu and elderflower. That looks so refreshing on a hot day that I decide to have one too. We also order a bottle of Italian SB at £26. E is vegetarian, but I had checked and there is a wide range of options on the menu - 8 different starters, a mushroom rice bowl and a "large plate" vegetable katsu curry. It's this that she chooses. 

We are finding it difficult to choose too. Eventually we settle on glazed chicken skewers with egg yolk, pork belly, and a "large plate" seared duck breast. We also order a Japanese coleslaw and wasabi mayonnaise. 

E seems happy with her curry (which she says is not very spicy) which comes with steamed rice, and she has some coleslaw too. The waiter delivers our smaller plates, then arrives with two portions of the duck,  so we have to turn one away.  The chicken skewers are very dense, and when dragged through the egg yolk very rich. The pork belly is braised (so no crackling) and comes as big dense chunks alongside a boiled egg and spinach. The duck is elaborately presented in a large leaf (houba leaf apparently) with daikon and persimmon - very tender. The coleslaw is good too with a sharp dressing, but we didn't need the rather wishy-washy mayo. 

The place is small, simple and cafe-like, but with some interesting decor. The bill says we were on the ground floor, so presumably there is another room downstairs.  Waiters were very friendly and chatty. 

The bill comes to £95 including 12.5% service. But I see, looking at it now, they only charged us for a small glass of wine rather than a bottle, so it should have been about £20 more. Very reasonable for good, interesting dishes in a very central location. 

The following day we are meeting ex-BT friend S. We meet up at the Marquis of Granby for a drink outside in the sunshine before crossing the road to Koba, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Rathbone Street. Tables for four come with the BBQ plate in the middle and a extractor pipe lowered over the top of it.  There are tables downstairs for 8. 

For starters we order Yook Hwei (raw beef with egg), prawn pan-fried dumplings and calamari. The waitress mixes the beef into the raw egg much like a steak tartare - B reckons it's one of her favourite dishes ever. The marinated beef is in small strips rather than minced and comes with pale-coloured strips which we can't identify - on asking we find they are pear, which was there on the menu. The prawn dumplings were very good too, but the calamari a bit ordinary, despite the Korean dips, in very small pieces.  

We have ordered the mixed Korean BBQ for 2, so S decides we need an extra dish and chooses bulgogi, rib-eye beef. We also have the lettuce and spring onion as recommended and some garlic fried rice. We are drinking French Viognier at £26 a bottle. 

The plate of BBQ meats arrives, looking massive. I had assumed we would have to manage the cooking ourselves, but in fact the waitress takes charge.  First up is some thinly sliced steak. Four pieces are cooked briefly on both sides, then snipped in half with scissors. We put it into lettuce leaves with the spring onion and eat with our hands.  Next we have spare rib beef, two long pieces with bone on the edge, again snipped into bite-size once cooked and the bones used as a place to rest meats so they don't overcook. There are pieces of pumpkin and sweet potato there too. 

The bulgogi is soy marinated and comes chopped up  and sizzles as it is poured onto the BBQ.  It's beginning to feel like an awful lot of meat, but the dishes are paced well so I never feel stuffed. The waitress cleans the centre of the BBQ then puts on the pork belly. Then comes the spiced chicken, which is indeed fairly spicy. Finally, after the plate is cleaned again, come the raw prawns and squid pieces.  B was surprised these had not come first. 

We don't eat all the rice or spring onions, though these were very good.  Surprisingly there's not much in the way of dips or sauces - just some light soy sauce and a sesame oil and salt one. 

There's a good turnover of people and the staff have been very attentive. We have a second bottle which with 12.5% brings the total to £225, £75 a head. So this is quite a bit more expensive than the Japanese, but for such a vast amount of meat it is a pretty fair price.