Baltic

Baltic
74 Blackfriars Road
London
SE1 8HA
www.balticrestaurant.co.uk/html/#home
Date visited: Saturday 24^th September 2011
Attendees: Myself and The Krakow group (or the ones that made it) As it is a large group I will only talk about the food I had but will refer to what others had if I can
Price of meal: £20.50 3 course set menu with a Bloody Mary or Bellini

It had been sometime since the last meet up and so I decided it was time for another meet up for history of art talks. A date was set and I booked the Baltic knowing pretty much it would be to everyone’s taste and the price of the set menu was very good value for money I thought.

When I arrived at the restaurant, which has a fresh, modern, white and minimal interior, the members who could make it were already sat at a long table. There were only 2 other occupied tables in the restaurant – strange I thought, as the last time we tried to book it was full. Anyway, after greetings, compliments and apologies from the non-attenders we got down to the business of ordering. The choice on the menu was very good, we all felt and there was lots to pick from and all sounded very good with nearly all seeming to be authentically Polish.

Bread basket half way through munching and the beetroot paste in the tope left hand corner

There were baskets of bread on the table containing slices of breads common in Poland – rye, sour dough with caraway seeds and challah, enabling me to try challah bread for the first time and I really liked it. The bread kept coming as we emptied our baskets and was freshly sliced. To accompany it there was good butter and a beetroot paste. There were also jugs of tap water on the table which the group had probably asked for before I arrived but the serving staff kept filling when we asked them to (tap water with meals are not a usual Polish thing).

Starter:
Botwinka – Baby beetroot and beetroot leaf soup

Excellent Botwinka

I love beetroot which is why I went for this and I was expecting something like borsch but it was different. I was a little apprehensive when I saw it and thought it was cream of beetroot soup which wouldn’t have gone down well with me (namely because it may not have stayed down – sorry to be vulgar). But it was actually very nice. Creamy pink in colour so I think there was cream in it but I think it was actually a vegetable stock based soup. The flavour was excellent and there were many chunks of baby beetroot, beetroot leaf, potato and hard-boiled egg in the mix. I enjoyed the soup very much and think for a light lunch it would go wonderfully well with the breads we got. My companions all enjoyed their starters too and were happy with their choices.

Our dishes were cleared away by happy accommodating staff and we continued to chat about this that and the other as our mains came. The cocktail I ordered with my lunch was a bellini which I gave a way and was told the cocktails were very nice. I felt giving diners a cocktail as part of the lunch menu was a great idea and other restaurants should follow suit!

Main Course:
Confit of duck leg, honey roast apples and redcurrants

Confit duck leg with baked apple and redcurrant/ cherry

A very good choice. The duck leg was well cooked and the meat came off the bone easily. There was good flavour to it. I felt having the honey apple and redcurrants (which I think most were actually cherries) made the dish a little too sweet for me but a great accompaniment to the duck. There was also some red cabbage which was cooked in the sweet fruit sauce.  All in all I really enjoyed the dish and was very pleased but think I would have enjoyed it more if I got a side of something plain and green like a salad or green beans to balance the sweetness.

My fellow diners all enjoyed their mains, the drinks, the breads and the conversations.

The main course was cleared away and dessert menus were handed out. Some of my fellow diners declined dessert but the majority went for it, going for the traditional Sernik cheesecake, which I was told was very good.

Dessert: Rich chocolate mousse with fresh raspberries and chrust biscuit

Thick chocolate mousse with raspberries and chrust

The mousse was thick and almost more like a very thick chocolate cream than a mousse. It was sweet but not as choclately as it could have been. The raspberries were fresh and at room temperature which I was happy about. The chrust biscuit was a deep fried dough stick. As it was quite plain, just lightly dusted with icing sugar, it was a nice accompaniment to the mousse. I enjoyed my dessert but, in my opinion, was the least impressive of the three dishes (the best of the three being the soup).

We stayed on for a bit chatting away and I went to check out the toilets. They are individual large cubicles in a black theme with the sink inside. Very nice but I was a bit confused why they put the hand dryer above the sink when there was plenty of space in the cubicle to put it somewhere more convenient.

We got the bill and on our way out I looked at the bar menu and noticed that the bar menu contained pierogi – great! I love pierogi.

Summary: I will definitely be returning and certainly with the Krakow group again as we all enjoyed it so much and felt the set lunch menu was excellent value for money with the food being quite authentic and of a high standard (from the name of the group you can guess that we have all been to Poland, some more than once). The service was brilliant – everything went to time, they were friendly, accommodating and wonderfully patient with a big group like us. I know in the pass with a big group, especially as we can get a little loud and not everyone is ready to order etc, waiting staff can be a little curt but not at the Baltic. I liked everything about the Baltic and it is everything a modern restaurant should be. I don’t know if we had such a good experience because the restaurant was virtually empty apart from us or because it is always that good but by returning, especially for the Pierogi, I endeavour to find out.

Pierre Victorie

Pierre Victoire
5 Dean Street
London
W1D 3RQ
www.pierrevictoire.com
Date visited: Friday 12^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself, MBB and The Cheesemonger
Price of meal: approx £17 pp for 3 course set lunch menu, dessert and coffee

I had heard lots of good things about Pierre Victorie and as I had a money off voucher as it were and the Luncheon Club (as this little posse is lovingly known) were long overdue for a meeting; to Pierre Victorie we headed.

I arrived late and MBB and The Chessemonger were already seated at a decent sized table near the window in a very busy, buzzing but relaxed restaurant with a rustic French provincial bistro interior. The set menu is large and extensive, we were very pleased with it and as we gossiped and laughed a waiter came to take our order. I was most impressed with the speed and attention as we asked him to come back in 5 minutes as we were not ready to order and, top marks, he did despite it being a busy lunch time.

The bread basket (already started on)

There was already a generous basket of bread on the table with lots of little packets of butter. The bread was fresh and we didn’t need to order more as it wasn’t one piece per person carefully placed to make it look like more, there was actually a lot of it – top marks again.

Starters:
Myself: Haddock and crab cakes with pickled shredded vegetables salad
MBB: Boullabaise soup
The Cheesemonger: Chicken liver parfait

Haddock and crab cakes with sweet pickle salad

Boullabaise soup

Chicken liver parfait

The starters came in good time and we tucked into them. My haddock and crab cakes were small but tasty though I thought it was quite heavy on the pepper. The sweet pickled salad was a very good accompaniment to it. I enjoyed it lots and could have had more as a main course. MBB was very pleased with his boullabaise especially as it had decent sized chunks of seafood it in. The Cheesemonger enjoyed her starter too saying that “it might look like a mossy river bank but it’s actually very nice.”

Thumbs up all round and our plates were cleared away soon after we had finished.

Main Course:
Myself: Haddock gratin with spinach and hand cut chips
MBB: Beef bourguignon
The Cheesemonger: Roasted belly of pork with red cabbage and apples

Delicious but bad for the arteries haddock gratin and hand cut chips

Generous beef bourguignon with very green green beans

Generous roast pork loin

My haddock gratin came in a little dish saturated in a butter cheese sauce on a wooden platter with chips on the side. The haddock was perfectly cooked, moist and had lots of flavour. The spinach was underneath the haddock so try as hard as I might I could not avoid consuming copious amounts of butter and cheese and damn it tasted nice! The chips were very good too and freshly made. To balance out the copious amounts of butter and cheese (I had to eat the spinach, its vegetable!) I consumed MBB and The Cheesemonger helped me out with the chips. MBB was pleased with his beef bourguignon, there were lots and lots of beef chunks and even a few green beans to add some colour and it tasted great. The Cheesemonger had a huge chunk of pork, it looked great and it tasted great too according to the Cheesemonger and I can well believe her.

Our empty plates were cleared away swiftly again and we were asked if we wanted dessert. Well the food so far had been so good, of course we were going to have dessert and coffee.

Dessert and coffee:
Myself: Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and filtered white coffee
MBB: Chocolate mousse and cappuccino
The Cheesemonger: Moist amaretto tiramisu and filtered white coffee

Not to big not too small but just right sized sticky toffee pudding

Glass of chocolate mousse

Trifle-esque tiramisu

There was a real dilemma for me whether I had banoffee pie or the sticky toffee pudding so I asked if I could see the banoffee pie to see if there was lots of cream it (I don’t like lots of cream). She brought it over and half of it was cream but it did look very tasty.

The sticky toffee pudding sponge was very light, not too sweet and very good. The vanilla ice cream was good and fairly standard. MBB’s chocolate mousse was very chocolaty and light and the Cheesemonger’s tiramisu’s was huge and tasted good and she enjoyed. Our coffees came soon after dessert with a little biscuit. Both were good thought I would have liked a bigger cup and I don’t think there was a difference between the cappuccino and filtered coffee.

The coffee and biscuit

Summary: I am definitely going to return to Pierre Victorie. The food is excellent and the portions are generous. Apart from the desserts it seemed mostly like genuine French bistro food. I can’t believe they are selling such great food for such low prices, no wonder it was packed at lunch and I bet it will be packed at dinner and be the same every day. The service is excellent; the staff are friendly, attentive and quick. This restaurant is close to perfect, perhaps even more so than the Michelin starred restaurants I’ve been to mainly because the service is so good.

UPDATE!!!

Dear reader,
It is with great sadness, a tear in my eyes and a heavy heart that I must report the following news…

I took The Quiff, Apple Geek, Apple Geek’s German cousin and the Cyclist to Pierre Victorie this evening as I thought they would really like it – this being the best restaurant I have been to and knowing it would suit all tastes and prices.

Well we arrived at 6pm, when the table was booked. I didn’t think it would be busy as it was early. It was busy but not heaving, our table was waiting and a fresh and generous bread basket as I knew there would be. Anyway, the waiter came twice for our order but we weren’t ready. By the third attempt we were. Only 3 of us where having starters and these came in good time and were delicious as expected. We had all ordered mains and this is where the problems began. IT took too long for our mains to come and Apple Geek did not appreciate this. And with a heavy heart I must, in all honesty agree. It was too long to wait and I guess it was also more noticable as we were on a time budget (The Quiff, Apple Geek and the German cousin had a train to catch) and Apple Geek didn’t have a starter. The waiter did come up eventually, probably because he could see we were agitated, to apologise and tell us our food was coming. When the food did come it was delicious and a good size portion as expected. BUT oh! the 2 beef bourguignon mains we had did not have french beans as MBB’s had when I first dining at the restaurant!

We then order dessert. There should have been enough time to get dessert and not rush to the station. But alas, it took a while for the waiter to come and take our order and a while for it to come. The coffee never arrived and so we cancelled it and got the bill.

Oh dear  – the service was one of the best things about Pierre Victorie and the service is still good – they are still friendly and good, it was just the food took too long to come. To defend my favourite restaurant, I think the wait wasn’t too long, we just felt it more because we were on a time budget. Just like the time we were at The Terrace restaurant, but that really was a long wait and no apology!

Summary: I will definitely be back, the slight wait has not put me off, everything else was still excellent!