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!

A summary of my 2011 Kinver gastronomic weekend!

A summary of my Kinver 2011 eats

My annual trip up to the West Midlands to visit The Quiff and Apple Geek for a gastronomic weekend. So here is a quick summary of my eats.

Blakelands, Country House and Restaurant
Halfpenny Green
Bobbington
South Staffordshire
DY7 5DP
www.blakelands.co.uk/restaurant.html
Date visited: Friday 5^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself and the Quiff and Apple Geek
Price of meal: total £100+ for all 3 of us, including; aperitif, service and coffee. Thank you to The Quiff and Apple Geek for treating me

Part of Blakelands grounds and house

Blakelands restaurant is within the Blakelands Country house and grounds, a lovely erm… country house as said where it would be nice to have a wedding. I do believe there was a wedding party on the evening we dined.

We started off in the cosy, country house bar where we sat in cosy arm chairs and sofas. Waiter service for our drinks (sorry can’t remember what they were) and where we get the restaurant menu which is very English with many yum sounding dishes. The lady who takes on the maitre’d role (though I couldn’t imagine Blakelands having a maitre’d) takes our dinner orders as we sup in the bar. About 10 minutes later she asks if we are ready to go through to the restaurant, which we are and do and our drinks are brought in.

As we sit down the friendly waitress takes over. There is bread on the table and we start munching as the friendly waitress brings over our starters.

Starters:
Myself: Mango, grapefruit and watermelon cocktail
The Quiff: Salmon and dill fishcake with sour cream, citrus dressed leaves
Apple Geek: Cream of mushroom soup, smoked bacon croutons

Grapefruit cocktail starter

An honest fishcake

Honest mushroom soup

I was expecting a leafy green salad with some fruit in it but what I got was fruit in a glass but not even the fruit I was lead to expect, it was just red and white grapefruit segments. It tasted very good but would have been better as a dessert rather than a confused starter. The Quiff’s fishcake was not the normal patty shape but a breadcrumb ball which was very well cooked and very tasty. I didn’t try the sour cream but it looked like whipped cream, I’m sure it tasted fine through. Apple Geek enjoyed his soup, I didn’t taste it but we can take his word for it.

Our empty dishes were taken away and our mains were brought out soon afterwards.

Main Course:
Myself: Guinea fowl breast, pork, orange and ginger stuffing, fine cointreau gravy
The Quiff: Shropshire lamb cutlets, finished with loganberry juice
Apple Geek: Fillet steak, black tiger prawns, melting garlic and parsley butter

Honest and hearty guinea fowl

Honest and hearty lamb chops

Impressive surf and turf

The mains were good sized portions on hot plates. My guinea fowl main was delicious; very cooked, still moist, tender and had good flavour. The stuffing was a bit too wet but you could certainly taste the orange with a very slight hint of ginger. The gravy was very nice again with just a hint of cointreau. The Quiff had fairly large lamb cutlets but there was a decent chunk of fat and bone on it. He really enjoyed it and had no complaints. Apple Geek had a very well cooked steak, good size, well seasoned and generally very good. There was a large handful of prawns which were again well cooked (it is so easy to overcook prawns become chewy). Apple Geek really liked it. Each dish came with roasted new potato on the plate but what impressed me the most was that each table gets complimentary vegetables and chips as accompaniments as standard without needing to ask. This is a stroke of brilliance and I think all non-budget restaurants should follow suit. We completely appreciated this! You could see the potato the chips were cut from and they were very good. The vegetables were fresh and we got; broccoli, carrots and French beans simply steamed of boiled, no seasoning so you add your own to taste or dip into your sauce. All in all the main courses were a big hit, we were happy eaters.

Complimentary veggies - genius!

Complimentary chips - genius!

The waitress is excellent, she asks us after clearing away the main course, if we want a few minutes before dessert – Yes! She could tell we were full, what attentive service, you know after 2 reasonable size courses to properly enjoy dessert you need a breather. She came back a few minutes later for our dessert order and, perhaps we had a breather, we also went for coffee. The waitress asked if we wanted the coffee in the bar – what a nice idea, yes please.

Dessert:
Myself: Warm apricot brioche bread and butter pudding
The Quiff: White chocolate and lime cheesecake, deliciously light
Apple Geek: Hot sweet waffle, chocolate and butterscotch sauce, Movenpick white chocolate ice cream and… whipped double cream (aka teeth rot with a side of clogged artery!)

Apricot bread and butter pudding

Light and tasty cheesecake

Sweet tooth stodgy yumminess

The desserts came and they looked good and apart from Apple Geek’s waffle (which we expected to be big) they were not too big and looked manageable. The bread and butter pudding was very good, not too sweet and not too stoggy. There was also a jug of warm cream to pour on top. You could taste hints of both the white chocolate and lime in the Quiff’s cheesecake which was, as they said, light too – excellent, what it says on the tin. Apple Geek’s waffle was, just as you expect – large, sweet, yummy. We all really like.

After dessert we retired to the bar where good coffee is brought over with Benedict mint disc. After a chat and laughter (as always, oh I have such brilliant friends) we get the bill (thanks again to The Quiff and Apple Geek for treating me). I got to the toilets before we leave. These are back towards the restaurant and then upstairs behind the bar. The womens is very pink, clean, spacious with carpet and an actual fluffy towel to dry your hands on.

Potent irish coffee, regular coffee and peppermint tea

Summary: Excellent! Great service – everything is just as you need, they have honed this down very well and made it very comfortable. Honest good food, well cooked with a good range of vegetarian dishes too and you know I love the complimentary chips and vegetables. Great location in a lovely building. Shame that it is in the middle of nowhere really but it just wouldn’t be the same on the high street. If you have the chance to visit it I highly recommend you do and it doesn’t break the bank either.

Black Country Living Museum
Tipton Road
Dudley
West Midlands
DY1 4SQ
www.bclm.co.uk
Date visited: Saturday 6^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself and the Quiff
Price of meal: £1.50 pp

Yummy heart attack chips

Proof of "goodness"!

Asked what I wanted to do on Saturday, I replied (like a geek) that I wanted to visit the Black Country Museum so The Quiff took me as Apple Geek was working. The only thing I will tell you about the Black Country Museum is that it a recreation of the mining community in the Black Country during the 1930s where you can go down a mine, walk through houses that actors sit in and will answer your questions and there are recreations of shops and businesses some of which actually function as shops. It was to one of these, possibly one of the most famous ones at the Black Country Living Museum, that The Quiff and I went for lunch. It was Hobbs’ Fish and Chip shops, which cooks its chips the traditional 1930s Black Country way – in beef dripping! The queue was fairly long and out of the shop when we arrived but as we were hungry we decided to line up and glad we did because the queue just kept growing. There is not much on the menu; chips, cod, roe and we saw some kids with scraps (deep fried batter bits) on top of their chips. The Quiff and I both got a bag of chips with salt and vinegar and sat in the shop to eat them. They were cut from the potato and tasted very very good. We munched away adding more salt and vinegar as we went. We could feel our arteries clogging as we were lining up and they were certainly clogging as we ate but it tasted so good. We were very happy eaters as were all the others who brought food from Hobbs. If you do go to the Black Country Living Museum you should certainly visit Hobbs and get lunch there.

Apple Geek hotel – garden
Somewhere in the West Midlands
No website
Date visited: Saturday  6^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself and the Quiff and Apple Geek
Price of meal: About £40 in total

The weather looked changeable but for a few moments the weather looked faintly sunny and as Apple Geek has an excellent gazebo with an outdoor heater we decided there has to be a barbeque, especially as so much meat was purchased for this very purpose! Whilst I busied myself with making a pathetic salad Apple Geek and the Quiff got on to doing the business of barbequing meat! The Quiff and myself went to Kinver village that very morning and acquired; 2x beef burgers, 1x pheasant and apricot burger (I think it was this?), pre-war sausages (no crap in them!), 3x fillet steaks. The butchers were very generous with the meat and in the end we didn’t cook the beef burgers and 1 of the steaks.

Pheasant burger and bit of salad

EXCELLENT steak!

The pheasant and apple burger was excellent – meaty but you could definitely taste the sweet apricot. The sausages known as pre-war as “there is no crap in them”, to quote Apple Geek, was just that. Very meaty and very tasty and well seasoned. The filet steak was expertly cooked to perfection by Apple Geek; still juicy and tender with excellent flavour. Much meat was consumed with some fresh bread we also picked up from the local bakery that morning with excellent salted butter brought all the way from France by Apple Geek his very self! Another successful and triumphant barbeque from Apple Geek made all the more English by the fact that the rain started to pelt it down as we were finishing our meat and we had to run like a troupe of acrobats in and out of the house to clear up as well as shelter the barbeque machine under the gazebo.

Sizzling pre-war sausages

Before the barbeque meat feast had begun Apple Geek and I baked a cake in order to recreate his yummy Victoria sponge from last year. Alas, perhaps it was because I helped out, perhaps we had taken the cake out of the oven too early the sponges did not come out in one piece and them they stuck together when we placed them on top of each other even though they had cooled! We had made up the jam and butter cream – what were we to do??? There was a wave of genius and a story told, it was then in the forge that is Apple Geek’s kitchen that The Kinver Mess was born! What is a Kinver Mess? Something the world’s top restaurants will be serving soon, that’s what!

Health conscious Kinver Mess

Inspired Kinver Mess

You take a healthy slice or chunk of the sponge, place into a bowl. You them dollop on as much jam and butter cream as is your preference and eat. You can choose to whizz it together to give it a more mess like appearance and blend the flavours as I like to do or keep your flavours separate as Apple Geek likes to and generously slosh chunks of sponge into the jam and butter cream as you go. This is an excellent dessert as you then get jam and butter cream on all bits of sponge, not just the middle and you don’t get an over load of butter cream at the end of the slice. Absolute delicious geniusness in a bowl! We proceeded to eat Kinver Mess throughout the weekend.

Bank Restaurant
4 Brindley Place
Birmingham
B1 2JB
www.bankrestaurants.com/birmingham_restaurant.html
Date visited: Sunday 7^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself and Apple Geek
Price of meal: £32 in total including drinks

Myself, the Quiff and Apple Geek were due to have brunch at Bank but the Quiff couldn’t make it in the end. We had booked a table the night before online but we could not get the time we wanted, 12pm, so we booked for 11.30am but when we arrived it was completely empty. Even at 12pm there were only a few more tables. I guess they don’t let you book when they expect it to get very busy.

Fresh and crunchy bread rolls

Anyway, Apple Geek and I arrived, were shown to a table(we had our pick really) and got bread rolls which were fresh out of the oven. These were really nice, hot, very crunchy on the outside and warm and fluffy in the centre with salted butter. Our main waiter was overly quiet/ softly spoken and sl-ow. He came over gave us the menu and would pause hovering over the open menu then point out slowly which bit was the lunch set menu. Then he asked us what we wanted to drink, we would tell him and it would take him a few seconds before he would acknowledge what we asked for as if it took the sound 5 seconds to hear him. Good thing we had time but I found it a little annoying especially when he was slow with serving the food.

Brunch starter:
Myself: Crayfish and mackerel salad and a grapefruit juice
Apple Geek: Earl Grey tea

Earl Grey, grapefruit juice and water

Crayfish and mackerel salad

I ordered from the set lunch menu which was 2 courses and a soft drink. The salad came after not too long a wait and was very good. There was a lot of crayfish and mackerel which was well cooked and the entire salad had good flavour. For a starter salad it was quite filling. I really enjoyed it and could have had it as a one course brunch if it was larger, they should really think about doing that.

Brunch main:
Myself: Gnocchi with sun dried tomato and peppers
Apple Geek: Full English breakfast without black pudding or tomato (so scrambled eggs, bacon mushroom and white toast)

Very good gnocchi

A semi-full English breakfast

The gnocchi was very well made and the sun dried tomato and pepper sauce had good flavour and well seasoned. It wasn’t drenched in the sauce, there was just enough, it wasn’t too greasy either/ overly olive oiled. Very good and I really enjoyed it.  Apple Geek enjoyed his Full English and said it tasted good. It was a lovely leisurely brunch and it was really nice to have some time to sit have a nice relaxing chat with Apple Geek.

The waiter came to clear the plates. He asked us if we had finished – ‘yes’ we replied and then there was a pause as he stood stock still, long enough for me to nearly say to him – ‘you can clear our plates away’ but just as I start to open my mouth he begins to move and clear the plates away. There was no one sitting anywhere near us and so I didn’t like the way he leaned over us to clear stuff, it was really disruptive.

Apple Geek and the Quiff had been to Bank before and on their first visit they didn’t like it as they were sat where the walk way was and it was not a pleasant experience. I could tell from the layout of the restaurant there were too many tables and arranged in a grind like pattern which was uninventive and not good for comfortable dinning.

Apple Geek hotel – kitchen
Somewhere in the West Midlands
No website
Date visited: Sunday 7^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself and the Quiff and Apple Geek
Price of meal: unknown

First thing on Sunday morning the Quiff began chopping beef and vegetables, making stock and putting it all into the slow cooker and leaving it to cook. The results of this hard work paid off and we were going to eat it on Sunday night with peas and new potatoes brought from the local grocers in Kinver village. When Apple Geek and myself got back from our brunch and shopping we gave the beef stew a mix and added about large and generous glug of red wine into the stew. We think this added something extra nice to the stew.

Sorry no photos of the amazing stew but this is a photo of the pumpkin pies The Quiff made but I didn't get to taste as there was too much food!

When we eventually began eating the stew it was delicious! The Quiff cut the beef into large chunks which fell apart in the mouth tender and soft and the slow stewing meant they were full of flavour. The vegetables were soft but not disintegrating as I thought they maybe having cooked for that long. The sauce was also delicious as it had the flavours from the meat, vegetables and seasoning. We also had bread and butter as accompanying the meal.  Thanks very much to the Quiff for preparing and cooking the lovely stew.

Thanks very much to the Quiff and Apple Geek for another brilliant and gastronomic weekend!

The Capability

The Capability
Syon Park Hotel
Syon Park
Brentford
London
TW8 8JF
www.londonsyonpark.com
Date visited: Saturday 23^rd July 2011
Attendees: Myself and the Quiff and Apple Geek
Price of meal: total £200+ for all 3 of us, including; cocktails, wine, service and coffee. Thank you to The Quiff for treating me and Apple Geek

Syon Park hotel is in London but not the easiest place to get to. It is set in Syon Park which doesn’t have the best transport link in my humble opinion. It took me a while to get to the hotel but get to it I must – Apple Geek had booked the hotel as a luxury break with The Quiff and I was supposed to be a surprise! The Quiff and Apple Geek were sitting in Brownies – the hotel’s sweet tooth bar. SURPRISE! We hugged and talked, I wanted a root beer float but the bar man didn’t know what a root beer was and said they didn’t have any (train your staff properly and take it off your menu if you don’t stock root beer!) so I have a ginger beer float instead.

Ginger beer float fuzzing over

It was nice but not really worth the price (thank you to Apple Geek for treating me). Not best ginger beer or vanilla ice cream. The menu for Brownies does look impressive though, especially the boozy ice cream cocktails!

Anyway after a looking round the hotel and Kew Gardens, one of the local attractions, we get ready for dinner starting with a drink in the bar…

The bar is called Peacock Alley and harks back to a time to of retro kitsch glitz and glamour – it reminded me of Dr No’s lair full of crushed velvet, baby blue leather and kitsch Chinoiserie ceramic and ornaments. The Quiff and my favourite was a large growling dragon. I don’t think the waitress who served us understood us very well and we didn’t understand her. She began by giving us a very tatty drinks menu saying she was sorry but couldn’t find another one but can tell us her recommendations, which we take her up on. She starts but obviously forgets what the cocktails are and what is in them, stutters and hands us the menu and tells us the specials are on the first few pages!

Pre dinner drinks:
Myself: Ginger Rogers (freshly pressed carrots and apples teased with warming notes of ginger and cinnamon, served straight and layered with luxurious cardamom foam.)
The Quiff: Sloe Gin (Sipsmith gin caressed with Sipsmith gin, finished with hints of bitter orange and fragrant lemon)
Apple Geek: Cipriani

Ginger Rogers non-alcoholic cocktail

Sloe gin mixed with Sloe gin

Powerful Cipriani

The bar is by no means busy but it took a while to get the waitress’s attention and longer than it should to get the drinks.  My Ginger Rogers comes first (even though the drink is full the waitress walks so slowly, they should be trained to walk with full drinks?) in a very impressive glass. I couldn’t make out the flavours it was supposed to contain but it was nice. Sweet and quite filling – it wasn’t foam on top but a thick layer of cream. All in all not bad and good stab at a non-alcoholic cocktail, top marks for invention but lower marks for flavour. The Quiff’s Sloe Gin was over poweringly strong, yup it was just pure gin and it went straight to the Quiff’s head. Apple Geek Cipriani was fairly strong as well – they are generous with shots there.

We decide to go to the restaurant and asked the waitress if she could take our drinks in. Yes she replies and asks us to wait a moment. I thought she went to get a tray or something but she actually forgot or didn’t understand what we asked! Anyway we go to the maitre d’ and tell her we want to eat now and could someone bring our drinks in. As she is showing us to our seats she wishes me a happy birthday – we tell her it is actually The Quiff who is belatedly celebrating his birthday, whoops! At least she tried. When we get to the table she doesn’t pull a seat out as you normally would, she just stands there going on about this and that. We seat ourselves and she is still going on about this and that. I was beginning to think she was on some drug that made her talk and talk. Finally she goes and we can get on with the meal. It wasn’t that I was hungry but … my gosh going on! Another waitress comes in with our drinks, this one is nice and friendly in the normal way – judged The Quiff was already a bit tipsy.

A dying pot plant on our table

A waiter comes to offer us water and recommends some of the dishes – and he actually does do this, I was expecting him to tell us to look at the first page of the menu! A wooden platter is brought to the table with a small slice loaf and room temperature salted and unsalted butter. We like a lot – the bread seems like it is fresh out of the oven with a very good crunchy crust and the butter is butter (not a yellow spread).

Fresh bread and butter board

Starters:
Myself: “Waldorf salad” celery, apple and pickled walnuts
The Quiff: Spider crab salad with quails eggs and mayonnaise
Apple Geek: Pan-fried wood pigeon with char-grilled courgettes and pickled gooseberries

Wardolf salad

Crab and quail eggs salad

 

Perfectly cooked pigeon

 

 

 

 

 

 

The offensive piece of toast

 

 

 

 

My Waldorf salad comes in a huge, nice, but a bit over the top, rustic wooden bowl. The celery was in large crunchy slices, the apple was sweet and powdery (rather than crunchy and tart), the pickled walnuts were done in sweet pickle, very soft, black and few slices of it compared to the amount of celery and apple (they didn’t look like walnuts at all – are they supposed to be black?). The sauce was sweet and that is as much as I can say for it. I thought there should be something else – a bit of lettuce? Anyway it was very filling, I couldn’t finish it even though it was very nice. The Quiff’s crab was very good, dressed in a light mayonnaise and he enjoyed and appreciated the quails eggs that had googey soft boiled yokes. What I was disappointed with, but the quiff didn’t mind, the crap slice of toasted brown bread – they gave you a warm loaf as table bread but a toasted slice with your crab salad! It was a unanimous vote by the table that Apple Geek won the competition for best starter. The pigeon was cooked medium, tender and well seasoned – delicious. Apple Geek seemed to like the courgettes (a mix of yellow and green). He didn’t try the pickled gooseberry.

When the starters were cleared away the mains were brought out pretty promptly afterwards. Not long after we got them a group, who looked like they were the cast of The Only Way is Essex sat on the table behind us – ah so this hotel and restaurant which were in the middle of nowhere-London attracts people like Apple Geek who want to experience a bit of luxury, just like the cast of The Only Way is Essex!

Main Course:
Myself: Newlyn Monkfish tail braised in Gloucestershire red wine with herd baked bone marrow
The Quiff: Braised Yorkshire rabbit with spicy wild boar sausage
Apple Geek:  Bannockburn rib eye 400g with chairman’s chips
The share: creamed spinach, minted Sharpe’s express

Monkfish and bone marrow

Rabbit and wild boar sausage stew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The impressive steak

A view of the accompanying side dishes

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main course portions were generous. The monkfish tail was huge, cooked just right and tasted very nice in the red wine. The bone was huge but with little marrow in it and what there was you couldn’t taste as it was over powered but all sorts of other flavours added to it. I really like bone marrow but this was a bone marrow crumble thing made for those who want to say they have tried bone marrow but haven’t really. The Quiff’s rabbit was nicely done and the meat seemed to fall off the bone easily. I thought the spicy wild boar sausage wasn’t that spicy or that great – it was more like a non-spicy anaemic chipolata. Again the vote was unanimous – Apple Geek won the best main course, this was recommended by the waiter and cooked medium just as he also recommended. Even though there was a large bone the steak was massive, it filled the whole plate! It was cooked just perfect – nice and red in the middle, juice no blood, very tender, well seasoned, you could taste the flame grill on the meat, absolutely delicious. The accompanying chips were the best I have ever tasted. The waiter said they were cooked in rapeseed oil so they were healthier than vegetable oil chips but they tasted so good I thought they were heart attack worthy.  The spinach was ok (I’m not a fan of creamed spinach – no need for cream) and the minted Sharpe’s express were new potatoes in butter. There was a miniscule amount of mint on the potatoes and I couldn’t taste it. Generally the potatoes were well cooked, nice and firm, and were a good variety.

I was already quite full by the end of the main course because my Ginger Rogers was also very filling but dessert must be had and so it was.

Dessert:
Myself: Amedei chocolate pudding with caramel and sea salt
The Quiff: Trinty burnt cream with rhubarb
Apple Geek: Amedei chocolate pudding with caramel and sea salt

Chocolate sponge and caramel ice cream

Trinity burnt cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

Myself and Apple Geek both had the chocolate pudding that was recommended by the waiter. When the desserts are brought out the waiter pours the caramel sauce over the puddings for you and leaves the remainder on the table.  The pudding also has a bit of chocolate sauce on the top but I found the pudding generally quite dry, for me I would have preferred if it was a chocolate bomb as it would have been less dry although I will say the sponge was very light. The chocolate twirl thing on top was crunchy and the ice cream, which we think was caramel flavour, was very nice. I was so full I couldn’t finish it and, although very nice, not the best chocolate pudding. I didn’t try The Quiff’s Trinty burnt cream aka crème brulee, but he seemed to enjoy it. It did look like it was well made, not sloppy.

After we finished dessert the restaurant then brought out 3 mini fruit tarts with Happy Birthday written on the plate. A nice touch but we were all so full none of us actually had one.  Like Choosey vultures  the Quiff and Apple Geek picked at 2 and I just ate the fruit off mine which was nice and fresh.

Happy birthday Tarts!

There was a debate about where to have coffee – could we have it in the bar or should we just stay at the table? In the end we ordered 3 Americano coffees for us to have at the bar. We went out and the coffee came quickly afterwards with some petit fours.

Petit Four:
Chocolate ganache petit four and passion fruit truffle in white chocolate

Coffee and petit fours

The coffee was good and inoffensive, quite in mild flavour. I was so full I took my petit fours home but Apple Geek had one of each and really liked them. The Quiff had one chocolate ganache and he liked it. When I did have my petit four the chocolate ganache was very soft, smooth and well made. You could just about taste the passion fruit in the other one and the white chocolate was smooth and not too sweet. Both were very good. Perhaps I enjoyed them more because I wasn’t stuffed when I ate them.

It was a shame that I wasn’t staying at the hotel and had to go, it would have been nicer to linger in the bar with The Quiff and Apple Geek for longer.

Summary: The bar is very good and I love the theme. The drinks are inventive and the alcoholic ones are strong. The restaurant is very nice and the food is made to a high standard but it lacks something in technique, experience and thought. At full price I’m not entirely sure if it would worth it but for the location (I don’t think there are any other fancy restaurants in the local area) it can charge those prices and it does seem to attract the Only Way is Essex crowd and us. The staff are good but they seem like they are cut off from outside contact or something and, although it is nice, they do need to know when to stop talking crap. Oh and they need to hire waitresses that understand their clients better. All in all I would recommend the restaurant if you are staying in the hotel. If it was just a restaurant in London I would certainly go there if there was a deal on. While very good and I really enjoyed the experience of eating there maybe in a few years time when the kitchen has refined its offer I enjoy it even more.

Wahaca

Wahaca
66 Chandos Place
Covent Garden
London
WC2N 4HG
http://www.wahaca.co.uk/flash/main.html
Date visited: Sunday 10th October 2010
Attendees: Myself and Mr Savage
Price of meal: Approximately £15 each

Mr Savage and I were looking for a place for brunch so I suggested here as it was a convenient location and I had heard good things about it. The restaurant in basement and has high ceilings and good lighting so you wouldn’t remember you were in a basement. We got there about 12noon and there were already a few families eating. The restaurant is large with lots of tables. As we shown our seats we were asked if we wanted some tortilla chips and guacamole to nibble on as we peruse the menu, which is printed on the place settings. Normally I don’t order appetisers but Mr Savage was evidently savagely hungry so we got some with our drinks order.

Myself: Auga frescas (hibiscus water, cranberry juice and flavoured Mexican flower juice (I still have no idea what the Mexican flower is, what it tastes like or what hibiscus water taste like the entire thing just tasted like sweeten cranberry juice)
Mr Savage: Coke
To share: tortilla chips and guacamole

Auga frescas - expensive cranberry juice

Tortilla and guacamole

The concept of the restaurant is that it is all about Mexican street food, so different from regular Mexican restaurants in London. The fact that Wahaca is Mexican is partly the reason I have avoided it before – I have never had a great Mexican meal it always seems like refried beans, cheese, chilli, rice and tortillas to me and not very well put together. The menu was very good at explaining what the different types of dishes were and seemed fairly interesting. The arrival of the tortilla chips signalled something good. The chips were very crispy and seemed freshly made. The guacamole was creamy and not too spicy. I really enjoyed them. There were also sauces in little dishes already on the table which we tried – one is spicy green tomato and the other a spicy salsa. There is pink plastic spoon on the sauce dish – probably to spoon the sauce on to your food but I just feel disturbed by it because it resembles a baby spoon. You can order a few ‘street’ dishes to share like tapas or go for a bigger plate. I personally really like eating this way – very social. They also seem to have a good variety of ingredients including what I take to be authentic Mexican ones.

The waitress comes along to ask us if we need anything explained but the menu has good explanations of what certain things are and so we go ahead and order.

Myself: Sonora salad (avocado, pumpkin seeds, beans, British organic spelt and cos lettuce in a crispy tortilla bowl) with soft black beans and cactus
Mr Savage: Chorizo and potato quesadillas, free range chicken burritos

Sonora salad with black beans and cactus

The waitress tells us that everything comes whenever it is ready and there’s no starter followed by main kind of order.  My salad arrives first and looks very impressive – it is generous portion. I immediately try some cactus – in texture it is like a piece of cooked sweet pepper but more firm and slightly more plastic. It is fairly bland in taste but not in a bad way. I like it. The salad seemed to have an equal amount of each ingredient (I hate it when you get a salad and they give you loads of lettuce because it’s cheap and stingy amounts of the rest as they are more expensive), the sauce was not too spicy (I have a fairly low spice tolerance). The tortilla bowl was crispy as advertised and very tasty too. My only slight criticism is that the black beans were all at the bottom and as the sauce had sunk to the bottom when I got to there it was a bit like a large dollop of stewed beans – but it tasted good. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my salad and it really did fill me.

Chorizo and potato quesadilla

Chicken burrito with tortilla chips

The dry looking interior of the burrito

When asked Mr Savage thought his quesadilla and burrito very good, though not as good as the ones he used to have in America he tells me. This prompts me to ask if he thinks it is just his memory of the Mexican food he used to have in America makes him think it was better – e.g. when I was a kid I thought McDonald’s was the best thing ever and if I couldn’t eat it as an adult I might still think it was brilliant because that is my memory of it. Mr Savage pauses and thinks for a while – ‘no I’m pretty sure the place I used to go to did better burritos’ – nuff said!

We’re too full for dessert and so we just have coffee which is good and strong, comes with hot milk and a square of chilli chocolate.

Good cup of strong coffee

We are given the bill before we ask for it. Mr Savage is entertained by the fact it is held in a roll by a packet of matches and I don’t like restaurants that give you the bill before you ask for it – I get the impression their attitude is order, eat, pay and f*%k off. A meal, especially when you encourage people to treat it like social dining experience by giving a tapas option and having large tables should be leisurely and enjoyable even if the restaurant is busy. Before we leave I pop to the loo which has an air of things you might feel would fit into a western about it and are decent.

In summary the restaurant has a nice buzzy ambience and for those with children it is family friendly with lots of high chairs to dish out (I did notice they tried to give a couple with a pram a two seat table where the pram would block the walk way and they tried to stuff the high chair at the corner of the table by pushing one of the seats to the side into the next table – the basement’s big but there’s a lot of tables in it – this place ain’t just about the food!). The food is certainly the best Mexican I have had to date and at a decent price. I would certainly go back there.

The Square

The Square
6 – 10 Bruton Street
London
W1J 6PU
http://www.squarerestaurant.com
Date visited: Friday 8th October 2010
Attendees: Myself and MBB
Price of meal: 3 course set lunch @ £25pp, meal total £105.75 with water, 2 glasses wine, coffee and service

The Square has held 2 Michelin Stars since 1998 and Chef owner Philip Howard is a man of flavours, invention and actually cooks in his kitchen all of which, in my personal opinion, are thumbs up.

For the first time I arrived before MBB I am greeted, my jacket is taken and I am shown to our table and order a still water from a lovely smiley male waiter. The restaurant is smaller and more intimate than I thought and something I quite like. MBB turns up soon after, greetings are exchanged, menus handed out and I pop to the loo for an inspection. They are compact and of a different decor of the restaurant. Dark wood, small burnt orange glass tiles and then some dark brown wall paper with silver swirls – I suspect MBB would use the term ‘Naff’ to describe it as he did to similar pattern in Babylon. White flannel hand towels and Molten Brown products, which I personally don’t like.

Tiny bread roll

Mounds of butter

 

 

 

 

 

 
Back to the table and after a reasonable wait our order is taken by Ben Crofton the new general manager. MBB orders a glass of Catalan wine and tells me he is most impressed with the wine list which feature wines from small estates in France and is very extensive. We are offered a petit bread roll from a selection kept in what looks like a hunk of tree and two mounts of butter (salted and unsalted) are placed on the table. Now I am quite sure I have mentioned before, MBB has a thing about bread which he has persuaded me to. We both have the raisin roll which is warm and tastes good but after we have eaten our rolls we are not offered more. This doesn’t bother me so much as one is usually enough for me but I totally take MBB’s point that a good restaurant should keep you topped up with bread – it’s cheap to do so why not? Especially at The Square which give you so much butter that it would be wasted if they didn’t give you the bread to go with it.

Amuse bouche:
White onion soup with a layer of mushroom sauce and onion foam with a truffled mushroom roulade

White onion soup

The female waiter mumbles through what the amuse bouche so quickly that I don’t really catch what it is but this is my guess from my taste of it. I don’t like strong onion flavours but this was very pleasant. The sweetness of the onion really shone through and I am sure the mushroom layer added something subtle but I couldn’t quite tell what. The truffle roulade was very nice too and a nice delicate savoury contrast.

We dissected the labour leadership and shadow cabinet amongst other things as we ate.

Starter:
Myself: Salt cod bavarois and beignet with langoustine claws and preserved lemon
MBB: Veloute of ceps with a truffled mushroom roulade

Salt cod and langoustine

Cappucino cep voloute

The starters arrive in good time and MBB’s starter looks like a creamy cappuccino but he tells me it tastes good and seems to enjoy it. My starter was very good and I remember the menu mentioned salt cod and langoustine but not much else. What I got was salt cod croquettes which was light, crispy and you could really feel the flaky texture and had excellent flavour. The langoustine claws were fresh and flavoursome but I did get some shell. The bavarois was onion-y and not salt cod-y but tasted very nice and I must have missed the preserved lemon if it was there at all and not a sign of the beignet but seemed to have got a selection of fresh peeled shrimps instead. Whether what I got was what was written on the menu or not it was very nice and fresh.

I think it was after the starters talk went on to Olympic legacy, political desires for citizens of this country to work in the retail sector as their greatest of their aspirations and the affect of the loss of manufacture on this country…

Main Course:
Myself and MBB: Roast suckling pig with crushed root vegetables, savoy cabbage and quince

Kitchen staff hold large silver trays with your dishes on them near the entrance to the kitchen until they a waiter is ready to dish out. I enjoy the decadent feeling and MBB certainly mentions his approval of this.

The most amazing suckling pig

There were three different cuts of the meat I don’t know what they were but the kitchen really did bring out the most amazing flavours from it. It was like magic. I don’t know how else to describe it – let’s just say that I found myself thinking about it and wanting to eat it when I got home that evening. Then I found myself think about it when I got up the following day and I am still thinking about it a few hours later as I write this. My mumma cooks damn good roast pork but not even the years of mumma’s homely love could win against this roast suckling pig – magic simply magic! The crackling was stripped of its fat, crispy and tasty, even though I am not experienced enough to work out what the individual vegetables were in the crush the flavour of each was distinct, the savoy cabbage was (in the words of MBB) ‘punching above its weight’. The quince puree (which I kept calling apple as I forgot what was on the menu – how embarrassing, if you know I am wrong MBB please correct me!) was tart, fresh and a great compliment to the meat. The gravy also stood on its own and was a perfect glazed consistency and delicious. I said to MBB that I don’t like mixing the fruity quince with the savoury gravy and I think I generally still don’t like this as any restaurant less capable than The Square would confuse the flavours and make a hash of it. But the sheer ability and skill of the kitchen at The Square meant that it all fitted perfectly and had any ingredient been missing the dish would not have been as wonderful as it was.

As we ate our mains a sulky female waitress refills our glasses without care and it splashes to the point where MBB and I both look up from our food. After she empties the bottle she then brings another without even asking if we wanted it. I was in half a mind to tell her to take it away just because she was so moody.

It took the waiting staff a while to clear our plates and give us the dessert menus but the sulky female waiter was at least competent at using the crumb brush. Where was my happy smiley male French waiter? Oh at least he took our dessert order.

Dessert:
Myself: Warm chocolate mess with 100s and 1000s, milk ice cream and a cocoa cream
MBB: Brillat-Savarin cheesecake with currents

Intensely chocolaty non-mess

Brillat savarin cheesecake slice

I had seen the warm chocolate mess and it looked great so I went for that and MBB nearly paid £5 more for the cheese selection having seen the impressive selection on the wooden trolley. I had a taste of MBB’s cheesecake and it was very smooth, satisfying and had a kick of lemon which made it refreshing for a cheesecake. My chocolate mess was very indulgent and fun. The milk ice cream had a marshmallow consistency, then there was a layer of what seemed like chocolate jelly that was dense in flavour then there were brittle chocolate brownies a contrasted with the other elements of the dessert such as the cocoa cream which was thick and so intensely chocolaty it hurt my throat! Then there were sprinkles of honey comb, chocolate balls, nuts and fizz pop. It was delicious and again I find myself thinking about it the day after.

Lunch was a leisurely luxury so when the lovely smiley waiter asks if we want tea or coffee how could we say no!
Myself: Fresh mint tea
MBB: filter coffee
Petit Four: Freshly nougat

Freshly made nougat

The mint leaves were certainly good ones, not a single old or damaged one in the pot and MBB appreciated the fact his coffee came in a pot so it stayed warm and he could help himself rather than just getting a cup. The nougat was very soft, gooey and a little too sweet for me. After my chocolate fest I could not eat much of it but it was very good and contained a good mixture of different nuts.

We discussed the decor of the restaurant which seemed confused. There were elements that harked back to another era but we couldn’t work out which, there was modern art on the walls which didn’t seem to blend in correctly and the pattern on the decoration plates looked like something from an eighties album cover. There was a heavy under cloth on the tables that we both felt the presence of which MBB described as a “horse blanket” and announced that “if one closed ones eyes, one would image one were on the deck of the Titanic with a blanket over ones legs!” I concurred with “yes, my legs are rather warm”.

Summary: The Square is a lovely intimate space though a bit confused with its decor. The service is hit and miss depending on who you get but generally a bit slow and not attentive enough (especially for a 2 Michelin Star restaurant) – if is was not for me needing a new glass (which were like cute gold fish bowls and I had to use two hands like a child to pick it up safely) because there was a bit of fluff in mine, allowing MBB to ask for another glass of wine, we doubt anyone would have asked if he wanted more wine. Oh but Oh! the food is amazing, it is magic and leaves you smiling all day. It is precise, considered, an experience mind conceived it, a skilful hand put it together, it was bursting with so much flavour that I continue to think about it the next day wondering is it possible that food can have that much flavour and taste so good? When we left the restaurant I felt it only deserved 1 Michelin Star but on reflection, if I am still thinking about how amazing that Suckling pig was a few days later then … Yes MBB and I both agree the food deserves 2 Michelin Stars. Philip Howard we salute you! But please sort out the service.

Benares restaurant and bar

Benares
12A Berkeley Square House
Berkeley Square
London
W1 J 6BS
http://www.benaresrestaurant.com
Date visited: Saturday 18^th September 2010
Attendees: Myself and Me-Lady
Price of meal: £31 pp (3 course set menu with pre-starter, bottle of water and service)

Apologies as there are not photographs for each dish – my camera died and so photos were taken on Me-Lady’s camera phone and she will be sending the missing images soon she assures me!

At our last meeting Me-Lady and I went to Taro 2 (reviewed in May) and she wanted to go somewhere nice so I suggested Benares, which I have wanted to try for ages, and is good for Me-Lady as all the lamb and chicken is halal.

We meet outside the restaurant and Me-Lady she is on the phone in a fluster. We go in and are greeted with ‘Namaste’ by a lady in a black Indian style tunic and a female maitre’d in a sari. We are taken up a short flight of stairs which leads to the bar and through to the main restaurant where to our table is.  A waiter comes along quite swiftly to unravel napkins, the decoration plates are taken away, menus are handed out and we order a bottle of still water on the waiter’s suggestion.

Appetiser:
Mini poppadoms with 3 different chutneys (image to come)

A waiter brings a long a box that has 3 containers on the lid which he removes to reveal mini poppadoms. We are told what the chutneys in the containers are: grated carrot and poppy seed, tomato, and apple. They are all fairly sweet and I think my favourite is the carrot and poppy seed but the apple was a close contender. Our water came quickly and Me-Lady told me why she was in a fluster; she-was-accosted-by-a-con-artist-in-the-street-and-now-she-is-worried-she’ll-be-cursed. I had to reassure her that there-is good-and-bad-in-life-and-it-is-not-down-to-random-nutters-in-the-street-mumbling-curses-under-their-breath-because-you-didn’- give-them-enough-money-for-their-‘predictions’ – *sigh* Me-Lady is still in a fluster!

We waited for quite a while to order and other tables which had come in after us had ordered so it felt like we were being ignored. In the end I had to alert one of the Asian waiters (this distinction is important as you will see later on) and he said he would get the right waiter for us. When this other Asian waiter finally comes we order and I ask him what is Atul Kochhar’s connection with the restaurant? ‘He’s the owner’ is the reply I get – badly phrased question from me so I rephrase – ‘does he still cook here?’ (Digression: I wanted to know if Atul is the type of chef who just has his name above the door and others actually do the work, like Gordon Ramsay, or if he actually cooks and works in his restaurant like Marcus Wareing. It annoys me somewhat when chefs who have Michelin stars don’t actually do the work, I don’t think the awards should be associated with them). Anyway, this is not the type of question the waiter is used to getting I think and so I get not the type of answer I was expecting; ‘Atul and his family will be having lunch at the restaurant today but he won’t be cooking’. The exchange felt like a cat talking to a dog!

Pre starter otherwise known as amuse bouche:
Panipuri with chickpea and yoghurt, a shot of a tamarind based sauce and a potato bhaji

 

Panipuri, potato bhaji and tamarind sauce

 

A French waiter brings our pre starter and carefully explains what each thing is, which he does for every dish we have. I found this most helpful. I prefer this over the waiter just announcing the name of the dish. It feels like the restaurant takes pride in making the food and gives it to you with care and consideration, but I accept this isn’t practical for most restaurants. I try my ‘does Atul Kochhar still cook here?’ question with this waiter. ‘Yes he does but only 2 or 3 times a week because he has his other restaurant in Southampton he cooks at.’ That’s what I was looking for – thank you!

Me-Lady tells me I put in too much tamarind sauce into my panipuri. The sweet and helpful Asian sommelier who is taking away our wine glasses advises us that we can put as much of the tamarind sauce in as we like but we should eat the panipuri in one go. I take his advice and it was utterly delicious! The panipuri was crisp and crunchy, the sweet and tangy tamarind sauce was a perfect accompaniment to the mellow sourness of the thick and creamy yoghurt followed by a whole chick pea at the end like a hidden treasure. The potato bhaji is fluffy, flavoursome, slightly spicy and on a blob of some sweet red chutney and also delicious. I could have eaten a large plateful of both but the panipuri was definitely my favourite.

Starters:
Myself: Pan seared chicken fillets with pickled red cabbage and mint sauce
Me-Lady: Lemon thyme salmon cakes with Greek feta salad (photo will come soon as possible)

 

Mint sauce, red cabbage and chicken

 

The chicken is soft, moist and retained a light ‘chicken’ flavour. The pickled red cabbage is sweet, soft, juicy and didn’t have any of the usual vinegar taste you expect of something pickled. The mint sauce was delicate but flavoursome, fresh, had citrus zing and was very very tasty. When I combined each part in one mouthful they came together harmoniously. I tried a bit of Me-Lady’s salmon cake which was very good but I felt it could have had 80:20 to salmon but it seemed like it was 50:50 salmon and potato. Nice crunchy coating though and Me-Lady didn’t have any complaints, which is the important bit.

Main Course:
Myself: Tandoor cooked grey mullet, south Indian style mash potato and mango sauce
Me-Lady: Goan lamb kofta with coconut tamarind sauce and coconut rice
To share: complimentary naan bread

 

Tandoor grey mullet surrounded by mango sauce

 

 

Goan lamb koftas with amazing coconut rice

 

Our main course came after a well timed gap. The grey mullet was perfectly cooked – it fell apart easily, flaked the way it should do and although cooked in a tandoor was moist. The skin was left on and I got a few fish scales but that could be my only and non-existent criticism. The mash potato was more like crushed potato with mustard seeds which I couldn’t really taste but it was slightly buttery. The mango sauce was creamy and extremely delicate, I could just about taste mango sweetness when I had some on its own but there was no mango smell at all. When I brought it all together in one mouthful it was very tasty, a dish with hints of each element but not one leading flavour. I tried some of Me-Lady’s lamb which was my kind of pink in the middle (medium rare) and was wonderfully flavoured with Indian spices. I did get a small bit of bone in the chunk I tried – hmm… a bit careless of the kitchen. I also tried some of Me-Lady’s rice. Each separate grain was light, fluffy, correctly balanced between soft and a la dente, perfectly cooked basmati rice. You could certainly smell, and would get as an after taste of, sweet coconut with the rice’s own fragrance lingering in the background, it was magic and yes, this rice was something to write home about! And I like to think I know a thing or two about rice.

The naan bread is the best I have ever had. Crisp on the outside, wholesome in the middle and brought to us wrapped in a napkin so they would stay warm and fresh as long as possible.

Everything is cleared away, the crumb brush gives our table the once over and we are handed the dessert menu. The French waiter takes our dessert and coffee order and as far as I could tell from their uniforms he and the Asian waiter (who ran off to get someone else) are of the same rank.

Dessert:
Myself and Me-Lady: Raspberry éclair with ginger basil sorbet and raspberry puree

 

Raspberry eclair with raspberry smear and brilliant basil sorbet

 

The éclair is bigger than I expected but the choux pastry was soft sweet and buttery with raspberry cream in the centre which Me-Lady points out as looking rather curdled. It put her off eating it somewhat and although I agreed with her on the look it didn’t put me off. The cream was a good weight – not too light or heavy and carried the raspberry flavour and colour well, I really enjoyed the tartness of the raspberry puree smear as the cream was quite sweet. We both agreed the best bit was definitely the amazing basil sorbet. Very refreshing and left a brilliant hint of basil lingering in the mouth and nose. The only problem was that the quenelle was too small especially compared to the huge choux pastry, oh and I couldn’t taste ginger at all but basil on it’s own was still amazing or maybe more ginger would have made the sorbet less nice?

The coffee was strong and I apologise for not taking time to properly sup out the flavours and so can’t comment on the quality but it seemed decent stuff to me. Me-Lady enjoyed playing with the sugar tongs and hot milk came in a small silver jug frothed up. The petit fours were as follows: (photos will be added asap)
A pringle shaped wafer thin crispy sesame snap – a great balance between sweet and sesame
A jelly cube coated in granulated sugar – intense red colour but of a non-descript fruit flavour
A rectangle of intense and sweet chocolate ganache with a whole hazelnut
A cube of average, compared to the rest of the meal, almond cake and Me-Lady felt there was orange in it too.

In summary the food was amazing and I certainly felt Benares deserved its Michelin Star. The service seemed a bit hit and miss, there was a noticeable difference between the two types of waiters. The French ones were lovely and the Asian ones could have been more welcoming. The interior is simple and classic dark earthy browns with off white creams, comfortable seating, tables aren’t too close together and the bar area has a lovely over flowing pool with floating flowers. The functional and simple beauty of the restaurant carries through into the toilets which are well lit.

I thoroughly enjoyed Benares, it was brilliant and will be looking for opportunities to enjoy another dinning experience there.

I did see a relaxed Atul there with his family and friends at the chef’s table. I saw his wife and son in the toilets too and the cute energetic little kid was the spit of his dad – it is nice to see the chef owner and his family enjoy the restaurant, added something more to my day there.

A summary of my Kinver eating weekend

A summary of my Kinver eating weekend
Friday 20^th August 2010

Scheduled in the calendar was a weekend in Kinver in the company of The Quiff and Apple Geek – this was part of an on-going month long set of celebrations. I would like to share my experience of my weekend away through the medium of food as there was quite a bit of it …

On Friday evening after work I caught the train up to Sandwell and Dudley and was met at the station by my chuffer, The Quiff, who drove me to my lodgings for the weekend – the lovely home of Apple Geek. I was greeted by Apple Geek at his door and after warm salutations and putting my bags down was greeted by a beautiful cake. Apple Geek had baked the cake his very self, iced it and everything! I was touched and instantly gained 10lbs by just looking at it!

After this and thats Apple Geek put some cheesy ciabatta balls to warm up in the oven before the main meal. The Quiff was tasked with putting together some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip the bread in. I restrained myself from having any of the bread though they smelt lovely. I wanted to save myself for my dinner which Chef Apple Geek would be cooking and I was looking forward to.

Dinner on Friday night, as cooked by Apple Geek with the Quiff as Sous Chef:
Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek: Pork medallions in a cider apple sauce with fat chips and vegetables

Pork with chips and vegetables

Pork with chips - Apple Geek's meal

The chips were already in the oven when I arrived so Apple Geek pan-fried the pork whilst The Quiff microwaved the vegetables in the bag. I have not knowingly had vegetable cooked this way before but I heard it was a good way of cooking them as it meant they kept lots of nutrients? The sauce the pork came in was very nice, slightly sweet and quite light. The pork was done perfectly – the meat was cooked through (very important with pork) but was still moist and not at all chewy or tough, something that is easy to do with pork. The chips were my kind of chips – fluffy on the inside and nice and fat so you can get a real bite of it. I was most impressed with the vegetables. Although I can’t tell you what the nutritional values were of these microwaved ones were compared to boiled vegetables I thought they tasted very nice and had the right amount of crunch to them and it was a good varied selection of broccoli, carrots and beans. There was plenty of food and we ate until we were stuffed.

After a chat and I believe some TV we returned to the kitchen for dessert which we couldn’t shovel down immediately after dinner as we were all so full.

Dessert
Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek: Intensely chocolately mini pots of chocolate

Intensely chocolately chocolate pots (and spoon)

I think Apple Geek got them from Marks and Spencers and they were wicked! Very chocolatey but not too sweet, consistency was like a thick paste which meant it had a little bite, the chocolate would roll about in your mouth coating it before falling down the gullet and it left a residue on the spoon that you had to consciously scrape off. The pot was just about the right amount per person as it was so thick and intense. Yum yum yum M&S – I am impressed!

Saturday 21^st August 2010

A nice lie-in, a slow waking and lovely hot powerful shower to start the day. Apple Geek was working so I spent a delightful few hours with the Quiff. Breakfast was a cup of Darjeeling and cereal then we went for a trip to Stratford upon Avon – the home of the greatest British writer, William Shakespeare.

Othello Bar and Brasserie
Mercure Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare Hotel
Chapel Street
Stratford-upon-Avon
CV37 6E
http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-6630-mercure-stratford-upon-avon-shakespeare-hotel/restaurant.shtml
Attendees: Myself and The Quiff
Price of meal: approximately £10 pp, including tip

We had lunch in the pretty historic town at the Mercure hotel’s Othello Bar and Brasserie. The Quiff said he and Apple Geek had eaten here when they visited Stratford-upon-Avon. The exterior is Tudor in style and I suspect that it is heavily reconstructed and/ or modern. The interior has dark wooden floors, fairly bare with dark furniture and widely spread out tables – it was nice that the tables were not regimentally set out and generally allowed much space between them. We were sat at one of the window seats and given menus. There seemed to only be two members of waiting staff and the restaurant was not busy but service was slow – slow to take our orders and slow for the food to come, although I note the drinks came quickly and service was generally friendly. Both myself and the Quiff noticed this and I wondered whether it was because we are used to the rush of things in London, generally service outside of London a little slower and laid back?

Lunch:
Myself: Vegetarian club sandwich containing halloumi, avocado, tomato and lettuce with crisps
The Quiff: Aberdeen Angus burger with chips

Dissection of vegetarian club sandwich

Burger and chips, ketchup in shot glass

The Quiff’s burger was a bit small I thought but it seemed fun that his chips came in a soup bowl. He said that the burger was good. My club sandwich was good too and I liked the thick chunks of avocado but did not feel that the halloumi needed to be deep fried. The food did the job and was not bad, decent for what it was , for the location and price. After lunch we went off to visit the house where the Bard lived!

We got back to Kinver about 5pm where Apple Geek was waiting and we had tea/ coffee and finally the yummy yummy cake.

Snack:
Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek: Yummy yummy cake and a cuppa tea

Yummy yummy cake slices

Apple Geek must have put a lot of love into the cake when he was making it! The sponge had risen well and was slightly sweet, light and fluffy – I don’t  even remember chewing it! The jam was raspberry, spread on thickly but not over poweringly so and the icing, which I later found out was only put on to hide cosmetic imperfections, was a smooth butter cream and not too sweet – just to my liking as I am not a big icing fan usually because it is too sweet. The flavours came together well and I tried to eat it slowly so I could savour each chunk, it was so moreish. I find it a shame you can’t taste the cake and a shame I have to write about it as it makes me salivate just thinking about it… Yes reader it was yummy yummy and full of love!

I can’t remember what we did next but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Iron Chef America (so much better than the UK version!) then it was off for dinner.

The Old Gate at Heathton
Heathton
Calverley
Shropshire
WV5 7EB
http://www.oldgateinn.com/
Date visited: Saturday 21^st August 2010
Attendees: Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek
Price: Unknown as The Quiff and Apple Geek kindly treated me, check out their website

The Old Gate is a pub, which to me seems to be in the middle of nowhere. It certainly did look, on the inside and outside, like a ye ol’ traditional country pub. We went inside and the staff enforced the impression of a ye ol’ traditional country pub. We walked through a series of small interconnected rooms to our table which had menus placed at the ready and the specials were on a wooden board.

Starter:
Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek: Sweet chilli glazed chicken wings and breadboard with olive oil, olives, tomatoes and hummus to share

Chicken wings starter for one!

Breadboard with brown and white bread chunks, stewed tomatoes, black olives, hummus and olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a pot

The Quiff and Apple Geek had been here before and told me the portions were huge. The plate of chicken wings for one was huge for one person – if we only had that as a starter to share I think we would have been ok. The wings were very nice, decent, unfussy fare as you would expect from a country pub. The breadboard had big hunky chunks of bread and a generous smattering of all the other bits. I didn’t have any bread as I was saving myself for the main as I saw the size of the starters and of other people’s portions, but the olives, tomatoes and hummus was nice though I suspect that most of them came out of jars. The Quiff and Apple Geek did seem to enjoy it though and I was very tempted by the bread.

Main Course:
Myself: Salmon with nicoise salad
The Quiff: Steak and ale pie with chips
Apple Geek: Duck leg with mash and vegetables

Salmon with nicoise salad

Steak and ale pie with chips

The duck with mash and veggies hidden behind big bunch of parsley

Yup – the dishes were generous, good hearty fare. We all seemed pleased with our choices, the Quiff seemed to have so much in his dish it was leaping out. I found it a little unusual that there was a poached egg instead of a boiled egg with my salmon and salad also there was asparagus and no lettuce but it didn’t really matter as there was a lot of green beans, olives and the salmon was a decent size. The poached egg was runny too just how I like them. What was a little off putting for me was the amount of anchovies simply because I don’t eat them (childhood horror story you can ask me about it later). Thumbs up for the portion size, thumbs up for the heartiness, sorry for lack of seasoning for the fish and as the salad had a balsamic glaze there was no dressing so the salad was a little bland (admittedly I can add my own salt or ask for dressing) but all in all it was decent and encapsulated the pub in a dish. Apple Geek seemed to enjoy his duck, it was something he had last time and thought was excellent so I hope it lived up to experience. The Quiff said he really enjoyed his pie (and on tasting Apple Geek quipped that he thought it was the best out of the three dishes), which looked very generous on the meat front.

Unfortunately none of us could finish our main courses as they and the starters were fairly large but we all enjoyed a good hearty meal. As we were fairly full and there was yummy yummy cake waiting back at Apple Geek’s we didn’t have dessert but headed back. After we had digested dinner a little we had more yummy yummy cake we played Samba de Amigo on the wii to try and burn some calories.

Sunday 22^nd August 2010

Another lazy lie-in followed by a relaxed and lovely breakfast. Apple Geek had laid out a hotel buffet-style spread consisting of many pots of jam and different tubs of butter and greek yoghurt. Bacon was being cooked to a crispy finish under the grill and bread was baking in the oven. We had tea and began picking at whatever we felt like. I begun with unadulterated greek yoghurt, then had some of the seeded bread which I absolutely lovely oven fresh and warm (seeded is also one of my favourites). I layered this with President’s butter and some damson jam interspersing this with crispy salty bacon. Oh this is my idea of breakfast/ brunch – good food, excellent company and relaxed.

The breakfast spread

We worked off breakfast by hiking up to Kinver Edge, seeing some sandstone Troglodyte dwellings and then trekking back to the car. When we got back we revitalised ourselves with more yummy yummy cake and a cuppa tea and decided we wanted to have a barbeque lunch as the weather was good and we had the make the most of the last of the British summer. Apple Geek got some bits out of the freezer to defrost and then we went to watch more Iron Chef America – battle Egg Plant.

Lunch:
Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek: a mixture of buffalo burgers, herb butter marinated chicken, sausages, salad with a honey mustard sort of dressing made by The Quiff, fresh baked garlic bread and the seeded bread from this morning.

The table spread

Meat on the barbeque

Again my kind of lunch – no not because there was lots of meat but leisurely and relaxed. It was all good food and well cooked by Apple Geek (he can barbeque anytime in my opinion). specifically I would like to mention that the garlic bread was particularly nice and the salad dressing made by the Quiff.

We ended with retro jelly sweets!

And that dear reader was the last of my weekend eats up Kinver way. I thoroughly enjoyed it especially the company and I have to say my favourite meal from the weekend was the cake, one of the nicest cakes I have had so a massive Thank you to Apple Geek for baking it. But I would like to take a moment here and thank both of my companions and hosts for the weekend, I had a great time – it was just what I needed.

Oh if only every weekend was like this one?

If it were you would be spherical like a globe my dear!

Babylon Rooftop Gardens

Babylon Rooftop Gardens
99 Kensington High St
London
W8 5SA
http://www.roofgardens.virgin.com
Date of visit: Friday 13^th August 2010
Attendees:  Myself, Cheesemonger, MBB, Chan, the Bruce-Oldfield-wearing-secret-Macau-Chinese (though she was not wearing Bruce Oldfield today so I’ll call her secret Macau), the Baker, Flea tattoo and tri AAC. In spirit and on the phone the one and only Mr Savage
Price of meal: approximately £25 pp (3 course set lunch without wine)

I start with a disclaimer…it was impractical to photograph everyone’s meal as there were so many of us so I have just documented my own meal but in the write up I will try and put in everyone’s views and opinions.

One of many dining experiences in August to celebrate or commiserate, depends on which side of the coin you are. Anyway again I have wanted to try Babylon for a while and was glad so many people were happy to try it with me. I arrived with Flea tattoo, tri AAC and secret Macau, we zipped up to 7^th floor and stepped out. We were told we were the first ones to arrive and asked if we wanted to have a drink at the bar first, we declined and were shown to our table. One side of the restaurant is glass showing us the nice view. I would say the decor was something Changing Rooms would have done to a lady’s bedroom in the late 1990 – early 2000. In a text the next day MBB describes it as ‘Naff’ which though not wrong seems a bit harsh, it was at least bright and clean. MBB came in from the terrace where he was having a beer, Chan followed quickly after then Cheesemonger then the Baker. We were all waiting for Mr Savage now. At 1pm I get a phone call – he’s only just left work! Decision made – we’re going to start, sorry Mr Savage but if you are going to be so slack with timing…

Our waiter is a young and enthusiastic man, lucky considering the other waiting staff were all stony faced! 2 dishes containing a selection of bread rolls with butter and (possibly) olive oil were placed on our table. I liked this as the selection of bread was decent and the choice of butter or oil was nice. The bread dishes were left on the table until we finished our main course – good good.

Starters:
Myself, secret Macau, Cheesemonger, the Baker and tri AAC: Risotto with crème fraiche, parmesan and summer truffle
MBB and Flea tattoo: White onion soup
Chan: Deep fried duck egg with courgette and tomato confit

Risotto with a decent sprinkling of summer truffle

Those who didn’t know each other met one another, we chatted, laughed and were generally being social whilst we waited for food and the wait wasn’t too long.

I have to say I was impressed with the shavings of summer truffle on the risotto, a decent amount and it smelt very nice. All who had truffle thought it was good. I thought the rice a trife undercooked but no one else complained. It wasn’t too creamy which pleased me. The white onion soup came with a cheese twirl and both MBB and Flea tattoo seemed to enjoy it. Flea tattoo commented that Chan’s started looked like a scotch egg, ‘no sausage meat though’ piped Chan who said the dish was very nice. It certainly did seem well cooked, the yolk was thick and runny and the breadcrumbs which coated it were golden and seemed crispy. First course a success!

The group ordered wine to share and the waiter quite unnoticed went round topping up the glasses and it seemed that he served the women first cause poor old Chan didn’t seem to get a top up.

Now before the main course came round I received a phone call from Mr Savage to say that he was at Bond Street station and had met his mother. He was using her phone to give me a call as his was dying. At Bond street station? I informed him that we were about to start our main course, he was not going to make the meal…

Main Course:
Myself, MBB and tri AAC: Pan fried sea bass with mussels, pak choi, bean sprouts, carrots and water chestnuts
Chan and Flea tattoo: Pork with potato cake
Cheesemonger and Secret Macau: Beef with some sort of greens?
The Baker: Basil gnocchi

Sea bass with vegetables and mussel (in singular)

Pretty but meagre portion of gnocchi - just 9 pieces!

Apologies that I could not remember what the accompaniments were for each dish but my own but there were lots and even though I very nearly got the beef dish myself I just can’t remember everything and it’s not on their website.

The sea bass was one of the best I can remember having. It was perfectly seasoned, moist and the skin was so crispy. I normally don’t eat the skin on things but this was lovely and I ate it all. When the menu said mussels, with an S indicating plaural, I expected more than one but we only got one. It was a bit chewy and didn’t taste of mussel but tasted of chicken stock or something similar which it has been cooked in, which was also what the vegetables were cooked in. If I was being critical I would say that the pak choi was too old – I felt like I could have chewed the leaf part for ever and it still would not have broken down, the bean sprouts would have been better if they were not stewed but left raw instead, the carrot disc were too small and thin (must have been baby carrots), the water chestnuts were ok though.

I tried a bit of the Baker’s basil gnocchi and it was nice and fluffy. I couldn’t really taste the basil but then I did only have a small bit – there were not many on the plate, it would not have hurt the fineness to have a few more, it was after all the vegetarian option so it would not have cost much to put more on! I did hear the Baker quip that they were the best gnocchi she had had. On the other side Cheesemonger and Secret Macau had two big hunks of beef on their plate. They both said they liked it and it did look good. Chan and Flea tattoo had good comments for the pork and especially liked the look of the layers of their potato cake. I must say that I wouldn’t have minded having any of the main courses.

Now I felt bad that Secret Macau had to rush her starter, we all know she is a leisurely eater and it is something I would like to be able to do. So I tried to encourage everyone to enjoy their main but it seems everyone is in the habit of throwing it down the hatch. Hope Secret Macau didn’t feel too much under pressure to shove it down. Mental note next time to be a better host!

The main course plates were cleared away and the waiter came with the crumb brush and made sure he went between us clearing all the areas of the table.

Dessert:
Myself, Secret Macau and the Baker: Peach melba with vanilla ice cream and almond flakes
MBB, Chan and Flea tattoo: Apricot clafoutis
Tri AAC: Gooseberry fool
Cheesemonger: coffee

Pretty as a peach melba!

The Cheesemonger’s coffee came with a sugar stick, don’t think I have seen that in a restaurant for a while. I thought Cheesemonger showed great restraint not to just suck on the sugar stick like a lolly which I would have done, perhaps she is far more civilised that I?

The Baker requested to see the a la carte dessert menu as she didn’t fancy anything on the TDH menu. I have to say I inclined to agree with her upon looking at it. When we saw the a la carte dessert menu it was approximately £10 for a dessert and none of them were that appealing! I had not heard of clafoutis before and Flea tattoo described it as toad in the hole but with fruit instead. I have to say the description was not the reason which I did not order it although my immediately mental visual of apricots cooked in batter with hot lard added did not help.

When the desserts did come the Baker commented that the peach slices in the peach melba looked like they came from a tin but I am please to say they were not, they were fairly firm and the dessert was not drowned in syrup luckily. I thought the peach melba looked rather attractive actually with the little flower on top, which I ate, Secret Macau tried the flower on my insistence and said it had no flavour and Baker offered her flower to me but I didn’t eat it. My flower was quite nice, the peach kept its delicate flavour and I thought it all came together rather well. The Gooseberry fool came in a lovely small clip lid jar, I didn’t hear what tri AAC thought of her dessert but I think she enjoyed it. The apricot clafoutis came and I stared into the bowl intently. I think a sweet toad in the hole was a good description actually, it did look like apricot in batter! All three apricot clafoutis diners seemed enjoyed their dessert the most out of all of us. Indeed MBB even sent me a text message the next day saying he especially liked the dessert!

Petit fours came in small boxes with ‘Bite Me’ written on them – well well well… Now I don’t know what everyone had as there were two boxes which I believe contained the same four things at either end of the table. What I do know is that Cheesemonger had a chocolate thing which she enjoyed, Chan and MBB both had the intensely fruity jelly cube, the Baker and I shared a white chocolate truffle which I thought was a nice chocolate and a mini cake/ muffin thing which was nice too (the Baker commented that it was just a very small cake, nothing special – well she ain’t called the Baker for no reason).

So the meal had come to an end and we all seemed to enjoy it. Those of us who didn’t have wine had iced water which was regularly topped up but our very good waiter. Whilst waiting for to pay the bill I popped to the toilet which had a nice and novel but in a way ‘naff’ (to use MBB’s term) fish tank to separate the men and ladies toilets. The toilets were fine although it all seemed a bit narrow when I came out of the cubical and there was a queue. We decided to go and have a look round the garden, which is on the next floor down where the bar was, after we paid the bill. I have to say the man who gave us our coats was stoney on the verge of rude in my opinion, extra glad we got the waiter we did!

Although it was wet the gardens were lovely and I could see it would be such a great setting for a meal on a good day. There were also ducks and real mini flamingos there. As we wandered round we saw staff setting up the gardens for what we assumed was a wedding (there was some sort of wedding thing going on upstairs while we ate – I didn’t mention it as it could have filled pages on its own!). There was a sort of Tuscan themed section of the garden which we thought was rather tacky but generally the garden was really very nice. Mr Savage also finally made it and joined us while we wandered through the garden!

Real flamingoes in the garden pond

I have to say it was a shame about the weather but as we were inside it didn’t really matter but the restaurant was great. The food was delicious – we all enjoyed it and the set lunch menu was great value for money, our waiter provided great service, and the restaurant was generally very nice. I would most certainly go back and will looked for another opportunity next summer to do just that!

Will just end by showing a photo of the cup cakes the Baker made for me! This is why she is known as the Baker, and I can tell you they were totally yummy beyond yummy – as soon as I opened the box a rich chocolatey smelly flowed out and when I ate one (or two) the sponge was so light and fluffy and sweet…Oh if it didn’t mean growing old so exceptionally fast, I might consider having a birthday every day!

Beautiful and yummy cupcakes!

One last note is for me to say a great Thank you to my fellow diners for taking time off work to share a great meal with me. It would not have been so good if it were not for each of you – including Mr Savage!

Brasserie Roux

Brasserie Roux
Sofitel , Haymarket
6 Waterloo Place
London
SW1Y 4AN
www.brasserieroux.com
Date of visit: Sunday 18^th July 2010
Attendees: Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek
Price of meal: approximately £14 each

So after a lovely dinner the night before we were to meet for brunch before the Quiff and Apple Geek were due to leave me and return to their roosts.  I particularly wanted to try here as I would love to dine at La Gavroche but have not been able to as yet so this is the cheaper and more available choice. On their website it says Albert Roux ‘inspired’ this brasserie – not too sure what that means but hope it meant I got to try some sort of Roux magic.

I was running a little late and so the Quiff and Apple Geek were both seated and supping OJ by the time I arrived. The first thing I noticed was a wonderfully friendly matire’d. There was already a basket on the table with an assortment of breads and mini pastries, a slab of butter on a square of slate and a selection of different mini jams and honey, most made in Scotland for Albert Roux – nice touches. All these and the tea, coffee and OJ were complimentary to breakfast – I was impressed, not sure that the Quiff and Apple Geek were though.

The bread and pastry basket

The Albert Roux jam selection

There is the choice of having a 3 course set breakfast menu which is £15 or ordering a la carte, we went for the latter after munching from the bread basket. Whilst waiting for brunch to come I popped to the toilet which the matrie’d helpfully told me were hard to find, as they were on the side of the hotel foyer, but she gave clear directions. The toilets were busily decorated which reminded me of a busy French brasserie (there seems to be a theme to the weekend’s dinning) but very nice and clean.

Breakfast
Myself:  Egg white omelette with asparagus, mushroom and tomato and coffee
The Quiff: Full English breakfast (eggs sunny side up) and English breakfast tea
Apple Geek: Eggs Benedict with bacon and Earl Grey tea

The egg white omelette

Eggs benedict

Now a slightly odd thing happened…one of the waiters came along and asked which of our party was having coffee, I replied I was. He comes back a little later mumbles something and takes our bright yellow cups away. He then comes back apologies and gives us our cups back. We didn’t have knives for the bread side plate so I asked for one when I began eating my main as I didn’t want to contaminate the jam. This same waiter thought I wanted more bread there was a bit of confusion all round. It was all sorted out in the end but not after Apple Geek make a sharp remark about the service!

The full English

Toast with crust cut off

The omelette was very nice but the seasoning seemed to be concentrated at the end of the omelette. The Quiff enjoyed his breakfast though would have preferred his bacon to be a little crisper. I think they could have given him more, his plate seemed a bit sparse (well I guess it’s a fancy restaurant and not your local greasy spoon) and then I felt bad for advising him not to eat too much from the bread basket in case he would be too full for his cooked breakfast. Apple Geek liked his eggs benedict and told me they were the best he had had to date.

We ate leisurely, chatted politics, money, work amongst other things. It was a relaxed affair. I thought the brasserie’s decor was fine, bright and comfortable but it did not seem trendy enough for my fellow diners ? There were very few other diners, I suppose the rest of them were hotel guest. When we asked for the billed I mentioned that it was a very nice touch that the jam was made for Albert Roux and the matire’d immediately said that she would give me our favourite pots, looked at the ones we were eating from and brought over the honey (which I gave to Apple Geek), the strawberry and black current jam – how nice, I was well chuffed. One last comment which Apple Geek requested I mention; our booking was not on their system even though I called and spoke to someone. This wasn’t a problem as they were fairly empty but what if we were going for dinner and it was busy?  Anyway I really enjoyed brunch there, I thought it was very reasonable for the location, service and setting and would not hesitate to recommend it and return myself.

Incognito restaurant

Incognito
117 Shaftesbury Avenue
Cambridge Circus
London
WC2H 8AD
www.incognico.com
Date of visit: Saturday 17^th July 2010
Attendees: Myself, The Quiff and (drum roll please… I would like to introduce the debut of…) Apple Geek – The Quiff’s  “Special Friend”
Price of meal: approximately £120 in total (2 of us on a special set menu, 1 of us ordering a 2 course a la carte, a bottle of wine and coffee for all 3 of us)

The Quiff and Apple Geek pop to London periodically and we always attempt to find a nice restaurant with a deal on for dinner – one of our small indulgences. Apple Geek booked Incognito where we could have a set menu of £20 for 3 courses.

We arrived in good time and the restaurant was not very busy for a Saturday evening but there was a buzz, the large window frontage and the minimal and wooden décor helped to give it the brasserie feel. We were given both the a la carte menu and the set menu. On looking through both of them I have to say the set menu was very good with a wide choice and comparing the prices showed it was a very good deal. Apple Geek and myself went with the set menu, the Quiff went a la carte.

Starters
Myself: Grilled marinated mackerel with new potato salad
Apple Geek: Minestrone “verde”
The Quiff: Scallops with Pea Shoots, Balsamic Dressing

Mackerel and crushed potato salad

Minestrone 'verde' - lots of green

Scallops with salad piled on top

My mackerel portion was a decent size and tasted very nice although a little too oily for me I didn’t think the generous drizzy of oil was needed for a already oily fish. The potato salad was a simple seasoned crushed new potatoes which was a nice compliment as the mackerel was fairly salty. The skin came off easily although the other side was quite tough but overall I enjoyed it and appreciated the fact that the waiter told me when I ordered that the mackerel wasn’t fresh but smoked – small but important details which help to make great restaurants better and it’s what counts when there are so many restaurants serving good food – I know of many awarded restaurants who should take note, some of which appear in this blog. The Quiff seemed to enjoy his scallops and finished them fairly quickly and with gusto. Apple Geek’s minestrone ‘verde’ was basically a green vegetable (broccoli, peas, courgette and mint) soup with a lump of cheese at the bottom in a broth. Even though he is not a big vegetable fan he enjoyed it and on tasting a little I have to say it did taste good and seemed very healthy. Round one a success!

The bottle of Borg!

I didn’t have wine but the Quiff and Apple Geek shared a bottle of Borge family shiraz stellenbosch, South Africa, 2006 and couldn’t stop praising it (especially as it went straight to their heads!). We also had tap water on the table, which came in a pretty green jug that looked like it came from Provence.

Main course
Myself: Whiting fillet with olives, capers and tomato
Apple Geek: Roast sea bass, with cannellini bean salad
The Quiff: Honey Roasted Breast of Duck with Pommes Duchesse

Whiting filet which hides some wilted spinach underneath

Sea bass - if it wasn't dead, decapitated and cooked I would be worried about the green blob

A beautifully presented and tasting duck

Now, when I first ordered I went for the sea bass but then changed my mind as Apple Geek also went for it so I got the Whiting instead. When the main courses came I got the suckling pig porchetta. I told them it wasn’t what I ordered and I must commend the waiter who took it back immediately with the other mains and said he would get it fixed straight away. The mains came out again about 2 minutes later (I must confess it was so quick I didn’t notice a wait at all). We all tried a bit of each other’s main course – the duck was very tender and flavoursome the sauce that went with it was a lovely accompaniment. The sea bass was a decent sized portion and well cooked and my whiting filet was very good, the olives, capers and tomatoes made it a lovely fresh and light dish for a summer evening. We were all very pleased with our choices but I think the Quiff had the best of the bunch. On another note all the dishes were a good size, we felt fed but not conquered by it.

The dishes were cleared away quickly and dessert was offered. The Quiff declined and had an espresso, Apple Geek and myself went for our sweets along with 2 regular coffees.

Dessert
Myself: Sorbets – raspberry, passion fruit and lemon
Apple Geek: Grand Marnier crème caramel

Sorbets, french marcaron and glass of prosecco

Creme caramel and glass of prosecco

With the coffees came hot milk, we got little cubes of sugar rather than satchels, which I much prefer. Apple Geek and myself had a regular cup filled with coffee but the Quiff’s tiny espresso cup was only half filled. When he put a sugar cube in I don’t think the liquid even covered it. The desserts came out promptly. The sorbets were lovely and refreshing, not too sweet and the flavours were defined, what I mean is you could tell which coloured scoop was which flavour and not, as you get sometimes, a generic tangy sweet where all the scoops taste about the same. From my taste of the crème caramel you could taste the orange of the Grand Mariner but Apple Geek felt it was lacking in sweetness which, on reflection, I think I agree with or perhaps we are just used to the crème caramel brought from the supermarkets loaded with sugar? Whilst we were eating dessert the waiter brought over a glass of complimentary prosecco for each of us – I assume because of the mix up with the main course. I was most impressed with this detail.

Un espresso bebe

A regular coffee

We sat in the restaurant for a bit chatting about things I don’t care to mention but lets just say the company was a bit light headed and enjoyed rubbing salt into wounds. There was no pressure to leave quickly as the restaurant wasn’t that busy. I would particularly like to praise the staff in the restaurant who I felt I could always get the attention of without much difficulty, we never felt intruded upon and service was prompt – a very good balance. The one very small but it is a criticism I must make, nay protest against, is the waiter kept calling me “Madam”. Pour quoi monsieur? Puis je regarder ce vieux? Que je n’ai pas un anneau sur le doigt, c’est ce que la conversation etait au sujet!

I noted the toilets were pleasant and clean.

All in all it is a very good restaurant. I felt the food was well cooked and tasted very nice. It feels like you are in a local upmarket provincial French brasserie, a very nice feeling when some London restaurants can try too hard to be trendy. I would certainly dine at Incognito again, especially as the set menu deals are very good value – in fact I will be dining there again and this time I am taking a group of 11 other diners! I will blog again if I feel there are any significant changes to the food or service so they should not rest on their laurels when noodle notes is about…