Avenue St James
7 – 9 St James Street
London
SW1A 1EE
http://www.theavenue-restaurant.co.uk
Date visited: Friday 4th March 2011
Attendees: Myself, the Cheesemonger and MBB
Price of meal: approx £22 for 3 course set lunch without wine, £32 with wine
I have not, so far, given any of my reviews a sub-title but I am going to call this one:
Triremes and Quinqueremes
It was time again for the luncheon club to meet up and laugh loudly whilst stuffing its face with hopefully good food, and with luck, some decent service. The venue this time; Avenue St James.
Superior crisps with triremes and quinqueremes
When I arrived MBB was at a table with a beer and (and I quote MBB) “superior crisps” which I think I will agree. Each crisp was a huge but thin slice of potato and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were made on the premise. A very smiley waiter takes my coat and gives me a cloakroom ticket, pretty decent service so far. Soon afterwards the Cheesemonger arrives and we go to our table lead by the very smiley waiter.
The seating was a bit strange as MBB and Cheesemonger sat on these cheap looking plastic seats and I was on an oval communal central sofa thing but on the turn so if I was drinking I could easily slide down one side. We were given the set lunch menu and a special wine menu. A rather fierce and brutal waitress comes to take our order.
Starter:
Myself: Roasted Scottish Scallop, apple and wild sorrel
Cheesemonger: Salmon and smoked salmon tartare, toasted rye bread
MBB: Celeriac and apple soup
Delicious scallops
Delicious smoke salmon
Delicious celeriac and apple soup
Bread box, butter, salt & pepper
We got a box of bread and disc of butter while we waited for our starters. The bread was brown and white sliced, it tasted nice but nothing amazing. MBB orders a bottle of wine. When our starters arrive I think we’re all happy with them. My scallops come in their shells sitting on a load of broken shells on a wooden platter. The scallops are cooked just right and taste very good. I would have liked a bit more apple sauce and sorrel because it was all gone with the first bite. The Cheesemonger had smoked salmon at our July 2010 luncheon at Coq d’Argent and had it this time to compare, good choice I thought as they are both D&D restaurants and Coq d’Argent is supposed to be better one. Her opinion was that this smoked salmon was superior to the last, much superior, it certainly looked superior and I especially liked the slices of potatoes with quail yolks on them imitating mini fried eggs. MBB enjoyed his soup and said it was very good, he seemed quite impressed with it. All round thumbs up for the starters.
Our starters are cleared away quickly and the mains brought promptly
Mains:
Myself: Grilled fillet of trout, kohlrabi
Cheesemonger and MBB: Slow cooked pork belly, haricot beans and prunes and hand cooked chips
Trout, kohlrabi, beige liquid
Brown slow cooked belly of pork
The late chips
The mains arrived but not the hand cooked chips. So we waited a while but the chips did not arrive, MBB stops a waitress with a long black ponytail, who I think maybe from Eastern Europe. He tells her that our chips had not arrived [as a slight aside – the waitress comes back later and picks up the empty bread box, lowers her face and acts like we are in a secret meeting from an episode of ‘ello ‘ello, eyes shifting between MBB, the empty bread box and some point close to the Cheesemonger…”do you want more bread?” MBB replies he would like a slice. She walks off. We are impressed – if you are a regular read of the blog you will already know about the bread thing, if you are not a regular reader check out the rant for The Square (October 2010).] Anyway back to this meal – so we started to eat but the chips did not come (nor did the bread) what rubbish service! After a while MBB tells another waitress the chips had not arrived, she does something about it and a few minutes later we get the chips.
So what did our mains taste like? My trout was well cooked, the kohlrabi was simply done just steamed or boiled – which meant it retained its natural taste which I like. There was some chopped fried cabbage sprinkled on top as garnish to my trout and everything was covered in a non-descript savoury light brown gravy. As we spent a bit of time waiting for the chips the dish had gone a little cold and spoiled the trout which was very nice otherwise. Cheesemonger and MBB told me they really enjoyed the pork belly, expertly cooked and all the flavours worked well together. I thought the presentation of the pork belly should have been better, look at the photograph and decide for yourself – it’s not my camera, the natural lighting in the restaurant is excellent , it really was blobs in shades of brown. The hand cooked chips, when they finally arrived, were freshly cooked and tasted very good, crispy on the outside soft on the inside – armadillo good!
Whilst eating our mains I witness the following; the shifty eye Eastern European waitress clear the plates of the table in front of us and the lady’s cloakroom ticket drops on the floor because of this. The waitress notices but not the customer. The waitress uses her foot to push the cloakroom ticket under the table. When she looks up she sees me watching her and gives me her shifty eye look. When she returns to the table she is clearing she picks up the cloakroom ticket and puts it on the table. I hope she would have done this anyway and not just because I noticed the incident though I wouldn’t put it past her odd waiting skills to just shove the ticket aside.
Anyway back to our meal – the mains are cleared, the table is given a once over with the crumb brush by Ms Shifty eye who after a bit of a wait brings us the dessert menu. She comes back later and takes our order, squinting her eyes between Cheesemonger and myself asking us if we want coffee after we give her our order – “no thank you” we say. She doesn’t ask MBB!
Dessert:
Myself: Apple and rhubarb crumble with vanilla custard
Cheesemonger: Sticky toffee pudding, Guinness ice cream
MBB: Vanilla set cream, rum cherries and white chocolate
Apple and rhubarb crumble
Sticky toffee pudding and triumphant Guinness ice cream
Vanilla cream, rum cherries and white chocolate - otherwise known as lots of white blobs
The desserts came and I, intrigued by the quenelle of Guinness ice cream, ask if I can try a bit and MBB follows suit. The Cheesemonger most kindly assents. The Guinness ice cream is a triumph, it definitely has a Guinness taste but it is not strong, just right. I really enjoy my crumble which was tart and refreshing. The vanilla custard was just thin pouring cream – too thin for custard, no vanilla taste and the crumble was more like broken biscuits than crumble but very nice. I think Cheesemonger had the best dessert of all and said the fingers of sticky toffee pudding (I thought they looked like Mr Kipling’s cake bars) was delicious and one of the best sticky toffee puddings she has had. MBB was pleased with his vanilla cream and said it was very good.
After the desserts were cleared away we remained there for a while chatting and laughing – loudest people in the restaurant again. I think but the acoustics are good for somewhere that has such a high ceiling. They continue to refill our glasses with tap water for a while. I pop to the toilet for the regular inspection before we leave – could do with a lick of paint and the cubicles are cramped – when people build toilets for restaurants they make sure that the doors can open inwards without hitting the toilet but that is it! I hate toilets that you virtually have to stand on the loo seat in order to close the door. Sorry perhaps too much information but I have to make the point.
Summary: All in all the experience was good. MBB said that he thought the food was consistently good which I agree with and there was a excellent amount of choice for a set lunch. The service wasn’t bad just inconsistent and odd – not just our shifty eye waitress but the other staff too including the at-a-loose-end wine sommeliers.
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