Restaurant Reviews from March 2009
March 2009 Restaurant Reviews Archive from Foodepedia
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The Grape Street Wine Bar
Tuesday March 31st, 2009
I seem to have an aversion to dining at restaurants around major museums. It cannot be that hard to devise a lucrative ‘special 2 course meal’ for the tourist in search of a ‘good’ (cheap, low quality) deal. I would like to think that true foodies such as us could never be blinded by such flagrant attempts to entrap. -
The Goring Restaurant
Thursday March 26th, 2009
With afternoon teas and a menu that also includes Welsh Rarebit, vegetables foraged for chef from the Kent countryside, classics like potted shrimps, a beautifully British cheeseboard and even schoolboy scarer prunes, the Goring is a great big Dreadnought of British imperial dining power steaming its own unique track through a sea of mediocre, me too, ‘Modern European’ restaurants. We stand up salute it. -
The Living Room, Islington
Wednesday March 25th, 2009Situated in Essex Road, just a minute’s walk from Upper Street, Islington’s main drag, The Living Room boasts a huge uncluttered space, which belies its double fronted exterior. The large U shaped bar is its central feature with comfortable seating to two sides and the restaurant seating area to its remaining aspect. We went there to sample the new spring menu,that we understand has been rolled out across The Living Room chain.
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The Queen Adelaide
Tuesday March 24th, 2009
If only all pubs were welcoming drinking taverns that also managed to knock out robust and hearty British nosh. Unfortunately, far too many ‘gastro pubs’ have forgotten that they were once pubs at all, while the rest of the capital’s locals now seem to now serving Thai food.
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Fat Duck Restaurant
Tuesday March 24th, 2009
Three days following a fun lunch at Heston Blumenthal’s revamped ‘Little Chef’, I was at ‘The Fat Duck’ for the strangest lunch of my life. Linen guides rate it the world’s second best restaurant and despite it being in Berkshire, one guide even describes it as ‘London’s finest’. -
Nipa Restaurant
Monday March 23rd, 2009
It would be a shame to let the hotel atmosphere downstairs put you off ascending to Nipa because the combination of warm welcome, authentic carefully considered cooking and really rather reasonable prices mark this place out as well worth a visit. -
Saki Bar & Food Emporium
Sunday March 15th, 2009
It’s hidden place Saki. In the evening the shop above closes and you could be forgiven for thinking there was no restaurant there at all. This shyness, combined with the Dickensian darkness of West Smithfield at night, means you might never venture down the stairs to the bar and restaurant beneath. You’d be slapping yourself forcefully with a wet tuna if you didn’t though because this is a very good restaurant indeed. -
The Double Club by Fondazione Prada
Saturday March 14th, 2009
I ventured to ‘The Double Club’ on a double date. The west meets the Congo (and vice versa) in this temporary venture, produced by Prada. Down a dark cobbled alley behind Angel tube, it was an unlikely find. A Victorian warehouse is awning to three spaces woven by artists and graced by fashionistas. The mind behind is Carsten Höller, a German gripped by Congo-mania.. -
Meat & Wine Co
Thursday March 12th, 2009
Knowing my fondness for frippery and resistance to retail, I was surprised when Foodepedia’s Führer posted me to the ‘Meat & Wine Co.’. Established on the approach to Westfield, London’s latest shopping juggernaut, it represents a South African firms first stake (and steaks) in the U.K. -
Gilgamesh
Thursday March 12th, 2009
Recession what recession? Those in work are having it large, with ever decreasing mortgage repayments giving them more cash to splash. Maybe that’s why here in Gilgamesh on a Wednesday night the bar is pretty full and the restaurant is too. In the private dining room, a hundred and fifty people are tucking into chef Ian Pengelley’s Pan Asian food and the man himself can be seen in his open kitchen toiling away happily. -
Mango Tree
Tuesday March 10th, 2009
It’s a big space is Mango Tree but one that always seems to be full, an indication of the consistent pulling power this restaurant has. The restaurant seems particularly popular with young TV actors, sports stars, divas and rappers. Prada handbags are in evidence, as are bare shoulders and WAG tans. It all adds a nice bit of glamour to an evening. -
The Pembroke
Friday March 6th, 2009
The Pembroke belongs to that ever-growing category of eatery - the Gastropub – providing a welcome culinary alternative to the (in) famous pub grub. Recently re-opened under a new name, you will find the Pembroke sitting majestically on the corner of the Old Brompton Road. -
Babylon Roof Gardens restaurant
Thursday March 5th, 2009
It’s popular, this design trope of papering one wall with loud, geometric and rather 70’s patterns. Stick a Yes poster on the wall and it could be one quarter of my teenage bedroom. If anyone is going to do it in a restaurant though then Babylon Roof Gardens (prop. R. Branson) is the one. -
The Oak
Tuesday March 3rd, 2009
Whilst sitting on the train, on my way over to Teddington to review this restaurant, I wondered how busy it would be. What with the credit crunch clamping us by the jugular and consistent job losses, I was intrigued by how the suburbs were coping. On arrival, at 1 o’clock, it was plain to see. We were the only people there, and for the two hours we were there, three others came in for lunch and two locals enjoyed a pint, on separate tables. -
Mela Restaurant Redhill
Tuesday March 3rd, 2009
My understanding of Indian food is largely based on years of always-the-same-order telephone takeaways (`yes, that's right, the usual ... chicken dhansak please`) or crouching in the funereal silence of a high street curry house exchanging sidelong glances with the waiter, who regards you with that finely-honed mixture of caution and contempt perfected through years of doling out lager and baltis to rowdy, over refreshed men in outsize sportswear. -
Corrigan's Mayfair
Monday March 2nd, 2009
Richard Corrigan’s life has been defined by pathos. From tending roots, shoots and sorting cows from sows, to tussling chicken-crazed foxes, he rose from the bog where electricity was anathema, to cook for the Queen. In rehabilitating dowdy ‘Bentley’s’, the barrel-tummied Nimrod also roused interest in food ‘from our islands’. An almost evangelical ingredientism continues to eat into his latest venture.