Restaurant review: Skylon

After some research for a business dinner close to Waterloo, I booked Skylon in the Royal Festival Hall.
The room was vast, gymnasium sized in fact, with a level of noise approaching that of a teenage basketball match, but the floor-to-ceiling windows opening up on the Thames make it spectacular. Shame they did not give us a window table as requested. The waiters are all in star-trek-like uniform, in tune with the retro-futurist location and name, plentiful and nice enough but they probably were beamed to another planet during main course as service got slower and slower.
The wine list is predictable but good, the sommelier was new and knowledgeable.
I haven't mentioned the food, and that's because it was passable. On the positive side, my onglet was perfectly uncooked as I ordered and like it but the smoked mackerel salad was some potted fish, swimming in light mayonnaise dressing and cos lettuce.

Final verdict: Skylon joins OXO in the category "you pay for the view, not the food".

Restaurant review: Mar I Terra (Blackfriars)

I ate at Mar I Terra on Saturday, en route to check the Thames Festival on the Southbank.
Both were quite pleasant. The fete was interesting because of the laid back village to watch this country becoming more continental as the years go by: the ambiance was laid back, with performers and food.

However, by that time we were quite full having made a detour via Blackfriars to have dinner at Mar I Terra for some proper Spanish tapas. All felt right in place, relax and good. We had the classics: boquerones, patatas bravas, some meat balls and some cervesa to wash it. All tapas are around a fiver except the jamon, which at thirteen and a half quid isn't cheap. It's very very good and probably worth it though.

It's my idea of casual food: simple, with good ingredients and no fuss. I would recommend this highly for a dinner with friends, around a good bottle -their wine list is well researched. No real downsides, apart the fact they don't take bookings -but they do have a bar. It's also a bit out of one's way, but worth the trek.

I haven't been to the Soho one, but the address is here as well.

Mar I Terra (www.mariterra.co.uk)
Blackfriars: 14 Gambia Street, London SE1 0XH - 020 7928 7628

Soho: 17 Air Street, London W1B 5AF - 020 7734 1992

While I'm on the subject of tapas, here's are some quick comments on two others I have in mind:

• Don Fernando in Richmond: not very refined nor cheap, but okay for a casual dinner if you catch their offers. Just.
  27f The Quadrant, Richmond TW9 1DN -020 8948 6447
• La Tasca in Covent Garden and elsewhere: avoid like plague unless you're really interested into finding out how tourists can be (badly) treated in London ; probably the worst paella I've ever had, we almost walked out as the service was agonisingly slow.
  

restaurant, review, london, blackfriars, spanish, tapas, richmondtransits.blog

Children friendly pubs: and the winner is...

The Marlborough sits chiefly on top of Richmond hill and boasts one of the largest gardens -complete with children playground- of the area, making it one of the favourites around, along with the Victoria in East Sheen (great food but overpriced), the Tapestry in Mortlake, The Crown in St Margarets, Stein's on the river and the Hare and Hounds in Sheen.

(I must say the Lass'o'Richmond is missing, I have yet to investigate this one).

So, back to the Marlborough: garden is great, wine and beer selection is adequate and the food good: fish in general is great, meat not so tasty and burgers are rubbery and overcooked, the mediterranean platter is great to share with friends.
Service is fine, though quite slow in busy summer days.
Pricewise, it's in line with the other pubs around -not the most expensive, but not particularly cheap. Kids portions are reasonable.

Verdict: thousand times nicer than ending up at Pizza Express and probably one of the best pubs for summer evenings with children and relax WE lunches all year long (book early though).

pub, restaurant, review, richmond, foodings.blog.uk, richmondtransits.blog

Gastropub review: The Plough

The Plough (link to the Trusted Places page where you can leave your own ratings) in East Sheen has been "gastropubed" recently, refurbished from a traditional pub into something more in tune with its fancy sourroundings.

We ate there with the family back in August and had a sirloin (overcooked) and some Toulouse sausauges with lentils vinaigrette. The food was good but the portions small (even the additional chips was ridiculous), the kids meals were dear at £6.50 even if the mains were sensibly priced (£14.50 and £8.50 respectively).

Wine list and beer taps are middle of the road, so is service.

Verdict: value alternative to the nearby Victoria even if they miss a kids playground.

The Plough
42 Christchurch Road




East Sheen




London SW14 7AF
www.theplough.com (good idea to grab this domain name, even better if they actually had a web site!)

restaurant, review, sheen, gastropub, pub, richmondtransits.blog, foodings.blog.uk

Restaurant review: Le Bouchon Breton

Le Le Bouchon Breton is nicely located on the new mezzanie floor of Spitafields market -perfect for a city lunch and Xmas shopping in one trip. The seafood is excellent, the menu goes around all the French classics, even to the risk of being cliche'd (like the frog legs).
And as France is the largest country of Europe, inspiration doesn't stop at the Brittany borders: there's choucroute and meat.

I tried the oysters (very good indeed) and the choucroute -very nice despite being a bit watery- with an excellent Alsacian riesling.

The service was very attentive, they gave me the "champagne table" though a quite slow for a lunch. My partner in crime took a salade de pissenlits (dandelion salad) and some smoked eel -and loved it. We ended up with some profiteroles (too much ice cream to my taste) and a Coteaux du Layon. The lunch came at £160 which isn't cheap despite the high food quality.

Highly recommended!

Le Bouchon Breton
1st Floor, 8 Horner Square
Old Spitalfields Market,
London E1 6EW
08000 191704


See the other reviews:

• London Eating
• Gardian
  
• Time Out
  

Le Bouchon Breton London - French Restaurant Review, Online ...

1. Le Bouchon Breton Restaurant. 8 Horner Square, Old Spitalfield Market, London, E1 6EW - Tel: 0800 019 1704. Reviews, Menus, Maps and Book Online.
   - 47k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

2. Le Bouchon Breton Champagne Bar London - Pub & Bars Information ...

   11 Oct 2008 ... Le Bouchon Breton Champagne Bar London - Pub & Bars Information , 8 Horner Square, Spitalfields, 8 Horner Square, Spitalfields London - Pub ...
   www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/le-bouchon-breton-champagne-bar-info-28155.html - 63k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

3. Restaurant review: Le Bouchon Breton | Life and style | The Guardian

   15 Nov 2008 ... Outstanding but with an eighth of the bustle and merriment of a cafe on La Rue Morgue.
   www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/15/le-bouchon-breton-restaurant-review - 90k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

4. Le Bouchon Breton - - Review - Time Out London

restaurant, review, London, Moorgate, foodings.blog.uk

Restaurant Review: Club Gascon

I'm running way behing with my restaurant reviews and Cook Sister has already posted a very good review, so I'll simply link there: Cook sister!: Comptoir Gascon

I don't have much to add, apart that it's a very good address, a bit tough to get a table (book in advance) and another good reason to go to Smithfields.

Comptoir Gascon
63 Charterhouse Street
London
EC1M 6HJ

Tel. 020 7608 0851

restaurant, review, french, london, farringdon, smithfields, foodings.blog.uk

Parking in Richmond

Another parking post, after the one on Kingston hospital parking: I need not to add much to the picture apart that I was taking my child to the Doctor's surgery and ended up putting a pound for 15 mn.

It seems that councils are seeing parking as a goldmine: they're using private agencies to aggressively enforce it, brought in charges on Sunday and taxing cars that don't pollute as they're not moving when parked...

Restaurant review: TAS

It's not often I enjoy a good and fairly priced restaurant in London. But it's exactely what we came across last week-end when we went to have dinner at Tas, a Turkish eaterie on The Cut, close to Waterloo station -perfect to finish a day of rambling through the capital and visit some attractions such as Tate Modern.

We had several dishes, all quite pleasing: a lentil soup, grilled chicken, hummous, falafel, tabouleh salads, etc... All mediteranean dishes, simple and honest, washed with a good rosé (Don Jacobo Rijoa, £15.35).

Best news was the price: the menus are less than a tenner, making it possible to eat for under £20, a rare feat. Even the teenagers we had with us were pleased!!!

Highly recommended!

Tas
www.tasrestaurant.com
33 The Cut
Waterloo, London SE1 8LF
020 7928 1444

Tags: foodings.blog.uk, restaurant, review, richmondtransits.blog, london

How to keep customers (happy)

In my previous post about The great holiday ripp-off... I spoke about Expedia and Hertz, on baby car seat rental charges and thought I'd let you know the rest.

I've complained to both companies about the doubful practice of allowing you to rent a device to make your children safe while refusing to let you know how much it will call you. Hertz came back to me (only after I threated to blog about it) and said they will refund me EUR33 -half of the charge.

And as good news never comes alone, Expedia also called me back because I complained my rental accomodation was far from being clean (we had to bleach-wash the fridge before storing anything). They will refund me £200 on my holiday bill, which is much welcome.

Note to self: I should have known better, since a great feature of the Expedia web-site is that it allows clients to rate their hotels/cottages. This is good use of the Web 2.0, I really like it.

So while it's best to make sure you don't make your customers unhappy in the first place, Hertz and Expedia deserve brownie points for addressing my complaints.

My advice: ALWAYS write to the customer department. It's not only that you might be compensated but it's also a service to the company (poor service will kill a service company) and other customers.

Tags: holidays, money, richmondtransits.blog, expedia, hertz

Restaurant Review: The Brown Dog, Barnes

We went back to the Brown Dog the other day, hoping to confirm it's the next Victoria (in Temple Sheen) as the latter had gone madly overpriced. We were disappointed by this gastropub, feeling the quality had slipped. Good, still good value but no longuer special in our opinion. Annie's not far away knows how to cook good meat blue (why is it a challenge to explain this to Eastern-European waitresses?)

The wine list is OK, just. Food is of European and French influences, perfectly recommendable. For instance I had cod with tapenade, very well done.

The Brown Dog

28 Cross Street
SW13 0AP Barnes
020 8392 2200


Tags: restaurant, review, barnes, european, richmondtransits.blog,

Restaurant Review: Annie's

There's strangely an un-explored niche in the Richmond dining area: good places for brunch.

What's in a brunch? To me, a good brunch is informal (need to be able to bring the kids), good value and offering a range of options, not just a cooked breakfast.

We went to Annie's this Mothering Sunday and liked it. We've been there before and liked it: the decoration is warm, the uncovered oak tables inviting but the chairs are cosy rather than too pub-like. They do offer a brunch menu: full English Breakfast, but also a few eggy versions (Benedict, Florentine, with smoked salmon, etc...), all between £8 and £9, kiddies go full English for a fiver (one is enough for two sub-7 fairies).

I really like it at night too: it's a classic brasseie menu, not too extensive and fresh. Dishes are between £10 and £15 -now I wonder why we don't come back more often? I guess the wine list could be more researched, but it would be adequate for most.


36 - 38 White Hart Lane, London, SW13 0PZ

020 8878 2020
www.anniesrestaurant.co.uk/barnes/

Tags: Barnes,, Mortlake,, restaurant,, review, richmondtransits.blog

Restaurant review: Le Vacherin in Chiswick

I had a nice lunch today a Le Vacherin, a French brasserie on Acton Common Green, in fact close to Chiswich park. For Richmondians, it's two tube stops and a 10 mn walk away (from Gunnersbury and BS.Inc. Tower).

The restaurant was empty when we arrived, which let me some time to look at the settings: restrained, classical but sleek and sober, I felt at home. It filled up with 4 other tables, which is a good sign on a mid-week lunchtime.

I had some sweetbread in tempura batter, which were surprising and good. They were really well cooked but I ended up discarding the batter because I felt it overwhelmed the taste of my favourite offal. One of my guest settled for the "Scallops, Black Pudding & Alsace Bacon", which seemed like a strange but apparently successful pairing.
I then followed through with some "Aged Beef Fillet Tail, Sauce Foie Gras", which disappointingly wasn't blue but medium rare. Excellent meat, but I hate when it's over-cooked. My two guests went with fish (dover sole and brill and seemed pleased). I un-diplomatically chose a red Burgondy (2005 Cotes de Beaune by Louis Latour, which was OK but I usually avoid large merchands): the wine list is good, not too intimidating but could do with a little more research.

The deserts were nice, I settled for the pear and almonds tarts -a little stuffy for a lunch. Cheese platter seemed a little restricted given the name of the restaurant (no Vacherin!)

Service was nice, reserved and discreet -exactely what I want.

The best news is the price: even with a £41 bottle, it all came under £60 per head, which makes it one of the best value proper restaurant around. I would definitely come back... and highly recommend it!


Le Vacherin, 76-77 South Parade, Chiswick, London, W4 5LF - Tel 020 8742 2121 - www.levacherin.co.uk


Tags: restaurant, review, foodings.blog.uk

Transported logic

The government is talking about expanding Heathrow -if the airport meets its pollution targets. To achieve this, they've started leaking the idea of creating a congestion charge around the airport... to remove some ground transportation CO2 (powered by taxed petrol/diesel).

The alternative of taxing aviation fuel (kerosene) and invest in new high-speed rail has not been investigated by the Edington report: the ex-BA boss who was asked to work on the "future of transportation", which he did by totally ignoring indirect costs such as environment, health, etc...

For instance, it is claimed that delaying the airport expansion could cost £5bn. The flight path to Heathrow alone is impacting over 1 million Londoners. Who has factored in those costs in the equation?

Tags: transportation airlines Heathrow politics richmondtransits.blog