Two Chain Restaurants in Westfield: Shepherds Bush, December 21st & 29th, 2009

On one pre- and one post-Christmas shopping trip to Westfield at the end of last year, I experienced two different yet relatively satisfying experiences whilst dining at two chain eateries which had initially not interested me.

The first trip was the first day of serious snowfall in London for the 2009-10 winter. As the watery flakes pelted down outside, my brother, the other half and I wandered into Kitchen Italia. Some decent efforts here: meatballs and spaghetti was problem-free, a truffle and mushroom taglioni was passable if a little dry, and a great helping of macaroni cheese was surprisingly good. They keep it pretty simple in here, with the tables set out bench-like as a canteen with plenty of olive oil on them.

The pasta (which is more or less what you’d go there for) is not half bad. It’s markedly better than supposedly more upmarket Italian places I’ve tried, and certainly better than some dishes you’ll get in other chain restaurants. The macaroni cheese was probably the highlight. Served in a delightful copper pan with a rich and fresh sauce and salad on the side, it did the job perfectly.

The second visit was more surprising. Byron, a chain with a tagline that promises ‘proper burgers', turned out to do just that. I held my breath as I asked them to cook my burger properly (rare) and I was cheerfully informed that, yes, this was possible because this was high quality Scottish beef. I was delighted on principle as much as anything else.

The fact that the burger turned out to be great was just awesome. I was so delighted that my rants about burgers and chain restaurants are finally being heard. This is better than burgers I've eaten in places that are trying to be upmarket, and it's miles better than somewhere like Gourmet Burger Kitchen.

So hats off to you, Westfield. Along with being the cleanest, classiest shopping centre in the UK, you're now promoting good chain restaurant eating. Plus the array of shops, but that's for a different blog in another lifetime...

Kitchen Italia

Byron

The Princess: Shoreditch, December 23rd, 2009

Pub grub in the east end? That’s about as ‘now’ as London eating gets these days. With the constant demand for a return to national and local cuisines, gastropubs are as essential to the capital’s restaurant scene as chic French brasseries or affordable pizza joints.

I’d heard a little about The Princess before, and I had hoped that it would be some super-affordable, stunningly original restaurant that used to be a pub. I don’t know why I thought that, but there was something in the way it had been semi-raved about and it’s location in hipsville that promised much.

Of course, my expectations were trounced sharpish. It’s a very nice little pub (and it is a pub) just off Old Street with a dining room upstairs. The weather was rotten, and for a while it felt as if we hadn’t even entered the restaurant, as a propped-open outside door blew smoky, freezing air up the stairwell and over our plates. Annoying, but this was dealt with in due course by the staff.

The food was just about what you expect these days from a pub restaurant that wants to be taken seriously: pate, game, plenty of meat and trendy trimmings and all done passably. There was foie gras terrine to start (blame the other half for this; I really did not fancy yet more of the stuff) which was alright. They really went for it with the sides for this though. Not as good as L’Etranger some days before, but doable.

I flouted two food gripes in one fell swoop with my starter. Spinach and lentils in the same dish… I must have been tired, depressed or strangely adventurous. Either that or I’d eat through anything to get to a piece of woodpigeon atop a nest of two vile foods. And so I did. And surprisingly, it wasn’t bad. Woodpigeon at a restaurant should never be bad – if it were I would start seething uncontrollably; it’s a bloody amazing bird – and this was very decent. Good enough to make the accompaniments seem bearable..? Well I won’t re-draft my dislikes yet, but this may be the first step on the road to acceptance.

I decided to go for some more guinea fowl for the main course, which came with more foie gras. This was slightly forgivable though, since it was stuffed inside some thighs on the side of a breast/wing cut. The usual sauce and veg accompaniments did the dish no harm, and it came out slightly tart, well-cooked and enjoyable.

We also tried something similar to the daube of beef I’d sampled at La Trompette, only an English version with gravy, mash and mustard. It was nice in places, but otherwise fairly dry and crumbly – not quite how I like my beef. It wasn’t great; merely passable.

Desserts were a fairly solid cheesecake and a pretty tasty apple crumble: two dishes that are hard to get wrong, but tough to make excellent. These were certainly closer to the good side of things.

As underwhelmed as I might seem (I have had some top meals lately), it’s far from disinterest. Something I realised after the meal, and indeed since, is that whilst a dinner like this is somewhat standard these days, this in itself is a good thing. Food is getting better all the time, and whilst The Princess of Shoreditch isn’t at the forefront of any revolutions, it’s serving up good fare without too much expense or too many frills. Good on them.

The Princess of Shoreditch

Seven Park Place by Willam Drabble: Mayfair, Tuesday December 22nd, 2009

Restaurants seem to love obvious names these days, but this is the most unnecessarily definite name I’ve seen in years. I was partly attracted to try a midweek lunch here because the name just looked utterly ridiculous, and partly because the set menu lunch was most agreeably affordable.

We were the first in the room, so we enjoyed some very intense service as we made our choices. The place itself is part of the St. James’ Hotel which is reserved and refined as a Mayfair hospitality business ought to be. It’s also very yellow, with plush carpets, seats and wall hangings. It was just about perfect for some pre-Christmas lunch, actually.

Our meal was an enjoyable sojourn through the set menu which was thankfully interesting and varied. We started with an amuse-bouche of salmon with cream and beetroot. It was entertaining if nothing else, and I always find little pre-meal treats like this very cute. It wasn’t necessary, but it was a nice touch.

Looking over the set lunch, we ate the card with a shared dessert. It veered between half decent and excellent. The okay parts were the starters: some crab and coriander ravioli swimming in a thin broth of mussels and garlic with a little chilli. This may sound wonderful but in truth it was a somewhat showy starter that was stylish yet insubstantial. Similarly, the pigs head galette sounded fantastic (served with capers and langoustine) but was a touch too dry for me (below).Main courses were where the lunch began to hot up and I started to really enjoy myself.

My eyes had lit up when I saw there was a pot roast guinea fowl on offer, but it was with a mite of wariness I agreed to split this with the salmon confit. The bird was very good. Well-cooked in that it was not at all tough, and the sharpness of the lime on the side along with the redcurrants made for an absorbing dish.

However, I was blown away by the salmon (below). The menu listed the accompaniment as a “tarte tatin of endive” which sounds pretentious and suspect at best. And I honestly do not believe salmon should be served with red wine as part of the dressing. Correction: I did not. The endive accompaniment was sublime; sweet, smooth and crunchy to compliment some of the very best-cooked fish it’s ever been my privilege to eat. Essentially, this dish was a winner to the core.

We shared a genuine (apple) tarte tatin to finish, which was every bit as enjoyable as the endive one had been moments before it (below). Blob of vanilla ice cream on top: job done. The base was crunchy, the top was soft, it was innately sweet and enjoyable and that’s most certainly the way it should be.

There are a multitude of decent hotel restaurants in Mayfair, and I feel as if I’m slowly checking them off an imaginary wish list as I go to a new one. This was not just another hotel restaurant though; it is certainly worth a visit and I suggest you go there if you have the chance.



Seven Park Place by William Drabble

Midnight Feast – Bincho: Soho, Friday 18th December, 2009

‘Tis the season (or was the season anyway) for Christmas parties. Fortunately, my colleagues and I had been lucky enough to experience one of the better mass-dining events on show by eating a traditional Christmas lunch at the Hyde Park Hilton. For mass-prepared and quickly-served food which is hard to glorify, they did a decent job.

The lunch segued into a drink-fest, then a disco, then a pub visit, so by around 10pm I was starting to get peckish again. A friend on a separate Christmas do called me to suggest some late dinner, so sometime later, myself, two friends and the other half wandered into Soho in search of some food just before midnight.

Soho is great for after-hours drinking, and we weren’t hugely keen to hit China Town on this particular day, so we chanced Old Compton Street (possibly my favourite road in London) for some late-night eats. We came across Bincho, a Japanese barbecue joint who could accommodate us at this late hour. Bingo!

The principle of the place is fantastic: you order small dishes of whatever takes your fancy, all fresh from the grill. It’s essentially bite-size barbecue. And it’s good. Really good at times. The main highlights were quail eggs wrapped in bacon (below left), chicken oysters (small spheres of delight found in between the leg and body of the bird and below right) and eel.

Worthy contenders were also some chicken wings and a delicious platter of assorted fish, meat and veg. Add some rice on the side and all is well. We tore into the assortment of lightly-grilled delights on offer with the sort of vigour that can only result after a day of partying through to midnight.

We raised our eyebrows slightly when the bill arrived: it was well over £100, but then we had gone a little overboard with how much we asked for, and certain dishes (especially the eel) weren’t cheap. It didn’t really matter though, as it was exactly what we needed at the time of day, and it was enjoyed by all.

Bincho

A Genuine Belter – L’Etranger: Kensington, Wednesday 16th December, 2009

Before I start this review, I must do two things: wish any readers a happy new year and issue an apology for my frankly scant input to the site over the last few weeks. The festive season proved to be eventful, fun and very time-consuming.

Now, with those out of the way, let me get something off my chest that I’ve been dying to for weeks: L’Etranger is brilliant. Like, seriously great. I didn’t realise at the time, but it’s in the UK’s top 100, it’s been generously acclaimed in various surveys and reviews in recent years, and it’s a real little gem. Gushing out of the way, let me try to justify why I enjoyed this place so much…

It’s a very cute little affair situated on Gloucester Road, as modern as you like and with wonderfully understated decor. We stumbled in fresh out of the first morning's snow of the winter with an understandably keen appetite and cast our eyes over a menu that at first glance was a bit confusing. L'Etranger is a French restaurant with Japanese leanings. It isn't fusion but it does like to cross over when it comes to its food. As such, sifting through the sushi and sashimi menu options to find the a la carte was a minor inconvenience. But what a reward...

We started with some foie gras terrine (if you're going to eat terrine, it should be this one) which was excellent and is below on the left. A lot smoother than many terrines I've tried, it hit the spot just right. I'd eat it again, which says enough. It seems we fancied putting our bodies through the ringer today too, because we combined this with some steak tartare, which is below right.

This was correctly seasoned: only mildly spiced and herbed which meant the beef could flourish and reside precisely as a decent steak tartare should. Sides were extravagant and a little showy, but pleasant enough.

The main course was where L'Etranger stole the year's show though. For this was quite possibly London's finest hour of 2009. At least for me it was. The warm up act was a duck breast and leg combination with some sauce made from kumquat. Whilst at times tart and a little wince-inducing, the sauce was inventive and individual, and the duck was cooked red as should be, and nicely enjoyable. (Below left.)

Now I've extensively debated and speculated on the success of steaks before, but I tasted a little bit of beef heaven at L'Etranger. (Right.) It was one of the best pieces of steak I have ever eaten. Rarely can I remember eating any tenderer piece of meat that was so full of flavour. I wouldn't go as far as to use the 'melt in the mouth' cliché, but that's only because it sounds so hackneyed. Served on a bed of green-ed mash (this was the Japanese part of the dish), I was dumbfounded.

By this point (with my stomach acids working overtime and gagging for a break) I was fairly convinced this was the best meal I'd eat in London for 2009, so I happily wondered what sort of 'Death by Chocolate' I could get at this wonderful eatery. It turned out to be a bloody massive fondant, but to say only that doesn't do it justice, so it's below.

Green tea and passion fruit ice cream served in separate portions with a slice of chocolate on the end..? Well, if you're going to kill me with chocolate, I appreciate the marks for style and form. It was delicious and baffling in equal measure. Mind you, I was so blissfuly hazy by this point after the glory that had preceded it I serenely enjoyed my dessert with a vacant smile on my face. (It was pretty excellent.) A tiramisu with further Japanese touches (lychees chocolate) was decent if unspectacular.

So, despite this meal occasionally venturing into the strange and average, these dalliances were so brief as to not cloud or ruin the meal in any way. It was superb, served by gracious and humble staff in a wonderful setting. Please visit L'Etranger in 2010. You are unlikely to be disappointed.

L'Etranger