Timo & Bar Boulud - Kensington & Knightsbrige: Thursday November 10th, 2010

Spending too much is something I've done a lot of in the past few years. I'm guilty of it with shopping and also with food. One fine November afternoon last year, I indulged my splurging to a relatively unhealthy degree and surprised even myself at how darned greedy I was being.

The other half and I had an afternoon off work so we went for some lunch at Timo, one of the slightly better restaurants you will find on High Street Kensington. It sits rather incongruously at the end of a few middle-eastern grocery stores right before the grandiose Earl's Terrace, just over the way from the wonderful Holland Park and not far from the Olympia station, notable for the fact that you still sometimes see freight trains passing through there.

Timo is a restaurant with some clout. It's certainly one of the classier restaurants at which you may find a bunch of post-expo diners in Kensington and it has a decent reputation. They focus on the key ingredients of Italian food: simplicity, earthiness and homeliness. Any Italian restaurant which can pull these off whilst keeping the food tasty and the aura authentic is good enough by me. For years growing up, my favourite restaurant was Sorrento in Teddington. Sadly the great institution that once was no longer stands but its memory means a lot to me and always reminds me that a good Italian restaurant should represent these three things.

Fortunately, Timo is close enough to this that it merits its place in London's current scene. It's different enough from chain restaurants and stands just above the sort of internally franchised, over-priced tat that also dwells on Kensington High Street.

We put the restaurant through its paces with the rigour and determination which two regular restaurant-goers might be expected to. We started with a carpaccio of beef which came with rocket, fennel and sliced parmesan (left). It was very pleasant indeed. Spicy and subtle textures from the sides complimented the supple and rich beef rather well. However, it was trumped by the simple elegance exuding from our second starter, spaghettini with calamari, chilli, clams, peas and white wine (below right). Perfectly cooked strands of pasta with fresh ingredients in a light, buttery sauce. You really don't want more than this.

Seconds were slightly less impressive, with a palliard of chicken breast reminding me what paillard really means: pounded flat to the point of roadkill. It was served with roast potatoes seasoned with rosemary and some spinach. Not an interesting dish, even if the potatoes weren't too bad. Bland, dry and generally filler for filler's sake.

Our second main course was back on the pasta, which turned out to be pretty delicious too. However, the texture of the carbs didn't really work for me and I'll try to explain why. Pasta is almost sacred to me. It's the basis of the most of the dishes I can cook pretty well and I could eat the stuff all day. Pasta should be al dente or just about cooked. This means not crunchy but not rubbery or too soft. This stuff was a bit too stringy and stodgy for me, despite the silky yet punchy meat sauce. Especially when you consider that it was supposed to be tagliatele. Certainly not what you want when you're expecting thick and smooth ribbons of pasta.

We ate a tiramisu for dessert which was passably edible. It wasn't too heavy on the liqueur which is a common error with second rate tiramisu. All told, we shared and enjoyed it. Lunch out of the way, we took a bus into Knightsbridge. Whether you're walking through Kensington to Knightsbridge or taking a bus, this walk is one of those lovely, haughty routes that makes you glad to know London well. Resoundingly pompous and expensively louche, it's the kind of tourist walk that will never really belong to the tourists.

Reflecting on the near-filling lunch we'd eaten, we decided to have a browse in the array of ludicrously expensive shops on offer in Knightsbridge, before we exited Harvey Nichols to discover the Mandarin Oriental. That's not to say we hadn't seen it before, but we hadn't been in the area since we acquired the knowledge that Bar Boulud had opened there. As I reported some time ago, Bar Boulud was one of the highest new entries on to the top 100 list for the UK last year, so suddenly we became a little hungrier.

It was too early for dinner, so we decided to share an afternoon tea. Wouldn't you know it, the staff were actually really nice about it. I must say I was surprised at the idea that Knightsbridge hotel staff would approve of us splitting one afternoon tea between two, but surprises are always appreciated. A further surprise was that the afternoon tea at Bar Boulud only costs £21: not bad going at all.

For your £21, you get the classics: set of sandwiches, set of pastries, pot of tea, scones with cream 'n jam and as a small bonus, some chocolate Madeleines. That, my friends, is good value tea in Knightsbridge. And that's because it's pretty good tea. Not ground-breakingly good or mouthfuls of heaven inside bread brilliant, but pretty decent tea. It's got that level of ridiculous miniature class to it, which is what you're looking for when you have afternoon tea in a snazzy London hotel.

The sandwiches were a tough one. They didn't taste bad but they weren't much to write home about. Rather small, confusingly presented (some of them were cut into circular rolls) and limited in terms of ideas, they had that unfortunate problem that upmarket food sometimes experiences: trying to jazz up standards without getting the standards right. That said, they were fresh enough, all the crusts were cut off and the fillings were indeed traditional as you like: ham & mustard, cucumber & cream cheese, egg mayonnaise. No matter what the mis-judged presentation, if the ingredients compliment each other I'll still scoff down the plate. Or half the plate in this case.

The pastry section of the tea certainly looked more impressive, but in terms of taste there were a few issues. They had clearly put a great deal of thought into how to make the cake section of the tea steal the show and they'd done it well (left). There were three cakes (which I think is one too few for a decent afternoon tea.)

There was a lovely earl grey éclair; a tea-related twist on a classic. Mildly citrus-y, chewy yet gentle. There was some lemon and raspberry sponge which was delightfully layered and light, but lacking a touch of class. The whole thing didn't quite combine with the seamlessness that fine afternoon tea cakes deserve. Finally, a black forest cake (something I would never usually choose) was acceptable, in some of the layers being lovely and some being underwhelming. I will say it looked stunning though.

Fortunately, the afternoon was completed with some generosity and a main event worth waiting for. The scones at Bar Boulud, whilst a little on the slight side, were excellent (right). Crumbly, not too dry and accompanied with fine cream and jam (that's cream first, then jam, to confirm the correct way to do it), they were quite what we were after. And they gave us a second batch too, which I was delighted about. Following these, we had some Madeleines which were warm, soft and satisfying. And served in a napkin which was very cute.

It was a sprightly and warm autumn day. It was an indulgent autumn day. It was a glorious autumn day. I imagine I'll be back to Timo some time down the line and I have since been back to Bar Boulud which I will get around to reporting on when I find the time (or effort, or inclination...) In the meantime, there are a few things to think about from this:

1) The spirit of neighbourhood Italian cooking just about survives in High Street Kensington thanks to Timo
2) Bar Boulud is perfect for Knightsbridge: trendy, segregated dining rooms and unpretentious in the extreme, yet classy enough to fit in
3) Lunch followed by afternoon tea is plenty for one day


Timo

Bar Boulud