Village East

Village East is a restaurant and bar on bermondsey street run by the people who own the Garrison. Populated mostly by fashionable looking 30 and 40 somethings it has a lively atmosphere, good (ie flattering) lighting and is deceptively large. The bar is at the front and also has a mezzanine level and the restaurant is at the back, again on two levels.
The waiting staff are efficient if not exactly warm and cuddly, which is probably exactly what you want from people serving you food. The place was busy in a Saturday night and the only minor irritation is the insistence on background music which I never really understand in restaurants.
The food was good, a fairly wide range of vegetarian stuff, including roast vegetable couscous with halloumi, artichoke salad with broad beans and peas, and roasted aubergine soup which we didn't have but which sounded lovely.
The food was well cooked, the veg fresh and not too oily and the green beans served with plenty of butter, which is the best way. In fact we had a vegetarian meal containing a huge variety of vegetables, which is not always the case when eating out.
We shared a starter, a main each, three sides and a beautiful crumble to finish. This, plus two glasses of reisling each came to £77, not cheap but to my mind good value for a decent meal, good wine and well lit, well designed surroundings.

Saf

Botanical cuisine is what Saf promises and it is exactly what is delivers. Don't come here if you don't like fruit or vegetables. Or if, like countless reviewers I have read, you insist on going on and on a out how much you like meat. Good for you. However, this is a vegan/raw food restaurant so it doesn't promise much in the way of meat. And also this, presumably is only one meal of many, so even if you love meat with an unsuual passion, missing it for one meal shouldn't be too difficult.

Now we have that out of the way, on to the restaruant itself: Saf originated in Istanbul and is a vegan/raw food restaurant. It looks good, and if you have been to many vegetarian restaurants you will know that this is unusual. When we arrived they seemed to have mislaid our booking, which could have been embarassing, but they found us another table with minimum fuss while we parked oursleves at the bar.

The cocktail bar is small but the cocktails are fresh and unusual, I had a Jasmine Pearl Martini with Jasmine tea infused vodka. How much of the jasmine tea infusion I could taste didn't really matter, it looked pretty and tasted even prettier. Joff had a Barber Shop Bourbon (pictured) adorned with cinnamon sprinkled apple slices. Given that the alcohol content was most likely quite high, both of these felt as if they were doing you good.

The menu references many 'real' dishes, another thing which seems to have snuck under the skin of some reviewers. How can you call something Lasagne and then not deliver lasagne. This is a raw food restaurant so you were never going to get lasagne. I imagine that naming things this way is necessarry, as vegan/raw food dishes don't really have names, not that people would recognise anyway and just typing a list of ingredients without naming them is probably taking things too far. Some of the dishes are hot (not many but a few) and this is clearly marked on the menu. Joff had all things hot and I had all things cold, and raw. To start I had vegetable maki, with parsnip rice, which was actually raw parsnip which sounds horrible but tastes, in this combination, stunning and intensely savoury. See what I mean about naming? Raw parsnip, bad, parsnip rice, good. Joff had dumplings which I didn't taste as they had mushrooms in them but he said were lovely and suitably mushroomy.

For a main course I had Raw Neat balls Spaghetti, which was a platefull of thinly grated vegetables in a lime, pomegrante and coraiander dressing with some rich and nutty (meat) balls. It was again delicious, nicer than it sounded, and incredibly fresh tasting. Instead of feeling weary and in need of a nap after I had eaten it I felt invigorated and ready for pudding (a raw apple crumbly thing with ice cream, which had a savoury edge and wasn't too sweet). Joff had a thai curry and rice, which was strange as he normally won't go near thai food. He liked it, I didn't taste it so I won't elaborate.

Service was good, food was delicious, atmosphere properly restaurant like, a good wine list and, no, I wasn't hungry afterwards. Yes, I would go back and yes, I heartily recommend it.

Bob Bob Ricard?

Has anyone been to Bob Bob Ricard? I would like to go and am keen to know what it is like. I am mainly attracted to the large variety of egg dishes on the menu, oh and the Champagne bell.

Dish Dash

Dish Dash is a Persian restaurant in Balham. I don't often go to Balham and forget that it is actually not that far from me, and Dish Dash is definitely a reason to re visit.

It is a good local restaurant with friendly service, including a waiter from Belfast who everyone asks where he is from, assuming he is from Iran via Belfast, but he is actually from Belfast. The decor is pleasant and unremarkable, but with a relaxed feel. The menu contains things you may recognise from Turkish or Lebanese food but it tastes very different. Persian food, in my limited experience is more aromatic that it's Turkish counterparts, Falafel taste fragrant and subtly spiced as does the hummus. We ordered a mixture of meze priced between £3.50 and £4.50, including; Kookoo, a perisan omellette,Mirza, a lentil and aubergine dip, and Esfenaj, a mixture of spinach and chick peas adn the afore metnioned Falafel and Hummus. All were good, not oily as this type of food can sometimes be, all delicately spiced and, as I mentioned before, fragrant (although I couldn't tell you what the spices were). Oh, and we had Jewelled rice, which is a sticky persian rice with a heap of saffron on the top and which is probably my favourite dish in Dish Dash. To finish we shared three scoops of ice cream; Cardamon, Pistachio and Vanilla. Vanilla is Joff's choice I hasten to add. The cardamon and pistachio were absolutely delicious adn I urge you to order them if you visit.

The meal cost £30 for two, with plenty of food and a cocktail each. Don't order the cocktails they are average, go for wine or beer. A very good local restaurant and worth a short tube journey if you fancy something a little different with excellent vegetarian choices.

Breakfast at Cha Cha Moon

I need to say before we start that I am not a fan of Chinese food. I went to Cha Cha Moon to meet friends and to check out the new breakfast menu, and it was free. So there we are.

Cha Cha Moon has just started serving Breakfast. We went to the one in Ganton Street. The first thing I noticed was how nice it was to be in Oxford street at 10 O'Clock on a Sunday morning. Most of the shops were closed and it was more or less deserted, excellent for window shopping and noticing that actually, some of those side streets are realy quite attractive when not stuffed with shoppers. 

Ch Cha Moon is owned by Alan Yau, he of Wagamama, Yauatcha and Hakkasan. It is basically a noodle bar with a slick interior, comfortable bench seating, low lighting and very friendly staff. The food is very reasonably priced, both for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast the most expensive dish is £6 and most are below that. The menu is short and centres around asian style breakfast favourites, for example Salmon Porridge and Crispy Duck Breakfast Wrap. Both of which sound wrong to me but I think that it is my general aversion to the style of food rather than the food itself. One of my friends ordered the crispy duck wrap and it looked, and apparently was, very good. The duck was juicy but not greay and the wrap was toasted which made it look much more appetising than wraps usually do. The salmon in the Salmon Porridge was apparently well cooked and tasty but the porridge was swimming in cream and went largely uneaten.

I had a taste of Brioche french toast (£3.80) and a whole pancake with raspberry compote (££3.60), presumably on the menu for cowards like me. The Brioche French Toast was a little too sweet but looked soft and fluffy and the 2 year old I was with loved it.  The Pancake was excellent, less sweet than the french toast, very good texture and savoury enough to offset the raspberries.  

And now the eggs: normally as anyone who reads this blog may know I would order the eggs. They came in several styles, scrambled, fried and in a frittata. However, in keeping wth the rest of the menu they were not ordinary hens eggs but duck eggs. Duck eggs! Now call me squeamish but I have tried to eat duck eggs twice and both times have failed to eat more than a mouthful. In my opinion, and I realise that many will disagree, they smell and taste of fish, and I don't want that in an egg.  

The coffee is good and served in attractive porcelain mugs without handles and the smoothies were unusual and tasty.  I would recommend the more adventurous among you, or just those that like this type of food, to try it, if onyl once. The food is cheap and well presented.  And if you feel like I do about this type of food, go, watch others eat duck eggs and order the pancake.

Maroush V

Maroush is a chain of Lebanese restaurants, and we went to number five, on Vere Street just off Oxford street. It looks very grand from the outside but is rather more cafe like inside. There are two elements to the Maroush V experience; the food and the atmosphere.

The food is fresh and tasty, salads liberallly seasoned with lemon juice, falafel just cooked and perfectly crispy on the outside and the hummus has just the right amount of tahini in it. Obvioulsy we only ate vegetarian food but the meats certainly smelled good and from what I could gather by staring at other people's food, looked good too. It is all reasonably priced, apart from the wine, which is available but not the main feature, this being a Lebanese restaurant. We had to ask twice for the wine menu, the cheapest bottle was £18 and there were only a couple of those before it leapt up to £28 a bottle.

Which brings me to the atmosphere; when we arrived there were two couples there both eating studiously and saying not a word to each other. I am sure they were enjoying their food but they certainly didn't contribute to an atmosphere of jollity and frivolity, and I like a bit of that when I go out to eat. The waiters were helpful but grim faced and I was feeling a little uneasy until the rest of our party arrived and we made enough noise to drown out the misery.

I suppose people go there to eat, adn the food is absolutely worth going for, good, fresh, well seasoned food at about £15 per head. However, if you want something a little less functional than simply going, eating and leaving, I would take a couple of lively dining companions to break the silence.

Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi is a strange beast, I refer to the Islington branch as it is the only one I have visited. I have been twice so far and am not sure I will go back. Both times we went before going to see a play at the Almeida (this time, Parlour Song, which we both thought was awful but which everyone else seemed to find hilarious) as it seemed to suit a pre theatre type dinner, what with it's cafe style tables and piles of food on the counters.

The decor is all white, the waiters attractive and clad in black. There are several long shared tables in the centre of the restaurant and other smaller, bookable tables around the side. The menu is divided into 'From the Counter' (cold) and 'From the Kitchen' (hot). From the Counter dishes cost between £6 and £8 and From the Kitchen cost about £10 on average. Dishes are 'for sharing' which means that they are small and you have to order a lot, they recommend about 3 each.

There is nothing wrong with this concept it is just that really what it means is cold food and hot food and I slightly resent the tarted up labels. Particularly as when you order a hot dish the waiter leans in and says 'that dish is From The Kitchen and will take a little longer, we will bring it when it is ready (ie not with the rest of the food) is that ok?'. And I suppose it is ok, it's just that what they mean is that they are going to cook it and bring it when it is cooked, which is what usually happens when you go to a restaurant.

The food itself is very good. As a vegetarian you are basically getting small plates of vegetables, but they are very well seasoned, inventively presented vegetables, green beans with chili jam, ricotta stuffed courgette flowers, griddled courgette with artichoke and black lentils. All delicious. However, there is also something unsatisfying about it all. Probably because it is well cooked, simple buffet/tapas style food presented as a 'concept'. And it is expensive for what it is. £8 for a plate of green beans, however delicious, seems like a lot.

I want to like Ottolenghi, which is why I went back, and I think I would like it better if they were a little more honest about what they were serving and presented themselves in a less earnest and aspirational way.

Supperclubs

Joff and I had a discussion one evening, well over several evenings in fact, about the possibility of opening our front room to strangers and cooking them dinner. Or more accurately Joff would cook them dinner and I would boss him about and welcome people in. Our house is small so we figured we could probably only fit 4 people in happily. We would charge them only for the cost of ingredients and they would bring wine. Well, it seems we were not alone, apparently some food bloggers (notably Ms Marmitelover) are already doing it. Foodrambller was a guest in Ms Marmitelovers front room, otherwise known as The Underground Restaurant and writes about it here. The fact that there have been articles about it in both the Guradian and the Metro means it is sure to spread. We may even have a go, I will keep you posted. Meanwhile Iwould like to hear from anyone who has been to one, or if not, do you like the idea and would you go?

Hare and Tortoise - Big Dish, Small Bill

This is the first time I have visited a Hare and Tortoise, a chain of Japanes noodle restaurants. We went to the one in the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury, which is essentially a shopping centre and so not hugely atmospheric.

The restaurant itself is cafe like, wooden tables, no frills. I have only recently acquired a taste for Japanes food and being a vegetarian I am obviously limited in the range I have had. This said the Hare and Tortoise serves good and extraordinarily cheap food. I had ramen noodles, tofu, and green leafy vegetables in broth served in a vast bowl. I also had a starter of spring rolls with a delicously tangy sauce and shared a small jug of sake.

There were 3 of us, we each had a starter and a giant main course (along the same lines as the one I have just described) a small jug of Sake and 2 cokes. The bill came to £30. £30!! Unbelievable. I felt like a student. And there was so much food none of us could eat it all. And it tasted good, the tofu was covered in a very light batter so helld its texture in the broth, the greens were not overcooked and the noodles firm and more ish.

This is great recession food, I mean surely I am not expected to eat in every night. I shall be visiting the Hare and tortoise again and seeking out similar bargain restaurants, although I suspect this may be hard to beat.

Giraffe

Giraffe is a ubiquitous chain that describes itself as both a 'family' and 'world food' restaurant. Normally all of those things would be enough to make my heart sink but I am fond of Giraffe. It is hearty, friendly (the waiting staff are almost too cheery) and the food is fresh and mostly tasty. It is a good place to go when you have seen or done something or are on the way to see or do something.

We ate here after seeing The Reader ( I liked it but then I liked the book and it meant I could waffle on about it for ages afterwards). I ordered somethign vegetarian but without the mushrooms which they then ran out of. This meant I ordered a Power food Salad and had to order chips, because you can't have salad without chips, not in winter. I was fairly disappointed ordering as it always seems like a last resort to order salad in restuarants. However I was pleasantly suprised; it was very good, with generous amounts of toasted seeds and cashews to add crunch, flavoursome but not overpowering dressing and no goat's chees, which is always a bonus. And the chips are lovely: thin, crispy and salty.

There is a good selection of wine, the atmosphere is lively and the food reasonably priced. It is the sort of place to go when you want to go somewhere nice and pretty safe, where most people will find something to eat, not high end but happy.

EV at home

So, on New YEar's eve we decided not to go to the Real Greek after all (nothing personal). Instead Joff went to the deli at EV in Waterloo, EV is a chain of Turkish restaurants that includes Tas, and EV. The main restuarant is huge, set under the railway arches in Waterloo and does reasonably priced Turkish food, particularly good for vegetarians.

Next door is a bakery and delicatessen selling much of the food served in the restuaraunt as well as bags of dried fruit, beans, herbs etc. For our New YEar's Eve feast Joff bought hummus, tabouleh, peppers and aubergines in oil, slices of a cheese and spinach pie (like borek), turkish delight and baklava. delicious. We supplemented it with other things like more aubergine and falafel but it was dleicious and fresh, if filling.

Off to Giraffe, post cinema, later and will report back tomorrow.

Christmas and New Year

We ate in over Christmas and since I don't do any of the cooking I don't really feel like I can blog about it. Although I do a lot of the eating. For the record we had Lasagne (veg) and then a Japanese style dish with rice noodles and tofu. Very nice.

As for eating out, we haven't done much of that recently but are plannign to go to the Real Greek for New year's eve, which is a little random but it is on the river, close to home and they do Gigantes beans, how could we resist?

Also, plan to have lunch in the V & A on new year's day so will report back on that too.

The Cut Bar and Restaurant

The Cut Bar and Restaurant is attached to the Young Vic Theatre and is therefore mainly aimed at pre and post theatre eating and drinking. It is a large open space with outside tables and an upstairs Bar area and does become fairly noisy. Given that you are unlikely to come here for a quiet, romantic dinner the noise is not really a problem and lends the place a lively atmosphere.

The food is good and reasonable priced, it is not a wide menu but this means that it is quick to come to the table and what there is is high quality. Last night I had courgette and aubergine sandwich (burger style) and chips. We shared a large and very green salad with deliciously sharp dressing and a side dish of green beans and shallots. The courgette and aubergine were perfectly cooked, with just enough chargrilling to give them a smoky taste without obliterating the original vegetable. The chips were the best I have had for a long time, crispy outside and soft and fluffy in the middle. Joff finished with a scoop of apparently very good vanilla ice cream.

With two glasses of wine each the bill came to £42 pounds which I think is pretty good value. The service was efficient and friendly and the whole operation friendlier and more inviting than the basement restaurant at the Old Vic.

Moti Mahal

Moti Mahal is a modern Indian restaurant in Covent Garden's Great Queen Street. The restuarant started in India and has now expanded globally, the chef used to cook for the Indian Prime Minister apparently. The decor, with it's white interior, linen table cloths, fine table ware and wooden floors, is far removed from the more traditional Indian restaurants in the area, and the staff are smartly dressed and attentive, if a little formal and unsmiling. The clientele, on a thursday night when we visited, are mostly business types who look well fed and used to fine dining and the whole atmosphere seems, well, flashy.

Flashy is not necessarily a bad thing and we found ourselves ordering a glass of champagne and a Manhattan cocktail, not our usual drinks order for dinner. The service wa a little slow to start with but warmed up quickly, the drinks were good, although the Manhattan wasn't laced with quite enough Bourbon for Joff.

The food was very good indeed, we ordered two starters and both were fresh tasty and unusual, the Bhuney Aloo aur Mutter ki Tikki being the best, a stack of little potato cakes, stuffed with vegetables and served with a yoghurt and tamarind sauce. It was full of flavour, delicately cooked and beautifully presented. The main courses were of the same quality and although they looked small the food here is rich so we found ourselves very full at the end, I could only manage one out of four of the chocolates that came with the bill and I love chocolate (also my husband really dislikes it so I face no competition in the eating of it). Joff's main course was full of wonderful looking mushrooms and the other dishes used ingredients not often used in Indian cooking, well not in the restaurants I have visited anyway, for example wild boar and lamb chops. There are excellent vegetarian choices which means we cna both visit again without having to have the same thing, a peril of vegetarian dining.

we left full, happy and agreeing we would come again. It isn't cheap, the bill was £62 for two starters, two main courses, a side order of dal, a glass of champagne and a Manhattan. However, if you are looking for something different with smart surroundings and beautifully cooked food, this is the place to come. And if anyone ever suggests that you go on a blowout to The Red Fort suggest this instead.

Rosso Pomodoro

Rosso Pomodoro is an Italian chain of restaurants with a branch in Covent Garden. There is an important distinction from a chain of Italian restaurants and an Italian chain of restuarants, Rosso Pomodoro started life in Italy and there are branches in Milan, Rome and Naples as well as many other Italian cities and they now have 3 in London, which means that they pride themselves in providing authentic Italian food with quality ingredients. I realise that these phrases are over used and that most restaurants now claim to use quality ingredients, however Rosso Pomodoro also claims to be part of the slow food movement (10 of their dishes use slow food ingredients) which means that they use ingredients from producers who grow rare or threatened varieties of certain foods in a way that protects the environment and at a price that is fair to the grower. The rest of the food they use comes mainly from 6 trusted suppliers.

This all sounds very earnest and right on but actually translates into delicious, fresh, beautifully cooked food with it's roots in Naples. The tomatoes are exceptional and the olive oil is excellent. There is not a huge range of dishes but I think that this is one of their strengths, most dishes come, not surprisingly, with tomatoes in some form, the main choices being pasta, pizza and a few meat or fish dishes. This is presumably because they limit their ingredients to those that they consider to be top quality. Pasta is handmade, pizzas are cooked in a firewood oven and taste somehow unlike any other pizza I have had in this country service is friendly and efficient. the decor reflects the name and is mostly tomato red and white. On one recent visit someone in our party sent their pasta dish back as it was not very hot, it was immediately taken off the bill and she was offered anything else she might like free of charge.

Rosso Pomodoro is a good quality Italian restaurant with just enough of a difference to make it stand out from the sea of other pizza restaurants in the capital. It offers good vegetarian choices and the best tomatoes I have eaten in London.

Eat and Two Veg

Eat and Two Veg is a vegetarian diner in Marylebone High Street, with the emphasis on diner. It is the diner styling of the restaurant that makes it so appealing. Most vegetarian restaurants, at least until recently, have either been cramped cafe style affairs for lunch or a hasty dinner, or pared down, austere temples to health that aren't that much fun. Eat and Two Veg is a proper restaurant with red leather (or perhaps leather 'style') booths, spacious seating and good, friendly service. The food does tend towards vegetarian versions of meat dishes, such as schnitzel, sausage and mash and burgers, which I know will put some people off. However it is perfectly good, if not high end, food and the vegetables themselves are fresh and nicely presented. The burgers are tasty, the chips crispy and my husband has enjoyed a range of 'fake' favourites such as hotpot and schnitzel and mash with watercress sauce. I know there is an argument against imitating meat dishes in vegetarian cooking but there is something comforting for a vegetarian in knowing you can choose anything from the menu and be served, good, nicely cooked food in relaxing and enjoyable surroundings. It may not sound like a lot to ask but it makes a welcome change to risotto or earnestly served bean salad and quiche.

The Larder

The Larder is a restaurant, bar, bakers and shop all rolled into one glossy package. It is on st. John street in clerkenwell, an area already laden with bars and restaurants but this is a welcome addition. The bread is made ont he premises and is for sale to take home alongside other pastries. The meat and fish are all bought from trusted and named sources and there are good and unusual vegetarian options, for example, asparagus, poached egg and parmesan or vegetable paella. The food is rich and tasty and the portions generous, the service attentive and friendly without being manic. The place itself is all clean lines and mood lighting with an open kitchen, an arrangement I am becoming increasingly fond of.
our meal for two with two good glasses of wine came to £35 which I think is pretty reasonable for such good quality. We will absolutely be going back.

The Garrison

The Garrison, which I have mentioned previously as being one of my favourites, is a gastro pub on Bermondsey street. It is still beautifully decorated and retains a good atmosphere, it is still a great place for a drink if you can get a table. However, having eaten there a couple of times recently, I think that the quality has slipped. Twice food has arrived cold and the cold dish has been taken away while Joff had either to eat his or wait for mine and leave his to go cold(i have to say that both times it was taken off the bill). The most recent visit was better, but even then the food was not quite as hot as it should have been and was ok rather than delicious. It all gives the appearance of having been assembled and heated up rather than actually having been cooked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, sadly, I will not be going back for a while and will instead be going to the superior Bermondsey Kitchen.

Red Fort

Red Fort is an Indian restaurant on Dean Street. Sounds nice and simple, well it's a posh Indian restaurant on Dean street. One with a slightly intimidating but smart exterior and a man on the door. Starting to sound more complicated? Good. There is a bar downstairs that serves good cocktails and has slightly worryingly efficient service. But back to the restaurant, for an Indian restaurant it has a small selection of vegetarian food, no mains, but all vegetable dishes can be eaten as mains, fair enough. In fact I found it hard to tell whether the vegetable dishes were sides or mains and, when they came, what the difference was. And this is where the trouble starts, the food tasted good and the service was brisk and friendly enough but by the end of the meal, although we had all had a good time, one look at the bill left me feeling thoroughly ripped off. Joff had a mushroom dish as his main but it was served in the same dish as the side dishes and put on the table without an explanation, was it part of the table's side dishes or his main? As a result he had to grab it quickly before it was snaffled by someone else. My aubergines were good, spicy and stuffed with paneer and cashews, but absolutely tiny ( I guess I should have paid more attention the descriptor 'baby' on the menu). A selection of starters for everyone translated as everyone getting a plate each containing all of the starters - an expensive an unnecessary way of doing it as we had to give away all of our fish and meat starters and were left with a tiny patty and a mini veg kebab. with rice and bread for the table, again, (the table was very well fed) and water brought without the choice of tap, the bill came to an astounding £60 a head! i have been to a fair few expensive restaurants but this was undoubtedly the most expensive when you take into consideration what we actually got for our money. Oh and the bill for the water alone came to £ 40. We managed to have a good evening despite this and the bill was met with disbelief and good humour. However I will not be going back and I would advise others not to unless they are feeling extraordinarily flush. Next time i might try Amaya or Veeraswamy.

Cafe Koha

Cafe Koha is a wine bar and restaurant in the centre of London, st. Martin's court just behind Leicester square. I have been going there for years now but recently it has had a refit and now is more spacious and better designed, you no longer have to walk sideways to avoid bumping into tables.

It is a rare find in Soho as it is not a chain, not a pseudo club, not frighteningly crowded and they do not force you to eat if you don't want to. The wine list is good, the waiters friendly and if you find yourself getting peckish as you linger over your wine you may fancy the meditteranean platter at £6.95. Not enough for a meal but enough to take the edge off. The food on the rest of the menu is good but not spectacular, but that is not really the point. The point, as I see it, is that Koha is a refuge in Soho, a good meeting place, good for a glass or two before or after shopping, theatre or a film.It is calm, classy and welcoming, and you can't say that about most of the places around Leicester square tube station.