London Restaurant Guide | London Restaurant Blog and Reviews | Londonelicious

Frenchie, Frenchie: Le Relais de Venise l'entrecote

120 Marylebone Lane
W1
Tel: 020 7486 0878

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, September 24, 2006

The Victims: Rutton, Michael

The Damage: 27 quid each

The Background: Well, if you were following me last week, you saw that Michael is back from Australia! So Rutton, Michael and I met up for Sunday brunch. Now see, normally, I am very punctual. But after my 5k at the Tree-athlon the previous day, I ended up hanging out with Stacey and she took me to a Thai foot massage place on the Essex Road in Islington, and it was totally perfect and so I booked a massage for Sunday, but then my appointment was at 12 and the boys wanted to have brunch at 2 but I negotiated for 2:30 but then the bus--which normally drops me right at John Lewis--dropped me closer to Tottenham Court so I had to walk all the way to Marylebone High Street, and well, you get the point. I was late. And The Providores doesn't serve food between 3 and 4.

The Beginning: So Rutton took charge and sent us walking towards what looked, on the outside, to be a deserted restaurant. (I totally feel like writing "Anon!" here, but I won't.) He announced that we had reached our destination, and I saw the word Entrecote and I was sad. I do like the Entrecote. But well, I was hoping for non-concept. OMG I am such a snob.

The Middle: Michael felt like some rose, so we amused him. He's newly back in the country, you know. And then the green salad arrived. It was okay. And then the steak and frites arrived, and it was so less fun then the other Entrecote that I was very sad. See, in the Baker Street Entrecote, they bring the meat to the table on its own little flame and you can watch it go from rare to medium. It's pretty cool. But not here. It was all controlled portions. Like I was on a diet. Not that I'm not. But you understand.

The End: I guess there was some big golf match, so we ate dessert really quickly, but Michael was smart and ordered 2 while we weren't looking. One chocolate cake, one sort of other thing with chocolate and puffy pastry and cream and ice cream. Can't fault that!

The Verdict: It's fun. It's the LCD. You can't not like it.

Pies: Pieminister

Duke of York Square by Partridges on the King's Road
SW3
No phone

Date of Last Visit: 23 September 2006

The Victim: Kellie

The Damage: 3.50

The Counterbalance: 3.2 miles!!!

The Background: Kellie and I kicked ass in a 5k this morning. It was the London Tree-athlon. This was funny because everyone thought we were doing a Tri-athlon, but although we're rock stars, we're not that much. We were all the way over by Albert Bridge (one of my fave bridge's at night.) Schau...

Anyhow, it wasn't night. And we only walked across the Albert Bridge. And I only borrowed this photo from Flickr. But the point is, when an East London Girl is over on that side of town, she must linger. So wearing our race medals proudly around our necks, we made our way down the King's Road.

And Then What Happened?: Well, we were hungry. And it was still pretty early. So we were walking down the King's Road NOT wearing fantastic sunglasses, and stumbled across this little food market by Partridges. I introduced Kellie to the American Section--American Cheerios for 7.50, anyone? And then she bought some Mustard Gouda. It was delicious.

I saw the Pie Minister. And I thought to myself, Pie for lunch! Now that would be nice. See, I've been thinking about Pie's a lot because my friends Nate & Kelly are set to arrive in London any day now, and Nate is really into Pies. In fact, he's talked about opening a pie shop in Chicago. So I've been compiling lists of pie places to stop at. And Pie Minister is one of them. So I bought one--the matador, which was beef and chorizo.

And Then What?: Well, then I had to get home. So I made it all the way back, popped my pie in the oven (180 degrees for 20 minutes) and took a shower to wash away the 5K. My flat smells so good right now, it's not even funny. (Because of the pie--not the shower.) 20 minutes later, I took out my pie and gobbled it all up. I probably ate it too fast. I did not savor it. And this makes me sad because I kinda feel like I need to get another one so I can truly eat slowly. I have just finished my pie as I write this.

The Verdict: Cheap thrills. Do it.  That being said, the Matador was supposed to have beef AND chorizo in it and I didn't see any chorizo. But that didn't detract from the tastiness.

Meat: Roast

The Floral Hall
Borough Market
Stoney St
SE1 1TL

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, September 17

The Victims: Michael, Alan

The Damage: 30 quid more a head than I had been planning on spending

The Counterbalance: 3.0 miles!

The Background: Oh, I haven't seen Michael for ages. See, he went off to Australia for a few months to take care of some things. I missed him! Michael is one of the smartest, nicest guys I know. So I was very happy that he was back in town and wanted to met up for brunch.

He probably wasn't very happy that I made him leave Chiswick, but sucks to be him! He came all the way to my side of town, and we met up at Roast. Now I chose Roast because I had read that Wills and Kate had lunched at Roast; I am a huge dork. I should have known that princely food comes at a princely sum. But it was worth every penny! Uh, I mean pence.

The Food: Oh I get so ahead of myself! Michael and I started with the sardines and they were deliciously sardine-y, if there is such a thing. Who knew sardines could be so so good? Well, actually, I did know that. But Roast just reminded me of that ever the more so.

I went with the beef and yorkshire pud for my main. Alan had the same. I do not remember what Michael had, but I remember that the light through the windows was so bright and sun-shiney but not in an annoying way. We enjoyed a bottle of tempernillo and Michael had a little local wheat beer. We were happy. And I learned A LOT about Armenia. A country of 3 million people, but a diaspora of 11 million! And apparently all in California. Who knew?

And then the dessert came. I did not want dessert, but Michael ordered the ginger cake so Alan and I ordered the edelflower mousse and it was so poetically beautiful to eat I cannot even describe it. It was beyond good. It was lovely.

The Verdict: Go and go again. Bring your parents and your grandparents on the weekends, and your business guests during the week. But watch the wallet.

Time Out Awards Announced

Time Out has just announced their 2006 food and drink awards!

What type of London food blogger am I??? I have only been to five of the nominees...

Canteen (good)
The Top Floor at Smith's (eh)
Vinoteca (My personal fave)
Wine Wharf (eh)
Cellar Gascon (good)

Great Hotel Food: The Hoxton Grille

81 Great Eastern Street
EC2A 3HU
Tel: 0207 739 9111

Date of Last Visit: Tuesday September 12, 2006

The Vicitms: Too many to mention

The Damage: Unknown. Business dinner.

The Counterbalance: None that day. But 2.85 miles the day before.

The Background: I had read in Olive, the BBC food magazine, about the new Hoxton Hotel. This particular part of town is a bit low on hotels, aside from the Holiday Inn Express at Old Street (uggh) and the super pricey Great Eastern Hotel by Liverpool Street. So it's a welcome addition to the hood. Anyhow, I needed to organize a last minute dinner for 13 people, never easy. No one, as usual, would take us. But the new Hoxton Grille in the Hoxton Hotel said sure, come on over. (That being said, they did that little reservation dance with me...7 p.m.? No, we can't do 7. We could do 7:15 though. We got there and it was pretty empty. They totally could have taken us at 7.)

The Service: Our server was really friendly and nice and gave us some great recs on the menu and the wine list. But then he disappeared, never to be seen again. That being said, the woman who took his place was quite charming and helpful and friendly too. In between though, the friendly guy forgot our olives, and our wine sat on the bar forever before anyone brought it to us.

Litle Known Fact: The Hoxton is owned by the guy that owns Pret a Manger!

The Food: I had the melon and prociutto starter and it was perfect. They had drizzled something on it that made it extra special. I wish I knew what it was. For my main, I had the salmon fishcakes, which were also quite nice.

The Drinks: I thought the wine list was nicely varied and decently priced. Also, I loved how at the hotel check-in desk, they had convenience store fridge where you could buy soda, wine, beer, etc. at decent prices, not hotel-rip-off-prices.

The Verdict: I've spent a lot of time in hotel bars and restaurants. While they Hoxton Grille won't win any prizes for the decor in the restaurant (I thought the lobby decor was cool), the food will keep them coming back for more. Also--I was really impressed with how cheap the breakfast menu was (must be The Pret connection), so I would definitely come back here for a business breakfast.

Decent Pub Grub: The Trader

142 - 146 Whitecross Street
EC1Y 8QJ

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, September 7th

The Victims: Julie, Feathers

The Damage: 10 quid per person? Less than that?

The Counterbalance: Sigh. I chose The Trader over The Gym.

The Background: Feathers and Julie looked like they were heading to The Gym. It had been a long day, and mine was not over yet. I said goodbye, and then received a text a quarter of an hour later. Come to The Trader. See, I walk past The Trader every so often and it just looks so NORMAL and decent. And I had mentioned this to Feathers the other day. So off she goes and goes to my pub. Traitor!

The Arrival: I skipped The Gym and arrived to find the ladies happily announcing how if you buy two glasses of wine, you get the bottle for free. Now this, my friends, is brilliant. I sat down and partook of the quaffable Pinot Grigio.

The Food: We split a cheeseburger three ways, and it was pretty decent. And the nachos were commendable. They were NOT Doritos! How nice. And they had cheese and chilli and all sorts of good stuff all over them. Heaven.

The Service: You order at the bar, so no service, really. BUT--the chef actually stopped by our table to ask how everything was! Snaps for that.

The Verdict: OK, the food wasn't spectacular, but it was pretty decent. It was what it was. The place was pretty laid back and casual. I was annoyed by the dude checking out the Page Six girl, but it's not The Trader's fault. I'll be back.

Upcoming Shows

Look at all these great events...I think of this because I'm off to the Guinness & Oyster Fest at Hay's Galleria in a sec...I stumbled across it last year and really enjoyed it--especially the parts where they had contests to see who could cut up a fish faster. Those fish were HUGE.

20-24 September: Viva Italia show http://www.vivaitaliashow.com/
12, 13, 18 - 20 of October: London Biergest http://www.londonbierfest.com/
26-29 October: London Wine Show http://www.wineshow.co.uk
10-12 November: BBC Good Food Show London Olympia www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com/

Cuban: Cuba Libre

72 Upper Street
N1 0NY
Tel: 020 7354 9998

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, September 2, 2006

The Victims: Feathers, Destri, Stacey

The Counterbalance (Yes, a new measure!): 2.62 miles on the treadmill

The Damage: 20 quid pp

The Background: Feathers and Destri went to high school with Stacey back in California. Stacey was on the tail end of a Scandinavian tour and was in London for 48 hours. The girls took her shopping, and I met up with them for dinner.

The Selection: I can only guess, but as we were walking out of Ping Pong the other night, I said to Feathers, "I've always wanted to go there," as we passed some restaurant across the street. The sign looked like it said Cuba Libre, but it actually said something else. And then we go confused with whether there was a Cuba Libre in Chicago on Southport. (I don't think there is.)

The Bar: I was early, as usual. So I headed to the very festive bar area, where I stook next to some very tall guys. They were so tall I had to move away because I felt so very much shorter than my respectable 5 ft. 4. A very attractive bartender brought me a mjoito, my mixed drink of choice.

The Food and Drink: The ladies arrived, and we were shown to our table. Now the tablecloths were covered with plastic, which I hate. If you happen to be wearing a skirt, the tablecloth sticks to your knees. And if it's a little muggy, your drink sweats, and it has nowhere to go, so there are big wet puddles all over the table.

But I digress. We ordered that appetizer selection plate, which I felt was amateurish. Someone just threw a bunch of stuff into the deep fryer. There was no love. Everything was dumped unceremoniously onto a not very special plate. And then arrived our mains. Mine was something called "old clothes," which I would write en espanol, but I forget. It was heavily seasoned beef, with rice and beans and mushed up yucca. The rice and beans were good, as was the yucca. The beef bore a serious resemblance to dog food. It wasn't bad though, it just wasn't seriously good either.

Feathers ordered the chicken and avocado, which turned out to be chicken and avocado smothered in cheese. Uggh.

The girl at the table across from us sent her food back because she discovered a very long hair in it.

All of this was accompanied by two pitchers of mojitos for 16.50 a pop. This was a happy hour special--apparently, you saved 3 quid off the list price by ordering at the bar. I thought this was stupid. Like it would have killed them to let us order the pitchers from the table? I don't understand this logic. It wasn't like the bar was that far away either--so no time/aggravation argument either.

The Verdict: Eh. I was not impressed.

Basement Jazz: 606 Jazz Club

90 Lots Road
SW10 0QD
Tel: 020 7352 5953

Date of Last Visit: Friday, September 1, 2006

The Victims: Too many to mention. The booking was for 17 people.

The Damage: 50 quid a head for music, food, drinks, service.

The Background: It was James' 31st birthday, so Kellie wanted to arrange a surprise night out. Well, it was supposed to be a surprise. :) But it wasn't. But that was okay.

The Approach: I was terrible and took a taxi all the way there. I don't think I've ever been that far west before. It was crazy. Crazy rich people in their crazy big houses! What do all these people do for a living. Anyhow, when you get to the 606 Club, you have to ring the doorbell! It was crazy. In a good way. As Julie noted, it was like that episode of 90210 when the kids had to get the egg from 7-11 in order to get into the party.

The Atmosphere: Dark basement bar. Rec room feel to it. Suitably jazz-club-esque.

The Food: I ran 2.55 miles earlier in the evening, so I felt entitled to the Mexican nachos, which were really just corn chips smothered in cheese and salsa. They were good, but not great. I took the server's recommendation and got the fillet steak, which was a big hunk of meat. It wasn't as fillet-y as I thought it would be, but it was still good. I wish, in hindsight, that I had gotten the lamb tangine and the eggplant dish. They looked awesome. The chef is from North Africa. (Alergeria? Libya? Tunisia? What does that mean?)

The Music: The singer was AWESOME. Very strong voice. The music itself was a little too soul-y for me, but it was still pretty good. The best was when the singer dedicated Try a Little Tenderness to Kellie and James. That was cool.

The Verdict: I'd go back with out-of-town guests. It was a cool night out.

Dim Sum: Ping Pong

45 Great Marlborough Street
W1F 7JL
Tel: 020 7851 6969

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Victims: Destri, Lee, Kellie

The Damage: 35 quid each (but we paid for Destri, so technically, it was 25 per person)

The Background: So my friend Richard knows Barry, who owns Home Wino. Barry somehow knows the guy that brought Nobu over from the US--the same guy behind Ping Pong. So I ended up at the Home Wino launch party, talking to Mr. Ping Pong. It was cool. My brush with fame.

More Background: Destri just finished her dissertation! So it was time to celebrate.

The Arrival: Totally sucked. Lines out the door. Waiting, wating, waiting. Now supposedly, they don't take reservations, but I sure heard a lot of people telling the bouncer and the table girls that they had bookings. Maybe these were for large parties. Not sure. We waiting a little less than an hour. And the bummer part was that when we finally got inside, they told us that we were actually waiting for the BAR, and we'd hang out there until a table was available in the restaurant.

Seated, Finally: Randomly, they told us we could have a table, but we'd have to share it. This was TOTALLY fine with us. We were starving. So we were shown downstairs to a nice round table, and we quickly took over half of it.

The Drinks: DELICIOUS. I had a blackberry cognac and it was like a smoothie almost. Yummy. 

The Food: You place your own orders, which is fun. We selected 3 to 4 dim sum portions each, and the food quickly began arriving. Most delicious were the ribs. The meat just fell off the bone. And then we had dumplings galore. And rice wrapped in lotus leaves. (I think we over-ordered on the rice--two portions each was too much.) I loved everything. I love dim sum. I love dumplings.

The Service: Brisk. Efficient, except when it came time to ask for the bill. That took a while.

The Verdict: I would go back. For sure. A cheap date.