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Dinings

Dinings
22 Harcourt Street
W1H 4HH

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Victims: Craig, Leann, Mikaela, Jen

The Damage: About £40 each

The Background: Craig is my sushi buddy. It started many years ago, at Kurumaya in the city. A great little place that you should really visit. (Even the skeptics on London-Eating.co.uk like it.) (Get a booking for downstairs.) Last summer, Craig invited me along to check out Matsuri St. James. For some odd reason, I still haven't taken him to Pham. One of these days. Anyhow, Dinings was next on our list.

 

The Entrance: Dinings is small. Very small. Much smaller than I expected. We're shown downstairs to a small room that we end up sharing with that one other table in the photo. It's perfect, really. Although it's a bit hot. Just a bit.

The Service: Exceptional. I had run into our server the previous weekend at Taste of London--she was working the Dinings booth--but she had no recollection of me whatsoever. Before we figured this part out, I asked for a run-down of her favorites. Total enthusiasm for and great knowledge of the menu. She was so good, I asked her to do the whole thing again when the rest of our party arrived. Some might have found this annoying. But she obliged. And it was even better than the first time.



The Food: We followed all our server's recommendations and the food just kept coming.  We started with the seabass carpaccio with truffle salsa and ponzu sauce. Lovely. Clean. But my absolute favorites were grilled eel and foie gras maki with summer truffle and the pork belly. The pork belly! Really, the pork belly.



The Verdict: I liked it here. A lot. Nice service. Really interesting menu. This is not a California rolls kind of place. Really great food. Not cheap though.

Mrs. Kibble's

Mrs. Kibble's
57A Brewer St London
W1F 9UL

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, May 30th, 2009

The Victim: Me

The Damage: Less than a quid. Just for some jelly beans.

The Background: I'm really not much of a sweets person. I like cheese. Maybe the occasional cheesecake. Ah yes, and lemon tart. And baklava. But chocolate? Not really for me.

When it comes to candy, I sometimes like licorice (the red kind) and gummi bears and maybe jelly beans. And really, that's about it. But as I was walking through Soho on my way back from lunch (and shopping) and passing Mrs. Kibble's, I thought, "Hmmm...jelly beans."

So I stopped in to peruse the selection and I wondered, "How the hell do they pay their rent?" Someone must be buying in bulk, because my £1 purchase ain't going to help things much. I mean, they're nice. And it's a cool, nostalgic business. I want to like them, and I want you to like them. A lot. And maybe lots of people out there are ordering £20 of jelly beans at a time. But I don't know. Maybe they sell bulk online? (They don't, that I can find.)

See, you never know anybody's story now, do you?

The Verdict: You should go. Because it's cute and old fashioned and nice. And there are a lot of sweets for you to try. And I want to know more about them and how they make their money.

Yoshino

Yoshino
3 Piccadilly Place
W1J0DB

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, May 30th, 2009

The Victim: Myself

The Damage: £30

The Background: I used to rely on my blog to remind me what I was doing on any given day. (Very helpful in my application for Indefinite Leave to Remain, for example.) Now I rely on Twitter. What a crazy way to diary your life.

That being said, I apparently didn't tweet about the 12 loads of laundry I did on Saturday, May 30th. (Oh, for an American washing machine! Really, people, how we live here without one, I do not know.) But then again, the Twitterverse probably doesn't want to know about that stuff.

Laundry works up an appetite. And I felt like sushi. I was willing to travel, but maybe not THAT far. (Like Sushi Say or Sushi Hiro or any of those type of options.) And as it turns out, a lot of Japanese places in Central London are closed for lunch. They're just open for dinner.

So Yoshino it was. Despite warnings and a bad review from Beas of Bloomsbury.

The Entrance: Yoshino is empty at around 2 p.m. when I enter. Very empty. There is one other customer on the ground floor and she is Japanese and happily chatting away with the staff. She later leaves and is replaced by an elderly Japanese man who also happily chats away. In Japanese. I feel left out.

The Staff: Are totally in a Madonna video from Blond Ambition. Headsets. Who are they talking to? My server is also kinda hot.

The Food: I just ordered a combo. And some agedashi tofu. The tofu itself was okay. The dipping sauce was bland, bland, bland. The sushi combo is fresh. The mackeral is particularly good. So good that I order more. And yes, my camera phone does totally suck. I know that. Thanks for reminding me.

The Decor: I think most restaurants should paint their high-volume areas at least once a year. Yoshino needs a good lick of paint.

The Verdict: This was okay. Of all the Japanese places I've reviewed lately, I still think I like Chisou the best. (For the food. Not the service.)

Bocca di Lupo

 

Bocca di Lupo
12 Archer Street
W1D 7BB

Date of Last Visit: Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

The Victim: Dad

The Damage: About £80 for the two of us.

The Background: I had high hopes for Bocca di Lupo. And there you go, I've spoiled the whole review already. Because in that one sentence, you can hear the "...but..." can't you? I'm sorry.

It starts out with my dad's observations of life in London, as we exit the #19 bus: "Well, I'll tell you what I've observed about London this trip. People take the bus a lot. And they smoke. And everyone is rolling a suitcase behind them."

Observant, isn't he?

And as we enter Archer Street, the former New York City cop in him tenses up. "This street. Why don't I like this street? I don't like this street."

I have to admit. There were a lot of random people just standing around. Waiting for nothing. It was odd.

But then we entered Bocca di Lupo and everything was fine again.

The Entrance: I really want a seat at the restaurant's "chef's counter." But I'm denied. To the back of the restaurant we go. And you know? It's sort of like being in a hotel restaurant. The decor is nothing special. Also, Bocca di Lupo is smaller than I expected. Maybe 12 tables in the back of the restaurant? Plus the bar seating.

And our table was wobbly. That was annoying, but our very nice server promptly saw to it once I pointed it out and the wobble, for the most part, went away.

The Menu: I like the menu. The menu clearly states where each dish is from, and you can order pretty much any dish in a small or large portion. I like this. Because you know, with my dad in town, I've been eating out for six days straight and I need a little break. Small portions it is.

The Food: Mussels to start. My father is a very predictable man. When I was a kid, we went to Maine for two weeks one summer, where my father took us from one all-you-can-eat mussels house to another. Buckets of mussels. Really, buckets. At Bocca di Lupo, we get a bowl. A very generous bowl.

Now we had just had mussels in Paris the day before at one of those Paris chain restaurants. (Again, my father is a very predictable man.) Those mussels were good, but the Bocca di Lupo mussels are huge in comparison. They're meaty. They're good. They are mussels with celery, tomato and thyme. It's a clean-feeling dish. It's fine.

 

For me, it's the tortelloni with with spinach and morels. I keep trying to like mushrooms, really I do. But eh. I still don't. The tortelloni are cooked well and the filling is moist but I sorta feel like it's all a little too clean and bland-tasting for me. I need salt. Or something.

 

For my father, it's a seafood risotto. He says it's nice. Actually, at the time, he says it's just "okay." But then the next day, he keeps saying, "You know that meal last night? Now that was really good." So you never know, I suppose.

For Dessert: We split one--just one--chocolate and marzipan ball--and order some dessert wine from the very well organized wine list. It's a nice ending.

The Loos: Pretty decent.

The Service: Pretty excellent. Really a nice guy.

The Verdict: Eh. I'm on the fence for this review. I liked how interesting the restaurant's menu is. I liked the idea of sitting at the chef's counter. I just wasn't wowed by my food, but given how everyone is salivating over this place, maybe I should give it another chance. Or maybe everyone's just on some hype train that hasn't stopped at my station.

Han Kang

Han Kang
16 Hanway Street
W1T 1UE

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, April 4

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £10

It's never a good sign when I can't remember the name of the restaurant I had lunch at. I can remember the name of the restaurant I wanted to have lunch at--Kikuchi--because Q. and Nuno were giving it rave reviews the other night at dinner. So I trekked all the way over to Kikuchi on a Saturday afternoon, only to find out they were closed.

And I was starving.

So the Korean next door it was.

The Entrance: It's not a big restaurant. Two tables are full, and one table looks like they might know the owners. Service is prompt and efficient. The waitress brings me the lunch menu, I pick the bibimbap, and within five minutes, the dish is in front of me.

That always makes me the tiniest bit suspicious. Five minutes? Hey, in some ways, I'm not complaining. But really, it suggests a level of pre-preparation that I'm not sure I want.

And I'm right. The beef is stringy and gray. The rest of the dish is cold as in "I've been sitting in a refrigerator for ages, waiting for you to order me." Only the egg is fresh.

The redeeming quality is that mysteriously delicious red sauce. Packed with what I think is sesame oil. I dump that all over my dish, stir it up, and yaozah! Great stuff.

The Verdict: Serviceable. And a good deal at £10. But my review is just...eh.

Galvin's Bistro de Luxe

Galvin's Bistro de Luxe
66 Baker Street
W1U 7DJ

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Victim: Stacey

The Damage: £25ish each

The Background: Stacey and I are headed to the Kinetica Art Fair in Marylebone. It's all about light and sound and movement. It sounds cool. The reviews are cool. And it IS cool. It's one of those random things you do in London where you have no expectations and WHAM...the thing is great.

But then BAM! They have no electricity. Yup. All the power goes down. All of it. Kinda defeats the purpose of an art show all about light and sound and movement, huh?

That's okay. I wanted to have lunch anyways.

The Entrance: I've rang up Galvin's from the Robert Dyas on Baker Street, which unfortunately for me and my new television, has no RF cables. Can Galvin's take two in 10 minutes? Yes! They can!

The Entertainment: They sit us at a great corner table in the restaurant next to a guy that had to be 50+ who was obviously having a little romantic rendezvous with a rosy-cheeked gal younger than me. Interesting. Maybe I really should widen my age range on all those online dating sites. It could fund my lunch habit.

The Food: We opt for the prix fixe. But here's what's happened, three weeks later. I sit around looking at the pictures I've downloaded from my phone and I keep thinking, "Where the hell was that? I don't remember eating that." Seriously, I must have looked at these photos at least five times before I remember that they were from lunch at Galvin's Bistro de Luxe. As you can tell, I had blurry orange soup. I also had this, which I vaguely remember was pork. It was blurry pork as well.

The Service: I remember that they were nice. But they really didn't want to bring me my glass of wine until my main was in front of me. This might be the proper French way of doing things. If so, I accept that.

The Verdict: I was surprised by how large and spacious Galvin's Bistro de Luxe was. I expected something very French-bistro-esque with tiny tables that waiters push you into. You know, the tables from which you cannot escape, even when you want to go to the ladies. But there was lots of room at Galvin's. That I remember. Now if only I could remember the food in order to write a proper review...

Oh, and we did get back to the art fair and they had power. It was a great show. Watch out for it if they do it again next year.

Galvin at Windows, Oysters and Champagne

Galvin at Windows
London Hilton
22 Park Lane
W1K 1BE

Date of Last Visit: Friday, March 6th, 2008

The Victims: Many

The Damage: Another freebie.

The Background: The folks over at TrustedPlaces have invited me and many of my blogging colleagues to a fantastic event at Galvin at Windows. The goal of the event is to get all of us eating oysters (courtesy of Wright Brothers) and drinking champagne (courtesy of London wine merchant Bibendum), while we Twitter and live-blog away.

There's only one problem. I've got two devices with me--my Blackberry Pearl and my Nokia e71--and neither of them are picking up a GPRS signal "this" high up. (High by London standards, I suppose.) Luckily, Chris from Cheese & Biscuits hooks me up with Galvin's wireless network. (If anyone knows how to connect a Blackberry Pearl to a wireless network, please let me know as I could not figure it out. The e71 was fine, but it was a bit low on batteries.)

The Oysters: We're given eight different oysters. The first four are raw and luscious--and all different. The next four is a mix of two cooked and two uncooked oysters. We vote for our favorites and settle into the Champagne.

The Sparkling Stuff: Eight different sparkling wines. They rattle off the names of all of them, but I'm going to have to watch the video because I can't remember what was what. It would have been great to get some follow-up notes with the specific details of what we tasted.

The Social Media Bit: Streamed online with Ustream by WorldTV.com with Nigel Barden presenting.

The Verdict: Galvin is lovely for the view, and this was truly a lovely, lovely event. I would really, really like to get some follow-up notes with what we sampled...I asked for some, but have yet to receive anything...

Maison Bertaux

Maison Bertaux
28 Greek Street
W1D 5DD

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, February 28th

The Victims: Four university students I took on a Foodie Tour of London

The Damage: £15 for all of us

The Background: So after taking Kiwi musician Flip Grater on a Foodie Tour of London (and a vegan tour, no less), I thought I might try to make a little side-business out of doing this. Yup, that's right. I'm now offering customized gourmet food tours of London. To get the kinks out, I'm taking four university students from my old university in the States for a quick spin around Soho. Maison Bertaux is our last stop.

The Entrance: Maison Bertaux is cramped and kitschy. I dig it. And the window displays just look so over-the-top, jam-packed with food. My tour group squeezes into a table of four and we start making our selections.

The Cakes: We split some cheesecake and a chocolate éclair between us. (I've tried to encourage the guys NOT to eat a full meal at each stop on our London tour. This has been hard. Must do a better job of outlining this upfront.) All the food looks a bit better than it tastes. The cheesecake isn't as good or gourmet as what I had at The London Review of Books, but it's fine.

The Verdict: A fun place to visit, more for the kitsch than the food.

The Reminder: Tell your friends about my gourmet tours of London!

Fairuz

Fairuz
1 Blandford St
London, W1U 3DA

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Victims: Stacey, Julie

The Damage: £50 each?

The Background: It's amateur night. (Also known as Valentine's Day.) So Stacey has suggested just us girls go out for dinner. It's a good plan. And she's picked Fairuz in Marylebone, which is very convenient for some quick shopping beforehand.

The Entrance: Fairuz is all romantically lit and glowing when we enter. I am surprised by the number of people who walk in off the street and try to get a table without a booking. Again, it's amateur night. What were they thinking?

The Food: Our only choice is the special Valentine's Day menu, but I convince our server to thrown in a little labneh too. The selection of hummus and aubergine and salads is nice. But just nice.

 

I order the vegetarian moussaka and it's cold and mushy. I like the rice though. When we finish our meals, they bring us this big plate of fruit. Those were definitely genetically modified strawberries because I've never seen strawberries so large and perfect before. This was the best part of the meal.

 

The Verdict: Eh. Although I did the think the table under the staircase was romantic-looking.

The Wolseley

The Wolesley
160 Picadilly
W1J 9EB

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, January 21, 208

The Victim: Catriona, someone I know via business connections and somehow who was so very excited to appear on my blog!

The Damage: Unknown! Catriona paid! (Although I think she showed me the bill so I would know for my blog, but I have forgotten. Maybe £35?)

The Background: Catriona and I have nearly completed a business transaction. To celebrate, she invites me to breakfast at The Wolseley. I'm excited. I've never been to The Wolseley before. That being said, I've read enough recent reviews to know that The Wolseley, while an institution, maybe isn't serving the best food out there.

The Entrance: Catriona is running late, so I get to The Wolseley and am shown my table and brought my choice of newspapers. This would have been a really nice touch if they had proactively offered a newspaper. I had to practically flag someone down to get "my choice of newspapers." Not good!

The Food: Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and toasted brioche for me. The salmon is fine. The brioche is fine, although it looks a lot more like toast than I expected. It still has that eggy, yeasty taste to it though. The eggs are a bit wet and runny for me. £13.25....hmmm.

The Clientele: Everyone looks vaguely famous. I'm surprised that vaguely famous people have breakfast so early!

The Verdict: Well, I'm glad I finally went here. I don't feel a pressing need to return. Maybe if I had guests in town or something. I don't know.