London Restaurant Guide | London Restaurant Blog and Reviews | Londonelicious

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
13-15 West Street
WC2H 9NE

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, April 9

The Victim: My dad

The Damage: £85 for two with a number of wines by the glass. We should have just gotten a bottle of wine.

The Background: The times, they must be tough in London. Because you know Joel Robuchon? He's offering two courses for £19 on TopTable.co.uk. £19! And they have a glass of Shiraz on the menu for £5 a glass! This is cheaper per person than a lot of my gastropub meals. Interesting.

The Entrance: Dad and I are bang on time. I am a little worried about taking my dad to JR. He's more of a fried clams kind of guy. (So I obviously must not get my delusions of grandeur from him.) But the restaurant's service from the beginning to end is really friendly, yet professional, and we're made to feel at home.

We're given two prime seats at the bar. We're not exactly directly in front of the open kitchen, but we're only a seat or two off of it and the view is mesmerizing. These guys are very precise.

The Starters: Pea soup for dad and the look on his face when they deliver the bowl with croutons aber sans soup is priceless. Our server is being funny and whips the soup out from behind his back. Crisis averted.

For me, it's a soft-boiled egg with some very finely sliced beetroot and a smear of this and that. It's gorgeously presented. But I can't help thinking...high margin.

Still, all in all, the presentation is really wonderful and the service is keen and engaged and fun to watch. The food is good.

The Mains: On the £19 menu, you only have two choices: so it's squid risotto for my dad and some sort of stuffed pig's trotter for me. I just like to say the word trotter.

The risotto is nice, if bland. And maybe just a little too crunchy for risotto. My pig's trotter turns out to be fried and while I'm initially a bit upset about it, I get over myself. Because it's delicious, even though it is stuffed with mushrooms, only one of my least favorite things. It's on a bed of honey-glazed carrots and they're very nice. For carrots. Really, had it been described as "something deep fried stuffed with mushrooms on a bed of carrots," you couldn't describe something I wouldn't want to eat more.

Sometimes, you know it's all in the delivery.

The Verdict: You know, I liked it here. Maybe it's because I'm a pretentious something-or-other with delusions of grandeur. But maybe it's just because the service was nice, watching the kitchen was awesome, and the food was pretty good. My dad gives it a good review too.

Terroirs

Terroirs
5 William IV Street
WC2N 4DW

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, March 14th, 2009

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £25

The Background: I was out on a highly unsuccessful errand. Sometimes I think I send myself on these errands, knowing that they will be unsuccessful. This way, I can skip straight to lunch and get a blog post out of things more quickly.

I call Terroirs in advance to see if they can squeeze me in. It's a Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m. What do I know? They tell me to come on over.

The Entrance: I had no idea Terroirs was so close to Trafalgar Square. In a way, this makes me worried. Surely, they will be packed with tourists! But no. The restaurant is actually pretty empty for a Saturday lunch.

I'm given a seat at the restaurant's bar--this is a good place for the solo diner--and the guy behind the bar hands me a menu and then promptly forgets about me. A while later, he comes back and I place my order--smoked eel and some sort of polenta. I take his recommendation on the wine. And he suggests some bread.

And then I wait. And I wait. And then the wine arrives. And then I wait and I wait some more. My server apologizes for forgetting the bread. I say, "That's okay." I assume he'll bring it immediately. He doesn't. And I wait. And I wait. And I wait some more. I ask him, "Hey, how about that bread?" And he is super apologetic and brings it to me.

And all this while, I really wish I had ordered the duck scratchings to start me out.

The Food: The eel arrives and it's good. I took a picture, but my new camera phone kinda sucks so I've got nothing to show you. But the polenta with mushrooms...the polenta is fantastic! And I'm not really a huge mushroom fan. I debate ordering a second helping. But I figure that's not a good idea.

The Verdict: I liked Terroirs. I'd want to return and review more things on the menu. Was not so impressed with the speed of the service though.

J Sheekey Oyster Bar

J Sheekey Oyster Bar
33-34 St Martin’s Court
WC2N 4AL

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, January 25 2009

The Victim: Mary Kate!

The Damage: £25 or so

The Background: I haven't seen Mary Kate in 10 years. And hey, I gotta say, neither of us have aged a bit! She's passing through town, working her way through some sort of environmental case. We make plans to meet up in Spitalfields at 1:30, but at 1:45, she's still nowhere to be seen.

Oddly, she turns up in Queensway and many texts and many many minutes later--something about a yoga class, a Blackberry, a yoga mat, a nap and a fire--I scrap the Spitalfields plans and we meet up in central London. I'm cold. And I'm wet. So I take her to Fernandez & Wells to warm up.

Well, after eating, what else is there to do but eat some more? I take Mary Kate to J Sheekey, which we have a little trouble finding because although Google Maps is good, it's not St. Martin's Court good. We are left wandering the streets for quite some time. Sorry, MK.

The Entrance: The oyster bar at J. Sheekey is empty at 3 p.m. on a Sunday. This isn't a bad thing for us. I feel like I've met our server before--I really should have asked where he used to work. And we settle in for some champagne and some oysters.

Only problem is that they're out of the special. (A half dozen Strangford Lough rock oysters, I believe, and a glass of champagne.) So we go with the Fines de Claires. Apologies.

The Food: All this and Mary Kate has never had oysters before! Now I feel doubly awful. Wandering around in the rain, all for some oysters that she might not actually eat. She tries one. Maybe two. She says politely that she likes them. "They taste like the sea." But it's me who finishes everything. Sigh.

The Verdict: I like it here. I'd come back. Particularly with my dad. I think he'd dig it.

Muffinski's

Muffinski's
5 Kings Street
WC2E 8HN

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, 10 January 2009

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £4 something

The Background: Honestly, I really need to go shopping. All those New Year's Resolutions about cooking and baking and having a full refrigerator in 2009...yes, they were crap, those resolutions. Total crap.

I felt like a muffin. So I sat around Google'ing "muffins in London." I figured someone out there has to be specializing in muffins. And I was right. Muffinski's is. So onto the bus I went.

The Entrance: Muffinski's is really just a sandwich shop. With a lot of muffins. I feel pressured to order and select a Honey Banana Muffin. And I get some apple juice. I think the apple juice was more expensive than the muffin. That sucks. But seriously, they do have a lot of muffins. And they're not those disgustingly huge and under-baked Starbucks ones. They're just the right size.

The Muffin: The muffin is good. I'm happy. Only thing is, I'm still sorta hungry. (The muffin broke my fast at around 11 a.m.) Hmmm.

The Verdict: Not a destination by any means. But if I needed a muffin and I were in Covent Garden, I'd get a muffin here.

TGI Friday!

TGI Fridays
6 Bedford Street
WC2E 9HZ

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Victims: Feathers, Anna, Julie

The Damage: Oh goodness. I forget. £18 each?

The Background: Firstly, let me clarify.

This post is not a joke. Really it's not. I did eat here. Really, I did.

Anyone will tell you, I don't like talking politics. But that Obama...he got me. So we're out doing exactly what our embassy tells us not to do...we're congregating en masse in a place where Americans are likely to congregate: The Texas Embassy. The Democrats Abroad are having an Obama Party. And we're invited.

After the party, we try to get a table downstairs at the restaurant, but it's got a two hour wait. So then we try to go to Wahaca (which I still haven't written about), and they've got a 30 minute wait. We stand in front of Wahaca, thinking. Where to go...where to go...

We need something American...something festive...

And there, across the street, there is the answer: The red and white stripes of TGI Fridays are singing their song to four American gals, standing on the sidewalk--pavement, sorry!--wondering what to eat.

So we do it. Yes, we really do. We go in.

The Food: Nachos. Which are unlike any nachos I've ever had. This was a high margin dish. There are about 15 tortilla chips arranged around the plate, covered with melted cheese. Hmmm.

Sliders. (Pictured.) Which are okay, but would have been better with a toasted bun. Boneless chicken which is so disgustingly good that we order a second batch. And artichoke dip, which is again high margin and not very interesting. There may have been something else, but in the cloud of Sam Adams, I forget.

The Service: Honestly, some of the most cheerful service I've had in this country. So there is that...

The Verdict: Well, if your country happens to be my country, you might understand why every so often, this is a very very guilty pleasure. Trust me, I will not go back unless there's a very good reason to do so. Like 3 for 1 Mudslides. And free boneless chicken.

Another Pub with Food: The Lowlander

The Lowlander
36 Drury Lane
WC2B 5RR
Tel: 020 7379 7446

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, July 6, 2008

The Victim: Louise

The Damage: £14 each. I owe Louise though because I only had £8 with me.

The Background: Louise and I have just completed the British 10k. She in pretty much exactly an hour, me in 1 hour and 8 minutes. This is quite a bit off from the 8 minute mile I used to run, so I've signed up for the Nike Human Race on August 31st in Wembley to force me to get back into fighting shape.

After the race, we really want a beer. Or maybe it's just me that really wants a beer, because I drink my beer pretty quickly while Louise nurses hers.

The Entrance: We're at The Lowlander in Covent Garden, which is empty for 12 noon on a Sunday. It's so empty, and so is the service. We ask for tap water. They forget. We ask for ketchup. They forget. We ask for the bill. They forget. Come on people!!!

The Food: My burger is pretty decent. The bun too--it's not one of those doughy piles of nothingness. The chips are just chips though.

My Legs: Are killing me. Really. I'm dying. I need a massage.

The Loos: Surprisingly clean and tidy for a place I'd imagine is pretty high mileage in the evenings.

The Verdict: Well, don't go expecting anything fantastic. There's a huge beer menu. And a decent selection of food. The service just needs to be a little bit more with it.

British: National Dining Rooms

National Dining Rooms
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
WC2N 5DN
Tel: 020 7747 2525

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Victims: Julie, Jen, Niculie, Kellie

The Damage: £35ish each?

The Background: Julie has bought us all tickets to the Vanity Fair exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. We've paid her back, of course. But it was good of her to organize this. I like it when people organize weekend activities for me. I'm very good at showing up to events that other people have organized. I am also good at sitting around in my pajamas all weekend. These two things might seem unrelated, but they're not.

Finding the National Dining Rooms: As you're facing the National Gallery, the restaurant is in the building to the LEFT. Over by Canada House. I spent a while wandering in and out and around, looking for it. Don't do that to yourself.

The Service: Started out really well at first, but then grew distracted. Desserts took ages to arrive. We were all done with ours by the time Jen's showed up. (They just totally forgot to put her order in.)

The Bread: Hard! Really really hard to cut into.

My Starter: Butternut squash soup. Nice, but nothing spectacular. Needed salt.

My Main: Goosnargh chicken breast with black trumpet mushroom, grapefruit and spelt crumble. According to the Web site. However--I don't remember grapefruit being listed on the actual menu--just spelt crumble. I don't like grapefruit. At all. Uggh. I would not have ordered this if grapefruit had been listed on the menu. And they were sneaky about it. The grapefruit was underneath everything, so I didn't even realize I was eating the grapefruit until it was in my mouth and I gagged on it. Eck. Gag reflex kicking in as I'm writing this.

Pudding: Toffee ice cream with brandy snaps. But not brandy snaps that are cookies. It was carmelized sugar. Nice. This was my favorite dish.

Funny: Our friend Matt's mom was there. A city of how many million people? And there's Matt's mom?

The Loos: I thought they were gross. High traffic area. Julie thought they were okay.

The Verdict: If I were in Trafalgar Square, I would consider this restaurant for lunch. But as you can tell from this review, I'd have some issues with returning. Plus, even though the menu is trying wonderfully hard, the whole place had this cafeteria-like atmosphere that I couldn't get past. Needed to be darker. With candles. Or something. (We were there for Sunday lunch.)

Abeno Too...It's Alive!

Abeno Too
17-18 Great Newport Street
WC2H 7JE
Tel: 020 7379 1160

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, 16 February 2008

The Victims: Me, myself, and I

The Damage: £20, which was a bit more than I was expecting. No free refills!

The Background: Sometimes, people ask me why it is that I go out to eat so much. I think part of it is very certainly laziness, but I'm going to blame my mother for the rest! I remember when I was a kid, a shopping trip was ALWAYS accompanied by lunch somewhere fun. Often, my mom would cut out articles in the newspaper about new restaurants, and when it came time for back-to-school shopping or just a random trip to the mall, she'd pull the review out of "the junk drawer" in the kitchen and off we'd go.

So you see, every time I go shopping, I HAVE to go out to lunch. :)

A while back, I read a post on Howard and Ben's blog about Abeno Too and it sounded like my kind of place. And after enjoying okonomiyaki at The Sunday Up Market on Brick Lane on more than one occasion, I thought it was time.

Abeno Too is pretty packed when I arrive, but I get a seat with my back to the wall. I'm seated on a high bench that opens so I can put my stuff (new shoes!) inside. This is very clever.

I order a pork and something okonomikayi and a miso soup and I sit back to watch the preparations. It takes a little bit longer than I expected, but it is worth every bit of the wait. I can't really explain the flavor--it's salty and hearty and rich and dense and filling. Maybe this is the mysterious "unami" flavor that I've heard talk of. Whatever it is, it's pretty dang delicious. I don't have to tell you what it looks like because of the magic of video. This is my first ever forray into blog-eo, so be kind.

The Verdict: I'll be back. Many times. But they shouldn't charge for barley tea refills. That's a rip-off.

Spanish: Oops

Oops
31 Catherine St
WC2B 5JS
Tel: 020 7836 3609

Date of Last Visit: A week night in February that escapes me.

The Victims: Jose, Bernard, Santanu, Cristina, Nacho, Yolanda

The Damage: £20 each

The Background: Somtimes, I sorta wish I didn't have a blog. I don't always want to pick the restaurant. That's a lot of pressure! And throw in one real Spanish person (Jose) when you want to go to a Spanish restaurant...that always make me nervous. Turn up to find three more real Spanish people...and well...aacck! I hope they like it.

Santanu was in town from Chicago, Back in 2004, Santanu and Alex and Al and Michael and I had some good times, exploring London. Santanu is gone now, Michael too. I miss them! So it's good to have him back in town.

The Food: We put the Spaniards in charge. The garlic bread is okay. The croquettas are great. The plate of jamon is pretty great too, as is the manchego cheese. There's a cod dish of some sort that's only average. Bernard likes the mussels, which look nice, but a little too deep-fried for my healthy living. All in all, everyone seems more than marginally pleased.

The Service: Isn't Spanish. The funny part is when Bernard, who's South African, starts placing his order in Spanish and the waitress doesn't understand him and he can't understand why she doesn't understand him. That was a moment.

The Atmosphere: Is kinda nice. We're upstairs, and we have it all to ourselves. The decor is really nice and it's a clean and neat place.

The Verdict: While they didn't knock my socks off, I thought it was pretty good. If I needed a pre-theatre type of place, I'd go back.

Japanese: Tokyo Diner

Tokyo Diner
2 Newport Place
WC2H 7JP
020 7287 8777

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, February 9

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £15?

The Verdict: I love the Tokyo diner. I love the automatic doors and the automatic faucet in the loo downstairs. I love the omnipresent service. I love the no tuna policy (tuna, particularly blue fin tuna is over-fished in the world these days). I love the no tipping policy and how, if you do tip, they give it all to a homeless shelter. I love the pork cutlet and the bento box and the good value. It could be a tiny bit cleaner and less cramped and the stools could be, well, more adult-sized, but all in all, I will be back. Thank you to the Leicester Square Challenge participants who threw this one out there.