Saturday 7th October 2009
Restaurant: Pizza East, 56 Shoreditch High Street
Price per person: £30 exc service
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Currently Munching: Toast with Marmite and a hard boiled egg (best hangover cure)
I took my dad and my sister to this new pizza restaurant on the recommendation of my friend Nick. It is in the old Tea building on the corner of Bethnal Green road and Shoreditch High Street. Walking into the entrance you feel like you are entering an unpleasant car park in the centre of Hammersmith, all concrete walls and peeling paint. The stencilled walls state that ‘Pizza East’ does indeed lie behind these doors, so with a deep breath we enter…the inside décor is clearly where the money was spent. It is gorgeous, very rough and ready New York loft/warehouse style. The light fixtures are big and glamorous and makes for a lovely contrast to steel tables and chairs. There are red leather booths which link in to the rags to riches aesthetic, and large wooden tables where groups of people have all joined up to dine together, much like Wagamama’s do – this kind of informal eating arrangement is great and creates a very lively buzz of conversation and laughter in the darkened restaurant. In the middle a station is situated where hangs large prosciutto, Bresola and mortadella, with chefs slicing away platters of thin wafers of meat, an option for a cold antipasti starter; you can chose from three to eleven of the meats and cheeses and they are presented on a platter – not just for starters, this is a great idea too for a Sunday nibble session with the girls! The bar area sitting behind the reception area is another large wooden table, and here feels like a rustic Italian kitchen, a slightly more cosy and homey feel than the large restaurant which is fitting for the purpose and again adds to the gentle hum of comfortable conversations. They have Peroni on tap to my father’s delight; no cocktail menu is offered just a beer and wine list which is an error as I know one is available. Still water is brought to us when we ask for tap – as the water is all in the same glass bottles whether tap or mineral, we are not sure until we see the bill if we have been charged – of the two bottles ordered we were charged for that first one £1.50 – not the end of the world but poor when we specifically asked for tap water.
Garlic bread is ordered while we read the menu and delivered very quickly. The ciabatta base is dripping in hot garlic butter and is absolutely delicious. We decided to choose a few antipasti starters to share on the table, and then have our own mains which we are assured by our very friendly and knowledgeable waiter is the ‘done thing’. The starters take no more than ten minutes to arrive, and do come staggered which as we are sharing is not a problem. We have lightly fried calamari with a caper aioli, a little over cooked but the flavours are there. Squid is very tricky to not get rubbery, and unfortunately the calamari is tough. We have lamb meatballs in tomato sauce, which is delicious. The sauce is very rich and fresh and not too sweet. Finally we have the wood roasted mussels, with garlic and fennel aioli, which is by far the nicest of the dishes. There are at least fifteen mussels served with toasted bread, the rich wine and garlic sauce is perfection, and the cool aioli is full of flavour.
I opt for a carafe of the sangiovese ‘on tap’ for my main course, at a £10 cost. It is exactly how you would expect – weak, young and bitter. I do commend a restaurant offering value wines so that you do not isolate any clientele who may want wine with their meal but not be able to afford something more pricey, but I think that wine on tap is effectively the same as sticking a £10 box of wine on the table and squirting it into a glass – now when in life do we buy these boxes of supermarket wine…for New year’s parties when we don’t know any of the guests? As a joke? Never? In truth you can buy good tasting bottled wine now for a very low cost, therefore there is no need to drink wine from a tap and if there is no need to do so in your home, there is certainly no need to go to a restaurant and lower your standards as such!
For mains my dad takes the waiter’s recommendation of Salami, tomato, mozzarella, red onion and chilli flakes for his pizza topping. The base sauce was again spot on, the pizza size was big but not daunting, the cheese was plentiful and the base was crispy and rustic; all in all a fantastic pizza. My sister was not as happy with hers: she had the speck, mozzarella, tomato and rocket. The base had too much sauce on it, not enough cheese and far too much rocket thrown on top (it seems rocket is the noughties answer to the eighties over use of parsley). It was an average affair compared to the flavours of my dad’s pizza. No one was brave enough to try the duck sausage pizza! There comes a time in ever pizza restaurants life when the base of the pizza becomes less a part of the flavours of the dish and more a plate to serve a totally unrelated topping on – next visit I will take someone more adventurous to see if this is the case with the duck option! As I have a wheat allergy, I went for one on the ‘none pizza’ options, of which there were a good mix of hot and cold dishes. I went for the Middle White Porchetta with cannellini beans, kale and fennel apple sauce. It was a really good size portion, the flavours were rustic and fresh, and the meat was lean which was a nice surprise considering the cut, meaning that the quality of ingredients remained as high as on their pizza’s. A real delightful mix of flavours, and a dish I would love to enjoy again.
Totally stuffed we decided to share a bowl of ice cream for pudding. There was a choice of around seven flavours, which they change which was good to know – we were offered three scoops and opted for pistachio, honey and brown sugar crème fraiche. The pistachio was out of this world, the most amazing creamy flavour with a soft nutty tone – it was so good we ordered another bowl and I would go back to Pizza East and just eat the ice cream it was so amazing!
The service was great, atmosphere fantastic and value for money that you don’t often find in London. For a venue that has only been open for three weeks, I see great success in its future if it keeps the quality of its ingredients and service to the same standards it has opened with and I will be going back there again very soon.
TV Time - Hell's Kitchen USA
Monday 26th October
Curently Munching: Celery and prawn cocktail
Just watched Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen USA. I think he actually hates Americans – he would never talk to people like that on the English version!!! I have never seen such terrible chefs so far into a competition and you can see the total dispair in poor Gordon's face, as they have like 2 shows left before the final and not a single service has been completed yet without a disaster!Totally amazing, love it – watch it on ITV2.
Curently Munching: Celery and prawn cocktail
Just watched Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen USA. I think he actually hates Americans – he would never talk to people like that on the English version!!! I have never seen such terrible chefs so far into a competition and you can see the total dispair in poor Gordon's face, as they have like 2 shows left before the final and not a single service has been completed yet without a disaster!Totally amazing, love it – watch it on ITV2.
Restaurant in MY OWN living room!
Saturday 24th October
Restaurant: My lounge
Price per person: £3.24
Rating: 5 out of 5 of course!
Currently Munching: More Onuga and rice cakes
My best friend Kat has been staying over for a few days and we are supposed to go out for drinks and food tonight in Shoreditch. On closer inspection of our wallets we decided to invite everyone over to a dinner party! As the recession keeps kicking all of us in the bank balance eating in has indeed become the new eating out. My parents have long celebrated the benefits of eating in over going to a restaurant – they know what they will be eating will be of a standard they enjoy, they can drink and not worry about the drive home, and yes there is the washing up but there is also the joy of leftovers. Plus there is nothing like being able to relax in your own home with your friends without feeling the eyes of the hostess’s pressuring you for the table back! Kat and mine’s favourite show is Come Dine with Me, so we decided to go for a three course meal that would win any week. Off to Sainsburys and we manage to get everything we need for a three course meal for 6 for £19.49. That didn’t include the two bottles of wine, but it did include a small bottle of Brandy that we needed for cooking. I think the trick is when it comes to cooking on the cheap is just being inventive with your ideas, and not fearing away from the greatness that is the basic’s range. As long as the food is cooked well and seasoned well it doesn’t matter if it was a little ugly in its former life. Of course in an ideal world we would all shop local and support our local businesses…but I am afraid I am a realist and until my local grocer can do me 1.5kg of onions for 68p like the basic’s range does then Sainsburys retains my custom for now!
So the menu was as follows: French Onion soup to start, Mixed Mushroom stroganoff with rice and vegetables for main and an individual banoffee pie for pudding. This menu worked as their were ingredients for the starter and main that were repeated so it saved us money as we just needed to buy a few bulk items rather than lots of little things. The soup was so easy to make – neither of us had ever tried before but I did have a tip up my sleeve from a good friend and old house mate of mine Helen; when cooking the onions down in the butter when they stick a bit on the bottom and side and leave those crispy burnt bits on the pan scrape them off with your wooded spoon and keep mixing them through as the onions soften as that is all the lovely sugars from the onions caramelising and will make the soup lovely and sweet. Kat added a tiny teaspoon of sugar too but it is not needed if you prefer it not so caramelised. You are then supposed to coat the cooked onions with flour before pouring on hot white wine and beef stock but I forgot this step…oooppps! Turned out it did not affect the thickness of the sauce and as I have a wheat allergy it is good to know that the recipe worked fine without the added flour. Even though the recipe asked for beef stock we used vegetable as we had lovely Sarah coming for dinner who is brilliant but a vegetarian so we had to cater for her – it’s a good thing we love her so much…Point is the soup was full of flavour with the vegetable stock too so I think it is absolutely fine to substitute without loosing any richness from the soup. It was then cooked down, bit of water added here and there as we wished until it was the thickness we wanted and that was it, job done! You could add some thyme or bay leave but we couldn’t afford these items on the budget and the soup was amazing without. When doing a vegetarian dinner for meat eaters I think mushrooms are always a good option as their texture and robustness is often likened to meat and they certainly are the steak of the vegetable world. A tip for making a successful stroganoff, meat or vegetable based, is as follows: step away from the red pepper and the chopped tomatoes!!! The amount of times I have had a disappointing stroganoff and the culprits have been the unnecessary addition of anything red! Stroganoff is meant to essentially be a rich dinner of meat, cream and onions deliciously flavoured with masarla or wine. If you really can’t do without then serve roasted cherry tomatoes and red bell peppers as a side vegetable, just keep them out of the sauce!!! I am now going to tell you the story of the invention of stroganoff as my mate Kat informed me – those who are squeamish skip to the next paragraph! It was invented by Count Pavel Stroganoff in 19th century Russia who originally cooked this dish with human flesh – he had bad teeth and couldn’t handle beef it turns out…apparently he had never heard of chicken…
We served it with cheap and cheerful boil in the bag rice which is great as it seems to not get as sticky as normal rice for some reason, I am sure it is all very scientific. For vegetables there is nothing better than broccoli and green beans with the lovely rich mushroom sauce. Best stroganoff I have ever had (sorry dad!). For the individual banoffee pies we did a layer of buttered digestive biscuit crumbs. These were both basic range ingredients and together cost over a pound less than branded products and did the job fantastically. Just crumb the biscuits in a food processor or give them a bash, stir in a little melted butter and press into the bowls. We left them to cool in the fridge. We them melted butter in a pan and sautéed some sliced bananas before flambéing them in brandy. We had already bought brandy for the stroganoff so we decided to use it here too, ensuring value to the purchase. This went on the biscuit base and was topped with condensed milk which we had boiled in its tin for two hours. This is safer than it sounds to do, just ensure the tin is covered in boiling water the whole time, and that as the water evaporates just make sure you top it up. On top of the caramel we sliced fresh bananas, then whipped double cream and then finally some grated Galaxy chocolate which Jen had kindly brought over as a present! Seriously good pudding – the best bannoffee pie I have ever had, the brandy really gave a sophisticated edge to this easy dish and I will definitely do this again when making this dessert.
Kat and I decided to design a cocktail shot to accompany each course. This is another thing that is great about dining at home, little flourishes and touches you can get inventive with: individual place settings made from home-made truffles, or dressing the table with gold and silver coated sweets like my aunty always does, or unexpected courses which give you the chance to experiment in the kitchen. The shot that accompanied the starter was a mess so I will not talk of that one… We went for a traditional lemon drop for the main, which is lemon juice, vodka and sugar shaken with ice then strained into glasses. The lemon cleanses your palate and awakens your senses so that you are ready for the next course. It is a good way to get over that feeling of fullness that sometimes comes after a starter and gets your taste buds racing again! We did mini Brandy Alexander’s for dessert, using the last of the brandy and some of the double cream we had bought for the puddings, again just shaking it and straining it into glasses before dusting with cocoa (we didn’t have traditional nutmeg but cocoa is lovely with Alexander’s if you don’t have). The mix of flavours with the bannoffee pie was out of this world! The night was great, lots of wine, lots of laughing and lots of chats – the food was better than anything we could have afforded to buy in a restaurant in London and yes the washing up was a bit high but we got to do it the morning after so it didn’t interfere with the fun of the night! It was my first dinner party in my new flat and it will be the first of many I have decided!!!
Restaurant: My lounge
Price per person: £3.24
Rating: 5 out of 5 of course!
Currently Munching: More Onuga and rice cakes
My best friend Kat has been staying over for a few days and we are supposed to go out for drinks and food tonight in Shoreditch. On closer inspection of our wallets we decided to invite everyone over to a dinner party! As the recession keeps kicking all of us in the bank balance eating in has indeed become the new eating out. My parents have long celebrated the benefits of eating in over going to a restaurant – they know what they will be eating will be of a standard they enjoy, they can drink and not worry about the drive home, and yes there is the washing up but there is also the joy of leftovers. Plus there is nothing like being able to relax in your own home with your friends without feeling the eyes of the hostess’s pressuring you for the table back! Kat and mine’s favourite show is Come Dine with Me, so we decided to go for a three course meal that would win any week. Off to Sainsburys and we manage to get everything we need for a three course meal for 6 for £19.49. That didn’t include the two bottles of wine, but it did include a small bottle of Brandy that we needed for cooking. I think the trick is when it comes to cooking on the cheap is just being inventive with your ideas, and not fearing away from the greatness that is the basic’s range. As long as the food is cooked well and seasoned well it doesn’t matter if it was a little ugly in its former life. Of course in an ideal world we would all shop local and support our local businesses…but I am afraid I am a realist and until my local grocer can do me 1.5kg of onions for 68p like the basic’s range does then Sainsburys retains my custom for now!
So the menu was as follows: French Onion soup to start, Mixed Mushroom stroganoff with rice and vegetables for main and an individual banoffee pie for pudding. This menu worked as their were ingredients for the starter and main that were repeated so it saved us money as we just needed to buy a few bulk items rather than lots of little things. The soup was so easy to make – neither of us had ever tried before but I did have a tip up my sleeve from a good friend and old house mate of mine Helen; when cooking the onions down in the butter when they stick a bit on the bottom and side and leave those crispy burnt bits on the pan scrape them off with your wooded spoon and keep mixing them through as the onions soften as that is all the lovely sugars from the onions caramelising and will make the soup lovely and sweet. Kat added a tiny teaspoon of sugar too but it is not needed if you prefer it not so caramelised. You are then supposed to coat the cooked onions with flour before pouring on hot white wine and beef stock but I forgot this step…oooppps! Turned out it did not affect the thickness of the sauce and as I have a wheat allergy it is good to know that the recipe worked fine without the added flour. Even though the recipe asked for beef stock we used vegetable as we had lovely Sarah coming for dinner who is brilliant but a vegetarian so we had to cater for her – it’s a good thing we love her so much…Point is the soup was full of flavour with the vegetable stock too so I think it is absolutely fine to substitute without loosing any richness from the soup. It was then cooked down, bit of water added here and there as we wished until it was the thickness we wanted and that was it, job done! You could add some thyme or bay leave but we couldn’t afford these items on the budget and the soup was amazing without. When doing a vegetarian dinner for meat eaters I think mushrooms are always a good option as their texture and robustness is often likened to meat and they certainly are the steak of the vegetable world. A tip for making a successful stroganoff, meat or vegetable based, is as follows: step away from the red pepper and the chopped tomatoes!!! The amount of times I have had a disappointing stroganoff and the culprits have been the unnecessary addition of anything red! Stroganoff is meant to essentially be a rich dinner of meat, cream and onions deliciously flavoured with masarla or wine. If you really can’t do without then serve roasted cherry tomatoes and red bell peppers as a side vegetable, just keep them out of the sauce!!! I am now going to tell you the story of the invention of stroganoff as my mate Kat informed me – those who are squeamish skip to the next paragraph! It was invented by Count Pavel Stroganoff in 19th century Russia who originally cooked this dish with human flesh – he had bad teeth and couldn’t handle beef it turns out…apparently he had never heard of chicken…
We served it with cheap and cheerful boil in the bag rice which is great as it seems to not get as sticky as normal rice for some reason, I am sure it is all very scientific. For vegetables there is nothing better than broccoli and green beans with the lovely rich mushroom sauce. Best stroganoff I have ever had (sorry dad!). For the individual banoffee pies we did a layer of buttered digestive biscuit crumbs. These were both basic range ingredients and together cost over a pound less than branded products and did the job fantastically. Just crumb the biscuits in a food processor or give them a bash, stir in a little melted butter and press into the bowls. We left them to cool in the fridge. We them melted butter in a pan and sautéed some sliced bananas before flambéing them in brandy. We had already bought brandy for the stroganoff so we decided to use it here too, ensuring value to the purchase. This went on the biscuit base and was topped with condensed milk which we had boiled in its tin for two hours. This is safer than it sounds to do, just ensure the tin is covered in boiling water the whole time, and that as the water evaporates just make sure you top it up. On top of the caramel we sliced fresh bananas, then whipped double cream and then finally some grated Galaxy chocolate which Jen had kindly brought over as a present! Seriously good pudding – the best bannoffee pie I have ever had, the brandy really gave a sophisticated edge to this easy dish and I will definitely do this again when making this dessert.
Kat and I decided to design a cocktail shot to accompany each course. This is another thing that is great about dining at home, little flourishes and touches you can get inventive with: individual place settings made from home-made truffles, or dressing the table with gold and silver coated sweets like my aunty always does, or unexpected courses which give you the chance to experiment in the kitchen. The shot that accompanied the starter was a mess so I will not talk of that one… We went for a traditional lemon drop for the main, which is lemon juice, vodka and sugar shaken with ice then strained into glasses. The lemon cleanses your palate and awakens your senses so that you are ready for the next course. It is a good way to get over that feeling of fullness that sometimes comes after a starter and gets your taste buds racing again! We did mini Brandy Alexander’s for dessert, using the last of the brandy and some of the double cream we had bought for the puddings, again just shaking it and straining it into glasses before dusting with cocoa (we didn’t have traditional nutmeg but cocoa is lovely with Alexander’s if you don’t have). The mix of flavours with the bannoffee pie was out of this world! The night was great, lots of wine, lots of laughing and lots of chats – the food was better than anything we could have afforded to buy in a restaurant in London and yes the washing up was a bit high but we got to do it the morning after so it didn’t interfere with the fun of the night! It was my first dinner party in my new flat and it will be the first of many I have decided!!!
TV Time - Restaurant in Our Living Room
Friday 23rd October
Currently Munching: Onuga Caviar on rice cakes
Time for a cookery show recommendation: Restaurant in our Living Room. It is too funny: basically two couples run their own restaurant in their living room. They have a budget of £500 and 24 hours to prepare. Chaos of course ensues, everything goes wrong – and it is brilliant car crash TV. The guests at the restaurants pay what they think the evening was worth at the end of the night and whoever raises the most cash wins a trip to a culinary hot spot. My favourite disaster has been the couple that created a drive-in in their garden. Guests were picked up in a ‘lovely’ collection of Fords and Range Rovers at the gate, driven a full twenty metres and parked in a circle surrounding a very enthusiastic Michel Buble impersonator who sang joyously to the guests as they ate canapés from Iceland, a hot pork roll, and defrosted individual Iceland desserts whilst sitting in the back of a random person’s car (random person employed as driver who awkwardly sits in front seat as the ‘meal’ is consumed, its basically like inviting your taxi driver to your dinner). It was a total disaster but made for fantastic viewing and I look forward to it every week – it’s on Thursday nights on Virgin.
Currently Munching: Onuga Caviar on rice cakes
Time for a cookery show recommendation: Restaurant in our Living Room. It is too funny: basically two couples run their own restaurant in their living room. They have a budget of £500 and 24 hours to prepare. Chaos of course ensues, everything goes wrong – and it is brilliant car crash TV. The guests at the restaurants pay what they think the evening was worth at the end of the night and whoever raises the most cash wins a trip to a culinary hot spot. My favourite disaster has been the couple that created a drive-in in their garden. Guests were picked up in a ‘lovely’ collection of Fords and Range Rovers at the gate, driven a full twenty metres and parked in a circle surrounding a very enthusiastic Michel Buble impersonator who sang joyously to the guests as they ate canapés from Iceland, a hot pork roll, and defrosted individual Iceland desserts whilst sitting in the back of a random person’s car (random person employed as driver who awkwardly sits in front seat as the ‘meal’ is consumed, its basically like inviting your taxi driver to your dinner). It was a total disaster but made for fantastic viewing and I look forward to it every week – it’s on Thursday nights on Virgin.
My First Restaurant Review: Le Gavroche
Thursday 22nd October 2009
Restaurant: Le Gavroche
Price Per Person exc service: £48
Rating: 5 out of 5…for now…
Currently Munching: Leerdammer and celery, Bacon Frazzles
As this is my first review, I think it's appropriate to start with my favourite restaurant, the place where I have enjoyed the most wonderful meals and service. Ok, a lot of you are now going to judge me based on the name of this establishment – but before you do, I assure you I am not some upper class snob who is going to only being reviewing places that have two star’s or more because the idea of eating anything less than that fills me with dread. I am not a food snob, I even went to Mcdonalds and had a chicken nugget meal deal two days ago and oh yes I totally went large on the fries! But this restaurant for me is the pinnacle of everything a luxury setting should have – the food is astonishing, the service is precise but not too stiff and the value for money is actually fantastic. Also, whenever I go it is only for lunch and it is to enjoy their insanely good value set meal deal where you get three courses, canapés, water and half a bottle wine per person for £48 – bargain!
I have been to Le Gavorche about five times now I think, for my 18th and 21st birthday’s, for the graduation of my Bachelors and Master’s degree, and once when I was going through a really rough time and my dad surprised me for lunch in London to cheer me up (genius). The celebration today was my mother’s birthday – she has one more year before she is batting half a century, and there is not better place to kick off the celebrations. Although it is a French restaurant, for me it has a real saturation of Britishness about it. The decor of the restaurant has been accused of being very dark, very shadowed and of course very masculine; indeed this is true, but this restaurant is steeped in history and I feel the darkness and the essence of genteel masculinity is part of the restaurant’s charm. As a woman I get an excitement from feeling I have crossed a boundary into the world of man – the surrounding tables are made up of about 10% women the rest chortling suited men with their chins rolling and their middle shirt buttons popping, sipping scotch and muttering ‘oh yes, oh yes’ dully whilst sipping their veloutte – yes I am essentially surrounded by tables seated with the dog from the Churchill advert. But again, here is part of Le Gavorche’s charm – here men are allowed to be men and allowed to eat food cooked in butter and drink in the day without their wives saying anything of it. It’s like sitting in a British comedy sketch waiting for the punch line – fantastic! Every table has a beautiful sculpture made of cutlery, today we have, to my father’s dismay, the goat…he wishes we had the lobster. After the eight of us cheers with a glass of house champagne we are treated with canapés of a small pastry tart filled with celeriac and duck and a large smoked mussel dresses in a light curry sauce. The tart was a bit tasteless if I am honest, but the curry sauce on the mussel was very unusual and worked very well. For my starter I enjoyed a silky velottue flavoured with lobster poured at the table over a bowl of salty French ham cubes and pumpkin. It was warm and autumnal and seasoned to perfection. Around the table Stuart opted for smoked eel and beetroot salad with a horseradish crème; lovely to see golden beetroots being used as their flavour is so rich with honey tones and works really well as a contrast to the oily eel. The others went for the squid dish, served as a salad (I am always surprised by how many people opt for squid when it is on the menu, what happened to all the squeamish people?!).
For my main course I decided to opt for the lighter option and take the fish. It was a lovely fillet of red mullet big and meaty and full of wonderfully light juices. It sat on a bed of crushed potatoes which was jewelled with little hidden lobster tails. For me crushed potatoes are all well and good, but if feel the lack of any skill required to create them makes me a little disappointed at their presence on my plate. In fact the lobster almost feels like an after thought to try and dress up such a basic use of potato that doesn’t quite feel succinct – look at the lobster not the fact that we can’t produce a mash! The plate is dressed in a browny green sauce which I have no clue of the ingredients because it just tasted like a miscellaneous vegetable smear. A lovely rich browny orange lobster sauce was poured on the opposing side of the plate by the waiter (love the theatre) and that was far more successful. All in all, the flavours were lovely and the dish did what was necessary but in honesty given the ingredients at home I feel I could Ready Steady Cook this meal without to much hassle. The other guests at my table had beef skirt cooked lovely and rare with a piece of melba toast spread with beef bone marrow – no one can remember what accompanied it which is never a good sign. The final option on the menu which none of us took was literally written on the menu as chicken cooked in beer. When I shared my surprise at seeing such a simple dish, everyone of course started exclaiming that there was nothing quite like a fantastic piece of chicken, and how in Australia it is normal to drink half a can of lager and stick the remains up a chickens bum then put it on barbeque it for a fantastic meal. However for me, I feel chicken is something that ‘one’ should never order when dining out as it is just too easy, and to see it on a menu of such calibre and in such a crass way was a real disappointment to me. It might have been the best chicken I ever had, I might have felt tears of joy and wonderment tumble onto my plate as I munched mouth after moorish mouth, but I just expect a bit more magic from my favourite restaurant than chicken in beer - I expect from Le Gavorche drama, excitement and flavours I would never get anywhere else. For dessert I took the cheese option for the first time, as I always normally opt for ice cream then wish I had had the cheese purely because you have NEVER seen a cheese board like it. It is literally the size of a door flipped horizontally with wheels attached and smells like stinky heaven. I had a piece of Comte, a very ripe Shropshire blue and a lovely runny stinky something French whose label I could not see but it was fantastic none the less. Cheese is served with a mountain of very thinly sliced fruit bread which is toasted and becomes all curled at the edges as it is so thin and it utterly delicious in place of boring crackers. I also have celery, quince and a lovely apple chutney; all in all a fantastic cheese plate. The ice cream trolley comes round for Richard who went for that option, on deciding he wants a scoop of everything he is delighted with his large plate of white chocolate ice cream, mint, strawberry, grapefruit and others that I wasn’t able to taste before they disappeared from his plate! The white chocolate, as always, is insanely beautiful. Everyone else went for a rich creamy rice pudding topped with poached pears and served with freshly baked flaky biscuits – totally divine. Finally coffees, and petit fours (the glazed physalis is always the one we fight over!) complete our meal and we all leave happy and full to the brim!
I think it is time to give you a reason for why I think this meal was disappointing compared to previous. I have already spied Michel Roux tucking into lunch across the restaurant and my dad informs me that Michel is slowly less and less involved in the kitchen after Rachel Humphrey’s was made head chef two years ago – it seems the master has cut the cord from his protégé. She is fantastic and it is certainly amazing and refreshing to see a woman heading up a restaurant so influenced my men in the past. I haven’t eaten their since before her time, literally a month or two before she was given the position of head chef so for me the contrast to what the food used to be was quite stark. I certainly will be lunching there again and hoping that next time I will be treated to the innovative and exciting dishes that I used to enjoy and celebrate there. All eight of us agreed that of all the visits (my father’s being larger than the average!) this one was not as good as standard. My next planned visit is February, and I am still very excited to see where the kitchen will be then, hopefully back to the magic it used to exude.
Restaurant: Le Gavroche
Price Per Person exc service: £48
Rating: 5 out of 5…for now…
Currently Munching: Leerdammer and celery, Bacon Frazzles
As this is my first review, I think it's appropriate to start with my favourite restaurant, the place where I have enjoyed the most wonderful meals and service. Ok, a lot of you are now going to judge me based on the name of this establishment – but before you do, I assure you I am not some upper class snob who is going to only being reviewing places that have two star’s or more because the idea of eating anything less than that fills me with dread. I am not a food snob, I even went to Mcdonalds and had a chicken nugget meal deal two days ago and oh yes I totally went large on the fries! But this restaurant for me is the pinnacle of everything a luxury setting should have – the food is astonishing, the service is precise but not too stiff and the value for money is actually fantastic. Also, whenever I go it is only for lunch and it is to enjoy their insanely good value set meal deal where you get three courses, canapés, water and half a bottle wine per person for £48 – bargain!
I have been to Le Gavorche about five times now I think, for my 18th and 21st birthday’s, for the graduation of my Bachelors and Master’s degree, and once when I was going through a really rough time and my dad surprised me for lunch in London to cheer me up (genius). The celebration today was my mother’s birthday – she has one more year before she is batting half a century, and there is not better place to kick off the celebrations. Although it is a French restaurant, for me it has a real saturation of Britishness about it. The decor of the restaurant has been accused of being very dark, very shadowed and of course very masculine; indeed this is true, but this restaurant is steeped in history and I feel the darkness and the essence of genteel masculinity is part of the restaurant’s charm. As a woman I get an excitement from feeling I have crossed a boundary into the world of man – the surrounding tables are made up of about 10% women the rest chortling suited men with their chins rolling and their middle shirt buttons popping, sipping scotch and muttering ‘oh yes, oh yes’ dully whilst sipping their veloutte – yes I am essentially surrounded by tables seated with the dog from the Churchill advert. But again, here is part of Le Gavorche’s charm – here men are allowed to be men and allowed to eat food cooked in butter and drink in the day without their wives saying anything of it. It’s like sitting in a British comedy sketch waiting for the punch line – fantastic! Every table has a beautiful sculpture made of cutlery, today we have, to my father’s dismay, the goat…he wishes we had the lobster. After the eight of us cheers with a glass of house champagne we are treated with canapés of a small pastry tart filled with celeriac and duck and a large smoked mussel dresses in a light curry sauce. The tart was a bit tasteless if I am honest, but the curry sauce on the mussel was very unusual and worked very well. For my starter I enjoyed a silky velottue flavoured with lobster poured at the table over a bowl of salty French ham cubes and pumpkin. It was warm and autumnal and seasoned to perfection. Around the table Stuart opted for smoked eel and beetroot salad with a horseradish crème; lovely to see golden beetroots being used as their flavour is so rich with honey tones and works really well as a contrast to the oily eel. The others went for the squid dish, served as a salad (I am always surprised by how many people opt for squid when it is on the menu, what happened to all the squeamish people?!).
For my main course I decided to opt for the lighter option and take the fish. It was a lovely fillet of red mullet big and meaty and full of wonderfully light juices. It sat on a bed of crushed potatoes which was jewelled with little hidden lobster tails. For me crushed potatoes are all well and good, but if feel the lack of any skill required to create them makes me a little disappointed at their presence on my plate. In fact the lobster almost feels like an after thought to try and dress up such a basic use of potato that doesn’t quite feel succinct – look at the lobster not the fact that we can’t produce a mash! The plate is dressed in a browny green sauce which I have no clue of the ingredients because it just tasted like a miscellaneous vegetable smear. A lovely rich browny orange lobster sauce was poured on the opposing side of the plate by the waiter (love the theatre) and that was far more successful. All in all, the flavours were lovely and the dish did what was necessary but in honesty given the ingredients at home I feel I could Ready Steady Cook this meal without to much hassle. The other guests at my table had beef skirt cooked lovely and rare with a piece of melba toast spread with beef bone marrow – no one can remember what accompanied it which is never a good sign. The final option on the menu which none of us took was literally written on the menu as chicken cooked in beer. When I shared my surprise at seeing such a simple dish, everyone of course started exclaiming that there was nothing quite like a fantastic piece of chicken, and how in Australia it is normal to drink half a can of lager and stick the remains up a chickens bum then put it on barbeque it for a fantastic meal. However for me, I feel chicken is something that ‘one’ should never order when dining out as it is just too easy, and to see it on a menu of such calibre and in such a crass way was a real disappointment to me. It might have been the best chicken I ever had, I might have felt tears of joy and wonderment tumble onto my plate as I munched mouth after moorish mouth, but I just expect a bit more magic from my favourite restaurant than chicken in beer - I expect from Le Gavorche drama, excitement and flavours I would never get anywhere else. For dessert I took the cheese option for the first time, as I always normally opt for ice cream then wish I had had the cheese purely because you have NEVER seen a cheese board like it. It is literally the size of a door flipped horizontally with wheels attached and smells like stinky heaven. I had a piece of Comte, a very ripe Shropshire blue and a lovely runny stinky something French whose label I could not see but it was fantastic none the less. Cheese is served with a mountain of very thinly sliced fruit bread which is toasted and becomes all curled at the edges as it is so thin and it utterly delicious in place of boring crackers. I also have celery, quince and a lovely apple chutney; all in all a fantastic cheese plate. The ice cream trolley comes round for Richard who went for that option, on deciding he wants a scoop of everything he is delighted with his large plate of white chocolate ice cream, mint, strawberry, grapefruit and others that I wasn’t able to taste before they disappeared from his plate! The white chocolate, as always, is insanely beautiful. Everyone else went for a rich creamy rice pudding topped with poached pears and served with freshly baked flaky biscuits – totally divine. Finally coffees, and petit fours (the glazed physalis is always the one we fight over!) complete our meal and we all leave happy and full to the brim!
I think it is time to give you a reason for why I think this meal was disappointing compared to previous. I have already spied Michel Roux tucking into lunch across the restaurant and my dad informs me that Michel is slowly less and less involved in the kitchen after Rachel Humphrey’s was made head chef two years ago – it seems the master has cut the cord from his protégé. She is fantastic and it is certainly amazing and refreshing to see a woman heading up a restaurant so influenced my men in the past. I haven’t eaten their since before her time, literally a month or two before she was given the position of head chef so for me the contrast to what the food used to be was quite stark. I certainly will be lunching there again and hoping that next time I will be treated to the innovative and exciting dishes that I used to enjoy and celebrate there. All eight of us agreed that of all the visits (my father’s being larger than the average!) this one was not as good as standard. My next planned visit is February, and I am still very excited to see where the kitchen will be then, hopefully back to the magic it used to exude.
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