The Clink, HMP Brixton. Good food, but not that hot, and eyewateringly expensive.

 22nd Jan 2025

We were given a voucher for a lunch at the training restaurant with Brixton Prison in south London. Apparently this place has had rave reviews on tripadvisor. The idea is the rehabilitation of offenders.

Don't get the idea that you can just walk into here and sit down for a meal. You have to be booked in well in advance (at least 7 days), and the hours are very limited, so it won't do for an after theatre supper. The instructions are so severe that it almost makes it punishment to be a customer. The biggest deals are that you cannot take any form of electronics including phones and cameras (even film cameras) inside the prison, there is no alcholol, and there is only plastic cutlery. You are told to turn up at least half an hour before you appointed time, and have to be questioned, leave photo id and lock away all your property including wallets, and anything with printing on it. There is a strict dress code, and your slot is timed from begining to end. The menu is interesting but short and is high end British/continental. No cash is allowed, and you can carry one debit card into the restaurant to pay.You can see the menu here:

https://theclinkcharity.org/theclinkcharity/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Winter-A-La-Carte-2025.pdf

The restaurant,which is a separated building, can hold about 60 guests but on the day we went, there were only three other people, so service should have been great. 

I had the pork belly starter followed by ox cheek, my wife had a scallop starter followed by duck with a side order of chunky fries, and we mistakenly ordered two deserts, which we did not need. To drink we had a bottle of still water and a couple of mocktails. There was also a an order of bread (baked in the prison), with butter and salsa.

Our waiter, who probably told us far more than he was supposed to about himself (but we did not necessarily believe him) was great, but they seemed to have difficulties coordinating the serving of food resulting in a lot of down time. He was somewhat older than the other staff members,  and let slip that he had no intention of working in hospitality when he was released.  Even though I made it quite clear that I wanted hot food to be hot, the mains turned out to be no more than a 7.5 on the CHOF scale, which, for the price we paid (I know it is a charity) should not have been the case.

The quality and taste of all the food was excellent and could have been from a good central London restaurant, or a good cruise liner, and the home baked breads were particularly good. I could have done without the mocktail, as life is too short for pretend alcoholic drinks. The desserts were a bit too sweet for my liking and were not finished. Quantities were huge and the portion of fries for one person was more than enough for two. The pricing of everything was high west end (see link to menu), with a 13% service charge. Without alcohol or coffee, a lunch for two was over £135 which I would never choose to pay except for a really exceptional occasion. I also bought a souvenir mug (could not resist) for £12.

Would I go there again. Not under my own steam, as it is inconveniently out of the way for me, is a lot of bother to get into and whilst it was an interesting unique occasion, for the price it was more for novelty value. I also understand that in the evening, it is tricky getting something to eat beyond 7pm due to prison regulations. Another thing that slightly spoiled it was the fact that prison staff could get lunch here and either carry it away or eat in an adjacent room (i.e. not with the guest diners). To me it was rather distracting having the continuous footfall across the restaurant. If it had been fuller, I might not have noticed so much. But you would not expect somewhere like the Ivy or Wolesley to have a takeaway trade in front of their diners, so why here?

DUE TO PRISON REGULATIONS AND SECURITY THERE ARE NO IMAGES (SHAME)

Saga Cruises: High quality food at inconsistent temperatures.

Xmas 2024

This year, because it was not our turn, we embarked on a the Saga Cruises ship Spirit of Discovery. There is also a sister ship, the Saga Spririt of Adventure which is almost identical. I have been with Saga Cruises several times but this is the first report of their food on this website by me.

Essentially you are given three dining possibilities. There is a main dining room with silver service meals three (and four if you include afternoon tea) times daily. There is a grill which offers buffet style food except in the evenings when it is served (did not use this) and three specialty restaurants offering either steakhouse meals, fish, or pan-asian style. At lunchtimes there is a veranda style service for informal lunches such as fish and chips, burgers and hot dogs etc. This is usually freshly prepared and has been adequately hot, but who wants cold fish and chips? There is also 24/7 room service which typically takes about 15 minutes to deliver. This has been hot enough taking into account that fact that it comes from a galley to your cabin on different levels.

The temperature of food at the point of service is  big deal to me, and I know from previous Saga Cruises that unless you make it known or choose very carefully, you are on a hiding to nothing relating to the temperature of hot food and even the temperature of different elements of a meal. I always have had to tell serving staff about this, and I think I earned the nickname 'Mr Hot Food', but I did not care because it is a big deal for me. The issue in my opinion is that they go out of their way to look after you on a Saga Cruise, and tepid meals spoil my experience.

I did not even attempt trying to get hot food from the breakfast buffet. It is on display for up to three hours in baign maries and there is absolutely no control over what temperature it is at the moment of serving. You can watch until a new serving is delivered and pounce, but that is not how eating should be done. I have simply given up trying to get hot food from the breakfast buffet and similarly with the served breakfast. Instead I have worked out that you need to put in a request at the fresh cooked egg etc counter and that seems to work.

In the main restaurant, despite my requests, it is completely inconsistent for many dishes. The soups are usually very hot and will score a 9 on the CHOF scale. The worst offenders are sliced meats which can come at any temperature from a 6 (barely edible in my opinion) to a 8.5, and their accompanyments can be a complete mix of temperatures. Attempts were made to use a very hot plate, but I have no idea how long the plated foods were hanging around and often the plates were hot, but the food was not. I know it is a major undertaking to deliver high quality table de hote food to up to 900 people in a short window but my point is that just as other people have dietary restrictions, I have a need for hot food to be hot.

Whilst these are unretouched images it is clear that a lot of effort has gone into the presentation of this food and the quality of the ingredients is excellent, especially the steaks and other meats but they simply do not seem to be able to deliver a consistently hot meal to my needs. Whilst I did not send anything back, food was often delivered at a CHOF score of 7+ and diffent ingredients of a plate were at different temperatures. Nothing I said seem to make a difference, and the only way around this was to avoid any kind of buffet, when the score could be as low as 6 (they did not seem to heat their containers significantly), and to focus on things that had to be individually prepared such as grilled and fried dishes. The thing that bothered me was that no one else seemed to care, and it may be that Saga cruise passengers normally eat their food tepid, or they are so un-used to restaurants that they know no better. There were complaints about food but for other minor infractions relating to the spicyness of food (usually bland to British tastes) or saltiness.
Food in the specialty restaurants tends to be hotter because they are dealing with smaller numbers.

Another things to mention, which is nothing much to do with hotness, it that Saga Cruises seem incapable of delivering top class deserts. Their panna cottas and mousses and similar are stodgy, dense and possibly have been frozen before delivery. I tended to avoid them and focussed on their cheese selection and it is true that Saga Cruises have the best selection of cheese on any cruise line I have been on.

Would I use Saga Cruises again? If you ignore the issue of the age of most of the passengers, the answer is yes because they really know how to look after you, and if you are picky the food can be just about hot enough.