Friendly Thai (again): could this be the worst service in North London?

7th December.

SINCE THIS WRITING THIS REVIEW, THE FRIENDLY THAI HAS NOW CLOSED. THE REASON FOR CLOSURE IS NOT KNOWN
I have previously written about the Friendly Thai restaurant on Whetstone High Road. I commended the food but did not care for the service http://worldofeating.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=friendly+thai
We went there again as part of a group of 7. To make things easy we ordered one of their set meals for 3 and a set meal for 4. This could not have been simpler as the three were sat together as were the four.
What ensued was some great food as referenced in the previous note, but the service on a Saturday night is appalling. They simply cannot cope with their own success, and should consider extra staff on Saturday night when it is always full. I would guess it took about an hour from time of entry to restaurant to appearance of the first item of starter. When the order got mixed up i.e. some of the three going to the four and vice versa, they tried to blame us initially, and when we stood our ground, a heated argument, presumably in Thai, ensued between two staff members, and conducted across our table. This is a great shame as the food is great and is also hot.
When the bill arrived, it was largely uninterpretable but priced within credibility, and already had 10% added for service which I proposed was taken off. My wife pointed out that we probably would go back there again (but not on a Saturday night) and refusing to offer a tip was restaurant suicide,  but we should never had booked in the first place on a Saturday night.

Harvester, Arnos Grove: Formula food that meets expectations.

3rd December.
We had passed the Harvester just by Arnos Grove tube station so many times over the past couple of decades and always noted that there was the potential of a bargain meal out. Nothing fancy, but very fairly priced. The one we had previously patronised some twenty years ago is now a Tesco mini store, and had been somewhere we could reliably visit with children and escape with our wallets intact, and a fair feed.
I learn that Harvester is part of a crop of restaurants and pubs run by Mitchells and Butlers and includes diverse names such as Toby inns, All bar One and Browns. My take on Harvester is that it is a restaurant in a pub type venue rather than a pub with restaurant (which is how I see JD Wetherspoons) and according to their web site, they specialise in grilled food and serve 25 million meals each year. The USP for Harvester is that they have the free salad bar, and fixed price formula meals. By way of Internet vouchers, we were entitled to one free starter from a limited list or a free Sundae (which was really mostly ice cream), and a voucher for unlimited soft carbonated drink from a limited list. Other drinks are at Bar Prices.
For our starter we had spicy breaded crackerjack king prawns

We'd actually eaten most of them by the time this picture was taken, but they are a crispy fried coated prawn, not particularly spicy by our standards, but hot and tasty scoring a 7.8 on the CHOF scale. The dip is chilli, ginger and spring onion, but is not overwhelming. All meals have the calorific values stated, and this was 322 kcals (accurately presented)

For main I had an 'original combo'.

This is chicken, which is under a baby rack of pork ribs, a portion of sweetcorn and fries, coming in at 1097kcals (scary). There was also the salad cart (nothing special), rolls and butter etc included. The ribs were probably the best bit of the meal being moist, tender, well cooked and flavoured. The chicken was spit roast rather than grilled, and was properly cooked. The corn was fine, but was too cold to melt any butter.

Whilst you can see the cooks at work, I did not pay attention to the assembly of this meal, and its components had different CHOF valuse from 7.5 (corn) to 8.8 (chicken and chips). There was also a barbecue sauce, which I did not use. My wife's chicken was also cooked well, and had no adverse comments. 

The bill could not really be worked out because of the vouchers, but would probably come to about £12 without drinks per person. 

I think the Wetherspoons offering is probably a bit more edgey with a greater choice and cheaper, but here you are sat down in a proper restaurant and served (Rather than having to pick up from the bar), you don't have to pay up front, and it has a family restaurant feeling rather than a pub feeling. Take your choice for the bargain of your choice.

We felt that we had had a very competitively priced meal of good quality. With that many meals served in the whole group, I dare say that Mitchells and Butlers have figured out how to make their formula work.

Natural Kitchen, New Street Square, City: Why we need to pay bankers so much

3rd December.
A work colleague who I had not seen for some time invited me for lunch, and this was his suggestion based on suggestions received. I knew from other reports, that the most common adjective used to describe the food at Natural Kitchen was 'OK'. The company has an informative web site at http://www.thenaturalkitchen.com/cafe-restaurant.php and a glance down the menus shows that this is not for the masses and threatens style over substance. Don't get me wrong, because I was a grateful lunch guest, and I don't bite the hand that feeds me, but if I had not been a guest I would have been agreeing more vocally with the previously read comments.Most of the trade seems to come with the carry out buyers for those eating 'al desko'. No shortage of customers in suits.

To keep things simple I had the 'aged Scottish steak beefburger, which came with melted vintage cheddar, caramelised red onions, baby gem lettuce, vine ripened tomatoes and crunchy coleslaw (sic) and chips (£15.95)

The menu apologized that it only served burgers medium to well done, but it seemed that the chef had not been told this, and mine was distinctly underdone, and only warranted a 6 on the CHOF scale. However, it was perfectly tasty and seemed to be all meat. The fries were hot and tasty - no other condiments were needed. For the price, this was below expectation, and I hope that if my host ever reads this, he does not take offence as he is a friend of long standing who I would not like to criticise for his choice of venue.

In summary, more style than substance, luke-warm food and a potentially big bill. 

Durum Ockabasi, Finchley: reliable Anatolian grub

23 November 2013
The Durum has been one of my local staples for several years. It used to be an Italian called Trattoria Trevi, but that was probably 20 years ago, and this place has been a popular feeding house for the locals of Finchley and ex pats for several years. It has a lot of competition in the area, but always seems busy.
They have a web site at http://www.durumrestaurant.co.uk/websites/123reg/LinuxPackage25/du/ru/mr/durumrestaurant.co.uk/public_html/en/ which tells you quite a lot, but the prices are a bit out of date. I usually book before going, as it seems that it times there are few tables left. Having said that, I have never had trouble getting in. The staff are pleasant and service is fairly efficient. Each table is given a plate of really tasty flat bread, and I am sure that over the years there may have been olives and chilies but, like most restaurants, the covers have become more sparse. We typically start with a cold meze between two. The starter portions can be quite substantial, and we have made the mistake of ordering too much food in the past.
On this occasion I had the beyti with yogurt sauce. Yogurt sauces are a common feature, and sometimes they are flavoured or spiced, and sometimes meat is cooked in them. Beyti is like a spiced version of kofte kebab.

As you can see it is meat on a flatbread base with yogurt, and really does not need any additional accompaniment. The thing was that the hotness of the meat was dumbed down by the coldness of the yogurt, and thus lost a little bit in CHOF score which otherwise would have been good. I should have thought about this before ordering, and my wife's chicken shish was excellently hot. The food is great and I will definitely be going back. A meal for two including drink, and sharing a starter comes to about £30.

Wetherspoons at the Tally Ho!, North Finchley: good food but uneven service

12th November
For a change we wanted to try out a local cheap pub restaurant. I have reviewed J D Wetherspoon before, and as the menus are national, I had not intended to mention it again.
However, on this occasion, I scaled back from the large mixed grill to the normal size one (good idea). What was not good was the fact that it took one hour from placing our order for it to arrive, and it was of mixed hotness (7.6-8.5). There was some weak excuse about the chef having cut his finger. However other diners did not experience the delay we suffered. The staff said that we should have shouted for the main course once we had finished the starter.
This was actually a great shame, as the food was great, and was very competitively priced for the quality. I would like to try it again, but next time, I will be very clear to the staff about the fact that normally it is expected that if stater and main course are ordered, it is a reasonable expectation for one to follow the other in fairly quick order. As you have to pay up front, there was little that could be done. Although there was a trace of apology (mainly trying to tell us it was our own fault for not coming and asking for the food to be served) there was not even an offer of a compensatory sundae. There is an argument for not going back there again, but I am not one to cut my nose off to spite my face.

Le Querce: Sardinian restaurant, no where near the Tube

10th November
Another trip south of the River for a family meal. This time in picturesque Brockley/Forest Hill borders.
In an totally unassuming row of local shops, next to a greasy spoon cafe is a focus of Italian sophistication. There is a fairly upbeat and comprehensive web site at http://lequerce.co.uk/ .
What it does not tell you is that this appears to be a family orientate restaurant serving very Italian tasting food that is something different. The menu is supplemented by a huge specials list, and they seem very keen to offer something slightly out of the ordinary and likely to make people come back.
I had a fairly boring meal. For starter, I had a pasta:

Tagliolini al Ragú

This as you can see is a ribbon style pasta with a meat ragu sauce. The thing is that this actually tasted like the food did in Italy in September. It was hot scoring an 8.5 on the CHOF scale and extremely tasty.

For main course I had

Costolette di Agnello

I asked for this to be medium and it was probably the high end of medium but in no way overcooked, and also scored about an 8 to 8.5 on the CHOF scale. I had accompanying french fries.

I had a fairly boring house special tiramasu for desert

but the house attraction was the home made ice cream in a variety of bizarre flavours which included
Pepperoncino (Chilli Pepper) Caffé (Coffee) Rabarbaro (Rhubarb) Mirto e era (Myrtleberry and Pear) Banana, Cardamomo e Zenzero (Banana, Cardamom and Ginger)Banana e semi di senape (Banana and mustard seeds) Agilo o Cipolla (Onion or Garlic) Zucca e Amaretto (Pumpkin and Amaretto) Melanzana (Aubergine) Zafferano (Saffron)

I tried the chilli the garlic and the banana cardamon and ginger. These were 'interesting' and it was probably for the best that portion sizes were not huge.

Without wine, the bill came to about £25 per head, so it was not cheap, but was a good repeat worthy experience with hot food.

Il Tocca d'Artista, North Finchley. Popular suburban Italian

Saturday, 2nd November
Our moving dinner friends' outing was to this small trattoria like restaurant just south of North Finchley. It had been test driven by two of our group, and has lots of positive opinions on TripAdvisor. There is no web presence.
Saturday night was busy, and waiting staff seemed to be a bit overwhelmed. In fact our main course order appeared to have been lost, and the waitress came out to confirm what we thought we had ordered. I think they had lost the order.
The menu is quite short and with old favourites. There are specials and many of the diners were tucking into large bowls of mussels, which I never eat.
I had squid in a sauce for starter.

For a starter portion, it was quite expensive, being the same price as main course pasta. In fact most of the starters were a bit on the expensive side compared to the costs of the main courses. Whilst I have seen lemon with squid before, I have never had it with orange, and did not try to make the combination. Whilst attractive and hot ( a nine on the CHOF scale), the squid was a bit rubbery. I checked with the cold squid that my wife had in her seafood salad, and I seemed to have drawn the short straw here. 

For main course, I had the veal in mushroom and cream sauce.

They obviously had a few spare oranges going. However, this was a decent portion, also a 9 on the CHOF scale and lived up to expectations, additional vegetables were a plate of spinach and fried courgettes, and sautee potatoes. With four bottles of house wine between six (someone must have had my share), the bill came to just under £30 each, which was probably a bit on the expensive side, as there was no desert. I noted that there was a cover charge, and given that there was no bread and no table cloth, and one bowl of olives between six, that was pushing their luck.

I would say that this is probably best for pizza and pasta judging by what other diners were eating. Service was very slow and best that you don't go there expecting to leave soon. A nice touch is leaving a bottle of limoncello on the table which patrons can help themselves to. Makes one feel a bit better in several ways including the fact that hot food was served hot..