The Ivy Brasserie, St Albans: at last one to recommend

This was my daughter's choice for a birthday lunch, so all the family deposited themselves in this popular branch of the chain. I had lunched previously in the original Ivy market Grill in Covent Garden, so was looking forward to this.
The place was packed on a Saturday Lunchtime with the well-heeled residents of Hertfordshire, and it was clear that if you did not have a booking, you were going to be out of luck.
I did not realise just how extensive the chain is (not mega, but enough to widely available throughout the country in places with money) and it amazes me, in retrospect how they have not fallen foul of the curse of chain restaurants: indifferent foods catering to the lowest common denominator. In the current times, when well known mid-priced chains are falling like dead flies, it is reassuring that someone knows how to make things work.
We had a big family table, and must have frightened some of the other diners with our collection of small children, but they know how to behave in smart establishments, so we all just got on with it. The menus are not huge and this is probably part of the key to success. Find a few great dishes that can be produced consistently in a pleasing manner. Whilst none of my particular favourites were available, I had no difficulty in choosing dishes different to my last experiences.
For starter I had the duck liver parfait which came with Caramelised hazelnuts, truffle, tamarind glaze with pear and ginger compote, toasted brioche (toast) and was a pleasingly large portion of tasty pate

It looked a bit strange before cutting into it, rather like a rice crispie pie with jam on the top. I found this very satisfying.
For main I chose Monkfish and prawn curry - £17.95 Keralan curry with jasmine rice, coconut “yoghurt”, coriander and sweet potato crisps

Whilst not the most spicy of curries, it was properly flavoured, and more importantly, hot, scoring 8.6 on the CHOF scale. Wonderful stuff with enough rice and yoghurt which I did not use. I liked this and would recommend.
I shared a creme brulee with my wife for desert, as the food had been most filling.

Whilst lacking the warmth of a freshly cooked/flamed brulee, it was a good one of its kind.

Also recommended.

We did not drink as a group, and I just had a pot of coffee, which could have been fresher.

Altogether this was a memorable meal, and the hot food was hot. All our party were happy with the outcome, and we would definitely go there again.

It does get crowded, and it was a bit on the noisy side, but the inside is attractive and spacious. Service was slow but accurate: it did not matter for us, but I think that if you dine when it is busy, you need to leave enough time. It is not cheap, and you are unlikely to emerge for under £50-60 per head, but you get what you pay for.

This place hit the spot for me, and I would go there again, no question.

Piebury Corner, Kings Cross. Smart Pies for the nouveau pie eater

8th Feb 2019
I first read of Piebury Corner in Time Out, and my love of Steak and Kidney Pies made me put on the 'to do' list. When the opportunity presented, finding myself in Kings Cross (just up the Caledonian Road) rather than the other home at Highbury Corner, I gave them a try for a late lunch on a Thursday.
When I went, which was at about 2pm, the place was pretty deserted except for a younger David Hockney lookalike (who made the staff take a video of him eating his pie and had successfully parked on the double yellow line outside).
I was only really interested in the s and k, so the lunchtime offers were not available to me.
Everything is sold separately, so you have to order the pie and the side and even the gravy is an extra.
The cafe is small with old fashioned zinc topped table and chairs. It can probably hold about 20+ at a pinch, and I noted that for evenings, they took bookings. I would be interested to find out if that is when the action really happens.
When you go in, from the point of view of the door, it might look as if you had entered a bar/bistro with its small range of bottles and the gleaming expresso machine

 The picture above give you a sense of scale of the place. At the time of my visit, they were also offering an art exhibition by Tony Husband, who I knew to author the Yobs cartoon in Private Eye, and had drawn the cartoon for a story which I had published some years ago. Most of his work was on the tiles of the toilet, so worth going if only to see the art.

My order was a budget order of Steak and Kidney pie and chips. The quality of the pie was excellent and it scored an 8.6 on the CHOF scale. In retrospect, I think I should also have ordered the gravy to go with it. The chips were also of good quality.

It is difficult to tell from my photo, but the portion sizes are small. Another web site has described them as being 'sensible size', but when you are into eating pies, sense does not come into the equation, and to be frank, I had expected to leave feeling a bloated, but this was not the case. In terms of quality of the product, I could not fault them: unlike so many commercial steak and kidney pies that you might buy at a supermarket, this had lots of kidney and meat. The pastry was not too thick and the consistency was just right.

The staff were encouraging and friendly, and a I got chatting to the waitress/counter staff who claimed to come from Baltimore via Arkansas. It was a bizarre mix of the merits of Bill Clinton and the dangers of downtown Baltimore.

This had started out for me with the intention of being a cheap quick lunch stop, but the Pie cost £7, and the chips £3, and there was 10% automatically added on to the bill. I was too mean to ask for drink and/or desert, as it seemed that this could quite easily get out of hand. On the other hand, if you were coming here as an evening main event, I could see that the extras would only bring this into the realm of a reasonably priced night out. I could have had the set lunch meal for about £8, but I wanted to try the S and K, which was not on the lunch menu.

If I wanted to take the pie home in its cooked cold state, that would be £4. I am contemplating buying a batch for the freezer.

Will I go back there again? Probably, but this is not the place for a romantic meal, and women might fail to be impressed, unless they really really like pies and small cafes. This was probably the best steak and kidney pie I have tasted in a long time.

Plum and Spilt Milk: upmarket treat

10th September 2018
My wife and I were given an outing to this newish restaurant as a birthday gift. It seems that at our stage of life, experiences rather than stuff is the way to go.
Many years ago, my boss had used the meeting rooms at the Great Northern Hotel as a base for organising London meetings because they were cheap and available. The hotel has been greatly revamped since then, and I dare say that would not be the case now. It is completely unrecognisable compared to 25 years ago. This is not a place we would have chosen to go, mainly on grounds of expense, but as it was a gift, we said thank you very much and boarded the Picadilly line.
The restaurant follows modern trends being fairly open, hard surfaces, and staff who can border between patronising and obsequious. At the time of visiting, there was major work going on in the hotel which limited the routes of entrance or egress, but the main consequence of this at the moment is that there are no accessible lavatories near the restaurant.
This is what the restaurant has to say for itself (from website)
"SIMPLE CLASSICS, BEAUTIFULLY COOKED
COURTESY OF HIGHLY ACCLAIMED CHEF MARK SARGEANT, IN AN ATMOSPHERE ELEGANT YET RELAXED
Theatrical destination restaurant Plum + Spilt Milk, celebrated for the quality of its seasonal British dishes. Our new menu includes Wild watercress soup, wild garlic oil & sourdough croutons; Wye Valley asparagus feuilleté, orange hollandaise sauce; Organic Wiltshire burrata, broad bean puree, pickled red onion, chilli, pine nuts & raw rapeseed oil; Grilled lamb cutlets, roasted & wild garlic creamed spelt, slow braised lamb shoulder & mint sauce croquette.

One hundred and fifty hand-blown glass lamps suspended from the ceiling set the atmosphere; leather banquettes curve luxuriously around tables of cracked black lava".

Nuff said.

For starter I chose Spiced Cornish fish soup, red pepper rouille & croutons. This was a winner. It was really really hot, about a 9+ on the CHOF scale. It was only mildly spiced, and the red pepper relish, which I rightly or wrongly chose to add to the soup, made for an interesting taste.

This was a good choice, and if the opportunity presented, I would definitely do it again.
The choice, as I mentioned before is limited, and for the main course I chose a flatiron steak, not really knowing what to expect

They had turned down the lights by then and it started to get tricky to take pictures.

I asked for my meat to be medium, but not bloody, and I think that they followed my instructions. The dish came accompanied by triple cooked chips

You get nine large chips in a dish.......... and I also had some mixed vegetables.
Desert comes from a pairing menu, but I decided not to pair my desert with a wine.
I had  iced peanut parfait, chocolate ganache with salted caramel sauce.

At first glance, it looked a bit like a deconstructed Snickers bar, and as I love Snickers, it was pleasing to find it tasted similar, particularly as I like to keep my Snickers in the refrigerator.

I am off wine at the moment, but the wine list has house white and red which are realistically priced. I finished with a coffee which was excellent.

The meal was of excellent quality as one would expect, and what was supposed to be hot was actually hot. No problems there, but of course, medium steaks may not always be hotter than they are supposed to be.

I have no idea what this meal cost, but you can probably work it out from on line.

My only criticism would be that the place was very noisy to start with, with braying businessmen creating a non-intimate atmosphere. However that is a sign of the times, and almost every modern restaurant one goes to is unsuitable for a deep conversation. That is probably why you see so many diners texting each other during meals. To help that, all tables here had charging points and USB sockets. A sign of the times.

The Haven Bistro and Bar, Whetstone: very popular local eating place

1st September 2018
I have eaten at the Haven several times and also organised to celebration dinners there in their semi-private room. It is probably one of the best places to get decent food in Whetstone, and over the 17 or so years I have been using it, the standards have remained constant, and it is fair value for money. It also serves bar food if you don't want a full meal.
I have also used it for a set lunch which was fantastic value for money.
On this occasion, we had to go on a Saturday night, to offer hospitality to a family member, and it won the choice competition of where to go on a Saturday night. It gets busy on a Saturday night, and you must book. I would not chance turning up there without a reservation, but because the owner, Julius knows me as a long term customer, he says he would always fit me in.
On this occasion the menu had changed from its long term pattern, and instead of being a sort of fixed price shortish menu, it had gone a la carte. So instead of my usual bang bang chicken starter, which I always found to be the best choice for me, I had the salt and pepper Calamari

This is not a true reflection of what came, as I had given my wife a couple of rings, and clearly had some of the dish before I started. Suffice it to say that this was a very generous starter portion and not the measly 5 rings out of a bag of frozen that so many restaurants stoop to.
It was well cooked soft and satisfying. It was also hot scoring an 8.4 on the CHOF scale. Recommended.
For main, I had the pan fried lamb liver.

It had a piece of bacon on it, and it was only when I downloaded the photo from my phone that I saw that it almost had a porcine face appearance: weird. I had asked for my liver to be cooked so that it was no longer bloody, which is my preference, and that was exactly how it came. It was exactly right. The only comment I would make is that it was promoted as coming with baby spinach, and the green vegetable it came with was a kind of cabbage or kale. No matter, as the liver was great. It also scored well on the CHOF scale at about an 8.3.
I did not bother with a desert, but had a coffee in a strange Germanic cup.
This was a good experience, and we emerged thinking that it had beed a good place to offer hospitality. The bill came to £125 for three of us, but there were only two glasses of wine, two coffees and two deserts, so expect to pay £50 per head for a full meal with drink.
The down side is that it gets very busy on Saturday night, and with its hard-surface decor, it can be difficult to hear. As much of the clientele being the comfortable retired of the area, who may already be on the way to hearing impairment, I am guessing there were some raised voices.

Nippon Izakaya, North Finchley: Consistency needed if this place is to survive

I have been to this Japanese Restaurant, usually at weekends, twice before, and it really hit the spot. Good food at a fair price, and what was supposed to be hot was actually hot.
I recently went at 8pm on a Wednesday towards the end of August and it did not live up to expectations in many ways: so much so, that I might give it a miss in the future.
There is a web site on https://www.nipponizakaya.co.uk/ and it tells you that it is a non-chain Japanese restaurant in North Finchley. Strangely enough there are quite a few to choose from in the area, and given that the Japanese are long departed from Woodside Park/Finchley, it can only be because of the popularity of Sushi (which I do not like). However it serves hot food, which in the past has been great.
On this occasion there were five of us, and we ordered nothing clever from the menu. The staff seemed confused by their own menu and actually one of our party failed initially to get any food despite the fact that the place was not especially busy. My wife and I ordered bento boxes, she having a tempura one, and mine being a grilled salmon and beef mixture. The portions are big, and there was a taster portion of miso soup provided before.
The food arrived only moderately hot, scoring no better than a 7 on the CHOF scale. However the included rice was almost cold. There was absolutely no point in complaining, as clearly these people had lost the plot on the night we visited and our lives are too short to wait for a re-run of preparation.
On previous occasions, we have been awarded a 10% discount (even at weekends) but some weak reason was found why we were not eligible this time.
At 10p.m. without actually saying the words, they were trying to turf us out. They have longer hours on a weekend.
If you are not a drinker, the food is reasonably priced, but when hotness is a factor, then no price is right if the food doesn't meet expectations. Our friend who suggested the visit ( he has a well filled loyalty card) was apologetic, and thought the real staff might have been on holiday.
The morals to this story are that August is a problematic month to eat out in the 'burbs of London, and that consistency of delivered product is what generates loyal customers.

Ninova Restaurant, East Barnet. Competent Turkish local with bizarre decoration

26th June 2017
After a long break, where most of my reviews have been on TripAdvisor, I bring you something new and local and more fitting to my blog.
I have noticed this newish local Turkish located in central East Barnet where a bakery used to be.
Initially the reviews were a bit unsupportive, but now they are more consistently positive. I went there with my wife and a friend for an informal meal on a Monday night. I had had a look in there on other week nights, and it had not seemed crowded, but even so, we booked.
The web site http://www.ninova-restaurant.co.uk/  gives the menu and seems more orientated to selling takeaway. There is very little info about the actual restaurant. It is easy to find, and there is no problem with on-street parking in the evening. Also plenty of unrestricted side streets.
The first things that strike you are the size: I did not count the place settings, but it looks as if they could probably seat about 100 persons with some tables which could easily take an 8. The interior decor is a bit bizarre with plaster relief scenes which range from Babylonian hunting scenes and Assyrian soldiers like you might see in the British Museum, the statue of Liberty, Mosta Bridge, and most bizarrely a native-American hunting scene. All adds to the ambience.
On a Monday night, a few tables were taken, but I cannot say if it gets full at weekends.
The menu is fairly short and bog-standard stuff. There is little in the way of clever or inventive Turkish food here. The pricing is slightly over the local average.
We shared a cold mixed meze starter which came with humus, tarama, tzatsiki, cold vegetables and stuffed vine leaves. This was served with bread and a mixed salad. Good size portion, big enough for three sharing for £14.50.
My companions had chicken and lamb skewer kebabs for main (which I tasted and were of excellent quality), but I had Lamb Beyti.

Unlike other beytis I have had, the yoghourt was on the bottom, and was flavoured with mint. This was a fair size portion, but it could have been with being a bit hotter, scoring only a 7 on the CHOF scale. If we had not been with company, I might have thought about returning it, but as the fashion in some Turkish restaurants is to serve luke warm food, I made my mind up that when we returned here, which we will, the most expedient solution is to tell them up-front that my expectation is for food to be hot. My party also reported that their kebabs were not so hot, so it wasn't just me. I think that this raises a key point, that if you want hot food, it is fair to warn restaurants at the point of ordering that this is your expectation. An unsolicited plate of sweet water melon was offered to customers.
All in all, despite the temperature, this was a good choice, and we would go there again. The staff wer fairly helpful and the weird decor cannot be beaten.
A meal for three including a shared starter, 3 mains, two beers and a soft drink came to £58 without service. This seemed like fair value.

Mirage Restaurant, Ilford/Newbury Park: very popular local restaurant with shortcomings.

9th December 2016
December is never the best time to judge a restaurant as they are inevitably overstretched and know that it is a sellers' market. We got involved with an outing here because a friend of a friend had a husband who was providing the musical entertainment. I am always game for a Turkish Restaurant, but the menu is far more extensive than just Turkish. I would also re-iterate my opinion that it is difficult to give a fair judgement when large parties are being served. But it was what it was, and here is my opinion. Their web site is on http://www.miragerestaurant-ilford.com/ which makes it look more like a wedding venue.
The menu is mixed and the Turkish side of it is a bit unchallenging, being mainly mainstream kebabs and moussaka etc, even on the halal menu. It is more of a Meditteranean/Continental menu, which is probably responding to the needs of the local customers, of which there were many. In retrospect, I should have chosen the steaks, because that is what they seem to get most accolades for.
For starter, I had the Calamari with salad.

They were satisfactory and hot scoring an 8.6 on the CHOF scale. What should be evident even from this blurry picture is that this is the boring side of calamari. Nothing challenging here.

Given that we were a 7.30 kick off, this picture is time stamped at 9pm. I really have nothing more to say about them.

For main course, mainly because I knew I would be getting a real Green Lane Turkish experience the following night, I went for the "CALF LIVER LYONAISE 

PAN-FRIED WITH SAUTÉED, ONIONS FLAMED WITH MADERIA WINE". Not very Turkish. This actually would have been something from an Italian Trattoria.

I had this with an accompaniment of cauliflower cheese and sauté zucchini. The cauliflower cheese was a bit of disappointment as it was clearly boiled cauli that had been put in an oven dish, and then a lay of cheesy sauce poured over, and then put back in the oven. Not really what I would have hoped for. The liver was fine, if not a tiny bit on the rubbery side. This main course was time stamped at 2158, meaning there was a gap of an hour between starter and main which could not be compensated for by the efforts of the male crooner singing to his rat-pack backing tapes. I can't wait until punk becomes the music of yesteryear that we all want to hear.

I was luckier than one of our group, who seemed to have been forgotten altogether, and was made to feel that it was his fault for not ordering in a way that the staff would take notice of. I really don't care for it when any restaurant makes their problems your problem, and then expect to put 10% service or more on the bill.

Whilst the house red was reasonably priced at £12.50/bottle, they did not bother to take the sticker off which said 'retail price £4'. So they were selling very cheap wine.

Others had a mixed experience with some meals better than mine and some worse. The key issue was poor service, and lacklustre food. However judging from the full house, it looked as if it was a crowd that knew what they wanted, and it was not challenging food, and not really caring how long it took to come.

I would avoid going there again at a weekend. May be it is better during a quiet week.