Can you spare me the price of a cup of Joe: Magazine restaurant, Serpentine Gallery, London

22nd December 2015
I have often been asked if I could spare the cost of a cup of coffee by street vagrants/homeless/beggars. But what is the cost of a cup of coffee in London? I know that the cost of the ingredients? Depending on what you drink, and the size, the cost this year is somewhere between 11-20p, excluding labour costs, and the most expensive part of the components being the cardboard cup possibly.
An average cost of a cup in a coffee shop is about £2.20-£2.40, and if it is more than that I would regard it as being expensive.

I know this is not a coffee shop, but the small Americano coffee here sells at £3/cup, making the cost of a coffee stop of two cups and a piece of cake £10 without service. That is Nordic levels. I know it is a nice enviroment and we were served, with some reluctance, but the prices is a joke. 

Izgara Finchely: best to eat there mid week and avoid Saturday

5th December 2015
We had previously eaten at Izgara on a Friday night when it was not too busy, and it had been an experience good enough to make it a recommendation for group eating (7) in December on a Saturday (booked well in advance). http://www.izgarafinchley.com/
We knew that opinions different, and it has been a love-it or hate-it establishment. If you look at TripAdvisor, that is the impression you get, and most of the moans are about the service.
At 7.30 on a Saturday, it was full with a mix of groups, but not particularly xmas outings.
It took a while for things to get moving and eventually I ordered Arnavut Cigeri  which is Freshly fried diced chicken liver with onions.

This was quite a large portion of tasty hot livers scoring an 8.9 on the CHOF scale, and came with two types of flatbread on the table.

For main I ordered Kuzu Güveç which is Slow cooked diced lamb with mushrooms, onions, peppers, in an authentic tomato sauce served with rice or salad (Available in Spicy) and I chose the spicy with rice. I made the smart move of avoiding a yoghourt based dish this time.

Again, a very decent sized portion, and also at about a 7.8 on the CHOF scale. By the time this was served, it was clear that there was a problem with service, and the process of serving 7 meals seemed to be beyond their capability. A soup starter was sent back for being luke-warm, and for someone else to do that brought a warm glow to my heart. It must have been really really luke-warm. Towards the end of the meal, a kitchen door was opened and a wheeze-inducing  blast of smoky fumes came out, which did not set off fire alarms but was a mite disturbing. It was ok as a meal, but the service rubbed everyone in our party up the wrong way. I am guessing if you go there at a quiet time, it is a different story. The eating out culture in London on a Saturday night has created a dilemma that unless you are going for very top end of the market, it is clear that no-one wants to hire enough staff, as most of the profits must come from that one night. We are considering an eat-at-home-take-away for this group next time. Whilst I understand the concept of supply and demand, with the demand being for a Saturday night out, the customer should always be the focus of a restaurant business, as they are not doing us a favour.

The Mill pub and restaurant, Cambridge. Mod Satis

9th December 2015
We visit Cambridge to see friends, and this usually means lunch out. As it is nearing the Xmas season, which seems to get earlier each year, and also seems to be an exercise in how much time and money can be spent in enforced bonhommie with people who you normally would not want to waste time telling them to push off. So pub lunch it was, but of course pub lunch may not mean a sandwich or ploughman's any more, as it may mean attempted gastro-pub with pretentiously named pies and breads.
In my opinion, The Mill, http://www.themillpubcambridge.com/ , is about half way there and still remembers when Cambridge pubs meant drinking by the river. Typically I would hope for a steak and kidney pie, but the nearest I could come was a game, juniper and sorrel pie. Close, but not close enough.
You have to order at the bar and give a table number, and the fact that we did not do it all together completely threw them. Whether the first one to order hit a gap in the process before culinary hell broke out is not possible to say, but the first person had finished before the rest were served. A gastro pub ought to be on top of that sort of thing, but they might have thought it was a single diner sharing a table. That is the price you pay for ordering at the bar rather than someone taking your order, and they still expect service to be paid.
The pie was actually pretty good with lots of meat, not drowned out by the juniper and sorrel. It was hot, scoring a 9 on the scale. Unfortunately the vegetable accompaniment only scored a 7.9 and the mash an 8. There was a jug of gravy. Given that gravy is on the menu as a side order as well for £2 it was a bit pathetic being limpid and insipid. The food was fine in general but was a little insipid, but that might be what is wanted locally. Pub food is down to earth and has a blue collar taste. This was very genteel white collar

The pie as it arrives: a bit of an economical pie

Looks potentially and pleasingly home made.

What you get inside the pie: unexpectedly full

The gravy just leaked away.

The place with a passing cyclist

A single course meal for two including a drink came to £35. I guess the days of people eating out in the pub every day are gone at this sort of price, unless this is your main meal of the day.

Kitchen, National Theatre: small eats at a price

2nd December 2015
Kitchen is the National Theatre's new all-day café. They say it is situated on the river front with large indoor and outdoor seating areas. Focusing on simple dishes using the freshest ingredients and local suppliers is their claim. On the evening when I went at about 5.30, it was already pretty full and looked as if many of the 'patrons' were there killing time before doing something else e.g. a performance.
There is a short menu which changes with the season and details, which may be out of date, can be found on http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-visit/food-and-drink/kitchen. On the day I went, the menu was largely meat free, but had fishy things.
I had the Tempura Calamari with a side of fries

This cost me about £10.50 which sort of justified the small portion sizes which for the calamari was barely bigger than a starter portion at some restaurants. I guess you are paying for location. However it was hot enough at about 8.7 on the CHOF scale and tasted fresh. If you can afford a theatre ticket, then you can afford the cafe prices. 

Whilst the food was ok, it was a moderately satisfactory experience only and I will not be rushing back there. A 250ml glass of house wine was about £6.50. The consequences of a captive audience.

Gokyuzu Green Lane: another excellent Turkish mediterranean restaurant

24th November 2015
Turkish two nights in a row, and the prospect of more to come. Newer higher end Turkish/Mediterranean establishments are now extremely popular and represent excellent value for money as the food is largely straightforward and quickly prepared. This is another excellent venue, and early on a Tuesday night was packed. This is a lively smart eating place: no frills but definitely somewhere you can take a friend/date and not feel as if you are going downmarket. It appears to have won awards in the past as a must-eat-at London restaurant, but apparently the crown has slipped or been taken over by newer usurpers in the London eating world. Nevertheless, this is a good experience and I will have no problem about going there again, as Green Lane is now a new family venue.
There is a comprehensive web site at http://gokyuzurestaurant.co.uk/index.php giving a potted history of the place, and its other two branches.
We just went for a main course, but the table came provided with bread and nibbles as part of the deal. I had the Iskender Kebab which is sliced lamb doner on a bed of bread, topped with
tomato sauce and yoghurt then drizzled with butter. I think I should stop having these yoghourt topped dishes, as it is impossible to prevent the dilution of the heat by the cold yoghourt. For this reason it only gets an 8 on the CHOF scale, but that was entirely my own fault for choosing something that might not be totally hot.

Bread and nibbles provided for all diners

Iskender Kebab

A glass of Turkish tea (not to my taste) comes as part of the deal

I hope that this is the meat that is used for the cooking and not just for show

Services is fairly efficient and friendly considering that the place was packed. I think you probably are best booking even midweek. A meal for four (just main courses accompanied by the table helpings of nibbles), with a couple of beers (not drinking crew) came to £50 excluding service. A bargain in my opinion, and to have had starters would have been an act of greed. I have heard that the seemingly generous platters for sharing are not as generous as they seem as there  are layers of bread underneath. Cannot confirm either way.

Will definitely be going there again, but omitting the yoghourt.

Istanbul Mangal 363 Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, London NW6 7QB: Pleasing cheap Turkish kebab restaurant

23rd November 2015
After an outing to hear a reading of the 'Bard of Barnet"'s latest short play, we needed some food, and a prior experience led us back to the Istanbul kebab shop/manga in Kilburn just north of Brondesbury train station.
This place is not a lot to look at with rows of big tables refectory style and somewhat whimsical murals of Istanbul on the wall, but the food had been good before. It was as good the second time and the costs are very reasonable.
I had the kofte kebab from the better than average kebab shop menu which can be found at https://www.zomato.com/london/istanbul-mangal-kilburn/menu . Tables are provided with fresh Turkish Flatbread, Salad and dips.

Quite a good picture from my Samsung phone. As you can see this large helping had a goodly offering of tasty hot meat scoring an 8.6 on the CHOF scale and was served also with rice and bulgar. There is also chilli sauce and tsatsiki on the table. Very impressed and will definitely go there again if we are in that part of London. Not a place to take a date to impress, but a good cheap tasty meal. Cost about £17 for two excluding drink.

Lunch at Bistro 1, Frith Street, Soho: Bargain lunch, good food, and great place to meet.

20th October 2015
I have reviewed the Covent Garden Branch of this establishment, which has very sadly now close (end of lease the owner said). This was a favourite meeting place for me to lunch with people, because for a tenner or so, you could get a decent hot lunch, and they let you chat as long as you wanted. I know it is sometimes a disappointment when you go back to somewhere a second time, but this chain (now a solo operation) has been reliable and I will go there again.
If you book on line, at the time of writing this blog, you can either get 10%  discount or a free glass of wine with lunch. An even better bargain.
You can look at their web site on http://bistro1.co.uk/ . This tells us that 2 courses are £9.90 and three, £11.90. The style of food is stated as mediterranean, but in my opinion you have a Turkish influence, but you can get the usual favourites such as pasta.
For starter I had the Bistro (cold)meze

You can see this is generous plate of Tsatsiki, dips, hummus, falafel, kisir, dolma & cheese borek. This is accompanied by bread on the table at no extra charge and butter.

For main course I had the lamb kofte meatballs. I go in with the intention of having something else, but this is my favourite:

These were hot, scoring an 8.6 on the scale and tasty, and some chilli and garlic sauce were available.

As you can tell, I am an enthusiast for this place for lunch. I have had dinner at the other branch as has been reviewed elsewhere.

I would recommend this place. I don't know how busy it gets in the evening: they have a big downstairs area which might take up some slack, but I have never been there except for lunch.

CMV Magellan: Bargain Cruising with good restaurant food, but let down by buffet

25th September to 1st October
A bit out of sequence, but important nevertheless as we are going back there again in February next year.
CMV is a cruise line that sails out of Tilbury with moderately small (<1000) passenger numbers at bargain prices. We did a trip called 'Autumn Gardens' for a week which was a bit of misnomer as we did not see any gardens except for the cabbage fields of Normandy. It is not difficult to get a deal that costs £60-70/day per person as a couple including the cruise, all food and the entertainment. Alcoholic drink is extra, but bars sell drink at below English pub prices, and if you want, there is a drink pass deal, where you can drink yourself silly for about £35/couple per day.
Food on cruise ships is a topic of hot debate amongst customers and you cannot please all the people all the time if you have the limited resources of a smallish ship. If you go on a big one, there may be so many restaurant options that you are bound to find one that suits. But my wife and I are very flexible (apart from me and the temperature of food). I have previously reviewed the sister ship, Marco Polo, which I said was 4* food in a 3* ship. I guess I was spoiled by a relatively recent superlative experiences on Holland America and Viking, but in retrospect, the food on Magellan was very similar, but the buffet might not have been so good. I have looked at what I wrote, and it is very similar, but we did not find any special nights for international food, but there was a spectacular late night buffet which showed that they could do it if they wanted to.
There are two main served restaurants with two sittings and surprisingly the earlier sitting at 6.15 was the fuller, but I prefer to eat my evening meal later. Food in the served restaurants was good, and there was always something to find. Portions tend to be small, but by the time you have worked your way through the card, it is more than enough for most people. Buffet food was almost never sufficiently hot and sometimes looked unappetising. The CMV line attracts a lot of older less mobile clients and they seem to prefer the buffet eating. Breakfasts in the served restaurant were a bit inflexible, and took too long to come if you have any plans for an outing.
So, what did it look like?

This is almost certainly an unrepresentative view of the buffet restaurant. Typically all the sections will be used, and there will be queues. The problem with this type of UK based cruising is that it attract the elderly less mobile passengers and it is understandable that they are going to be less adept at helping themselves from buffets. There was no evidence of help being offered to less able passengers.

This is what the savoury section might look like. A bit utilitarian and no attempt to make things look attractive. At least some things were labelled.

Deserts in the buffet focussed on cake like things and fruit and ice cream. Much better off in the served restaurants. The food in the buffet was a subset of what was served in the main restaurants

So the big advantage of the buffet is treating it like a taster session and focussing on what you might like most

What you might end up with serving yoursel from the buffet: sprouts on a buffet are NEVER a good idea.

The above is an example of dinner in the main restaurant and shows the fairly extensive menu. It is not very exciting or exotic food but this is straightforward cruise grub. Not everyone likes it, and for this reason we prefer to eat on a table for two so we don't have to listen to others whining. Nothing was fantastically hot, but nothing had to be sent back on that count. Service was good, but was largely eastern European style, where most of the staff come from.

Because we were in a port most days, there was no opportunity to try a served lunch, and on some days we returned to ship so late that lunch in the buffet was almost finished. I would not recommend there burger bar for many reasons.

We are going back on this ship for a trip to the Northern Lights in the Winter, and if there is anything of note, it will be reported.

This is a picture of the 'buffet magnifique' which shows that they can do it if needed. Rather than put on this excessive show of show food, all of which was not needed as it was at 10pm shortly after dinner, I would like a bit more attention to everyday, but there you are.

Pandaberry, North Finchley. Authentic Caribbean, but avoid Monday Nights

26th October, 2015
I have been looking at this place for years, and at last our more adventurous friends wanted to try it: most of our friends are a bit on the cautious side when it comes to food.
The restaurant is tucked off the main road in North Finchley, opposite the Arts Depot and bus station, so you have to know about it as you won't spot it from the street.  It has rather strange opening hours, closing at 9pm on Sunday to Wednesday, but later for the rest of the week. It is also open for lunch and particularly, as they say, takeaway. They have a pretty comprehensive web presence on http://pandaberryjerk.co.uk/index.html which suggests they have a cheap lunch trade and a big restaurant menu.
The restaurant is attractive and looks as if it has been renovated recently. The counter with food is just by the entrance, and I suppose I should have paid more attention to that. Our friends had been to Jamaica, and said the menu was pretty authentic, and made some suggestions. The menu is visible on the web site.
For starter, my wife and I ordered Jerk Chicken wings and fish cakes. By 7.30 on Monday, a number of items on the menu were no long available and the nearest substitutes were suggested. So no chicken wings, but we could have jerk chicken, and there was no prawn curry

The food was all hot in temperature, scoring about an 8.9 on the CHOF scale, but contrary to other reviews, the quality left something to be desired. The fishcakes seemed to have just come out of microwave and were a bit heavy. The jerk chicken was very hot in spices and dry. One serving to our friend was reported as being pink in the middle, but mine was the opposite seemingly overcooked by any standards, possibly as the consequence of microwaves. I had my back to the cooking counter, so I might just be mistaken here, but the speed of serving suggests I was right.

For main, I ordered the ox tail with butter beans with a side of dumpling and we shared some plantain

The reason you cannot see the plantain is that it was served up well before the main course, and of course I would not let it get cold. I have to admit that my experience of Caribbean food is minimal and I have to accept the comments of other reviewers on TripAdviser that this is the genuine McCoy. To me, who has eaten plenty of Ox tail in the past in the days before BSE, this seemed to be far too fatty, and you can see that it is swimming in oil. This might be what it is supposed to be. The dumplings were a bit heavy and dry and I used them to mop up the gravy/fat. I should have accepted the offer of rice, which was said to come with every meal. Again the temperature was not an issue but it was very spicy. I had a bit of a cold on the day we went, and the spices really cleared out my tubes (but might possibly have affected the taste), but my wife reported that her goat curry was spice and not taste.

There is no wine list and you can bring your own at £2 corkage, which was a very good thing.

By the time our meal was served, which was about 7.50, the staff made it clear by actions that we were their only customers and they wanted us to go. Service was a bit haphazard with items being brought together and out of sequence. We were not offered a desert, and by 8.45, we were shown the door. I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that this might have been a Monday night effect, because there were never more than three tables occupied. I would need to come back and see what it is like at weekends when they have longer opening hours and lunchtime, where I suspect they do a takeaway trade with the ex-pats and school kids.

The reviews on other web sites do not match our experience and I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that Monday night was the worst time to go. But a customer is a customer and is entitled to a consistent level of service and eating options even on a slack day, but maybe we simply do not understand how Caribbean restaurants work and maybe our expectations were too European.

Istanbul, North Finchley: Another superior end Turkish eating establishment for our area.

14th October 2015
Istanbul is the rebirth of the previously successful Meze Meze on the High Road in North Finchley. I have no idea what happened to the previous (acceptable) incarnation, but I have now eaten here twice, and have a very positive view. Slightly cosmetic Turkish food, but stylishly presented, and popular with the locals.
For your edification, there is an informative web site on http://www.istanbulfinchley.co.uk/ but on the 'about us' tab, the information is superficial information about the city and not the restaurant. I guess the thing that the two have in common is the splitting and very sensibly the ockabasi part of the restaurant where you can see the grill type cooking and the ingredients has been physically partitioned from the eating seated part of the restaurant. This is quite a positive move as many of the other local Turkish establishments, some very good, keep the front of house like a kebab takeaway which can be a bit off-putting especially on a Saturday night near pub closing times. The fare is pretty standard stuff for this style of restaurant and priced just slightly above middle of the road, but not excessively so. The interior of the restaurant is clean and modern and clearly reflects the European side of Istanbul.
For starter, we shared lambs liver, and haloumi+spicy sausage.

This seemed to have been freshly prepared and was tasty and hot scoring an 8.9 on the CHOF scale. The starter came with a basket of fresh flatbread, and there was also olives and tsatsiki on the table. Very good.

For main course I had Sarma Beyti which was grilled spicy minced lamb, red pepper, parsley and garlic wrapped in a homemade bread with special tomato sauce served with yoghourt, couscous and salad.

You might be able to tell that mine came with bulgar wheat rather than couscous, but no matter.

This looks great and tasted good, but displays a great truth about the hotness of food: if you have food served with chilled yoghourt, it is never going to be hot, and thus this scored only a 7.2 on the CHOF scale: pity because otherwise it was great, and was rather like eating a sliced up wrap. I will stick with the more predictable next time or tell them I want it really hot. You can also see my wife's stuffed aubergine, which was deemed to be good.

For desert, we shared a semolina cake and I had some Turkish Coffee which came in a very attractive cup holder with a glass of cold water and some Turkish Delights.

I am not a big fan of Turkish deserts and this semolina cake was a bit heavy for me. The coffee was good.

So, altogether, this is a good place, but with the caveat of the yoghourt. A meal for two, sharing a desert, with drinks and service came to £55.

The Olive Grove, Cambridge. Satisfactory Greek lunch in quiet surroundings

30th July 2015
A trip to visit our friends in Cambridge included a lunch stop at this recommended Greek Restaurant. It is a short walk off the main college/museum drag of Cambridge, near the town shopping centre, and is an unassuming sort of place which on the day we went, in the middle of the tourist season only had a few lunch clients. It may get busy at nights, and there are lots of reviews on TripAdvisor.
They have a web site on http://the-olivegrove.co.uk/ which explains that they have been a finalist in a food awards competition. This is very definitely Greek rather than Cypriot or Turkish and is reflected in the food and decor. When we were there, we witnessed a consignment of kitchen supplies arrive, and it confirmed that they are using imported or locally Greek produced ingredients. Who would have thought that haloumi comes in a big tin?
We decided to opt for the set two course lunch menu at £12.95. I had a look at the main menu, and think that it is a bit more expensive than I would expect to pay in a local north London Cypriot restaurant, but may be they cannot be compared. I cannot speak as to the authenticity of the cuisine, but it seemed Greek enough.
For starter I chose Tigania (spicy pork bites,onions,oregano,peppers & white wine)

This was a bit like a mini pork stew, and I would not rate it as particularly spicy, but it was tasty and hot enough scoring an 8.1 on the CHOF scale. I would guess that there is no such thing as really hot food in Greece, so that may have been a very authentic part of the experience.

For main I chose Kontosouvli 

(hand made pork neck skewer, pitta nest served with  fresh chips & tzatziki)

As you can see this is not exactly as described on the menu in that there is no pitta nest and the fresh chips were sauté potatoes and there appears to be some bulgar under the salad. It was hot enough also at about an 8 and tasted fine, but the meat was a bit fatty and gristly and not everything was edible. As you can see the portion size is adequate, but not generous. There is a lot of attention to appearance which you do not get in Cypriot restaurants typically.

The restaurant was mildly pretentious making a big thing out of being a finalist is in the food competition (but not revealing the final placing). It was the better side of ok, but I am a tough judge of this kind of food having been the victim of some mega meze's

Broughton Arms, Balterley; traditional inn serving standard pub dinners in good style.

Wednesday, 22nd July 2015
I put the day in my header, because for a mid-week local inn-turned-restaurant, this was packed with enthusiastic locals. I did not get the chance to look in at lunchtime to find out if it was more like a pub, but this was so packed with diners at tables in the evening, that there was no room for drinkers, and no where I could see where they might be hidden. So my first word of advice is if you want to go there, book a table (which being foreigners to the area, we had).
According to the web site on https://broughtonarmsatbalterley.wordpress.com/about/ (not sure why it is an https address) it is on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border near the village of Weston. There is little local competition except for a hotel conference center and another pub about two or three miles away. The web site is a little strange as the home page is the set menus for functions, but if you dig, all the information is there. I chose this place on the basis of good tripadvisor reviews, which by and large were supported by my visit.
The place looks half traditional, half country pub restaurant cliche. Whilst this is not intended to be a negative comment, it is exactly what you would expect except for the lack of locals drinking at night. Food service stops at 2100, so do not go there late.
The menu for the restaurant is shown on the web site under the heading 'bar menu', presumably because seating is in the bar, and you order your meal at the bar. Drink also comes from the bar at pub prices. The menu is pretty predictable and fairly extensive.
For starter I had the garlic mushrooms.

I am guessing based on their uniformity, that they were not hand made on the premises. Nevertheless, they were numerous, fairly tasty, hot at at CHOF of 8.2 and came with a tartare sauce.

For main course I had steak and kidney pie.

As you can see this is a big portion with chips, and could have been home made. There was probably more steak than kidney and it was a hearty meal at a superlative temperature scoring a 9.5 on the scale. There were also accompanying vegetables which are out of shot.

For desert, I shared a creme brulee

This tasted very eggy and as if it had not been prepared in a big batch for consumption over a period of time. The top had been flamed recently.

There is no pretention factor for this establishment. It appears to be very popular with the older generation of locals and is clearly the place to come. It is exactly what it says on the box, and there were absolutely no surprises. It was middle of the road pricing, and a meal for two with a small cider and glass of wine came to about £50. Things shut down early, and by about 9 the place was emptying out. This is an ideal place to come if you are at the Wychwood Park Venue and want to eat somewhere else.

Steam Bake and Grill at Wychwood Park DeVere Resort, near Crewe: surprisingly good

21st July 2015
We had booked a bargain midweek break through TravelZoo. Amazing value - £99 for two for B and B for two nights, and one three course meal. This is one of a number of resort venues more geared up to conferences and training meeting, and I can only presume they sell off their spare capacity when there is not enough conference trade. I guess July is not a big conference month to spend in Crewe. Crewe is pretty well located for the pottery attractions of Stoke on Trent, and Ironbridge museums.
The restaurant is pretty minimalist, with no table cloths, no bread and I am guessing that all the food is pre-prepared, but I could not say where. The limited menu appearance and speed of service suggests that it is not cooked to order. Nevertheless, it turned out to be the star of this venue in my opinion. I thought I was only getting a two course meal, but it turned out to be three. You can find out more at http://www.deverevenues.co.uk/en/venues/wychwood-park/food-and-drink/ . There is a sort of open plan kitchen to see where the finishing touches are put to dishes. These were clearly the cooks that the management were happy for people to see.

For starter, I had garlic prawns

The dish was served on a weird pice of fake facsimile newspaper. It was well cooked, tasty and scored a 9 on the CHOF scale. A good start.

For main, I had a steak pie with mash, which looks a bit like a self assembly kit. There is a boat of gravy. You get the idea. This again was pretty good and also an 8.5 to 9 on the CHOF scale.

For desert, I chose the mixed chocolate roulade.

A tiny bit mass produced, but good nevertheless.

All in all this was a surprisingly good meal, at a good temperature. It has a minor pretention factor based on the over attention to appearance, but the surroundings and service negated that. We ordered a bottle of wine, but were provided with something other than what we ordered, and were told that this was what they decided to serve instead. I guess the customer is not always right. I gather that the rack rate for this meal without drink and service is £25/head. This is probably a bit overpriced for a TDH meal, but was a good deal as part of our package.

Sunday lunch at Vanbrugh pub restaurant, 91 Colomb St, London SE10 9EZ. Mod satis but only just

28th June 2015
Friends who had been at the Fleetwood Mac concert at the Dome (I still call it that) suggested we meet up for lunch in Greenwich on Sunday. Knowing that the area on Sunday in the summer would be awash with visitors, it was decided to book something. With my list of suggestions rejected, the Vanbrugh was selected on the basis of location and other reviews, which for the most part, excepting Christmas, are favourable. It is a pub restaurant of the current breed, but serves nothing clever, and only mildly pretentious. (I have decided to add in a pretention score to my ratings as pretentious eating is infecting the world in a way less controllable than Ebola).
The place sells itself as a 'local' pub, and in fact based on its location up a side street, you would never pass it unless you meant to. Thus starts part of the conundrum of how do you price food and drink for locals? There is a fairly comprehensive web site at http://thevanbrugh.co.uk/ and the menus are there to see. Interestingly although the web site looks a little old, the menus are still current.
The place is fairly attractive by pub standards with tables to sit at, a restaurant area, and a softer area with big settees and low tables. The restaurant is fairly small, and on Sunday, the food spills out to all available space. The menu and prices are the same inside or without the restaurant. The kitchen looks pretty small, and I guess they did well to cope with the number of covers on Sunday lunchtime (40+, possibly 50) all things considered.

The menu for main roast Sunday lunch is simple with all the usual meats and fried fish and a vegetarian option. Orders are taken at the bar, and paid for in advance (I find that this reduces your leverage if anything goes wrong).

I ordered the roasted pork loin with black pudding, apple sauce and pork jus. I requested that the black pudding be replaced by pork stuffing, which was no problem to them.

As you can see, the pork was a loin chop (note the bone). This has confused people in the past who thought this might be a pork chop, but the bone was a rib. It is difficult to tell if this was pork jus, as the gravy/sauce was quite a dark colour. As there was a bed of red cabbage, it could have gone either way, but others have noted that there is cook confusion about which sauce/gravy/jus to put on. By the time this arrived, I found it unacceptable in temperature, scoring a 6.7 on the CHOF scale in some parts. I am guessing that the 7 meals between us were plated out in the kitchen during a time period, and what ever went on first got cold. Not good. I rejected the meal, and some time late a replacement came (not a reheat), but minus the stuffing. A bit better, at an 8.

My wife wanted two starters rather than a roast main. She ordered the curried mussels and the thai beef salad. Only the latter made it to the table, and when asked we were told that as the mussels were a new menu item, they had not made it from the epos system to the kitchen. However, they managed to make it on to the bill, so I think this was so much BS. In the event, the starter salad was so large, that another dish was not needed. We did get our money back, reluctantly.

So all in all, whilst the food was fine once we had it the way we wanted it, it was all a bit slapdash, in that my food was not hot enough for me (I guess the locals are not so fussy), and the ordering was too chaotic considering the shortness of the menu and that we ordered before it got busy. For the prices they charge for a straightforward Sunday Roast, this should have been better. It was expensive, with main course roast costing between £13 to £18.  This is a back street in Greenwich, not a tourist hot spot, and the cooking and food are run of the mill.

The drinks were also a bit on the expensive side for a pub. A large glass of house white wine was £8 and my half of (very nice draft Suffolk) cider was £3.50. Just as well there was no service charge in the pub, but there is 10% if you eat the same meal in the restaurant.

So not pub grub as we know it, and it is lucky that most of their clients are local and tolerate the slap dash approach.

New Curry Centre, Station Road, Barnet. Competent Local Curry House but not a treat.

22nd May 2015
A mate wanted to go out with us for a cheap and cheerful meal on a Friday night. Nothing special, and rather than go back to the Shapla in Barnet, I thought we would try something new, based on reviews from TripAdvisor. There is no web site, but several reviews on local eating sites. The New Curry Centre, despite its somewhat banal name, ticks the boxes, and most of the reviews are better than ok, and it seems to have a fan club.
It is located down a main road off the Great North Road near the Barnet Odeon. In the evening, it is possible to park near, but the Fire Station opposite means that some of the road must be kept clear. There is a somewhat intriguing takeaway menu claiming that the place is top rated by Barnet Council, but from the graphics I think this is the food hygiene rather than the culinary opinions of the council. There is no apparent regional specialisation and the place is a jack of all trades with a comprehensive menu.
The interior is unremarkable, and while some of commented that the seating is uncomfortable, I cannot say we had any problems.
For starter I had the Shamee Kebab which is the flat fried version of the sheek kebab.

Whilst it might have a slightly uninspiring appearance, it was hot at an 8.7 on the CHOF scale and very tasty. Substantial portion.

For main I had the tandoori mixed grill

This was also fresh and hot, and entirely competent. The food was good but probably the best that can be said is that it is competent local curry at a fair price. One of us was underwhelmed by the cooking and indicated that he would not be making this the curry house of choice, but I found absolutely no fault, but on the other hand there was nothing special. Service was competent and the bill was very fair. A meal for two including beer would probably come to about £35 or less depending on how much you splashed out. They charged for poppadoms, and half the price of the Bayleaf. 

I would go back there again, but more for a routine meal than a treat.

Antepliler, Green Lanes. A step beyond kebabs.

21 May 2015.
Hello to all my readers in Ukraine, where apparently most of my hits in the last month have come from. I can only assume it is the inherent interest in the cuisine of North London.
My daughter now lives in Haringey, and no visit to her will be complete without a visit to one of the Turkish restaurants of Green Lane, where the two sides of Cyprus have been united without the help of the EU.
This was a recommendation and hit the spot. There is a web site on http://www.anteplilerrestaurant.com/main/  and various pictures and bits of the menu can be found, and an explanation that this is Silk Route food, and has a cosmopolitan background.
The restaurant evolved from a bakery and now has branches. In fact you can find them baking in the window, and I can only assume that wonderfully fresh flatbread were baked on premises.
The inside is modern hard surfaces, and on a Thursday evening when we went, it became full and noisy. It is large, so you might not need a reservation. There is an extensive and varied menu which you can find on the web site.At our table was salad, bread and yoghourt and chilli dip.
We decided to share starters, and this gave a good variety between 4

Sahanda Pastirmali eggs fried in a pan, with Turkish stlye air cured beef: unusual and tasty

Antep Kofte (Antep Speciality) small lamb koftes on a bed of creamy strained yoghurt with spinach & spices. Difficult to show just how small they were, but look at the fork.

Kisir (V) bulgur wheat, mixed with freshly chopped tomatoes, spring onions, celery and parsley

with pomegranate sauce dressing

this is main course Ali Nazik (Antep Speciality) braised fillet of lamb and bell peppers mixed with strained yoghurt on a bed of mashed smoked aubergine served with rice. The rice did not appear, and it came with Salad, probably a good idea as it was very rich

This is all very exciting food, served hot, and you can wander over to the open kitchen to see the cooking in place. I would easily award a CHOF of 8 but things did cool quickly. We drank the usual Efes beer. I also tasted some of the grilled meats which were very tender and soft

I would recommend this place, and might chose something a little less challenging next time. Bill for 4 with a beer each, but no desert came to about £80, so very fair. 

Ci vediamo li : out of the ordinary Italian Restaurant in New Barnet

4th April 2015
So the place we wanted to patronise decided to close for Easter, and our friends had been to the backup place a couple of weeks earlier, and a bit of research on tripadvisor revealed a host of positive review for http://see-you-there.co.uk/ . It was agreed that although this was the blind leading the blind, we would give it a go.
The place is a completely unpretentious small shop frontage in Lytton Road in New Barnet, and is surrounded by two Indians, a Greek and a Pizza place. It was possible to park in the road on a holiday Saturday night but might be tricky otherwise. The flags outside gave us the target to aim for. It is a narrow restaurant slice with about 10 or 12 tables, and is a bit minimalist inside. It has an amusing enamel price list from an old Italian Brothel over the tiny bar, but otherwise the appearance is unremarkable and unmemorable.
The web site makes it clear that the food is not old fashioned Italian, and the prices are a bit above average for the area and the wine list is definitely a bit on the expensive side once you get past the house wine which for red is a Nero D'Avolo.
On the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday (which was also included Passover this year), the place was very quiet with a maximum of 3 tables full. Other reviews have remarked that the place seems quiet, and its location down a side street means that it is unlikely to attract passing trade unless you knew that there were other restaurants in the street. It has been there at least since Spring 2011, but you need a minimum number of covers to keep a show on the road. There are other factors which are not helping, but see on.
When you arrive, a glass of Bellini greets you which is a nice touch, and there was a chef's taster, which may have been fried polenta and other stuff: the chef likes polenta.

Another nice taste. Our waiter was  young fresh ruddy faced man, who admitted that he was new to the job (we attract them). There were no other waiting staff that night, but the maitre de/owner was in evidence.

For starter, I chose a sort of bruschetta of chicken liver pate on fried bread. 

What you cannot tell from this picture is that the portion size was quite small. My wife's platter of cold meat was huge. This bruschetta was very interesting to taste, in that the bread, which I had expected to be crispy was in fact quite soft, and reminded me of eggy fried bread/french toast. The taste was very unusual

The menu, which can be found on the web site, and changes a lot, is quite short. I chose the Cervo con Polenta (Venison stew served with polenta and Parmesan cheese) 

The pictures says it all, and it was not quite what I expected. It was supposed to be served with vegetable of the day, but this never appeared, and the spinach I ordered, and came later, came on a pretentious ceramic spoon. The servings are small. The polenta could have been hotter ( a 7 on the CHOF scale), but the meat and spinach were hot enough scoring 8's. The taste was very unusual. We were offered a complementary limoncello after the meal, another nice touch but costing the business little.

Service was a bit slapdash, and things came as a stream rather than altogether, and considering that there were only about 6 other people in the restaurant, it was below expectations. I enjoyed my food here, but my wife thought it was all a bit amateurish. The pricing is well above average, and a bottle of mid-price wine was £27. A meal for four with only one desert and one bottle of wine and 12.5% service added on was £145. I thought that although the food was very good, the overall impression left one with a 'but could have done better' impression. If we needed to take someone to a place with unusual food, this would be it, but it is a bit pricey for a side street in Barnet. There are several other Italian restaurants in the area, so it is a buyers' market. As far as hotness of food was concerned, I thought they could have done better. Clearly the expectation of hot food is mine alone.