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.

Three Jolly Wheelers, Woodford Green : Formulaic 'gastro' pub with strong following

7th December 2016
A cousins' lunch had been long in the planning, and it was left for one of the others to choose a venue. I have some favourite pub lunch destinations, but it seems to me that some of the chains have got a bit out of hand presenting themselves as up-market destinations with restaurant prices. I was fascinated when I arrived here, as the menu appeared in wording and pricing almost identical to the menu at the recently visited Old White Lion. At least I thought I knew what I might be in for. What you do not get is a 'pub lunch' but you do get pub prices for drink. Interestingly the Three Jolly Wheelers, whilst a 'Vintage Inn' is own by the same umbrella company, Mitchell and Butler and more detail can be found on http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/restaurants/london/thethreejollywheelerschigwell .
For starter I chose the salt and pepper calamari with chorizo-flavour seasoning and chipotle mayonnaise

This was pretty good and hot enough at an 8.4 on the CHOF scale. However what is apparent is that this is a triumph of style over quantity and is drowned out by the relatively inedible green leaves and a surfeit of unnecessary chipottle (sic) mayo and not a lot of discernible seasoning.

Just to be different, I did not choose the fish and chips for main, but the Steak & mushroom pie

(described as slow-cooked British beef in a red wine sauce, topped with puff pastry, served with mash and seasonal vegetables, £11.50).

This was not so much a pie, but more a dish of stewed beef covered with a pastry lid with some tired carrots. This is presumably the outcome of corporate boil in the bag supplies of pie filling and is not really the stuff of pies of pub lunches that I yearn for. It was very hot (a 9 on the CHOF scale) but tasted a bit bland.

All in all this was a bland packaged meal, and I guess I am always looking for something a bit more challenging in a pub lunch. I was spoiled by my numerous experiences at the King's Arms in Bexley near where I used to work.

My wife had a slightly more expensive meal, and by the time the bill came, for a 'pub' lunch for two, it came to nearly £50.

Whilst the food was hot enough, it was all a bit bland and corporately uninteresting and this was not the sort of hit I had expected for a mid week pub lunch.

I will not be going back there in a hurry: I can get far better far cheaper: a pub lunch should not cost £25 per head.

Bleeding Heart: Trendy smart Clerkenwell Restaurant with consistent reputation.

2nd December 2015
If you had to choose a name for a Restaurant, would you choose Bleeding Heart, especially if you had a vegetarian to feed? The name relates to the location which is in Bleeding Heart Yard.
According to wikipedia, Bleeding Heart Yard is a cobbled courtyard off Greville Street in the Farringdon area of the City of London. The courtyard is probably named after a 16th-century inn sign dating back to the Reformation that was displayed on a pub called the Bleeding Heart in nearby Charles Street. The sign showed the heart of the Virgin Mary pierced by five swords.
Urban legend has it that the courtyard's name commemorates the murder of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, the second wife of Sir William Hatton, whose family formerly owned the area around Hatton Garden. It is said that her body was found here on 27 January 1626, "torn limb from limb, but with her heart still pumping blood." The location is mentioned in Little Dorrit as the home of the Plornish Family.
I have been there a few times over the years both to the restaurant and bistro. Fortunately this has always been with someone else footing the bill.
The restaurant is old fashioned higgledy piggeldy looking more like a converted house on different levels, and the main eating areas are downstairs.
It is now a groupe and has a web presence on   http://bleedingheart.co.uk/ . It says it is French, but the food is more French influenced than pure French. Reports on TripAdvisor are consistently good.
The meal started with an amuse bouche of a piece of smoked mackerel (I think) on a sliver of bread. Not very amusing as one of our party did not eat fish.
For starter, I had the cauliflower soup:

Not a very helpful image, as the flash went off on my phone. However, it was hot, and as can probably be discerned from the picture, was home made. The soup comes in a little pouring pot, and the waiters make a ritual of pouring it into the plate. Anyway it was a good 8.6 on the CHOF scale and was an excellent representative of such soup.

For main course I had haunch of Yorkshire venison with Juniper braised venison cheeks, ruby plums, roasted red chicory and elderberry sauce

It also came with mashed potato and I had a side order of spinach.

The meat was cooked very well, and was tender and tasty and scored an 8.4 being hot enough on the CHOF scale. The helping of spinach was huge.

This was an excellent meal (I shared someone else's desert) and another good experience here.

If you look at the web site, it is clear that this is pretty upmarket, and you could easily expect to pay £80-100 per person for a three course meal with drink. I did not get to see the wine list at the time, but the web site shows it to be comprehensive, and house wine (not that most people were drinking that) would be about £25/bottle.

I would recommend this restaurant but it is not for routine eating unless you have deep pockets and very high standards.

Old White Lion, East Finchley- Sort of local pub with almost gastro pub food

1st Dec 2016
People keep asking me if I am still writing my blog, and I have not had much activity this year. Many of the places I have been to are repeat visits (better the devil you know) or have not been very relevant, or have been reviewed on TripAdvisor, where I know I have an audience. But it is time to get cracking again, as it gives me something to talk about. If you are live person and do read this, please make some kind of comment, even if it is impolite.
December is never the best time to try out a restaurant for the first time. I am guessing that it is the time where the customers are less discerning and prepared to pay more and be squeezed into tighter places. My wife was invited for "drinks...." with her mates from the gym, and as food was clearly on the menu, and we had no better plans, we ordered. We did not order as a group, and each little subgroup was treated separately.
The pub, which has a substantial web presence on http://www.theoldwhitelionfinchley.co.uk/  is just a few yards south of East Finchley tube station, and therefore amenable to public transport. I suppose you could park, but parking in that area, near the Phoenix cinema is never good. The houses in the area (except Bishops Avenue) were all built long before the notion of personal car ownership had penetrated the population, and is a very popular commuting zone (zone 3). The building looks like a pub should, but inside it has been renovated in a style that says created pub rather than evolved pub. Whilst not unattractive, it has nothing to hold the eye.
We did not avail ourselves of the many areas, but stuck to the tabled area were food was served, and even at 7.30 on a Thursday it was starting to get busy (but it was December). We later discovered some live music, but it was out of earshot in the restaurant area.
The menu (see website) is classic pub style food, dressed up in the new gastropub language. We both had 'British ale battered cod with triple cooked chips and mushy peas'. I do not know if anyone really likes mushy peas, but everyone has them on the menu. Also, as it looked like fish'n'chips, I could not attest to whether the batter had ale, or if the chips had been cooked three times.

It is not a chip shop sized portion, but adequate. The chips were very hot and tasty, and the fish was fairly hot (8.4 on the CHOF scale) and did not have a hotness issue. The peas were a 7.6. It did come on a plate, with the faux 1921 newspaper underneath. My wife and I both enjoyed this, but it was not as good as a recent unreviewed meal we had had from a chip shop in St Albans. The meal as depicted cost £12.25, and the relatively short pub favourite menu is pitched so that a two course meal would work out at about £20 each. Drink was London pub prices.

I think that Fish and Chips is a safe test of a pub's cooking as it is unlikely to be pre-pack boil in a bag. Service was accurate and friendly but a little slow. 

This was an OK experience. The food was enjoyable, but not so great that you would rush back. I would commend this pub as an acceptable face of evening