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.