No Expert …but I know what I like – Food Blog, Restaurant reviews
Reviews, Guides & Maps
What’s coming in August.
This month we will be eating out in some of London’s top locations:-
As well as publishing more posts from our Australian correspondent.
A recent business trip took us to Auckland in New Zealand. Having failed to get a booking at our first choice of The French Café on Saturday night, we decided to opt for Sidart in Ponsonby, based on the fact that they had just won The Metro Best New Restaurant 2010. Ponsonby, for those of you that don’t know it is a hip suburb of Auckland with a strip crammed full for cafés, bars and restaurants. After several trips around the one way system in our taxi, we eventually found Sidart. At this point I was beginning to think that we had made a serious error in our selection of restaurant. Not only did the restaurant have no street presence at all, it appeared to be crammed upstairs in a rather tatty looking shopping centre. After picking our way past the chemist, we ascended the escalator to what did appear to be the entrance to a modern, and trendy restaurant. On arrival, through the sliding (to save space) door, we were issued a warm welcome by the staff. The room was a little cramped, but beautifully decorated and very modern, if a little dark. We started with a glass of champagne while perusing the menu. A lucky break landed us with a table by the window, which had fabulous views across the City.
We eventually opted for the tasting menu, with matching wines, which left the staff delighted. The tasting menu, appears to be deceptively simple, but in fact we were presented with a series of spectacularly complex and beautiful dishes matched with superb wines from France and New Zealand.
The entire menu was delicious. A dish worthy of mention was the Salmon. This appeared to be two dishes on one plate, Salmon served with Mascarpone ice cream in the centre, which was amazing, with a second crumbed piece of salmon, served with goats cheese and liquorice served on the side of the plate. I was quite pleased by this, because the liquorice was not to my taste at all. The couple at the table next to us, just loved it, however. We also learned from our neighbours, that the shopping centre we were in was of historic significance, having previously been an ice rink, cinema and Spanish restaurant. It seems the Alhambra Shopping Centre, is a much loved local landmark! We were entertained by stories of how our neighbours used to visit the cinema in their courting days over 40 years ago….I did say it was intimate, didn’t I?
The Duck with Chocolate and Avocado proved to be an amazing combination, and a joy to eat. I was slightly perplexed by the small piece of Pork Belly on the plate. It was perfectly cooked, but didn’t really seem to belong with the rest of this dish. My favourite dish of the night had to be Lamb loin with a smoked beetroot foam, with a yogurt sauce, cashew nuts and sprinkled with Nigella seeds. This dish was obviously inspired by chef Sid Sahrawat’s Indian heritage, and was a sheer delight to eat, evoking memories of my childhood visits to our local in Indian. A perfect example of modern cooking, borrowing Asian flavours.
Service was friendly, warm and good, but perhaps not quite as polished as you might expect from a restaurant serving this quality of food. The staff were extremely passionate and seemed genuinely enthusiastic and excited by the food and wine that they were serving, making it an enjoyable evening over all. The food is inspired and innovative, and incredibly technical. Complex flavours were well matched with the wine, and our visit to Sidart has to rate as my best Gourmet experience of 2010 (so far). The restaurant is quirky, and very, very intimate, but well worth a visit for it’s exceptional food. Sid Sahrawat is a rising star to watch closely!
Marks out of 10
Food 8.5
Service 7.4
Ambience 5.1
The Sportsman in Whitstable is a destination restaurant, well a Michelin starred gastro pub with quite a reputation. Do not even think about going there to eat without an advance reservation.
They pride themselves on their fresh ingredients. Everything is either from the garden out back or from nearby, its all about provenance here. On the whole the pride is justified as the ingredients especially the fish and vegetables are really fresh and the cooking shows them off.
We treated ourselves to some Pol Roger Champagne and started on the tasting menu (something you need to pre book or alternatively you can order from the dishes on the blackboard by the bar). We started with some pork scratchings, and to quote “Steve” the chef, the Sportsman is a pub after all. They were nothing like typical pub pork scratchings, they were delicious, as was the mustard, herring and soda bread they were served with.
We had a very nice salad (Salmagundy, which apparently means a salad made out of available ingredients), but the standout courses were the dover sole with seaweed butter and the turbot with smoked roe sauce. Our conclusion was that the meal started well and that the fish dishes were excellent, but that the quality dipped with the 2nd lamb dish (some mash would have been nice) and the desserts (can chefs get over popping candy please).
We enjoyed the meal but I must say I wasn’t as wowed by it as some other reviewers.
Oh and we finished off the day with a nice jug of Pimms at Miles Cafe Culture in Ramsgate in case you were wondering.
Until recently, Randwick has been most famous for it’s racecourse, but no longer! In 2010, this up and coming area, is best known to gastronomes for Matthew Kemp’s Restaurant Balzac. Located in an historical sandstone villa known as “Verona”, the premises has previously done service as a private villa, a pub, a girl’s school, a butcher shop, and even a Pizza Hut. The interior has recently been beautifully and sympathetically restored, and provides a wonderful setting to dine in.
Marks out of 10
Food 8
Service 7
Ambience 7.5
I am not keen on doing restaurant walk ins, have had too many disappointments. However sometimes you have no choice and occasionally you are lucky enough to find a gem. We were driving along the Sussex coastline, looking for somewhere suitable, we made a detour to check out Bognor Regis! – nothing looked interesting enough to even get out of the car, so we drove on to Littlehampton. This was much better, with its large Victorian Houses overlooking the park and the sea, and its newer developments overlooking the River Arun and the golf course. There we found a nice looking bistro called 47 Mussel Row.
We ordered Mussels in batter with a garlic dip, good apart from a couple of mussels that were a bit gritty. This was followed by a lovely piece of Skate, which was perfectly cooked.
So as walk ins go, this was most definately one of my better experiences.
Marks out of 10
Food 5.4
Service 5
Ambience 4 (it was a quiet day)
Another good place to visit if your are in the area is Arundel, it is a lovely town and I would recommend taking a 30 minute stroll along the River to have drinks or lunch at the Black Rabbit Inn.
What’s coming in July.
This month we go to the seaside, with posts covering :-
and our first ever post for New Zealand :-