Category: London

The Foliage without Chris Staines

Felt a bit odd returning to the Foliage our favorite restaurant following the regime change.  Alex Marks is now the Head Chef, he was Chris Staines Sous chef for a couple of years and had formally worked at The Square. The menu still retains a number of Chris’s dishes, and a few new ones from Alex. One of Alexs’ dishes the gnocchi was a particular success, which although it contained  no meat, seemed to deliver the essence of Sunday lunch.

The new Heston Blumental restaurant is yet to be named and is due to open in October 2010 with perhaps as many as 200 covers. Time will tell if all these changes are for the best. One thing is for sure is that we will miss Chris Staines and the Foliage once it goes for good. I just hope the staff are kept on under the new regime as Heston would be unwise to lose the talent in the kitchen and front of house.

Marks out of 10

Food 7.8

Service 8

Ambience 7

Bibendum – Home of the Michelin man

Had lunch in one of my old favorites, the Bibendum Restaurant and Oyster bar in Chelsea.  The Restaurant is located in one of  London’s most interesting buildings – the Michelin Building.   I just love the look of the place.

The food style is more comfort than cutting edge.  The lunch menu which changes every day is just under £30 for 3 courses, this is an OK price for the sort of food they do here.  They also have a really good wine list.

Bibendums does seem to be one of those places that can always be relied on to deliver good food and service.  The locations not bad either.

UPDATE: October 2016, new chef is Claud Bosi.

 

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5th View Bar & Food @ Waterstones Piccadilly

5th View Bar & Food is a standout for a cafe/restaurant.
Surprisingly  it is also located in a book store. It does really good inexpensive cocktails.  We spent a couple of hours there relaxing over cocktails, sharing a meze plate and finishing with coffee and cakes (the carrot cake has to be one of the best I have had – sweet, light and moist).

The menu choice is limited, but what they do provide is simple, good quality, nicely presented food.

There are two dinning areas, one of which has a lovely view over the roof tops.

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What’s coming in September

This month we have plans to revisit some of the restaurants covered in this blog :-

London

Barcelona

  • Cinc Sentits – to support one of our all time favorite restaurants.
  • Comerc 24 – to see if it can deliver on a return visit.
  • Cuines Santa Caterina – for the Catalan sausage with foie gras.
  • El Jardi – to chill out.
  • Moovida – to enjoy their excellent bar food.
  • Tram Tram – to eat top quality food at a reasonable price
  • Tragaluz – because it’s open on a Public Holiday!

 

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Foliage replacement – the gossip!

Mandarin

As you will see from the earlier post – Fairwell to Chris Staines, the Foliage is not going to be with us for that much longer in its current form.  I do not know the exact date of its demise.  According to our sources, the plan is to combine the space currently occupied by the Foliage and The Park Restaurant to provide a new 140 cover restaurant (Heston Blumenthals London flagship). Most of the area currently used by the Foliage will become the kitchen. A new (temporary) restaurant will be housed in the basement while this work is going on.

Update : November 2009 – Looks like the basement restaurant is not going to be temporary after all, as New York restauranteur Daniel Boulud is opening Europes first Bar Boulud restaurant in a previously unused space beneath the hotel.

Update : January 2010 – The latest information seems to be that the Foliage will be closing sometime in March.

Update : March 2010 – We attended a fairwell lunch at the Foliage, for details  see post:

Marcus Wareing…a bit thin?

This was my first visit to The Berkeley to experience the 2 star Michelin cooking of Marcus Wareing. A chef that many critics believe to be eclipsing the cooking of his former boss Gordon Ramsay. I must say the room was very impressive. Unfortunately the cooking didn’t live up to expectations. I did get the chance to try the famous custard tart. It was certainly an amazing texture. It was so light that it seemed to defy the laws of physics. You’d  think it would collapse under its own weight.  I didn’t think the taste was that great however so overall was not that impressed.

This restaurant is currently number 52 on the S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list and has 5 AA Rosettes.

Marks out of 10

Food 6

Service 6

Ambience 8

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