Launceston Place – Impressive

So many reviews of Launceston Place ask the same question. Why does it not have a Michelin Star?.  It is a mystery, as Launceston Place has it all.  An attractive location, first rate service and some rather impressive cooking.

This was our second visit, the first time was 2 years ago when we indulged in the tasting menu. This time we were determined to stick to the set lunch.

I could not help but compare the set lunch here with last months set lunch at the Michelin starred William Drabble. At William Drabble’s I felt that the set lunch had been well under par (inferior cooking and ingredients). It did nothing to showcase that restaurant.  In stark contrast Launceston Place pulled out all the stops.  Providing lots of extras – the home made crisps to start, a small loaf of bread with pickled herring, a lemon posset pre dessert and little lemon sponges at the end of the meal. The only negative here was that it was hard not to make a mess when eating the bread.

Then there was the meal itself.  We started with a vibrant green watercress soup with smoked eel and poached quail eggs and a warm heirloom tomato salad with home made ewes curd. However  it was the main courses that stood out. I had the Mackerel which was quite lovely, both in respect of presentation and taste. My companion had the duck, which he enjoyed so much more than the duck dish he had at Heston Blumentals Dinner earlier this year. To go with these dishes we had a side order of Jersey Royal New Potatoes, they were smothered in butter, perfectly cooked with that wonderful earthy taste that epitomises Jersey Royals – just fabulous.

For dessert we both had the Treacle Tart with creme fraiche ice cream, very nice – especially when accompanied by a generous glass of PX. We were so pre occupied talking with the Sommelier about the history and variety of PX sherries that we forgot to photograph the tart, which was quite pretty before we demolished it.

Marks out of 10

Food 7.5

Service 7.3

Ambience 7.1

 

UPDATE: April 2012 – There is now a new head chef at Launceston Place – see Press Release

UPDATE : September 2012, Lauceston Place has finally been awarded a  Michelin Star.

UPDATE: October 2016, Lauceston Place no longer has a Michelin Star.

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Trinity – Not So Common

My first thought on entering Trinity on the edge of Clapham Common, was that with its full length windows designed to open up onto the pavement,  it would be a great place to go to in the Summer.  Then I remembered it was Summer (the British weather can be deceptive that way).

The restaurant was full on our visit for Sunday Lunch with what looked like lots of well heeled local residents. It’s a popular place and I can certainly understand why people are happy to spend lots of money, eating and drinking here.  It’s a very relaxing venue, the food is good and the service is friendly. I did find it a bit schizophrenic though, not quite hitting the mark as a fine dining restaurant but delivering a lot more than your typical brunch/lunch spot.

The look of the place, the service (on the surface), the food presentation (if not the portion size) are fine dining standard. It’s just not quite there, the portions are too large for one thing and we had a couple of minor issues with the service, just little things like clumsy cutlery layout, our bottle of wine being a bit too far away and glasses not being kept topped up as well as they could be, that and running out of towels in the bathroom.

The menu was a real mix to, with Summer and Winter fare as well as brunch and lunch style dishes. Ironically the Summer/Winter aspect was not a great problem as the weather outside was in keeping.

We had an amuse bouche that consisted of a hummus dip with radishes and fresh garden peas in their pods and some warm homemade bread. Then for starters my companion had the Fried Ducks Egg with Scottish Girolles, English Mustard Mayonnaise and Toasted Brioche – a sort of up market big breakfast, matched with a glass of Wild Boy Chardonnay – kinda of weird, but it worked. I had 1/2 dozen Oxtail stuffed Snails with garlic butter and soldiers – a nicely presented brunch type dish that was a bit awkward to eat, but very tasty none the less.

For my main course I had the Belly of Old Spot Pork, Charred Spring Onions, Gooseberries, Jerseys and Crackling – the portion was huge, but fortunately the pork was nice and light and the Gooseberries refreshing, so I had no problem finishing it off.  My companions main course was even more substantial, he ordered Braised Lamb Shoulder Faggot which came with a rather large pot of Pearl Barley, Peas and Mint – very rustic, and definitely not what you expect on a Summer menu.

For dessert we had the Cherry Bakewell Tart and the English Strawberries, Vanilla cream and Ginger biscuits accompanied by a rather nice bottle of Moscato d’Asti.

I have had Trinity on my wish list for a while, I always thought it was a bit out of the way – multiple tube changes or train and taxi, but I was really pleased to discover that it was actually on my local bus route, door to door in 15 minutes, which is really encouraging as this is a really good venue for a lazy Sunday Lunch. One I am happy to return too.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.7

Service 6.1

Ambience 6.9

 

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Roux at Parliament Square – The return (Closed)

This was my second visit to Roux at Parliament Square.  My previous visit here was not typical, in that it involved indulging in the tasting menu and matching wines in the Private Dining Room, so I thought it would be interesting to see how the set lunch menu held up. £25.00 for 3 courses plus coffee and petit fours is an excellent deal for this sort of venue.  Booking via Top Table also enhanced the deal to included complementary glasses of champagne on arrival apparently – although when I reviewed my Top Table account later it said 3 courses with a bottle of filtered water, so we definitely got  the better deal 😉

Ironically although the set menu looked quite inviting, we were seduced by the a la carte menu, so did not actually end up going down the cheaper route as planned.

Every dish we ordered was beautifully presented and the meal included all those little extra’s I love in a fine dining establishment, the selection of canapés, the amuse bouche, the pre dessert and the petit fours.  OK so it cost more than twice as much as the set menu, but at least the excellent range of reasonably priced wine by the glass (typically between £5.00 and £7.00 a glass) kept the price down.

The Restaurant does not as yet have a Michelin star, but I would be very surprised if that was not in the pipe line. Roux at Parliament Square certainly has all the ingredients.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.9

Service 6.8

Ambience 6.5

 

 

 

UPDATE Feb 2013 – MasterChef winner Steve Groves is now the head chef  – see article.

UPDATE Dec 2020 – Now closed

 

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Chor Bizarre – eclectic Indian cuisine

Our visit to Chor Bizarre in Mayfair was by invitation, and we were totally spoilt.  Having the opportunity to try several of the dishes on the rather eclectic menu, which covers feasts like the famous Kashmiri Wazwam, South Indian Tiffin, the quintessential Indian street food Chaat, along with other well known Indian dishes.  I am going to have to use the word eclectic a lot as that very much sums up Chor Bizarre. The decor is both stylish and eclectic (and some of it is even for sale). The  food is equally eclectic covering several Indian regions, we ordered a fairly mixed range of dishes.  Sambar, Gazab ka tikka, a lovely mild dish with very moist chicken marinated in cheese and cream that is also served in Chor Bizarre’s New Delhi branch.  Dakshni crab cakes, light and as spicy as advertised, Lamb Rogan Josh, Pepper Scallops, Baghara Baingan and Palak Makkai a rather delicious spinach dish.

The restaurant has an extensive wine list which they are happy to match to your food, something I always struggle with in Indian restaurants.  For a useful guide on pairing see Charles Metcalfe’s Chor Bizarre Wine and Food matches. We had a nice bottle of Castillo de Clavijo Rioja Crianza, which only really worked with the milder dishes.

I very much wanted to try their Tandoori pineapple dessert, but alas after our feast I had no room, I just managed to fit in some mango sorbet and a nice glass of dessert wine.

Chor Bizarre which translates as Thieves Market has a nice relaxing buzz to it, on our visit it comfortably handled groups, couples and single dinners.

I have indulged at top London Indian restaurants like Benares and The Cinnamon Club, and dined at numerous less expensive establishments. My favorites include places like Dockmasters House,  Cafe Spice Namaste and The Mint Leaf, and now I can happily add Chor Bizarre to that number.

Chor Bizarre is managed by Old World Hospitality.  They have several restaurants in London including one of my favorites Tamarai in Drury Lane.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.5

Service 6.5

Ambience 6.3

 

 

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Maze – constrained by design

Maze has a very specific dining style. It focuses on smaller tasting sized dishes. It is definitely not a place to visit for a hearty lunch.

We chose from the 4 course set menu, going for 3 savory dishes and 1 dessert along with a flight of wine.  I remember enjoying the flights from an earlier visit, they work well in that they consist of one white, one red and one dessert wine. They were very good wines of the sort that would work well with most food selections, rather than being specifically matched to individual dishes.

One of the constraints we found at Maze was that the dishes were delivered in the order of the menu, which means you can find yourself starting with a meat dish and finishing with a fish dish. Another constraint is that the set menu is not very extensive, so even when it is just two people dining, you can not avoid having duplicate dishes. They are just served in a different order, as you can see from our example:-

1st diner had:

Course 1 – Pressed confit duck and foie gras, Waldorf salad

Course 2 – Braised veal shin, rocket pesto, white onion risotto

Course 3 – Loch Duart salmon, fondue of leek, vinaigrette of brown shrimps, horseradish

2nd diner had:

Course 1 – Braised veal shin, rocket pesto, white onion risotto

Course 2 – Loch Duart salmon, fondue of leek, vinaigrette of brown shrimps, horseradish

Course 3 – Szechuan-spiced Suffolk pork belly, chilli apple purée, bok choy

I have to admit that I found it a bit strange to be eating a dish that my companion was about to have as his next course. It did mean though that we could be in 100% agreement on the standout dish – the rather stunning Loch Duart salmon, with its wonderful flavour and texture combinations.

For dessert we both chose the attractively presented Hazelnut parfait, cherry sorbet and griotte cherries.

Alex Marks formally of the Foliage is head chef here now following Jason Athertons departure to open his own restaurant (Pollen Street Social) and we had hoped that perhaps Alex would bring in some of the artistic and culinary style we experienced at the Foliage. He was not in the kitchen on our visit, but it did rather seem as though the concept of Maze would perhaps be a bit too restrictive to allow that.

However despite the constraints and dainty portions, I have to say we did rather enjoy our lunch at Maze.

Marks out of 10

Food 7.1

Service 6.3

Ambience 6.5

 

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Seven Park Place by William Drabble – A tale of two menus and an offensive statue

I had a lovely lunch at Seven Park Place by William Drabble in the rather quirky St James Club and Hotel, but that was mainly down to the company and the fact that I ordered À la carte rather than going for the Set lunch menu.

We were a fairly large group and ordered a mixture of À la carte dishes and Set Menu dishes.  À la carte dishes are usually larger portions and perhaps more extravagant, but in a Michelin star restaurant you still expect the set menu to be of a pretty high standard as well.  I tried some of my companions dishes and it did seem like the set menu ones had come from a different kitchen.

From the À la carte menu I had the delicious Poached  lobster tail with English asparagus, pea shoots and truffle dressing for starters, that dish was definitely up to scratch. I followed this with a tasty pigeon dish.  This was in stark contrast to the mousse of foie gras and wild mushrooms starter from the set menu that I tasted which was pretty bland and the pork belly that was a bit too fatty and insipid in both taste and color, with tiny slithers of crackling. My companions were not blown away by the other dishes they had either.

The desserts were pretty ordinary all round, although the home made chocolates presented at the end of the meal and the boxes of marshmallows were a nice touch.

There were also several issues with the service. The staff were very nice, but one of our groups main course did not arrive with the rest of the tables so he had to wait a while for it. We were also seated in a booth like area that made it impossible for the staff to serve the people in the back three seats, so plates and cutlery had to be passed around the table. I have never been in a restaurant of this calibre where the waiter has to ask a customer to use his napkin so he can pass him a hot plate! There was also a couple of minor mix ups with the wine too.

On a completely different subject, there was a piece of art on display, which was most definitely a talking point for all the wrong reasons. It seemed to us to be in rather bad taste.  Quite offensive actually, take a close look at the picture of the statue above and you will see what I mean.

So if I was looking for a word to sum up the experience I would have to say “Flawed”.

Marks out of 10

Food (two sets of markings for the food as the menus were so different)
5.6 (À la carte)
4.4 (Set Menu)

Service 4.8

Ambience 4.9

 

 

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