No Expert …but I know what I like – Food Blog, Restaurant reviews – Page 20

What’s coming next ?

Having lunch at Dinner – Heston Blumenthals historically themed and much talked about venture at The Mandarin Oriental.

Planning trips to :-

The Glasshouse – The only restaurant in the Nigel Platts-Martins stable of restaurants we have not been too.
Kitchen W8 – Phillip Howards restaurant in Kensington which was recently awarded a Michelin star. Phillip Howard is Nigel Platts-Martins partner at The Square, so there is a bit of a theme here too!
Bistro Bruno Loubet at The Zetter

and maybe, as we head into Spring, visit some Seaside Restaurants around the Kent and Suffolk coasts.

The Waterside – no not the famous one!

Dinner at The Waterside, the one in Eastbourne on the seafront that is, rather than the way more famous one in Bray on the riverside.

This Waterside is actually a very attractive boutique hotel close to the Pier. There is no formal reception area as the focus on entering is the stylish bar and restaurant. We had booked our table for 7:00 mainly so we could get back to London at a reasonable time, and were shown to our table in the conservatory area – probably ideal in the summer but rather cold in atmosphere and temperature in the winter, despite the heating. So with a bit of persuasion we got them to move us into the main restaurant area, which although fully booked could handle the change if we were able to vacate our table by 8:30.

I do like it when restaurants make an effort with the bread. The Waterside presented us with two different olive oils, some butter and a single piece of bread. Does not sound that great does it, but when that single slice is a delicious piece of mustard bread, I have no complaints at all. Give me quality over quantity anytime.

I ordered the scallop dish for starters, and my companion went for the scotch egg with coronation style chicken and pickled onions, which on arrival looked very nice. However it was totally eclipsed by my scallop dish – Apsleys take note here – not 5 wafer thin slivers of scallop but 5 large juicy beautifully cooked scallops, accompanied by a mustard crème brulée and cashew nut baklava – yes there was quantity here, but it delivered on the quality too along with some imagination. For main course we ordered Plaice and Game Pudding. There was nothing conventional about the Plaice, being served as it was with Dukkah and cauliflower – I really enjoyed this dish. The delicate use of spices worked well, you could really taste the fish and the cauliflower. The potato cake it was served on was also good, really fluffy and light. My companion enjoyed her Game Pudding too, but did feel it was missing something and a little short of gravy. For dessert I had the carrot cake with caramelized banana and nuts and my companion had the more spectacular looking trio of crème brulée ABC (Amaretto – very nice, Bailey’s – subtle, Cognac – too subtle).

The Waterside has one AA Rosette, but in my view actually met the criteria for 2 Rosettes to the letter.

“Innovation, greater technical skill and more consistency and judgement in combining and balancing ingredients are all needed at this level.”

The timing on food delivery and service was quick, so there was no problem vacating the table for the next sitting. It was a shame we had to leave, as it would have been nice to relax in the bar and try out some of their reasonably priced cocktails (well reasonable by London prices at about £6 each). Eastbourne also looked lovely at night, beautifully lit and very grand.

Marks out of 10 for The Waterside

Food 6.8

Service 5.1

Ambience 5.5

UPDATE : April 2011 – Made a return visit to The Waterside to try more of the menu. There were a couple of dishes from the previous visit still on the menu, but enough had changed to make the return worthwhile. I had a lovely Mackerel dish to start, beautifully flavoured with lime juice. Then a Skate and gnocchi dish for main course (not the best cooked Skate, it was a bit stringy, but the gnocchi was very good), my companion had the Plaice, which was perfectly cooked.

We just had to try the Basil Ice Cream for dessert – a triumph. The Waterside is such a good find. I am sure I will be back to try a few more of the chefs innovations.

UPDATE : May 2011 – Just heard that The Waterside has won a 2nd AA Rosette. I did see that one coming. Well done to Lori Parsons and the restaurant team.

Morgans

Another Restaurant in Eastbourne worth mentioning is Morgans, we did a walk in here for their set lunch (for the price of a cocktail in The Waterside). The food was well cooked and seriously good value – check out the picture of the pâté starter which came with hot fresh bread drizzled with olive oil, that alone was worth the money.

So it was a very productive day, with two good restaurant finds.

Marks out of 10 for Morgans

Food 5.5

Service 4.5

Ambience 4

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Mortons Club – Private dining

Mortons Club overlooking Berkeley Square, is often described as the best private members’ club in Mayfair. Dressing appropriately is de rigueur. Elegant attire and high heels for the ladies being encouraged in the evenings. The Restaurant is part of the Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation and a sibling to The Greenhouse. The restaurant has an excellent reputation, some say if it were not a private members club it might merit 2 Michelin stars. Not quite there though in my view, but I have to say the food style and menu did rather remind me of The Waterside Inn (a 3 star Michelin). So I can sort of see where that idea comes from. The food is certainly of a very good standard. It is somewhat retro in style, with classic dishes like Steak Tartar and Crêpe Suzette (which we were tempted to order just for the table side service).

I started with braised octopus. The octopus was nicely cooked but rather lost in tomato sauce. Tasty though, it went well with my glass of Gavi di Gavi La Meirana, Piemonte, 2009.

My companion had the Fois Gras, not the best she has had (that’s at Pied à Terre), but certainly a good sized portion. For my main course I ordered the Steak Tartar and appreciated the chance to have a tasting spoonful first so I could check it was not too spicy for me. That was accompanied by very good french fries and a glass of M. Chapoutier, Saint-Joseph Les Deschants, Rhone, 2003. My companion had the Jacobs Ribs (short ribs) which were beautifully cooked – very tender beef.

For dessert I had an attractive, subtly flavoured lycee tartlet and coconut crumble with rose water ice cream and my companion had the Carmel parfait with Licorice ice cream – too many interesting combinations on the dessert menu to follow through on the Crêpe Suzette idea. We accompanied our desserts with a glass of Coteaux du Layon, Dom.des Sablonettes, 2004.

We decide not to bother with coffee, so it was a nice touch to be given the petit fours anyway – something that is often done in the better restaurants. However we were rather taken aback at just how spectacular looking the petit fours were, definitely not petit. My rather awful photograph (difficult lighting) really does not do them justice, it was a candy store. Marshmallow lolly-pop, chocolate bread stick, huge meringue, truffles, pastries and jellies, a real sugar rush.

(UPDATE June 2011 – We made a return visit and I managed to replace most of the old pictures, but alas by the time we reached the dessert and petit fours the light was gone (even with the speedy service) so I have left the old ones in. On this visit I particularly enjoyed my perfectly cooked lamb chops. For dessert this time I had a lovely poached apple stuffed with cinnamon ice cream.

We also noticed on this visit that the menu had stronger Italian influences. It included some pasta and risotto dishes, and a cornetto dessert.)

The dining room is a nice size, about 40 covers I would guess, with a view over Berkeley Square. There were also plenty of staff so service was brisk.

The club itself is very pleasant, with some attractive modern art work from some mainstream artists like Julian Opie. It has two bar areas and a good size room ideal for party bookings. The lower membership fee for under 30’s obviously works, as the average age was definitely on the 30’s mark at least on a Saturday night, might be different during the week.

Mortons Club certainly seemed to be doing good business, there was no sign of the recession here!

Marks out of 10

Food 6.4

Service 5.9

Ambience 6.8

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Cafe Luc – European Grand Cafe (Closed)

Cafe Luc in Marylebone is as advertised, a European Grand Cafe. The atmosphere on entering is inviting and the service is efficient. It was running like a well oiled machine when we popped in for brunch – well the idea was to just have brunch, but we extended it to having dessert as well.

We ordered the Eggs Royale, and a couple of glasses of wine, and sat back to relax and people watch. The wine and food arrived quickly. The clientel seemed to be pretty international. American, German and Australian accents could be heard. The age group was fairly mixed too, ranging from young families to older couples. The place had a real buzz to it.

We moved on to dessert, I just had coffee and a selection of petits fours – Palmiers, canelé de Bordeaux and chocolate truffle. My companion made a better choice by going for the Roasted pineapple with coconut sorbet and pistachio. This was delicious. A larger portion of pineapple than expected, with some rather good coconut sorbet. The dish is served with a knife, fork and spoon. The spoon is essential for the juice, which is not to be missed. The combination of the pineapple juice, coconut and a hint of pistachio, makes for a very moorish sweet soup.

So if you are in the Marylebone area, Cafe Luc is worth remembering.

Marks out of 10

Food 5.9

Service 6.1

Ambience 6

UPDATE Dec 2011 – Cafe Luc is now closed.

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Apsleys at the Lanesborough – Where Taste Fails

ONE day and ONE meal into the New Year and we already have a strong contender for the Worst Meal and Most Disappointing Meal of 2011.

We had done a fair bit of research before booking Apsleys (A Heinz Beck restaurant located in The Lanesborough Hotel). The reviews were mixed, but on the whole quite positive. Some food critics and bloggers that we would normally rely on (you know who you are), actually rated this place as a future two star Michelin restaurant.

The room is extremely opulent, very much old world styling, which is in keeping with the hotel, however the canned music is a bit jarring.

We also found that the rather irritating, variable lighting levels created the ideal environment to stop bloggers taking decent photographs and certainly did nothing to enhance the presentation of the food.

We chose the 5 course Tasting menu with matching wines. Normally we have found that Tasting menus while often presenting dishes as small portions still manage to get the balance right, so that at the end of the meal you are comfortably full. However after 3 of our 5 courses we were pretty sure this would not be the case here.

The first course was Wild red sea bream carpaccio which bizarrely had a tropical theme, tasting as it did of Pina Colada. In our view this was hardly a suitable dish for the depths of winter. The next course was a very ordinary Pumpkin tortellini with castelmagno cheese, which was followed by 5 wafer thin slivers of Scallop.

Basically the dishes fell into the category of just okay or downright bad. The main course of Lamb with quinoa and sugar snaps in particular was actually unpleasant with a harsh astringent sauce and fatty lamb.

The dessert which was obviously designed to introduce some kind of WOW factor, fell flat. It consisted of a ice cream and honey comb biscuit filled chocolate orb. The waiter theatrically poured hot chocolate sauce over it to expose the ice cream. A nice idea, but the overall effect was to produce what seemed to us like a plate of cheap tasting chocolate sludge.

We had such a good run of restaurants leading up to and over Christmas, that we take no pleasure in reviewing this one. It brought back memories of the late and unlamented La Rotonde Restaurant at the Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne and the La Dama Tourist Trap in Barcelona. Something is badly wrong when you have a strong desire to leave half way through a tasting menu.

The consensus was that far from deserving a second Michelin Star this restaurant really does not merit even the one star it already has. It is frustrating to go to these elitist high end restaurants that look the part and deliver service by numbers while failing to deliver on the food. Indeed it almost prompted us to make a new New Year’s Resolution to focus on just the restaurants in the Nigel Platts-Martin’s stable where food quality and flavour rule.

In conclusion one word sums up our experience of Apsleys – AVOID!

Marks out of 10

Food 3.5 (1.5 for the Lamb, as this was a “get me out of here” moment)

Service 5

Ambience 5

UPDATE: June 2012. Chef Change – Heros de Agostinis is now the new chef at Apsleys following Massimiliano Blasone resignation. Hopefully he will be more generous with the Scallops!

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