Fiona's Reviews

Earlyish on a hot, busy Thursday night in Soho we hit this spot with some confusion (where's the entrance? Not through the hotel, not the staff door – ah, next one…there's the desk, where's the front-of-house person? Aha! The rather frazzled girl in the floral dress, being run ragged).

The buzz was brill, the table right by wide- open windows at the front: a rather small but perfectly placed table with the temperature so high (see said table on the restaurant image gallery). The staff were cheerful and friendly, and coped well with the frenetic level of activity. Properly cold champagne, fab-sounding menu – so good, so far…

I had the herb-roasted salmon on toast with crushed broad beans to start. It looked so pretty, little nuggets of golden-crusted salmon, a bright green smear of colour on a rustic slice of country-style toast, the plate artfully decorated with pea shoots but it tasted of…next to nothing. The salmon was underseasoned, the toast underdone & very soggy and the crushed broad beans were effectively pureed to an unidentifiable mush, again underseasoned. Boringly bland.

My friend had the spinach & pennard ridge (a goats cheese) tart. It was ‘a slice of quiche’ as she declared, surprised. She was expecting an individual tart, which was not the kitchen's fault, but it was served cold as in not-long-out-the-fridge cold rather than room temperature, which was the kitchen's fault. It tasted disappointingly bland, she said. I had a go: nice pastry, nice texture and nicely-seasoned; the flavour was delicate and much improved in the heat of the restaurant, eventually. My friend had by then got bored of it.

The boys won hands down with their starter choice: wood pigeon, black pudding & scotch quail egg salad. The wood pigeon breast was well-cooked (as in correct ie rareish), the black pudding was crunchily cooked and terrifically tasty but the deep-fried dinky scotch eggs with warm, runny yolks were fantastic: I want them as a bar snack, all by themselves – please… More

I had eaten several times in the previous incarnation of the Zetter's restaurant. I like the new styling of the room (and the separate entrance): I think the ambience is good and appropriate for bistro dining, and the pricing of the menu and wine list are very fair. Our waiter was professional and confident, and made good recommendations on wines.

The starters (beetroot ravioli & Lyonnaise salad) were expertly cooked and presented and were quite delicious, with subtle flavouring. The bread was well-made (in a dinky mini-flowerpot) but rather bland: I would have expected and preferred a more rustic bread. The main courses (beef daube and roast veal) were also beautifully cooked, seasoned and presented. The vegetables and mousseline potatoes were excellent.

The already-famed valrhona chocolate tart was a big let-down, unfortunately. The consistency was over-runny: a little undercooked I thought. However the real crime was the overriding flavour of bitter orange – an unwelcome and unannounced addition which I really disliked, particularly when partnered with a caramel & salted butter ice-cream where the caramel had not been taken far enough (ie not cooked to the correct dark amber) and so was far too sickly sweet in consequence. A bad pairing in execution, but I would still have disliked orange rind anywhere near this dish. I left most of it: when I explained to the waitress who cleared the plate why, she commented she also disliked orange with chocolate.

The only other negative comment was that my man struggled to find anything on the menu he wanted to eat, because he hates mashes and purees. He didn't want fish and every other dish came with some form of puree. He also is not that keen on casseroles and slow cooking and there was no alternative. He really didn't like the sound of anything on the menu! [I would add that like Skye Gyngell, I love what she calls ‘wet food’ which this restaurant has in abundance and I was totally spoilt for choice on both the starters and… More

Want to chuck an egg into your hat? Happy to sit in a diners' line? Have you a really grumbling stomach? Roll up to Sen Nin! The man and I, and two open-minded friends were up for the experience.

The atmosphere manages to be both relaxed and festive – midweek – and the interior is more comfortable and sophisticated than the view from the street would suggest. The staff are charming and competent. The advertised showman element is whatever you want it to be: our chef played out his tricks (bottle tossing, egg lobbing, macho flames etc) in a deadpan manner, and he stuck to the serious business of cooking efficiently when he (correctly) judged that we didn't want to participate in the fun and games. (I do confess to enjoying watching the messy antics at the other stations as the night progressed however.)

You sit round a u-shaped grill station: we had the choice of sitting four in a line, or three with one round the corner, and we opted for the former. It was actually an ok format for drinking and chatting, but a busy weekend night might form more of a decibel challenge.

We chose set meals, the easy option. We drank our way through a very acceptable bottle of house champagne and some water, and sipped our miso soup as we waited for the real deal to start. Boy, were we hungry by the time our chef stepped up to the hotplate. And oh boy, how we had misjudged our order, which was deftly delivered in waves of over-generous portions. (You are hearing this from the woman whose ex described her as having an appetite like a bird – a vulture!)

The food just kept stacking up in front of us. It seemed a waste to leave chunks of nicely-cooked meat and seafood but one and all, we were stuffed to the gills, and no-one had a corner left to fill by around halfway through the toss-and-fry-before-your-eyes process.

The food is pretty simple and quite healthy – nothing wrong with that formula. I lost track of actual raw quantities being cooked, but can only assume Sen Nin regulars have… More