Garlic Confit's Reviews

I had eaten (obviously some time ago) at Harveys, MPW’s home for many years which occupied the same space. I have eaten at La Trompette many times and a few times at The Glasshouse but never seemed to make it to Chez Bruce. Birthday dinner seemd to be a good time to pop my Chez Bruce cherry.

I did probably have above average expectations, I know the quality of the sister restaurants (and Nigel Platts-Martin’s pedigree – I love the Ledbury – The Square not as much but appreciate it!), and the problem with such high expectations is that you can get very disappointed – very quickly.

The dining room is small. Too small. It does pack ‘em in. On the upside it has a front room kind of feel, warm and inviting. A low, cheery buzz of diners chatting. This does however make the service a tad bumpy and possibly why it was a little slow.

Then the menu – it is safe to say that I could have eaten nearly all the dishes on the menu. They all called out to me in some way. Game Sausage with cotechino, Smoked Eel and Salmon Terrine and Jerusalem artichoke soup (one of my favourite things) – but the winner was the Capocollo with Celeriac Remoulade, Rocket and Grissini.

I like to know what I am going to eat, but I feel that the menu really does waste quite a lot of ink. What with the world melting and toner cartridge prices going up surely the dish should have been named Capocolla and Celeriac Remoulade. Aside from the name and the printing, this was lovely. I prefer this to the ubiquitous Parma ham, altogether more smoky and tasty. Celeriac remoulade was perfectly executed, kick of mustard – check, creamy consistency – check. A simple dish but exactly what I wanted on a cold evening.

Next up – Confit of Pork Belly with caramelised apple, black pudding, savoy cabbage, mustard and crackling – my fingers are really getting tired typing out all these names…So – So – So Soft and crispy on top. I have never thought of confit-ing pork belly before, but it is now on the list. The menu description… More

My office used to be housed in a semi-industrial unit on the site of a former car park, right next to the Harwood Arms. I moved out just before the latest Incarnation, having seen every previous attempt fail I had started to regard the site as cursed. I was wrong.
The pedigree of the team behind it is plain for everyone to see as soon as you walk in. The revamp concentrated on the stripping back the chintz and getting everything to look ‘pub’ again. The cutlery, the tablecloths, the chairs and the napkins are all just right for a country pub in London.
The food is outstanding. I have been back many times and had many great dishes and some outstanding ones. My standout out winner was at christmas last year – Glazed ham hock, roasted parsnips, brussell tops and mustard sauce – it came presented on a small wooden board with a sharp knife. The knife was redundant as the hick was meltingly tender and could barely keep itself attached to the bone.
Other dishes that have made me drool over the last 15 or so months since the rebirth have always seemed too intelligent and more restaurant, but you find me complaining :

A trio of partridge, kiev – leg – rissole – well executed, each element did exactly what it said on the tin
Apple Doughnuts in a Spicy sugar – were better than anything you would find at an artisinal bakery
A fish finger sandwich! – homemade fingers of course, drop of tartare and home made roll

I regularly have meetings in Fulham and always try and find a way to make sure that they are around lunchtime and near Farm Lane. The menu changes, as it should, with the seasons, so you are always presented with a great range of dishes, always inventive and always tasty.

I have never much been a fan of the Conran ‘Machine’, formulas never did it for me in maths class and they still don't when I eat. There are a few formulaic anomalies however – Le pont de la tour, The Orrery and La Cantina del Ponte – they are no longer his in business terms but were his babies once.
Now to his current offspring – I avoided spending too many hours at Boundary/Albion, however what time I did spend there was nice. I had an inkling that maybe in his twilight years something had changed a younger spark had revealed itself.

I read a few reviews on Lutyens and the problem with reading other reviews (films, restaurants, books) is that you get aroused, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. I got excited. I thought that maybe this Conran experience would be different. I was wrong. It was thoroughly Conran.

Lutyens+Three boys=See Below

Starters – Dressed Crab, Escargots, Streak Tartare
Result – Good, needed salt, Nice kick.

Mains – Roast Partridge, Rabbit with Bacon and Mustard, Roast Middlewhite Loin
Result – Good but needed better knife, Solid and tasty needed more mustard kick, tender and had flavour all the way through.

Sides – Green Salad, Frites, Champ, Spinach, Roast onions
Result – Nice and clean, solid and tasty, good (lots of melted butter on top..discuss), spinach!, sweet and small

Pudding – Pear, Cinnamon and Custard Tart, Creme Brulée, Buttermilk Pudding
Result – Good solid patisserie work, Good but pot 1/2″ too deep, like pannacotta but better.

Wine – Gruner Vetliver, Langhe nebbiolo and a bottle of ‘The Bothie’
Result – Clean with crisp apple and a touch of sherbert, Long lasting and smooth with a cherry or two, Sweet sticky and jammy!!!

Service was poor to start with (20 minutes to order, 10 minutes to get the wine menu, 10 minutes to get a third menu!), it did get a little better. The starters were on our table before we had even had a chance to give back the menus and we did get an apology for them getting our mains being placed… More

There is no doubting that Zuma is a good restaurant. The food (which is the primary concern of a restaurant) is always perfect. The rest of the elements that go to make up a restaurant are in the ‘take it or leave it’ category.

It is a celeb style hangout. It is loud not buzzy. It overshadows the real reason you are there.

For those who have not experienced Zuma, you must. If you fancy yourself, you may return. If you like good food and want to have a conversation with your friends you probably won't.

The price reflects the attitude of the place. You pay for great ingredients, fancy sounding cocktails a restaurant designed by a man called ‘super potato’. You may also be still paying for the fact that Russell Crowe had a fight in the loos many years ago.

I do like it, in small doses. Maybe I am getting old.

In all honesty I prefer it sibling, Roka. Smaller, Subtler and Sophisticated.

I love Japanese food. It is clean, healthy, tasty but can be quite pricey.

Yumenoki does what many others fail to do. Consistently serve up great food at a good price.

It is not the prettiest of restaurants, but it's not bad. A few japanese wall hangings and some ok tables and chairs. There is a downstairs as well which is a little more authentic.

This is my Japanese canteen, I go there midweek for Take-aways, on the weekend with the Mrs and whenever I feel like good food.

It does not try to do anything fancy and does not try to do any Nobu-esque dishes like most other Japanese poseurs do in London town (you know who I mean, Mr Feng-Sushi) It beats most others hands down on price.

There is a very nice lady that runs it, she is always very friendly and welcoming. Service can occasionally be a tad slow, but who cares.

Don't be fooled and get you food from Feng-Sushi a few doors along – Go to Yumenoki and get some proper food.

I can't count the amount of times I have been to Yauatcha, but it is probably an easy report to pull out of their reservation system. Safe to say that when I or my wife phone to book, they ask if I would like my usual table.

Sunday lunch is so much tastier when it come in little chinese steamer baskets. They have recently changed their menu and it has to be said that I was more than sad to see a few old favourites lose their pegging in the new print run.

Bye Bye – Baked chicken with Mushroom. We will miss you.
Bye Bye – Steamed Silver Cod – I knew you for only sometime, but what a time we had.

Now I don't want this to turn into anymore of a love-in than it has already become. So lets lay it out, my fave dishes.

Roast Venison Puff – This is the best of the best, soft buttery flaky pastry and sweet and unctuous venison inside there is nothing better to start the meal with, and as everything comes as it is ready this always makesit way to the table first.

Spinach Cubes – These are amazing, steamed parcels of prawn and water chestnut, wrapped in spinach and covered in a spicy black bean sauce. Crunchy, hot and healthy! (PLEASE BRING THESE BACK!!!)

Shanghai Siew Long Bun – WARNING – be careful these are hot! Little dumpling bags filled with meat and soup! You need a bowl, a spoon and a little patience to eat these but they are well worth the wait.

Hand Pulled Mushroom Noodles – Lots of different types of mushrooms and hand made noodles – you can't go wrong. Once in a while they do turn out a little oily – but if you top it up with some greens it is all ok.

Service is sometimes great and sometimes not so great, because I love the food so much I probably do forgive it a little too much sometimes. It can be slow but it is always friendly.

The upstairs is better than the downstairs in my opinion. It is brighter and less nightclubby. Don't get me wrong sometimes the downstairs can be ideal for the situation, but the tables behind the staircase are a bit dingy.

As with all… More

Was doing a spot of shopping around the corner and fancied something tasty and spicy for lunch with the Mrs – as the advert says ‘I should of gone to specsavers’ as maybe then I would have seen the sign on the front door saying -This restaurant has gone downhill, please make sure you have your walking boots on for the climb back up after you leave!

I have been coming to Amaya since it opened, not frequently enough to earn ‘food miles’ but enough to have tasted the whole menu a few times over. It has been a while since my last visit, but I was not expecting to feel this violated on a Saturday afternoon.

We walked in and were asked if we had a reservation – ‘no’ came the reply – fumble, look in the book, ‘mmmmh’, ‘errr’ , few more minutes of chatting between the two book jockeys and luckily they found us a table out of the 30 or so that were vacant. What a palaver.

The Mrs and I decided to have a quick lunch and get the Amaya Platter – a mixture of the best things on the menu. The first was to be a crisp salad of micro leaves, fennel and apple – not that Indian or even Asian in my books but a Michelin star means that one can bend the rules a little. The salad was crisp and crunchy, so crunchy infact that I had to spit out the piece of GLASS that added that extra special crunch.

Yes you read correctly:
GLASS – noun – a hard, brittle, noncrystalline, more or less transparent substance produced by fusion, usually consisting of mutually dissolved silica and silicates that also contain soda and lime, as in the ordinary variety used for windows and bottles.

Now, I know that ocassionally mistakes happen in top rated establishments – waiters have off days and spill soup on your new dress and sometimes things appear in your food that should not be there – a hair (which by the way was in our condiment tray, much to the shock of our waitress), or maybe a nail. However when there is a piece of glass in your food alarm bells should ring and the manager should go into overdrive –… More