Gmbklm's Reviews

Our late February visit was the first for about 8-9 months. In the past, we’ve always enjoyed some very good long Saturday lunches, but unusually for us we went for a Saturday evening.

Scotts attracts a very mixed dining crowd, but is famous for its media and thespian crowd. This could be a bit off-putting, but fortunately they’re all very English and very low key – ie not keen to be noticed like a sad Z-lister. The atmosphere is very pleasantly relaxed, informal and buzzy, which we’ve always liked. The restaurant is invariably very busy.

The décor and furnishing is quite neutral and light, which works well when it is quite crowded. I sense that it wouldn’t work quite as well if it was quiet.

We love their style of very simply cooked very high quality fresh fish. Some may be looking for more sauces or complexity, but we go there because Scotts don’t do that. Just enjoy the fish and the skill with which it is prepared and cooked. At home, for several years we’ve been copying their “in the shell” method of grilling scallops, which really does add to the flavour and moistness. On this occasion, we both ate some particularly good turbot (£34 pp). I also had some very good Mersea Native oysters (£17 for 6).

Front of house and service is almost always charming, friendly and professional, even when they’re busy. No pretension despite their popularity and the difficulty of booking.

The wine list is good, although with a bias to the high end. To match the quality of the food, we normally spend £80-£90 on a bottle.

Pricing is not cheap, but I think represents good value for money given the high quality. We normally seem to pay about £100 for 2 for 2 courses, ex all drinks, ex service.

Overall, an excellent restaurant in which to enjoy wonderfully simply cooked high quality fish. Excluding sushi, I'm not sure we've ever eaten at a better fish restaurant in London. We'll be back soon.

As locals and regulars – circa 15+ visits in the last year, most recently early Mar 10 – and with many meals under our expanding belts, we regard Magdalen as the best restaurant in the riverside Blackfriars Bridge to Tower Bridge area. The other very good option is the more casual More, 100m down Tooley St. In a slightly “on its own” location, Magdalen is about 200m from London Bridge station.

It attracts a very mixed crowd of diners – friends, lovers, anniversaries, birthdays, business – and despite getting a lot of people from local offices mid-week, especially the nearby law and accounting firms, the atmosphere remains very pleasantly relaxed and informal – helped by the staff. It’s also invariably very busy, giving it a good buzzy atmosphere.

The décor and furnishing adds to the warmth, but is perhaps more suited to winter than summer. With its dark woods and red-ish colouring, big thick curtains, it is a bit reminiscent of a traditional French bistro.

I think I would classify the food style as Anglo-French, with a bias to high quality meat, game and offal dishes, plus increasingly fish. The style is relatively simple and traditional, but the food is always very very tasty, and full of great flavour. Most recently we’ve had an excellent French style fish stew (£16), which had lots of big chunks of quality fresh fish, preceded by a superbly flavoursome quail / squab (£10). A previous favourite starter has been English snails (£8). Over our many visits, the food has always been reliably very good – we've never had a bad meal – and has included some of the best steaks we’ve ever eaten in a restaurant, including a fabulous whole rib or T-bone on a shared platter for 2 steaks (Aberdeen Angus £52 for 2). Its probably not really suited to a quick light snack type meal !

Front of house and service is almost always very charming, friendly and professional. Can't be faulted, and even when they are struggling a little when very busy, they do at least sincerely apologise and… More

We've been coming here for many years. Our most recent visit was late Jan 2010. Probably eaten here 40-50 times in the last 6-7 years.

The food is of a good Italian trattoria standard. Very dependable, comfort style food, but nothing to get too excited about. Perfect for an end of weekend Sunday evening meal. Would rate in the 6-7 score range. Like a good trattoria, the dining room tends to have a very pleasant and very good buzzy atmosphere.

On this occasion, the restaurant was relatively quiet, so service was very pleasant, friendly and efficient. Past experience has shown that service can be very slow and a bit disorganised when they are busy, so we tend to walk past and go elsewhere.

The wine list is sufficient for most meals, and includes some reasonable less expensive bottles around £25 range.

The menu is relatively short and on this occasion the food was quite good. Good trattoria standard. When they are running special offer menus, it can be very good value: £18 pp for 2 courses, inc service, ex drinks. Very similar food to main menu. However, the relatively higher prices of the full price menu tend to reflect the prime riverside location rather than the kitchen: £25-£30 pp for 2 courses, inc service, exc drinks. Hence, real score is 6-7 depending on menu.

Probably the best of the ex Conran restaurants in Shad Thames. Overall, the main selling point is clearly its riverside location and the summertime outside tables with tower bridge views.

We like the combination of a generally very pleasant, casual and relaxing environment, combined with reasonable Italian comfort food. A good way to finish a weekend.

Our January 2010 meal at Texture was our third since it opened. We came away with the same positive impression as previously.

The restaurant space has been carved out of the ground floor corner of a less impressive hotel. It has a very Nordic style cool sophisticated white décor, nicely retaining some of the original architectural features of the room. This décor is perhaps more suited to a warm summer day than a cold winter night, but it ideally matches the mid-week evening dining / bar crowd – smar0t and well dressed, with a business expense account bias.

Texture operates with quite a short but perfectly satisfactory menu of what I assume are traditional Icelandic meats and fish. Both the scallop starter and the venison main course were extremely good – Very high quality ingredients, cooked and presented in a very refined and sophisticated manner. Some of the best tasting venison we’ve eaten. They have avoided unnecessary over clever or over powering accompanying sauces, so you could really taste the great flavour of the underlying food.

The presentation style is refined and sophisticated, and could perhaps be described as a bit “nouveau”. My only negative comment would be that I would have preferred 2-3 decent size scallops in my starter, given a price of £20. By contrast, our portions of venison were very good – not just 3 thin slices which I've had elsewhere.

The wine list is very good, but since there wasn’t a lot below £50 you’ll probably end up spending £60-£80.

Front of house and waiter service were both charming, efficient and very professional. Nothing to fault.

Overall, a very good restaurant, serving very high quality refined dishes, with sophisticated presentation. But, this is what I expect at c£100 for 2 courses for 2, inc service, ex drinks.

Excellent high quality and friendly Japanese resto

We’ve eaten at Saki 7-8 times in the last year, most recently mid-Jan 10.

The restaurant is located in a basement, very close to Smithfield market. The décor is quite dark and traditional, which is quite cosy. The big centre table in the middle is a slight oddity, but probably good for big groups.

We love the fantastic quality sushi and other fish (eg black cod) dishes, and the vegetarian tempura. Amusingly for a Smithfield restaurant, we have found that the meat dishes are not as consistent as the fish.

We enjoy the very relaxing low key and unpretentious atmosphere. Front of house and all other staff have almost always been very charming, welcoming and professional. Hence, a little surprised to read the earlier critical comment on service, but I guess everywhere has off-days.

Saki compares well vs other London Japanese restaurants – Umu is in a league of its own, but so are its prices, whilst we felt Sumosan was more about being seen rather than food. Atami RIP – we will miss you.

We return to Saki for the excellent fish and very professional and friendly service, in a relaxing atmosphere. Overall, its almost always a very enjoyable experience.

We liked the clubby décor and autumnal / winter colour scheme. Very cosy on cold days. Front of house was very welcoming. On this Saturday evening visit, the restaurant was full and staff very busy.

We liked the traditional British menu, with a strong presence of game. Interesting dishes, without being too lead by current fashion.

After a 45 mins wait, our starters were very good: Fresh and tasty oysters, and very tasty duck liver. The pork cheeks and pheasant main courses were good and also very tasty, but significantly let down by being delivered luke warm. After a 1 1/2hrs wait, and getting very hungry, we weren’t going to send them back.

Service was generally professional and competent, but not particularly attentive or charming. We sometimes had to make quite a lot of effort to gain attention from the waiters.

If the food had been delivered hot and more quickly, I would regard the pricing as being very fair for the quality. If the problems can be ironed out, it could be a really great restaurant. I expect more for £120 for 2 courses inc service ex wine / drinks. As others have commented, the sommelier was very helpful, which is needed given the few choices sub £50-60.

Overall, a good new venue for traditional British food. However, it is not really up to the standard one would expect given its plaudits and the 2009 BMW award. We had the impression that they were just trying to fit in too many covers for their organising ability, with insufficient waiting staff or kitchen capacity for their busy Saturday night sitting. A previous mid-week lunch in a much quieter restaurant had been considerably more enjoyable, with much better service and better executed properly hot food. We will try again at some point in the future, but it will be outside a “peak period”. I would not recommend a busy evening booking.

Our meal in October 09 was our 7th or 8th in the last 2 years. We particularly like Saturday lunch or Sunday dinner. There are still very few alternatives in London for good food on a Sunday evening. As previously, the restaurant was very busy. Prices are fair, but despite its name, I'm no longer sure that they are really Bistro level, especially a la carte.

We like the relaxed bistro / brasserie style décor and atmosphere, the predictable French classics menu and the reliably good quality food – which can sometimes be really very good, with very good taste and flavour. Very rarely bad.

Service is generally efficient and pleasant, but in my view has always been its weakest link – very inconsistent. On this occasion, it was not so good. The incorrect dish was delivered, but the waitress struggled to do that very simple basic thing – apologise – or in a very good restaurant, to simply remove all the other diners plates and to start again with fresh servings. Instead, she reacted by emptying the wine bottle into a glass, together with the sediment. Some basic waiter training appeared to be missing, since there was a lot of reaching across the table and fellow diners in order to deliver or collect dishes, rather than simply walking around the table.

Overall, still a very reliable venue, and one of my favourite French restaurants in London. It is nicely situated away from the main throng of tourists at the northern and southern ends of Baker St. Better service would take it to the next level, but I think mgt is pre-occupied with other ventures.

This was our 5th or 6th visit to Terroirs since it opened, and we were pleased to see that it is still very busy. We tend to go quite late, after the theatre – very useful knowing somewhere near theatreland serving reasonable food at reasonable prices, and being so welcoming when you walk in at 10-15pm or 10-30pm. There is a surprising lack of such late eating places in London.

The food is generally good, of a simple earthy and hearty style, which some might find a bit heavy. Sometimes they are more miss than hit, but we tend to choose the simpler dishes, which we normally enjoy.

The waiting staff are usually very friendly, enthusiastic and speedy, and they seem to cope very well with the busy restaurant.

Terroirs is very much a café / bistro style setup, with very close tables, what seems like quite a high table turnover, and a generally slightly frantic noisy atmosphere; which I quite like. Therefore, I think its better suited to a quick in and out bite to eat, rather than a long lingering meal.

They have a very good wine list, with some nice French regional choices.

Overall, I would say it is a very good bistro / café style restaurant for a quick hearty type meal with some decent wine, in a generally very poorly served tourist tat area. Not quite as well suited to low cal eating, a posh night out, or if you're looking for a quiet calm environment.