Sabrina's Passions' Reviews

Since when are we supposed to be paying premium prices for cheap cuts of meat? This bothers me. I joined some friends at Barbecoa recently and had just enough time for one course so I ordered the crispy pig's cheeks charged at £8. I'm fine paying more for starters but it annoys me that restaurants don't seem to be passing on the value of cheaper cuts to us, especially when the portions are better suited to children. There was also nothing ‘crispy’ about these crispy pig's cheeks. Everyone elses courses seemed a bit his and miss too and luckily I didn't have to stay for more.

What I did find hilarious is that as I left the restaurant… there sitting outside was the American Chef Adam Perry Lang, effing and blinding at pretty high volume about how he is sick of this and sick of that and how he will “F***ing walk out of here”… Some kind of Chef drama to do with someone not placing correct food orders or something. Either way, HIGHLY unprofessional! I mean, if YOU owned a restaurant, would YOU stand outside it yelling at a member of your staff loudly about how crap everything is?

DEFINITELY NOT GOING BACK.

Rarely does somewhere impress me so much that I give it full marks out of 10 for any aspect of the experience, but the food and wines are Bar Battu are beyond impeccable. We ordered a selection of ‘small plates’ to begin with including Snail and Oxtail ragout, steak tartare, pan-fried mackerel with pear chutney and a pumpkin ravioli with sage butter and cavolo nero. I couldn't fault any of it! The mackerel was crumbed and perfectly melt-in-the-mouth, complimented by the pear; the snail ragout was simply excellent, slow cooked to perfection with lovely bites of meaty oxtail; the ravioli was also excellent but the steak tartare was by far the best I have had in London to date.

My main course of breast of lamb was a revelation… well seasoned, full-flavour and meltingly tender with a rich sauce and vegetable accompaniments. I was seriously quite surprised at how flavoursome (and reasonable) the food was!

The restaurant was heaving with Christmas parties galore but the service was very attentive and friendly and I have to say that I do think that Bar Battu is seriously underrated and will no doubt become one of the most sought-after eateries in the area soon! Full marks to them, they deserve it! I am definitely going back.

Good Earth has long been a firm favourite of the affluent locals of Knightsbride; living slightly further away, I never had the pleasure of eating there myself until this weekend. We stopped in for a late lunch and were shown to the downstairs restaurant area, virtually a ghost town with half the room completely without light.

We mainly ordered a mixed selection of starters including honey BBQ spare ribs, which were moist and the meat just fell off the bone. Our Chu Yim salt and pepper squid was lacking the ‘salt’ element, making for a somewhat bland version of this usually salty, spicy dish, although the batter was lovely, light and perfectly crisp. Won Ton soups were light and delicate with juicy won tons filled with lovely pink prawn meat and the house special of lamb skewers were exquisite and charred to perfection.

The cost totalled £40 which when you consider we had a bottle of water, 1 glass of wine and our meal and service, isn't too bad at all for Knightsbridge… I would definitely stop by again for a similar meal, but for proper Chinese food in a nice restaurant, I would still stick to Royal China in Queensway. Can't beat it.

Although service can be a tad slow occasionally, Tartine is hands down one of my favourite lunch spots in town. ‘Tartines’ are traditionally open faced sandwiches made using French Poilane (Sourdough) bread. There are plenty of interesting variations to choose from including Jamon Serrano with Manchego cheese and Membrillo, Rare roast beef and horseradish, Crab salad and my absolute favourite seared squid with sweet chilli. If sandwiches aren't your thing, they do a great burger, some salads and a few other dishes to accommodate you. It's location in the very chic ‘Brompton Cross’ hub means the patrons are a mix of ladies-that-lunch and rich kids and fur-clad Russianistas… but at a bowl of fries to the sandwich and I'm happy as Larry. Very good little stop-off and I only wish there were more of them around town!

I am so impressed by Deux Salons that I could probably harp on endlessly about it's virtues, though I shall spare you the pain of having to listen to my musings. It's arrival has been somewhat muted, but perhaps the best things should remain a secret.

I love the entrance of the restaurant, very grand in a townhouse sort of way, but the menu is really the main draw. Unusually, it is one of the restaurants that literally has something to offer everyone… whether your preference be for bold or subtle flavouring, there are a myriad of dishes for you to choose from. Provenance is quite visibly a priority here and every ingredient is well sourced, including eggs from Clarence Court and Elwy Valley Lamb. Comfort food is available in abundance and my starter of onion tart with goat's cheese was delicious, not too sickly sweet and the pastry was perfection. My main course of salted belly pork with lentils was just what the doctor ordered, the belly meat meltingly sticky and tender with deliciously warming and wholesome lentils. I could die a very happy girl after such a meal.

Desserts are a very classic affair, with Paris Brest, Creme Brulee and Iles Flotantes all present on the menu. Not really my cup of tea, although I do love a good Creme Brulee, after such a hearty starter and main, why ruin the mea by eating more than necessary.

I would DEFINITELY go back to Les Deux Salons and I am currently trying to find the right occasion to do exactly this! Wonderful French cuisine, slow cooked, well sourced and quite reasonably priced too. Parfait!

At last! After working in the City for year's I managed to actually have a meal here, rather than just drinks. Coq D'Argent has long been a favourite venue of mine for drinks because of the lovely roof terrace where I have spent hours drinking with friends and colleagues in warmer months.

The restaurant is divided into two sections of Brasserie and Restaurant and we opted for restaurant. A set lunch menu offers exceptional value at £25 for 2 courses or £30 for 3 courses and I chose the honey and red wine glazed pork cheeks, which are always a winner for me and they were meltingly tender and the sauce was absolutely delicious, although the cripsy pig's ear did get left uneaten. I chose another slow-cooked dish as a main, with spiced lamb shanks and root vegetables, which again were cooked to perfection.

Dessert had to the creme brulee with lemon sable biscuit, glorious in all it's rich and creamy simplicity. It was superb, although I should have perhaps avoided such a decadent third course as my first two courses were quite rich and heavy. Full marks to Coq D'Argent though, not only are the drinks spot on but the food is also really good and offers great value, especially in the Square Mile.

I dined here once years ago when it first opened as Cipriani and I was sufficiently put off by their failing standards to stay well clear of the restaurant again. Sadly for me on this occasion, I was invited by a client and had no alternative but to accept graciously. I think deep down I probably believed that a lot can change in 5 or so years, but oh how wrong I was.

Accustomed to dining in some of London's best restaurants, I expect service and food of the highest standard in obscenely priced celeb-magnet joints like this. I'm no celebrity, but I believe that in life, you should get what you paid for. The service was beyond incompetent, you'd find better food at ‘Spaghetti House’ and the whole pretentious vibe of this place was exhausting. My poor host was riddled with embarassment whilst I smiled and reassured him that it was ok. Needless to say, I cut the meal short and took him for a drink at Claridges instead, where we were treated with the kind of courtesy you would apply to paying customers.

All I can say for ‘C’ London is that the ‘C’ clearly stands for ‘CRAP’. So unless you are a page 3 / WAG wannabee trying to meet a famous face, there are far better places to meet, greet and eat in London. The experience here is so ridiculously bad, it is absolutely laughable.

I was invited by Chef Gauthier to re-visit Gauthier as his guest in lieu of the below, rather unfortunate meal and my 2nd visit, the food was just as fantastic as the first visit but naturally the service was greatly improved. We dined in the first floor dining room (a much better alternative to those who dont want to hear the constant ringing of a doorbell) and the whole affair was incredibly difference to our initial dining experience. It was exactly the kind of experience I would have expected from a Chef Patron like Gauthier, impeccable service, flawless food and wine pairings and a very enjoyable evening overall. I would highly recommend Gauthier Soho based on my second visit – 14th November 2010.
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I hate the fact that you have to ring the bell to be let in to Gauthier, like it is some exclusive private club that is inaccesible, when simply a phonecall will ensure you have a table here. Even more frustrating is that virtually all through the evening, the doorbell rings almost constantly. Service is nothing short of a complete and utter farce. They claim to offer complimentary still/sparkling water to all guests, yet getting a single glass of the stuff would be a fine thing. We had to ask 4 times for top ups throughout the evening and once he did actually make it over to our table, he carelessly sloshed water into our glasses like we were at some cheap motorway service station.

Service aside, the food is fantastic, of which there is no denying. A starter of Foie Gras was seared to perfection with a sweet sauce and plump raisins scattered across the plate. The Autumn truffle risotto was also excellent, rice perfectly al dente bound in a creamy, rich sauce pungent with white truffle oil and topped with an absurd and flavourless mass of shaved truffle. This truffle-less-truffle seems to be shaved onto virtually every dish throughout the evening. Not unpleasant, just not particularly imparting any flavour either. The… More