Wimbledon is a great place to live but despite the number of big houses around the restaurant scene has been vary lacking. Sure there are a great number of restaurants with good food, Cannizaro, Lighthouse, Fire Stables, Cotes, Dog & Fox and Butcher & Grill but the appallingly slow and poor service (especially those last 2) dosn’t engender a return visit let alone becoming a regular destination.

But hurrah for Claude Bosi and the newly opened Fox and Grapes, as that seems to have now changed. It fits perfectly between fine dining and a gastro pub, with the menu successfully spanning the two.

On my visit, their second night, I went more restaurant end for my starter a snail, rose veal and pancetta lasagne, which came with a super rich sauce. Then for main I erred to the Gastro end having battered Hake and chips, crispy batter coating super moist fish. Pudding was a treacle tart, again super yum.

I am now looking forward to a return in a few weeks time, not only is this a great boost for Wimbledon foodies but I hope the other near-do-well restaurants will take note and raise their game too.

P.S. Squaremeal, it is more a restaurant so be more pertinent to have food score rather than a drinks score.

It’s not often that when I sit down to post a review on SM I can so vividly remember what the food was that I had without having to crib from the restaurants web site, so suffice to say the food was outstanding.

I started with restaurant’s signature Fois Gras Crème Brulee, rich Fois Gras pate topped with a sweet caramelised crunchy top. The only gripe would be that it is a large portion and you want to eat it all not leaving room for main!

The Osso Buco of Monkfish (I had to ask, served on the bone) with shellfish broth, was superb, the fish moist and succulent and the broth would of made a lovely soup starter on it own.

Then desert it only got better, the Chocolate Assiette, rich chocolate ice cream and mouse, a mini chocolate fondant with chocolate oozing from it’s core, a white chocolate Mille-feuille, passion fruit twille and a large chocolate disc. Was a delightful way to finish the meal, just pushing you over the sated barrier.

That was the food, as for the rest of the experience… the service was pleasant enough, efficient with out been overly fussy. The tables are so close I’m not sure how one would manage to get out for the lavatory during the meal, I had to ask twice that the adjacent table be move more than the allowed 3 inches from our table.

I think the sommelier missed that his new venture is a bistro with starters of around £12 and mains of around £24, rather than the Michelin stared Le Gavroche, there was a couple (literally) reasonably priced bottles on the menu but quickly got into the 60/70s and hundreds, even thousands. In fact there were more £1000+ bottles to choose from than <£50 bottles. It is all horses for courses, if I go to a bistro I expect good value wine to go with my good valued meal, if I want high end I’ll go Michelin.

The bill came to £370 for the four of us, with two £71 bottles of wine making up a substantial part of it. For me it was lovely food, but the rest of the gripes would deter me from returning.

The Peat Inn’s Michelin star is what originally attracted us to stay and dine here, and we were very pleasantly surprised by both the rooms and dinner.

On arrival we went to our very quaint mezzanine suite, one of only eight all individually decorated.

As for the dinner, we had plumed for their ‘Epicurean Indulgence’ package, £250 (looks like £275 now) for B&B and the tasting menu. I think it was about another £40 each to add the matching wines.

The meal started well with an Ansturther Crab cocktail, fish and lobster to follow, potato gnocchi with pumpkin puree, Scottish Crowdie cheese, and a couple more courses that have been lost to the haze of Christmas.

Service was impeccable and super friendly, they never faulted once in the finer details of folding napkins, pulling out chairs, showing you the way to the toilets and were happy to both chat and happy to not, sensing the mood of the table. In fact the service rivalled that I’ve only seen in the Le Gavroche and Hospital Road.

The meal was finished with some hand made petit fours in the Lounge by the roaring fire, and given the snow and ice outside was the perfect setting to finish a hearty meal, before retuning to our suite.

The homemade Continental breakfast is served in our suite next day, might be a let down for some as it doesn’t have a fry up option, but given the gargantuan amount eaten during the tasting menu we were happy with the boiled eggs and continental breakfast, all served by a couple of super friendly local Ladies.

Given the choice, and money aside, compared to our recent Gleneagles stay I thought the food and service way surpassed at the Peat Inn and surely their second star is just around the corner.

Stayed over at Gleneagles for a bit of a Christmas treat, the hotel and room are amazing, but all with the luxurious price tag.

At Andrew Fairlie’s restaurant we received a warm welcome and were shown into an equally welcoming dinning room.

The menu was a choice of a la carte, 6 course Digustation or a ten course Du Marche. We decided to err on the side of caution and go for the 6 courses. Perhaps the Du Marche menu would have been a little more appealing if it described what the courses were rather than a list of ‘seasonal’ ingredients that the course contained.

Whilst all the courses we delicious the highlight for me was the 2nd course of scallop and braised pig’s cheek, the delicate scallop juxtaposed with the strong meaty taste of the cheek. Other courses included Ballottine of Foie Gras, Tortellini of beetroot and squash, roast mullet, slow cooked neck of lamb.

Service was very friendly and attentive, with only a couple of nit picking items that let it down. The sommelier equally looked after us extremely well matching wines with each course, and not going for the obvious choices each time.

All in all a very pleasant experience, and would definitely recommend.

Once again I was hungry for a steak and Gaucho was fully booked, so ended up here this time. We went to the fine dining top floor restaurant where I’d not been for nearly 10 years (omg showing my age now!)

Whilst the service was average it wasn’t any where near fine dining standards as various bored youths took drinks and food orders.

The New York rib I had was excellent however, not only because of the portion size but very tasty too. The chips were a anaemic looking McCain affair, given how they are trying to big up the top floor you’d expect hand cut at least and even maybe double cooked.

In summer the balcony would make this a bit of a destination, but sadly not really the food. Might be a number of years before I return again.

I was hungry for a steak and Gaucho was fully booked, so ended up here. A reasonably basic and maybe uninspiring menu but does what it says well, the best English.

I had the Bannockburn rib steak with chips, which was cooked as ordered and very tender and tasty. Service was good and attentive, and didn’t mind as we dawdled over the courses in no rush to get back to the office.

Nice, but for a steak I’d still call Gaucho first, but this is a great second choice.

The old building and general ambience of the place was absolutely delightful, big open fire in the reception room where aperitifs were served. Big soft white leather dinning chairs in the dining room made it all quite convivial.

We opted for the tasting menu as we were regularly reminded was cooked by Lisa recently of Great British Menu fame. The food was all delicious and easily up to the Michelin stared expectations, featuring things like Stone Bass with Langoustine Macaroni and Roe Deer in bread baskets (beef Wellington but deer and bread).

The let down unfortunately was the service; once shown to the reception room we had to wait a good ten minutes for drink orders to taken and our coats were not taken until the drinks actually arrived. Then we had to wait a good hour for ‘Lisa and her team’ to be ready, most of that was spent with empty glasses, a second drink seemed not to occur to them! Then our table of six was in a cramped inaccessible corner, which resulted in the waiting staff having to pass food and even cutlery across the table.

While a pleasant and enjoyable meal, it was badly let down by the poor and protracted service.

I don’t get out so much these days, so was quite excited to visit L’atelier as it has been on my must do list for a while. While it was mostly delight there was also a little disappointment too.

The food was very good, we had the tasting menu, fois and parmesan foam, caviar & crab, butter nut squash soup, some big old prawns, quail and truffle potatoes, some more fois a cheese course and an ice cream lollipop and an ice cream chocolate crunchy thing for desert. All the dishes were absolutely superb; none disappointed and all the tastes and textures were wonderfully combined. The portion sizes were spot on too, as at the end you were left pleasantly stuffed, rather than with some tasting menus where you are afraid to have the ‘wafer thin mint’ at the end!

The service was good, although we did have to ask twice for water, but not so keen on waiters stretching over the counter to put plates down. I even got told off once when I tried to help, which is a little funny as later they were handing me hot plates, as they couldn’t reach past the large bowl full of faux ice cubes.

The ambience and décor were lovely, some nice albeit a little loud mood music in the background and the dark woods and dim lights provided a very convivial atmosphere.

But the real disappointment for me was the whole counter concept, it is almost like the whole restaurant has been turned into a chef’s table, where you sit around the kitchen and watch the chefs prepare food, which was all very professional and besides a few ‘yes Chef’ shouts you can almost forget they were there, no Ramsey tantrums here!.

The tall stools cramped together in a line wasn’t for me though, I am built more for comfort than style these days. To get out of your chair you had to shuffle it backwards to avoid hitting into the person next to you. The stools while well upholstered were comfy to a point, but far from letting you sit back and relax.

As we were just two the sitting in a row was no problem, but for larger groups the counter simply doesn’t work although I noticed they tended to put groups on the corners.

All in all it very good, if I was dating this would be the ideal place but for me next time I think I’ll go to the La Cuisine.

Reputedly the busiest Michelin stared restaurant in the UK and of course being a keen fan of Raymond Blanc and his TV shows excitement was running high for our dinner and stay at Le Manoir.

Right from the start service was impeccable, a chap came over to our car and relived us of our bags, directing us to reception who he also clearly forewarned as as soon as we entered we were greeted by name. After a quick tour of the house we were taken to our room. We were in the snow queen room, absolutely stunning in design, very spacious and very comfortable. Flowers, chocolate (very yummy Manoir made), fruit (all perfectly ripe) and champagne all there to greet us as part of our overnight package.

Dinner which was preceded by a lovely walk around the garden, essentially an allotment but immaculately kept and full of beautiful bronze sculptures, then aperitifs and canapés on the lawn as we perused the menu.

We opted for the Découverte tasting menu with matching wines. Far too many courses to list, but all came sublimely cooked and all clearly using ingredients from the garden. Despite the ten or so courses the portion sizes were pitched exactly right leaving you full but not stuffed at the end.

Service was once again impeccable, food arrived together and was properly introduced, napkins done properly, on your first visit to the lavatories they showed the way rather than leaving you to search yourself, if food arrived when one of you was not at the table it was served with cloches on and a promise that if it was cold it would be cooked again. All made for a very seamless and fluid service.

If one was to compare it to the Waterside in you would wonder why it only has 2 stars and not 3, as it surpassed it in everyway both the food and the hotel, but albeit at double the cost!

My only critic and maybe why Le Manoir is missing its third star, is that what you pay for is very much what you get, there are no ‘compliments from the chef’ amuse bouches nor any extra petit fours at the end. It has been a long time since I have been at hospital road but it is still a lasting memory that the petit fours never seemed to end, which leaves you feeling you’ve been treated to extra special service, which was may be lacking at Le Manoir.

That is me being super critical though as service, food and the whole experience was second to none.

With our appetites and anticipation fully whetted from a recent visit to Wild Honey, Arbutus proved both a treat and a let down.

In the midst of Soho, the restaurant is in a buzzy lively areas, and on entering it was the same buzzy lively atmosphere, although my table was butt up against another table divided only by a flimsy screen, so we had to endure the shouty man’s conversation next to me. As a side note, quite a few tables had high chairs so it is family friendly too.

The food was very good bistro fare, there are no fancy extras of amuse bouches or anything like that so in fine dining terms it is a little austere.

For starters we had crispy pig cheeks and Asparagus with poached egg, both very good. Mains were saddle of rabbit with liver wrapped in bacon and sea bream with mussels and chorizo. The rabbit was fantastic, mainly due to the outstandingly tasty liver running through it, very strong and rich flavour. The bream was cooked superbly and the muscles were some of the tastiest and tenderist I’ve ever had.

Cheese to follow, selection of their 5 (only) choices, the let down here was I prefer crackers with my cheese as I don’t really want a muckle big cheese sandwich after my main!

Cold chocolate fondant (not the sponge thing but more a torte) and treacle tart to finished us off, both very yum.

It is bistro fare done well in a convivial and pleasing atmosphere. But a bistro it is, the food is brought promptly, you pour your own wine and you get exactly what you order, no little compliments of the chef going on, so you are in and out fairly promptly. Whether that is a good or bad thing probably depends on your company!

The food service and atmosphere all a treat, as for the let down; well it was not long since we dined at Wild Honey, and the menu is very similar with them both sharing many of the same dished so it was very much like returning to the same restaurant after only a few weeks, which lessened the experience for me.

I’d highly recommend either restaurant but not both.

The menu is fairly short, so as there were 4 of us each ordering 2-3 dishes we had most things from it. The grill chorizo lovely and spicy, just a shame the first one came burnt on one side (the underside oddly enough). The other tapas dishes all very good, rib eye steak skewers, scallops, charcuterie, crushed potatoes and eggs and others I now forget. We also had a chicken paella, which was very good.

The service was a lot of a let down though, it was over ten minutes before we could flag down a waiter to take a drinks orders, a quarter of the tapas dishes we ordered we simply didn’t get and had to ask again for them again, the burnt chorizo was claimed that is the way it is like, it took at least four asks to get the water we wanted and the waitress positively seemed quite irked when we had the audacity to order coffee at the same time as deserts.

The bill cam in at a little over £200 for four of us, including a couple of beers, couple bottles of wine and a few cocktails, so thought pretty good value for money.

A cosy little restaurant with some good tapas dishes, if I was local I’d consider going again, but the dire service is enough to keep me away.

I’ve been to a few restaurant in my time so it is fairly difficult to wow me any more as I’ve pretty much seen it done it and eaten it. So Wild Honey proved to be a real treat

A fairly unassuming façade led into a fairly bijou restaurant, mixing old fashioned wood panelling with modern paintings hung on the wall made for a very convivial atmosphere. We were seated in a nice booth for the four of us which made for a cosy setting.

The food too was well deserving of it’s Michelin star, our starters included smoked eel; smoky and meaty tasted with a subtle piquant after taste and razor clams in garlic and parsley; very good flavours but for me a tiny bit chewy.

Main courses, came in just as good, I had Icelandic cod; a very succulent and moist chunk of cod with crispy boneless chicken wings and we also had the aged rib of beef; which was very tasty and tender.

Cheeses course to follow, £29.25 for a selection of 9 (we just had one of each cheeses they had!), the deserts Paris Brests, bagel shaped choux pastries filled with praline cream. Coffee and handmade petit fours finished us off.

The bill I thought fairly reasonable at just under £400 for four people of which £150 was on drinks.

The food and ambience was very good and tempting for a soon return visit, the fly in the ointment though is that the service let the whole experience down. In a restaurant of this type I don’t expect the who is having chicken conversation when the food arrives, and steak knives were given to those of us having fish and not the steak eaters, we had to ask for a bottle of water, and we had to visit the cheese board rather than vice versa. All minor issues though that could and should be easily ironed out; especially if they want to keep that star.

That said Wild Honey is highly recommended for a visit.

This was my 2nd visit to Café Anglais, I fist went a couple of years back and to be honest it didn’t really inspire me for a speedy repeat visit.

This time we found the lift entrance at the side of the shopping mall which makes for a more salubrious entrance than trekking through the mall itsself. We were promptly taken to our table and just managed to squeeze past the adjacent tables to sit down.

Once we managed to get the attention of one of the few scurrying ‘avoid eye contact’ waiters we ordered. The food itself was all fairly good and arrived promptly, although no one ever enquired during the meal if everything was good. If you take it as more a posh café than a restaurant then it delivers, simple food done well, NY strip steak and half chicken mains both cooked well and tasty.

I’ll have to score it high on value for money as we ate on a friend for a fiver deal, which they were running on the Friday we booked. Which I think if they need to do on a Friday, is pretty telling of the restaurant in terms of food and quality. The bill came to £200, which included a £70 discount, for 3 people including a couple of aperitifs and a bottle of Barolo so was good value.

On the whole the place is OK, the food isn’t bad but the tables are far too cramped together and the service is a bit of a shocker when it comes to ordering, paying etc. It could well be another couple of year before I go back.

I fear a little at risk at repeating myself for another Hix restaurant review, but he keeps to his magic formula of simple food done well, very well in fact.

Calves liver on toast, soft and tender with a rich meaty taste and the lobster tart with cheese and samphire, whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the crisp light pasty, and the succulent chunks of lobster, I could help but think that the taste of the lobster was a little drowned out by the cheese.

Mains we ranged from a safe steak, and very tasty and full of flavour and cooked perfectly, to an adventurous squid and spicy sausage, the spicy sausages were great little juicy bites with a gentle kick. The squid was a little on the overcooked side and was a bit too much and too bland to want to eat a lot of it.

Deserts were sublime, chocolate mouse with honeycomb wafers and a ‘millionaires’ tart, light crumbly pastry, with a caramel and rich chocolate layers.

The bill came to around £60 a head for the food, coffee and service, which was quite reasonable although we easy doubled that with drinks!

Whilst I very much enjoyed the food, perhaps the squid aside (but that was more my bad choice than a bad dish) and the environment was quite convivial the experience was let down by the restaurant being very empty on a Saturday night so perhaps lacked a little atmosphere and the service was quite mixed. Food orders were swiftly taken as did the food swiftly arrive, but we were left to pour our own wine all night and when it came time to pay the staff were far more engaged in trying to set up for the next day’s service that to pay any attention to their current guests so it took quite a long time to get the bill, which made for a disappointing end to the experience.

Trinity has been getting a lot of press an TV coverage of late, and as it is relatively local we’d though high time we tried it. Being able to book mid week for the following Saturday didn’t bode well as normally if you can book it at such short notice it isn’t very good.
So with expectations well managed we arrived to a pleasant welcome and promptly taken to our table. With aperitifs came an amuse bouche of smoked cod roe with a crumbly pastry to dip, which was delightful.
We opted for the tasting menu with matching wine and at £68 a head seemed crazy cheap. Butternut quash soup, buttered mushrooms with egg yolk tortellini to start was very tasty although my expectation would have been for a soft egg yolk rather than hard. We swapped the ceviche option for a pan seared scallop, perfectly cooked. Next came sea bass, again very well cooked and very tasty although the orange sauce was a little strong. The highlight of the meal was the main, venison Wellington, tender fillet wrapped in a lovely pastry. Finishing with the mascarpone and vanilla shortbread for pud, light and refreshing.
We also had an extra cheese course at the end which tipped us over the sated/ bloated threshold. The accompanying drinks for the 3 cheeses were a little out of the ordinary, being a cider, bitter and a wine.
Service was very good from start to finish, food arriving promptly and the courses being spaced not too quick nor too slow. I would have said floorless service, but on two occasions we nearly got the adjacent table’s food.
So all trepidations quickly evaporated, in what proved to be a very good all round experience; good service, good food in a convivial environment and at the prices they charge this is a must for a visit or two.