Tom's Kitchen, Chelsea

After our cocktails, we walked on to Tom's Kitchen. I've been for lunch half a dozen times and always enjoyed the classic fare. Service is notoriously slow though. As I was taking the team out, I was keen everyone had a good experience.

The fillet I had was excellent - perfectly cooked as requested and served with cress and chips. The waiter remembered to bring my mustard when it came to the table without me asking which was a nice touch. Service seems to have improved.

The beef pie, monkfish, and the shared leg of lamb and shared chateaubriand also went down a treat with the gang. Sharing does make the meal more inclusive and fun I think.

I oddly wasn't tempted by the dessert menu so went for 3 scoops of ice cream.

Mission accomplished - a good night was had by all. We were the last to leave around midnight and were only subtly chivvied along which was good.

Definitely a good place to have up your sleeve for a casual meal without compromising on the food or wine.

Mark's Bar at Hix Belgravia

I had two cocktails here on Thursday night with the team that triumphed on The Reserve Club project at work.

The first was a Rhubarb Ramos - a gin fizz and kind of creamy. The combination of sour and milk didn't sit well with my palate. The Silk Road on the other hand was delicious.

Mark's Bar in Soho is my favourite so I was pleased to see some of the style from there had made it to this new venue despite it being a hotel bar, and in a Sheraton at that! It's larger, and more comfortable with couches rather than chairs. The menu is excellent of course, the bar snax good (radishes, salmon cases, olives, croquettes), and the same fantastic array of glassware.

It's dangerously close to my office, and dangerously pricey.

Bread Street Kitchen, The City

Stuart, Kris and I lunched at Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen on Saturday.

It's an enormous, industrial space with floor to ceiling windows and lots of different types of lighting to brighten it up. In fact, we thought it might double as a lighting showroom. During the week I expect it fills up with city boys wheeling and dealing but on the weekend it is relatively quiet. All the diners were seated in the same area so we didn't feel as if we were in an empty restaurant.

The food, especially the starters, were quite expensive and the wine was significantly marked up but I guess that was to be expected. Fortunately it was all excellent. Kris and I shared a very tasty flatbread starter with squash, capers and tallegio cheese. For main course I had grilled trout simply served with watercress and lemon. I haven't had trout for some time and I was reminded how much I enjoy it.

We finished with the dessert sharing platter having negotiated with the waiter that there would be enough of favourite picks to avoid any arguments! Which is just as well because they were all delicious. There was a rich chocolate tart with moorish salted caramel ice cream and honeycomb, a lovely moist cherry bakewell tart, a fresh and lively pineapple carpaccio with coconut ice cream and lime zest, a light Cranachan cheesecake with fresh raspberry sorbet and an elderflower and blueberry trifle. 

BEFORE

AFTER

The bill came to £50 each which was surprisingly less than I was expecting. The dessert sharing platter was actually good value at £18.50 and we chose one of the more reasonably priced bottles of wine, a nice South African Chenin Blanc, for £26 which must have helped.

Another surprise was how poor the service was even though the restaurant was clearly not understaffed. While they were friendly enough, I had to ask for our water and wine to be topped up more than once, and I had to ask for the pepper.

All in all a really excellent meal though, so I would recommend it. And also suggest going on a weekday when it would have a livelier atmosphere.

Ducksoup, Soho

Before you ask, no, they don't serve duck soup at this resto!  Laura and I caught up for dinner here on Tuesday night for what I suppose is more modern European fare. From the hand-written menu I chose the slow cooked lamb shoulder with saffron pilaf and a side of courgette while Laura had fish. For dessert I had poached loquats with mascarpone and lime (we used to have a loquat tree in the back yard in Toowoomba so I thought I'd see why the fruit bats used to enjoy them so much!).

It has a laid-back, rough-around-the-edges atmosphere and a record player where staff and customers play records to accompany their evening. The service was friendly and prompt - I like it when I order another a glass of wine, and the waiters bring it to you quickly. There's nothing worse than having an empty glass while you're eating!

It was good food - not great - but for £40 each with a fairly cool vibe, its a pretty good mid-week option.

69 Colebrooke Row, Islington

The bar with no name is a step away from the hustle and bustle of Upper Street in Islington. In a strip of high street chains and the same old franchises, 69 Colebrooke Row stands out. A couple of Sunday nights ago a few of us went to check out their weekly music session and listened to jazz duo, Viper's Dream over some exceptional cocktails.

I tried four of the gin based cocktails and enjoyed them all. The Barbershop Fizz, and the Rhubarb martini were particularly good. The bartenders' white suit jackets seem more suited to The Savoy but their work is just as classy. Black and white tiles cover the floors, the windows are blacked out, and the timber and red leather chairs help create a cool mood.

Because it's so small, and clearly very cool, it gets busy. The bartenders are as accommodating as possible and let a few keen patrons line the wooden staircase and sip a cocktail from there. It reminded me of the lively and electric atmosphere of the spanish steps in Rome.

Ozone, Old Street

This afternoon I met Laleh and Jesse at Ozone for a cup of coffee. After I read the menu it ended up being lunch. It's a big, industrial roastery and has quite a cool vibe - to be expected on this side of town of course.

The flat whites were good and strong. I really should start rating them so I'm going with 7/10 for now. The steak sandwich was served with beetroot so I couldn't resist it but there were some good breakfast choices and 'lunchy things' (to quote the menu) as well.

Excellent steak sandwich and chips

Where all the action takes place...

...and where all the cake is. It was bake day.

Coffee #2. I can' t sit across from the cake and be expected to resist.

We sat downstairs in the basement in amongst the machinery. The staff didn't forget about us down there and the service (all NZ!) was good. They didn't even kick us out til 5pm when they subtly brought the bill an hour after closing.

The Balcon, Pall Mall

Today Laura, Jaimee, Natalie and I had our monthly long lunch. This time it was my choice and on the basis of an Emerald Street (regular email) recommendation I went for The Balcon in town. It's in the Sofitel Hotel which would normally make me run a mile, but the £17 Bloody Mary Lunch was appealing so I set my judgement aside.

The dining room is big, high-ceilinged, light-filled room which I liked. And the decor is (I think) part french, part art deco and I really liked that too. We were seated at a big round table by the window with a banquette which afforded a great view inside and out (the London Marathon was on today so we could see the fit & healthy types wander past while we ate our 3 courses!).

The service was impeccable. Our coats were checked, and we had a selection of fresh warm bread with two types of butter to choose from as soon as we sat down. Natalie doesn't enjoy a Bloody Mary (I know, how couldn't she!?!) but they happily swapped it with any other drink of her choosing. And throughout the meal the staff were very attentive but not overbearing or rushed. And there was no hint of the service being downgraded just because we were opting for the special lunch menu (which I am always suspicious of).


I enjoyed the meal as well - it was really quite good considering the price. The Bloody Mary was good. We could choose how spicy we wanted it. It came with celery (mandatory for me) but could have used an ice cube. The charcuterie was a tasty, simple starter (from an extensive charcuterie menu). We had roast chicken with a sausage, bacon, roast tomato and potato wedges with a side salad for lunch. Again, very simple but very meaty! I probably didn't need the sausage. Dessert was a cherry clafoutis which was lovely and moist. They do tend to be a bit dry but I was nicely surprised. I had a coffee to finish which was disappointing and a little cold but the french never do good coffee so I let them off the hook.

A really good choice I think. I'll be going back to check out the bar for a cocktail sometime soon. And I may be forced to review my opinions on hotel dining.