Underwhelmed. This is probably the best way to describe my experience at Soseki. I don’t know why I was struck by a case of “so-whats” after dining at Soseki but unfortunately, despite the good service and the nice atmosphere and quality of food, that’s how I felt. Soseki is a kaiseki-style restaurant, meaning Japanese haute-cuisine. Kaiseki is basically a succession of dishes which balances the taste, texture, appearance, and colors of food. Translation: good-tasting food that looks and feels good.

Much is made of Soseki’s location near the Gherkin. Admittedly it is a beautiful location and the views from the giant almost floor to ceiling windows are fantastic. The restaurant itself is quite attractive inside too with wood and oriental paneling (including the embedded screen print in our table with glass across the top.) Its an intimate restaurant able to sit up to about 40 people max including a sushi bar about 10 people can sit around, four “pagodas” and a tatami room which is practically sealed off from the rest of the restaurant.

All meals at Soseki are served “omakase” meaning you won’t be able to order anything off an a la carte menu but instead you are subject to the whims of the chefs in the kitchen and their decision on what you’ll eat on any particular night. I asked the maitre d’ whether this meant that potentially that no visit to Soseki will be the same and he answered in the affirmative. He said it was because the day’s menu depended on the ingredients available on the day meaning everything you eat is fresh and seasonal.

Sandra and I took advantage of a 50% off offer on toptable. Since we were having half off we decided to go for the most expensive omakase – the £65 ‘Hanashi’ sushi-kappo menu: 12 dishes (13 if you include the palate cleanser.) This is what we had:

The Dishes	How They Looked	The Comment
Sakizuke (appetiser)		Three tiny portions for our appetisers which included truffle potato with onion, lotus root and saffron and some other veg I can’t remember drizzled in some sort of miso sauce! Quite mild tasting.
Mushimono, Sashimi, Wan mono soup		Our next three courses were served together. Starting with the mushimono (a steamed dish) which consisted of a steamed egg custard with chicken. Sandra didn’t find this dish particularly appealing and I must admit if I’d never had steamed egg at home before the soft consistency and mild flavours would have had me feeling a bit ill. Next was the sashimi which consisted of salmon, yellow tail and another white fish I couldn’t identify and I couldn’t understand what the waitress said. Finally we had the Wan mono soup which tonight consisted of deep fried mackerel. This dish was particularly strong in flavour. I liked it the most of the three “courses.”
Nigiri sushi		You can’t ever go wrong with Nigiri sushi. Again featuring the three fish from our Sashimi we also had prawn and my favourite barbecued eel (unagi.)
Agemono (fried)		Like Nigiri sushi you can’t ever go wrong with Tempura. Tonight it was in the form of tempura prawn plus veg (sweet potato, carrot, capsicum.)
Yakimono (grilled)		The Yakimono tonight consisted of a braised beef (very strong in flavour and very tender) and steak (cooked almost rare.) Both dishes were fairly tasty.
Gunkan sushi, Maki sushi, Tomezakana sunomono, Miso soup		Our final “courses” before the dessert were served altogether. Gunkan sushi, is a way to put semi-liquid ingredients in sushi form. Our Gunkan sushi was topped with the salmon and yellow-tail. The maki sushi had barbecue eel in one and something unidentified in the other. The Tomezakana sunomono is a style of dish which was described as the penultimate vinegared dish. Tonight it seemed to be some sort of veg plus crab in vinegar. We’re unsure whether this was supposed to be the palatte cleanser.
Dessert		Our dessert consisted of four mini portions. The first was a slice from a mini chocolate swiss roll, green tea ice cream, a kebab of slices of fruit and a mouse/cheesecake type dish. Not a bad way to finish off the meal.

So, it sounds alright doesn’t it?

Ever since leaving the restaurant I’ve been trying to work out why I was so blah about the whole meal. I guess it boils down to the fact that there was just nothing that stood out and said “Wham! Look at me! I taste great!” or “I’m spectacularly different!” There was truly nothing that made Soseki different, in my opinion, from any other Japanese restaurant in London. Sure the food was high quality and great attention to detail paid in presentation – just a shame that I was expecting some sort of magic and the magician just didn’t deliver tonight.

Most of the time we are so spoilt with our lunches at training courses. Makes it difficult to go back to my own packed lunch! 🙂

Navajo Joe is a Bar/Restaurant located in Covent Garden serving south-western American cuisine. Walking into the venue you are hit by the extreme funkiness it excudes from the led-lit bar to the two story restaurant area situated along-side and behind the bar and floor to ceiling backdrop. We were escorted to the upper floor of the restaurant where we had a great view over the bar patrons. What was pleasing to me was that although there was music running in the background, that’s what it remained and Rehana and I didn’t need to shout in order to hear each other.

Our waitress was really friendly and efficient. She was also happy to chat to us all night if she needed to either giving us advice on the menu, bringing out extra dishes etc. Everything on the menu at Navajo Joe was really tempting. I like the fact that with your starters you can choose three smaller samplers for £10 to share between you or, of course, the traditional option of getting one each. We opted to go for the three starters as we wanted to sample a bit of lots of things without being too greedy: Crispy Duck Nachos with Hoisin Sauce (surprisingly a combination that went well but the dish also had quite a bite to it so they must have thrown some chilli into the dish too), Crunchy Catfish Goujons (need I say more – these little deep fried bundles of goodness were delicious. I really liked the catfish flavour too) and Coxina Chicken served with tabasco and lime dressing (these turned out to be like chicken croquettes. Also quite tasty.) I actually would have happily continued snacking on the “amusements” (as they are called) but thought we should check something out from the main menu too.

The “Southwestern Favourites” on the menu included things like fajitas and enchiladas, but as Rehana rightly pointed out, the most interesting option was the Trio of Fish: which consisted of
– cajun catfish with pineapple & coconut salsa
– mexican beer battered sea bass with jalapeño mayo and fries and
– smoked salmon with crispy capers.

Hilariously our waitress joked that we’d gone for the healthy option with this trio!

All three dishes were tasty and I particularly liked the pineapple and coconut salsa. Went surprisingly well with the catfish.

We both could have happily stopped there but what’s a night out without having desserts as well. Once again the both of us were attracted to the same dish, especially after our waitresses glowing recommendation (she says its her absolutely favourite dessert at Navajo Joe), the Pineapple Tart. I adore pineapple so couldn’t resist. Served with coconut ice-cream it was the perfect light dish to have to finish the meal.

Having read some so-so reviews on Navajo Joe (some good some bad) I hadn’t set my expectations very high so I was very pleased with how tonight went. We had the perfect service, atmosphere, and the food, not to mention great company – thanks Rehana! The food was the biggest surprise being of much higher quality than I expected and just an absolute joy to consume.

It’s been over three year’s since I’ve been to Raoul’s Cafe, either in Notthing Hill or Maida Vale, and back then I went about five times in one year. It was Elvira and Andrew who first introduced me to one of their favourite Sunday morning traditions so it was fitting that I chose it as the sight to say goodbye to Elvira and Andrew’s sister, Caroline.

Caroline has been around in London for the last couple of years and I’ve had some good holidays with her taking us to Spain and Germany so I’m very sad to see her go. I’m obviously happy for her to pursue her career back in Oz but it always saddens me when a good friend departs the UK to head back home. A trip that no doubt we all make eventually.

This morning we arrived at Raoul’s in time to avoid the long lines to get in and amazingly this little cafe has not been affected by the credit crunch at all – it was still buzzing. I was pleased to see that Raoul’s Cafe hadn’t really changed much either in terms of atmosphere, decoration and food. The eggs are still as deep yellow/orange as ever and still serving some fantastic shakes.

Nice brunch venue.

Sandra and I felt a bit intimidated going into the Intercontinental firstly because it was on Park Lane but secondly because there appeared to be paparazzi at the event and a red carpet. Presumably it was a party to celebrate Obama’s inauguration. However I decided to take the bull by the horns and waltz into the hotel lobby to try to find our restaurant. What’s the worst that could happen – that our rejection would be captured on memory card by the pap? Ha ha.

Luckily we did because we were in the correct place after all. We got there for 6.30 and there were not many other diners in there, with perhaps one or two tables with one or two individuals. It’s an attractive space with quite a long bar and what looked like a bar dedicated to the cheese. The kitchen is located behind the bars and, although not exactly open, is able to be viewed from tables via a long stretch of window. I didn’t see my mate Theo though I wasn’t expecting him to remember me from our Food Poker encounter. 🙂

I think Theo is fairly classic Italian. It uses a lot of ingredients and I guess I can see his influence on the River Café menu or is it vice versa (when looking at the menu I had flashbacks to River Café experience for some reason.) We had a simple set menu booked courtesy of toptable which was 2 for £21 or 3 for £25. Admittedly the set menu had a more limited offering than what’s on the a la carte menu but it’s a significant saving when you consider that antipastis/primis on the a la carte menu are around about £13 and mains start at about £25 with desserts topping out the menu at £7.

We were given some free bread after we’d ordered which I wasn’t expecting in the form of very nice bruschetta (the tomatoes were so sweet they almost tasted like bell peppers that had been roasted) and a garlic bread of sorts. The garlic bread was quite dense and super salty though extremely delicious. The only thing with the breads was that we were left with very oily fingers afterwards. Happily our waitress even offered us more though, in a smart move, we said no despite how delicious the breads were. (I say smart move as at the end of the meal, when I could have happily stopped after my second course steak, I was very very full.)

For my first course, tossing up between a red and yellow pepper risotto or ravioli stuffed with swiss chard and ricotta, I decided on the ravioli on the recommendation of the waitress. It was served rather simply, just garnished in olive oil, which I guess is how ravioli should be served. So you can enjoy the stuffing without interference from sauce. They were yummy!

Both Sandra and I decided on steak for our main meal. Cooked medium rare it was also served with mushrooms and, as it turned out, a mountain high pile of rocket! I was actually expecting a small steak serving considering we were dining from the specials menu but it was more generous than I thought. A more than adequate portion of steak and also heaps of mushroom. We’d also opted for a side of roasties to share between us. They were gorgeous – garnished with rosemary and garlic – these little babies were exactly what you’d expect: golden crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy (almost to the point you couldn’t fork it into your mouth but rather had to spoon it in)

For desserts once again Sandra and my tastes were aligned with the pear and almond tart. A decent slice of what seemed to be quite a big pie – it was perfect. The shell or outer casing was melt in your mouth though admittedly quite thick up on the sides. It was served with some crème freche which I was more than happy to leave by the way-side as it tasted a bit odd. I was expecting the tart to be warmed but it was served nearly cold.

Quite happy with the service we weren’t bothered too much at all (in fact this was nearly an issue as we tried to find someone to request the bill) but strangely in a fine dining restaurant such as Theo Randall there wasn’t a check back after we were served our main courses to “see if everything was alright.”

Theo Randall delivers quality Italian although a touch on the pricey side. However, having said that, you won’t find this kind of quality food in your local takeaway Italian. The diners next to us (a group of four men who were surprisingly happy to share all their dishes between themselves) looked to have some very interesting dishes off the a la carte menu, which we unfortunately didn’t see but I snuck a look at on the way out, which they all seemed to like of if their sounds of approval were anything to go by.

Pat, Ben and I headed to London Bridge to sample some Malaysian from the Georgetown restaurant tonight but the restaurant wasn’t exactly what I expected. It was very quiet, we were the only diners and only a couple more joined us by the time we left, so we had the full attention of staff including eagerly offering us repeat drink orders when they could see we were nearly done with our current ones. A bit annoying and presumptions but maybe in their eyes considered good service (on the side all the waiters were Indian so I’m wondering if the same held true for the kitchen!)

I’m not sure if we were given a different menu because we’d booked through a 50% toptable offer but the menu we received was quite brief – it gave four starters, four mains and four desserts. Didn’t really leave much room considering we’d all decided to share our food!

Starters: Prawn Tempura, Penang Curry and Indian Mee Gorent
Mains: Rendang Dagin, Roti Dan and Kari Ayam

Our food was pretty tasty though I would have objected to paying full price for the dishes. Seemed a bit pricey for what they were charging. I actually liked the fact that on our mains – three different curries – we all got very different garnishings. Ben got a very strange orange and kiwi fruit garnishing on his curry dish. The beef rendang was particularly tasty.

Overall I’m glad we had Malaysian tonight as I’m a big fan of it though I would have preferred more variety on the menu.