Lunch at what I think were the National Dining Rooms!
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It felt so civilised in there but the best bit about lunch? Getting out of the cold and rain!
Category Archives: Food
Supperclub
This should have been an exciting evening accompanied by decent grub and groovy music only it ended up kind of being a bit blah although Su Yin, Laney and I did try to make the most of it.
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Supperclub is located in a very non-central out of the way position in Notting Hill. Its best described as being located at the end of what would be the Portobello Road markets and to the right a bit. Its not near any other restaurant, shop, pub but actually in what appears to have been an abandoned warehouse.
After taking our names at the front desk and being given red dot stickers to wear on our lapels we were taken by this gentleman (dressed in a white lab coat, bright yellow sneakers, yellow cap and matching yellow-died beard) into this giant white wall painted room. The walls were lined with beds. That’s right – beds. So ladies in those extremely short skirts and shoes which are a killer to get in and out of think hard about your apparel before you come to supperclub – I mean you’l have to take them off, then put them on (to mingle or go to the toilet), take them off, put them on etc … I think it would have been much more fitting if we’d been asked to wear some sort of slinky pjs and slippers …
The first impression you get walking into the venue is that you’re walking into an asylum: white walls, white sheets on the beds, a video projection on to the wall with the mental asylum videos, the waiters and waitresses in their white lab coats (upon which you could draw on at your leisure if you wanted!) and the random writing on the wall. Having said that, however, the lights in the room kept changing so actually what we saw was green, then red, then pink etc There is a giant gaping space in the middle – later we were to see it was used for entertainment but I also imagine when this club turns into a proper club it would be used for dancing and the like – but in the time we were there it was just a vast space.
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Food is a “surprise” menu. Sometimes I think “surprise” is just a restaurant’s cheat way of making most of whatever ingredients they have on hand rather than planning a proper menu! Supperclub’s description of their food is thus:
Our amuses were a gazpacho, and a leek and gorgonzola tart. The gazpacho was weird but the tart was divine – though in fairness you can hardly say anything bad about such a combination – the full fat content after all should assure a well-flavoured dish – but it was hardly innovative. This was followed, nearly 20 minutes later, by our pre-starter of a vegetable medley soup (containing coriander, mushroom and a thai flavour). This wasn’t too bad but I found it strange that we would kind of have two liquid items in a row.
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The next course, I guess what is the official starter, was to be another half an hour: smoked duck and sea bream terrine (odd!) and tomato bread. Not a favourite with me this one. Unfortunately it was to be further half hour before I got the next taste in my mouth our main of seared beef with some sort of Oriental influenced sauce, soba noodles and potato croquette. The cold soba noodles weren’t really to my liking but I have to admit the beef was well cooked, tender and nicely flavoured. Su Yin, not being a beef eater, got a vegetable terrine type thing – if I were her I wouldn’t have been happy!
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And finally for dessert was a sorbet, chocolate and congac crumble with cream. This was apparently compiled in that big empty space in the middle I spoke of earlier but I was in the toilet at the time so didn’t really see what went on. I think it was just basically dishing it out into our little containers etc. so don’t think I missed much
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Diet and allergy requirements aside everyone is pretty much having the same thing so it shouldn’t have been difficult to produce or manage the timing of the food. Instead at times some dishes were cold (when it should have been hot) or once not all of us got our food at the same time (Wagamama may be able to use the excuse the food is cooked fresh and delivered as completed – but I could hardly say that supperclub could use the same since we were all eating the same thing!) or seemed to take forever to come!
Food-wise I was expecting more though that’s not to say it wasn’t alright – it just wasn’t as mind-blowing as I was expecting I guess from the combo of the food we got and to the timing of delivery.
The other thing in the mix, and was a valid excuse for why food took a long time to come out between two of the courses was the entertainment. On the hour (so for us it happened at 9 and then 10) they had entertainment in the form of a burlesque dancer (actually – I’ve seen her before at Boom Boom Club) and a kind of burlesque fire throwing/swallowing by this dude dressed in drag. He was kind of awesome. Both acts probably lasted less than 5 minutes and was a good way to break up the time though it would have been nicer for more often and longer performances.
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Staff at supperclub are for the most part friendly and actually at times entertaining though hard to get their attention sometimes because the place is so huge! The dude (in yellow everything) who brought us in was a particularly funny guy and boy could he salsa. He later gave us his resume but it read quite funny – all sorts of strange things that can’t be mentioned in this PG entry!
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Overall I’m not a hundred percent convinced that supperclub were really at their 100% tonight – food was ordinary with glimmers of loveliness, entertainment was good but way to little of it, staff were friendly but hard to get a hold of at times, and the atmosphere, admittedly on a school night, was a bit dead even as we left at nearly 11.30 … value for money-wise we paid about £33 which I guess wasn’t too bad but was at a discounted offer ….
Roast by Caro
Well Nate and Caro really spoil me when I’m at their place. They always make sure to feed me something gorgeous for my meal and they know how I miss having an oven and totally adore Caro’s roast. Its been a couple of months since the last one but remembering how I overate that time I made sure not to go overboard this time. I didn’t want to get into a food coma after all. Heh heh.
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Gaspar is starting to get into some adult food now and its totally adorable that he wanted to eat everything we were eating. Poor Caro though as she couldn’t get to her own food for a while! The lad sure is growing up quickly – not too long now and he will be a year old!
Piya Piya
I don’t know if Piya Piya is ever busy but on a fairly late Tuesday evening it was empty but for us and two other groups (one couple, one threesome) of diners. It’s quite an attractive venue and tries to combine a lounge/bar/restaurant into one, they even offer karaoke, and being located in the city I wonder if on any other night it would attract any of those city folk?
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Su Yin and I were dining on a reward menu from Top Table so though we weren’t expecting it to be a stunning range of choices it was pretty ordinary and if I’m honest I’ve had better at my local Thai lunch place (which somehow has now been replaced by a random fried chicken joint!) Service was okay but considering it was near empty it wasn’t fantastic. If dining here I would definitely try and get in offer.
I think Piya Piya suffers from trying to be a jack of all trades and master of none. Perhaps its better as a lounge/bar though when they actually have customers is another question altogether.
Golden Day and a bit of a Snog
If there was any other way to clear your sinuses and give your tear ducts and sweat glands a work out – its to get some Hunanese cooking into your belly. Holy smokes Batman call the firemen my mouth was on FIRE tonight!
The menu and all the pictures of the glorious food on offer at Golden Day in no way prepared me for just how hot the food was going to be. I’m proud to say that I made it to the end – but not without the help of about a million litres of water, sympathetic looks from the wait-staff and endless supplies of serviettes to wipe the sweat away. Don’t get me wrong because food at Golden Day is delicious. I particularly liked the Aubergine Stew, and not just because it was the least hot dish of the evening and looked exactly as it promised in the picture! It was tasty and what’s more extremely moreish.
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Worth a look too is the Dry Pot Chicken which comes presented in a wok on top of little flame. Don’t be deceived by this mild looking dish though. The chillis, and there are chillis aplenty, are not mild in the least. The hint with this dish is eat quickly as the slower you eat the more intense the heat of the chillis become … unless that’s your sort of thing to eat something as hot as possible. On me – it was not a pretty sight! Did anyone order a fire-breathing dragon?
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The Dry Fried Seabass was another little sneaky one for heat. Interestingly though fairly similar flavourings were used on the seabass tasted substantially different to the dry pot chicken.
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We also grabbed some Potato Pies but not only were they pricey (6 for £5.80) they didn’t really work as a substitute to good old plain rice and flavour-wise there wasn’t much to them. Still, since that was the only disappointment for the night I was pretty pleased overall with Golden Day. What did help a (little) bit with the heat was the (cold) mushroom salad. Soo refreshing!
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Golden Day is the kind of place that you want to come back to time and time again – whether its for the intense flavours, or the challenge of beating the heat, or for the authenticity of the regional Chinese food.
You may want to bring a fire extiguinsher. Or go to Snog like I did:
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Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road
Gordon Ramsay has taken an absolutely beating in the last 12 months if not longer and he has fallen out of favour with a lot of people including his financiers (!) and the Michelin Star judges (when they took away his one star at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s). I personally find him a very entertaining chef and I think in part 
responsible, though by no means solely responsible as there are a great many other chefs who have also contributed to the cause, for making high quality fine dining more accessible to the greater public. Admittedly this has come at the expense of the privacy in his life but to be fair it was his choice to be on TV ALL the time etc.
At any rate this is all a long rambling introduction to get to my main point which is that tonight I finally got the opportunity to visit Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road (which I must note has retained its 3-star Michelin rating for 2010.) Jo organised the booking through her work’s credit card booking service though to be honest with the booking so far in advance of our visit tonight we could have easily done it direct through the restaurant itself. Hilariously when her booking service asked what the reason was for our visit (normally people would say it’s a birthday, anniversary etc.) she informed them it was so we could sample the Menu Prestige, which is the reason I gave her for going. Heh heh.
The restaurant is a bit of a walk from any tube station so be warned but it was such a lovely day I didn’t mind the 
walk. The restaurant front is fairly discrete and probably if I hadn’t seen the door man I would have walked right past it. Inside the restaurant is a lot smaller than I imagined but I guess they are aiming for a more personalised service and cooking then you’d get at other larger restaurants.
Before I get on to the food I wanted to comment on the service. When we first sat down it was very responsive (almost too responsive because we were asked at least twice whether either of us had allergies) and we were waited on by what must have been about five waiters in the space of ten minutes. Disappointingly throughout the night as the room filled up the service levels dropped very considerably … to the point we had to ask for water to be topped up a couple of times (pet peeve!) and also were waiting for someone to attend to us so we could ask for the bill. On the other hand as soon as we stood up to the visit the ladies there were extra people on hand to direct us the 5 metres to the toilets. Very baffling and if I’m honest I was a bit disappointed by this drop in service. I’d rather be served constantly and attentively by one or two waiters than sporadically and inconsistently by five waiters. However, that’s not to say that when we had the attention of any wait person they weren’t friendly or didn’t go out of their way to help us because they did (they even picked up my hint that it was Jo’s “birthday”).
We had already decided that we were going to opt for the Menu Prestige which is a seven-course tasting menu (excluding any amuse bouches etc. but including pre-dessert/cheese) so we didn’t spend too much time fussing over the menu. We did have an option of “mains” on the tasting menu but Jo and I decided to split it with one option each so we could try both.
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Before all of this however we were served with some very cute Potato chips with Pesto and Mozzarella squished in-between two. This should have worked but I found that the pesto and mozzarella didn’t really have much of an impact as the potato was strangely overpowering in flavour. These chips were soon followed by canapés of lobster caesar dressing and avocado mousse. The restaurant went to great pains to ensure that one of these was served sans tomatoes since Jo had informed them she was allergic to it. These actually worked quite well flavour wise though got a bit messy when you bit into them! We also got a fair bit of bread (I think there were two or three different options) before any other food started arriving so we were well on our way to being stuffed! LOL.
The amuse bouche was the most adorable fried frog leg sat on top a potato salad which was then flooded with a leek and wild garlic soup. It was a tasty dish though I would have appreciated more fried frog leg. Still, it does make a change from the usual cauliflower-type soup amuse bouches I’ve received at other restaurants.
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Shortly after they cleared our amuse bouches we were finally on to the meat part of our tasting meal – the first course of “Pressed foie gras with Madeira jelly, smoked duck, rhubarb and walnut Crumble”. I was so set not to enjoy this as 1. I’m not a fan of foie gras and 2. I’m not a fan of smoked duck! However, when all the flavours were combined with the toasted brioche, which served as fantastic way to break through the fat, it was quite divine on the tongue. You won’t soon find me rushing to the shops to buy more foie gras but I was quite surprised to find that I actually liked this dish.
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Next up was arguably Gordon’s signature dish: Ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with tomato chutney, vinaigrette. Oh I soooo wanted to like this dish but I’m afraid that I as actually a little underwhelmed! Oh sure the lobster and langoustine chunks were quite meaty and fresh-tasting but the dish lacked a bit of wow factor. I can’t put my finger on why – perhaps I had too high an expectation.
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One of my favourite dishes of the night was up next: Fillet of turbot with braised baby gem lettuce and cep sauce. It doesn’t look like much but the turbot was cooked to perfection and had this amazing flavour to it. Perhaps it was the cep that came with it but I wanted to like my plate and steal Jo’s dish I loved it so much!
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Our next dishes deserved some fancy wear. Similar to those at Hibiscus these knives were pretty darn sharp and funky in shape. In reality the beef fillet was so tender and the pigeon, whilst not fall off the bone, was easy to get to that we probably didn’t need such an implements. Still, they looked cool. My dish of aged Casterbridge beef fillet with fondant potato, ox cheeks, bone marrow, and red wine jus and Jo’s roasted pigeon from Breese with grilled polenta, smoked pork belly and date sauce (though we ended up swapping as Jo didn’t actually want pigeon!) were pretty tasty though there was nothing really that was outstanding in either dish. Perhaps the tender smoked pork belly that accompanied the pigeon.
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Next up was a funky pre-dessert of apple crème brulee (Jenny would appreciate the odd flavour) and I think a pear (?) presse. The waiter advised us that it was good to have both items in our mouths at once to appreciate the tart and sweet flavor and it actually worked – once you figured out how to get liquid and solid into your mouth at the same time …
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Pineapple soup with toasted coconut and rum, a complete contrast to the Pre Dessert, greeted our pallets next. I loved the solid hard plastic straw that we sucked up this dish with. It worked pretty well – it was almost like a pina colada which could explain why I liked it so much. Pina Colada being one of my favourite cocktails. I loved the popping candy too!
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From sweet and light to something a bit more challenging and heavy: bitter chocolate and hazelnut cylinder with ginger mousse and blackcurrant granite. 3 out of 4 flavours were a favourite of mine so this dish couldn’t go too far wrong.
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By this stage we couldn’t believe we’d been in the restaurant for nearly three hours. Time sure flies when you’re having that many courses. Heh heh. We decided to get some tea/coffee to round out the meal – which was a good choice cause we ended up with some pretty wicked petit fours. First: Silver coated truffles on a silver tree:
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Second: Turkish delight made with rosewater jelly
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Third: White chocolate covered (what turned out to be) strawberry ice cream balls served with frozen ice
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And fourth: A little extra treat for Jo for her “birthday”. Heh heh.
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It was actually too much and we didn’t end up finishing off the truffles! Total scandal I know.
Overall I’d say that I had a lovely experience if not entirely as memorable at some other restaurants I’ve been to. For example, its hard to compare this 3 Michelin Starred restaurant with say something like Fat Duck which also has 3 Michelin star as inherently the food is so much more different. In fact, because Fat Duck is just so out there with its concept it would be almost unfair to compare the two – in my opinion Fat Duck as a special and unique meal would win hands down. However, I would expect that they should have the same level of (high) service, same level of quality of food and same level of presentation. Based on tonight’s experience Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road is lacking I think a little on the level of service – just in terms of being more consistent with their attentiveness – and presentation with some dishes being quite innovative and attractive to the eye, where others were just a little plain.
For those that are interested the damage, which included the tasting menu, one juice drink (severely overpriced at £10 for a glass!), and tea, came to a whopping £157. Ouch.
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Haozhan
It has taken us quite some time to test out Haozhan in Chinatown. Haozhan, which apparently translates to “A 
great place to eat” was added to the mix in about June 2007 – tough it has felt less like less time than that. One of the main reasons I’ve never visited was that Haozhan is not what I would typically expect of a Chinese restaurant with its bright green and black colourings and modern look – I’d never even really looked at the menu! However, my taste London card currently offers me 2-for-1 on meals so why waste an opportunity like that.
The menu is quite different to anything I’ve seen at any other modern Chinese restaurant and that includes places such as Hakkasan and Plum Valley. Offerings include Scallop Kataifi, Prawn Baguette, Coffee Ribs, Marmite Prawns and Haozhan Cream of Pumpkin for dessert. Those who with less adventurous palettes also have more traditional favourites such as Crispy Duck, Lemon Chicken, and Sweet and Sour Chicken.
Patrick and I got the menu and were like wah! We want to try everything! However we settled for the following dishes:
Jasmine Ribs. Patrick loved this dish. Perfectly soft and the right level of sauciness without having that stewed consistency. This would probably be ordered again (although I would try the coffee ribs next time first just to try it out – we were tempted to get both but that would have just been greedy!)
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Chilli Quail. I don’t think I’ve tasted quail which has been cooked quite as perfectly as this dish. The quail itself was moist and tender and the garnishing of spring onion, salt and chilli was simply divine. Don’t be misled by the fact it looks a right mess in the picture.
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Assam Prawns. I must admit if I hadn’t seen the picture of this one on the menu it wouldn’t have occurred to me to order this. The most gigantic prawns I’ve ever seen in a special Malaysian curry sauce (supposedly made with a blend of thirty ingredients!) served in a big bread bowl. So filling!
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Golden Honey Cod was up next for us. This was a baked black cod with sweet honey glaze sauce served on a bed of asparagus. Okay so it wasn’t so much a bed of asparagus as a couple of sticks but we could forgive it because the cod was so good. Pretty decent portion, so meaty and so very tasty.
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Seafood Fried Rice which we were hoping was the saucy kind but it wasn’t 🙁 Still tasty though.
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And finally, the dish I’d been waiting for – the Deep Fried Ice Cream. I was eating this however full I had. Both Pat and I ordered it and the waitress was like – would you like to order different desserts so you can taste different ones? Both Pat and I immediately said no. heh heh. We wanted one each! It was nearly exactly what I was hoping for though the tomato sauce on it was a bit strange – must remember to ask for topping and no tomato sauce next time! It was supposed to be a strawberry sauce!
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Price-wise you could definitely accumulate a giant bill at Haozhan but also I think it was fairly reasonably priced for the portion sizes and quality of the food you get. If you go for all the expensive dishes like seafood and wagyu beef then you shouldn’t be surprised at the massive bill. Prices for appetisers averaged around £6-£10 and main meals £10-£15 rising to £15-30 for seafood. Interestingly service was applied to our bill after the discount so our total bill was even cheaper
I was really impressed with Haozhan. The service was excellent and very friendly. A sign of a really good restaurant is that when they cleaned the table they didn’t just sweep the food to the floor but swept it to on to a plate. Additionally, food wasn’t rushed out and they didn’t try to put too much on the table at once. They even tried to help us out on menu choices which was nice. We felt we could actually take our time eating which is pleasant especially when you order as much food as we did. Water came out quickly and was topped up regularly without us having to ask.
I like!
Saturday evening at Edgware Road
I met Akh and Batool at Edgware Road for dinner tonight. As usual Edgware Road was a buzzing hive of activity and though I get the feeling it was not as busy as usual – it was busy enough so that we couldn’t get into Akh’s favourite restaurant for dinner! Still – its not like there isn’t a large range of restaurants up and down the block so we just went next door! Heh heh.
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After dinner, however, we found some spots outside of the restaurant free so we sat down for some shisha. Akh’s mate was there, actually he just knows him from way back when Akh used to hang around during Uni, and at the end he was trying to get me to say thank you in his language. But I’m a bad student – I’ve forgotten already!
Thanks too for Batool for lending me her Twilight book!
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Hangover Beard Papa
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Putney Pop Up: Rick Stein’s The Seafood Restaurant
Before I talk about tonight’s event I’d like to clarify something from my previous post on the Putney Pop-Up. I mentioned not being sure about where the money for the alcohol went – Rebecca confirmed tonight that all money made in excess of costs, including that on wine, will go direct to the charity. I also noted that the information on the raffle had been updated:
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So, on to tonight’s event: the master of seafood Rick Stein ably supported by Sam’s Brasserie and Harrison’s. Yonks ago I was in Padstow and miss out on being able to dine at The Seafood Restaurant. I was quite bummed but am hoping to be able to visit soon in the future. I was very much looking forward to tonight’s experience and I must say that I wasn’t disappointed.
We had a slight hiccup to start with when we were first seated as no waiter/waitress came to serve us for quite some time and we had to actually ask for the menu where other tables seemed to get it as they sat down. We didn’t really mind but felt it was a strange blip in the service. However, the waitress who was taking care of us for the night was actually pretty good at other things like topping up our water with being asked (always a good sign), being quite attentive and responsive, and also being friendly. Champagne was offered for the aperitif but I declined due to my allergy. Oh to be able to enjoy having a nice glass before/with dinner!
The menu tonight surprisingly did not contain any options. I think this was kind of a good way to do an event like tonight because it allows the chef, who knows best, to present a menu with dishes which are well balanced and complimentary. On the other hand the kitchen was also flexible enough to provide alternatives such as for one of the diners tonight who apparently had a shellfish allergy.
Pleasingly the dishes served tonight are exactly the kind of thing that is cooked at The Seafood Restaurant. In fact, it was almost like being in Padstow at his restaurant with ingredients as fresh as those that he would normally use – apparently the seafood arrived at 3am this morning! A perfectionist!
The Roast Langoustine with Pernod and Olive Oil Dressing was first off:
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Can I say it was divine! Even without the dressing (which I wanted to take home and bottle it was so good) the langoustine had this lovely barbecue almost smoky flavour to it. It was cooked perfectly. The only downer was that I didn’t know how to tackle the claws! We were given little bowls of warmed water with slices of lemon which seemed to indicate we’d need to use our fingers at some stage but I couldn’t break the claws open. What a nong I am – I must learn how to eat langoustine!
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Fish and Shellfish Soup, Rouille and Parmesan was next up. A very simple looking dish this one. I quite liked the touch of being able to blend in the rouille (or the harissa) to add heat to the soup. I thought the soup itself might have some chunky bits in it but the texture was provided by the cute croutons which were well toasted.
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My photo doesn’t really do justice to Brill in the next dish (Braised Fillet of Brill with Truffle, Slivers of Potato, Mushrooms and Truffle Oil) but it was definitely there. Quite a decent portion I felt. I don’t think I’ve had brill before but if tonight’s dish was any indication of how it normally tastes I will be sure to look out for it. Its not at all fishy tasting but somehow meaty and sweet at the same time. The dish was an example of how not to overpower fish.
Finally for dessert a perfectly baked Hot Chocolate Fondant:
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Tonight was a little less theatrical than our experience with Phil Howard last Thursday but I think it’s merely a reflection of the two men’s style. No less enjoyable that’s for sure and another wonderful night in aid of charity. Oh and this time around our coats were waiting for us as we left! Heh heh!
If you want to have a lovely evening out and want to make a contribution to charity while your at it check out the Putney pop up site for availability. Looks like you can still make it to Helena Puolakka of Skylon on Thursday and Patrick Williams (Patrick’s Kitchen) and Toby Leigh (Age & Sons) next Monday.