The Vietnamese food that I adore comes in one shape – barbequed or actually grilled I think is the more technical term. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to give other shapes and sizes a try. Tonight I caught up with Pauline and Sandra and we decided to check out Pho which had a cool 50% off food offer on top table. Pho has had one restaurant in Clerkenwell, near where my brother lives actually, since 2005, a second branch opened near Oxford Circus just last year and a further third branch in the mega shopping mall that is Westfield at Shepherd’s Bush. Tonight we were checking out the Oxford Circus branch.

Pho markets itself as a street food restaurant specialising in the title-name Vietnamese dish, Pho (a noodle soup) but also serves a few other dishes – mainly noodles but also a couple of rice dishes and a variety of appetisers. Disturbingly their drinks menu is larger than the food menu!

We decided to share two appetisers between us and then had one noodle dish each – choosing from the three varities: Pho, Bun and well, stir fry (I can’t remember what the Vietnamese word for it is.) We started our meal with the Goi Cuon Tom (summer roll with prawns) which is basically a cold spring roll. The dominating flavour in this spring roll (of which you get two which are then sliced up to give you four pieces) is mint. I didn’t taste much of the prawn but at least it was quite fresh. Our other appetiser was Banh Xeo Tom Ga (a Vietnamese crepe filled with prawns, chicken and beansprouts.) I wish I’d taken a photo of the crepe – it was basically crispy fairly thick batter fried (it looks kind of like an omelette but has the consistency of something like a parmesan crisp only thicker) which was folded in half and in between lay the filling. You are supposed to break up the crepe and then put bits into a lettuce leaf which you wrap and eat. Interesting concept but difficult to make the lettuce last through all your filling and I thought a bit disappointing in the meat ingredients. We had more then enough beansprouts on the other hand!

For our mains Sandra tried a Pho Tai Bo Vien (steak and meatballs), Pauline the Bun Cha Gio Bo Xao Sa (lemongrass beef) and I went the stir fry noodle with lemongrass beef. All were quite tasty from all reports though by the time that both Sandra and Pauline (both their servings were ginormous) finished the ingredients and interesting bits of their respective dishes they were left with quite a lot of noodle. My serving was a bit smaller but being a bit greedier anyway I managed to finish mine off. It was fairly tasty and rather spicy, especially after I added the Nuoc cham (a kind of chilli garlic fish sauce thing) it was quite a lot spicier.

Service at Pho was very good. Friendly and efficient though I didn’t like the fact they served my juice warm (I think Pauline’s drink was also warm) and they did at one stage forget to bring Pauline her requestes fork! There is good atmosphere in Pho because it’s a relatively cosy venue and has a constant turnover of patrons so its quite loud (but not as loud as somewhere like, say, Wagamama) and with a good buzz.

Overall, Pho is pretty decent value even without 50% off though they could do with upping the ingredient to noodle ratio in their dishes.

However, though we were done with Pho, the night wasn’t quite over. We could have easily finished our evening there Pauline and I had dreaming of waffles ever since we walked past a couple hot waffle stands on the way to dinner so we trooped off to Häagen-Dazs in Leicester Square. Unfortunately couldn’t convince Sandra to indulge – her resistance was too strong! The last time I had a waffle was in the Häagen-Dazs in Brussels so the waffles here had a lot to look up to. Mine is the dish on the left, the one on the right is Pauline’s. Unfortunately the waffles weren’t quite up to the same standard but the ice cream – oh the ice cream – divine. I could not go past the Caramel Apple Crumble and Coconut Macaroon (yes two scoops.) Yummmm!

Patara, Thailand, has won numerous awards since opening in 2002. There are now 14 branches of the restaurant worldwide, not including the original Patara in Thailand. There are four alone in London but the one that I always seem to walk by is the one in Greek Street, Soho. We decided to try Patara tonight at the last minute and it seems we’ve picked a busy night as the restaurant was fully booked but managed to fit us in for a 7.00 – 8.30 slot.

The restaurant is gorgeous inside. Amazingly the first half of the top floor is taken up by large couch areas. I guess to seat the people who are willing to wait to sample Patara offerings. In typical Thai style service we were immediately welcomed into the restaurant with big smiles and directly taken to our tables. Our waitress was also very quick to come over to us with a big smile of her own. I was heartened to see that we were left enough time to choose a drink from the menu. Nothing more I hate when, after being seated, you are immediately asked what drink you would like.

At first, looking through the menu, we were a bit baffled by the extensive choice which covered appetisers, soups, salads, meat-poultry dishes, curries, fish-shellfish dishes, vegetable dishes, side dishes and desserts! The first page is, helpingly, the Chef Recommendations and did contain a few dishes that caught our eye. The menu is authentic Thai but options have innovative twists which make worth coming to this restaurant, and paying a bit more, worth the visit. I wanted to sample everything but Pat was thankfully a voice of reason and we managed to come up with what I thought was quite a balanced choice, if a little heavy on the meat side.

We decided to forgo starters in favour of desserts so we headed straight into our main course which consisted of: nua tom kati (Slow braised beef in aromatic coconut reduction with fresh lime, lemongrass and chilli), massaman osso buco (Veal osso buco braised in massaman curry with lotus seeds accompanied by cucumber salsa and pita bread) and pad makua yao (Thai long aubergine sautéed in spicy yellow bean sauce with sweet basil.) It was lucky we limited it to those three dishes as they all just barely fit on to the table. All three dishes were presented nicely, extremely yummy and, granted the price was a little higher than the norm (average of £14.50 for the two meat dishes), had a fair amount of substance to the dishes. Between the two of us, along with two servings of coconut rice, it was more than enough to fill us.

For desserts we tried the gati sod sundae (Home made coconut ice-cream with exotic fruit) and kaoneow berries (Sticky rice pudding served with seasonal fresh berries, vanilla ice cream and palm sugar sauce.) Extremely yummy though interestingly it was my sticky rice pudding which resembled a sundae more than Pat’s coconut ice-cream.

We had a lovely time in Patara. The service was fantastic and friendly, the food was top-notch (and I liked the twists on ordinary thai dishes) and the atmosphere was great. Minor complaint was that our table was rather close to the table next to us however this is something you have to get used to in London and is not something unique to Patara.

Definitely recommended. Total bill, including 12.5% service and two non-alcoholic drinks, was £68.

So I know that only two days ago I had Indian but that was a last minute thing and The Cinnamon Club has been in my diary for a couple of weeks now. It has certainly demonstrated to me that Indian food and the restaurant serving it can be presented in such contrasting ways. On the one hand with Urban Turban you have a trendy/funky/modern take on the food and the restaurant with the classical/focus on minute detail take at The Cinnamon Club. I’m not saying that one is necessarily superior to the other but I’m happy at least that my meal tonight was not a carbon copy of Saturday’s! Also, having said that the two restaurants are quite different from each other the two restaurants have also strived to take evolve Indian food using modern ingredients and new styles of cooking.

The Cinnamon Club is located in the Old Westminster Library which I’m not sure is an actual functioning library, in the main dining room we were curious whether the books lining the walls above our heads were actual books, but it certainly made for a distinctive venue for dinner. It felt quite traditional without being stuffy and on the way to the toilets we also noted a couple of interesting and funky bars (including one which had rubber floors, leather walls and a long wall which had videos projected up on to it) which were quite different from the main dining room we were having dinner in. We arrived fairly early and only a few diners were dotted about the large room but by the time we left the place was fairly buzzing with no table spare it seemed. With the Houses of Parliament just around the corner no doubt many of the diners were, if not MPs, related in some manner or form with the machinery of government. Actually, sorry to name drop, although not dining at The Cinnamon Club tonight Rehana and I ran into Boris Johnson on the way back to the tube. I do so get excited when I see someone famous!

Taking advantage of a three course set meal and Bellini for £25 (including service) Rehana and I were delighted with what we got for our money. Having fairly similar tastes we ended up with practically the same meal though we did agree to share our appetisers (mainly because we decided they all sounded too good not to!)

Before we got to our meal though we were treated to an extremely tasty amuse-bouche of some sort of fritter. It was surprising to find such a little thing so packed with intense flavour plus it was a surprise so that made it even more pleasant. Our amuse-bouche was followed by our starters of Punjabi skate wing and sandalwood flavoured tandoori chicken breast. The skate wing was cooked perfectly and just fell off the bone. Though seasoned I was pleased to find the seasoning didn’t overwhelm the flavour of the fish and we were able to enjoy it with the intensely flavoured mango sauce. The tandoori chicken breast was pretty good too – tender, moist, well-flavoured and matched well to the mint sauce that accompanied it.

For mains you basically had a choice of fish, lamb and a vegetarian option and even though we’d had the skate wing for an appetiser both Rehana and I opted for the fish dish of Char-grilled Nile Perch with yoghurt sauce and steamed rice. It doesn’t sound particularly creative but we got was a delight. Once again a great amount of thought had gone into the dish to make sure it was perfectly balanced. The yoghurt sauce had a surprisingly bite to it which complimented the fish superbly.

For desserts neither of us could resist the Honey and Lime Cheesecake with Spiced Banana Short Bread which was extremely yummy. I liked the fact the dish had extra crumble on the side. Finally, we were served Petit Fours (like the amuse-bouche another surprise addition the meal) which finished off the meal nicely. Rehana really liked the dark chocolate sweet and I loved the intensity of the white chocolate sweet so we were both happy.

My only complaint was that the meal was over all too quickly. Don’t imagine that the portion sizes are massive … but then again maybe that’s just my greed coming through as we were both fully satisfied at the end of our meal! Price-wise the set meal was decent value. Going a la carte might have given us a few more choices but it would have definitely pushed the price of the meal up considerably. Starters on the a la carte menu probably averaged around £10 and mains £25 so it is quite pricey it is a reflection of the high quality food.

We had no complaints about service tonight though it was a bit strange to be served by about six different people with different people responsible for taking orders, delivering drinks, delivering meals, picking up our dishes and, as it turned out, producing the bill! This was where we faced our only problem of the night – when we had difficulty trying to track someone down to request the bill. It could be seen as a good thing that they weren’t hovering around our table trying to get rid of us but could have been frustrating if we’d been in a rush to leave.

I would definitely recommend The Cinnamon Club if you want somewhere and something a little different from the usual. An extremely charming venue.

Urban Turban is by twice Michelin starred Vineet Bhatia (if not the first Indian chef in Britain to receive a Michelin star one of the first few) and it is his attempt to bring “street food eateries” from his childhood to London.

When Urban Turban opened in Westbourne Grove I turned my nose down at what seemed to be an imitation “Ping Pong.” Mind you this was a judgement based purely on what I could see through the windows. The fact that a “Ping Pong” restaurant was just a bit down the street meant I couldn’t help but contrast the two in their looks.

“Street food eateries” at Urban Turban means encouraging tapas style dining. When you get the menu it may seem confusing as to how much and what to order. The standard suggestion seems to be that you order two dishes from the Desi Tapas section plus a (main) “Classic Helping” or have four dishes from the Desi Tapas. Its unclear if the suggestion was per person or per couple. To make things a little easier you also have the choice of sharing platters one of which involves a “volcanic grill” which basically means you get the raw ingredients to cook on a hot “volcanic” stone at your table.

Alongside the food menu is a not insubstantial cocktail and wine. I went for some sort of (virgin) banana and nutella colada which was quite interesting. It was extremely sweet, but balanced by the coconut, and had that additional hit of hazelnut chocolate. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea but I liked it.

For our food, not really trusting the standard ordering suggestions, we ended up choosing two Desi Tapas dishes and three “Classic Helpings” along with two naan. Let’s start with the Desi Tapas dishes. We went for the ‘Gun powder’ prawns with spring onion, herb chutney and Masala ‘crab & sweet corn cakes’ with spicy ketchup priced at a staggering £7.50 each. What we got were four prawns and four cakes. Taste-wise I couldn’t complain – both dishes were extremely full of flavour and cooked pretty much perfectly. However, value for money-wise both dishes were substantially overpriced. When you consider I can go to a decent Chinese restaurant and for the same price get, for example, an equally delicious prawn noodle dish that comes with eight or nine giant prawns I think someone is having a laugh … all the way to the bank!

Priced slightly better but still overpriced for the portion sizes we got were our main dishes of Salli-Murg (Parsi chicken with apricots and straw potatoes (£10) and Lamb biryani layered with aromatic basmati rice enclosed in a flaky crust (£12.) I wouldn’t say that either of these dishes were particularly memorable either though we had no problems finishing the dishes. One was sweet and the other one just blah (but considering I don’t really like lamb that’s not surprising!)

Star of the night had to be the ‘Baingan Bharta’ which was a smoked aubergine and pea masala (£6) which was not only a decent portion size for the price but extremely tasty. It was simply delish – the right balance of smokiness and bite! The naans were okay though I was disappointed to find that the Chilli garlic naan was basically a plain naan upon which had been slathered what tasted to us like Lee Kum Kee Chilli Garlic sauce out of the jar! This is a sauce that most Chinese have in their fridges I think!

By the time we’d finished our meal we were quite stuffed so had to pass on the £6 desserts. A shame because they did sound quite nice if a little over complicated. Take the Cardamom panacotta, fresh berries, rose infusion and basil for example.

Its clear that the credit crunch is having its impact on Urban Turban (in fact I’ve read reports that plans to expand into a second restaurant have now been shelved). Unlike reported in earlier reviews we had no need for a reservation and indeed the place, on a Saturday night no least, never really got full. The atmosphere was still quite nice, however, and it’s a place you could easily have an enjoyable evening. Service too seems to have improved from its teething problems when it first opened more than a year ago as we had delightful and friendly service that was pretty efficient too.

The last word relates to our bill. This was, to me, staggering at £65 considering we had no alcoholic drinks and the food is not quite fine dining. My best advice is to not come to Urban Turban hungry or thirsty – come to taste a few of the dishes and maybe have a drink or two in a fairly nice environment.

A new promotion by Walkers has the public choosing the next new flavour from a range of six: Builder’s Breakfast, Cripsy Duck & Hoi Sin, Onion Bhaji, Chilli & Chocolate, Fish & Chips and Cajun Squirrel. These six had been shortlisted from apparently “zillions” of entries submitted to Walkers in an earlier promotion. Even though the public get to vote on the eventually winning flavour the real winner is the person who suggested the flavour in the first place with £50,000 and 1% of future sales. Nice!

For so me reason the Chilli & Chocolate crisps caught my eye today as I was doing my grocery shop so I couldn’t resist giving them a taste. What a surprise! The crisps did really taste like Chilli & Chocolate. That’s not to say it’s a particularly great flavour in a crisp but I’m impressed in how Walkers have managed to capture the essence of this combination.

Closing date for the vote is 1 May so get chomping!