I can’t remember who recommended Phoenix Palace to me but this Chinese restaurant on Baker Street was definitely not what I was expecting. Opening up the menu it looked fairly typical .. until I got to the game section. Game is not something that is typical in a Chinese Restaurant anyway but the game on offer wasn’t also that typical. Aside from Venison, Veal and Ostrich the menu also features Kangaroo, Wild Boar, Springbok, Hare, and Frog!

We came to Phoenix Palace mainly to sample their dim sum so my brother and I decided to try some of our usual dim-sum dishes and sample one of the game dishes. At the prices of the yum-cha dishes (surprisingly pricey) we didn’t think we’d be back again unless we ate something spectacular.

Firstly on the dim sum. Honestly? I was disappointed. The Steam Pork Buns, whilst tasty, were miniscule, the Pork in Yam Croquette and Prawn Croquettes were seriously over-fried (so over-fried that when I went to stab my Yam Croquette it bounced from the plate and all over the table), the Garlic Spare Ribs Cheung Fung were in essence the steamed spare ribs dish served over three small noodles (for this pleasure the dish cost an extra pound or two!) and though the Steamed Prawn Dumpling with Wasabi was a good effort – it wasn’t anywhere near as moist or delicious or hot even as the one at Pearl Liang.

Secondly on the game dish. We went with the Pan Fried Kangaroo in Black Pepper & Honey Sauce. This was perfect. Served with small balls of honey dew melon it even caused a few pepole walking by to comment on how good it looked. The only minor point I would say is that the kangaroo didn’t taste gamey at all but it was extremely tender and went well with the sauce.

Finally, we decided to finish our meal with “Liquid Gold Custard Buns.” At £3.80 we were expecting a little something more exciting than this:

The little (and by little I mean about 5-6cm in diameter) steamed parcels were tasty but nothing too spectacular.

Overall I would say Phoenix Palace delivered satisfactory dim sum. I, however, wouldn’t go back there simply for that. I might, however, be happy to go back to try the restaurant on its main dishes. Maybe try out the chef specials.

Our pre-theatre meal was at The Forge in Covent Garden tonight. Nate and Caro are big fans of French food so were happy to try somewhere random and French! Additionally The Forge had the advantage of having outside dining tables so we could take advantage of the most glorious evening.

Like the other restaurants in this chain (the other two being Le Café de Jardin and Le Deuxième) the restaurant serves French food with a slight Anglo bias. We opted for the 3-course set meal which was simple but had options that we all liked and was also significantly cheaper than doing three dishes a la carte.

The food we all received was quite high quality – we all enjoyed our starters: soup of the day for me, duck and pistachio terrine for Caro and penne pasta with rocket and blue cheese for Nate. Mains were also good with Caro and I both going for the grilled salmon with mushroom risotto (recommended by our waitress) and Nate going for the chargrilled bavette (steak) with chips and bearnaise. Once again all delicious but portion sizes could have been a bit bigger. My disappointment for the night was my mango parfait – what was served was like a slice of cake 1cm wide. It was melting when I received it and practically disappeared after two spoonfuls.

Kyla was a late joiner to our dinner but the restaurant made sure to bring out both her selections so that by the time Nate, Caro and I had finished our desserts and were moving on to tea Kyla had pretty much caught up with us.

Overall The Forge was okay. Quality of food was let down by portion sizes. Some of the other tables had a la carte options and portions seemed a little more generous. Burgers looked great. Service was excellent and attentive though they seemed to have a lot of management floating about making sure the waiters and waitresses were doing their jobs.

Pauline insists that a birthday should be celebrated so here I was. I didn’t want anything too elaborate and was quite happy to have a simply quiet meal. In fact we were going to just go for simple Tapas for a Tenner at La Tasca but Pauline spotted a deal from top table of £25 for any Bento Box plus a Mojito at Asia de Cuba, which is on my list, so it didn’t take much to change our plans.

Asia de Cuba is located in the very chic St Martins Lane Hotel. Walking into the lobby of the hotel you’re met with a row of golden seats shaped like teeth, a giant flower vase, giant chess pieces, candles, garden gnomes dressing chairs … all very funky though almost seeming to try a little too hard.

We headed towards what we thought was the restaurant only to find it was actually The Light Bar. A little research has revealed that The Light Bar is apparently open only to Members and Residents or by Guest List reservation. It was admittedly a nice space but I really can’t get too excited about bars which are exclusive just for the sake of exclusivity.

So, the restaurant was just next door anyway. The restaurant was also quite funkily decorated. It was all mainly white space with giant fat poles scattered throughout the room which themselves were decorated with pot plants, books, pictures, and decorated as a couch/padded wall. Not sure if it had to do with the time of day but it was also very brightly lit which is welcoming after dining at many “mood” lit dimly lit restaurants.

To start with our waiter was very good – he was friendly and seemed efficient. But after he brought us our mojitos (which he quickly went to retrieve not long after we sat down) we didn’t really see him much after that. Maybe it was meant to be subtle servicing – available when you want them but not intrusive.

The dishes at Asia de Cuba are a mixture of Asia and Latin cultures … hence the name. Looking at the menu it seems to be Asian ingredients with a Cuban spin. I’ve not come to Asia de Cuba yet due to the prices – starters seeming to average around £20 and mains £30+. However, apparently the main dishes are intended for sharing and are very generous in size so that goes some way to explaining the hefty prices. Still I was glad we had our Bento Boxes which, when we decided to get three different boxes, allowed us to sample at least twelve dishes from the main menu (not to mention getting a free mojito with it – these were very strong!) In fact the Bento Boxes are available as a pre-theatre option should you feel up to it.

We all started off with a miso soup which was surprisingly tasty and filled with quite a few ingredients including enoki mushroom. Normally I wait until the soy has settled in my miso soup before drinking just the clear stuff but this one I drank completely. Our Bento Boxes arrived even before we’d finished our soups. They all looked really good:

Asia de Cuba Signature Bento Box	Seafood Bento Box	Carib Bento Box

So what exactly do you get in the boxes?

It was all very delicious and great attention to detail had been paid to the little things. I can’t even say what was my favourite dish – probably the Calamari Salad, or Oxtail Spring Rolls, or Seared Spice Tuna. We were all very full after eating but that didn’t stop us sharing a dessert – we had to go the Mexican donuts with butterscotch sauce. In a word – divine. Would have licked the plate if we hadn’t been sharing! 🙂

For all the feeling of chic the restaurant is actually pretty chilled and relaxed so you will definitely have a good time here at the restaurant. The food is great but the prices a little prohibitive this makes Asia de Cuba the perfect place to treat yourself now and again. My main objection to Asia de Cuba is the 15% service charge. Swanky restaurant or not I don’t believe any restaurant has a right to charge this much … unless of course they offer to spoon feed me!

My most recent visit to Gaucho (which was also my first) was to the Gaucho at Piccadilly. Now, just over seven months later, I’m lucky enough to be able to check out the one at Tower Bridge courtesy of Sandra and Julian for my upcoming birthday. The location at Tower Bridge couldn’t be too much better – we were sat on the second floor which was cut up into a smaller dining room (which made it quite intimate) along-side private dining rooms for larger groups. In fact the venue was so perfect that we witnessed an engagement tonight!

The restaurant was quite busy but I wouldn’t say it was heaving. Not sure if that had to do with it being summer so people are less likely to sit down for a big steak meal at summer. If there was one thing that was outstanding about Gaucho it was that all the employees were super-attractive. Can’t remember if I noticed or mentioned that about the one at Piccadilly. In addition to being good-looking our waiter was most lovely – so not only did he provide good service he was also actually quite funny and dare I say a little flirtatious!

As usual before we ordered our meal we got a little show and tell session on the steaks. This was as we ate the delicious cheese breads that they serve as an opening dish. Very nice. Jules decided he wanted to order the “largest” steak and our waiter laughingly informed Jules that the steaks could be as big as he wanted! He told us this story about a guy who came in once and ordered just steak – a 2kg steak! Yowser. After that Jules was happy just to go with the 400g maximum which appeared on the menu. heh heh.

My started this time around were empanadas (I went for Chopped Beef with Olive and Egg and Corn and Tomato) which were rather tasty but at £9.00, and bigger in the picture than they actually were, were seriously over-priced. Similarly with Jules Chorizo Sausage and Roasted Pepper – he thoroughly enjoyed it but at £7.50 again over-priced.

With my steak, once again I went with Churrasco ‘Cuts’ Lomo 300g, I went for sides of Sweet Potato Chips with Chorizo (perfect!) and Spinach with Garlic and Lemon. The spinach was the only disappointing aspect of the evening – it tasted like someone had dropped a whole salt shaker into the dish. Sandra and Julian shared a side of Humitas which I could definitley recommend. These are like a sweet corn patties served in the corn husks. Delicious.

I had a great time at Gaucho tonight so thanks again to Sandra and Julian for the treat.

We took the team out today to celebrate finishing off a major set of accounts. Since it seems that making the decision for where to go for lunch always seems to land on me I decided I might as well tick off one of the restaurants on my list. Thankfully Jules didn’t mind that we took the afternoon off and had to travel a bit on the tube to get there.

The Chicago Rib Shack at Knightsbridge re-opened with a bit of fanfare a few months agao spouting its new logo “The Shack is Back.” I’m a sucker for any rib joint and so it wasn’t so much the advertising campaign that convinced me that I wanted to visit as much as the promise of another restaurant that served a good set of ribs.

Top Table came up trumps today again with a £15 offer for a USA Rib Sampler Platter which consisted of

– 1/3 rack “sweet and tender” baby back pork ribs,
– 1/3 rack “meaty and juicy” St Louis cut pork ribs,
– 1/3 rack slow braised BBQ beef ribs

served with BBQ sauce, coleslaw, corn on the cob and spicy potato other bits

AND Dessert of Warm pecan pie & ice cream or Warm cinnamon apple pie & ice cream.

Mmmmm ….

I love the decor at the Rib Shack – its fun and funky. My favourite aspect were the ‘decorate-your-own-pigs’ (the ‘exhiPIGtion’) at the top of the stairs and all the funny paintings on the surrounding walls.

As soon as we sat down the waiter brought over some bibs, laughingly titled Bone Appetit, which we all of course accepted. Ribs can be a messy business especially when you’re wearing white or yellow!

When the ribs came out we were very gratified to see the giant platter of meat. The difficulty was in knowing exactly where to start on the platter. The coleslaw was in a surprisingly small cup so that wasn’t too hard to polish off. Then there was the corn which was barbecued perfectly and super sweet and finally I was left with the ribs and the suprisingly deep-fried
potato wedges. The wedges had to be eaten in turn with the ribs otherwise the balance would have been overwhelming on their own. The barbecue sauce, rather than being of the bottled variety, came warmed. I didn’t so much like the beef ribs though they were okay but its clear that barbecue best suits pork. The “sweet and tender” and “meaty and juicy” were perfectly cooked and generally quite easy to pull off the bones. I think eveyrone else on the table went for fingers but I found that knife and fork did me well enough.

Dessert was a little delayed in coming out and as a result we all started to feel quite full. It was delicious looking though so of course I ate it all. And it was perfectly delicious. Surprisingly for once my ice cream was enough to go with the pie.

I’m surprised that when the restaurant first opened that it was panned by the critics. And quite viciously. I didn’t really see the need. The restaurant doesn’t pretend to be more than what it is – an American-styled barbecue shack – so why expect fine dining and posh food. I totally enjoyed meal and the atmosphere we ate it in so you’ll find no complaints from me.

Tonight Levantine hosted and engagement party of sorts for Akhlaq. Ironically just moments after settled in a Hen’s Party also sat down for dinner at Levantine.

The decor of Levantine is stunning and sumptious. It is clear where all the money goes. Unfortunately from the get go Levantine was let down by the service. From the moment we sat down it was strangely agressive with the waitress almost forcing us to buy something off the wine list. I was gratified when no one was pushed into doing so. And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Jules ordered some still water as his drink and then when it came they proceeded to distribute his water to the whole table meaning we all got about 2cm of water. Ridiculous.

As has been my experience with a few Lebanese restaurants where this venue excelled was in their starters. Although cheekily charging you for “Warm breads, marinated olives, pickles & salads” (£1.25 per person) these were nevertheless quite welcome and, as it turned out, handy for filling you up. The selection of starters, warm and cold, is larged and varied. Additionally what came out was very tasty and decent portions. The mains, however, were quite disappointing. Those who opted for skewers (most of the table) got some very small portions although from what people said what was received was quite tasty. Just as wel we’d all filled up on the breads.

Levantine also entertained a belly dancer for about half an hour. Rather than simply doing her dance and finishing off she made a concerted effort to go around to every table to try and encourage people to get up and belly dance with her. I was very grateful to be stuck and having no option to get up. It was very funny, however, to witness everyone trying very hard NOT to make eye contact with her. She was very good actually – very fit and quite skilled.

Overall the food at Levantine, at least on this night, was let down by the service and portion sizes. A bit pricey … but then eating out at a Lebanese restaurant always seems to end up costing the earth. I guess someone has to pay for the beautiful decor of the restaurant.

Sandra talked about Confucius ages ago maintaining it was on the best Chinese restaurants she’s ever been to. Pauline thought tonight would be a good night to have a girl’s night out to test the restaurant out. I’m hardly ever down in Wimbledon for a night out so coupled with the fact I was staying at Pauline’s for the night (in Southfields) it seemed like great timing.

The decor in Confucius is modern – dark colours (seemed to be a lot of black laquered paneling) and open space. There’s also a giant fish tank near the front door with lots of pretty coloured fish. This all seemed quite promising.

Of course as a starter we had to go with Crispy Duck Pancake. Surprisingly Pauline wasn’t into the duck so Sandra and I had the lion’s share of the duck. Mmmm … I’m not going to say no to that. The duck was delicious but as with most restaurants there never seemed to be enough pancake and other fillings (zucchini for example.)

For our mains we had sweet and sour chicken, king prawns and vegetables and chilli beef. All were tasty though portion sizes were a little on the small size. Interestingly all dishes were served on top of heated silver serving “platters” – presumable to keep the dishes warm. Just another small attention paid to detail.

Confucius was a nice Chinese restaurant. Service was good and friendly. Food was decent quality but the down side was the price – a bit pricey for simple Chinese food. Still, not a bad option to consider when you’re in Wimbledon.

Time sure flies. The last time I was at La Tasca was in May 2007. Back then Tapas for a Tenner back then was a relatively new concept – one that has apparently proved some sort of success for La Tasca as more than a year later the concept is still going strong.

This time I met up with Rehana at the Chiswick branch. Shame we didn’t go tomorrow (a Wednesday) when they apparently have free salsa lessons too though I doubt Rehana, at nearly 8 months pregnant, would feel mobile enough to groove!

I seriously over-ate tonight and as much as I tried to avoid carbs (like the yummy cheese breads/garlic breads) to not have this feeling of my stomach being ready to explode I think the fact we had about 16 dishes between us (all mostly finished) probably hasn’t helped!

Probably I looked as pregnant as Rehana tonight. heh heh!