Avoid Grand Imperial Yum Cha at all costs! Laney and I had been told by a friend that this new restaurant at Victoria had an all you could eat offer on their yum cha on Sundays. We arrived disappointed to find that this wasn’t offered to us and, after looking at the prices, we were too embarrassed to even broach the topic with our waitstaff – tea, for a start, was priced at £4.00 per person (!) and dim sum dishes started at about £4.00 (on average they should start at £2.50ish!) Hilariously I don’t think I’ve ever had quite a large teapot for my Chinese tea before. I could barely lift it!

Deep Fried Ice Cream was intriguing at £6.00 (on the menu outside) but a total turn off when we looked at the menu inside and it had jumped to £8.00! Oh boy. Anyway, we had made our reservation and now had to eat it. The Grand Imperial is attached to the Thistle Hotel just outside Victoria station so it couldn’t really be in a more convenient spot. You’d think we would have been wary of a restaurant attached to a hotel but to be honest there are so many restaurants attached to hotels in London that I didn’t even think about it. No doubt about it Grand Imperial certainly looks the business – high ceilings, black lacquer tables and chairs, chandeliers, and embossed serviettes but did it deliver on food?

I actually had Grand Imperial down on my to-eat list, but that was from the regular dinner menu. My mistake for thinking that just because that menu sounded good the yum cha would be good too! At the prices we were being charged I was expecting something spectacular – plain and regular was what we got instead. And tiny! Our steamed prawn dumplings (priced at £4.80) was absolutely miniature (that I didn’t even bother taking a photo) as was the steamed pork bun. Two staple dishes done very disappointingly.

And our Prawn Cheung Fung seemed to have had a third cut off! The only highlight was the Pan-Fried Foie Gras and Beef Dumpling (3 for £4.20), which was actually quite delicious, in an otherwise ordinary meal.

Since we had our wallets out we also opted for the Chocolate Dim Sum “Platter”. Don’t be deceived – it was a mere four pieces of various different chocolate dim sum: Canton Cracker, Coconut Delight Pumpkin Bundle, and Cashew Crescent for £6. Pretty is about as positive I can be about this platter.

I don’t think I’ve ever walked away from a yum cha meal quite so hungry. Still, there are good reviews out there for this restaurant so I’m willing to give it another chance to see if their other food does the reviews justice.

The beautiful thing about Plateau are the floor to ceiling windows with views over Canada Square Park. Two and a half years ago a visit to the Grill half of Plateau with Sandra got us views over the ice-rink, tonight with Jenny we had views over the British Heart Foundation Canary Wharf Jog – quite a site to watch the runners run their laps … as we sat in the comfort of the restaurant eating our fine, rich food!

Later on there was also a band … though it was a bit sad that only three people were watching / jiving!

Plateau is very trendy in that city way – it even has gambling chip type coat check tags just for fun. As I mentioned Jenny and I dined in the restaurant section of the venue where the a la carte menu was a lot more intriguing than the set menu. However, the manager was still happy to comp us our aperitif which was very nice of him! In fact service tonight was superb – the waitstaff were engaging (they actually seemed interested in making conversation with us – even to the extent of making teasing comments like saying the truffled mac was simply too good to share), impressively they brought over spare plates so that we could share starters and desserts even though we hadn’t asked for them and they didn’t try to push us out of the restaurant once we were done. Admittedly on this last point they weren’t hugely busy but it was still nice to be allowed to sit there and chat even with nothing on the table.

And the food! This was absolutely gorgeous. Fresh and warmed and served with yummy butter (I think that’s part of the reason why I was so full even after only two courses …) For a starter I was enticed by the English parsley risotto, sauté of snails with garlic butter. I’m not entirely sure what the dark sauce was on the plate but it was quite delicious and just on the right side of well-seasoned. Jenny passed on starters to finish with dessert.

For our mains it was Seared fillet of sea bream, aubergine caviar (interesting), slow cooked onions and peppers for Jenny and I simply could not go past the Poached and roast corn fed chicken, truffled macaroni, baby leeks, jus gras. Yes – it was definitely the truffled mac which made me choose this dish. Would have been a tough call had pork belly been on the a la carte menu! The corn fed chicken was perfectly tender and juicy and the truffled mac – do I need to say anymore!

To finish Jenny had a beautiful Warm bitter chocolate tart (more chocolate fondant than tart), kalamansi sorbet (yay for a Filipino fruit) and Oreo cookie crumb. Even I was intrigued by this dessert … shame I was too full to indulge!

If Plateau was more centrally located (I was over Canary Wharf side to visit Jenny at her new workplace) I would definitely eat there more often. Guess I’ll just have to satisfy myself to occasional treats!

Seventeen, one of my local Chinese restaurants, was 50% off on top table and I thought why not give it another go – see if the reason I didn’t rate it on my last visit was because Pat and I hadn’t chosen the right dishes.

Well, I’m still not convinced … certainly not enough to pay the full price at any rate.

Tonight no cocktails but tea. Tea which came in the cutest littlest teapots and the cutest littlest teacups – I’d be surprised if there was more than a few mouthfuls in the cups! At least they were pretty good at refilling our pots!

Without really thinking about it we ended up getting three dishes which were deep fried. For starters Crispy Soft Shell Crab tossed with garlic, chilli and sea salt and Golden Calamari tossed in mixed herbs, pepper and garlic. Quite similar in flavouring to each other to be honest.

For mains it was Taste of the Sea which consisted of Lobster, king scallop, cod fillet with soft shell crab. Served with asparagus, red onion, baby corn and spring onion, in the chef’s special sake sauce. I quite enjoyed this dish, which was surprisingly sweet, but was very disappointed to find that the soft shell crab had been fried. I guess its not often served unfried but still. Along with this we chose the Mango duck (duck breast stir fried with mango, mixed greens in orange dressing.) This wasn’t bad but duck probably wasn’t the best meat to go with the mango.

Overall the food was okay but not stunning. I guess we still didn’t really challenge the Sichuanese aspect of the restaurant though we did try a couple of dishes with some twists to it Good value for the 50% but portions are still relatively small otherwise. I can’t say I’d become a regular but would keep it as an option as long as the 50% offer was around.

Awesome weather, awesome company, awesome food – a great combination for a relaxed Sunday barbecue at Nate and Caro’s.

Gaspar is going up so quickly now – running around, playing football, playing rugby (though he hasn’t quite worked out how to catch the ball yet) and helping out with the barbecue …

“You Want This?”

And it wouldn’t be a traditional barbecue without Nate dropping something on to the floor … ha ha!

Here’s the food! That’s right. Two plates of good stuff plus dessert 🙂

Bob Bob Ricard has been on my to-eat list for over two years! Can’t believe it has taken me so long to get here – its so much fun! How does one describe Bob Bob Ricard? It describes itself as serving luxury English and Russian to an eclectic clientele in London’s most glamorous all-booth dining room.

The dining room is certainly one of the must glamorous I’ve seen – come on, it even has a button you press to call for champagne (although in reality what it does is simply beckon your waitress to the table.)

Great deco both in the dining room and the bars below ground (love the backgammon flooring in one of the bars) though I do wish there was just a touch more light in the dining room!

Everything is Bob Bob Ricard branded – from the coatcheck tag, to the placemats, to the deco and to the butter.

Food-wise the menu is kind of exciting. They have this Vodka / tapas (or Zakuski) pairing menu but also other exciting items such as Quails Eggs Mayonnaise with Black Truffle, Suckling Pork and Chicken and Mushroom Pie with Truffle Sauce.

Those items were trumped by my love of having breakfast for dinner – for my starter I had Eggs Benedict which was quite incredible. Egg was perfectly poached and the Hollandaise sauce was incredibly tasty. Sandra had a starter of Scallop & Shrimp Shell Pie which was very cute and she reports it was very good. I can’t remember what Ying and Laney had.

For mains Sandra had the Chicken and Mushroom Pie, Ying the Cheeseburger from the BBR Favourites menu and Laney the Veal Holstein with Quails Egg, Anchovies and Truffled Mashed Potatoes. For once I didn’t have a pig dish but had to go the signature Bob’s Chicken Kiev with Sweet Corn and Potato Mash. Sandra reports her mushroom pie was a bit more ordinary than she was expecting (bland was a word she used) with the truffle sauce, though being quite fragrant, was not very truffly. It was certainly a large portion though! Ying’s burger looked fairly standard and the best part of Laney’s dish was probably the truffled mash (which you can order from the side order menu too.)

I very much enjoyed my chicken kiev which was very tender and juicy though it was a touch overseasoned. Just as well my mash was nice and sweet!

Dessert-wise Sandra’s Chocolate Glory was certainly the most theatrical. Her dessert was served at this golden ball and then the waitress comes along and pours hot molten chocolate all over it to melt the ball. It was way too rich for me though consisting of chocolate mousse, chocolate brownie, passionfruit orange jelly, meringue and raspberries. For me I certainly couldn’t look past the trio of Crème Brulees: Pistachio, Passion fruit and vanilla. Scrumptious.

Service at Bob Bob Ricard is very good – prompt, available and efficient. We had really friendly waitresses and one of them got so excited about the dish we were ordering. The positive was that it was consistently good service from when we first walked in the door all the way until we left. The booths we were in had coat hangers right next to us and upon leaving the waitress was very quick to try and get to the coats ahead of us so she could assist us with putting them on.

Bob Bob Ricard was certainly a fun, if not cheap experience. This meal including service and one drink was £50 which pushes the meal into the above average category. You can certainly spend a lot more if you start going crazy on the “Press For Champagne” button. Heh heh. I would certainly come back again to try out some of the other delights … after I’ve saved up a few more pennies!

It was an absolutely glorious day for a barbecue at Sandra and Jules’ – yay! I was happy for Sandra and Julian as they had gone to incredible trouble for Steve and I.

There was a lot of food to get through … I probably shouldn’t have brought the chips and dips that we all gorged on whilst waiting for the barbecue to get hot. Heh heh.

Chicken went first on the barbie. I think Sandra got a bit too excited as the barbie was too hot so the chicken got quickly charred on the outside but less cooked on the inside. It smelled incredible though!

Next on the barbie were the kebabs …

But the food wans’t finished there! We also had ribs and corn and salad …

Everything was delicious. Sandra and Julian had marinated everything and it all worked very well together. However, we were quite full so before dessert took a walk down to the river.

Dessert was a perfect finish. It was a make your own pavlova with Sandra’s home made meringue. Mmm …

On a day where the weather was absolutely shocking and where transportation just refused to co-operate I was really looking forward to a nice warming pleasant experience at the Ivy with my fellow dinner mates Jenny and Nimet. When I came into the entry of The Ivy it was very crowded as a whole bunch of ladies had just come in. As one of the first faces the public sees you would think that the coat check girl would be a little more pleasant – but she couldn’t have been less friendly. She was very gruff and just grabbing coats without even any effort of welcoming or politeness. Great start! I didn’t actually have a coat so I slipped by this group and into the main restaurant to try and track down my friends.

The last time I’d been to The Ivy I don’t really remember rating the food so I was interested to see how much my views had changed after now having been to many more restaurants since. We were actually at The Ivy on an offer (which seems to suggest it is struggling to get customers in the door – it used to be that it was very difficult to get a reservation at all) which consisted of a set menu deal.

The bread we received was gorgeous and warmed. No cover charge this time.

For my starters I had the Brocolli soup with pinenut & raisin biscuits which sounded the most interesting out of the three options (Jenny had the Steamed English asparagus – literally three or four sticks of asparagus with béarnaise sauce and Nimet the Chopped salad with avocado, shrimp & tomato.) The soup didn’t come with any bread just the dressing of biscuit crouton. Soup was delicious and the biscuit was interesting – I liked the combination of the raisin and the biscuit was very rich and buttery and cheesy almost. Just wish there had been more of the biscuit!

For main the Minute steak that came with a side of Caesar salad and bowl of French fry chips (which were a bit overcooked) that Nimet had was probably the best value for money. Jenny’s thai-baked salmon with sweet pickled cucumber salad & rice sounded good but was quite simple. I was torn between the salmon and the Twice-baked pork belly with borlotti beans & sage – mainly because I’m not a fan of beans. Pork belly was actually very good though, it was not too fatty but still very juicy and tender.

Desserts were nice without being too stunning.

Overall food-wise I would probably say it was better than I remember it being but its always hard to judge when you’re only eating from a set menu.

Service-wise it was very disappointing! My pet hate – we weren’t offered any water (and oddly not even a choice of still or bottled) so I had to ask for water. And when I finished my water, instead of topping it up it was taken away!! When our mains were served the waiter knocked over and spilled Nimet’s drink and though he was very sorry about it and came back to cover the spillage with serviettes … he didn’t actually replace it! We waited to see how long it would take but in the end it took my asking for a replacement drink before it came. But on the other hand when Jenny’s plating was disturbed because he was rushing to serve it (this was when he spilt the drink) the waiter was going to go away to re-plate it and one waiter was very apologetic for bumping into me even though I had elbowed him. Talk about extreme service. Oh, Jenny had to confirm three times. Overkill!

The Ivy was a lot busier and hectic than what I recall from my last visit, tables were crammed in and everything felt crowded. Its no wonder waiters kept bumping into us or knocking over drinks etc. Not sure if this was because people were dining on set menu meals …

PS Still no photos or mobile phones allowed.

Overeating seems to be the order of the day whenever Rehana and I meet up for dinner. Tonight’s venue for the glutton-fest was the North African restaurant Azou in Hammersmith. Apparently Gordon Ramsay picked it as the best North African Restaurant in 2010 in his TV series.

We started with Baba Ganoush which was pretty incredible and served with warmed pitta bread.

Our other starter was Brik – a Tunisian speciality of crisp thin pastry filled with potato, egg & tuna. This was absolutely massive and after having filled ourselves with both the Baba Ganoush and the Brik we were already reaching our limits! The Brik was tasty although tasted a bit too oily.

We really should have shared a main course, instead we got one each! Both of us liked the sound of the Tajines. Mine was the Tajine romanne (chicken breast in a sweet/tangy pomegranate sauce, garnished with almonds, raisins & caramelised onion) and Rehana the Tajine Marrakech (lamb and vegetables in an aromatic sauce.) Both were incredibly tender and juicy. I preferred my dish of course as it wasn’t lamb! Ha. But I do like sweat and sour combinations in my food and my chicken was perfectly balanced.

As you can imagine … no room for dessert!

Service at Azou was friendly and efficient. The restaurant is quite small so the tables are very close and intimate – moving around requires some care! It was very busy tonight – I wonder if its still the knock on effect from Gordon’s recommendation!

Rehana and I were so full afterwards that we walked to Barons Court before getting on the tube.

The zorbing sure worked up my appetite … for “L”inner … Portugese Rice