The Wolseley is one of those places where everyone should go for brunch or lunch at least once when in London. I’ve been to the have brunch there before but only in their little sun room at the front. This time around Connie managed to snag us a booking for lunch in the main room. I’ve given the description of the interior before so there is no need to bore you with that again. Nothing much had changed from the last visit – the same sumptuous interior, the same la-de-da clientele, the same excellent service (although they weren’t very efficient with the serving of water!)

Heaps of celebrity sightings this time – we were first sat next to Dawn French who was having a meal with her ex Lenny Henry (we later moved to a bigger table but sadly away from the gregarious couple) and also Sir Ahmed Salman Rusdie (author of the Satanic Verses.) I guess this is one of the reasons that you’re not allowed to take photos inside – to stop the stalkerazzi!

Lunch was a very relaxed affair despite the surrounds and again there was no feeling of rushing us out and away from our table. There was a minor boo boo by the restaurant as one of our desserts was forgotten. However the waitress was very apologetic and they were able to produce it very quickly after we asked.

Near my home is a relatively new Sichuan restaurant called Seventeen. It does not look like the kind of place that I can drop in for a takeaway, unlike my favourite local restaurant New Fortune Cookie, or even eat at on a regular, say weekly, basis. Its one of the new modern dark sleek looking places and if looks would count for anything you should expect a very nice meal.

Not to judge a book by its cover I took advantage of a groupon deal to dine – £16 for £40 of credit. Now for our typical oriental meal this would do Pat and I pretty nicely … but at seventeen we actually ended up spending another £18 which means that the meal was nearly £60 all up. Admittedly that included the cost of two drinks (one of which was a lychee martini Pat couldn’t resist.)

Food-wise it wasn’t the most impressive I’ve ever tasted nor were the portions very generous. Further, I guess we didn’t really take advantage of the Sichuan offerings. Maybe it deserves a second chance?

Every now and then you just gotta go all meat crazy so I met up with the lads tonight for an All-You-Can-Meat at Comida, a rodizio grill restaurant. This is where they come around with meat sticks and serve you your meat. It’s quite a small venue located on South Molton Street so unless you knew about it I guess it wouldn’t exactly shout out eat here!

The Cons (because you should always end up on a positive note)

• Limited meat offerings. It didn’t really feel like an All-You-Can-Meat because it seemed like they were only grilling a few meat sticks at a time, so you felt bad about asking for seconds as it would mean that someone else in the restaurant would miss out. The meat itself wasn’t that fantastic tasting with most tending towards the overcooked.
• The salad bar as a bit sad. It offered about ten different things with a 50% salad, 25% veg and 25% carb ratio.

The Pros

• Despite limited meat offerings we did get to eat a variety of meats including different cuts of steak, chicken wings, chicken thighs, ham, pork, sausages, lamb etc. … but no chicken hearts. Jon was devastated. Apparently they need to be requested special as not everyone eats them. Something to remember for next time should we ever come back!
• The salad bar, whilst not large, did do the trick and had some tasty options on there.
• The atmosphere was very relaxed because its not as hectic as other All-You-Can-Meats like Rodizio Rico and they haven’t tried to cram too many people into one spot.
• Staff were friendly

Overall, I guess at £20+ for the food you could do worse.  We at least had a pretty good night – even if the boys were paying out on me for not keep up with their meat-scapades!

I’ve quite often walked past Kettner’s in Soho, admiring the piano inside and the newish décor (white furniture and sterling silver candelabras.) Apparently Kettner’s is one of the oldest restaurants in London dating back to the 1860s! I thought it was a fairly intimate venue but according to the website inside there are four areas – a brasserie, champagne bar, pudding bar (for tea) and The Apartment (a club, as in private club not nightclub …)

Taking advantage of a top table offer I met Jenny there for a catch up tonight – I think however that prices at Kettner’s are pretty reasonable all around (e.g. with offers like 2 courses for £14.50) and even their a la carte menu isn’t too steep. The food is seriously good value for money and both Jenny and I were very satisfied with our main dishes – I had a grilled fish served on this fried greens and this was simply divine.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a mis-understanding about Jenny’s dessert as the waiter couldn’t quite explain what the Peach Tart was going to be. Tarts seem to be somewhat of a specialty at Kettner’s if the fact that they have a Tart of the Day AND 4 tarts on the dessert menu … unfortunately, the tart for Jenny consisted literally of a pastry crust filled with fruit. Don’t think there was any sort of other preparation. And the Peach wasn’t even ripe! On the plus side our waiter was very good about changing it to another dessert (which ended up being a much better dessert – so much that I’m pretty sure Jenny licked the plate? 😉 )

The drawback to Kettner’s as a venue is that it was very very noisy in the room we were in. If we weren’t competing with the man at the piano we were competing with everyone else talking loudly (no doubt required because they couldn’t hear each other either!)

I’ve read some pretty average reviews of Kettner’s from their service to their food but I must say from tonight’s experience I’d have to disagree with them. Great food and nice friendly service. If only they had a volume control for the other diners …