Tag: ££££
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RESTAURANT REVIEW | Bistrot on the Square @ Eccleston Square Hotel
Bistrot on the Square @ Eccleston Square Hotel
Just a brief walk from the chaos of Victoria Station lies the calm, stylish, uber-cool and uber-tech hotel within Eccleston Square. I am not a natural-born Londoner and can sometimes find the “buzz” a bit overwhelming. Eccleston Square manages to create an ambience to instantly chill and transports you to a peaceful place.
Ambient music played throughout even fed through to their guest toilet decked with L’occitane products (as are there hotel rooms), and fresh hand towels. It’s simple luxuries like this that take the experience to another level.
From the moment you walk through the door, it’s clear that presentation and design is key and comes easily to the Eccleston Square Hotel. It was lovely to see this being held consistently and conveyed through their food with each course being presented to perfection in the Bistrot.
To start we had spiced squid & prawn fritters with sweet chilli sauce. Brilliantly bestowed on top of a newspaper cutting of an article about the Eccleston Square Hotel. It felt like we had constant smiles on our faces as the Bistrot laid on a dining experience to remember.
Also to start, a salad of burrata (made from mozzarella & cream), parma ham, and walnut balsamic dressing. Burrata. Where have you been all my life? I often find mozzarella out of place in salads or anything where it’s not molten and hot essentially. But burrata solves that by giving the creamy-ness of mozzarella but being silky and smooth, and melts in the mouth- a perfect partner for the parma ham.
Next, the traditional fish (3 different types) and spinach Xacuti Indian curry. Spicy, warming and as vibrant in it’s flavour as it is colour. Served along side steamed cumin rice and fantastic shards of poppadum. A lovely dish.
Also we had the Moroccan spiced lamb and apricot tagine. The lamb was amazing. Trouble with tagines’ can be that they are overly fruity, or too much spice added- but the chef, clearly is very good with spices as it was a perfect marriage of fruity and spicy along-side luxuriously tender lamb. With the lamb you have a refreshing raw slaw of tomato, cucumber, and pomegranate in a mint dressing, which was so lovely and in-line with the chef’s nutritious, vitamin-rich approach to food, adding some needed crunch against tender lamb and warm fluffy lemon couscous. My only criticism would be that the tomato was slightly watery so took away from the crisp crunch.
To finish, I had the Madagascan vanilla crème brulee. It was literally the best brulee I have ever had. It was fresh and spiked with vanilla pod throughout it’s set, warm custard. I don’t know how many brulees are spoilt by the custard being cold so that it conjours images of brulee en masse sat in a fridge waiting for a customer to order them and be blow-torched. Not this one. Simple, but beautiful when done right, as they have done here. The Valhrona fondant is one to order too with an intense chocolate hit bound to surpass the requirements of any chocolate lover.
Post dinner coffees are served with home-made biscuits which was a lovely little touch and executed well. The service throughout was impeccable and friendly with our waiter engaging in polite conversation, asking what we had done in the day etc. he also ensured our courses came within our time-frame due to travel commitments.
I have given the Bistrot on the Square five stars as they demonstrated being experts in my two favourite loves; design and food. And being able to do so with such grace and good taste is hard to find.
Reviewed by: Jordan Lohan
ADDRESS: 37 Eccleston Square Hotel, London, SW1V 1PB
VENUE PHONE: 020 3489 1000
WEBSITE: http://www.ecclestonsquarehotel.com
PRICE: £££
RATING: ★★★★★
TIPPING POLICY: Discretionary service charge of 12.5% added to bill -
RESTAURANT REVIEW | Mews Of Mayfair
A short walk from Oxford Circus tube, tucked behind shopping chaos is the tranquil Mews of Mayfair. The clientèle appeared to mainly be tourists which is not surprising as the menu design is a marriage of classic familiar dishes (Fish & Chips, Burger, Club Sandwich etc.), alongside more refined sophisticated dishes including Duck Egg, Salt Baked Cotswold Chicken, Superfoods Salad, and rare breed beef.
The team within Mews of Mayfair were all really lovely, welcoming and engaged in conversation with us both. I find especially in London that service can be almost robotic and cold at times, but the team here were faultless and this was consistent as I observed the service with the other diners.
To start my friend ordered the Mosaic of Wild Duck & Red Deer- and why wouldn’t you want to order the mosaic to start? Their creative flair continued through to the taste of this well-constructed starter. Essentially a pate paired with a raisin bread, and the flavours in this were superb.
I chose the Orkney Isles Scallops served with pork belly and artichoke. Again the Mews of Mayfair showcase their expertise in the execution and presentation of this dish. Butter-like scallops served in a shell on top of a rock/seaweed filled bowl it was great to see their presentation going that extra step further. I was really impressed with the scallop and would highly recommend it.
For the Winter period the restaurant have come up with their take on a Bambi Burger, on the menu as Venison Burger. With this dish only being available til Christmas I went for this and had it cooked medium. Served in a brioche bun with a gin and redcurrant sauce, this really was a good burger. My friend opted for their traditional Mews burger but with added meaty chunks of lobster atop the meat, which was cooked to her liking perfectly.
With so many new restaurants opening with meat as their headlining dishes it’s important to be able to get a burger right, which the Mews of Mayfair have done so here. There were plenty of caveman flesh in face style grunts from us during eating the burgers. Always a good sign.
Dessert. Here is where the show was stolen. I would come back here just to have the desserts alone, and I do not have much of a sweet tooth so this is really a big credit to the restaurant. I chose the Chocolate Delice served with honeycomb, yoghurt and hazelnuts. Pow in their presentation and an “oh god” moment with the first mouthful. The Chocolate Delice really is something special. Rich and mousse-like with subtle orange notes and light honeycomb with globes of cream and yoghurt.
We also had the Roast Williams Pear served with croissant ice cream. The pear was perfection and such a great match with the ice cream- seriously good ice cream, and I should know after many a summer spent in Italy.
I will definitely be back, not only for the dessert and friendly service, but to next time try something a little more adventurous with their main courses. Portion sizes throughout were good value for money, especially with the desserts (£7.50 most expensive for one) and the food arrived at the exact right amount of time between courses, making this a good venue not just for dinner but lunch (we dined over lunchtime).
REVIEWED BY: Jordan Lohan
ADDRESS: 10 Lancashire Court. New Bond Street, London, W1S 1EY
VENUE PHONE: 0207 518 9388
WEBSITE: www.mewsofmayfair.com
RATING: ★★★★ (explained)
PRICE: ££££ (explained)
TIPPING POLICY: Discretionary service charge of 12.5% added to bill -
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Rosa’s Thai Cafe, Chelsea
Rosa’s Thai Cafe which have venues situated in; Spitalfields, Soho, Westfield Stratford, and Carnaby, recently opened their first restaurant that has a bar inside in Chelsea, which I visited recently with a friend.
The restaurant was quite busy with clientèle appearing to be well off, middle-aged socialites. The restaurant eventually reached maximum capacity which felt a little cramped at times. As much as the large novelty Christmas tree adorned with quirky cute toy stuffed crabs was a talking point, and good show, it probably didn’t help with the spatial availability.
Obviously inspired by their festive deco, my friend ordered the Soft Shell Crab – crispy crab topped with Thai herbs, shallots, and spicy fresh chilli sauce. This starter came served with a fresh salad of peppers which was a really nice cool contrast to the crispy spicy crab.
I went for the Spicy Pork Patties – lightly deep fried spiced marinated minced pork with galangal, lemongrass, garlic and chilli. These were cooked really well being uber crisp on the outside and tender, herby and well spiced on the inside. It came served with a smokey honey sauce that was so good I could have done with the double the amount served. Lovely.
In the space between courses, even with a busy restaurant, the staff were so attentive always ensuring that our water and wine were topped up as required and done so with such stealth it almost gave the impression we had magic never ending glasses.
For a main I chose the Grilled Jumbo Prawns with spicy fresh chilli sauce, and cooled steamed vegetables. Unfortunately, this dish was really underwhelming. My reason for this being that the prawns had been butterflied and cut in half and not stated to be served in that manner on the menu. I felt they were overcooked and awkward to eat picking the flesh out of the charred outer half shells. It took the fun out of jumbo prawns for me. The cooled steamed vegetables were verging on raw, however, I would much rather vegetables be overly al-dente than mush. The side I chose was Garlic Brown Rice- and considering the amount of crispy garlic it had on top of the rice, it was rather bland unfortunately.
After then seeing and tasting my friend’s main course, however, I would be interested in going back to Rosa’s Thai and exploring the other curries they have on offer. My friend had Salmon Red Curry- deep fried salmon fillet in light batter in Thai red curry and Thai herbs. The fish was beautiful and the curry sauce it came in was superb. An array of flavours elegantly executed with nothing too overpowering which so many curries can be. The coconut rice that we paired with this was also delicious.
Lacking a dessert menu the restaurant do offer a coconut or green tea ice cream (not homemade unfortunately) of which we had and shared both. Both these flavours beautiful, my favourite being the green tea. They don’t appear on any menu so you will have to ask and I recommend that you do as it was a really lovely end to the meal.
It’s a shame my main was not what I was expecting, but the flavours of the other dishes we tried were really good and the fact the restaurant was packed mid-week with locals shows that the Rosa’s Thai in Chelsea must be doing something good. Next time I visit a Rosa’s Thai I will most certainly be having one of their curries.
REVIEWED BY: by Jordan Lohan
ADDRESS: 246 FULHAM ROAD LONDON SW10 9NA
VENUE PHONE: 020 3773 8384
WEBSITE: http://rosasthaicafe.com/chelsea
STAR RATING: ★★★ (explained)
PRICE: ££ (explained)
TIPPING POLICY:
