Albannach Scottish bar and restaurant 66 Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DS
Reviewed Wednesday 8 April dinner time.
Albannach is a Scottish bar and restaurant wonderfully located in Trafalgar Square, next to the Admiralty Arch. You are on your way to The Mall but also to Downing Street and Westminster. It is a very touristic area.
When you get in, you are in the bar area which is fairly crowded and very noisy. After waiting there for a short time they take us to the restaurant located just above the bar. The design is nice with enough distance between the tables. The restaurant area is quite noisy from the bar underneath and you almost have to yell across the table to be heard, especially after they increased the music louder during the dinner! Still, I thought it was fun.
We ordered a Cullen skink (£6) and Quail legs with salad (£9) as starters. The Cullen skink is a soup with smoked fish, garlic and cream. It was yummy! The quail legs were excellent, and the salad had a very nice seasoning. I wish the quail was bigger but then it is not exactly what we call a large bird 😉 The bread, served with some butter, was good but they came only for one service.
The main courses were a Rib-eye of Buccleuch beef, dauphinois potatoes, cavalo nero and wild mushrooms (£24) and a Loin of Highland venison, thyme potato cake and parsnip purée (£23). The rib-eye was massive. It was overcooked, they did ruin it which was a shame. A kind of peppercorn sauce was needed to compensate it but the sauce was sweet. The mushrooms were nice. The dauphinois potatoes were good, perfectly cooked with a touch of garlic and hot. The loin of venison was also a little overcooked and not big at all. They were just 4 small slices of it, a little like the size of a duck magret. Considering the venison is a quite strong meat more sauce would have been welcome. The potato case and parsnip purée were very nice. For drink, we had a bottle of water (£3.5) and a bottle of Cabernet Merlot, Knappstein 2004 – Clare Valley, Australia ( £36). It was a good wine, easy to drink but way overpriced (see conclusion below).
For desserts, we had a Cranachan with layered raspberries, whisky cream and raspberry liqueur and a Scottish shortbread (£7) and a border tart with whiskey cream(£7.50). The Cranachan was a little too simple. It was a nice mix of berries (although they said it was raspberries) and it was not too sweet. Beyond that it was just some alcohol flavoured cream with three or four bits of granola sprinkled on the top. Not unpleasant but a bit overly simplistic. The shortbread was excellent. The border tart was good. It was a little too sweet but I still had some red wine It would have been better to have more sauce. The espresso (£2.50) was very good, at the right temperature and not too hot or burnt as it happens too often.
Border tart
Cost and conclusion: I took advantage of the London-Eating 50% off a la carte offer so the cost was limited to £95.06 (“12,5% service” included). They had that offer running from 1 April to 10 April and on the restaurant’s website they now advertise for 50% off a la carte offer only on Monday. The 50% off does not apply to the wine. The problem I have here is on the bill they show a subtotal of £80.25 plus a 12.5% service of £14.81 giving a total of £95.06… Well the presentation is misleading because the 12.5% service is based on the FULL price of £118.5 and yet that price is never mentioned. To be correct they should have said they added a 18% something service charge to the subtotal of £80.25. Also, the 2004 Knappstein Cabernet Merlot from Clare Valley was charged £36. I know it is common for restaurants to double, sometimes triple the retail price but in this case we can get the exact same bottle at Oddbins for £7.99 each when you get 12 and that is not even a merchant bulk rate so over 4 times the normal cost is quite exaggerated. In conclusion I would say this place is well overpriced. I do not believe the staff were Scots and they were dressed in an approximation of a kilt that embarrassed my guest who is from Scotland. The starters were good, but the rest did not really follow, except for the coffee.
Loch Fyne restaurant Covent Garden 2-4 Catherine Street London WC2B 5JS
Reviewed Wednesday 8 April lunch time.
The Loch Fyne is a chain restaurant specialised in oysters and seafood. The one located in Catherine Street is next to Covent Garden, very close from the Transport museum. The setting is quite pleasant. It was a work lunch for four people. I ordered their moules marinières (£11) with a glass of house red. About the wine: it was awful, pretty vinegary, and should not be sold as wine. The mussels had potential, they were better sized than you often get in the UK. However I am not completely convinced by their freshness. They were not well cleaned (too many beards), and there were quite a few only partially open shells… The sauce was decently creamed but too salty so I didn’t use it as a soup at the end. The mussels were not well mixed with the sauce so it was only at the bottom of the bowl I could reach it.
Moules marinières
Cost and conclusion: the total cost (without including the service) was £69.50 for a large bottle of still water (£3), a large bottle of sparkling water (£3), a pair of kippers (£7 – they were very big), some prawns king (£12), some chips (£2), a menu including sardines, a plaice with vegetable and a glass of white wine (£13), a whole grilled seabass (£15), my mussels (£11) and my glass of red wine (£3.50). If you go to their website, the prices at this day were not up to date: the moules marinières cost £11 instead of £10, the £12 fixed menu cost in fact £13, the seabass cost £15 instead of £14, the praws cost £12 instead of £11… The kippers cost £7 as written on their site. In conclusion it is OK for a chain. No real nasty surprises.
Akasiro 8 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ
Reviewed Monday 6 April 2009
Previous reviews can be seen at http://www.trusted-gourmet.com/2009/04/japanese-restaurant-akasiro-london-uk/ and http://www.trusted-gourmet.com/2009/04/japanese-restaurant-akasiro-chinatown-london/
I will be short as akasiro has already been reviewed twice here! The waiter remembered us and asked if we wanted the Asahi beer ( (twice £2.90). Very good. We ordered a Tonkatsu (pork loin, served with rice and miso soup – £5.90) and a Katsudon (pork cutlet with egg sauce topped on rice, served with miso soup – £6.50). The Tonkatsu came of course with the bulldog sauce and was crispy. The Katsudon was good but could not stay crispy because of the way it is cooked on top of the rice and with that egg sauce. Still, not a bad meal at all but I would probably go for something like the chicken teriyaki don or the gyudon (beef and onion topped on rice) next time to avoid having humid breadcrumbs.
Tonkatsu
Katsudon
The two lunch special menus
The Fish Club 189 St Johns Hill, Clapham Junction, SW11 1TH Tuesday-Sunday from 12 to 10pm.
Reviewed Sunday 5 April 2009.
The Fish Club in Battersea
Some art for sale
Another nice fish in papier mache and mosaic for sale.
The menu is displayed on a black dashboard on the wall with all the currently available fish, starters, side, drinks… The menu may vary because they only use fresh produce – which is very welcome. The staff were nice to suggest some fish and to describe them and we decided for the red gurnard (£9.95) and the whole royal bream with chilli and garlic (£12.95). Sides were the chips (£2) and the roasted veg (£4.50). I was surprised to see we could get the Japanese beer Asahi there but we chose a bottle of Australian wine Willowglen (£12.95).
An easy to drink wine
The red gurnard on top before...
The red gurnard after...
The royal bream
Overview of the table
Chips and roast veg
The two fish were cooked chargrilled for the royal bream and ovenbaked for the red gurnard. Both were fresh and firm. The royal bream with chilli and garlic was tasty and fortunately the chilli, which was not hot at all but sweet, was not too sweet. The skin was nicely crispy. The red gurnard was nicely cooked, with a crispy skin. The flesh was firm and with a nice delicate flavour (neither fishy nor bland). Nicely enhanced with just a touch of lemon. The chips were excellent and certainly the best chips we have ever eaten in the UK. Usually they are quite boring, suffocating and look boiled. Here, they are cooked twice like they do in Belgium (which is the country of frites) so they were crispy despite being pretty thick. The roasted vegetables were good, soaked in olive oil and well roasted. The wine was very drinkable.
For dessert, we ordered a chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream (£4.95) and Jude’s Ice Cream (£3.95) with butterscotch flavour. No bad surprise, they were good too! The brownie was not too sweet and the butterscotch ice cream was fine (very similar to “hokey pokey” ice cream that you get in New Zealand).
Chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream
Cost and conclusion: for the two fish, two desserts and the bottle of red wine the total cost was £54.25. The food was great and while what we ordered was not the ordinary cheap fish & chips (a haddock costs £6.95 for example) the setting was like a fish & chips place so I find the place a little overpriced.
Limoncello 169-171 Mitcham road, tooting, London SW17 9PG
Reviewed Saturday 4 April 2009 lunch time.
View to the street from our table
I do not know this part of London well, but as I was looking for a vacuum cleaner spare part during lunch time, I discovered this restaurant. It was a great, totally unexpected discovery! The restaurant is fairly big and I liked the space between the tables. The windows were open to the street which was welcome for this great sunny day. Finally some decent spring weather.
Drinks: they have a nice choice of drinks: white wines, red wines, rose wines, sparkling wines, champagne, aperitifs, brandies, dessert wine, beer… The price range for their red wine goes from £10.90 (the bottle of their house red) to £29.90 (Amarone Doc). A Chianti DOCG costs £15.90 for example. We chose the Cannonau Di Sardegna DOC 14% ( £19.50) described as “This wine has a vinous bouquet with a dry full bodied. And persistent taste. Excellent Sardinian wine”. Well, we agree with their description and it was a very good accompanient to both the pizzas and the desserts. It was nice to have a waiter who knew enough to check the cork after opening the bottle and to provide the right type of wine glasses for the wine we’d chosen. Most do not bother and it is sad.
They have all kind of meals (antipasti, secondi, paste…) but we went for the pizzas The price range for the pizza goes from £5.90 (the Margherita with tomato, mozzarella and basil) to £8.50 (the Limoncello, made of tomato, mozzarella, pancetta, mushrooms and chicken). All pizzas are sprinkled with oregano and parmesan. We chose the Calzone which is a folded pizza with tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms, ham and salami (£7.90) and the Pavarotti made of tomato, mozzarella, parma ham, rucola and shaved parmesan (£8.20). Both were quite large and excellent. The Calzone was nice and light, reasonably crispy. It could perhaps have just a little more tomato sauce and I would encourage the chef to be a little braver and singe the edges. Compared to the Rustica’s Calzone, this one is better with the filling better blended and the base crispier so so far this is the best Calzone I have met in the UK . The Pavarotti was good too, with a crispy base and everything as it should be. No pizza is complete without chilli oil and Limoncello’s chilli oil was excellent (very fresh and spicy with a touch of garlic). My only complaint is that the waiter pourred the chilli oil on our pizzas whereas I would have prefered to control the quantity myself (I would have had more!).
Pizza Pavarotti
The two pizzas
For desserts, we had an almond panna cotta and a cup of coffee ice cream with Sambuca. The panna cotta was good, not too sweet and much less heavy than many panna cotta. The coffee ice cream with Sambuca was great, with a very nice coffee flavour and the liquor was not overpowering. We also had two coffee espresso which were good, slightly burnt.
Panna cotta
Coffee ice cream with Sambuca
Cost and conclusion: for £47.50 (with service to add) the value for money was good. The service was efficient and the owner was nice too, asking us for some feedback about the colours of the rooms that are going to be updated. We will be back!
