Last Rummet Restaurant Vedbaek, Denmark http://www.lastrummet.dk Reviewed on Tuesday 5 May 2009
The marina
Last Rummet restaurant
Last Rummet is a restaurant located in Vedbaek, Denmark (about 30 minutes from Copenhagen). On the harbour, it is a beautiful setting – even if it is only warm enough to eat outside a few nights a year in Denmark. A restaurant-bar-café, it had a community atmosphere that was very pleasant and relaxing.
I had a grilled steak, served with new potatoes and grilled vegetables. Everything was very tasty. I would have preferred by steak slightly less well-done, but (as I wasn’t there to order it – long story), cannot blame the restaurant for that.
Grilled steak
Cost and conclusion: I did not pay the bill If in the area again, I would come back and try this place again.
Pizzeria Sette Bello 8 Amen Corner, Tooting SW17 9JE London 0871 3327080
Reviewed on Monday 4 May 2009 evening
Pizzeria Sette Bello
Reading great reviews about this pizzeria, I tried to have a lunch there several weeks ago to find out it is mostly (only?) open during the evening. If it happens it is closed, you can always go to Limoncello located two minutes walk from it (review of Limoncello). They also have good pizzas.
Some huge bottles of wines against the wall
Back to Setto Bello now It is located five minutes walk from Tooting Broadway. The restaurant is made of one large room and is decorated with bottles on the walls and also pictures, including family photos. There is a great atmosphere and it is very family friendly. It is nice to find an authentic Italian restaurant in that area where curry restaurants are the norms. The prices are low compared to other pizzerias I know. Pizzas are aroud £6-£7, you can get veal with cream for about £12 and desserts were around £3 something. Unfortunately the receipt is not detailled. A bottle of a red house wine (a 2007 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo) was around £10.
Red house wine
We ordered two pizzas: a Calzone (ham, cheese, tomato) and a Fiorentina (mozzarella, tomato, spinach, egg, parmesan and garlic). The calzone was absolutely massive and it was not because it was the second time I was eating out today. It was good but the pizza base was too soft for my liking: it feels a little too much like bread. I like when it is crispy outside, soft inside. Still, the base was good and all the ingredients were good too. Next time I will just ask to cook it a little longer, even if it gets slightly burnt. The fiorentina had also the same little problem: too soft, no crisp at all. Toppings and the egg were good. The chilli oil was very nice and it was indeed spicy which surprised us as a real good spicy olive oil is becoming rare.
Fiorentina
Pizza Calzone
The wine was good, dry enough and going well with the pizzas. We took for desserts a so-called strawberry sorbet that turned out to be ice cream (too sweet for us) and a vanilla ice cream with coffee and amaretto (nice, the coffee and amaretto were good at counterbalancing the sweetness from the vanilla ice cream). We ended with an espresso and a double espresso and they were fine.
Vanilla ice cream with coffee and amaretto. In the background the so-called strawberry sorbet that turned out to be ice cream
Cost and conclusion: two pizzas, a bottle of red wine, two desserts and two espressos for £33.95 (with optional service charge to add) is a good value for money. The pizzas were good but we feel they could have been exceptional if cooked a little longer so they would be crispy. They were not crispy at all. The service was nice but the single waiter was a little overloaded doing all the service so it took a good 5 minutes to get the chilli oil (through the owner who was helping the waiter). We will certainly be back.
BIERODROME Belgo Clapham 44 – 48 Clapham High Road London SW4 7UR
Reviewed on Monday 4 May 2009
Belgo Clapham
Having studied in Brussels for several years I was interested to eat at the Belgo restaurant. It is a chain and there are a few in London. They are specialised into moules & frites (fries), a little like Léon de Bruxelles chain you find in France. The place is divided into two areas: the restaurant and the pub. We tried the restaurant at lunch time.
Overview of the restaurant room
The restaurant is a large room with nothing special. It could be a hospital canteen. It does not have the charm of an old pub, but it is spacious. I do not believe the staff are from Belgium – they certainly did not speak French or Dutch between themselves. As starters we ordered the grilled goats cheese served on a crouton with roquette, roast peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and walnut dressing (£5.95) and a warm salad of smoked bacon, shredded duck, eggs & black pudding with garlic croutons and a Dijon mustard dressing (£5.95). There are other interesting starters like the very Belgian croquettes with cheddar, gruyère & Orval beer cheese served with piccalilli & salad garnish (£4.95) or King prawns pan-fried in garlic, chilli, ginger & herb butter (£6.95). The grilled goats cheese looked too burnt but they were in fact excellent. They were not overcooked and the taste was good. The warm salad was very very average. The smoked bacon, the shredded duck or the black pudding were just too tiny bits to be able to taste them well. The slices of black pudding had the size of a nail. They were also overcooked. I found the croutons too greasy. At least the eggs were fine.
Grilled goats cheese
Warm duck salad
Enlarge photo of the salad. Too tiny bits of meat: see the size of the lentil to compare.
The two starters
For the main courses we both decided on the moules marinière (steamed with white wine, garlic, cream, celery & onion – £10.95). They call it a “Kilo pot” main course and it comes with frites. You can get mussels in 1/2 kilo pot as starter for £5.95. If you do not want to eat mussels, you have Belgian meals like the beef carbonnade (beef braised in sweet Gueuze beer with apples & plums, served with frites – £9.95) that I know by its French name “carbonnade flamande”.
Frites with mayonnaise & moules marinières
Moules marinières
The moules were overcooked. It is a pity because mussels are very easy to cook, but it is also very easy to mess them. Some mussels I had were still closed despite being steamed. Not good then. The sauce/soup was good, not too salty as happens sometimes. It was upsetting because it could have been a decent lunch had the moules not been overcooked. As drinks, we of course chose Belgian beers! To start, it was two Jupiler (£7) and then we had a De Konick blond (£4.25) and a Delirium Tremens (£4.85). The beers were all great, just as well.
A good Jupiler beer!
De Konick blond beer
Delirium Tremens beer with its dedicated glass too :-)
Cost and conclusion: it was £56.13 with the 12.5% “optional” service charge already included to the bill. I prefer to add the service charge myself than having it already added, especially since we were not too happy about the service. The waitress serving us was ok but she was, for example, waiting for me to finish my glass of beer so she could empty the bottle and take it. I prefer to keep the beer in its bottle until I want to drink it. So a little pushy service even if it seemed without the wish to be annoying. We think she just did not realise it. Our experience today was not great, but it could have been better if the mussels were cooked correctly. At least one starter was excellent and the beers saved the lunch.
The Ship Tavern, 12 Gate St, Holborn London WC2A 3HP Reviewed on Sunday 3 May 2009 lunch time
Cosy interior
Note the TV screen at the right for sport events
Last time we went there (reviewed 12 April 2009) we said we will be coming again, so here we are We both ordered the twice-cooked crisp pork belly served with buttered mash potato, green beans, port gravy & spiced apple sauce (£9.95) and beers (Budvar). We also ordered a Doorstep sandwich – Fish fingers (breaded cod goujons with homemade tartare & rocket leaves – £5.55), as promised in the last review. The crisp pork belly were great, like last time but slightly less crispy while being still very good. The buttered mash potato is real, not based on powder as it happens in some pubs. The fish finger sandwich, which we took as a starter to share mostly because we were curious about it, was excellent. To be honest, I thought it was going to be somewhat nasty, heavy, dry and greasy… Well, it was very nice, almost a refined sandwich! The bread was moist and quite good, the fish fingers were perfect (crispy outside) and the rocket leaves and tartare sauce gave a nice touch. We were pleasantly impressed by it. The photos do not show well how good the lunch was. The Ship Tavern is an old, small & cosy pub and it is fairly dark inside. You can eat on the tables outside on the footpath if you wish to.
The doorstep fish finger sandwich!
Details of the fish fingers sandwich
Bad photo of an autopsy of a fish fingers sandwich :-)
Crisp pork belly and mash potato
Overview
Cost and conclusion: once again it was an excellent lunch at the Ship Tavern. The cost was about £35. We will be back to try more of their menu! The service was friendly like it was last time.
Pizzeria Rustica 32 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, London, TW9 1DN Reviewed on Saturday 2 May 2009 lunch time
We have been many times to this place which is, in my opinion, the best pizza restaurant in London. It has already been reviewed previously here. It is a good place to stop before going to Richmond park for taking photos of deer & bunnies.
The room open to the street
This time we both decided to take different pizzas than the usual ones we get so we ordered an American Hot (£9.50) and a Capricciosa (£10.90). As drink we chose Moretti (£8.50) as suggested by the waiter who said the staff liked this beer better than the Peroni. We thought it was an excellent beer. The American Hot pizza was a little disappointing because it had too many pepperoni for my liking, making the pizza a little too greasy. The Jalapeno chilli bits were not spicy enough. Fortunately the pizza base was really exceptionally good, being tender and crispy at the same time. That was very nice. The Capricciosa pizza was excellent, with tasty mushroms, the right amount of pepperoni and a perfectly cooked egg.
Moretti beer
Pizza Capricciosa
American Hot pizza
Overview of the two pizzas
Cost and conclusion: it was still a nice lunch with one exceptional pizza and one average pizza on toppings but both fantastic for the base. The Capricciosa will become one of our favourites, with their Buffalo and Calzone pizzas! The bill was £28.90 (plus service charge to add).
