Italian restaurant Bucci 195 Balham High Road London SW12 9BE
Nice cold Peroni beer
We had already tried Bucci, but it had been at lunchtime when pizzas are not available unfortunately. We enjoyed their set menus and finding this Italian restaurant in Balham was a quite nice discovery. Are the pizzas great as well?
Bucci pizza and calzone
There is a large choice of pizzas at Bucci, 19 to be precise! We decided on the Bucci pizza (tomato, mozzarella, parma ham, parmesan and rocket – £8.50) to try their specialty, and the Calzone tradizionale (tomato, mozzarella, ham and mushroom – £7.90) as we are into these folded pizzas. There are three different calzones, the other two being the Farcito (tomato, mozzarella, ricotta cheese and spinach – £7.90) and the Cantadino (tomato, mozzarella, roasted courgette, aubergine and peppers – £7.90), both vegetarian pizzas.
Other pizzas we were interested by were the Tonno (tomato, mozzarella, tuna, olives and cappers – £7.90), the Aldo pizza (tomato, mozzarella, ham, mascarpone cheese and radicchio -£8.10), the Caprinba (cherry tomato, mozzarella, asparagus, goat cheese and rocket – £8.50) and the Parmigiana (tomato, mozzarella, aubergines, peppers and olives – £8.10).
Calzone tradizionale
The calzone was quite a disappointment. It was not at all crispy, lacked flavour, and arrived leaking some fluid (presumably from the mushrooms). The filling was minimal, with much of the space inside taken up by hot air leaving you feeling as though you’ve only been half fed. It’s not a pizza I’ll try again, and doesn’t come close to Limoncello a short distance away down near Tooting Broadway.
The Bucci pizza by contrast, but also in absolute, was huge. Normally I can finish a pizza but here I had to leave some of it. Well, not that much as I managed to eat maybe 85% of it! While I found it good, it lacked something to make it memorable, probably because of the taste of the base or the lack of it too. At Pizzeria Rustica in Richmond with the pizza Buffalo which is similar the base is wonderfully crispy and the tomato sauce (added after the base has been cooked) feels incredibly fresh with little bits of tomato and herbs.
Cost and conclusion: it was £21.60 without service charge and it is not automatically added to the bill. A big grazie to Bucci for respecting their customers!
Compared to Double Espresso a few doors down, I think Double Espresso pizzas have a better base but the décor is a lot nicer at Bucci. Both have a friendly service. That said, if you are into pizzas, two tube stops away, not far from Tooting Broadway you have Limoncello which is probably the best pizzeria in the Balham and Tooting areas. If it is about Italian food other than pizza, Bucci is a decent choice with excellent and well priced meals. Click here for our previous review of Bucci. Other restaurants reviewed in the area are Lamberts, the Cattle Grid, and a little further Hope & Spice and Harrison’s.
Rodizio Rico 111 Westbourne Grove London W2 4UW
Rodizio Rico
Having lived in Argentina, and travelled to Brazil – for example, to Foz do Iguaçu to see the impressive Iguazu Falls, I was interested by Rodizio Rico chain that claims to be London’s only authentic Brazilian “churrascaria de rodizio”. We went to the one located in Westbourne Grove, near Notting Hill.
It is a kind of buffet and rotisserie restaurant where the waiter passes from table to table with a variety of different cuts of meat on skewers, which can be sliced directly onto your plate.
Inside Rodizio Rico
Inside, the restaurant is quite large with brick walls and wooden tables. Despite the fact it was far from being full we were given a table that was located to the rear of the dining space and it was close to where the staff clean the dishes. Quite noisy and unpleasant.
The menu is easy as there is only one choice, which is a “Eat as much as you desire BBQ meats, salads and hot dishes” at £22.50. The idea is that you fill your own plate with your choice of salads and sides, then select from a constant stream of skewered meats, as they are offered at your table. You can stay as long as you like, and just keep taking more slices of meat until you have had enough. As drinks, a glass of red wine was £5.70 (decent wine, but way overpriced) and a small bottle of sparkling water was £2.80.
Our plates
The buffet section is quite large with salad, boiled eggs, corn, feta, olives, sausages, couscous, beans, deep fried battered banana, lasagna (very good!), plenty of sauces including some quite hot & spicy ones.
Amongst the meats we tried were grilled chicken wings, chicken wrapped in ham, even chicken hearts (which were disgusting), a variety of cuts of beef, pork, lamb, sausage.. garlic bread on the skewers.
See the deep fried battered banana on top
Too dry, overcooked meat
Nice chilli sauce but the creamy corn at the right was bland
Not great sausage and beans
A general observation is that most of the meats were overcooked, with even a chicken wing being very dry as it got burnt. There was rather a lot more chicken and pork than has been my experience with this kind of restaurant in Brazil (where, I guess, beef is rather less expensive). I did not like the sausages that had some kind of lemon flavour.
Cost and conclusion: it was £58.85 (including the “optional” 10% gratuity) in all. This is not a cheap restaurant, and we were quite disappointed at the quality of the beef, large quantities of cheaper meats, and the general overcooked state of the meat as it arrived (possible exception was the “baby beef”). In sum: reasonable food (though not a patch on what you can get in Brazil), but for what it was, we found it quite overpriced.
Spice Village 32-34 Upper Tooting Road, Tooting London SW17 7PD
Spice Village
Spice Village has been voted the best curry house in the Tooting round of the 2009 Tiffin Cup – which is an annual competition run by a cross-party group of MPs to find the Best South Asian Restaurant in Britain. Last year the winner in Tooting was Al Mirage.
On Fircroft road side
Spice Village is located near Tooting Bec tube station, at the corner between Upper Tooting road and Fircroft road. The restaurant, which used to be quite a lot smaller, has recently been extended. As you enter, on the left is the ‘kitchen’ and the counter which handles takeaways as well as meals ordered inside, and at the right is the dining area which is a little like a moderm canteen with flashy colours (blue and green apple).
It was very busy with tables occupied mainly by family groups but we managed to find a table. The downside of being that busy is the noise which is not helped by the room’s acoustic: it is not easy to hold a conversation without talking loud. We ordered two seekh kebabs, a Masala fish, two garlic naan, a chicken biryani and a chicken tikka masala. To drink we had two mango lassi.
Mango lassi
Sheekh kebabs & masala fish
Garlic naan
Kebab and fish
Chicken biryani and curry tikka masala
My plate with everything on it.
The sheekh kebabs were lightly spicy and quite good (though perhaps not quite as good as those at Lahore Karahi nearby, which serves the kebabs with onions and on a crackling hot metal plate, which ensures they remain piping hot). The fish masala was excellent, really perfectly cooked and one of the best examples of this dish I’ve had.
I have mixed feelings about the naan. On the one hand, it was very garlicy – they weren’t at all stingy there. But on the other hand, the naan wasn’t as light and fluffy as it should be, so a little disappointing.
The chicken biryani was a bit average. It was too dry with stuck-together rice, dry chicken, and not a lot of flavour. To a degree, that’s just a feature of biryani (so maybe it wasn’t the best choice), but overall still a fairly average rendition. The chicken tikka masala was quite good. The chicken was tender, and the curry sauce creamy. But again, not quite perfect – it seemed just a bit too heavy.
Cost and conclusion: it was about £23. Overall, this is still a good curry house. I think it is not as good as Al Mirage and Lahore Karachi further down the road toward Tooting Broadway. But it is still good, and easily better than most others in the area. The service was friendly suggesting meals and efficient. Other curry houses reviewed in the same area are Mirch Masala and Kolam.
Prix Fixe Brasserie 39 Dean Street, Soho London W1D 4PU
Prix Fixe Brasserie
With a name like that, you expect to find only set menus at Prix Fixe Brasserie. While they do have well priced set menus, they also offer à la carte. They are located in Soho, near Chinatown, so really not far from the Covent Garden area. There are tables on the pavements but we wanted to be indoors a little isolated from the street. Inside, it is decorated in a rustic way (well used wood floor) and we can guess the French tricolour flag from the red wall in the background, the blue counter and the white ceiling. There are some French related posters on the wall so definitely a French touch, but the staff we met were English.
Inside Prix Fixe
We had the 2 course set lunch at £8.90 with the soup of the day and stir fried shredded duck as starters, followed by a pork stew and a roast duck special (requiring a £6 supplement) as main courses. We had a bottle of sparkling water (£3.25) and a glass of red wine (sélection du sommelier £4.50). The wine was good, matching the duck nicely and the water was cold. They provided a complementary basket of freshly cut slices of baguettes with butter. The bread was excellent, which we took as a very good sign for the meal to follow.
The starters
Stir fried shredded duck
The stir fried shredded duck with mushrooms and garlic was quite good. It was served on a bed of lettuce, making quite an attractive presentation. I did not really notice any garlic flavour, but the duck and mushrooms seemed to have been cooked in some sort of soy-based marinade, which resulted in rather a strong flavour. Whilst it was very tasty, it might have been a little better had it been served with some clear flavoured accompaniment to provide a bit of balance to the dish.
Russian cabbage soup
The soup of the day was a Russian cabbage soup. Normally I rarely choose soup but I was interested by that one since I lived in Russia as a child in the seventies and have good memories of the food there. When the soup arrived, I expected to see a red soup but it was mostly white/brown! I confused it with the Russian borscht with beef and crème fraiche which is mostly based on beetroot. I was a little upset but actually this soup was quite good too and it also had the sour cream.
The main courses
Pork and chorizo stew
The pork and chorizo stew, served with carrot and parsnip was not at all what I expected. I had anticipated – from its name – a stew comprised of bits of pork with a little chorizo and vegetables. What actually arrived on my plate was a pork loin fillet accompanied by a chorizo stew and topped with carrot and parsnip. That was generally a pleasant surprise, and the pork fillet was very nicely cooked – not at all dry, as can often happen with pork. Likewise, the parsnip and carrot were perfectly cooked. I wasn’t too fond of the chorizo stew though, which was just too much chorizo and – as one might expect – quite greasy. It was easy enough to eat the pork with only a little of the chorizo though, so really nothing much to complain about.
The duck
The duck (a magret de canard) with honey was served with a gratin dauphinois and some pak choi which is a variant of bok choy. I asked for it to be cooked medium and it was perfectly cooked as it was still red and tender. In the UK meals have a tendancy to be so overcooked that it was a very nice surprice. It tasted very good too. Definitely worth the £6 supplement to the menu.
Cost and conclusion: it was £35.49 including the 12.5% service charge. As usual we wish it would not be automatically included and left to the client’s discretion. That said, they did deserve their tip. The service was excellent, with a friendly and attentive staff. The value for money on the set menus is outstanding, especially for central London. Prix Fixe Brasserie opened only 11 months ago, we wish for more restaurants like them in London! We will be back of course.
Macaron Boulangerie et Pâtisserie 22 The Pavement London SW4 0HY
Macaron
Macaron is a French boulangerie (bakery) and patisserie located close to Clapham Common tube station. The staff is “mostly” French. I thought they were all French so I spoke in French – to someone who was probably the sole member of the staff unable to speak French. My luck
The tea room is nicely decorated though in an unusual style with a painted ceilling (a blue pastel sky with some clouds) contrasting with the well used parquet floor and the wood panelled wall giving a kind of a rustic look. The well used parquet reminded me the one at Chez Lindsay. It is quite small inside with just a few tables at the left when you enter, the right side and the end being the counter displaying the sandwiches, baguettes, cakes, croissants, macarons etc. In the background behind the counter there is a small window through which you can see the kitchen.
Good tea, nice presentation
It is possible to sit out on the pavement and then you will be facing the common which can be nice when the road in between isn’t too busy. We were lucky to find a free table inside when we arrived. They did have appetising-looking sandwiches and tarts but we went for the cakes and tea this afternoon. The cakes, nicely presented, were delicious, light and fresh. The only complaint we would have is they are a little on the sweet side but it is a very minor complaint. The tea, which was quite good, counter balanced the sweetness well.
Delicious cake
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Cost and conclusion: it was about £13. Nice atmosphere, good patisserie and tea… What else to ask beside better weather for August 😉 It would be nice to have more of these salons de thé/tea salons in London especially since this is a country supposedly known for tea. There are far more salons de thé in Paris and Brussels.
