Japanese restaurant Miyajima
196 Lavender Hill, Battersea
London SW11 1JA
0207 223 1144

Miyajima

Red!

More red...

Miyajima is a Japanese restaurant located near Clapham Junction. At night you can recognise the place quite well because of its red display. The door is solid wood and does not really look like the entrance so first you wonder how to get in. Inside, it is black and red. Black for the tables and the ceilling. The rest is red, and deeply red. Put a chamaleon on that red wall and I believe it will die… The tables are canteen-like which is fine as they are quite large. Like at Franco Manca you choose-your-own cuttlery (chopsticks here) from a wood tin in the centre of the table. It’s a bit classier than the recycled tin at Franco Manca of course, but the same principle. The menu is large and thick. Not like a phone book of course but there are many pages. I did not take the time to read everything.

As starters we ordered the salmon rolls (£3.60) and the California rolls (£4.10). They were followed by a tempura bento (£9.50) and a yakitori bento. As drinks we had two Miyajima juice (£2.50 each) and two Tiger beer (£3 each).

Miyajima juice

Good Tiger beer

Californian and salmon rolls

The salmon rolls and the California rolls were nicely presented and good, but not as good as at Tokiya which has better sushi. The wasabi was very fresh and quite strong.

Yakitori bento

Details of the yakitori

Tempura bento

Details of the tempura bento

The bento boxes were quite good, with generous servings. The tempura bento had 5 good size shrimp. Considering it cost less than £10 it was a very good value. The fried vegetables were good too. The only thing I did not like was some sweet confit stuff that was put into the salad. Also, the sauce provided here is not the usual tempura sauce. It was more like a lightly sweet soy sauce. The portion of rice was huge.

The yakitori bento was excellent too. There were three skewers with plenty of chicken bits. They were tender and well marinated. Same reserve about the salad: it is fresh but it could do well without the sweet stuff. Actually it is quite amazing how much food they managed to fit into the box. Everything is densely packed.

Cost and conclusion:  it was £41.31 with a service charge of £3.76 included in the bill. Without the two beers and the starters it would be around £25 which is good value for money because the bento boxes are quite large. Friendly staff, reasonable prices and good food can resume Miyajima. I find it better than the other Japanese restaurant Ukai Sushi located accross Lavander Hill street but if you are into sushi mostly, Tokiya Sushi Bar not far on Battersea Rise is the best  in this area and more authentic.

Italian restaurant Pizza Metro
64 Battersea Rise
London SW11 1EQ

Pizza Metro

It has been over a month since we have been to Pizza Metro, not that we haven’t tried but it is often very busy. Tonight it looked good for a revisit. Last time we had the Ripieno which is a kind of calzone pizza with ricotta, parmesan, ham, basil, Napoli salame, tomatoes, and mozzarella (£9.95) and the Diego’s with mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, Napoli salame, rocket, basil, olive oil and parmesan (£9.95). This time we had again the Ripieno and I decided to try another pizza just to see if they were lucky previously or really good at cooking all kinds of pizzas 😉 The new pizza was the Panna pizza made of thick Italian cream, mushrooms, ham, Napoli salami, mozzarella, basil and parmesan (£9.95). We also ordered some sparkling water (£3.25) and a good Menabrea lager beer made with corn (£3.95). It is a little bitter in case you do not like bitter beer.

Good Menabrea beer

The two pizzas

Ripieno pizza

The Ripieno pizza was – as previously – very good. It is a pizza that holds its heat very well, so even if you take your time eating, is going to stay nice and hot and fresh to the end. It is not an especially crispy pizza, but has a nice mix of flavours. Definitely worth trying.

Panna pizza

The Panna pizza was also a good choice. Heavy cream on a pizza has the potential to be a bit sickly, but Pizza Metro get the balance right here. It is just enough cream to complement the rest of the toppings, but doesn’t overpower. Another good discovery.

Conclusion and cost: it was £31.11 with the 12.5% “optional” service charge included. As usual, I will complain about the service charge being automatically added to the bill. It should be fully left at the discretion of the clients. That said, in this case they deserved it as they were friendly and efficient. We really like the decor which is much better than at nearby Donna Margherita and the pizzas were better too this time. Highly recommended if you are near Clapham Junction!

Sri Lankan restaurant Hop & Spice
53 Bedford Hill, Balham
London SW12 9EZ

Hop & Spice

Inside Hop & Spice

Hop & Spice introduces the tapas concept to Sri Lankan cuisine (which is not dissimilar to South Indian).  The idea there is that you choose about 3 small dishes from their menu, and construct the rest of your meal by choosing bread, rice, etc.  Or you can just take one (larger) main course which comes with basmati rice, bread, popadoms, chutney and a yoghurt raita already included.  We opted for the latter (but now suspect it wasn’t the best choice).

As main courses we chose kandian scallops (medium) described as king scallops poached in a delicately spiced sauce (£16.85) ; and kerala coriander chicken (mild) described as off the bone, simmered in spices and finished with coconut cream and fresh coriander (£11.55) .  We took two different types of bread: paratha – delicious rich bread made with ghee, and chapati – healthy wholemeal unleavened bread (these were inclusive, but if you were to choose from the tapas menu would be £1.45 each).

Good beers

We followed the menu suggestion and took Lion beer 4.8% Sri Lanka light and refreshing, brewed in Sri Lanka since the colonial days (£3.20), and Singha beer 33cl 6% Thailand a full bodied barley malt with a rounded long finish, made for spice (£3.30).

As desserts we tried wattilappam (pronounced vuchillupum) – described as our twist on this wonderful Sri Lankan pudding; a custard made with palm sugar, coconut and mango, topped with caramelised cashew nuts (£4.95), and banana tiramisu – a tropical twist on this amazing italian pudding; fresh banana cream layered with sponge, espresso and tia maria (£4.45).

A small remark about the seating in this restaurant – the chairs have varying heights.  Mine, for example, was too low whilst my companion’s was normal height. I noticed that other tables also had a mix of chair types.  Though I’d prefer not too, I can live with the low seats – but it needs to be uniform (i.e. it doesn’t feel right when your companion is sitting at a different height, and degrades the dining experience a bit).  With that remark out of the way, on to the food!

Soup

Overview of the two meals

Kerala coriander chicken

The meal started with little bowls of vegetable soup. The soup was quite tasty, but I didn’t like the metal bowls it was served in. These were too hot to hold, and the bowl too small to tidily drink the soup with the serving (not soup) spoon provided.

The kerala coriander chicken was good, but after comparing it to the kandian scallops, it seemed a little bland. Still, a quite decent meal. The chicken was tender. I did not care much for the yoghurt and the chutney coming with it. More sauce to go with the rice would have been welcome.

Kandian scallops

The kandian scallops was an expensive dish for any sort of curry restaurant.  Scallops aren’t exactly cheap – but the portions here aren’t exactly large either and £16.85 is a lot to pay for this type of cuisine.  Fortunately, the dish was very good. It was nicely creamy and the scallops themselves were very nicely cooked.  I wouldn’t give much for the paratha bread though, which was somewhat greasy and the rice which was rather dry.  That last complaint takes on some significance in consideration of the small size of the dish overall (seemed a bit less than half of what you’d ‘normally’ get in a curry house), as there wasn’t enough sauce to flavour & moisten more than about 1/3 of the rice. And forget about dipping the bread in the sauce (unless you’re then prepared to eat your dry rice dry ;)).  My suggestion with this dish would absolutely to take it as part of a tapas selection – and if you’re taking rice, make sure you get several dishes that all have some sauce (unless, of course, you like dry rice).

The desserts

Banana tiramisu

The banana tiramisu was surprisingly good.  On first sight, I was worried as it was covered in a chocolate sauce (I hate most chocolate sauces, as they’re usually horribly sweet).  I worried needlessly though, as the sauce was not over-sweet and not overpowering either.  The tiramisu was nice and fresh, and I believe flavoured with real bananas. The tia maria was detectable, but also a gentle flavour that didn’t overpower the rest.  A nice surprise

Wattilappam

Details of the Wattilappam dessert

The Wattilappam was surprising. I ordered it because I had no idea what it could be. It was ok but in very small doses because it is quite sweet. Its main flavour is mango but also cashew nuts. I liked the cashew nuts more than the custard. Fortunately it was not that big as it appears on the photos. Its plate is raised, so actually you get a thin layer of it and shallow bowl.

Cost and conclusion: it was £48.73 with the “optional service charge of 10%” automatically added. One again, I am against these “optional service’ charges automatically included. It should be up to the clients to decide if the service was worth a tip and then how much. Here, the service was friendly but not that efficient since we got our main courses before our drinks arrived. Not a big deal. Overall I would say the food is quite decent but on the expensive side compared to some other Asian restaurants. I prefer the Thai restaurant Banana Leaf in Clapham even if it is more canteen like.

Curry house Mirch Masala
213 Upper Tooting Road
London SW17 7TG

Mirch Masala

Inside

In the past we have been several times to Mirch Masala and found their butter chicken to be very good, but we have not been for about 2 years – and in the meantime discovered Al Mirage next door. Have we been right to have switched to Al Mirage? To be short, yes. Our experience this time did not start well. When we received our cuttlery, they were covered by some curry/grease on one end. How it escaped to the waiter is a wonder. Actually not really since we had a dozy waiter. He was quite fun to watch but definitely on another planet.

It was not busy at the time we went, so we were a bit disappointed to be left sitting so long. We ordered a Karahi butter chicken (£7), a Karahi Lamb Tikka Masala (£7) and a fried chilli/onion mix (£1) as an accompaniment. As drinks we had a sweet lassi and a mango lassi. Unfortunately they were not cold, being even on the warm side. At Mirch Masala they provide some some poppadoms and an onion/cucumber salad when you get the table.

The butter chicken dish was fine – good flavours, and reasonably tender bits of chicken. It did not live up to our memories from previous visits though, seeming distinctly ordinary. The lamb tikka masala wasn’t good. Here the food seemed excessively salty and – unusually for a curry – the meat was quite tough and chewy. Certainly not the tender, well marinated chunks of lamb one usually gets in a curry house. The naan bread was also disappointing, quite dry and stiff, as though it had sat for 15 minutes before being brought to us. The fried chilli accompaniment was incredibly hot. Quite possibly the hottest chilli I had in my life. We managed to eat only one of them and we felt unwell the whole day with a burnt feeling in the stomach.

Sweet lassi and mango lassi

Karahi Lamb Tikka Masala

Karahi butter chicken

Fried chilli/onion mix

Overview of the table

The two currys in the plate

See the chilli!

Serious weapon!

Not great naan

Cost and conclusion: it was £18.30 in all. The food was alright but not great. At £7 per curry it is overpriced considering its average quality and the canteen like decor. The good butter curry lost its buttery flavour and became greasy. We were surprised the prices went up that way because they stayed stable at Al Mirage next door (about £1 to £2 less per curry). If you are looking for a curry restaurant in Tooting, Al Mirage is a better choice with cheaper and much better food.

The Devonshire
39 Balham High Road London, Balham
London SW12 9AN

Stylish design

Cosy interior design

The beer garden

The Devonshire is one of a small groups of ‘upmarket’ pubs that seem to cater for a wide range of tastes. There is a bar and bar menu for those who want something simple, a more formal dining room and restaurant menu for those who want something a bit more formal, and a barbecue menu for those happy to eat outside in the beer garden.

It was a nice warm sunny day when we went there for lunch, so we chose the barbecue menu out in the beer garden.

We took a Devonshire burger served with salad & fries (£9.50), and a rump steak served with salad & fries (£13.95). To wash that down, we had a pint of Peroni and a bottle of Bulmers Pear cider (just over £8 for the drinks).

The burger was reasonably good – it had a nice fresh bun and a slightly smokey barbecue flavour, and nicely cooked without becoming dry. The salad and fries were pretty average though, and most of those were abandoned on my plate. For £9.50 this burger was certainly on the small side though – about half the size of the kiwiburger you can get at Gourmet Burger Kitchen for £2 less.

For £13.95, I think we could fairly have expected a much larger piece of meat that the 6-7oz bit of rump that arrived on my plate. It was not a good quality piece of meat either, and had a large chunk of grisly fat in the middle that had to be abandoned (you can see it in the photos below). Whilst it was apparently barbecued, it did not have the flavour of barbecued meat and it came with no sauce or other garnish – making this a pretty bland meal. I had to resort to tomato ketchup and mayonnaise. The fries were just OK – I ate them all because I was hungry.

My experiement with Bulmers pear cider will not be repeated. I found it a bit too watery in the flavour for my liking – a bit like a watered down soft drink. It may be to others’ taste, but not mine and not with a meal. On the plus side, both it and the Peroni (fine) were served properly cold.

Bulmers pear cider and Peroni beer

Devonshire burger

Rump steak

Details of the rump steak

Overview of the two meals

Grisly fat

Cost and conclusion: The bill came to £23.45 (plus £8 for the drinks). The quality of food was very mixed, and very overpriced. The burger is substantially more expensive than the much larger and better burgers you can get at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. The steak here was low quality – and more expensive than the good quality bavette you can get at Bellevue Rendez-vous. It is a pity because this pub has a very nice atmosphere and décor, but it certainly does not have food of a quality to match nearby restaurants.