The Duck 110 Battersea Rise, Clapham London SW11 1EJ
The Duck
Inside...
TV scren for those into sports
We have noticed the Duck on our way to the excellent Japanese restaurant Tokiya. Actually, it is hard to miss the huge fire of their oven through the windows, especially in the evening. Inside, it is quite large and they have different rooms at different levels. It is basically decorated and it can feel even a little empty. There are tv screens for watching sports. The Duck is more a “real” pub than a gastropub. You go there for drinking mostly and food is essentially wraps (from £3.95 to £4.95), pasta, salads and pizzas (from £6.25 to £8.50 for 12″, they also have 6″ pizzas) which is fine since we were wanting to try their pizzas.
They have many different kinds of pizzas and beyond the regular Margherita or Quattro Formaggio some were more unusual, like the pizza Carne Fuego (salami, chorizo, Parma ham, pepperoni, spicy meatballs, mozzarella, fresh green chillies – £8.75), pizza Pesci ed Oliva (tuna, black olives, anchovies, red onion and mozzarella – 6.95), pizza Fajita Chicken (chicken, roasted peppers, fajita spice, red onions and mozzarella -£7.50), pizza BBQ Chicken (roasted chicken with red onion, mozzarella and BBQ sauce – £7.50), and pizza Formaggio di Capre (goats cheese, pesto, black olives, mozzarella, finished with rocket leaves – £7.25).
Their pizzas are stone baked and the dough is homemade and hand stretched as we could see from the cook making them in front of the fire. It is possible to have any of their 12″ pizzas served ‘calzone’ in a calzone way (folded) by just asking them when you place your order.
We ordered the classical pizza Romana (mozzarella, mascarpone cheese, Parma ham and red onion – £7.75) and a less classical pizza Crispy duck (with hoi sin sauce, mozzarella and finished with spring onions – £8.50) for curiosity. As drink we had a pint of Stella and a glass of grapefruit juice.
The two pizzas
Pizza Romana
The pizza Romana was basic but good. Nothing spectacular but nothing wrong either too. The pasta was thin and crispy. One thing that surprised me was the pizza arrived already sliced. I guess it is more convenient for the guests watching sport. The spicy olive oil was unfortunately missing but they had garlic oil which was ok.
Sharing the pizza crispy duck with the pizza romana
The pizza crispy duck was a bit strange, and rather too sweet with its hoi sin sauce. Well, it was always going to be an experiment, but its not one that I’ll repeat. Even with a different topping, this pizza base was a bit hard for my liking, clearly the pizza dough had not been left to rise for many hours prior to cooking. Overall, adequate but uninspiring.
Cost and conclusion: it was about £20 something. It is ok for watching sport with friends and beer but we would not go back just for the food, especially with Tokiya a few metres away and Pizza Metro 5 minutes walk away if you are into pizza.
Gazette 1 Ramsden road, Balham SW12 8QX London
Gazette
Inside
Gazette is a French restaurant located in Balham, between Waitrose and Sainsbury. It has two levels: the ground floor and the basement. As the ground floor was quite full we went to the basement which was already half full at just mid day. It is decorated a little strangely with a flat screen tv showing videos of beautiful areas of France, the tables vary in style, there are several couches, and large racks of wine stored against the walls.
The main courses
The menu at Gazette varies daily, and we ordered the roast duck breast with green cabbage and foie gras sauce (magret de canard rôti au choux vert et sauce foie gras – £14), and the roast fillet of cod, chervil root meat jus (filet de cabillaud rôti, racine de cerfeuil au jus – £14). The staff are mainly French-speaking – as we found when ordering, as our waiter seemed rather relieved to be asked if he spoke French: in fact he had only been working there for a short time.
Later, we had a waitress who spoke only English, and who took our dessert order of little chocolate pots and freshly cooked Madeleines (petits pots de chocolat et Madeleine cuite maintenant – £4.50) and thin apple tart cooked upside down, vanilla ice cream (tarte fine aux pommes cuite à l’envers, glace vanille – £4.50).
As drinks we had a glass of red wine Cabernet Sauvignon Les Perles vin de pays d’Oc 2006 (£4.20) and a glass of squeezed grapefruit juice (2.50). The grapefruit juice was indeed freshly squeezed (made to order), and was excellent. It came with just a little ice, so after a small wait, was just right to drink.
Other interesting meals were the pan fried foie gras with apple, lime and chestnuts (£11.50), the tomato and mustard tart (£9.50) and the côte de boeuf for 2, dauphinoise gratin and béarnaise sauce (£19.50 per person).
Fillet of cod
The fillet of cod was quite nicely cooked, though I found (unusually for a French restaurant) that it completely lacked any seasoning. It is rare for me to reach for the salt pot, but on this occassion, it was needed. With that small addition, the dish was very good and nicely set off by the chervil root (a vegetable a bit like a parsnip or turnip). I would make a bit of a complaint about the dish it was served in though, which was a small-but-deep metal pan (a bit like a milk pan), which made it difficult to use a knife and fork correctly (I had a similar complaint about Terroirs – but fortunately, in this case the complaint is only about the serving dish, not the food as well).
Roast duck breast with green cabbage and foie gras sauce
The magret was excellent. Very well cooked and with the foie gras sauce it was delicious. The green cabbage were also perfectly cooked and crispy. It was served on a fry pan rather than a plate, but as it was quite flat it was not a problem.
The desserts
Thin apple tart cooked upside down
The apple tart had its good and bad points. On the upside, it was made with naturally sweet apples and had no need of sugar added. The downside was that it was a bit overcooked, and the pastry had lost that lovely puffiness and lightness that it would have had if rescued from the oven a few minutes sooner.
Little chocolate pots and freshly cooked Madeleines
The pots of chocolate were quite dense, not bad but I was happy the pots were small. Fortunately the little madeleines were warm and light, counterbalancing the chocolate.
Cost and conclusion: it was £49 including the 12.5% discretionary service charge. Very friendly staff and a quite decent lunch. It was a nice discovery. As for the price, it is not cheap but then I find Balham to be on the expensive side, and often with not-so-great food (Harrison’s, Hop & Spice, the Devonshire) or bad value for money (Lamberts) compared to Clapham or Wandsworth Common (Bellevue Rendez-vous & Cafe du village) with the decor being privileged compared to food.
The Prince Albert 85 Albert Bridge Road, Battersea London SW11 4PF
The Prince Albert
Two dogs at the door and a cow on the roof
Nice great Dane
Great statue
The main entrance
The Prince Albert is a surprising-looking pub with two big statues of dogs outside and a cow on the roof. If, like me, you like to see Meerkats at Battersea Park Zoo and feel hungry after watching them eating (the feeding time is 11am by the way) the pub is very well located right in front of Battersea Park on the Albert Bridge road side.
The counter
Another view
Inside it is spacious and there is also outside seating. It seems the pub is frequented by many parents taking their babies out at the park but we did not hear any babies screaming etc. It was fine.
We ordered chicken liver pate, apple chutney (£6.50) and onion and thyme soup with Cheddar cheese toast ($6) as starters. They were followed by a cheese burger, dill pickle and chips (£9.50) and a Kilravock pork chop, Irish black pudding and duck egg (£10). As drinks we had a lemonade (£1.60) and a pint of Stella (£3.50).
Ketchup and mayonnaise in the little cups
Other interesting meals were the Berkswell cheese, pickled walnuts and beetroot salad (£7.50), the smoked trout, green brean and soft boiled egg salad (£8), the Scottish mussels, cider, leeks and bacon (£9), the 28 day aged rib eye steak on the bone, parsley butter and chips (£18.50), the roast skate wing, brown shrimps and capers (£13) and the Welsh lamb rump, roast garlic and white bean stew (£12.50). I was interested by the Ploughman’s lunch but unfortunately it contained stilton cheese and I have not been converted to it yet despite living here for over 5 years now. I still remember the spoon of vegemite on a toast I ate in Sydney while visiting a friend. It was horrible but compared to stilton it was quite edible.
The two starters
Chicken liver pate
The chicken liver pate was quite large and thick. It came with 4 slices of toasted bread but they were still not enough to accomodate all the pate. Another slice would have been welcome. As for the pate itself, it was very rich (it was surrounded by butter-like fat on its side, if not just pure butter) but was nice and smooth. Conversely, I really did not like the apple chutney. It was like baby food and I stopped eating it after half a spoon.
Onion soup
The onion soup wasn’t too good either. It was made with a sort of caramelised onion that rendered the soup itself sweet (really not what you want with onion soup). The cheese was fine, but the toast it apparently was on was well and truely disintegrated within the soup, so hardly noticeable. Overall, a rather strange and not especially nice dish that I would not choose again.
The two main courses
Kilravock pork chop
The Kilravock pork chop was a little dry and bland. Full of fat too and little meat, and I am not a fat meat gourmet. It was well cooked at least but no taste at all. Maybe they forgot to add some salt? The Irish black pudding was good, not too strong as can happen with black pudding. The duck egg was perfectly cooked. Compared to hen eggs, duck eggs contain less water so the white looks more gelatinous which is the case here.
Cheese burger
The cheese burger had potential – but the “medium” cooked burger was rare to the point of nearly being a tartare! I could have lived with that, but had asked for it medium expecting – as is usual in the UK – to get something well done, as I wanted my meat well cooked. It also seemed a little sad that the burger arrived rather empty looking with just the meat and cheese inside the bun, with a little squirt of mayonnaise, whilst the remaining contents were outside on the plate. The chips it came with were fine and crispy, if a little floury.
Cost and conclusion: it was £37. The food was average, nothing exceptional but it is conveniently located and has a pleasant clean surrounding. The service was friendly and it is kid friendly.
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand 100 Strand, Covent Garden London WC2R 0EW
Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Although I walk past Simpsons on a daily basis, I have never before gone to this restaurant (though I have been to functions in the building). There are many tourist traps in this area (well, most of the restaurants in this area), and I feared this might be another one. Simpsons is located in the Savoy Palace building, home to the Savoy Hotel and Theatre. With one guest for lunch, who was a visitor to London, I decided to risk it (mainly for the historic nature of the restaurant – it originally opened in 1828). We had not booked, but we were quickly given a table.
The carvery
The decor at Simpsons speaks of Olde English club – which of course, is exactly this restaurant’s origin, as a gentleman’s club and chess venue. The walls are oak panelled, and the lighting chandelliers. Actually, it is very pleasant, and well worth a visit just for the experience. The service is polite and efficient, with no trouble attracting the attention of a waiter at any time. The restaurant has good acoustics too, with no risk of your conversation being magnified across the room, nor drowned out by the conversations of others.
Although Simpsons is best known for its carvery, and also offers an attractive fixed price lunch menu (£24.50 for two courses) we decided to dine a la carte. In fact we chose only one course each, as our time was limited. We ordered Roast Duck Breast served with potato dumplings, confit duck leg and baby spinach (£18.50) and Pan-fried Trout with crayfish & lobster bisque, crushed new potatoes & olives (21.00). We also took as side orders some mashed potato (£3.50) and chips (£3.50). In this case, my non-British colleague was stunned to discover that chips were fries – I had not thought to translate for him before ordering. To drink, we took a bottle of still water.
Mushroom soup
Our meal started with some warm bread rolls (complementary) which were very good. We were then served a small cup of cream of mushroom soup, which was also complementary. Both were very much appreciated, and very good too.
Great mashed potatoes
My meal was the duck, which I have to say was very nicely cooked. The potato dumplings it was served with reminded me rather of gnocchi – I wasn’t too keen on those. The (shredded) confit of duck leg was quite well done, if perhaps a slightly strong flavour, and the baby spinach was perfectly cooked. Nothing like the nasty spinach experience I’d had a few days earlier at Joe Allen! the mashed potatoes were absolutely superb. The only somewhat negative remark I would make about this meal is that Simpsons does serve a type of duck that only seems to be served in the UK – and is most unlike the duck served in most parts of Continental Europe. This is a shame, as British duck somehow seems, however well it might be cooked, to have most of its colour and flavour removed. And so it was in this case. I cannot fault the cooking, as it appeared to be perfectly cooked and was very nice and tender. But it lacked the flavour that can only come from the meat, and not from anything the chef may add to it. Considering how nicely cooked it was, I would not hesitate to return to Simpsons – and I certainly will. But in doing so, I will choose something else from the menu.
Pan-fried trout with crayfish & lobster bisque
My colleague’s trout was also beautifully cooked and nicely presented. Being his first experience of trout, he was suitably impressed and enthusiastic about that dish.
Sadly we did not have time for dessert and coffee, but considering the good quality of the rest of the meal, I would certainly have tried these if time had permitted. Well, another time!
Cost & conclusion: it was £56 and some pence, service charge included. Particularly compared to some recent experiences in nearby restaurants, I think this was very good value for money. The service was polite and attentive, but also very discrete and professional, so it was certainly worth the service charge – even if it was pre-added to our bill. Our meals came perfectly cooked, and the little touches such as the soup to start our meal were very nice. I will return for certain.
Joe Allen restaurant 13 Exeter Street, covent Garden WC2E 7DT London
Inside Joe Allen restaurant
There were four of us for lunch at Joe Allen. I had been to this place once, about 4 years ago, and my recollection was that it was not too bad (or rather, my recollection of their duck liver was that it wasn’t bad – I couldn’t recall much else). So despite some misgivings about an American chain restaurant, off we went.
The restaurant is located on Exeter Street, moments from the Covent Garden. It is a basement restaurant, so quite dark inside, but they use this to their advantage with the decor. We hadn’t booked, but were quickly shown to a central table.
Three of the four of us ordered starters – which were 2 black pudding served on a bed of steamed spinach and topped by a poached egg and hollandaise sauce (£13.00) and a pumpkin soup (£5.50). As main courses, we took a half lobster served with pasta (£19.50), 2 spinach salads (£19.00) and a chicken caesar salad (£15.00). As drinks, we just took two bottles of still water (£7.00) as we had a lot of work to get through after lunch.
Black pudding with spinach and poached egg
My starter was the black pudding with spinach and poached egg. This dish could have been quite decent, but for the amount of salt the chef had seasoned it with. I’msure I had a week’s worth of salt in this single meal! Even the spinach had not simply been steamed, but boiled in salt water. Really, I have no idea what any of it actually tasted like (texture was fine – I could tell that much) as I couldn’t taste anything much beyond the salt. Really, a ruined meal. I ate the egg, and a little bit of the black pudding, but 90% of the spinach returned to the kitchen to take its rightful place in the trash. One of my companions had the same dish – and the same problem (albeit I think her tolerance level was slightly higher than mine – she ate at least half of hers). The soup was reported by its recipient to be fine.
Chicken caesar salad
As main course, I had a chicken caesar salad. Once again though, it was too salty. Who puts salt in a salad? The chicken was a grilled and sliced breast – which thankfully had not had the salt treatment – and was edible but a bit too dry. The recipients of the spinach salads reported those to be OK. I’m not so sure about the lobster though – it looked a rather miserable dish (no photo, sorry). Its recipient did say it was fine, but I have a suspicion that he was just being polite (since I was paying). In any case, going on looks alone, its not something I’d be in any great hurry to order for myself.
Cost & conclusion: The final bill came to £88.90 for the four of us (including 9.90 already added as gratuity – no pretence even in this case that it was “optional”). Actually the service was fine, notwithstanding that a waitress spilled a bottle of water into the lap of one of my guests (for which she was very apologetic). Even so though, whether or not to tip, and how much, should be left to the discretion of the customer. As for the food, I don’t think I’ll be back. Sorry for the poor Blackberry Curve photos!
