The Ship Tavern 12 Gate St, London, WC2A 3HP
Reviewed Sunday 12 April 2009
The Ship Tavern in Holborn
This Sunday we decided to try a traditional pub after yesterday’s not so great experience. We went to the Ship Tavern pub in Holborn. It is close to Sir John Soane’s Museum and not far from Covent Garden. Like many pubs you can get fish & chips (haddock dipped in our homemade beer batter & served with chips, minted pea puree & homemade tartare sauce – £9.95), a Tavern burger (home-made 8oz beef burger with mature English cheddar, smoked bacon, chips & Bloody Mary ketchup – £9.55), a whole baked camembert (baked in its box & served with a chunk of crusty bread & a fig & chilli marmalade – £6.95) but also some less usual meal like the Doorstep sandwiches Fish finger (breaded cod goujons with homemade tartare & rocket leaves – £5.55) I promise to try next time I come here. We ordered roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roasted vegetables with horseradish sauce (£12.95) and a Crisp Pork belly served with buttered mash potato, green beans, port gravy & spiced apple sauce (£9.95) and two beers (Budvar).
The roast beef was all right but it wasn’t hot enough and it was badly cut so it was quite tough. It was not overcooked. The Yorkshire pudding was very good, the roasted potatoes were well done too. The crisp pork belly was excellent! It has been a long time since have eaten a nice pork (it was at Botin restaurant in Madrid – considered to be the oldest restaurant in the world – where their beef was wonderful too. It just lacked some better sauce). The meat was tender and the skin nicely crispy. It was so good that I worry I might not have it done the same way next time I come back!
Roast beef
Crisp pork belly
The two courses
Cost and conclusion: The lunch was excellent and all for £29.70. This was a very nice discovery and we plan to go there again!
Buona Sera (Italian restaurant) 22 Northcote Road,Clapham Junction, London, SW11 1NX
Reviewed on Saturday 11 April
Buona Sera
Buona Sera is located between Wandsworth common and Clapham Junction. The Northcote Road is full of restaurants we have to try! We have already been here once and were happy with the pizzas. This time we decided to try the full 3 courses. As starters we ordered Costino Piccante (pork spare ribs in spicy barbeque sauce – £6.80) and Funghi Ricotta (spinach and ricotta stuffed mushrooms, baked in tomato – £6.80). The Funghi Ricotta was good, tasty and plenty of ricotta cheese. The pork spare ribs were good and pretty hot. The sauce was spicy but way too sweet. The sauce looked familiar, like if it was coming from some already made cans.
Main Courses: we had a Caciucco (fish and seafood, tomato, garlic and chilli casserole – £13.80) and an Anatra al Balsimico (pan fried duck breast with honey and balsimic vinegar, served with sauteed swedes – £12.80). The Caciucco was very average, nothing to remember about it. The duck breast was too strong for me, like it happens with some venison. I do like eating magrets etc so when I write strong, I really meant it! The sauce was too sweet but considering how strong the meat was, it was ok. I think it would have been better to have pan fried potatoes than swedes. We had a bottle of Chianti which was fine.
Dessert: we ordered a chocolate soufflé with vanilla icecream (£3.90) and a cheesecake with vanilla icecream with red fruit jam (£3.90). The chocolate soufflé was good, with a strong enough chocolate and the ice cream was a nice addition. The cheesecake was at least a real baked cheesecake and not the overprocessed sugar-laden muck but not great either.
Costino Piccante
Funghi Ricotta
Anatra al Balsimico
Caciucco
Cheesecake
Chocolate soufflé
Cost and conclusion: for £70 (tips included) we expected better. It is better to stick to their pizzas. It is a pity because the restaurant design is quite nice and the staff are all right. Another downside is the restaurant can get pretty busy so noisy. You almost have to yell for just discussing.
The County Arms 345 Trinity Road London SW18 3SH http://www.countyarms.co.uk
Reviewed on Thursday 9 April lunch time
The County Arms in Wandsworth
The County Arms pub is located on the busy Trinity Road at the corner of Alma Terrace. It is facing the sports area of Wandsworth Common. It is a pretty large building and the setting inside is quite spacious and nicely furnished with large tables. We chose a table in the conservatory, to the rear of the building. It was not busy at all, but it was a Thursday lunchtime and I can imagine the place well crowded on Friday evening or during the weekend with all the families going to the park next door.
As starters we ordered potted chicken liver pate with toasted bread (£5.50) and toasted goat’s cheese on a beetroot and potato salad (£5.25). The goat cheese was quite good, generously sized. It was on top of a potato salad which had a good amount of onions which complemented the goat cheese nicely. The potato salad was chilled, it would have been better at room temperature. The goat cheese was hot of course. The beetroot salad has a spicy mustard sauce. The chicken liver was great, smooth and not overpowering. I just wished to have a little more bread, which was excellent too by the way.
The toasted goat's cheese
Potted chicken liver pate
For main courses we had a lamb shank with roasted potatoes and green beans (£9.95) which was their BBQ special for the day and a cumberland sausage with creamy mash and caramelised onion gravy (£8.50). The red wine was a good Le Sanglier Carignan 2007 (£15.45) which went well with the meals we had. The lamb shank was good, it could have been seasoned a little more but that’s not a major complaint. The gravy was not obviously from a packet unlike in many pubs… The potatoes were not fantastic, they were probably pre-roasted and then nuked. They were hot but not crispy. The sausages were fine and the creamy mash good too. It is not a top meal naturally but it was exactly what I expected and wanted in a pub. I was very hungry as you can tell.
Lamb shank
Sausages and mash
Overview
For desserts we took the fruit crumble with custard (£4.95) and a bread and butter pudding (£4.95). The fruit crumble was based on plums and was good, not too sweet and a little sour. It was very hot. The bread and butter pudding could have been better. It was fine but was the same as you could get in a hundred other places. Maybe too much eggs and not enough bread and butter.
Bread and butter
Fruit crumble with custard
Cost and conclusion: with two 3 courses meals and a bottle of wine for £60 (including the service charge) the County Arms is reasonably well priced. The surrounding is nice and the service was efficient. We will be back!
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.
