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Meals at St Thomas’ Hospital, London
May 13th, 2010 by Olivier

Meals at St Thomas’ Hospital, London
Lambeth, Greater London SE1 7, UK

St Thomas’ Hospital

I have been away from this blog for almost two months! Time flies! The reason of this absence is the arrival of my beautiful baby daughter who has kept us very busy since her birth. I am slowly recovering from the lack of sleep and I am ready to post again when I find some free time. I have a huge backlog of reviews to post but I will start by an unusual review: the meals at the maternity section at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

St Thomas’ Hospital is superbly located across the River Thames from Westminster and from our room we had a great view over the Houses of Parliament. The food, however, was certainly not great as is the case in most hospitals – but at least there was some compensation with the view. As for the hospital itself, things went eventually well but it was a shame many of the staff we met were not competent, including doctors asking my wife questions in the middle of contractions instead of waiting till they ended or just taking a look at the notes where the answers could be found. Overall I will keep a positive opinion but it is just because of two great midwives, Jennifer and Edith.

Now back to the meals: the post natal ward breakfast menu gives you many choices. You just tick what you require from the menu: fruit juice (apple/orange), muesli, cornflakes, all bran, rice krispies, weetabix, baked beans, scrambled eggs, porridge, wholemeal bread, white bread, wholemeal toast, white toast, butter, flora, marmalade, preserves, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cold milk and hot milk.

Post natal ward breakfast menu

Scrambled eggs

We chose the scrambled eggs with the wholemeal bread and butter. As drinks we had tea and orange juice. The scrambled eggs were terrible. Despite coming covered, they were on the cold side and they tasted of nothing. Cornflakes seemed a safer choice.

Great view

The wholemeal bread and the butter were fine, same for the juice and tea. At least we had a great view over Westminster and a new born baby to keep us distracted from the breakfast.

The lunch gave the choice between the traditional dish (breaded fish – fillet of cod coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried), the chefs dish (cumberland sausages with onion gravy), the world dish (lamb curry – diced lamb and vegetable in a mild curry sauce), the vegetarian dish (mixed bean casserole – butterbeans, kidney beans, haricot beans with vegetables in tomato sauce, topped with potato), the sandwich (roast beef and mustard or cheese and coleslaw), the salad (scotch egg and salad). You can also get garden peas, fresh seasonal vegetable, chipped potatoes, creamed potatoes, rice. As dessert, the choice is between the hot sweet (pineapple sponge) and the cold sweet (fruit yoghurt or orange or chocolate mousse).

Cumberland sausages and pineapple sponge


Actually the cumberland sausages were ok. They were on the too-soft side but at least they had some taste. The vegetables were overcooked but ok as well. We had worse later so things are relative here.

Pineapple sponge

The pineapple sponge was not good at all. It had the look of breaded chicken covered by a mild curry sauce and it tasted very artificial. Once again, the view helps not to focus too much on the food.

Wonderful view

The supper was bad. It was served fairly early, I do not remember the time now but it was about 5 something. We chose the chefs dish which was the ham omelette and the rice pudding. Below are the other choices:

Ham omelette and rice pudding

The ham omelette was seriously bad. It was very dry and it would have been hard to guess it was a ham omelette had we not been told about it. The rice pudding seemed very good by contrast but I cannot tell if it was good in absolute or by comparison to the omelette.

We were still hungry so in the evening we went to the hospital’s canteen to get more meals as take away for dinner. We chose a chicken curry and a pasta with cheese. Huge mistake… They were horrid and by far the worst meals I had for a very long time. The curry was incredibly bland, same for the pasta. We wished for a Burger King. No kidding. If you are hungry, go to the McDonalds near London Eye (near the London Aquarium) as they are open till late.

The awful chicken curry

Disgusting pasta

We stayed two full days. Actually we were supposed to leave on the second day in the morning but because of administrative mess reasons we left at around 11pm… So we had again the same breakfast the next morning and as for lunch we decided to play safe and to choose a sandwich (it was possible to have a beef casserole, a fish pie, a caribbean beef curry, a bean and vegetable stew instead) with some fresh seasonal vegetable and an apple and berry pie.

Sandwich

Ham and tomato sandwich

The sandwich was ok and the apple and berry pie ok as well. Not sure if we got used to the food at this point LOL.

The supper gave the choice between a shepherds pie, a barbeque chicken (my choice), a bijanlo (spicy African vegetarian dish with beans, tomato, aubergines and potato), a sweet and sour bean and vegetables (butter beans with stir fry vegetables in a fruity sweet and sour sauce), a sandwich and a cheese ploughmans and salad. As dessert I had the bread and butter pudding.

Chicken thighs in barbeque sauce and bread and butter pudding

Barbeque chicken with the view

The barbeque chicken was good, and the barbeque sauce was not even oversweet. The dessert was decent too. It was nice to end our journey to the hospital on a positive note.

Cost and conclusion: thanks to NHS, we had nothing to pay in addition to our income tax. We will not keep a good memory about the food there, but we will certainly remember the superb view we had from our bedroom. As for the staff, in our experience there were many incompetent people and just a few who were good. It is sad these people have to work more to compensate the deficiency of the incompetent.

My baby :-)

Japanese restaurant Akasiro, London, UK
Apr 1st, 2009 by Olivier

Akasiro
8 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ
Monday to Saturday from 12 to 11:30pm (last order)
Sunday from 12 to 11pm (last order)

Akasiro

Reviewed on Wednesday 1 April 2009

Japanese restaurant Akasiro

Japanese restaurant Akasiro

It has been a long time since I have been to Leicester Square area because I was mostly in France lately (most of November, a week in December, three weeks in January, three weeks in February) and I lost a little bit track of old habits. I wanted to go back to the Japanese restaurant Zipangu next to Chinatown and instead there was the Akasiro! There was a change of owner and the menu changed a little too. The Bento boxes disappeared, same for the tempura set which had a miso soup, three pieces of sashimi and a tempura of three prawns and a selection of vegetable (carrot, aubergine, green pepper…) for £10.50. I often used to take that tempura set and had to replace it by something new this time. Overall I found the new menu easier to read and the lunch special menu (from 12 to 4 pm every day) is extremely well priced.  They are divided in 5 categories: Main dishes, Furai dishes, Sushi and sashimi, Donburi and Noodles. Most of them are served with rice and miso soup and the price range goes from £5.90 for most of them to £6.50 with an exception for the Unaju at £8.50.

There are of course appetisers like hiya yakko (cold tofu with spicy sauce – £4.50), yakitori (£4), plenty of tempuras (a mixed tempura costs £6.50 for two shrimps, two fish and four vegetable), sushi/sashimi (around £3 – 3.50), sushi rolls (6 pieces from £3.00 to £7.50), sashimi or sushi set (£11.50), noodles, katsudon etc!

We decided to go with the chicken teriyaki (served with rice and miso soup – £6.50) and the hot tempura udon (thick noodle with shrimps and vegetable tempura – £5.90). For drinks we got two Asahi beer (twice £2.90).

A nice Asahi beer

A nice Asahi beer

The Asahi beer was great and it was nicely served chilled, something not that common when I think about some other Japanese restaurants like the Hazuki not too far from the Akasiro or the Toku where the beer has been too warm to the point we were taking wine or tea instead. Sorry for the photo, it was taken with a Blackberry cellphone.

The hot tempura udon was yummy. It was hot, tasty and spicy. They provide some chilli powder so you can adjust to your own taste. There were two prawns and several sort of vegetable for the tempura. Not that easy to eat with chopsticks even with the spoon but delicious. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. Same cellphone.

The hot tempura udon

The hot tempura udon

The chicken teriyaki was great too. It was not too sweet, as is sometimes the case with teriyaki and the chicken tasted very good. The bean sprouts were fresh and crispy. Excellent miso soup.

Chicken teriyaki with rice and miso soup

Chicken teriyaki with rice and miso soup

Cost and conclusion: for a little over £18 (service not included) I think it was a very good value for money. We found the lunch excellent and cannot wait to come back to try some other meals hungry The service, just one Japanese man serving where we were there, was efficient, polite and friendly.

Akasiro (was Zipangu) on Urbanspoon


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