Bistro1 restaurant 33 Southampton Street Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7HE
Bistro 1 covers two floors – with the upper floor being a bit more spacious than the ground floor. The meals are quite cheap for this very touristic area of London with 2 courses for £6.90 or 3 courses for £7.90 so my expectation was not high. In fact I was quite pleasantly surprised by the food, which was quite decent especially at this price.
Deep-fried spicy chicken on skewers
The spicy chicken on skewers came with a fairly plain salad, but it was still quite fresh and had a pleasant enough dressing. The chicken was very nicley done though, being well cooked but not dry as is a common risk with chicken cooked on skewers. The garlic yoghurt dip was not especially garlicky, but it was certainly spicy. Overall, a dish exceeding expectation.
Fillet of sea bream
The main course was sea bream topping garlic mashed potato. The potato itself was perhaps just a little on the mushy side, though it’s flavour was good. The fish was very nicely cooked and seasoned – certainly with a better flavour than presentation suggested.
Apple tarte tartin
Dessert was the weakest dish, being a bit excessively sweet and a little overcooked.
Cost & conclusion: I was not the one paying the bill, but 3 courses for £7.90 is hard to complain about. There were about 14 of us together at lunch, which is a group size that most restaurants have trouble to cope with (it is hard to get the same standard of food in a large group as you get in smaller groups). Bistro 1 did this pretty well, and the service was both speedy and polite. Overall, a positive experience and I’d eat here again.
Loch Fyne Covent Garden restaurant 2-4 Catherine Street London WC2B 5JS
If you are into theatre, Loch Fyne at Covent Garden is very conveniently located between Fortune Theatre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Duchess theatre. I already reviewed this restaurant many months ago, and I am back this time for lunch with some colleagues.
Fish soup
The fish soup with garlic bread was a bit of a mixed experience. That is, the soup itself was quite average and also not hot enough. The garlic bread accompanying it, however, was very good – plenty of real garlic, and nice and crusty.
Pan fried sea bream
The pan fried sea bream was also good. It was a decent size (it looks a bit small in the photo, but actually wasn’t) and was nicely cooked with firm flesh and a crispy skin. The one thing missing here was any seasoning – I’m not especially given to having to add salt to my food, but in this case a little dash of it was needed. With that addition, it was a good meal.
Tarte tatin
The tarte tatin was a bit ordinary, and a slightly strange take on this classic dessert. Overall inoffensive, but nothing to return for either.
Cost and conclusion: I was not the one paying the bill. One complaint I would make about this restaurant was the incredibly slow service. We were a group of 10, which is always going to slow things down. But an hour between the starter and main course is really too long – and in all we were there nearly 3 hours. The last time I visited this restaurant, I concluded that it was probably a decent place for groups for lunch. I would change that view slightly and now say good for groups with time to spare.
Carluccio’s Garrick Street, Covent Garden London WC2E 9BH
I had been to Carluccios once previously. Although that was a couple of years ago, my recollection is that this restaurant did quite good pasta. On this occassion though, it was for an office Christmas lunch, so my expectations weren’t high.
From a limited menu (that we had to pre-select from) I chose a vegetarian platter as starter, Bistecca di Bue con Patate for the main course, and Pasticcio di Cioccolato as dessert.
Great vegetarian platter
Bistecca di Bue con Patate
The starter was really quite good, with very nice fresh foccacio bread and a variety of peppers, olives and mozarella. Unfortunately, the main course wasn’t so good. The steak was a very thin cut and rather fatty, overcooked and very tough. I abandoned it after just a couple of bites. It came with a sort of creamy tomato sauce that would have been better with pasta, but definitely did not improve the steak.
Pasticcio di Cioccolato
Dessert was a chocolate bread pudding. It was a welcome relief after the steak, but actually also not very good. It was cold and rather soggy.
Overall, it was a disppointing meal, with only the starter worth eating. Christmas set menus for office parties are notoriously poor, and this one was no exception. It doesn’t make me inclined to try this restaurant again.
Boulevard Brasserie 40 Wellington Street Covent Garden London WCX2E 7BD
Boulevard Brasserie is located next to Covent Garden Piazza so within easy reach of the theatres, the Royal Opera House, the London Transport Museum and incidentally from the office. It got some bad reviews on London Eating, especially for the service but actually the service was all right, and the food too. It reminds me also the bad reviews Le P’tit Normand got, which were absolutely not founded. At least it shows in these two cases the restaurants do not write fake positive reviews as we see too often.
We went for the prix fixe lunch/pre theatre at £11.95 for 2 courses which is available between 12 and 7pm. As starters you have the choice between the soupe du jour, the goat’s cheese and caramelised onion tarte, the duck parfait with toasted brioche and homemade fig chutney, the wild rocket and parmesan salad and the egg florentine, wilted spinach with poached egg and hollandaise sauce.
For the second course you get the choice between the Donald Russell minute steak with béarnaise sauce and fresh cut fries, the poached salmon with hollandaise and new potatoes, the classic chicken Kiew with pommes puree, the traditional salad Niçoise with tuna in extra virgin olive oil and the spinach and ricotta ravioli with a sage butter sauce.
We chose the egg florentine and the duck parfait, followed by the steak and the salad Niçoise. As drinks we had a glass of red wine (£4) and a glass of grapefruit juice (£1.95).
Duck parfait
The duck parfait was good. The slice was thinner than usual but actually it was fine. I am just mentioning it in case some big eaters are expecting a large slice of the parfait The toast was good and the fig chutney good too, not too sweet. Nothing like the weird chutney I had at The Prince Albert.
Egg florentine
The egg florentine was very good. It was perfectly cooked – firm white with a just-liquid yolk. It was served on hot steamed spinach (not at all salty, unlike my recent horrific experience with a very similar dish at Joe Allen) and a nice creamy hollandaise sauce.
Donald Russell minute steak with béarnaise sauce
Massive bowl of fries
The steak was good, nothing special but not bad either. It came with a HUGE bowl of fries, it could have fed two people easily! They were thin and crispy, as I like them. The béarnaise sauce was good and creamy but they could have been more generous with it.
Salade niçoise
The salade niçoise was quite good. It was not exactly the size you’d expect to get in France, but its ingredients were fresh and it was nicely seasoned. I would happily take this dish again.
Cost and conclusion: it was £33.58 including service. It was a decent lunch, especially when we know how things can go wrong in this Covent Garden area. And the service was fine.
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand 100 Strand, Covent Garden London WC2R 0EW
Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Another view
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.
