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!
Bedford & Strand bistro and wine bar 1A Bedford Street, Covent Garden – the Strand WC2E 9HH London
Inside Bedford & Strand
There were three of us for a quick lunch at the Bedford & Strand. It is a well-hidden basement restaurant, on Bedford street just a few metres from the corner of the Strand, not far from Charing Cross tube station. The interior is quite attractive, despite the lack of natural light, and it has well defined eating and bar areas.
We ordered lemon sole (£16), steak & chips (£18.75) and a shepherd’s pie (£11.50). As drinks, we just took a bottle of water (£2.95) as we had meetings planned for the afternoon and we are in London, not in France 😉
Lemon sole
Steak and chips
Shepherd's pie
Mine was the lemon sole, which was OK, but did not come with any accompaniments, so was a bit of a stingy lunch for its price. It tasted OK, but didn’t smell terribly appetising, which was rather a turn off. My companions reported the cottage pie to be distinctly average-poor, and the Steak/chips to be no better than OK. We ended the meal with 2 double espresso (£5.50) and a cappuccino (£3.25) – these were fine, but nothing special. Cost & conclusion : The bill came to £63.75 which include the (already added) “optional” service charge of £5.80. The service was OK, but extremely slow – and there were only a handful of people in the restaurant – so I think probably more than deserved. As for the food, it’s not great and rather overpriced for the quality. The surroundings are pleasant, but that’s not a good enough reason to return.
Other restaurants I reviewed in the area: Côte restaurant, pizzeria Fire and Stone, Hazuki, Loch Fyne, Marquess of Anglesey, Terroirs, Wahaca, Zizzi and a little further: Albannach, Akasiro, Prix Fixe, Tokyo Diner.
Japanese restaurant Akasiro 8 Little Newport Street London WC2H 7JJ
I reviewed Akasiro 6 times but it has been two months since the last review so how are they doing now? As usual it was just time for a quick lunch. We took Katsudon (pork cutlet with egg sauce topped on rice, served with miso soup – £6.50) and Yaki Udon (£5.90). As drinks, we had an Asahi beer (£2.90) and a green tea (£1.50).
Yaki Udon
The Yaki Udon is a meal made of fried thick udon noodles with seafood. It was very tasty. Nice crispy bean sprouts, good range of seafood (mussels, shrimps, calamari…).
Katsudon
The katsudon was also very good – surprisingly tasty and even quite crispy, which is quite a feat considering that the tonkatsu strips are cooked in an egg sauce atop rice.
Cost and conclusion: as usual, a good meal at reasonable price from Akasiro. Their lunchtime prices really are good value. It was £16.80, not including tip. For reading the previous reviews, please visit the list of restaurants in alphabetical order page. It only lists London based restaurants.
Côte Restaurant 17-21 Tavistock Street, London WC2E 7PA Tel: 020 7379 9991
Côte Restaurant is one of a small chain, and the Covent Garden outlet is on Tavistock Street. It is quite a nicely decorated restaurant, with a decent amount of space between tables and a pleasant surrounding. It has large windows that can be folded back to allow plenty of light and fresh air in. Actually that’s not such a great idea in this location, as the noise of traffic is quite disturbing to any conversation over lunch.
There were four of us for lunch. We didn’t have all that much time, so we decided to follow the fixed price lunch menu (also available pre-theatre) which was 11.95 for two courses, or 13.75 for three. With a meeting immediately after lunch, we chose just to take tap water which was provided slightly cooled in earthenware bottles. Nice touch, but I’d rather the water had been properly chilled. We started the meal with some bread, which was very good. Just as well, since I found at the end that it was not complementary but charged to our bill. It was only £1.50 so it is the principle I’m complaining about rather than the price – not only that simple things like bread are charged, but that the waiters don’t advise that there is a charge and how much it is before bringing the bread. A tiny sum, but still the sort of thing that can ruin your experience.
Lentils with a poached egg
Close-up
For the starter, I took lentils with a poached egg. It was OK, though I found the egg a bit bland. My companions took a pea, mint & courgette soup, which looked fairly decent.
Salad with smoked salmon
Steak frites
Poulet grillé
As a main course I chose a salad with smoked salmon. The salmon was pretty good, as was the dill sauce it came with but I wasn’t so impressed by the salad leaves. They were fresh enough, but all just a bit too “stalky” for my liking – that is, mainly stalk, not so much leaf. Two of my companions took steak frites – which was a “thinly beaten out rump steak with frites and garlic butter (served pink). These were reported to be “ok, but average” which I must say is how they looked. The last of us took a poulet grillé which was “chargrilled butterflied chicken breast with wild mushroom, crème fraiche and chive sauce, served with gratin potato”. It was a good sized bit of chicken but I don’t recall noticing a sauce…
Iced summer berries with warm white chocolate sauce
chocolate pot
For dessert, we chose two “chocolate pots” which were reported to be a bit weird by those who took them. There was some dark chocolate covered by a sort of crème fraiche. I took iced summer berries with warm white chocolate sauce – which turned out to be exactly as described, that is, frozen berries with a little pot of hot white chocolate. I found the white chocolate to be very sweet – and the berries very sour. A bit too much contrast there, and I believe I’d have preferred the berries not frozen. My last companion chose a lemon sorbet, which was also reported to be fine.
We ended the meal with assorted coffees. Mine was an espresso, which was very average and a bit weak.
Cost & conclusion: The bill came to £70.59 including service charge. For a three course meal plus coffee for four people in covent garden, its really hard to complain. The food was nothing to rave about, and you get what you pay for in terms of quality (it was far from top quality steak, for example) but there was nothing obnoxious or poorly cooked either. Overall, not bad for a cost effective lunch in a limited time frame and certainly better than many of the tourist traps in this area. Other restaurants reviewed in the Covent Garden area are the Italian Zizzi, the Japanese Hazuki, the Mexican Wahaca, Terroirs and the pub Marquess of Anglesey.
Pizzeria Zizzi 73-75 The Strand London WC2R 0DE
The entrance
View of the oven
Spacious room
You come through the stairs in the background
Sober but nice design
Back again at Zizzi for a quick lunch near the office. Why again a pizza place? Well first I like pizzas in general and second I want to get erase the awful pizza I had in Tooting Broadway from my memory! Last time we came here we had a pizza Trentino and a pizza Fiorentina with the rustica option for a “Bigger, thinner and crispier bases, which means more room for your favourite topping!” as they say. In short, with that option you supersize your pizza.
Today we ordered a pizza Sofia rustica (spicy chicken, pepperoni, oven roasted sausage, tomato, mozzarella, finished with green chilli and fresh rosemary – £10.90) and a pizza Cotto e funghi rustica (cotto ham, field mushrooms, mascarpone, tomato, mozzarella and thyme – £10.45) and a 66cl Peroni beer (£5.95).
The beer was cold. A good start.
The two large pizzas
Let's not forget the chilli oil!
Pizza Sofia rustica
The pizza Sofia rustica was decent. I did not think much of the spicy chicken bits that I found a little bland. The oven roasted sausage bits were too small to really have a taste. The green chilli slices were extremely hot. I am into spicy oil and food so usually I can handle hot stuff quite well but these were like dynamite. Still, not a bad pizza but the other one was much better.
Pizza Cotto e funghi rustica
The pizza Cotto e funghi rustica was delicious, extremely creamy and with a thin crispy base. The ham was perfect, not oversalty as often happens and the mushrooms were tasty. The creamy flavour comes from the mascarpone which is a very fatty cheese made of fresh cream.
2/3 Sofia, 1/3 Cotto e funghi rustica
Cost and conclusion: Zizzi is currently offering £1 main meals when you buy any other (go to zizzi.co.uk) so the lunch was less than £20 which is an excellent deal. Also, tips are discretionary here and not automatically included in the bill which is good. All restaurants should follow that rule! The service was fine, so they deserved the tip. With so many tourist traps around the Strand and Covent garden it is nice to have a decent Italian restaurant offering good value for money.
