Los Angeles Day 1: Decadence at Providence

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I had a bit of a meltdown before I left for the US. Them and their tricksy immigration rules, combined with nondescript instructions on how long you should have left on your passport. You get the idea. Even with all the research I had done, I was sweating as I checked in, sweating on the plane, and when the immigration dude had to "go check with his colleague about something", I nearly had a meltdown. Thankfully, they stamped my passport and I was through.

LA is a weird place. I was warned about how spread out it all was, and you can easily travel for streets and not see a soul (apart from the numerous homeless who wander the streets). Very few things are located near each other, and often things which look close together on a map, will turn into a $12 cab ride. Providence is one of these places. A 2 Michelin starred restaurant, it was to be my first eating destination on my trip and arriving early, I thought I would check out the surrounding neighbourhood. There was nothing around it at all. After a few minutes looking for things to distract me, I gave up and headed on in.

My first contact with LA hospitality was great. Our server was friendly, knowledgeable and quite refreshing from what I come to expect from much of London. Some might say over friendly, but you couldn't doubt the knowledge he had of all the restaurants products. The restaurant itself is small and looking a little worn on the inside, but still clean and simple with nice little touches. The food is far from clean and simple. Our amuse included the restaurants twist on two popular cocktails, and some extremely tasty morsels. The mojito gelee was a subtle cube of mojito, the "screwdriver" arrived like an egg yolk and exploded in your mouth. The gougere was perfectly executed, and the parsnip soup with bacon broth was quite special.

After that quartet, my appetite was fully geared up. We decided to share two "entrees" which couldn't have been more different. The lobster crepe arrived looking stunning, and tasting pretty great too. With the tail, the crunchy crepe and soft claw, you get a great assortment of contrasting tastes and textures. The clam fritters arrived simply in a bowl with some yuzu mayonnaise on the side, and although the first few were pleasant, they started to cloy. There was no way I could have finished a whole portion of these on my own.

My main was something so ridiculously decadent, that it jumped off the menu saying "order me", so order I did. Voila, one plate of  foie gras ravioli, served with "aromatics", a parmesan foam and smothered in grated truffle. I hate using the word umami, but this dish was designed to flood your mouth with this fifth taste, and the pasta was just so perfectly executed. Each bite provided me with such pleasure, it ended all too quickly. My companions plate of sea urchin spaghetti is definitely not something I would normally go for, so after a token mouthful, I left her to it.

I ended with a coffee "bombe" and a whisky cream, a delightful combination which tasted like a refined tiramisu in the mouth. Opposite me was a dessert a mad scientist would have been proud of. A perfectly caramelised stick of pineapple soaked in white soy with little globules of jalapeno sauce. A dessert which triggers all your savoury senses, with the base ingredients sweetness dragging this dish into dessert territory. Personally, I loved the combination of sweet and savoury, and each additional bite kept me coming back for more.

With ambitious combinations and excellent execution, it's easy to see why Providence has been awarded their coveted two stars. A visit to the local Farmers Market (located on 3rd and Fairfax) soon after was probably ill timed. Packed with stalls selling food, it would be a great place to hang out if you are hungry, not so much if you had just devoured a huge meal. Located right behind is the Grove, an open air shopping center where I didn't buy anything, and just sat in the Californian sun, soaking up rays so rarely seen in London.

Providence - 5955 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles 90038

For more pictures of Providence and Los Angeles HERE

The Hinds Head, Bray (Guest Post)

*Guest post by my sister, who doesn't blog but eats out more than I do. Hopefully this will instigate her to blog a bit more for me (and she likes West London, an area I am definitely lacking in). Hope you like. Please leave her nice comments.*

I love being spoiled. Especially with food, though at the risk of oversaturating the blogopshere with another Heston review perhaps I should focus on the fact that it was my birthday and after a hard mornings shopping in (not so near) Bicester, I was very much looking forward to the comely feast that awaited me the Hinds Head. My chum, and I bombed it down the M40 in the pelting rain and screeched to a halt outside here;

Well not exactly outside. Duly following the parking signs for the pub we crunched up an inconspicuous gravel driveway opposite that led to their overflow carpark. A sure sign of the crowds brand Heston is able to draw as it was packed. Cue grumpy strop from me having to walk a whole 4 minutes in the rain! Though grump was short lived as I managed a cheeky peek into Heston’s lab which is curiously based in a little converted shed-like building in the car park... I guess real estate in Bray is a serious commodity now.

After a warm, if a little creepy welcome from the smiling maître'd, we were led upstairs, much to my disappointment. Where was my pub fantasy? No table by the roaring fire, (no fire at all in fact) no ruddy faced old men sipping their whiskeys, no damp dogs snoozing in the gangways to step over. Just crammed to the very-carefully-restored-rafters with the ‘down from London for the weekend’ types. Like us. Embarrassing really to be so predictable. Instead we were led up the charming rickety stairs to our table and pretty much left to it. No really. Staring at our menu’s for a full 15 mins before we even caught a waiters eye did wonders for my already fragile temper, urged on by the early start, ferocious spending and now the everlasting wait for food. Prognosis: not good. Can you tell?

Pic lifted from the Hinds Head website

Finally, our orders were taken and we soon tucked into some fat juicy Scotch Eggs. The salty, crispy, deep fried, melting goodness was enough to disperse the black mood of death, voraciously dipping it into the creamy mustard we were finally off! I was so excited. A round of sourdough bread with densely churned salty butter didn’t even touch the sides…I was really gaining momentum now. The promising start was followed by a startlingly verdant confection of Pea and Ham soup. Now, peas not being my favourite thing, I approached this with trepidation, but it was bursting with field fresh sweetness. The salty nuggets of ham hock were a delight and thankfully, plentiful. Made my tea smoked salmon look a little dull. But the portions were generous and my appetite appeased by the soft, fleshy slices of curiously flavoured salmon spiked with the sharpest of lemons. Mmmmmm.

Onwards to the mains! My Wild Mushroom Macaroni with Fried Duck Egg was earthy and slippery all at once. A quivering duck egg was hastily stabbed and the golden yolk was liberated! Who knew what joy could come from an egg, some mushrooms and the tiniest hint off truffle oil. Me, at last! Delicious. Monk fish cheek scampi with fries for the Scotsman was ok. Crispy, fishy, carby. What more can I say? I definitely got the winner in the mains. He did however have to foresight to order a side of champ. Or was that me? I forget. All I can remember was this incredible spoonful of creamy potato wrapping me in buttered heavenliness. Over and over till I realised I’d practically eaten the lot. Oops.

Somewhat satiated we kicked back and ordered an Apple and Blackberry Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream. 25 long minutes later it was served. Piping hot but frankly disappointing, it certainly was not worth the wait especially as puddings are my favourite course. Soggy crumb and an over sweet compote does not a good crumble make. Neither does a half full teapot constitute £4.50 worth of tea.

We finally paid the bill after almost resorting to removing my top to get the waiters attention - around £60 for the both of us it was quite reasonable but one not quite worth making a return journey for. Very pleasant mannered waiters are all well and good, but appearing very young and with the attention span of a goldfish, I’d go for age before beauty any time.

The Hinds Head - High St, Bray, SL6 2AB

Roast, London Bridge

I have always been a fond admirer of Lawrence Keogh. He (like me) went through a kidney transplant not so long ago, and inspires those that have gone through renal failure that you can still lead a full and fulfilling life, achieving the life goals you may have set yourself. Working as head chef of Roast in Borough Market, he has even written a cookbook focused on those suffering from renal failure, focusing on tasty dishes you can eat and make whilst taking into consideration the numerous dietary restrictions that people like me had to endure for so many years. In short, he is definitely someone I respect.

Having consumed numerous piggie rolls from the takeaway post stationed in the entrance of Borough market, I had high hopes for Roast. The minute I saw Toptable Spotlight offering £40 for £20, I snapped it up and plotted a trip. I thought I was being clever by scheduling a Saturday lunchtime trip, I could head to Roast and pickup some delights from Borough Market for later consumption. This was my first mistake, Borough was already heaving and the hordes were making me angry as I got there at 12. I was to end up with no treats.

The room itself is a nice airy space. High ceilings, lots of natural light with windows absolutely everywhere and a great view of the market below. Scattered with various photographic portraits of people you will recognise, I was left to stare at Simon Pegg's rather sad looking face during the whole meal. With a 2 hour turnaround time, we were keen to order, but after the initial welcome, and the reminder of the 2 hour rule, we struggled to attract the attention of our server, quite a feat in itself as we were sat right next to the till. A little while later, we managed to order, with 3 starters to share and mains. We also ordered the house special cocktail and waited.

After a little while, our starters arrived, but there was no sign of our drinks. We ended up asking three times before they eventually surfaced. We couldn't wait around for our drinks so we tucked into our food. It's hard to beat deep fried cheese, but even Laverstoke mozzarella (which is quite delicious) is over priced at £9.50 for 3 measly pieces of lukewarm cheese. Even more parsimonious was the £8 saveloy scotch egg. Basically, it was an overcooked battered egg. The sausage meat was barely there, and no matter how nice the sausage meat around the egg tasted, it was a lot of money to pay for a battered egg. The corned beef and pickled onion hash was better, but did not redeem the two dishes before it. Eventually, as we finished off our first course, our drinks arrived.

The mains were at least warm, but were nothing to write home about. The sole (which was a megrim as advertised, and not a lemon sole as our waiter insisted) went down well and was a hefty beast. If there was a gripe, it was not hot enough to melt the shrimp butter on top. My main of pork belly was decent enough, with excellent crackling, but the meat was on the chewy side, and the apple sauce was poor at best, tasting and looking like apple flavoured baby food.

Once again, we were missing items we had ordered. Beef dripping roast potatoes arrived a little while after the mains, and were nothing like the wondrous beef dripping chips at Hawksmoor Seven Dials. Underdone, lacking any crisp, insipid in flavour and actually unpleasant to eat, I had one and couldn't bring myself to eat another. The cabbage we had ordered failed to turn up at all, and when we pointed this out to our waiter, he visibly shrugged his shoulders. A little while later, our cabbage eventually turned up piping hot. The only relief was that we had eventually got some hot food.

By the time they had offered us dessert, we really just wanted to leave so we tried to settle the bill, but even that took a few goes to get somebodies/anybodies attention. The total bill pre voucher came to nearly £90, and that was with the cabbage removed and also begrudgingly the drinks. A huge wad of cash for mediocre food and terrible service. We considered desserts briefly, but when I saw them all sitting on the tray by the pass, right next to the heat lamps which failed to keep our food warm., I was very glad I hadn't. I couldn't believe it but I was pleased to be re-entering the seething mass which is Borough Market. I admire you Mr Keogh, but your restaurant, not so much.

Roast - The Floral Hall, Stoney Street, London SE1 1TL

I miss the trolley: Dragon Palace and Golden Pagoda

Deep fried bean curd and other plates at Golden Pagoda

I remember many years ago when I first moved to London, my family went about systematically adopting Chinese restaurants. La Orient and China Chef for our local Chinese fix, Mandarin Kitchen in Bayswater for noodles and aromatic duck and New World in Chinatown. New World in particular would be visited once a fortnight so my family could satisfy their burgeoning dumplings fix, with their wares being brought round on trolleys. Being a fussy eater as a child, this was ideal. I could peruse each trolleys contents with my dad and "help" to order. I felt important, and we got our food almost as soon as we sat down at our table. I would be able to see all the different types of food pass by, and not miss anything. I used to pay close attention to the refuelling hatch, and give my dad a nudge when they started to refill the trolleys with fresh dumplings. I loved Dim Sum Sundays.

Delicious delicate dumplings at Dragon Palace

Cue 20 years later and the trolleys still roll at New World, but gone are the tasty and fresh dumplings, only to be replaced by claggy tourist fodder, with trolleys merely used for show. I haven't been back for over 5 years, but just like the restaurant collectors my parents once used to be, I have been seeking out the perfect dim sum location in London. At the moment, I favour Dragon Castle as my Dim Sum location of choice. It's near my home, the noodles are excellent, good value and the dim sum are fresh (as long as you get there by 1pm). But that hasn't stopped me from looking for new dim sum locations.

Silver tip noodles, Singapore style at Dragon Palace

Two new places I have visited lately, worthy of a mention, are Dragon Palace and Golden Pagoda. Located in Earls Court, Dragon Palace has been visited by a number of bloggers recently, although it was Su Lins post which tipped me off first. After a couple of aborted attempts, I eventually made it there one Sunday. Ordering some firm dim sum staples, as well as a few items I don't see on a dim sum menu every day, most of what we got was good. The steamed dumplings in particular were very good, packed full of flavour, and the translucent skins withstanding some clumsy chopsticking. The xiao long bau (or "soup" dumplings) were amongst the best I have tasted in London, and worthy of their own sentence.

Grilled Cheung Fun at Dragon Palace



Xiao Long Bau at Dragon Palace

New things to me included wobbly grilled sticks of cheung fun, moreish and smoky, and silver tip or "rat tail" noodles, which were slightly unconventional in their texture, but nothing that outstanding in flavour. There were a few duds in the meal, with the wu kok (yam croquettes) overcooked, dry and mostly flavourless, and the service being pretty consistently terrible. Picture asking whether you have finished by 5 different people, and telling them one by one that you were still waiting for two dishes. After the 5th person asked us, we got the idea and got the bill instead. A sad way to end an otherwise enjoyable meal.

Which brings me to another new dim sum destination I visited recently, Golden Pagoda in Chinatown. It's not often I take tips from my mum, but after her colleague had suggested it, I agreed to meet my parents at Golden "Buddha". After 10 minutes of walking around, and checking out numerous restaurants called golden something, I met my parents outside of Golden Pagoda. No trolleys in here either, and I really wasn't expecting much owing to it's rather central Chinatown location.

Seafood Crispy Noodles and others at Golden Pagoda

I am glad to say I was pleasantly surprised. I have grown to expect the worst of Chinatown. After all, every week, the restaurants change names, change façades, nothing rarely stays constant in Chinatown, it draws in tourists, feeds them, and spits them out from whence they came. I could bore you to death about the history of Chinatown (I wrote my dissertation on it), but I won't, I will just leave you with the fact that Golden Pagoda is very good. The fried goods were relatively greaseless, the dumplings were steaming hot and packed full of pork, prawn and scallops, and noodles crisp and moreish. Even the service was attentive and efficient, unheard of in most Chinatown restaurants.

A trolley packed with delicious stuff (in Melbourne, not London unfortunately)

So there you go, after years of trying to find good and affordable dim sum in London, I stumble across two places I would happily visit again within two weeks of each other. You would struggle to spend more than £15 a head in either, and obviously, the more people you go with, the more stuff you can eat and the cheaper it will inevitably turn out. Having said all this, I am not sure if I will make the pilgrimage to Earls Court or head up to Chinatown for my regular Dim Sum fix. Dragon Castle is close, and if you head there before 1pm when the crowds really start to pick up, the food is fresh(er) and tastes great. The only thing that would make it better, trolleys I tell you. Trolleys.

Dragon Palace - 7 Earls Court Rd, London SW5 9AN



Golden Pagoda - 15A Gerrard Street,Chinatown, London W1D 6JD

Antepliler, Islington (abridged)

Where?

Antepliler, a new(ish) Turkish restaurant located right in the middle of Upper Street in Islington.

Why?

A couple of week backs, the inaugural #Foodaoke was launched. A group of bloggers invaded Lucky Voice in Islington and spent a good two hours belting out our favourite tunes, whilst consuming numerous gin, vodka, whatever based cocktails. By 9pm, when we were belted out of our room midst "Bohemian Rhapsody", we were hungry. Most went their seperate ways, but a hardcore group of about 6 of us headed for Antepliler.

What (did I eat)?

We ended up ordering a whole load of mezze, with dips and lamb and bread scattered across the table. Humus and antep dolma (cold stewed peppers and aubergines) were fresh and delicious scooped up with the puffed up freshly made breads. The hot dishes were just as good, with the borek (feta cheese, parsley and spices wrapped in a filo pastry) disappearing almost as soon as they hit the table, as well as the exemplary falafel, grease free and light. I can't forget the lahmacun either, great big Turkish "pizzas", drizzled with lemon juice, topped with salad and stuffed into your face any which way you could.

How (much)?

We had a lot of food, and if my memory serves me right (it was a little hazy at this stage) it all came to around £20 each. I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed it, and I certainly know I did. Karaoke or no, I will be back.

Antepliler - 139 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1QP

A lot to live up to: Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental, Knightsbridge

Another day, another gushing review, this time by a certain AA Gill. His two pages in the weekends Sunday Times will no doubt have many others slobbering with anticipation, keen to get a table at Heston’s newest venture. I was no different. The minute the reservations line opened, I got my name down and was ecstatic to have chalked up a booking. My reservation was a week after it had opened, and with every day as I inched towards my reservation, reviews started leaking out, all heralding Heston and APW as the second coming. I was excited, very excited. Alongside, I was bringing the harshest critic I knew, my dad.

So on the day, I got all dressed up and headed up to Knightsbridge, even arriving early enough to plonk myself at the bar, enjoy a drink and peer into the dining room. This is the first moment the doubt started to creep into my mind. The dining room is a little staid, and with my 2pm booking looming, it was beginning to empty. As I watched each person leave, it felt like little nuggets of character were leaking out of the room.

When we were finally seated, the room was half empty. It's a strange sensation walking into the Dinner dining room. Indeed, there is a quite pleasant view of some grass, and a rather large open kitchen on view to the world, but the dour beige & brown interior don't add much to the rooms atmosphere. I was slightly disappointed by the initial lack of pineapples on the now famed clockwork spit, but the thing that threw me the most was how laid-back the kitchen appeared. I took this as confidence as the four of us squabbled who would eat what.

To start, I settled on savoury porridge, a herby spelt risotto adorned with cod cheeks. What you get is a vivaciously green and light dish, with many flavours racing over your tongue. The salty cod cheeks were lifted by the multitude of herbs used in the porridge as well as those adorned over the top. Nuggets of beetroot added bursts of colour and flavour. It didn't make the earth move, but certainly got my appetite going, and I awaited my next course intently. There was of course the meat fruit, which with so many superlatives already applied in numerous write ups, how could it possibly live up to expectation? In all honesty, it was very good pate, with the chicken livers as smooth as I have ever tasted, and the expertly charred bread adding an additional smoky flavour. Of the other starters, I found the hay smoked mackerel a delightful combination of intriguing flavours, where the "meat and flesh" was sadly disappointing and a rather boring saffron risotto dotted with shreds of ox tail.

Unfortunately I didn't fare so well with my main. The black foot pork chop should be the dish of my dreams, but what I got was a chewy, over salted pork chop, with flabby edges and nothing more than a smattering of cabbage and some sweet sauce along for the ride. I tried to enjoy it, but chew after chew, I couldn't help but think that this was one of the least intelligent £28 I had ever invested.

Other mains were equally underwhelming. My fathers turbot was a mish mash of strong contrasting flavours, with the flavour of the "king of fish" totally lost. The powdered duck was better, but the Asian influenced flavours were quite ordinary. Best of all the mains was the cod in cider, which was delicious and comes highly recommended.

I really hoped the desserts, probably my favourite course in my old age, would lift the rather sombre mood, and on the whole, they were very good. Brown Bread ice cream may sound a relatively ordinary dessert, but I guess anything out of the Fat Duck stable is hardly going to be ordinary. The large scoop of ice cream was malty and rich with the bitter malted yeast syrup a pleasant contrast. A bed of crunchy bready nuggets, packed with wisps of citrus, all sitting on sweet and salty caramel. A dish packed with contrasting flavours and textures, reminding me of the invention and flavours I had hoped for.

Another dessert of "rhubarb" was quite straightforward, and at £8 for a few slices of rhubarb and sorbet seemed rather dear. Chocolate bar was reminiscent of the famous Louis XV I recently tasted at Gauthier Soho, sweet, indulgent, but most of all, chocolatey. Last but not least, we had to have the Tipsy cake and pineapple, which came out a little on the sloppy side, but was still extremely pleasant.

As we were brought out a white chocolate and earl grey ganache petit four, I asked my dad what he thought. He proclaimed that he had enjoyed his meal but remained restraint. Unfortunately, this wasn't really the reaction I had hoped for, but I understand where he was coming from. The food on the whole was good but there were inconsistencies throughout the meal, really not what I would expect from a restaurant of such stature. Fireworks were lacking at any point, although a faint spark was ignited by the time we had tasted our desserts, a bit late for my taste buds to start tingling. Service was on the whole decent, but at times, it took far more effort to get a waiters attention than was necessary. Reading other reports, I can't help but think that much of what we experienced was an "off" day, but restaurants such as this really shouldn't be experiencing off days. I guess we will see how Dinner develops, but for the time being, I am in no rush to go back.

Dinner - Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7LA

For more pictures, please check out my Flickr stream here.

Hand pulled: Noodle Bar, Leicester Square

Having been at my “new” job now for six months, I have had a decent amount of time to assess the lunch options and report back. One of my more favoured destinations happens to be a place quaintly named “Noodle Bar” (amongst a myriad of Chinese (?) characters that I am unable to decipher). In the window they have a rather dire array of pre cooked, probably been there for 3 days, fodder. Not the best start.

Once you look past the sheen of the hotlamps, you will see a guy standing next to a bubbling vat of water/stock, hand pulling noodles to order. Rumour has it that he was flown over specifically to perform this role, and in all fairness, I have seen him do little else. Rumour aside, a bowl of steaming hot noodles comes to a very reasonable £6, and most variations come in either a dry or soup version.

Although the rare beef version (number 1 on the menu) seems to come highly recommended, I always seem to opt for the spicy chicken. Although the broth seems to change on every visit, nothing quite hits the spot on a cold winters day than a freshly made pot of steaming and spicy noodles. Well worth dropping in, and not just for a takeaway as they have a few tables out back too.

Noodle Bar - 33 Cranbourne St, London WC2H 7AD

Trully disappointing: Trullo, Islington

I was very excited about the prospect of dining at Trullo, a small but relatively new Italian restaurant located within spitting distance of Highbury and Islington tube. After all, it had been receiving rave reviews from all and sundry, and I hadn’t heard a bad thing about it. Impromptu visits were impossible as reservations were snapped up weeks in advance, and it’s receipt of a Michelin Bib Gourmand last week just accentuated it’s growing notoriety. I think what happened next is best described in an almost accurate transcript of a conversation I had with a friend about it:

THEM: How's you? Saw you didn't love Trullo?

ME: No, Trullo was so disappointing on many levels.

THEM: Why is that?

ME: One of us was late as she had gone to the wrong restaurant (d'oh)

THEM: ergh... how did she manage that?

ME: She went to Tinello, so not too hard an error to make :)

THEM: the other side of town

ME: Well, still on the Vic line, so not a total nightmare. We asked if there was any flexibility on the table time as they wanted it back by 9pm, so a 2 hour window, but they bluntly said not likely and maybe we could call her and read her the menu over the phone?

THEM: They asked what?

ME: Exactly. Anyway, he pressurised us into ordering, which we did, although it was almost impossible to get their attention when we wanted to order as we were sitting at the corner table. We ordered pretty much everything they had. There was no fish as the delivery was stuck on the motorway, but you know how I feel about fish

THEM: That I do.

ME: So, she arrived and all was good in the world (she ordered the rabbit fritti). Service got a bit better, all was looking good. So starters arrived, quail and kohlrabi salad, quail was nice, good aioli, kohlrabi was meh.

THEM: Aioli? That isn't Italian!

ME: Nope, but tasted good. The pastas arrived, penne with chilli and mascarpone lacked any kick but was nice enough. Beef ragu pappardelle was nice, very beefy, but to be fair, nothing special. But then....the duck ravioli though in sage butter sauce. They were amazing and easily the highlight of the meal

ME: So they cleared them away, and I didn't feel massively rushed at this stage, although we were conscious of the clock, so not exactly relaxed. Mains, as they so often are, were very disappointing. My 30 day sirloin was bland, overseasoned and weirdly chewy. The polenta tasted pretty disgusting in my eyes, with a huge amount of gorgonzola in it, so overpowering. Rabbit came as "fritti", but also came with a rabbit offal salad which was so salty it was inedible. I hate doing it, but we had to send the salad back. They were very good about it and brought out a fresh lot pretty quickly.

ME: They actually hurried us into ordering desserts, but brought us an extra tiramisu to make up for it. The blood orange panna cotta was not set enough and was starting to break up, and whilst ugly, tasted really very nice. Tiramisu would have benefited from being wetter (more coffee) but was on the whole very nice, and the only other thing that really rocked my world that night was the honeycomb and hazelnut ice cream. I have a soft spot for nut based ice creams anyway, but this was really excellent.

THEM: Would you go back?

ME: No, probably not

So that was that, a thoroughly underwhelming meal which came to a total of £45 each (with wine and service). I sat at the bus stop patiently waiting for my bus in the light drizzle and reflected on what had gone wrong. The first major mistake was for a restaurant with ambition, and charging on average in the high teens per main, to impose a two hour turn around with no flexibility. At these prices, I would expect to be able to enjoy my meal without having to check my watch every five minutes and feel hurried by the staff. It left more of a bad taste in my mouth than the over salted food. Which is sort of my second point. The pastas were excellent, but everything else was either disappointing, inedible or average. Not really what I had hoped nor expected. As I text messaged a friend about the meal, my phone kept auto correcting “savouries” to “saboteur”. I can’t help thinking that there was a little bit of truth in that.

Trullo - 300-302 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2LH