Restaurant: Mon Plaisir.
Location: Covent Garden, London.
Meal: Pre Fixe.
Price: Two courses, a glass of wine and coffee, £13.50.
Mon Plaisir claims to be the oldest French restaurant in London and that may well be true. I discovered it a while ago and have since recommended it to many people. On my first trip I was accompanied by nine others as it was my birthday and we got pate de foie gras, a melange of fish, a glass of wine, a coffee and Helen Mirren for our pre theatre price of £13.50 and you don’t get better value than that. (She was dining on the opposite table, we weren’t served fillets of her). So, when I heard an old friend from home was hitting London for the night to take her son to see Oliver it was a natural choice of venue for a quick bite to eat before I guided her round to Bow St. and the Theatre Royal.
As ever with its pre theatre customers the staff first check what time your show starts and makes sure they serve you in good time to get there which makes you feel nice and safe. There are only two choices for each course but really, at this price what more can be expected? Especially considering both options are always so inviting. This time there was the choice between a beautiful, chunky home-made pate and a butternut and pine nut soup. My friend’s son Tom went off menu and opted for escargot and a bowl of fries. An admirable choice for a six year old and I’m pleased to report he ate them all apart from the ones his mother and I tested for quality control purposes. My friend went for the soup which was silky, well seasoned and had good depth of flavour. Our waitress was generous with the bread basket which was offered on arrival and with both courses. My choice, the pate was exactly what one would expect from a good, home-made country pate and came with a home-made dab of red cabbage chutney, a choice of rustic and artisan breads and proper butter from the afore-mentioned basket.
Main course choices were fish cake of cod and roughly chopped potato coated with the lightest, flakiest breadcrumb coating you could imagine and a creamy slick of tarragon flecked sauce. It was rather refreshing in a fish cake to have relatively large chunks of components, pieces of identifiable cod and crushed rather than mashed potato. My friend ordered the Chicken Chasseur, a dish we’d all but forgotten about but we knew that if anywhere could render this classic dish authentically it would be Mon Plaisir. We weren’t wrong. The chicken was left on the bone as it should be but was parted from it easily because its cooking had been so lovingly executed. The sauce was everything we expect from the French classics, softly sautéed vegetables, a little alcohol, a little herb and the whole in perfectly seasoned balance with each other and the bird ensconced in it. The vegetables consisted of good – and here comes my time old moan - but not home made fries (grrrrr) and a charming little bowl of carrots and petit pois a la crème. The glass of house white we chose to go with it was more than acceptable. In fact it was so acceptable I ordered another glass.
My friend and I did what good friends everywhere do and ate half of each others meals so we’d tasted everything. We both agreed on the excellent credentials of Mon Plaisir, fries notwithstanding, both in quality of food and service and certainly on value for money, even without an appearance by Helen Mirren on this particular trip.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Al Fresco, Whetstone, London
Restaurant: Al Fresco.
Location: Whetstone, London.
Meal: Dinner
Price: £30 for two courses, wine and coffee.
Last Friday, having taken a chance on our local inn-turned-gastro-pub, The Rising Sun, (specialising in Italian inspired fish dishes) having a table for us we found the place packed to rafters and therefore on the hunt for an equally appealing alternative. (Note to self, never assume, always book).
Our drive round looking for somewhere suitable, becoming increasingly hungrier with each passing minute, took us past our usual fall back restaurants all of which were dismissed for a variety of reasons. The wonderful Turkish place with the huge charcoal grill (“nah, not in the mood for meat”), the reliable upmarket Chinese (don’t fancy Chinese tonight”) and the recently discovered Vietnamese (“wasn’t up to scratch on the last visit”) and so on. After driving round some more we alighted at Al Fresco for an initial recce to check out the menu and assess it for popularity. Al Fresco has been there for ten years to my knowledge so we figured they must be doing something right.
A quick once over of the menu demonstrated a comforting authenticity of dishes at reasonable prices and included a good selection of fish and seafood dishes. In terms of popularity almost every table was taken and by Italian people, too. Always a good sign. We decided to venture in and as we opened the door that wonderful aroma of garlic hit us, as it should in any Italian restaurant worth its salt. In fact, if I walk into an Italian restaurant and can’t smell garlic, I leave.
I’m almost glad The Rising Sun was full (although I intend to go back, with a booking next time) so good was this place. I must have said at least three times throughout the meal “Why have we never been here before?” To start we shared an unpretentious yet perfectly cooked plate of calamari fritti served simply with a really good homemade tartar sauce and a wedge of lemon. It was light and crisp, the batter forming the thinnest coating for fresh, properly prepped squid. Non of your uniform shape and size stuff from a freezer bag. These squid had been bought from a fishmonger and were reassuringly varied in size. For his main course my partner opted for the Brodetto Adraiatico, a medley of fish and shellfish in tomato, garlic and wine sauce. The sauce itself was rich yet not overwhelming; the garlic, onions and wine having been properly cooked out and the tomatoes and herbs kept fresh and lively. Every piece of fish or shellfish was delicate, cooked to perfection and retained its individual character just as it should be in a good fish stew. This came accompanied by a side dish of lightly sautéed and well seasoned new potatoes and steamed greens.
My Mussels Al Fresco, the house special, was spectacular to look at with its huge mound of mussels and it’s equally impressively sized squid and king prawns bursting forth artistically from the pile. This again was set in an authentic and fresh sauce, all sweet ripe tomatoes, garlic and herbs. All the seafood was cooked accurately and for not a second more or less than it needed to release its sweetness. It came with fries, the only sticking point, as they were not home made and this is something of a bug bear for me. However, the side dish of spinach was buttery without being greasy so I forgive them. We finished off with two of the best Irish coffees I’ve ever tasted other than those made by my Irish sister-in-law, which is high praise indeed.
Furthermore, despite it being a Friday night and a very busy service indeed our waitress was efficient and pleasant. The wine list covered everything it needed to and was fairly priced. Al Fresco is now our official local Italian and I simply can’t recommend it highly enough.
Location: Whetstone, London.
Meal: Dinner
Price: £30 for two courses, wine and coffee.
Last Friday, having taken a chance on our local inn-turned-gastro-pub, The Rising Sun, (specialising in Italian inspired fish dishes) having a table for us we found the place packed to rafters and therefore on the hunt for an equally appealing alternative. (Note to self, never assume, always book).
Our drive round looking for somewhere suitable, becoming increasingly hungrier with each passing minute, took us past our usual fall back restaurants all of which were dismissed for a variety of reasons. The wonderful Turkish place with the huge charcoal grill (“nah, not in the mood for meat”), the reliable upmarket Chinese (don’t fancy Chinese tonight”) and the recently discovered Vietnamese (“wasn’t up to scratch on the last visit”) and so on. After driving round some more we alighted at Al Fresco for an initial recce to check out the menu and assess it for popularity. Al Fresco has been there for ten years to my knowledge so we figured they must be doing something right.
A quick once over of the menu demonstrated a comforting authenticity of dishes at reasonable prices and included a good selection of fish and seafood dishes. In terms of popularity almost every table was taken and by Italian people, too. Always a good sign. We decided to venture in and as we opened the door that wonderful aroma of garlic hit us, as it should in any Italian restaurant worth its salt. In fact, if I walk into an Italian restaurant and can’t smell garlic, I leave.
I’m almost glad The Rising Sun was full (although I intend to go back, with a booking next time) so good was this place. I must have said at least three times throughout the meal “Why have we never been here before?” To start we shared an unpretentious yet perfectly cooked plate of calamari fritti served simply with a really good homemade tartar sauce and a wedge of lemon. It was light and crisp, the batter forming the thinnest coating for fresh, properly prepped squid. Non of your uniform shape and size stuff from a freezer bag. These squid had been bought from a fishmonger and were reassuringly varied in size. For his main course my partner opted for the Brodetto Adraiatico, a medley of fish and shellfish in tomato, garlic and wine sauce. The sauce itself was rich yet not overwhelming; the garlic, onions and wine having been properly cooked out and the tomatoes and herbs kept fresh and lively. Every piece of fish or shellfish was delicate, cooked to perfection and retained its individual character just as it should be in a good fish stew. This came accompanied by a side dish of lightly sautéed and well seasoned new potatoes and steamed greens.
My Mussels Al Fresco, the house special, was spectacular to look at with its huge mound of mussels and it’s equally impressively sized squid and king prawns bursting forth artistically from the pile. This again was set in an authentic and fresh sauce, all sweet ripe tomatoes, garlic and herbs. All the seafood was cooked accurately and for not a second more or less than it needed to release its sweetness. It came with fries, the only sticking point, as they were not home made and this is something of a bug bear for me. However, the side dish of spinach was buttery without being greasy so I forgive them. We finished off with two of the best Irish coffees I’ve ever tasted other than those made by my Irish sister-in-law, which is high praise indeed.
Furthermore, despite it being a Friday night and a very busy service indeed our waitress was efficient and pleasant. The wine list covered everything it needed to and was fairly priced. Al Fresco is now our official local Italian and I simply can’t recommend it highly enough.
Browns, Islington, London
Restaurant: Browns.
Location: Islington.
Meal: Lunch.
Visited: October, 2009.
Price: One course plus a glass of wine, £20 per head.
A trip to Browns for Sunday lunch with friends this weekend yielded some very poor results. In fact I’m hard-pressed to think of any good points about the meal. I suppose we did get a very good table at the front of the restaurant surround on three sides by a large floor-to-ceiling circular window affording us a lovely view of Islington Green. The service wasn’t too bad, either but it what more what was being served that was so concerning. (And, yes I know Browns is a chain and what did I expect? But I will point out that I am a regular at their Covent Garden branch and have never had a bad meal there so I was fairly hopeful this would translate to the Islington outlet).
I’ll begin with the worst elements of our meals and try to work my way up to something positive. My friend’s salmon was so burnt that we’d reached a consensus that it had to go back before the plate had even hit the table. Its replacement was only marginally better and the accompaniment of mushrooms were so chewy and rubbery they were inedible and remained on the plate. Two others opted for the Sunday roast beef with preposterously over-sized Yorkshire puddings which were stone-cold on arrival and curiously managed to have the texture of cheap, toasted bread. The beef itself was overcooked and came with a mean dribble of gravy. A separate plate of vegetables looked a bit forlorn and distinctly unexciting. So far, so bad.
My seafood platter continued the twin themes of dullness and food served at the wrong temperature. The Tiger Prawns had been char grilled. Yesterday. They had spent the intervening period in the fridge and no-one had had the courtesy to de-vein them before sending them out. Charming. Everything else, the gravadlax, smoked salmon, sweet roll mop and shrimp had made a straight forward journey from packet to plate including the bowl of fries via the deep-fat fryer, of course. The mackerel pate alone showed some evidence of culinary skill.
And so we come to the winning order of the day if you could in all honesty call it that. Our vegetarian friend’s special was – wait for it – a goat’s cheese tart. I know, inspired. It was, however, the only item on the table executed with any level of accuracy which led us to speculate the kitchen probably didn’t make it but instead had bought a batch in.
The wine list was safe, nothing special and slightly over-priced. All in all the food was pretty poor. Luckily the assembled diners were all good friends with a healthy sense of humour. Good job, too. We needed it.
Location: Islington.
Meal: Lunch.
Visited: October, 2009.
Price: One course plus a glass of wine, £20 per head.
A trip to Browns for Sunday lunch with friends this weekend yielded some very poor results. In fact I’m hard-pressed to think of any good points about the meal. I suppose we did get a very good table at the front of the restaurant surround on three sides by a large floor-to-ceiling circular window affording us a lovely view of Islington Green. The service wasn’t too bad, either but it what more what was being served that was so concerning. (And, yes I know Browns is a chain and what did I expect? But I will point out that I am a regular at their Covent Garden branch and have never had a bad meal there so I was fairly hopeful this would translate to the Islington outlet).
I’ll begin with the worst elements of our meals and try to work my way up to something positive. My friend’s salmon was so burnt that we’d reached a consensus that it had to go back before the plate had even hit the table. Its replacement was only marginally better and the accompaniment of mushrooms were so chewy and rubbery they were inedible and remained on the plate. Two others opted for the Sunday roast beef with preposterously over-sized Yorkshire puddings which were stone-cold on arrival and curiously managed to have the texture of cheap, toasted bread. The beef itself was overcooked and came with a mean dribble of gravy. A separate plate of vegetables looked a bit forlorn and distinctly unexciting. So far, so bad.
My seafood platter continued the twin themes of dullness and food served at the wrong temperature. The Tiger Prawns had been char grilled. Yesterday. They had spent the intervening period in the fridge and no-one had had the courtesy to de-vein them before sending them out. Charming. Everything else, the gravadlax, smoked salmon, sweet roll mop and shrimp had made a straight forward journey from packet to plate including the bowl of fries via the deep-fat fryer, of course. The mackerel pate alone showed some evidence of culinary skill.
And so we come to the winning order of the day if you could in all honesty call it that. Our vegetarian friend’s special was – wait for it – a goat’s cheese tart. I know, inspired. It was, however, the only item on the table executed with any level of accuracy which led us to speculate the kitchen probably didn’t make it but instead had bought a batch in.
The wine list was safe, nothing special and slightly over-priced. All in all the food was pretty poor. Luckily the assembled diners were all good friends with a healthy sense of humour. Good job, too. We needed it.
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