Category: UK

The Athenaeum – not your average Christmas Dinner

When I see the inevitable Christmas meals being advertised, I cringe. They conjure up images of restaurants stuffed with “party” groups, eating standard Christmas fare, turkey, brussels sprouts, christmas pudding etc at inflated prices.  I had spotted a toptable deal for a Christmas dinner at £24.50 for two courses or £29.50 for three with a glass of champagne at The Athenaeum, and  I had my doubts. Then I thought why not, if I am going to have a conventional Christmas meal then I may as well go somewhere that should do it well.

So on the last Saturday before Christmas we trudged through the snow to the hotel in Piccadilly. We had a couple of good, if expensive cocktails in the bar and wandered into a near empty dining room, where we were offered our pick of the tables. The room is nicely laid out to offer a fair amount of privacy. Tables for two in the middle of the room include a small banquette arrangement, that almost forms a booth. Strangely it reminded me a bit of some of the first class seating/sleeping arrangements on long haul flights.

The service levels are exactly as you would expect in a first class hotel, which The Atheneaum certainly is. It is just smaller and more intimate than most, almost boutique like.

So what can I say about the menu. Was it limited? No, it most definitely was not. What a treat. Yes, it did have turkey in the Best of British part of the menu, but it also had a good balanced selection of starters and main courses, and several appetizing dessert options.

We began with an amuse bouche of watercress mousse and parma ham. Then for my starter I ordered the Pigeon with Girolle mushrooms wrapped in short crust pastry and my companion ordered the slow cooked ducks egg with ham hock. Both dishes were main course size portions, beautifully cooked and presented.

For main course we had Pheasant with braised red cabbage, and a perfect dish for a winter evening consisting of braised oxtail, that just fell off the bone, herb dumplings and winter vegetables. It was a large portion and I was just too full to finish it. I definitely did not have any room for dessert. However as coffee and mince pies were also part of the set menu, they finished of the meal nicely instead.

Normally the down side of this sort of deal is that the “free” champagne tends to be fairly mediocre fizz. Not the case at The Atheneaum. It was from a champagne house I know well from tastings at the Hide Bar.  Specifically Ayala a small champagne house, owned by Bollinger.  It was rather fitting – an almost boutique champagne for an almost boutique hotel. Quite stunning.  We also had a reasonably priced bottle of El Grano, Carmenere 2009. A well balanced light red wine that had a smooth almost milky texture.

Perhaps it is my Scottish upbringing that draws me to “real” bargains like The Athenaeum, and it seems I am not alone in this, as on exiting the restaurant we spotted fellow Scot, Billy Connolly – the Big Yin himself.

I would be happy to have more Christmas dinners like this one. The Athenaeum is firmly on my list of return locations.

 

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The Ledbury – embarassing leaks

Lunch at The Ledbury was always going to be an occasion. The food is superb.  I simply could not fault any of the dishes I chose from their Sunday Lunch menu.  Indeed it was one of these occasions where I really wanted to try nearly all the dishes on the menu.  Fortunately I was part of a large enough group to ensure that collectively we were able to order a range of different dishes. There were no dissenting voices at all, everyone loved the food.  Only one thing went wrong during the lunch, which impacted on the table next to ours.  Water started coming through the ceiling from the room above,  I guess a burst pipe due to the cold weather. Nothing much the restaurant could do except, put a bowl on the table, call the plumber and move the guests to another table.  However it must have been very embarrassing for the staff, as the guests concerned included Martin Scorsese, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher who certainly did not seem to particularly want to draw attention to themselves. Something that is hard to do when you have to stand up to avoid being splashed!

However when the food is this good, you do not let little things like plumbing problems get in the way, so back to the food.

My starter was the Flamed Grilled Mackerel with Smoked Eel, Tokyo Turnips and Celtic Mustard, it was a great choice. The Mackerel had so much flavour, it was really fresh and just melted in my mouth. The portion was quite substantial for a starter, but despite that I could easily have had seconds.

I was also tempted by the Ceviche of Hand Dived Scallops with Seaweed and Herb Dill Kohlrabi and Frozen Horseradish which one of my companions ordered. Visually it did not look as good, but I was told it was delicious, if a little light and summery for a winter menu.

For my main course I choose fish again. The Skate Poached in Brown Butter with Truffle Puree, Cauliflower, Parmesan Gnocchi and Sea Vegetables. This has to be my dish of the year. It was just so moreish. The Skate was perfect and the Parmesan Gnocchi reminded me so much of another favourite, the Gnocchi dish I had at The Foliage.

For dessert I ordered the Brown Sugar Tart with Muscat Grapes and Stem Ginger Ice Cream, which was matched with a surprisingly fruity Pedro Ximenez sherry from Barossa Valley in Australia, it was very different from the Spanish ones I have had in the past.  The tart was very light and the ice cream was very subtle.  The dessert highlight however had to be the Passion Fruit Souffle with Sauterne Ice cream, which was large enough for us all to try  – a perfect Souffle.

UPDATE – June 2020 Permanently Closed.

UPDATE – April 2022 Reopened.

 

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Altitude 360º in Millbank Tower – student discount?

Located at the top of Millbank Tower, Altitude 360º is normally only available for private events. However one of the advantages of following Twitter is that it can point you in interesting directions. Reading a tweet about brunch in Altitude 360º made me want to check it out, which is when I discovered their brunch deal for £39 available until December 19th.

Included in the brunch price you also get a 360º tour of London. Something the students who invaded the building a few weeks back got for free (without the professional guide).

We arrived at Millbank Tower Reception, where we were asked to wait, before being escorted to the lift in single parties. This process makes sense as it ensures that you can be taken directly to your table when you arrive on the 29th floor. Remembering your table number is important as it is a large room and I did get a bit confused when I accidentally almost sat down at the wrong table after returning from the buffet. It’s a difficult room to make attractive or warm; it comes across pretty much as a typical 70’s style open plan office space, tarted up like a pop up restaurant (which I guess it sort of is).  However it’s the view most people will come here for, and I have to admit this place pretty much lived up to my expectations on that front.  Great views, but and it’s a big but, there does seemed to be a direct correlation between views and food quality, i.e., the better the view the worse the food tends to be.

The Gherkin is one of the rare exceptions to this “rule”. Altitude 360º unfortunately is not.

OK, it was not all bad,  the Egg station being the highlight.  We enjoyed our Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royal, they were made to order while we took in the views. But the Roast station had to be one of the most basic carveries I have seen in a long time and the organic breakfasts ordered from the kitchen were definitely the low point. We waited a while for them, and when the breakfasts finally arrived, they were so not worth the wait.  Indeed they looked and tasted as if they had been under the Salamander Grill for a bit too long. I am afraid we barely touched them.

My companion had no interest in the very basic roast selection, so thought she would try one of the two pasta dished on offer, unfortunately they had run out (at 1 o’clock!).

The waiting staff came across on the whole as inexperienced (perhaps they were more used to providing the service for corporate events rather than a buffet service), in that coffee top ups and cutlery had to be asked for on more than one occasion.  The waiting staff although friendly had no interest in asking us if we were enjoying our food as they cleared away nearly full plates. However I did chat to one of the “greeters” in the reception area regarding the advertised 360º tour by a comedian/historian.  He was not able to answer my questions immediately but did make an effort to come to our table and explain the procedure to us, after he had found out.  He then became the first person to ask us what we thought of the brunch. We provided our constructive criticism and he very professionally apologised and offered us a couple of complimentary cocktails.

The dessert station was also not that exciting, again a fairly basic selection. The chocolate cake was nice, but way too rich for my taste. I really needed something light at that stage, and the fruit on offer did not look very appetizing.

At 3 o’clock we joined the tour, where a group of about 12 people crowded round the corner windows while Tony Dunn provided us with historical snippets and information on future building projects such as The Shard. Not entirely sure why he is billed here as a Comedian/Historian as the tour was not really comedic.  It was, and I mean this in a positive way, like having a historical walking tour of London indoors, protected from the elements.

After the tour, rather than rush off, we took advantage of the crêpe and pancake station, which by this time no longer had a queue. This was another highlight. We relaxed on the comfy chairs, read the newspapers and tucked into the freshly made light and fluffy waffles.

The cost of the brunch and the tour as I mentioned earlier is £39.00, which based on the quality of the food did not seem worth it initially, until we analysed it – A cocktail on arrival, the tour and the option of effectively having breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, over the space of several hours. Yes maybe it was worth £39.00.  However and this is the scary part, the £39 is a discounted price, the full price is £97. Sorry, but in no way would that have been acceptable. I have a bench mark for what a top end brunch should be, and that is the one provided in the Winter Garden at the Landmark – which by the way, costs a little less than that, and involves unlimited good quality champagne and a superb selection of dishes.

So although it was interesting to visit Altitude 360º.  I have to say, it is not somewhere I would consider returning to. It’s just not special enough, which is rather sad considering its unique location.

UPDATE : This place is now called TheView @SkyloftLondon

 

 

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The Wine Show and Masterchef Live 2010

Made good use of a friends free ticket to  The Wine Show and Master Chef Live, bumped into several people I knew, which was nice. Surprisingly sociable for such a huge event.

I spent the bulk of my time at The Wine Show, as the Master Chef Live stands on the whole were very busy.

The event was not restricted to  just wine, as delicatessens such as Gastronomic were there, along with  chocolatiers such as Chocolate and Love.  There was also the rather amusing Mad Cow Fudge company, selling fudge “Made by cows from Yorkshire who like their Huddersfield”. Their Christmas Pudding fudge is a real winner.

On the wine front we tried several very good wines.  Wines of Chile for example had successfully matched their wines with some delicious Benares curries.  I also had an interesting chat with Mark Hellyar of Chateau Civrac on popularising wines from the Bordeaux region, and sampled a couple of  their  full bodied wines.  Chateau Civrac supply wines to several restaurants including Benares. I then moved on to the next stand Cantina Cirotto to try their rather lovely Prosecco. We also had a short presentation on what makes a good dessert wine from Tastour and enjoyed a nice glass of German Eiswein.

The highlight however had to be the Coutts Private Cellar, where Tim Atkin gave his presentation and several high end wine merchants provided samples of their wares. My personal favorite was the Cascina Bongiovanni Barola Pernanne 2004 from Colasanti (£71.50 RPR) . The  food plates from British Fine Foods were a perfect accompaniment – I know where I am ordering my Christmas goodies from.

 

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Happy Halloween from No Expert

The City Inn has some prize winning pumpkins on display this year, see below:-

First place goes to the Witch
Second place goes to the Clown
The Grim Reaper had my vote

Just as good in daylight I think.

 

 

 

 

UPDATE : November 2010 – The City Inn has been rebranded and is now the Mint Hotel.

UPDATE: January 2011 – The Mint Hotel is now a Doubletree Hilton Hotel.

Gone for a Burton – Blot on the Landscape! (Closed)

We had a quite a  few comments on our posts covering Harveys in Ramsgate, the consensus being that this celebrity chef inspired outpost was really, really bad.

See:-

However unlike the Foliage and Parc des Eaux Vives which also closed this year. Harveys closure was deserved. We can only hope that this prime spot on the harbour does not stay closed for too long.

We have also been cheeky using the tag line “Gone for a Burton” – a play on the celebrity chef John Burton Race’s name.  Isle One got in first with that one, but since they seem to have used one of our photographs without crediting us (tut….tut) it seemed only fair that we copy their tag line.

UPDATE – November 2010

Jacks Cantina on the Marina

Harveys has now been replaced by Jacks (The Cantina on the Marina) . I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why the council gave the go ahead to deface this building situated in a prime location on a Victorian Harbour is beyond me.  This really is in bad taste and we haven’t even tried the food yet!

UPDATE May 2011 – The “Orange Blot” that was Jacks is gone, the building now has a new more suitable paint job. Wonder who will move into this prime spot next?  It would be a great location for Eddie Gilberts if they were thinking of expanding.

 

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