Bonds Restaurant and Bar, City

 


Sky high ceilings, sophisticated surrounds, fabulous food and cheeky cocktails - what's not to like about Bonds Restaurant and Bar?

I don't spend much time in the City, and had never heard of Bonds before I was invited along to dine there recently. Head chef, Barry Tonks, has impressive credentials and I had an inkling this was one offer not to pass up.

TPG and I were not disappointed from the moment we stepped up to the bar for cocktails. While the fun bar area is heaving on a Friday night with a glam after 5 city crowd, the beautiful stately room that is the restaurant is a calmer affair, setting the scene for the fine quality European fare coming from Tonk's kitchen.

Plump, hand dived West Coast scallops "a la plancha" were perfectly done, served in a line up of spicy roasted chorizo and squid ink polenta (£16.95). An impressive start. Spicy fresh Dorset Bay crab salad was fresh and zingy, although less memorable despite the quality produce (£14.95).

Slow cooked Elwy Valley lamb rump was an absolute winner. Tender, pink and juicy, it was cooked expertly so as to detract nothing from the flavour of the gorgeous piece of meat itself. The sumptuously rich braised lamb shoulder Boulangere potato accompanying it dressed it up perfectly, alongside sprout tops and root vegetable puree (£24.95).

A fine piece of Scottish halibut "a la plancha" came with a pretty collection of jerusalem artichoke puree, king oyster mushrooms, potato gnocchi and poultry jus to add some fru fru (£24.95).

Desserts were gorgeous - floating island with crushed raspberries and pink praline in custard and a silky creme brulee (with an unnecessary cassis sorbet) (£6.95).

Service was helpful and knowledgeable - the fabulous wines selected were spot on for our tastes and our dishes.

These are City prices, but overall it's good value for a City restaurant of this calibre and gorgeous surrounds. They also have a 3 course lunch/dinner deal for £19.95 which looks like a goer. Bonds may be full of pin striped suits at lunch for all I know, but it has a mixed crowd of all ages at night, and would be an excellent place for an impressive date or an unstuffy work dinner. Pass me a martini...

Bonds, Threadneedle Hotel, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AY (Tel: 020 7657 8088)

The Fish Place, Battersea

Seared Devon scallops with pumpkin puree

The Fish Place opened about a month before I visited and there was only 1 other table occupied during our prime time Saturday night visit. Clearly the local Battersea residents have not yet caught on that there is extraordinary cooking going on in their own backyard.

The head chef previously worked at Michelin starred Roussillon. In every single plate, we found his food not only expertly cooked, but an absolute joy to eat. The freshness of the fish and quality of the ingredients were abundantly apparent from the outset - all seafood is sourced from British waters (there's Dorset crab and Cornish lobster) and is flown in fresh from local fishermen to the kitchen.

To start, an amuse bouche of prawn with potato in a lovely rich chicken stock. It sets the scene nicely for my Devon scallops, nicely seared and cooked to just right all the way through. They are nestled into a lovely, sweet pumpkin puree with deep fried sage and a subtle lemon beurre blanc. It's not a pairing I would normally rush towards, but the pumpkin adds a nice autumnal depth to the dish, which works nicely during this bitterly cold London week.

Dorset crab ravioli

TPG's Dorset crab ravioli are plump parcels of sweet crab pocketted in perfectly cooked pasta atop buttered Savoy cabbage with a shellfish and tarragon sauce. It's rich and rustic, and a dish that has you closing your eyes and dreaming that you're right by the coastline.

Wild sea bass

My wild sea bass is moist and juicy and again - by now it's no surprise - there's perfect execution in the pan frying of the fish. It comes with sauteed potatoes which are just right in firmness, baby spinach, black prawns and a creamy fish sauce. It battles with the crab ravioli as dish of the night.

Boullabaisse

TPG might disagree - he's a major fan of his excellent classic Marsellaise Boullabaisse, with steamed new potato and braised baby leeks. There's at least 3 large pieces of fish in there and to say it's a hearty feast is an understatement. The flavours are bold, fresh and satisfying.

After quite an intoxicating gin and tonic sorbet as a palate cleanser, I move on to the fabulous hot apple and cinnamon souffle. It's a billowing treasure of light, fluffy goodness. The cinnamon is slightly too powerful for me, but TPG loves it. As good as it is, I think I prefer TPG's caramelised pear cheesecake. The caramelised pear is a wonderful match for the creamy, biscuity cheesecake.

Apple & cinnamon souffle

Caramelised pear cheesecake

There are non-fish items on the menu, like Welsh lamb and Kent venison, but this is a place to eat good fish and lots of it.

The wine list deserves a mention - it's very reasonably priced, and there are around 20 wines by the glass for between £3.50-£7.50. When the Stonier Chardonnay (listed for £33) is not available, the sommelier does a great job of guiding us through some matching wines for each of our courses by the glass. We can both be control freaks with our wine, but thoroughly enjoy each of his choices.

There are some downsides - although none of them apply to the food. First, the location - it's a cold night so the streets are quite deserted around this part of Butler's Wharf next to the London Helipad, between a new hotel and residential complex. It's a deserted position and I'm not sure what the potential is for passing pedestrian traffic along the Thames.

Secondly, the ambience. The restaurant is still new and the restaurant was close to empty - which is a travesty for food and wine of this quality. Also, I'm not sold on the stark decor - lime green and cold, granite fittings. A few crisp, white tablecloths would go a long way to making things more comforting.

The set lunch menu is £15, while dinner menus are set at 2 courses for £37.50, 3 courses for £45 and 6 courses for £55. These are steep prices for a restaurant with limited custom, but the cooking is so accomplished (and it's so rare to find fresh fish and execution done so expertly in London) that we both agree it's well worth the price tag assuming you enjoy each other's company enough to get past the ambience void.

If enough of you take me up on my recommendation to go and eat there, you might even find yourself creating the atmosphere that this place deserves. I look forward to returning with a bunch of friends, who I know will appreciate the quality food and wine list, and will create the noise required to lift the roof as the kitchen deserves.

The Fish Place,Vicentia Court, Butler's Wharf, Bridges Court Road, Battersea, SW11 3GY (Tel: 020 7095 0410)

Greedy Diva was a guest of The Fish Place.

Cafe Luc, Marylebone

I may have mentioned before that The Peanut Gallery has a baby which has nothing to do with me. His bike. It's custom made and now has brand new wheels. It appears he is preparing for the Tour de France.  If I had, long ago, instituted a rule that every dollar spent on the bike is to be matched by expenditure on shoes for me, I'd be a very happy woman.

The trouble with having a such a bike is that you can never take it anywhere - or leave it anywhere at least. Many times, we have cycled around town looking for a nice coffee spot where TPG can not only secure his bike nearby, but eyeball it while he is eating, and be within a clear path to a doorway or open window to enable him to leap through the air and pounce in the event that anyone looks sideways at it. Sometimes it's easier just to go home....

So the bike valet service at Cafe Luc is something of a welcome addition to the London cafe scene for our household. After a cycle around the leafy streets of Primrose Hill and Regent's Park, customers can drop off their bikes with the bike valet and eat with the assurance that their pride and joy is safely locked up inside the building.

Apparently, they also offer a shopping valet service if find yourself unable to resist the temptations of the cafe's chic Marylebone High Street location.

Cafe Luc is run by Julie van Oostende and her father, Belgian restaurateur, Luc van Oostende. Despite their Belgian heritage, the menu at Cafe Luc is more broadly Modern European - although there is a Belgian week menu coming up from 20 - 27 September 2010. (Unfortunately there will not be waffles - the first thing TPG checked - although there will be speculoos, vanilla and salted caramel ice-cream which will appease him).

The interior was designed by Stiff and Trevillion (who were behind Le Cafe Anglais' decor) and is something like that of a larger Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, although slightly more corporate. It's a schlick looking brasserie, with muted walls, black wooden tables, chocolate banquettes and lots of mirror action. Eye catching light fittings include amber hand blown glass bulbs from Murano bubbling over the copper bar, and clusters of small black lampshades spaced along the walls. Even the loos are rather dashing.

Open all day from 7am, with a breakfast menu available until noon and a brunch menu available until 6pm, the hearty Full English breakfast (£12) was just what I needed last Sunday afternoon. The yolks of my 2 perfectly poached eggs oozed gloriously onto toasted brown bread, a delicious sausage (unfortunately no-one could tell me where it came from), black pudding, roasted cherry tomatoes, tasty bacon, sauteed mushrooms and baked beans. The baked beans were the only slight let down here - they were fine, but a home made batch would improve things.

Two upright eggs with soldiers (£5.50) were also perfectly cooked, although the smallish serving of toast may not be enough to satisfy you on it's own. I would suggest accompanying this with fruit salad, or the TPG went for pancakes - a dainty stack with maple syrup and berries were excellent (£7.50).

There are healthy options like Greek yoghurt with berries and honey and, while the menu is mostly quite conventional, more offbeat numbers like apple spring rolls with green apple coulis are available.

Juices are freshly squeezed (I had orange, but carrot, apple, pear and grapefruit are also offered) and I enjoyed a spicy, well made Bloody Mary to accompany my Full English. The coffee was fine, although not one to go out of the way for.

Service appeared to be helpful and attentive across the room. There were occasional gaps in product knowledge, but not too much to begrudge them - it's all very casual and friendly.

Cafe Luc is a good option for breakfast with cocktails in style - or one to remember if you're out free wheeling with an obsessive compulsive bike owner.


Cafe Luc, 50 Marylebone High Street, London, W1U 5HN (Tel: 020 7258 9878)

Greedy Diva was a guest of Cafe Luc.

Kettner's, Soho

If any restaurant symbolises the "meh" factor in your average London dining establishment, it's Kettner's. In its current form, it wouldn't last a week in New York.

Kettner's holds a prime position on the corner of Greek and Romilly streets in Soho, just off Old Compton Street. Large windows capture the street scenes and the sunlight, and there's ample foundations to capture some charm. Trouble is, despite all this, it still somehow lacks character. Where's the buzz?

The menu reads well - all standard bistro fare and there's plenty on it I want to eat. But, while the way it's cooked is mostly alright, it's never spot on - no dish leaves us completely satisfied.

We've been twice now. The beef bourguignon looks the part in a classic pot, rich dark sauce, with carrots and potatoes in the mix (£16). It comes highly recommended by our waiter as what Kettner's does best. But the accompanying mash is watery and tasteless. I love mash. Mash is important. Get the mash right, people.

The free range corn fed chicken with tarragon jus is lovely (£15) - moist and flavourful - but the accompanying vegetables are (again) completely devoid of taste and are overcooked. The pretty looking potato gratin is also a mouthful of nothingness.

Our "simple salad" arrives undressed and is fairly unexciting. Simple indeed.

The 31 day Angus Pole Cross sirloin steak is cooked as ordered to medium rare, but lacks caramelisation and flavour (£18.50, 7oz). The house cut crispy chips and bearnaise are decent.

The duck confit with Sarladaise potatoes and rosemary jus (£14) was enjoyable, a fish soup starter all loveliness (£7) and desserts - strawberry pavlova and strawberry tart with creme chantilly - almost as good as they looked (£6 each).

The thing is, Kettner's should be something more. It's a place with history and prime location. The interior design was given a facelift a couple of years ago courtesy of designer Ilse Crawford. While I don't mind the shabby chic/rococo look on our first visit, in the cold hard light of our return trip, it's looking a bit tired and charmless. Perhaps its former decor - darker and leather clad - was more appropriate.

Service is reasonably helpful and friendly. Prices range from around £5 - £7 for starters, £11.50 - £21.50 for mains and £6 - £8 for desserts. Fair enough pricing, if only the consistency was there.

This is a restaurant gasping for some CPR. In its heyday, Kettner's was a haven for inexpensive but popular pizza and wine; a place to gather and meet over good, simple food - without spending a fortune. Somewhere along the line, it lost its way without even doing too much wrong. The problem is, it doesn't do enough right.

Kettner's, 29 Romilly Street, Soho, London W1D 5HP (Tel: 020 7734 6112)

Indigo at One Aldwych, Covent Garden

I'm not sure how I've missed the Lobby Bar at One Aldwych, but it's quite the glam place for a drink. Who knew? It certainly beats the pants off most hotel lobby bars. Soaring ceilings, huge windows, dark oak furnishings and a cocktail list to knock your socks off. Tables are probably spaced slightly too far apart to build up a huge buzz, but perhaps this contributes to the airy feel.

After a black lavender vodka martini (with fresh blackberries and blackberry liqueur - £10.50), The Peanut Gallery and I ambled up to Indigo, the mezzanine restaurant overlooking the Lobby Bar. This is the hotel's baseline restaurant. The setting is more subdued than the bar's, and quite stylish and comfortable if a little bland and hotellish. But it's busy, even on a Monday night.

The food here - all modern European - is excellent, but can be pricey (at least if you go for the a la carte menu).

We started with a chilled tomato consumme with fresh tomato, basil, Scottish langoustines, peas, broad beans and chives - summery, tangy, sweet and fresh - absolutely gorgeous (£6.50). This was one of the most memorable dishes of the evening and was recommended to us since it was part of a seasonal tomato based menu being promoted by Indigo's big brother restaurant, Axis, at the time (there's a Mushroom Menu coming up at Axis from 23rd September and a Game Menu from 11th November). The tomato consumme still seems to be on the regular menu.

After a bit of a mix up when my scallops arrived looking rather like squid, the dish was quickly replaced, and my scallops showed up looking much more to plan. With broad beans, pea puree, pea shoots and shavings of truffle (£13.50) everything was fresh and executed well. The summer truffles were mild enough not to overpower the rest of the dish. It's difficult lately to find a scallop without a pea puree lurking nearby (and the pairing was a constant theme of Master Chef), but this was a fine version of the tried and tested combination.

My lamb with sweetbreads and kohlrabi was rich and decadent - the sort of dish that (sweetbreads aside) I really lap up (£22.50).

TPG enjoyed his roasted breast and confit leg of quail, with a quail scotch egg, cherry compote, cherries and young almonds (£12.50). Ok, so there's a glass plate and it looks a little fru fru, but there were some great flavours here and all was perfectly well executed. His steak with cherry tomatoes and flat mushrooms was less exciting but I seem to recall there was not much left on his plate in the end.

To dessert... My raspberry and lemon curd cheesecake had a thin biscuit on top of a big daub of gooey cheesecake mix with raspberries and circles of jelly on top. Loved it - even more so than TPG's fancy looking Eton mess. The meringue was slightly too chewy, but came backed up with good jelly, cream, strawberry sorbet, basil and strawberry sauce.

We left full and happy.

Pricing may be the main stalling point for some. Although there are a couple of starters for under a tenner, they're mostly around the £12 mark. To be fair, our main dishes were at the pricier end of the spectrum and there are plenty of options within the £15-£20 bracket. Nonetheless, if these prices make you baulk, then the fixed price menus for pre and post-theatre (it's handily located for the theatre district) would be a clever way to sample the fare (2 courses £16.75 and 3 courses £19.75). They also do breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.

Just don't forget to have a cocktail downstairs first (yes, yes, even if you go for breakfast).

Indigo at One Aldwych, 1 Aldwych, Covent Garden, London WC2B4 (tel: 020 7300 0400)

I dined at Indigo as a guest of the restaurant. The views expressed here are, as always, an honest account of my thoughts.

 

Paramount, Soho - Modern food with panoramic views of London

There's always that fear that the better the view, the worse the food. Would the fear be founded at Paramount?

Paramount has 360 degree views of London, from the 32nd floor of the Centre Point tower. You can see the bridges line up along the Thames, past the London Eye, the Gherkin and unwary Londoners sunbaking on their rooftops. It's fair to say it has a good view.

The food itself has to be put in context. Paramount was a private members club, which has recently been opened to the public. The dining room is slick and modern, designed by Tom Dixon (I don't know much - ok, anything - about him, but judging from his website, he seems to like these suction cap style things on the ceiling):

There's a sleek bar area, where you can just go for a drink, which leads on to the restaurant - both are frequented mostly by 30-something men in suits drinking from big wine glasses and 30-something women dressed up in the latest Karen Millen gear, preferably with a bit of sparkle. It still feels like it's mostly filled with its members at the moment. It's smart, even if it does feel just a teensy bit soulless. This feels more like a place run by a faceless "management" than somewhere the heart and soul of its creators is in every corner and on every plate - but the crowd are not here nuzzling up to their cocktails for that. They're here for the view and the scene, with a bit of fancy pants food on the side.

I joined my dining companions in the private Red Room, and watched the sky line change as the sun set and the city lights took over for the night shift. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Head chef Colin Layfield has created a menu which reads like one temptation after another. It's seriously hard to choose based on the print alone. But then everything is executed with ultra modern presentation, which is either your thing or it's an irritation - black slates, rectangular plates, cylindrical shaped food etc. The style certainly matches the architecture.

After a gorgeous amuse bouche (cappuccino of asparagus veloute), my double baked Roquefort souffle (£9.50) had a rich and lovely flavour, if ever so slightly too dry.

My wild sea bass with potato gnocchi, samphire and caviar cream (£23.50) was a luxurious combination which I mostly loved - the fish and firm little gnocchi were cooked perfectly but the fish was overseasoned, particularly given not much was needed in combination with the salty caviar.

For dessert, my walnut tart (£9.50) was "quite nice" and came with a lovely Pink Lady apple strudel, sweet ginger custard and a really powerful cider sorbet (which I didn't like).

It's fussily presented, ambitious food and it's generally pretty good, but doesn't always hit the mark. However, you won't be able to complain that you make one just like it at home.

Service was lovely and unpretentious (although I was attending an event for my meal and found the front of house area near the bar slightly more cool and aloof when I visited anonymously with friends the following week).

Paramount is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner - or just for drinks at the bar to lap up the spectacular view. There's a decent looking bar food menu, and wine by the glass starts at £6.25 while cocktails are a whopping £11. There's also a narrow bar (more like a carpeted corridor really) wrapped around edges of the 33rd floor which will be an oyster and champagne bar ... again with the view.

Although Paramount is apparently open to the public, when I rang to put my name on the list for our drinks in the bar this week, the phone was answered by a rather toffy, unwelcoming man who, when he could not find my name in their system (I don't always get around as "Greedy Diva"), explained that only those who have been before with a member or have some kind of link in can get in for drinks. What the..? Just call first and maybe you'll work it out.

Paramount, Centre Point, 103 New Oxford St, Soho, WC1A 1DD (Tel: 020 7420 2900)

I dined in the Red Room as a guest of Paramount with other food bloggers. 

For other places to eat with a great bird's eye view over London, see my earlier review of Galvin at Windows here.