This month we went to the Best Restaurant in the World Awards and attended the launch do for Banglatown's increasingly popular Mela festival. We also blag a press special - a 7 course dinner with wines at Quo Vadis as well as pitch up for the opening bash of Tugga, a new Portugese restaurant in the Kings Road.
Restaurants reviewed this month
Indigo Covent Garden. 'My bank's now a trendy wine bar!', actually it's also a rather stylish restaurant with a cool balcony.
Rockwell Trafalger Square. Down in in the basement of the smart Hilton Trafalgar, Diego Jacquet, our interviewed chef this month is turning out a very tasty spin on tapas
1 Blossom St. City . A smart Italian goes for class over giant pepper mills and has a gorgeous garden, too
Ubon Docklands. Oh my, the view! Oh my, the prices! This remarkable sibling of Nobu has brilliant Japanese food on offer, but don't expect it to be cheap.
Missouri Aldgate. The top end of American cuisine.
Mint Leaf. Trafalgar Square. The small door leads to a massive space where they still manage to create an intimate atmosphere to serve superior Indian food.
Trattoria Verdi Bloomsbury.A classic Italian. It's not over until the fat lady eats.
Admiralty. Covent Garden. A bit all at sea the night we went
Donna Margherita Battersea. Top pizzas fine service and a fun atmosphere
May we as usual take this opportunity to remind you that if a restaurant really gives you a bad time, please talk to them and allow them a chance to explain/make amends before you trash them on the website!
The best restaurant in the world? Probably
We have a bit of a confession to make. We have never eaten in most of the restaurants shortlisted for this prestigious award. And we probably never will unless British Airways give us an unlimited open ticket to anywhere we want to go. Hearteningly for the UK Restaurant industry though, a great many of the top ten are here in Blighty. The winner, The Fat Duck, isn't in London of course. What does that say about the capital we wonder? Anyway the ceremony was held in the grand surroundings of the Royal Exchange in the City and was a fun affair with the sponsor's red wine flowing freely and oysters in quantities not seen since Dickensian times. Mind you the countdown was boring and the prize giving a bit of a drag - chefs don't have much to say but then why should they? Next year they should book a cabaret act to entertain the mutinous masses.
The Quo. Still rockin' after all these years
Quo Vadis in Soho's Dean Street is something of an institution. As the Blue Plaque on the wall tells you, Karl Marx once lived here. A handy spot to contemplate the overthrow of capitalism and the inherent dichotomy of the laws of production and pay (or something like that).Since 1930 ,and with Karl off pursuing a new career as a T Shirt icon, it has been Leoni's Quo Vadis, a large and charming old Italian restaurant that has survived both Marco Pierre White and Damien Hirst's attentions.
With a new Chef installed, Fernando Mario Coradazzi, Quo Vadis is launching a seven course tasting menu with seven matching wines and we were invited along to try. Turning out a tasting menu for a table of fourteen, seven of whom produced the wine and the other seven being critics can't have been easy but it went well, if increasingly raucously. The Italian wines, which won't be available in the shops owing to the small number of bottles being produced, were excellent .
With so many restaurants doing the tasting menu 'thing', it's good to have one that is all Italian (apart from some Enoki mushrooms). And the price is good, £45 for seven courses, or £70 with the specially selected wines by the glass. These include some more unusual choices from the Marche region, such as a white Stella Flora and Kurni and a red Montepulciano. Plus you get to admire some of Marco Pierre White's art on the wall, a legacy of his contention to Hirst that 'anyone can do it'. The worrying thing is, that it looks like he's right!
Tugga - pulling 'em in
Off we went to the opening of Tugga, a Portugese restaurant situated on the Kings Road. Among the Chelsea types we also had the pleasure of mixing with an extremely drunk and annoying woman who managed to break three cocktail glasses in the space of half an hour and was asked extremely politely to vacate the premises. We also met someone’s Portugese Mother? Grandmother? Out to support her family anyway and, most importantly, we met the head chef who is from Portugal, has his family in Portugal but has sacrificed such comforts to live in London and set up his dream; a Portuguese restaurant with a fine dining edge. Gone is the heavy, stodgy ‘working man's’ menu, here at Tugga you’ll find a range of tapas, bar snacks and meals to suit the Chelsea darlings. With a separate loungy bar downstairs, Tugga looks set to be high on the list of places to try.
Mela - make it a date
At the launch of the Mela festival the speeches were long and in Bangladeshi. A man videotaped the affair with a camcorder the size of a suitcase and which my partner swore was running Betamax! The whole thing was engagingly free from hype and the main point, that this year's Mela in Brick Lane would be better than ever, came across strongly. It was heartening to see that this festival is still being organised by committed locals and that smarmy sponsorship and self aggrandising politicians have so far stayed away. Baishakhi Mela 2005 will take place on 15th May 2005. For more information go to www.baishakhimela.com
