All reader reviews by Kwev

The Lady Ottoline

Excellent lunch here yesterday. Nice menu with most bases covered. Lovely bright, high ceilinged room on the ground floor, with the bar in it. Very nice service, though I prefer to have my wine on the table in a busy place like this when I'm thirsty. Food was brought at nice intervals

Had the confit rabbit on toast to start - very, very generous portions of excellent nuggets of rabbit with delicious pickled ribbons of carrot. Ham hock salad with broad beans was heartier than you'd think with lots of flavour. Had all four cheeses - the brie was exceptional, and again: decent sized chunks.

Very decent wine list for a glammed up pub. Pecorino was very good, Primitivo was disappointing.

Food and wine were priced fairly.

This place is an excellent addition to the area. The menu and execution are fitting (there was none of the frippery complained of by by Fay M in her review) and appropriate to the setting. Deserves to become a local institution.

Thursday, June 14, 2012
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8

Greenleaf Restaurant

Excellent Chinese - knocks spots off the local competition

Lovely, modern, clean venue. Excellent helpful staff. Authentic, interesting dishes on the menu. Fresh, high quality ingredients. Reasonable pricing. What's not to like?

I've been for dinner twice recently and was very impressed both times. Do not miss the spicy aubergine with minced pork - revelatory.

No nasty slimy, heated through junk; no MSG; not too much salt.

Tell the manager what you're prepared to spend and any likes / dislikes and he'll select you a fantastic feast.

Some decent wines too - the Albarino is good and reasonably priced.

Gotta try this place.

Thursday, April 26, 2012
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8

Kensington Place

Lovely room. Efficient enough, though not exactly enthused waiting staff. But the food? Really not at all good.

We took a party of twelve here last Friday night. I appreciate that large groups are difficult to cater to satisfactorily. I know that and make due allowance for it. But the food was just rubbish.

My starter: Coconut broth with dumplings (I know: why order that? Get that in an oriental resturant not a bread and butter modern UK place. Silly me, I know). What I got was two sad little dumplings which sat on my plate for almost 10 minutes, curling, drying up, and dying there on the cold porcelain, before a little jug of watery, badly spiced, coconut water arrived. It tasted like a couple of garden slugs served with a watered down Korma. I left half of it despite being starving.

My main: a sad little fillet of sea bream which had been pan fried to death. It would have been a criminal waste of good fish were it not for the fact that the fish was clearly not fresh. It smelled and tasted distinctly fishy in a bad way. What the Russians used to call "not of the first freshness": that is to say, slightly off. What was it served with? Nothing memorable. Left most of it.

I didn't bother with dessert (why would you?). So ,was still hungry. The majority of the party felt their food, too, was well below par.

The wine list was, relatively speaking, a saving grace: some interesting choices. All marked up a tad higher than they should have been (Perrier Jouet NV at over £60 a bottle is always a bad sign). The Gavi (which they only had 4 bottles of) was excellent. The Alborinio was good too. The Prosecco was fair.

Our waiter was ok but strictly without charm. The manager?/sommelier was nice enough, and seemed a little anxious - as though he knew the food was a a bit poor and regretted how badly it let the whole place down.

The restaurant was pretty busy, and there was a nice atmosphere. If they got in a brigade who could cook it's be good, this place.

I'd happily have paid more for decent food. As it was the apparently ok-ish pricing was way over the top for food that was what you'd expect at a dinner party given by a friend who couldn't cook very well and hadn't entertained for a year or two. Not much of a recommendation I'm afraid.

Monday, October 05, 2009
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4