All reader reviews by Salsky

Red Pepper

The basilico pizza here is better than I ever imagined a pizza could be. It was so large and generously topped with ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and clumps of buffalo mozzarella that I won’t bother with a starter next time - especially since the ones our group had were fairly unremarkable.

An Italian friend confirms that the pizzas here are better than many to be found in his homeland. Nice cosy atmosphere too.

Friday, August 15, 2008
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9

Imli

This is a novelty restaurant. The concept - Indian tapas - is a promising one. Unfortunately, the food is not great - pretty much all of what we tried as part of the tasting menu had that heavy, over-oniony flavour you so often get at mediocre Indian restaurants. Fashioning such food into cute little portions and various guises is not enough to distinguish it. Good atmosphere and friendly staff, though.

Friday, August 15, 2008
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5

Le Cassoulet

Five of us went here for the Sunday lunch deal (£19.50 for 3 courses). Observations are as follows:

FOOD: unforgivably bad if you choose certain ‘clean and simple’ dishes (in my case, simply cooked white fish); very good for lots of other stuff (eg onion soup, tarte tatin)

SERVICE: charmless

ATMOSPHERE: nice and buzzy from 1.30pm

IDENTITY: confused. Definitely French, but can’t decide if it wants to be posh or rustic

I wasn’t taken with the waiting staff – one of our waitresses was chippy, and even needlessly defensive at times, while the other was dizzy, with little clue what she was doing and no charm to compensate.

Starters were great – especially my onion soup. Endive tarte tatin with goats’ cheese was also good, as was steak tartare.

Main courses were a very mixed bag. For example, Chateaubriand – with a £6 supplement – was chewier than it should have been. It was also poncily silver-served at the table – slowly and incompetently, while the rest of the party’s food went cold. As for my own main course – Fillet of South Coast Sea Bream with Crab and Leek Risotto – it was a complete write-off. The (very small) fillet was way overcooked, and the ‘risotto’ was nothing of the sort (totally wrong consistency). More shockingly, it was almost inedibly salty. I pointed out these shortcomings politely to the (dizzy) waitress as she collected my (far-from-empty) plate. The response was a barely audible mumble which, I am almost certain, did not include the magic apology. Unbelievable.

Desserts were universally good – ice cream had a fantastic consistency, and tarte tatin was gorgeous.

In summary, I wouldn’t pay a la carte prices for this place, but the lunch deal is decent value if you stick with the more rustic stuff. Just don’t let that kitchen near a piece of white fish – or a risotto…

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5

Rasputin

We had a lovely experience of this husband-and-wife-run restaurant - and it *was* an 'experience' rather than just a meal.

A warm welcome was just the start; the food was much better than I had dared to to hope. Although 'hearty', it was not at all stodgy and I was very pleasantly surprised. The vegetables were delicious - fresh, bright and not over-cooked - and the main courses were flavoursome and well presented. The bread was also exceptionally fresh and good.

My choices of BORSCH (beetroot soup) followed by GOLUBTSY (stuffed cabbage) were rewarded with a grin of approval from our hostess and, more importantly, by extreme tastiness once they arrived. The borsch was full of yummy vegetable flavours (not just beetroot) and tasted like it was doing me good. The meat in the golubtsy had a lovely, almost cinnamon-like flavour.

The menu also includes less traditionally Russian dishes, featuring ingredients including duck, steak and scampi. After my good experience, however, I'd suggest opting for the Russian specialities.

As you might expect there is an extensive choice of vodkas here, and we started and finished the meal with a different one, which rounded things off nicely.

I must admit that it was slightly reluctantly that three of us were dragged to this restaurant - it was my sister's birthday so we could hardly refuse her choice of venue - but it gets a big thumbs-up from all of us.

Saturday, June 16, 2007
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7