All reader reviews by benscaro

Nusa Dua

seems to be a bit of an old soho reliable ... reasonable prices and good food.

favourites are the kambing bakar, the king river prawns - udang belado and the fish in coconut curry - sousi pa (?) were all spot on tonight. and the wine was decent. desert took a bit of time to arrive, but not too long. staff are attentive.

never too crowded, and part of me likes it better that way!

not too many soho places are relaxing to go to. nusa dua is one.

maybe it's the indonesian wood carvings that give a kind of slightly daggy ambience ... though i'm sure the owners -who go to indonesia to choose them especially -won't like me saying that.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8

Sticky Fingers

Went last night, a quiet Sunday night. The food arrived fast but was nothing to write home about, but, well, let's try . . .

I had the fajitas which was essentially little more than a sizzling plate of some stir fried peppers and onions adorned with five small pieces of steak, along with four small fajitas to assemble it with and some condiments. I've made better Tex-Mex at home.

My friend had the peri peri chicken and chips and said he'd had better at a fast food chain. While large, it looked very dry and unappetising.

They seemed to have massive problems going and getting some mayonnaise for the fried mushrooms; the staff member explained that this was due to their having one large table of people in the restaurant. My response was - well, not my problem, hire more staff. The fact that they had staff milling around doing nothing didn't add much support to his poor excuse. Seriously, if a place like this can't cope when it's only 25% full, I'd hate to be there on a really busy night.

Keep your fingers clean, is my advice.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2

Thanh Binh

I've eaten here once and was impressed . like another reviewer suggested, if you stick to the vietnamese basics, pho, cold spring rolls, and the like, it's among the best of these standard vietnamese cheap-n-cheerfuls. The vegetables they use are particularly fresh.

We had a BBQ pork thing that was also pretty good- again an old Vietnamese standard, that took me back to my roots in Little Vietnam in Melbourne. Good atmosphere and the lady running it (I assume the owner) seems to be something of a character herself. Well worth the modest price.

Saturday, July 12, 2008
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9

Wong Kei

I've never gone to Wong Kei expecting much, but I've always gotten what I paid for, large generous serves of basic Chinese food for a fiver.

Yeah, the waiters can be hustly and rude, but that is part of what you expect, and I can be fairly surly myself at times. No complaints at all about this place.

Thursday, June 19, 2008
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 8

Melati (Peter St)

I've been going here for years, based on the same good reasons listed here in the favourable reviews - cheap, unpretentious, generous serves etc. Lately, though, this place has hit the skids.

They tried to serve my Penang Chinese friend some kind of omelet tossed with what looked like two-minute noodles as Hokkien noodles . he was very unimpressed. The waiter just lied and insisted we had ordered something else.

The last two times I went there the curries were small and disappointing, with way too much oil, and potatoes that had obviously been microwaved and just added to the mix later.

The attitude was dismissive and surly. The Windmill Street branch of the Melati 'empire' has been fine by comparison, but the Peter Street restaurant is now crossed off my list of favourites.

Thursday, June 19, 2008
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2

Pasha

Three of us went on Saturday night. The atmosphere is very good though there seemed to be some sort of scent – incense? – that was a bit overpowering. The staff are very attentive, there’s no doubt of that. We were moved into one of the little alcoves which contributed to the atmosphere. The only downer is they wanted us out by 9.00 and the place frankly wasn’t that busy.

The food . . .Well, it was a bit plain and ordinary, to be frank. The starters didn’t have much impact on me. One of them was some cold tuna thing in a small pile, tasty but very small.

The mains seemed to have been toned down a lot on the flavour front. Without a decent whack of spice, a tagine is really, umm, well, just a stew. The snapper was a very small portion. They also charged a £6 ‘cover charge’. I have no idea what for, so I decided that given the food wasn’t anything special, I’d dispense with the hefty discretionary tip.

They seemed a bit crestfallen at that, but I go to restaurants for food, not scattered rose petals and belly dancing. So, we all considered £40 per person more than adequate recompense.

With so many nice little Iranian places around the nether end of Kensington High Street offering much the same at half the price, I doubt we will be back.

Monday, May 19, 2008
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2

Thai Square (Trafalgar Square)

I’d been here a few years back when Long Yang Club used to have their meetings there, and they did an excellent buffet dinner of curries.

Went back last night and not impressed at all.

Duck stir fried with pepper was OK but honestly not that exciting. A prawn and scallop hot pot was cold, dried out, and the fish was overcooked. Ditto for a rather dry and uninspiring Pad Thai. If you’d only paid £6 for each dish you would have thought it was average and forgotten it.

But at around £13 a dish, to eat food you could cook better yourself . . . well, I won’t be going back.

Friday, May 02, 2008
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0

Taiwan Village

Can’t add much to the comments here except to add that I can but agree.

Letting the chef decide proved a good choice, and at £21 per person, very reasonably priced for all that lovely food.

What a great little restaurant.

Ben

Thursday, April 03, 2008
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9

Kingly Court Brasserie

More of a cafe than a restaurant feel.

We sat downstairs in a dark dining and lounge area which had pretensions to intimacy .. . which were never quite realised as two doors leading to the kitchen door and another brightly lit service area were always ajar, so it wasn't as cosy as it might have been.

An odd sort of place, i can see where they're trying to go decor wise, but not sure it quite gets there.

The serviings of food are in tapas style, slightly larger, and are not bad value for money. Some jerk chicken in a kind of salad and a white fish in a soy based sauce was very nice.

The service was pretty lacklustre. The manager brought the wrong dishes twice and had considerable difficulty actually seeing what they were in the muted light. One was totally wrong, so he ended up giving it to us for free.

When the bill came, a bottle of wine we had not ordered had mysteriously managed to appear. I knocked most of the tip off because of these foul-ups, the waitress managed to be polite about this . . .

I suppose one has to put the error down to accident . . . I may not be as polite if it occurs a second time.

I might try this place again but they have got to sort out their slipshod management.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3

Blue Elephant

I don’t suppose anyone really goes here just for the food. And eating in the midst of an indoor jungle beside a stream is something everyone should try at least once in their lives.

Blue Elephant is gloriously overdone, in all respects.

It reminded me of Thai restaurants in Sydney in the 1980s. You half expected to see a cop from the vice squad canoodling with a ladyboy in some be-fronded nook, with a Mai Tai on the table and a brown paper bag under it.

The food was passably good, and well presented, but came across as being more than a bit over-hyped.

Foie gras with tamarind was excellent although the portion could have been bigger. For some reason it comes with a dollop of sweet potato. I’m not quite sure they’d really worked out any way to marry the two- the potato loitered implausibly beside its more ostentatious companion, something akin to seeing Liberace breakfasting with rough trade on Sunday morning . . . just slightly off-putting.

The Som Tam again was significantly over-hyped, and surprisingly lacking in flavour. Adddies’ at Earl’s Court has this simple dish down pat, by my reckoning, and Blue Elephants’ was not a patch on theirs.

The Chiang Rai, a dish of spicy stir fried pork with chillies, garlic and green peppercorns was good though workmanlike as a main . . . my partner’s black tiger prawns were nearer the mark.

One major annoyance. The waiters at Blue Elephant do need to learn that ‘no’ means ‘no’ when it comes to insinuating their wine list onto customers. In this endeavour, they employ a curious mixture of whispered Chinglish, Thai and darting bedroom eyes that I assume works well on first-timers in Bangkok, but which quickly goes stale on seasoned diners.

I do not mind being harassed at dinner-theatre calibre restaurants to buy a bottle. But Blue Elephant allegedly aspires to more than this. So if I don’t want a bottle of wine, and make it clear I don’t, then a good waiter would know when to leave off, already.

I had to call the manager over and ask him to dissuade our waiter, as by the fourth time, it was becoming annoying and distracting us from our meal.

That sense of being overdone extends to the bill, but I assume you would realise that . . .

Word within the trade is that Blue Elephant is well past its prime. I’d have to agree.

Friday, November 30, 2007
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1