All reader reviews by Poddle

The White Swan

My partner and I visited The White Swan for an evening meal over the weekend.It was my birthday just prior to the weekend and we had booked a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (approx. 5 mins walk from this pub) to spend the weekend in town (we live just outside London, but regularly book a hotel for convenience when we have several things in town we wish to do). We chose this restaurant after reading some very good reviews on this site, as we wanted somewhere close to our hotel and somewhere reasonably priced, as we are not particularly wealthy people and many places in the City appear to be v.overpriced!So, I believe my expectations of the evening were quite high!

The Dining Room upstairs is a very attractive room and quite an intimate setting.  First impressions were good.The service was of a good standard:polite at all times, although I did feel that the staff could have been more engaging - the restaurant was not busy when we visited and I was in the middle of speaking to a member of staff when she walked away!!  Although, I do think she was being intentionally rude.The food was quite enjoyable, particularly my starter (onion soup) however, the bread was extremely hard, 1 piece I literally had to leave because it was so hard! My dessert was also enjoyable (sticky toffee pudding and honey & almond ice-cream) although I think the pudding could have been a little more moist, but because of the accompanying ice-cream this was not a problem.

My only real disappointment was with the main course.  I had monkfish with saffron infused potatoes, which were in what I can only describe as a clear 'soup' ! I was slightly dubious regarding the saffron, as I have previously had this in other dishes and found it to be quite overpowering, although not overpowering the saffron added nothing to the dish and the potatoes were not particularly enjoyable. The 'soup' included spring onions, which I find do not agree with me (I don't remember seeing these mentioned on the menu - but I could be wrong!) but the monkfish was well cooked, all be it a very small portion. The main course was a bit of a let-down, but apart from this the standard of food was good and we enjoyed our meal.

The bill was reasonable, with 25% off of the overall price of the food.

If you are in the area I would recommend it, but not worthwhile to make a special journey to visit!!

Monday, March 02, 2009
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7

Pierre Victoire

Have visited Pierre Victoire on several occasions and we are planning on returning this weekend, the ambience of the place is great, food reasonably priced for good quality food (particularly the set-menu in the late afternoon/early evening) and have we often ended up having items from the set-menu rather than the main menu just because they sound more appealing and not down to price! The staff have always been attentive without being intrusive. Cannot comment on the pianist, as commented on by previous reviewers, as I have never been there when there has been live music. As commented on by another reviewer it is v.noisy at times, but this down to it's popularity and is well-worth putting up with.

Generally, for Central London I would say this is a great place to eat.

Friday, January 23, 2009
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7