Posted by Krista on February 26, 2008
Oops
31 Catherine St
WC2B 5JS
Tel: 020 7836 3609
Date of Last Visit: A week night in February that escapes me.
The Victims: Jose, Bernard, Santanu, Cristina, Nacho, Yolanda
The Damage: £20 each
The Background: Somtimes, I sorta wish I didn't have a blog. I don't always want to pick the restaurant. That's a lot of pressure! And throw in one real Spanish person (Jose) when you want to go to a Spanish restaurant…that always make me nervous. Turn up to find three more real Spanish people…and well…aacck! I hope they like it.
Santanu was in town from Chicago, Back in 2004, Santanu and Alex and Al and Michael and I had some good times, exploring London. Santanu is gone now, Michael too. I miss them! So it's good to have him back in town.
The Food: We put the Spaniards in charge. The garlic bread is okay. The croquettas are great. The plate of jamon is pretty great too, as is the manchego cheese. There's a cod dish of some sort that's only average. Bernard likes the mussels, which look nice, but a little too deep-fried for my healthy living. All in all, everyone seems more than marginally pleased.
The Service: Isn't Spanish. The funny part is when Bernard, who's South African, starts placing his order in Spanish and the waitress doesn't understand him and he can't understand why she doesn't understand him. That was a moment.
The Atmosphere: Is kinda nice. We're upstairs, and we have it all to ourselves. The decor is really nice and it's a clean and neat place.
The Verdict: While they didn't knock my socks off, I thought it was pretty good. If I needed a pre-theatre type of place, I'd go back.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in London, Spanish, United Kingdom, WC2 | 2 Comments
Posted by Krista on January 18, 2008
Fino
33 Charlotte Street
W1T 1RR
Tel: 0207 813 8010
Date of Last Visit: Friday, January 4
The Victims: K&A
The Damage: £35ish for me. K&A let me off easy.
The Background: We've been to see Atonement in Leicester Square. I cried. A lot. It was awful. I didn't expect to get that teary. So I look awful. I feel awful. Do you know that feeling? When you've been crying? It took me an hour or so to shake it.
K&A have booked us into Fino and I endear myself to them forever when I confidently insist I know exactly how to get there, and then I take them down that strange back alley with all the Spanish bars north of Tottenham Court. They lose all confidence in me.
The Entrance: So we are glad to arrive at Fino. Our table is ready, and it's a little weird. It's a table for three. Yes…it's a booth that fits two on one side and two anorexic people on the other. But it's fine and we get some olives and I get a Cranberry soda (off the sauce this month) and we settle in to order.
The Service: Around this time, it's obvious the waitstaff is not happy with each other. They are arguing so much that I have to ask what the problem is. Apparently, a table for eight has booked but multiplied on the way over. They are now 13. And Fino is not happy. Not happy at all. Parties of eight can order off the regular menu, but if you're more than eight, set menus are their preferred option to keep things easy on the kitchen. Our waitress would have waited on that table had they been eight, but now that they are 13, the manager takes over so the other tables aren't negatively affected. Good thinking. But next time, keep the upset-ness to the back-of-house.
The Starters: Anyhow…K&A start ordering…we have the mixed plate of meats, of which the chorizo is my fave. The tortilla is average. It looks lovely, but they've stuffed it with cooked, wet onions which I haven't expected and they are gooey and not to my liking. We have some squid which is nice. And some almonds which are of course nice. But the star at this point are the ham croquettas, which we order more of and which take ages to arrive and which we have to ask after twice. Oh, and we don't really want to order the Bread with Marques de Valdueza Olive Oil–only K does–but we do and it's FANTASTIC.
The food is coming so quickly and we are so hungry that I am worried that this will be the fastest meal on record. I ask the staff to slow down and they tell me not to worry, these are just the starters and of course there will be a break between these and the next batch. Thank God.
Intermission: I check out the ladies and I like the set up. It's clean and I have my own sink and there are nice candles in the hallway. I also like the look of the bar area which you pass through on your way to the ladies–very 70s den. I would consider coming back here to hang out in the bar. I should mention that I check out the ladies a couple of times because of the pace at which I'm drinking my cranberry sodas and TAP WATER which is provided without blinking. But then I get a bit upset with myself for ordering the tap water because the bottled water they are serving is Belu and I've missed my chance to be a better person today.
The Second Act: The crisp pork belly with crackling is GREAT. The fries are sprinkled with garlic and rosemary, which is a very winning combination and one I'd like to see more of in 2008. We like the fries so much we order more. The octopus is not for me, and this is strange because I LOVE octopus. A. orders the brussel sprouts and we ask our server if they sell a lot of brussel sprouts and she says her last order was before Christmas. Hmmm. TMI. Pimentos de Padron are average–they are wet. At Eyre Brothers, they are served a bit more crispy and grilled, which I prefer. (Although in the grand scheme of things, I prefer Fino to Eyre Brothers, food-wise. 70s den-wise? Eyre Brothers still has the edge.)
The Verdict: I can't decide. It would be a good celebratory business dinner kind of place. (A business-business dinner would be weird because how can you share food and negotiate a contract at the same time? ) I would go back to the bar. Not sure if I would seek out the restaurant again for myself or friends and family.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in London, Spanish, United Kingdom, W1 | No Comments
Posted by Krista on July 25, 2007
32 Featherstone Street
EC1Y 8QX
Tel: 020 7490 0121
Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 28th, 2007
The Victims: Howard, Ben, Mark
The Damage: 20ish each?
The Background: As of Thursday June 28th at 7:30 p.m., I’ve known Mark for about four hours in total. But we’re Facebook friends , so I’ve been keeping tabs on him. I know he likes swimming, and that he has a new toaster. I know he saw a bad movie last Friday. Likewise, Mark knows that it might be time for me to move; that sometimes, I log in to Facebook while I’m waiting for the bus; and that I’ve grown tired of my music collection. (Don’t tell my mother. Please. You’d have to see my music collection to truly understand my attention deficit disorder.)
Well, Mark suggests the pub quiz at the Wenlock Arms with fellow London food bloggers Howard and Ben, and I suggest dinner beforehand at the new tapas place at Featherstone Street, just south of Old Street tube. It’s a deal.
The Entrance: It’s loud. They could use some sound-proofing devices. It’s loud and not super-crowded. So that means that it can only get worse. I am afraid. And I am right to be so. Because before we know it, some drunkards sit down at the table next to us and are boisterious in that just-just-just-crossing-the-line way.
The Service: Is really nice and informative. She gives us her recommendations straight off the bat. We, being us, order all of them. And she is mostly right on the ball.
The Food: The standout dish for me was really the anchovies served on potato chips. Who would have thunk it? All that salt…it was perfect! The spicy pork was not so spicy and I was disappointed. The padron peppers were nice…I love them. (And I learned that Mark does not!)
What else did we have? Some manchego. Some iberico ham. Some smoked beef. Some tomatoes and goat cheese (which I declined…too many tomatoes). Two tortillas–which, to be honest, were awful. And you know that I am so not very picky. They seemed undercooked. Some meatballs–I had one, and it was nice. But just nice.
The Verdict: I think I’d only go on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. The Thursday crowd was a bit too much for me. Oh, and I’d stick with the server’s recommendations and I’d keep my expectations very low. (I am not drawing any conclusions, but our server did not specifically suggest the tortillas…which are such a staple and so easy to do well–even I have been known to cook a tortilla on occasion–that I am left wondering…)
Oh, and p.s., as of Thursday at 1 a.m.-ish, I’ve known Mark for about 9.5 hours. In the real world, that is. Not the Facebook world.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in EC1, London, Spanish, United Kingdom | 1 Comment
Posted by Krista on June 15, 2007
88 Upper Street
N1 0NP
Tel: 020 7288 0954
Date of Last Visit: Oh, I don’t know. A few months ago. I’m sorry.
The Damage: £20 each?
I have been remiss in writing up Sangria. It’s been ages (well, a few months) since I’ve been, but it was just so very decent and nice that I did not want to neglect it. Particularly when a nice May bank holiday weekend gives me some time to catch up on things. (Did you know that the Brits only get eight public holidays while Americans get 10? I’ll leave the UK-government-mandated-minimum of 20 vacation days aside. But I gotta be honest, I like 10 public holidays spread throughout the year a lot better than 8 days squished up in April and December.) But back to Sangria…
The Context: One night after work, Feathers and I had gone to my Thai ladies at the Thai Massage place on the Essex Road. Feathers had never been. I think she’s a convert. They are just so very sweet. I don’t remember if we had had a rough day or anything–isn’t it funny when you do have a rough day? It seems like the worst thing ever, but then a few days later, you totally forget about it. I think we just wanted massages. Yes, our needs are simple.
So we were wandering, limp and aimless, around Islington after our head-and-shoulder kneading, and we thought that some sustenance would be nice. But not a lot. So tapas it was.
The Islington Tapas place on the Essex Road was closing down for the night, but that was okay because Sangria was still packing them in.
The Entrance: It is dark. Very very dark. I can’t see. Add in the massage and well, I’m ready to go to bed.
The Food: Well, our plan to eat lightly didn’t last very long. Before we knew it, we had six dishes in front of us. I don’t remember any of them except one (BAD food blogger! Bad!)–the bean dish (broad beans to the English, Lima beans to the Americans). I believe it was a special. I loved the texture and the mix of flavors…there was some sort of smoked pork mixed up with the beans, and it just worked really really well together.
The Verdict: I keep thinking about Sangria…and I keep thinking that I will go back there and eat some more beans. But I haven’t. Soon, I promise.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in London, N1, Spanish, United Kingdom | No Comments
Posted by Krista on December 13, 2006
54 Goodge Street
W1T 4NA
Tel: 020 7637 0657
Date of Last Visit: Tuesday, 12 December 2006
The Victims: Ripe, Monkey Gland, Ben, Howard
The Damage: £54. Each.
The Background: You may already know that I am a dork. A total dork. I enjoy nothing better than a long flight and a book of logic problems. I have a certificate somewhere that calls me "Woman of Physics." (And all I can remember is 9.83 m/s2.) So not surprisingly–well, at least not to me–I found myself out on an evening with my "Internet friends."
I was early, despite being very late, running down Tottenham Court. (Spamalot, and then a first course elsewhere which I will endeavor to write about at some point.) But I was exactly on-time, and I was seated by a very nice server who told me a little bit about the whites and suggested his favorite. I was very happy.
The Starters: The others arrived and I was impressed by the power of this crazy thing called the Internets. I was impressed by my fellow diners most of all. I’m realizing my knowledge of new spots is high, while my familiiarity with foodie personalities is very low. I have mucho to learno.
As always, I digress. I believe it was I who prompted for keeping it simple to start: meat and cheese. This was mainly because I was (and am) an incredily selfish and hungry person, and our server had noted that meat and cheese could arrive in less than five minutes. How perfect. A platter of Spain arrived. And of Italy. And of cheese (again from Spain, I believe). We could not go wrong.
The Mains: After much consternation, we agreed on a strategy. Two each. I chose what I hope were party favorites: the tortilla of the day (spinach) and the croquettas. Who does not love a croquetta? Other selections included foie gras (you know I’ve banned it in 2006), zucchini flowers, squid, stuffed peppers, lamb and peppers, and I am sure I am forgetting many many things, but you get the gist. It just kept coming. And coming. And we weren’t done yet!
The Desserts: The rice pudding was heavenly, and I made a mental note for mom to tell me what’s in hers. The chocolate cake was like pure cocoa. I was afraid I would break out in hives, in a good way. (Well, not really. Hives are not fun.) Really, everything looked and tasted very lovely. I was sad not to have a dessert wine, but I knew what the next day would bring!
Service, Toilets, etc: Well then, our server was really nice, but he seemed a bit harried every so often. It was a small space downstairs, and I suppose seated tapas means that servers run around a little more. Toilets were nothing too remarkable, so they must have been relatively clean or else I would be telling you some sort of story about their disgustingness.
The Decor: Dark and modern and functional with pretty lighting. Smallish space. I liked it.
My Verdict: I would go back, particularly on a quiet night.
Their Verdicts
Spanish Mainly, by Food and Drink
The Morning After, by Ripe London
Blogger Moot, by Jam Faced
You might also enjoy...
Posted in London, Spanish, United Kingdom, W1 | 3 Comments
Posted by Krista on July 1, 2005
27 Leadenhall Market
EC3V 1LR
Tel: 020 7623 1818
Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 30th, 2005
The Victims: Lee, Phoebe, David
The Damage: 12.50 GBP a head?
So I’m sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when over walks David from our US office. And I say, "David, what are you doing here?"
David is researching 16th century pub theatres. Yes, he has a very specific hobby. I used to like genealogy. Now I like white wine. And The Apprentice.
So Alan, the Sales Guy, had told us how much he liked the Leadenhall Wine & Tapas bar, so off we went. I give the LW&TB snaps for atmosphere. It was VERY cute and we had the corner table by the open window, which was very very pretty. Plus, it was a Thursday, so there were vendors selling little cakes and chocolates, which was nice to look at.
Food-wise, I don’t know if I’d ever go back to the LW&TB. We ordered 8 tapas. It’s hard to screw up calamari, and they totally overcooked it. The best part was the chorizo–really yummy. The vegetables were soggy and felt like they’d been reheated. The prawns were average, and the patatas felt overcooked/reheated as well. It was an odd experience. Really, the atmosphere is super cute. But the food! Yikes.
But while I was sitting there, I saw that the pub across the way had a carvery upstairs and that looked really fun. I wouldn’t have noticed that if I had just been walking around. So next time I go to Leadenhall, I’ll go there.
The Verdict: Uggh. I did not enjoy the food. But they do get snaps for atmosphere. So maybe I’ll try it again and hope they have a different chef or something.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in EC3, London, Spanish, United Kingdom | No Comments
Posted by Krista on February 27, 2005
18–20 Southwark Street
SE1 1TJ
Tel: 020 7357 8880
Date of Last Visit: Feb 22, 2005
The Victims: Al and Alex
I had plans to meet up with my friend Al’s wife Louise at Brindisa off of Borough Market. She caught the flu, unfortunately, so it was just me and Al, so I invited Alex along too as he wasn’t in Germany working on distressed debt, like he normally is. We all met up at 7:15, and there was already a one-hour wait for a table. So we went to the pub across the street to wait things out. The pub was pleasant in the evening, with cool lighting and interesting wall paper. A repeat trip on Saturday afternoon in the harsh light of day did not yield such an alluring atmosphere for the pub, but Brindisa looked just as welcoming as it had earlier in the week.
But I digress. So we made it into Brindisa. After about a 15 minute wait (on top of the initial hour, where we missed our names called while we were across the street at the pub) at a small stand-up table in the bar area, we were shown a regular sit-down table. The nice thing about the bar area is that they were happy for us to order there and move our food to our sit-down table once we had one. So that’s what we did. Nice touch.
We started off with an tortilla–yummy–and some spinach with pine nuts–also extremely yummy. The cod with alioli was fantastic…very buttery. Al and I kept saying "It’s like bread," and we meant it in a good way. We had a number of different types of sausage, all very yummy. The one dish I wasn’t a fan of were the clams–they tasted a bit too raw and unmarinated to me. Being a good Long Island girl, I normally love clams right out of the ocean so I count this as a big strike against Brindisa, but otherwise, we lapped up all our food and loved it all.
Service was super-friendly and attentive, although we had the typical English issue of having multiple people wait on us, so we were never quite sure who to flag down. The host was not the friendliest dude in the world, but the place was packed so I’ll cut him some slack for having to work in a high-pressure high-turnover environment. And we weren’t around when he initially called our names, so that’s a strike for us too.
All in all, I am very happy to have Brindisa in the ‘hood. I was also quite surprised to see that on a Saturday during Borough Market hours, there didn’t seem to be much of a wait between 11:45 and 12:45.
The Verdict: Make the trek south of the river and definitely order the spinach. Consider visiting early on a Saturday pre-Borough-market-mania.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in London, SE1, Spanish, United Kingdom | No Comments
Posted by Krista on February 17, 2005
93 Columbia Road
London, E2 8NA
Tel: 020 7729 1147
The Victim: Connie
Date of Last Visit: February 13
So it’s Sunday and I want brunch. I also want flowers. Vague niggle at back of brain says, "Columbia Road." I go on-line. I read about flowers and tapas. I call Connie, who luckily has overslept and not gone to church or done any of the other million things she thought she would do. We meet at Old Street and walk over.
I love Columbia Road at 1 pm. I love it even better at 2 pm, when the prices drop. And more than anything, I love Laxeiro, where the day’s tapas are written on the chalkboard, the sangria is plentiful and delicious, the paella is fantastic and HUGE for two, AND–get this–they do doggie bags!
We started with the calamari and the stuffed courgettes (uh, zucchini). Then, we got the paella. The pan was very large–more than enough for 3 people. This was billed as paella for two. It was 15 GBP, which I think is quite reasonable. This is because I have stopped converting.
The service was attentive, but they had to be because the place is super small. There was a lot of traffic in and out, and surprisingly no wait. High turnover, but high quality. On the down side, they too tried to take my napkin away on more than one occassion.
The Verdict: I would definitely go back here on a Sunday. I would probably go back on a week night as well. Small, neighborhood-y and cute.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in E2, London, Spanish, United Kingdom | No Comments
Posted by Krista on January 25, 2005
13 Well Court
EC4M 9DN
Tel: 020 7329 5111
The Victims: Bina, Man
Date of Last Visit: Week of January 17
I love tapas. Many little surprises. I was pleased to find Barcelona Tapas in general. It’s very hidden away off of Bow Lane, tucked at the very end of an alleyway. There’s a small bar upstairs, and unless you’re in the know, you might not realize there’s a full restaurant downstairs.
We started off with the Sangria–a very generous pitcher. Then we moved on to olives and bread with tomatoes–also very generous portions. We also sampled the chorizo, some patatas bravas, a Spanish omelette, some lamb, and goodness gracious I’m forgetting everything. There was more!
Service was friendly and nice–and Spanish! Authenticity is nice. They kept taking my napkin away, which bothered me though. Hold on to your napkins!
The decor is fun and the music is very lively and fun. It’s a good place to go for a nice lunch. It’s also very fast! We were in and out in less than 45 minutes in one visit.
The verdict: Go for an office lunch or party. It’s fun.
You might also enjoy...
Posted in EC4, London, Spanish, United Kingdom | No Comments
Recent Comments