The Gunmakers

Some restaurants pride themselves on having a mission or a premise. The Gunmakers, judging by its website lays claim only to a menu and an address. And, judging by its food, it's on to a winner. On the downside, it means I can't tell you the history of the place or its name, as Clerkenwell is historically more famous for its printers and Italians rather than guns.
In a world of chain sandwich shops and crumbs over keyboards, the cosy pub felt like a gateway into a less hurried, bygone era. A handful of suits were finishing their meals and their drinks when we arrived at about 2.30pm on a weekday.



In one corner, the bar man had started on his lunch. His mackrel looked very good, so we ordered that. The husband pronounced it delicious, and even finished off the accompanying beetroot - a vegetable he normally winces at.



I went for the chorizo toad-in-the-hole, which further confirmed my new-found love of the Spanish sausage. It worked really well with the batter, adding a stronger, more vibrant flavour than the usual English banger. Definitely one to try at home, along with the celeriac mash which came on the side.
We washed it all done with well-kept Mad Goose ale, and I left wishing I still worked in the area and could sneak off for lunches there on a regular basis.

The Gunmakers, 13 Eyre Street Hill, Clerkenwell, EC1R 5ET; Tel. 020 7278 1022 thegunmakers.co.uk; Lunch for 2 around 30 pounds

Cicada

I was always puzzled why this pan-Asian restaurant cum cocktail bar was named after a creature best known for its devastating swarms on Africa's corn fields. But a bit of googling revealed that it was in fact I had my insects muddled up and it was named after a harmless, edible one. Apparently they go well with Worcestershire sauce, but there weren't any cicadas on the menu to enable me to confirm or deny this.

Instead there was a good Sunday brunch deal offering three dim sum plates and a drink for £15. Between three of us, we sampled all the eight dim sum on the menu, as well as three of their alcohol-free cocktails. The cocktails look fabulous and I almost don't miss the vodka in my virgin Mary.



The pork belly was topped with gloriously crisp crackling, but was scorching hot (cue one tongue casualty and much ice-crunching). This was also our first encounter with health food favourite edamame, and I really enjoyed sucking the baby green soybeans on the salty, soy sauce covered pods. The soy sauce also did wonders for the black cod, which came in dainty little dumplings.



All the food was beautifully presented: the salt'n'pepper squid looked stunning in little newspaper cones. It was a bit dry and over-fried -- not as nice as what we'd tried a couple of doors down at The Well earlier this month -- but good enough for us to polish off the lot with the spicy chilli dip. (Sorry about the photo - it seems to look upside down whichever way I rotate it!)



Chilli tofu, nasu dengaku (Japanese aubergine cooked in miso) & shiso leaf (a mint-like herb) looked almost too pretty, and too vegetal, to eat but represented a refreshing contrast to the richness of the sticky spare ribs dish.



The prawn dumplings reaffirmed their status as my all-time favourite dim sum dish, while



the pumpkin gyoza (Japanese fried dumplings) were probably my least favourite of the meal, partly because I don't really like pumpkin but mostly because it was sickly-sweet. Again though they looked very pretty.

So overall we enjoyed the dim sum. But if I want some kind of dim sum benchmark to compare all future efforts against, where would you recommend? Yuatcha? Hakkasan? Or somewhere else entirely?

Cicada, 132-6 St John Street, EC1V 4JT; Tel. 020 7608 1550; Tube: Barbican, Farringdon http://www.rickerrestaurants.com
As well as the Sunday brunch we sampled, they have 2 for 1 cocktails Mon-Sat 5-7pm, 50% off food on Monday with a (free) card, and are now part of Taste London.

Moro

The location: Exmouth Market – especially lovely on a warm, sunny day.

The spec: Spanish/North African cuisine served up by a Sam & Sam Clarke. (Would you ever marry, or even go out with someone who had the same name as you?) The place is perennially popular -- even on Monday night they are fully booked, but manage to squeeze us in at the bar.

The disappointing: The menu. I don't know why, but somehow every time I come here, nothing at the menu really grabs me.

The good: The very friendly service. The food.
We start with a plate of chorizo from the bar tapas menu. The two thick slices, curled and charged from the grilling, don't seem little a lot for £4, but every moist, spicy bite says it's worth it.
I follow with the succulent wood roasted chicken, served with a warm, yoghurty, walnutty pasta salad (£18.00). It's delicious and the pickled radishes which initially put me off ordering the dish don't taste picked at all.
The husband goes for wood roasted Middle White pork -- and the waiter very kindly offers and extra helping of crisp crackling (£18.50). The meat comes with Moorish flavours of spinach, red onions, pine nuts and raisins.

We ask the waiter about the house white -- he offers us a taste (as he said, it’s “very drinkable”, but no more), and suggests a much nicer bottle from the Spanish list -- a Verdejo/Sauvignon mix (£18.50) which has the zesty zing I usually associate with New Zealand.

The verdict: Friendly and delicious. Though alas too busy and a bit too expensive to be a regular haunt.

Moro, 34 - 36 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE; Tel. 020 7833 8336; Tube: Angel; www.moro.co.uk

Hix Oyster & Chop House

Mark Hix ran the Caprice empire for many years, and his many books on British cooking are piled high on the new restaurant's shelves.
The room hasn't really changed from the Rudland & Stubbs days -- black furniture and bar, white table cloths and walls and an unpolished wooden floor. The decor vibe is somehow modern yet comforting, and reminiscent of the near-by St John. The only additions seem bizarre -- a slightly messy looking open-plan service station in the middle of the room, and what we think is supposed to be an open-plan oyster kitchen but on our 9pm+ visit looked more like a washing up area.
The place hasn't been open long, so I guess service-wise it may take them a bit longer to get into their stride. There were plenty of free tables, but we were told to wait at the bar for 10 minutes. Luckily, their table-laying skills proved more efficient than they'd estimated and we were ushered to a table as soon as we'd balanced our bums on the high stools.



The menu was an interesting read, with plenty of unusual dishes. I was tempted by the St George's mushrooms, which I'd never heard of before, and chose to have them in the guinea fowl soup (£6.50). When I ordered, the waiter beamed and said it was very good. It arrived in a miniature lidded pot, and I momentarily wondered if I'd underestimated my hunger. But it proved surprisingly filling, creamy and indeed delicious. The husband snuck a good few mouthfuls.



He had decided to test their chops, opting for a bacon one, served with a pile of cockles(£12.75) and laverbread. The latter, it turns out, isn't bread at all, but some kind of seaweed and a much prized delicacy in Wales, where they have it with bacon and cockles for breakfast! It was very tasty, with the salty and juicy bacon contrasting with the delicate crustaceans (so either we are less fussy than Dos Hermanos, or the food's improved).
But we did wish the waiter had insisted (or even suggested) that we considered side orders. Still, on request, he happily brought another round loaf of warm, home-baked tasting white bread served on wooden board with lusciously creamy butter (£0).



To finish, we shared a Welsh rarebit (£7). It's one of my favourite dishes, and I couldn't fault this example -- at least not until the husband pointed that the one at St John is at least as good, but twice as big and £2 cheaper.
We washed the dinner down with a £14 temparanillo, a decidedly average bottle and the cheapest offering on a wine list which very quickly vaulted into the £20+ range. The beer selection may be a better bet next time, with lots of ales and stouts to choose from.
The meal took over an hour and a half, which seemed excessive as we ordered pretty much as soon as we sat down, asked for the rarebit as our mains plates were cleared and for the bill when the cheesy toast arrived.
Still, the food was delicious and reasonably priced, there are plenty more things on the menu I'd like to try, plus it's within easy stumbling distance of home. So I am sure we will be back next time we can't get into Vinoteca.

Hix Oyster & Chop House, 36-37 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross Street (so named because cows used to cross here on their way to an early death at Smithfield market), EC1M 6BN; Tube: Barbican or Farringdon; www.restaurantsetcltd.co.uk

Medcalf

The location: Exmouth Market.

The spec: A shaby chic trendy bar with a modern European menu. The miss-matched chairs and tables outside offer a view of the street life on Exmouth market, and there's also a garden out back. The name (and probably the sign) date back to the butcher shop which used to occupy the spot nearly a century ago.

The good:



The refreshing cold pea soup with a creamy dollop of sour cream.



The marinated baby squid with chorizo and frisee salad (£6)

The disappointing:



The Welsh rarebit (£4.50) -- bit burnt, and lacking in flavour (it could do with a stronger cheddar).



The fatty lamb rump (17.75).

The verdict: Nice spot for a drink and a snack, but a bit too hit and miss on the food.

Medcalf, 40 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE; Tel. 020 7833 3533; Tube: Angel; www.medcalfbar.co.uk

CLOSED - The Ambassador

** UPDATE OCTOBER 2011 - The restaurant has closed, and a Japanese place looks set to open in its place.

Last weekend the husband was away having fun (getting bruised by paint bullets, then dulling the pain with copious alcohol), while I was home working. So I reckoned I deserved to treat myself. A lunch in the sunshine on Exmouth Market was just the ticket.
I was craving the bright green nettle soup that I'd tried in Ambassadors a year or so ago, but it wasn't on the menu. So trying to stay vaguely healthy yet colourful,



I opted for a small beetroot risotto (£6.50) instead.
The healthiness was slightly thwarted by the generous splash of olive oil and the white pool of gloriously creamy, melted goats chese topping the vibrant red rice. It was a blissful plate to nibble on while looking through their selection of weekend papers over a glass of white Abruzzo (£3.50) from the extensive wine list.
Conclusion, a fabulous couple of hours' treat for only £10 (plus service).

The Ambassador, 55 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QL; Tel. 0207 837009; Tube: Angel;
www.theambassadorcafe.co.uk; closed Sunday evening

54

This was my first visit to a Malaysian-European restaurant. The decor straddles the two cultures: there are Asian religious prints and pink flowers which I associate with Chinese restaurants on the tables, yet the place maintains a certain modern European minimalism. The overall effect is warm and pleasant.
The menu alternates familiar-sounding European dishes like fillet of sea bass (£12.50) with Malaysian ones like ayam masak lemak (£10.50) -- only it doesn't actually give any indication of what that might actually involve. Well, we are always game for a challenge and so ordered blindly as it were.



The cucur badak (£5) turned out to be rather tasty little sweet potato patties, stuffed with prawns, vegetables, rice and all manner of spices and served with slices of pineapple a yoghurt dip to take an edge off the spiciness.



The roti canai (£4.00), traditional Malaysian flat bread to me tasted like a sweetened sheet of puff pastry. It turned up with three little sides -- some pink pickled onions, a dark fruity pickle and some yellow dhal-like substance that tasted of split peas. I think the yoghurt from the other starter would have worked better.



For mains, ayam masak kicap (£10.50) featured moist, generous-sized and well-cooked chicken which was rather spoilt by a thick, dark, sweet sauce in which the husband detected traces of liquorish (I didn't). It would have gone OK with duck, but completely overpowered the chicken.

The ikan Asam pedas (£12.50) was much better, a creamy, coconuty fish curry, with a sauce not dissimilar to those found in Thai cooking. Both dishes came with a little mountain of rice, some pickles and a little pine-apple heavy side garnish.

The drinks list is unexciting (Malaysian beers or wines - if they exist? - are not represented), but pleasing enough. The waitress knowledgeable suggests a Vionier as an alternative to the out-of-stock Vino Verde, but we go for the New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc instead (£17.50). There's also a large selection of booze by the glass.

Conclusion: two good dishes, two not so good. Normally, that wouldn't warrant a return visit in an area amply supplied with great restaurants. But I liked the feel of the place, and was intrigued by the concept, so may well be back. Perhaps next time I'll try some of the European dishes.

54, 54 Farringdon Road, EC1 3BL; Tel. 0207 336 0603; Tube: Farringdon; www.54farringdon.com; They are on toptable, currently offering various deals, including 50 percent off food on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Carnevale

Much like with Pham Sushi, I've walked past Carnevale for years but until last week had never been inside. I'd heard that it was good, but my problem was that it was vegetarian. Don't get me wrong - I am happy to eat veggie meals and often do so at home. But in a restaurant I can't help feeling that meat or fish offer far better value for money, and also often seem to feature in more interesting/challenging dishes.
The place -- which doubles up as a deli and offers extensive takeaway options at lunchtimes -- is tiny, but tardis-like leads onto a glorious little conservatory, filled with plants and topped off with a glass roof. Watching the waiter and some other diners through the window into the main room, I pretend that I am in some warm Mediterranean court yard rather than in a still decidedly wintery, stormy London.
The menu, which I am told changes about once a month, features about half a dozen starters and as many mains, with surprisingly few of the dishes including cheese and not a nut-roast in sight (the more modern veggie staple, the risotto, does make an appearance though, as do vegetarian sausages and mash).
We weren't overly hungry and, eyeing our fellow diners' huge plates, decided to share three starters (£5.25 each) and skip on the mains altogether. This raises no eyebrows, and the service is generally pretty good, the only quibble being the non-arrival of the tap water (though to be fair we only asked for it once).


The ravioli stuffed with ricotta and pumpkin was scattered prettily and wholesomely with puy lentils, parmesan and herbs. I've never had puy lentils with pasta before, but it worked well. The baked courgette was our favourite, stuffed with salty halloumi, refreshing lemon and herbs and served with a huge salad of oranges, non-overpowering fennel and crunchy almonds (must try those in a salad at home instead of pumpkin seeds).

The third starter was the husband's choice and one I predictably didn't like so much. Quinoa is a South American seed and to my taste buds a close cousin of the cous cous, which I usually don't like. Here, it's supposed to come in a cake-form with wild mushrooms, spinach and chilli, but the overall effect is more pile than pattie and the accompanying rocket is a bit oily for more liking. The apricot and ginger chutney is a nice touch of colour/flavour on the top though.
The drinks list offers short but interesting selections in most categories, from home-made lemonade to unusual beers, elderflower-based cocktails and organic wines. We opted for a half litre carafe of the perfectly drinkable house red (£7.50), which enabled us to keep the entire dinner, including service (which is not included) to just over 25 quid -- not a bad bargain, even if there was no meat involved. Plus it all tasted very healthy and worthy, and I loved the little conservatory. But had we been hungrier and gone with the £11.50 main courses, I fear I would left thinking of how much raw fish I could have scoffed at Pham for the price of veggie sausage'n'mash.
So will we return? Perhaps, but probably only if we have some vegetarians in tow.

Carnevale, 135 Whitecross Street, EC1Y 8JL; Tel: 020 7250 3452; Tube: Barbican; www.carnevalerestaurant.co.uk

Coach and Horses

It was a Friday night and the Coach and Horses was jam-packed with people toasting in the weekend. We'd just been turned away from a new-ish Malaysian/European joint on Farringdon Road and were getting rather worried about our chances of a good un-prebooked dinner. Luckily, a door in the back wall of the pub revealed a separate dining room.... which was entirely empty.
It was an interesting little extension of a room, with swathes of fabric on the ceiling creating a vaguely nautical feel.
We picked a bottle of rich pinot noir (£18.30) and hungrily perused the menu. Despite the busy bar and our isolated location (we remained lone diners throughout), the service was very efficient and friendly.



In the salad, the sweet pear contrasted well with the creamy Cashel Blue cheese, while the rocket leaves helpfully diluted the richness of flavours (£5.60).



The Jerusalem artichoke soup (£6.00) was lusciously creamy, with crispy vegetable crisps on the top and some luscious, half-melted foie gras floating inside -- although I have since discovered that it's very easy to recreate (most of) the experience at home.


To follow, I enjoyed the gamey, generous pile of venison ragu (£13.50), a superior version of the tradition spag bol.



The husband had a heart-warming Morcilla stew (£13.20), with chunks of the Spanish blood sausage and beans, crowned with a poached egg.

Back in 2004, the place won the Time Out Best Gastro Pub award, though Harden's suggests it could have become a touch complacent since then. We certainly didn't see any evidence of that -- it was a very good meal for perfectly reasonable prices and with good service. But with, inexplicably, so few dining customers, I wouldn't be surprised if the kitchen gets discouraged before too long.

The Coach and Horses, 26-28 Ray Street, EC1R 3DJ; Tel. 0207 278 8990' www.thecoachandhorses.com; Tube: Farringdon

Fish Central

The plastic tables and the unprepossessing location in an untrendy corner of no-longer-quite-Clerkenwell-but-not-really-yet-Islington suggest that Fish Central is just another local chippie, dishing up huge plate fulls of golden fish and equally golden chips. But for every table of locals from a near-by council house, there's a couple sipping wine and picking on king prawns or scallops. Personally, I think this makes for a great, casual and slightly unusual vibe.
Normally the fish options – served deep fried, grilled,or cooked in matzo meal – start from £6.75 for plaice, but at the moment the place is part of the three courses for a tenner offer from The Times. (Incidentally is it me, or are these offers getting worse? Of this year's crop, this is probably the only vaguely central London which seems worth visiting to me and the value of which is notably improved by the offer.)
We started with a nice bottle of Prosecco (£14.95), wallowing in the surrealism of drinking Venetian fizz in a chippie. House wine starts from £9.45, there's also draft bitter and larger and – for the purists – mugs of strong tea for a bargain 55 pence.
From the set menu, my fish soup (normally £3.45) was alright, but did not benefit from the fresh memory of the one we had in Terminus Nord in Paris a couple weeks ago. The roasted Mediterranean vegetable bruschetta topped with mozzarella (£3.75) was decidedly underwhelming, while the large plate of crispy-coated squid rings was judged as OK, but not outstanding(£4.45).


Of the main courses, the mussels were also pretty average. But the chefs redeemed themselves with plates of flaky gurnard (sustainability brownie points, check) and mountains of crispy chips. Ultimately, this is still very much a chippie, and fish and chips is what it does best, while giving you option the wash them down with some very decent plonk. I would also heartily recommend the fisherman's platter (£19.95) - a huge plate of cod, plaice, haddock, skate and scampi which serves at least three very hungry people.

Fish Central, 149-155 Central Street, King Square, EC1V 8AP; Tel. 0207 2534 970; Tube: Old Street; www.fishcentral.co.uk (now how many chippies do you know with their own website??).

PS If you are in the area, there's a new (well, OK, it might have been there for years, but I've only just noticed) German Deli across the square, which stocks a promising selection of salamis and the like.

Searcy's

Sorting out through the photos on my computer, I found some from our trip to Searcy's, the posh eating option at the Barbican centre. Alas, our visit their took place back in December – as a prelude to watching their ingenious alternative to the Christmas panto. Since then the receipt has long been lost, the menu on their website has changed and the memory has blurred around the edges, so I shall largely let the photos do the talking.
The room itself plunges you straight into the 70s-80s era – the original rather than the revival -- with lots of brown and orange, and lots of angles. Luckily, any ugliness in the décor is made up for by great views across the pond and onto St Giles of Cripplegate.
Double luckily though they had finished celebrating the Barbican's 25th birthday, and had replaced the retro food menu (think prawn cocktail and black forest gateaux) with more modern and more appetising sounding fare.


Among other things, we sampled the fish soup, gloriously topped with a gigantic langoustine.


Then there was beautifully rare fillet steak with a creamy bernaise sauce and chips that were both crispy and thick, suiting most tastes.


And a crisp-skinned breast of guinea fowl atop a pile of tiny home-made, bacon-studded spatzle.
I also recall a rather good selection of British cheeses, a decent assortment of ales, and a wine list including the Chapel Down Bacchus -- though admittedly for a slightly extortionate 32.85, around double the cost of the cheapest bottle.
Food's also not cheap, but it's not bad value, with two courses for 24.50 or three for 28.50. If you have a Barbican card, you get 15 percent of the total bill (including drinks), so you could recoup your 20 quid annual membership in one or two visits if you come as a foursome and don't shun the wine list.

Searcy's, Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2Y 8DS; Tel. 020 7588 3008; Tube: Barbican

Comptoir Gascon

Club Gascon is a grand venue where city boys can indulge in top-ticket wine and matchingly luxurious foie gras. Luckily for the rest of us, it has a cheaper off-shoot in the shape of Comptoir Gascon. A deli by day, by night they offer a short but tempting menu of French classics, as well as a few daily specials in a low key, convivial setting.


I had the salade landaise (£7.50) – a divine combination of French green beans, foie gras and duck from the South West of France, the Gascons' speciality region. They assured me the portion was too small for a main course, so I took than as an excuse to also check out the Gascony pie (£6.50) -- not a traditional, pastry pie at all but luxuriously creamy mouse of duck, wild mushrooms, and herbs. The husband, a big cassoulet fan, thouroughly enjoyed their version from Toulouse (£12.50). We washed it all down with a nice bottle of red and promised not to leave it too long before our next visit.

Le Comptoir Gascon, 61-63 Charterhouse Street, EC1M 6HJ; Tube: Farringdon or Barbican; www.comptoirgascon.com

PS D'oh. Just realised I have already blogged about this place when it first opened a couple of years ago, in my third ever post (we had the same salad and cassoulet that time!). Must keep better track of myself, and will pledge to go through past reviews and add any updates.

PPS Have now added updates on $, Loungelover, Sacre Coeur and Quecumbar. Have done this in the form of new comments, but not sure if that's the best strategy for the future. Should I rewrite the reviews,or add new ones of the same places (assuming, of course, there is something new to add)?

Fox & Anchor

I am prone to bouts of serious unobservedness. So by the time I heard that the old Smithfield market pub, the Fox and Anchor, had been revamped by the guys from the near-by Malmaison the place had already been open for a couple of months. Still, in this case it was defintiely a case of better late than never. The spruce up helps show off the original decor to great effect -- the domineering old dark wood counter, the decorative glass pannels, the little nooks and crannies. They now offer rooms above the pub, but have kept up the tradition of breakfasts from 7 am. There's a changing selection of real ales on tap (around £3), which are served in pewter tankards (though in reality this is slightly less cool, as there's a gentle taste of metal and you can't easily see how much head there is on your pint). The menu is short, starring a tempting array of British classics, and there are specials on the blackboard.

Food-wise the standout was the beef and oyster pie (£10.95) - melt-in-the-mouth chunks of slow cooked meat in a rich, plentiful gravy, topped with a crisp duvet of puff pastry and served (I am guessing this is some kind of bizarre English tradition) with a couple of oysters. The meat, apparently comes from Ginger Pig (lauded by everyone from mutton-loving Prince Charles to Jay Rayner), and the thick chips are fried in goose fat and come in funky little cones. The steak tartare looked really cool, served on wooden boards and topped with an orange yolk. I thought the seasoning was perfect, but the husband deemed it not hot enough (luckily they provided Tabasco as a remedy). The juices from the real, non-dried wild mushrooms had beautifully soaked through into the accompanying toast (£4.95).
There are a few quibbles, of course. The bread is a bit of a disappointment, the steak with a duck egg from the specials board was very lacklustre, the TV screens are an unnecessary distraction (though bonus points for showing a black and white, silent farce!) and being within spitting distance of the city the place is to full of suits to feel like a real local...
But we went back for a second visit within a week of our first one, so I think it's fair to say we are smitten!
The Fox and Anchor, 115 Charterhouse St, EC1M 6AA; Tel. 020 72501300; Tube: Farringdon or Barbican; www.foxandanchor.co.uk

Smiths of Smithfield - SOS brunch

During the week, I have to get up far too early to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and try to stay very healthy on an early-morning ration of fruit and yoghurt. So come the weekend, I am always a big fan of something more complicated and brunch-like. For this, Smiths of Smithfields is perfect. The ground floor sweeps away its thumping, trendy bar persona of the previous evening and transforms into a buzzing cafe-style haven for those nursing morning-after hangovers. It's always packed and they don't take bookings, so brunch usually starts with a drink and a browse through the weekend papers on the squashy brown leather sofas in the corner, until a table is ready. The drinks include fresh orange juice (£2.20), teas and coffees (£1.50+), a selection of "morning after" tipples including shandy (?) and a damn good bloody Mary (£5.50), as well as grown up (ie alcoholic) milkshakes (£6.50 for an “apple crumble”). Served in giant metal beakers, these are a meal (or more accurately a desert) in themselves.
I like the brunch food menu for its variety - you can have anything from a fry up (in various permutations) to a BLT to a proper main course like sausage and mash. (Sensibly though, unlike the near-by 24-hour caff Tinseltown, they don't offer Thai green curry - hang offer food that ain't, as my husband once discovered the hard way.) On the last two visits I've had the eggs benedict with smoked salmon (£8.50), served on a halved muffin and smeared in creamy hollandaise. Their macaroni cheese with haddock (£6.50) isn't bad, but not cheesy enough. The club sandwich is huge, and the BLTs (£6.50) are also pretty good. Just don't try to economise with something like egg on toast (£2.50) - you will feel very jealous when everyone else gets their food.
Other than always being very busy, the other (no doubt related) drawback is the service, which can be a bit slow and a bit inattentive, especially if you order extra drinks). But for me the food and the buzzing atmosphere tip the balance firmly in SOS's favour. Plus Santa(s) and his(their) reindeer brunch there. (Oh, ok, it was probably just real people we saw lining their stomachs ahead of Santacon, but it was still cool.)

Smiths of Smithfield, 67-77 Charterhouse Street, EC1M 6HJ; Tel. 0207 251 7950; Tube: Barbican or Farringdon; www.smithsofsmithfield.co.uk

Malmaison

Hotel restaurants often have a reputation of being soul-less places, flogging uninspired food to visitors who don't know where the better places are or are simply too tired to care. As with all stereotypes and all rules though, there are exceptions. The Malmaison hotel oozes elegance as befits its location in a large townhouse on the leafy, fenced off Charterhouse Square. There is a champagne bar where you can tuck into a platter of oysters, and a full-scale restaurant. It is a dark place, all deep reds and blacks, but this works well at creating an intimate feeling and, on quieter nights, at concealing the empty tables. There are also a few quirks to entertain the eye, such as an avangarde wine rack in a wire cage. There is good olive oil on the tables, and a complimentary wooden platter of bread, butter and flavoursome black olive tapenade appears swiftly. On weeknights there's a good value set menu for about £16 for two courses. This being a Friday night though we were presented with the rather more pricy a la carte. Uncharacteristically, I ordered the braised pork cheeks with honey and cloves (£14.95) because a) I was pretty sure I'd never tried them before, and b) they came with gratin dauphinoise, my favourite side order of all time. Judging by the size of the portion, this particular little hog had had pretty chubby face. With hindsight, I learn from the "Daily Pork" website ("exclusive pork coverage) that since cheek muscles do a lot of chewing this cut of meet is rich in fat and tastes best slow-cooked. The dish is certainly very rich, both in the braised meaty flavour and in the fat. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of fatty meat, but fortunately the husband thinks it is a delicious and agrees to a swap. I am a little sorry to wave good bye to the potatoes, which came in near little golden square islands in the sea of dark brown porkiness. But I am pleased with the exchange - delicious slices of rare lamb with sweet roasted vegetables (beetroot and squash). This was all the more exciting because it was actually mutton rather than lamb - a meat that has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence of late (thanks to Prince Charles apparently!) but which I naively thought was more suited to casseroles and stews than a light grilling. Incidentally they also do a good line of steaks.

A new touch (may be because it was a Friday night) was the wine waiter. He brought us the menu and then re-appeared a few minutes later, having swatted up on our food order and ready with suggestions. We'd already chosen though, intrigued by the idea of a red wine made with port grapes in Portugal's Douro region. It was a good discovery, rich and heavy.

Malmaison, 18-21 Charterhouse St, EC1M 6AH, www.malmaison-london.com ; Tel. 0207 012 3700; Tube: Barbican

LMNT II - Part 2

It was a dark, cold Sunday evening and, domestic-goddess-like, I was slowly stewing onions for French onion soup. Alas, I am no Nigella and (perhaps because I wasn't making suitably orgasmic noises during the cooking process) the soup burnt in a spectacular fashion. On the plus side, this meant we had to go out for dinner.

Faced with finding somewhere that was near and open on a Sunday, we decided to give LMNT II a second try. And seeing as in my first post about this place I couldn't actually remember what we ate, it probably also deserves a second review.

We sat in what, in Shakespeare pizzeria days, used to be the bar. Now, a stuffed pheasant eyes you up from the opposite side of the room, a bird cage perches on the window sill and a trumpet is stretched out along one of the dark wood pannelled walls. Of the £4.45 starters, the husband chose stuffed chicken wings with gnocchi - a sole plump wing, surrounded in a deep bowl with the little ricotta balls and topped off at the table with a delicate broth. My tomato tarte tatin featured large slabs of roasted tomatoes and nicely caramelised onions, atop a diet-friendly thin base of puff pastry. I might even try recreating this at home once I've recovered from the onion soup debacle. The mains are £10.95, of which we sampled the braised lamb neck and the coley fillet with clam sauce. The gtatin potato (£2.45) was enlivened by an orange layer of sweet potatoes in the centre and was none the worse for lacking the usual creaminess of a dauphinoise. Nice 1930s style jazz played quietly in the back ground, and sipping the rich Loxarel rose (£15.95), we almost didn't notice that we were the only diners in the place. Sure, Sunday nights are quiet round here, but I sincerely hope they get some more trade soon. Because it's a nice place, with good value food.

LMNT II, 46 Percival Street, London, EC1V OHS; Tube: Barbican; www.lmnt.co.uk/

Pham - wham, bam, sushi slam

By a rough estimate I must have walked past Pham around 1000 times over the past 5 years. But the location (until recently Whitecross street has looked more like the kind of place where you are likely to find mothers and babies in a pub at noon than a gastronomic experience) has always put me off. More recently though, I've heard a lot of high praise for this humble-looking sushi joint, both from newly discovered food blogs and from real people. The first few attempts to go there failed -- a pregnant friend couldn't face watching us gorge on raw fish which she wasn't allowed, a macho male friend was unimpressed by the idea of going anywhere that didn't serve giant slabs of beef and then last Friday when we finally made it there, they were fully booked.
So we cheated and ordered takeaway. (For the record, the decor was standard casual Japanese - close together tables, small room, a couple of Japanese prints on the wall.)

I had the sushi and sashimi combination set (15). There are 4 bits of juicy, thickly-cut sashimi of tuna and salmon. There are also six slices of the chef's special maki roll, which features avocado, tuna, crab stick and fish roe. I am not normally a fan of maki, but these are giant and gorgeous. Finally, there are four bits of nigiri, thin slices of fish atop mini-bricks of rice: tuna and salmon again, as well as sea bass. It's good. I'd even say very good. And after polishing off the lot I am well and truly stuffed, which with sushi for 15 quid is a bargain. But I guess I'm a little disappointed that the types of fish aren't more exciting.

Still, this time I definitely beat the husband who went for the house special bento box (12). The miso's good, as are the pickles and the sashimi appetiser. But the main course of sesame-seed covered pork loin is overly sweet and over cooked. (Though it's still nice enough to ensure there are no leftovers.)

Ultimately I guess that's always the danger with recommendations - it's easy to build up your expectations way too high. But we've got a copy of the menu now, and next time I will go for some more exciting things (like the "dragon" roll with eel, tobiko, asparagus and avocado.)

Pham, 159 Whitecross Street, EC1Y 8JL; Tube: Barbican or Old Street; Tel. 020 7251 6336; www.phamsushi.co.uk

Life -- a funny one, with stuffed tigers

Reviews of Life haven't exactly been flattering. But when a restaurant opens within spitting distance of where I live (ok, not literally, but then I couldn't spit further than the window sill), I feel it is my duty to try it at least once. They've clearly been trying to drum up business, with people handing out fliers on the corner. To be honest though I think this might be a more successful tactic if the fliers feature some kind offfer, like 10% off or a free beer... But they seem to be doing something right as when we turned up we had to wait half an hour for a table.

On the plus side, this gave us the chance to have a nose through the small downstairs shop flogging Japanese kitsch (£80 for a t-shirt anyone?) and check out the bar. We found a tiny cubby hole of a room off to one side, piled high with large stuffed tigers and pillows and decorated, nursery-style, with some coloured boards nailed at child height to the walls. It was an odd feeling, sipping a pint of kirin while sitting a-top a stuffed tiger, but I think I quite liked it! They made us pay up for the drinks before we could go upstairs, although they did let us take back up what we hadn't yet drunk. But it seems that the two operations are oddly separate -- the draft kirin for example is only available in the bar, while diners have to make do with the bottled stuff.

We decided to go for the set menus, all of which started with a disappointingly lacklustre and tasteless salad of scalops. We hadn't been given any sauces at this stage, so couldn't spice it up with wasabi or some such. (What a waste of a luxury ingredient, we thought.) Next, the tempura and teriyaki set menus (£25 each, named after their main courses) featured some thinly cut but pretty good bits of sashimi: two of salmon, two of tuna. I went for the sushi menu (£30) as I wanted more raw fish, and my next course was a small bowl of tempura. There was an overcooked prawn, some undercooked carrots and a couple of actually rather lovely mushrooms. For mains, the terriyaki -- of both salmon and chicken -- were decent enough, and the tempura was more of the same. I was disappointed with my sushi though. I had asked the waited whether it would be maki and he assured me it would not. But it turned out that half of it was indeed made up of chunky rice rolls. They were pretty tasty, but I wanted raw fish, not avocado. And the raw fish that did come was in thin slivers atop big piles of rice -- even the cheapo all-you-can-eat Gili Guli is more generous with its slicing!
The desert, also part of the set menues, was described to us separately as pana cotta and as cheese cake. In the end it wasn't really much like either, but a pleasant enough, slightly cheesy not very sweet cake thingy.

I shall finish with the bad stuff first. Our first request for a jug of tap water yielded one shot-size glass (in the bar), and only the third request in the restaurant yielded a glass each. The staff are authentically Japanese, which is great. But they also don't speak English, which isn't quite so good. And finally the place is really very overpriced.

But there were good points. The miso soup (also part of the menu) was rather gorgeous. And the decor is funky -- a converted warehouse look, with a back wall made of what looks like parquet flooring and widely spaced out tables which made me feel a bit like we were part of some kind of art instalation or theatrical experiment. Plus the tigers in the bar give the place a wadge of bonus points. But not quite enough to tip the review into positive territory.

Life; 2-4 Old Street; Tube: Barbican or Old Street; www.life-oldst.com (At the moment though isn't much use - it's alarmingly bright red and just tells you that the place is about to open. Which it did. About a month ago.

Queen Boadicea - gorgeous, at least in looks

Queen Boadicea is gorgeous. Well, perhaps not the original ruler of the Celts (according to a contemporary account, "she was very tall, the glance of her eye most fierce; her voice harsh. A great mass of the reddest hair fell down to her hips. Her appearance was terrifying"), but certainly the name-sake pub in Clerkenwell. Both inside and outside, walls are lined with those old-fashioned shiny brown tiles. There are chandeliers, antique looking tables and chairs, comfy chocolate brown leather sofas. menus chalked up inside gilded frames and striking wall paper of silvery tree stems stretching upwards out of blackness. And yet for all the grandeur it manages to retain a cosy (albeit reasonably elegant) pub feel. In line with the elegance, the short cocktail menu (2 for 1 on Tuesdays) sounds tempting. The wine menu (starting with a Chardonnay around the £13 mark) is less inspiring though, and they lose a wad of brownie points for offering only bog-standard lagers and Kronenbourg Blanc in the beer department. The food selection is also pretty limited -- nibbly things, burgers, a couple of pies, sausages and mash -- but quite well suited for a casual pub. The lamb burger (£6.50) was big, juicy and utterly delicious. Unfortunately, it was also somebody else's. My steak sandwich (£6.50) was encased in an attractive focaccia bun but the rib eye was sadly decidedly on the well done side (I'd asked for rare). It wasn't bad, but I've had much better. One of my companions extolled how the chicken and leek pie (£7.50) delicately balanced the flavours, but I thought it was pretty bland. The chips were gloriously crispy, and came with unbidden mayonnaise. But the mayonnaise was bizarrely served in the same pot as ketchup and my portion of carbs was heavily salted (unlike that of the doubly lucky lamb burger orderer). So I guess this Queen isn't going to win any battles in gastronomy. But then I think I am getting fussy in my old age. It is a beautiful pub and a a lovely place to linger. They have pub quizzes and are starting to do live music on Sunday afternoons. Still, in an area so well endowed with lovely pubs, the lack of decent beer may yet be the deciding factor in the great to return or not to return dilemma.

Queen Boadicea, 292 St. John St, EC1V 4PA; Tel. 020 72789990; Tube: Angel; www.thequeenboadicea.com

The Larder - Good enough too last?

What with Wagamama vouchers in Time Out, the tastelondon card in my wallet and toptable high in my list of internet favourites, opportunities for discounted noshing are plentiful. The downside is that when I do end up going somewhere full price, the experience is always slightly tarnished by that slightly ripped off feeling. This was certainly true of the Loft - a new bar/bakery/eaterie on St John Street whose list of main courses starts with the crisp pork belly for a hefty £17.50. The place is all wooden tables and tea lights, with freshly made bread at a counter in the back (judging by the olive offering I picked from the bread basket, the doughy stuff is nice, but nothing overly special). The service was very friendly, voluntarily topping up the tap water (from a rather beautiful glass jug), bringing an after-thought order of crispy thick cut chips in a couple of minutes, apologising profusely for having run out of mayonnaise. In the interest of frugality we stuck to main courses. The aforementioned pork-belly was indeed very crisp, and melt in the mouth tender. It was gleefully lapped up by its orderer, though I thought the Chinese-y sauce was overpowering. The salmon was also nicely done and apparently the ravioli with which it came was delicious (and wolfed down before I got the chance to sample any - humph). My wild mushroom pancake with three different types of cheese was pretty much the cheapest thing on the menu at £9.50. It was plumply stuffed with a great selection of forest fungi, but their delicate flavours were sadly drowned in a cheese sauce that tasted strongly of unadvertised mustard. The sauce went very well with the chips though. Add a beer each from a list which pleasingly features a couple of bottled ales (£4.50) and London Pride on tap (£3.50), and the bill for the three of us weighed in at £65. A bit much, I thought, for one course and a drink in a casual place. Perhaps this fact, combined with the abundance of other eateries in the area (some of them truly outstanding) explained why only about four other tables were occupied. It was a Tuesday night, but we couldn't help wondering whether the Larder would survive on Clerkenwell's fickle restaurant scene. So we resolved to return - as long as there is a special offer or someone else offers to foot the bill, of course.

The Larder, 91-93 St. John St, EC1M 4NU; Tel. 020 76081558; Tube: Barbican or Farringdon