Notes

Children in restaurants are a controversial topic.

In my bit of East London, they are pretty much everywhere -- I even spotted a sleeping baby at an open mic night in the basement of a local cocktail bar. In places with a different demographic they can be less welcome.

I wouldn't take mine to, say, the Fat Duck, Le Gavroche or the local old man's boozer. But in a cafe in the daytime, I reckon it's fair game. A girl has to eat, after all.

As someone who's never been a huge fan of (other people's) children, I am, however, very self conscious about taking the baby places and perhaps have an overactive imagination when it comes to public disapproval.

So it's possible that the hostility I felt in Notes in Covent Garden was entirely my own perception -- maybe the server was just having a bad day -- but I felt it acutely nonetheless.

It looked much like any other modern cafe: coffee in small glasses, a large wooden bar/counter and posh-looking sandwiches for around a fiver each. A later, closer inspection revealed aspirations for higher things with bottles of wine and a (presumably trendy) music shop downstairs.

The guy behind the counter glanced at me and the pushchair with about as much enthusiasm as at the homeless guy who walked in before me. To be fair, the baby was on the grumpy side.

There wasn't much in the way of a detailed food menu, possibly because the offerings change regularly. I would have liked more information, more detailed answers to my questions about the fare on offer on the counter. Like to be told that the sausage rolls weren't just the ordinary kind, but pork and apple. I would have ordered them then. Or to be given the option of having some salad with the sandwich I hastily chose in the end, as other customers were later (admittedly by a different server). As I say, it could have been my imagination, but the guy seemed pretty impressed when I said I was eating in. He did offer to bring my coffee and sandwich to me (I don't know if this is what they normally do), but in the end this just meant I ended up having to queue a second time in order to pay (resisting the urge to sneak out).

When he appeared with the order, I asked if I could also have a mandarinade, which I'd spotted on the board in the meantime, and which had intrigued me. He said yes, but this never appeared, even though there was a lull in customers while I was eating.

The sandwich was nice -- silky, salty goats cheese with velvety aubergines and the sweet tang of (I think) onion marmalade. It was a little over-peppered though, and some cutlery would have been nice to scoop up the filling and cut through the crusty bread. The coffee was fine, but the entire experience left a bit of a sour taste. Back in the fresh air, I continued towards Covent Garden, stumbling on the bustling Real Food Market, which I discovered to be a regular Thursday occurrence. I wish I'd eaten there instead.
Notes could be a good place for music, and you could definitely do worse if you are looking for a quick bite or drink in the area, but I'd give it a miss if you are with a baby.

Notes, 36 Wellington St, Covent Garden, WC2E 7BD; Tel. 02072407899; www.notesmusiccoffee.com

Katana

The location: A hop, a skip and a jump away from Trafalgar and Leicester Squares, above a modern but pleasant bar called The International. Looks posher than it is from the outside.

The spec: A Thai restaurant, owned by the same people who own various places in and around Covent Garden, including Tuttons.

The good: The happy hour in the bar, including bellinis for £3.95. The light vegetable tempura starter from the good value £13.50 set menu which came with a free glass of Pimms. The teriyaki salmon from the main course, especially when moistened with some of the sauce from the Thai chicken curry.

The disappointing: The bland chickpea patties in the second starter (admittedly helped by a yoghurt dip), and the overcooked chicken in the curry.

The bad: The service, though my dining companion, who'd been before, said it wasn't usually like that. In a largely empty restaurant, the waitress insisted we had to order deserts at the same time as everything else because "the kitchen will be busy later". (Luckily, when it did arrive, the ice cream didn't look like it had been pre-plated at the start of the meal.) The drinks, for each round, took ages coming, and we were drinkless through most of the main course. Although others had brought happy hour drinks up from the sister bar downstairs, a very abrupt manager told us this was not allowed and we had to pay full price. The kitchen with its dirty plates was far too exposed from where we were sat. These are all minor quibles but they added up, especially as the tone of the stuff was generally far from friendly and occasionally border line rude.

The verdict: I will definitely add the bar to my list of good venues in the area (where it joins The Chandos and The Porterhouse), but am not sure I'll be back to the restaurant.

Katana, The International, 116 St Martins Lane, WC2N 4BF; Tel. 020 7257 8625; Tube: Charing Cross or Leicester Square

The Terrace in the Fields

The Terrace is hidden away in a porta-cabin-like hut overlooking the tennis courts in the green haven of Lincoln's Inn Fields in the heart of lawyers' London.
I had been on my list since I saw a good review in Time Out some while back, and a sunny lunchtime (a rarity so far this summer) seemed like the ideal opportunity to visit.

We sat outside, on funky yet reasonably comfy plastic chairs, shielded from the bouncing balls by a tall fence. As lunching settings go it was pretty idyllic, and there's a two course set menu for just £14.50, and yet the terrace (both with and without the capital T) was at best half full during our leisurely lunch.

(Increasingly, it seems, people are tightening their belts -- how else would you explain that on a recent night out in Canary Wharf all the swish bars along West India Quay were empty, yet the Wetherspoon's hidden round the corner was heaving, with besuited city types fumbling for money off coupons to further reduce their bar tab?)

The set menu focuses on traditional European dishes, while the a la carte draws more on Caribbean influences. As it was too hot and sunny for jerk chicken (for my tastes, anyway), we opted for the former.



The starter of smoked salmon and crayfish salad was prettily served in a glass, though in practice this made it rather hard to eat as the salmon was not in bite sized pieces. It was pleasant, but no more than that.



For the mains, the husband's chicken breast was moist enough, but pretty bland. Plonked on a large pile of mash and sploshed with gravy (sorry, jus), it didn't look hugely appetising. Also, it really needed some veg/salad -- something the waiter didn't point out when we ordered.



Luckily I had plenty of roasted Mediterranean-style veg sprinkled around my giant fritter of goats' cheese and aubergine, and was willing to share. The fritter wasn't bad.
We washed the lunch down with a light, summery prosecco (£24) and tap water (which arrived after a couple of promptings).

I looked the place up in Harden's when I got home and think they are pretty much spot on -- the setting aside, it was a nice enough experience but definitely nothing special.

The Terrace in the Fields, Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3LJ; Tel. 020 7430 1234; www.theterrace.info

Eating out in the centre: The Hampshire and Tuttons

This weekend, I ended up having two un-pre-planned meals in London's tourist hot spots -- on Leicester Square and in Covent Garden.

First, was dinner at The Hampshire Bar & Restaurant, part of the plush Radisson Edwardian chain. We were en-route to the theatre, it was sunny and there were tables outside.

The biggest 'pro' was the people watching (where else would you see a couple of dozen of superheroes trying and failing to push a bemused London taxi?).
The biggest 'con' was the slow service (you are on Leicester Square, you will be busy, hire more staff). After half an hour we enquired how much longer it would be for the starters, and were told it would be 15 more minutes - time we simply didn't have to spare with the theatre waiting. We never got the condiments seen on other tables, plus had to repeat requests for water (for which we had to share glasses as apparently they didn't have enough) and for the bill.

The food - from a classic European style menu - was decent enough though, and not too unreasonably priced considering the location. We sampled the fillet of beef (£20) with a nice dauphinoise gratin (though, of course, not enough cheese for my liking) and a peppery jus, and the rib eye (£16) with bearnaise and beautiful jenga-like chips, crisped to perfection thanks to more than one session in the fryer.
The portions were a good size.
Both cuts of meat were very nice, but comparing them together I found to my surprise that I prefer the stronger flavour of the rib to the more silky and pricier fillet.

We washed it down with a cherry-scented Rioja (£22) and Pimms. The latter seemed staggeringly pricy to me at £8, until it was pointed out that the tag probably reflected standard cocktail priced rather than (weak) spirit and mixed ones.


The following day, struck by hunger and shopping fatigue in Covent Garden, we ended up in Tuttons, which I later discovered is part of a mini empire of eateries around the old flower market.
The white table cloths and modern art on the walls strove for a moderately classy atmosphere.

We started with a bowl of pretty decent olives (£1.95), which was just as well as the bread baskets delivered to other tables never graced ours.
Despite the place being largely empty, the wait for the main course felt pretty long. The fillet of sea-bass (£14.95) was well cooked, with a crispy skin. The accompanying "tomato and black olive gnocchi" was a disappointment though, featuring bog standard gnocchi (from a packet?) alongside chopped up black olives and tomatoes. We also tried the fish of the day with a moreish beurre blanc sauce and green beans.

The waiter-recommended glasses of white Rioja (£5.75) and a new-world-style Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (£4.13) were very nice, but the experience was soured by service at the end.

No one seemed to want to take our card - not even if after we got up and put on coats. And then, when he was finally cornered, the waiter asked if we wanted to leave him a tip on top of the included service charge. We suggested that perhaps we did not, at which point he went on a major rant about how the service charge was shared between all the staff rather than kept by the individual waiters. Surely that's fairer anyway - the guys in the kitchen contribute as much, and often much more, to my enjoyment of a meal than the front of house.


The verdict: The quality of food on the tourist trail - at least in London - has improved immeasurably over the years, and you can now get a pretty decent meal.
Be prepared for (very) slow service though.
Of course, with a bit of research, there are also some real gems only a stone’s throw away even from the ultra-touristy areas.


The Hampshire Bar and Restaurant, Radisson Edwardian Hampshire Hotel, Leicester Square , WC2H 7LH; Tel. 0207 666 0902; Tube: Leicester Square

Tuttons Brasserie & Bar, 11/12 Russell Street, Covent Garden, WC2B 5HZ; Tel. 0207 257 8625; Tube: Covent Garden

Red'n'Hot

On our trip to China this summer, one of the most memorable good meals was a Sichuna hot pot, so I was keen to check out a place serving them with the husband spotted on the edges of China town. Arriving at the designated spot, I thought it must have shut as all I could see was a shabby place serving one of those gloopy-looking all you can eat buffets. However a peek through the window revealed that all the diners looked Chinese and many seemed to be eating stuff unspotted on the hot trays. We braved it -- and were very glad we did. Tellingly, the only English bit of their website is the street addresses (turns out they also have branches in Manchester and Birmingham, but I wasn't the only one off to be thrown by appearances. The waitress confirmed that they did indeed serve hotpot for £20 per person and brought a large electric hot-plate type device.



Then the hot pot itself arrived with red-chili-flecked stock around the outside basin and non-spicy stuff in the middle. They are not licensed, but the frequently replenished Chinese tea probably did a better job in quenching the fire of the chilli than beer or wine.
We filled our little bowls with garlic, chillies, oil and herbs from the condiments selection on a table round the back (but decided to skip on the MSG), ready for dipping the cooked food into.



And then the platter arrived. It was huge. Ginormous. And they said they'd bring more of anything if we finished. There were huge prawns, fish balls, red slivers of beef (very easy to overcook), mushrooms, greens, noodles, potatoes, sausages, etc, etc. We took turns to drop things in the pot and fish out moments later. Despite the grotty setting it felt like a feast for kings -- and I reckon was big enough to satisfy even Henry VIII's appetite! And all for the price of four poached eggs (sorry, I still can't get over at pricing).
Red'n'Hot; 59 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0NE; Tel. 0207734 8796; Tube: Leicester Square; www.rednhotgroup.com

The Porterhouse - come for the porter not the food

The Porterhouse is a huge multi-leveled labyrinth of a pub, linked together with exposed copper piping. Despite its size it is frequently packed to the rafters, and so must be doing something right. The beer for starters. The place has its own micro-brewery producing three stouts, three ales and three lagers. Plus they have a huge beer menu, including beers from as far afield as Palestine and Tahiti. In the line of duty we sampled, among others, a banana bread beer from Jamaica (very banana-y, quite nice, but not sure I could manage more than a glass), a Crocodile beer from Sweden (winner of best beer award....17 years ago!) and a "sexy" beer featuring a bikini-clad lady on the bottle (scratch and the bikini disappears, so the taste of the larger is rather beside the point!). The food menu features the kind of thing you need to soak up the beer - pizzas, pies, burgers, snacky platters - with most mains around the £7-9 mark. My favourite by far was the "frying pan". It literally came served in a cute iron frying pan (atop a plate), crammed full of potatoes, eggs, onions, chorizo and other stuff and it was very yummy. The steak sandwich on the other hand was a bit of a disappointment -- the granary bread and the mayo overpowered the miserly portion of well-done steak and I couldn't trace the parmesan advertised on the menu. The accompanying chips were thick cut and nice enough, though they lose points for serving the mayo in those little Heinz sachets. The burgers were also OK, but with no great "wow" factor. So overall I'd say this is a place to come for the beer and the atmosphere (and the music - they have Irish folk sessions on Sunday afternoons), but the food is good enough to mean you don't have to leave if you get a bit peckish.
The Porterhouse, 21-22 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, WC2 E7NA; Tel. 0207 379 7917; Tube: Covent Garden or Charing Cross; www.porterhousebrewco.com

Octave

Another week, another not entirely perfect live music/dining venue. Octave is hidden on the back streets around Covent Garden. Inside, it's quite dark. Some of the wooden tables are laid for food, with stiff white napkins and solitary red flowers glass vases. But many are unadorned, for those who just want a cocktail or several. The menu is not cheap. Our bottle of Australian pinot gris was nice but unremarkable at £21.50. The dinner options come on one list, with starters around the £8 mark and mains £14-20. Add on a £5 per person cover charge for the music, and it's clear this won't be a cheap night. But the food's pretty good. The fried chorizo came on a bed of sweet potato which my companion pronounced to be the best he's ever tried. The chunky chips with goats' cheese (£4.95, from the bar snacks menu) were lovely and clearly home made and a nice take on the old chips-n-cheese combo. The rib eye was tender and nicely rare, and I didn't even miss the absence of peppercorn sauce (which wasn't on offer). It came with crispy herbed potatoes, and we were glad of the waitress's recommendation to order something green - the rocket and parmesan salad contrasted nicely. The service is swift, friendly and competent. So far, the place wins hands down over Volupte (reviewed earlier). But the music was a bit of a let down. The three-piece jazz band was ok, but nothing special. Which was just as well as no one seemed to stop talking when they started to play. I am not a fan of the hush-hush atmosphere of places like Ronnie Scotts, but when several large group tables are talking over the music at full volume, you wonder why they'd bothered to come to a music venue and pay the cover charge in the first place. Still, it was a nice night, which ended sweetly as there was no mention of the advertised cover charge on our bill. We might well come back on a Monday or Tuesday when they do a £15 set menu.

Octave, 27-29 Endell Street, WC2H 9BA; T. 020 7836 4616; Tube: Covent Garden; www.octave8.com

Mela

The West End is full of very mediocre, tourist-trap eateries -- but scattered among them is a surprising number of real gems. Mela is a breath of fresh air after the curry houses on Brick Lane: there is not a whiff of chicken tikka masala or vindaloo. Instead, from an extensive and unusual menu we chose a dish of soft-shell crab from Hyderabad (£14.95) and a whole sea bream steamed in a banana leaf with a delicate paste of spices (£11.95). The crab was very tender, and I lapped up all of the only very moderately spicy sauce, revelling in the flavours of coconut, coriander, garlic and tamarind. The sea bream was a pain to bone (I'm not a fan of working hard for my food!), but the delicate taste of the fish -- and the accompanying green paste of mint and coconut -- made the hassle worthwhile. The cumin rice was a bit strong on the cumin for an accompaniment (serves us right for ordering it!), but the 'pudina paratha', a crispy wheat bread flavoured with a generous sprinkling of fresh mint (£2.50) was a much nicer alternative to a greasy naan. The 'arhar dal kairi ki' (£4.95) was a delicious bowl of buttery lentils, although I could not taste the raw mango promised on the menu. The drinks menu has a decent selection of wines and cocktails, but we stuck to Indian beers. The service was friendly and attentive. The decor was quite simple, but with nice touches -- the plates feature a motif of a big fair ground wheel, and there is a meccano model of one balanced above the staircase. We're definitely coming back, to try more of their interesting dishes.

Mela, 152-156 Shaftesbury Avenue,WC2H 8HL; Tel. 020 7836 8635 ; Tube: Leicester Sq; www.melarestaurant.co.uk

Le Garrick

Le Garrick is a lovely pre-theatre spot, offering traditional French style meals in a romantic (if slightly squashed) setting which is pleasing enough for a longer linger if there isn't a curtain to rush off for. The £11.95 two-course pre-theatre menu (pate or soup followed by steak- or moules-frites) offers good value, and the a-la carte is also reasonable, with most mains around the £10 mark. We started with a fondue of vacherin with white wine and herbs - a gloriously gooey pool of cheese served in one of those vaguely wooden round boxes in which they sometimes sell camembert (£12.50 for two to share). The waitress was surprised at how quickly we slurped it all up with slices of French bread. For mains, we polished off a confit de canard (£12.95) and an onglet steak (£9.95). The steak was OK, though it could have been a bit more pink (in a French restaurant, when I ask for rare I expect it to be *rare*) and the serving of pepper sauce could have been a bit more generous. But the thin chips were crispy, the mayonnaise fresh and overall it was all pretty good. The biggest downer of the meal was discovering that the gorgeous but rarely seen in England French Pelforth brun beer advertised on the menu was no longer on offer. The £12.75 bottle of house red (specially bottled in France for Le Garrick, the label informed us) was reluctantly ordered instead -- it was drinkable (and drunk) but unremarkable. With Pelforth, it would have been damn near perfect, but even without I will come back for more vacherin....

Le Garrick, 10 Garrick Street, WC2 9BH, Tel. 0207 2407 649; Tube: Leicester Square

The Admiralty, Somerset House

A cold Monday night in deep mid-winter is probably not the busiest time for any restaurant and on our visit to the Admiralty only 2 or 3 other tables were occupied. Three sides of the room were lined a leather-style banquette in a vibrant turquoise colour. Across white clothed tables, it was faced by equally turquoise chairs. In a very brightly lit room (it was pitch-black outside), this creates an atmosphere more suited to business lunches than romantic dinners and serves to highlight the unoccupied status of most tables. Aside from some spectacular ship-shaped chandeliers, the room was definitely a thumbs-down. The menu, in matching turquoise, is surprisingly reasonable with starters for £6.50 and mains for £12.50, and around six choices for each. The turquoise wine list runs to two pages, at least a third of it taken up with champagne and premium bottles in the £50+ range. On the more affordable side things start at £18, and though the mark ups are high and the range is conventional, it is all perfectly drinkable :-)
In restaurants, I tend to order interesting sounding things. But the started of snail gratin had me completely baffled. A large ramekin was filled with those tiny little white onions that are usually pickled (though luckily this time were not), drowned in a strange mix of tomato pure and bread crumbs with a few lardons for good measure. Hiding inside were a few juicy snails. "Hmmm... interesting..," said my companion. He was being kind. The dish was somewhat redeemed though by a big piece of lusciously cheesy wafer type thing (which didn't go at all, but was yummy on its own). We also sampled a pale pink salmon and scallop terrine which was just terribly bland. The mains took their time to arrive, leaving the waiters plenty of time to ply us with wine at a dangerous frequency. But they did reluctantly provide some non-bottled water and voluntarily refilled that too. When they did arrive, the mains were a huge improvement on the starters. The wing of skate came was beautifully buttery atop of some rather interesting fennel. My gnocchi were huge and clearly home made. They were a touch sweet but this was more than made up for by the huge pile of delicious wild mushrooms, a beautifully cooked quail egg and a little hill of refreshing tomato salad on the side. So we left filled up and happy, with only a modest dent to the pocket. But given the stunning location inside Somerset House, the Admiralty could -- should -- be much better, both in food and in decor.

The Admiralty, Somerset House, The Strand, WC2R 1LA; Tel: 020 7845 4600; Tube: Temple www.somersethouse.org.uk

Rules

Rules claims to be the oldest restaurant in London and it is indeed a venerable insitution, somewhat reminiscent of the grand old Parisian brasseries. Despite being quite a large place, it does get booked, so book before you go. Inside, the walls are covered with pictures - from a somewhat disturbing caricature of Margaret Thatcher in knightley armour (the Iron Lady, geddit?) to certificates for cattle at Smithfield market from a century or more ago. The waiters are unfailing polite and dressed in those long white aprons they wear in France. The clientele is mixed - from tourists to businessmen to couples - and the atmosphere is posh but not snooty. They were happy to bring us tap water and refilled it unbidden, for example. Meat is the big thing on the menu, sourced from the restaurant's own Scottish estate. We started with duck salad (£9) and unbelievably tender, thin slivers of smoked venison (£10). For mains, I sampled my most expensive ever, 30-day hung sirloin steak for £18. It was worth it, and came with a mount of thin, crispy chips - just the way I like them. The roast partidge was also a success. Washed down with some perfecly quaffable house claret (£16 a bottle), and throwing in the service charge and a couple of aperetifs, the bill came to around £100. You could do it cheaper, but I recommend putting your self in treat mode, getting out the credit card and savouring every mouthful. You could always use some visiting foreigners as an excuse to come here and prove that there is such a thing as a traditional Endlish restuarant, and a good one at that. (They also have a late night two courses for £18 deal, which is well worth trying if you are hungry post-theatre).
Rules Restaurant, 35 Maiden Lane, London, WC2E 7LB, www.rules.co.uk, Tel. 0207 836 5314; Open noon-midnight, Mon-Sun; Tube: Covent Garden or Charing Cross

Gaby's

Signs outside this caff near Leicester Square proclaimed that it was home to the best falafel in London. Inside, they adhere to the slightly tarted up greasy spoon look, with plastic tables and minimal decor consisting of several framed copies of a photo of the owner posing with Matt Damon and an incongruous looking black board proclaiming that the wine of the week is a Sauvignon Blanc. The laminated menu comes, bizarrely, in two versions - one with prices and names of food and one with just pictures. Personally, I just found this confusing, but I guess it can appeal to some (especially given all those news stories about poor literacy levels in this country). I had falafel - a few bright yellow crumbly balls served in a valley of indifferent hummus with one piece of warm pitta. For five quid. My companion had a fatty, gristly lamb kebab served on top of some salad (which was consequently warm) and accompanied with a huge mountain of chips. For over eight quid. This place may look cheap, but it's lying. The portions were a good size, but even in central London you can find nicer and cheaper food (try heading across Leicester Square to Stockpot). The service was attentive enough, but our dinners were brought out one by one, with considerable time period elapsing in between plates. The place was quite full on a weekday night and seemed to be quite a popular place to bring young children. I guess being in the centre of theatre land it's a useful pit stop, but for me there was nothing special enough about it (atmosphere/food/price/decor) to warrant a return visit.

Gaby's; 30 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DB, Tel. 020 7836 4233; Tube: Leicester Square