Banana Tree Canteen

The food was nice enough, but you really must go for the baby chairs. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd be writing when I originally started this blog in 2006.

Banana Tree started out some 20 years ago and has now expanded into a mini-chain across London, attracting good reviews. I stumbled upon their Islington branch the other day, and was lured in by a board promising a lunch from just £5.65. There are more exciting options on the menu -- which spans from Thailand to Singapore, via Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia -- but that price (plus service charge) bought me a plate of chicken pad thai, washed down with regularly refilled tap water.



The dish smelt burnt when it arrived, although I didn't actually find any culprits for the aroma. A few slices of red chilli added bite, raw bean sprouts provided some crunch and a wedge of lime contributed the zing. There were also a few crispy deep fried tortilla-ish chips on the side. It was a perfectly pleasant lunch, but no more.
The high chair on the other hand was simply awesome. The waiter produced a folded, cloth contraption, about A3 size. As I looked on dubiously, he arranged it into a cunning seat which attaches to the table with a solid metal frame. I'd never seen anything like it before. It would be very useful for visiting friends and family, or just for keeping in the car for times when your chosen cafe or restaurant doesn't have high chairs.



Banana Tree Canteen, 412-416 St John Street, Islington, EC1V 4NJ; Tel. 020 7278 7565; www.bananatree.co.uk

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.

Nusa Dua

I am getting forgetful with my old age. The other day, I started a book and got about two chapters in, thinking the style was reminiscent of other works by the author before realising it was reminiscent of this particular work by the author, which I had already read. Similarly, I jumped at the chance of dining in Nusa Dua, excited by sampling Indonesian cuisine for the first time, only to remember half way though the meal that this was in fact my second acquaintance with Indonesia's food, the first having taken place in Amsterdam (where there's a large Indonesian minority). Nusa Dua is perched on a corner of Dean Street and gives off a welcoming vibe with candles flickering through the window and cheap prices winking at you from the menu. We weren't the only ones charmed as the small ground floor space was full of diners. The basement looked gloomy by comparison (what is it with restaurants in Dean Street having forlorn basements for their dining overspill?), so we chose to brave the slight chill and sit outside. As anywhere in Soho, the people watching was great. I was particularly amused to notice that the old tradition of street sellers pestering dining couples with single red roses have passed -- instead they are now armed with flashing, fluffy, pink bunny ears. (I couldn't help feeling rather sorry for any first daters out there, wondering whether the bigger faux pas would be to buy or not to buy.) We washed down our musings -- and the complimentary prawn crackers -- with quite pleasant Indonesian larger called Bintang (£2.75 a bottle). The food menu offered many Thai and Indian dishes, but we concentrated on those highlighted as Indonesian specialities. The Gai (green curry in coconut milk with Thai aubergines, green chillies and bamboo shoots) featured some tender chunks of chicken in a spicy, coconuty sauce (£5.95). The Rendang Daging (slow cooked beef in chillies and coconut milk) also had a good kick of heat, but was less successful as dish, with the beef on the tough side. Overall the service was friendly (as were the prices), and the place generally very amiable, and I would like the chance to come back and explore the menu some more.

Nusa Dua, 11-12 Dean Street, W1D 3RP; Tel. 020 7437 3559; Tube: Tottenham Court Rd; www.nusadua.co.uk