Lunch @ The Lawn Bistro

Perhaps it's an indication of how far the dining scene in London has developed that one, occasionally, feels underwhelmed when eating out. In particular, some of the capital's smarter postcodes have the dullest food. You know what I mean, parts of town where the food lacks imagination so as not to frighten the locals and their perceived 'vanilla' tastes. However, if one doesn't feel the need to be overly-dazzled by something too different then The Lawn Bistro, in genteel Wimbledon Village, pushes all the right buttons. Having said that, I'm probably doing it a slight disservice, as the food does have some flourishes.

Take the starters of leeks w/poached egg beignet, broad bean vinaigrette & summer truffles and squid & watermelon salad w/fennel puree, chilli, garlic & ginger. These excellently presented, well-executed, refreshing dishes hit the spot in the scorching early-September sunshine. Of the two, the former was the winner with its runny egg (with a wonderfully crispy exterior) perfectly complementing the leeks, generous helping of truffle shavings and tart broad bean salad. In contrast, my choice of squid could've done with a bit more chilli heat to act as a contrast to the refreshing watermelon.

Onto the mains, and the grilled chicken breast 'Paillard' w/herb gnocchi, mixed leaf salad & gremolata and crispy fillet of sea bream w/Spanish bean salad, sundried tomatoes, aubergine relish & courgette also hit the spot. Chicken can be dull, but the herb gnocchi and gremolata were the ideal accompaniment to the flattened chicken breast. I had no complaints about my perfectly cooked fish, and all of the elements of the dish worked well, especially the battered courgette.

Desserts in the form of poire belle Hélène and Valrhona chocolate mousse w/crème Anglaise & flapjack finished off the lunch nicely. After all, what's not to like about poached pear with cream, ice cream and chocolate sauce? And while a combination of chocolate mousse with flapjack may seem a tad unusual, not even its presentation atop a wooden slab could detract from my friend's enjoyment.

Combined with professional service, that mercifully stayed the right side of over-familiarity, and an airy, elegant dining room, The Lawn Bistro proved to be a most agreeable lunch venue. Considering its prime location in Wimbledon Village, Sunday lunch was priced fairly at £29.50/three courses and one can very easily get away with paying £50/head with wine and 12.5% service. All in all, this restaurant is a welcome addition to the Wimbledon dining scene, and it's good to see an indie take on the chain-mediocrity of the likes of Côte et al. Mind you, I wouldn't go so far to call it a destination restaurant for those without a SW postcode.



The Lawn Bistro, 67 High Street, Wimbledon, London, SW19 5EE
(Tel: 020-8947-8278) Nearest station: Wimbledon

Lunch @ The Providores and Tapa Room

Is this the most pretentious bowl of noodles in London? Well if it isn't then it's almost certainly the one with the longest name: Smoked coconut, tamarind and liquorice laksa with a chicken lime leaf dumpling, green tea noodles, crispy shallots and coriander (£9.30).

Is this a laksa?

Full disclosure. The very notion of a fusion restaurant in chi-chi Marylebone High St appropriating the term, laksa, to describe a bowl of noodles, costing nearly a tenner, offends me on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. That said, there was something about this dish that intrigued me and I just knew I had to give it a try.

First impressions weren't good. I wasn't expecting a large bowl of noodles but nor did I quite anticipate being served a kid's meal from Lilliput. On the plus side, the broth was different class with the liquorice adding another dimension. But was it a laksa? I'll leave that question to my Malaysian friends to debate further, but in my eyes it wasn't.

World's smallest dumpling

Sadly the rest of the dish was a bit of a letdown, the green tea noodles were overcooked and any subtle tea flavour that they might have had was lost in the aromatic flavoursome broth. The chicken lime leaf dumpling (singular) was nothing short of a joke. The chicken wasn't so much minced but ground to an almost powdery consistency. And could they have made it any smaller?

Joining me for lunch was El Greco and I asked him to see if he could spot anything vaguely Greek on the menu that he might feel was an affront to him or his forebears. He struggled but there was some feta in the sweet potato, feta, spinach, and herb tortilla with yoghurt, basil pesto dressing, pine nuts and greens (£8.80). This was a finely balanced dish that was better suited to summer rather than winter but it was good quality nonetheless. El Greco just wished there was more of it.

At least they were generous with the salad leaves

Has my hand grown?

We also shared a glazed baked duck char siu bun with chilli jam (£6.20). The name of this dish is confusing, if not potentially misleading. I asked the waiter if the bun contained pork, as char siu is taken to mean honey-roasted pork in Chinese. He checked. It didn't. The bun contained just duck. I tell you, this lax use of Chinese food terminology is something that really gets on my tits. To be fair though, the management took on board my constructive criticism of their misuse of the Chinese language with good grace.

Duck but no char siu!

Ignoring char siu-gate, the bun was the best dish that we sampled. It was freshly baked and filled with juicy roast duck but yet again, it was a complete rip-off. Given how small the bun was, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to be served three, in the style of dim sum, rather than one for £6.20. The only other (minor) complaint was that the chilli jam was slightly overpowering. In my opinion, plum sauce would've been a better accompaniment.

The Details
The Providores and Tapa Room is one of London's most celebrated restaurants and needs little introduction. It consists of two separate dining rooms, the first floor Providores restaurant and the ground floor Tapa Room. We dined at the latter, which being a more casual café-style operation is the cheaper of the two.

The owner, Peter Gordon is a famous Kiwi celeb chef and a champion of fusion cuisine. These influences can be seen throughout the menu, which is quite possibly the most irritating menu ever. For God's sake, is there really any need to list all the chuffing ingredients in each and every dish?

The bill came to £27.34 including 12.5% service – this was just for the food, as we drank tap water. Even allowing for its Marylebone High St location, this was bloody expensive for what it was.

The Verdict
Restaurants like The Providores and Tapa Room aren't my natural habitat. However, it wasn't the fusion cuisine that I disliked – our food was by and large fine – it was the relationship between portion size and price.

We could've easily eaten double the amount of what we ordered or to put it another way, spend nearly £30 each (without drinks) on a quick workday lunch. For that kind of price, there are many other places that I'd rather visit.

But hey, what do I know? Despite the exorbitant prices, this is a very popular restaurant and in the 45 minutes or so that we were there, it was never less than busy. No mean feat for a Tuesday lunchtime.



The Providores and Tapa Room, 109 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4RX
(Tel 020-7935-6175) Nearest Tube: Baker St

I'm Back

Selection of butter, Eastside Inn  (photo courtesy, The Grubworm)

I'm back but before I dive in, I just want to let you know of some changes that I'm planning. Restaurant reviews can get a bit formulaic so I'm going to experiment in how I present mine. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to take but one decision I've made is to use Chinese characters in my reviews where appropriate.

I'm doing this because Chinese food can be inaccessible with the same dish having a number of different names in English. It can be confusing and it often deters non-Chinese speakers from being adventurous. In the past, I've used Mandarin pin yin and transliterated Cantonese to describe dishes but unless you speak Chinese, it isn't entirely helpful. By using Chinese characters in my reviews, you can print them out and show staff the dish you want to order, no matter which restaurant you end up in.

If you want to learn more about reading Chinese menus then I can recommend the excellent Adventures in Kake. I'm also hoping to use native languages for my write-up's of other Asian cuisines. Although this will be trickier, as my knowledge of Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese etc is non-existent.

Back to the photo of the butter at the beginning of the post, this was from the Eastside Inn. I was lucky enough to tag along with The Grubworm, who had been invited by co-owner Justine to check out their new bar snack menu. I thought the bar snacks were brilliant but who'd have though that the butter would be the star of the evening. My favourite was the seaweed butter in the middle of the photo.

My outing here was an unexpected pleasure and this post is a belated thank you to Justine (and Bjorn) for their kind hospitality, fine cocktails and excellent bar snacks. For a proper write-up of the evening, please click here.

{Update - a few short days after writing this, Eastside Inn closed for business. It's always sad when a decent joint closes and I'd like to wish Bjorn and Justine, the best of luck in their future endeavours.}

Riga - Part 2

Without wishing to sound like a patronising idiot, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the restaurants in Riga and in this post, I'm going to round up three places that I'd happily recommend to visitors to Latvia's capital.

The morning after the wedding reception felt like hell. I eventually roused and after a walk around Riga's charming Old Town met up with some of the guys in a bar-restaurant called Kalku Varti for a spot of lunch.

Pretty much everyone went for the venison burger and chips with hair of the dog to drink. At the time, the burger tasted like the best burger ever but in reality, I doubt that was the case. That said, I recommend this place for its abundance of outdoor seating.

For dinner, the newlyweds excelled themselves and arranged a group meal for all those who had travelled from the UK and further afield. The venue was Salve, which means welcome in Latvian, and this charming traditional restaurant certainly made us feel very welcome.



I'll let the photos tell the story but suffice to say, we all enjoyed the hearty fare on offer. I had the chicken liver pâté with apple puree to start, fishcakes to follow and filo orange & apple dessert to finish. However, I wish I'd started with bacon with beans and had the three-meat sausage as a main.

On the last night, Mr Pak Choi and I dined at the trendy KID restaurant (also in the Old Town). This was a Modern European joint that wouldn't have felt out of place in London. Mind you the service was too good and the prices too low for it to be a London eatery.

There were amuse bouches but other than the sorbet, I can't remember what they were. I enjoyed my Asian-style fish consommé and PC liked his starter that looked like a dessert. My beef fillet was perfectly cooked, as was PC's lamb with celeriac jenga (my description) and both went really well with an excellent bottle of Pinot Noir from Oregon. A civilised end to an otherwise largely debauched weekend ! 

Some Travel Tips

If you're planning a trip to Riga then I recommend flying with Air Baltic with its twice-daily service from Gatwick. My flight cost a mere £85 including a check-in bag. Other options include Wizz with services from Luton and if you must, Ryanair from Stansted. 

I stayed at the Old Riga Palace Hotel – this was very convenient and a short walk from the Old Town. However if you want to bling it up then the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija with its 26th floor sky bar looks like a decent option.