Is It Me? Or Is Granger & Co Bloody Expensive?

After a stressful, and ultimately unsuccessful, Christmas shopping trip to High Street Kensington, I hopped on a bus to nearby Notting Hill for a late lunch at Granger & Co. This casual all-day eatery is the brainchild of Aussie chef, Bill Granger, who has an awesome (forgive my slip into Antipodean vernacular) reputation. Not only has he opened popular restaurants in his homeland and Japan, but he's also published acclaimed cookbooks, and appeared on the telly.

I had heard good things about the sweetcorn fritters (£11.90), and I promptly ordered this dish along with a side portion of avocado salsa (£2.40). Now I know I was in posh Notting Hill, but I thought that spending nearly £15 would get me more than two sweetcorn fritters, two small roast tomatoes, a single rasher of bacon, a few spinach leaves and a few chunks of avocado. Given the price and portion size, the food really had to sing. It didn't. Whilst the overall combination worked, the fritters were a tad underseasoned and a bit burnt at the edges. On the plus side, the roast tomatoes were packed full of flavour.

I was still starving so I ordered some lemon cake (£4), which was, in fairness, bloody delicious. So much so, I temporarily forgot that I was a victim of daylight robbery. In total, I spent £23.40 (including 12.5% service) on two courses and a coffee. If I'd ordered a beer or a glass of wine then the price would’ve easily crept up to around the £30 mark.

Now some of you are probably thinking that these are Notting Hill prices, and I should stop bloody moaning. I would be inclined to agree with this point of view if Granger & Co wasn't a casual, drop-in, no bookings eatery. But it is, and if I'm going to spend this kind of money then I'd much rather do so at a proper restaurant. Somewhere like Launceston Place (in nearby Kensington) that does a three-course set lunch for £23. Come to think of it, the set lunch at The Ledbury, Notting Hill's finest, is only £30.

And at risk of banging on about how much of a rip-off this place is, the menu is studded with overpriced dishes. Piss-taker in chief has to be the Full Aussie breakfast (£13.25), which costs more than the Full English (£12) at Hawksmoor. And based on my experiences at these two places, I'd much rather go to Hawksmoor. In my opinion, if you want to check out Aussie-style casual dining then you'd be much better off going to somewhere like Lantana, where the sweetcorn fritters cost less than a tenner, and prices are generally 20-25% cheaper than Granger & Co.

I know I've had a bit of a rant about this joint (and I've not even mentioned the bipolar inattentive/enthusiastic service 'til now) but I doubt very much if Bill Granger gives a toss. After all, Granger & Co was pretty busy at 3pm on a Tuesday. However, just because there are some people willing to pay an arm and leg to eat there doesn't mean I have to.



Granger & Co, 175 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2SB (Tel: 020-7229-9111)
Nearest stations: Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate, Westbourne Park

The Ashes

Congratulations to England on winning The Ashes, 3-1. I don't want to gloat too much about England's victory but Kylie, Pat Cash, John Howard, Glenn McGrath, Harry Kewell, Rolf Harris, David Campese, and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo – you guys took one hell of a beating! But what if the tiny little urn was played over food rather than cricket? Would England's dominance be as overwhelming? Would Australia wilt in the heat of battle? Much like cricket, a lot would ride on the 'wicket'.



For example, the Aussies would prevail on 'wickets' such as breakfast/brunch, steak, seafood, and most Asian cuisines, in particular the holy trinity of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. England would favour Indian conditions, as well as more European style 'wickets', especially haute cuisine. There are exceptions though, and I see the Aussies performing strongly if the groundsman prepared a Greek or Italian wicket.

So I guess it'd be fair to say that both teams would expect to win at home whilst losing away. From a selfish perspective that's a shame, as my favourite tucker tends to be done better down under. So there's only one thing for it, England need to up their game to win the Foodie Ashes, home and away. In particular, some extra training is required on the grill and with the wok! Oh, and whilst we're at it, we could do with more places doing BYO. I guess there are still some things that we can learn from the Aussies!