Meg has been busy so she hasn't written up about last week's NRT but we'll forgive her and go right on and hope she'll catch up...
Meg picked Le Mercury which conveniently is right in our neighborhood. I go in and am offered the choice of downstairs or upstairs and since I'm still sore from my sad little half-marathon I choose downstairs. I sit down and am promptly ignored until Meg comes in. The vibe is very French bistro and a bit like Lucien in NYC which used to be our favourite place for a mildly celebratory dinner so that's good. The restaurant is crowded but unlike a crowded NYC restaurant you aren't putting your elbows in your neighbour's soup.
Tiny paper napkins and diner-standard flatware/glasses are all that's on the table. Meg arrives, we get the menus, and order drinks. We get glasses of tap water, which are never refilled, and a bottle of chenin blanc which turns out to be a 2008 from Long Beach winery in South Africa. This is a little sweet, but very nice - I like it a lot. The bread is pretty plain-jane white bread, but it has poppy seeds on the outside which make it better than expected.
Meg has Tian au Crabe which is described on the menu as "Tian of crab and avocado emulsion." What is a tian? We don't know which seems as good a reason as any to order it. It turns out to be something like crab salad. Meg seems to enjoy it.
I have Chevre Chaud, grilled goat's cheese with fresh leaf salad and basil pesto. This is quite good although I think rather too heavy on the goat cheese and not heavy enough on the pesto as it's a little dry. The salad is nothing special and in fact I was hoping for more leaves. Weirdly, I guess, I'm asking for them to have more of the cheap ingredients in this dish.
For mains, Meg gets Supreme de Poulet Roti - roast breast of chicken, garlic mash, green peppercorn. She seems to like it. I have Filet de Loup de Mer - sea bass with cauliflower puree, raisins, and chili lemon zest. Everything individually is good but they don't seem to go together that well.
And that's it. We're tired, Meg seems to be coming down with something, so we skip out after just over an hour for under 40GBP. A great deal, convenient, decent food. We'll definitely be back.
Le Mercury, 140a Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QY. 020 7354 4088
Showing posts with label New Restaurant Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Restaurant Tuesday. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Thursday, 25 September 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: The Big Easy
The Big Easy
332-334 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 5UR
Megan’s first turn to choose a restaurant, and she picks a place that is definitely more up my alley than hers (I’m a meat-and-potatoes gal, Megan likes, well… vegetables): The Big Easy in Chelsea. This place is something of an anomaly, and I’m not really sure what it’s trying to be – a self-proclaimed BBQ and Crab Shack… that’s also won a Wine Spectator award! Now, I love BBQ and seafood and wine, but I’m not sure I can recall the last time I had all three at the same place! Oh yeah, and they’re known for their tasty margaritas too! Weird…
Anyway, we started with a couple of margaritas – clementine & ginger for me, passion fruit & chile for Megan. Megan’s was painfully sweet, and mine was OK, but I generally like to taste my booze instead of being tricked into drinking it, so these weren’t really a huge hit with either of us. We opted for bottles of Dos Equis to go with our meals.
The menu is huge – there must have been 75 items on it. The best way I can describe this restaurant (and everything about it) is that it’s Dock’s (a well-known seafood mini-chain in NYC) meets Brother Jimmy’s (another NYC mini-chain which has the same motto as the Big Easy, “put a little South in your mouth”). The décor definitely swung the way of Brother Jimmy’s – Christmas lights, US license plates, plank walls, etc. I think the desired effect is to make you feel like you’re in a Cajun crab shack (albeit one that serves BBQ… and huge steaks… and Alsatian wines), but it felt a bit contrived to me. An added bonus – this place played great music. During the first part of our meal, they were piping in southern rock: CCR, the Black Crowes (!!!) and a little Tom Petty for good measure. Later in the evening, a cover band started playing upstairs; they were pretty good, and were definitely playing crowd favorites like Oasis, Jack Johnson, U2, the Foo Fighters, etc. The place is clearly catering to American expats looking for a bit of home.
We started our meal with the Voodoo chicken wings. I was hoping for Buffalo-style (these weren’t), but these did not disappoint. Fairly spicy and a homemade bleu cheese dressing on the side. The chicken was breaded though, and that didn’t go over great with either of us. Overall, they were pretty delicious. After we polished off our order of 5 wings, the waiter brought over hot towels – a nice touch, especially considering that we were both covered in wing sauce.
For our entrees, we decided that we would order baby back ribs and a half of a roasted chicken and share. Big mistake. The portions were HUGE, and I suspect that we were fed some genetically modified, mutant (though delicious) chicken. I thought the ribs were good, but Megan thought they were a bit overcooked. Both featured the same BBQ sauce, which was pretty good, but a little sweet for my liking. On the side of both plates (really platters) were huge portions of coleslaw and BBQ baked beans. The coleslaw was just OK, but the beans were great, if for no other reason than they weren’t of the Heinz canned variety that are ubiquitous here. Everything made for delicious leftovers on Wednesday night!
Total damage: £66. We don’t think that we would hurry to come back here, but it could be a fun place to catch a baseball or football game (they have NASN too!) and hang with some expats.
332-334 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 5UR
Megan’s first turn to choose a restaurant, and she picks a place that is definitely more up my alley than hers (I’m a meat-and-potatoes gal, Megan likes, well… vegetables): The Big Easy in Chelsea. This place is something of an anomaly, and I’m not really sure what it’s trying to be – a self-proclaimed BBQ and Crab Shack… that’s also won a Wine Spectator award! Now, I love BBQ and seafood and wine, but I’m not sure I can recall the last time I had all three at the same place! Oh yeah, and they’re known for their tasty margaritas too! Weird…
Anyway, we started with a couple of margaritas – clementine & ginger for me, passion fruit & chile for Megan. Megan’s was painfully sweet, and mine was OK, but I generally like to taste my booze instead of being tricked into drinking it, so these weren’t really a huge hit with either of us. We opted for bottles of Dos Equis to go with our meals.
The menu is huge – there must have been 75 items on it. The best way I can describe this restaurant (and everything about it) is that it’s Dock’s (a well-known seafood mini-chain in NYC) meets Brother Jimmy’s (another NYC mini-chain which has the same motto as the Big Easy, “put a little South in your mouth”). The décor definitely swung the way of Brother Jimmy’s – Christmas lights, US license plates, plank walls, etc. I think the desired effect is to make you feel like you’re in a Cajun crab shack (albeit one that serves BBQ… and huge steaks… and Alsatian wines), but it felt a bit contrived to me. An added bonus – this place played great music. During the first part of our meal, they were piping in southern rock: CCR, the Black Crowes (!!!) and a little Tom Petty for good measure. Later in the evening, a cover band started playing upstairs; they were pretty good, and were definitely playing crowd favorites like Oasis, Jack Johnson, U2, the Foo Fighters, etc. The place is clearly catering to American expats looking for a bit of home.
We started our meal with the Voodoo chicken wings. I was hoping for Buffalo-style (these weren’t), but these did not disappoint. Fairly spicy and a homemade bleu cheese dressing on the side. The chicken was breaded though, and that didn’t go over great with either of us. Overall, they were pretty delicious. After we polished off our order of 5 wings, the waiter brought over hot towels – a nice touch, especially considering that we were both covered in wing sauce.
For our entrees, we decided that we would order baby back ribs and a half of a roasted chicken and share. Big mistake. The portions were HUGE, and I suspect that we were fed some genetically modified, mutant (though delicious) chicken. I thought the ribs were good, but Megan thought they were a bit overcooked. Both featured the same BBQ sauce, which was pretty good, but a little sweet for my liking. On the side of both plates (really platters) were huge portions of coleslaw and BBQ baked beans. The coleslaw was just OK, but the beans were great, if for no other reason than they weren’t of the Heinz canned variety that are ubiquitous here. Everything made for delicious leftovers on Wednesday night!
Total damage: £66. We don’t think that we would hurry to come back here, but it could be a fun place to catch a baseball or football game (they have NASN too!) and hang with some expats.
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: The Ledbury
This week’s NRT is a special occasion treat as it’s our anniversary and it only comes around, well, once a year. Even though it’s my week to pick Meg makes a recommendation of The Ledbury and I haven’t thought of anything to top it so we go for it.
For the second week in a row, I get there on time. Even early. I’m not sure the world isn’t coming to an end. They show me immediately to the table and I ask for a vodka gimlet (say that with a soft “g”!) and then Meg gets there too. Unfortunately since we’ve arrived separately we never hear the specials, which is actually ok since the regular menu is hard enough to choose from. It’s prix fixe.
Big open room and on a Tuesday night not completely packed, but the patrons are weirdly congregated around the edges. Lovely recessed lighting punctuated with low spots and weirdly beautiful chandeliers. Lots of windows with heavy luxe drapery (black with blacker embroidery) combine with tables covered in white tablecloths to give the room a real feeling of luxury.
The patrons are an interesting group, mostly our age and older, mostly couples. There’s one younger couple that appear to be on the “let’s get engaged” date but they’re a course or so behind us so I don’t get to see the outcome of that.
Staff is clearly professional – not a lot of “I’m doing this while I work on my degree” here. They all had responsibilities for different parts of the meal/service so I think we saw everyone in the restaurant at our table at some point. The hostess, who was also in charge of close-of-meal stuff (petits fours and bill). The order-taking drinks and lead waitress, who described some of the courses. The sommelier, who described some others of the courses. The bussers and food runners, who described some the rest of the courses. All very good but I do admit I like having someone “in charge” of our table to rely upon.
No pictures tonight as it really didn’t seem the place. I liked that, despite the quantity of food you’ll read about below, I left not completely stuffed, as the portion sizes were very reasonable given the whole of the menu.
On to the food…
The Ledbury, 127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AQ
Date: 16 September 2008
On the table: mini salt and pepper grinders (I think – we never used them as everything was perfectly seasoned) which are even better than last week’s s/p wells.
Drinks: Vodka gimlet with a lime rind garnish – a little sweet for my taste (when I make them at home I use just straight lime juice rather than Rose’s) but I think it’s made to contemporary recipe standard. Hendrick’s martini with (bar) olives – Meg wanted a place like this to serve it with nicer olives instead of the “Oscar Meyer” of olives.
Canapé: spiced flatbread with pate mousse piped on in two long snakes.
Water: we’re the only people in the room drinking tap, as far as I can tell. When we ask for it, our water goblets are removed leading me to fear we’re going to get kiddie cups but eventually the goblets come back filled with icy tap water and a couple of lemon slices, and are kept filled all night from a pitcher also holding lemon slices. Definitely passes the tap water test.
Wine: The list is really a book. Too much to choose from, so we ask for a recommendation. The sommelier knows most of what we’ve ordered and takes Meg’s “we like Cabernet Franc” suggestion and flips through the book. He comes up with three different suggestions, all under £40 – quite a feat when you consider that about a quarter of the book is in that price range. We settle on Domaine de la Chevalerie Busasrdieres Bourgueil (1998 ) which he says is “quite different.” On this we concur, but overall find it to be too fruity for our tastes.
Amuse: Courgette puree w/parmesan creme and sourdough croutons. Delicious.
Bread: a basket of choices: bacon and onion brioche (Meg), sourdough (Megan), brown roll with black pepper (neither). Meg likes the brioche, I find it a bit much. I like the sourdough, especially with the addition of a little butter – served in a cylinder on marble with a small sprinkling of sea salt on top.
Apps:
Dessert:
Damage: £205 inclusive. It would be possible to eat (not drink) well in this restaurant for £112.50 for two if you just ordered the menu and tap water.
For the second week in a row, I get there on time. Even early. I’m not sure the world isn’t coming to an end. They show me immediately to the table and I ask for a vodka gimlet (say that with a soft “g”!) and then Meg gets there too. Unfortunately since we’ve arrived separately we never hear the specials, which is actually ok since the regular menu is hard enough to choose from. It’s prix fixe.
Big open room and on a Tuesday night not completely packed, but the patrons are weirdly congregated around the edges. Lovely recessed lighting punctuated with low spots and weirdly beautiful chandeliers. Lots of windows with heavy luxe drapery (black with blacker embroidery) combine with tables covered in white tablecloths to give the room a real feeling of luxury.
The patrons are an interesting group, mostly our age and older, mostly couples. There’s one younger couple that appear to be on the “let’s get engaged” date but they’re a course or so behind us so I don’t get to see the outcome of that.
Staff is clearly professional – not a lot of “I’m doing this while I work on my degree” here. They all had responsibilities for different parts of the meal/service so I think we saw everyone in the restaurant at our table at some point. The hostess, who was also in charge of close-of-meal stuff (petits fours and bill). The order-taking drinks and lead waitress, who described some of the courses. The sommelier, who described some others of the courses. The bussers and food runners, who described some the rest of the courses. All very good but I do admit I like having someone “in charge” of our table to rely upon.
No pictures tonight as it really didn’t seem the place. I liked that, despite the quantity of food you’ll read about below, I left not completely stuffed, as the portion sizes were very reasonable given the whole of the menu.
On to the food…
The Ledbury, 127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AQ
Date: 16 September 2008
On the table: mini salt and pepper grinders (I think – we never used them as everything was perfectly seasoned) which are even better than last week’s s/p wells.
Drinks: Vodka gimlet with a lime rind garnish – a little sweet for my taste (when I make them at home I use just straight lime juice rather than Rose’s) but I think it’s made to contemporary recipe standard. Hendrick’s martini with (bar) olives – Meg wanted a place like this to serve it with nicer olives instead of the “Oscar Meyer” of olives.
Canapé: spiced flatbread with pate mousse piped on in two long snakes.
Water: we’re the only people in the room drinking tap, as far as I can tell. When we ask for it, our water goblets are removed leading me to fear we’re going to get kiddie cups but eventually the goblets come back filled with icy tap water and a couple of lemon slices, and are kept filled all night from a pitcher also holding lemon slices. Definitely passes the tap water test.
Wine: The list is really a book. Too much to choose from, so we ask for a recommendation. The sommelier knows most of what we’ve ordered and takes Meg’s “we like Cabernet Franc” suggestion and flips through the book. He comes up with three different suggestions, all under £40 – quite a feat when you consider that about a quarter of the book is in that price range. We settle on Domaine de la Chevalerie Busasrdieres Bourgueil (1998 ) which he says is “quite different.” On this we concur, but overall find it to be too fruity for our tastes.
Amuse: Courgette puree w/parmesan creme and sourdough croutons. Delicious.
Bread: a basket of choices: bacon and onion brioche (Meg), sourdough (Megan), brown roll with black pepper (neither). Meg likes the brioche, I find it a bit much. I like the sourdough, especially with the addition of a little butter – served in a cylinder on marble with a small sprinkling of sea salt on top.
Apps:
- Terrine of Foie Gras and Pain d’ épices with Mango and Cabernet Vinegar Caramel. Again Meg goes for something I don’t like. I try a bite but, nope, still don’t like foie gras. Maybe she’ll tell us about it.
- Scallops Roasted on Liquorice with Fennel, Cepes and Roasting Juices. Liquorice is used like a skewer to make scallop lollipops. Very meaty and flavourful.
- Confit Suckling Pig with Spiced Peach, Salsify and Ham Beignet, Baby Onions Pickled in White Beer. Again, Meg goes for bacon for dinner. The peach is quite amazing, and the baby onions are really sweet.
- New Season’s Lamb Roasted in Balsamic with Spinach Purée and Aubergine Glazed with Miso and Garlic. I generally consider aubergine to be a reason not-to-order but the seasonality of lamb win me over. The dish arrives with both the regular bits of the lamb and sweetbreads in the form of pancreas. One of my clients at work is a diabetes product, and they try to be all science-minded so I look at pictures of pancreases (pancreii?) all day so this bit is fascinating. It’s really rich tasting. The juices are definitely a hit. Aubergine is roasted so much I thought it was a banana/plantain, and it’s actually nearly that sweet, so better than expected. Spinach puree is a little flat but with the addition of the juices and/or lamb I’m quite happy.
Dessert:
- Three Small Brûlées with Ice Cream and Madeleines, and a glass of Tokaji. Arrives with a cocoa brulee with basil ice cream (glad this is a small one, though I think the basil ice cream would serve as a nice palate cleanser); an Earl Grey brulee with an ice cream flavour I can’t remember – Meg’s 2nd favourite; and a brulee I can’t remember (Thai?) with olive oil ice cream. Clear winner. Madeleines are, of course, too chocolatey for Meg but I enjoy one.
- Terrine of Strawberries with Sour Cream, Hibiscus Consommé and Warm Vanilla Doughnuts, and a glass of Riesling. Very strawberry-flavoured. The hibiscus really adds to the complexity. The vanilla doughnuts are filled with jelly, and a little unnecessary.
Damage: £205 inclusive. It would be possible to eat (not drink) well in this restaurant for £112.50 for two if you just ordered the menu and tap water.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: The Clerkenwell
Meg and I decided that we're starting a new tradition called New Restaurant Tuesday. It's not hard to understand: (nearly) every Tuesday we'll go someplace we've never eaten before and write about it. Meg picked last night, so I get the honors of writing the first NRT post.
After a crap day at work, I arrive on time for our 8:30 reservation at The Clerkenwell. We wait a few minutes as our table isn't quite ready. There's a bar, but no place to sit at it - you just have to sort of hang around in the hallway by the toilets. We decline a drink and idly peruse the menus.
We bring our menus with us when we get seated. We've left the wine list at the bar but it arrives promptly when requested. The staff kindly leave us alone while I have a good cathartic cry. I pull myself together and we order. After a long wait suddenly everything appears nearly at once: tap water, amuse, wine, bread. The staff are alternately attentive and absent. Nicely spaced courses.
The space itself is beautiful and (with the exception of the odd rendition of "Happy Birthday") quiet enough to have an intimate conversation without being so quiet as to inspire a feeling that everyone will notice if you, say, happen to clang your knife against the plate. We agree that we would definitely return, and it would make a nice business lunch location.
The Clerkenwell, 69-73 St John St, London, EC1M 4AN
Date: 9 September 2008
Wine: Solabal Rioja (2005). Pleasant without being overpowering. Goes with nearly everything we order.
On the table: my favourite, salt and pepper wells. The pepper isn't quite ground enough, though.
Water: tap water brought quickly when requested. Arrives with lemon slices in a pitcher just for our table, which I think is a nice touch
Bread: Warm from the oven, more slices than we care to eat in a basket. It's crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, just as it should be. White bread is a little bland for my taste, especially when there's no butter (even though the bread plates have butter knives).
Amuse: a surprise from the chef! Not sure if this happens for everyone, or if it's to make up for the long-ish (but not bad at all) wait to order the wine. It's a creamy soup with a basil oil on top. I ask a bunch of times and can never understand the name, but it's delicious.
Apps:
The ricotta gives the cheesecake a nice grainy-ness. Lemon flavor is not too strong. Pine nuts, and especially the raisins, feel a bit added-on. It goes nicely with the Tokaji dessert wine, though.
Damage: £145 inclusive, which sounds crazy until you consider that the dessert wine set us back £40 alone.
After a crap day at work, I arrive on time for our 8:30 reservation at The Clerkenwell. We wait a few minutes as our table isn't quite ready. There's a bar, but no place to sit at it - you just have to sort of hang around in the hallway by the toilets. We decline a drink and idly peruse the menus.
We bring our menus with us when we get seated. We've left the wine list at the bar but it arrives promptly when requested. The staff kindly leave us alone while I have a good cathartic cry. I pull myself together and we order. After a long wait suddenly everything appears nearly at once: tap water, amuse, wine, bread. The staff are alternately attentive and absent. Nicely spaced courses.
The space itself is beautiful and (with the exception of the odd rendition of "Happy Birthday") quiet enough to have an intimate conversation without being so quiet as to inspire a feeling that everyone will notice if you, say, happen to clang your knife against the plate. We agree that we would definitely return, and it would make a nice business lunch location.
The Clerkenwell, 69-73 St John St, London, EC1M 4AN
Date: 9 September 2008
Wine: Solabal Rioja (2005). Pleasant without being overpowering. Goes with nearly everything we order.
On the table: my favourite, salt and pepper wells. The pepper isn't quite ground enough, though.
Water: tap water brought quickly when requested. Arrives with lemon slices in a pitcher just for our table, which I think is a nice touch
Bread: Warm from the oven, more slices than we care to eat in a basket. It's crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, just as it should be. White bread is a little bland for my taste, especially when there's no butter (even though the bread plates have butter knives).
Amuse: a surprise from the chef! Not sure if this happens for everyone, or if it's to make up for the long-ish (but not bad at all) wait to order the wine. It's a creamy soup with a basil oil on top. I ask a bunch of times and can never understand the name, but it's delicious.
Apps:
- Salad of crab and avocado, chilled gaspacho. Meg loves this. I don't even like the ingredients, but even I agree that it's quite good. It's a log of crab salad on top of sushi-style avocado slices in a log, in a bowl of gaspacho. Meg tries to take a picture but it comes out terribly.
- Beignet of courgette flower, provencal vegetables and buffalo mozzarella.
They appear to have stuffed some delicious mixed veg into the flower of the courgette (zucchini) before dipping in a light batter and frying. There's a fan of mozzarella and surprise tomatos (grr) next to it. A strange combination, but it works. I think it would have been more successful if they'd used just the flower part - not the stem - and put both the mozz and veg inside. Perhaps 2 flowers on a plate? Still, quite good.
- Crisp confit pork belly, fricassée of coco beans and new season garlic.
Meg likes when there's bacon for dinner, so this was an easy sell for her. I only had one bite so don't remember much about this, but I do remember thinking it was good. - Seared salmon, crushed new potatoes, watercress and beurre rouge.
Um, yum! I had forgotten the potatoes were "crushed" so wasn't really expecting the pile of mash but it was so good. Actually I don't think they really did make mash, I'm pretty sure it was just crushed potatoes with maybe a little salt. On the plate is the buerre rouge sauce, and a lightly herb-y green sauce as well. The salmon is perfectly done, flaky and moist, and well seasoned.
The ricotta gives the cheesecake a nice grainy-ness. Lemon flavor is not too strong. Pine nuts, and especially the raisins, feel a bit added-on. It goes nicely with the Tokaji dessert wine, though.
Damage: £145 inclusive, which sounds crazy until you consider that the dessert wine set us back £40 alone.
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