zuma

cuisine: japanese

location: 5 raphael street, knightsbridge

ate: tasting menu for 1 = £95. I had been warned about the size of the tasting menu but nevertheless had to have it! black cod, kobe beef, sashimi, tuna tartare… all the must haves. indeed it was too much! although all the dishes were prepared to perfection, by the time we reached the kobe i was having trouble breathing, let alone try to swallow a whole steak! i would recommend that you order 1 tasting menu to share (although do not say this to the staff as they refused me) and then a main if there are two of you

drank: rippon pinot – very nice indeed

rating: i would definately return to Zuma; the decor, the food, the cocktails, the lucious chocolate fondant… simply amazing food. one of the more expensive meals but most certainly worth a taster

mehek

cuisine: indian

location: 45 london wall

ate: so much food. lets start with the starters. we had a lovely mixture of tandoori grill, bahjis, kebab… all the all time favourites – very tasty! and some spicy whitebait (interesting but not really worth it). they have some very interesting specialities as mains including gardommony duck (a must try), and squab (that is pigeon basically but just not picked up from the street) amongst many others. the dishes are not ponced up they are just simply original and tasty. there are also all the classic curry dishes and these are lovely. the madras was smooth and every flavour detectable. the jalfrezi was dissapointing not because of its sauce, that was succulent, but because of the cut. I am a fan of the shredding overcooked lamb texture. instead we were offered what looked like slices off the kebab maker… had they run out of lamb perhaps???? but all in all, this was a delicious meal.

drank: cobra of course

rating: this is good food at a very reasonable price (£30ish per person with all that food, beer and even a selection of digestifs on the house). the venue is nice but the lighting looks like they might have something to hide, a shame as they do not. and the service, albeit with a few minor delays and an appreance of dopiness, was on the whole very good!

i highly recommend going to mehek. if you do go as a big group though – it is a big restaurant and easily feels deserted! plus there is also the bonus of getting to try more dishes

brindisa

ate: iberico platter, fried asparagus with egg and manchego, and prawns in chilli and garlic (supposed to be al pil-pil really!)

drank: £17.50 red wine (can’t remeber the name) and it was just not nice at all.

rating: the platter was good but it doesn’t really take a chef to order good charcuterie, slice it and present it on a plate. I could go on and rant about the description of the meats… come on at least give us the region the type of cut etc if you are going to charge £20 for a plate of serrano! the asparagus was quite tasty but this is not tapas this is a dish (as are most of the so called tapas on the menu). as to the prawns you could taste the burnt oil and burnt garlic and again, its not particulary hard to make good gambas- olive oil, garlic, chilli a little salt and heat the crap out of it!

overall i’d rate this restaurant as an overly expensive fake spanish with the ability to pick out what they have been told are good cured meats and attempt to overuse a brand in their favour.

loch fyne

ate: seafood platter with lobster for 2 @ £44… mmm delicious! The smaller prawns were egg ridden and tasted a little weird for my liking

drank: cheapest bottle of red @ £16… not bad at all

rating: I would definately go back