Sahara

39 Hereford Road
London W2 4AB

020 7792 0770

I've been here a few times and enjoyed the tagines; and you really don't need to order a first course here. You get harissa, olives, olive oil and good Moroccan bread before you start all thrown in.

We order lamb mechoui with roasted butternut squash, potatoes, sultanas, french beans with slow baked boneless shoulder of lamb with Moroccan spice (for two) £29.95.

Its around 8pm on a Friday night and the restaurant is very empty; there is only one other group of three. The lamb is full of spicy Moroccan flavour and flaky slow cooked but it just isn't hot enough. It also doesn't seem to me all that authentically Moroccan with the potatoes which bothers me less. What worries me, with so few people in the restaurant, is how they manage to do this, this one off dish which takes a long time to produce when there are so few customers. Is it straight from the freezer? I have my suspicions and that it is not properly heated is worrying, puts me off. I'm saddened by this, feel everything has gone off here a bit. Things are not helped by the fact that Hereford Road is all pulled up with major road works (water?), metal fences obscuring the restaurants and other businesses and making access difficult.

L.O. and I enjoy nevertheless a bottle of heavy Domaine de Larroque Moroccan wine, a merlot/syrah blend, £25.50.

Cadogan Arms

298 King's Road,

SW3 5UG

020 7 352 6500

Its like a faux Edwardian hunting lodge inside with antlers on the walls and wooden panelling. Only this is a lodge for all sports. There are also fish in cabinets, the stuffed head of a fox. There are red upholstered benches in the style of the House of Lords. There are also other strange touches: an unplastered brick pillar, a panel of hispano moresque tiles on the wall. I like it. The hunting lodge theme only slightly off and hip all at the same time is fun. King Edward VII would have felt very much at home here, only he wouldn't. He would have been confused by the eastern European accent of our waitress for starters and would have been surprised the pillar was unfinished. He would have found the bar billiard sized tables upstairs much smaller than those to which he was accustomed. Its a big space and light with big windows looking out onto Old Church Street on one side and the King's road in front. The restaurant area is at the back and although its a 'gastro pub' its really, like the Harwood Arms, more restaurant than pub. There is no ordering at the bar and paying before the meal here.

We order one course: twice cooked Gloucester Old Spot pork belly, wilted spring greens, Calvados sauce, celeriac remoulade £16.50 and Hare stew, prune dumpling £15.50. The pork belly is marvellous: the pork is crispy and contrasts well with the crunchy texture of the celeriac. The apple in the sauce and the fresh greens make the whole a perfect combination. I try the rich hare stew which is thick gooey and full of flavour, the dumpling again an excellent texture contrast with real taste. We have a glass of Malbec and Shiraz each which go well with this quite heavy meaty meal for all its delicate flavours.

This pub is operated by ETM group which was founded by the Martin Brothers in 2000 and now has 8 pubs in and around London. This is impressive stuff for a group. Let's hope the standard doesn't fall off if they continue to expand!

My only criticism is for lunch the main courses offered, apart from a blue Wensleydale and pear salad, are all quite heavyweight. Maybe that's why it really wasn't as full on a Friday lunchtime as the very high standard might suggest it should be. A few more lighter choices for those who don't want to retire to the well upholstered sofa with a cigar for the rest of the afternoon would be welcome!

Byron

222 Kensington High Street
London
W8 7RG

020 7361 1717


A previous visit to Byron had been a bit of a disaster: wrong wine, long wait because no gas to cook, no side orders. To the restaurant's great credit though, in a model of good customer relations, they didn't charge me anything when I said that though I acknowledged there were circumstances beyond their control, I wasn't altogether happy. When I wrote the blog post (late on a Saturday evening) they went one further. The MD of the group took the trouble to send me an email first thing Sunday morning explaining all the problems they had had and offering a further gratis meal to L.O. and I whenever we wanted to go back. Well what blogger could resist such exemplary new media relationship handling so L.O. and I, whirring having just taken off the 3D specs post Alice in Wonderland over the road at Odeon High Street Kensington, returned.

Well I said before that I thought the quality of the meat was very good and so it was again. This time, since the Byron sauce wasn't to my taste, I had the classic £6.25: just lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle: much better and you could really taste the beef. Ok this is very picky (and again personal, but hey its an upmarket burger place)... I like English mustard and I like real mustard! There is just no comparison with the preserved stuff in a jar. This and some real whole grain mustard would make a difference to me!


To try (and it really was far too much and we knew it would be!) we had sides of french fries, £2.75, home made skin-on chips £3.00, onion rings £2.75, and courgette fries £3.00. One of these to share would be quite enough! Of these the courgette fries were the best; very crispy but you could still taste the real vegetable underneath. The onion rings similarly crispy. The fries and skins I found the most disappointing: a bit soft, flabby. Maybe we were just a bit unlucky with this particular batch. We followed this with a huge, so just as well we shared, caramel and honeycomb sundae (with vanilla ice cream and crunchie bits) £4.50. It was very sweet, not sophisticated, but I'm sure would be a winner with kids.

Last time there was a procession of tupperware, bin liners etc between the centre stage kitchen and the back. This wasn't the case tonight which was a big improvement. I find the place a bit starkly overlit but families with kids might well like that. Maybe the lighting, though, could be lowered a bit later in the evening? But am getting too prescriptive here. Really the burgers are very good and that's the main point. Its really inappropriate to comment on the service this time since we were on a set up freebie but for the record it was exemplary.

Gaucho

89 Sloane Avenue
London SW3 3DX

020 7584 9901

A girl passed our table and a large pendant earring fell to the ground, the gravitational pull too much for it. She apologised to us as she bent down to pick it up. I'm not quite sure why. There is a mixed crowd at Gaucho's in Sloane Avenue on a Saturday night. Its more footballers' wives manque than neighbourhood Chelsea, with a large crowd building up round the bar no doubt waiting for tables. Its dark, very dark (see photos, I don't like to use flash!). A good place for first dates because so bustly, dark and you can see some of these in progress. Choice of table is important though. We are placed, L.O. and I, on a table for four close to the open kitchen. We are enjoying seeing what's going on but had we been on a first date would probably have asked for a table close to the window. They make it uglier by the kitchen than it need be. There are tupperware boxes with ingredients in full view. The key attraction, the grill hotplate where the steaks are being seared, occasionally leaps into flame but its at the back and you can't see it all that clearly. They are busy but don't seem an altogether happy crew in the kitchen but they are under pressure; occasional smiles break out a bit later as the order flow wanes a bit.

Gaucho is now a chain of 12 London branches with two outside London: one in Manchester and the latest in Leeds. The trademark is cowhide seats, low lighting, Argentine steaks and an impressive Argentine wine list: all very macho. Our waitress we discover later is Slovakian and has been in the job two weeks. She shows us a board with all the different raw cuts of steak on it: rump, sirloin, fillet and rib-eye, or, in Argentine Gaucho speak, cuadril, chorizo, lomo and ancho. She then asks us if we would like to try some wine. I didn't have any of this when I came before. Maybe L.O and I just look the types to be up for it. We try the wine, an Argentine Malbec. Its outstanding. Its El Porvenir de Los Andes 'Laborum' 2005 from 1750 metres up in the Salta region. There is no mention of price. I ask how much it is. It is £65.75. Well ok but even if I was a footballer on a first date I wouldn't really want this heavy pressure when the new girlfriend has said "its lovely" to buy (the public embarrassment factor). I know L.O. well enough to feel no embarrassment in turning it down but the hard sell works and we have it. I think this is something that needs to be handled very carefully though and I'm not sure I like it in a restaurant. At the end of the meal we get something of the same thing when the cheeseboard is brought undemanded to our table to show us (strangely its a group of not very exceptional looking English cheeses and we turn it down).

We start by sharing a ceviche of Argentine baby squid, shallots, jalapeno, ginger, mint and guacamole £9.50. The squid is extremely tender but somehow despite all the flavours it manages to be strangely tasteless. They bring it, since we are sharing, with two small plates but oddly for a cold dish they are hot. We put them to one side and eat off the original plate.

We then of course go for steak. Its what you do here. I have been before and had a rare fillet. I remember it being fantastic: thick, seared on the outside and juicy red inside. The meat was beautifully tender as you would expect with fillet but there was something about the industrial restaurant grill that seemed to have been able to char the outside in a way you could never achieve at home. This time we opt for sirloin (L.O.) and rib-eye. Our waitress, because of the marbleised fat in these cuts, said to us that in order for the fat to melt it is optimum to have them medium rare rather than rare. We take her advice. I'm rather disappointed in my rib-eye relative to what I had before. The trade off with steak should be that if you have a 'lesser' and less expensive cut than fillet it is a bit tougher but has more taste, flavour. I didn't enjoy my rib-eye nearly as much as the memory of the fillet. I have a 300g one but it is cut thinner than a piece of fillet. I would have thought it very good in a pub but this is a high end place and I expected more. It was seared on the outside but a bit tougher, less juicy, somehow nothing out of the ordinary and I like my steaks blood red whatever the impact on the melting fat. We had humitas with it. These are mashed up corn in the corn husk (see photo). They with the wine were the most distinctive and interesting thing about the meal but difficult to get out of the husk without a spoon. We asked for one.

Our wine was brought by a sommelier from Gaucho who was training the staff, visiting this branch for 3 months. He told us current theory on the impact of altitude on Argentine Malbecs (they tell you on the wine list how many metres high the particular vineyard is at Gaucho). I discussed with him the issue of wine sampling in a restaurant and say how easily I feel this could misfire.

I love the combination of Argentine Malbec and blood red steak seared on the outside. If I go back I'll skip the ceviche and go for the rare fillet again. The wines are marked up very heavily here. I find the 'Laborum' for £21.96 here and for £28.75 in Gaucho's own retail Cavas de Gaucho. The steaks at 300g range from £16.25 for the cheapest cut to £28.50 for the fillet. Commendably for an upmarket restaurant there is no mandatory service charge. Our bill comes to £125. We leave a £15 tip. Its not surpising our waitress was keen to sell the wine. Even without it though the meal would have been close to £100.

Enterprise

35 Walton Street
London SW3 2HU

020 7584 3148

In the no man's land where Knightsbridge, Chelsea and South Ken intersect, close to the great battleship landmark of Harrods sits The Enterprise. "It's informality is its drawing power and it attracts a very fashionable and up-scale client base, described as 'the only pub in town for ladies who lunch.' ", proclaims the website. Lucky ladies. This really isn't quite a gastro pub though. There is no booking except at lunchtimes in the week, but you don't order at the bar pay and sit down. Its very much restaurant style, pay at the end of the meal, table service. It does however have the informal style of a pub. We are there early, you have to be to secure a table towards the end of the week in the evening. Its sevenish pm. There is a throng of people at the bar and more than half the tables are occupied. Most of the tables are arrayed along a banquette. We sit at one of these. I am looking at etched pub glass in the windows. There are books in the window embrasures. They obscure some of the lettering which says SPIRITS on the right and for a moment because half of one letter is obscured on the left I read FINE BUMS. Its actually FINE RUMS. At the back is a tiny kitchen, open plan, where three chefs are already working furiously. Above them is a small rectangular blackboard with the specials. The clientele are not the young City types with families, public school voices and labradors that you get in Fulham and even Brook Green (see Havelock Arms ). Here they are more metro, older and international as the proximity to Harrods and Knightsbridge might proclaim. The atmosphere at the same time manages to feel residential, neighbourly. You can tell I feel uncomfortably comfortable here.

I'm shocked when writing this and looking at the website to discover that The Enterprise is under the same ownership as Christopher's in Covent Garden a place which I think, apart from the bar, has completely lost the plot (see linked review). We share tempura of calamari and courgette with a soy ginger and honey dip as a starter, £8. The batter is light, crispy, the courgette still firm, not overcooked, the calamari firm too but not rubbery. Delicious and easy to share too. A perfect not too enormous starter. I then have fettucine, wild mushroom and thyme ragout, parmesan and truffle oil, £14. It is excellent. The mushrooms have real taste, the fettucine is fresh and soft, the truffle oil flavour is not drowned out by the other tastes and it is not too creamy buttery either. I try my guest's whole roast sea bass, parmesan roasted fennel, herb butter £16.75 which has been ordered with some spinach. The sea bass is beautifully cooked: crispy on the outside flaky moist fish which falls off the bone just as it should do. We drink a bottle of Wolf Riesling, Dr. Loosen, Pfalz, Germany 2008, £25. It manages to be the perfect accompaniment to both dishes: aromatic, slightly sweet but with a dry finish. Since we arrived early we have already had two complimentary glasses of merlot. The riesling though was in a different class and a bargain at the price. Pretty perfect meal. Not cheap pub prices though at £75 all in. A central London restaurant bill. As I said earlier, lucky ladies and management, I know its trying to do something different, but please send the people at Christopher's down here to see what can be achieved!

Chisou

4 Princes Street

London W1B 2LE

020 7629 3931

There is a lot of choice for japanese food around Mayfair. At Chisou just south of Oxford Circus there is a restaurant and separately next door a sushi bar and take away area. Lunch at the sushi bar. I had the five different sashimi selection on the menu, £14.50. You get three bits of each. They were very fresh and good, but small. See the three small triangles of tuna in the photo. Definitely more for less and just as good quality at Atari-Ya just north of Oxford Street. Nevertheless the presentation is more stylish here, you eat off attractive plates and you can order from your seat at the bar. For that and Mayfair you are paying. The Ikura (salmon roe) sushi was particularly glisteningly fresh but £5.40 for two pieces!

No.10

10 Hogarth Place
London Sw5 0QT

020 7373 7000

I went here entirely because I had read a very flattering review by London Eater and happened to be fairly close. It was truly memorably fantastic. A destination place! There is something very heart warming when you go somewhere, meet someone whatever which has had a good advanced press and not only does it not disappoint it exceeds all expectations. They do other things here but their specialty is Szechuan food, or Sichuan (see linked article) much of which is hot, chilli spicy.

We asked our waitress what she would recommend from the Szechuan signature dishes on the menu. She suggested the boiled beef (boiled beef in extremely spicy soup lavishly topped with chilli and Sichuan pepper) £8.50. It was enormous (really I'm not kidding enough for lunch for four with some rice on its own). It came with a kind of sieve to go fishing with. You can see it in the photo. The Sichuan pepper has an interesting aromatic lemony flavour. The beef was in a rich heavy stock. It was amazing. Quite oily like much Szechuan food I have been exposed to but spicy fragrant hot, extraordinary. We also had dry fried pieces of duck with chilli and Sichuan pepper (and also a lot of sesame seeds). This was beautifully crispy and a nice contrast to the soupy beef. We had a vegetable dish: aubergine and green and red peppers, £6.50. It was a little salty for my taste. This was no doubt party because of the soy sauce involved but subsequent discussion with our waitress suggested that it was worth asking for less salt if that is what you like. The aubergine were in skinned soft strips floating in a spicy mixture of peppers. It was an excellent accompaniment to both the beef and the duck.

This amazing meal, more than enough for a hungry four, cost £32 for two of us with Jasmine tea. The restaurant is simple with little square stools with no backs, black tables, wooden floor. There is much else to try on the menu and I will return.