Ladbroke Arms

54 Ladbroke Road,
London W11 3NW

020 7727 6648

We walked across Holland Park in bright sunshine, the ground was sprinkled with patches of icing sugar snow. It was 2 degrees centigrade. The Ladbroke Arms is at the park end of Ladbroke Grove near the police station. Despite the cold there were people eating outside in the sunshine on the terrace outside. There were quite a few drinkers at the bar. Inside in the small restaurant at the back things were less busy. We were put next door to a pram and a cigarette machine in a little alcove on the only table for two. From the alcove seat the view was straight down the corridor towards the kitchen and at the end the kitchen dustbins. We had booked but if you come early enough it is better to sit at the front at the tables in the pub. The best table in the restaurant is a round one for four.

I had provencal fish stew £14. She had two starters: feta cheese , pomegranate, cucumber, orange, red onion, rocket and mint £6.75 and pork and chicken liver terrine with fig and prune compote. The fish stew was dominated by red mullet, mussels and potatoes. The soup was hardly deep enough to soak the small piece of toast covered with a thin coating of rouille. It was a thick buttery soup. To me this was nowhere near as good as the one at the Brompton Bar and Grill which had much more variety and was so big you could almost drown in it. It was also the same price and eaten in much more comfortable surroundings. The terrine was pronounced "no better than what is available at Waitrose" though the compote was fresh and full of flavour. The salad had too much raw onion. We had two glasses of perfectly adequate Picpoul, reasonably priced at £3.45 for 125ml .

The service was friendly but amateur; as it turned out the tables were not all booked as the restaurant filled and we could easily have had more space. We went a couple of years ago and remembered it being much better. They've poshed up the restaurant area and crammed more tables in (too many) but the food standards appear to have declined.

Fino

33 Charlotte Street
London W1T 1RR

0207 813 8010

The food was outstandingly good. Fresh, beautifully cooked, and (it often isn't) the hot food was hot. We just ate tapas. The chorizo was fresh, succulent not dry. The razor clams cooked in garlic and butter were just right and looked beautiful too. The octopus was tender. The Jerusalem artichokes were perfect, firm, not overcooked, roast in the oven. The olive oil mash was creamy ( cream and olive oil? but it was wonderful). The crisp pork belly was crisp on the outside, the meat soft and in beautiful gravy. The bread was crunchy, hot, lovely and with really good quality olive oil. Wow!

Was anything wrong with this experience? The wine was only offered in 125ml glasses; no carafes, no half bottles. I think this is a mistake in what is primarily a tapas place. The restaurant is in a basement. Its modern, smart but a bit antiseptic with quite harsh acoustics. Its expensive. The cold meats come in 100gm sizes. The chorizo iberico is £8.20. That's a lot for such a small portion! The cooking is so good it makes more sense to have those things which really demonstrate the culinary prowess of the place: the razor clams, the artichokes, the pork belly and mash.

Fino is part of the same group as the (also excellent) Barrafina, Quo Vadis etc. Unlike Barrafina which is very difficult to get into unless you are there at opening time, here you can book.

We were having lunch on the FTs lunch for £5. This halves the food bill for one. The bill was still £41.23 for two with just two 125ml glasses of white wine. In London for this quality that's a bargain but the full price of £63.40 is not cheap.

Ask

Whiteleys Shopping Centre

151 Queensway

London W2 4SB

0207 792 1977

Well I didn't intend to review nationwide chains but after the recent experience of eating in Postino and Cibo it seems fair to make the comparison. Ask may not be sophisticated eating but it was both better than either of these establishments and less expensive; in the case of Cibo much less expensive. Of course this is an 'unfair' comparison in that Cibo offers a level of decor and Postino its own one off family run theatre that a major chain can't, doesn't. But on straight food grounds I have to say I preferred it.

We had Spaghetti alla Bolognese, £7.95 and Fusilli alla Cacciattora, £8.75. The Bolognese was hot, very simple mince and tomato. Nothing special but perfectly edible. Lots of real black pepper and cheese. Not real Parmesan or Pecarino, I'm not sure what it was. The Fusilli was piquant (real chillies and fresh thyme) with real flavour. There aren't many places where you can get a Chianti flask and for 70s nostalgia we couldn't resist it: really not bad with distinctive sangiovese cherry flavours and reasonable value at £16.95.

The service couldn't have been better. We were taking somebody of a certain age and a bit lame out to dinner post the odeon cinema at Whiteleys. She needed help to get down to the ground floor and our waitress sorted asking Whiteleys security to get a wheelchair to help her to the lift and down. No fuss, just really helpful.

Cibo

3 Russell Gardens

London W14 8EZ

020 7371 2085

Monday evening at Cibo, a cold January evening, not a mouse stirring; it was like someone had died. A handful of diners, about 8.15pm. It filled up a bit later to about a third full. I'm trying to cover all the restaurants of Kensington and to be honest I wasn't looking forward to this. I'd been before. The place itself is jollier than the dramatis personae. Big chunky maiolica pots, wacky modern art and statues, though a strange and rather redundant empty bar which divides up the space.

The website says: "With seafood as its main appeal this is undoubtedly one of the finest a la carte Italian Restaurants for eating out in West London. Due to its location near trendy Notting Hill & Holland Park its also renown [sic] for the celebrity clientele it repeatedly attracts." It wasn't (one of the finest...) and they weren't there is all I can say.

We had spaghetti all'aragosta in salsa (spaghetti with lobster in its own sauce) £18.50 and sautee ai frutti di mare (assorted seafood and shellfish cooked in wine, tomatoes and herbs) £18.50. During our meal there was a loud throbbing. Is it the heat I thought, or the engine of a Porsche outside. We worked out that it was a tumble drier spinning above. The lobster I think had died some time ago and been laid to rest in a deep freeze. The flesh was flaky, overcooked, the body sticking to the inside of the shell. It tasted as though it had been frozen, de-frozen, over cooked and re-heated in a microwave. I can't be certain this was the progression but its what it tasted like. The sauce tasted like fresh tomatoes with sea water. It was patchily hot on a cold plate. It was impressively horrible. I tasted one of the mussels in the frutti di mare which had a similarly unfresh tasteless quality to it and was cold. I remember going to Cibo a long time ago and thinking it good. Things change. Never again.

Postino

267 Kensington High Street
London W8 6NA

020 7602 6777

Last night came out of seeing Avatar at Odeon Kensington High Street (which whatever criticisms it might have had for the Hollywood schmultz storyline is visually awesome) in need of something simple. The closest place to the cinema occupying a great site for passing trade is Postino. Postino has replaced the old Scoffs Eating House which also served Italian food but bizarrely was done as a pastiche alpine chalet and was in severe need of an overhaul.

I don't know whether the current restaurant is under the same ownership but it has certainly had a decor make over. It is now simple pine tables, modern and bare with spot lighting (rather well done and affords some intimacy despite quite a crowded space).

The welcome is almost overwhelming and multilingual. Lots of buona seras followed by good evening and mille grazies etc Nice, friendly but I felt taking the family Italian restaurant comic opera almost too far, too in your face; but if you like that sort of thing the service really was good. It just wasn't subtly unnoticeably good; but the staff and chefs in the open kitchen appeared genuinely happy with what they were doing (very often not the case!).

The menu is very long (a bad sign); eighteen different types of pasta twenty different pizzas (mostly around £7), antipasti, carne, rissoto, etc. I have a capricciosa pizza: the pizza dough is flabby, the cheese filling gooey and there are rather nasty looking little squares of ham. My fellow diner has the linguini ai frutti di mare the most expensive pasta at £10.95: rubbery seafood in canned tomato sauce, no taste of fish stock or fresh fish. We have a passable bottle of Sardinian red wine (not cheap at £24). The total bill,including 10% service which they add, comes to £46.65. For all the family theatre I'd rather go to Ask or Pizza Express.

The Square

6-10 Bruton Street

London W1J 6PU

020 7495 7100

The Square is a much heralded restaurant. It is one of eight London restaurants to hold two Michelin stars and chef Philip Howard's background is Roux Restaurants, Harvey's (Marco Pierre White) and Bibendum. I'm having lunch with my friend Malcolm Gluck the wine critic who has recently brought out a splendidly outspoken all guns blazing attack on the crooks and cheats of the wine world: The Great Wine Swindle. He has recommended the £30 lunch menu as 'outstanding value'.

I leave it to Malcolm to order the wine and am not disappointed. He orders Altesse, Roussette de Savoie Gilles Berlioz 2002. It is one of the cheapest wines on the very long wine list at £25. Made from the Altesse or Roussette grape (exclusively when labelled Altesse) these Roussette de Savoie wine are supposed to taste of violet, herbs, honey and hazelnut. This one really does: fragrant, delicious, a bargain. High acidity means these wines can take a bit of age: this one is starting to go brown, you can taste the age, but still wonderful. The wine waiter tells us it is the last bottle in the restaurant. It is a privilege to drink it. Things have got off to a good start.

The £30 for two courses menu offers one meat and one fish starter, one meat and one fish main course. I go for the meat. Terrine followed by Venison. Before we start, though, there is a little amuse bouche in a glass. It is a chervil root veloute, with chicken gelee and bacon foam. It is a perfect little concoction of contrasting flavours and textures like a little layered roman road. The squishy gelee sits in the middle, you can see it through the glass, the foam above. The first course is a perfect little picture (above top); it is actually terrine on the left, a bit of pork rillette, some spring onions and gooey fruity chutney. Its of a very high standard but not for me as sensational as the little amuse bouche. The main course I find the least satisfying. The plate is cold and the food is the wrong side of warm; the little bits of venison are beautifully rare but not as succulent and juicy with crisp outside as what I tried not long ago at The Abingdon. The three different and cold sauces (gravy, creamy, fruity) and little muddle of vegetables I don't find what Michel Roux junior would call a 'perfect flavour combination'. Its just all trying a bit too hard and just misses it for me. We have a couple of glasses of Gevrey Chambertin 2005 which at £16 a glass isn't the bargain the Altesse was but compliments my Venison. We have the cheese for an additional £5 each. This really is a bargain: enormous variety and quality and you seem to be able to just keep going until you call a halt. After I have an espresso and again the freebie is one of the best things: little tiny slices of the most delicious nougat.

Its a personal thing but I can't give this restaurant a lot of points for atmosphere. I say to Malcolm I feel its like eating in a bank. The room is tall and rectangular, the lighting is bright. There are white table cloths with a rather strange grey under cloth overhanging the tables. Unsurprisingly at this price level it is full of suited men. There are two exceptions which stand out. Two men in tea shirts, one with cap on (chefs, says Malcolm), and a solitary female diner (from a Eurpoean guide we discover, eating in solitary splendour). They provide some visual light relief. Bits of the eating experience were unquestionably very very good but overall the cathedral to food in a bank atrium atmosphere, and some aspects of the Michelin performance picture on a plate trying too hard for arresting flavour combinations doesn't totally do it for me; but of course with high reputation comes high expectation which can be difficult to satisfy.

Canteen

Royal Festival Hall

Belvedere Road

London SE1 8XX

0845 686 1122

Canteen is a small chain with branches in Spitalfields, Baker Street, Canary Wharf and the one we went to last night at the back of the Royal Festival Hall. It was 9pm and we had just been to an exhibition at the National Theatre and we wanted something quick, simple. Canteen sets out to do 'Great British Food': good value good food in a simple canteen environment. There is a Wagamama like feel to the place. Big open kitchen at the back. Long communal pine tables. Some smaller tables though too, with more comfortable banquette seating. The seating at the longer shared tables is self consciously uncomfortable: hard pine seats with no back support.

We try for a banquette table but there is only one available with side by side rather than facing seats. We go for the end of a shared table where we can sit opposite. The manager is solicitous. She sees we are having a discussion about where to sit and comes over, adjudicates, sees us to where we are happy to sit opposite each other.

The menu has fish, pies, a daily roast, stews and bakes which change daily as well as a short list of 'main dishes', steak and chicken. It is simple hearty British food. We go for the daily roast which is roast duck. It comes with cabbage and roast potatoes, gravy; and it comes fast. Five minutes after sitting down it is on the table. We have ordered red wine. It is four up from the bottom of the list in price: Chateau Saint Romains, Bordeaux 2007. It is £18.50. There is a good range of low priced wines. The food has come so fast we are worried there will be a long lag before the wine arrives. There isn't. It arrives a couple of minutes after the food.

So no complaints about the service! It is speedy. I suppose being right by the Festival Hall and National Theatre they are used to diners with a performance to catch. Our duck though is dry, overcooked. The roast potatoes are flabby. It is hot and filling nonetheless. The problem I have is that for one course with a modest bottle of wine two of us still end up paying a total of £51.90. I can eat much better than this in more comfort so the simple canteen, good food, quality equation simple doesn't stack up for me here. Why pay £13.50 for overcooked duck in discomfort when you can have the Brompton fish stew at the Brompton Bar and Grill for £14.00 (see review)? The place is nevertheless very well run. We talk to one of our waiters. Like us she is impressed by the manager who we learn is called Marianne. She is bustling about walking the floor, noticing everything, not too proud to help clear tables herself. Our waiter though is not happy. Only sharing in the tip pool brings wages above the minimum to £7 per hour. The kitchen staff are unhappy because there is no air conditioning in the kitchen. I won't go back.