The London Restaurant Review

Sainsburys Wine Offers

Sainsburys Online has got some good deals on a small selection of wines at the moment.

I have just ordered the following:

Château La Fleur Musset 2005 Montagne Saint Émilion - 6 bottles for £28.47
Lagunilla Reserva Rioja 2001 Spain £28.47 - 6 bottles for £28.47

Both are very good vintages and I am looking forward to drinking them.  The Rioja will be fantastic to drink now.  I would pair it with a good Roast or anything gamey.

The Claret I will probably try to keep for a couple of years.  The 2005 promises to be a really good year for Bordeaux and my guess is that this one will benefit from a little ageing.

Bob Geldorf Encounter

Well, who would have thought that I would bump into Bob Geldorf when visiting friends down in deepest Kent?

We went for lunch at a fantastic pub called The Sportsman, between Whitstable and Faversham.  It is a classic gastropub - light on smoke and old men, heavy on quality local food, interestingly prepared.

We were happily munching away on our starters, when one of our party remarked that she had seen Bob in the pub just the other week and that he was looking moody.  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the man himself, standing right behind us.  He must have over-heard but pretended he didn't and wandered outside to put his wellies on and go for a walk on the beach.

2 minutes later, Mariella Frostrup appears with kids in tow.

I can't promise that if you make it down to The Sportsman, you will spot celebs, but go for the food - it is really goo.

You can read the full review on The London Restaurant Review.

Protos, Ribera del Duero

I LOVE Ribera del Duero.  It's a region well-known to Spanish wine lovers, but not well known in the UK.  True, certain supermarkets are starting to stock the odd bottle, and Majestic always has a few on their list, but Rioja still dominates UK buyers, which is a shame.

One of my favourites is Protos, a great wine from a great Bodega.  Last Thursday in Barcelona, the restaurant we were in had a 2003 Crianza on their wine list for 29 euros  - bargain.  We drank the house dry (well, there were 28 of us).

Made with 100% Tinta Fina and with a Ribena-esque fruity taste (with a bit of oak in there too), this is a chunky wine that will go with most dishes, but best suited to red meats.  Chill it and it will go well with seafood.  At 13% though, be careful how much you drink!

I found one UK stockist, Baileys Wine Merchants, who are offering it for £16.50 a bottle.  You can see why I was happy to pay 29 euros for it in a restaurant.

Barcelona Dining

I've just got back from Barcelona - spent a few days there for business reasons and had the opportunity to revisit some of my favourite restaurants.

Barcelona has some amazing dining choices and most are very reasonably priced.  You should never need to pay more than around 30 euros a head for a very good meal anywhere in the city.

One of my favourite haunts is Sagardi.  It's very touristy because it is right in the centre of the old quarter, but it is great fun.

You stand up at the bar and take an empty plate.  You then eat as many of the bread based tapas as you like - they are laid out across the length of the whole bar.  Each tapa has a cocktail stick, so at the end of the eating session (it is very sociable), the barman counts up the number of cocktail sticks and charges you accordingly.  They are supposed to charge a couple of euros per tapa but they never do! It's always MUCH less.

To wash it down you should be drinking the very local Txakoli.  This is a very young wine from the North of Spain that is slightly green and slightly fizzy. It should be poured from a great height to give it some added sparkle.  It is fresh, fruity and guaranteed to give you a hangover if you have more than half a bottle.

The Cinnamon Club Applauds Nepal

Having won wide acclaim for being one of the most innovative Indian fine-dining restaurants, The Cinnamon Club in Westminster is drawing on its expertise to offer an original Indo-Nepalese menu for the very first time this March.

Launching its festival season, the imaginative menu is the brainchild of head chef Hari Nagaraj and Nepalese-born chef Manoj Mehta, whose insight into the country’s diverse cuisine proved invaluable.

The Kingdom of Nepal is a landlocked Himalayan country bordered by Tibet to the north and India to the south, east and west. For a small territory, the landscape is uncommonly varied, from the flat Terai marshlands to eight of the world’s fourteen highest mountains. As the single most Hindu nation in the world, and the birthplace of Buddha, Nepal has a long and rich history influenced by its neighbours, creating a culture and cuisine as wide-ranging as the topography itself.

Born to a family of politicians, chef Manoj Mehta initially came to England to further his academic studies. As a student he worked in a number of restaurants and soon realised that his real interest lay with cooking. Deciding to pursue this passion, Manoj joined The Cinnamon Club when the restaurant opened in 2001, and is now delighted to present a selection of his favourite classic Nepalese dishes in this, the first Cinnamon Club Festival of 2007.

Starters

Pork momos
Steamed pork dumplings with a hot chutney

Mutton sekwa
Grilled aged Herdwick mutton with Nepalese spices

Main course

Trishuli trout
Chargrilled whole trout with fisherman’s spices

Ghorkali lamb
Stir-fry of lamb with bamboo shoot and Ghorkha spices

Desserts

Gajar ko ‘hulwa’ with ‘sikarni’
Traditional carrot fudge with seasonal fruits in yoghurt

The Indo-Nepalese menu is only available at The Cinnamon Club throughout March, so there has never been a better time to try this heady Himalayan food.

The Cinnamon Club
The Old Westminster Library, 30-32 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BU
www.cinnamonclub.com t.020 7222 2555

Back to Cecconi's

So impressed was I with Cecconi's the last time that I took the wife here for brunch on Saturday.
Service was again top notch and the Saturday brunch vibe was much more relaxed.

The full menu is available all day.  I went for the Italian 'English' breakfast which was a big plate of tasty sausage, bacon, tomato, scrambled egg and toast.  All ingredients were top notch.  The wife had the wild mushroom omlette which she loved.

Add coffee, juice and papers and this really is a very nice place to spend a lazy Saturday lunchtime.

Raviolo Opening Party

I went to an opening party at Raviolo, the new concept restaurant in Balham last night.

It is on the same site as another Italian restaurant that stayed open for about a year before closing its doors to the Balham discerning foodies.

But I must admit that I think this one has a chance.  You can't beat the location, bang opposite the tube (although that didn't help the last one).  The boss man Tom seems to have the right philosophy and the menu is simple and good value.

I shall be going there in the next few weeks to do a full review.  In the meantime, it's open so go check it out for yourselves!

Breakfast venue recommendation

I had a lovely breakfast at Cecconi's yesterday with a business acquaintance.

Everything was top notch and a bargain at only £12 a head.  I gave the place 92% which is pretty generous for me.

Check out the full review here.

Alisan has a new menu

Alisan introduces £20 three-course set vegetarian menu*

Alisan, the new flagship restaurant launched recently by the Aroma Group, to offer dim sum and fine Cantonese dining, has introduced a set 3-course vegetarian menu.
Millions of Chinese ­ mainly Buddhists - opt for a vegetarian diet for religious or health reasons. Their cuisine is called ‘cai’ which means ‘cuisine’ or ‘vegetable’.
The basic ingredients of traditional Chinese vegetarian cuisine are soya bean products, wheat gluten, vegetable oils, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, seaweed, edible fungi, vegetables, fresh and dried fruits.

Vegetarian ‘Beef’ with Ginger and Spring Onion in Alisan's vegetarian set menu is actually wheat gluten with sauce and plant flavouring.

The ‘chicken’ in the Vegetarian ‘Chicken’ Satay is in fact soya protein with soya oil and natural seasoning. It is known as vegetarian "chicken" because soya protein has the texture of chicken.

Vegetarian Aromatic ‘Duck’ is beancurd skin prepared with soy sauce and natural seasoning made to taste like similar duck.

Among the four starters, Salt & Pepper Lotus Root is sliced fresh lotus root deep-fried lightly in self-raising flour. Commenting on the new vegetarian offering Alisan co owner and director Colin Wong said, “Not only does lotus root stimulate the appetite, but to the Chinese, it is a symbol of purity, perfection and beauty.”

The Junction, Wembley Retail Park, Engineers Way, Wembley HA9 0EG
T: 020 8903 3888 F: 020 8903 1188 W: *www.alisan.co.uk* <http://www.thearoma.co.uk>