London Food Detective

Rodizio Rico, Islington

Twitter Summary Review:

Unlimited meat feast with salad buffet.  Great for groups. Buzzing atmosphere. Ideal for blood thirsty carnivores! 

 Full review:

I needed cheering up. 

The trip to Rodizio was planned as a celebratory meal to toast Everton's F.A. Cup success, but sadly it wasn't to be.  Instead, I turned to Plan B: drown my sorrows and eat until I couldn't move.  After a couple of hours and half a cow later I'd succeeded.

We had a table for six booked for 9.00pm and were sat near the window.  The menus don't really need looking at as there are only really two options: meat (£20.50) or vegetarian (£15.50).  Everyone went for the meat.

Whilst we waited for our drinks order to be taken, the sense of anticipation was rising as my mouth salivated at the skewers of meat the waiters were carving and giving out to each diner.

After 20 minutes, I couldn't wait any longer and so I went up to the buffet and helped myself to a plate.  The buffet looked pretty good with a decent selection of items, but to be honest, i'd come for the meat and didn't want to stuff my plate with salad and so I (like the rest of the lads) opted for only a couple of token bits.  The girls were a bit more sensible and went for a plate full of salad and reported that it was good.

 

Back in our seats we waited.  The first two waiters ran out of meat before reaching us, but it didn't take long before a variety of meat was being presented to us.

The list of meat was impressive:

• Fillet, ribs and sirloin of beef
• Pork fillet and ribs
• Chicken Wings
• Lamb
• Sausage (a Toulouse style one and a smoked louzna-like one)

Most of the beef and lamb was served rare (some maybe a little too rare bordering on raw at times), but it was juicy, succulent and decent quality.

My favourite was a fantastic piece of pork fillet, that was beautifully moist and full of flavour. The  beef fillet was equally good.

The only disappointment were the ribs.  I thought the marinade was bland and the rib meat was tough. That said it was a minor blip and the rest of the meal made up for it.

 

The place was packed and it made for a lively atmosphere.  The waiters serving the meat were friendly and chatty and we never had to wait too long for the next skewer to come along.  They had to come regularly as it's fair to say that the four lads in the party all had healthy, bordering on gluttonous, appetites!

Rodizio Rico will never be haute-cuisine and it's nothing more than a conveyor belt of meat, but that said sometimes simple is good.  As an unabashed carnivore I really liked the place.  It's got an informal and lively atmosphere and it's ideal for groups and celebrations.  Overall i'd recommend it - just leave the vegetarians at home...

How i'd improve it

• We weren't sure what meats were available and due to be coming.  A chalk board listing the evening's selections or even a simple list on the table that you could keep track of what you've had so far would have been good.
• A better introduction to how it works - we weren't sure if we were meant to just go and help ourselves to the buffet or wait to be brought plates.

Bar Gansa, Camden

Twitter Summary Review:

Good buzz, slow service. Reasonably priced, but average tapas. Decent wine & cocktails. Veggie & seafood dishes better than the meat.

Full Review:

A few friends were staying with me ahead of a wedding we were all going to yesterday, so we thought we'd have a leisurely stroll down to Camden for a few pints and a bite to eat.  It was gone 9.30pm by the time we decided to put food choices to the vote.  I nominated burgers at Hache but was outvoted in favour of tapas at Bar Gansa. 

As we entered the place was full and really buzzing and we got a table near the front door, which is great for people watching.  At 10.00pm on a Saturday though this was mainly an electic mix of drunk teenagers queueing for the off-licence next door!

Before I go any further I should declare that Spanish food is one of my favourites and i've been known to spend a small fortune at Brindisa - so my standards are high when it comes to tapas.

Anyway, back to the meal.  We were waiting 20 minutes before anyone asked if we'd like a drink and we decided to order at the same time.

Three of us went for a selection of tapas, one for a seafood paella and one for a sizzling seafood dish.

Forty minutes and a couple of bottles of wine later the first tapas dishes arrived.

I tucked straight into the meatballs and stuffed yellow peppers (not red as it said on the menu). The meatballs were reasonable, but the sauce was fairly bland, however the peppers were pretty good with a generous helping of rice and melted cheese.

Next up was some disappointing and overcooked chorizo in red wine.  I'm a bit obsessed with chorizo and love the texture and flavour, but this was fairly chewy and no better than you can get from your local supermarket.

My favourite dish was a bit of a surprise.  The 'Tumbert' (a sort of aubergine lasagne) was excellent.  It was what good tapas should be all about - simple food, well executed and with plenty of flavour.

Garlic king prawns were ok, though my friend wasn't too keen on pulling their heads off, which is something I find strangely satisfying.  The dish I was most looking forward too was the Morcilla with black pudding and chilli pineapple salsa.  Sadly, like the previous chorizo, the morcilla disappointed.  In fact, i'm pretty sure it wasn't morcilla at all, but bog-standard British black pudding.  Most people probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference, but I could, it was drier and didn't crumble like the best morcilla i've had and the pineapple salsa just didn't work with it.

We had to pester the waiters to get us another bottle of wine whilst we waited for the two main dishes to arrive.  For some reason they decided to wait until three of us had finished our tapas before bringing out the paella and platter, which meant it was gone 11.00p.m. by the time it arrived!

Both the paella and platter contained a generous amount of fish.  I managed to nab a muscle and some squid when my friends weren't looking and both were good and tasty, which led to my inevitable food jealousy of not choosing the same...

We finished off the wine, got the bill (about £125 for 5, including 3 bottles of wine and the obligatory 12.5% service) and walked back up the hill home with a warm wine glow.

Overall, a good evening and I thought the buzz and vibe of the place compensated for the average food and slow service.  My friends enjoyed their meals, so it could be my Spanish food snobbery that has led me to be fairly critical and only rating the food average.

How i'd improve it

• The menu outside looked a bit shabby.  The case could do with a clean and it needs to lose the bluetac and things behind it.  It was also low down and so hard to read.
• The staff were really friendly, but could have been a bit more attentive.  We had to ask for more wine (twice) and also had to wait over an hour from arriving to getting our first dish.

Welcome!

I love food and I love blogging.  So why not blog about food? Elementary my dear...you know the rest!

I've just set a blog for my career work and thought it would be fun to start writing about some of the London restaurants I go to.

It's probably not the best time to start a food blog as my girlfriend is currently on a diet and we're trying to save cash for a new house, but i've still got a relatively full social diary, so should manage to get out at least once a week and report back.

I live near Belsize Park so there will probably be a bit of a bias towards my local area, but I have been known to eat south of the river on occassions.

Would love any feedback or comments so please get in touch.