London Food Detective

Bob Bob Ricard: Super Sunday lunch in sumptious surroundings

I've been wanting an excuse to go to Bob Bob Ricard for a long time and when my parents got tickets for Terry Wogan and wanted to go somewhere for Sunday lunch afterwards then I knew the time had come.

Located in Soho, the first thing to say is that decor in BBR is a decadent, opulent and over the top.  It conjures up images of a fancy dining car on the Orient Express and is a delightful throw back. You instantly feel like you're somewhere special and we received a warm welcome from the staff. 

In some ways the whole experience - menu, service, venue - at BBR reminds me of the The Ivy, but done just better on the whole.  The menu is nothing too flash or pretentious containing classic British dishes with a Russian influence.  I know that doesn't sound too inspiring, but it works.

Before moving on to the food a quick word about the service. 

Our server really struggled with my dad's North-East accent and it resulted in us being brought a wrong drinks order and having to repeat things a number of times (which we found quite amusing). 

However, I thought the waitress handled it really well - she apologised profusely about the drinks, proclaiming the memorable "It is no problem - here is the customer is king! I will sort it out for you" and then making sure she repeated everything we ordered back to us *very* slowly.  She was affable, friendly and attentive - for example, she made sure the water on the table was topped up constantly without asking.  A small thing, but it does make a difference and it's amazing how many restaurants fail to do it without asking.

As it was a Sunday three of us went for the roast beef Sunday lunch:

 

Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roasted veg and gravy

On our last Sunday lunch out together we went to Corrigan's and we all agreed this was better.  The roast beef (sourced from O'Shea's) was excellent.  Served medium-rare it was full of flavour and melted in the mouth.  The huge Yorkshire puddings were light and crisp and the roasted veg and greens all cooked perfectly.  Overall I was really impressed and it's got to be one of the best Sunday lunches I've had.

Cornish Crab Cake with tomatoes, leeks and a fired Quail's egg

My mum went for the crab cakes and was equally delighted. There was plenty of sweet crab meat in the cake and it went well with the tomoatoes and egg.

Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

I was a little disappointed with my chocolate raspberry trifle as I felt the proportions were wrong.  Too much cream on the top and not enough of the delicious chocolate and raspberry at the bottom!

A mini-selection of cakes

Grace went for a mini-selection of cakes, which she wolfed down in a flash and didn't share with anyone! Her favourites were a rum-baba (minus the rum) and a light Battenberg cake.

Overall, BBR really impressed from start to finish. It's now the place I'd go and  recommend to people if they want a high quality, but non-Michelin star style, meal in London. Good stuff.

 

All's well at The Wells

Despite being one of the wealthier areas of London, Hampstead has a dearth of really good, high end places to eat.  By far the best food is to be found at the Wells pub, which i've visited on numerous times over my three years of living in the area and I thought it was high time I wrote a review of the place.

The Wells is situated close to the heath and the main downstairs pub reflects this with dogs being welcomed inside, big comfy sofas to relax on and there is a general laid back feel to the place.

For special occasions and for more formal dining they also have an upstairs dining room that is open throughout the week. The menu isn't anything fancy and combines a number of traditional dishes (bangers & mash, steak) with more unusual ingredients such as barbary duck and venison. Generally the food is uncomplicated, but highly accomplished and I've yet to have a bad meal there.

My latest visit was for Sunday lunch and I went along with Grace and my parents on a cold and miserable day looking forward to a filling, wholesome lunch.  We weren't disappointed.

From previous experience I know the Wells are pretty generous with their portions and that the desserts are especially good, so as we'd been out the night before we skipped starters and went straight into the main courses.

Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding

Don't worry, the roast beef did come with veg (it's hidden behind the yorkshire) and was, as usual, delicious. Three, generous slabs of rare, melt-in-the-mouth beef were packed full of flavour and were served with the sort of rich, meaty gravy that I could almost drink neat.  The veg was perfectly cooked and my only complaint would be the roast potatoes.  I like mine really crispy and whilst these were soft and fluffy in the middle, the outside had no crunch. Overall, a very good Sunday lunch.

Sea Bream with winter greens and new potatoes

Mam was delighted with her sea bream. The fish was light and delicately cooked and combined well with the accompanying tomato and basil reduction. Again the accompanying green beans, kale and potatoes were perfectly cooked and it was a good all round dish.

Venison with blackcurrants, pumpkin puree, kale and parsnip crisps

I've had this dish on two previous visits and it's fantastic. The sweetness of the blackcurrants, pumpkin puree and accompanying sauce perfectly compliment the richness of the venison. As a lover of all things parsnip the crisps are an added bonus and provide a contrasting texture and crunch. It's a really top dish and shows off the skills of the kitchen and their understanding of flavours and ingredients. Excellent.

Pannacotta

The Wells' pannacotta is also a favourite of mine.  It has a firm texture, more vanilla flavour and is sweeter than other pannacottas I've had and I prefer their version over blander, milkier ones I've had.  It came with a fig and strawberry sauce, which wasn't as good as the blood orange version I had in the autumn (which was one of my fav desserts of the year), but still went well with the pannacotta.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Sticky toffee pudding is a long standing family favourite and my mam is a particular expert on all things sticky toffee (her favourites remain the Cartmel Village Shop one).

The pudding itself was a little dry, but came with plenty of toffee sauce to make up for it and was a good, if not spectacular version.

Service was friendly, chatty and efficient as usual and overall it was another excellent meal at the Wells.  The kitchen consistently turn out good, unpretentious food and it is by far the best food I've had in and around Hampstead.  It's not cheap and comes with the almost customary 12.5% service charge, but I believe it's money well spent and deserves the various accolades it has won.  I'm going to miss having it on my doorstep!

St Pancras Grand, King's Cross: Grand setting, but service hits the buffers...

I was coming back down from a weekend up north and wanted somewhere to go close to King’s Cross station for Sunday lunch. I’ve been into St Pancras a few times and thought I’d check out St Pancras Grand.

It’s certainly an impressive setting. Based on the upper level of St Pancras and adjacent to the champagne bar, the restaurant is all mirrors, shiny metal and dark material and it seems to be trying to recreate the elegance of a bygone era.

It has a feel of the Orient Express about it, as it tries to get travellers to treat themselves to something a bit more exotic than a pre-packaged Pret sandwich before their departure – to be honest, it is probably more appealing for a romantic trip to Paris than a journey to Milton Keynes!

The menu comprises a number of British classics, oysters and had a special set Christmas menu (expensive at £39.95 for three courses & a ‘free’ Christmas bellini).  It is similar to a menu you might find at the Wolseley or the Ivy.  It’s quite expensive, although there are usually a number of deals available sites like Top Table.

The restaurant was probably around a third full and we were given a lovely table close to the jazz band that they have playing on a Sunday and were brought a basket of ok warm white bread.

I decided to keep it simple and went for the sausages and mash and Grace went for the two course Christmas menu and had turkey. We also decided to share a side of roasted winter veg.

We were served quite quickly, but from then on things went down hill.

Sausage & Mash

The sausage and mash were fine. The pork sausages were well cooked and lightly seasoned. Personally I’d prefer a coarser Cumberland sausage with more seasoning, but you can’t have everything.  The mash was good, very smooth and buttery. The red wine gravy was quite intense and reduced to quite a thick consistency. Personally I liked it and overall it was a decent, if relatively expensive sausage and mash (£12.00).

Roast Turkey with roast potatoes, brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce.

G’s turkey was also ok. A generous slab of turkey breast that was moist and had a good flavour to it. The highlight were the crispy roast potatoes, which were excellent.  The rest of the dish in G's words was 'unmemorable'.

The roasted veg was a let down.  The carrots and parsnips were bland and under seasoned and the beetroot was undercooked in the middle.

It was after the mains that things started to deteriorate service wise.

First up, there was no sign of the bellini, so I asked the waiter about it. He told us he didn’t think we wanted it (nice of him to decide for us) and so hadn’t brought it over.  As we’d finished our mains I told him not to bother!

Secondly was the delivery of our desserts.

I went for sticky toffee pudding and G for dark chocolate terrine with raspberry sorbet from the set menu.  The desserts came out about ten minutes later, but were completely different from what we ordered and so we sent them back.

Another ten minutes later they reappeared.  Things improved this time as they managed to get one of them right, but they still managed to get one wrong and so, for a second time, we sent a dessert back. There was no apology forthcoming and our waiter was distinctly unimpressed by this. You could see him complaining to one of his colleagues about us right in view of us.  Not very professional and it made us feel like we were in the wrong!

They left us with the correct one and as it was a warm dessert I had to tuck in whilst we waited for the other to appear.  It’s a good job I did, as after another ten minutes I was finished and there was still no sign of the other dessert. This time the manager came over to remove our plates (he wasn’t aware of the problem) and we had to explain that we had only received one dessert.  To be fair to him, he was very apologetic and the dessert appeared soon after, though not before we spotted our friendly waiter rolling his eyes at us again!

We finished dessert and asked for the bill. Fortunately they decided to remove the service charge (I would’ve hit the roof if they’d left it on) and the whole dessert episode completely spoiled what would’ve been an ok meal.

It seems we weren’t the only ones to experience the poor service.  On the way out I saw a guy come into the restaurant as he had a reservation.  He was asked to go back outside into the freezing cold and wait by the unmanned reservations desk for the rest of his party.  You could tell by the look on his face that this left him completely baffled!

It’s such a shame that the service let the place down, as St Pancras Grand has the potential to be a fine way to start any trip.

Corrigan's, Mayfair

Going out for Sunday lunch has always been a big tradition with my family and my passion for eating out developed when I was growing up.  My parents would always be on the look out for new places to go and try and we'd travel long distances in the North East if we heard of a particularly good place to go.

Therefore, whenever my parents come down to visit me, I always try to take them somewhere that they will enjoy and can tell their friends about when they go home. 

On previous visits I've taken them to the Ivy and the Gherkin, but this was the first time they'd been down for Sunday lunch, so after some advice via Twitter I plumped for Corrigan's in Mayfair.

The set menu was a reasonably priced £27 for 3 courses, with a £10 supplement for the beef. They also had a slightly annoying £2 cover charge and I couldn't understand why they just didn't make the price £29.

The room was large and busy with a good vibe.  They had some unusual feather covered light shades and carvings of deer and game on the walls and it made for a nice setting.  We were seated right at the back of the room and the three of us were squeezed round a table that probably was only meant for two.  It wasn't a huge problem, but the table did become cramped when our mains were served.

The menu had a choice of six options for each course (though no vegetarian option!) and I went for the country terrine and the beef.  My parents both had rabbit to start, followed by black bream for mam and lamb for dad.

The country terrine was a perfectly good terrine, although I found the accompanying orange marmalade a little bit tart and slightly overpowering. A reasonable start though.

Both parents enjoyed the rabbit.  The meat was tender and cooked beautifully pink and the deep fried breadcrumbs provided a good crunch and contrast to the rabbit and egg.  There was also a little bit of blue cheese on top, which just added a bit of extra flavour.

There was no messing with my roast beef main.  Just two thick, rare, slices of rib of beef, served with an excellent yorkshire pud and a tasty, thick gravy (though some people may have found it a bit greasy, I thought it was just right) and horseradish cream. A classic dish, well executed.

All the mains were served with really crunchy roast potatoes with a pillowy soft centre.  Dad complained they hadn't been turned and so one side was more well done than the other, but I suppose it is a matter of personal preference. Vegetables were buttered carrots and green beens.

Dad really enjoyed the lamb, which came with a pepper salsa. Again it was just a lovely piece of meat, well cooked and simply presented and dad scoffed up every bit.

Mam was equally pleased with her black bream (no photo - sorry) and pronounced it a 'lovely, delicate piece of fish'.

Onto desserts and first up, mam went for a chocolate delice with hazelnut ice cream.  After the previous day's ice cream, I thought she may have been 'chocolated' out, but no, she wolfed down every bit and declared it excellent.

I went for sticky toffee pudding and it was slightly disappointing.  I found it a bit stodgy and lacking in fruit.  I would have preferred a flatter, squarer piece that soaked up the toffee sauce a bit better, as the centre was a little dry. I would've also liked the option of custard or ice cream to accompany it.

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The picture doesn't really do justice to the last dessert. It was eggy bread with poached pears and chocolate sauce.  The waiter brought out a cauldron of chocolate sauce and my dad insisted on three scoops, which totally smothered the rest of the dessert. It was worth it though as he savoured every mouthful and loved the poached pears and chocolate.  I don't think i've seen him enjoy a dessert as much.

Whilst we were having dessert Richard Corrigan came out from the kitchen and said hello to a few diners and sat with one table.  He seemed a very friendly, affable guy and the restaurant seemed to reflect this ethos.

Overall, i'd rate it as a very good set menu lunch.  Excellent ingredients, well cooked and served in an unpretentious way.  I would definitely return next time I want to impress someone with a reasonable value Sunday lunch.  You can see why the place has received a number of plaudits and though there's still room for improvement, overall I left full and impressed.