Alternative Nightlife June-July 2015

I keep saying I’ll start doing more posts which give a heads up on upcoming events and then I get so behind on my actual blog posts I don’t! But here’s another stab at it.

Basically, here’s a bit of a rundown of what’s coming up on my Meetup over the next month, so if you fancy coming along, do feel free!

First up this weekend we’re heading to Paperworks which has been the year-long pop-up outside space brought to you by Corsica Studios. They have DJs and food and it’s sounded fun so we’re going on its final weekend!

Next weekend is a big one – it’s Antichrist’s 11^th birthday July 3rd so we’re going along to that. This is only my third Antichrist, and, even though it wasn’t hugely busy last time, I had a really good night and I expect it to be even better on its birthday. My first visit coincided with such an occasion and I loved it.

Then, the next night (the 4th), a complete change of pace. Bourne and Hollingsworth, the supremos in themed party nights (Blitz, Prohibition) have a new one! This time we’re only going back as far as the 90s, with Playback. This feels a little too recent in my mind to make a theme around it but if anyone can do it, B & H can! They’re promising the finest music of the era, some live acts, décor harking back to the 90s and drinks inspired by the colour/tackiness of the time as well (frozen daquiris and wibbles anyone?)! Dress up in your finest denim and fringerie and come along!

In fact, the Meetup are back in Bourne & Hollingsworth’s presence the weekend after that as well, when we attend the Chap Olympiad. Nothing but the silliest/most refined sports to be enjoyed from this event – things like moustache wrestling or, of course umbrella jousting. Spiffing!

And then I’m rounding off the month with another dip into the kinky side of life – my first Camden Crunch. As I haven’t been before I don’t know what exactly to expect – it’s a more laid back, casual event than other fetish nights as it’s not a proper clubnight, more of a get together party. But I’m sure it will be full of the lovely folk I’ve come to expect from these sorts of things.

In between all these weekend shenanigans, we’ve got some immersive theatre to get to at The Jetty again. We really enjoyed The Boy who Climbed out of his Face from Shunt there last year and hope that Zebedee Productions can put the shipping containers to equally good use with Heartbreak Hotel. And there’s some silly fun to be had as Last Man Standing Quiz is back on the 1^st of July! All the fun of a pub quiz without the pressure to actually know anything!

2014 in Review

Everyone loves a bit of retrospection at the end of the year and I am no exception. It's very interesting to go through your blog stats and see what was popular and what was not. It's always a bit of a surprise. 

Lots of people do their Top 5 or whatever and I am going to do that too. But I also want to share some of the posts that I think deserved a bit more attention than they got. So, I've got a Top 10 least read - separating them out into Food and Other.

Here we go

Top 10 Least read Food posts

1) Morty & Bob - ubercheesy goodness.

2) Grill My Cheese - more cheesy goodness. With pork!
3) United Ramen - not-quite-hitting-the-spot noodles.
4) Ribstock - um, maybe the best day ever? So many ribs.
5) Bird - waffle burger. That is all.
6) Flat Iron - value for money tasty steak.
7) Roti King - drool. Freshly made rotis.
8) Salvation in Noodles - neighbourhood noodle joint.
9) St Moritz - more cheese! But too pricey.
10) Chez Elles - perfectly French bistro.

Top 10 Least read Non-Food posts

1) East London Liquor - East London's only distillery. Tres cool.

2) Rock Paper Scissors Championship - way more fun than you'd expect

3) Freemasons - ridiculous grandeur

4) Double Denim - not the 90s night billed

5) Luna Cinema - floating on water is the best way to see a film.

6) Design Museum - ingenious innovation

7) Regression Sessions - a blast, for the young at heart and actually young

8) Shunt - weird and wonderful

9) The Victoria - literally my new favourite neighbourhood pub

10) The Warwick - prime example of awful West End bars.

And here we go... my Top 5 Most Popular Posts of the Year!
Congratulations to those below:

5) Opera Tavern - small plates/tapas with style

4) Clutch - top notch fried chicken

3) Oslo - cool new bar for food and drinks, great space for gigs and clubnights upstairs

2) Tongue Fu - a spoken word night like no other

1) White Mink (by a long way) - electro swing bringing one of the best parties in London!

St Moritz, 22nd May

Menu

Now, most people will tell you that cheese is actually a pretty expensive grocery to buy. Which must explain why fondue is such an overpriced dish, none more so than the ones served in St Moritz (the restaurant, not the club, though it is above the club). There's a choice of about five, starting with a very basic one which comes with only bread and is a mix of gruyere and emmenthal and costs £17.90 per person, all the way up to the ones that are meat in sauces which are £25.95 per person. Minimum two people so you have to take someone with you who also wants fondue if that's what you've got in mind. Not that you must have fondue - they have plenty of other things as well such as veal escalopes, steaks or calves liver.

Nothing more extravagant than vegetables or mushrooms are served with the cheese fondue, so we had the moitie-moitie - gruyere and vacherin, which came with bread and potatoes. All the fondues also have white wine. We also ordered a rosti on the side (yes, more potato) to try to sample a range of things.

I did like the fondue, because I always like anything to do with cheese, but it could have been thicker in my opinion. I think the wine gave it a good kick and the mix of cheese was a nice blend but not nice enough to make the price any less painful. All our bland little boiled potatoes were cooked well - not over or undercooked and the bread was of a sufficient density to handle being dunked in molten cheese. Was it bread made in-house, or even brought in from a reputable bakery? I highly doubt it. It wasn't the kind of stuff you wanted to eat on its own, it served merely as a conduit to get the cheese to your mouth.

The rosti was actually pretty tasty - it was huge so I'm glad we shared, and it was nice and crispy on the outside, and, again not spoiled by undercooking. There was also quite a lot of cheese in our saucepan and we weren't able to finish it all between the two of us.

Prices for beverages felt outrageous. The house wine was £4.30 for a small glass (125ml) but a diet coke was itself over £3.00 so I felt I might as well go for the alcohol. 

The place is definitely verging on a corny themed restaurant, but doesn’t quite take it to the extremes it would need to get there. Everything about it is a reference to Switzerland and the country in some way although it’s not immediately obvious. (We missed the cows on our saucepan of fondue until the end for instance.) It was a much smaller space than I expected, though I think there’s an upstairs, and I felt a little squeezed into our table. Not the best dining experience I’ve ever had; I would undoubtedly choose Androuet over St Moritz for fondue in terms of surroundings, price and what you are given.

 

Far Rockaway, 2nd May

Far Rockaway is a riot of colour and art. Every surface is covered in it, even the support structures and pillars and bathroom walls! It’s loud and it’s fun and I liked it straight away.

I had been invited to come down and review a meal. I’d seen a few comments and knew they did big, American-style pizzas and wanted to compare them to the other scant offerings in London. I didn’t have very high hopes, expecting another quantity over quality affair a la Earlham Street Clubhouse.

As for the other food, I strongly suspected that, for the type of American diner stuff they were offering, you could get it better elsewhere (thinking Red Dog, Orange Buffalo etc). But I am always willing to be convinced otherwise.

I got there at about 7:30, and while waiting for Stephen to arrive ordered us a couple of wine cocktails on tap. Being as I didn’t actually see the cocktails poured, the novelty was rather lost, but they were a pleasant enough, summery drink, nothing particularly special about them.

I already had an idea of what I wanted to try – I haven't seen a mac n cheese spring roll on anywhere else's menu so we had to get one of those. And Stephen wanted some wings to start. And then, we just had to share one of the 18-inch pizzas, choosing the 'Garbage Pie'. A very unattractive name belies a rather grown-up sounding pizza - pancetta, USA sausage and artichoke.

The table looked like it was (and indeed turned out to be) only just big enough to hold said pizza, so we got our wings and spring roll to come out beforehand.

The wings were ok - a little spicy, kinda on the small side, not much meat to them, a touch of sweetness. I ate them quite happily but knew they weren't a patch on others I'd had elsewhere. The mac n cheese spring roll however, was rather delish. It was more like a big mozzarella stick - the cheese inside all stringy and gooey rather than runny. I dread to think how bad that was for you.

Both plates came with some side crudites and a dip, but we didn't even get a chance to pretend we were going to eat them – as soon as we'd finished the main event, our plates were whisked away. Probably no one does bother with the veggies, in which case it seems a shame to waste them as mere decoration on the plate.

Soon after that came our pizza. Set up high, with room for chilli oil, parmesan and chilli flakes underneath, this certainly looked the real deal. 

And honestly, it tasted as close to it as I reckon you're ever going to get over here. A crispy, thin base, lots of cheese, and toppings that each had a really good flavour of their own made a bit of a masterpiece altogether. I was so surprised! The sausage was garlicky, the artichoke was beautiful – possibly marinated in lemon. And, crucially, after the equivalent of two US slices of the pizza, I was pretty stuffed. However, we were going for a few drinks after and I couldn't bear this pie going to waste, so I forced in a fourth, feeling proud of myself for conquering half the pie, sipping red wine as I digested. They give thanks to two guys from NY on their menu, and these guys deserve thanks and praise indeed. 

As we ate, we surveyed the other customers' food and saw quite a lot of burgers. I had no food envy – they didn't look particularly appealing. No, the pizza is where it's at here. I would be hard pressed to choose between Voodoo Ray's and this joint. So I won't. Voodoo Ray's has more adventurous toppings but I reckon Far Rockaway might just pip them in authenticity. Hats off to you!

I was way too full to contemplate dessert, or even one of their dessert cocktails, so I didn't get to judge the Mississippi Mud Pie I'd have gone for. But it won't be the last time I grab some pizza from here, I'm sure. 

Dirty Bones, 24th April

Firstly, I've got to commend the soundtrack in Dirty Bones - a mixture of soulful old school funk, and sultry modern R n B. Everyone I was with thought the music was excellent and completely matched the 70s retro lounge feel of the place.

So, good impressions from the start and happily the food also lived up to these.

I'd actually already had a Dirty Bones hot dog from when they launched and were giving away dogs for free, so I knew, in essence, that I already liked their hot dogs. But those were just the classic yankees - some ketchup, mustard and spring onion. I wanted to try some of the speciality hot dogs, and found it very hard to choose between the Mexican (topped with pulled pork, cactus salsa, lime sour cream and guacamole) and the Asian (topped with wasabi mayo, seaweed, sesame seeds and kimchi). As much as I love Mexican flavours, I thought the Asian one sounded unlike any other hot dog I'd tried so I wanted to see if it would work. A couple of people had the Brit Dog (treacle bacon, mature beer cheddar and curried gherkins) while one person did have the Mexican, and someone had the Frenchie (chives, celeriac remoulade, crispy shallots and roast garlic puree) but on a veggie dog.

We enquired about the 'Dirty fries' and found out they were their regular triple cooked fries but topped with cheese and jalapenos and onions. They sounded amazing but with my Asian dog I though it might be a bit much. As it happens, these dirty fries are done in quite an understated way and I wouldn't have felt like a right pig if I'd ordered them as well. I satisfied myself with regular fries as well.

While we waited for the food, we all had a cocktail each. I couldn't resist having something whiskey-based and had the Big Apple - JD, lillet rouge, peychaud bitters, and it came with a warm slice of toffee apple on the top which was absolutely delicious! Quite a lot of people took a risk and ordered the highly alcoholic sounding Deputy Dog (a lot of the cocktails are dog-themed) which had tequila in it, plus solerno and fresh mint, making it quite similar to a mojito. But it was also topped up with Ting and was a long drink, rather than a short one so wasn't quite as potent as everyone thought it might be. 

Our hot dogs shortly arrived and I liked the look of mine straight away. Eating it was even better. My hot dog had a good girth to it, even if it was a little 'short'. I would say it still stings a little to be paying £8.50 for a hot dog, but the price is comparable to other places, and if I were to directly compare it to, say Bubbledogs, I would say I liked this place a lot better. The hot dogs available are more interesting, bigger, and, well, better!

I loved my Asian dog - all the flavours added up to a delicious bite every time, and still retained the hot dog taste underneath, not overpowering it. The crunchy seaweed on top was worth ordering this one alone, and the wasabi was at a perfect level for me - like English mustard, I can't handle too much.

Everyone else was full of praise for their hot dogs, and the girl who ordered the veggie version was loudest among them. I think she was genuinely surprised to find herself liking a hot dog so much, not having been much of a fan of them before, and she said more than once how impressed she was. 

The fries were great, nice and crunchy. I must say though, that even though I'm sure they were triple fried, does it really need to be mentioned on the menu? They're really good fries but by highlighting that they're triple fried it almost gives me expectations way beyond what I'm actually getting. 

We left after we ate because, even though we liked the place, there's no denying it's pricey. Cans of beer (yes, cans' not bottles) were £5.00 and although wine looked priced normally, I suspect that was for small measures (they didn't specify on the menu). Even then we might have stayed but it was the day before pay day.

So, everyone liked the place. Which was a relief. I've got myself a bit of a reputation for knowing the 'cool' places to go and keeping on top of the Zeitgeist and this was the first place we had all been on my recommendation. So thanks Dirty Bones, for keeping my rep' intact!

Secret Cinema 21, 20th April

When I was invited to Secret Cinema with fellow Nuffnang bloggers The Prosecco Diaries and Hectophilia, I was told I could write about anything I wanted, as long as I didn't reveal the location, film, or even what time the film starts. Should be a cinch!

I'd actually been to Secret Cinema once before so I kind of knew what to expect, but they still managed to surprise me. Prices have steadily gone up through the years, but you can see where it goes. They're getting close to rivalling Punch Drunk in terms of creating a whole new world, with amazing attention to detail. And there was a lot more interaction this time, making you feel part of the wider story, with characters you could follow, as well as a few set pieces to give you a clue to the movie you were living within (once again it was a movie I'd seen but I still didn't guess it!).

But first, to gain entry to this illicit world, we had a certain person with whom to rendez-vous. In this era when you have to have your wits about you, I thought I'd best go under an assumed name. I was Maria Smith (try and trace that!) and I was about to enter a world where you didn't know quite who to trust but one thing was clear - money talked and law and order wasn't much more than a notion.

We wandered all over the joint, stopping for a drink or two before mingling with what I would say were some of the more unsavoury characters in town. They tried to get us to to help out with one of their schemes, and being of a curious nature, I went along with it, but before long we were being whisked into the kind of company I'm more accustomed to. Or, well, I thought I was speaking with a fine, upstanding politican. Sure, he was sweet-talking us because he wanted our vote but all politicians do that. Then things got kinda nasty - he started roughing up his secretary and I began to have my suspicions he was no better than a crook! As luck would have it, it was election night and I was able to immediately take a stand against him by voting for the other guy. At least, I hope I did... the polling station was right by the bank and just as I was enquiring as to what sort of loan would be available to me (I'm starting to expand my extremely well regarded beauty shop chain), we were rudely interrupted by some hoodlums! They took everything so who knows what they did to the votes. I was left with barely enough to ensure entry (if you know what I mean - like I say, money talks) for me and my gals, to the swankiest bar in town. 

There may have been a little gambling going on the side, I'm sure I don't know. What I can tell you is that this place was jumping and the cats in the band were swinging. 

Time in this shady world flew by, before we knew it the movie was about to start. And all I will say is... keep your eyes open even then.

Back in the cold light of day, Ieaving my alter-ego behind, I have to say I was hugely impressed with this 'edition' of Secret Cinema and it has stoked in me a desire to go to more, whereas with the first one I wasn't convinced it was worth the now almost-60 quid asking price. 

So leave yourself behind and become a part of this fictional world. You'll have an amazing experience. But Tell No One.

The Joker of Penton Street, 12th April

My first visit to the Joker was on a balmy Thursday before heading to Smokehouse and we just had one quick drink sitting outside, which meant I wasn't really able to assess the place.

I had the chance to come back three days later with some friends for some early evening drinking on a Saturday. We got there at about six and were practically the only people in the place. It's not on the 'strip' of Upper Street's bars and restaurants so if you don't know it's there, you wouldn't know it's there. Luckily, I do.

It's a cool pub with a modern style. Definitely a pub not a bar, but light and airy with a few quirky decorations thrown in. I loved the huge wooden comedy/tragedy masks and the 'Be Here Now' clock.

They also currently have Tongue 'n' Cheeks in residence serving up their famous heartbreaker burgers (so-called because beef heart is mixed in) but they've got a few other things to choose from as well if you don't like burgers, offal, or the idea of them both combined. I would fall into this camp so I had the picchiapo fries - chips topped with some fantastic, juicy pulled brisket that had been cooked with peppers and onions in a tomatoey sauce, a take on a traditional Roman dish apparently. And the chips this was heaped on weren't bad neither. They also do a philly cheesesteak which one of my friends had. This was a pretty hearty serving of meat and cheese overflowing from a hoagie-type roll.

Two of my friends did order the burger and loved them (I don't think they actually realised any heart was involved and I didn't want to tell them!). We then settled back and had more than a few pints and bottles of wine between us, before leaving at around 9.

It was a really chilled out place, perfect for a bunch of friends to catch up, and actually be able to hear each other - no din of music or crowds. In that respect it shares elements in common with an 'old man's pub' but this is definitely for the younger pub-goer. They also have gigs and quiz nights on in the week if you want to do more than just sit and drink. An excellent haven from the hustle and bustle of 'Supper Street'.

The Craft Beer Co is also just around the corner and doesn't get too rowdy, so we went there for a couple, before making our way to Dalston for Scared to Dance, which I'm pleased to say was much livelier and rocking than the first one I went to!

Le Mercury, 11th April

Le Mercury makes its name by being cheap and cheerful. Well, not exactly cheerful, more romantic. You see, the whole place is lighted by candles rather than artificial light which makes it a perfect place for a date. In my case, a girl date with my best friend.

Everyone who knows Le Mercury knows it has a reputation for doing decent food at really cheap prices. I mean, really cheap. ALL main courses are a mere £9.95, and ALL starters are just shy of £5. That's right. Want rib-eye steak? £10. Want fillet of sea bass? £10. It's quite ridiculous.

At these prices of course it is silly not to get a starter and a main (and you should probably get dessert too, as they're only £3.45, although we didn't). For our starters I had the Terrine de Jambonneau - ham hock terrine with piccalilli and toast and my friend had Ravioli de la Mer - crayfish and lobster with spinach and a shellfish sauce.

Ok, my terrine was not amazing, and terrines are something I have much experience of. It came out resembling a patty and wasn't as course and chunky, or well, meaty, as I'd like. And the piccalilli was pretty lacklustre compared to other homemade versions I've been served. This was watery and I suspect came out of a jar. But I didn't really mind - it was only a fiver!

Alison's ravioli was actually a raviolo - one big pocket of seafood. It certainly looked good, and my friend said she really liked it but I didn't try it myself as I didn't want to deprive her of her sole piece.

The mains, however, totally won me over. They were of a much higher quality than I was expecting for the price. I had the roast saddle of lamb with grilled courgettes and rosemary jus (how good does that sound? Rosemary jus!) and Alison had the rib-eye. Well, someone had to at that price. We got some chips to share but it turned out my lamb came with pomme puree anyway.

And the meat was great. I'm not pretending it was organic, hung for however-many-days, grass fed and massaged with beer, but it was juicy, tender and flavoursome and cooked to our preference.

I can see why this place has the reputation it does and why it rapidly filled as we ate. What a great place to eat without breaking the bank.

West End Live, 23rd June

As 3 guys on a London Bus and Diamond Geezer pointed out, this weekend there was a glut of things to do, several of which were on my List. I knew, however, that it would be too much of a challenge, even for me, to fit in most of it, so I decided to concentrate on West End Live as it was central and I had some other things to do in town. After carefully planning my route in so that I would end up at Leicester Square, I arrived there to find it strangely empty. Where was West End Live? Wasn’t this the most obvious location to represent the West End? And, more to the point, wasn’t this where it always was? A quick check of twitter and I discovered that this year they were in Trafalgar Square. I quickly trotted over there to be met with a queue of people waiting to get into the West End Live area. This was a much bigger affair than I was expecting. I’m sure a few years ago I came across West End Live in its infancy, and it just took up a small corner of Leicester Square. I was not expecting all this, especially not the queuing.  The weather was changeable and I didn’t have an umbrella. I was beginning to think my W.E.L. journey was coming to an end. There were a lot of people around but it was still possible to just about see and hear what was going on on the stage, from the outskirts of Trafalgar Square. The big screens either side of the stage helped. I watched a couple of songs from Dreamboats and Petticoats and as the queue was still there, decided to walk around the Square.

Which is when I came across some of the cars from the movies. There was a bit of a queue to get into see them up close, but if you didn’t mind not touching them, then there was plenty of space at the barriers to take pictures.  I hadn’t even noticed these from the entrance barrier so I was thankful for the queue forcing me to walk around. I then went to the other side to see if there was anything similar over there. There wasn’t, but two of the decorated phone boxes were on the island so I went over to the them to have a look. 


And discovered a plaque saying that this was the spot from which all London distances are measured - I can’t believe I’d never seen that before.

I walked up to the top of the Square and discovered that on this side, there was no real queue, just a line of people steadily walking in. So I joined and went into the area. It wasn’t very crowded in there after all. Yes, there were people but there was also a lot of space and you could easily make your way quite close to the stage. Around the edges (inside) there were booths from places such as Madame Tussauds and the Film Museum, giving you a chance to have a picture taken with a couple of wax models or see some movie artefacts. And obviously to encourage you to go to the real thing and see the rest.

I got in and saw the Spamalot time slot. I really had not timed my visit very well. I wanted to see some snippets of shows I hadn’t seen but wanted to, and instead I got there to see Spamalot which I’d already seen, and then the children-oriented shows like Angeline Ballerina and Horrible Histories. (Actually, the latter was quite amusing.) I did also get to see a sneak preview of The In-Between, a sort of fantasy musical, but I wasn’t too impressed by the songs I heard.

Also, in between the sets, the hosts would chit chat amongst each other, trying to gee up the audience and there was often a few moments where the camera would cut to a 'reporter on the beat' who brought us news of what was happening in the surrounding tents. It all felt a little unnecessary, and I wished they would just get on with the songs. However, it did lead surprisingly to a highlight - they had one of the cast from War Horse in the crowd - with puppet horse. I managed to get quite a good picture.

I stayed about an hour, leaving just as The Big Dance was finishing. This was a dance troupe who came on and danced Zumba for a few songs. I think the audience was supposed to be encouraged into participating but this wasn’t very clear and there were very few people dancing along. If you were a few rows back you suspected that maybe the front was dancing, but the cameras stuck to the stage, not the audience so you couldn’t be sure. I think they missed an opportunity here to get a bit of a flash dance mob going. And the dancers on stage weren’t even very good. So, off I went in search of sustenance.

The London Stone, 21st April

I have found myself on Cannon Street, where I know the London Stone to be, on many occasions and each time I tried to keep an eye out for the stone with nary a glimpse of it. I found the London Stone pub and had a good scout in its environs but could not see the stone. This is probably because until recently I wasn't really sure what I was looking for. I imagined some great boulder sitting on the street perhaps encased in glass for everyone to see. It is thanks to the LondonStuff blog that I finally knew what to look for, and found it today (huzzah) with ease.

As you may or may not know, this Stone goes back yonks, having been written about in the 10th century. It is said that if it ever leaves London, then London will fall, and popular legend has it that it could be the very stone from which Arthur pulled Excalibur. Nowadays it sits unassumingly behind a grill on Cannon Street, where, in the harsh light of day, it is quite hard to actually see the stone at all. An anticlimax for some who are seeking it perhaps, but I was well aware of what to expect and so still had some satisfaction from finally seeing it. And so - here it is:

The Stone

Inscription

Arbutus, Friday 16th September

The basis/inspiration for my lists are Time Out’s excellent 1000 Things to do books in…, in this case London. It has since mutated to include recommendations and things I see as I go about my daily life, plus other sources. I’ve recently joined the Twittersphere and that is brilliant for discovery.

My boyfriend and I find Time Out’s recommendations to be a bit hit and miss to be honest. But that just gives us the perfect excuse to try things out for ourselves. So, onto my first entry proper – Arbutus. In particular, the set menu they do as a pre-theatre treat, which yes, was recommended in 1000 Things to do in London. At just under £20 for three courses it sounds too good to be true. In some ways it is; they do restrict you to only two choices per course, which had me a little worried. Their menu changes daily and seems to contain a lot of offal so you can’t tell before you book if you’ll like what’s on offer. As a child I mainly ate plain chicken and plain omelettes when I went out to eat, and though my tastes have increased almost exponentially since then, I’m still a little fussy. But, one of my good friends had already been to Arbutus and spoke highly of it, and for that price it seemed worth the risk. We also happened to have the perfect excuse to spoil ourselves – the 4 year anniversary of having met my boyfriend occurred last week.

We had reservations for 6:15. Another downside of the set menu could be that you can only book between 5 and 7, and they give you a 1.5 hour time limit. I don’t have any problems eating early though, and had made sure to finish my lunch around noon and resist any snacks in order to work up my appetite.  I was a little early when I got to the restaurant to meet my boyfriend so went over to Soho Square to read, where I discovered Stephen doing precisely the same thing. We greeted each other and then he surprised me with a little gift. I’ve chosen to mention this not only to boast of what a thoughtful boyfriend I have, but because the chocolates came from Paul A Young. I don’t think I have this chocolate shop on my list, but that is remiss of me. They have a reputation for confectionary delights and I’ve wanted to try one of their salt caramels for quite a while. Stephen had bought me a selection of slightly out of the ordinary chocolates, three of which were the famed salt caramels. Of course, I didn’t want to spoil my dinner so I put them away for later.

We were still a trifle early but I had passed by the restaurant once already and it didn’t seem busy so we thought they wouldn’t mind seating us early and we were right. Arbutus is a quite a clean, calm sort of restaurant. Lots of beiges and creams, plus a few naughty vintage porn photos thrown in to liven things up. The wait staff were friendly and even a bit laddish, as Stephen remarked. We were offered bread and some very creamy butter straight away, and this was regularly proffered before our mains arrived. I love bread, but at the same time didn’t want to stuff myself on it so I had just the two pieces, as did Stephen. The second piece came in handy to mop up the last traces of our first course. As I said before, there are only two choices on offer per course and between us we had almost every dish. For starters the choices were soft poached egg on lentils with spinach or curly kale and potato soup. For mains it was a choice between rabbit in mustard sauce or silver mullet with carrot and cumin. For dessert the options were meringue with custard and praline or cheese. It was easy for me to pick my menu – the only soup I really like is tomato so poached egg was the winner there. I’m not too fussed about fish – I don’t like to gamble on ones I haven’t tried yet – so I went for the rabbit, and then as much as I love cheese, I will still pick something sweet over it if I have the choice. So I did. Stephen went for the other options, except for the starter where he joined me in having an egg. We do love our poached eggs – they’re practically an essential for breakfast at the weekends for us.

Another plus of Arbutus is that their wines are very reasonably priced and they even do them all by the carafe! They price them at more or less a third of a bottle (and a third of a bottle is what you get) so you aren’t paying more for less, as it were. This is ideal if you’re going there because you want to dine without breaking the bank balance. I chose the Picpoul de Pinet, simply because I’d never had it before. It was fragrant, flavoursome and fruity. I’m glad I tried it. The carafe works out to one generous glass of wine each (though we didn’t pour it out all at once) and it was a bit of a chore to make that one glass last the whole meal, both because I do drink quickly, and because we liked the wine.

We didn’t have to wait long for our starters to come out. I enjoyed mine more than I thought I would as lentils wouldn’t normally be something I seek out. The egg was warm but the whole dish was quite refreshing. There were only a few sprigs of spinach, uncooked, and I wouldn’t have minded more of that, but overall it was very tasty. The dressing, which I think was a bit of a mustard vinaigrette was definitely worth saving some bread for.

Not too long after, our mains arrived. I definitely chose the best meal and had no food envy whatsoever. Especially when Stephen told me his fish was, indeed, very fishy – verging on as strong as mackerel, which I’ve established in the past as too strong for me. If I’m not eating salmon or tuna, I like my fish to taste as bland as possible. My rabbit was fantastic. It was slow cooked – all juicy and tender, and came in a mustard sauce which was not too mustardy, just quite creamy with a bit of a bite. Some more spinach, baby carrots and boiled potatoes bulked up the rest of the meal. Stephen said his fish was very nice, sitting on a restaurant-style flourish of a smear of carrot and cumin sauce and with some pieces of beetroot to accompany it. It was a romantic meal so naturally I shared some of my dish with my paramour and he concurred that it was good. ‘Rabbit is definitely much better than chicken’ he declared. I hadn't until then been aware they were in competition.

The dessert was probably the weakest course, which is an unusual thing for me to say. I had been looking forward to some gooey, chewy meringue but what I actually had was an isle flottante, with some candied nuts crushed and crumbled on top, and a few pitted in the meringue. It was very sweet and reminded me of eating a big marshmallow. What with the candy covered nuts, I felt like it was Easter. It was pleasant, but the meringue was so light and fluffy, it was almost like eating nothing. I prefer my desserts to be less polite, more sinful, gooey, sticky messes. Stephen had opted for the cheese, he claimed for altruistic reasons because he knows I love it so much and so I could have some of his, but in truth he now loves it almost as much as me. The cheese of the day was a brie de meaux. It came with what we think was an apricot chutney, and the slice looked quite miserable on the plate. They offer you more bread to go with it, which in some ways is a shame as we’d already had quite a bit of bread and some crackers would have been a preferred substitution. The cheese was potent to say the least and more than made up for its meagre appearance by its flavour.  It was creamy adn squidgy and tangy. We finished the remaining drops of our wine, and settled the bill. A brilliant £52 including service.

As far as set menus go, this is definitely worth doing. £25 each for that kind of meal is a bargain and feels like just the right kind of meal to have if you really were going to the theatre after – filling but still quite light. Not something that will sit heavily on you while you are entertained for the rest of the night. Or if you plan on carrying on drinking, like we did. We also really liked the atmosphere. I'm used to dining at around 8, the peak dinner time in restaurants where the restaurant is noisy and the waiters are busy. Eating at this time, at least in this restaurant, was really pleasant - it had a very relaxed atmosphere and Stephen and I didn't feel in the least bit self conscious about opting for the cheapy menu. It helped that several other diners were also eating from that menu - including one lone diner. I wondered if he might be a fellow blogger...

Set menu - £18.95 (optional service charge of 12.5% added)

250 ml carafe of Picpoul de Pinet – approx £8.50

Oh – and for those wondering about the chocolates… scrumptious! I’ve eaten almost half the box (no, there weren’t that many) and have savoured every one. It included some unusual flavours like wasabi, and a goat’s cheese one that was meant to taste a bit like cheesecake but didn’t. The highlights are definitely the salt caramel ones though. I will miss them when I eat the final one.





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