Tag Archives: london restaurant review

Bingham Hotel Restaurant Review

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The Bingham hotel is tucked away in a great location next to the river Thames in Richmond. First impressions are very good, the staff are professional and the hotel is immaculate. Before we have our meal we go to the bar and order some cocktails.

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IMG_0977The Bingham is well known for its cocktails and its easy to see why. The barman is extremely skilled and rustles us up two delicious mocktails in front of us. (Catherine is pregnant hence the mocktails).  My mocktail is delightful, I’m tasting something unlike anything I’ve experienced before and I feel as if I’ve been transported to another part of the world.IMG_0707IMG_0993 The bar is a beautiful grand room, full of comfortable chairs, very high ceilings and views looking out over the Thames. It’s all real luxury. The main restaurant is similarly impressive and we have a table looking out over the river. Despite coming across as a luxury first class restaurant the atmosphere at the Bingham is relaxed – something which is very rare in these high end establishments in my experience. The room has a warm feel and the service is absolutely first class. The staff are all highly professional, knowledgeable, friendly but also not overly formal, which allows you to feel very comfortable. The style of the restaurant food is modern British.

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The Bingham is proud of its extensive wine list and rightfully so the wine we had was superb.

To start we have some delicious homemade bread – it’s amazing the difference good quality bread can make to a whole meal – it sets the tone.IMG_0712

Catherine started with Heritage Beetroot – chicory, horseradish ice cream £11.50
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An interesting savoury dish with lots of imagination. Catherine chose it because of the horesradish ice cream which is not something you see on the menu every day! The dish was extremely inventive and worked exceptionally well.

I have Quail with butternut squash, quinoa and tarragon £11.00 IMG_0716

As you can see from the picture the presentation is superb. The quail has been cooked beautifully. It’s crispy on the outside and juicy and tender in the middle, The butternut squash is perfectly smooth and has a delicious flavor. Together with the quail and texture provided by the quinoa this is a perfect starter.

For my main I have the sweet potato ravioli with goat’s cheese, spinach and toasted seeds £15.50

A picture tells a 1000 words

A picture tells a 1000 words

My ravioli is perfectly cooked and the combination of goat’s chess and spinach is a classic and delicious combination. It looked so good I was afraid to eat it.

Catherine has the beef with salt baked celeriac, caramerlised oniom, variegatedkale £25.00IMG_0997

The beef was extremely well cooked and the sauces and kale went perfectly together. It was a beautiful piece of meat.

For my dessert I have the Rhubarb Millefeuille which also comes with a Rhubarb sorbet, ganache and cream pattisserie. £8.00IMG_0721

I loved my millefeuille which went perfectly with the sorbet which was a great accompaniment. This was a very skilfully created and tasty pudding.

Catherine has the Banana Parfait with chocolate mouse, peanut ice cream and salted brittle £8.00

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Showstopper

Wow this looked incredible on the plate and tasted just as good. The combination of the different elements was simply divine.

The Bingham was a wonderful experience and we will definitely be returning in the near future. The setting next to the Thames is stunning. The interior and atmosphere were perfect, the food and drink was superb and the service was flawless.

http://www.thebingham.co.uk/

61 – 63 Petersham Road, Richmond Upon Thames, Surrey. TW10 6UT T: +44 (0) 20 8940 0902 Email: info@thebingham.co.uk

Blackhouse Grill on the Market Restaurant Review

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The Blackhouse Grill on the market restaurant is located right next to Smithfields market. As we enter the restaurant we are taken to the back and around a corner to a beautifully designed room hidden from the street. It feels exclusive and relaxed. A long way from the hustle and bustle of the London streets we have just left. Grill on the Market’s menu focuses on seafood and steaks.

The atmosphere was great, very calm and relaxed. The staff immediately put us at ease. They were very friendly and knowledgeable. The seats were really comfortable. This would be a perfect place to go with some friends and the Blackhouse actively encourages this with its unlimited Prosecco deal every Saturday if you go with friends. Full details below. Your Prosecco is unlimited for two hours as long as you bring two friends. This great deal seems to be working, despite it being lunch time in the middle of the week there are plenty of people in the restaurant. Everyone seem to be  aged between 20 and 30. This seems to be a very trendy place hidden slightly away from the masses which makes it feel exclusive.

We start off with the Blackhouse sharing platter which gives us a chance to taste a lot of dishes in one. The platter includes honey, rosemary and lemon chicken skewer, fish cakes, duck spring roll and calamari.

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It looked amazing and all the elements were absolutely delicious. Often when you order a big platter like this the food is rushed and average. This was certainly not the case here. The rosemary and lemon chicken was succulent and beautifully flavoured. The deep fried calamari was crunchy and tasty. I particularly liked the beautuiful duck spring rolls. The sauces which accompanied the dish were also particularly good. They were sweet chilli, honey mustard and sour cream. All were filled with flavour and went beautifully with the different assortments. A great starter it tasted as good as it looks and lived up to the Blackhouse ‘honest proper food’ mantra.

For our mains we had the sesame crusted tuna from the seafood menu and from their special premium beef menu we had a fillet of English Longhorn.

My sesame crusted tuna was a beautiful piece of fish perfectly cooked and superbly presented. Tuna is often overcooked but not here the fish was perfect and shone.

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The soy sauce and sweet pickled vegetables were the perfect accompaniment. A really beautiful lunch. The sirloin steak was equally good if not better. The English Longhorn steak was really special. Perfectly cooked as you can see, it came with a superb peppercorn sauce and was probably the best steak I’ve ever had. The chunky chips were also excellent. To drink we were treated to unlimited Prosecco for two hours. The Prosecco was crisp and wonderful and it was great to have your glass constantly refilled. The whole meal was relaxed easy and fun.

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Our puddings didn’t disappoint either. My trifle was again beautifully presented (as all our food was) and was delicious. photo (86)

Trifles are not easy to get right, sometimes I find restaurants make them too heavy. But this was an excellent trifle.photo (85) The portion size was perfect and the cream and jelly were light and delicious. I really enjoyed it and the creme brulee was also delicious

The Blackhouse grill claims to offer solid, honest and simple proper food. It delivers 100% on this promise. The food was first class as were the service and atmosphere. We will definitely be going back to take advantage of that free Prosecco!

http://blackhouse.uk.com/restaurant/london-smithfield/

The Grill on the Market
2-3 West Smithfield, City of London, EC1A 9JX
T: 020 7246 0900
Twitter: @GotmSmithfield

Put some sparkle into your Saturdays with unlimited bubbly when brunching at the recently opened steak and seafood restaurant and bar, The Grill on the Market in Smithfield.Starting this Saturday (2nd February) from noon – 6pm,
diners can indulge in deliciously restorative brunch dishes such as eggs ‘any way you like them’ – poached,
scrambled, fried or Royale with smoked salmon; a classic BLT; steak, egg and chips; and maple glaze gammon
with home cut chips and sweet pineapple as well as a the ‘full works’ cooked breakfast, all washed down with unlimited fizz.
Simply take along two or more friends, order anything off the brunch menu to be treated to unlimited Prosecco
for the duration of your meal (maximum of two hours). With brunch dishes starting at just £9, the Grill on the
Market’s bubbly brunch represents excellent value for money.
Booking is essential, please visit www.blackhouse.uk.com/bubblybrunch to put some sparkle into your Saturdays and kick start the weekend in style.
2-3 West Smithfield, City of London, EC1A 9JX
T: 020 7246 0900
Twitter: @GotmSmithfield

 

 

Charlotte’s Bistro Review

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On Monday we visited Charlotte’s Bistro in Chiswick. It launched in 2010 following the success of its sister restaurant, Charlotte’s Place. Charlotte’s Place, in Ealing, has been around for twenty seven years and is one of our favourite restaurants so expectations were pretty high.

On entering Charlotte’s Bistro we were immediately struck by how different everything is to Charlotte’s Place. As Alex, the owner, tells us ‘we think of Charlotte’s Place as the mother and Charlotte’s Bistro as the daughter’. You can see exactly what he means, whilst Charlotte’s Place is more traditional Charlotte’s Bistro is modern and sleek. It has a stylish bar at the front followed by stairs leading to a raised area at the back where the restaurant is.

Our night starts at the bar with ‘gin school’. Something Charlotte’s Bistro is doing every Monday. Every week features a different Gin. This week it’s Caorunn (pronounced ka-roon), a delicious Scottish gin. We liked the gin and learnt so much we’ve decided to do an article on it. After a couple of excellent G&Ts we head to the raised area and our table. Both the bar and restaurant are packed, impressive as it’s a Monday, and there is a great atmosphere.

The menu is small, five starters and five mains, all the food is in season. I like that because you know a lot of focus has gone into the dishes. Our waitress is friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable. She helps us select a sublime wine. We start with the Dorset crab with pickled cucumber and toasted sourdough and a pressed middle white ham knuckle terrine and mustard mayonnaise.

Our starters arrive almost immediately. I start with the ham terrine. Presentation is excellent. The terrine is beautifully made and absolutely delicious the mustard mayonnaise is light and a perfect accompaniment. The toasted crouton like biscuits on the side are crunchy and a delight. All in all an brilliant starter.

But it gets even better when I try the Dorset crab. Wow! A truly exceptional dish. This dish exercised my salt taste buds in a way that I can’t remember happening before. It tastes of the saltiness of the sea but is beautifully balanced and delicate. The texture of the sourdough against the crab was delightful. The sauce with the crab was divine and the pickled cucumber works beautifully with the crab. We both agreed this was one of the best starters we’d ever had. Flawless.

With such incredible starters our taste buds were tingling and our expectations were sky high for the mains. The fish dish we choose is the silver mullet, with white beans, smoked bacon and preserved lemons. Our meat dish is the confit white pork belly, parsnip, curly kale and caramelised Braeburn apple.

The silver mullet was another great dish. Presentation was beautiful. The fish was perfectly cooked and the skin was deliciously crispy and salty. The combination of white bean, smoky bacon and mullet was extremely tasty. The sauce was excellent. The dish was perfectly seasoned again the saltiness of the dish was delightful.

The pork belly dish was also a truly exceptional dish. The pork was soft and tender, the crunchy, tasty and the perfectly textured crackling was an absolute delight. The parsnip puree was incredibly smooth and delicious. The caramelised Braeburn apple was a real triumph and worked beautifully with the pork. The kale a vegetable I am not usually a huge fan of was perfectly seasoned and was deliciously salty and added to the whole dish. Quite simply superb.

The portion of chunky chips I ordered on the side seems in hindsight an insult to the chef since they were wholly unnecessary. But the taste of one salty chip only serves to highlight the skill and subtly the chef has shown with saltiness in their other dishes.

Our puddings are the baileys and orange cheesecake and the warm almond and blackberry bakewell. The cheesecake was excellent and beautifully presented. Smooth, creamy, beautifully subtle with a tasty crumbly base. The orange sauce which surrounded it was delicious and the candied orange peel which topped it added an extra dimension. The warm almond and blackberry bakewell was for me the least exciting of all our dishes. The bakewell was good but a little sweet for me and I didn’t feel the salted caramel worked. That said my colleague really enjoyed it.

 

Overall this was a fantastic experience. From the gin school through to the food. A wonderful night. The food was truly exceptional. I’ve been fortunate to eat in many restaurants but few come close to this. The Dorset Crab and the Pork Belly dishes were outstanding. The restaurant is unpretentious and friendly which makes for a great atmosphere and it is brilliant value for money. It was not surprising that it was packed out on a Monday night. We will certainly be returning soon.

 

 

 

Monday to Saturday

Lunch 12pm-3pm    2 Courses £15.95 3 Courses £18.95

Dinner from 6pm     2 Courses £24.95 3 Courses £29.95

Sunday

All Day 12pm-9pm  Main Course £14.95 2 courses £19.95 3 courses £23.95

6 Turnham Green Terrace, London, London W4 1QP (Nearest tube Turnham Green it’s a two minute walk)

020 8742 3590

charlottes.co.uk/bistro/