TASTINGS BY VICTORIA PREVER
DUCK SCOOP
AT CAMDEN’S glamorous Gilgamesh, three meaty dishes — duck and watermelon salad with cashew nuts, mint and Thai basil; duck, spring rolls served with a hoisin sauce and Chinese crispy duck with cucumber, spring onion, hoi sin sauce and pancakes — have been reinvented as vegetarian. The duck has been replaced with Mock Duck — made from wheat gluten — which has a fairly dense, meaty texture. Trying all three variations in one sitting, as I did, was a mildly overwhelming, but each dish, was tasty and well-presented.
FIRST-CLASS FARE
IN KINGS Cross, overlooking the revamped piazza, Plum and Spilt Milk restaurant at the Great Northern Hotel has introduced a healthy breakfast, with dishes like quinoa porridge with soya milk, blueberries and almonds; buckwheat crêpe with strawberries, agave syrup and lemon balm and smoked salmon, spelt muffin, steamed spinach and poached egg, alongside the more indulgent pastries, kippers and other cooked breakfasts. Each dish is pretty as a picture and perfectly cooked.
WHEN DANIEL MET DELI
FOR NEW York deli-style food fans, Daniel Moosah’s Delancey&Co will be a welcome addition to London’s food scene. The (non-kosher) deli is due to open a branch in Fitzrovia, fast becoming a foodie centre. Delancey&Co is inspired by classic New York deli bars like Katz Delicatessen, as seen in
Staff at a self-service bar will hand-carve smoked salmon to pile on to bagels or rye bread with a choice of six types of cream cheese (including pink horseradish and cracked black pepper and chilli)
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
STANMORE'S APOLLONIA restaurant specialises in functions — and now it has celebrated its own. The restaurant has been hosting weddings, bar and batmitzvahs and other simchas for 35 years.
FRENCH EXCHANGE
THINGS ARE looking up for The Hare in Old Redding. New owners, The White Group, who also run the Brasserie Blanc restaurants, have kept the smart, gastropub style, but upped the standard of food and service. The French-influenced menu offers ample fish and veggie choices, with plenty for children of all ages. A grown-up Saturday dinner and a family Sunday lunch, with under-sixes in tow — were both hugely successful. Definitely worth a visit. bistro featuring sharing plates, soups, salads and filling main courses, plus, of course, breads and cakes. The vibe is informal and the view verdant if you nab one of the tables at the back by the window.
The pre-theatre menus here are generous both in terms of size, cost — two courses for £8.95, three for £11.75 — and qualifying time (2.30pm until seven). The set menu includes small sharing plates, the vegetarian main option being poivron farci, roasted stuffed pepper with grilled vegetables and rice. But you could just as easily — and inexpensively — go from the standard menu and share the vegetarian platter, for which condiment jars rather sweetly serve as table legs.
The platter is an eminently reasonable £14.50 for a gargantuan selection of grilled and marinated vegetables, tapenade and hummus. You will want to polish it off, but are unlikely to be able to do so in a hurry. Particularly as the dishes are accompanied by a basket of gougères, those gorgeous Gallic doughy and cheesy appetisers.
If you would rather have a main, the list includes baked Scottish salmon and a pan-roasted sea bass fillet.
To wash it down, you can order a glass of wine for under £4. But few of us have the necessary willpower not to succumb to a cake from Paul. Regular patrons will not be surprised — but will be disappointed nonetheless — to find, as we did on our last visit, that the éclairs tend to be the first to sell out (the missus was visibly distraught).
That still left tarts, French toast and a chocolate cake so rich that only the most determined diner would attempt it having already devoured two courses. But it’s certainly deserving of an encore.
And after t he f i nal c urt a i n, the music doesn’t stop at a longrunning West End performer. Quaglino’s in Mayfair has recently reopened after a multi-million-pound makeover and in its latest guise, the restaurant — originally opened in 1929 for a glamorous clientèle — offers latenight entertainment to complement your dining.
The facelift is unarguably impressive, a sweeping staircase leading to the main restaurant and glitzy central bar. Art deco touches remain and there is a nice contrast of light and shade through the glass, velvet and leather features. When we arrived, the large dining area was quiet. But within half an hour, all seats were filled and the place was buzzing.
The staff are unfailingly helpful and enthusiastic, whether advising on the food or summoning one of the restaurant’s resident wine experts to proffer suggestions for a suitable glass (or two) to bring out the best in your respective starter and main course. And if you want to order a bottle, the entry-level prices are decidedly reasonable for this kind of establishment.
Having started with a generous helping of London cured smoked salmon, I asked for a recommendation from the side dishes to partner my fish entrée — my dining companion had already ordered the particularly creamy gratin dauphinois.
Our waiter declared that the extra fine beans were “amazing”, not a description one normally connects to the aforesaid vegetable, however lovingly prepared.
He was on much safer ground singing the praises of the choux à la crème, which, with great ceremony, our man sliced down the middle before covering it with a hearteningly large serving of bitter chocolate sauce.
And as my fellow diner plumped for the rich chocolate fondant (naturally there was a fair amount of dessert swapping), it was a sweet and, yes, “amazing” way to conclude.