Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot

Been there (33) - Arbutus - London

16/20

Arbutus
63 Frith Street, London, W1D 3JW

When I first heard about this restaurant, I forgot completely who was behind the kitchen. A weekend ago, I passed by the restaurant while having a touristy visit of the West End and stopped by the window to see that it was quite a busy restaurant for a Saturday lunch.

My wife and I went for a dinner at Arbutus on Saturday and couldn’t wait to taste the food from the former head chef and owner Anthony Demetre at Putney Bridge restaurant (closed now and replaced by the chain restaurant Thai Square). I guess the menu is changed frequently as we had the date on the menu. We opted both for a squid/mackerel burger as a starter and I have the famous Marseille fish course called “Bouillabaisse”.

The starter was absolutely lovely and full of fragrances coming from different herbs. The burger was rather original and very light. Then the bouillabaisse was served with on my right the pan with 3 different fishes and on my left a pot with the lobster soup + mayonnaise and garlic sauce. Then, there was an empty bowl where I could add the fish and the soup together at my convenience. To top it up, I also had some croutons. I was very impressed with this dish. Fish was cooked to the perfection and the soup so tasty.

We didn’t go for dessert and here’s the reason. The restaurant on Saturday night is so busy that you need to shout to your partner if you want to have a conversation. I had to say I am usually patient with the noise level in restaurant, but this was really unbearable. We had to leave the restaurant after only 1 hour 15 min. I couldn’t wait to get out even though the food was absolutely superb. I guess there is nothing the restaurant can do about. People have to shout when they speak in restaurant. I don’t know why but it’s a fact. The waiter acknowledged my complaint and said Sunday is quieter. Maybe I will return on Sunday then but definitely not on Saturday evening.

Been there (32) - Kazan - London

15/20

Kazan

93-04 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1DW

Turkish restaurants are not hard to find in London and often could assimilated with Kebabs restaurants. Each borough, each district has its own Kebab shop but few has an Ottoman restaurant. The ones that stand out are those who offer original dishes and quality mezze with a nice restaurant atmosphere.

This is what I found at Kazan located minutes away from Victoria train station. The restaurant is divided in 2 different rooms round tables, square tables and drinks only area. The menu suggests the usual mezze but also offers some nice main courses. I had a go at the mix seafood/fish course called “EMPERIAL SEAFOOD GUVECH“ with scallops, monkfish and king prawns. Scallops were of good size and fishes cooked at my taste with a nice tomato sauce and a bowl of fragrant rice. We had also a bottle of rosé (summer weather obliged). The bill came to £30 per head with 1 dessert and 3 coffees. Definitely worth a try.

Been there #31 - Inamo, Soho, London

17/20

Inamo

134-136 Wardour Street, Soho, London, W1F 8ZP

With some many restaurants available in London (TripAdvisor list more than 7,000), sometimes you just want to experience something really creative, new and you can remember for a long time. Well Inamo just did that for me.

Inamo is a fairly new restaurant in Soho busy district of London on Wardour Street where you can find many kinds of restaurants. Inamo building is black from the outside with the red Inamo signage. Once you get in, the room feels a bit dark but then you explore the room more and you understand why.

The restaurant has about 40/50 seats available and each table is white and serves as a touch screen menu where you can see all starters, main courses, order your food and even play battleship with your partner. The table is the main attraction in the restaurant and even though it looks a bit unsocial in the beginning because individuals want to discover this piece of technology by themselves, you start to share your experience with dinners. You can also change the ambiance on the table or play the random selection so you can table can show red roses or have green grass.

The food comes quickly (10min) after you order it with your touchpad screen projector on the table. Food is Asian fusion with black cod, delicious Wagyu beef (this is very tender Japanese beef massaged with beer), spring rolls and more. All the food that came in was nice and delicious in our mouths. Some portions were a bit small though (4 little scallops for 7£).

The bill came for £32 per person with starters, main courses, a bit of beer and desserts. The experience is really worth it and make sure you book a table (only for 1h30 dinning experience though) beforehand.

Been there #30 - Yoshino, West End, London

13/20
Yoshino
3-5 Picadilly Place, West End, London, W1J0DB

Japanese restaurants are blossoming everywhere in the West End that I even loose track on the ones I have tried and forgot to review on these pages. Probably the reason is because they all look the same and the food is basically similar to one restaurant to another.

This restaurant is minutes away from Picadilly Circus in a side street of Picadilly called Piccadilly Place. The restaurant serves customers on 2 floors and have a very clean clinical aspect when you get inside. The furniture and decor is very sober and bright white.

The menu has different options of sushi, shashimi and bento boxes. The usual stuff really. The waiter was quick to take our orders and food came very quickly on the table as well. Rightly so, because the last order is at 0930 pm.Sashimi and sushi were of good portions and reasonably priced. The bill came to £25 per person.

A good basic japanese restaurant in the most touristic area of London but nothing original though.

Been there #29 - Racine, Knightsbridge, London

 15/20

Racine
239 Brompton Road, Kinghtsbridge, London, SW3 2EP

I can't remember how many times I have passed by this restaurant in the last 8 years I have been living in London. Whether, you're on your way to Harrods or wants to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum, Racine is really in a prime location on Brompton Road.

Once you enter the restaurant, you can feel that this restaurant lives on residential neighbours who want to enjoy some easy French cuisine in a very warm and relax atmosphere. The waiters are very nice and forthcoming always eager to help you.

The menu is full of classic French courses but remains simple to read. As a Frenchman, I wasn't particularly intrigued by something special that I wanted to try but the choice of starters and main courses is good. We started the meal with a glass of champagne and soon followed this with a plate of cold cured meats (jambon de pays, saucisson...). Obviously not so much about creativity and labor on the plate but that day I was dying for some French cold meat. Then for main course, I took the healthy Red Mullet with Jerusalem artichokes saffron creamy sauce with a glass of Chablis. This was really nice indeed and it makes me wonder why we don't find often these artichokes in the supermarket. We finished our meal with coffees. The bill came to £40 person with no surprise. This is quite usual for this kind of place in the most wealthiest district in London.

A good place to find classic French courses in a prime location with an acceptable bill in the end (excepted if you go crazy on the wine list)

Been There #28 Belgo

17/20
Belgo Centraal
50 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9LJ

If you fancy some moule-frites (meaning mussels and potato fries) Belgo Centraal is the place to go. While wandering the streets of Central London, we were looking for a cheap restaurant that could fit our hunger for the day.

After arriving at the restaurant, we waited 10 mins at the bar and then were offered a table of 4 in the main restaurant room. The busy restaurant on Saturday was lively and you could feel a great sense of organization with the restaurant staff. We ordered 4 portions of mussels "Marinieres" with fries and some delicious "trappist" beers made by monks in Belgium in Rochefort. We finished the meal with a couple of desserts with a "Pecheresse" beer (a beer lambic with peach flavor) The damage was only £78 for 4 people. This restaurant is really convenient and serves people very quickly. Not an ideal place for a romantic dinner but an excellent choice for group dinning or pre theatre dinner. One of my favourite cheap and good restaurants in London.

Been there #27 - Ping Pong South Bank

13/20
Ping Pong South Bank
Festival Terrabce, Southbank Centre, Belvedere London, SE1 8XX

Ping Pong is one of the most popular dim sum restaurant chain with no less than 12 restaurants in London alone. I had to try one of these since I have really enjoyed dim sums in other restaurants like Yautcha or Hakkassan.

The place on Wednesday was busy on both floors. We waited no more than 30 mins to get a table of 4 and were enjoying some nice cocktails on the top floor. Seated at the table, you got a choice of plenty of dim sums to choose from. You just have to write down on a piece of paper how many of each dim sum you like to order. We picked about 20 dim sums, mostly all hot with a mix of pork, prawns, crab, chicken. The problem with dim sums is that some are generous, others are a just a joke. When they are all priced between 3 and 5£, in the end you can spend easily at least 20 pounds per person + drinks. I didn't find dim sums excellent and up to the price we paid. I was disappointed with some of the portions. And I found the place rather noisy and cold (we were by the single glaze windows).

Been there #26 - Bel Canto London

12/20
Bel Canto
1 Minster Court, Mark Lane, London, EC3R 7AA

3 weeks ago, I received a call on my cell phone telling me the good news about Bel Canto. The Parisian chain restaurant is coming to London.  First of all, I have to say I was impressed by this call. I have tried Bel Canto in Paris near Hotel de Ville about 2 years ago. After all this time, the management have kept my cell phone number and also remembered that I live in London. Very impressive.

We went to try Bel Canto last Friday evening after a hard working week. I was really looking forward to it, I needed to be entertained. We arrived at 8pm after wandering around the Monument tube station area to find the place. From the entrance door, you need to take an elevator which takes you down to the restaurant on a lower ground floor. Then you have a room where people take your coats and lead you to the huge restaurant room separated by a red curtain. We wait a bit before entering the restaurant as we hear Operia Arias sung live in the restaurant. Because this restaurant works because of the singers. Waiters and opera singers are on the same team. They serve courses on the table and they stop now and then to sing known or unknowns arias during your dinner. The acoustic of the room for live opera singing is very good. You really get the music to your ears. In the middle of the dinner, you have a surprise which I won't disclose for your benefits. Now Bel Canto is not just about live Opera singing. You also come for the food. Bel Canto has a set menu with a fixed price of £65 per person (+ 12.5% service charge). The menu gives you plenty of choice for starters and main courses. Food takes its inspiration from France and Italy. I decided to bring the Gallic dishes to our table. After a glass of champagne (charged at £11 per glass), we tried the casserole of snails and wild mushrooms. It was forgettable because of lack of flavors (the chef forgot the salt and could have added some herbs and a bit of garlic). For the main course, I gave a try to the Fillet of beef with pan fried foie gras. The beef was excellent, tender and cooked to perfection (which is "rare" for me).  The foie gras  however was way overcooked (it reminded me of chicken livers actually). My wife really enjoyed the "Pot au Feu" with quality meat on the plate. Finally for dessert, I took the Apple Souffle served with Calvados sorbet and nougatine. This was really one of the top dessert I have eaten in London restaurants. My wife and I enjoyed every minute of it. Singers came to talk to us and let us know about what they were singing (which opera, the story...), what they were doing in London. Staff is very nice and pays attention to you from the beginning to the end. I was surprised that in a big city like London, we didn't have this restaurant concept knowing the passion that Londoners have for Opera (see how difficult it is to secure seats at Covent Garden). Today, we have Bel Canto. And I am sure after some corrections in their recipes, this place will become famous among couples and also business dinners to impress clients or prospects. It is however quite expensive. We had a special offer because the restaurant has only opened 2 weeks ago. If we had to pay full price, the bill would have reached a whopping £120 per person...For this price, you can enjoy a Michelin star restaurant. This is where I have doubts whether people would pay this price for this restaurant. The future will tell us very soon. This is just the beginning for Bel Canto London.

Been there #25 - Le Pain Quotidien London

15/20
Le Pain Quotidien
see website to all locations in London

I have known Le Pain Quotidien for about 5 years when I have tried one of their branches in Luxembourg on a Sunday afternoon. I can't remember when exactly Le Pain Quotidien arrived in London but one thing for sure, you can't miss the development of this restaurant chain across London. We have tried High Street Kensington on Young Street (we go there maybe once a month) and last Wednesday the outlet in South Kensington on Exhibition Road. The concept is very simple. The menu is based on home made bread, "pain quotidien" means daily bread. I like the Belgian chain restaurant (yes, it is not French !) because you can get a decent brunch with smoked salmon, a platter of cold meats (saucisson, copa, ham...), a choice of different salads like the one with a full ball of Mozzarella Buffala. You can also try Tartines made with wholewheat organic bread. The treat is when you order a basket of breads and you have several organic jams coming to your table like raspberry, chocolate, marmalade, vanilla, white chocolate and so on. Last Wednesday, I felt like having a large cheese board for my meal. I was however disappointed by the portion of the platter. Way too small and also some cuts in certain cheeses were to close to the "crust". I think they should improve this platter. You pay £9 for it (+service), so you must ensure quality is on the platter. Other than this, Le Pain Quotidien is fantastic and it had become our best local canteen where we want to share a brunch with friends on a Saturday morning. Usually the bill comes at £20 per head. so it also good value for money for London.

Been there #24 - Bam-Bou

16/20
Bam-Bou
1 Percy Street, London, W1T 1DB

This is now a regular rendez-vous that we have with Bam-Bou every 2 years or so. I know this place since we arrived to live in London back in 2000. 2008, the place still lives to our expectations. Fantastic food with a fantastic décor a la Vietnamese-French style. We had a a table of four in a small room that can cater only 2 tables. The place is a Georgian town-house, and the restaurant has really used the space in order to place guests in different rooms on 3 different floors. You also have the possibility to book private rooms for business functions or birthdays. Menu has changed quite a bit since our last dinner at Bam-Bou in 2005. But innovation and multi-flavor dishes are still intact on your plates. However, we were disappointed by the size of some of the starters (eg. Prawn rolls). My main course was the Pan Fried Sea Bass with Fennel. This was absolutely delicious and well combined with some egg fried rice. My wife was looking forward for one of their signature dessert, pancakes rolls with chocolate filling and orange marmalade. Unfortunately, this dessert is not anymore on the menu. This is really shame, as this dessert was really unique. Service was quick and efficient. It lacks maybe of personality and more attention to tables. The bill came to £50 per person with beers and a bottle of wine. We will definitely come back in 2 years...