Tag Archives: travel

Jamie Oliver Catherine Street Review

Posted on by under chefs, Europe, Northern Europe, restaurant reviews, Restaurants

Jamie is all over the place, but his restaurants no longer are. I try a recent new one in the company of some actors

To be honest, I am not actually at the same table as the actors, but next door is a Very Well Known TV Actress and an equally Very Well Known TV Chef, plus some other people I vaguely recognise.

As I wait for my wingperson to turn up, while grazing a mix of olives dusted in oregano and  served, rather unusually, on ice, I also try to keep my own cool. Nonetheless when I momentarily glance over She looks up at the same time and our eyes meet. ‘ Big fan’, my eyes say, ‘Oh God, a stalker!’ say hers.

You’d expect to find actors in here for lunch though  as it adjoins the back of the Theatre Royal. A space between the buildings is now roofed over to create a spacious and airy mini dining atrium, so thesps only have to walk a few yards for a meal.



We are eating inside today though, in what was once the ground floor of an office block, not that you’d ever know it after a splendid refurb. The place has a Grand Cafe kind of buzz to it; classy without being snobby.

There are trendy artworks on the wall, classic old photos, unusual lighting, comfy banquettes plus Sade on the sound system. Apart from the latter it could almost be a Jeremy King joint, another restaurateur who has had his ups and downs.

It’s family friendly;  there are kids here and a kids’ menu. The seasonally changing menu itself is a one sided affair, colourful but disposable, it tells diners this is easy-eating. A two- or three-course set menu is available Monday–Saturday from 12–6pm, Sundays offer roasts with all the trimmings. 

Apart from the icy olives there are other nibbles on offer.  Now that S has finally arrived  we try croquettes made with pureed Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese with leeks, and dobbed on top with pickled walnuts and they are one-bite tasty, the cheese gooey and sharp. Shame they are served in threes though and not twos or fours.

Jamie has said the food’s inspired by what he grew up eating at his parents’ pub, which explains the prawn cocktail on the menu, although it’s a bit more than that – it’s a seafood cocktail with British crab, brown shrimp, prawns, yuzu cucumber, Marie Rose sauce (natch) and focaccia crisps


It’s an impressive dish, the focaccia crisps are large sails powering the dish towards me. The prawns are a bit watery, the rest is good, especially the crab. I’d have liked some more Marie Rose sauce, my mother used to always sink our family Prawn Cocktails in the stuff and I used to also surreptitiously eat it out of the jar.

Mr Forty Minutes Late For Lunch has a Scotch Egg made with Stornoway Black Pudding, a Cacklebean egg and mustard mayo. It’s the sort of thing we ate a lot of in the late 80s and 90s, a Gastropub thing, and he reports it’s fine but not overly exciting. It’s a well-golden egg though and it is cooked perfectly.

The menu is full of Jamie’s other culinary memories and I recognise a few pasta dishes from the old BBC Executive Canteen, better known as the River Café, and some from legendary Fifteen as well. I go for the Dayboat Fish though, which today is Stone Bass, (or ‘Wreckfish’ or ‘Meagre’ ). A fish normally farmed and not caught, it comes swimming in a lake of “Champagne Cream Sauce, Dulse, Royal Kombu, Green Peppercorns, Herb Oil”. 

It’s a chunky fish, not quite as good as Sea Bass but firm and white and generously sized. The sauce is excellent, but it needs a spoon (or even a straw) to eat it. I instead use my ‘Koffman’s fries’ to blot it up. Good fries, but they needed more salt IMHO

Also a day special is a whole split lobster with linguine and tomatoes. A big plateful, it rather intimidates S who finally has to admit defeat trying to eat it all. The pasta has absorbed lots of good juices from the tomato and shellfish, but it also makes it rather heavy going. He doesn’t regret trying though, it was a good lobster.

We’re drinking Pale Ale made by one of Jamie’s ‘mates’ in Walthamstow. Unlike most hipster ales it hasn’t gone overboard with the hops, so it doesn’t taste like drain cleaner. I like it so much I have two.

S is still suffering from lobster overload, so I have dessert alone, a rather nostalgic Jelly & Ice Cream, although this is very grown up jelly. Made with Provence Rosé, it wobbles like Keir Starmer being asked what a woman is, and raspberry and vanilla ice cream and summer berries finish it off. Really enjoyable.

This new Jamie puts bad memories of his Italians to bed, although there is a sense that the kitchen is being run by people doing a professional job and not a passionate one. With a menu that is obliged to cover all bases, from pasta to burgers, seafood to grills, that is perhaps not surprising though.

It’s certainly an excellent space and the food is highly competent, although the prices are somewhat higher than you might expect. The staff are charming, all commiserating with me as I waited and waited and waited for my guest to finally turn up.

And you may even get the chance to freak out a famous actress. What’s not to like?

6 Catherine St Covent Garden London WC2B 5JY
www.jamieolivercatherinest.com

Opening Times: Sunday to Wednesday: 12:00 – 10:30PM Thursday to Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00PM

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3084 7565

Reservations: reservations@jamieolivercatherinest.com

Ocean Basket Restaurant Review

Posted on by under Europe, restaurant reviews, Restaurants, seafood

There are 200 Ocean Baskets around the world, I set sail for the Kingston outlet

‘It’s kind of like a Harvester, ‘ said a friend who knows the brand,  ‘but one that only serves seafood’.

Some people might say that sounds harsh, snobbish even. I don’t agree, there is a place in this world for family-friendly restaurants that are consistent, well-priced and tasty. Harvester didn’t get where they are today by not knowing their market, and how to satisfy it.


Ocean Basket was founded by two Greek brothers whose family arrived in South Africa in the 1960s. They certainly knew what they were doing as they have successfully reached out around the world, and recently to the UK with a restaurant in exotic Bromley, as well as one here in rather posher Kingston On Thames.

They certainly have a lovely location in Kingston, so close to the river you could probably catch your own fish from one of the sought after balcony tables. The sun is belting down as we sit down, and with the smell of frying seafood coming out of the kitchen we could almost be in Greece.

Ocean Basket says that its buying power means it is able to source great quality, usually frozen, fish from all over the world and keep menu prices down. It also sources locally when it can, as proven by our platter of oysters from the UK.


These were decent examples, quiveringly fresh, plump and served on a bed of ice cubes (although crushed ice would have been more aesthetically appealing, and probably not cost the restaurant any more). Well shucked they had no shell fragments floating about, something I really get annoyed about when it happens in fine-dining restaurants.

We had slices of grilled halloumi alongside. Nicely browned on the outside and a salty compliment to the oysters. If I am being picky I would have liked the slices to have been slightly thicker so that the cheese wasn’t cooked completely through. That’s how I grill halloumi at home, anyway. 

We’ve all had Greek salads in Greece, they can be a mixed bag, or bowl. Here the cucumber dominated the scene backed up with green peppers, tomatoes and some olives, although not enough olives for me, and a good-sized hunk of feta. It was all crispy and refreshing, the dressing perhaps a little underpowered.

Now onto the fish. There’s a hefty selection of dishes, stand -alones and platters.  The restaurant’s deep fryer ‘basket’ seems to do most of the heavy lifting in the kitchen, but grilled fish is offered too. All the dishes have nutritional information, which is handy but you don’t really need to be told not to overdo it on the battered food.


So we had one of the  platters, its arrival drawing envious glances, but at £50 for two people, it’s not expensive for what it is. From left to right we had excellent plump mussels in a lemon garlic sauce, calamari ‘popcorn’ (deep fried squid tentacles, presumably called ‘popcorn’ so as not to frighten kids), wonderfully tender and small grilled calamari (specially sourced apparently), prawns butterflied and grilled, and some Cape Hake which we asked for grilled, not fried, as it seemed a shame to drown such an excellent fish in batter. Cape Hake is sold in M&S, so it’s obviously a good fish.

There was rice, Uncle Ben’s style, but actually perfectly okay, and chips which were fine but we stayed away from so as not to lose any space for the fish. The prawns were very tasty, the butterflying removing the vein and making sure the grill got to kiss all the flesh. A bit of a messy eat, I’d suggest supplying finger bowls on the table because we soon ran out of paper napkins.

As a SA restaurant you’d expect it to have well-priced and good quality wines and it did, a Benguela Cove Sauvignon Blanc served us well.


We were well stuffed after all this, but I still succumbed to the lure of a Dom Pedro, a South African classic. It’s basically a milkshake made with alcohol and is very rich and thick.


So thick that my straw kept getting clogged and I wondered if perhaps a long-handled spoon might have been easier. Still though it was decadently more-ish and obviously a crowd-pleaser.

And that’s Ocean Basket, a crowd-pleaser. It’s not fine dining, and doesn’t pretend to be,  but the fish is all well-sourced and high quality, and there’s so much variety on the menu I can’t imagine anyone would be stuck to find something they fancied to reel in.

Website
52A High Street, Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 1HN


Ocean Basket works alongside WWF SASSI (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) and uses global guidelines from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)



The Art of Afternoon Tea

Posted on by under Europe, food, restaurant reviews, Restaurants

A beautiful room and some seriously stunning cakes, this afternoon tea certainly made my day

They say English Afternoon tea originated in the 1840s, a light meal to tide over genteel ladies of quality until dinner at 8pm.

Lunch it seems was not an English thing back then, a posh person had a biggish breakfast and then toughed it out until the evening. No nipping down to the mansion, or the castle kitchen, for a sneaky snack.

So to combat afternoon energy drops, ladies began taking tea and delicate sandwiches at around four o’clock in the afternoon. Soon no society hostess could afford not to invite or be invited to tea, it was ‘the thing’.

Today it’s something many tourists actively seek out, a quintessentially British experience in London’s best hotels. With so many on offer though, many a disgraceful rip off, it pays to be selective.

The Kensington, part of the Doyle Collection,  is one the very best. Just a short walk from South Kensington station and the Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall and V&A,  it appears to have been created by joining four elegant 19th Century stucco fronted houses together. Entering through the grand front door, held open by bowler hatted porters, you turn left into a gorgeous double aspect lounge.

On any day it’s a well lit room, warmed by a real fire, but on this sunny early Spring day it shines and dazzles. The furniture is a mix of modern and antique and just what you’d expect to find in the townhouse of a tasteful member of the aristocracy. Understated elegance.

We take a table in one of the bay windows, noting the excellent china cups and saucers as well as the crisply folded napkins. Every detail matters when taking tea.

The menu offers a variety of The Rare Tea Company teas and infusions, from the classic ‘breakfast tea’ to exotic single suppliers. They are all the same price and are served ‘bottomless’, although you’d not utter such a common phrase here. A pre tea glass of champagne is appreciated, if not exactly traditional.

Up to a point the food is classic, which is a good thing. I’ve tried afternoon teas in places where they’ve gone crazy with the sandwiches, creating monsters that can’t be eaten without mess. The whole point of AT sandwiches is that they must be dainty, easy to hold and to nibble at.

Our tea arrives in silver pots too heavy to lift, which is okay as the charming staff are there to pour tea for us. Milk first or last? Last of course, because that way you have a chance to adjust the tea’s strength

I have delicious Rooibos while P has Cloud Tea, a fragrant black tea from the “Abode of Clouds” in the cloudy hills between Assam and Darjeeling. 

From the elegant tiered stand come sandwiches which are pukka and properly finger shaped  – there is St. Ewe Egg with watercress, Chapel & Swan smoked salmon with lemon cream cheese,  Cucumber with mint cream and Pastrami with gherkin and horseradish. All beautifully delicate and the teas make them taste even better.


We have plain and fruit scones, cosily wrapped in a soft napkin. They are still warm. Thick clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam are slathered on.

And now, as we wipe some off that jam off our shirts, we come to the art in the Art of Afternoon Tea.The sweet cakes have been inspired by artists and are quite incredible, so much detailed work has gone into them that it seems a shame to eat them so we look for a while instead.


These are inspired by Jackson Pollock, Yayoi Kusama and Alicja Kwade. The Pollock  uses his ‘drip technique’ for a dark chocolate mousse tart with passion fruit parfait, Japanese artist Kusama’s cake is  polka-dot pumpkin of mango mousse shrouding  coconut yoghurt cream, and visual artist Kwade’s spheres are made from white chocolate vanilla mousse with pineapple compote centre.

Our photos do them some justice, but they are even more remarkable in the sweet, sugary flesh. A bit messy to eat, but I think that’s allowable.

We have our teapots refreshed and sink back into the deep cushions. The ceremony has done its job, we are no longer hungry but also feel that by dinner time we will be ready for more.

Everything done right traditionally and with a modern ‘arty’ twist. This Afternoon Tea is one you will savour.

Prepared and served fresh daily, The Art of Afternoon Tea is available everyday from 12pm-4.30pm for £58 per person or £70 per person including a glass of champagne. 

The Kensington 

109-113 Queen’s Gate

South Kensington, London, SW7 5LP

La cuina dels genis. The cooking of the geniuses.

Posted on by under Europe, Southern Europe

Discovering the Catalan dishes and landscape that inspired Gaudi, Picasso, Miro and Casals.

I’m holding a large loaf that I’ve just hollowed out, it’s now filled with herring, roasted tomatoes and garlic and a very great deal of olive oil.

Biting into it I temporarily lose sight of the beautiful convent  at the foot of the mountain across the fields from the village of Horta de Sant Joan in Catalunya.

Bread completely fills my vision and olive oil runs down my sleeves. Now this is what I call a sandwich. Continue reading →