The Vincent Rooms: Brasserie
We had been at the Vincent Rooms earlier in the year, but as I wrote in our review then, we usually try to have a Christmas meal first. Their Escoffier Rooms were busy again, so we "settled" for the Brasserie.
The Vincent Rooms is a restaurant of the Capital City College — where they train chefs. The meals and service are all done by the students (with suitable supervision). This has little effect on the dishes, but it does sometimes make for a more haphazard service. That is okay though, as we are now used to this, and students learn by doing these things.
As it is now Christmas time, the evening's menu was suitably themed. It was a set-menu, catering for Christmas parties, of which several were going on when we arrived. We decided to join in with a glass of prosecco, because why not.
Each course (starter, main, dessert) had three options. My wife chose the pumpkin velouté as her starter, which was slightly spicy, and full of pumpkin goodness. Some puffed rice on top added a bit of texture. I had the Lincolnshire game terrine, which was wrapped in Parma ham, and served with a cranberry compote and some pistachios for texture.
With our mains we shared a bottle of a crisp Australian Chardonnay. This was a great choice for my wife's main, as she selected the Norwegian Saithe. This was served as a fillet, with a crispy skin. It came served with a rosti, and a lovely mussel and vegetable mixture. I decided on going full Turkey with the Christmas roast. The turkey was served as both breast and leg slices. The red cabbage and sprouts were just the right kind of soft. The roast potatoes were okay (I'm really picky about them, and mine are the best). The turkey was topped with a pig in blanket, and served with a gravy that lifted it nicely up. It's probably the best roast meal I have had in a long time.
For dessert, neither of us chose the traditional pudding. I enjoyed the spiced milk chocolate mousse, which was surrounded by a collar of caramel with hazelnut flakes, and served with a caramel dip. My wife opted for the mulled wine bavarois, which was nice and soft, and served with flavourful poached red fruits and a ginger biscuit.
The meal, as always, was excellent. The service also seemed much more like in a normal restaurant on this occasion too. We'll surely be back for next year's Christmas.
Pyrá
Pyrá is a recent addition to the line-up of restaurants on Lonsdale Road. Their menu is on the shorter side, and they also cater for parties. When we rocked up, there was a wedding reception going on in their loft. Pyrá has a menu with both Greek and Spanish influences, a more unusual combination, but one which on reading appeared to work well. We shared a portion of the chorizo and manchego croquettes. These were a little spicy and salty, including some chunky bits of manchego.
For our main courses, I picked the deconstructed lamb gyros, which came served with fluffy flatbreads, chips, a chilli dip, tzatziki, and an onion and tomato salad. My wife chose the roasted Merton sole, with saffron rice, and oyster mushrooms. It came served whole, with a dressing of some lemon and roasted garlic. However, service was slow, with a noticeable wait until the mains showed up, and then the mains not being served together. My wife's sole eventually appeared almost half an hour after the gyros. This may have been due to the large party upstairs, but no warning was given of a possible delay, and no apology was forthcoming either. Overall, this wasn't the most positive.
The food (when it came) was nice and well cooked, and the portions were fairly generous, which meant that we skipped dessert.
We enjoyed Pyrá, but the long wait in between our main dishes being served let them down, and would probably mean it was not our first choice in Queens Park for a revisit.
The Salusbury
The Salusbury Pub has been a feature of Queen's Park for as long as we have lived in the area. They recently had a refurbishment, and as we had never eaten there, we decided to give it a try.
We were on the earlier side, and it was quiet when we arrived.
For our starters, my wife ordered the Parmesan Churros. Instead of them being sweet as you'd expect in their dessert form, they were fluffy, light, and savoury, with delightful Parmesan twang. I had a single oyster, which was served in a cucumber and jalapeño "hot" sauce. It was only slightly spicy, and didn't overpower the flavour of the oyster itself.
As her main, my wife chose the Roast Venison. It was served with caramelised onions, some chard, and a jus with cranberries to tie the whole meal together. The venison itself was perfectly cooked, and still pink on the inside. For my main course, I selected the Somerset Saxon chicken, served with herb gnocchi and girolle mushrooms. The chicken was well cooked, and had a well-seasoned and crispy skin, while the meat was soft and moist. The gnocchi were light, with the herbs adding some flavour. The girolles and sauce made it all work better.
We were still a little peckish, and decided to share a dessert. The menu had an "apple crumble". However, it wasn't an actual crumble, but rather a soufflé with apple flavour, and some crumbs to add some texture. Some vanilla ice cream cooled it down a little.
The courses at the Salusbury were excellent, and we should really have tried going much sooner. As it's pretty close by I am sure we will return.
Ottolenghi
Ottolenghi has several restaurants in London, but we enjoyed dinner in their Hampstead venue on a cheeky Monday to celebrate.
The menu doesn't have starters or mains, but only nibbles and sharing dishes, which was made abundantly clear by our waiter. However, there is a selection of cold and warm sharing dishes which by necessity are served in two waves: the cold ones, and the warm ones — nicely separating them in starters and main courses. Did I mention everything is meant to share?
We started our meal with a crisp glass of pét-nat, a naturally sparkling wine, while munching on za'atar pita chips with a yoghurt and red chilli dip.
As our starter (sorry, cold sharing dish), we chose the burrata with marinated mandarins. The freshness of the mandarins worked well with the burrata, and the rocket added some extra pepperiness.
We picked our mains as non-sharing, but ended up sharing a fair bit anyway. My wife picked the Adana lamb kebabs with babaganoush and picked onions. These were nicely spiced, with the babaganoush adding the necessary moisture. I selected the crispy chicken 'chop', which was served with a tahini and walnut sauce. The chicken 'chop' had a nice crispy skin, and the sauce was excellent. The portion size of the chicken dish was somewhat larger than the lamb kebabs.
With our mains we enjoyed a lovely bottle of red wine, a Garnacha from Navarra. At the end, we went back and forth about ordering pudding. We ended up settling on sharing a Bakewell tart. With crispy edges, a nicely sour filling, and some pistachio nuts sprinkled on top.
We enjoyed Ottolenghi, but we're not in agreement on the ambience. Although we both found it relaxed and welcoming, I also found it a little pretentious. Particularly the "cold and warm sharing dishes" shtick instead of the starters and mains they would have been in other restaurants. All of the dishes were really tasty, well presented, and the staff were great. We would return.
Casa Felicia
Casa Felicia is close to home, and sits on a stretch near Queen's Park tube station with many other restaurants. It has recently opened, but it was full on this drizzly evening. Bookings are definitely required.
The menu isn't very extensive. A few starters and pasta dishes, which are supplemented by a few special "secondi" from a black board menu. The menu however, was entirely in Italian, which required a translation service to navigate. A short description under each of the titles would have really helped, as would the menu being printed in a darker ink (or the lighting turned up a little). Clearly we're old, but the menu wasn't that easy to read, and we noticed a few fellow patrons using their phone torches to see it properly
As our starters we shared the Salame Napoli, thicker cut slices of slightly peppery salami, and the Salsiccia & Friarielli, a deliciously spiced sliced sausage with a jus, and served with sprouting broccoli.
For our mains my wife chose the pappardelle ragu — pasta in the shape of butter flies with a spiced ragu, served with chives and cheese shavings. I picked from their blackboard menu a pork chop, covered in ham, and smothered in a tonne of cheese. It was just on the "too much" side of a meal, and hence, we decided not to have pudding as well.
We enjoyed Casa Felicia. There is good food, and a good buzz. It also helps that it is a fairly short walk from home. Although it's not quite as good as Ida, I think we would need little persuasion to return.
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