Pub review: THE PRINCE OF TECK (Earl’s Court)

A short walk away from Earl’s Court tube stop, The Prince of Teck is that bit more elegant than the vast majority of dives I’ve visited, and can probably be best described as a pub with aspirations of being a bar.

Not that The Prince of Teck’s delusions of grandeur are a bad thing. Because it’s slightly more upmarket, you’re spared the company of unhinged boozehounds, and instead share company with city professionals who graciously have that London DNA imbued in them of just wanting to get drunk with their mates, and won’t be making small talk with strangers for no reason. 

Furthermore, the staff are extremely attentive and friendly, and never do you feel like you’re being an inconvenience to them, which is more than I can say for other London restaurants, where the pint-pullers glare at you for so much as asking for a drink.

Alcohol is slightly overpriced, but that’s expected, given the Kensington postcode. The food was exemplary – my sausage and mash were absolutely delicious, and it was good to see that the chefs had taken on board my request for extra gravy. 

My colleagues all spoke highly of their meals as well, and the choices on the menu transcended the standard paint-by-numbers fare. Such is the hegemony of The Prince of Teck in the dining stakes, then, that I would give this place a huge thumbs up. Visit it if you can; getting inebriated has never been so much fun.

Grade: A-

For more of my pub reviews, click here. If you would like me to review your bar, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Christmas at Hilton Kensington.

Starters:

 

Main:

 

 

 

Dessert:

 

Overall quality of food: 4/10.

Overall quality of entertainment/DJ/alcohol quantity: 8/10.

 

 

Restaurant review: TANDOORI NIGHTS (Covent Garden)

I went to this place a few months ago, but such was the poor memory of it, that I had to give it a while before I could stomach thinking about it again.

I should have seen the warning signs when we walked into the restaurant and it was empty. Tandoori Nights boasts how it's won all these these prizes, but the simple fact of the matter is were it really brilliant, the place should have been bustling at the prime dinner timeslot. Instead, save a few waiters, the place was practically empty.

We had regulation choices: a chicken and a seafood dish, and both were godawful (I distrust any chicken tikki masala in such a sweet sauce) and were left, unfinished. The naan bread was edible but the rice was microwave-standard, at best.

So we weren't particularly impressed with the food, then. But the service, oh god, the service. A particularly pushy guy wouldn't stop hovering around our table and trying to pressure us into ordering more, despite the fact that we'd clearly been none-too-impressed with what we'd eaten so far. Definitely not a culinary experience I intend to revisit.

I'll tell you one positive thing about this place: it sure does make a good case for getting your own meals and consuming them in the comfort - and pleasure of not being rushed while you're trying to enjoy your dinner - of your own home.

Grade: F

Restaurant review: YAMAL ALSHAM(Imperial Wharf)

Beautifully decorated on the inside but a little out of the way, Yamal Alsham is a Lebanese place that specialises in mezze dishes. I visited using a Wowcher deal that I had bought for £29, which claimed to be worth up to £85 worth of food. That was a wee bit of an oversell! Nothing against the food we ate, which filled our appetites and tasted good, but in no way would that ever be worth eighty quid. What we ate was worth £29, and not a penny more; the so-called “deal” off Wowcher promptly put the “sham” in “Alsham”.

Looking past the fact that any “deals” you buy off Wowcher, Groupon or LivingSocial isn’t a deal at all but just you forking out the price of the meal, then, then Yamal Alsham would still somewhere I’d recommend. 

The food, on the whole, was good (the spicy potatoes were my favourites, it’s my most enjoyed thing about Lebanese cuisine, and the houmous was some of the best I've had), although not all of it was brilliantly presented – the curdled cheese just looked like cheese gone off. The wine that came with the meal smelt, and tasted like Sainsbury’s £6 wine, and was promptly left untouched. 

It was very annoying to be short-changed in the manner that we were, and had we not bumped into former premier league footballer Pavel Pogrebnyak, sat on the table next to us, I would be much more severe in my grading of this place. As such, I’m trying to be nice. If it’s good enough for a footballer, it should be good enough for me.

Grade: B


(There’s actually a Lebanese café just outside my work, where I often get my spicy potato wraps. On the balance of things, I still prefer that place.)

For more of my restaurant reviews, click here. If you would like me to review your restaurant, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Christmas Dinner.

This year, me and the brother were put on Christmas roast-cooking duty. These were the fruits of our labour:

We sprinkled a bit of cheese on our veg, just 4dabanta.



We marinated the turkey in lots of peri peri sauce.



Delicious food, all ready to be eaten!~~~

Restaurant review: CAPE TOWN FISH MARKET (Oxford Circus)

A classy-looking joint, Cape Town Fish Market is particularly popular with tourists who want to give their tootsies a rest from shopping. It even boasts an actual fish tank with exotic fish in their venue. The food isn’t bad either, with the salmon teriyaki I ordered an absolute treat. The sauce accompanying the meal might just be some of the best teriyaki sauce I’ve ever had, so that’s well worth checking out (I suspect some wine may have been added into it to give it an extra kick; whatever it was, it worked!) 

My friend had sea bass, which also tasted wonderful. For starters, I ordered the fish cake, which was pretty decent (made more so by the fabulous sauce accompanying it), as well as a sushi nigiri set, which was relatively paint-by-numbers fare.

Provided you use a Tastecard, the dining at Cape Town Fish Market is relatively affordable, but a word of warning: 1) the restaurant help themselves to a healthy tip, which doesn’t wash with me, because if the service is that terrific, you shouldn’t have to give yourself a tip, if you know your service has merited one from us. 

And 2) those bottles of water on your table that the waiters are all too happy to crack open for you? Yeah, they cost £3.50 each. They’re there to lure you into a false sense of security. And then the waiters are all too happy to bring more to the table, even when you haven’t asked for any more. A real shame, as, had those two things not let the place down, I would be singing Cape Town Fish Market's praises, especially that of its main dishes. 

As such, I left the place feeling a little hard done by.

Grade: B-

For more of my restaurant reviews, click here. If you would like me to review your restaurant, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com