The Tapa Room

Last Friday, I headed up to Marylebone High Street to meet a couple of people for lunch. We went to The Providores & Tapa Room, the London restaurant of Peter Gordon. The Providores is the upstairs restaurant, really nice, I ate there a few years ago, and the Tapa Room is downstairs and a bit more relaxed. The wine list here is full of gems that you just don't see that often so is well worth an explore. We had the Mount Difficulty Pinot Gris 2007, a lovely lemony drop that you should grab if you have the chance. The food is of the "small plates in the middle of the table to dive into" philosophy - heavenly. We had the Pimientos de Padron - another must in my book, chilli roulette, fabulous! The Tapa Plate, which features grilled chorizo, guindilla chillies, marinated olives, grilled artichoke, spiced fig preserves, babaganoush and Manchego Villarejo cheese, those figs were an explosion of sweet and spice. Watermelon and feta salad with pomegranate dressing, basil and toasted sunflower seeds, the perfect palate cleanser. Deep fried New Zealand baby kumara with sweet chilli sauce, smoked kelp and crème fraiche; kumera is something I hadn't heard of before but is like a cross between sweet potato and plantain, I shall search these out myself again. Smoked Dutch eel and Parmesan croquettes with saffron aioli - my choice and so delicious. There is so much more on the menu that sounds so good, but we were defeated by then and split a dessert to go with coffee. The raspberry bavarois and Oloroso jelly trifle with kaffir lime leaf madelines and vanilla cream was a taste sensation. The Oloroso married so well with the softness of the bavarois. The madelines were very nice but could have been a touch more zesty and the coffee was superb.

Well worth a visit in my book but there is no reservation system so get there early or be prepared to queue for a while. I know I'll be back.

Birthday Dinner

It was my birthday recently and I was taken for dinner by my family - asked for a list of places I'd like to go and then not told where we were going.

We arrived at Ambassade de L'Ile, a new outpost of Auberge de L'Ile, a renowned restaurant on the outskirts of Lyon, somewhere I always wanted to eat at when I was there for university but not possible on a student budget.

Ambassade has received some mixed reviews since it opened, generally seeming to focus on the decor, deemed by most to be terrible. I think that, yes, it is over the top and not what one would have at home but it does fit this interior. We were greeted warmly and offered a drink whilst we perused the menu, glasses of Ruinart Rosé in fact and some tasty amuses. We all decided to go for the tasting menu, it is served to the entire table and at £90 for eight courses, it is priced as you would expect. The wine list is a joy. There are some very expensive bins but go to the slightly esoteric areas and there are some very reasonable listings.
All I can add to previous reviews of this restaurant is that I think you should go and make up your own mind. I had a wonderful birthday dinner there, the food was very good, very little I didn't agree with and the place and people are great. They do a £30 lunch menu which I would be interested in trying too.

Go, enjoy and see what you think.