. . . settle yourself down with a nice glass of wine and leave the bottle at your side ready for top ups - you'll need them!
Monday saw me trying to get a table at Pierre Victoire on Dean Street East http://www.pierrevictoire.com/london/restaurant/index.asp only
to find they were fully booked right up until Christmas. This is obviously a reflection of their good value pre-theatre menu of £9.90 for two courses. Therefore having been to their sister restauant, Prix Fixe, I'm going to call it a day.
On the way back down Dean Street, I found that Chiang Mai had closed down. Hooray, one less!
Tuesday was spent at the Mousetrap matinee with A Guest who, having seen it before, was very good and refused to reveal who did it! We had fizz in Kettners, our favourite champagne bar, and could have walked out without paying. However we didn't want to be like the couple who were captured on CCTV after legging it from a restaurant without paying, so we decided to be honest. We then went to Jimmy's Greek on Frith Street East. I have to say I'd been putting this one off, because there's no website (so no idea of prices or menu) and only a blue door with a canopy. And as there's no frontage, you're not really sure what you're going in to. We went downstairs with some trepidation to find quite a large, empty restaurant but with lots of arches making it feel quite intimate. We decided to order a number of starters: as the waiter described it Greek tapas. We sampled hummous, spicy meatballs, Turkish sausage, grilled hallumi and taramasalata with pitta. They were all delicious and with a bottle of reasonably priced and tasting house white, the bill came to £32. We got chatting to the waiter who told us that the restaurant opened in 1962 and at the time was only one of around four in the street (that would have made my challenge easier!). He said the grey haired lady with the gold Christmas party hat was the original owner. She was washing up when we arrived but playing cards with an equally elderly chap with a long grey pony tail when we left. It was a very friendly place and as they look to have live music at some time, I suspect it could get very lively.
Wednesday was a night of contrasts. First up was a glass of wine in Garlic and Shots on Frith Street East http://www.garlicandshots.com/html/menu.html. It's a small restaurant but with a couple of stools at the bar. As it was early we got chatting to the huge bear of a man behind the counter to find that he was the Swedish owner and that his two brothers run branches in Stockholm and Palma. They have 101 vodka shots, infused on the premises: his bottle of citron vodka was full of lemon peel. We couldn't leave without downing a shot and I went for Bloodshot - vodka, tomato, garlic (in slivers), chilli and spices. It was rather warming but I tried to be casual about it. The Pensioner chose a more sedate lemon vodka but followed it with a Boodshot chaser as he didn't want to be outdone. We cannot wait to go back in the New Year to try the food - the Internet says 'no dishes are served without garlic. You can always order extra garlic, but never less. As you leave the restaurant you should feel like you've been garlic marinated. This is our mission from God.' If you meet me in January, I suspect you'll probably be able to tell if I've been the night before!
It was then onto a very up market Red Fort on Dean Street West http://www.redfort.co.uk/welcome.htm. Coats were taken and we were shown to a quiet table in the window and immediately offered an aperitif, champagne or prosecco. We chose the latter, poured at the table so we could check out the label, which was served with two poppadoms and a delicate, white oblong dish with four chutneys. We ordered a bottle of £25 sauvignon blanc and shared a starter of hara kebab; two fairly substantial spinach and fenugreek patties lightly filled with cheese, onion and coriander which came accompanied by another oblong dish with four different chutneys. The Pensioner decided on his usual, lamb: Hyderabadi bhuna gosht or Welsh lamb cooked with ginger, garlic, coriander and whole red chilli whilst I opted for a chicken curry or luknowi murgh. The meat in both was very tender and succulent and we shared as mine had a more spicy sauce (although after the bloodshot, it's a wonder we could tell)! Very surprisingly, I then decided on a mango ice cream whilst TP had a glass of port, again poured from the bottle. The service was very attentive throughout and the sommelier, extremely good. It was obviously not a cheap night out, but would make a lovely choice for a special occasion (rather than an after work, mid week meal).
Thursday night saw me out with The Lady, Blonde Bombshell and The Pensioner. As two of the three are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (you know what I mean) and The Pensioner still hasn't received his pension, austerity was the watchword. Nusa Dua on Dean Street East fitted the bill admirably with its two course menu for an incredible £8.95 - http://www.nusadua.co.uk/. I also chose it to put us in the mood for New Year which we'll be seeing in on the Indonesian island of Bintan. There were prawn crackers on the table and we received a literally warm welcome as a fire was pulled up to our table. First we were presented with a clear, spicy complementary soup which was excellent. The menu has a good selection of starters and mains and we chose fried crab sticks, potato cakes with a chilli dip and crab cakes. The list of mains was even longer and so we all found something we liked which came with a choice of noodles or rice. My beef curry was excellent and all the dishes were served in very good portion sizes. With two bottles of white wine, our bill for four came to £66. Austerity accomplished! It was an excellent night with lots of laughs and at least we were well away from the rioting students. I will definitely return!
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