Well, you can't get out to the countryside as often as you'd like, no matter how often you'd like. And London is not short of dining options. Every now and again, we hit one worth writing about. And although completely unremunerated in any way for this blog (and not bitter about that at all) we'd like to offer one of our better recent dining experiences a SHAMELESS PLUG.
The Table in Southwark is a bit of an oasis: one of the few good eating places in easy reach of the Tate Modern--so tends to be somewhere we go to relax after the rigours of modern art (believe me, after the Damien Hirst retrospective, you'll want a drink). And it's trying to do something very interesting, occasionally, as their "Easter Feast" suggests. They're aiming to do this sort of thing once a month, and we're trying to make sure we get into the next one since we had a blast at the Easter meal. Very much Italian-themed, mostly around family traditions and childhood food memories of their head chef Cinzia Ghignoni with wines matched to each course by Matt WallsOthers have covered this better and more thoroughly than your humble correspondent can (particularly http://www.bookatable.com/uk/blog/post/the-table-cafe-italian-easter-feast) so I won't go into too much detail, but I will say it's excellent value ("early bird" was forty a head including the wine match, fifty if you're not so early) and say that you can tell that they're still fine-tuning the food portion size...what looked to be excellent value was superb value once you saw the amount they were giving you... we waddled out very slowly after it all. The only photo we took was of the Pasqualina, since we were so very full that we were contemplating slipping it into Mrs' handbag and would have wanted to at least try to recreate the presentation.
Well done, and more of these, please
--menu--
Baby cuttlefish spiedini, Datterini tomatoes and marjoram
Broad beans, speck, peas and pan fried duck livers
Grilled asparagus, egg and Parmesan
Lamb ragu lasagnette
Stuffed veal breast, artichoke and sheeps milk ricotta with roast Duke of York potatoes
Swiss chard and curd Pasqualina, castelfranco and poached pear salad
Semi-fredo ~or~ Gubana, creme anglaise ~or~ Pastiera Napolietana ~or~ if you're as impressed with the rest of the meal as we were, well, all three (but to share among two, as we were very well fed by now)
Update: mid October. We've returned for the first time since the spring, the Klee exhibit at Tate Mod (and a very good one) brought us back to the area. The chef has changed, and, gentle reader, it saddens me to say it but this place is now just ordinary. That's not bad, mind, but... the menu is unadventurous--Mrs. resigned herself to the burger--and the wine list is two of each by the glass. Prices are up, slightly, and value is down: the burger came unaccompanied by anything other than the plate. We aren't sure if the wine measures weren't a little short as well. At least the prosecco is still very good, and good value. So kinda like a zillion other places in London, and not really any better. Maybe it's just new things rumbling in.
ReplyDeleteOn the upside, over our burgers and ordinary-ish short-measure wine, we started thinking about other places that we had been to a few times that had taking a dismaying turn towards the ordinary. One that popped up in conversation was Frontline, near Paddington. We had made a habit of it during a phase when Mrs. was being sent on Dusseldorf daytrips by her employer of the time, and the civilised way to finish a day like that is with a good meal, ideally within a couple of streets of the Heathrow Express. Then one day we took a couple of friends and found it had turned... the meal was three courses of 100% Brake Brothers microwave'n'serve extravaganza. That was several years ago, but tonight we look at the latest reviews and they're much better than they were: perhaps Frontline has seen the light and is back to doing interesting cooking, as opposed to uninteresting microwaving. So we'll give them another shot.
And maybe Table will turn the corner. But not this night. Shame, though...