Luckily, I found out about this restaurant due to a deal they had through Groupon. It was a "seven" course tasting menu. (I use seven in quotes only due to the fact that I would consider it more of a five course tasting menu). It sounded like a good deal, and on top of that, it's relatively close (10 minute train ride) from where we live. I figured if it's good, it's much easier to get there than to go all the way into London proper!
We arrive, and first off it seems like a very strange place for a restaurant. It's basically in the middle of a giant warehouse type place. However, they've managed to give it modern, eclectic decorations, with a funky twist. Definitely seems like a fun vibe.
We're seated at they bring us our first course, bread with oil and vinegar, olives, and a bellini. Booze is always good, as we were expecting to be paying for the wine. However, the other half is not a huge fan of olives, so I had them all to myself. I'm not sure I'd consider this a course to be honest, but the bread was absolutely superb! We ordered a bottle of Sancerre (as we figured white with the next three courses sounded reasonable). The wine was quite tasty, and went well with the next three courses. First was a salad of apple, radicchio, and walnuts. Very tasty! Then I had the caramelized goat's cheese with artichokes. The other half doesn't really care for goat's cheese, so they gave him char-grilled asparagus with Parmesan. Both of them were wonderful. Then some grilled swordfish in a broth with white beans. Tasty!
The big problem came with the next course, as it was beef. We wanted some red wine, but an entire bottle of red seemed like it was going to be too much. One of the people wandering around brought a bottle over and told us if we liked the white, we'll love the red. Well, it was a bottle, so we declined, opting for a California red instead. However, he didn't like that answer so he brought over a new wine they were trying and wasn't on the menu yet. It turned out to be very good going well with the beef! Talk about service!
For dessert we had fruit with yogurt, honey, and pistachios, and a bit of Sauternes for measure. The "seventh" course was truffles and coffee, before which the same guy who brought us the wine asked us if we wanted any Cognac with the coffee. I said no, but he insisted saying it was on the house. Well, you can't say no to free booze, so we had some Cognac as well!
Everything here was tasty, the atmosphere is great, and the servers were attentive. Who knew we would luck out on such a great find through the Groupon site! We'll definitely be back to try out some of the things on the regular menu. read more