Outspokentraveler in London Christmas 2017
We arrived the 28th of December and London was still in full Christmas mode. This post covers our dining for five nights, including New Years, as well as the one evening where we had high tea late and used the finger sandwiches and sweets as a quasi-dinner.
After settling into our hotel, catching a nap, going for a walk, our first dinner was at Oscars, the Charlotte Street Hotel one restaurant. This boutique hotel in the neighborhood of Bloomsbury has been one of my favorites since first staying there in the late 1990’s. (A great hotel and a separate review).
The menu could be classified as sophisticated British/continental. A fairly wide range of starters and entrees probably catered to what was certainly a wide range of travelers — The room was heavily cushioned, shared the space with a bar and had a pastiche of modern style, loud, bright, but not garish; the designer had pulled through the colors to match the cushions. Tasteful.
The room was noisy but not overly so. (Is it me of have all restaurants decibel level jumped in the last few years?) This was a pleasure since we were tired and could avoid shouting as a form of dinner conversation.
Beef is a mainstay in England, and Oscar had several dishes and gave off the air of fine cuisine. But we decided to mix it up with short ribs and bass entrees. A good test of the chef for consistency of quality.
The starter soup, a thick squash soup with an occasional piece of bacon, was quite good. Perhaps it had a touch of pumpkin, because it was slightly different from other squash soups. The salad was underwhelming, but good; you probably should be advised that in many countries in Europe (Italy, England, Ireland, Austria) the salads are completely unlike American one’s; it has to do both with climate and culture, and are full of rocket lettuce, radicchio, random sprites of leaf. So if you order, ask first what is in it. After such trips it always amazes how many varieties of salads you can find in American restaurants, it really is amazing. We are very fortunate.
As for the entrees, we has roast turkey and beef belly; the beef and it’s brown sauce were excellent, and the mashed potatoes, delicious. The turkey was juicy and a mix of white and dark medallions. The presentation was in keeping with the tastefulness of the atmosphere.
At the end, jet lagged and sated, we skipped desert, only to have the waitress bring a tray of tiny ice cream sugar cones, several flavors, several in a row. Once again, it spoke to the overall color palette. We each had one and they were delicious and a bite-and-a-half…green pistachio was our favorite.
With two glasses of wine, the bill was over 100 pounds, and worth it.
An outspokentraveler sidebar about restraurant service…On many occasions, the service, or server has been played a role in our dining experience, which can be magical or annoying to no end. In this instance, no need to comment on the service other than it was fluid, timely, and, as it should be, not that noticeable.
On that point, there are three groupings of service. The first is the best, where the server has a real personality and engages with you, which makes the meal more friendly and welcoming, our favorite kind. Second, is where, as was Oscars, fluid, barely noticeable, efficient, and lets you just enjoy the food, company and atmosphere. Last, the worst, is the cloying, overly attentive or not present staff who clearly should be pursuing other lines of work because they most likely have never thought about the concept of service or frankly, just don’t give a damn.
Even if you don’t stay at the (fabulous) Charlotte Street Hotel, which is on a long block chock full of good eateries, Oscars is quite good. #charlottestreethotel, #oscarsofcharlottestreet.
High Tea at the Lanesborough Hotel #thelanesboroughhotellondon https://www.oetkercollection.com/destinations/the-lanesborough/
High Tea at the Lanesborough hotel, a five-star, hoity toity, marbled classic British hotel. We went late to substitute the tea sandwiches and sweets for dinner because we had a concert nearby and wanted to do a High Tea while in London — which one really should do at least once, it being the world capital of such an event…and yes, it is not tea, it is an event.
And the Lanesborough did it right. True, it was incredibly pretentious and snobby with the staff moving like well dressed sharks in silent around the room as a piano played classics of yesteryear. But that is really part of why it is high tea, not just tea. Of course, it began with a glass of champagne.
The menu laid out the choices for tea and the two courses — finger sandwiches, rectangular, perfectly trimmed of their crust; cucumber, salmon, egg, roast beef, condiments to match on a silver platter. After a proper pause to absorb more of the atmosphere of the room with its classical images in bas-reliefs of white and wedge wood blue across the tops of the walls; and of course, the piano, came the amazing three leveled silver display of sweets with jam and clotted cream (a friend of butter). The first level, hidden under a napkin were nearly perfect, light, fresh scones. Going up, the next two held handmade sweets of artistic design; one example being a tiny chocolate Christmas tree with pear inside. Or a glazed ornament-looking chocolate ball, with a frail white sugar thread at the top as if ready for the holiday tree.
What can I say? Fortnum and Mason is probably the most famous, and equally superb, far less pretentious, but this was a show. Delicate, of another age, leaving the palette almost overwhelmed by the range of exquisite tastes. Would we go back? Once was enough. But it was an experience to remember.
(After the concert, we got back to the room, and hungry again, ordered a delicious chicken club sandwich; then fully awake, we watched the 1937 classic, “Stage Door” on the laptop.)
The House of Ho (pronounced “Ho” HA!)
We were in the mood for Asian food, and our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Metro, across the street was closed, so the concierge (Alex was excellent at her job, charming, thoughtful, a good listener and helpful no matter what the topic).
She recommended we go to the end of the street and try the Vietnamese cuisine. Ok, it was Vietnamese but also a fusion of other Asian flavors and chef specialities.
The wait staff was pleasant but absolutely clueless about their own menu. We had to ask a second waitress to explain some of the dishes, which she tried to then exclaimed with a silly smile, “I never go in the kitchen, so I’m not sure!” So we got a mix of items, anchored by the large beef rice noodle soup, Po. the chicken rolls were good, the short ribs a bit over dressed a version of plum sauce, but also very good. The Po was…a challenge. If you ever go, order one to share, it was too much for one person.
Though a fast meal, the food was very warming and delicious. If you were a local, as we observed, many ordered one Po and several smaller dishes and shared. Smart. Thai Metro is a better meal, though as we recall, very very spicy.
The only footnote that was more annoying than the friendly but clueless waitresses was that the wine, a good strong red, cost more per glass than the entree. That’s not right.
New Years at Yashin, the House of Sushi. http://yashinocean.com/
Our very good friends who love in London always take us somewhere unique. And of the three meals we have had, each has been completely different and delicious. This was a new branch of their favorite sushi restaurant, in the Kensington area.
This is a difficult review. Why? Because the food was exquisite, but rarely have we ever seen a more pompous and self-important presentation of a meal. Example: the restaurant is known for its shared sushi platters, and the first they brought was truly outstanding and delicate — tuna, yellow tail, salmon, whitefish, shrimp — but when the waiter placed the round clear glass tray, with its hollow center, we could not eat until he had poured in a “fruit infusion” which acted like dry ice and flowed with white smoke like some witches cauldron. It was a bit much. That was followed by melting the cotton candy over blackened cod, which was truly outstanding, but again, too much show.
Why no photos? In fact, we felt reticent due to the…fancy nature of the restaurant.
A pause. Sushi can be as wide ranging an experience as one can have when having a meal. In the States, the trend has been to move to these super complex large rolls with layer upon layer of fish, sauce, crumbled flakes, etc. They can be great, or lame and usually very expensive. Also, it has to be said, we all know Americans like to eat large quantities of food — especially at dinner. But sushi can fill you up very fast. At the House, while top grade in its fish, when the meal was over I felt like I had worked more calories picking up the few delicate pieces than I had actually eaten.
Why a hard review? Because we would recommend it, but do it with eyes wide open. Go for the pretense and the quality, but admittedly we were caught off guard by the nearly obsessive focus on presentation.
Deans: Excellent British fare at the Hotel Dean, SOHO (#deansofsoho) https://www.sohohouse.com/bedrooms/dean-street-townhouse
Trusting Alex, our concierge, and having tickets to see Gershwin “American in Paris” (side note: if by some chance the reader has not ever heard this fantastic piece of music, do it NOW and come back later…one of America’s true musical geniuses, and sadly dead at 37), we had to have another fast, early meal. This time we asked for the best pub food. Good ole fish and chips, a burger, Shepard’s pie, a pint of great beer…after some discussion, she sent us to another boutique hotel called Deans, off Dean Street in SOHO just south of Oxford Street.
It was not a pub, but a pub and restaurant inside the hotel. Being New Year’s Day, many pubs were closed. But the food was simply great British fare. The waiter recommended the special starter, a haddock mixed with bread, with a soup poured over. I didn’t want it, but he convinced me and it was simply incredibly light and delicious.
We then split what looked like a giant fish and chips, on a bed of traditional pea mash. Odd as it may seem, this was our favorite meal of the trip. It was simple, but not. Traditional but classy. The pint, a Scottish ale, was perfectly refreshing. A must visit restaurant for British food!
Summary: all good, some great, and as always with dining out, depends on mood, taste, budget, and a mix of them all.
Outspoken Traveler 
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