Thursday 12 April 2012

BiBimBap Soho

11 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4DJ

Bibimbap is a Korean dish composed of rice, vegetables and/or meat. This can be (but not always) served in a hot stone pot (that resembles a mortar). With some variations the stone pot can be hot enough so that the rice sizzles, sticks and slighty burns at the bottom (the best part hehe). Before you eat, you give it a good mix, making sure to scrape off all those burnt bits, and bon' appetit!

BiBimBap SoHo - well the name says it all. A Korean restaurant in SoHo that serves bibimbap!


BiBimBap SoHo is probably more well known for their interior decor - polaroid pictures of their customers arranged in pretty patterns on their walls - I have to admit - its one of the reasons why I wanted to eat here in the first place!


 So one evening me and the boyfriend decided to pop by and try our luck for a seat! We were lucky and got a seat, on a peak time Friday evening, and almost immediately as well! Phew!

We ordered kimchi pancake as a starter, which was yummy. The pancakes came with soya sauce. This dish was nice, but quite standard.


I ordered a chilli chicken bibimbap which was sooo yummy! I'm glad I ordered it, hehe. Perfectly spiceyand enough vegetables and rice.

Chilli chicken bibimbap

The boyfriend ordered the raw fillet beef - which was again very yummy. But I personally think the Chilli chicken was tastier!

Fillet beef bibimbap

Overall this quirky affordable little place has a very nice buskling atmosphere. The waiters are nice and the service is relatively quick. The price isn't too bad ~£6-7 for a bibimbap. The food is nice - but not particularly special.

Food = 6.5/10
Atmosphere = 7/10
Service = 7/10
Recommend? Yep

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Riverside Studios Restaurant and Bar

Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, W6 9RL

I went to riverside studios for a quick lunch with a friend one weekday. We got there early but the restaurant filled up quickly and was almost full when we departed. The terrace, which overlooks the Thames, was closed so we sat inside. For drinks, I decided to have Sicilian lemonade and my friend opted for a hot ginger beer.

Despite having tried their ris tto once before, I decided to have it again simply because I loved it so much the first time round! I had the wild mushroom risotto with rocket and parmesan (previously having had a pumpkin variation) and despite the high expectations, it certainly didn't disappoint! Very flavoursome, creamy and rich without being too heavy or stoggy. Yum! My friend went for sea bass with fennel and green beans.

Wild mushroom risotto with rocket and parmesan

Pan fried sea bass fillet on braised fennel and green beans with salsa verde

Overall, a lovely meal.

Food = 8/10
Service = 7/10
Atmosphere = 7/10
Recommend? Yes

Sunday 8 April 2012

Afternoon tea at Grosvenor House

86-90 Park Lane London W1K 7TN

The Park Room and Library has been recognised as among ‘Britain’s Best Afternoon Tea’ destinations by the prestigious Tea Guild (constitutive awards from 2008-2011). Typically "Anna's tea"costs £34.50 per person. However, as part of a deal from Groupon both me and M had the very good opportunity to have tea for two for £20 - with the only restriction being the tea selection (Twinings only). Anna's afternoon tea takes place in The Park Room of the Park Lane Marriott hotel.

When you first enter the first thing you see is an elegant flower display. My first general impression was that the room was a bit dim ..but yet too bright near the windows. However, the waiters did try to adjust the blinds every so often. We were first greeted by a rather stone faced hostess, polite but not particularly friendly who escorted us to our table.

The Park Room


Although, the hostess a tad cold. Our waiter was lovely. First to arrive was an amuse bouche - a fruit coctail made of dragon fruit, lychee, melon and some other excotic fruits. This was quite sweet but refreshing.

Amuse bouche fruit coctail

Unlimited tea was avaliable but one tea pot of tea for the each of us was quite enough.

Tea: Twinings Pure Ceylon tea

In contrast to the Ritz, there was more choice of spreads. Here we had the choice of honey, in addition to strawberry jam and clotted cream.

Spreads (from left): Honey, strawberry jam, clotted cream

The entire set, including the pastries, scones and sandwiches arrived in one go.


The pastries were very pretty, but like the Ritz, didn't taste particularly spectacular. I liked the fact the chocolate eclair had chocolate cream filling rather than the standard cream. The victoria sponge cake was a bit hard. The best thing was the lemon moose thing.

Pastries (clockwise): Chocolate eclair with choclate cream filling; Opera gateau; Raspberry tart; Victoria sponge cake; Vanilla mille-feuille; Raspberry and pistachio slice; lemon moose

The scones reminded me of scones you find in America. The texture was more crunchy/crumbly and a lot more buttery than the soft/stoggy texture of a typical English scone. These were still yummy, but the ones in the Ritz are probably nicer as these were too rich.

Scones: Plain and raisin buttermilk scones


The sandwiches were, overall, delicious! My favourite had to be the prawn/mayo. The chicken came second - moist and flavoursome. The beef sandwich was not so impressive - rather tasteless, probably needs more horseradish for the amount of beef in the sandwich. Too much cucumber in the cucumber sandwich. The egg sandwich was a tad dry, could potentially do with more sauce. The salmon sandwich was standard, but still yummy. We were offered more sandwiches but we declined because were were just frankly stuffed!

Sandwiches (clockwise): Smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill; Coldwater prawns with marie rose sauce; chicken with tarragon; Eggs with mayonaise and cress; Sirloin beef with  creamed horseradish; Cucumber with mint butter.

Overall, we both really enjoyed ourselves. The food was probably slightly better compared to the Ritz, but didn't have that fantastic Ritz 'wow' factor - ambiance does play a big part in eating out. Our waitress was lovely, but otherwise the staff are possibly slightly more stuck-up here than in the Ritz.

Food = 6.5/10
Service = 7/10
Atmosphere = 7/10
Recommend? Yes

Friday 6 April 2012

Noodle Oodle

106 Queensway, Bayswater, London, W2 3RR

Noodle Oodle is a Shanghainese restaurant which serves freshly made pulled noodles (on the menu termed "lamein", in cantonese pronounced "lai-mein"). In Queensway they make the meat using Halal meat making it suitable for Muslims.

The first thing that caught our eye about this restaurant was the chef pulling noodles in front of the main window. To us, it was like 'wow' fresh pulled noodles! - something we normally find in Hong Kong but may be not really here in London. Fresh pulled noodles are one of my favourite - if done well. So we decided to come here for lunch after bowling at Queens Ice and Bowl.

The restaurant itself was fairly dim and the decor so so. Who cares, we've come here for the food!

First we ordered some spicey chicken Shanghainese dumplings. They were nice, but wasn't a particular 'wow' factor. To me it wasn't particularly spicy (although on the side was a chilli and garlic sauce which was delicious!). I also thought it would have been nicer if they were more generous on the meat filling. None the less, not bad.
Chicken and Vegetable dumplings in vinegar and chilli oil
We spent ages choosing the lamein - to choose a spicy one or a plain broth one? Ohh the choices! In the end, we decided to choose two spicy lameins.

The sour spicey lamein - was what it said on the tin - sour and spicey. I was quite disappointed. It would have been nice if you could taste a well made meat broth in the background - and they were sooo stingy on the chicken, I could easily mistaken this as a vegetarian lamein! The noodle itself wasn't bad, ok - but you're only half way there if the soup is rubbish.

Sour spicy lamein with shredded chicken and shrimp

Sze chuan dan dan lamein, was a broth of cloudy sesame soup with chilli oil. This wasn't spicy at all. The broth itself was pretty bland. Didn't like this dish. The broth, key to all soup dishes, was lacking flavour like in the sour/spicy lamein.

Sze chuan dan dan lamein
Overall, the service was ok - the food arrived relatively quickly and the staff somewhat attentive. The food was ok - the most disappointing thing was the broth of both soup dishes. The price was ok ~£6 per soup noodle, a bit dearer for the dumplings ~£5.

Food = 5/10
Service = 5/10
Atmosphere = 4/10
Recommend? no