Theo's reviews
Review of Chuckle Club
09 Sep 07, 21:04
Chuckle? I should coco! 
Eugene Cheese has been hosting the Chuckle Club since 1986 and he has built an extensive network of excellent comedy acts who delight in performing at his deeply personal club. As he opens the evening with the engagingly silly Chuckle Club song and an easy-going unassuming rapport with his audience it is like sitting down with a rather odd but reassuring uncle.
The LSE student bar is a comfortable venue with a mix of conventional chairs and engulfing deep sofas. The bar prices are remarkably low for central London and the £10 admission charge also grants access to the nightclub that runs until 3am after the comedy acts have gone.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Taprobar
09 Sep 07, 20:56
A Sri Lankan Italian restaurant in London? 
From the outside Taprobar looks like any other pleasant Italian restaurant but there is a strange dislocation as one enters the premises. Large tropical paintings decorate the walls near the street giving way to conventional Italian art nearer the back. And there are ceramic elephants jostling with tea paraphernalia.
Courteous smiling Sri Lankan waitstaff led us to a table. They were pleasant and attentive; handing us glorious teak bound menus but whipping away to bring us the water that we requested before we had a chance to add other drinks to our order. Our small party of three were the only patrons early on a Saturday evening so we might have expected intrusive attention and highly efficient service. This was not how things turned out.
We ordered bread and olives for three with two of us having starters of calimari and mushrooms in gorgonzola sauce, respectively. It took some ten minutes for the olives to arrive for two of us and a further ten for the third. The two starters then arrived promptly and simultaneously. They were both delightful: my calimari was lightly battered and the cheese sauce was a big success with our mushroom-eater.
Our entrees were two racks of lamb with rosemary and a fine traditional pizza. The lamb was perfectly pink and sat beautifully amid small crisp portions of buttered carrots, fine green beans and aromatically herby sauteed potatoes. The Capricciosa pizza contained everything that we expected on a base of just the right texture.
As we sat glowing in post-prandial pleasure, our delayed olives seemed a curious anomaly. The staff became expansively chatty when we questioned them about the strong emphasis on tea. The restaurant is owned by Mackwoods, an extensive Sri Lankan tea grower. We were given boxes of tea in discreet carrier bags along with various brochures and leaflets about the company. Our hosts told us about the climate in the tea plantations and about the diverse business activities of the parent company.
We will be happy to return for another meal and, at under £20 per person excluding wine, we can certainly afford that.
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Review of The Duke Of York
08 Sep 07, 08:45
Quiet local near busy touristland 
A classic urban boozer owned by Samuel Smith and offering only their products: ales, beers, wines and spirits. It is pleasantly quiet with friendly helpful staff. The menu is conventional British pub food; the meals are well-made and substantial. Thursday night features Jazz. An upstairs room can accommodate a party of about 50 drinkers or 25 diners. In mild weather it can be pleasant to sit outside on pavement benches.
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Review of The AMP Oval
08 Sep 07, 08:36
Atmospheric sports venue
The Oval is a rich mixture of history and modern comforts. From the warm red brick of its Victorian pavilion to the sleek sweep of the OCS stand, it surrounds one of the great sporting venues of the world. Seating in the OCS stand is cushioned clean and expensive; the pavilion is only open to members; elsewhere are thousands of standard stadium seats largely open to the elements, so take rain protection if the weather looks hostile. The quality of the food sold from the concessions is high but the prices are at a substantial premium to equivalent products in nearby Kennington.
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Review of Selfridges
08 Sep 07, 08:28
Archetypal department store
To my mind, Selfridges is everything that a department store should be. It is large. It covers almost every retail sector. Its stock runs from the mundane to the amazing. The wine department runs from plonk to mortgage-demanding specialties. The food hall offers Oxo cubes and smoky bacon flavoured locusts. The book department rivals a provincial Waterstones. There are antiques, oriental antiquities, porcelain and acres of clothes. And just to make sure that you never leave, there are bars and restaurants every bit as good as independent businesses in the streets outside.
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