Andy H.

Review of Whisk

20 Oct 07, 16:28

Delightfully enthusiastic staff

This is the place I come to but all those little kitchen items that foodies feel they really need, from pastry cutters to Illy coffee machines. The premises are not that large and so you might expect a limited range, but this is more than offset by the remarkably enthusiastic staff, who are keen to help and seem able to track almost anything down.

Pop in and browse, but above all ask the staff for their advice.

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Review of Ground

20 Oct 07, 16:20

Disappointing and costly

This considers itself a competitor to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, claiming all manner of fine things about its burgers. Sadly, writing a menu is not the same thing as delivering in the kitchen.

The burger I tried had very ordinary meat, with small pieces of gristle and a generally disappointing texture, though it was cooked through OK. It was in a regular bun and had quite pleasant thin chips on the side, as well as an adequate (bought) pickled cucumber.

However this is still a very ordinary burger, and at £7 or so is charging a price for something better than it is. A vegetarian burger was dried out and sorry for itself. Gourmet Burger Kitchen need not have any sleepless nights over this place.

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Review of Sams Brasserie and Bar

20 Oct 07, 16:18

Pleasant food - good burger

On the basis of three visits here this seems to me a nice addition to Chiswick eating scene, and one that appears to be quite successful (unlike the doomed-looking Mow's opposite, which I gather is up for sale at a bargain price). The menu is not particularly ambitious but execution was capable; I especially enjoyed their burger special, made from scratch and taking 20 minutes.

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Review of Carvossos at 210

20 Oct 07, 16:13

Stick to the drinks

On the Chiswick High Road in a smartly refurbished town house. The front part of the premises is a wine bar, the back a dining room, and there is a little courtyard that is used for al fresco dining in the summer. The owner (Mr Carvosso) runs Pissarro in Kew. The menu is fairly limited, being modern British in style. Bread is either white or brown, bought in and pretty tasteless.

My starter of chicken liver was OK, served on a puree of creamed onions with a drizzle of red wine sauce, though the advertised bacon did not appear. Wild mushroom tagliatelle had bought in pasta that lacked taste but was adequately cooked, with a few mixed wild mushrooms and a little parmesan; this again was OK if unmemorable.

My main course, though, was inedible. Venison was way overcooked, served with stringy green cabbage and lukewarm “cauliflower balsamic” which seemed to be missing any balsamic element. I sent this back and they were at least nice about it.

A Savoy cabbage ball stuffed with walnuts and stilton was better executed, served with a little red pepper sauce. This was an unusual dish but I thought it worked OK, though it was a little rich. A dark chocolate tart was poor, with low quality chocolate and bought in pastry. The wine list is decent, with fair mark ups e.g. Perrier Jouet champagne was £37, and Dom Perignon £125. There are plenty of New World wines under £30.

Service was pleasant if inept e.g. the waitress only brought the correct wine that we had ordered on the third attempt. The place was surprisingly busy given it has just opened, but then the wine bar itself is quite attractive.

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Review of Carluccios

20 Oct 07, 16:09

Dismal food

First and last visit. Soggy bruschetta with tasteless tomatoes was actually better than my wife's awful tuna fishcake, straight from a microwave and barely tasting of tuna (0/10). Mushroom lasagne was tolerable, but my wife's penne pasta was hard and chewy, while little balls of fried spinach were rock-hard (0/10). Chocolate ice cream was fine (1/10), though Stella’s tiramisu was the sort of thing you’d find out of a packet (0/10). Coffee was decent (2/10). Service was pleasant, and it was nice to sit out on this lovely summer’s night, but this food is well below the standard of something you could buy from the nearby Marks & Spencer. This was pretty dire food, yet the place was busy just weeks after opening. Amazing what a TV chef’s name can do, totally blinding people to the actual taste. The best dish was a bowl of decent olives.

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Review of Vino Rosso

19 Oct 07, 18:16

Over-ambitious and over-priced

A new Italian restaurant in Chiswick. It is a few doors from La Trompette and is very nicely decorated, with wooden floors and insets in the walls with various bottles of wine, along with good lighting. The dining room is fairly small, with maybe 30 or so covers, though that was hardly a problem tonight, as there were only four other diners this evening (admittedly a quiet Monday in January). A complimentary Bellini arrives at the beginning, which is a pleasant touch.

The menu is ambitiously priced, with three courses at £29.50 a fraction more than Pearl in Holborn, for example (lunch menu is £17.50 for two courses). Chef Christian Gardin is from a place in Kingston I have never heard of, and the owner is an Italian businessman.

Bread is warm, a small white roll, a slice of brown bread and a saffron roll that did indeed have the metallic taste of saffron. However the texture of the breads was not very good, the white being the best (1/10). I started with scallops, seared and served on a bed of celeriac puree, with a “dressing” of sun-dried tomatoes. The scallops were small and overcooked, and for some reason they were cooked with the coral attached. Given that scallop coral needs a different cooking time to the main scallop this is an odd thing to do.

The celeriac puree tasted of celeriac but was heavy rather than light as you would hope. Moreover sun-dried tomatoes are one of those things that I had hoped, like kiwi fruit, had disappeared from kitchens these days (0/10).

My wife had pumpkin soup with gorgonzola cheese profiteroles. The wisdom of putting choux pastry in soup is debatable at best, but the soup itself was insipid and thin (0/10). I next had large egg pasta ribbons with wild boar ragu and juniper berries. The pasta itself was freshly made and actually had quite good texture (3/10 for the pasta itself) but the ragu was not cooked for long enough and was a little chewy when it should have been melting (1/10 for the dish).

Gnocchi was edible but not great, stuffed with artichokes and with a somewhat odd pairing of white wine and ginger sauce (round up). My final course was sea bass, but this consisted of three tiny rolls of overcooked fish wrapped around an overcooked prawn, all around a central mound of courgettes which had been cut as “spaghetti”. This presentation was quite fancy and Ok in itself but the seafood was overcooked (0/10).

Halibut was served as a fillet with an accompaniment of mashed potato, artichoke and black olive, which carelessly had an olive stone lurking in it. The halibut was overcooked and dried out, the artichoke itself tolerable (0/10). It should be said that portions were really small, unusual these days, and after three courses and bread I was by no means full.

All in all a disappointment, and priced at a level that I think will cause it to struggle in the area. It is quite ambitious cooking without taking care of the basics. Service was fine. The wine list is entirely Italian and although it lacks prestigious growers was adequate. One nice touch is Moscato d’asti by the glass for dessert.

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Review of La Trompette

19 Oct 07, 18:05

Best in West London

For several years now La Trompette has stood head and shoulders above other restaurants in Chiswick, just as its sibling Chez Bruce in Wandsworth does. An appealing menu, consistent delivery and oneof the best wine lists in London.

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