Join the Reviewers

[Dom O]

Have you had an outstanding culinary experience?  Have you found a hidden gem?  Or maybe one to avoid.  Whatever your experience, be it your local Chippy or El Bulli, this is our own Food Guide.

Why trust an unknown gourmet from a French Tyre Maker over your fellow foodies? 
Let's build our own guide with our own palates - and list the good, the bad and the ugly.

To add a review click '+Add a Discussion' on this page.

A review should have:

1. The name of the eatery
2. The address etc
3. Date of your review
4. What you ordered
5. What you paid
6. Your Review
7. Your Rating

Ratings:

Ambiance: 0 - 10
Service: 0 - 10
Food: 0 - 10
Overall: 0 -10

Any pics you can take even better.
Any eatery can be reviewed more than once by the same or different people.  We don't even have to agree - it's all subjective any way isn't it!

[Ilene Sterns]

I thought I'd write a comparison of lunch at two different restaurants: Indigo at One Aldwych in London and the River Cottage Canteen in Bath. I've been keen to try the River Cottage Canteen ever since it opened, whereas I picked Indigo out of a hat when I was meeting a friend at Somerset House and had to find a nearby place for lunch. Interestingly, both restaurants turned out to be very different from my expectations. In the case of Indigo, I didn't expect much but the meal turned out to be excellent and very memorable. As for the River Cottage Canteen, I was extremely disappointed and won't be going back.

I ate at Indigo on the 12th March 2010 with a friend who is an outstanding cook and a harsh critic. We turned up (without a reservation) on a busy Friday at 1.15pm and were delighted to find that they could seat us. The head waiter gave us a choice of two tables (both of which were very nice) and after taking our coats,seated us right away. The restaurant is lovely - it is the less formal of One Aldwych's two restaurants and part of it overlooks the two-storey lobby. We sat in a quieter area with huge plate glass windows overlooking the Strand. The tables are well spaced, with comfortable upholstered arm chairs and heavy linen tablecloths. We ordered sparkling water and they brought us a bottle of Belu, which bills itself as 'the UK's most eco-friendly water' (a nice touch, I thought). Soon afterwards the server brought a tray of four different types of homemade bread, all of which were delicious. I had the wholemeal sourdough and a wholemeal with raisins, but there was also a country white and an olive bread. The breads were served with butter as well as a dish of excellent extra-virgin olive oil.

Although there was an extensive lunch menu (most of which was very tempting!), my friend and I both ordered the same dish: a main course salad of seared tuna, Szechuan pepper, pickled ginger, avocado and wasabi mayonnaise (£15.50). Beautifully arranged on a rectangular plate, the salad was superb: the thick tuna fillet had been coated in the cracked pepper and barely seared, so it was almost like sashimi. The tuna was thinly sliced and arranged next to a row of lamb's lettuce that had been laid over perfectly ripened avocado. The wasabi mayo and ginger added just enough piquancy. All in all, a light and extremely satisfying main. For dessert, I had a hot chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream and Griottine cherries (£6.50) and my friend had the apple crumble (£6.50). My fondant was lovely - very dark and rich. The Griottine cherries were wonderful: not just intensely flavoured but their chewy texture made a nice contrast to the unctuous chocolate. The ice cream was also very successful and the chopped pistachios decorating the plate added lots of extra flavour. As for my friend's crumble, she hasn't stopped raving about it since last week. In her own words, 'What a truly fantastic lunch - the best apple crumble I have ever eaten (and believe me, I've eaten a few)'. Our coffee came with homemade truffles and tiny cherry shortbread biscuits - both were scrummy.

The service at Indigo was excellent and it definitely helped to make the meal a memorable one. We had two people looking after us and both of them were extremely attentive yet also unobtrusive. Our water glasses were refilled whenever they got low, and when we got up to leave, our coats were handed to us without the server having to ask whose was whose. It is no surprise that the restaurant is popular for business lunches - it has the atmosphere of a much more expensive establishment and you never feel rushed. Both my friend and I are very keen to return to Indigo to try more of their menu. They do Saturday and Sunday brunches as well as pre- and post-theatre fixed price menus as well as an a la carte menu at lunch and dinner. I'd give Indigo a 9 out of 10 - for the price of a pub lunch we had a top quality restaurant meal. The entire experience was a very pleasant surprise.

Indigo at One Aldwych
WC2B 4RH
tel [phone]

Ambiance: 9
Service: 9
Food: 9
Overall: 9

As for the River Cottage Canteen, it couldn't have been more of a contrast to Indigo. I had lunch there with a friend on the 16th March 2010. We arrived about 12.30pm (lunch starts at 12pm) and since they don't take daytime bookings, I'd been concerned that we wouldn't get a table. But I needn't have worried - there were only three tables occupied when we arrived, which seemed strange considering how much press they've had. The canteen is very casual - folding chairs and wooden tables set with brown paper napkins. We chose a table next to a big set of metal shelves which held stacks of Hugh's books, all of which were for sale. The weekday lunch menu is quite limited because it is based on whatever fresh seasonal produce they receive from their suppliers. The day we were there there were about 5 mains plus 3 blackboard specials and a few desserts. The mains included a potato and leek soup with truffle oil and bread (£6), which my friend ended up ordering, and a flatbread pizza, as well as a couple of heartier main courses.

We had both planned to have one of the blackboard specials: a purple sprouting broccoli, bacon and leek frittata with a salad of baby greens (£7), but as we were getting ready to order the server went over to the board and rubbed out the purple sprouting (he replaced it with butternut squash). My friend was very disappointed because she loves purple sprouting and been looking forward to it. But since it also appeared alongside the fish dish on the regular menu, she decided to order that instead. When she asked the server whether the fish came with the purple sprouting broccoli, he said that they'd just run out of it so the fish would be accompanied by cabbage or a green salad. Considering how few people were in the restaurant when we arrived, it seemed odd that they would run out of the broccoli (which was a major component of several dishes).

I ended up ordering the frittata (in spite of its change of ingredients). I asked the server if it came with bread, because I'd been very eager to try the Canteen's bread. When he said it didn't, I asked if I could order some bread separately. He kindly offered to give us a bit of extra bread along with my friend's soup, because we'd been disappointed about the purple sprouting. I told the server that I'd been hoping to buy some bread while I was there, but he said that the bakery didn't open till Wednesday. He assured us that he had bread to serve in the restaurant, but that there was none to buy. I found that odd - it made me wonder how old the bread they were serving was, since we were there on a Tuesday and the bakery is closed Sunday and Monday.

For my drink, I ordered a bottle of elderflower and rose presse, which sounded lovely. My friend ordered bottled water, but the Canteen doesn't serve it, so the server brought a carafe of tap water instead. We sat for quite a while before anything happened, then the server arrived to apologise for the fact that they didn't have any elderflower and rose presse (apparently their delivery hadn't arrived that morning). Laughingly, he remarked that everything seemed to be going pear-shaped that day, and indeed it was. We waited for another 20 minutes for our meals to arrive, and in the meantime, two other parties that had arrived before us were served. When the food finally appeared, my frittata was not hot. It had obviously been made in a small pan and then cut in half. I was served one half of the frittata, which made me think that the chef had had to wait until he'd had two orders before making my dish (obviously the soup couldn't have taken that long on its own). The ingredients that made up the frittata were nice: the bacon was top quality and the squash was very tasty, but all in all, the meal was a real disappointment.

By the time we finished our mains we didn't have time for dessert, so I asked for the bill. It never arrived, so we decided to figure out what we owed so my friend could go up to the counter to pay. It wasn't till after she'd returned to the table that she realised we'd been charged for the presse, which we hadn't drunk. So she had to go back to the till and sort that out.

I am a big fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall so I really wanted to like the River Cottage Canteen but it was not a good experience. Granted, our bill totalled less than £15, but that's not the point. Based on Hugh's reputation, I had high expectations and they definitely were not met. Also, Bath is filled with little cafes that deliver terrific food in the same price range (e.g., the Fine Cheese Co), so he's got plenty of competition. I won't be going back to the River Cottage Canteen, and I wonder how long it will last. It never filled up at lunch even on a lovely spring day when the streets were crowded with shoppers. Rating: 4 out of 10.

River Cottage Canteen @ Komedia
22-23 Westgate Street
Bath, BA1 1EP
tel: [phone]

Ambiance: 3
Service: 4
Food: 3
Overall: 4

[Dom O]

Thank you Ilene. A really informative review of two contrasting restaurants - neither of which i have been to - but I will be searching out Indigo. You are a natural food reviewer and your writing style made me 'feel' the kind of experience you had in each establishment. I genuinely appreciate the time you took to write the reviews and I think you have set a high bar for the rest of us. I look forward to your next review!