Ordinary Food

Livebait, London WC2

Livebait, 21 Wellington Street, WC2.

Armed with a £15 discount voucher from http://sante.com I popped into Livebait, next door to the Lyceum theatre with my good chum Andrew for a spot of lunch last Saturday. Livebait sports a bar complete with a mini-fish menu, and a large restaurant behind.

We proceeded to the restaurant under a sign welcoming us to the best fish restaurant in Covent Garden and took one of the American diner style booths flanking both sides, complete with banquettes. The dining room is a pleasant enough but somewhat drab place- the myriad of off green shades and smeared mirrors didn’t help. Nor did the less than sparkling white and green tiled walls, reminiscent of an unhygienic East London fishmongers. At least Livebait’s dining room saved us from the usual mix of drift wood, nets and nautical memorabilia.

Anyway, on to the fish. I stuck with the set menu offering 2 courses for £14.50 and 3 for £18.50, settling on Louisiana fish cakes and ‘classic’ fish and chips with tartare sauce. Andrew chose moules mariniere and grilled king prawns with a garlic and herb butter. We promptly were offered a choice of breads. We stuck with wholemeal which was fresh with the right amount of chewiness and crust to be enjoyed with oysters et al. Not that we had any, but a point worth making in case you chose to!

The £14 bottle of South African Chenin Blanc was perfectly pleasant - crisp and clean which is my preference with all things fishy so one can focus on the business at hand- and arrived with an unprompted ice bucket. The starters were acceptable - the fish cakes were small but filling crabby varieties served with tartare sauce rather than its close French relative, the promised remoulade detailed in the menu. Either way, neither would have added a great deal to the dish given the tasty dill and egg potato salad mound next door. The little pile of leaves on top of the potato salad had seen better days but were edible. Andrew’s moules were moist and flavoursome, with an intense, relatively grit free jus. I would have liked some parsley added to the mix, but that’s just a personal preference.

Unfortunately we had to wait a while for our main courses, giving us time to contemplate the existence of the empty bar at the front of the restaurant. At least it gave customers the option of indulging in cocktails with their fish if they so chose I suppose.

The mains eventually arrived, Andrew’s prawns in a regimented line with a the garlic butter dipping sauce and the battered cod sitting on top of crisp, well cooked chips with a little dish of more tartare sauce balanced on the side. I can report the prawns were reasonably juicy and the dip pleasant enough, but at £14.75 should have arrived with a salad (we ordered a rocket and parmesan one- which was disappointingly small with shavings that clearly had been done a while ago). The fried cod was more batter than fish, and could have been chunkier and less greasy. I would have felt someone miffed if I had shelled out £14.50 for this dish from the main menu.

Our total bill, including a bottle of mineral water, a £1 cover charge each and a £7 service charge came in at £62- in my view somewhat stiff given the mediocre ambience and so-so food. The £15 voucher helped matters somewhat, bringing the quality of food more into line with the asking price and just meriting Livebait a cautious recommendation.

By the way, they do a express lunch where you can have mussels and chips or the aforementioned fish and chips plus a small glass of wine for £7.50 which is a bit of a bargain.

Loch Fyne, Various Locations

http://www.lochfyne.com/

Loch Fyne has 25 restaurants across the UK, and a sister company, Loch Fyne oysters who supply much of the seafood. Their restaurants all carry the same menu, viewable on their website.

I have visited their Guildford, Reading, Portsmouth and Covent Garden restaurants and am pleased to report decent cooking across the board, other than one travesty of a meal last Christmas, where the seabass was undercooked, the wine corked and the service lousy.

As is often the case with ‘chain’ restaurants and indeed fish in general, at Loch Fyne the simplest things are the most well prepared dishes on the menu, with the added advantage of being more economical than the more complex options. For example the seabass with salsa verde at £12.95 or the poached smoked haddock with mash, spinach, peas and wholegrain mustard sauce at under a tenner are winners, the meagre portion of scallops and king prawns at £15 less so. Smoked salmon in various forms is a safe bet. Moules, either served mariniere-style (traditional french with onion, white wine and parsley) or thai style are usually juicy and plentiful, at a very reasonable £5 for a starter of £9 for a larger main dish. Oysters at £8 for six or £14 for a dozen are of good quality.

Pleasingly, the Guildford restaurant was able to respond to my request for a red wine and shallot vinagarette to accompany oysters but annoyingly served it in a jug with a neck so narrow the shallots wouldn’t come out. The sizeable mixed salad at £2.75 often comes with fine green beans and is big enough to share. Bread is plentiful, but for my palate too airy and soft for shellfish.

To drink, I usually stick with the muscadet, around £13 a bottle which is fresh, stone dry and possessing a slight acidic edge which complements the fish. I should make particular mention of the Portsmouth branch at Gunwharf Quay which has very friendly service and the added advantage of offering draught lager - great news for moule lovers!

The Cat Head Inn, Somerset

http://www.thecatheadinn.co.uk/

The Cat can be found in the little village of Chiselborough and I’m pleased to report it is a great place to stop for a break from the tedium that is the A303. Andrew and I stumbled across the place by accident, sent there by a pub landlord in neighbouring Chinnock who was all booked out for Sunday lunch. Judging by the wall of awards next to the bar, this particular cat is loved, and we can see why.

The place achieves a refreshingly simple take on the gastro-pub phenomenon, offering a choice of five starters, mains and puds. Pricing is simple - £8 for one course, rising to £14 for three. The pub’s interior is fresh and bright, with exposed sandstone and simple wooden tables and chairs. I should also mention a fine, deceptively large pub garden with terraces and lawns.

With a hunger pang and a hangover to resolve we ordered - calamari for Andrew, bacon and liver salad for me, and roast sirloin beef times two for our mains. Warm ciabbata and french baguette arrived and was promptly devoured. The two starters both featured their name sakes on beds of lightly dressed, well prepared leaves and chopped peppers and cucumber. Given the price and freshness of the food and the bargain pricing, it is churlish to mention that the calamari wore an overly thick, spongy batter and the liver was overcooked, while the diced pepper and cucumber was difficult to eat.

The roast beef arrived with a good, homemade gravy, Yorkshire pud and a big bowl of fresh vegetables and was most definitely superior to the microwaved Sunday lunch offerings from most pubs. The damage was £27 for this tasty grub including a G&T and a pint. We left refreshed, our hangovers sedated and our stomachs pleasantly full!

I will definitely be stopping at the Cat next time I head down to the West Country.

The Volunteer, Abinger Hammer

Water Lane, Abinger Hammer, Surrey

My friends Chris and Kai proposed we meet at the Volunteer for a pint and dinner. I have never been to this particular pub before, and boy is it difficult to find! Eventually I found the place.

As you can see from the picture it is a pretty pub. There is a garden above the pub’s car park, but there were no spare tables so we found a table on a strip of grass between the other side of the car park and a stream and decided on a fish pie (£10), a steak, ale and mushroom pie (£10) and a sirloin steak (£14).

The food arrived promptly on square plates. Yes you read right - square plates in an English pub. The food didn’t look especially promising either. My steak and ale pie was served dissected, with a piece of pastry sitting on top, like a nouvelle cuisine garnish. A more accurate description would have been steak and ale casserole served with a pastry hat. A few new potatoes featured on one corner of the plate, a few wisps of cabbage and what looked like raw celery pieces by another. Surprisingly, it tasted rather good. The celery as suspected was raw.

On a trip to the bar for another pint, I discovered the chef was Swedish which may explain this odd marriage of ingredients. The meat was tender in a rich sauce, and despite what looked like a small serving, was filling. The fish pie was similarly presented and well made. Like the two pies, the steak really could have done with some more vegetables but was cooked as requested. Sauces provided were of the sachet variety and no french mustard was available - unforgiveable at these prices.

We shared two summer puds for dessert. They arrived suitably minimalist - sat in the middle of a large plate with a few surrounding flecks of sauce. The puddings tasted somewhat neutered - I like a summer pudding to taste fresh and vibrant - these tasted of a pack of frozen berries, which while not unpleasant didn’t quite hit the mark.

What to make of the Volunteer? It is with a heavy heart that I give this place a cautious recommendation, which has as much to do with the dearth of decent country pubs in Surrey as it does the merits of this establishment.

Pizza Express, Various Locations

Pizza Express had a bit of a wobble a few years ago when their pizzas suddenly shrunk. I must add the word apparently because I can’t quite remember them changing in size and I don’t want to be subject to a libel suite.

Either way, I’m pleased to report that currently their pizzas are certainly big enough to fill my 6ft 5in frame. I usually go to my local Pizza Express in Guildford, which is light and airy, with funky black spot lights and cheerful art work. Like all their restaurants, the kitchen is on display, so if the mood takes, you can watch the chefs making pizzas.

For starters, avoid the bland arancini (little balls of risotto) and stick to the salads or bruschetta. Everyone has their favourite pizzas so I won’t make recommendations here, beyond discouraging ones using roasted vegetables - they taste odd - and big upping those with a sprinkling of rocket, which always tastes so summery, peppery and decadent.

A word of caution- the pizza bases are not old school Italian- they edge towards their American deep-pan cousins with their slight thickness, but I would still describe them as thin-crust, and they are delicious anyhow.

I’m not a huge fan of deserts generally, but enjoy their Sicilian Lemon Sorbet with a splash of limoncello liqueur. This treat isn’t cheap at over a fiver but is delicious and low fat!

Pizza Express’s wine list is varied and interesting, but a little pricey- my advice is to stick with the house wine for both red and white- it is perfectly drinkable at under £12. If you are feeling flush, go for the text-book primitivo at £15, packing a fruity but refined punch which is perfect for pizzas. One of the joys of chain restaurants is that they usually have the same menu and pricing in all their restaurants, including their ‘flagships’.

One of Pizza Express’s finest restaurants is on Bankside SE1, near Southwark Bridge. Pick the right table in the evening and you’ll be rewarded with stunning sunset views across the river, not dissimilar to those enjoyed by those dining at the Pont de la Tour. Not a bad deal considering you’d be hard pushed to spend much more than £25 on a three course meal including wine.