Tod's Grill & Bistro

Luce_Hume

Classic Upper Street Restaurant 19th July 2009

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Tod’s is a very good place to eat. The Mediterranean menu is a mix of steaks from the grill, fish dishes and kofte meats. The food is well prepared and presented and the staff attentive. A classic Upper Street independent restaurant.

kittylyst

Absolutely Superb 19th December 2008

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My partner and I decided to try Tod's on a whim whilst walking to one of our old favourites on Upper St.

The decor and ambiance were superb - bistro tables placed cheek-by-jowl, old French-influenced classic movie posters and a slightly dimmed interior and lovely lampshades decorated with coloured glass - none of this is ground-breaking, but the execution is classic, and instantly relaxing.

The waiting staff were attentive, without being intrusive, and were friendly and engaging when questioned about the menu. The only flaw (and it wasn't really their fault) lies in the design of the restaurant - the till is located in the back and this means that for quite a lot of the time, the staff can't actually see what's happening near the door - and have to keep coming quite far out to make sure diners are being looked after.

My partner ordered a halloumi salad to start with, followed by steak, whereas I went for a selection from the varied Xmas menu - duck pate, sirloin and Xmas pud.

Particular highlights were the halloumi salad and my steak.

The only slight downsides were an overly-bland potato gratin (the upper layers were fine, but the lower layers seemed to have been left to stand for too long and were too bland and bluish to touch), and a mismatch between quantities of pate and toast for my starter. Four half-slices of toast should be enough for a starter, but my portion of pate would have easily covered six, if not eight.

Nevertheless, these slight imperfections were swept aside by the sheer quality of my steak, which was perfectly aged, easy to cut up, and melted on my tongue. Heaven.

The wine list is not vast in its' expanse but is considered and seems to be well-matched to the food - we settled on a Mendoza Malbec with the steak and were not disappointed.

Absolutely stuffed, we took a slight respite of 10 minutes before the pudding, before realising we were too full for it, and told the waitress that we couldn't manage it.

A miscommunication between the staff led to it arriving at the same time as the bill, so we felt it would be rude not to at least sample it, and were well rewarded with a balance between fruit, nuts and alcohol (and none of the awful glace cherries and other horrors which sometimes present themselves). We cleared the portion, and had to reluctantly turn down the offer of free digestiv from the manager (who was clearly embarrassed at the crossed wires over dessert) - we were that full.

An outstanding find, and one we shall be returning to very soon.