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Chez Bruce - review by herb

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:18:35 +0000

Chez Bruce - review by herb

Rating: 4.7

Location: 2 Bellevue Road, SW17 7EG, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 8672 0114

Website: http://www.chezbruce.co.uk/

I choose Chez bruce at the as I thought it has ample area and the bar is really nice for my friends 30th birthday as well as being very central and easy for everyone to locate. There was about 20 of us and the area they reserved was tiny. On one of the hottest days of the year. The staff and service were lovely though and the nibbles I ordered really nice

Anthony's Restaurant - review by Simone007

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:56:18 +0000

Anthony's Restaurant - review by Simone007

Rating: 3.3

Location: 19 Boar Lane, LS1 6EA, Leeds, United Kingdom

Phone: 0113 245 5922

Website: http://www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk

As a guest, I was anxiously awaiting my Treat at Anthonyâ¬"s of Leeds, but the night was not as expected. The reviews I has read filled me with anticipation, and my guest informed me how adventurous the chef is. He described his on appearance on TV recently where he lost to a Northern Chef, yet his ingenuity in creating smoke balls was something to be seen. With these images in mind, the taster menu was a disaster from start to finish. Emphasis was all on presentation, with the food coming a bad second in quantity, quality and a zealousness which shows how much the Chef is trying to be creative for the sake of it. Every course does not have to be an entry for the Turner Prize. However,a positive note, a real winner of the night was the Excellent Service, from the reception to the restaurant. Overall Not Recomended

Arbutus - review by alexthepink

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:23:39 +0000

Arbutus - review by alexthepink

Rating: 4.4

Location: 63-64 Frith Street, W1D 3JW, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7734 4545

Website: http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk

Tags: lively, good value, french

Arbutus serves delicious bistro fare and is relatively inexpensive for a Michelin starred restaurant. All wines are served by the carafe (1/3 of a bottle), which means you can sample different wines with each course without being limited in your choice. There's no foie gras or other expensive ingredients, instead the cheaper cuts are cooked exquisitely.
Our waitress was lovely, the food was to die for and the atmosphere was buzzy without being too loud. We will definitely be back...

Greens Vegetarian - review by ladymarmalade

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:08:31 +0000

Greens Vegetarian - review by ladymarmalade

Rating: 4.6

Location: 43 Lapwing la, M20 2NT, Manchester, United Kingdom

Tags: vegetarian, gastro pub

I have been a veggie for over 18 years now and it is all too often I go to a restaurant to find one or two vegetarian dishes on the menu which are very poor indeed. What a breath of fresh air it is to find a dedicated Veggie Restaurant like Greens! It was a bonus to find we had our dinner cooked by none other than Simon Rimmer himself! I found the menu delicious and the prices were really good too. The Cheese sausages are to die for! the only problem can be the parking can be a bit tricky due to the location.

Anthony's Restaurant - review by girly

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:30:19 +0000

Anthony's Restaurant - review by girly

Rating: 3.3

Location: 19 Boar Lane, LS1 6EA, Leeds, United Kingdom

Phone: 0113 245 5922

Website: http://www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk

Tags: expensive

Pros Really really lovely, food. Food come quicker then I thought it would as there was quite a few of us (work night out).

But for me this place was just to fancy for a girl like me great if you like that sort of thing.

Cons Wouldn't go back as was just for me too to PRICEY - glad I wasn't paying. but maybe if i wone the lottery of something would go back.

Arbutus - review by ProfMagellan

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:26:05 +0000

Arbutus - review by ProfMagellan

Rating: 4.4

Location: 63-64 Frith Street, W1D 3JW, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7734 4545

Website: http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk

Tags: lively, buzzy, international, good value

An arbutusuneto is a strawberry tree and there used to be one on Soho Square. Today, Soho Square is not populated by exotic flora and fauna so much as by young advertising types sporting their blackberries as though their lives depended on them (perhaps if they work for Martin Sorrell they do?).
Arbutus opened about two years ago to warm reviews
but this was my first visit. My guest was a true foodie
who at one time operated a successful catering business and has trained with some of the UK's leading chefs.
She had squid and mackerel burger (as recommended by AA Gill) and a pollock (I do not jest) whilst I opted for
a beef consomme and a summer risotto of vegetables presented in a lovely copper pan (see photo). The pollock, so my guest claimed, was from Cornwall.
We shared the chocolate soup desert (a thick warm chocolate dish served with ice cream - see photo) and shared half a carafe of sauvignon blanc.
Our waiter was from France and he was excellent - a real professional. The front of house was good too - not hint of the snootiness so often found in trendy London venues.
We both enjoyed our food enormously. Helpings were generous. The menu was excellent and wide-ranging.
The setting modern but not oppressively so.
Arbutus' pricing by London standards was fair.
Recommended.

Greens Vegetarian - review by nursey71

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:11:58 +0000

Greens Vegetarian - review by nursey71

Rating: 4.6

Location: 43 Lapwing la, M20 2NT, Manchester, United Kingdom

Tags: vegetarian, good value

As a veggie, it is sometimes depressing to be offered the same old standards on the menu, trying to smile whilst having to eat rubbery pasta with tomato sauce (if you're lucky, with some soggy vegetables too!).

But, Greens is great! Although you would expect a greater range of foods to be offered at a purely vegetarian restaurant, the diversity on the menu is wonderful and you are never stuck for choices. Tasty, interesting and full-flavoured meals are the trademark of Greens and I would recommend it to anyone

Oh, and yes, the sausages are just wonderful ...(if you buy Simon Rimmer's veggie book, you get the recipe!!!)

Anthony's Restaurant - review by Allexie

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:21:02 +0000

Anthony's Restaurant - review by Allexie

Rating: 3.3

Location: 19 Boar Lane, LS1 6EA, Leeds, United Kingdom

Phone: 0113 245 5922

Website: http://www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk

Tags: romantic, international, expensive

Oh my God...I just love this place. OK so it's pricy and the portions aren't huge but the whole experience is just fabulous, either lunchtime or evening. Great surroundings, ambience and very effecient professional staff who anticipate your needs. First rate chef who produces innovative and sometimes quirky dishes, (sweetcorn and rasperry together!). As a veggie I never have a problem here.....the risotto is to die for. I love all the extra courses and the bread is to die for. Parking in the city centre is a pain though. Being taken again next week for my birthday...whoop de doo!!!!!

Greens Vegetarian - review by monkmorency

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:37:49 +0000

Greens Vegetarian - review by monkmorency

Rating: 4.6

Location: 43 Lapwing la, M20 2NT, Manchester, United Kingdom

Wow! As a committed vegetarian I am so glad to have found Greens â¬ the food there is just amazing. The great thing about it is that you definitely donâ¬"t have to be vegetarian to enjoy this hearty, delicious menu â¬ no spongy tofu or mung bean salads in sight!

My personal favourite dish is the cheshire cheese, mozzarella and herb sausages, served with mustard mash and boddingtons gravy â¬ just so tasty and satisfying. It really is a world away from the bog standard vegetarian offerings.

Greens is a very popular place, and with good reason, so you may need to book some time in advance to get a reservation at the time you want.

The atmosphere is good, but the tables are pretty close together in places, and the interior is perhaps a little on the basic side, but donâ¬"t let this put you off at all.

As an aside, some of the vegetarian dishes from Greens also appear in Simon Rimmerâ¬"s other excellent, non-vegetarian restaurant, Earle, in nearby Hale, which has a more sophisticated atmosphere.

Chez Bruce - review by hither

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:02:49 +0000

Chez Bruce - review by hither

Rating: 4.7

Location: 2 Bellevue Road, SW17 7EG, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 8672 0114

Website: http://www.chezbruce.co.uk/

This was the first Michelin starred restaurant which my husband and I had been to, and we certainly weren't disappointed.

We had an early evening booking on a bank holiday weekend, so weren't too crowded, but I imagine it could get a bit squashed when it's fully booked.

However, that would be my only negative - the food and the service were great. Every dish was absolutely lovely. I had fish and my husband had rabbit, and both were cooked to perfection. But the thing that we really talked about for weeks afterwards was the astonishing cheeseboard, which was huge and varied. It was tough to choose which ones to try, but the lady serving the cheese was very knowledgeable and really helped us to make the best selections.

We would definitely go again, given half a chance.

Arbutus - review by Weeboo

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:22:04 +0000

Arbutus - review by Weeboo

Rating: 4.4

Location: 63-64 Frith Street, W1D 3JW, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7734 4545

Website: http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk

Tags: good value, international, business

I've been going to this restaurant for a couple of years now and it has never disappointed food-wise. There is a nice mixture of dishes on the menu. Their fish dishes are fantastic...better than some of the big-name fish restaurants I've dined at. In particular, they do a mean Dorset crab which I've had on several occasions. My boss can recommend the risotto *grin*.

In terms of the surroundings, Arbutus is the atypical pokey Soho restaurant. Undoubtedly stylish, but a bit of a squeeze when busy.

If you're looking to book a business lunch in Soho for the boss, this is a solid choice.

Greens Vegetarian - review by speccymum

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:44:51 +0000

Greens Vegetarian - review by speccymum

Rating: 4.6

Location: 43 Lapwing la, M20 2NT, Manchester, United Kingdom

Tags: vegetarian, family & home feel, good value

Although not a committed vegetarian, I don't think it matters when you visit this restaurant. Any carnivore would be happy to go here. the food is excellent and not at all hard core vegetarian. It's owned by simon rimmer who himself is not vegetarian. The only thing I didn't like was the very cosy atmosphere. It's not the kind of place where you could go for a very intimate conversation. the diners are all packed in very tight and you sit in a big window. Prices are good and not too expensive. They also do a good lunchtime menu which is very reasonable and the other good thing is the fact that it's opposite the Met pub which always a good meeting place.

Arbutus - review by amandaharrison

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:58:58 +0000

Arbutus - review by amandaharrison

Rating: 4.4

Location: 63-64 Frith Street, W1D 3JW, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7734 4545

Website: http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk

I liked it, but the acoustics make it difficult to hear and the layout is cramped. Also, when we went, the waiter a) got my order wrong b) managed to put his thumb in my friend's water then ignored the fact that he'd done it much to our hilarity. The management fixed the fact that he'd got my order wrong (maybe writing it down would have helped) by waiving the cost of it.

Arbutus - review by Niamheen

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:50:19 +0000

Arbutus - review by Niamheen

Rating: 4.4

Location: 63-64 Frith Street, W1D 3JW, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7734 4545

Website: http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk

Tags: lively, good value

A friend visited recently from Australia, and they had one request for me, pick somewhere really good for lunch. Now really good means different things to different people, and from my friend Pete it unnerved me. He knows food and lives in a city renowned for it (Sydney).

It didn't help that I had only a couple of days to organise it, I was sure that anywhere that I wanted would be booked up. I had heard good things about Arbutus and was keen to try it, so, whilst walking past I wandered in, expecting a polite and maybe slightly annoyed sorry-but-you're-way-too-late style of response. I was greeted warmly and told we could have lunch at the bar. Hurrah!

There's a great lunch time offer but we decided to go a la carte. We started with pea and english acorn fed ham soup, light and delicious and salmon ceviche with horseradish cream which was light, delicate and a pleasure to eat. For main course we had broad bean and pea risotto which was extremely well received and I had the line caught pollock with crushed new potatoes and cornish cockles. Very, very good but the salmon starter was the star of the show. We had no room for desserts but we persevered anyway, to my great shame I can't remember what they were!

It's a lovely spot, with great food and ambience, I want to go again and recommend that you do too.

Chez Bruce - review by chrisp

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:50:50 +0000

Chez Bruce - review by chrisp

Rating: 4.7

Location: 2 Bellevue Road, SW17 7EG, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 8672 0114

Website: http://www.chezbruce.co.uk/

Tags: romantic, good value, french

With more awards and accolades than you can shake a stick at, most recently London's Favourite Restaurant in Harden's Guide, Chez Bruce in Wandsworth is celebrating its umpteenth year as a destination restaurant, yet unbelievably still has only one Michelin Star. I've given up trying to work out what those Michelin people are on about these days - it was bad enough they rate dross like the Greyhound and Butcher and Grill in Battersea good enough to include and the Fox and Hounds not, but when a restaurant as polished and accomplished as Chez Bruce gets less than a top rating, they must be on a different planet.

So yes, I had a good meal at Chez Bruce. A quite brilliant meal in fact, as close to perfect across all categories as it's possible to get without it being one of those dreams where you wake up and find yourself hungrily chewing the corner of the pillow. After a slightly late start due to one of our party being stuck in traffic, just long enough to sample a glass of house champagne, we made our choices from the menu whilst munching down some of the best bread I've ever eaten - Poilane I was told - with superb butter. Staff balanced the service just right - not too intrusive but there when you needed them - and the wine selections made throughout the evening were very good.

The only thing I would say is that the room was quite dark, a little on the stuffy side and slightly cramped so I occasionally got an elbow in the back of the head when the table behind were being served. But I'm nit-picking - for food of this standard I would have put up with much worse.

My starter of "Hot calf's brain and ham hock terrine with sauce gribiche, crisp potatoes and red wine" obviously caught my eye on the menu straight away. Always a sucker for exotic ingredients I am sometimes let down by the end product, but not so here - the meat was tender and tasty with a lovely little breaded nugget of what I think was more brain on top (so rich it was like fois gras). Accompanying was a little fried quails egg (OK slightly passe these days but I thought it was great), a superb red wine reduction and gorgeous crispy potatoes. A riot of colour, texture and flavour this was an absolute triumph of a dish and I would have it again and again if i could. Great stuff.

Next up, "Boned, stuffed quail with salad paysanne, shallot puree, calf's sweetbread and roasting juices". Interestingly (and delightfully), this dish was served on two plates: One, a moreish salad of fresh bacon and roasted veg (an unusual combination to be honest, but made for great texture contrasts) topped with a piece of sweetbread; the other a meticulously boned quail (kudos to the kitchen for such a skilled task) served on a lentilly red wine sauce and cooked to perfection. The flavours were rich and satisfying, the portion very generous and the crispy fried potato on top a further experiment with texture. You would not want more from any main course.

Finally, and only just unable to quite live up to the lofty heights of the previous courses, was "Orange and saffron panna cotta with bitter orange sorbet, olive oil, lemon and honey". My only other experience with olive oil used as a dessert with a disaster - a watermelon and olive oil palette cleanser I had been served in Claude Bosi's Hibiscus restaurant in Ludlow. Then it was salty and weird, a flavour clash that had everyone at the table even unable to take a second bite. Here though, the oil was the subtlest of overtones to a zingy and fresh fruit dessert, spiced with alcohol and tasting of summer. Topped with crispy chocolate lattice - those textures again - it melted in the mouth and rounded off the evening very well.

Had I had the appetite of a sumo wrestler I might have been tempted to try the impressive-looking cheesecourse. As it was however, despite being stuffed to the gills and thus probably physically unable to even get a small goat's cheese medallion down my neck, there's always the residual guilt of paying for cheeses I could pick up myself from Hamish Johnston for a fraction of the price (and would taste no different), so I passed.

The bill came to around Â£70 - I wouldn't have felt cheated if I'd paid twice that, as I would have done in Pied a Terre or The Square. So then, brilliant value, top notch cooking and a thoroughly enjoyable evening out. Plus the G1 bus whisked me home from just outside the restaurant to my front doorstep. What isn't there to like about Chez Bruce?