• Added: 12th of February 2008
• Area: Belgravia
• Category: Restaurants

London SW1P 2HY
020 7233 1701

MarkHarrison said
Super Sushi
Let's start with the bad news - this place is never going to get a Michelin star, because those guys really don't like restaurants with laminated adverts for beers on the wall.

Let's carry on with the worse news - it's much, much too small. I'm certain that if they had double the room, it would still be reservations only!

That's because the food is wonderful, and the staff are really friendly. My sushi background had started with the obvious chains but this is a clear cut above in terms of quality. The only complaint was that, on the day we went, they didn't have any toro... the reason being that they only use fresh fish and their supplier hadn't had any tuna that morning. The lady serving us, however, was quick to suggest a replacement which broadened by experience with sushi.

It's an easy walk from Victoria station, but hidden down a flight of stairs from Stratton Ground market (opposite the book stall, the day we were there.)

Not a cheap eat at £60 for two for a three-course lunch (including drinks), but no complaints on the value stakes.

• Added: 10th of July 2007
• Area: Crawley
• Category: Restaurants

Crawley RH10 1BT

MarkHarrison said
A surprisingly charming find
We went to Caravela for the first time today. The restaurant is "hidden" on the High Street and at first glance looks like part of the George Hotel.

At 12:30 on an overcast Tuesday, we were the only people in there, which meant we had a good chance to chat to the owner - Portuguese born, but living in Crawley for over 20 years.

At 50 for two for a three course lunch, including soft drinks and service, it's not at the cheap end of Crawley's restaurants, but the food was exquisite.

The soups were done well, I had the Caldo Verde, but shared my wife's Vegetable - both were at the right temperature with an interesting blend. The chorizo in the Caldo Verde was a new soup experience for me!

For the main course, we both went for the fish Cataplana. A Cataplana is, apparantly, a traditional cooking vessel, and sure enough our food was brought to the table in a large one, before being taken to one side for serving into individual portions. It would be unfair to call Fish Cataplana a "fish stew", because it was head and shoulders above what the plain English description might suggest. A good discovery.

For pudding, we had the chocolate mousse and the Caravela Bombe (fried ice cream) respectively. Both were well done, and reassuringly home-made.

The ambience was nice, initially a little cold, but the owner quickly realised that we were looking chilly and turned off the overhead fan above us.

He was quite chatty, and very open about the fact that lunchtimes were completely dead - evenings are the time when the whole of Crawley's food scene livens up - full marks to him for bothering to open at lunch time for a single couple though - one of the other restaurants we'd tried to go to turned out to be just "6pm - late".