Babaji, 53 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LB

Babaji, 53 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LB

www.babaji.com.tr
25/01/2015

She said: Alan Yau founder of Wagamama at one end and Michelin fancy pants Hakkasan at the other has opened a ‘high street’ Turkish joint – be it in the tourist heartland of Soho. I was intrigued enough by the two reviews I read to give it a go. First impressions were good; a lively but small downstairs dining area around an open kitchen and a more open, calm space on the first floor. The blue tiles and dark wood worked for me. The menu had a decent selection of meze, pide (Turkish flatbread pizza) and more main looking dishes. We debated our choices and ordered. First strike – the spinach stew was not available. Given this was one of two vegetarian options by default we switched to the bean stew. I guess there’s a spinach shortage? Next, we ordered three meze’s and the courgette and feta pide. Around 10-15 minutes after ordering we were informed our pide was not available. Strike two. This place supposedly specialises in pide. Guess there’s a courgette shortage too and it takes quarter of an hour for the kitchen to relay that back to the waiter? When I asked why two of the five items we were ordering from the menu were not available, the waiter shrugged and guessed ‘maybe because it is a Sunday’. We switched to a feta and chard pide. Strike three was my pomegranate juice which arrived in a small breakfast juice sized glass – but at a big size price and sour. Sigh. When our three mezes did arrive, they were small portions but good. Not amazing but good. The bean stew was literally beans in a tomato-like juice. The pide, which arrived at the end of our meal was again okay but not the delicate, thin speciality I’ve had elsewhere. And that’s the real problem here. Even if you excuse the mess with the menu (which I don’t), and the higher than average prices (£40 for two), there are far better Turkish joints in London with more choice for less money (such as Ishtar in Marylebone). So, it looks like this one is firmly aimed at the one-time-tourist..

He said: the unveiling of a new Alan Yau concept is always going to be a big deal. There’s hardly a thing that this Midas of the Kitchen hasn’t managed to turn into restaurant gold. This time it’s Turkey’s turn to get Yaud; it may seem like an odd departure from his well-trod East Asian path, but it’s similarly at once exotic and familiar, and allows for some kick ass interior decorating. First impressions are mixed: the interior design is cool, and the waitresses are wearing sweet ethnic threads, but the location’s hardly sexy. Still, neither was the first Hakkasan’s, tucked as it was in a pissey alley behind Tottenham Court Road when it was still heaving with curb crawlers, sex shops and suburban stags and hens on a rampage – but that didn’t stop it going global. What’s most disappointing about Babaji is the lack of ambition: the space is too awkward, spread over four floors of a corner site, to allow the design to really sing; Yau should’ve found one of his usual vast spaces where you can create a real sense of place, and where the beautiful people can preen and prance about. And the food is equally un-ambitious; it was light and, unusually for restaurants, not packed full of salt, sugar, fat and other delights we’re all addicted to. But, honest and pleasant as the food was, it never rose above the standard of a good local. It’s tasty but no-one’s going to walk out of Babaji feeling like they’d been on some magical journey of culinary discovery, which is a shame because Turkey can definitely deliver in that department. It was also very telling that two of the dishes we wanted to order were not available – one of them because they’d run out of this precious and rare gift of the earth: courgettes. I can understand restaurants run out of sole, or urchins, or whatever; but not courgettes, not at the beginning of service, not when you’ve just launched, and not when there’s a Tecos’s 5 minutes’ walk from your gaff. When it comes to attention-to-detail I’ve always thought Yau was a man you could count on, but definitely not this time. He’s set his sights lower than usual and, on our visit at least, taken his eye off the ball. This is why Babaji, although fine, is such a disappointment; it could have been so much better.

Maroush, 4 Vere Street, London W1G 0DG

Maroush, 4 Vere Street, London W1G 0DG
www.maroush.com
17/01/2015

She said: Maroush is a bit of a Middle-Eastern empire with five outlets in London, seven other restaurants linked to the group and a series of bakeries. Given our love of food from the region, we’ve kept saying we’d try one out. Finally we opted for the Vere Street branch near Bond Street which is a more casual setting with a wide ranging menu. The drinks menu was great with lots of creative cocktails. We ordered a series of meze’s including roasted eggplant, fava beans, baked fish and flatbread topped with cheese. He misread one dish which he thought was the delicious rice with lentils but turned out to be a ground paste of something similar (and not something I would have ordered) but otherwise, the food was fine. I’ve had so much amazing Lebanese food in the Middle East that I know what amazing is and what good is. This was fine for someone unfamiliar with the delicate flavours of the stalwart dishes but for a die-hard foodie like me, sadly it fell short. It’s a shame as the service was good and staff very welcoming; they even sent some complimentary baklava to our table with the bill after our confusion over the rice paste thing (which was his fault not theirs). I wanted to like it more…

He said: Maroush is legendary on London’s Middle Eastern scene; it seems like he owns every other restaurant on Edgware Road. Yet, somehow, we managed to avoid dining at any one of them until we stumbled into the one off Oxford Street, even then somewhat by accident. Even a few days after the fact I’m still in denial about this one; I really wanted to love it, but in the end it was just a middle-of-the-road Lebanese joint. It might be that this one, because of the location, tweaked things for a Western clientele: for example we tried to order the Fattet with hummus and yogurt, which is always served hot; but our waitress told us that here they serve it cold, despite customers having got into heated arguments with the kitchen about it. The way she said it you just knew she also thought it was a ridiculous thing to do. And the moujaddarah came without the usual crispy fried onions, which I had to ask for. Just weird. The place is not without some charm, but if there’s to be another Maroush meal it’s going to be on the Edgware Road.

Fenchurch Bar and Grill, Sky Garden, 20 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BY

Fenchurch Bar and Grill, Sky Garden, 20 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BY

www.skygarden.london

07/01/2015

She said: The infamous walkie-talkie is open. We booked the Fenchurch Bar and Grill which was billed as the refined dining location set on the 37^th floor. We marched up to 20 Fenchurch Street reception only to be told the Sky Garden entrance is located at a side entrance around the corner. The receptionist had better get used to giving those instructions to wayward Sky Garden visitors. There was a short line at the ground floor reception to Sky Garden with two people seemingly sitting at the reception desk but only one functioning (the other remained fixated on a computer screen). When we reached the front of the line the supposedly functioning receptionist also decided to type on her screen for a few minutes before attending to us. We were then given a security pass and told to move towards the security check. The security check was equally silly and po-faced. Not the best welcome and anyone planning a business lunch will need to factor in extra time for all the faffing. We finally entered a lift which took us to the 35^th floor. Okay, now I can wow. The lifts opened onto a vast, jaw-dropping glass dome with the best views of London I have ever seen. Aside from a modest, circular bar, the rest of the space offers chic seating and plenty of room to amble. This level is flanked by a cascade of greenery and we were told to walk up to the top of a long flight of stairs to the Fenchurch. I oohed, and gasped at the breathtaking views all the way up until we entered the restaurant. Confusion followed. Who creates a fine dining restaurant in such a location to then not offer the very views the building is expected to showcase? Fenchurch is a chic looking space but the majority of tables look onto a steel and glass roofing frame and the floor below rather than out to the spectacular London skyline. There are about four tables along the rear side of the restaurant which do offer views and we were luckily seated at one of these. The menu was good and the food excellent. My Jerusalem soup divine and the sea bass also gets top marks. Everything was presented beautifully. There was a bit of a heavy push on getting us to purchase alcohol (first cocktails, then wine and even a champagne trolley pulling up) which made me wonder how non-drinking clients would cope but otherwise the dining experience was superb. We had a look in the Darwin Brasserie on the way down, which is billed as a more casual dining experience and it was certainly busier, noisier and a more informal space. But again Darwin did not benefit from the setting, even if the views were marginally better than Fenchurch with it being a little further down from the roof. This is therefore an odd review to write, as Fenchurch was a lovely restaurant in terms of food, service and décor and the walk through the bar space is very cool but I just don’t get why neither restaurant actually capitalises on the location?

He said: The Walkie Talkie is the ugliest skyscraper built in London after the Shreking monstrous BT tower. From a distance it is so hideously ungainly and lumpy that it could have only been built by someone's mate. And, by modern restaurant standards, getting into Fenchurch is about as pleasant as clearing security at Kabul airport: metal detector, and slow credential checks in a very noisy and poorly designed entrance. But once the elevator doors open on the magical Sky Garden all is forgiven. The view is breathtaking, no doubt the best in town.  And while high buildings are generally small and awkward spaces at the top, the Walkie Talkie's horrifically bloated upper floors become, seen from inside, a vast cathedral of steel and glass, every window filled with the mesmerising miracle of London. Tear yourself away from the view and behold this giant greenhouse packed with vegetation, like a botanical Noah's ark In the sky.  And set in the centre of all this, three eateries stacked on top of each other, in ascending order of price: cafe, brasserie, restaurant but, paradoxically and because of the weird architecture, with a descending quality of view.  We met for lunch in the restaurant, our table set at one end of the room, and giving us the best view over the city; tables on the long side of the room have practically no view because of the way the steel supports stack along the curved roof. But for me that was the only false note: flavours were excellent, portion size spot on, and the plating quite beautiful. The price was absolutely fair; Fenchurch could certainly have charged more, so definitely get there before they do. Me I'll go to the cafe next time: it's all standard stuff, paninis and brownies but in an amazing setting and at Pret prices.

Bocconcino, 19 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8ED

Bocconcino, 19 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8ED
www.bocconcinorestaurant.co.uk

02/01/2015

She said: A new year, a new restaurant. This time an impressive grand space off Berkeley Square. At first the large but rather private looking front door was off-putting and club-like but on entering Bocconcino I was wowed by the vast double height basement space below the entrance runway. I immediately felt excited about this place. The design is clean, contemporary but warm and the Italian menu has an excellent range of pizza, pasta and main (meat/fish) dishes. The starters are on the high side but the pizza selection is good value. I was able to substitute the tagliatelle with a linguini pasta which I think worked better with the prawn and courgette dish, which was delicious and a reasonable portion. His pizza was nice and large so I helped myself to an excellent slice of thin crust gorgonzola and pear combo, mmm. Being in Mayfair, where many restaurants are clearly style over substance, Bocconcino really stands out for me as being a perfect balance of great space and delicious, good portions of food. A welcome addition and another find to go back to.

He said: 'live insect cuisine' is probably the only three word descriptive less likely to get you into a restaurant than 'Russian owned pizzeria'.  Yet that is what Bocconcino is (pizza, not bugs) and it would be a mistake to miss it. It serves other Italian classics, but pizza is what I was in the mood for, half expecting awful fusion combinations like Nutella and anchovies. But what came out was actually very nice: pear and blue cheese pizza on the thinnest and crispest base I've had in London. The design of the place was also a pleasant surprise: not a hint of narco-trafficker classics like gold taps, but lots of establishment colours like taupe and mushroom - very Mayfair. The architect actually managed to make this basement site really inviting.  All this for a fairly reasonable price, for the neighbourhood. This is definitely one to try when you feel like pimping out your pizza night.