Dear All
After 10 meals, here's the restaurants we think you should keep in mind next time you eat out. Yet, the reviews are not over and the list of restaurants is still long. Will the restaurants below hold to their position in the chart?
BEST QUALITY OF FOOD - when the freshness of ingredients really counts...
1st - Al Forno & Chipotle
2nd - Aubaine
3rd - Alexandra Pub
BEST QUALITY OF SERVICE - when the way you are served and treated at lunch or dinner matters...
1st - Alexandra Pub
2nd - Aubaine
3rd - Al Forno
BEST SPEED OF SERVICE - when you are in a hurry but you still want to enjoy your meal...
1st - Alexandra Pub
2nd - Al Forno
3rd - Mai Thai
BEST AMBIENCE & DECOR - when atmosphere is crucial to impress you or others...
1st - Aubaine
2nd - The Old Frizzle
3rd - Alexandra Pub
BEST HYGIENE - when all you care about is cleanliness and tidyness...
1st - Aubaine
2nd - Alexandra Pub
3rd - The Old Frizzle
BEST VALUE FOR MONEY - when the wallet decides where to eat...
1st - Al Forno
2nd - Casa Nostra
3rd - Alexandra Pub and Mai Thai
See you next time and keep following our trail!
Saturday 28 September 2013
AL FORNO - the Pizza Feast!
Our 10th restaurant review was organised as a celebratory meal, our first milestone in this long food-tasting, service-reviewing challenge. We therefore headed south on the Broadway and turned a corner opposite the New Wimbledon Theatre...
Al Forno sits on its own in this short alley. Its rustic appearance, made out of wood and bricks on a pale yellow front, is just a quick reminiscence of an old, secluded villa in Tuscany or near Rome. A little plastic veranda on the ground floor ruins the atmosphere while still giving you a chance to eat outdoors in the warmer months. The interior, on the other hand, puts more strain on the level of Italian authenticity Al Forno tries to achieve. Decor is slightly cluttered, messy, full of Chianti bottles, paintings, photos, vases, and anything that may fill walls and shelves wherever space is available. Yet, it looks old-fashioned and rustic enough to make you forget the cheesy Italian stereotypes. The red brick walls even add a touch of warmth and coziness.
On our arrival, the first thing we noticed was the noise. The buzz of waiters and clients is quite overwhelming (and it was just Thursday!) but it helps build a good atmosphere which is definitely recommended for dinner with friends or large parties. Al Forno gets busy quite easily so booking is strongly advised. We managed to get our table for six without waiting and checked the menu. The staff is slightly over the place and looks disorganised most of the time Waiters may forget you after sitting you down so do not hesitate to chase and ask for something; once over that obstacle you will be impressed how many times the staff jokes and interacts with you one way or the other.
A key characterstic of Al Forno are its pizzas, served in either small, medium or large sizes. A large is around 1 metre long, which means you can share it with 1 or 2 people and have multiple toppings as a good compromise. The costs are of course good value for money. It was easy for the group to opt in for pizza feast to celebrate our 10th meal, but we still ordered different flavours and managed to taste either a starter or a dessert along the way:
Al Forno's ace up the sleeve is definitely the pizza making and the 1-metre ones are probably a unique selling point in the whole Wimbledon. They should definitely hold on to it to ensure the restaurant definitely stays as one of the recommended place to go with a group of friends and be merry!
Hygiene 3.83
Value for Money 4.83
Speed of Service 4.83
Quality of Service 4.33
Ambience & décor 4.50
Al Forno gets an overall rating of 88.9%
Al Forno sits on its own in this short alley. Its rustic appearance, made out of wood and bricks on a pale yellow front, is just a quick reminiscence of an old, secluded villa in Tuscany or near Rome. A little plastic veranda on the ground floor ruins the atmosphere while still giving you a chance to eat outdoors in the warmer months. The interior, on the other hand, puts more strain on the level of Italian authenticity Al Forno tries to achieve. Decor is slightly cluttered, messy, full of Chianti bottles, paintings, photos, vases, and anything that may fill walls and shelves wherever space is available. Yet, it looks old-fashioned and rustic enough to make you forget the cheesy Italian stereotypes. The red brick walls even add a touch of warmth and coziness.
On our arrival, the first thing we noticed was the noise. The buzz of waiters and clients is quite overwhelming (and it was just Thursday!) but it helps build a good atmosphere which is definitely recommended for dinner with friends or large parties. Al Forno gets busy quite easily so booking is strongly advised. We managed to get our table for six without waiting and checked the menu. The staff is slightly over the place and looks disorganised most of the time Waiters may forget you after sitting you down so do not hesitate to chase and ask for something; once over that obstacle you will be impressed how many times the staff jokes and interacts with you one way or the other.
A key characterstic of Al Forno are its pizzas, served in either small, medium or large sizes. A large is around 1 metre long, which means you can share it with 1 or 2 people and have multiple toppings as a good compromise. The costs are of course good value for money. It was easy for the group to opt in for pizza feast to celebrate our 10th meal, but we still ordered different flavours and managed to taste either a starter or a dessert along the way:
- Starters had mixed reviews. The fried calamari were tasty and very popular. On the other hand, the "parmigiana" and the "funghi and spinaci gratinati" were drowned in a liquid tomato sauce and what was meant to be bechamel was just melted cheese.
- The pizzas had a soft, fragrant dough. All ingredients were well balanced with either not too much cheese or too much cheese or too much oil. You can ask for more of your favourite topping if you want to, and for those who like it spicy, please do not hesitate to ask for the chili oil!
- Desserts were pretty standard, from a traditional "tiramisu" to a majority of special ice cream cups, such as the "coppa caffé" or the "limoncello flute". Sweet and refreshing after a pizza but not exciting or innovative.
Al Forno's ace up the sleeve is definitely the pizza making and the 1-metre ones are probably a unique selling point in the whole Wimbledon. They should definitely hold on to it to ensure the restaurant definitely stays as one of the recommended place to go with a group of friends and be merry!
Our verdict is as follows:
Quality of Food 4.50Hygiene 3.83
Value for Money 4.83
Speed of Service 4.83
Quality of Service 4.33
Ambience & décor 4.50
Al Forno gets an overall rating of 88.9%
Monday 9 September 2013
AUBAINE - In the Secret French Garden
The Hill. Gloriously dominating the lower lands of the Broadway. Only
a 10-min walk but a far away land of tennis, great mansions and
village-like feeling. And for the first time we adventured in these
lands for a relaxed dinner. Aubaine is one of the latest addition to
Wimbledon Village, part of a London chain bringing French cuisine in
upmarket parts of London. The outside may not be as striking as you
would imagine, especially with the tinted colour tones. The inside has a
lot of table capacity and aims at reproducing a plush, upper middle
class villa with a lot of chromatic games around white, grey and purple
on furniture and walls. It somehow reminds me of lavender from a field
in France.
The great surprise of the evening was out at the back as we seized opportunity on the last hot summer day of the year. The garden is nicely enclosed at the back of the building and it is wrapped in green foliage and French-windowed mirrors, which slowly fade out the contour of the village and make you forget where you are. Just be careful not too hit the mirrors...
As we sat on some sort of art nouveau metal tables, the staff approached on several occasions, with some bread, some water. They wore aprons as uniforms in line with the light colour theme of the place. Although very friendly, polite and accommodating throughout the evening, their moves were not as smooth and as suave as the restaurant aimed to be.
There were 2 menus to choose from: à la carte or barbecue meal (Thursdays only). The former was two pages long, listing a good variety of French-Continental dishes put together with Michelin-style combinations, but the French description of the dish was more appetising and at some point more realistic than the English one. You then come to look at prices and you may find them above the overall Wimbledon average, and may appear overpriced at first if you base yourself on ingredients commonly listed in the English language. The other menu was a choice of barbecued meat, side dish and a glass of rosé for £20, with options listed in English only. Again, value for money was not easily filtering through and we were starting to be suspicious if quality of food would match it.
We were brave enough to order some starters, a variety of mains from meat to fish, and also dessert, all accompanied by French wine. Fried squid with garlic mayonnaise (camouflaged as aioli) and salmon tartare with cream of avocado were suddenly a hit with all of us as the starters. Squid was crispy and not oily or soggy, mayonnaise was freshly made. The salmon tartare melted in the mouth with a nice smooth texture, toning down the fishy taste with the sweet flavours of the avocado.
Moving onto the mains, there were suddenly mixed feelings in the group. We had one order from the barbecue menu, and the Toulouse sausages with cabbage coleslaw did not seem plenty on the half-empty plate. Yet, our taste buds soon confuted most of the prejudices held and the flavour of a true European sausage was truly welcome on the table. Mussels cooked the Belgian way were great and came as a good sized portion although there could have been slightly more fries. Disappointment was more frequent on the next three dishes. First, the seared scallops on pea purée were cooked nicely and a had delicate smoky taste but lacked the portion size you'd expect for paying. It was easily vanquished by the fried squid, which in the end was only a starter. We then moved on to the chicken Caesar salad, which looked less exotic than the other dishes. Although fresh and well seasoned, the chicken skin felt rubbery to the taste and ruined the overall image of the dish. Once again, the starter of salmon tartare was better. Last but not least, lobster spaghetti was a heavily-discussed dish being one of the most expensive mains on the menu (£24) and expectations had been set high from the beginning. The pasta was seasoned to perfection and the tomato-based sauce was unexpectedly cooked with pastis (aniseed-flavoured liqueur) which can only make it a truly French fish dish. Despite the low amount of lobster, it still infused the pasta and sauce amazingly if it wasn't for the overdose of double cream that was added to the sauce. It ruined the whole dish.
We then moved to desserts, which were presented to us on a nice trolley and we were eager to test the restaurant further. The large coffee macaroon was insanely delicious, paraphrasing our Dr. Petrescu (another alias), and it is strongly recommended you eat it by hand although it may seem uncouth. Both the gluten-free chocolate cake with ice-cream and the lemon tart with coconut biscuit base were perfect, yummy and sweet enough.
Aubaine is of course on the high end of the price scale but with a good weight on quality food and presentation skills. It look pretentious but it is not a place to frown upon. By the time we paid and stood up to leave, the garden had filled up with customers and a louder buzz was in the air. It seems the secret garden was no longer a secret anymore!
Hygiene 4.80
Value for Money 3.00
Speed of Service 4.40
Quality of Service 4.60
Ambience & décor 5.00
Aubaine gets an overall rating of 86.8%
The great surprise of the evening was out at the back as we seized opportunity on the last hot summer day of the year. The garden is nicely enclosed at the back of the building and it is wrapped in green foliage and French-windowed mirrors, which slowly fade out the contour of the village and make you forget where you are. Just be careful not too hit the mirrors...
As we sat on some sort of art nouveau metal tables, the staff approached on several occasions, with some bread, some water. They wore aprons as uniforms in line with the light colour theme of the place. Although very friendly, polite and accommodating throughout the evening, their moves were not as smooth and as suave as the restaurant aimed to be.
There were 2 menus to choose from: à la carte or barbecue meal (Thursdays only). The former was two pages long, listing a good variety of French-Continental dishes put together with Michelin-style combinations, but the French description of the dish was more appetising and at some point more realistic than the English one. You then come to look at prices and you may find them above the overall Wimbledon average, and may appear overpriced at first if you base yourself on ingredients commonly listed in the English language. The other menu was a choice of barbecued meat, side dish and a glass of rosé for £20, with options listed in English only. Again, value for money was not easily filtering through and we were starting to be suspicious if quality of food would match it.
We were brave enough to order some starters, a variety of mains from meat to fish, and also dessert, all accompanied by French wine. Fried squid with garlic mayonnaise (camouflaged as aioli) and salmon tartare with cream of avocado were suddenly a hit with all of us as the starters. Squid was crispy and not oily or soggy, mayonnaise was freshly made. The salmon tartare melted in the mouth with a nice smooth texture, toning down the fishy taste with the sweet flavours of the avocado.
Moving onto the mains, there were suddenly mixed feelings in the group. We had one order from the barbecue menu, and the Toulouse sausages with cabbage coleslaw did not seem plenty on the half-empty plate. Yet, our taste buds soon confuted most of the prejudices held and the flavour of a true European sausage was truly welcome on the table. Mussels cooked the Belgian way were great and came as a good sized portion although there could have been slightly more fries. Disappointment was more frequent on the next three dishes. First, the seared scallops on pea purée were cooked nicely and a had delicate smoky taste but lacked the portion size you'd expect for paying. It was easily vanquished by the fried squid, which in the end was only a starter. We then moved on to the chicken Caesar salad, which looked less exotic than the other dishes. Although fresh and well seasoned, the chicken skin felt rubbery to the taste and ruined the overall image of the dish. Once again, the starter of salmon tartare was better. Last but not least, lobster spaghetti was a heavily-discussed dish being one of the most expensive mains on the menu (£24) and expectations had been set high from the beginning. The pasta was seasoned to perfection and the tomato-based sauce was unexpectedly cooked with pastis (aniseed-flavoured liqueur) which can only make it a truly French fish dish. Despite the low amount of lobster, it still infused the pasta and sauce amazingly if it wasn't for the overdose of double cream that was added to the sauce. It ruined the whole dish.
We then moved to desserts, which were presented to us on a nice trolley and we were eager to test the restaurant further. The large coffee macaroon was insanely delicious, paraphrasing our Dr. Petrescu (another alias), and it is strongly recommended you eat it by hand although it may seem uncouth. Both the gluten-free chocolate cake with ice-cream and the lemon tart with coconut biscuit base were perfect, yummy and sweet enough.
Aubaine is of course on the high end of the price scale but with a good weight on quality food and presentation skills. It look pretentious but it is not a place to frown upon. By the time we paid and stood up to leave, the garden had filled up with customers and a louder buzz was in the air. It seems the secret garden was no longer a secret anymore!
Our verdict is as follows:
Quality of Food 4.40Hygiene 4.80
Value for Money 3.00
Speed of Service 4.40
Quality of Service 4.60
Ambience & décor 5.00
Aubaine gets an overall rating of 86.8%
Monday 2 September 2013
MAI THAI - The Echo of Thailand
Decision was made to add a brand new cuisine in our next leg on this culinary journey, and so the well-known Thai cuisine came to our attention.
Mai Thai is a small establishment looking right onto one of the key intersections on Wimbledon's loop system. The outside is simple and not pretentious, showing a curvy Thai-like font and a humble reference to pagoda-like eaves. Inside, the restaurant is small, very small, so we were lucky to find a table for seven without booking - do not take that risk, if I were you. There were quite a few people for lunch, either couples, small groups or single diners, and the small enclosure made it all look very intimate, with a family feel and a sense of coziness. Still it did not feel overcrowded or packed, and not even noisy. It actually seemed there was an echo in the room and, according to our local experienced member Dr. Chang (alias to keep anonimity), this is what you would expect from a Thai house: basic and empty, or should I say clutter-free, to let the air flow in the humid heat of South East Asia...
Having sat on nice dark wooden tables, we picked the menus and swiftly opted to check the lunch menu out. Choice was short but varied and accomodating. Value for money though was not as enticing, thought, and probably picking from the menu "à la carte" would not have made a huge difference. Staff were courteous enough and they were also pretty quick, almost too quick that starters and mains overlapped each other without us requesting so.
Food was rather average with most feedback focusing on bland or overpowering taste and no outstanding presentation effort. Pork was too garlicky, rolls too greasy and soup too watery. The chicken curry though was the only champion out of the dishes ordered, as recommended by Dr. Chang. Overall, the food is acceptable but lacks the "wow" factor.
While the restaurant kept a decent Thai look, it failed to differentiate itself from other Thai or Asian joints. The group also wondered whether lunch menus are more of a cheap option of food but the general feeling is that quality of food should not differ between lunch and dinner, whatever on offer.
Hygiene 3.67
Value for Money 3.83
Speed of Service 4.67
Quality of Service 4.00
Ambience & décor 3.33
Mai Thai gets an overall rating of 72.1%
Mai Thai is a small establishment looking right onto one of the key intersections on Wimbledon's loop system. The outside is simple and not pretentious, showing a curvy Thai-like font and a humble reference to pagoda-like eaves. Inside, the restaurant is small, very small, so we were lucky to find a table for seven without booking - do not take that risk, if I were you. There were quite a few people for lunch, either couples, small groups or single diners, and the small enclosure made it all look very intimate, with a family feel and a sense of coziness. Still it did not feel overcrowded or packed, and not even noisy. It actually seemed there was an echo in the room and, according to our local experienced member Dr. Chang (alias to keep anonimity), this is what you would expect from a Thai house: basic and empty, or should I say clutter-free, to let the air flow in the humid heat of South East Asia...
Having sat on nice dark wooden tables, we picked the menus and swiftly opted to check the lunch menu out. Choice was short but varied and accomodating. Value for money though was not as enticing, thought, and probably picking from the menu "à la carte" would not have made a huge difference. Staff were courteous enough and they were also pretty quick, almost too quick that starters and mains overlapped each other without us requesting so.
Food was rather average with most feedback focusing on bland or overpowering taste and no outstanding presentation effort. Pork was too garlicky, rolls too greasy and soup too watery. The chicken curry though was the only champion out of the dishes ordered, as recommended by Dr. Chang. Overall, the food is acceptable but lacks the "wow" factor.
While the restaurant kept a decent Thai look, it failed to differentiate itself from other Thai or Asian joints. The group also wondered whether lunch menus are more of a cheap option of food but the general feeling is that quality of food should not differ between lunch and dinner, whatever on offer.
Our verdict is as follows:
Quality of Food 2.83Hygiene 3.67
Value for Money 3.83
Speed of Service 4.67
Quality of Service 4.00
Ambience & décor 3.33
Mai Thai gets an overall rating of 72.1%
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