Charlie Penrose

More of you must have been there by now? Every man and his well dined dog has surely been since the umpteen cracking reviews... Thoughts Etc.?

Ate there tonight and am feeling decidedly heavy - every critic worth their salt has given it the thumbs up, so I presumed it would be nothing short of delicious, and I was not wrong! Pumpkin Risotto was spot on, a bit on the big side, but that is no problem when your man has an appetite not unlike that of a horse, duck was very good, cooked perfectly - could have been a bit hotter though, even so the chicory salad was wonderful. Ham hock hash also was awesome, salty, potatoey hammy goodness with a massive oozey orange egg atop. Was undecided whether to have a pudding as they all looked a bit uninspiring, and I was almost ready to keel over anyway, but I had chocolate mousse cake and it was in fact very good. All in all a very good meal, not historic - but at the price you could probably do not a lot better, certainly not in that particular stretch of London, superbly cooked big hearty dishes - yet another excellent edition to London's already many stringed bow of restaurants doing excellent, 'simple' food that you really do want to eat; happy days. I will definitely be back there soon to try the many other dishes that sounded pretty unmissable - Tripe braised with chorizo, paprika and butter beans; rack of lamb with tian of something and gnocchi (which had unfortunately all gone tonight); the couple next to us had the roast chicken and were complaining that there were too many roast potatoes...TOO MANY ROAST POTATOES! unbelievable, it looked cracking. Someone else mentioned that the wine glasses are too small - this is undoubtedly true, they are miniature, they make St John's look like buckets, still though, there is some very nice wine available at some very nice prices.

Can any one tell me whether beef marrowbone is an acceptable substitute for veal marrowbone, when making, say, Fergus' marrowbone & parsley salad? No butchers near me seem to have, or be willing to get any veal marrowbone. Charlie

This page seems to have been left alone for a while - shame, St John Bread & Wine is absolutely my favourite restaurant for regular dining, there is no where else around that I could return to so often and not get fed up with. I make a trip about every other weekend I'd say, and I can't ever think of a time that I have been disappointed, although they seem to have got a new (at least I hadn't seen her before) maitre d', who was a bit pushy and not very charming, who made a point of showing us exactly how to use the gratuity function on the card machine (I'm sure we're all quite familiar by now!), unlike all the other lovely staff. This time we had: ox heart, watercress & pickled walnut - delicious, meaty but not nearly as heavy as one might imagine and peas in the pod, which were, well, peas. this was followed by hereford and mash, some of the most meltingly soft & hearty beef, quail aioli, crispy, soft and with a delicious and extremely garlicky aioli. We also had a whole artichoke with vinaigrette to share, this was rather an ordeal, but delicious none the less - worth the effort! Puddings were vanilla cheesecake and chocolate mousse with sour cream ice cream, both were top stuff. So come on, sing Bread & Wine's praises, it deserves more than one post in 4 years!

All a la carte, I think it was something along the lines of: Oysters - £1.95 each Duck Egg & Asparagus - About £10 Sweetbreads - About £10 possibly a bit less...? Barnsley Chop & Grilled Kidney - About £14 Skate Knobs - £7-£10 Carrots, Peas & Bubble and Squeak - £3.50 Each Almond & Whiskey Tart - £6.50 Sorbet - £4 2 Glasses of Reisling - £6.50 each Glass of Sauternes - £7.50 Sorry, bit vague, I don't remember exactly, either way it all came to just over £100 with wine, water and service.

The lady and I had lunch yesterday, it was cracking - a selection of oysters showed real variety in size (the Malverns were monsters), texture & flavours, the duck's egg with asparagus was beautiful; creamy duck's egg with meaty salted asparagus and lamb sweetbreads, swimming in a rich buttery broth full of fresh sweet peas was perfect. The mains of barnsley chop - pink and plump, with incredible crispy fat was to die for, whilst the skate knobs (a very generous starter size portion) were light, creamy, crispy and all in all pretty exquisite! Pudding of walnut and whiskey tart was fairly forgettable and lemon and apple sorbet tasted like one of those sparkle lollies from way back when, not in a bad way. It was a treat, and the service, which everyone has complained about was fine, not the best, but it was good enough - helpful and fairly attentive, Mark Hix was there, he seemed jolly - and only bloody Heston was eating lunch on the other side of the room.

Last night I proved that it is not, I say NOT possible for a man to have too much of a good thing - the proof is in the pudding, or puddings: there were four of them, and they were all glorious. I took three friends to Nathan Outlaw last night, whereby I - of the idea and fruition, ended up driving an hour and a half there and an hour and a half back, but was it bloody worth it (...yes). For one, they all got so arseholed that I may be the only one who can actually remember as far along as pudding. We were offered a 'special 7 course' job, so we jumped on it, as none of my guests had been before and i am a greedy bastard. This begun with a little amuse of pea soup; delicious. I am borderline obsessed (actually there is no borderline about it) with peas, so this was good news, rich but llight, fresh and full of gusto. This was followed by lovely, gentle rose veal carpaccio and tongue, then cured salmon with beetroot risotto (deemed to be the star by atleast half the party), the salmon was salmony - plump, full and lightly crisped and the beetroot risotto was beetrooty - sweet, rich and more-ish. Finally for the fishies we had wreck fish with a gorgeous creamy saffron bisque and incomparably plump flavoursome mussels - all were happy. For the main event we were given lamb, salsify and garlic with the most juicy and delicate little sweetbreads, more rapture. Then begun my downfall. Out came one sweet, delicious treat after the other: first was the gin and tonic jelly with lime sorbet, which was reminiscent of one of those sparkle lollies that I remember vividly from my childhood, in a good way. There was the blood orange mousse with almong ice cream, which could have done with a little bit more citrusy zing, but was still rather tasty, and then the rhubarb pastry thing with rhubarb and champagne sorbet - which was just cracking; tart and light rhubarb and pastry, and champagne sorbet which was more champagney than champagne - which, being the designated idiot i relished. Three deserts - enough? No. By this the drunken heathens had gravitated outside for cigarettes, so I made my move, menu over, I ordered a supplementary chocolate fondant in the hope that this would finish me off, and in the case that it didn't, a full cheeseboard to follow. Fondant was delicious, gooey, chocolatey, light yet rich as you could possibly hope for. Cigarettes over and whiskeys well under way I was helped with the cheese, thank god. I am a glutton. Worst thing is; if another pudding had been plonked in front of me I would have necked it in an instant, without so much as a blink. All in all a seriously good feed, Restaurant Nathan Outlaw retaining its place as my favourite place to eat in Cornwall - happy days.