Fifteen Restaurant

[nikkib]

Has anyone eaten at 15 recently and if so could you fill me in on your experience, I'm off there in a couple of weeks and was wondering what the general feeling was as i have never got too excited about the idea of visiting and needed some feedback...

[RDB]

The chef is sexy and his heart is in the right place..........................

[nikkib]

The chef is sexy and his heart is in the right place..........................

←

If thats all you are not leaving me full of hope for a good meal!

Edited March 9, 2007 by nikkib (log)

[algy]

The chef is sexy and his heart is in the right place..........................

←

so's his wallet

[nikkib]

Anyone else....................................................................................................

Preferably about the food/service etc and not how hot (seriously you need to get out more) or rich (who cares) the chef is? Have booked in for mothers day as it is my mothers restaurant of choice and am keen to make sure she enjoys everything.

[algy]

there may be a clue in the underwhelming response to your question

[RDB]

Anyone else....................................................................................................

Preferably about the food/service etc and not how hot (seriously you need to get out more) or rich (who cares) the chef is? Have booked in for mothers day as it is my mothers restaurant of choice and am keen to make sure she enjoys everything.

←

Nikki I think you failed to pick up that my tongue was firmly rooted in my cheek....................

Hope you have a good time.

[nikkib]

Anyone else....................................................................................................

Preferably about the food/service etc and not how hot (seriously you need to get out more) or rich (who cares) the chef is? Have booked in for mothers day as it is my mothers restaurant of choice and am keen to make sure she enjoys everything.

←

Nikki I think you failed to pick up that my tongue was firmly rooted in my cheek....................

Hope you have a good time.

←

No i got that part i'm just not overly keen on the idea - i could have picked sooo many other places and was just hoping for some reassurance it wasn't going to be (too) terrible! At the end of the day we'll have fun anye=where and i can continus my gastronomic adventures elsewhere, I'm taking her to Petru sthe week after so at least we are guarenteed an amazing meal there...

Edited March 12, 2007 by nikkib (log)

[nikkib]

Anyone else....................................................................................................

Preferably about the food/service etc and not how hot (seriously you need to get out more) or rich (who cares) the chef is? Have booked in for mothers day as it is my mothers restaurant of choice and am keen to make sure she enjoys everything.

←

Nikki I think you failed to pick up that my tongue was firmly rooted in my cheek....................

Hope you have a good time.

←

No i got that part i'm just not overly keen on the idea - i could have picked sooo many other places and was just hoping for some reassurance it wasn't going to be (too) terrible! At the end of the day we'll have fun anye=where and i can continus my gastronomic adventures elsewhere, I'm taking her to Petru sthe week after so at least we are guarenteed an amazing meal there...

←

(sic) better lay off the wine for a bit - sorry for the appalling typos there!

[Tom Roberts]

I ate in the Tratorria last week and was not as underwhelmed as I has expected (although like you my expectations were pretty low). In short the food was ok and arrived fairly slowly, nothing was bad as such (although those who had steak complained of poor quality meat) but everything was pretty bland. On the plus side the place has a decent buzz and the staff are enthusiastic. You may not eat well but if you can overlook this (a significant hurdle, I know) the restaurant is conducive to an enjoyable evening.

If you're in the restaurant proper I can understand your concerns as I think you are looking at a compulsory £60 a head five (maybe six) course menu and for this sort of money I suspect you can think of a number of places with trained chefs that you would rather go to. On the plus side the menus I have seen do look inviting and if they are only serving set menu you would hope execution will be good.

Jamie was not in residence on our visit but we were reliably informed that he visits a couple of times a week so you might get lucky. Apparently he has had to reduce the amount of time spent cooking at the restauant because he is so popular that it disrupts the kichen as all the customers stand at the pass trying to speak with the great one.

They were unwilling/unable to serve the expensive baked beans.

[naebody]

Alright - I'll break the silence. Haven't been in a while, but I doubt it's changed fundamentally in that time.

I have a sneaking like for the place. The basement room's a wee bit different from the average and, no matter what you think of the boss, the charity angle has to lend a scintilla of goodwill. Unfortunately (and for understandable reasons) what leaves the kitchen can be hit and miss. You're prepared to forgive this of the similarly staffed Hoxon Apprentice up the road, but when you're laying down an obligatory £60 per head at dinner it turns into a gamble I' not rich enough to repeat all that often.

Oh, and the wine list features perhaps the most aggressive mark-ups of any London restaurant -- a remarkable feat for somewhere that doesn't make a profit.

The tattoria upstairs seems a lot more successful, in that it uses quality ingredients that nobody has the chance to bugger about with.

[Janice]

I would say that naebody has nailed it.

I haven't been in quite a while but I used to work across the road and visited regularly due to the dearth of alternatives in the area. Stuck to the trattoria unless I was spending someone else's money.

Have a nice time with your mum. Your meal will probably be fine but it will also be one of most expensive you've had in a while for the quality.

Just relax, remember it's for charity and because your mum wants to go. You don't have to go back if you don't want to!

Janice

[John Whiting]

From my online review of Cyrus Todiwalla's Café Spice Namaste:

If you want to eat well and also help train young chefs for a fraction of the tab you’ll pay at Jamie Oliver’s much-publicized Fifteen, try Zen Satori on Hoxton Street near Old Street tube. It’s the student restaurant attached to Cyrus’s award-winning Asian and Oriental School of Catering. While Jamie struggles to turn fifteen drop-outs a year into employable chefs, Cyrus and a staff of 18 have in five years trained about five hundred of society’s rejects and placed them in the restaurant and catering industry. A happy palate, a full stomach and a warm glow of satisfaction will cost you—well, a sum approximately equal to the name of Jamie’s restaurant.

Zen Satori  40 Hoxton Street, London N1 6NH, Tel: 020 7613 9590

Edited March 17, 2007 by John Whiting (log)

[Scott]

Oh, and the wine list features perhaps the most aggressive mark-ups of any London restaurant -- a remarkable feat for somewhere that doesn't make a profit.

←

Honestly, there are much worse.

I think you're right to be a but offish at their mark ups, but these days they have an unremarkable grab compared to some.

they're not cheap, or good value - but they're not so terrible. which is like choosing to be gored by a minor Hun, rather than electing to wait for when Attila arrives.

[naebody]

Oh, and the wine list features perhaps the most aggressive mark-ups of any London restaurant -- a remarkable feat for somewhere that doesn't make a profit.

←

Honestly, there are much worse.

I think you're right to be a but offish at their mark ups, but these days they have an unremarkable grab compared to some.

←

Ok, I concede that my opinion was based solely on paying the wrong side of silly for a bottle of Sainsbury-sourced Goats Do Roam in the early days. And yes, I agree that there are worse.