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Near Waterloo station


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I've not been to Baltic but out of the ones I know I think RSJ is definitely your best bet. An alternative could be the top of the Oxo Tower (what's the restaurant called?). I've been up there but I haven't eaten there-It's a Harvey Nichols place Lovely views. Is it a rip off?

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thanks, for some reason i thought rsj was a place that specialised in sausages so didn't delve further.

cheers

gary

That was RJ Stanley's opened by the man who ran Alfred's which ironically has now been turned into a sausage and mash cafe

RSJ is considered to have one of the best list of wines from the Loire in the city. The food is pretty decent too

S

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Has anyone been to the restaurant on one of the lower floors of the Oxo building (the space that was, albeit briefly, Richard Neat’s place)?

Yes.

It's called River Walk; I tried both the grill and the restaurant for lunches in February. Food in the brasserie was good value, if not particularly imaginative (crab salad followed by fish & chips and then pavlova, if memory serves), although service was chaotic.

The restaurant was a cut above. One dish, smoked beef, stood out particularly. The a la carte prices were high-ish, but I think that they were going to introduce a lunchtime set menu - they may have done so by now.

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  • 8 years later...

By co-incidence, I'm in that neck of the woods for a few days the week after next.

Baltic and the Skylon Grill are on my list (as is a chippy dinner at Masters Superfish - a place almost northern in its quality).

There's an old school Italian on Lower Marsh called La Barca that may be worth a punt.

Edited by Harters (log)

John Hartley

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There's an old school Italian on Lower Marsh called La Barca that may be worth a punt.

here i am sat here, thinking why did i need recs for waterloo, then i remembered (a meeting with 3i) and that we went to an old school italian in the end - just looked at the gallery it was La Barca. I wasn't convinced when i saw the exterior but clients loved it, it was their local.

you don't win friends with salad

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Any ideas for dinner? I was thinking along the lines of zucca or jose.

Interesting to see this turn up when I searched Waterloo - a long time ago thread, almost 10!!

I,m ashamed to admit to not going back to Zucca, especially that we enjoyed it so much.

When we went to Pizarro I gazed longingly through the window (Zucca) and wondered what treats they had in store for their lucky customers.

Truth be told I even considered going in instead of Pizarro,(which we had not booked)

You would be spoilt for choice on Bermondsey Street as Jose is just a bit further down the street from these two.

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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Dont want to throw a spanner in the works but I really think skylon is terribly poor, better off going to anchor and hope or even wright brothers iyster bar in borough. If not you are also only a hop, skip and a jump from da polpa in Covent garden if you haven't been there...

"Experience is something you gain just after you needed it" ....A Wise man

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  • 2 weeks later...

BALTIC

I was prepared to be a bit disappointed at Baltic after I’d read the menu online. I’d be the first to admit that geography isn’t my strong point and I’d struggle to know exactly where the Baltic was. Baltic, the sea, that is. And it looked as though Baltic, the restaurant, might also be struggling as the menu darts hither and thither across the far reaches of Northern Europe.

I needn’t have worried though. I was about to have a thoroughly decent dinner. There’s a narrow, slightly unwelcoming, shop front entrance which takes you into a long, narrow and seemingly soulless bar area. The restaurant is at the back of the bar space and is a much nicer place to be – high ceiling, glass roof, comfy chairs, not so dimly lit that you can’t read the menu.

Bread was quickly offered. A choice of four – I picked a rye on the first offering and had scoffed it before my starter came. More was proffered and this time I took a white, assertively flavoured with caraway. Both good.

The starter was just the sort of thing you want on a chilly winter’s night. Siberian Pelmeni were a generous portion of well flavoured nuggets of pork and veal, encased in thickish dumpling dough. Even with my poor geography skills I know that Siberia is nowhere near the Baltic so is about as local as paella is to being a traditional Lancastrian dish.

The main was pork schnitzel “a la Holstein”. Now, I’m even vaguer about where Holstein might be. Cast my mind back 45 years to “O” level 19th century history and I’m sure it cropped up – although apparently the dish is named after a German bloke of that name, rather than the place. In the event, it was pretty much a bog standard schnitzel – thin pork escalope, bread-crumbed and fried. It sat on some sautéed potatoes and fried onions. The Holstein bit comes by a scattering of capers and a couple of anchovy fillets. It was all OK. Not particularly interesting and I rather wished I’d had the main course sized portion of the Pelmeni.

I didnt bother with dessert but there was a good espresso. Service was efficient – one member of staff seemed to be tasked with a constant perambulation round the room looking for dirty pots to pick up.

John Hartley

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LA BARCA

There’s something wonderfully comforting about an old school Italian restaurant. And La Barca is so old school that, when I glanced round, I half expected to see red and white check tablecloths and candles stuck in Chianti bottles. Everything else seemed in place – wine bottles everywhere, elderly waiting staff (all Italian), photos of now aging stars in their youth (surely you remember Jill Gascoine in The Gentle Touch?)

And, of course, there’s a menu packed full of trattoria classics. There was excellent bread – a generous basket left on the table with four different sorts – the foccacia was a stand-out. There was also some freebie olives.

Now I don’t know how they found flavoursome tomatoes in February, but they’d found enough to top my bruschetta. They were helped by a goodly drizzle of olive oil and a scattering of garlic slices and shreds of basil.

If you’re going to want to eat calves liver, then I reckon you want to eat it in an old school Italian restaurant. It’s probably the best bet for getting a good plate of food. The Italians seem to understand better than most that there’s a need for minimal cooking and, here, it must have been the work of seconds. It came with a sage butter sauce – rich from butter but cut through by the judicious use of the herb. I’d taken the waiter’s recommendation for spinach and sauté potatoes. This really was a good plate of food.

If further was needed to convince me that I liked La Barca, then serving a little bowl of Cadbury’s mini-eggs along with the espresso was a master stroke.

Including a bottle of water and service, the bill was just over £45 which felt that, much as I’d enjoyed myself, I hadn’t experienced the bargain of the week. Although the place was packed, so what do I know

John Hartley

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