St John Bread and Wine

[jayrayner]

yes

[Gavin Convery]

Went for a slightly longer lunch this time.

As usual 3 slices of delicious bread were brought immediately to the table (no charge!)

I started with a glass of the Bordeaux white - sauvignon I think at £4 and a glass of iced water(no charge)

Luckily I had arrived shortly after the roast loin of middlewhite had been taken out of the oven - apparently it is cooked slowly in the bread oven. This was served with a portion of shredded celeriac mixed with anchovies, capers and parsley. This was a seriously good piece of meat, the fat was unctuous and flavoursome, the flesh moist and tender - superbly balanced by the celeriac.

At this point Jonathan Meades wandered in, occasional food critic for the Times - he was wearing a bright yellow shirt

Dessert was a strawberry trifle served in a small bowl with a spoonful of good cream on the top and sprinkled with toasted flaked almonds - deeelicious. Good balance of fruit, custard and sponge.

Another glass of wine settled me in to an afternoon of low activity at work and guilt induced me to order a macchiato which was very strong - I would have preferred a bit more foam.

It can't really get much better than this....total cost £28.95:

2 x wine £8

Pork £14

Trifle £5.20

Macchiato £1.75

Highly recommended 9/10

[CheGuevara]

Service was good and, if it was close to my work, I could see myself coming in here every lunch time.

8/10

S

i make it a point to eat here at least once a week....only one block away from the office!

-che

ps - try the jellies next time you go - they usually have at least one - home-made and served with single cream.

EDIT: i see there are a few of us who enjoy the pleasures of SJ's at lunch, shall we organize a little eGullet lunch one of these fridays? Also Andy, there was a thread on the new SJ's a while back with some more reviews, might be worth merging them.

Edited July 9, 2003 by CheGuevara (log)

[Charlene Leonard]

Went here on Saturday for my b’day. The room was smaller than I thought (60 covers) and I didn’t like it as much as St.John @ Smithfields. It was packed to the gunnels and had a momentary panic as I had only booked for 12 and there were 14 of us – luckily 2 people at another table didn’t turn up so thankfully no one had to share a chair with my ample derriere. I started with Roast Quail and Aioli (£4.50), a perfect little specimen served rare with pungent mayo. Other starters included Beetroot, lentil and goats curd (£6.00) declared by my veggie friend as the best starter he has ever had. Rabbit terrine (£6.50), and Boiled egg with anchovy and celery salt (£2.60)

For main I had Scottish Girolles on toast (£12.50) much to the consternation of the veggie - “you come to this meat worshipping place and order mushrooms?” These were fantastic, a massively generous portion of girolles sautéed in butter and served on thick slices of bread (thanks Dan!). Others had Rabbit, Pigs trotter and prune (£13), Langoustines and mayo (£9), Mackerel and gooseberries (£10).

Puddings included spot on trifle, superb lemon posset and a wonderful looking meringue and raspberries. Only duff note was the Cheddar - Montgomery - (selection of British cheeses @£3.50 each) that was a bit sweaty. We drank white and pink wine. sorry can't remember more than that!

Overall a fab night, the staff were excellent in dealing with such a large group and I’d definitely go back despite feeling like I was sitting in a branch of HSBC.

[Charlene Leonard]

Popped into St.J B&W yesterday in an attempt to avoid the heat and was pleased to find that they are one of the few places in London who’s air conditioning actually works. Ended up having one the best meals of the year so far.

The most fantastic waiter –Jonathon - who made the whole experience a delight quickly approached us. He was friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about the food. He recommended a sparkling rose – Langlois Cremant De Loire Rose £24 – that was fantastic, not too sweet with nice small bubbles.

We started with Pressed Skate and Potato (£6), basically a terrine served with a piquant parsley mayo. This was incredibly tasty and moist, a winning dish.

Then we shared Puffball (£7) and Bath Chap Dandelion and Watercress (£12). The bath chap was amazing (sorry Circeplum), yes it’s very fatty but in an unctuous melt in the mouth way. The meat was so so succulent and the fat had a wonderful delicate crispness to it. However, the star of the show was the Puffball, this was out of this world, a slice of mushroom very similar in size and appearance to calves liver. It had been fried in lots and lots of butter, garlic and capers. It was soft and velvety and salty and delicious. If you ever see this on the menu again, have it.

Finished with Damson Jelly and Shortbread (£5), the tartness of the jelly was a great end to all that richness.

Total cost £55. If I lived near here I would eat here every day.

[Suzi Edwards]

ate here last night and i'm still not sure i quite get it, but it was enjoyable enough. what i like most is the way that everyone seems to be having fun, there's something very unenglish about the way people seem to really wave their arms and share food here which is nice given the nature of the menu.

it was really busy so i started by reserving a couple of eccles cakes and a glass of fino :-)

starters were thin flank with green sauce (we asked for some horseradish as well), snails with bacon and the table next to us kindly (and completely randomly) gave us some of their rolled pigs spleen. the snails for, for me, the stand out dish, completing changing my view of snails. fab. from my small taste of the spleen i also wished we'd ordered a full portion of that...

for mains we all went for the grouse. at £25 a pop we thought it really expensive, but all wanted to try it. it came served with watercress, bread sauce and a (very hard) crouton with pate. i drew the short straw of the grouse world as mine wasn't as well cooked as the others and i strugged with it.

luckily this meant i had room for eccles cake, lancashire cheese and a flash back to the egullet dinner at st john.

all in all, i think we should have diversified on the mains but this is a great place to eat with friends.

[PCL]

Finally got round to visiting Bread & Wine last night, the 20th September. My dining companions were my wife and a friend, all of us optimistic following a couple of recent lacklustre dinners at Smithfields. I was hoping all day that there might have been mushrooms on the menu as per Charlene Leonard's recommendation. Been gorging on mushrooms at home the last week or so, and when we got there, a quick survey of the board yielded a small disappointment, but there was much else to look forward to.

Our friend had yet to show, and while waiting we munched on the terrific bread, and a plate of cheeks on toast, thin sliced pork cheeks, grilled and served on warm toast. It was a complete turnaround from a weak bone marrow presentation at Smithfields a week ago.

It turns out it was our mate's birthday, only made known to us when he arrived, and while he and Mrs PCL turned their attention to gossip and slander, it was left to me to order. I picked things to share, and the following was enjoyed by all:

1/2 dozen oysters

1/2 dozen razor clams

chitterlings

duck eggs with chicory and watercress

ox heart with beetroot

whole crab and garlic mayo (to serve 2)

We were a little apprehensive when another table's duck egg looked overcooked (boiled and served in the half-shell), but ours was just right, with the yolk still creamy. The chitterlings and ox heart were both meaty and sated my protein cravings (in-between Boston Butts & ribs at Bodeans).

The highlights, however, were the razor clams and the crab. The clams were grilled open, and then dressed with a red wine shallot vinaigrette. I'd only ever had these in Chinese restaurants or cooked by family friends, and it was delightful to see and taste a western treatment. The dressing was edgy and had a good balanced twang to soften the mildly pungent clams (not sure if perfumed would be a better word).

The crab was served cold, the flesh moist and not overdone. We don't generally eat much seafood in London, but after the clams, felt confident enough to mix it with the crab. Birthday boy stayed with the claws (which needed some inventive bashing on the ground while wrapped in a napkin, the shell-crackers rendered ineffective at times). I was more than content to dig around the thorax and the main shell, rooting out the innards. I stayed away from the mayonnaise and instead asked for some more of the shallot vinaigrette.

Dessert for all were the raspberry sorbet, creme caramel, and honey roasted figs.

In summary: we loved it. It was great for a spontaneous celebration, and was extremely well suited, by no small degree of design, for a familial repast. We ate a lot, but it worked. We were however, more than surprised to see the discrepancy between take-away and 'drink-in' wine prices (more than 100% mark up for some bottles) but still managed to kill off a decent chablis and cote du rhone for just over £50. But the food starred.

Almost dropped in again tonight for a quick snacking dinner, but found razor clams in Chinatown and did 'em at home instead. Maybe next time I'll ring ahead and ask if mushrooms are on the board.

Edited September 21, 2003 by PCL (log)

[VivreManger]

A pity that you did not make it Sunday night since I am curious as to how St. John's B&W fares at the fag end of the week.

[CheGuevara]

in a similar thread we discussed how busy st.j's b&w was lately, and i coomented on how i kept seeing more and more people during lunch time. so it happens that last friday, i headed out to lunch with a colleague around 12:30 and i decided to show him st.j's - the place was 2/3 empty and upon entering we were greeted with a: "have you got a reservation sir", i humbly replied, "no", thank you and good-bye. i hate this.

-che

[Carlovski]

in a similar thread we discussed how busy st.j's b&w was lately, and i coomented on how i kept seeing more and more people during lunch time. so it happens that last friday, i headed out to lunch with a colleague around 12:30 and i decided to show him st.j's - the place was 2/3 empty and upon entering we were greeted with a: "have you got a reservation sir", i humbly replied, "no", thank you and good-bye. i hate this.

-che

All sounds a bit at odds with the ethos of the place - they try and market it as somewhere to drop in for seed cake and madeira, or a bit of lunchtime offal, but it sounds like it is turning into just another restaurant.

A victim of it's own success?

[CheGuevara]

yet another great lunch at SJBW - time does not permit me to go into any details...i will say the skate with samphire was excellent. cooked in butter, nutty and moist. the samphire was crisp, served with shallots, parsley and capers.

all on a white plate...and half a lemon of course. simplicity is so rewarding.

i couldn't leave without trying the strawberry ice cream - three large scoops of pinkish cream.

it never fails, good or bad, SJBW delivers taste.

-che

[frogprince]

'tis a beautiful thing, living in whitechapel. st john's progeny around the corner, always welcoming and gracious enough to put up with me and dickens for hours, sipping corbieres and nibbling, always nibbling.

beautiful and austere. serene and comfortable.

i LOVE this place and oh how i miss it (and your loverly country). there is truly nowhere else quite like it. cherish it. and have a doughnut on sunday morning. for me. please...

[Charlie Penrose]

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!

[Charlie O]

I agree - its one of my favourite restaurants. I've yet to go there and be disappointed.