Bluebird Dining Room

[Suzi Edwards]

This place has been getting fine reviews. Has anyone eaten here yet?

I loved Terry Durak's review from The Independent, especially his query about whether this might be a watershed restaurant for British cuisine. Although, I wonder if he's forgetting St John when he writes that.

Do we think that British food is looking up?

[Andy Lynes]

What, I asked myself the other day, do I want from a restaurant review? The answer, I realised after reading this weeks Independent on Sunday, is for Terry Durack to have written it.

An excellent piece that treated the subject and the reader with respect. Durack plainly knows what he's talking about (despite not liking Rasoi Vineet Bhatia, the exception that proves the rule) and that is the food, the service and the surroundings. It was a balanced review; positive, but not a rave and critical without being personal or gratuitously unpleasant. Good on ya Tel.

[Suzi Edwards]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Terry Durack has become my favourite reviewer. I don't always agree with him (and I'm glad we ignored his advice about the scallop starter at RVT as it was very good) but he is consistently on the money.

Does anyone know any bio info about him?

[Gary Marshall]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Terry Durack has become my favourite reviewer. I don't always agree with him (and I'm glad we ignored his advice about the scallop starter at RVT as it was very good) but he is consistently on the money.

Does anyone know any bio info about him?

←

is he an aussie? seem to remember reading that somewhere and married to jill dupleix (sp?) or is that someone else? helpful aren't i?

i can tell you he's very tall as he was in anthony's at the same time as me once, i would have had a word but he'd gone by the time i'd finished.

full of it today me

gary

[FaustianBargain]

This place has been getting fine reviews. Has anyone eaten here yet?

I loved Terry Durak's review from The Independent, especially his query about whether this might be a watershed restaurant for British cuisine. Although, I wonder if he's forgetting St John when he writes that.

Do we think that British food is looking up?

I was under the impression that St.Johns(while emphasising on British produce) has its niche in the offal dept. The comparison doesnt exist.

I dont find that much of a difference between British and French cooking techniques. The availability and range of produce is a different matter. Although my training and education is devoted French cooking and tradition, learning it in London introduced me to British cuisine. It was two good deals for the price of one!

French food is not always frilly and tall. If you go back to their peasant roots, there is little difference between British and French cooking. But the impact of the two mini ice ages and the world wars that Britain had to endure has certainly taken a toll.

British food has always existed. It doesnt need to 'look up'. It simply needs to be re discovered. My 2c.

edited to add: Flashback

Edited January 25, 2005 by FaustianBargain (log)

[Andy Lynes]

As I was in the area last night, I popped into the Bluebird Dining Rooms just for a look around. Its a really nice room, one of Conran's best efforts I'd say, and the menu reads like a dream. I want to go. Now.

[Carlovski]

As I was in the area last night, I popped into the Bluebird Dining Rooms just for a look around. Its a really nice room, one of Conran's best efforts I'd say, and the menu reads like a dream. I want to go. Now.

←

The Cafe menu seems on the mark as well, but can someone explain this on the brunch menu?

Please avoid spirits when eating oysters

[andrew_j_craig]

Terry is indeed an Aussie and married to Jill Dupleix. I understand he started off in advertising in Melbourne before becoming the restaurant reviewer for that city's broadsheet, the Age, before moving again to the Sydney Morning Herald. From there in about 2001, he nabbed the IoS gig at the same time as his Mrs got the cook job at the Times.

I have followed his moves each step of the way. At times, in brand obsessed Sydney, he focussed a little too much for my liking on the designer of the chairs or the waiter's uniforms. But his knowledge has always been sound and his judgments reliable - I always get a sense of whether it's worth going to the restaurant. Also, I don't have the same confidence in other London reviewers when they move beyond Franco-Italo-British cooking. He's strong on Chinese and south east Asian cuisines. As much as I like the food there, he was perhaps a little hyperbolic to say that David Thompson's Nahm was one of the most exciting thing to hit London in years (for which Jonathan Meades took great offence), but that's a small blip. I certainly never trusted Meades to tell me anything about the greatness of Thai cooking.

I think TD has also authored a number of cookbooks.

[FaustianBargain]

The Cafe menu seems on the mark as well, but can someone explain this on the brunch menu?

Please avoid spirits when eating oysters

Raw oysters(test sample from Raw Gulf Coast Oysters) contain faint traces of the virus that causes Hepatitis A. Those who already house this virus while consuming raw oysters along with spirits(alcohol that is no great friend of your liver) greatly increase the chances of falling ill seriously.

It is a very general warning and probably affect a handful of individuals only.

Hepatits, as you probably know, is a terrible liver disease of a particularly nasty variety that can affect anyone and can sometimes go undetected. The greatest danger is that one may not show any symptom of Hep A virus in their system, yet they can spread it.

It is a very very general, but extremely sensible warning.

[John Whiting]

I loved Terry Durak's review from The Independent, especially his query about whether this might be a watershed restaurant for British cuisine. Although, I wonder if he's forgetting St John when he writes that.

←

I hope that the followers of culinary fashion won't try to set up a spurious rivalry between Tom Conran and Fergus Henderson. [EDIT: I wasn't, of course, referring to Suzi's valid comment above.] Tom's mother is of course Caroline Conran, whose translations/editions of the great nouvelle cuisine chefs introduced them to British readers. I quote the following from private correspondence, with her permission:

Interestingly Tom and Fergus practically shared prams as Fergus' parents are very old friends [of ours]. I think they have picked up on some of the same kitchen vibes. Fergus' mother likes plain Scottish type food (kippers, roast meat, large platters of shellfish) and is an architect, his father likes luxurious food, wonderful wine and good living and is an architect too. I can see all this at St. John, which I love.

Tom's mother , i.e. me, has written two books on british food and cooking, one in 1978 and one in 1985. I think a good deal of my cooking was in that genre at that time - fish pie, game, bread and butter pudding - when my children were growing up.

Edited January 28, 2005 by John Whiting (log)

[Gary Marshall]

The Cafe menu seems on the mark as well, but can someone explain this on the brunch menu?

Please avoid spirits when eating oysters

←

that's been on conran menus for years, i never understood the technical reasons behind it either.

i assumed they reacted badly or something.

[Gareth]

Dinner last night at the bluebird Restaurant. And very enjoyable it was too, even if, for me, it didn’t quite hit the level which some of the reviews had been suggesting.

Highlights: a nice bar with a well mixed Whisky Sour. The fact that in a relatively lightly loaded (and very striking) dining room, we were nevertheless steered to one of the better tables available (how often is the rule “first come, first stuck by the kitchen door..”). Indeed the service was attentive, unstuffy and discrete throughout – a real plus.

We had an excellent bottle of Valpolicella for £23 off the main bit of the list but “sommelier’s selection” I just found odd: Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Moet didn’t strike me as the most imaginative and (perhaps just my perception) but the mark-ups seemed to peak in this section.

Food hit some real highspots particularly in an unctuous chicken liver parfait and roast pork with crackling that arrived as a giant hunk of loin chop – really knockout.

But it also stumbled in a couple of places. The sticky toffee pudding was OK but ultimately not good enough to sustain interest through a large portion. The venison and root vegetable pie got off to a cracking start with an aromatic rosemary pastry crust that just lifted the dish…but then it needed to: there were no vegetables in it. Not under-filled or badly cooked, just all venison - so heavy and one-dimensional. Bad scoop of filling or something. To be fair, the response of the staff was good: we weren’t seeking for it to be replaced or knocked off the bill (it wasn’t) but the complaint/comment was followed up by the Maitre D. We weren’t brushed off in other words and that is the most important thing.

More puzzling was the underlying concept. The ingredients looked as impeccably British sourced as was reported, but the menu seemed far more multicultural than I was expecting. A ballotine of foie gras here; a section of risottos there; spicy lentils under the cod; marscapone desserts; borscht. Not saying any of it would be other than very good, but part of the attraction going in was the thought that Bluebird would be resolute in its British approach, another to stand alongside St John and Rhodes. In the event the menu diluted this and, as a result, some of the excitement went with it.

Still it would be wrong to end on a suggestion that this was not a distinct cut above the average Modern British new restaurant clone. The roast pork alone is enough reason to return.

[Suzi Edwards]

Not quite a clean sweep for Bluebird this week, Tracy MacLeod find a couple of quibbles.

[petemelb]

Terry Durack released a fantastic book called Hunger. I'm not sure if it is available outside of Australia but it is worth tracking down.

[Pweaver1984]

Amazon Books

Heres a link to it, sounds interesting.

[Suzi Edwards]

I had a funny feeling I might have read this book and hated it. But then I realised I was thinking of "The Raw and the Cooked but Jim Harrison.

I am now very happy to think that I have a whole Terry Durack book to read.

[Andy Lynes]

From the Amazon synopsis: "Terry Durack takes you through the tradesman's entrance..." I think they could have found a better way of phrasing that, no?

[transfattyacid]

Please forgive my ignorance. I find this thread very interesting as I ate at the Bluebird nearly 5 years ago and found it to be pretty unremarkable. What is the cause of all the renewed interest, ie. reviews? To further explain, I have been living in Vancouver, Canada for the last 2 and a half years. Have I missed out on a big change at the Bluebird to warrant all of this attention? When I was in London, I recall there were other Conran restaurants that were much more interesting. Would anyone care to suffer fill me in?

By the way, I was in London this summer and visited an old haunt, St. John's. It was just as I remembered, wonderful.

pretzels

[howardlong]

Please forgive my ignorance. I find this thread very interesting as I ate at the Bluebird nearly 5 years ago and found it to be pretty unremarkable. What is the cause of all the renewed interest, ie. reviews? To further explain, I have been living in Vancouver, Canada for the last 2 and a half years. Have I missed out on a big change at the Bluebird to warrant all of this attention? When I was in London, I recall there were other Conran restaurants that were much more interesting. Would anyone care to suffer fill me in?

pretzels

←

Totally agreed, pretzels.

WTF has happened???? Last time I went to Bluebird, admittedly 3-4 years ago, it was just soooo disappointing and uneventlful I couldn't possibly think of a reason to return.

Kind of when Conran was weeping out those last dilutions of his brand.

[Although Orrery is an exception]

The only way he managed to turn the Bluebird from a garage/cheap Accessorize into a restaurant against the local residents' wishes was to perform political acrobatics (read into that what you will, but I'm sure there's some local government officials are still dining out on it [sic]).

Consequently, resident parking restrictions extended from 6:30 to 10pm - something that has swarmed throughout the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea ever since. I also had it on good authority from two separate parties that Bluebird never made a profit, certainly not upto a couple of years ago they weren't.

Cheers, Howard

Edited February 15, 2005 by howardlong (log)

[Suzi Edwards]

I went last week and it was great. Like Gareth I'm not sure it was quite as good as I was expecting it to be from the superlative reviews, but overall a very well conceived and executed place.

Started with drinks in the bar and then through to the (much) more formal than I was expecting dining room. There's a very strange statue of a rhino in the middle of the room, surrounded by tea lights. I didn't really know what to make of it, what with the strange scrap paper chandelier, but the room somehow reminded me of Private Eye. I think there's a sort of studied insouciance to it, but it does feel peculiarly British, in spite of the ungulate. I felt very under-dressed in jeans although there were a couple of other casually dressed people in there. Maybe it was the large table of duffers in suits that are making me think this...but all in all the dining room is well proportioned, if a little formal for this kind of food.

First up was some superlative soup. "Jane Grigson's curried parsnip" for my dinner dates that was the perfect choice given the weather last Thursday. Thick, sweet, mildly spicy and garnished with a swirl of parsnip crisps. I went for the slightly less becoming on a wet windy evening salad of wet walnuts, apple, cashel blue and dandelion. I was a little worried about the dandelion after a brush with too large a portion at St John the other week, but this was a beautifully balanced bitter salad shot through with tiny croutons. Great British ingredients, great contrasts, great flavour. A perfectly executed salad.

Mains were slightly less mind blowing, although the roast potatoes with my slow roasted middlewhite pork were some of the best I've had in a restaurant. The pork was a little too fat for my liking (not for the faint hearted as Moby would say) but the meat was exceptional quality and rich with the flavour of garlic. The crackling was the best bit; a sliver of porky brittle. A main of venison with bitter chocolate sauce was less successful to my mind although the meat was fantastic quality and properly hung. I found the sauce a little too one note and that dish lacked the hit from the advertised winter truffles. My other dinner guest had the vegetarian option that disappeared with such speed I never got a fork to it. From memory it was artichoke and poached egg with stilton which sounds disgusting so I know I'm not remembering properly but seemed to do the trick. This isn't a place for vegetarians; only two starters were meat and fish free and only one main. Both on of the starters and the main contained blue cheese which made for an unbalanced selection.

Desert was apple and pear crumble and a poached pear. Neither did a huge amount for me, but the slab of Bakewell tart with raspberry ripple icecream that was delivered to the table next to me caught my eye. Mark Broadbent (formerly of The Oak) has taken great British ingredients and given them centre stage. Having never eaten at Bluebird before the refit I can't make comparisons, but I will be going back.

Bluebird Dining Room

350 Kings Road,

SW3 5UU

020 7559 1000

[mrshugget]

Suzi, why will you definitely go back? Your experience sounded similar to mine, a few high spots, but general mediocre malaise. To paraphrase your own words, what you found was a room you didn't like very much, customers you didn't particularly warm to, or feel an empathy with, good soup, great salad, nice roast potatoes but two main courses that were underwhelming and a pudding you didn't order but wished you had. What's so great about that? Is that enough? Also, I thought the Bluebird was very expensive, although you don't mention prices. And mean. The amount of crab in their crab salad is a joke/scandal.

[Suzi Edwards]

I wouldn't call what I wrote "general mediocre malaise". I ate a salad which I loved, and several spoonfuls of a great soup. I had some of the best roasties I've had in a restaurant and although I found the pork too fat for me the meat was great. I didn't get to taste one main because it disappeared so fast!

I use the phrase "slightly less mindblowing" to describe the mains, which perhaps suggests my mind was blown by the appetisers? Isn't that a good thing?

I didn't say I didn't like the room, I just found it a little studied for my tastes. While bemused by the rhino, I have no beef with it. And does anyone really like to be surrounded by duffers when eating? I doubt it. But I can't really a blame a restaurant for its diners...Actually no, maybe I can and from now on when I book I'll demand that there's no-one in a suit in the same room as me and they cancel all diners over the age of 40 to make me more comfortable?

As for the price, I thought it was very reasonable to be honest. Just over £50 per head which I thought was a really good price for a meal I really enjoyed. You can get a lot less for a lot more in Central London these days.

[postcode]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Terry Durack has become my favourite reviewer. I don't always agree with him (and I'm glad we ignored his advice about the scallop starter at RVT as it was very good) but he is consistently on the money.

Does anyone know any bio info about him?

←

I met both him and Jill Dupliex while they were 'touring' with the launch of her new book (well, new at the time) Simple Food. He was a genuinely nice bloke and very knowledgeable on all things 'food' She on the other hand was a nightmare on legs. As we were cooking dishes from her book, for a paying audience, and as she gave a running commentary on the dishes as we fired them out of the kitchen, she kept telling her guests that the presentation and the final product were not how she would've done it. This, ironically, was far from the truth as were following (on her strict instructions) her recipes to a 'T'

[pretzels]

Thank you for your response, Howard. I find myself now really curious about what is going on in London. I've just spied the Bluebird on the shortlist for the London Restaurant 2005 Awards for Best British Restaurant. It is up there with St. John, what I consider to be London's Best British Restaurant. Can someone please let me know what has happened at the Bluebird to cause such distinction. Obviously there have been some big changes, or something terrible has happened to all of the great restaurants in London (appart from St. John's of course).

Pretzels

[Suzi Edwards]

They have a new chef, Tom Conran took over from his father, they put a rhino sculpture in the dining room.

So much change...