Dean Street Townhouse...pricey

It's had so much press and blogger interest that it would be impossible to pass this restaurant by.  Given that it is owned by SHG and the irrepressible Richard Caring, owner of the Ivy and Caprice, in fact pick a famous restaurant and he probably has something to do with it.  What's clever about all of his restaurants is that the food, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, is secondary to the experience.  That's not to say that the food isn't good, it is it's just that you can have better quality food (at a much cheaper price) elsewhere.  What you can't get elsewhere is the feeling that you are really amongst it, rubbing shoulders with the great and the good (well not necessarily good).  You can't help scouring the room to see who you recognise -'Oh don't look now it's so and so off the telly'.

The Dean Street Townhouse is no exception.  Right in the heart of Soho, juxtaposed advertising and film  companies, it is a stunning dining room through it's simplicity.  One thing that all the SHG locations have is brilliant design, nothing over the top, just that it all works, from plain but interesting tiling to well thought through furniture and a real stand out bar.  Just through the design alone you can see why this is a very successful and talked about restaurant.

We started off with Bloody Mary's at the bar waiting for our table to become free. We were in no hurry and we had arrived early and a perfectly seasoned Bloody Mary kicked off proceedings. The Maître D showed us to our table (earlier than expected) and we were promptly given menus and presented with the wine list. 

We decided on main course only, I went for the skate and my lunch partner opted for the steak. My dish came with nothing, just a piece of a skate wing and same capers. I ordered sides of chips and peas. The sides were £4 each and the skate was £19.95 so you were looking at a £30 dish with service with what was basically posh fish and chips. Also there were no frills with the peas - none of your creamed peas cooked in stock with onion and lettuce - these were, unless I am very much mistaken, out of a packet. However it was a good piece of fresh fish and I did enjoy it. The steak was cooked well, having been asked for rare, that's how it came - nothing more to say about that.

All in all the experience was a good one. Like a lot of lunch or dinners, the company tends to be a big factor in whether you are going to enjoy yourself. Dean Street Townhouse, and mine was good.  DST is definitely about the experience, like I said no complaints about the food and the cost of it - and it's priced accordingly - if you want to hang out and get noticed that's what you pay!

Canton Arms...pretentious

It's the kind of place you either love or hate.  It's again one of those places that throws up the question again 'When is a pub a pub or a restaurant'.  See Harwood Arms review The Canton Arms takes 'gastro' to another level in that the 'pub' bit is there in the form of the fact that it's in an old pub but there is nothing 'pub' about the menu.  Before I say any more it was busy and is clearly popular so this is not a criticism - it is an observation.  I think the Canton Arms sorts out the, what marketeers would bracket as, 'I like to try new things' and I prefer the tried and tested' individuals.


I also think the Canton Arms must be a very profitable kitchen and hence business.  But the shortness of the menu and the lack of what I would describe as pub favourites slightly put me off. That and the fact that we had arrived at 8.30pm and already many of the dishes were no longer available. It's not THAT big a place and I couldn't see tables being turned so I can only assume that, which is a good thing in that everything is cooked fresh, that the Chef wants no wastage, again something I applaud but it got my hackles up that so many of the choices weren't available. Would it be so bad to have the same dish on for 2 days?

The starters were good, my minestrone must have been cooked fresh that day, crisp vegetables expertly cubed, al dente pasta and a very good chicken stock which again must have been rendered down in the kitchen earlier. The other dishes were an excellent bit of charcuterie, Bresaola, air cured beef, served with parmesan shavings and aubergine with flat bread which was delicious.

As there was only one Onglet for two left, the girls very kindly let then men indulge their blood lust with this. I was going to order the plaice but when I was told I wasn't allowed to have chips with it I was put right off. This I really couldn't quite believe. The reason - the chef only cooks enough chips for the dishes she serves with chips....COME ON??!! It's a pub! And now you can see why the argument of when does a pub become a restaurant and not pub come up. God help you if you fancied a bowl of chips with your pint...

The onglet was however delicious, served with a lovely aioli and ...wait for it....CHIPS. onglet is served rare (we weren't given a choice!), it's a very flavoursome cut given its proximity to the offal and takes on the flavour. This was an excellent piece of meat, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was one of the finer cuts of beef. The plaice I am sorry to say did not look great. It appeared to either have been over cooked or dare I say, had been frozen.

I am glad I have been to the Canton Arms as it is good at what it does, and I enjoyed the company and was not unhappy with the food. But there is something incredibly annoying about not being able to order the dish you want and feeling rushed as they were running out and being told that you can't have what you want to accompany your meal. No doubt I will be accused of professional jealousy, I can see why it has gained the popularity it has but that style isn't for me...

River Test 8th September

Blimey seems like an age since I put finger tip to keyboard. I shouldn't have been under any illusions that writing a blog wouldn't take up a considerable amount of time but there we go.  August was a month off, we are all deserving of time off and what a pleasant month off it was too.  Not that I wasn't working, just not as hard as I should....  I did manage to fit in a bit of fishing and in fact, although there was nothing in the bag to brag about I did manage to tick off a few species - Sea Bass, Mackerel, Garfish in Deveon and Catfish, Chub and lots of small Sea Bream (which Max caught lots of which was great to see in South West France.

 

Late Summer Berries

Fishing at this time of year is challenging to say the least, well it is if you are a dry fly purist and only prepared to take home those fish you have managed to coax to the surface with the offer of a little morsel of fly when the fish, which I have come to the conclusion, are lazy bastards and would far rather stay put and move their mouth from left to right only snaffling up those bits of food that don't rely on the smallest amount of effort of swishing the tale and moving off their lie.  In fact I am pretty sure if most of these fish weren't disturbed by some eager animal hell bent on tricking them to eat a sharp hook, they wouldn't move at all.  I can't say I blame them, must be quite nice being in suspended animation, kept in position by the flow of water of a streamlined body with only the occasional movement of the tail and fins (sure I know they probably do more than that or they wouldn't be so nice and muscley) and constantly eating.

So we arrived at the river not really knowing what to expect, at least it wasn't raining which it had been on the way down.  You rely very heavily on the weather, especially the warmth if you are to have any surface action, you need the warmth to stimulate a hatch, without that it is very unlikely you will persuade a trout (that isn't suicidal) to come to the surface.  They may be lazy but they aren't entirely stupid and at this time of year they are very skittish.  That combined with low, clear water makes it hard to catch them unaware.  Also when you have disturbed one they have the habit of telling all their mates and charge up stream so the knock on effect can be quite profound and bloody annoying.  So lazy until provoked to be otherwise and the silhouette of a man with a 9 foot rod in his hand is definitely enough to stimulate the 'get the f**k out of here' response.

The GH Prince 

The tactics therefore needed for this scenario were stealth and nymphs, and fast sinking nymphs at that.  It was the Czechoslovakians who came to the fore with their Czech Nymph, a fast sinking nymph which earned them the world championships one year.  Armed with some gold headed nymphs (we justify this addition of a brass bead as mimicking an air bubble which is common with a rising nymph - in actuality its more likely an attractor and the fish uses its mouth to see what it is!!).  The first fish came relatively easily, I had spooked a few but was lucky with the position of a relatively high bush which gave me some cover and managed to get the nymph far enough ahead to allow it to drop and to not spook the fish.  The fish made a just-perceptible opening of the mouth, enough of a sign to know that the mimicry had worked and sure enough the line went taught, the rod bent and the fish went off downstream very fast, understandably pissed off.  It stripped the line down to the backing and gave a very noble account of itself, several strong runs, a powerful fish indeed.  A good start with a rainbow in excess of 4lbs on the bank always gives confidence for the rest of the day.

Wood Ear Mushroom

The next fish went the same way.  This was a text book lesson in upstream nymphing.  This was a big fish and was in a very narrow, shallow carrier and I was able to see it before it saw me.  Again this was going to be one cast - get it wrong and that would be that with that particular fish.  Luckily the fly landed just far enough ahead and reached the fish at the right level at the right moment, a slight tilt of the head and the tell tale whiteness of the mouth and then WALLOP!  A 7lb brown trout to the net, a really solid fish which is now at Robinson's being smoked..

A fat 7lb Brown Trout

I caught a couple more and waited for the rise which never materialised but it was a good day nonetheless.  Whilst the fish are stocked these were really good fish.  All of them gave a fantastic account of themselves, some of the best since we have been lucky enough to fish The Test.

A Happy fisherman

I am now in the process of curing and smoking the Trout Roes and will be hot smoking some of the fillets and curing the others to make Beetroot Cured Gravadlax.  I am very excited as I have also just ordered a cold smoker....

Beautiful late summer sunset