Words from Yannis

L’Autre Pied is a slightly more casual version of it’s older sister restaurant, Pied a Terre. It’s more casual only in the surroundings and atmosphere, the menu is equally elaborate and the service equally attentive.

The food doesn’t fail to impress. A creamed asparagus and chervil velouté with smoked goats milk and pea shoots was a soupy dish with a solid middle, a tasty and light starter, whereas the seared foie gras with pickled baby artichoke, pineapple sorbet and black pepper crisps was powerful with bold combinations of flavours. The main of rabbit saddle was an impressive dish in terms of design and number of ingredients on the plate and the flavour was faultless, while the pan fried sea bream was fresh and well balanced. The “Tiramisu” coffee and dark chocolate for two was too tempting to miss, and it turned out to be a deliciously rich tiramisu and chocolate flavour mousse that rounded of the meal nicely. There was a pre-starter and coffee came with petit-fours, adding to the feel of fine dining.

L’Autre Pied was overall a very good restaurant experience, with a price tag to match - Pied a Terre is both more elaborate and more expensive, but both are certainly worth a visit.

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Located in Westfield shopping centre, the Meat and Wine Co is a massive restaurant, with the walls decorated with racks and racks of wine, an open kitchen and a cosy fire, while it also has a few tables outside and another few on the balcony for days with adequate weather.

As the name implies, they take their meat and wine seriously, but they also pay sufficient attention to all areas of the meal. There are several starters and salads, plenty of different kinds of meats and grills, some vegetarian options and a kid’s menu. Our steaks clearly came from fine quality meat and were tender and cooked perfectly - the peppercorn sauce was a good accompaniment. The chips were a bit unusual, looking particularly fluffy, and tasted fine, but not exceptional. Our Chilean wine (chosen from a long list, organised by country and with many wines available by the glass) was a perfect partner for our meat. Desserts didn’t disappoint either, with the chef’s desert platter containing a selection of most of the desserts on the list most of them fantastic (apart from one bland rice-pudding-type dessert), the chocolate fondant was particularly rich and flavoursome.

The restaurant has polite and efficient service and plenty of room with big tables with generous spacing between them. There is no shortage of good steak restaurants in London, but this is definitely a worthy addition.

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The Forge is a rather small but elegant restaurant just off Garrick Street. It advertises itself as Modern European, but the British influence is apparent.

Our waiter was friendly and willing, albeit slightly nervous. The menu is impressively long, there are about 20 starters and at least 15 mains, with another few dishes available as either a starter or a main for good measure. The crab with lemon and mayonnaise starter was very fresh, light and tasty, while the spinach salad with mustard dressing was good apart from an extra unidentifiable kind of leaf with a funny taste. The mains were satisfying, with a swordfish on a bed of butter beans delivering an innovative taste combination and a mutton shank with couscous that was strong, very Moroccan in character and exciting. The deserts won the night though, with a treacle tart a bit nontraditional, but every bit of moreish treacle mouthfuls as one would expect and the 3 little chocolate pieces turning out to be 3 reasonably-sized portions of chocolate sin/heaven.

The restaurant is quiet (it only seats 20 people on the ground floor), the tables are reasonably spaced and it is a very good option for a romantic or quiet evening out. Thumbs up!

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