the salt & pepper diaries

I forgot about this idea from toptable until a friend, Asi Sharabi, reminded me and I’ve made an effort again to rack up the points.

Basically, every time you book a table through the toptable system, then rate and review the meal, you earn points - 200 points to be precise. Once you have 1,400 points (seven meals for the mathematicians amongst you), you get a free meal. Rack up 40,000 points, and Gary Rhodes, a Director of toptable, will personally cook dinner for you and three friends at Rhodes 24.

Also, sign up to the email and look out for some very good 50% off offers.

Tapas have been a theme of late. Only occasionally visiting a Spanish restaurant in London in the past, after the meal in Toronto at Bar Coca, I thought I must have more of this, and ended up recently in both the Salt Yard and Fino – stalwarts of Fitzrovia Mediterranean cuisine. The experiences were so different, it just begged a restaurant ‘slam-down’, a kitchen one-on-one to see which came out on top and could call itself the true Señor NoHo.

Salt Yard | photo by Robet Herrett | flickr

Fino

So what to judge against? For ease, I’ve decided on the simple restaurant check list, the four P’s - Place, Plate, People and Price.

Place
Salt Yard is a ‘looker’ in my opinion. Sat on a good spot half way down Goodge Street, the façade is dark and simple. You enter to a small, compressed bar that, even though a little awkward when full, with lot’s of excuse me’s and near misses, it definitely has a buzz. The kitchen sits close to the bar and if you get a spot there, you can sit and just dip into the small Spanish finger items whilst sipping good wine and sherry, chatting with the bar man and watching the action around you. 3.5/5

Fino is an altogether different experience. The entrance is concealed just off Charlotte Street on Rathbone Place, you enter into a basement area and are quickly greeted by one of the team and whisked off to the bar. All very smooth and professional and an altogether more polished experience than the ‘Yard’. They also served a great Espresso Martini – sorry, not very Spanish I know!

However, the space is an acquired taste – verging on premium dining and for some it lacks the action and bustling atmosphere so welcome when eating in the easygoing manner that Tapas demands. 3.5/5

Plate
The Salt Yard has a few famous dishes. Spanish and Italian influenced, expect to see Jamón Ibérico de Bellota - made from semi-wild acorn-guzzling pigs from Southern Spain, delicate prosciuttos from Alto Adige and herb flecked salamis from Tuscany. Gutsier paprika-infused chorizo and salchichón from Spain are the ideal partners to a cold beer. The meat is sourced from small farms in Wales and includes Confit of Gloucester Old Spot with rosemary scented cannelini beans as well as braised rabbit leg with creamed broad beans and Spanish cured bacon.

Vegetarians needn’t worry though with an award winning spread on offer; courgette flowers stuffed with goats-cheese and drizzled with honey, Padron peppers, classic tortilla and patatas bravas.

Finish up with Vanilla Pannacotta with Strawberries, Flat Peaches with Lavender Ice Cream or Soft Chocolate Cake with Frangelico ice cream. Awesome 4.5/5

Fino shows off it’s menu split across starters, cold meats, seafood, meat, tortilla, Potatoes/Croquetas, vegetables and salads. With three of us, we took the decision to go for four dishes each – potentially a little greedy, and try to get a good spread of what was on offer.

The stand out items were clear; Crisp pork belly received many murmurings of satisfaction, shoulder of Jamon Iberico was as good as the Gran Reserva and the Queen Scallops were delicate, smooth and creamy. Manchego cheese and broccoli complimented all of the above well.

However, no concerns about our waist lines, as the portions are so small that you end up guarding your own than wanting to share. 4/5

People
Hard to judge this one as each restaurant is set up differently and therefore has different demands for each house team. The Yardies though are relaxed, friendly, and chatty and know their stuff. A little rushed perhaps and made the odd mistake, but no real problems. 3.75/5

The Fino team in the opposite corner are drilled to precision. Immaculately turned out and well versed in the merits of a glass of cold manzanilla sherry with the correct choice of meat. However, this comes across as a little patronising and for some, just plain snooty. 3.5/5

Price
No contest here – Fino is quite ridiculous with it’s pricing for a Tapas restaurant – the average dish is £8 and can swing wildly north of this. Not what you want when the fun is partly in experimenting and sharing. Marry this with the size of the portions and it looks a pretty poor deal. 1.5/5

Salt Yard on the other had is far more realistic, coupled with location and atmosphere, it is all in all, the one to go for. 4/5

However, neither are what you would call a bargain.

So, looking back over the scores, the Yardies come out top. I think this is fair, but remember they are a different set-up for a potentially different crowd. If it’s occasion dining you want with polish and care and someone else is paying, there are worse things on offer than ending up in Fino!

The Salt Yard
54 Goodge Street
London W1T 4NA
Tel: 020 7637 0657

Fino Restaurant
33 Charlotte Street,
London W1T 1RR
Tel: 0207 813 8010

This week August 22 - 28

• 1 Wild Honey - new one from the Arbutus boys
• 2 Shipp’s Tearooms - east end old fashioned tea and biscuits
• 3 Le Petite Maison - fine French cuisine
• 4 The Rosendale - South London’s most recent Gastroboozer
• 5 Casa Brasil - Brazil comes to Finchley

Thanks again to the TO team.

People seem to be as frustrated as I am about the lack of clarity and understanding displayed by restaurants regarding the ingredients they use and then how the same restaurant markets itself and product. It’s not enough to write up the menu on a blackboard, alluding to natural, sympathetic and artisan routes, or round of a menu with ‘Neals Yard’ cheeses, to claim that you serve ethically sourced, quality items and you’re ‘in-touch’.

So the great restaurant kitchen swindle is occurring with much published in the last few days to cover it. Have a read and be sure to ask next when out where the food is from.

What are you really being served? Ten great restaurant swindles

The great zebu con - and other restaurant swindles

How to spot something fishy: advice from the serving hatch

The Star’s school report would be a dismal one indeed to read. Beginning life mid 2006, it showed all the potential to do well, succeed and prosper. The independent founding team had done their homework – carefully selected ales including Nethergate and T/T Landlord, large portions at reasonable prices and an open, welcoming eating and drinking area that would pull many into this once somewhat haphazard (read dangerous into this!) boozer.

Well something’s gone wrong. Perhaps bored, unchallenged, distracted or a little of all three, the place is nothing of what once was promised. Ignore the reviews here, as on both the recent occasions we have been, the place has scored low. For example, Saturday night 8pm – two people eating in the bar area and two in the garden, along with a member of the Star team who would rather have been elsewhere. Looking over a typical London pub menu – grilled tiger prawns, sirloin steak and chips, lamb shank, pan-fried salmon and grilled polenta – we asked where the Salmon was sourced, the alarm bells gave their first warning ring. Phoning up to ask the chef, our ‘oh-so-happy-to-serve-us’ bar girl said that she was unsure what the chef meant, but the Salmon was apparently from Scotland, Norway and Iceland – quite impressive, but not the answer expected, or wanted. Why do all these places spend so much time eulogising about the goodness of quality ingredients and selective sourcing only to drop clangers like this? We settled for grilled polenta, black olive, baby spinach and crumbled feta as well as a chorizo and sweet red pepper paella with a tomato and red onion salad.

With the food ordered, we took a place in the garden – a small yet very nice pocket at the rear of the pub. The food duly arrived; presented well, but on closer inspection the Chorizo paella was minus chorizo! Sending this back, our happy-go-lucky bar keep asked that we didn’t complain because if she passed this onto the chef he would shout at her – uh!!!!!!! The dish was eventually sent back and returned with the merest token of chorizo, and no apology. Again – you’ve turned an old boozer into a pseudo-restaurant; don’t act like you’re still a moody boozer.

The climax came when a friend returned his tiger prawns – a starter size was presented when a main dish had been ordered and paid for. Our helpful waitress went back to the kitchen and moments later the sound of screams and expletives filled the garden – the chef, as we knew then was temperamental, had officially lost his rag – bar girl in tears, punters looking embarrassed into their pints and the evidence as to why the bar was no doubt empty at peak time on a Saturday night was provided.

So the name suits the report it deserves - a single Star for effort, but an expectation that one day it may be able to call itself Five Star – however, that doesn’t bode brilliantly.

The Star

47 Chester Road, London, N19 5DF

020 7263 9067