Address: 27 Wick Road, Teddington, TW11 9DN

Telephone number: 0208 977 4779

Website: N/A

Date of visit: 29 September 2011

Approximate cost per head: £20 for 2 courses, set lunch £10.95 for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: basic wine list with most wines around £20 a bottle. London Pride and Sharps Doombar on tap (from £3.30 a pint)

Cuisine: rustic French

Special note: No food served on Mondays and Sunday evenings

Likes and dislikes: proper “French” food – not an imitation – at very reason prices. Please, no fat chips, stick to pomme frites.

Previous review :  30 May 2011

Summary,

The “refurbished” Lion re-opened this month. The front of house is now  set round a modern looking bar with tables and leather arm chairs. There is a “new” dining room at the back and the garden has been semi-paved over with new garden furniture to allow outside eating.

Julian the “french owner” is a very likable Frenchman who goes round greeting his customers. His staff are all French.

I went as a guest of a birthday lunch (2 year old). Julian has provided a huge helium pepper pig balloon and we also had a bottle of champagne and a birthday cake – all on the house.

The menu – thank god – is identical to that of the mother ship – Carpenters Arms in Sunninghill. All traditional and established French dishes.

The daily set lunch offered to start with , jamon, chicory salad, onion soup etc. For main course, you can have tartarflette, minute steak, steak hache, ballotine of chicken etc. 2 courses for £10.95. Amazing value in London.

I had the chicory salad and the steak hache with chips. The chicory ssalad is a simple dishes of sliced leaves with croutons, walnuts and blue cheese – an excellent combination of texture and falavours. It came nicely presented and not over presented.

The steak hache was a “loose” piece of minced meat served slightly raw in the middle – very french, but alais, the chips were British Fat chips. Apparently, they do this to suit the local palate as most of the people round the table acknowledged that they prefer fat chips. This was the only unauthentic bit.

The birthday cake was a rich piece of chocolate cake decorated with berries and served with pistachio ice cream – I don’t normally eat dessert but I ate this one.

I understand that the place is packed on a Friday and Saturday night – booking is essential.

E

Address: 27 Wick Road, Teddington, TW11 9DN

Telephone number: 0208 977 4779

Website: N/A

Date of visit: 29 May 2011

Approximate cost per head: £20 for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: basic wine list with most wines around £20 a bottle. London Pride on tap.

Special note: No food served on Mondays and Sunday evenings

Likes and dislikes: proper “French” food – not an imitation – at very reasonable prices.  Wine list could be improved.

Previous review :  7 June 2010 (different ownership!)

Summary:

The Lion has been taken over by “French” owners. It is in the middle of a refurbishment. I was invited to a Sunday Lunch by friends who live near the Pub.

The “French” owners has previously taken over The Carpenter’s Arms in Sunninghill and turned it in to a successful dining pub.

The inside of The Lion is still the same – wall paper stained yellow by nearly 100 years of smoking – it doesn’t smell of smoke anymore after several years of no smoking imposed by the Goverment. However, the pool table has gone and sofas now occupy the space. The garden already has had a make over with new furniture and I understand that the interior will change once planning permission has been granted.

My friends were warmly greeted by “Julian” the new owner as we entered.

My pint of London Pride is as good as ever (£3.20 – I think as I didn’t pay).

The menu is completely “ French”. Where as The Lion used to offer ham egg and chips, pies etc, it is now Croque Monsieur/Madam, charcuterie, confit de canard, steak et  frits, steak hache,  tartiflette etc.

We started off with a plate of charcuterie et formages (£12.95). It came with pickled onions and olives. The charcuterie consisted of Serrano Jamon , French Salami and Chorizo. The chesses were brie, Reblechon and goats cheese. There were also some duck rillette. The platter came with garlic bread but we were also offered baguette on the side.

For main course, the others had roast of the day – lamb or beef – at £12.95 a portion. The beef was cooked medium and was well received. It came with roast potatoes, vegetables and a large Yorkshire pudding.

I had the confit de canard (£14.95) which was a crispy leg of duck served in a small frying pan with sauté potatoes at the bottom and a rocket salad on top. The leg of duck was slightly salty, crisp outside, moist inside and had all the fat baked way – perfect!

For desserts my friends had the tarte tatin de peche (£5.95) and crumble aux pommes, ananas et rhubarb (is there a french word for rhubarb?) (£5.95). The table next to us had the Gourmand which was a selection of various desserts at £6.95 included coffee – amazing value.

If you like French food served in the small restaurants/café near hypermarkets in Calais, this is the place for you. I will certainly be going back.

E

Address: 123 High Street, Teddington, London TW11 8HG

Telephone number: 0203 1662 900

Website: www.whitebrasserie.com

Date of visit: 11 December

Approximate cost per head: £20

Comments on wine list/beer: Pretty good range of beer by the bottle or on tap. Main bitter is Fullers. Reasonable wine list with a reasonable mark-up.

Cuisine: modern “British & European” cooking

Summary:

This is Marco Pierre White’s modern brasserie “make over” at a former pub. It is now trendy to keep the pub name as well as the restaurant installed within it. At present, there are 2 branches – Teddington and Weybridge.

The place is modern with the wall and ceiling painted terracotta red. The furniture is more traditional and the table have different types of legs. We (5) were offered a table for 4 with the leaves pulled out. Unfortunately this meant that 4 of us have to sit with a table leg in between our legs. Whilst the 5th (a one year old), had a side to herself. I’ve checked. There are tables without “legs” in the wrong position.

The menu is fairly extensive with an a la carte, set meal (£12.50 for 2 courses and a glass of wine – for a glass of champagne add £2.95 extra) and specials of the day. Two of us ate off the set lunch which was offered a combination of 3 starters and 3 main courses. We had the hot smoked salmon – which turned out to be potted “hot smoked” salmon – and the bean salad. The bean salad was cooked small white beans tossed in a Cesar dressing with radicchio and lettuce. I liked the bean salad very much. The other two members of the party had the “hot smoked” salmon (£6.20) and the smoked morteau sausage with a poached egg (£6.25) off the a la carte menu. It was interesting to note that portions of hot smoked salmon were the same for the a la carte and the set meal.

For mains, we had slow cooked beef with horseradish mash off the set menu and the fish cake (£10.50) off the a la carte as well as the pork T-bone(£14.95) from the specials board. We also ordered two side orders of chips (£2.75) a portion. The sides were large portions and one portion is enough to share between 2.

The slow cooked beef was excellent and literally melted in the mouth. It was served with caramelised onion gravy. My friends claimed the pork T-bone was excellent but the fish cake was a bit bland.

The one year old ate free and had cheese on toast followed by chocolate ice cream. One of us actually managed to try the dessert – she said that it was good.

We had several beers and a rioja crianza (£24.10). It was interesting to note that they will offer you wine by the glass, carafe as well as the bottle on most wines – a concept that I totally approve of. They are too many restaurants that charge a hefty price by the glass and if you have 3 glasses, you might as well buy the bottle. The other problem with wine by the glass is that they are usually the bottom of the range wines.

This is a nice place and is very children friendly. Service was fast, courteous and efficient.

E

Address: Manor Road, Teddington, Middx TW11 8BG

Telephone number: 0208 977 6333

Website: http://www.thewharfteddington.co.uk/

Date of visit: 29 September 2010

Approximate costs per head: Set lunch (Tue-Sat) £14 for 2 Courses, £16 for 3 courses. A la Carte: starters up to £8, main courses up to £18.50. Sides £3.25

Comments on wine list/beer: Normal London prices. A somewhat short list at around £30 for a average bottle.

Summary:

The restaurant benefits from a large car park by the front door. The building is very modern and is decorated in black and white. I had lunch here some 6 months ago sitting 2 tables away from “Adam”, the male actor in BT’s adverts.

The building is very well designed. As you want in, there is a very modern looking bar with leather arm chairs. Black and white pictures of Hollywood Greats (mostly dead) from the Gatty Gallery adorned the walls – available for sale. The restaurant is a large conservatory over looking Teddington Lock. Upstairs there is a function room with a balcony.

The set lunch is good value for money – £14 for 2 good size courses. There were 5 of us (4 adults and a baby). I am only saying this because the tables are well spaced apart and is ideal for prams etc.

The starters on offer were soup, grilled squid and stir fry Thai beef. We had the squid and Thai beef. The squid were two skewers of peppers and squid over some salad leaves whilst the stir fry was served in a large bowl. The person who had the stir fry enjoyed the stir fry even though it was on the hot side for him.

For main course, the menu offered Thai curry, sirloin steak and sea bream. The sea bream and sirloin attracted a £7 surcharge. The curry came on a plate with several side dishes of extras including rice. The steaks were about 6 ounces in size and were served with fat chips, green beans and béarnaise sauce (Chef Neve trained under Anton Mossiman). The food were very nice. The only strange thing was the béarnaise sauce which was a hollandaise sauce with chopped tarragon. The fat chips were excellent, crisp and light on the outside and fluffy mash on the inside.

One of us had the continental cheese afterwards (no surcharge!) as part of the set lunch.. The plate came with red and white grapes and 3 decent chunks of Brie, Gorgonzola, and Tom.

We washed the meal down with a bottle of Ayala Champagne (£50). A 2009 Albarino (£30) and a 2006 Bordeaux (£34). There was a 12.5% service charge on everything and bread and olives were £3 a serving.

My conclusion is that this place is reasonably priced and the set lunch is great value for money. The wines were probably around 300% in terms of mark up but the wine list is not very inspiring. Perhaps the owner/chef (Ray Neve) would like to consider changing his supplier. I am certainly happy to offer consultancy at a nominal charge.

E

Address: 196 Stanley Road, Teddington, TW11 8UE

Telephone number: 0208 977 8679

Website: www.imperialchinalondon.co.uk

Date of visit:  15 February 2010

Approximate cost per head: From around £20 per head.

Comments on wine list/beer: Not bad for a Chinese restaurant. Most priced around £20

Summary:

This is the “sister” restaurant of China Palace in Reading. The menu and décor is nearly identical.

We went on the “2^nd day of the First month” according top the lunar calendar.

It’s a medium size restaurant – smaller than the one in Reading – with ample space between the tables. There are several big round tables which could seat 12 persons. They have another room at the back for private parties and as a over mspill on a Sunday.

For drinks, we had tiger beer and a bottle of petit chablis (£26.50). I was told that the wine is ok – I was driving.

As its Chinese new year, we ordered two dishes from the chinese new year menu, the rest were from the a la carte.

On the menu was something called golden lobster. I was informed that its sauté lobster with egg. I asked for it to be changed to sauté lobster with ginger and spring onion sauce. The waiter informed me that it was not possible to order items NOT on the menu. Just then, my friend Billy turned up.

Billy is the owner of China Palace, Furama and Salt and Vinegar (fish and chips) in Reading and part owner of Imperial China. Billy soon corrected this minor problem and we had our ginger and spring onion lobster which was excellent. It must have been over a kilo in weight. The probability of Billy being there was 0.1 as he is normally in resident at China Palace.

We also had, steamed sea bass, squid with spicy salt (garlic, chilli), golden fried chicken, Singapore fried noodles, beef ho fun, mange tout in black bean sauce.

The singapore noodles were spot on. Normally, it’s slightly wet because the chef adds curry sauce instead of curry powder – I prefer the dry version. The chicken was a little bit on the salty side. The sea bass was very fresh and the sauce light rather than heavy. The squid was 10/10 – soft, chewy but not rubbery.

For desert, we ordered toffee apple and banana with ice cream. I never understood why it’s called toffee apple/banana. It’s essentially battered deep fried fruit in a crispy caramelised sugar coating – I thought that toffee is supposed to be semi-hard.

At the end of the meal, Billy introduced us to Simon – the executive chef and part owner. Simon informed me that (next time) I should ask for him if I wanted to order off the menu,

So if want to order off the menu ask for Billy (China Palace) and Simon (Imperial China). They will accommodate you.

The whole meal including service came to just under £180 – lobster was £32 and sea bass was £35 – for 4. This is not cheap but it is top class authentic Chinese cooking.

By the way, parking is on the street and there are all sorts of restrictions. So come on a Sunday or after 6.30pm on any other days.

Kung Hai Fat Choy!

Eddie

P.S. When I got back to my friend’s house, their baby sitter had a chinese take away from round the corner – we should have taken back a doggy bag for them!