Having spent so much time over the last few years in the US where food and service tend to be very good, I’ve been getting more and more frustrated with restaurants in the UK which tend to either be too expensive, serve awful food or sufferer from shoddy and indifferent service.
When asked to go out for dinner or trying to arrange a date in London I’ve found it a bit of a lottery. Do we spend a load of cash to have a decent night out? Do we shrug and laugh at the less than attentive waiter or waitress? Do we just accept the food isn’t that fab because, well, that’s just the way it is?
Last night things changed as I was introduced to an oasis in this culinary desert we call our capital.
The Bedford & Strand bar and bistro near Charing Cross is simply delightful.
I turned up there with four mates from school. We get together every 3 months or so to catch up, chew the cud and find out what’s going on in each other’s lives.
We used to just hit a pub and sink several pints but now in our late thirties (did I just admit that?) we prefer a more refined evening of food and wine!
A small door way on Bedford Street hides some pristine stairs which take you down to a bar and restaurant buzzing with media types and folks drinking in the fantastic atmosphere and wine.
A mixture of French and British food, the menu is reasonably priced averaging around £14 for dishes like pork belly, fish cakes, steak tartar and sausage and mash.
The service was excellent, the manager – Kate – was chipper, funny and informative, not batting an eyelid when I simply said I didn’t like the cassoulet I’d ordered.
She just changed it!
The wine was very good and the extensive selection was nicely laid out on the menu by price bracket.
They also have a deli counter which is open all day serving excellent cheeses and meats.
Really it was excellent! It felt like we should have been in a rustic gaff somewhere in the French country side or a faux Euro-bistro somewhere in Manhattan, but we weren’t.
We were in central London, just shy of Covent Garden getting value for money!
As we left, actors from the theatre musical Joseph piled in for a post show beer and included a taller than you’d think Gareth Gates!
With all the wine we’d drunk it was a “long and winding road” home I can tell you!
If there’s one thing that’s going to make my blood boil on a Wednesday morning, on the train, when I’ve had 3 hours sleep thanks to jet lag, it’s some berk texting away on a mobile phone that is making a high pitched beeping sound with every key stroke!
