Restaurant safari | Alan Rosenthal's Blog

Restaurant safari

One of the perks to my job (I?m not sure I can call it a job, more like a lifestyle these days!) is that, on occasions, I get asked to go along to restaurants for delicious food and drink for free? I don?t complain when that happens!

Now, to be fair it?s been some time since I last found myself lucky enough to be invited somewhere exciting but last Friday I was asked by my freind Jaime, who I?ve only recently met, to go on a restaurant safari organised by Ricker Restaurants.? Ricker restaurants number 5: E&O, Eight Over Eight, Cicada, Great Eastern Dining Room and XO,? all specialising in pan Asian food and each designed with a slightly different look and feel but noticably part of the same overarching group.

Jaime?s been involved in rebranding one of the group?s bars, underneath the Great Eastern Dining Room, changing the name from GloGlos to Gigi?s (hope I?ve got the spelling right, Jaime) and incorporating a Korean BBQ into the mix.? The safari was a celebration of the recent change and also an opportunity to showcase the food and drink at 3 of their restaurants.

We kicked off the day down the Kings Road in SW London at Eight Over Eight.? After a welcome drink, we were then led down to the private dining room, an exquisite space, very smart and elegant with black textured wallpaper,? a solid black table covered with some lovely glasses filled with even lovlier white wine.

The service at Eight over Eight was fantastic: really welcoming, unpretentious, just the right amount of interaction and really knowledgable.

I really loved the food here.? The sushi platter that we begun with was beautiful.

Eight Over Eight sushi platter

I loved the seared tuna wrapped in some kind of thin pancake ? delicious.? The platter was then followed by some thinly sliced seabass with a sesame and truffle oil based dressing with salmon roe.? I?m not doing it true justice but it was seriously delicious.? Oh, in classic Alan style, I forgot to take a picture of that dish too?

Next we enjoyed a couple of salads.? One was a delicious Vietnamese beef salad,

Vietnamese Beef Salad

a perfect balance of sweet, sour, spice and salt with crunchy vegetables punctuated with strips of rare beef.

Next was a cobb salad, which apparently, according to Virginia, (another guest on the safari, who bizarelly enough came from Virginia?. but somehow I think I may have simply got her name wrong?) is all about the dressing? a red wine vinaigrette enriched with Roquefort cheese.? I could see the merits of this salad but after that delicious tangy, salty Vietnamese triumph, it simply wasn?t a match.

Next we moved on to some

Prawn and chicken gyozas

deliciously moist prawn and chicken gyozas, bursting with hot stock as I bit through the tender dumpling shells.? (Incidentally, from the mess on the table, you can clearly see that we were enjoying the meal!)

After Eight over Eight we went on to the Great Eastern Dining Room where we enjoyed some delicious Korean grilled chicken

Korean BBQ chicken

and blackened salmon with a sweet

Blackened salmon

miso sauce.

Things then went downhill. Not in terms of the food, but in terms of my ability to take photos, or at least, remenber to take pictures.? (If you?ve been following my blog since I started, you?ll know I find remembering to take photos is something I find immensely challenging!)

There was a green Thai chicken at Great Eastern that I didn?t feel quite worked.? It lacked any real spice and flavours characteristic of Thai food and was simply a little lacklustre.? Otherwise, the food was equally delicious as Eight over Eight.

Next we were treated to a cocktail masterclass where we enjoyed Martinis and a pear based vodka drink with raspberry which was especially delicious.? By now though I?d begun to get quite inebriated (my inability to refuse food, is mirrored with cocktails?) and certainly find myself in the naughty corner?

Next on to Cicada but by now I?d eaten far too much.? My eyes are much bigger than my stomach you see and I do find refusing food a rather unnatural thing? So when salt and peper squid turned up, I didn?t hold back in hoovering them up.. and more cocktails!

Believe it or not, I was then due to go out for a Thai meal for dinner!? Madness!

All in all, I had a really great afternoon and thanks to Jaime for inviting me!

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Source: http://alanrosenthal.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/restaurant-safari/

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