| January 9th,2012  Amuse bouche @Petrus Category: Haute Cuisine (££££) About a year ago I participated at a competition posted by the lovely Greedy Diva and won the amazing prize of a £200 voucher to dine at any of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. Initially I wanted to splash it at the 3 Michelin star Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road,but as I am not organised enough to make a reservation in due time ahead,I decided to try Petrus in Knightsbridge instead (reservation on the day possible). December 11th,2011  Tagliolini al Tartufo Nero (19.50)
Category: Brasserie £££
Dear Sale e Pepe,Congratulations! You won the prestigious HungryinLondon Award for the worst and most overpriced meal of the year 2011. It was a close one between you and Osteria Basilico in Notthing Hill,(the Italians going strong!) but you managed to pull it off,well done! October 6th,2011 Category: Bistro (£ Oliveto is another example of a substandard,overpriced Italian restaurant in London. I don’t know why you can find so many of them in London,I think I have eaten more bad Italian food than any other cuisine. August 30th,2011 Category: Ice Cream Rating: 4/10 My name is Ute,I am a frozen yoghurt addict. This is the reason why I actually entered Harrods on a Saturday afternoon,as I found out that the frozen yoghurt shop closest to me at this point was at the 4th floor of this every reasonable person’s nightmare.
But I did it,I managed to pass the statue Dodi and Diana without throwing up,did not kill any of the people blocking the escalators and managed to pass the designer shoe sales without bankruptcy. And all this for some bland,overpriced frozen yoghurt! July 19th,2011 Category: Le Budget (£) I was surprised by a torrential downpour in Notting Hill (yes,after having lived in the UK for almost 6 years I am still ‘surprised’by rain and never carry an umbrella) and fled into the next restaurant on my way,which happened to be Ukai Sushi. Being soaked might have been the better option in the end. As I was wet and frozen,I went for warming Vegetable Udon Soup (6.95) with some Edamame Beans (4.50) on the side. The Udon Soup was the blandest dish I have possibly ever eaten. It basically consisted of doughy tasteless things only marginally resembling my beloved udon noodles swimming in something that looked like washing up water and tasted like ehmm.. water. The tofu tasted of absolutely nothing and so did the broccoli. It was the first time I had cherry tomatoes in my udon noodle soup and let me assure you –it doesn’t work. I won’t forgive them what they did to the edamame beans. Overcooking them is one thing,not seasoning them another but immersing them in some brownish coloured,luke-warm,watery sauce? Who would have thought that you can do so many things wrong when preparing edamame beans?
July 12th,2011 Category: Le Budget I met my Vietnamese food loving friend Naomi one Sunday in Soho with the aim to finally try out Viet in Greek Street,which has been strongly recommended to me by Leluu (who is Vietnamese and therefore must know where to get the most authentic and delicious Vietnamese grub). To our unimaginable disappointment,Viet was closed. We were not ready to give up yet on our quest for Vietnamese food in Soho and ended up at Pho,which is part of a small chain named after the Vietnamese national dish,in Wardour Street. It might have been our mistake to not actually go for the pho but instead order my usual triad of papaya salad,fresh spring rolls and Bun Cha. Whatever the reason,the food at Pho turned out to be the most westernised and least authentic Vietnamese I have had anywhere in London. Paired with rude and unpleasant service,I won’t exactly hurry back. June 19th,2011 Category: Haute Cuisine (££££) I took someone close to my heart for a birthday dinner at Galvin at Windows. I wanted a very special evening with romantic atmosphere (which I got),impeccable service (which I got),stunning views over London (I got them too) and excellent food (which I didn’t get). Who gave this place a Michelin star I wonder? Either there were larger sums of bribery involved,or Galvin at Windows just stopped putting any effort into their food after they had achieved their first star in 2010. There is of course always the discussion to which extent Michelin stars reflect the quality of the food in a restaurant,but it still hardly ever happened to me that a Michelin starred place served food that was actually bordering on bad. But let’s start with the things that I liked (because I am a nice blog): The views: The restaurant is located in the 28 floor of the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane with spectacular views over London. At least they would have been stunning if it hadn’t been for the apocalyptic downpour,but this is something I can’t really blame the restaurant for,can I.
The Ambiance: Some people don’t like restaurants in hotels and think it affects the atmosphere. In my opinion this is true to some extent as hotel restaurants are usually generic and lack any edge. Even though this applied to Galvin as well,I still enjoyed the bright and spacious room and of course the view. June 4th,2011 Category:Haute Cuisine (££££) Once in a while you come across a restaurant which deserves to be really trashed. The Olive Tree in beautiful Bath is one of them. If with my review I have saved only a couple of people from going there and spending their hard earned money on this ludicrous and massively overpriced food then I have done my deed. When I was doing my research on where to eat in Bath,I really struggled to find valuable pieces of information. Are there no food bloggers in Bath? This place would seriously deserve some critical eaters… Anyway,we ended up at The Olive Tree. When we got the menu we were stunned. These were London prices,but London high end dining:no starter below 10 pounds and the mains up to 31 pounds. If I pay this I expect exceptional food. Well I got what I wished for,the food was exceptionally bad and pretentious. Always nice to get complimentary bread,in this case it looked better than it tasted. All three varieties tasted remarkably similar,were over-salted and doughy. This didn’t bode well for things to come but we were not discouraged yet at this point. What was also weird was that at a restaurant called ‘The Olive Tree’,bread was served with butter and we had to ask 3 times for some olive oil. It’s not in the name as it seems.
The amuse bouche (some potato and leek soup) was –well –some potato and leek soup. March 24th,2011 Category: Bistro (££) If I don’t have time to look at blogs for restaurant recommendations,I tend to use Time Out for restaurant references. Time Out is about right most of the time and it is rare that I completely disagree with their review,but one of this rare occasions happened last weekend at My Dining Room in Fulham. I went there on Time Out’s recommendation whose reviewer experienced this restaurant as ‘friendly service and halfway house between relaxed pub and fancy restaurant:think gastropub turned chichi.’and awarded 4 out of 5 stars. March 7th,2011 Category:Bistro (££) A not so honorary mention for Perseverance,an independent pub in Bloomsbury,which served me the possibly worst burger I have ever eaten in the UK. My meal didn’t start off well when I had to wait 25 minutes longer for the food than my 5 lunch companions. When my Cheeseburger (8.50) finally arrived,I wished it rather hadn’t. The meat managed it to be completely overcooked and at the same time have a weird mushy consistency. I think they must have put potatoes or bread in the burger mixture,whatever it was,it tasted foul. | 
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