Boxwood Cafe

To those of us not in the know the reservations policies of well-known London restaurants can be something of a mystery. For our London trip we were on the waiting list at the River Cafe - to this day I have no idea if we came anywhere near getting a table or not. Happily Gordon Ramay's Boxwood Cafe operates a very egalitarian resevations policy, and bookings for tables up to 4 persons can be made online from one month before the date in question.

We turned up for lunch on a wet cold Sunday afternoon and were greated warmly despite a backpack and a myriad of parcels - all these, plus coats, were wisked away allowing us to proceed unemcumbered into the dining room. The clientele was a varied mix on a wet sunday afternoon, some hotel guests, well-heeled locals, out-of-towners doing their Christmas shopping and a few tourists.

What we ate:

For The Doc a kind of deconstructed salad - this is the sort of dish that relies on the quality of the individual ingredients and in this case everything was spot on. I've been trying to replicate the texture and creaminess of the advocado and I'm close but not there yet.

For me a ceviche of salmon with crab, grapefruit and chilli. I was slightly afraid that the chilli would overpower this dishes but it was a simple background presence with the citrus of the grapefruit the predominant note.

The Doc went for the burger - but not any old burger, a veal and foie gras burger. The veal was melt in the mouth tender which is not what you expect when biting into a burger, and he didn't feel the texture worked in a burger setting. Surprisingly, given Gordon Ramsay's rants on the subject, the burger could only be ordered "Medium" (or "mooing", as the Doc commented).

Once I started reading the menu this dish intrigued me, I would never have paired tuna with parsnip and then added a pepper sauce to the mix - I just had to order it. The tuna was served rare, as I had requested, and was meltingly tender. Surprising the combination of the slightly sweer parsnip puree with bold flavour of the pepper sauce worked really well and the parsnip crips added a dramatic flair to plate that needed something to bring it all together.

This was possibly the best pear and almond tart I have ever had. Drenched in syrup it was moist without being too sweet. The custard was spot-on, silky, sweet and warm.

When I ordered the chocolate fondant I was told 'there will be a fifteen minute wait madam' , 'not a problem' I replied. There was no way a fifteen minute wait was going to come between me and a chocolate fondant. Was it worth the wait? Definitely. What arrived on the plate was perfectly cylindrical but one small slice in with the side of a spoon and the whole thing collapsed with molten chocolate flowing accross the plate. Accompanied by some salted caramel and mint ice-cream (kept from melting in a pre-chilled metal canister) which just tempered the richness of the chocolate slightly.

Two coffees were ordered and arrived with two chocolates each. The looked like pretty standard chocolate truffles coated in cocoa powder. I bit into one to find molten caramel cascading out, simply wonderful.

The total bill including sparkling water (but not wine, we don't tend to drink a lunchtime) was a nice round £100, which is a lot less in € than it was a year ago, but there is a set lunch menu which I feel is a steal at £25.

Ananda

First there was a little whisper: Atul Kocchar mentioned on Saturday Kitchen that he was to open a restaurant in Dublin.

Following this a little murmur: The Jaipur chain were to open in Dundrum.

Then there was some muttering: Atul and Jaipur were joining forces and it was to open in May.

Then the name 'Ananda' cropped up, a few weeks later this website appeared. I rang a number of times and it always rang out, I signed up for the newsletter.

Then I heard a rumour, Ananda had opened, and it was good. That is happily one rumour that I can confirm. Though it does appear to be a 'soft' opening as I have yet to receive a newsletter.

Two Fridays ago, the Doc and I decided to head out for a quick bite, the only table in the main restaurant available was for 6.30 (we only rang about 5) and it was very quiet but the buzz developed over the next 40 mins.

An amuse bouche of pea soup was subtlely, aromatically spiced. The Doc started with Kurkura Murgh, good quality moist chicken lightly spiced and grilled. I opted for Kekda Balchao which was my dish of the meal, served in a cylindrical kilner jar with a chopped mango and chilli in the bottom and topped with sweet succulent crabmeat on the side was a tempura crab claw, each mouthful was a sweet/spicy explosion

The mains are divided into two sections, the first bears Atul's influence the second features some dishes more commonly found in Indian menus. The Doc opted for Nalli Ki Kaliyan, a shank of lamb that was literally falling off the bone, the rich sauce was mopped up with some good garlic and coriander naan. Unable to decide I went for the Ananda's Masahari, a variant on the traditional Indian thali small selections of a number of different dishes. The main plate arrived with some lemon rice and some succelent grilled chicken (not very spicy I need to taste it again to figure out the flavour). A half moon shaped plate surrounded this with four small bowls, a lamb rogan josh, a mild chicken curry (murgh makhani?), a prawn and a chickpea curry as well a two pieces of naan. There was easily enough in this dish for two, the only critisim I would have was that all four curries were the same colour and it thus didn't have the visual imapct of all the other dishes.

We were too full to contemplate dessert but it looked more 'Indian inspired' than traditional Indian, which is no bad thing in my opinion. Along with two bottles of sparking water the bill (excluding tip) came to 83.75 which I think reflects excellent value for the level of the experience.

Caffè Carluccio's

Little sis and I decided to check out Carluccio's for our dinner last night. I popped in a few weeks ago to pick up some bits in the deli section and the queue was out the door. We stuck our heads in on our way down Dawson St. yesterday and seeing the absence of a queue we hopped straight in. The fact that it was only half five might have helped - by the time we were leaving it was close on seven and there were at least a dozen people in the queue. If you're going it might be best to pick an early hour or be prepared to wait. It's definitely worth waiting for!

Those of you curious about the menu can take a look here. We started with a selection of Italian breads dubbed the 'savoury bread tin' on the menu, grissini (bread sticks) and foccacia were good but we both felt the slice of brown walnut bread was slightly misplaced. It doesn't really work being dipped in olive oil like the others. For starter I had the Calamari which had only the barest coating of batter and were all the better for it, a simple salad and squeeze of lemon was all that was needed in accompaniment. Little sis had the Arancini di Riso Sicilian - deep-fried rice balls with ragù in one ball and mozzarella in the other with a red pepper sauce. They made wonderful comfort food and would make a good way of using up leftover risotto although the sauce would have been better if it had been slightly warmer. For main I opted for the Penne Giardiniera, described as "our own Pugliese penne with courgette, chilli and deep-fried spinach balls with parmesan and garlic". The concept of the deep-fried spinach balls intrigued me but they were good, adding a new texture to a dish that would otherwise be very soft. It was also nice to see something outside the pesto/carbonara/bolognese on an Italian menu. Little sis tends to be a picky eater but she went for the Penne alla Luganica. This was penne smothered in a rich tomato and spicy sausage sauce. The spices were subtle rather than overt and the texture was nicely smooth and creamy, leading to a dish that both she and I highly enjoyed. After this lot we were stufffed and wouldn't have been able to do justice to dessert. It felt it was very good value, with three San Pelligrinos the total bill was €51.25.

However we on our way out we picked up two chocolate slices from the deli and tucked into them about two hours later. They were nice but nothing spectacular, a little on the sweet side for both myself and Little sis. In retrospect they were only €2.50 and there was also a chocolate torte for €4.50 - perhaps the price differential speaks of the amount of good chocolate needed.

P.S. The Doc did remark this morning that I reeked of garlic, so maybe if you are going to pay Carluccio's a visit it would be best to bring the one you love with you!