Livebait Covent Garden

Livebait
London WC2E 7RQ
020 7836 7161
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

foodbymark said
Fresh fish!
Livebait serves up supremely fresh fish, cooked beautifully and presented well. We had dinner here on a Wednesday night when it was about 40-50% capacity on covers. We started with whitebait (shared), which were lightly battered and not too salty with a refreshing tzatziki dip. Between us we had the Roasted fillet of organic salmon (melted in your mouth) and Cod and Chips with Mushy Peas (perfectly battered, chips just the right crunch, and tasty peas!). All that was accompanied by a bottle of Pinot Grigio Provincia di Pavia (note quite as crisp and dry as I like my Pinot to be).

Service was impeccable - friendly, informative and speedy. A great early evening meal which came to a tad over £60 including tip.

One-O-One Restaurant

I elaborated upon one of my toptable reviews of One-O-One on trustedplaces

Here it is:

One-O-One

Rating 5 Stars (Out of 5)

London SW1X 7RN
020 7290 7101

foodbymark said
All about the Sea...
One-O-One is a restaurant all about the sea and takes it on very seriously. Fine tableware, plush napery and groomed staff. The service from start was exemplary and the staff were helpful and attentive to details and prompt and well timed.

I have seen reviews which complain about the "small portions" - note that everything in this restaurant is based around "petits-plats" dishes and if you are hungry you order more(!). We chose to stick to the 3 courses and champagne offer for £24 (Toptable offer which is also their "business lunch" offer). I opted for the red king crab and quail egg, rabbit with black pudding and scallops, and cheese of the day - a choice of 2 cheeses from their superb cheese board.

Excellent all round!

The Fryer's Delight, Bloomsbury

The Fryer's Delight

London WC1X 8SL
020 7405 4114

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)

foodbymark said
Beef! Vegetarians beware!
Always packed, I see the staff prepping every morning on the way from my gym to the office. And the staff know me well enough to wave every morning... how embarrassing.

So their secret is in the title... vegetarians who love their chips were horrified to find out that the beautiful tasting chips found their flavour from the beef dripping they had been carefully cooked in.

The quality of the fish and freshness can be a little hit or miss here. But when it is a good, the fish is great, the batter is close to perfect and the chips are cooked just right. It was after all featured on the F word with Janet Street-Porter and it still remains a taxi drivers favourite.

Note that they do not serve mushy peas... just straight up peas...