Anyone who is currently spying on the dinner club might have expected us to dash across the road from Bar Kick and into Moro. But we fooled them by going round the corner to small-chain how-do-they-do-it-for-the-money Little Bay!
Cuisine: expected Italian but it was really everywhere
Price: 90 quid for 4 with bottle of wine
Website: http://www.little-bay.co.uk/london.html
Please add your thoughtful comments and precise scores...
Some images of the evening...
Tim and Beth relaxing at Little Bay
My banana mousse!
The bill
Tim's dessert obscured by wine glass and flowers
4 comments:
Decent choice, big portions and rock bottom prices sum up Little Bay in Farringdon. Not to mention a very fancy website. Unfortunately the tired menus, questionable decor and a drafty table really took away from this place. Punching above its weight alongside fierce competition (Moro and the Chop House), this odd little eatery does seem to work though. Or is the rough around the edges effect the making of it – a chance for the Guardian folk to step down from their bourgeois soap box, get their northern accents out and see how the other half live? For me it feels like Little Bay could become Big Bay with a few tweaks – starting with penis man. 4.5/10.
The last photo makes me look dead, or soon to be dead. Oh dear. Oh dear.
I cannot begin to write with the depth that Beth has shown us all in her latest piece so I shall follow my own style and write some things down.
So yes. It could have been a new age bong shop, the frontage was definately recycled and the odd fabric-stuck-to-ceiling was an unusual homemade twist. Several of the odd light fittings failed to give off any light - an hospital-arians (I am sure they are called that) nightmare. Either that or just so damn boho I failed to get it.
The table was next to the kitchen and the male toilet, not in a good way. It was cold and there was a skip load of nik-naks (not the crisps) behind our banquette. Somehow the quirkiness only managed to slightly make the place endearing. The staff were hillarious - happy yet unqualified, works for me.
The food was homemade. It was freshly cooked and probably all made out the back but that doesn't mean its good. My mushrooms were luke warm with bright red pepper stuff on top that tasted of Tupperware. My sea bass was cooked brilliantly, the mash lacked flavour. My apple slice was light, the custard was Birds, overall very nice indeed.
5/10 - cheap, mostly cheerful.
The website raised expectations for what turns out to be a very mediocre place. As the others have mentioned, our table at the back by the toilet and kitchen gave the impression of extreme pokiness. The menu choices were an odd mix and printed in the style of a greasy spoon that's trying to raise its game. The numerous staff were polite and efficient but made no effort to engage or look like they cared about anything..
Having said that, the food was actually ok. I had a massive and incongruous two-egg benedict with ham to start and a fish whose name I don't remember but which was well cooked and pleasantly, if oddly, accompanied by a tomatoey sauce with rice noodles.
Their piece de resistance on the dessert selection should have been the wildly unusual banana mousse. Sadly, despite tasting of fresh bananas and being made on the premises, it was as dodgy as it sounds, with a significant amount of gelatine creating a disturbing interplay between flavour and texture.
I give the whole thing 5.5/10.
My first comment which I have to address it there was no bay or coastline to be seen as you approached "Little Bay" restaurant on Faringdon high street. The charm was all to be found when you opened the door and entered...boudoir and aladdins cave sprung to mind...or perhaps a former parisian/moulin rouge setting. Anyway, we had a little table out back where we watched waiters with stacks of plates whizz past out table of 4. The service was interesting as our waiter was being shadowed by a trainee and for the first 5 minutes we could not work out why this smiley man was grinning inanely but not doing anything! So, i ordered butterflied prawns which looked and tasted like something from Iceland's party food...fried etc. My main was actually very good...pork fillet with apple. I was too full for dessert but happily sampled the jelly mousse. I am not in hurry to go back but had a good night so it's a 5/10 for me.
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