Regency Café - Restaurant Review

Cuisine:  British

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Where?:  17 – 19, Regency Street, London. SW1P 4BY

Closest station(s): St. James’s Park, Pimlico, Victoria.

Telephone: 0207 821 6596

Website: N/A

In the heart of Westminster you will a café that has people queuing out of the door every day of the week. Clad inside and out in black and white Victorian tiles it has a certain charm that many a greasy spoon lacks – it does come however with the obligatory plastic bench seating, which though an eyesore again adds character.

The clientele could hardly be more of a mixture - students, builders, civil servants and business people often having to share tables to ensure that the hordes can be fed and watered. The food on offer is everything that a good British café should have from breakfasts to steak pie to liver and kidney to gammon and eggs.

The most novel aspect of any trip to the Regency is the ordering process. Upon entry you join the queue to order your food; having ordered you then go in search of a seat and await ‘the shout’. I have never met two people with such remarkable voices, the man and woman who divvy up the week working at the counter have voices that make Marlon Brando’s or Marianne Faithful’s look weak. When your plate of food is ready you will hear your order bellowed out at which point you scurry up to the counter to retrieve the searingly hot plate and return to your table to devour it.

The Regency is not pretentious or highbrow dining, it is not open in the evenings or for much of the weekend – however if you are in Westminster and fancy a fry up or other British staple then it is hard to beat. There are few finer places to beat away that hangover than the Regency Café. 

Bank, Westminster - Restaurant Review

Cuisine:  Modern European

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Where?:  45, Buckingham Gate, London. SW1E 6BS.

Closest station(s): St. James’s Park, Victoria, Westminster.   

Telephone: 0207 630 6644

Website: www.bankrestaurants.com  

To reach bank Westminster’s dining room we were led through Zander Bar, an uber-modern metallic space which forms part of the Crowne Plaza in Westminster, seconds from St. James’s Park tube. The setting for the restaurant is a huge conservatory – it is just a shame that they have done nothing to make it look inviting. The dining room is utterly soulless.

Once we were brought our menus we had 10 minutes of silence, the menus are huge meaning that any chance of conversation is killed. Thanks to this hiatus in conversation I spent a little longer perusing the menu than I might usually. I don’t know who decided on the Bank Westminster menu however they clearly weren’t very decisive. The menu is split into numerous sections including crustacea, pasta & risotto, meat, grill and Tandor Clay Oven. Why on earth anyone would think it wise to place these food types on one menu is beyond me.

The meat section is a fine example of why bank Westminster fails – sausage & mash, Malaysian chicken, Thai green curry, crispy duck and slow cooked lamb shank – there can't be many chefs out there who have mastered all of the styles of cooking needed to produce great food across this wide specturm of food types. 

The food that came to the table was as feared; each dish was just about ok in its own way however it was very much like a reasonable home cook’s attempt at various dishes from a selection of cookbooks that they were given that morning. Those dishes with an Eastern influence were not authentic and lacked any depth of flavour; being cooked in a very much Western style.

With starters around £10 and mains around £20, with a bottle of wine and service came to around £100. There is infinitely better food in London for the same money.

The highlight of the venture to Bank Westminster was the post dinner drink we had in the courtyard behind the restaurant, forming part of the Crowne Plaza. It is a stunningly picturesque space, free from the hustle of Westminster. The G&Ts were excellent and only thanks to these was it that I was able to end the evening smiling. 

Made in China - Restaurant Review

Cuisine:  Chinese

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Where?:  37, Monck Street, Westminster, London. SW1P 2BL.

Closest station(s): St. James’s Park, Victoria, Westminster.   

Telephone: 0207 222 2218

Website: www.madeinchinarestaurant.co.uk   

I seem to find it surprisingly difficult to find a decent Chinese restaurant in London these days – I therefore did not go to Made in China holding out any great hope. The welcome I received was warm and we largely had a free pick of tables as it was largely empty; which it seems to be on most occasions.

The menu offers a small selection of Dim Sum alongside a substantial selection of dishes that are pretty standard for any high street Chinese. I was slightly perturbed by the speed at which the starters came from the kitchen, a possible sign that the food may not have been cooked to order. I could however not have been more wrong. Both the squid with salt and pepper and the sesame prawn toast were excellent. I have come all too accustomed to eating chewy, stale and oily sesame prawn toast. These however were crisp, without the slightest residue of grease in the mouth and with a covering of prawns that allowed me to tell what it was. The squid too was delicious, beautifully cooked so that it was crunchy and bursting with flavour without being overpowering.

The crispy aromatic duck with which we followed was again a fine example of this dish when cooked well – I could happily have spent hours sucking the bones and nibbling every last crisp morsel. The mains kept up the high standards; fresh and flavoursome produce cooked in an expert manner.

The only reservation I have regarding Made in China is the price, the starters aren’t bad at around £6.50 and the duck fine at £12 for a quarter. I feel however that £6.00 for egg fried rice is rather a lot. That said this is not a hideously expensive restaurant and you certainly get excellent food; it just comes to that little bit more than I would like to have paid. The wine list is quite reasonable, house wine for under £20; though then rising sharply.

I do not know why Made in China is not busier – it certainly deserves to be a lot more popular; though I don’t think it is helped by the location. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed made in China and would certainly recommend it for classic Chinese dishes cooked well.