Reviews by FelixInLondon

The Painted Heron (Restaurant)
22 July 2008

We had high expectations, having looked at the menu on the restaurant's website as well as seen the various positive reviews this restaurant has received. All in all, it was pretty disappointing.

The restaurant looked very impressive, stylish and cool when we came in. The highlight was the delicious and incredibly tasty chutney and other sauces served with the papadums. The chilli naan bread was also very good and the wine list well chosen.

Some of the disappointments were as follows:

- Restaurant too noisy.
- All of the lamb in its various guises was overcooked, tasteless and tough.
- The sauce served with the chicken starter was very unpleasant.
- Despite being attentive and friendly, the waiting staff had a poor command of English.

There's another modern gourmet Indian restaurant in Battersea Square (Battersea Rickshaw - just over the river), which is frustratingly not reviewed on this website (despite my recommendation). Their food really is delicious and their service spot on. Go there if you're excited about terrific Indian food. Go to the Painted Heron if you prefer style over substance.

Tom's Place (Fish and Chips Shop)
23 June 2008

I really don't think this place qualifies for this website's attention. While living in Australia, I've often eaten truly superb fish and chips - light years better than anything served in this country. So I had high hopes about this place. As all discerning Antipodeans know, the key to making good fish and chips is as follows:

Delicious fresh fish perfectly cooked
Great beer batter
Perfectly fried chips
Salad
Dry crisp white wine, ideally a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

Tom's kitchen, very sadly, could learn a thing or two about these high standards:

The fish was over-cooked
The beer batter was slightly too thin and not very lovely
The chips were served cold and tough
The salad leaves looked fine but the dressing was disgusting. Something very weird was in the dressing - we're still trying to figure out what
The wine was almost all from England! They were able to offer an off-the-menu French Sauvignon. But why only (otherwise) serve wine from a country unknown for its wine making prowess??

Therefore, this place got just about everything wrong. We were very cheerily waved goodbye, which was the only good thing to say about this high priced, low quality fish and chip shop.

The Butcher & Grill (South American Restaurant / Butcher)
31 May 2007

We dine at The Butcher & Grill once a week on average and have done so since it opened. The food is generally very good but consistency isn't necessarily this restaurant's strong point. At its best, the food is absolutely terrific. At its worst, it's disappointing but still good. We recommend the lamb cutlets, any of the sausages and the hamburgers (the beef burger being our favourite). The wine list is very good and is now available for takeaway at a fairly reasonable discount.

As well as being a restaurant and butcher, The Butcher & Grill is also a deli making fresh sandwiches at lunch time. The sandwiches are of a consistently very high standard, though sometimes someone can get a little heavy-handed with the mustard. If they're serving soup, it's usually fantastic. It's worth travelling miles out of your way for. Hot takeaway soup at very high restaurant standard is an absolute joy and otherwise very hard to come by.

All in all, and if you like meat, this is a very good place that sets itself high standards though sometimes disappoints only a little.