Rate My Bistro

Bluebird Cafe makes up just one part of the Bluebird Courtyard, which includes the cafe, restaurant, shop and bakery. It has a lovely outdoor seating area with the heaters to stop you getting chilly!

The interior has a black and white theme with its black wooden chairs and chequered floor. It feels like quite an informal dining environment, perfect for a Sunday brunch!

The homemade tomato soup was flavoursome and thick but slightly peppery. It had basil pesto drizzled through it. The soup was served with a few slices of walnut and raisin bread. The bread was fresh and delicious!

The breakfast tea was served by the pot. The teacup was quite small compared to regular sized tea cups! The staff were really friendly and we got service with a smile! The food and drink were served fairly promptly as well!

The cafe is a good place to sit and watch the world go by on Kings Road. It is also nice as it at the quieter end of Kings Road!

Bluebird Cafe, 350 Kings Road, London, SW3 5UU

Our Rating:

Gourmet Pizza Company looks like a beach hut and it may not be exactly next to a beach, but it has the River Thames on its side! The actual location is in Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank.

Seen as it is a pizza restaurant, it seemed wrong to order anything else other than pizza. The menu does have pastas and salads as well.

There were two pizzas that were especially appealing. One was the grilled vegetable and caramelised onion which had toppings of aubergine, courgettes, peppers, onions, mozzarella and goat’s cheese. I decided on the other pizza though which was generously topped with tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers, courgettes, olives, mushrooms, garlic and mozzarella.

The pizza base was perfect. It was crispy and still had substance to it as it wasn’t paper thin. The garlic with the tomato sauce made the flavour of the pizza really great.

Gourmet Pizza Company do a range of hot drinks including coffees and teas. The Earl Grey tea was served in a tall latte glass but I always prefer having tea served in a teapot. The fresh mint tea was also served in the latte glass. It was good that the mint tea was not made from a teabag but from fresh mint leaves.

This restaurant has an open kitchen with the dining area surrounding the kitchen. The decor is all wooden tables and chairs and there is also outdoor seating facing the river.

The staff were really friendly and very welcoming. They gave service with a smile and were not pushy in any sort of a way. It made the whole atmosphere relaxing and comfortable.

If you’re ever around Gabriel’s Wharf, then Gourmet Pizza Company is a lovely place to go for lunch or dinner. It would be great in the summer months too! 

Gourmet Pizza Company, Gabriel’s Wharf, 56 Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PP

Our Rating:

Melanzana was one of those places that we weren’t sure whether to go into or not. This was only because we thought it may just be a take away deli and we wanted somewhere that we could sit in and have hot drinks.

As soon as we entered, we were impressed with the colourful displays and the range of food in the deli. Little did we know that Melanzana was a restaurant as well! It’s a shame that some of the food was open on top of the counters. They had a range of breads, pastries, cold meats, olives and roasted vegetables.

The staff were friendly and allowed us to sit anywhere that we liked in the dining area. One of the staff didn’t speak/understand English very well, so when we asked for a hot soya milk, she brought us a hot chocolate made with soya milk instead. The mango fruit tea was served by the cup not the pot.

The foccacia bread was good and was topped with onions. It all tasted fresh and was a good portion. There was a lot of pizzas and pasta dishes being brought out to the other tables and they all looked delicious. If we are in the area again, then we will return to sample some of their hot dishes.

Melanzana is a little gem of a place in Battersea! It felt like it was run by a nice tight knit family group. All the food seemed to be fresh and looked like it was made on a regular basis on the premises.

Melanzana, 140 Westbridge Road, London, SW11 3PF

Our Rating:

So, as promised we went back to the newly refurbished BFI Cafe.

The original review from August 2008 can be seen here:

http://ratemybistro.co.uk/bfi-film-cafe/

The interior is all new and they have the separated seating areas: one for the restaurant and the other for the cafe/bar. I think that the bar area has tried to become all trendy and I don’t think it works. It has lost its charm, cosiness and its relaxed atmosphere. It is has become more of a bar than a cafe  and I think that they are enough bars around!

The lighting is dimmer, and its a real shame that they have taken away the high window seats that you could sit on and have views of the river. Also, the big wooden tables and benches that made up the outside seating have gone. This has been replaced with a hedge enclosed table and chairs area.

We used to love the hot chocolates from BFI but not any more. The hot chocolate tasted wooden and like cardboard. Not an indulgent drink at all. It was actually not very drinkable. We miss the rich, creamy hot chocolate that would not fail us, especially on a cold winter’s day. They now serve soy milk.

Now onto the restaurant area. This has actually improved and feels a lot cleaner and defined. There are huge wooden communal tables as well as individual seating. You can still see the open kitchen area.

We had the veggie burger which came with salad. The staff were happy to replace the salad with chips. The bowl of chips were good. They were more like chip shop chips which made a nice change. The veggie burger was really tasty and it was in a nice soft white bun. The veggie burger had a really nice tangy taste  and was very moreish. I would actually say that it is one of the best veggie burgers out there.

One major thing that we had a problem with was the hygiene standards that we could see going on in the kitchen area. This particular situation happened after we had eaten our food. There was a tray of fried onion rings on the shelf between the kitchen area and the restaurant area. One of the chefs was just eating these onion rings  and then in the next moment, he was cooking the food in the kitchen. He did not have any gloves on nor did he wash his hands before making the food. I think that this is quite unacceptable. More should be done to ensure good hygiene practice.

Another thing to mention is that we could see our food just waiting on the shelf, before it was served to us. It was there for a real long time and we were surprised that it was still hot when it was served. The service was quite slow. There seemed to be a lot of staff who did not seem to be very attentive.

All in all, we had a mixed experience. This cafe has lost all its charm. The original star rating, as can be seen from our original review was a fantastic 5 stars.

http://ratemybistro.co.uk/bfi-film-cafe/

We feel that this is no longer justified. BFI used to be one of our most trusted and favourite places. Now, we are not sure that we would really return to this establishment.

The Riverfront at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT

Our Rating:

Tas is a great restaurant that serves Anatolian/Turkish cuisine. The food is very tasty and portions are quite big. The kitchen and the bar are at the back end of the restaurant.

The starter we had was borek: filo pastry filled with feta cheese and spinach. This was nice and as there were four pieces, it was a good starter to share. The borek was not at all greasy even though it had been fried. It was also served with some salad. Bread, houmous and olives were served while we were deciding what to order!

Tas has lots of vegetarian options including numerous hot and cold starters. The turlu main dish was really good and extremely filling. Turlu was made mainly from aubergine, potatoes and peppers. It came with couscous and a lot of yoghurt. I would have been happy even if there had been less yoghurt!

It’s a shame that we were too stuffed to try the baklava dessert or the sundried apricots with cream, almonds and pistachios!

Tas serves coffees and a selection of teas including herbal and fruit teas. They also do Turkish coffee which is like a very thick espresso. This can be served sweetened.

The staff and service was good and pretty efficient. The only thing that I did not like about Tas was that the tables were very close together, so it felt a little cramped.

Tas, The Cut, Waterloo, London, SE1 8LF

Our Rating:

We initially came to this Latin American restaurant for coffee but then ended up returning to it later in the day for an evening meal! Its nice that the restaurant is divided into sections: one part for the restaurant and the other part with comfy seats for drinks!

The latte and mocha drinks were really good. The mocha actually tasted more like a hot chocolate. We had the chunky cassava wedges as a snack. Although it looked like a small portion, it was enough. They had the right crunchiness on the outside with a soft centre.

The roast butternut squash and coconut milk soup was a rich soup and was just right for a cold winter’s day! I could taste the spiciness of the chilli in it. A good alternative was the chicken fajita wrap that was served with curly fries. The chicken was tender and tasted good with the additional filling of peppers, onion and cheese.

To complete the meal, a dessert had to be had. We shared the chocolate banoffee pie. This was an excellent choice and had the perfect proportions of chocolate, biscuit, banana and toffee.

I do have to comment on the fantastic customer service and the efficiency of all the staff at the restaurant. The restaurant was very busy in the evening and we were thinking that the service was going to be quite slow. This was not the case. The food was brought out not long after we had ordered and we weren’t waiting around for the bill either.

A fantastic restaurant with lively Latin American music and atmosphere. A highly recommended restaurant if you are at the O2 Arena!

Las Iguanas, The O2, Peninsula Square, Millenium Way, London, SE10 0DS

Our Rating:

A very reasonably priced Turkish restaurant in the centre of East Dulwich. I always like to start with the Hisar Mantar: fried breadcrumbed mushrooms with garlic mayonnaise. This goes well with the yogurt, cucumber and mint starter. The Patlican Salata had a nice taste with the flavours of the aubergine, peppers, tomatoes complemented by the garlic, lemon, mint and dill dressing.

The mixed grill main dish never disappoints. The chicken, lamb, kofte and lamb cutlets are always cooked perfectly and have the right tenderness. The portion size is good and this dish is very satisfying.

Its hard to resist the baklava dessert with its layers of puff pastry, nuts and sweet syrup. The mint tea is a good drink to finish off the meal, although the coffees are also good too.

The service is always really great here and it is nice that the kitchen is an open one so you can see the food being cooked on the charcoal grill as well. You never feel rushed at Hisar and can take your time savouring the food.  

Hisar, 51 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London, SE22 8EP

Our Rating:

I found myself at Sheen Lane again this week and decided to try the bacon and egg rolls offered by Cafe Leo.

Now being an old fashioned Northerner born and bred, when I order a bacon and egg butty, I expect to get an egg with some bacon slapped between two slices of bread (served up by someone who reminds me of an old school dinner lady!). That was until Cafe Leo on Sheen Lane reeducated me. 

The bacon and egg roll was nothing short of delicious (fresh crunchy roll, perfectly cooked egg with good quality bacon) and the side salad made this lunchtime snack a real treat. (Cue Yorkshire accent) Followed up with a cup of tea, the bill came to under a fiver.

The staff made me feel like an old friend and the atmosphere was very relaxing. Their menu consisted of various sandwiches, salads and pasta dishes. Your typical cafe menu with added class and service.

Cafe Leo, 28a Sheen Lane, London, SW14 8LW

Our Rating:

Trente30 is a cute little ice cream parlour and coffee shop located on Sheen Lane in Richmond, just up the road from the Mortlake train station.  They offer a good range of smoothies, ice cream, milkshakes, hot drinks and pastries.  The staff are very friendly.

I really warmed to this cafe.  The coffee and hot chocolates are great but their ice cream is out of this world. 

Trente30, 30 Sheen Lane, Richmond, SW14 8LW

Our Rating: