Tavistock Hotel and Jacques Wine Bar
January 16th, 2008I feel the urge to post an update on my experiences at the Tavistock Hotel in London.
I went for some dinner at the Tavistock Hotel only find its restaurant is only for breakfast purposes. It did however have a “wine bar attached”, Jacques Wine Bar no less.
The place looked like a diner rather than a wine bar. It had all the hallmarks: the salt & pepper pots and bowl of sugar cubes on the table, the little bowls containing sachets of ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard and the like. Despite all their efforts of trying to make it look nice with abstract beige prints on the walls and orchids in vases on some tables, it still looked like a diner. All in all it was a rather jarring visual experience.
I took a look at their menu and was pleasantly surprised. Big wine list, sophisticated sounding food, three courses to choose from with a range of interesting side dishes. At closer look the wine was all of the distinctly cheaper variety though. I ordered a tomato, avocado, olive and mozzarella salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. It arrived very swiftly making me think it way just a prefabricated thing from the fridge, but I was rather pleased with what I received. The avocado was perfect and had obviously been freshly cut as there was no browning. The balsamic vinegar was a little on the cheap side and could have been the stuff you get from Lidl. On the whole though, the starter was good.
The main course was supposed to be chicken breast topped with anchovy fillets, capers and marsala sauce. It didn’t look good when the waiter told me the chef had to pop out for cream, then he returned empty-handed. It appeared that he substituted cream for mozzarella so the chicken ended up more like pizza and judging by the slightly crispy edges it was microwaved as well. The veg appeared to have been microwaved in a microwave steamer; they were red-hot, slightly undercooked and tasted of tap water - nice.
I didn’t go for a pudding.
Now, I can’t blame a restaurant for its clientele but there were two groups that really ruined the atmosphere (such as it was) for me.
The first was a group of German academics that spoke incredibly loudly about the tediousness of academia like the finer details of essay writing and citation.
The second group was a middle-aged couple that were obviously having a very emotional domestic. You had to feel for them but the slightly quivering voices that raised far too often with “Why are you behaving like this” and “Just a minute ago, you said…”. Yes these things need working out, but please do it in private. Between these two (one behind and one in front of me) the dining experience was uncomfortable to say the least.