The Pryordurkins

Posts Tagged ‘greek’

Evil Edna and I went into this Greek Restaurant on Cleveland Street around 9pm on Wednesday gone.  A small cosy restaurant, we were shown to our table by the friendly owner.  We opted for the set Metze meal (£15.95pp) along with a bottle of Aphrodite wine (£13.95).  To say we left satisfied is an understatement.  The service was excellent, the atmosphere warm and the food great tasting and very good value.  It just kept coming!  More and more plates of traditional Greek fayre cooked to perfection in the small visible kitchen.  We had to tell them to stop in the end!  This is by far the best Greek restaurant I have been to in London to date and I would certainly go back again.  Close to the Holiday Inn Regents Park it will become a regular haunt. Highly recommend. 

Pryordurkin rating. 4 Stars.

 Tel: 020 7387 0704

Close to the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury on Coram Street sits the Yialousa Greek Restaurant, or as it likes to call itself, Taverna on Woburn Place in London.  With the heavens threatening to open and drop several centimeters of rain, we didn’t want to venture any further while looking for somewhere to dine yesterday evening.  We sat down at a table for two at the back of the restaurant around 7.30pm and there were half a dozen other diners spread around.  The paper napkins, started to get me worried as did the cheap looking glasses and paper tablecloth.  However we persevered and placed our order, opting for the Metze for two (£11.50 per person, minimum 2 people) with a bottle of Aphrodite; a Cypriot dry white wine.

The wine quickly arrived but we weren’t given the option of trying it first.  My glass was filled to the brim straight away.  Thankfully, when I did take a sip, it was actually very good.  Clean, cold and crisp.  At £11.95 a really good deal.

The food started to arrive and while the manner in which it was served was poor, the quality of the food was great.  Authentic dishes were served up for us to pick and choose (Tapas style) and over the next hour we dipped and sampled away until we could eat no more.  A second bottle of the Aphrodite was ordered up and by the time we left the bill was still just under £60 for two people.

The downside to this place (apart from the paper napkins and paper tablecloth) was the service.  Efficient; yes. Friendly; no.

I would go back though and perhaps they will warm to regular customers.

Rating.  3 Stars.

Getting the opportunity to dine out with a colleague yesterday evening in London, I found myself going Greek.  Vasis Restaurant and Taverna on Maple Street in London was just a short stroll from the Holiday Inn on Regents Street that I had earlier checked into.  We were greeted at the door at around 8.15in the evening, by someone who I guess was the owner and having been quickly seated in the window, decided on The Meze for two (£18.00 per person, minimum of two people).  A meal where you leave the choices to the chef.  Thankfully there was a Meze Fish variety so I knew it would not contain too many sea-foods.  Along with the meal, the table had already being set with a bottle of Spanish Rioja, which we duly enjoyed (£18.95). 

The service was professional and courteous.  Not in your face, like some restaurants, but attentive enough that your glass was rarely left empty.  The appetisers was a collection of Greek dips that included, mint yogurt, minted potatoes, fresh salmon, humus and what I think were stripped crap sticks.  Accompanied by pitta bread this was a great start to a good meal and I enjoyed them all (including the fish!)

A first course soon followed, made up of squid and (and this is where the wine was starting to take hold) some small battered fish.  I tried both and while they were pleasant, I didn’t really dive in full on.

The main course then arrived and this was a collection of meats accompanied by a Greek feta salad.  The salad itself was scrummy and the meats were fine.  I think i would have liked my meats a little less ‘cooked’ but it was pleasant all the same. 

Struggling to finish the meal by this point I skipped desert and went for a decaffeinated coffee.

On my way back to the hotel at around 10.00pm it had been a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Score: 3 Stars. 

Telephone 020 7637 5283

What I have never been able to figure out in Hotels that provide mini bars in rooms, is why the prices charged are so prohibitively expensive.  It has over my working life always puzzled me, why this particular aspect of the capitalist society is immune to the normal supply and demand principles that apply to pretty much every thing else.

However at last I have found a hotel that breaks this rule once and for all, albeit in a very strange and frankly annoying way.

I arrived back at my hotel for the evening and as you will see in an earlier review, settled down to watch a bit of mindless television with a glass of wine.  I noticed in the mini bar a small 25cl bottle of white wine, checked the price and thought £3.95 was extortionate but given my current state of dress, worth taking.  It was only when I was recounting the previous evenings meal in the hotel restaurant that I remembered I had been served the same 25cl bottle of wine at £5.55.  So in my mini bar, I could buy (albeit only 1 was stocked and this is important to remember) the same bottle of wine as I had in the hotel restaurant the previous night for an extra £1.60.  OK you might think I paid a premium for the use of the restaurant.  Fair point, for now.

However this evening I wanted to stay in my room and started leafing through the short room service menu.  This time, the same bottle of wine was again priced at £5.55.  I had a choice.  Ring reception and tell them to re-fill my mini bar, where I could then take said bottle for £3.95.  Or, I could ring room service, likely to be answered by same people, and order a bottle of the same wine from the room service menu and pay £5.55.

This was an annoying option in it’s own right simply because it had no logic.  However things got worse.  Feeling a little peckish I decided to order up some food.  Like many hotels now, there is a tray charge (£2.50 here) and that itself winds me up. However it is just about (with a strong wind) justifiable on the grounds they have to carry the food upstairs.  So I browsed down the new menu, and noticed many of the exact same dishes as were served in the restaurant, only this time they were more expensive.  An example (not a good one as it shows my taste but hey, I’m working class), Benn & Jerry’s ice cream.  Served at £5.00 in the restaurant for a little tub (they don’t even try to add value these days), but on the room service menu it was £6.00.  Outrageous.  Not only were they charging £2.50 for the tray charge to bring it to my room, but the cost of the food had mysteriously gone up by 20% as well.  How can this be.  Is it me.  No logic to the pricing structure, except one that is based on the assumption customers are stupid and there to be ripped off while tired and relaxing in the hotel.  I am very tempted to stop coming to this hotel on these grounds alone.  That all being said I quite like this hotel.

The hotel accomodation is fantastic. Clean, smart, stylish and fresh from a recent refurb.  The service is generally friendly and attentive.  The lifts work (not like the Holiday In Regents Park) and the place is popular with business people and cabin crew alike. Not many tourists thank goodness.

The hotel is next to the Bloomsbury centre, where a range of (chain) restaurants and shops seem to do a roaring trade.  So instead of room service or visiting the hotel restaurant, along with colleagues I will often dine out.  Around the area there are also a good many Italian and Greek restaurants, some of which are very good indeed.  Failing all that the Waitrose shop in the Bloomsbury offers you the chance to just buy some basics and prepare your own meal in your room.

Anyway, give it a go and see if you can figure the wine pricing structure.  If you see me, I’ll be the guy asking stupid questions at the bar.

Pryordurkin rating. 3 stars.