The Market Brasserie, London

The Shepherd Market in Mayfair always have answers to food lovers, from Indian food, Italian, Lebanese, Japanese, French to simple and hearty old English pub food are all there to choose from. And on our most recent culinary adventure, our choice goes to The Market Brasserie. 

Like its sister restaurant - The Little Square - that we have visited before, the concept of The Market Brasserie is simple, honest and comforting. What more could we ask during grey and wintery day? 

After choosing our spot by the window, we browsed through the menu. Grilled lobster is on today's special! Tempting, but we need something more substantial (read: stodgy). So, we start with Mushroom Rarebit and Calamari Fritti with sweet chilly dip, accompanied by a bottle of Poully-Fuisse followed by Rib-eye steak and Sea Bass with button mushroom and mashed potato on the side. Those should keep our rumbly tummies happy for the day.

Our starters arrived. Our first impression was 'good portion'. Just enough to get our appetite going and leaves plenty of room for main course and obviously - the dessert. Both mushroom rarebit and calamari served hot, which is important. Presented adequately attractive but not over the top. Taste wise, they were slightly under-seasoned, but we didn't mind. 

The main course, Rib-eye steak and Sea Bass. Again, very good portion and the steak cooked perfectly, medium to well done it was, served with green salad on the side. The sea bass was beautiful too, served on a bed of salad leaves with grilled vine tomatoes and baby fennel. The only flaw we noticed was the taste of fennel was rather unusual. Not quite anise-ey but more carroty... There's a mystery for you! :) 

Side dishes, the button mushrooms and mashed potato were 'okay', could be better with a little bit of butter and seasoning. But they were not disappointing us in a big way. 

What let us down more was the Poully-Fuisse. It tasted fine, but it has a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, plus it was a screw top. That's very unusual for a reasonably good French white wine. We mentioned our concern to the staff and apparently it will be forwarded to the owner. 

We have gone through starter and main course, now it's time for a cheese platter and sweet treat. We chose Chocolate Torte. We were happy with the portion size of both starters and main courses, now we  got shocked by the portion of cheese platter! Well too generous!! And those cheeses were not quite mature to our taste. The chocolate torte was rich, almost mousse like but heavier, topped with two large dollop of double cream. We think after all the food we just gone through, we have to jog around Green Park several rounds to burn off the calories.. :)) 

All in all, we were quite pleased with the whole culinary adventure at The Market Brasserie. We would  not categorise it as a fine restaurant, but more to a local restaurant that everybody can visit anytime to find comfort food and casual service without breaking the bank. 

The Market Brasserie
18 Shepherd Market, Mayfair
London W1J 9QH
Phone: +44 20 74919442
Website: http://www.themarketbrasserie.co.uk/home.htm

1707 Wine Bar at Fortnum & Mason Piccadilly, London

Visiting Fortnum and Mason - Piccadilly to us is like a day out treat. The chocolate corner, tea and coffee corner, cakes and patisserie and so on are just too hard to resist. That’s just on the ground floor..

Knowing we are very weak-willed when it comes to food and drink, we went straight to lower ground floor to the Food Hall. Our intention was to pick up some little stuff to take home, which we did manage to do. But, when we were just about to climb the stairs, our eyes caught the menu board at 1707 Wine Bar.

And guess what?? Seconds later, we found ourselves sitting at the bar ordering Devilled Whitebait and Preserved Lemon Aioli and a bottle of Ruinart Brut Rose.

The time shows a quarter past 12, what was a quite bar when we arrived soon filled with people. It gives such a lively ambiance to the venue. Friendly staff helped too.

Our Devilled Whitebait arrived, presented quite uniquely in fritter basket with aioli on the side. Champagne glasses topped up and we tuck in in no time.

Well… we must admit, the whitebait didn’t blow our mind, but it was ‘okay’. It was reasonably warm when it arrived at our table, crunchy in texture, but we hardly taste the fish at all as they were so small and the batter over the fish was under-seasoned too, unfortunately. 

Not quite fulfilled by the whitebait we decided to order a portion of Baked Camembert a la Provencal, Florentine Chutney and Poilane and a Warm Potted Shrimp served on Rye. We can’t really go wrong with those two (we hoped). 

And we were right, we should have gone for the camembert and potted shrimp at the first place! 

The baked camembert was so deliciously creamy, complemented by small chunks of garlic that tasted so nutty. Spread the cheese generously over a slice of bread with a small dollop of chutney.... mmmmm... Heaven!

Forget the amount of calories in potted shrimp and just dig in while it still hot! That's all we can say.. 

Not the best potted shrimp we ever had, but the one at 1707 did serve the purpose. Filling and comforting during wintery afternoon... 

Enough savouries intake and on the second bottle of Ruinart, we then move to something sweet before we call it a day. What could be better than the old Knickerbocker Glory??? It comes in generous portion too! Ideal to share between two persons (unless you are a real munchkin, then you would want it just for yourself :))

Our overall experience snacking at 1707 was reasonably pleasant. A great place to spend long afternoon with family and friends. Service was not exceptional but the staff are friendly and accommodating. We wouldn't mind going there again... 

1707 Wine Bar at Fortnum & Mason Piccadilly, London
181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 20 77348040
Website: http://www.fortnumandmason.com/