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Happy birthday to our top columnist – 50 years young and still eating out every night, especially at Simpson’s in Strand where he feels half his age
As I turned 50 this weekend, with a solid celebration at Quaglino’s, a friendly journalist advised me that when it comes to writing, less is more.
Or in his own fancy and somewhat harsh words: I am missing the skill of brevity. So this week, I pledge to write less about more, a tasting menu of London’s foodie haunts and more opinions than you would imagine one could squeeze into an Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat, column.
CHEZ BRUCE
Sunday lunch in Wandsworth Common is a favourite of the City gent. It is a day when gilets are cast aside and Ralph Lauren (Purple Label) linen is plentiful.
The dining room at Chez Bruce has quietly doubled in size over the past decade, holding its own as noisy neighbours and their restaurant concepts have come and gone. On my wife and I’s first visit – around the turn of the millennium! – the prix fixe, four course menu was £35.
Today it is £68.50, which still feels like great value. A quarter of a century on, they still begin with bread and butter so flavoursome and rich it could be a cheese. This is multi-choice courses of Michelin-level food cooked in the original spirit of the guide.
Opt for a reasonably priced Ridge Grenache Blanc (£140) to accompany artistic starters, which may indulge an ingredient too many but if anyone can make you embrace that level of complexity it is chef Bruce Poole. Mains are more seasonal and simpler, executed perfectly. The personnel have a rarely found personality and a passion that delivers true hospitality.
ROMANO’S – UPSTAIRS AT SIMPSON’S IN THE STRAND
Last year I visited Bistro Romano in Sunderland after a match I’d attended with England, Everton and Sunderland legend Peter Reid, whose war stories entertained an entire restaurant (incidentally, Reidy is hosting our cinema-sized World Cup screenings at Quaglino’s next month, a guaranteed blast of a game… just don’t mention Maradona).
Romano’s on the Strand is not nearly as much fun. Situated in the same building as Jeremy King’s Simpson’s, it is very much the council estate step-sister of its pretend-posh sibling.
While Simpson’s is inspired by the Queen Mum, Romano’s could take its influence from the dinners served in the retirement homes of the North East coast, around which I was brought up (as a Sunderland fan).
Regardless, the service can’t be faulted. The room had the unenviable buzz created by the pre-theatre crowd, which a £21 menu encourages. My friend and I opted for the la carte.
Prices are ludicrously cheap, which is perhaps to blame for the disappointing quality.
The endive salad wilted at the sight of my martini, a pork pie served with piccalilli somehow had no flavour, while both the Scotch egg with coronation chicken and a chicken and leek pie were around the same level of quality (and price!) you’d find at M&S, only a little smaller (perhaps aimed at the Ozempic diner).
As in Simpson’s, one feels remarkably young dining here, which was admittedly the perfect antidote to a milestone birthday.
LOS MOCHIS CITY
My fellow entrepreneur and friend Markus Thesleff has with blind ambition created Los Mochis City, arguably the second best rooftop in the Square Mile (after Coq d’Argent). At seasonal celebratory events, large format champagne and rose is paraded around the terrace, as is an entire 200g yellowfin tuna.
The menu is perfect when paired with a three litre bottle of Rock Angel (£390); the salmon tiraditos and seabass ceviche are brilliant. The food here is worthy of more credit and acclaim, while the service is consistently outstanding – an unsung hero of the City.
WILD IZAKAYA
Another good guy in hospitality, George Bukhov-Weinstein founded US-style steakhouse Goodman back in the noughties. I remember visiting to see his big Josper (no innuendo intended) in the Mayfair original and being treated to vodka shots in return for my advice (I was MD of Gaucho at the time). Now he has many venues, some under the ‘Wild’ prefix.
The latest opening is no more than ten steps from Goodman City in the former Browns building – it’s a welcome injection of quality Asian cuisine in Bank. Begin with a carafe of ‘Modern’ Senkin Kimoto Junmai (£60) and a king crab cucumber salad. As at Los Mochis, the hot food shines: nasu dengaku (aubergine with sweet miso) and WFC karaage (wild fried jidori chicken) both stand out, especially when accompanied by a Catena Zapata Malbec (£90) or a 2023 Marc Colin ‘Margot’ Chassagne-Montrachet (£230).
And a final note about that big ball of heat in the sky: the Square Mile has many options when seeking out the perfect terrace (and a number of restaurants with impressive aircon) so regardless of which side of half a century you are batting, there is something here for everyone!
