Thursday, August 05, 2004
Kinda like Cyprus
Souvlaki & Bar is situated on the ground floor of Riverside House on Bankside. more info
Tas Pide is at 20-22 New Globe Walk, Bankside , SE1 9DR. more info
My uncle has rarely stayed in London since he moved there and so going out with his flatmate and us was big deal. Probably as much for him as it was for us. It was their turn to show us their town. As we marched towards and then along the Thames looking for restaurants to dine at, we passed several pub food type places. Most were quite packed as people getting off work trying to get in dinner and a few drinks before the 11pm last call were crowding out the pubs. These pubs were reserved as a second option since Kristien has never tried fish and chips. Pubs would be an ideal place since although they would be a little more expensive, the fish and chips experience would be ideal. I've had pretty bad fish and chips experiences myself. I guess you just have to know the territory.
We also passed by a Greek place called Souvlaki & Bar with plenty of outside seating that sat almost immediately on the Thames.
Eventually we decided to go to a Turkish restaurant, Tas Pide, that Rolf had heard about. This was great for all of us since it would be something interesting and something all of us could stomach. From what I have had of Turkish food in Turkey, it is heavily based on pastes made from mediterranean type vegetables and flatbreads. Also lots of blended and liquified eggplant, and chickpeas with lemon juice. I have not so much experience with Turkish restaurants outside of Turkey unless they involve a kebap. Turkish restaurants outside of Turkey are not cheap generally.
Apparently word had gotten out that Tas Pide was the place to be. There was about a 40-50 minute wait and the restaurant staff was feverishly trying to satisfy the customers. A guy played music in the corner. As we were already quite hungry at the time, we needed an alternative. The end result was to have starters and maybe a few drinks at Souvlaki & Bar and to have our main course at Tas Pide. Already the evening was smacking with significance as the two restaurants were unknowningly competing with one another. I could feel the centuries old rivalry starting up again. The EU peacekeepers stood ready to react rapidly.
We were given a seat barely able to fit the four of us but it was out on the deck so we didn't mind so much. Many professional carousers - they were professionals who were carousing, not being paid for carousing - giggled and cackled and guffawed as they started their evening here downing drinks. We hoped someday to be able to cackle and guffaw like they did as our order began to fall into disarray.
After quickly snatching more favorable seats, we made our order of all appetizers (three of them) and some beers. About 10 minutes later, an stern but apologetic tall blonde came up to say there was no more of a specific type of Greek beer - no problem, the other Greek beer is fine, and no more feta for one of our appetizers. No more feta!!? That's like an Italian restaurant running out of parmesan, or a Chinese restaurant running out of MSG. Although we found it quite silly, we switched our order to some toast appetizer which came out quite quickly... and it was the only thing to come out. I actually asked the person who brought out our lone appetizer if there was more coming and he said our main course would be right out. So much for being able to bullshit us.
Almost half an hour passed before we realized our appetizers were not coming and we should make our way over to the Turkish restaurant. After trying to flag down the waitstaff to give them money, three of us went ahead to Tas Pide and Rolf stayed behind to work out the details. According to Rolf, after several attempts at giving somebody money he gave up and left. They didn't seem very interested in doing business with us.
If Greek professionalism is at all reflected by that evening, then the 2004 Athens Olympics are doomed to failure.
Tas Pide's professionalism was from quite another planet as Souvlaki & Bar's. While waiting a little bit longer for them to sort out our table, we watched as the host dealt with several parties of pushy British customers. Soon we were sitting at the rock star seats right next to the door. Well, it would have been the rock star seats if the guy was still playing music, but they were only a few hours from closing up and eating themselves. There was an open kitchen and we could watch the flurry of activity going on between the ovens and the stoves. Flatbread flew this way and that.
Although my dish left much to be desired, the food was generally good. Not stunning but good and interesting Turkish food much like I described before what Turkish food would be. The house wine we had was imported from Turkey from what it looks like their own vineyards. It had quite a strange aftertaste to it but otherwise not bad. The hummous starter was of decent quality but since I've started making it myself, I have become much more critical of hummous. I was attracted to my dish with the promise of seafood, especially mussels. I think I would have enjoyed it more were it not boiling hot for quite some time after it arrive and not as drenched in cheese. It was supposed to be a tomato, mushroom and eggplant stew so I should have known that it would not be the most delicate of meals.
And one last nice touch to the restaurant, interesting and clean toilets.
If the toilets and this restaurant's quality have any reflection on Turkey, they should be able to join the European Union with no problem at all.
Souvlaki & Bar is situated on the ground floor of Riverside House on Bankside. more info
Tas Pide is at 20-22 New Globe Walk, Bankside , SE1 9DR. more info
My uncle has rarely stayed in London since he moved there and so going out with his flatmate and us was big deal. Probably as much for him as it was for us. It was their turn to show us their town. As we marched towards and then along the Thames looking for restaurants to dine at, we passed several pub food type places. Most were quite packed as people getting off work trying to get in dinner and a few drinks before the 11pm last call were crowding out the pubs. These pubs were reserved as a second option since Kristien has never tried fish and chips. Pubs would be an ideal place since although they would be a little more expensive, the fish and chips experience would be ideal. I've had pretty bad fish and chips experiences myself. I guess you just have to know the territory.
We also passed by a Greek place called Souvlaki & Bar with plenty of outside seating that sat almost immediately on the Thames.
Eventually we decided to go to a Turkish restaurant, Tas Pide, that Rolf had heard about. This was great for all of us since it would be something interesting and something all of us could stomach. From what I have had of Turkish food in Turkey, it is heavily based on pastes made from mediterranean type vegetables and flatbreads. Also lots of blended and liquified eggplant, and chickpeas with lemon juice. I have not so much experience with Turkish restaurants outside of Turkey unless they involve a kebap. Turkish restaurants outside of Turkey are not cheap generally.
Apparently word had gotten out that Tas Pide was the place to be. There was about a 40-50 minute wait and the restaurant staff was feverishly trying to satisfy the customers. A guy played music in the corner. As we were already quite hungry at the time, we needed an alternative. The end result was to have starters and maybe a few drinks at Souvlaki & Bar and to have our main course at Tas Pide. Already the evening was smacking with significance as the two restaurants were unknowningly competing with one another. I could feel the centuries old rivalry starting up again. The EU peacekeepers stood ready to react rapidly.
We were given a seat barely able to fit the four of us but it was out on the deck so we didn't mind so much. Many professional carousers - they were professionals who were carousing, not being paid for carousing - giggled and cackled and guffawed as they started their evening here downing drinks. We hoped someday to be able to cackle and guffaw like they did as our order began to fall into disarray.
After quickly snatching more favorable seats, we made our order of all appetizers (three of them) and some beers. About 10 minutes later, an stern but apologetic tall blonde came up to say there was no more of a specific type of Greek beer - no problem, the other Greek beer is fine, and no more feta for one of our appetizers. No more feta!!? That's like an Italian restaurant running out of parmesan, or a Chinese restaurant running out of MSG. Although we found it quite silly, we switched our order to some toast appetizer which came out quite quickly... and it was the only thing to come out. I actually asked the person who brought out our lone appetizer if there was more coming and he said our main course would be right out. So much for being able to bullshit us.
Almost half an hour passed before we realized our appetizers were not coming and we should make our way over to the Turkish restaurant. After trying to flag down the waitstaff to give them money, three of us went ahead to Tas Pide and Rolf stayed behind to work out the details. According to Rolf, after several attempts at giving somebody money he gave up and left. They didn't seem very interested in doing business with us.
If Greek professionalism is at all reflected by that evening, then the 2004 Athens Olympics are doomed to failure.
Tas Pide's professionalism was from quite another planet as Souvlaki & Bar's. While waiting a little bit longer for them to sort out our table, we watched as the host dealt with several parties of pushy British customers. Soon we were sitting at the rock star seats right next to the door. Well, it would have been the rock star seats if the guy was still playing music, but they were only a few hours from closing up and eating themselves. There was an open kitchen and we could watch the flurry of activity going on between the ovens and the stoves. Flatbread flew this way and that.
Although my dish left much to be desired, the food was generally good. Not stunning but good and interesting Turkish food much like I described before what Turkish food would be. The house wine we had was imported from Turkey from what it looks like their own vineyards. It had quite a strange aftertaste to it but otherwise not bad. The hummous starter was of decent quality but since I've started making it myself, I have become much more critical of hummous. I was attracted to my dish with the promise of seafood, especially mussels. I think I would have enjoyed it more were it not boiling hot for quite some time after it arrive and not as drenched in cheese. It was supposed to be a tomato, mushroom and eggplant stew so I should have known that it would not be the most delicate of meals.
And one last nice touch to the restaurant, interesting and clean toilets.
If the toilets and this restaurant's quality have any reflection on Turkey, they should be able to join the European Union with no problem at all.
