HATCH END RESTAURANTS
Al Dente
Black Pepper
Fellini
Hatchets
Hatch End Tandoori
Mango
Rotisserie
Sazio
Sea Pebbles
Sugar Snap
Van Antoni
Pub
Moon & Sixpence (Wetherspoons)
Sazio
Tuesday
Eating with my son.
Recently opened. We'd previously eaten in their other branches in Pinner and Rickmansworth.
Attentive service. Gleaming new. All shiny black surfaces and dark mirrors like the Rotisserie nearby.
New and gleaming clean.
My son thought it was very smart. I liked the white oblong paper napkins laid out diagonally with cutlery on top. Tres chic.
Menu suited my son who loves pizza. I'm a chicken or veal and potatoes person. I found the menu a bit like Ask - too much pasta with pasta shape pieces of mangled meat, not enough of a complete piece of chicken nor a whole baked potato.
I chose chicken with saute potatoes and rocket. The chicken was in one piece but looked like pieces stuck together, as if the poor chicken had been beaten to death.
To my amazement it tasted lovely and I ate every scrap.
My son had the early evening two course special, a starter of garlic bread followed by pizza of ham and pineapple. Too much bread for me.
The baked cheesecake sounded good but I ate out Thursday and Sunday. I'd have opted for a fruit salad, aiming at my 5 portions of fruit a day, but they did not have one. All the desserts contained sugar which I try to avoid because my late father had late-onset diabetes which is caused by an over-sugary diet.
I wanted to sit longer. So I ordered another double espresso. I put in a packet of brown sugar.
Yes, time for a bit of a diet. At least we finished before 8 pm, so I have time to walk it off during the rest of the evening.
The bill for two was about £36. Eighteen pounds a head. And my son had a little of the pizza left over to take home.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Mascalzone Edgware
Jolly, echoing Italian
Large so we could always get a table. Though we tend to book.
Our dark-haired waitresses admitted she is not Italian but Romanian.
Best dishes
Starters:
Melon and ham. Large portion.
Smoked salmon.
Main courses:
Desserts:
Cassata Siciliana. Delicious green marzipan coating. Looks small, but one portion usually satisfies two of us.
Worst dishes:
Main courses:
Bread-covered veal. Meat the same thickness as batter. Unlike Wiener shnitzel. Batter cooked to a crisp. Not healthy.
Granny sent it back. Replaced by thick piece of salmon. No charge for the rejected meal. They still have our goodwill.
Bill for three, around £76 including service charge so about £25 a head including a couple of drink (red wine, rose wine, by the glass) and three coffees.
I drink double espresso before the meal so it doesn't keep me awake all night.
Large so we could always get a table. Though we tend to book.
Our dark-haired waitresses admitted she is not Italian but Romanian.
Best dishes
Starters:
Melon and ham. Large portion.
Smoked salmon.
Main courses:
Desserts:
Cassata Siciliana. Delicious green marzipan coating. Looks small, but one portion usually satisfies two of us.
Worst dishes:
Main courses:
Bread-covered veal. Meat the same thickness as batter. Unlike Wiener shnitzel. Batter cooked to a crisp. Not healthy.
Granny sent it back. Replaced by thick piece of salmon. No charge for the rejected meal. They still have our goodwill.
Bill for three, around £76 including service charge so about £25 a head including a couple of drink (red wine, rose wine, by the glass) and three coffees.
I drink double espresso before the meal so it doesn't keep me awake all night.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Restaurant Crockery and Cutlery Etiquette
Crockery
The jug and cup should be placed on the table with the handle to the right, on the assumption that the customer is right-handed.
To put the cup down with the handle to the left, or the top, so that the customer has to move it, is sloppy and insulting.
Cutlery
England is the only country in the world which has soup spoons, a friend told me. That explains why the overseas staff nowadays hand you a soup spoon with your dessert.
Just in case any foreigners are reading this and want to know, the soup spoon has a circular bowl.
England is also unusual in preserving the custom of a dessert fork to go with the dessert spoon.
The jug and cup should be placed on the table with the handle to the right, on the assumption that the customer is right-handed.
To put the cup down with the handle to the left, or the top, so that the customer has to move it, is sloppy and insulting.
Cutlery
England is the only country in the world which has soup spoons, a friend told me. That explains why the overseas staff nowadays hand you a soup spoon with your dessert.
Just in case any foreigners are reading this and want to know, the soup spoon has a circular bowl.
England is also unusual in preserving the custom of a dessert fork to go with the dessert spoon.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Restaurant Seating
Can The Customer Choose A Table Or Booth?
USA
In America you are often held by a barrier with the sign Please Wait To Be Seated. After driving forty miles through the night, dying to sit down, you are forced to stand clutching the heavy bag you did not want to leave in the car.
The 'host' gives out tables so that each server gets a fair share of tips which range from 15-20%. When living in the USA I once went to a restaurant overlooking a spectacular view and although the place was nearly empty we were told to sit at the back.
I was a travel writer and was going to take a picture of the view and write about the restaurant. They did not let me sit where I wanted. I did not write about them.
Looking at the Yahoo answers page, it seems that in some states there is a minimum wage, in others not.
UK
In the UK staff are paid a minimum wage and a ten per cent tip is usual.
INVISIBLE STAFF
In the UK it is more common for you to go into a restaurant run by invisible staff. They don't notice if you walk out and they don't notice if you sit down. If you are desperate, you sit down at the nearest table. Then you move to whichever table you fancy. Then, getting impatient, you move to where you think you are most likely to be seen or heard by staff.
You imagine they standing behind the door to the kitchen, peering through a spyhole. Or maybe they are sitting on the floor behind the bar playing backgammon or making love.
Waiters should not ignore you. They should smile and nod and call the maitre D, manager or owner.
ALCOVES
I may want to sit in an alcove. If I'm with a lawyer or accountant or discussing finance or on a blind date, I don't want to be overheard.
Who else likes alcoves?
You might have to wait for an alcove.
Some people prefer tables. But I hate being in the centre of the room with people passing either side. People knock into you.
With children who are likely to race about, I want to sandwich them between me and the wall.
If you don't want to serve me at ninety-nine tables out of a hundred, I'll go next door where they say, 'Where would you like to sit, Madam?'
I want the privacy of the alcove. I might want to be private, alone.
If I have a smart coat and bag I want them tucked between me and the wall. If my handbag was once stolen in a restaurant, I don't want to sit in the middle with my bag on the back of my chair.
If granny has wobbly ankles and a stick, we don't want to be up the step which trips her.
I want the big booth table, not the tiddly table for two which makes all the cutlery fall on the dirty floor.
The booth has wider seats. Frankly, those teeny chairs pinch me. They also give me backache.
If I'm pregnant, or elderly, I may need to be near the loo.
However, my husband might feel that near the loo or clattering kitchen door is sordid.
Tables
The customer is always right. Every table should have good service.
What are the empty tables doing? I might not want to sit by the window looking at traffic, hearing sirens.
I might prefer a window seat. I might have chosen the restaurant because of the great view. I might want to watch my car outside the window.
I expect to be asked where I'd like to sit, or told why a particular table is good, away from a rowdy party about to arrive. The restaurant has to please the customer. Nothing should be too much trouble.
A restaurant with little tables for two can push two tables together to make a bigger table if they are not busy. Or until the restaurant gets full later.
The customer is always right. The customer is paying your wages.
USA
In America you are often held by a barrier with the sign Please Wait To Be Seated. After driving forty miles through the night, dying to sit down, you are forced to stand clutching the heavy bag you did not want to leave in the car.
The 'host' gives out tables so that each server gets a fair share of tips which range from 15-20%. When living in the USA I once went to a restaurant overlooking a spectacular view and although the place was nearly empty we were told to sit at the back.
I was a travel writer and was going to take a picture of the view and write about the restaurant. They did not let me sit where I wanted. I did not write about them.
Looking at the Yahoo answers page, it seems that in some states there is a minimum wage, in others not.
UK
In the UK staff are paid a minimum wage and a ten per cent tip is usual.
INVISIBLE STAFF
In the UK it is more common for you to go into a restaurant run by invisible staff. They don't notice if you walk out and they don't notice if you sit down. If you are desperate, you sit down at the nearest table. Then you move to whichever table you fancy. Then, getting impatient, you move to where you think you are most likely to be seen or heard by staff.
You imagine they standing behind the door to the kitchen, peering through a spyhole. Or maybe they are sitting on the floor behind the bar playing backgammon or making love.
Waiters should not ignore you. They should smile and nod and call the maitre D, manager or owner.
ALCOVES
I may want to sit in an alcove. If I'm with a lawyer or accountant or discussing finance or on a blind date, I don't want to be overheard.
Who else likes alcoves?
You might have to wait for an alcove.
Some people prefer tables. But I hate being in the centre of the room with people passing either side. People knock into you.
With children who are likely to race about, I want to sandwich them between me and the wall.
If you don't want to serve me at ninety-nine tables out of a hundred, I'll go next door where they say, 'Where would you like to sit, Madam?'
I want the privacy of the alcove. I might want to be private, alone.
If I have a smart coat and bag I want them tucked between me and the wall. If my handbag was once stolen in a restaurant, I don't want to sit in the middle with my bag on the back of my chair.
If granny has wobbly ankles and a stick, we don't want to be up the step which trips her.
I want the big booth table, not the tiddly table for two which makes all the cutlery fall on the dirty floor.
The booth has wider seats. Frankly, those teeny chairs pinch me. They also give me backache.
If I'm pregnant, or elderly, I may need to be near the loo.
However, my husband might feel that near the loo or clattering kitchen door is sordid.
Tables
The customer is always right. Every table should have good service.
What are the empty tables doing? I might not want to sit by the window looking at traffic, hearing sirens.
I might prefer a window seat. I might have chosen the restaurant because of the great view. I might want to watch my car outside the window.
I expect to be asked where I'd like to sit, or told why a particular table is good, away from a rowdy party about to arrive. The restaurant has to please the customer. Nothing should be too much trouble.
A restaurant with little tables for two can push two tables together to make a bigger table if they are not busy. Or until the restaurant gets full later.
The customer is always right. The customer is paying your wages.
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