Suda is a fairly new Thai restaurant in a new development near Covent Garden. I had high hopes that it might be a good new place among the tourist hell holes in the area. So, take 80′s matt black decor, lights hanging over every table which feel intimidating rather than intimate, and some awful music mixing blue grass edged tunes and some rap. Add in a lack of atmosphere, as it was fairly empty on the evening we visited. Add in chairs so rounded at the back that they are uncomfortable and won’t take the weight of your coat, for which there is no coat rack. Add in service that is slow and underwhelming. Paper napkins. And cutlery rather than chopsticks.

So, on to the food and drinks….

There is a large drinks menu with lots of choice of both juice and alcoholic drinks. Unfortunately most of the juice drinks seem to come with honey or maple syrup added, so are really for the sweet toothed, And they come on the pricey side – an apple juice based non-alcoholic cocktail came in at £4.95.

Then the food. We ordered two mains, a portion of rice and a side dishes of vegetables. The choice of veggie dishes is pretty good. The dishes themselves seemed to come missing some of the ingredients – didn’t find any shiitake mushrooms in one dish they were listed as appearing in. And in other cases the menu was slightly misleading – a  dish that from the menu seemed to include various stir fired nuts (cashew, ginko and chestnut) arrived minus the ginko nuts and with water chestnuts. I suppose we could have guessed that it would be water chestnuts, this is a Thai restaurant after all, but that wasn’t what the menu said. And the size of dishes was odd. One main came in a big dish. The other main was the same price but came in the same sized dish as our side portion of veg. Very odd! The food was ok, but bland. One non-alcoholic cocktail, two mains, one portion of rice and one side came to £29.

All in all, disappointing – there are plenty of better Thai restaurants where you will find food that is better. This place is all about the location.

Yumchaa have a large new cafe, virtually empty when we visited just before Christmas. The space is huge, with lots of tables of the mis-matched and slightly distressed variety augmented by a couple of sofas. There is a glass ceiling towards the back (very like Mildred’s) that makes the place seem a bit more airy and open. Nice bit of jazz on the stereo. We wandered past the market stall full of packets of loose leaf tea, and then arrived at the counter. The selection is small but well-formed, with sandwiches, cake, tea and coffee.

Two humus bagels with salad were excellent. One berry tea – loose leaf, in a pot, with a strainer was excellent, colourful and with bags of taste. One decaf latte was latte was good. And one slice of apple and apricot cake was a total doorstep studded with large bits of fruit. This came to £11.45. All very good, will definitely be back – this is a very good central London cuppa venue.

Other points to note are the free wi-fi and the spotless loo. Wonder if they hire the place out, it would be excellent for a party!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

For the pastry,

50g coarse polenta

220g plain flour

110g butter

pinch salt

water

For the filling,

a large handful of chard

5 small leeks

1 clove garlic

1 egg beaten

150ml double cream

150ml milk

black pepper

handful of nigella seeds

1/2 tsp wasabi powder

125g grated cheddar

Method:

1 – Grease a 23cm tart tin, warm the oven to 200c

2 – Make the pastry – cheat and put the polenta and flour and salt in a food processor. Wizz to combine, then add the butter and wizz until you have breadcrumbs. Add the water a small amount at a time until the pastry comes together in a ball. Wrap it in cling-film and refrigerate.

3 – Remove pastry from the fridge. Roll it out and line the tart tin. Put the pastry case, covered in cling-film in the fridge for 30 mins. Take it out, line the pastry with greaseproof paper and baking beans and bake for 20 mins. Remove from the oven, take out the baking beans, brush the pastry with beaten egg and then cook for a further 5 mins.

4 – Make the filling. Chop the leeks in half and then into 1cm long sections and slice the garlic. Fry these gently. Wilt the chard. Mix the egg, cream, milk, nigella seeds, a pinch of black pepper and the wasabi powder and then add the cheddar. Put the leeks and then the chard into the pastry case, then cover with the wet mixture. Put in the oven and cook for approximately 20-25 mins until golden brown.

The tart can be frozen.

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch salt

1 tsp paprika

50g jumbo oats

40g pine nuts

40g currants

2 eggs beaten

200g plain yoghurt

50ml milk

200g feta crumbled

250g chunks of roasted squash

2 red onions

12 muffin cases in a muffin tray, oven pre-heated to 200C

Method:

1 – Roast the chunks of squash in the oven, probably taking around 20 minutes. Chop and fry the onion until soft, for about 10 minutes.

2 – Mix the eggs, yohurt and milk.

3 – Sift together the dry ingredients, and then mix with the wet ingredients. Stir in the squash and onions and feta and then the pine nuts and currants.

4 – Divide the mix between the 12 cases, and then bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden. Scoff on the allotment, or for lunch.

What a find, easily the best Museum cafe in London is at the V&A.

Well spaced out, numerous serving points, loads of tables. The cafe ranges over four rooms, three are original museum rooms with lovely tiling and decor. It is in actual fact, much like a salon.

Cake is high quality, big portions and lots of choice. Tea is from quality looking leaf tea put into muslin filters in the teapots. One chocolate cake, one almond cake (fab), one juice and one tea came to £12.70 so this is not cheap – but it is a fabulous spot for tea, cakes and gossip. Hurrah!

There is lots to like about Bistro 190, part of The Gore Hotel in South Kensington. Good service, linen napkins, table cloths, quiet enough music for a conversation and not rushed in any way. There is a pre-theatre menu which is pretty good value and it’s right round the corner from the Royal Albert Hall making it very easy when you’re on your way to a seminal performance by P.J. Harvey.

The food is all good, my only criticism is that when we visited the veggie options on the menu were a little lacking in imagination and carried a large risk that you might combine the white bread brought to the table with two white rice courses and go into GI shakes somewhere in the middle of Down By the Water.

So, for starters we both had goats cheese and salad. Followed by mains of pea nad mint risotto (the use of the word “mint” on then menu was I believe, alleged, neither of us found any). Then followed by rice pudding for me (terrific, best part of the meal) and banoffee pie for the DC (also very good, and came served with mint that escaped the risotto). All for a total of £53.90 including service – somehow we weren’t charged for the two soft drinks we had.

Very nice, but clear evidence that the chef has not eaten their own veggie menu.

First thought on entering Kopapa, “Thank goodness we booked a table”, as two people in front of us were being turned away.

Second thought, “Will I stand on tip-toes to see the member of staff over the high desk at the door to say I have a booking, or will I sidestep it and get in the way?”

Third thought, “My goodness all these hard surfaces make it a bit noisy in here.”

Fourth though, “Why do the staff seem to be turning people away when there are tables that seem to be empty?”

The other thing to bear in mind about Kopapa as a brunch location is that tables are fairly small and fairly close together, so this is not somewhere you can settle in with the papers, there just isn’t room.

On to the food. I had a granola with figs and yoghurt. When I ordered the waiter advised me that people often say they find this dish quite dry, so asked me if I’d like milk. This was really helpful, but I’m not convinced its the best advert for the dish, and if that is the feedback they get why not serve with milk automatically, or with extra yoghurt? As it happens I didn’t find it dry, but I did wonder if £6 for granola, figs and a large tablespoon of greek yoghurt is really value for money. A date scone to follow was good – arrived with butter only and jam followed on request. The DC had poached eggs on toast. Toast was made from brown seeded bread but was very set and crunchy rather than giving and soft, I am advised by the toast expert DC this is likely to be because the bread was grilled and probably not lathered in butter immediately on toasting. For drinks we has a fresh orange and a coffee to begin with – mostly gone or tepid by the time our food arrived 15 or 20 minutes later, and a Darjeeling tea made from a fairly bland teabag in a teapot where the lid didn’t close. Service was hit and miss – some helpful advice, but slow in patches and fast in others (very quick to clear the plates). In total our bill came to £27 plus service.

Left not quite sure what to make of Kopapa. Food is good but not great (and I suspect might hang around a little between being ready and being brought to the table). Service is good in parts but patchy. Venue is neither one thing nor the other – not posh (no tablecloths, linen napkins and hush) but not a relaxed Sunday vibe either.