The Return Of The Quality Chop House

When the old new version of the Quality Chop House closed down a couple of years ago, I was, to use the medical term, gutted. My last couple of visits had been great, but perhaps in ways that should have sent alarm bells ringing. A solo lunch of salmon fish cake with sorrel sauce in the bar area was blissfully relaxed and quiet. Too quiet, I now realise. Then a drop-in dinner (without reservation) with inebriated friends, featuring delicious devilled kidneys on toast and I can't remember what else. Perhaps due to the uniquely preserved old-fashioned interior, it had felt like the kind of place that would always be there. And then it was gone.

There followed a short-lived venture called Meatballs at the venue. Maybe it was the name, but despite having flyers shoved into my hand on Exmouth Market I was never tempted to try it. I don't have anything against meatballs, but they have to be pretty special to impress anyone in a restaurant setting. Likewise there is nothing wrong with limited-menu concepts, but 'Meatballs' as a name just doesn't have the mouth-watering quality of, say 'Burger & Lobster' or 'Pho'.

Now at last it has re-opened properly as the Quality Chop House, with Shaun Searley as head chef. The old new Chop House was a hard act to live up to, and the new owners have gone for an emphasis on wine which I was slightly worried might affect the food, but on the evidence of my first visit, the new New QCH is even better than the old New QCH.

The dining room area, which retains the famous pie-and-mash-shop style bench booth seating (now with added cushions), has a no-choice set menu offering at £35 a head. For this we got three tasting-menu style starters, a full main course, and dessert, with cheese at £3 extra. I have seen a few grumbles about this price, but to my mind it is fair value for the quality, service, and overall pleasurable-experience factor. The booths make a perfect mini-venue for four to six people to have dinner together, and the lack of choice actually makes it very relaxed and convivial. I am never comfortable in a restaurant until the ordering is out of the way (very much a First World Problem, I know) so removing the need for this stage enhances the whole business for me. For solo diners, couples, or people who want more choice, there is a "bar menu" in the bar section, which is actually more like a short-ish restaurant menu, filled with tempting options which I am looking forward to sampling in the near future.

 

We were a party of four, and were given smoked ox-heart, deep-fried and battered jerusalem artichokes with aioli, and pork belly with apple and chickweed. That was the starters. Then came two different cuts of delicious roast beef with vegetables and dauphinoise, salted caramel tart with cream, and cheese. All of the food was excellent, and felt fresh from the kitchen in the way home cooking does but restaurant food often doesn't (perhaps another advantage of all having the same dishes). The main course in particular was very satisfying in an un-showy way, presented family-style in generous quantity. "This is proper food", as one of my companions, a confirmed anti-small-portioner, put it. Food that gives pleasure in a natural way without being too in-your-face about it, with quality ingredients to the fore.

My only slight whinge at this point would be with London restaurants in general rather than the Quality Chop House specifically. Enough already with the salted caramel. We get it. The salt enhances the flavour. Now can I go back to desserts that are, y'know, sweet?

We drank a very nice, good-value house red, but there are more interesting wines, along with matched wines by the glass, available. Being a relative wine ignoramus I am always grateful when wine experts help you out a bit by choosing good wines for their menu in the first place. I also enjoy matched wines at times, but with a larger group you just want to crack open a decent bottle and get on with it. The combination of great food and interesting wine is reminiscent of their excellent close neighbour Vinoteca, with perhaps a more European feel that goes well with the setting.

Details are nicely matched with the old fashioned interior: the cutlery, crockery, napkins and pepper grinders are tasteful and substantial, with a whiff of the days (before I was born of course) when such things were done properly as a matter of course. For those who adhere to a looser moral code than mine, they are distinctly worth stealing. Service was charming and hospitable throughout. The booths mean you don't pay too much attention to the other customers, but everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The new incarnation is a quiet triumph and a place I want to tell people about. (Hence the blog post.) And The Quality Chop House is definitely the kind of restaurant you go back to. The kind of restaurant that it’s nice to know is there, doing its thing, ready for your next visit.

 

The Quality Chop House
92-94 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3EA
http://thequalitychophouse.com

Yes It's True - Sushi Tetsu

Whisper it ... the best sushi in London is now to be found in a little alleyway in Clerkenwell, Islington. No wait, hang on, there’s not much point whispering it, given the volume of food blogging traffic that has already been devoted to Sushi Tetsu, and the fact that every day sees a new critic from a national newspaper visit. Jay Rayner’s gushing review in the Observer may be the final nail in the coffin for anyone wanting a reservation, for the moment at least. But if you live or work locally, you can probably afford to wait for the phone traffic to die down a bit.

Every now and then, maybe once a year or so, I come across a food experience that is genuinely new. The cocktail that evaporates in your mouth at the Fat Duck, or the first time eating a real Thai curry in Thailand. Going back a bit further, the first time I ate the signature St John dish, roast bone marrow with parsley salad. Maybe I’m betraying a little inexperience of a proper no-nonsense, high-quality sushi joint, but I’ve never eaten anywhere quite like this, and had the same combination of excellent food and relaxed, otherworldly atmosphere.

It's not that I haven't eaten the foods I was given in Sushi Tetsu before. Just not this good, and not in this way. Many hardcore foodies have already blogged or reviewed Sushi Testu and are better qualified than me to comment on whether it is "the best sushi in London", in the words of the 'scary' Masterchef critic Andy Hayler, who was sitting in one of the seven seats on our visit (and who turned out to be a very nice man, who didn't tap his watch once). All I can say is, it’s the best sashimi and sushi I’ve ever eaten.

So it’s very hard to do anything other than add to the chorus of praise that has been heaped on Sushi Tetsu. It certainly ain’t cheap, but if you can afford it, then believe the hype. (Expect to pay at least £50 a head, more like £100 if you get stuck into the sake.) Sushi Tetsu is one of those places that is both expensive and good value. You will need a whole afternoon, or a whole evening, and my advice is to ask for ‘omakase’ or chef’s choice, forget the bill, relax and enjoy.

While the cooking and the food have many things in common with haute cuisine - very high quality ingredients, perfectionism in preparation, technique and execution, beautiful presentation, the sense of someone wanting to do something as well as it can be done, for it's own sake – the warm welcome and the relaxed atmosphere created by chef Toru Takahashi and his wife and front-of-house make this something altogether more comfortable and convivial. We ended up chatting animatedly with the chef and the other diners in the seven seats around the bar.

I can only hope that the charming and humble owners do not get cheesed off with all the attention and hype. Chef Toru is an alumni of Nobu amongst other places, and is aiming for an authentic back-to-basics approach with his new venture. (There is only sushi and sashimi served, with the emphasis on ingredients, the main modern touch being created by a trusty blowtorch which is occasionally used to lend a smoky flavour to a raw prawn or scallop.) He seems bemused and slightly alarmed by the level of attention he is getting. If they stay, I can see Sushi Tetsu taking a place alongside St John and Moro in the Pantheon of great London restaurants based in the Clerkenwell area. Like those places, it’s the passion for what they are doing, rather than commercial considerations, that comes across most strongly. Whatever happens, Sushi Tetsu is a wonderful addition to the area, and to London.

Sushi Tetsu
12 Jerusalem Passage
London EC1V 4JP
020 3217 0090
http://sushitetsu.co.uk