White Mischief Cabaret

Proud Cabaret, City of London, EC3R 7AH

Hidden in the cellars of the hugely impressive modern gothic building on Mark Lane it has a nice intimate private members club feel as you wander down the dark stairway. When you get to the bottom it opens up into an old speakeasy style bar along with round dining tables facing the small corner stage, there was larger booth seating makes up the edges of the dining area - I liked the old 1920's feel, what I imagine the characters in Goodfellows were use to. The exculsively female waiting staff were styled to match the interior, all with subtle variations on the theme.
You have a choice of two menus to choose from; the cheaper one at £38 and the more expensive one at £48 - why they choose to do this is beyond me really as each menu has at least 4 starters, 4 mains and 4 deserts to pick from, so you'd have a large-ish Ala Carte menu with 8 choices per course. We wanted to pick a starter from the cheaper menu and a main from the more expensive, this wasn't a problem but of course you just end up paying for the more expensive menu - am I missing something because i just don't get the point of it? Also with the desert being part of the menu you are asked to order this when placing starter and main order, again seemed a bit odd but with my massively varied desert palate "Can I have the cheese please" - it didn't make a difference.

Carpaccio of beef, fois grai and beef tartare, balsamic mayonnaise

Extremely thin slivers of vibrant red carpaccio worked well with the cube of steak tartare which had a generous paprika topping to add spice. I really liked it and felt the addition of fois grai was an ingredient too far for what is a simple dish at heart, maybe the quality of the fois grai was a slight issue but it didn't take away for my enjoyment.

Wild Rabbit and salsify terrine, pickled walnut and celeriac

Beautifully pressed white rabbit flesh made it worth straying from the expensive menu and it honesty sounded much more appealing than most of the other starters on offer. If I was to go back I'd probably have this dish to start, very good.

Tobacco and orange, truffle honey roast duck

I was intrigued to try this after hearing my brother talk about using tobacco in a restaurant he worked at and how good it was. The tobacco flavour was subtler than I imagined and I felt the strong duck flavour could have taken a bit more of it, where the truffle was I really didn't know but the honey glaze on the crispy skin was superb and contrasted the perfectly pink meat.

Neal's yard daily cheese selection and oatcakes

Good quality Neal's Yard cheeses served exactly at room temperature meant I was a very happy man. I'd forgotten how a good Leicester not served cold could be and Neal's Yards goats cheese rarely disappoint. Actually the quince jelly didn't even taste of quince to me and I ended up opted for the cheese by itself. A very easy cheese course to serve but all the same it was executed well.

La Chamiza ‘Polo Amateur’ Malbec 2008, Mendoza, Argentina

This wine was a perfect match for the steak tartare and more surprisingly for the rabbit too, while with the duck they seemed to cancel each other out, I wasn't expecting this and can't explain the reason. I'd certainly buy this wine again especially to go with beef.

Being a cabaret there was various entertaining acts for the course of the evening, if you're going to go here though I wouldn't book a table until half eight at the earliest as the acts start later than expected. A fire breathing burlesque lady opened and was followed by an acrobat and what could only be described as a sadomasochist - very funny though. The highlight by a mile was the German oompah brass band playing pop tunes from last twenty years, just brilliant fun.

As we'd finished our meal and wanted to watch the rest of the show we had a couple of post dinner cocktails. For me it's a bold move to have a Sazerac as the first cocktail on your menu as I know how easy it is to cock-up having done it many times myself, but my hope when ordering it was rewarded with the washed absinthe background flavour just poking through enough to compliment the whiskey and numerous bitters, really finished off the evening well. I'd go back to Proud Cabaret but I won't be rushing back to eat there, it was very good food but expensive and even though I'd pay more for a meal elsewhere I never felt I was getting amazing value.

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British food with a view of Tate Modern

Northbank, St Pauls, EC4V 3QH

Really wanted to eat some modern British food tonight and to show my foreign friends how good it can be when done right. Unfortunately couldn't get a table at Hix which I've wanted to visit for a while and seemingly every other restaurant I tried was fully booked up but I suppose its the time of year. Settled at visiting here after seeing their website and the menu sounded excellent with not too simple and not too fancy takes of British classics. The building situated by the Millennium Bridge looks across the thames to the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern - pretty impressive really.

Chicken liver and foie gras paté, fig chutney and toast

The pate was served in a ramekin with a butter seal over the meat. Extremely smooth texture and nice chicken liver taste but I couldn't really detect the foie gras at all. The fig chutney was mild and partnered the pate well.

Grilled Hogs Pudding with Apple and Caper

I didn't really get this dish... was basically a un-skinned sausage with a caper sauce and it just tasted like is was; a sausage without skin! The caper sauce neither complimented nor contrasted the hog pudding (sausage).

Pan-fried turbot with braised leeks

I wanted to try the turbot after looking at the menu online but a little disappointed that it didn't come with braised lettuce and foie gras like the online menu said, I decided to give it a go anyway, the turbot had been browned precisely but probably a touch overcooked in the middle, this didn't take away from the flavour though and having a great love of leeks already I liked the strong flavour coming through, but I think it probably was a little too strong for the turbot for most people.

Roasted pigeon with chestnut

I choose this for my friend hoping it would be a good example of the style of food, the pigeon was succulent and the roughly chopped chestnuts added depth to the overall strong flavours. What didn't work was the crushed potato is was served with - just seemed like a badly executed after thought.

Christmas pudding with custard

A quintessential British christmas dish, this had to be tried. A disc of pudding was served swimming in not too sweet custard with a dollop of cream on top. Was surprising absolutely superb and probably the best example of British christmas food my friend could have tried.

West Country Cheese Board with Fig Preserve, Celery and Crackers

Same preserve as my starter, slight annoyance as it wasn't that good any way. The brie style cheese was cold which especially for brie this is total no-no - I'd quite happily eat most English style cheeses straight from the fridge but you can't do that with brie. The cheddar was very good as was the blue (sorry can't remember what it exactly was). I personally don't see the point of celery with cheese, I love pears and apples on a cheeseboard but I'm not going to touch celery unless starvation looms.

Really lovely evening, I like the venue and the booth style seating down the side of the restaurant gives intimate atmosphere, it was only about half full though on our visit and for the Friday before christmas this surprised me, especially considering all the places I'd spoken to without any room at all earlier in the day. I would go back but I'd probably check that the menu had changed first.

Wine details to follow...

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