Sat 14 - Waterloo Brasserie

Ok so here I go with my first post.

My aim is to review all the food I eat, so I'll start with the birthday do I went to last night at the Waterloo Brasserie.

The food there was pretty mediocre.  To be fair they were cooking for about 50 people, which makes it harder, but please note that we all chose our dishes about a week in advance (from a selection of 3 options per course) so they had ample time to prepare themselves.

To start, I had hot smoked salmon, which had been taken apart and reconstituted into a pair of small cylindrical towers, and came accompanied by a potato scone and a smear of pea puree.  The salmon tasted fine, it had clearly been brought in and was not as smoky as you'd hope for, but was perfectly edible.  The kitchen lose points for the unnecessary cylinders which added nothing positive from a textural standpoint.  The potato scone, which had also been brought in, was dry and greasy at the same time, quite an accomplishment.  There was not enough pea puree to add moisture or taste to the dish, and it could have done with the sharpness of lemon or the heat from horseradish to balance it out.

For main, I had bavette steak, which was cooked to medium rare.  Maybe a tiny bit over, but a good effort bearing in mind that about two thirds of the party were eating it.  The wilted spinach was well done, not overcooked and watery as it frequently is when I cook it myself.  The rosti was not so successful, being greasy and burnt.

 For dessert I chose chocolate tart, which came with hazelnut ice cream.  They were both passable.

The staff were really polite and seemed to be well drilled, so all credit to them.  The downstairs function room that we were in looked smart and the toilets were clean, but the main bar / dining room upstairs was a complete mess, a third of the bar being filled with stacked-up dirty glasses, and empty tables left unclean.  It just felt a bit shabby.  You shouldn't be struck with that sight upon entering any restaurant, and if I'd have been a walk in I would have turned round and walked straight back out.

Waterloo Brasserie put on some adequate function food, and hosted a successful and fun birthday party, but there was nothing that made me want to return for a meal with friends or girlfriend.