My first day back in London was celebrated with my first proper meal out for quite a while. With a colleague, I went to Curve at the Marriot in West India Quay for the set lunch: £15 for two courses.
Curve makes a point of its fresh fish selection from the nearby Billingsgate market. The smoked salmon was very good and the accompaniments did well to enhance it rather than overbear it. The horseradish was subtle and the fresh capers delightful.
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Oak smoked salmon, capers, buck wheat blinis, horseradish-crème fraîche, shallot and red wine vinaigrette
Oak smoked salmon, capers, buck wheat blinis, horseradish-crème fraîche, shallot and red wine vinaigrette
Curve makes a point of its fresh fish selection from the nearby Billingsgate market. The smoked salmon was very good and the accompaniments did well to enhance it rather than overbear it. The horseradish was subtle and the fresh capers delightful.***
Calamari tempura, chilli, garlic, wasabi-yuzu sauce
John's squid was OK the tempura batter rather thick and chewy rather than thin and crisp. Also the dipping sauce did not deliver that powerful punch it promised.
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Ricotta gnocchi, creamed sun-blushed tomato and rocket
John's squid was OK the tempura batter rather thick and chewy rather than thin and crisp. Also the dipping sauce did not deliver that powerful punch it promised.***
Ricotta gnocchi, creamed sun-blushed tomato and rocket
These gnocchi were simply amazing. Beautiful light pillows of carbohydrate doused in a dense cream sauce, the richness of which was perfectly punctured by juicy pieces of sun-blushed tomato. Absolutely delicious. I could have eaten a vat of this stuff, mainly because I'm a greedy bugger, but also because it was so damn tasty.
John's beer batter fried haddock, chips and mushy peas was a huge plate for a lunch dish. All parts were well cooked and very tasty.
John's beer batter fried haddock, chips and mushy peas was a huge plate for a lunch dish. All parts were well cooked and very tasty.
All in all it was pretty bargainous lunch for £15. On a delightfully sunny July Monday this meal did much to quell my post-holiday back-to-work blues. For a restaurant perfectly located on the Quay in the hub of Canary Wharf offering pretty good food, it would be reasonable to expect it to be quite busy. Unfortunately for Curve, John and I were the only ones in there until will left at nearly 1:30pm when another pair of dinners arrived. I have no idea why the place is so unpopular. The service was excellent, well, I guess it should since staff out-numbered diners while we were there. I'd be happy to go back and explore a bit more of the menu, although I'd be hard pushed not to have those gnocchi again. As a gnocchi lover, I think I've found the place to come to when I need my next hit.
Looks great and very barganous, we should do something like this for our next dinner club!
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