The bright lights of Xquisite

So I had just moved to Tulse Hill and couldn't wait to try the local restaurants. Two weeks in and I had already tried four - it's nice having a new kitchen don't get me wrong, but spending two weekends shifting boxes and building furniture, cooking is the last thing I want to do (ok maybe not the last, but you catch my drift).

Before even moving here I already had one place in mind that I wanted to go, Bubbas - a Caribbean restaurant in the old station building. I had heard pretty good things about it and it had been on my list of places to go for a while. So you can imagine my disappointment to find that it had closed, sadly due to the owner passing away. But it would appear that in the very same building, a new Caribbean restaurant had taken it's place: Xquisite.

So it's Friday night at 8.30pm the restaurant should be buzzing with customers yes? No. Peak serving and barely anyone in sight, I was intrigued to find out why. 

Walking in we found the staff to be friendly and polite, if not a little bit slow and once we finally ordered a drink from the somewhat poorly stocked bar (I'm still convinced they had just popped to the corner shop), we had come to the conclusion that this slow service may be something of a theme and not wanting to put up camp for the night whilst we waited for each course, we decided to skip straight to the main.

Glass now empty and still no food. After several "can we get you anything else?" - we got their hint.

We'll have a starter.

And woosh just like that, out comes the soggy non-crispy salt fish fritter as if it had been waiting for us to order it all along. Not lacking flavour, but definitely lacking texture. Not the sort of filler you want whilst we wait for our mains.

But finally they arrive - mine a beautifully slow cooked oxtail stew with rice and salad, and my boyfriend had a fantastically spiced shrimp curry. 

Although the flavours of the stew were gorgeous, I'm not actually sure what it looked like let alone what colour it was supposed to be, if you look at the pictures you'll see what I mean. 

The nauseating lights of Exquisite switched from one colour to the next, setting my senses in a spin. Although the tender meat fell off the bone it was hard to see what was bone and what wasn't, creating a frustrating experience. 

I found closing my eyes quite useful - I could actually start to enjoy the taste, which was actually delicious, really delicious. Unfortunately for my boyfriend, having my eyes closed made for poor company. Feeling sick it is then.

Needless to say we didn't order a dessert and swiftly ordered the bill and left.

I am disappointed by this restaurant, partly because of the hype I had built up prior to it and it's proximity to my front door but also because the flavours of the mains were spot on. However I really didn't enjoy the experience so perhaps I could order to take out next time, but way in advance to avoid any long waits!

Yelly-fi-felly-food-belly x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dining in HK

Image
So it's been almost two months and we've travelled through India and Myanmar, seeking out roadside cafes, hole-in-the-wall style cheap eats and risky street food. And now we arrive in Hong Kong, Asia's world city, which felt a lot more like home. It was an opportunity for us to feel a bit of comfort through our big city surroundings. We shopped, drank, and even indulged in a Christmas night out (and completely wrote off the next day...) It was a well needed break. However this slice of home, complete with its spotlessly clean streets and functioning, well... everything, also came with a host of western style restaurants. You couldn't go anywhere without finding a McDonald's restaurant, McCafe or (Mc) ice cream shop. The city in that respect was overwhelming. It felt difficult to find traditional Hong Kong food, which was nestled somewhere between Gucci and Prada... But where? Sure we'd eaten at few obligatory dim sum restaurants, our favourite be
Read more

Our first taste of Myanmar

Image
With such an easy flight over from India, it was hard to believe we were actually in another country. But here we are in Myanmar, with at first literally no idea what to expect. We'd been so focussed on planning our first month around India, that we hadn't really thought about what Myanmar would present us with. Bags dropped at the hostel in Yangon, we headed to the nearest pagoda, the beautiful Sule Pagoda, and after wetting the Buddha's head, we wondered out for our first Burmese meal. We chose Danuphyu Daw Saw Yi in downtown Yangon. A fairly plain white wash cafe, completely open out to the street, with banterous men serving out front, and women with yellow thanakha painted faces in the kitchen (sandalwood-like paste used as suncream for women and young boys). There was no menu, only a lovely Burmese man (everyone here seems to be so nice and very apologetic!), who pointed at each of the dishes behind a glass counter with a brief explanation of what they were. &qu
Read more

5 Vietnamese food must haves

Image
Having decided to do a little detour through more of SE Asia before our big hop to the other side world, I was absolutely over the moon that this diversion enabled me to sample some real Vietnamese food. The closest I've ever come to chowing down on some proper Vietnamese grub is on the Kingsland Road, and in all honesty, none of those restaurants really compare. So after trying out many of the classics from North, Central and South Vietnam, here's my top 5 must haves: 1. Bun cha By far my favourite dish is the guiltily indulgent, bun cha. This sweet meets savoury dish can leave you feeling that you've eaten a healthy 5 a day meal with the mountainous herbs and salad served alongside, whilst also feeling that the pounds will pile on with the sugary sauce cum soup, BBQ pork belly and pork patties. This northern Vietnam dish, bun (meaning rice noodle) cha (meaning BBQ pork) requires some DIY food prep. Traditionally you will be served a bowl of rice vinegar,
Read more