After
5 + City Pig’s Summary
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Snapshot
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Cuisine:
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French and Mediterranean
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Price:
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Average spend is £45 per head - sharing dishes and service
at 12.5%. (Excluding wine)
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Healthy:
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Healthy scale 3.5/5
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Tasty:
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5/5 – Food
4/5 – Service
4/5 – Comfort of dining in
3.5/5 – Value for money
4.5/5 – Overall rating
[Scale: 1= Poor; 5= Excellent]
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Address:
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22 Charlotte Street, London. Nearest tube: Goodge
Street
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Opening times
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Check out
website for more details.
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Eat in/Takeaway:
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Eat-in
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Recommended dishes & drinks
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Beef Cheeks, duck breast and smoked dishes.
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Vegetarian dishes
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Yes
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Loyalty card
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No
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Website
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Notes
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Simple and flavoursome dishes.
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This is the first restaurant owned by Jun Tanaka and a soft
launch was being offered which I took up as it entitled me to 50% off. Soft
launches can be tricky as operationally a lot of things may not go as planned
but sometimes you can get the most diligent service. I decided to go on the third day of opening.
I was very excited to be trying Jun’s food as I had never
eaten at Pearl – a restaurant he was head Chef. My sister had told me the joys
of Pearl and when it closed I was disappointed I could not try. I also watched
his TV shows and enjoyed his style of cooking.
Fortunately, The Ninth London announced its opening on Charlotte
Street taking over Nizuni’s spot. I was at Nizuni a few weeks ago and all
traces of it left my mind as soon as I arrived. Stepping into The Ninth is a
cooler, edgier design that instantly uplifts and gives it a boutique feel. We
sat on the ground floor but upstairs is where you want to be if you have a
choice. It feels cosier and again the edgier design with the fancy modern light
displays are heavily featured.
The staff were very friendly and explained the dishes well
and told us the cuisine is a modern French and Mediterranean blend. At first
glance, I was immediately impressed with the dishes but also eagerly wanted to
know what they would look like and most importantly taste like.
We ordered for starters the cured Sardines tart and the
Prawn macaroni. The sardines were cured to perfection it was not too salty and
the puff pastry at the bottom was a delight. The Prawn macaroni had an amazing
stock that left you wanting to eat every spoonful. The balance of the flavours
for me was spot on.
Moving on to main courses, we had the beef cheeks and the
smoked duck breast. I couldn’t choose which of these dishes were best as each
one of them I enjoyed very much. This is unusual as I don’t often like all
dishes equally in many restaurants.
I really liked the use of walnuts in the duck dish to give
it texture. The beef cheeks were so tender it melts in the mouth and has all
the intense flavours with beef consume.
The sides are not usually a focus but I have to applaud the
attention to detail that went into these potatoes – soft and fluffy. We did
have room for dessert and I urge all of you to reserve space for it. Although
at soft launch, we had limited choices – both of these were made to perfection.
We tried both the French madeleines and French toast with
honey comb and vanilla ice cream. The madeleines were light and very addictive.
The French toast dessert was crispy and then cakey in the middle. The honeycomb
and vanilla ice cream complements the French toast very well and is an
interesting dessert.
The coffee served here is Nespresso – and so if you were
hoping for a Barista style coffee you may be disappointed. Nevertheless – the
focus is on the food and that is where it should be. However, for those picky
coffee lovers this is something to note. In this case, it is priced at £2.50
which appears to be reasonable.
The dishes are based on a sharing concept which I love as I
always like to pick and share dishes so that I can taste more. In summary, the food is simple and combines flavours well
with a focus on curing and smoking cooking techniques that can be seen in most
of the dishes on the menu. The dishes are food that I could happily eat any
time. I highly recommend this restaurant and I can see this being the next
popular hotspot.
