Restaurant
Brasserie 103
103 Golders Green Road
London NW11 8EN
0208-458-7273
Date
Sunday 18th December @ 8:15pm, 2 covers
Initial Impressions
It is hard to be totally objective on this particular place. I frequented this establishment when it was Novellino, a milky restaurant - and loved the place. The amount of space they have in here allows you to feel like you are actually in a restaurant and not a crowded train, a plague suffered by pretty much every Kosher restaurant. I love the full glass windows that give you full view of the entire street outside as well as the different sections the restaurant has for seating. Overall the place just looks classy (again, by Jewish restaurant standards). Attaining this amount of space in a Jewish area can't be cheap but I think the way it has been used is spot on. The place has a very open feel, again, something that is lacking in many Kosher establishments.
I was seated quickly enough (the place was crowded but not totally full) and treated pleasantly enough for an average looking joe who looked like he might just order a coke. The table was ordered, clean and the cutlery polished, an absolute prerequisite for any place in my humble opinion. I was given a menu soon enough and awaited the arrival of my friend.
Food
Having a review in mind, I decided to go for a starter as well as a main course. The options were plenty, I could have had fish, salad, chicken, spring rolls etc. Wanting to see how they handle the top end stuff I ordered a beef carpaccio and my friend had the chicken wings.
I've had Carpaccio twice prior to this visit, once at the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem and once at Bevis Marks. Unfortunately, the carpaccio did not compare, sure it was nice enough but I felt that the meat was too thin and thus affected the actual taste. There has to be a good balance between the main element of a dish and the peripheral parts that help you enjoy it. The dish simply didn't have enough meat in every mouthful for me to properly enjoy it i.e. it was too thinly sliced. The wings were also pleasant enough, you've got to try pretty hard to mess wings up!
For the main course, I ordered the 300g steak, medium rare with a soy/vinegar teriyaki type sauce. I thought I'd test the water and see if I could get onion rings instead of chips and they were more than happy to oblige (the onion rings are freshly made here, one of only two places in London that I am aware of that don't use the frozen ones from a packet - you'd be surprised at how many places do).
One of the difficulties I had in ordering the steak was choosing a mandatory sauce to go with it from the choice of three that were on the menu. To cut a long story short, I don't like the idea. A quality meaty restaurant should have signature dishes with selected sauces, vegetables etc. that compliment the meat/fish itself. If the sauce that I chose for the steak could be put with 3-4 other dishes on the menu, then it kind of detracts from the unique experience that I'm looking for in my selection. Not all the dishes on the menu were like this but it seems like the main meat ones were.
The steak itself was cooked to perfection and went rather nicely with the sauce. The onion rings seemed to be caramelised before being breadcrumbed and were also very tasty. The salad that came on the side seemed to be a standard salad, again not unique to the dish - I didn't bother eating it.
I had an opportunity to taste the burger and it was tasty enough - another dish that is very difficult to get wrong so no bonus marks there!
I had some chocolates for dessert which I thoroughly recommend if you like chocolate, my favourite was the one with the passion fruit filling. The other dessert I tried was called a Helena, a chocolate cake type thing with a layer of crème brûlée inside and was nice enough. I would recommend that you try the homemade chocolates that they have, the passion fruit truffle one is particularly addictive.
Cost
It is only right to include this section as most of the people I know take this into account when selecting a place to eat.
Here is a breakdown of what we ate and I will comment underneath:
(S) Chicken wings - £7.00
(S) Beef Carpaccio - £9.95
(M) Prime Burger - £20.95
(M) Rib Steak 300 - £27.95
(D) Helena - £5.50
Drink (sprite) - £2.80
Drink (coke) - £2.80
Drink (espresso) - £2.00
Drink (cognac) - £20.00 (sorry, I couldn't resist the slightly decadent Courvoisier XO that I noticed at the bar)
Total - £90.95
Service @ 12.5% - £12.37
Final Bill - £111.32 (£90 if you take off the Cognac)
I don't think you'll be surprised if I said that this wasn't the type of place you visit every day. £90 for two people is top end of all Kosher restaurants in town. Now, I'm not as fussed as everyone else with price when it comes to eating, a man should have some areas where he is not watching every penny but I do feel that the dishes should have provided more bang for their buck. £20 for a burger that was just tasty is too much. £27.95 is a price I would consider paying for a steak but I'd expect something a little more gourmet and tailored. Were this to be a Central London restaurant then perhaps it would be easier to justify this price bracket. I guess I'd feel happier paying this kind of money if I felt I was getting a top end meal but to be completely honest, this was just good kosher food.
I would be interested to try some of the cheaper dishes next time and review accordingly. It could be that as a standard Kosher restaurant, Brasserie 103 is up there with the best of them. This time however, I have to say that it fell short of my expectations and this was in large part down to the pricing of the dishes that were ordered.
Overall
The food and service was not lacking, everything tasted great. The staff were friendly and I was treated as a customer should be treated. The owner informed me that there will be more dishes to be added (I was honest enough to tell him that I thought there should have been a steak with a wine sauce on his menu). I will return with my wife next time to get a bigger picture and perhaps sample the duck confit that I, in retrospect, foolishly overlooked.
Closing thought
"A satisfying culinary experience but not memorable"
DISCLAIMER
This review is reflective of a one time experience at the restaurant. Service, quality of the food and the general overall experience could be much better (or much worse) in a future visit. The goal of these reviews is to give the reader a general idea of what to expect and perhaps what the restaurant excels at and maybe even what to avoid ordering.
Another important goal here is to promote standards amongst Kosher restaurants in a similar manner that occurs with non-Kosher restaurants. Keeping kosher has many stigmas attached to it and one hopes that the better the quality of service, the more people will be encouraged to keep Kosher.
