448 Chiswick High Road
W4 5TT
020 8581 1890
So how surprising is this? Sunday morning and we venture as nearly as far west as W4 will take us, it feels as if tumbleweed should be blowing down Chiswick High Road it's that quiet but as we open the door to The Hothouse Cafe we are greeted by a full house, and I mean not a table free, a barrage of conversation, a hustle and a bustle, plates of Full English, families and dogs. So this is where everyone is, and we never knew.
The Hothouse has been owned by Samy since 2010. We were there for brunch, and clearly not the first to have that thought. The menu is a mix of the traditional - full English - and the new - Eggs Royale. Pancakes are a big feature - and I'm talking American here, in style and quantity. There were four of us and despite a packed restaurant we were soon seated and served. Tea comes in mugs (I like that - tea should be in mugs) and the cappucino didn't have too much foam - important apparently. I had the Eggs Royale - Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, which was good but not outstanding - nicely poached eggs but the muffins lacked a little something and the hollandaise was a little too bright, Mr West4urants had The Hothouse Omelette.
Master West4urants, who can happily eat the entire contents of our fridge and still have room for more, had the Chiswick Breakfast Pancake - a stack of pancakes with poached eggs, bacon and maple syrup and Miss West4urants, a sausage sandwich (for those of you who listen to Danny Baker she went for the addition of red sauce after a no sauce at all start). If I'm honest I think the food was slightly let down on the bread front and bread is important at breakfast. It could have been more interesting and not of the supermarket sliced variety but maybe that's just me.
The cafe has an atmosphere that is refreshing for Chiswick. It's not in any way fancy, or corporate but very down to earth. It's more spit and sawdust than interior design but no worse for that. I can imagine it's a great place for a fry up the morning after the night before.
Would I go back? Yes. The morning after ...
Food (for 4): £19.10
Drinks: £11.20
Total: £33.30
57 Turnham Green Terrace
W4 1RP
020 8987 3180
Unlikely as it may seem, the first house I lived in was called 'Moshi Moshi', which is a Japanese greeting used mainly when answering the phone. It is also the name of a chain of Japanese conveyor belt restaurants in London. We don't have one in Chiswick, but we do have Sushi Bar Makoto on Turnham Green Terrace. 'Makoto' means sincerity or truth, which is a reassuring trait in a restaurant selling raw fish.
Makoto opened in Chiswick in 2008 in Devonshire Road, before moving to the Terrace in 2009. It's a small place, with half a dozen or so tables fairly close together, but functional rather than cosy - it's not the place for a romantic dinner if that's what you're after. There are a few seats at the bar where you can watch the sushi chef in action. (We went on a sushi-making course last summer, but have some way to go to match the experienced chef here, you'll be relieved to learn.)
Unimpressed with the wine options ("red" or "white") and daunted by the sake choice, we opted for Japanese lager to drink. Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory control 96% of the Japanese beer market, so not surprisingly the first three are on the list here.
The restaurant is popular with locals - including at least one Japanese when we were there - and on TripAdvisor, where the standard review is 'excellent food but pricey'. What do you expect in Chiswick?
The sushi and sashimi appear fresh and are well presented. I'm not sure I'd recommend the salad, having seen much of it tipped out of a Green Giant tin, but stick to the specialities and you can't go far wrong. We started with some edamame, then shared some salmon sashimi (only available as 3 or 5 pieces), tuna and mackerel nigiri (2 pieces of each, it's not a new combo) and some spicy salmon sushi roll. We tried two types of Makoto special roll - the ebi ten dx (which sounds like it might be a camera) with king prawn tempura and the spider dx with soft shell crab. And if that weren't enough, we shared some salmon teriyaki from the specials board (but drew the line at the rice).
Food (for 2): £49.80
Drink: £16
Total: £75
184 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PP
020 3302 8230
Nikki's Bakery is a family run bakery come coffee stop come cafe, all in one. It's named after the owner's daughter who is a keen baker, apparently, and given that her father is a Belgium trained Patissier and Cuisinier it's hardly surprising.
There are many qualities to Nikki's but one I had noticed from the start is the beautiful crockery in which they serve their coffee and tea. There's something so much more satisfying about drinking a beautifully served coffee and being a (mainly) green tea drinker being given a pot of tea. I can't tell you how much my heart sinks when I get a measly cup of hot water with the addition of a tea bag.
We were going easy on the breakfast options this Sunday. Granary toast, butter and jam was our somewhat abstemious choice. I was a little disappointed there wasn't a wider choice of breads (white or granary) given that it is a bakery. We did take some quiche home for later for ourselves and a ham and cheese croissant for the teenage daughter that never leaves her bedroom. All the sandwiches looked good as did the little patisserie things (not a patisserie technical term, I'm sure).
There is, in my view, quite a big discrepancy between take away food and eat in, in one case £3, but in most £2, which I understand from a VAT point of view but in this instance it seemed unusually large. Perhaps they are so busy they like to discourage people from hanging around?
Drinks (for 3): £7.45
Food: £18.25
Total: £25.70
3-4 Bedford Park Corner
London W4 1LS
020 8995 3779
After a week of cheese fondue, wiener schnitzel and apple strudel, we needed a quick and simple supper when we returned on Friday night. So what better choice than Lara which, just 0.2 miles away, is the nearest restaurant to our house.
Established in 1965 as Andy's Kebab House, it became Lara in 2003. It's incongruously situated in that mock Tudor building by the roundabout at the top of Turnham Green Terrace. There's a large restaurant upstairs but we sat in the smaller area downstairs, next to the takeaway counter in the space that used to be The Codfather.
Lara specialises in traditional Turkish food and other Mediterranean specialities. Whilst our son who was home for the Kalamari trip is a committed carnivore, his elder sister is as committed a vegetarian and so that influenced our orders. We started with some humus (perhaps that's the Turkish spelling) with warm pitta bread and hellim izgara (grilled halloumi). The girls went big on aubergine for the main course - patlican-biber kizartma (fried aubergine and peppers with yoghurt) and imam bayildi (fried aubergine stuffed with onion, chickpeas, mushroom and herbs).
Don't be put off by the twirling stack of doner lamb, the restaurant is probably best known for its shish dishes, meat barbecued on a charcoal grill. In the interests of the blog I had to go for the Bedford Park Special - a combination of marinated chicken and lamb served with couscous and salad.
We washed it all down with a bottle of Yakut, a very acceptable Turkish red.
Food (for 3): £36.25
Drink: £21.49
Total: £64.24
4 Chiswick High Road
W4 1TH
020 8994 4727
It wasn't quite "some of my best friends are Greek restaurants" but I'm ashamed to admit it was very much "all Greek restaurants look the same to me."
I decided to open the conversation with "we haven't been here since you were at the end of Devonshire Road". "That's Kleftiko" the waiter (owner?) patiently replied. "I've been here 20 years and 3 months." So we'd never been before; at this rate we might squeeze in one more visit before we die. And, if we do, I have every expectation of being welcomed back like a long-lost friend, as virtually everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be. It may not be the best restaurant in Chiswick, but it must be the friendliest.
At 4 Chiswick High Road, near the junction with Goldhawk Road, Kalamari probably represents the Easternmost point of our quest.
We shared the mezedes to start, a plate of typical Greek starters: "houmous, tarama salad, tzatziki, melizano salata, tabouli" with warm pitta bread. We decided to brave the Greek wine list. The Grand Reserve was due in "tomorrow" but the Cypriot Othello was a good substitute.
Our son joined us for the main course; he can smell meat as far away as Bristol. I ordered him the stiffado and the kleftiko for myself (in honour of the restaurant's sadly departed rival). But son fancied the lamb shank for himself, leaving me to eat the best part of a cow. The website boasts of the "huge quantity" of the dishes: I don't know if they're referring to the choice or portion size but I can assure you that you will not leave hungry. My wife had the restaurant's signature dish - kalamari.
I'm sure they have some delicious puddings, but I doubt even Mr Creosote would have room.
If you haven't been before then download the voucher from the website giving first timers a 10% discount (which I only discovered after we'd been).
I'll leave you with Kalamari's own words of advice for Britons pondering the Brexit decision:
Heaven is where...the police are British, the mechanics are German, the lovers are French, the cooks are Greek...and it's all organised by the Swiss.
Hell is where...the police are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, the cooks are British...and it's all organised by the Greeks.
Food (for 3): £58.50
Drink: £17.50
Total: £83.60
402 Chiswick High Road
W4 5TF
020 8061 9109
Wild Bunch is a smoothie and juice bar, café and health food shop situated in the part of Chiswick High Road where nobody goes. It's west of Sainsbury's and near where Blockbuster used to be (any teenagers reading this might be interested to know that in the good old days Blockbuster was where we went to rent a DVD, like a real life Netflix shop).
The café isn't big but it's big enough, with a few small tables and some stools facing on to the street. We were the first in on Sunday morning quickly followed by another couple and their baby, who we suspect were the owners judging by their enthusiasm for testing the opening and closing of the door (it was pretty cold).
The menu has a wide array of juices and smoothies all of which I would have quite happily have tried. I had the Sweet Beets, a combination of beetroot (surprise!), carrot, apple and lime. Mr. West4urants had the Gold Immunity Booster, a good winter choice, comprising orange, carrot, lemon, ginger and turmeric.
To eat, I had the porridge with honey made with soya milk - you can choose your milk - with banana and grapes, sprinkled, but not liberally, with bee pollen and coconut. My husband had the avocado and smoked salmon on rye open sandwich which was beautifully presented. A wholemeal bagel with almond butter, bananas and grapes served to the man next to us also looked good.
The employees were young, pleasant and helpful, but not overly so, and from a variety of European countries - Hungary, Poland and Italy on this occasion. Brexit could cause some serious staffing issues.
We took away some Ma's, Bouncy and Smackers Bars (get it?) as a healthy treat for later in the day. All in all, we came out feeling rather smug with our virtuous start to the day.
Food (for 2): £12.50
Drinks: £8.40
Total: £22.90
5 - 7 Devonshire Road
W4 2EU
020 8747 1836
I know what you're thinking: "Devonshire Road? Again? That's 4 out of 8 so far. Enough already." And: "Chiswick's best restaurant? It's only February. That's not very imaginative." And to be honest we didn't expect to be visiting so early, Trompette is for special occasions. But when we heard they were participating in a wine merchant's free corkage offer, we had to re-consider. Chiswick's best restaurant does BYO - what's not to like?
La Trompette was opened in Chiswick in 2001 by Bruce Poole and Nigel Platts-Martin, the men behind Chez Bruce and The Glasshouse in Kew. It was probably the most exciting opening in Chiswick since Jayne Mansfield used her gold scissors to open the Chiswick flyover in 1959. For the first time Chiswick had its own destination restaurant, fine dining no longer required a taxi.
Rob Weston took over as head chef in 2013 after 15 years at The Square and has kept its Michelin star. It's also top ranked by Square Meal and Zagat, which describes the wine list as "exceptional value" for those not lucky enough to be able to take their own.
We visited on a Friday night in February with local friends. Everyone will have their own favourite place to eat in W4, but there can be little dispute that this cooking is on another level, and worth every penny of the £49.50 set price. To start with I had the warm salad of thornback ray, smoked eel, golden beets, horseradish and apple. Mrs West4urants had the Cornish mackerel with grilled baby squid, calcot onions, lovage and Amalfi lemon gremolata (below).
She kept with the Cornwall theme for the main course - loin of Cornish cod with razor clams, shimeji broth, grilled king cabbage and lardo. I went for the roast shoulder of suckling pig with kabocha squash, creamed potato, cavolo nero, chili and garlic. (This is definitely the first time I've used shimeji and kabocha in the same paragraph. In fact, almost certainly the first time I've ever used either word.)
For pudding there can only ever be one choice at La Trompette: soufflé. Mr Weston may take issue with me describing it as the restaurant's signature dish, but it is always outstanding, and appears to feature in most reviews. The day's soufflé was rhubarb crumble, with a dollop of rhubarb ripple ice cream dropped into the middle. We had to wait a little while for pudding, which you'd expect for a soufflé, but they generously knocked the cost off the bill.
Another memorable meal. And sadly the memory is all we'll have of La Trompette for the rest of 2016.
Food (for 2): £83.00
Drink (one fresh mint tea): £4.50
Total: £100.97
