270-272 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PD
020 8994 2923
According to the "story" on the website, Bill started out as a greengrocer in Lewes. Overcoming floods, a plague of locusts and a world halloumi shortage, he's turned that little shed into a chain of restaurants with outposts as far afield as Berkhamsted, Bluewater and Bishop's Stortford. Yet despite the charming back-story, the truth is there's something a bit soulless about Bill's, it feels like the contrived lovechild of an interior designer and a suburban marketing consultant.
The Chiswick branch opened on the High Road in 2013, knocking together Giraffe and Gelato Mio to form a big space that proved hard to fill at Sunday lunchtime.
We started with an eclectic drinks order: an apple, carrot & ginger juice; a cappuccino; and a glass of tap water. The drinks arrived in descending margin order. They've got this down to such a fine art that the (zero margin) tap water didn't arrive until after the other drinks were already drunk.
The menu features all the on-trend ingredients you expect on a modern mass-market menu: puy lentils, red pepper tapenade, chipotle mayo and piadina bread.
But enough cynicism. The food was surprisingly good. I had the mojo chicken skewers with tomato & parsley cous cous salad, cucumber, watercress and red onion, tzatziki and the aforementioned piadina bread. The chicken was chargrilled and a rather more natural colour than the saffron-infused yellow equivalent I'd had at Rice earlier in the week. But the bread was cold and limp and not a patch on the fresh and warm offering from the West end of the High Road.
Mrs W4 had the Superfood Kale Salad (V/VE/GF) because she just doesn't get enough quinoa and chick peas at home. And Number One Son went for the Rarebit Mac'n'Cheese with leeks, truffle, mustard & cheddar cheese sauce and some (he felt unnecessary) mushrooms.
It's always struck me as a bit odd to name your restaurant after the most painful part of the meal. It would be like calling an estate agent 'Commission' or an accountant 'Invoice'. Living up to its name Bill's helpfully add the 12.5% service charge to the bill even for small groups to save you having to work it out yourself. The tip may or may not end up with your waiter.
Food (for 3): £30.85
Drink: £5.75
Total: £41.18
75 South Parade
W4 5LF
020 8742 8801
The first (and only) Duke of Sussex was Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of George III. Wikipedia reports that since he had no legitimate issue, the title became extinct upon his death in 1843 and has not been conferred since. In 1999 "experts" suggested the title might be granted to Prince Edward when he married. To the relief of owners of pubs named 'Duke of Sussex' throughout the land, he was instead created Earl of Wessex.
The Duke of Sussex pub was a Firkin pub when we lived in St Alban's Avenue. It was then acquired by Realpubs who sold it to Greene King in 2011. Like The City Barge at Strand on the Green, it's part of their Metropolitan Pub Company. To their credit, it doesn't feel like a Greene King pub. Built in the 1890s, they've managed to keep a lot of the old features, including a huge Victorian skylight in the restaurant.
It's one of only 5 places to feature in Michelin's top 10 Chiswick establishments, Harden's top 12 and Zagat's top 16.
The menu has a distinctly Spanish theme, including tapas and paellas. If you want to watch the 6 Nations there, you could order half a pig's head or even a whole suckling pig. But we went to celebrate our vegetarian daughter's birthday, so neither seemed appropriate.
It was our first meal of the blog so far with the whole family. We shared some veggie tapas to start with - courgette fritters, stuffed peppers, pimientos, goats cheese & beetroot salad (and some ham & cheese croquetas for the family carnivore). They disappeared so quickly we forgot to photograph them.
Paella featured heavily in our main course selection - rabbit, vegetable and seafood. The birthday girl went for the rainbow trout and the carnivore kicked the habit and went for classic pub grub - fish & chips.
We washed it down with a bottle of Pittacum Bierzo 2008, an intense Spanish red from Castilla y Leon. There was no room for pudding.
Food (for 5): £97.75
Drink: 30.25
Total: £144.00
309 Chiswick High Road
W4 4HH
020 8994 1661
This should really have been an account of our trip to the newly-refurbished Pilot in Wellesley Road. But when taking our booking they failed to mention that Tuesday night is Quiz Night. And although, as the staff said, the quiz was only in half the pub, the loudspeaker blared the questions into both halves. Now I don't mind a quiz, but if I'm going out for supper I don't really want someone shouting out: "what kind of meat goes in Irish stew?". Because that's one of the things you expect them to know in any half decent restaurant. So we left, as did others.
We decided to stay down that end of the High Road and try 'Rice - House of Kebab & Wrap', which had been recommended to us by a Chiswick expert. Rice - so-called because "rice is the jewel of Persian food" - opened nine years ago. It caters to a loyal mix of office workers at lunchtime and local residents in the evening.
We started with houmous and olives, served with warm nan bread. The bread is prepared in front of customers in the restaurant and cooked in a clay oven specially commissioned by the owners.
The main course options consist largely of kebabs and wraps (the clue is in the name). I had the chicken shish: chicken breast marinated in saffron and lemon juice, served with salad on another nan. Mrs W4 went for the vegetarian kebab - two skewers of courgette, yellow squash, mushroom, shallot and mixed pepper - served with rice.
A regular reader asked if we could include a 'would we go back' verdict at the end of our posts. Clearly some places are better than others, but the truth is we haven't visited one place yet we wouldn't go back to. But it's more than a mile from Abinger Road, so if venturing out for a kebab by wheelchair maybe stop at Lara.
Food (for 2): £21.00
Drink: £11.50
Total: £36.50
50-54 Turnham Green Terrace
W4 1QP
020 8747 6788
After 30 years of business lunches and fancy dinners, Mr W has become a bit of a restaurant snob. He thinks Côte is the Ford Escort of restaurant chains - you're not going to go home hungry, but it's hard to get excited about going there. It's not as dated as Café Rouge (Austin Allegro) but not as much fun as Franco Manca (Fiat 500). So I went with a couple of special girlfriends.
Going with girlfriends means the focus was on chat not food hence I forgot to photograph what we ate. Despite increasing senior moments, I can remember however. We had some piquant mixed olives whilst looking at the menu which really wasn't necessary as I don't think it's changed since Côte first opened. They do have a menu du jour (a nod to their French heritage?) from which I had the swordfish and ratatouille with black olive and anchovy dressing as did special girlfriend 1. Special girlfriend 2 had the chicken and walnut salad. I got the impression it was a regular choice. We had a glass of wine each et voila! - c'etait tout.
I don't dislike Côte or particularly like it. It's kind of there and handy and does what it says. Having broadened my Chiswick dining experiences in recent weeks I have to agree with Mr W, it feels like a boring choice in an area that has so many culinary options. So go if you must, but if you feel you could branch out, live a little, go crazy and let your hair down, take a look at what else is out there - and guess what? I know a blog that can help ...
Food (for me): £13.50
Drinks (for me): £5.45
Total: £20.00
Cheap date.
142 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PU
020 8994 0568
The morning after the party before. After a few hours clearing up broken glass, cigarette butts and teenage vomit, we needed to get out of the house. It felt like the first morning of spring, though not quite warm enough to sit outside yet, so we ventured inside for brunch with the babies.
Aussie butcher and road-rager Jason Wells opened the fifth Brew cafe in Chiswick in October last year. The menu is inspired by "Melbourne all-day dining" and it's open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The extensive breakfast menu features eggs, sandwiches and Coco Pops. Later on in the day they get the pizza oven going and the lunch options include a wide range of burgers, salads and Turkish pides.
I had the treacle cured bacon sandwich served on toasted pide with tomato jam, baby gem, vine tomatoes, avocado and aioli, which was every bit the mouthful it sounds. Mrs W had (yet more) avocado with cottage cheese on toasted pide (which she could have had with Marmite or Vegemite).
Everything is annoyingly priced with 90p on the end - 10.9 for the sandwich, 8.9 for the avocado, 3.9 for the Coco Pops (four quid for a bowl of cereal?!). Mr Wells has clearly spent as much time studying behavioural economics as he has cooking.
Despite being part of a chain, Brew has the feeling of a neighbourhood cafe. I suspect the Wednesday cinema evenings have a loyal and local following. It's clearly aimed at young families and twenty-somethings (like us). The two girls who sat next to us were planning to eat their way through the menu (not in one go, obviously) - perhaps that will be our challenge for next year.
Food (for 2): £19.80
Drink: £5.30
Total: £28.24
