Having read an old Esquire article with Jeremy King, The Park creator, amongst other world-famous restaurants in London, I trekked over with a friend to inspect. Apparently the park is supposed to a fusion between American Diner and a classic English restaurant, you can sense that in the decor and the A2 sized menu with garish colours all over but the restaurant very much retains an air of importance and grandeur. The service was excellent, frozen beer glasses, seats at the bar whilst we waited for our table, a doorman and a cloakroom attendant, the bells and whistles etc.
Tom and I shared the small Cobb salad to start, £17.50 but was very much enough for two, we then decided to try the ‘park cheeseburger’ and their tagliatelle bolognese, sadly I thought the mains were somewhat disappointing, I’ve had better burgers at Honest and Blackbear, which I accept are restaurants that specialise in burgers but at £25 for a burger and chips (chips cost £6.25 on top of the £18.75 burger) I did expect better as the meat was excellent quality but I thought under-seasoned, the cheese formed a crust around the burger without giving much flavour and there was nothing special about the slice of lettuce, tomato and red onion. Something caramelised, something dressed or salted would have done a world of good and to be honest, there just wasnt enough burger sauce to taste it. I have certainly had better burgers at pubs, for much less. The mayo and ketchup served on a polished silver plater were not enough to redeem the dish.
The bolognese was nice, good fresh pasta and the sauce held together well but at £17.75 for a small it wasn’t mind-blowing at all. Put that and a Carluccio’s bolognese next to each other and you’d struggle to tell the difference.
Finally, the desserts. Key-lime pie and New York Cheesecake. For me, these saved the day, one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever had and my first key lime pie was great too. Tom, who spent three months last year in southern USA last year, said it was one of the best he’s had too. At £10 a pop they were reasonably priced I’d say.
In total, nice atmosphere, great service, and a very polished dining experience with some classics on the menu that won’t disappoint. However it seems some of the mains are lacking with creativity which is fine if the product is simple and excellent but this wasn’t. Other than that it was faultless, but it is somewhat of a large fault to have.
Also £9 for water was slightly cheeky.
17th Feb 2025
Brasserie Zedel – Soho
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Brasserie Zedel, the final component of the Wolseley Group definitely holds its own against the heavy weight Delaunay and Wolseley Restaurant. Inspired by Prague dining rooms with Gatsby-esque decor you feel a bit let down when your food isn’t served by a flapper dancer. Nonetheless this place is an absolute winner. Their Prix Fixe menu (which I pronounced ‘Prizz Fizz’ to try and sound French) is only £17 at Lunch, a price that in Soho simply cannot be beat. The celeriac soup was delicious with plentiful quantities of baguette and the Steak Haché Frites with au poivre sauce was so decadent I felt like I’d committed a crime and got away with it. To add to the experience the waitress, equipped with a French accent to increase authenticity, recognised me from my local food market and gave us a small dessert on the house. A lovely hazelnut macaron with two pistachio financiers went down very well along with the immediate injection of self-importance.
Camberwell is more and more trendy and gentrified but this new opening just across from the Peckham Theatre solidifies its new status as a hip suburb of London. A couple years behind Herne Hill and Peckham which have been known for some time as the hipster hotspots of South East London, Camberwell has added a sandwich shop inspired by New York Deli counter but with European ingredients to it’s armada of independent restaurants.
Cafe Mondo oozes Gen Z hipster. If it were a person it would have a septum piercing, a patchwork tattoo sleeve, ten pairs of Carhartt carpenter trousers and it would smoke Marlboro-Reds despite finding them too strong. It would also have a matching jacket for its cocka-poo and probably wear vintage football shirts without knowing the offside rule. If Cafe Mondo uttered a sentence as you walked in it would be ‘We’re too cool for you, but come on in.’
Because the staff were incredibly friendly, happy to explain the menu and offer recommendations and would then assemble the sandwich in front of you. Imagine Subway but everyone looks like a character from the Hangover and the decor is that of a 80’s French chalet. Oh and the sandwiches are better.
The sandwiches were phenomenal, around £10-12 but hefty enough to share for a lunch date. The ingredients tasted fresh and nothing about it was stingy. You got more meat than bread in reality and that is no bad thing. Another plus was their Turkish Fizzy Drink selection, the price you pay is £2.50 but thats not including the embarrassment price you pay when the moustache and cycle cap wearing clerk says ‘Have you never had Uludağ Gazoz ? Making you feel out-of-the-know and uncool on impact.
The only thing that ruffled my feathers was the ‘au jus’ add on for my pork sandwich. I paid an extra £2 for a 100ml cup of jus to dip my sandwich into. If I’m paying £12 for a sandwich (already the most expensive on the menu), I dont want to have that experience dampened (excuse the pun) because I dont want to fork out £2 for two shots of stock. Not to be every oblivious restaurant diner and make the statement I know every chef hates but…
It does not cost you anywhere near £2 to make a watery jus. I get a margin must be made but that just seems ridiculous and should just be included in the price of the sandwich which is already a bit spenny.
The redeeming feature was discovered when I entered the bathroom to de-jus my hands. A lovely Little Rock museum. Cant really say more about it because I dont know why it’s there, who did it or what the point is. But I liked it.
Sharp-Nosed Reviews 