What's cooking at Earls Court?

20th September 1974, Page 115

20th September 1974

Page 115

Page 116

Page 117

Page 115, 20th September 1974 — What's cooking at Earls Court?

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by Bob Holliday

IF, as seems possible, the Commercial Motor Show moves permanently out of London, this will prove my last chance to offer my biennial Showtime suggestions on finding places to eat within 15 minutes' walk of the Earls Court exhibition building.

This sobering thought was in my mind when I recently re-explored SW5, first to find out what's been cooking — both kitchen and price-wise — since two years ago arid, secondly, to take a'closer look at this extraordinarily cosmopolitan corner of London It was Barry Hull, the Geordie boss of the newly-opened, fully-licensed Village Place restaurant at 121 Earls Court Road, who started me on my tour. First, he remarked that seven years ago he packed up veterinarian work among Northumberland farmers to see what London had to offer. Among the bed-sit folk who throng Earls Court he found a need for a convenable eating-meeting place where a good dinner could be enjoyed with enough change from a 10-bob note for a beer or a packet of cigarettes. So he opened The Pot: it is still there, approached through a passage separating Nos. 5 and 7 Hogarth Road. Indeed, it has just been extended rearwards to break into parallel Kenway Road, under the name of The Hot Pot. At both the Pots and the Village Place the menu theme is the same — "prices you can afford".

How do they compare with 1967? Here's an example — today: soup, 9p; spaghetti bolognaise or chicken-rice and vegetable, 30p; french bread and butter, 7p; sweet, 14p; tea or coffee, 10p; total 70p. Not a staggering increase, considering that VAT now has to be taken into account. In fact, I found that, generally, the local restauranteurs have made valiant efforts to contain their prices and, having recently made extensive tours across both the Atlantic and the Channel, I am convinced that eating out in Britain is cheaper than anywhere else.

How did the Village Place get its name? Because, Mr Hull reckons: it stands just about where Earls Court had its market place close on a thousand years ago! In those days an expanse of forest, heath and fields, covering what is nowadays the Royal Borough of Kensington, belonged to a Saxon, Earl Edwin. The Conqueror dispossessed him and the title went to a Norman courtier, Aubrey de Vere, whose name is perpetuated in Kensington Gore's De Vere Hotel. It was from the Earl's court house that Aubrey administered his manor — but not very profitably, it seems. Domesday Book at first valued it at £10, but soon after reduced it to £61 I have not yet discovered who was the baron of Baron's Court, but I was on the edge of that territory when I went to look at two new establishments (not opened two years ago) that most handily face the Exhibition's West Brompton doors and car-park on Lillie Road. Both are wellappointed, modern-style hotels, each with its own parking space.

The smaller of the two, the brick-faced Hotel Lily, (01-370 5001) has a restful, sensibly arranged, two-level restaurantbar, the main dining floor being in the sunken, central area, surrounded by an attractive lighting system. The tariff is very reasonable — the chef's special, for instance, costs £1 .60 and offers soup, chicken a la king, or chicken basque, or duckling with peaches and orange sauce, or veal milanaise. Service is included, but not VAT. There are good wines on the list; a carafe of red or white vie ordinaire costs £1.25. Dinner time is 7 to 9 pm.

Almost next door is the 510bedroomed West Centre Hotel (01-385 1253), one of the newest in the chain of ultra-modern hostelries operated by the Centre Hotel organization. Here you can eat in style in the splendidly decorated Tapestry Grill, serving a de-luxe range of dishes, or choose anything from a snack to a substantial meal in the spacious Tartan Coffee Shop, open all day until 11.30pm, where an entrecote steak costs £1.46, including vegetables; eggs, bacon and chips, 49p; ravioli. 44p: add VAT and service.

Inventors' Bar is for residents, but you can enjoy a comfortable pint in the open-to-all Centre Bar, with its niches and nooks and amusing Victorian period advertisements and shop signs — "Edwin Potter, photographer — family groups and sporting poses"; "Strand Rooming House, Mrs Molly McPherson offers ladies and gentlemen of the theatrical Profession accommodation — 2s per night".

At its eastern end Lillie Road becomes Old Brompton Road. and here, opposite the West Brompton tube station, is The Tournament (01-370 2449), a Whit bread's house where the decor is military -kettle-drums, uniforms and regimental memorabilia reminding customers that, at the turn of the century, this area was the site of the Great Exhibition, popular features of which, along with the Big Wheel, Flip-Flap and Helter-Skelter, were spectacular army and navy displays, forerunners of the Royal Tournament. A well-provisioned bar-meal service is supplemented at show times by an upstairs dining room offering scampi, gammon steak with peaches, rump and fillet steaks, lamb chops and chicken in wine sauce, all with potatoes and vegetables, at prices ranging from 85p to £1 .70, VAT included.

Further east, on the same side of the road, is one of the best-known Italian restaurants in the district — Pontevecchio (01-373 9082). If Shovvtime weather kindly provides an Indian summer you can have your meal, Continental-fashion, at a table on the pavement under an awning and screened by a hedge of shrubs. The regular carte lists eight different starters, four soups, fourpaste dishes, four fish choices and 11 entrees, but in each of these departments there are always additional specialities of the day. When I called, grilled mushrooms (70p), vichyssoise (40p), lasagne verdi (70p), cold salmon (£1.85), octopus and spinach (f1.15), roast pork, lamb and braised veal (all at £1.20) were popular selections. Vegetables cost about 25 to 35p, sweets and cheese around 40p, coffee 15p and there is a 15p cover charge. Both for lunches and evening meals it is essential to prebook your table.

On the southern side of this section of Old Brompton Road there are several cafe-bars, dining rooms and restaurants almost cheek by jowl, and ranging from an inexpensive Chinese room and a Bertorelli branch to the prestigious Artiste Aflame (01-373 1659), where the cuisine is under the supervision of a chef from Aix-en-Provence. Open at 7pm; last orders midnight, Monday to Saturday.

Opened only last year, Bailey's Bistro 01-3733502) is on the corner where Old Irompton Road meets Earls Court Road. It s operated by Mr Franco, a native of /atican City, but he has long been ;atering to British tastes. He recalls laving been the youngest head waiter at he Savoy Grill, to have worked at the 2aprice and been maitre d'hotel at the kllirabelle. He also, has another Bailey's 3istro in Greek Street. There is a fistinctly French atmosphere at the SW5 istablishment. You will surely have seen .eplicas of the massive, ornately carved )ar-counter, decked with ferns and cacti,

n Gallic cafes from Calais to Cannes. haracteristically, the day's menu is ;halked on a blackboard. The ;crupulously clean new kitchen produces fine variety of well-prepared dishes; imong Bailey's specialities are truite ilmandine (f1.20); veau escalope de afayette (£1.40); coq au yin de )ourguignonne (£1.25); vegetables 25p xtra. VAT is included, cover charge is 15p. Draught Carlsberg lager is on tap at lOp a pint and Mr Franco imports his vines by the hogshead and has them )ottled in England. A flagon of really good iurgundy, for example, costs f1.50. -lours are 12 to 3pm and 6 to 12pm on veekdays only.

)unctilious service Most of the places so far mentioned are est reached on foot from the West .rompton doors of the Exhibition. If you se the Warwick Road exit a four-minute dalk along Penywern Road (south of the Inderground) brings you to the hurlyurly of Earls Court Road and to the ntrance to Barkston Gardens, where is ie Barkston Hotel (01-373 7851). The uality of the food, the service and the rices here are in keeping with Trust louse Forte's nationally maintained tandards and the place has long been opular with Show visitors, but it should

e noted that the Chevron restaurant is o longer opened at lunchtime. Instead, iere is a trolley-tray service to the bar nd lounge from noon to 2pm, supplying andwiches and salads and simple meals such as a ploughman's lunch (50p), chicken-in-the-basket (85p) and scampi (98p), the prices including tax and service. Anyone needing an aperitif before an early dinner should be warned that the bar does not open until some time between 6.30 and 7pm.

Parallel with Barkston Gardens and right opposite the Underground is Hogarth Road, off which, in narrow Hogarth Passage, is II Piccolo Mondo (01-370 1799), specializing in Romanstyle cuisine. A small world it may be, but it has built up a big reputation for excellent food, punctilious service and sensible prices. Popular with Show exhibitors as a handy place for entertaining, the upper room can accommodate quite a large party, but it is advisable to pre-book at busy times. Lunch is served from noon, dinner from 6.30 to 11.45pm. Starters cost from 35p to 75p, a mixed grill £1, a fillet steak fl .25, vegetables 25 to 30p, sweets from 25 to 85p for crepe suzette.

A recommendation by Egon.Ronay has never been easy to earn; to sustain it is even harder. Yet, to my knowledge, the king of gourmet-guide compilers has,, for the past five or six years, consistently awarded high marks to the Naraine Indian restaurant at 10 Kenway Road (01370 3852), one street north of Hogarth Road. Having myself served my stint with the old British Raj, I can go all the way with Mr Ronay when he commends Bill Naraine's curries, of which there are over 40 to choose from, ranging from milkmild to megaton potency. The tandoori cooking is adapted to Western tastes and you can expect to pay from £3 to .£4 per head for a first-class meal served in very pleasant surroundings. Prices, except for the addition of VAT, are about the same as they were two years ago. Hours 12 to 3 and 6 to 12pm; closed on Mondays.

The pubs along Earls Court Road cater more to the thirsty than the hungry, with the exception of the Prince of Teck, a Finch's house on the corner of Kenway Road. In a first-floor, plush and mahogany dining room there is a bar-counter service of such hot sustenance as soup (15p), cottage pie (35p), curried beef and rice (48p), and cold meats and salads from 12 to 3 and 5.30 to 9.30pm (not Sundays).

Golden eggs, Wimpys, Kentucky chickens, hamburgers, pancakes and fish and chips all abound in these parts, and there is also a licensed, well-run Pizzaland where you can have remarkably economical meals; for instance, 41p buys two slices of pizza (choice of cheese and tomato, or ham, or chicken), baked potato, coleslaw and a soft drink, tea or coffee.

Economy is also the keynote at the French Resistance, practically facing the Village Place, mentioned earlier. A cosy wine-and-food bar, it was opened only last June by an Anglo-Frenchman whose decor theme is the Cross of Lorraine and all that goes therewith, plus French background music and, on request, a recording of General de Gaulle's "fight onspeech to the Free French, as broadcast on 18 June 1940. The fare is simple but good — onion soup (15p), french bread and garlic butter (15p), pate (35p), quiche lorraine (35p). There are over 50 different wines, which cost 23p per 15-centilitre glass or 95p per carafe which, since it equals six glasses, is an obvious bargain. Open every day, including Sunday, from 11 am to lOpm.

£3 banquet

If you walk up Hogarth Passage, passing through a picturesque pocket of old Kensington, and cross Cromwell Road into Marloes Road you come to St Mary Abbot's Hospital, facing which is Stratford Road. On the corner here "a sophisticated gastronomical experience awaits you", which is how Andre Supit, the owner-manager . of the Singing Bamboo (01-373 3410), describes his upstairs-downstairs complex of Far Eastern entertainment. On the first floor it is all Chinese, with Mr Supit, an Indonesian of Mongolian lineage, supervising oriental lovelies in the presentation of a nine-course August Moon Festival dinner based on a traditional thanksgiving meal. It embraces the whole . gamut, from meat balls on pineapple to stuffed prawns and mango rum punch sorbet, taking in en route all kinds of special ways of serving noodles, rice, bamboo shoots, spare ribs, chicken, sweet and sour and tenderloin pork. Cooked by Chinese and Indian chefs, much of it is prepared at the candle-lit tables, of which there are 12, accommodating about 40 people comfortably. This banquet costs £3 per head, excluding VAT and wine. Most customers drink one of the Chinese wines but the house has a full licence that covers araq, a palmbased spirit, and berem, a rice wine.

The Festival dinner is served on weekdays from 7pm till lam; lunches from 12.30 to 2.30pm. It is necessary to make an early reservation for dinner.

The basement half of the Singing Bamboo is a live-music (to 1.30am) dineand-dance restaurant where the menu specialities are mainly Indonesian — and very popular.