Criterion
The criterion restaurant is very near piccadilly tube, near the Eros statue. This was fortunate because it was pouring with rain. We went to have a set-meal offer – 3 courses and a glass of champagne for £29.
Summary: great decor, average food that didn’t quite ‘work’ and rather grumpy service.
The starter was delicious smoke salmon. And was accompanied by a bottle of champagne we had bought (not the free stuff) – a rose which was very nice.
The main was a fancy version of bouillabaisse which I felt did not work. One of the pieces of fish was salmon, which had too strong a taste for the soup and the whole thing didn’t really come together very well.
For desert I had the frozen cocktails. left to right: Absynthe and something, vodka and watermelon and mojito which was deliciously minty!
At this point we took advantage of our free glass of champagne. Eurgh! Convinced it was corked after a sip we sent it back to the bar – they very snootily told us that it was our fault it didn’t taste good as we should have drunk it quicker, they had very kindly topped the champagne up to ‘refreshen it’. I had another sip, it was either corked or one of the foulest champagnes I have ever drunk – and I’ve attended a lot of free-‘champagne’ events where pretty much anything goes.
If the champagne was corked, them topping up the old champagne wasn’t going to make it any better. We left the free glass and went elsewhere.