Restaurant review: A complete makeover

Newsroom 14/02/2011 | 11:59

La Veranda at the Crowne Plaza, tel. 021 224 0034

Michael Barclay

If you are like me and had ‘forgotten’ to go to the Crowne Plaza for the last year, you will be pleasantly shocked by the scale of their refurbishment. For they have changed everything from top to bottom on the ground floor bar and restaurant areas. On the other hand, if you dine there regularly, you would be excused for wondering what all the fuss is about until you recall how plain it was prior to the renovation.

It boasts a delightfully relaxing décor, with new dark stained wood floors, offset in sections with marble and etched glass paneled walls separating the dining areas. To call it bright would be an understatement, with its leading restaurant La Veranda being bathed in daylight in winter. In the summer, it must be spectacular.

The changes at the Crowne are not only cosmetic. For they have changed the chef and the menu also. So the dining order now is a Brasserie and a separate Veranda seafood restaurant. I have come for the seafood.

As proof that printed media advertising really does work, I read that they will cook your fish in any manner specified by the customer. This is important. Three weeks ago I bemoaned in this column the lack of creative imagination on behalf of this city’s chefs, who restrict their dubious talents to either grilling or frying fish. And yet here we have a House that challenges you with a choice of preparations, and for the first time ever, they even offer you a selection of fish sauces.

So away to the menu. For starters there was a selection including ‘salmon gravadlax,’ accompanied by cucumber and apple relish and salmon roe. You either love or hate this classic Norwegian alternative to smoked salmon as it is a marinade which is invariably overpowered by dill seasoning. We passed on it, and we also reluctantly passed on their ‘olive oil poached octopus’ served on a bed of potato, olive and ruccola salad.

But Blondie couldn’t resist their ‘salmon Caesar salad’. Of course salmon was a twist on the original recipe. I marveled at the fact that they are one of, if not the only House that gives you fresh silver, vinegar marinated anchovies rather than the usual brown, smoked and salted variety. Bravo chef. But before I could test the authenticity of the dish (it should include Parmesan, lettuce, capers, garlic, lemon juice, mustard and Worcester sauce… plus its famous dressing) Blondie had woofed the lot. Straight into her face without my having the opportunity to taste it. But she loved it.

I had a ‘prawn spring roll’, well seasoned and accompanied by a mildly spicy sweet chili dip and a spoonful of ‘avocado hash’. There were the usual suspects of ‘sushi’ and ‘sashimi’ which is really so very ordinary nowadays with just about every reasonable restaurant offering the same. So I passed. I couldn’t wait to dive into the mains, so looked for them on the menu.

There was a statement that they offered fresh fish, but it was not listed (and neither was the price), as the availability and variety of the fish changes daily. But the price did include a choice any two of: rice, fries, grilled veg, mashed potato or boiled parsley potato. There was also a choice of four sauces, but more of that later.

I asked to examine the fish, which naturally they agreed to, and they brought to my table a huge iced platter of what they had that day. I examined the eyes and gills for freshness, and being satisfied I chose a plaice, as it is a rare thing indeed to see flat sea fish in this country. I asked for my fish to be skinned, and filleted off the bone after cooking it in steam. No problem, and that is precisely what I got.

And now to the sauces. They had everything that no other restaurant in town offers. So there was a choice of ‘Salmoriglio sauce’ (a classic Sicilian fish sauce made from butter, olive oil, lemon, garlic and oregano) or, ‘citrus brown butter sauce’, or ‘champagne beurre blanc’… and the latter was my choice. I called for the chef, and asked him to twist this classic French butter sauce by adding white wine vinegar and boiling it off with fish stock. Of course he agreed and smiled as I am sure he has seen that additional

variation to that sauce before. It was perfect.

There was a choice of three fixed mains, namely: ‘jumbo prawns’, ‘pappardelle’ pasta with prawns, garlic, basil, sweet peppers, spring onions and a cream sauce and ‘black mussel risotto’. Having ‘ad libbed’ my way through the fresh fish section I was full. But Blondie was not!

So to be awkward, she asked for the Brasserie menu, and chose ‘corn fed chicken’, marinated with herbs and served with mustard risotto, and a first rate sauce made from chicken stock and bones. I swear she was growling as she ate it, but that was from comfort. Another success!

Seven years ago the Crowne had an Indian chef, Raymond Gomez, who was the best chef in the country. Raymond left three years ago. After a brief interregnum with a French chef, he too left now to be replaced by a new Indian chef, Ashley. Wisely, the kitchen kept some of the chefs from ‘the old days’. On the evidence before me, Ashley has raised the standards of the House to a point that the Crowne has well and truly regained its culinary crown.

mab.media@dnt.ro

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