Esposito - 25 April 09

Zoe, Hugh, Liz & Gaby

It was Zoe's birthday this week and to celebrate a posh dinner was declared. There were a number of places that we tried to book and were unfortunately booked out but we will keep them on our shortlist for future outings (Movida, Hellenic Republic and Cutler & Co).

Esposito was a first for Hugh and Liz but for Zoe and I it was something that we'd done before - sort of. Esposito was previously Toofey's - the location of the inaugural posh dinner society meeting. The focus is still seafood and the setting is very similar. We all enjoyed our meals (vegetarian gyoza, cured salmon, quail, baked whole fish, seafood linguine, john dory fillets) but Zoe and I were reminiscing for the bygone days. We all agreed though that the taster of seafood and herbs, and the sides (orange and fennel salad and gratin of spinach and onion) were great.

Whilst Zoe and I felt that the level of service was poor, particularly in comparison with Toofey's which set the benchmark for us, Zoe felt that the desserts were possibly better. We shared a fabulous cheese plate, a pear and custard tart with blood orange sorbet, and a date and frangipane tart with vanilla icecream. Yum!

Rumi - 19 March 09

Peter, Emily, Zoe, Hugh, Simon & Gaby

Peter was back in Australia with his partner Emily. When organising the dinner I asked Peter if there was anywhere that he was interested in going to or any cuisines that he was missing. His response included lebanese and as I'm going through something of a middle eastern phase at the moment I was pretty happy and went ahead and booked for us at Rumi.

Peter, Emily and I were joined by Simon, Zoe and Hugh and we had a lovely meal with highlights that included panfried cauliflower, eggplant, lamb and mamoul (a beautiful date shortbread).