Sharing our dining experiences: November 2014

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Great Court Restaurant @ British Museum

When we planned a visit to British Museum on our recent trip to London, knowing fully well that a full day is a must for any museum visit, I planned our lunch to be on same venue. It was a delight to find the Great Court restaurant serving full course and not just a simple canteen/café.

Made the online reservation as not knowing whether it would be full for lunch, turned out, it was not a full house; yet numbers of patrons occupied half part of the restaurant.

Décor is simple in neutral tone; the natural light coming through the magnificent ceiling though not right under it, still gives that airy feel to the whole area.

Service was quite alright, attentive in asking our drink and order, very accommodating when asked for a change of table. There were one or two times when we couldn’t get their attention as they were standing at far end but it was still acceptable.

Food selection was quite good, not very elaborate and not too concise too, just good for this scale of restaurant. Food served quite promptly and it was fresh and decent.

Due to temptation of ground floor café, we had indulged its carrot cake and tea before lunch, resulting in just main courses to order at the restaurant.

Beside the open concept cafés available on the ground floor, I would highly suggest to try Great Court restaurant in you plan on having lunch during your museum visit.

The magnificent rooftop of British Museum

A bit of Victorian style dinnerware

Orange Juice with Ginger and Herbal Extract..Still taste the Orange Juice

Part of the magnificent rooftop near our table

Drinks Prep area

Overall look of the dining area. A very good idea of having magazine and newspaper holder railing

The entrance

Ordered main course of Sirloin Steak, French Fries, Peppercorn and Paprika Butter

This butter combo was really good

Iberico pork, grilled courgette tomato, watercress & smoked almonds

Fresh and beautifully presented

The Great Court Restaurant

British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG
Tel : +44 (0)20 7323 8990

http://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/eating/great_court_restaurant.aspx

Opening times

Lunch : Daily between 11.30–15.00

Afternoon tea : Daily between 15.00–17.30
Dinner : Fridays between 17.30–20.30

Friday, November 21, 2014

Crab In Da Bag @ East Coast

At first, I was curious when reading what the fuss about another seafood restaurant in East Coast until I read it further and saw some pictures on how it was served. I would said it was intriguing.

Few weeks later, I found out that there are more restaurants popping up and offering similar dish and serving style which was on plastic covered table and they poured the whole pot on top of it where you eat it with your bare hands and no plates necessary.

I thought best bet to try was to visit Crab in Da Bag as the original initiator of this serving style.

Read some unfavourable review on its service but so glad it wasn't as bad as what past reviews mentioned, perhaps they had improved since then.

The menu certainly more favourable for choosing the Big Pot, the Caboodle Boil, instead of ala carte items and we did just that. No other side orders and other ala carte item.

Interesting to see how the table lined up with good quality plastic and bibs were provided for each diner.

We had quite some waiting time, perhaps around 30 mins or so before the whole pot came. It was advisable for everyone to stand back for a while when the whole pot was being poured out.

It certainly a seafood or shall I say, a crab galore for seafood lovers; it also came with boiled potatoes, onions and corns which were tasty and lemons wedges to neutralize the seafood smell.

The seafood taste itself were alright, I personally didn't feel it was great and made me want to return for 2nd time.

There were 3 dipping sauces provided with Malaysian sambal as the favourite among us but overall, all 3 sauces tasted great.

Service could be felt a bit slow but perhaps it was due to shortage (?) but they were polite and friendly.

Décor is very nautical kitschy theme and as always, you can always expect to see a TV in this type of family/group restaurants.