Two Marco Pierre White restaurants in a week? Yep, but this second visit was for a set lunch menu, at a very reasonable £17.95 so it's a passable extravagance.
At 12.30 on a Thursday Criterion was doing ok business - I'd guess about 35 covers were in, though that number still gets lots of "personal space" when the venue is as cavernous as the Criterion. I'd only dined here at night before, and the place has a lovely grand cafe feel in the day time as the light sparkles from the golden ceiling, a glittering mosaic that helps light arches decorated with motifs inspired by ancient Constantinople, and of course the Scheherazade of French Mediterranean food.
I had a glass of prosecco at £5.50 to accompany my meal. I turned down bottled water and the waitress provided tap-water instead.
A starter of duck rillette, toasted poilane was excellent with currents of seasoning which made every mouthful subtly different from the last.
Pan fried seabream with ratatouille and tapenade veloute came in a perfectly 'lunch-sized' portion. The fish was beautiful - fresh, soft flesh with crispy skin and a soaking of the veloute. The ratatouille was decent, but a little bland compared to the vibrancy of the bream and the preceding duck.
I decided to try the fromage du jour which turned out to be a smoked, hard cheese - I'm pretty sure it was a smoked cheddar and I meant to ask which when I paid the bill but forgot. The cheese was fine and came served with a fulsome fruit loaf, but was no better than the cheese plate Kate prepared for us the previous night at home. I think next time I'll go for tart ; ) Coffee was delicious, at £2.50.
And at less than £18 for three courses there will be a next time, very soon indeed.
At 12.30 on a Thursday Criterion was doing ok business - I'd guess about 35 covers were in, though that number still gets lots of "personal space" when the venue is as cavernous as the Criterion. I'd only dined here at night before, and the place has a lovely grand cafe feel in the day time as the light sparkles from the golden ceiling, a glittering mosaic that helps light arches decorated with motifs inspired by ancient Constantinople, and of course the Scheherazade of French Mediterranean food.
I had a glass of prosecco at £5.50 to accompany my meal. I turned down bottled water and the waitress provided tap-water instead.
A starter of duck rillette, toasted poilane was excellent with currents of seasoning which made every mouthful subtly different from the last.
Pan fried seabream with ratatouille and tapenade veloute came in a perfectly 'lunch-sized' portion. The fish was beautiful - fresh, soft flesh with crispy skin and a soaking of the veloute. The ratatouille was decent, but a little bland compared to the vibrancy of the bream and the preceding duck.
I decided to try the fromage du jour which turned out to be a smoked, hard cheese - I'm pretty sure it was a smoked cheddar and I meant to ask which when I paid the bill but forgot. The cheese was fine and came served with a fulsome fruit loaf, but was no better than the cheese plate Kate prepared for us the previous night at home. I think next time I'll go for tart ; ) Coffee was delicious, at £2.50.
And at less than £18 for three courses there will be a next time, very soon indeed.
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