Bistro 1, No 1 for value (Bistro 1 (Covent Garden))

Member Name: duskmaiden

Product:	Bistro 1 (Covent Garden)
Date:	05/10/06 (961 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, central location, nice simple food

Disadvantages: mix up with our order, portion sizes

London is an expensive city and dining out on a budget can be hard. Luckily I have found (courtesy of a guide dedicated to cheap eats in London) a place where you can have a three course meal with wine for under £15. This place is Bistro 1 and it serves simple Mediterranean influenced food.

Bistro 1 is a mini chain with three branches. There are two in Soho and one in Covent Garden. The Covent Garden one is on Southampton Street just round the corner from Covent Garden Market and only a couple minutes stroll from Covent Garden tube station. It is quite a small restaurant with space for 80 diners so booking is advised. You can do this either by phone or online at their website.

We were off to the theatre in Drury Lane so my friend booked the table for three for 6:45. On arrival; she was already seated at a window table. The décor seemed quite plain and understated and there are tables outside to sit and watch the world go by which would be lovely on a sunny summer day. I did find the tables quite packed together so there was not much room to move about. I am not sure if this would be good for a really intimate dinner as someone might easily overhear your sweet nothings. There was a bowl of tasty fresh seeded bread and yummy olives on the table ready for us to pick at before we settled down to eat proper.

The good thing about Bistro 1 is that there are no ala carte menus. The set dinner menu is £8.90 for two courses and £9.90 for three. If you are in the area for lunch the prices are even lower. You can get two courses for £6.50 and three for £7.50. This is a bargain when you consider you can spend £3 or £4 on a sandwich. (There is a £2 supplement for four of the dishes which contain costlier ingredients and side orders cost £1.50).

What I like about Bistro 1 (apart from the bargain prices) is the menu. It has a nice balance of fish, meat and vegetarian options and there seemed to be enough choice to suit everyone. However I did not have much time to have a good look at the menu as the waiter wanted to take our order almost immediately. Luckily I had a look at it on the website or else I would have felt a little bit pressured. Ideally I would have liked to have just a couple of extra minutes to make up my mind. I selected a simple honeydew and mango salad with berry coulisse for starters. I was tempted by the goat's cheese and spinach pancake; bin the end ordered the vegetable mousakka.
Duskman was umming and arring about the Turkish spicy chicken skewers but deeded just to have a main course of bangers and hash and my friend had vegetable soup with a main course of salmon and a side order of mashed potato.

There was a little bit of confusion about our starters. First they brought spicy chicken skewers to me (not good as I do not even eat chicken) so I had to let them know I was having the fruit. Then we had to wait five or ten minutes. They brought my fruit and my friend's vegetable soup and also brought some of the skewers back! I think the mix up was caused by Duskman asking about them but not ordering them. If this was a more expensive restaurant I would have complained but since they were only a pound extra Duskman was happy to have the extra course.

I liked the food. It was nice and simple. My mango and honeydew was well presented with lovely artistic squiggles of berry coulisse. The soup was pronounced nice by my friend and the awkward skewers were not spicy at all. This might be a problem for those who like spice I suppose but Duskman enjoyed the not very spicy, spicy skewers. My moussaaka was full of chunky Mediterranean roast vegetables and lovely white sace and cheesy topping. Duskman said the sausages were lovely and meaty on a mound of mashed potatoes.

The puddings were nice too. I selected the stuffed apricots as they sounded a nice change from the usual puddings. The portion was on the small aside as it was four fresh apricots, stoned and stuffed with flaked almonds and cream. I really enjoyed them and found they were a nice change as they were not too heavy or sickly. My friend chose a nice large wedge of bannoffi pie and Duskman plumped for the lemon sorbet to cleanse his palette.

We ordered a bottle of house wine for after a dessert. This was a fairly decent price at £10.75 a bottle and was a fairly dry French wine. We sat chatting and it was the serving staff who gave us the bill. We had obviously outstayed our welcome so scampered off to a nearby pub for a pre theatre drink

The portion sizes are an adequate size but they are not vast. After a three course meal I felt satisfied but did not have that bloated tired feeling.

I would recommend Bistro1 as it is an absolute bargain. It's the sort of place that would be a good stand by for any occasion from pre theatre dinners, lunch out shopping or even a small leaving do. The food is fresh, simple and tasty. It is just a shame there was that little mix up with the starters.

www.bistro1.co.uk

Summary: budget bistro in prime location