The Villian of Villandry

Just like two in one shampoo and conditioner the Villandry food store, bakery, restaurant and bar is a great idea that doesn't really work. It has a beautiful store with gourmet french groceries adjoined to a wooden clad french restaurant with an ambitious wine menu.
We came in a large group and had the french onion and mushroom soups for starters. The presentation was good, the taste - boringly fine, it lacked a certain zest I so admire in french cuisine. The restaurant was not busy but we had to wait for forty minutes for our mains, which were simple in execution as they were mussels in white wine sauce. After I complained the mains were delivered within minutes. I am worried - were they standing ready for half an hour - all forgotten in a begone corner of the kitchen or is the chef a lazy whizkid that when reminded whipped up three mains in five minutes.
I would shop in the Villandry if I lived nearby and Waitrose didn't do online delivery and I would probably eat there again if I found myself desperately hungry on Great Portland street, but I wouldn't recommend anyone taking time off to see it.

Aquatic fushion

Aqua off Regent Street spreads itself amongst the top three floors of an ex department store, whose name I cannot recall. There is Aqua Kyoto with Asian cuisine, Aqua Nueva for tapas, and a champagne bar called Aqua Spirit.
We concentrated on Aqua Kyoto. The venue is great, unusually large for London, with excellent lighting and layout. There is a large smoking terrace with a view of a dome which looks like St Paul's. The atmosphere was great, very anachronistic. It's a very good place to visit with a group of friends before going off to party. The food - very average. We tried most of the things on the menu - the lobster, the cod, sushi rolls, mussel udon, clam miso, shrimp tempura. Only thing worth mentioning is the black cod which had a pleasant sweet sauce. The desserts fared a bit better - chocolate fondant, green tea ice cream, sake poached pear. What I will always remember though is the fried sesame ice cream.