THAI RICE

Just outside Maida Vale station is a gem of Thai food, simply known as Thai Rice. This cheerful establishments boasts strength reviving Tom Yum a beer cooling gadget with your meal. Great curries, stir fries and most impressive grilled prawn dishes. Any place that give 6 king prawns for £8 is worth the visit. It's no Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester but great if you're hungry and in the area of if you just want good thai with friends.

Notting Hill Beach Blanket

For the curious out there Beach Blanket Babylon or BBB is the longest running cultural satire musical of all times, born and bred in San Francisco. It's namesake in Notting Hill embraces the theme of pop culture on a chic, kitschy, opulent level. There is a lot to say about the design, but I will refrain from over verbosity and just state that it is indeed worth seeing. There is a lounge bar and a restaurant and the food is ... yes obviously overpriced but not bad in its essence. The gazpacho was very decent and the goats cheese tart had good strong flavours. The chicken was unmemorable but well cooked while seared tuna on chickpea purée, was indeed a marvellous idea, albeit of varying success as I would need a specialist to locate that purée on the premises of my plate. They should have said chickpea jus and left it at that. I liked that dessert and had space for it which was first. It was some sort of chocolate concoction that went down well will coffee.

Everybody must visit Beach Blanket Babylon, it is an exiting place, just don't come too hungry or too tight.

Heathrow's Roux

Jet lag aside there is nothing one wants more after landing than some culinary miracle to help wipe out that taste of airplane food. Therefore I was more than exited when I heard that the owner of legendary Gavroche in Mayfair - Albert Roux is opening a Brasserie at Sofitel, Heathrow. I was even worried my casual flight attire would be frowned up on. I was hungry. The journey through terminals would have been complicated had I not had a good guide. Sofitel inside was a boring as an accountant. I did not care - Brasserie Roux met me with a better designed seating area done up in a color known as mulberry burst. "It has to fit in with the rest of the hotel", I reconciled myself as I leafed through the menu. The latter was very regional French and had a lot of what I would call Catalan undertones. Hence the Gazpacho that I'd ordered as a starter. A simple dish the Gazpacho but very easy to get wrong. And they did. It was too sour and oily. I didn't think much of this until the main of duck leg on mash came. It was dry and boring like Sofitel. It was one of those dishes you'd get served by your friend's mother. You 'd eat it thankful for the fact that it's so uncomplicated and you don't need to spend stressful hours trying to forget that strange taste when she mixed up the spices in her ratatouille. Perhaps Mr. Roux does not fly from Heathrow often as he prefers the more budget airlines but perhaps he should take a look at Terminal 5 where at Ramsay's Plane Food manages to deliver the goods despite its remoteness from Mayfair and management.

Babylon

Babylon is located in the ex penthouse apartment of the woman behind the designer brand Biba. It's on the seventh floor at 99 High Street Kensington. Babylon and the night club Roof Gardens are Sir Richard Branson's little babies. As in they're owned by Virgin.
It's an amazing place - true to its name Babylon is surrounded by picturesque rooftop gardens, that house pink flamingos and Chinese coloured ducks. You can dine in style, contemplating the views of the gardens and south London skyline.
You will get confused by the feeling that you're just in a friend's living room, yet having some haut Anglo french fusion. Courgette soup made an interesting starter. I was really glad I had room left for the dessert - lemon meringue tart with blueberries had made me extremely happy. In addition if you dine in Babylon should you then wish to continue the party a floor below at Roof Gardens club - you'll get free entrance, jump the cue and get an excursion of the gardens you were previously contemplating.