I have been really fortunate to have been to some wonderful restaurants in my life. I have been able to enjoy amazing food and wonderful experiences, so answering this prompt wasn’t easy. Which of all of those, was my favourite restaurant?
My mind jumped all over the place. There was the fish restaurant in Paris which served the most amazing shellfish platter I have ever eaten in my life. That has to be up there as one of my favourites. There was the tiny tucked away Italian near Covent Garden in London with its completely authentic vibe which served one of the loveliest chicken dishes I have ever eaten. There was the gorgeous upmarket burger restaurant in New York I really, really enjoyed. The modern British restaurant in Newcastle I loved. Many, many other similar restaurants in London I have been lucky to go to where I have enjoyed stellar meals. The great fish restaurant in Essex where I had my first date with my husband and the Italian restaurant where our son first discovered his love of ragu. The two local fine dining restaurants here in Suffolk which are located in gorgeous countryside with undulating fields and rivers as their backdrop which I have really loved. The restaurant at Holkham in Norfolk which is one of my happy places, and the wonderful lobster I had at one of the pub restaurants along the Norfolk Broads where we had been sailing. Which brings to mind another fabulous river restaurant near Oxford when we had been sailing the river that runs through it. And so many, many more that I really could not pick one.
There are things, though, that unify all these experiences. Naturally, there is the food which has been spectacular and is in itself a work of art; another is that all these particular places stand out to me because of the people I was with. The company I had. Would I have enjoyed these experiences on my own? I would have enjoyed the food, certainly, but perhaps it wouldn’t have stuck so much in my mind because it would have been lacking the company. Most of them have also been located in places I love as well, I have to admit.
London is my home town, it was where I was born and raised and I adore it. I love its history, I love its modernity. I love its multi-culturalism and I love how it is also quintessentially British in places. I love its pace, its glamour, the less-glamourous places (I grew up in the East End and I love it still), I love the City of London especially but I also love the West End. I love the parks, the bits of countryside that live in London, its quirks, and its conformity. London is a city of contradictions and I love it for that. And I have been to some lovely restaurants there, but now I think about it there is one restaurant that stands out for me. The one in the old BT Tower, Tower 42 I think it’s called. I’ve been there a few times, and there is something about its vibe I really like. It’s a place where I have felt really relaxed for some reason, and I would have been happy to have stayed there the whole day. The food has always been lovely, and as I say the atmosphere is such that it helps me to relax. There is another restaurant (though officially it isn’t one) that I feel the same way about. It’s the Special Forces Club which you can only go to if you are accompanied by a member. And you can only be a member if you were in the Special Forces. My son’s godfather is a member and I have never asked why, and he has never volunteered the information. He just has a twinkle in his eye. It is the only place I have ever been to where, while thinking about what aperitif I would like the barman nailed my favourite by just observing me. Now, that is a talent. Or, as its the Special Forces Club, maybe not! It is also the only place I have ever been to where a black cab driver has never heard of it and it doesn’t have a sign outside telling anyone what it is. It’s fascinating being inside there, I can’t help looking at the (mainly) men there and wonder what they did to get membership, it appeals to my imagination. It has a wonderfully relaxed, hushed atmosphere as well and I feel extraordinarily comfortable in there maybe because it’s a place where history is celebrated.
When I think about it, nostalgia plays a part in the restaurants that stand out to me. Whether it is the Parisian restaurant that first opened in the nineteenth century and was still going strong when I went there – it was a lunchtime and it was heaving with people – or the New York burger restaurant which was in a historic building by Manhattan standards. The restaurant my husband and I had our first date in is very historic, and it sits on land in Mistley once owned by the Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins. I’m not entirely sure, but I think he lived there once he had made his name torturing women and one half of the restaurant is part of that original building. The food there is, though, absolutely superb and we have been back countless times since that first time. We’ve had lovely Sunday lunches as well as one impromptu Saturday lunch we had there once where the owner came and sat with us, chatting about the restaurant amongst other things and where we drank some lovely wine and ate some wonderful shellfish. Yes, I do love shellfish. The two fine dining restaurants near us are also in historic buildings, one I know for sure has been a restaurant and pub for hundreds of years.
You can feel the history in these buildings, the sense of continuity in some of them over centuries. It’s like the scent of the food is imbued in the walls. This was especially true of the Italian in London where the aroma that was soaked into the building was as great as the food. Interestingly, with the Matthew Hopkins building, the first time we took our son there as a baby he screamed from the moment we were seated to the moment we left when his tears magically disappeared as soon as we walked out. We were in the very old part of the restaurant, and absolutely nothing would pacify him. Some of the restaurants, like the one where our son found his love of ragu, are so old and higgledy piggledy, you wonder if you’re drunk because of the uneven floorings! It’s an interesting experience I must confess.
One of the unifying factors of these places is often the view while eating. Whether it is the portraits in the Special Forces Club, the views of London from Tower 42, the Suffolk countryside or the rivers and canals they are beside. The setting is as important to me in all its marvellous variety. You can’t generally beat Paris or New York as a setting, but curiously I am not reminded of interesting places I ate in Barcelona, Rome or even Venice though I love all of those places. One of my favourite places is to sit by the water and enjoy good food. I am not the best sailor in the world, sea sickness is a very real issue for me that isn’t confined to the sea, but two of my favourite dining experiences were when we had been on boats and moored up to have a meal in Norfolk and Oxfordshire. In Oxfordshire we moored up near a ruined convent, dissolved by Henry VIII, but the building still standing in parts. It was completely incongruous really, just these rather large ruined rooms in a field by the river that you could just wander around. On the other side of the river was a glorious restaurant where we had a beautiful meal. We intended to moor in there for the night so we returned for dinner as well. We were with my in-laws and my father-in-law took his Jack Russell dog everywhere with him when she was alive. This time was no exception, and she was allowed on the terrace of the restaurant. A few of us walked back to the boat after lunch, and she joined us but she soon went missing again. We were worried that she’d jumped into the river which she was inclined to do, and went back to the pub to alert my father-in-law while others jumped into the kayak to go looking for her. She had, though, decided to re-join my father-in-law in the restaurant and had navigated a rather busy and dangerous bridge. We found her wandering around the terrace, looking for my unsuspecting father-in-law. It was one of those days that sticks in my memory for being sunny, warm and utterly idyllic as we meandered along the river, eating a lazy breakfast and doing the crossword puzzle as a collective then mooring up by the convent.
Naturally, any dining experience is improved by good service. I think I can safely say it has been rare that I have experienced bad service, though I do remember the waiters in Paris being rather haughty. But the service was still excellent, and perhaps they were haughty because one of my companions pointed out that a fair bit of the shellfish was in fact British having been caught off the coast of Scotland.
I have been to many, many wonderful restaurants in my life and I am very fortunate for that. I can’t name one as my favourite, though, because each experience has been completely unique. The ones, though, that stand out in my memory do so because of the company I was with, the ambience, the location, a story, and lastly the food. As all good memories should.
Louisa Simpson 