Restaurant review: High Road Brasserie, Chiswick
The seabass wasn't half bad
In the current economic climate it may well be time to tighten the purse strings, batten down the hatches and cut down on the eating out. But try telling that to your better half on a gloomy Sunday night when you’ve been off playing golf all day. So this weekend we made our way to the High Road Brasserie in Chiswick.
House wine
Now someone once told me that you can judge a good restaurant by the quality of its house wine, so when the maitre d’ confessed to me that their house red wasn’t quite up to scratch I was left processing a multitude of thoughts. Did this mean that the restaurant was crap, was my host trying to make me fork out more for a pricier vintage or was i just being offered an honest answer to what an indiscreet question. Answers on a postcard please? Or maybe just on a post.
Malbec 2006
Personally, I will always rather spend a few quid extra on a decent tipple than endure a rubbish vino and this time around I was grateful to my host because the Malbec recommended went down very well indeed. I still don’t understand why you would stock a house red that’s no good but then neither do I understand why you would put aubergine parmigiana on the menu of a French restaurant. The fact that I ordered it was a basic schoolboy error on my part because you don’t go to a French restaurant to eat Italian food.
Pea soup
I did realize my mistake at the time but, as in most French restaurants, I was hardly inundated by vegetarian options, which essentially amounted to pea soup or a vegetable tart of some description. The chef at the High Street Brasserie may well be to vegetable tarts what Ben Ainslie is to sailing but that doesn’t mean I want to give it a go. As for my dish, it was doughy, dour and unremarkable.
1940s vibe
Still, the High Road Brasserie is not a vegetarian restaurant and it is a very pleasant place to while away a few hours. The atmosphere and service are both stylish and slick, the lighting low and accommodating, the decor giving off something of the 1940s Parisien vibe. As I mentioned the wine, a 2006 Malbec, was well worth the £24 I shelled out for it, while my dinner companions both enjoyed their tuna and sea bass dishes. By the way, I know you’re supposed to order white wine with fish but all three of us prefer red – so there.
Good fish
I was particularly envious of Sarah, who had a massive, mouthwatering tuna steak, which came rare and accompanied by a succulent tomato topping. The sea bass was also well-received – even if it did look as though it has just been fished out of the Thames, cleaved in half and slapped unceremoniously on to the plate while still in the final stages of rigamortis. We all shared tasty spinach, soggy fries and a crisp salad as side orders and finished our meal off with a dark chocolate mint mousse, which was overly rich and minty for my tastes.
Verdict:
All in all, at £35 a head it was a pleasant enough couple of hours – but I’d advise any vegetarians considering popping in to take the High Road.
Review:
High Street Brasserie: 5/10