North Pole Piano Restaurant – Reviewed By Helen Forrest

Date Of Visit: 6th February 2009

As a pre-Birthday celebration for our Lewisham friends, whose birthday’s both fall in the same week, I booked the stylish sounding, North Pole Piano Restaurant through TopTable. They were offering a much welcome 50% off from the a la carte menu (when ordering a minimum of 2 courses), combine this with the advertised ‘happy hour’ that lasts from 4pm-8pm most evenings and it was a done deal.

I arrived first, the venue being only a few minutes from Greenwich DLR and Rail station. The North Pole encompasses a bar on the ground floor, the South Pole nightclub in the basement and the first floor dining room that we were headed for. We all arrived in time to have a couple of drinks in the chilled bar, which played some laid back beats despite having the dreaded ‘VIP’ room (barely more than a curtained alcove with a couple of sofas, its presence was still jarring in the otherwise relaxed ambiance). The bar remained fairly quiet whilst we we sat enjoying a not bad bottle of red, reasonably priced at £15.95; the house wine was on offer at £7 but we declined. I say quiet, that was apart from the rather disappointing appearance of a reality TV reject. This, the fact that there was no soap in either the bar or restaurant toilets, and the presence of the VIP room made me think that the classy website was rather misleading…

However, once we climbed the spiralesque staircase, the overall impression was much more appealing. There was the subtle decor, the piano in the corner just waiting for its ivories to be tinkled… It was also surprisingly busy with an older, more refined clientele than downstairs.

The tablecloth was rather scruffy at my end of the table which was a little disappointing, and I have already mentioned the toilet problem, but the staff were friendly and attentive for the most part, even offering to take a group photo when they saw our camera.

We ordered another bottle of the wine we had enjoyed downstairs and then ordered from a menu that would suit most palates, a mixture of meat, seafood and vegetarian options. The starters were between £6-£8 and the mains hovered around the £17 mark.

I had planned to go for the Asian Crab starter but this had been replaced by a salad of Baby Octopus, so I plumped for that instead. EMI Guy also chose the Octopus but instead of my Sea Bream main he selected the Breast of Duck. The Veggie had a couple of choices but went for the Soup of the day, which was Red Pepper and Tomato, followed by the Goats Cheese and Leek pie. Finally the Translator ordered the Salmon Fishcakes to start and the Rib eye of Beef as her main.

Our food came out in good time and the first talking point was the Octopus. Neither EMI Guy nor I had ever had Baby Octopus before and they were rather wondrous to behold! The Veggie was torn between fascination and disgust and declared it looked as if someone had emptied a fish tank on our plates. We both enjoyed the dish; the little suckers had been lightly cooked and were tender and flavoursome, with the bite of chorizo and the aniseed tones of fennel to counterbalance the Octopus. EMI Guy pointed out that it seemed as though the seafood had been reheated rather than cooked to order, but as it wasn’t tough it hardly mattered.

The Veggie felt her soup was a bit of a let down, not having the depth of flavour she had expected. As she makes a mean Red Pepper and Tomato soup herself, she may be a more harsh critic than most I don’t know!

The Translator enjoyed her fishcakes very much; a simple dish but sometimes easy to get wrong this version looked light and tasty enough.

Unfortunately, the mains were rather more variable. I probably fared best with well cooked, delicious fillets of Sea Bream (one of my favourite fish), served with a gorgeous cream and tarragon sauce and succulent mussels that really enhanced the dish. The same fennel as was served with my starter was also welcome here but it would have been nicer if the advertised Caponata had made an appearance.

EMI Guy’s Duck also went down well, nicely done with the right amount of pinkness this was served with sweet potato fondant and red cabbage. His one complaint was that the different components of the meal were of varying temperature, which smacks of a timing problem in the kitchen.

The other two main’s weren’t so pleasing. The Veggie’s pie was mostly goat’s cheese with very little trace of leek; apparently like a cheese and onion pasty. The rest was a so-so mixture of veg but it was a small portion compared with ours. The Translator fared even worse with her Rib eye steak arriving rare rather than medium rare, it actually looked raw in places. She managed to eat most of it but said that it lacked that nice char grilled outside and was much too stringy in some parts. Her potato wedges were also underdone being crunchy rather than crispy and soft inside, they looked rather anaemic.

Despite this disappointment (and the pounding music that floated up from the bar downstairs whenever the door was opened) we all felt able to tackle the tempting dessert menu. The Translator had the Creme Brulee was which lovely and EMI Guy had the Sticky Date pudding, which although drier than imagine went down well. The Veggie and I shared the Cheese, Chutney and Crackers plate, which was a highlight of the meal. Lovely Goat’s cheese and cheddar complimented by the most gorgeous chutney which seemed to have aubergine in it (perhaps a relative of my missing Caponata?).

The bill came quickly enough and was reasonable with the 50% off offer but would have been overpriced otherwise. The food was too variable in quality and in some cases quantity and what could have been a fantastic venue was blighted by a nagging issues. The piano playing was great though.

North Pole Piano Restaurant
131 Greenwich High Road
Greenwich
SE10 8JA

http://www.northpolegreenwich.com