Acton mum Lou Toosey finds huge portions and attentive staff

The entire Toosey family: myself, husband, my two sons, Elmo 9 and Albie 4 and our gentle Korean lodger ventured to Poet’s Brasserie for a birthday celebration.

The name of the restaurant and the stripy green awning outside inspires something French but confusingly the menu, general theme and music (soft pop) are all Italian. The owner is Macedonian, the chef is Croatian, and the waitresses Lithuanian  - a very Acton eclectic mix perhaps!

The waitresses were super attentive and took all our coats, scooters away and gave the boys colouring books and pencils.  They continued to be very child-friendly all evening  (one was an ex-nanny) and dealt with our demands – request for the kids’ steak sauce to be put on the side, mopping up spilled lemonade and the noise!

The decor was pleasant enough, but could do with a trendy overhaul, since the furniture, artwork and china is a bit 1990’s mass produced and uninspiring, and suspiciously the same as the restaurant's previous incarnation of Mijori Korean restaurant. That said, everything was immaculately clean – I would hazard a guess that the restroom facilities were the cleanest of any other Acton eaterie!

We weren’t the only diners despite being there in the early evening. I would imagine the whole restaurant could seat at least 40 diners comfortably.

The menu is vast with about 5-10 entries for every section which includes specials of the day.

The wine list is promising with seven white and seven red choices – mainly European and New World wines (prices £13-£27). We tried two (hey it was a celebration!)  - The Pinot Grigio at £14.50 a bottle and the Chilean house white £13.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the food which was hearty and cooked well – starters: my Insalate Caprese with proper buffalo mozzarella, the others who all had something fried – Calamari Fritti, Fungi Fritti and Whitebait  - but they all came beautifully presented with lots of salad and were lightly battered, delicious and fresh tasting, like they made it on the spot and definitely not from the freezer!

Main courses were gargantuan – my husband had a daily special “lamb chops with potatoe, onion gratain, grilled tomatoes. Served with red wine and balsamic sauce £15.50". ( I have directly copied their spelling!!)

I had the excitingly named Saltimboca (but not very pc) veal escalope with amazing melt in the mouth homemade gnocchi. The only downside being that it was wrapped in bacon and not the pancetta as specified in menu and so was rather too salty.

Expensively, my bloodthirsty children declined any of the homemade bambini meals and opted to share the Tagliata – prime sirloin steak cooked to your liking with semi-glace sauce and served with chips (£14.90).  Kyungmi from Korea had the mixed grill so along with the left over lamb chops  (my husband was given 7!) and the kids steak  – there was rather a lot of meat left on the plate. My advice would be to order fewer mains and more contorni or primi platti.

Desserts were sublime, all homemade and well presented generous portions: a tiramisu and a crumbly light chocolate cheesecake and we were offered a complimentary limoncello afterwards.

The bill was not cheap £116   –  for 3 adults and 2 kids (sharing starter and a main), 2 bottles of wine, but I would recommend the delicious food and friendly service and remember that the portions are big enough for two.

LOU TOOSEY

06 April 2011