tinned fish restaurant

This is taken from the Propel newsletter dated 16/09/2014 and anyone at all who eats here must truly have more money than sense.  I know nothing more other than the information printed here, but if the restaurant is successful I’m thinking of setting up a Japanese pop-up selling only pot noodles made up and poured on a plate with a bit of salad round them.  There’s a rather ugly side to the food industry in Britain that is involved in making people think they are eating something better than they really are and charging the earth for it.   The prices here look outrageous but at least they are not trying to hide the fact that they are selling tinned fish.  If people are stupid enough to throw their money away at this place then arguably they deserve a wage cut as they don’t have the brain power necessary to deal  with the amount of money they have.

 

Tinned fish restaurant opens in London: A pop-up restaurant selling only tinned fish has opened in Upper James Street, Soho, London. The restaurant, Tincan, is the brainchild of the architecture company AL_A (sic), whose team apparently came across a similar restaurant in Lisbon. The menu at Tincan features 28 different types of tinned fish, all of which are served with bread and salad. Prices start from £7 for more common tinned fish, and rise to £28 for a tin of wild red tuna, or blue-fin tuna. Other tins include anchovies, baby sardines, calamari in ink, clams, cockles, cod liver, mackerel, mussels, octopus and scallops. Everything from the tables and chairs to the light fittings has been specially designed for the restaurant by AL_A, which describes Tincan as “bringing the culture and sensibility of an architect’s studio to a restaurant”. The restaurant is open for the next six months from midday to 11pm Monday to Thursday, and 11am to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

 

Remoli Pasta 14 fresh food, Great Eastern Market,Westfield Stratford City shopping centre

Most shopping centres are unpleasant and full of chain stores.  Westfield Stratford City is, at the time of writing, the largest in Europe I believe and in general, I really am not keen on shopping centres.

 

If you can look past these undoubtedly negative aspects of all shopping centres, Westfield Stratford does have something going for it.  For blind people there is the roaming concierge.  If you go to the   helpdesk at the front and ask for assistance to the store you want to go to, someone can generally help.  As always, Westfield Stratford is largely made up of expensive shops with the odd cheap clothes shop thrown in. the only supermarkets are Waitrose and M&S and shops stocking odd and expensive fashion brands are very much in evidence.

 

The main purpose for this blog though is food.  There are some quite unusual places in the shopping centre which are not chains.  There’s Caribbean Scene and rhythm Kitchen for Caribbean  food for example and there is tap east the shopping centre pub that brews its own beer. 

 

Today I am reviewing Pasta Remoli which is a stall in the Great Eastern Market which is at the other side of the market to the underground.  There are tables to eat, but they are in the shopping centre just next to the shop.  The shop does in fact offer take away pasta dishes as well as pasta, sauce and ingredients that you can take home.

 

I was looking for a place to eat with a friend who is a Gourmet Society card holder and this seemed to be the only restaurant offering the gourmet society deal in in the area that wasn’t a curry house.  When reviewing where to eat I was struck by the number of ;positive reviews on Trip advisor.  Out of 75 reviews, 51 were excellent, 20 were very good and 4 were average.  I needed to try this place out and in fact I wish I had done so much earlier.

 

The menu on the website is a bit tricky to view so I’ve included a sample of the pasta dishes available here  so you can get an idea of price.  I had the

 

Ox tail Agnolotti in its juice(Agnolotti is a kind of ravioli ). £7.00

Ham & parmesan tortellini in chicken, mushroom & pea sauce £7.00

Pappardelle in Italian sausage ragu £7.50

Tagliatelle with Bolognese £7.50

 

Fish dishes

 

Seafood Spaghetti£12.90

Spider crab ravioli in spicy cherry tomato sauce £8.95

 

Vegetarian dishes

 

Fusilli with Arrabbiata sauce (spicy tomato sauce with chilli) £6.00

Potato Gnocchi with Basil pesto sauce £6.80)0

 

Pasta with seasonal vegetables sauce

Chili, garlic, parsley, courgette, cherry tomato & buffalo ricotta £6.50

 

Black truffle mushroom ravioli in cheese sauce £7.50

Spaghetti tomato & mozzarella £6.00

Spinach & ricotta ravioli with butter, sage & parmesan £6.90

 

I had the Ham & parmesan tortellini in chicken, mushroom & pea sauce with mozzarella   and parma ham  on bread as a starter.  My friend Miss S had the Black truffle mushroom ravioli in cheese sauce and the Spinach & ricotta ravioli.

 

Both of us agreed that the pasta was fresh and not dried out and that the quality  of the ingredients was generally high.  There are various chain stores claiming to be authentic Italian.  Carluccios is probably the most well known but I have found that some of the food from this chain certainly  has a bit of a left lying around feel to it.  This was really not the case for Remoli.  My mozzarella and bread was fresh   and the pasta was cooked in a tasty sauce full of flavors with a rich consistency.    The portion of pasta was also quite generous and for the money the food was excellent.

 

This may not be the place for a romantic dinner but if you are out and about and you want some really high quality pasta at a competitive price then I would say you need go no further than Remoli pasta.  They will also sell bottles of wine. These hold about half a pint and there are no proper glasses so you have to do with a large plastic cup.  Still with food such as this I have no complaints and the staff were friendly and helpful.  I think most if not all were actually Italian as well.

 

I’d like to eat in more comfortable surroundings I suppose but the food is great and prices are very reasonable.  There’s little not to like and I give this restaurant a score of 8/10.