Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The Gay Hussar, 2 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4NB

This is a comfortable fairly intimate restaurant on Greek Street just of Tottenham Court Road.  I went with my friend Tabor as we had a voucher from NCrowd to eat 2 courses and a glass of wine for £15 each.

 

I am told that the decor in this restaurant is actually a bit faded.  It’s full of pictures of politicians who have visited and I can see why they might want to.  The portions were generous and the food was high quality.

 

For starters I had mixed Hungarian Hors d’Oeuvres which had a bit of most of the starters including sausage, Salami,  cured herring, asparagus, peppers, fish  Terrine and  goose and pork paté

 

Tabor had Fish Terrine which comes with  beetroot  sauce and cucumber salad as well as some egg mayo, though that extra bit was not on the menu.  Both starters were generous.  My starter cost £9 but really there was enough for 2.  For £7.50 there was a generous rich portion of fish terrine which contained salmon we think.  it was very rich and tasty.     My mixed starter gave me a good idea of the other choices on the starter menu including the sausage and salami which were both very good quality.

 

For mains I had  Stuffed cabbage with minced pork, sauerkraut, bacon, sausage and a thick gravy with galuska which are dumplings.  It was a huge portion and the sausage, bacon and pork mince in the cabbage were all clearly of good quality.  I did think that having the sausage and bacon did tend to make the dish too salty but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Tabor had the Duck Livers Sautéed with onions, bacon and paprika which also came with potatoes.    

 

On the normal menu, my stuffed cabbage would have been £15 and Tabor’s duck livers would have been  £16.  This does seem quite a lot of money to pay for main dishes but we are talking west end here and the size of the portions was definitely on the large side.

 

 

I managed a dessert as well.  I opted for Chestnut Puree flavoured with Dark Rum and Vanilla which cost £6 but there was loads of it.

 

Staff were generally quite attentive without being full on and too in your face.  The restaurant is carpeted with plenty of soft furnishings which should mean you can have a nice cosy conversation though there was a posh rather loud woman sitting behind me who was rather loud and full of her own self-importance.  She told the person she was eating with and talking at that she lives in Parris where she has lived for many years.  They can keep her!

 

Lastly, once we had eaten, the bill arrived very quickly indeed and I really appreciate this quick service.

 

 

 

In general I would give this restaurant 7.5 out of 10.  not cheap at all but the quality is very good and it’s reasonable for SoHo.