Giraffe launch party

Thanks to Mark (@DJStoney) for this write-up of launch night at Belsize Park Giraffe

"As a fan of the Tootsies American style restaurant that occupied the site, I was dubious about Giraffe taking over. After all, the first ever Giraffe (of 40 UK branches) is exactly 5 minutes walk away. However, the advantageous large format open-plan restaurant offers a different dining experience to the cosy (and brunch-tastic) Giraffe up the hill. Indeed, each and every site seems to have a local adaptation, which is a rare credential iun 'concept restaurants'.

I walked in to a personal greeting from the lovely @giraffetweet and the buzz in the place lent it a party feel. I was here for dinner, but the vibe was good. As I walked over to our reserved table my dining companions were waiting and smiling as they said they were recovering from 'the niceness of the staff'. No bad thing!

Giraffe has a world-influenced menu with representative dishes from all over including curry, stir-fry enchilada and steak. This, combined with the piped world music, gives a truly international feel to the place and the 'something for everyone' menu is great for families, mixed groups and kids.

We shared some nachos and mixed mezze for starters, which tasted good. Main courses involved chicken kiev, tasty ribs and our veggie diners were most satisfied with their super-food salad and pizza. An extensive drink menu including excellent smoothies (my fave is a GiddyGiraffe: papaya, fresh mint, banana, orange, lime juice) kept us going.

We shared the desserts, including the most popular choice on the menu: Banana Waffle Split (waffle with roasted banana, vanilla ice cream, chocolate & butterscotch sauce). We also had a chocolate brownie that they kindly customised due to my strange request of marshmallows (served on a saucer with teaspoon).

The food and service were faultless and the comments from the other #whampers who braved NW3 for launch night @WHampstead @mayfield22 @sorchapadmore @lisafparry @anna_black and @bubela) suggested they all enjoyed themselves. Thumbs-up all round."

Disclaimer: all the people mentioned above received a complimentary meal from Giraffe. Mark points out that as a professional mystery shopper, the freebie doesn't stop him from dishing out the criticism where necessary. Photos by @WHampstead, @DJStoney and @bubela.

Giraffe, Belsize Park

196-198 Haverstock Hill

London

NW3 2AG

020 7431 3812

http://www.giraffe.net/

Whamplunch on track at The Railway

It was great to see some new faces at #whamplunch today. Alongside #whamp regulars @DJStoney and @mayfield22, we welcomed @Ghoul_of_London who hadn't been put off by his experience at Le Petit Coin, @kerrypolka and @Frangelina as well as non-tweeting Marcia - a long-time West Hampstead resident - who used to be an active member of the now defunct CityNeighbours forum.

The Railway proved more than capable of meeting our lunch needs, the standard pub menu was good value for money, and Danny the new(ish) manager made a real effort to make sure we were looked after. Conversation revolved around feral squirrels, Shakespeare's history plays, the origins of Queens Park, the best local Iranian food, and whether the Neverending Story was fundamentally misnamed.

Next up... #whamptea at Bake-a-boo. More on that later...

Le Petit Coin, restaurant review

(NB: Le Petit Coin has now closed)

Game theory is a strange way to start any meal. Perhaps if you were at the Fat Duck you might expect a soupçon of deconstrutivist philosophy to accompany a deconstructed soup, but at a small neighbourhood French restaurant I generally expect bread and butter to be the opening gambit.

Le Petit Coin had two special offers - there was a food offer (£15 for two courses, £18 for three) and a wine offer (half-price on a selected white and a selected red - £22/£23 respectively). But you could only choose one offer. Ahhhhh... No doubt people much cleverer than ourselves could have devised a cunning plan to get the best value from this, but as no-one appeared to have an app for that, we all went for the food option.

Then came the bread and butter.

Our table of seven was the only one troubling the kitchen that night, and service was thus reasonably decent, although one suspects they're not that used to catering for parties larger than four. Between us we managed to try most of the starters - the menu is not extensive, and is all the better for it. Portion size varied hilariously: Alison's square bowl of French onion soup would have kept a clichéd Frenchman happy for days, while Jamillah's whitebait (unusually arranged all 'swimming' in the same direction), was half what you'd get at Greenwich's whitebait specialist The Trafalgar Tavern. Two Caesar salads were heavy on the dressing and light on the parmesan; baked oysters with mushroom ragout were neither baked nor accompanied by what most people would call a ragout, but were perfectly reasonable; deep-fried brie did exactly what it said on the tin; while the lobster and crab ravioli was "good".

The mains emerged staccato style as the wine (a Rioja Crianza that was a little too chilled) flowed and conversation ebbed - or was it the other way round? Jane and Jamillah's rabbit stew hit the mark, while Brad's vegetable couscous was presented unusually in two chef's ring-shaped roundels. In fact, chef's rings featured prominently in every dish except Tom's "slightly claggy" seafood risotto. My pork was cooked perfectly, and didn't need the rather odd, thin, tarragon-laden sauce that was mercifully on the side, nor frankly the diced sautéed potatoes plated up inevitably in a chef's ring and with unadvertised melted goats cheese completely unnecessarily drizzled in and among them. Tania and Alison had opted for the Wild Plaice [sic]. Can one even get farmed plaice? Sadly this simple dish was a disappointment - overcooked fish (this was the first dish to come out of the kitchen, and should have been the last), a beurre blanc that had gone badly wrong and a chef's ring of ratatouille that, while opinion varied as to its standalone quality, certainly didn't match the rest of the dish.

Desserts were a similarly mixed bag, and ordering wasn't helped when we realised that between us we had two slightly different menus. Was the crème brûlée lavender or was it star anise. It was the latter, and was very good. The profiteroles were generous, but the apple crumble was tiny and noticeably non-crumbly.

The attempt to do fairly traditional French bistro food in what is a determinedly modern restaurant setting is always going to rely on getting the food right. Perhaps on a busier night the atmosphere might have led us to be more lenient, but sadly it was hard to get behind a place that was so inconsistent - even when the food is served by a very smiley girl who was doing her best.

Does West Hampstead need somewhere that's such a gamble, even before you have to decide which special offer is right for you?

Ratings

Food 5.0

Service 8.7

Atmosphere 6.3

Overall impression 5.7

Good for: food served in round shapes

Bad for: the mathematically challenged

Le Petit Coin

351 West End Lane,

LONDON NW6 1LT

T: 020 7794 1200

W: http://www.lepetitcoin.co.uk/

Competition time: Giraffe opening in Belsize Park

Family-friendly world food restaurant chain Giraffe is opening in Belsize Park (taking over the old Tootsies).

Very kindly, it's given me 3 invitations for dinner for two on Thursday Jan 28th - opening week.

"How do i get my hands on these invitations?" I hear you ask.

"Simple", I reply, "but you're going to have to be quick off the mark."

Take and tweet a photo that includes both a giraffe and something recognisably West Hampstead. You MUST (and this is important) use the #whampgiraffe hashtag in your tweet. So, for example, a giraffe soft toy getting on the Jubilee Line, or a cut-out giraffe in the window of West End Lane Books. Use your imagination.

I will then pick the best three in consultation with @giraffetweet.

Deadline: 5pm Wednesday January 20th

If the free meal wasn't incentive enough, then you'll be even more excited to know that I'll be there that evening too*. I know!

*Giraffe has kindly given me these invitations to give away to fellow whampers, and has also generously invited me along too.

Boris comes to West Hampstead

Amid all the talk of ungritted roads, broken bones, and minor car accidents, a blond whirlwind struck West Hampstead on Friday morning.

Tory PPC Chris Philp had invited Mayor of London Boris Johnson to come and visit the neighbourhood ostensibly to have a "coffee and a chat" with locals about some of the issues that vex them. In reality, the Mayor artfully dodged most of the important questions with the wit and bluster that has carried him so far. He did manage, however, to give fellow Conservative Philp a ringing endorsement in far more direct terms.

Announcing the Mayor's itinerary in advance is slightly unusual, but had the desired effect of generating buzz among residents - both positive and negative. Cynics mused that the sudden appearance of grit on the pavements on West End Lane was linked to Boris's planned walkabout. Even the choice of Moment as the café was controversial, with many long-term residents still boycotting it due to its lack of planning permission when it first opened.

Digest sadly didn't receive a personal invitation to sit at the feet of BoJo, so rocked up to Moment at the appointed time to find a gaggle of local Conservatives outside, including deputy leader of the council Andrew Marshall, and an astonishing number of people inside. As I couldn't get in, I briefly pressed my nose against the glass and saw a shock of hair at the back of the room holding forth.

Unable to get up close and personal with the Big B, I retreated to The Wet Fish Café and followed the various tweets from those inside. Both @bubela and @kerrypolka were present and their accounts of the excitement follow.

@bubela "Boris and his entourage breezed into Moment on West End Lane, shaking hands all the way to his table at the back. With his self-deprecating manner and colourful (inventive, even) language,he kept the laughs going and it was all very good humoured. He started by congratulating Chris Philp on his work keeping the police station open, and said he looked forward to working with him when he's on the "green benches".He asked what locals felt about the bike hire scheme and was met with general murmurs of approval. "Some people aren't keen, but I have serene confidence: it's clean, green and...what else is it? Oh yes, healthy!"

Questions also covered a wide range of local issues, starting of course with the Jubilee Line problems. "The delay is intellectual", said Boris confusingly, before going on to blame Brown for the "crackpot" PPP initiative that was "a licence to steal for the contractors", and means "Tubelines can effectively funnel huge sums of taxpayers' money down the gullets of its own shareholders".

He had received a residents' petition at the station concering the Jubilee Line closures, but was "sorry to say the stoppages won't end until Autumn 2010".At that moment a waiter started the noisy fresh juicer. "Even the orange machine objects!" interjected Boris. Given the icy streets outside, he said that he had spoken to Lord Adonis (Secretary of State for Transport) about the lack of grit in London and that "Brown should personally be sent to the salt mines to bring some back".

Someone asked whether a pedestrian crossing could be put at the top of West End Lane? "I'll look into it," said Boris, "but every successful local campaign to hold up traffic for pedestrians has an equal adverse effect on drivers". After a couple of other questions, someone congratulating him for protecting Hampstead views ("Now that's the kind of question I like!") and some photos outside with Chris Philp, it was on with the bike helmet and off on the bike, followed by the entourage in a car."

@kerrypolka "When Boris Johnson addressed West Hampstead on Friday morning - or at least, a coffeehouse packed with those in West Hampstead who were free on a weekday 10:45 am, namely, Concerned Citizens, the retired, the freelancing and the unemployed - he was clear on three things:

1. He was earnest.

2. He was sincere.

3. Whatever it was, it wasn't his fault.

He pinched the air in front of his navel between thumb and first knuckle with the gravitas of a public-school lecturer. A petition was passed to him before the talk began concerning the seemingly endless Jubilee line upgrades. "I understand your pain," he informed the throng sincerely. However, he added earnestly, the problems were really all down to a contract Gordon Brown had arranged, as well as some "communist freesheets." Glad to have cleared that up.

The Mayor also highlighted the importance of environmentalism, by saying the word "green" a dozen times regardless of context, and played up his office's initiative in doubling the number of police patrol beats by reducing patrols from two officers to one. Could Livingstone have pulled off that kind of arithmetical coup? Doubtful. Nicknamed "The Bicycling Avenger", Johnson of course showed off his own green crime-fighting skills in November, when he saved environmental activist Franny Armstrong from pipe-wielding thugs.

He answered the brief Q&A session that followed his talk with a potpourri of couldn't-possibly-comments and I'll-do-the-best-I-cans, all delivered with an unshakable air of earnest sincerity. We would expect nothing less."

* * *

So, that was the view from two whampers inside. Here's the text of the speech from the Camden New Journal; the bells and whistles Web 2.0 "Vote Chris Philp" version; the Boris-can-do-no-wrong version; and a piece from Richard Osley's blog.

Sadly, there was no mature, considered response to the Jubilee Line fiasco; nothing to suggest he was helping broker some sort of agreement between the various parties to give passengers clarity on the closure programme for 2010. Finger-pointing politics once again ruled the day, whether the target was Gordon Brown, Ken Livingstone or TubeLines.

West Hampstead Digest No.12 - Review of the (er...) "Year"

Back in October, when @WHampstead had already been around for a good few months, it seemed like a good idea to take some of your messages and photos and aggregate them into a weekly round-up of the week's whampevents. Encouraged by some excitement that week, Digest 1 went to press on October 11, the week that the leafy streets of West Hampstead were rocked by gun crime. Choosing the lead story for Week 1 was as easy as bumping into Ken Livingstone on the morning commute into work.

Week 2 was momentous thanks to the inaugural whampgather. I won't lie. I was a wee bit nervous as I walked up to The Alice House. I didn't think that nobody would come, but I wasn't at all sure it was going to be a hit. My fears were swiftly allayed. A real big thank you to those of you that turned up that night and made it such a success. Of course one notable West Hampstead tweeter was absent but delightfully made up for it with a message that evening.

One of the long-running stories of the year was the power cuts that knocked out large chunks of the area with alarming frequency. EDF claims it is working on the problem, which involves a local substation, but the problem is big enough that it has its own hashtag now.

The billboards around the tube and train stations have prompted an unusual flurry of comments. Most recently, Tory PPC Chris Philp's cherubic face has beamed down on us, but earlier in the year it was the typos in the adverts for Alfred Court that caught the eye. After getting it wrong first time, one might have thought that all efforts would be made to get the replacement sign right. One might have thought.

Whampers once again found that there was no local fireworks display - the Primrose Hill display having been cancelled many years ago due to health and safety concerns. Somehow the message hasn't sunk in.

Travel problems have been the cause of most of the gnashing of teeth among Whamp tweeters. And it's not just been the Jubilee Line. Thameslink commuters, already coping with the long-running line improvement works encountered a whole new problem in mid-November.

Week 6 also saw whampers undertake the first whampreview at the Czech Restaurant. Perhaps the less said about it the better.

Later in November there was a major breakthrough for tweeters living around Willesden Green when Brent MP Sarah Teather's lobbying bore fruit and the Metropolitan Line stopped at the tube station when the Jubilee Line was closed. Hurrah.

A topic that always generates a surprising amount of interest is the opening and closing of new shops. Broadhurst Gardens was a veritable hub of retail comings and goings at the end of the month, with an eclectic mix of shops opening.

December brought the second whampgather - another roaring success, with a three-fold increase in attendees. Sadly, not all loyal whampers were able to make it. Their loss, some might say!

Bursting the bubble of whampeuphoria was news of the farcical Jubilee Line engineering works. TfL and its contractor Tube Lines played the blame game while passengers look like suffering.

In the run-up to the holiday season, we were all dreaming of a whamp Christmas and lo and behold, the white stuff began to fall. One short simple message captured everyone's ambivalence to snow: yes, we love to wake up to a blanket of white; no, we don't like to have to actually deal with it on a workday.

Finally, the Christmas edition of Digest threw a crossword at readers. Some attempted but only one succeeded. Congratulations to @bubela, who will be getting a free cappuccino. Here's the solution.

So that was @WHampstead in 2009. Roll on 2010. The Year of the Whamp.