I loved the dining room; lots of nice Art Deco touches, and I particularly wanted to steal the door handles from their bathroom. The crowd was somewhat diverse. Several tables of pretty young Soho-ites, several tables of Chinese people (always to be found when there are offers like this I find), and a couple of elderly couples.
We had potentially the sweetest waitress alive. Very chatty in a very un-British way, she caught us talking about the Masterchef finals and told us that Greg Wallace goes there often. For those who don't know who he is, this is the Masterchef judge who used to be a grocer, who no-one likes as he doesn't seem to know anything about food except that he thinks fat puddings are yummy.
It is one of those menus where you like everything and want to try everything. There were about 20 different starters, ranging from traditional ham hock terrine to oysters to several pasta dishes. I went for what apparently is their signature dish, the lobster spaghetti:
This is very reminiscent of lobster noodles, even with a little gingery spiciness. In truth, the pasta was a little overcooked, but the sauce was so rich and unctuous, it almost needed slightly overcooked pasta to soak it all up.
We were a bit more adventurous with the starter and tried the calves brains with tomato compote. Last time I had brains was lamb brains in some market in Kunming where it felt like they'd directly removed it, but it on a plate, and grilled it, such that it certainly still looked like a brain, and definitely tasted like you shouldn't be eating it. I was a little apprehensive to say the least:
But this was an entirely different experience. Deep fried in breadcrumbs, it was creamy and melt in the mouth, like someone had deep fried some meaty creme fraiche.
The mains read very much like Le Cafe Anglais, the other wonderful Art Deco British restaurant in Bayswater: lots of roasts, grills, simple yet delicious stuff. However, the thing Quo Vadis is famous for is their 56-day aged Hereford beef, available as a fillet, sirloin, or rib of beef for 2. Obviously it had to be the rib of beef, which we had with some triple cooked chips and purple sprouting broccoli:
It was only here that I had a little gripe. They are so proud of their beef that they bring the magnificent monster to your table to show you before they carve it at a nearby table. However, this whole process, along with cold plates, meant that by the time we were tucking in, everything was a little cold. And I do suspect sometimes that maybe ribs of beef should be cooked just a little bit more in order to get the fat to run a bit better. Overall, no rib of beef has yet beaten the one at Great Queen Street. The triple cooked chips are fab though, although at normal price of £4.50 a portion for about 12 chips, they really ought to be good.Somehow we managed to talk ourselves into having some pudding, although it was already beginning to hurt to sit upright anymore. I was more interested in the poached pear that came with the tonka creme brulee, and mentioned it to the waitress, and she actually went and asked the chef to do two pears with our portion (at no extra charge!).
It was mainly because I'd spied next door having this that made me want to try it. I'd never seem a creme brulee served like that before, they are often so boringly in little ramekins, with tons of uninteresting custard underneath. This was probably one of the best I've ever eaten, and I loved the fact that they burnt some of the pear too.I would definitely go back, just to try some of the other stuff (the steak tartare is apparently amazing), but not sure I would be in a hurry to go at full prices. The food bill came to about £60 for 2 after the discount had been taken off, so at full price it would be quite hefty. Somehow Le Cafe Anglais and Great Queen Street manage to deliver better value I think.
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