Thursday 25 October 2007

Unlucky night out in Westminster

London is a city where you can find something to do any night of the week. You'll find in Harrods pictures of Trafalgar Square without people. That's a really hard thing to see in real life: even at 4am there is people wandering around.
There are many places you could go out and I don't intend to write a list of them. But, slowly, I will be describing the places I go to.

I will start with the so-known Cheers London in Regent Street. The pub is named after the US sitcom, which in turn is inspired in the now same-named pub in Boston. When you go in, you expect to find the characters of the series or some quiet place where to hung around, but what you find, instead, is a quite normal pub, very similar to those newly open British ones. Sports is the main thing. If you don't like them, I wouldn't recommend going there. Followers will just walk in and start shouting chants. The weird thing, you can't have lager (I think that was what it was) in the first bar, so, if your friends are having wine there, you'll have to go order in the other room. The slogan, like in the series and in the pubs in the US, is: "Where everybody knows your name". I guess some time in the day it can be quiet and, if there is a waiter that has been there for long, perhaps will know someone's name. But, certainly, nothing similar to the sitcom. Plus, they don't have a big variety of beers.
My rate: very very low, almost a 1. There are many charming pubs, search for one of them and leave Cheers for the average tourist.

Gaucho is an Argentinian restaurant chain. I am normally against chains but, like the one above, I didn't get to choose. The one I went was the one in Piccadilly. I've eaten Argentinian food before, many times, so I know, as an outsider, more or less what is all about. Meat is major so you can't go there and not have a big piece. Argentinian meet has something different, I am not sure, something about the way it is cut, but, anyhow, it tastes delicious. Though this place is not what you would expect of an Argentinian restaurant. In our mind we all have this old place with old wooden furniture and a big fat grannie who would come to you and tell you what you can eat. No, this place is all but that. It is posh and fashionable. Black and White are the colours, and everything smells a bit of a cow (the leather all around, it must be). The waiters and waitresses are from all around. Australian must be the major thing, though you can find Poles and we had the chance to have an Spanish one in the bar. Talking about the bar, it is too dark to read the menu. The bar is nice, but could be any other country's for what that matters. The restaurant is in the basement and everything looks so fashion that you are a bit scared of touching things. Too loud, but this is normal in this city. God thing is that it is an open kitchen but no smoke goes into the restaurant. Do not look for chimichurri in the menu in the section of sauces for the meat, even though it is the traditional sauce for the asado. Though, they'll bring some with the bread: ask the waiter what it is, he'll pronounce something that doe not sound like it, tease him a bit pronouncing it with your well learned Spanish accent.
The food is good but try not to tell your Argentinian friends about it: they'll bring you to the country side and you'll have a whole meal with as much meat as you want and litters of sauce for the price of one glass of wine in Gaucho.
My rate is low, but not like above: 5/10. Good food but extremely overpriced - but this is no surprise here. Great place but wrong motto.

To finish up the night, you can go to the Roadhouse in Covent Garden. No much to say there: it is a big club with live music. You can be lucky and have a good band, but I was not and I had to listen to covers of 90's Rock, though they thought they were singing the best and they just sung the most known. When all the audience knows the lyrics, you can imagine that it will be a live version of MTV. When the band left, the music turn into plane pop we-all-know-it songs. The best: one of the waitresses, who would server 7 people at once and not even blink. The wine was reasonably good. They prepare cocktails on demand. Though, my rate is still just 5/10. It is definitely just an easy night out.

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