Galvin La Chapelle

       Galvin La Chapelle of 35 Spital Square, E1 is a restaurant where I had lunch on Tuesday 22nd October 2013. The restaurant's building is the only remaining part of the original structure of Bishopsgate school for girls. The school has now relocated which is lucky for current diners as, in my experience, groups of teenage girls do not make for a good lunch experience. 

       I feel I should point out that I do not know this because of extensive research I undertook but because I apologised like a catholic to the waiter for my desperate need to instagram every course as it arrived. In response to this he quickly assured me that this was not a problem and arrived at the table a few minutes later with printed information about the building combined with a hope that this would help with my efforts in a certain competition...

Here is the inside of the building:

As you can see, the parts of the building which are listed are beautiful and the pride shown by everyone in them is certainly justified.

I feel I should mention the food. The thing is, it is all on the instagram account: teamwork2013 and it was all very good. for a fixed price menu of £24 I was a very happy customer.

However whether it was just my sinners soul, or the time of day, or having walked through the financial district to get there (more of a comment of my location than theirs) something felt strange. I have eaten in many wonderful places and many more less wonderful places but this was the first place that I felt slightly out of place. This has lead me to wondering if atmosphere can really be determined by the business. The staff were lovely, the building lovely, the food lovely, the aperitifs lovely and yet I didn't feel lovely. The question is, was that me or them - can it ever be that simple?

Cotidie - priced out of the market?

On Monday 14th October I had dinner at Cotidie, a fine dining Italian restaurant on Marylebone high street.  Taking advantage of the bookatable offer of a great value £30 three course menu with a glass of sparkling rose. Everything was good the service incredibly slick and the food offered was warming and, to my knowledge, very close to authentic Italian though obviously pimped into something you can serve in a 'less rustic' environment.

The meal ended up costing about £45 per person including service charge - reasonable given the two bellinis we had had before the meal. However, the picture below shows their normal a la carte menu with prices;

With prices for a starter beginning at £12, should the meal not be something almost perfect? Ok, not perfect but exciting? The food on this menu - not the same as the one we were given, another restaurant fails to understand discounting meals - is not particularly groundbreaking. For the price, it lacks.

However, they also had a bottle of Ruinart Blanc des Blancs on their wine list for £95 which is quite good value for champagne in a restaurant, especially one with such a significant mark up on it's food. Could it be that Cotidie has just had bad advice on their wet/dry pricing?

In a fairly central area of London it seems strange for a quality restaurant to have only 7 tables that ate while I was there (from 19:15 to 21:00). Has Cotidie priced itself out of the market? By aiming for exclusivity has it become so exclusive that no one will eat there?

Where does the hospitality starts?

Welcome to HSPTLT blog. We are 3 hospitality students currently studying at Westminster Kingsway College. In this blog we will share our experience and adventures while studying and working in this industry. Moreover we will bring up all kind of questions that interest our customers too. We will try to be fair and unbiased bringing the ideas/news to you. We are on the path to bring quality service to you in the future but right now join us on the interesting and entertaining journey we'll have.

Dainius