Story: Little Bay Restaurant Farringdon

Now I was looking for a nice but cheap place to go out for dinner with my friends. As usual we struggled to decide on a place.

However, based on a request from my friend Shaniqua*, for’ something different’, I found Little Bay after browsing the web. A quirky little place described as

“Stepping into Little Bay is like entering your eccentric art-nouveau-collecting, gin-sipping aunt's front room. With turquoise velvet walls, gilt-framed Baroque paintings, vintage lampshades and candles flickering in empty wine bottles, this romantic neighbourhood restaurant is a hit with the local media mafia”- well how could I resist?

On arrival it was indeed all of the above! Having been irritated all evening by a contact lens I quickly made my way to the toilet to sort it out. Entering the ostentatiously decorated toilet (turquoise pebbled floor and crazy paved mirror door- definitely my kind of place!), I lent close to the mirror and squeezed my lens. My eyes were really dry and the lens popped out and fell away. Oh man! Getting on my hands and knees I patted my hands over the entire floor.
This lead me to realise 2 things, the floor was very dirty and the light was really dim! Damn, neither was good for my situation. Not wanting to give up I frantically patted every surface in the toilet with one eye shut and the other desperately overcompensating and wide as a Minstrel, trying not to let the dimness beat me- I hate admitting defeat!!

15 mins later, with one eye tired from squinting and the other fatigued from overcompensating, I struck gold as my fingers ran over something wet and squidgy! Joy!!! Eagerly bringing it right up to my face with a big smile and a wide eye ready to review how dirty it was, my mouth curled in disgust- eurghhhhhhhhhh it wasn’t my longed for lens but a small piece of squashed food brought in on someone’s shoe!

It’s really hard to say whether I felt more disappointed or more like wretching. I sat on the toilet for a minute to gather myself, then realised, even if I did find it, the floor was so frickin dirty I wouldn’t want to put it back in my eye anyway!

Defeated and squinting (one eye), I made my way back to the table where my friends Shaniqua, Easty* and Morse* were laughing at how long I’d been in the toilet, speculating on what could have caused ‘my stomach upset’.

On to the food
Starters: I had a classic goats cheese soufflé- I have to say this was really good, one of the best I’ve ever had.

Main: I had lamb which was really well cooked a great size. The food was turning out to be a lot better than I had anticipated. It’s cheap, really cheap when you consider what you get- good size portions, good quality and full of flavour!
We had a side of chips and I think I will only ever eat chips cooked in goose fat from now on- delicious.

Dessert: was a revelation, pistachio crème brule with a wafer straw filled with a white chocolate cream. Again, something totally unexpected, tapping my way through the caramelised top, it was full of flavour. The only criticism is that it was far too small, I could easily have polished off one twice as big! The apple cake Easty had was even better! The delicious crumbly shortbready sponge on top of the lovely fruity stewed apples will be my choice next time!

100% recommend this place. Food was full of flavour and the restaurant, full of character. Although, if you’re scared of clowns, this may not be the right place for you!

*No real names have been used to protect their identities