Lulu's

Now that we have moved a whole swathe of dinner options are now more available to us. The mortgage of course means we are being more careful about how often we eat out, and having a more spacious kitchen and dining area makes dining at home more of a pleasure. Our dishwasher, however, is 'a piece', as the expression goes, so going out is often justified by a fatigue of doing the dishes. The roundabout destination of this sunday afternoon ramble is to make the point that we have visited a number of extremely fine establishments recently, which I may blog about in series, beginning today with Saturday evenings choice; Lulu's.

We'd had been to Lulu's once before to see our favorite Richmond Blue's duo do their thing. I think it was a Sunday night or something, because the food was serve yourself buffet style straight from the kitchen. It was, um, dodgy. Perhaps the management has changed since then (I know they are now owned by the same people that run Millie's, a popular brunch spot). Richmond.com had a positive review of the place and suggested that the prices were reasonable, so we decided to give it another try.

When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of the place, which had definitely smartened up since out last visit. The menu was a printed on a single side of paper, and given the class of the place the prices were relatively reasonable. OK, I thought the prices were steep, but I'm a cheapskate. At least to portions turned out to be generous. We got a table near the kitchen, which is still very open plan with respect to the dining area; a couple of metal shelving units separated me from the head chef. To one who enjoys such shows as Top Chef and Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares it was fun to be able to see the kitchen in action.

The food was good. I won't bore you with a long description of what we ate. We ordered seafood, of course, and some red meat. From our selections I think it would be fair to say that the menu is original, without pushing most diner's comfort zone. Everything was well cooked. Service was prompt and personable. Will I go back? Possibly not, but that's just because there's so many other places to try!