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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Description: A "bare" and "no-nonsense" Clerkenwell yearling, where the staff are "amiable", and the food is usually "varied" and "imaginative".
Food: 
Service: 
Ambience: 
Phone: 020 7837 0009
Website: http://www.theambassadorcafe.co.uk
Open: Open Monday-Saturday noon-3.30pm and 6.30-10.30pm. Sunday 11am-5pm
Dress code: None
Good for: Good food, Ambience.
Payment options: All major cards accepted
The Ambassador: A diplomatic dining experience
When Clive Greenhalgh was working front-of-house at Adam and Kate Robinson's Brackenbury more than a decade ago, a customer who had been involved in the creation of Les Ambassadeurs club in the 1950s took him to task over the esoteric quality of the wine list.
The Ambassador, the Exmouth Market restaurant and bar that Greenhalgh has recently opened, is a tribute to that chap who, incidentally, came to see the wisdom of encouraging experimentation by offering small producers' output by the glass.
The look and feel of the restaurant have references to the utilitarian, post-war Fifties but are also a powerful evocation of the painting Nighthawks by the American realist Edward Hopper.
Bare green melamine tables, a long bar lit by suspended milky glass shades, what looks like lino on the floors; it just needed a few uncommunicative souls sitting on the bar stools to complete the picture.
The evening we visited, though, any incipient angst was dissipated by some perfectly jolly people sitting in the dining area and an animated open kitchen presided over by chef Tobias Jilsmark, formerly of La Trompette and The Waterway.
The wine list was also uplifting - a tempting document with much of the content available by glass and carafe. We read the short daily changing menu to the tuneful accompaniment of two 175ml glasses of excellent Grüner Veltliner Sepp Moser at £4.25 each.
Adam Robinson is a bit of an unsung hero of the London restaurant biz. His alumni would impress you. Think Trish Hilferty of The Fox and Jonathan Jones of Anchor & Hope.
I recollect writing in my 1997 London Restaurant Guide - where The Brackenbury won the readers' award - that the place was run like a canny household; smart shopping making the most of a modest budget. That approach lives on at The Ambassador.
In price, first courses that evening rose no further than £8.50 for crab and baby spinach salad, and main courses no more than £17 for poached halibut with spring carrots, hispi cabbage (a sweet-flavoured pointed variety) and Alsace bacon.
The crab and spinach salad in a sort of thin mayonnaise, with some baby tomatoes contributing a few sharp asides, was beautiful. A first-course casserole of squid and pig's cheek was given additional impact by a spoonful of pesto and a nice background mumble from the presence of white haricot beans.
Chicken breast is a phrase usually far removed from any connotations of sexiness. But Haughey Farm chicken breast with morels and wild garlic was a bosom to sink yourself into - tender, yielding, succulent and, in terms of garnish, totally of the moment.
Breast of veal is a cut with a potential rarely realised by chefs. Here it was braised, with sweetness provided not by carrots - a natural partner of veal - but by cubes and also purée of pumpkin. Fried sweetbread of veal was perched on top. We shared purple-sprouting broccoli as a side order and there was plenty for two.
The success of the chocolate fondants with cakey exteriors and molten middles made by the company Gü make every such pudding suspect in a restaurant - but no less delicious. Cheeses, which included Roquefort, Brebis (sheep's cheese) de Puy and Salers de Bubon, are presented at the rational, reasonable price of £5 for the three. Most restaurants price cheese out of their market - and then it goes off. So foolish.
The Ambassador's staff are unusually agreeable, obviously trained to offer a taste of even the pouring wines before pouring them. With Moro in the same street, Exmouth Market habitués are now truly spoiled for choice.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
