SOS: restaurant review

Smiths on Smithfield was the venue for a friends party on saturday night and as we were there I thought it would be a good idea to try John Torode's eating establishment for a spot of dinner first.

SOS is an interesting place, split into four levels with restaurants and food for different occasions on each floor. The ground floor is a nice bar with some good snack food, the first floor has an impressive stocked wine room where they serve pizza and more simple fayre. There is also a private dining room on the first floor that caters for parties.

The top floor is the fine dining room, with views of St Paul's and most of the city of London, but sadly we were a little short of time for a full tasting menu so we had settled on the second floor which specialises in grilled meats.

I started with chicken liver parfait which was served on a toasted brioche
with a homemade pickle, the whole ensemble worked well together, with the pickle cutting through the richness of the parfait. My girlfriend was less impressed with her choice of French onion soup, although it was solid it was a little acidic.

For main course I settled on the pork belly and mashed potato, while my girlfriend went for a classic steak frites. The pork was well cooked and the meat was tender and juicy, although some of my crackling had failed to crackle properly (which always a bit of a disappointment) it was served with an interesting parsley garnish which really complimented the fattyness of the meat.

My girlfriends mild disappointment continued with her sirloin steak, although it was cooked exactly to order she said it was the meat was good, not great.

The wine list was also pretty darn good, and in reality it would have been nice to have a red wine with the meal but as we were there for a night out afterwards we ended up going for a very nice 2008 Izadi white Rioja.

To sum up I personally thought that the food was good, and the general decor was really cool as was the night out later, I would recommend it as a solution to a number of eating and night out conundrums. I am definitely keen to go back and try the top floor soon.