When John booked Cavita for this get together, conveniently choosing a location that suited me coming on from tennis at Lord’s, I hadn’t realised that I would be more or less returning to the scene of my hip op nine month’s earlier, at the Fortius Clinic, two doors down in Wigmore Street.
Hence the headline photo.
I resolved, before looking at the Cavita menu, that I would abstain from ordering any dishes such as knuckle of veal or pork. I guess I am too steeped in penny dreadful London melodrama of the Sweeney Todd variety.
Anyway, I needn’t have worried – Cavita’s menu was suitably elegant, magnificent and certainly oriented away from dishes where you wrestle with your food and/or end up wondering which species you might be eating.
Here is a link to Cavita’s on-line menus.
While here is a link to the dinner menu in force when we ate there.
Cavita is one of those “sharing plates” restaurants, which I must say rather appeal to me these days, as you can regulate the amount of food you eat as long as you are well advised by your waiting staff.
The young woman who looked after us at Cavita provided good advice on portion sizes, sharing and the like. John & I tried:
- TLAYUDA VEGETARIANA – an Oaxacan mushroom concoction on a corn bread base – to share;
- QUESABIRRIA – a beef shin stuffed tortilla which was seriously gooey – one each;
- G R I N G A – a flour tortilla with Iberico pork – well yummy – one each;
- PESCADO ZARANDEADO – line caught sea bass prepared (half and half) with two marinations – to share;
- FRIJOLITOS (refried beans) – side order to share – because you cannot judge a Mexican restaurant without judging the refried beans. These were excellent.
We drank some pleasant wine by the glass – I went for a Chilean Chardonnay – Clos des Fous, whereas John opted for an Izadi Rioja Blanco.
The whole meal was excellent, but the fish was undoubtedly the eye-catching highlight. At one point I sensed that we were being watched form the next table and spotted that the gentleman from the couple next to us seemed to be staring at our table as he was rising to leave. Perhaps he spotted that I had noticed him, as he came up to us before he left and said,
That fish looks amazing – is it as delicious as it looks?
We told him that it was.
Unlike the manner in which the fish caught, John and I caught up on things socially speaking. It’s been a while since our last dinner catch up together and was most pleasurable. But all too soon realised that John has a long hike back to Saffron Walden and that we both had an early start workwise the next day, despite the fact that we are both, theoretically, working less now.
We were enjoying ourselves sop much that we didn’t get around to taking food porn photos. Still. there are enough of those available on the Cavita website and on-line reviews.
John & I will try not to leave it so long between dinner meet ups next time. If I can keep away from places like the Fortius Clinic and stick to spending time in more enjoyable places, such as Cavita Restaurant, John & I should be able to attain that goal.