Good Restaurant in the Kingston/Richmond Area?

[childofsai]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a good place to take a date to on Monday. My usual searches haven't given any good results yet. Any recommendations?

Regards,

childofsai

[jonY]

Resurrecting this thread as I was at Adesso for lunch today and can concur with several recommendations by various chowhounders.

Highlights:

Parmigiana - A perfect combination of aubergine, egg, tomatoes, parmesan and basil

Carbonara A Siciliana - No cream in this Sicilian version of carbonara but plenty of flavour and generosity with ingredients

Linguine al Granchio - Excellent flavour once again. You get a sauce packed with seafood goodness.

Tiramisu - Great tiramisu. Plenty of cream but still manage to keep it light.

Slight negatives:

Tagliatelle al Tartufo - Expected more from this dish. The texture of the tagliatelle was slightly squidgy(if you can consider that a word) and a bit too much cream didn't really allow the truffle to stand out.

Coffee - Quite sub-standard coffee. Latte came all frothy with too much milk.

Final thoughts:

Despite a few downsides, Adesso impressed me on a whole with full flavoured Italian cusine. The portions were very generous as well and provide fairly good value for money. The service, though a bit slow getting to our mains, was very pleasant. Have a go if you're ever in the area!

[childofsai]

Any good chinese/thai places that have decent options for vegetarians?

[socanth]

Adesso = Sicilian on Richmond Hill, very nice, good mushroom risotto.

Tangawizi = Indian by Richmond bridge, again very good and nice veggie dishes. Quite dark too...

There's a Thai place also on Richmond Hill that is always busy but I haven't been.

There's a lovely tiny Italian place just by Richmond station that always has a 'best pizza' sign outside. It's actually very cute inside and the food was good last time we went, I found the pizza was fine for a random Richmond restaurant.

[Nii]

There's a nice litle Indonesian/Malaysian restaurant just by Norbiton station called Lime Leaves.

[helen b]

If you want to go impress-me-posh, the Michelin starred Bingham is gorgeous. On the riverbank, tres chic, exceptional service and there are vegetrian options though I'd ring ahead to make sure.

[amini1]

Thai Cafe on Richmond Hill is fantastic. It's second to Thai 101 of the Thai places I've tried in London.

[gembellina]

No good can come of going on a date in Kingston. Is it a first date where you need somewhere busy and interesting in case conversation dries up, or do you know him/her well enough to go somewhere quieter? I think a lot of places will be fairly quiet on a Monday.

[childofsai]

oh dear....!
This just happened to be the area where they worked. It is a first date, but we do kind of know each other enough to go to a quiet place.

[zuriga1]

There are some very nice pubs sort of between Kingston and Richmond... right near Hampton Court. It's not a long ride from either town if you have a car. I go to Kingston often to shop, and there's a real dearth of nice places to have dinner that aren't a chain or noisy. There is a Byron's if you want something very casual and there's a very nice Carluccio's near the river in Kingston, too.

[r.vacapinta]

We had a nice meal at a French place called La Buvette.

Romantic but casual. Would be a good date place, I think, especially as it feels like a little oasis from the surrounding high streets

[childofsai]

Thanks for the fast suggestion!

I probably should have mentioned that I'm vegetarian (which French doesn't usually cater for too well) -- there's a very good chance that my date will be veggie too...

Anywhere else?

[gembellina]

I was going to suggest La Buvette too, it's tucked away behind the church and is lovely.

Try this thread:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/719105?tag=search_results;results_list

Also Brula has a dedicated veggie/vegan menu. I haven't been for years but I assume they're still good.

http://www.brula.co.uk/food-and-wine.htm