Scotts Restaurant, London

Even if the food is good, sometimes I just need the full package.  I'd rather go down and dirty with good food vs fancy.  Maybe it was just the night.  But, regardless that Scott's won restaurant of the year award by Square Meal, it just didn't do it for me. 

Scott's is located in the tonier section of London known as Mayfair.  I felt a little bit like I was at a restaurant on the Upper Eastside.   Although beautiful, elegant, wonderful service, it wasn't what I was looking for.  Didn't realize what I was getting into until we showed up. 

The menu is all about fish although you can certainly order sometimes besides that.  Fred had the oysters which were good and I went with the seafood cocktail.  A mixture of shrimp, lobsters and crab all mixed together with lettuce and a heavy handed russian dressing.  Very British.  For dinner Fred went with the special.  Half a lemon sole, grilled and served simply with a piece of lemon and some spinach on the side.  All good.  I had the sea bream.  A grilled piece of sea bream, skin side up ( extra crispy ) over a Spanish flavored mixture of calamari and potatoes.  Nice.  Just simply really well done fish. 

When we got there, Fred was wearing jeans and he was concerned they wouldn't let him in.  That sort of sums up Scotts.  But, there is always a plus side to any story.  Two tables over from us was Dana Cowin, the editor and chief of Food and Wine magazine.  Since I have literally been getting Food and Wine delivered to my house monthly for the past 25 years, I recognized her.  Just to be safe, as you never know when things are out of context, I secretly googled her image under the table.  Confirmed.  Bold perhaps, but I went over to say hi and introduce myself. 

She was eating with a colleague and they were in London to see clients and then to Paris today to do the same.  I introduced myself as a blogger (sort of food related) and a fan of the magazine.  That's my new thing when people ask me what I do, I say I'm a blogger.  She asked me if I used my name for the blog and I told her what I went under.  She actually knew who I was because Food and Wine had used some pictures of mine from the Burger Bash on their blog.  I knew this but she obviously did too.  Needless to say, I was over the top thrilled.  Chatted a bit about food and Eater (where I am an investor) and then I left them to enjoy their meal. 

Scotts might not have been my type of restaurant but the chance meeting of Dana Cowin, for me, was a delight.