Negociants

After briefly flickering out, only to return phoenix-like from the ashes, Negociants has been a real favourite of mine, down the years, with numerous sober and drunken evenings spent there, over the past couple of decades.

In university days, it was a great place for late-night nachos and a blether, all in a bid to carefully navigate around actually turning up at lectures. Oh, how we loved to learn.

I digress. The place has had a complete refresh, with a nice blend of booth seating, bistro tables and comfy armchairs. Our little party, comprising Hande, Patrick and Ayla, opted for the latter.

Menus were quickly brought by the super-friendly waitress, who looked after us very nicely, throughout. It turns out that she’d painted a rather nice picture of a seagull on the wall, with which Ayla was entirely fascinated.

Their soup of the day was Mexican bean. I liked the sound of that, and chose to follow up with a spicy bean burger with cheese. Patrick chose the beef chilli nachos, Hande a plain burger with cheese, and Ayla had some ekmek (bread) and cheese.

We were happy to take dishes as they were ready, with Ayla’s ekmek and my soup first to arrive. The soup was good. I liked the pile of jalapenos on the side, to season up the heat. This worked a little better than a similar approach at Angel’s Share, which was a little too mannered by comparison.

The arrival of the main courses was perfectly timed, and all looked good. My veggie burger was the weakest dish. Aside from a good crunch from the crumb coating, there was little here of interest. By contrast, Hande’s burger was really good, with a flavour packed, succulent beef patty. I think Patrick’s nachos fell somewhere between the two.

So overall, the food was a little mixed at Negociants, but we were still left with a favourable impression, as the service was friendly and accommodating, and the place is looking as good as it has in a long time. I’d be happy to pop back, although I have a feeling that my 1am nacho days may be behind me.

Scores
Blythe scores Negociants
3/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
3.5/5 for setting
4/5 for service
giving an overall 14/20

Today’s questers were: Ayla, Hande, Patrick, Blythe

We ate: Mexican bean soup; bread and cheese; beef chilli nachos; burger; veggie burger

We drank: water, cola drink

We wore: bear sweater, black trousers, polo shirt, brown Reebok shoes

Total bill: £36