It was 'The Buik's' birthday and I had managed to persuade him to go to London for the night to start Part 1 of his celebrations. Getting 'The Buik' out of Amsterdam is relatively difficult. He's a homely soul, quite low maintenance when it comes to birthdays and is content with a bottle of whisky, 2 packs of Malboro lights and friends down our local, than a full blown 5 course dinner in his glad rags.

So we decided, or should I say, I decided, for us to go to London for a night and eat somewhere we have always wanted to eat. The Buik has always wanted to go to Benares, an Indian restaurant in London, not the usual type of Indian restaurant usually found lining the streets of the UK. No, this is a posh one :) So off we trundled, suitcase in tow to London town on the Friday night.

We stayed at the Chesterfield Mayfair, which, if you like fully carpeted, old fashioned, kinda too small for comfort guest house type hotels - then this is bang up your street. After wading our way through guys peeing on the streets at 8pm at the bars around the corner from the hotel, we were told that the room I had booked was not available. Now usually, a hotel would try and placate the irrate traveller. No such luck here. We were 'downgraded' and offered breakfast, champagne (I'll have some of that please) and afternoon tea (that we wouldnt be around to try) as compensation. A grumpy Blondie and the Buik went up to our room.

No surprises here. A small room, typical of what you would get in a city hotel really. Toilet dangerously close to the shower, In fact, you would have been safer showering in the actual toilet. Buik wasnt happy :(

We donned our glad rags on regardless and walked to Benares which was a 5 minute walk from the 'hotel'
The staff were polite, and very efficient. We didnt have to wait too long for drinks or to be served. I asked for a nice table for us and they gave us the corner table in the main part of the restaurant, which was fab for people watching.

To start with, I had lamb patties with cucumber yoghurt sauce. This was particularly non descript. The texture of the patty was quite bizarre, dry but beautifully spiced. There wasn't enough sauce to go with all 3 patties and I was left with dry meat, which wasnt particularly pleasant. I mentioned to the waiter when he took the plates away that there could have been more sauce, he looked at me like I was nothing but a commoner! Anyway, 'The Buik' faired better with a squid and soft shelled crab salad. It did what it said on the tin, and came with a plum sauce but not enough of it. His dish was nice, but nothing to write home about.

Main courses - I had lobster tails with a goan curry sauce. That was absolutely divine. The lobster was cooked just a little too much for me, but the sauce was beautiful (incidentally, the waiter jokingly asked after I had finished if there was enough sauce with main course). Just beautiful. Nicest thing I have eaten in months. 'The Buik' had Organic chicken 'Supreme' with cilantro Curry. This was absolutely gorgeous. We were wondering if you were going to get the ubiquitous rubber pieces of chicken you usually get in an Indian restaurant - but you didnt. Beautiful, tender pieces of chicken in the mellowest sauce known to man. So so so so nice. We had this with naans and black and yellow lentils, which were really rather dull.

We didnt take dessert and had a cocktail at the bar afterwards.

It's a shame to say I wouldnt go back again . The main courses were just beautiful, but the starters were really nothing to get excited about. The bill was shocking. It came to well over 300 quid! The wine and champagne, I felt was vastly overpriced. Glass of Krug was 30 quid!!!!!!!!! Ridiculous. The mark up was beyond ridiculous. The wine list was varied, I'll give them that, the Sommelier who was a mad Italian girl was great and she picked out the nicest white wine by the glass that I had ever drank in my life, but at 25 quid a glass, I thought that was beyond hideous. Along with all the other drinks we had, it somewhat took the sheen off the whole thing for me.

Service was good, apart from the sarcastic waiter who probably thought I expected sloppy bland sh*ite that you get from most Indian restaurants in the UK. Very patronising.

I think if I was to go back again, I would stick to the bar snacks and cocktails. These were reasonably priced for London standards