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My housemate decided to take me to dinner for my brithday and chose Floridita - the new Cuban inspired place where Mezzo used to be and horrifyingly opposite work for a Saturday night. Anyway ... entering Floridita is a quite a grand affair. A long sweeping stairway wafts you down into a rather decadent interior of red, cream and black and then deposits you neatly near the bar (which has very few seats, either a sign of confidence or a indication of looks over practicality). A whisky sour wasn't quite to my liking but I'll concede to that being a matter of taste. The bar was the first encounter we had of the rather strange formally familiar style of serving - the bar man cheekily chastising us for not having said good evening (although we had, he just hadn't heard us). When I'd finished my drink we were seated very quickly and given a basic of bread, butter and olives (which were replaced not once but twice during the evening). For starters I had a very peppery duck ragout affair and my housemate had squid and octopus cerviche. Both delicious (although I fret that someone other than me might not enjoy the pepperyness of the duck). These were briskly whipped away and our waiter, who had previously compared wallets with housemate, winkingly deposited more bread (the second load). Shortly afterwards our main courses turned up - Pot roast belly pork, cheeks and morcilla sausage (almost teetering on the edge of being a cassoulet) for him and Spit roast suckling pig with garlic, lime & oregano for me. We ordered rice with black beans and bacon and roasted mushrooms with chorizo as side dishes which was *far* too much since the main dishes came with a smattering of accompaniment themselves. Although the sides were both very nice - I'll definitely be trying to make both of them at home. For dessert I had a rather nice Tokaji which I asked for as 'Toe-kay' and was gently rebuffed that it should be pronouced 'Toe-key, something I'm not convinced about. Hosuemate had a rtaher splendid chocolate cake with hazelnut ice cream. Although in someways it felt like we rushed through everything we tripped out 2 hours after we'd walked in (of which half and hour was spent at the bar) feeling rather satisfied. Final bill was somewhere in the region of 100 pounds for the two including wine, cocktail and 12.5% service charge. Figures are approximate since I wasn't allowed to see the bill and also since housemate isn't drinking at the moment. Worth a visit I reckon - good date place and not *outrageously* expensive. We booked in advance but there were a few spare tables around us and we booked for 7:30 on Saturday.
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