Restaurant review: Table of Alberta

Croydon perhaps the largest Asian restaurant in Britain, but the first-class French bistro you should visit

End 49b v South Croydon (020 8680 2010). Meal for two, including wine and service, £ 90

It was sheer stubbornness that sent me the picture of Albert in Croydon. Or an instinct of self-preservation. Or series of snobbery that runs through me like varicose veins in their legs gnarled a dear old woman. The fact is that as a seeker of truth, there is only one story in Croydon food that I really need to cover now: the arrival there of the largest restaurant in Britain. Cosmo can accommodate 800 people, has a menu of 300 dishes from nine Asian countries – why settle for sushi when you can have Rogan Josh, too? – 10 cooking stations and a Bengal tiger living in a cage. This is all true, except for the last piece, I would not be surprised if there was a big cat hid in a corner somewhere. It's that kind of place. It reads like a restaurant on anabolic steroids.

What is most irritating about Cosmo is that everything is so bloody predictable Croydon. I say this not as an insult to all good, civilized, tasteful, attractive people who live there. I mean that as an insult to all the bad, rowdy, tasteless, ugly. Maybe later in the year I'll be willing. But for now I could not cope. And yet I did not want to ignore southern fringe of London, so I went instead to the table of Albert, which is a solid, robust sound boring restaurant, dishes full of robust flavors that hang after you are finished. Albert's Table is not subtle – and I say this as a compliment. If it gives you an ingredient you taste of the ingredient. Overall, it is French bistro, with the occasional nod in other directions that do not feel forced.

A shortbread Dorset crab is made with meat rusty brown and a cake which cracks and breaks in all the right ways. A salad of bitter endive, blue cheese and chives comes with a mustard vinaigrette makes its presence known. A thick coating of Jerusalem artichoke gratin with chopped hazelnuts has the kind of crust that you take away at it with a spoon.

We ended with a blown tumescent banana, a chocolate fondant leaking and caramelized apple tart, which to my taste, was the only dish that did not deliver. The fruit was polite, but there was no smell of caramel real sticking your lips. Hey ho. There was a foam bean pokey borlotti to start and warm mince pies to finish, and the general hum and deployment of wait staff happy to do what they do best. At £ 29.50 for three courses, with an additional odd, it does not seem outrageous for this level of cooking and quality ingredients. Plus there's the added benefit of a wine where the bottles £ 3-4 price below what you would pay in central London.

Cosmo arrived in Croydon may be a reason to go anywhere and look at the picture of Albert is a reason to go there to eat.

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Submited at Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 9:00 am on Restaurant by john
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