‘Faulty Towers’

The Gnosh restaurant (pronounced Nosh) and once known as Blu Duby has its main entrance on Dundas Street (West of Richmond Street) and an alternate entrance from Covent Market Place … from where I chose to enter.

The layout is extraordinary in that it forms a very long, narrow, north/south corridor, seemingly, 3 metres wide and 35 metres long, with tables along just one side.

I walked almost the entire length of the ‘corridor’ without any sign of staff and, therefore, chose my own table and sat down.  A few moments later, the lone server appeared with plates for distant customers, noticed me, and presented an interesting menu.

I chose;  Mushroom soup with paprika (Hungarian soup), the fish 'Catch Of The Day' (Atlantic cod), and a decent glass of recommended Pinot Grigio wine.

The soup was good, but not extraordinarily, and my remarkable story begins about 15 minutes later.

Hungarian Soup

As I sat there, occasionally checking my watch, the server walked slowly towards me, stopped, looked casually at me and said, “Menu?”.  I replied, “Thank you.” adding, “I’m just waiting for my main course”.  A sudden look of shock appeared on his face (that would have been perfect on an episode of ‘Faulty Towers’) and with the word “Catch!” he (like Manuel) made a dash to the kitchen.

Atlantic Cod on Wild Rice

It was a long 20-minute wait, interspersed with bowing comments of “The feesh will be ready in a few minutes”.  The Cod on wild rice was very good, but the accompanying pieces of over-cooked (burnt) pan-fried courgettes were a disappointment.  I have a sense that the chef had been very surprised by my order.

I tipped too much.