Monday, 27 April 2015

Joanna's Restaurant

Joanna's Restaurant
Joanna's restaurant on Crystal Palace high street has been a FoodieForce family favourite for years. My parents used to take me there as a child and it holds some wonderful memories for me. 

The restaurant was set up in 1978 by the Ellner family and has been a neighbourhood favourite ever since. There lovely son William runs the restaurant now. 

The restaurant can best be described as modern British cuisine. Once through the front door you are taken into a friendly bar where people come to relax after a hard day’s work with a wonderful cocktail.The restaurant has dark wooden panelling and beautiful art work that adorns the walls. 

Joanna's offer an a la carte menu containing choices from chicken, steak, seafood, and burgers.

For starters we begin with Sourdough and salted butter (£2.50).
Joanna's Restaurant
English Asparagus, butter and parmesan (£8)
Joanna's Restaurant
I liked that the chef didn't scrimp on the parmesan. 

The other half opted for chicken liver parfait, onion confit and brioche (£7.50).
Joanna's Restaurant
I was reliable informed that the parfait was delicious and combined brilliantly with the sweetness of the brioche. I cannot tell you as it was devoured very quickly. 

Our mains, I choose a 28 day aged prime rib-eye steak (350g) Bearnaise & fries (£28.50). 
Joanna's Restaurant
The steak was a sizeable portion and you would have to have a mighty appetite to finish this dish. The quality for the price was not great as it had a considerable amount of gristle

My view is if you are going to do steak and charge nearly £30 the quality has to be exceptional. In my mind you cannot beat the Gaucho Grill.

The herb roasted whole black bream (£16) was cooked perfectly and was delicious.
Joanna's Restaurant
For sides garden peas, chervil (£3) and Jersey Royals (£3) were the perfect accompaniment to the fish. 
Joanna's Restaurant
Joanna's Restaurant
I must admit that by this point I am rather full but nothing beats sharing a dessert and Joanna's have lots of lovely choices. For those of you who find it hard to choose just one dessert, Joanna's provide a tasting plate (£9.50) with sizeable portions.
Joanna's Restaurant Chocolate brownies, honeycomb ice cream, baked honey cheesecake, mixed berries, plum, almond tart and lemon Crème fraîche. 

We had a lovely evening. Top tip if you’re visiting the restaurant Monday-Thursday Joanna's have a wonderful set lunch and dinner; two courses cost £15.50 and three courses £20.

If your visiting the lovely Dinosaur Park at Crystal Palace, Joanna's is also the perfect place to stop for breakfast or Saturday brunch

56 Westow Hill, 
Crystal Palace,
London, 
SE19 1RX

www.joannas.uk.com

Square MealJoanna's on Urbanspoon

 photo foodieforce_32.jpg

24 comments:

  1. All restaurants should serve dessert platters, I can never decide what to order and always want one of everything!

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    1. They should shouldn't they, I think they would do really well. I always find dessert hard to pick Lucy x

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  2. £30 for a steak?! Eek, definitely a shame about the gristle. The rest of the food looks amazing though, specially the dessert tasting plate- yum!

    Style Sunrise ☀

    :)
    x

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    1. I think I was unlucky everyone else was steaming into there's and had a clean plate. The food is exceptionally good Lucy x

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  3. It looks delicious! It's a pity that the steak doesn't great quality. That would have frustrated me as it was expensive!

    Corinne x
    www.skinnedcartree.com

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    1. The fish was delicious and to be honest steak is normal a good fail safe, it just didn't pay off this time Lucy x

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  4. Yum, I love whole roasted sea bream! I can see why it's a family favourite :)
    Lots of love,
    Angie

    SilverSpoon London

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    1. Sea bream is delicious and the sides where you can pick what you like means you can pick and tailor your perfect dinner Lucy x

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  5. I love that you get so much parmesan with the asparagus but that's a real shame about the steak. Still, everything else looks delish and I love that it's a family run restaurant x

    Josie’s Journal

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    1. It has been around years always a good sign that a restaurant is good. Hope you are feeling better after your op Lucy x

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  6. Ooh this looks lovely, and that desert looks like my kind of heaven!!

    Etta xx
    www.thebrunchdiaries.co.uk

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    1. Desserts are always a good measure for a restaurant Joanna's know how to cater to guests Lucy x

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  7. I love the vibrant paintings and the sea bream looks delicious

    Suze | LuxuryColumnist

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    1. Their fish choices are generally wonderful Lucy x

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  8. that steak looks amazing!! and those desserts are my favourite part of the meal! :D

    Have a great day!
    Animated Confessions

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    1. Desserts are wonderful I always struggle because I go for a huge dinner and then struggle to fit it in Lucy x

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  9. The liver parfait your husband ordered looks so good! I always go for Bearnaise sauce for Steak, it looked really good but shame about the gristle at least everything else looked delicious.

    Ash | Liakada Travel

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    1. The majority of it was lovely but I guess you always fine some fat Lucy x

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  10. You're not lying - that is a decent amount of parmesan! Shame about the gristly steak, but I do love a good sharing dessert. That cheesecake is making me melt a little

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    1. I love melted Parmesan yummy and a sharing dessert cannot be beat Lucy x

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  11. I love it when restaurants do a tasting plate, especially when I can't make up my mind about what to have! It's a shame about the steak but everything else sounds lovely :) xx

    Toasty

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    1. They are a great idea you then get a little taste of everything Lucy x

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  12. Yum! That dessert platter looks amazing. I am occasionally around Crystal Palace so now I know where to visit! xx

    Jasmin Charlotte | UK Lifestyle Blog

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  13. The dessert platter looks incredible!! Honeycomb ice cream is my all-time favourite... after cheesecake. And brownies!

    Emilie xx
    www.eatlivebreathe.co.uk

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