Sunday lunch with my father at the White House

AFTER MY MOTHER DIED in 1980, I began practising dentistry in Kent. Almost every weekend, I used to spend Saturday nights at my father’s house in Hampstead Garden Suburb. We used to have Sunday lunch together in one of his several favourite restaurants in Golders Green and Hampstead. Many of these restaurants no longer exist.

?

There were a few Chinese restaurants, which my father liked, in the Golders Green area. One of them was in Temple Fortune near the branch of Waitrose, which has been in existence since I was a child in the 1960s. The Chinese restaurant, which served a wonderful hors d’oeuvre that included a scallop in its shell, has long since closed.

?

In Golders Green Road, there were two more Chinese restaurants, both now gone. In one of them, my father was always greeted by the friendly manager (or, maybe he was the owner) with the words:

“Hallo Professor. How are you, professor?”

The food was well-prepared and tasty in both of them, just as it was in the Temple Fortune eatery.

?

Almost opposite the Hippodrome theatre, on the corner of North End Road and West Heath Drive, there was an Italian restaurant. Here, my father and I always received a warm welcome and enjoyed reasonably good Italian food. Currently, the site is occupied by a Turkish restaurant, which I have not yet tried.

Some weekends, we travelled up to Hampstead village. One of the two restaurants we visited occasionally was La Cage imaginaire, which still exists at its original location at the lower end of Back Lane, where it meets Flask Walk. Back in the 1980s, this place served classic French cuisine prepared to a high standard. I remember the cheese trolly which was richly supplied with ripe French cheeses. We revisited the place in about 2021 for ‘old times sake’. The management had changed and the food was nothing to write home about.

?

Today, the 3rd of November 2023, we ate at Mani’s in Hampstead’s Perrins Court. It was our third visit there, and the quality of the food in this busy eatery is highly satisfactory. Near the corner of Perrins Court and Hampstead High Street, there stands the Villa Bianca (‘white house’). This Italian restaurant must have first opened its doors to customers sometime in the 1980s. Never cheap, this restaurant was one of my father’s favourites in northwest London. Being a regular diner there, he was always welcomed like an old friend. Unlike many of the places where my father and I ate Sunday lunches in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Villa Bianca still exists, and is popular. Today, I looked at the menu. Although not suitable for those on a tight budget, many of the dishes did not seem much more costly than those served in far less fancy looking establishments.

YOU CAN DISCOVER MUCH MORE ABOUT HAMPSTEAD PAST AND PRESENT BY READING MY BOOK, WHICH IS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON, e.g.,: https://www.amazon.co.uk/BENEATH-WIDE-SKY-HAMPSTEAD-ENVIRONS/dp/B09R2WRK92/