Birthday for the excellent Parade

This review was first published in October 2000

It seems as if Parade in Ealing has been busy from the very first day. Formerly a somewhat eccentric Indian restaurant (complete with a shrine to Peter Sellers), this site is now an exemplary neighbourhood rest-aurant from the same stable as Sonny's in Church Road, Barnes, and the Phoenix Bar And Grill on the Lower Richmond Road. The dining room is a long, sparsely decorated affair with a private room at the back; it's a good-sized restaurant by any standard, with about 120 covers. What is more surprising is that BP (Before Parade), there was nowhere in Ealing attempting this level of cuisine, so the proprietors must have known the risks they were taking. They certainly got it right. If you live in the sleeker parts of the area (where houses now cost about as much as you'd have got from winning the jackpot on the pools not so very long ago), you probably work long hours in the City. By the time you've fought your way home and checked in with the au pair, going out to dine must seem a grand option. Parade offers food that looks as if it would be more at home on a West-End menu, coupled with grown-up service, a decent wine list and accessible prices. All of which adds up to a success story. The menu changes regularly and dishes are seasonally inspired. Portions are large. A starter such as pan-fried pink bream, tabouleh, hummus and tomato vinaigrette would make a decent main course in many other establishments (accurately cooked fish and good tabouleh, but I'm not sure the hummus adds anything). Pan-fried squid, garlic, parsley, fennel and squid-ink noodles is another starter that offers a good combination of tastes and textures. Mains are also well-considered: fillet of plaice comes with champ, shrimps and lemon and caper butter; noisettes of lamb come with tomato, olive and anchovy tart, tapenade jus; and a crepinette of oxtail, mushroom and horseradish cream is hearty and well-flavoured. Further on, the orange and cardamom panacotta is very good indeed - soft and scented. The cooking here is of a high standard, the only quibble being that sometimes a dish may contain one element too many - for example, the roast squab pigeon, with braised endive and very good white-bean sauce doesn't really need a small boudin blanc as well as everything else. The little sausage doesn't really add to the dish. But Parade is a good restaurant - as it passes its first birthday, it seems set fair. To the people of Ealing it is probably seen as a godsend.

Parade
18-19 The Mall, Ealing, W5