I'm not a massive cinema-goer. I absolutely love watching movies, but there's something about going to the cinema that I find a bit restrictive - you can't stop and pause the film, the seats can be uncomfy and you can end up sitting in front of someone who kicks your chair for 2 straight hours, and I often feel the price you pay is unjustified for the experience you get. That was until we went to the Olympic Cinema in Barnes. There were many things that appealed to me about the Olympic, from their on site restaurant's menu, to the fact I could book a sofa seat for 2 of us for the same price as 2 standard seat tickets, so we booked to see A Most Violent Year on Friday evening. To start with tickets are £15 which seems to be cheaper than other local cinemas - we went to Westfield to see Birdman recently (which I really didn't enjoy/get) and that was £44 for 2 of us. The £30 we paid for 2 at the Olympic got a us a double seat/sofa so we didn't have to wrestle an arm rest between us, and each chair comes with its own table for your drinks. As the film wasn't showing until 9pm we booked for dinner first at The Dining Room, which is in the same building as the cinema.
The Dining Room at Olympic Studios is bigger than I'd imagined, with about 50 covers, on a mix of individual and longer sharing tables, and is headed up by a chef who's previously worked at Noma and Racine. We had our own table, and decided to go all out, as we were both pretty hungry and had time to kill. Sadly the first thing to pass my lips was the least favourite part of my evening. The Dining Room have an interesting cocktail list, and I chose one that I can't remember the name of... maybe the Basiltini (I'm pretty sure that wasn't what it was called but was something similar) and was made using basil and way too much ginger for my liking. It was also very sweet, and I prefer my cocktails sharper, but I drank it anyway while we ordered our food. We chose the steak tartare and calamari for starters to share. Both were delicious, though we'd forgotten to check if the tartare was already seasoned, which it was, with tabasco, so none of that for the boy! Which was fine by me as I got to eat all of it! It was perfectly seasoned to my liking and the steak wasn't cut too fine - I really don't enjoy the minced version of steak tartare. The calamari were really good too with a crunchy but light batter and soft squid inside, served with very moreish homemade mayo.
The Dining Room at Olympic Studios is bigger than I'd imagined, with about 50 covers, on a mix of individual and longer sharing tables, and is headed up by a chef who's previously worked at Noma and Racine. We had our own table, and decided to go all out, as we were both pretty hungry and had time to kill. Sadly the first thing to pass my lips was the least favourite part of my evening. The Dining Room have an interesting cocktail list, and I chose one that I can't remember the name of... maybe the Basiltini (I'm pretty sure that wasn't what it was called but was something similar) and was made using basil and way too much ginger for my liking. It was also very sweet, and I prefer my cocktails sharper, but I drank it anyway while we ordered our food. We chose the steak tartare and calamari for starters to share. Both were delicious, though we'd forgotten to check if the tartare was already seasoned, which it was, with tabasco, so none of that for the boy! Which was fine by me as I got to eat all of it! It was perfectly seasoned to my liking and the steak wasn't cut too fine - I really don't enjoy the minced version of steak tartare. The calamari were really good too with a crunchy but light batter and soft squid inside, served with very moreish homemade mayo.
