Last night was the first night in a while I’d been dancing – I’d gone once last week and not for ages before that – and I got talked into going along with Sarah, Steve and another friend of theirs as it was the monthly Dinner and Dancing night with Jive Nation (the group that runs the dance classes I attend).

The venue for the event was the Tuesday regular, Tiger Tiger and I have to admit; it was a pretty nice setup.  You get dinner (that’s either a starter and a main or a main and a dessert) for a tenner; half price cocktails and dancing after is included with the dinner cost.  Tiger Tiger is right in Piccadilly Circus, the centre of the city and kind of London’s answer to Times Square so it’s a great area and I had pretty high hopes for the food (I already knew I liked the venue).

The special menu they had for us (only Jive Nation attendees get the special meal deal) had pretty limited options and pretty standard fare; chicken kiev with mashed potatoes, salmon and tiger prawns over asparagus, burger and chips or mushroom tortellini.  After an agonising debate between the salmon and burger, I decided if I was at all nervous about the quality of the food, I’d better go with the burger.

Ilmatar burger photo by sami73 on flickr.com. And mine didn't even have the scary-looking cole slaw!

It was probably a good thing – I can’t really fault them on the burger  but it was definitely nothing to write home about.  Everything about it screamed “I’m the menu for a tenner!” but gave me absolutely no desire to try anything else at Tiger Tiger should I ever come back for a meal on the main menu.  The desert, a chocolate brownie (claimed to be served with a Bailey’s Creme) was again about as  nondescript as you can  get.  Definitely wouldn’t have paid more than 10 quid for the meal and even that was pushing it, actually (good thing I got the dancing included!)

We also ordered cocktails that were totally underwhelming and even though Sarah and I had a pitcher of some strawberry concoction between the two of us neither of us felt the slightest bit of alcohol.

Moral of the story; dinner is fun no matter what when you’re out with friends and when it’ll cost you less than 15 quid for dinner, dessert and a pitcher of cocktails and it’s always worth it when Jive Nation dance classes and freestyle are included.  But don’t bother with Tiger Tiger for either your meal or your drinks.