Category: British

April 15, 2013

Hawksmoor Air Street

Out of the great steak places in London, Hawksmoor is one of those that are consistently good and although, not cheap, is great value for the quality of the food and the service you get. We had a dinner booking at Hawksmoor Air Street, one of the latest expansions of the steak restaurant located near the bottom of Piccadilly. It’s outfitted with a larger number of booths, polished floors and significantly more suited customers to go along with it all. I can only imagine their city outlet would compete with them on this. Nevertheless the food did not disappoint as you can see in the photos below.

Name: Hawksmoor Air Street
Website: http://thehawksmoor.com/airstreet
Found at: 5a Air St London W1J 0AD

February 28, 2013

Breakfasting at The Delaunay

One of the very well praised restaurants to have popped up in central London is The Delaunay. It’s a European cafe/restaurant located just off the side of the strand. The cafe portion is unmissable with large windows viewing into a very grand reception, whilst the entrance to the restaurant is slightly inset from some formidable gates.

As a meeting breakfast place, I find this to be a good option because it opens at 7am. Most other places in central London open at 8am, and if you happen to be working in the area that is fine, but hard if you need to further your journey. It’s easy to meet for an hour meeting and then be on your way for a normal day.

Operated by the same people behind The Wolseley and Brasserie Zedel one expects the service and the food to be up to high standards. And it is.

Although we weren’t asked for our coats to be taken, the restaurant has plenty of space and numerous coat stands near most of the tables. We were seated promptly and then asked if wanted some drinks. Juices are reasonable, although I found the £4.50 they charge slightly excessive. Stick with the Americano for the same price, but greater quantities.

Whilst we talk about price. Many of dishes are extremely reasonable. Porridge for £4.75 (yes, it is a restaurant), plain pancakes £6.75, or with bacon £9.50 or blueberries (pictured above) for £9.75. Perhaps you just want some muesli for £4.25. All amazingly great value considering the atmosphere and the execution (three pancakes is plenty!).

At the other extreme, you do pay dearly if you want any of the benedict/florentine/arlington eggs. £7.25 for the cheapest (single), or up to £17 for two. Yes, it’s quality, but it’s terrible dear. Having said that, service was very prompt, the atmosphere extremely grand and a wonderful place to have an early breakfast during the week. Note that the place fills up with suits by about 8am, so it’s definitely the in-place to have some business meetings. I prefer just the leisurely breakfast there.

Name: The Delaunay
Website: www.thedelaunay.com
Found at: 55 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BB

January 13, 2013

Christmas Pig at St Johns

For the past two years, I’ve missed a Christmas time tradition run by the former Burger Tuesday crowd but this year I was free to join in on the annual Christmas pig tradition. As I mentioned, the group has got together to order the whole sucking pig at the Michelin starred St John Restaurant (although Chris ended up reserving the original St John restaurant because the Spitalfields one ended up all booked out. )

We had a pretty large table to share the pig – somewhere between 12-14 people and reports from previous years implied that we wouldn’t really have any problem devouring the whole pig. I started with a Gin and Tonic as others downed some beers, and we tucked into the generous sourdough bread slices and yummy British pats of butter (not enough for the table that we ended up asking for more).

The pig comes with a set menu, or at least it did around this time. Trying to order a set of starters and desserts for such a large group is hard, let alone plan in things appropriately for the main event. Our starter was an interesting salad combining fairly raw cauliflower, broad beans, parsley and a very strong vinaigrette. Although a number found it strange, the vegetables were probably a great way to start the appetite without filling it with meat.

We consumed bottles of this nice red wine.

The pig arrived at a table just off in the near corner where we were allowed to take photos before they carved the pigs into smaller pieces for distribution. The pig flesh was soft, moist and amazingly tender. The only strange thing was that the crackling wasn’t very… crackling. It turned out to be a lot more chewy and moist than what I had hoped for.

The pig came served with a generous heaping of potatoes and cabbages. Both perfectly cooked and full of natural flavour. I’m happy to report unlike stereotypical cooking, the vegetables were not overcooked or anything like that.

Some of the people who came along in the evening, including Chris who organised the entire night. Well done!

The remains of one of the pig legs.

And some more of the Burger Tuesday crowd celebrating the annual Christmas pig.

And yes, it was quite a big table… with more people.

For dessert, they ended up serving one of the largest pies I have ever seen served.

Naturally served with custard, although they should have served more with it. They only had two small jugs of custard with it and it disappeared very quickly.

We could see the kitchen from our table. Even the use of the white board, indicating some of the changes to the dishes or the different wines on offer for the evening. Early on we could even see the suckling pig hanging around in the kitchen, just waiting to be served.

Remnants of our wine.

And finally the outside of the hotel.

A marvellous meal with some great company.

Name: St John, Restaurant
Found at: 26 St. John Street, London, EC1M 4AY
Website: https://www.stjohngroup.uk.com/

October 16, 2012

Visiting North Road Again

I was really impressed by North Road last time that I felt that I had to go ahead, but this time do the full tasting menu. My sister accompanied me on this journey, appropriate since we ate at Noma last time and Danish fondness of foraging was not a foreign concept.

We started with an espuma – a light crisp mouthful delicately dotted with some tangy, herby sauce.

As well as a smoked quails egg and potato delicately nestled amongst the brush that I assume was a source of the smoke. Both were strongly infused (something I love) with that smokey flavour.

We then had the two types of butter. Sweet and salty. I have to say that the brown butter really grew on me this time, and although I’m hadn’t expected to enjoy the sweet butter on bread, was surprised how much I enjoyed it the second time around.

Here’s our bread basket filled with tiny pieces of bread.

Our first dish was a light crab with cucumber. I think we were both surprised at how the strength of the crab flavour really shone through despite being cold. The cucumber also really went well to balance out the dish, bringing a cool clean flavour.

Our next dish, served warm and continuing the seafood theme, was a generous piece of lobster. I can’t really remember the other components (seeing as it was a couple of months ago) but yummy and delicious!

The yogurt dish, next, pleased my sister the least but I found it a good palette cleanser and refreshing.

The next dish was a real winner both in flavour and in appearance, being a jersey royale dish served with lovage. It looked and tasted just like a little garden (in a good way). It’s funny because in most places potatoes don’t really taste like potatoes – just a bit more like starch and fortunately these ones did. Nestled amongst some “fake soil” this was a real delight to consume.

Our next dish was a lamb dish served with fresh flowers and other components I can’t quite remember.

This was labelled as “stone and hay” but basically was a clever piece of hay ice cream wrapped in a covering that was a clever mouthful.

Our main tasting menu finished with an amazing plate of Kentish strawberries in several forms including marshmallow, sorbet, cream log and fresh as well. Lovely, light and full of flavour.

Though full, we were then bombarded with the petite fours – a tiny rose marshmallow, some bark with sweet dollops, a small shortbread sandwich and a clever take on the fløderboller (or chocolate covered marshmallow).

A lovely dinner and one that I wouldn’t hesitate to do again.
Name: North Road
Location: 69-73 St John St, EC1M 4AN
Website: http://www.north-road.com/

April 2, 2012

Clerkenwell’s The Green

One of the great things about Clerkenwell is the number of quality places to eat out are. There are almost too many but this is a good problem to have. My flat mate had planned to have a Sunday lunch at St John’s but the big turnout forced him to pick an alternative venue, The Green that we’ve been to a number of times.

The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy so we had the entire top floor to ourselves where we indulged in many drinks and a sunday roast as the glorious March sun streamed in through the walls. We had quite a good choice of things to choose from the sunday roast including the rare roast beef (above), roast chicken (below), some lamb and pork although I didn’t catch any of the photos.

Of course a Sunday roast is incomplete with the traditional Yorkshire Puddings, and these were excellent – light, crispy and massively blown up. They obviously had the right technique for making them and I’m impressed they managed to pump out so many all being wonderful as well. The gravy was pretty good too.

Plenty of sides came along including brussel sprouts, turnips, carrots, beetroot and roast potatoes. I prefer my roast potatoes cooked with goose fat and I suspect they cooked theirs with olive oil or something as they turned out a bit more waxy than crisp on the edges.

Almost everyone ordered the hazelnut brownie with a salted caramel ice cream for dessert where they ended up running short.

I’ve eaten at The Green before and their food is consistently good and the bar reasonably spacious unless it’s a Friday pub evening. Try not to tell too many people okay.

Name: The Green
Found at: 29 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU
Website: http://thegreenec1.co.uk/

March 10, 2012

British Recipe: Scones

I recently held a British themed party where I prepared a number of well known British bites. One of them had to be the scone, a classic that appears at any high tea event. There are dozens of recipes on the net, but I settled on this one provided by the Guardian (but minus the cream).

Ingredients:

225g plain flour
3 level teaspoon baking powder
50g unsalted butter
2 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
100ml cold milk

Steps

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl
Cut the butter into the flour, and then, using your fingertips to rub in any lumps
Beat the eggs and combine with the milk in a separate bowl/cup
Make a well into the flour and pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, cutting the wet ingredients into the dry with the knife until it comes together. Mix it together until it just forms together.
Turn onto a floured board and then roll it out until it’s about 2cm thick
Cut round discs and place onto a tray. Brush the top with some milk, or milk combined with egg. Combine any left over dough together, roll out again and then keep cutting until you have nothing left.
Place into the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack or eat immediately with clotted cream and jam

The key to a perfect scone
The whole point of rubbing the butter into the flour is to avoid developing gluten in the scones. The light, crumbly texture of a well made scone is the result of the butter coating each bit of flour, unlike bread (high in gluten) where the flour is attached to eat other. You can alternatively use a food processor to combine it but that might require more cleanup. Similarly, when the wet ingredients are added, we want to avoid mixing it/kneading it too much for the very same reasons.

Some scone recipes call for adding cream + milk instead of cream. I’ve never tried it but apparently it develops a much richer flavour.

You also don’t really want to roll out the dough any less than 2cm as your scone won’t rise and it will be hard cut into half and have anything decent to hold onto. Avoid using out of date baking powder as it makes a big difference to the rise as well.

February 10, 2012

Launceston Place

One of the places I’ve been meaning to go to for a long time is Launceston Place. Though never been awarded a michelin star, this place is one of those ones foodies rave about and can’t believe has missed out on any awards. Located in the a very neighbourhood-ly part of the city just a short walk away from High Street Kensington you walk into a lobby and are immediately greeted by staff who take your coats.

They do a really great value three course lunch for £22, but even the tasting menu of six courses at £60 is very reasonably priced when you look at what other people are charging these days. We opted for the latter, having a bit more time on a Saturday for a leisurely lunch.

At the table they presented some home made crisps that had been delicately dusted with a spicy mix and tied together with some of their own ribboning. Wonderful presentation and something very nice to snack on while deciding on what to eat.

The picture of the dining room. Dark wood panels, lots of bright light and high ceilings makes the place feel very spacious. The tables aren’t crammed right next to each other and a very comfortable distance apart.

Homemade sourdough bread – super crispy on the outside with that chewy interior and served with some wonderfully creamy butter lightly salted. It also came (slightly hidden in the picture) with some picked onions but wasn’t a big fan of them. They didn’t have a problem replacing the bread the first time, leaving it there throughout the meal and even asking if we wanted it replaced a third time (but really I had nibbled on far too much bread already!)

An amuse bouche to clean the palette walnut mousse, apple sorbet. A great combination with the mousse adding a richness to the dish as the sorbet works to prepare your mouth and start the appetite.

The dish was smoked pigeon served atop some onions and oats mixed with some whisky. The pigeon was surprisingly soft and very well cooked and the whisky flavour not too strong in the oats.

A beautifully seared scallop with some sauce and fresh herbs. Whatever it was, it didn’t really last long. The scallop was meaty, perfectly cooked and seriously big. Mmmm. I would have liked another one of these.

My favourite dish of the day. Here we ahve a truffled poached egg with a toasted sourdough and a trail of mushroom sauce. So. Full. Of. Umami… More bread but the crispness of the sourdough worked well to add texture to a dish made of otherwise soft ingredients.

This was the fish dish that I found slightly overseasoned (tends to be a European kitchen thing) but the fish was a very generous portion and perfectly cooked, full of moisture and flavour. A great variety of greens as well.

This was a dish made up crispy pork and pork loin. Unfortunately I found the “crispy” element a bit lacking and found a rather chewy, fatty piece of skin that I didn’t really start or finish. The pork meat underneath the skin was very well cooked and appropriately served with some stewed apples. The pork loin was just as well perfectly cooked. Pink but still juicy.

Our dessert course actually started with another cleanser, in the form of a lemon posset cream. Super thick, yet very creamy and amazingly strong lemon flavour. Yum.

Strangely enough I’ve never had a souffle let alone a chocolate one before. I can’t really judge whether or not this was a good quality one. It certainly remained high and fresh and had a very light, chocolatey texture. It tasted a lot more eggy than I imagined it would, probably because I’m more familiar with a chiffon style cake than a souffle but a surprisingly great first one. In the background you can see there a jar of whisky (Lamphroaig) that was amazingly smoky and peaty. It worked well with the chocolate.

As if that wasn’t enough, to finish off with our tea and coffee, little madeleines and vanilla cream.

Service overall was very good, although we noticed our waiters slightly nervous, coming across as slightly under confident in presenting their dishes. I’m not really sure why because they all stood out with quality ingredients, great composition and in general, amazing flavours. I’ll definitely be coming back here sometime.

Name: Launceston Place
Website: http://www.launcestonplace-restaurant.co.uk/
Found at: 1A Launceston Place, W8 5RL, London

January 14, 2012

Dinner at The Garrison

Before heading over to the Tower of London for the Ceremony of the Keys, we headed over to The Garrison in Bermondsey to enjoy a meal. I’d never been to this area and was surprised at how many up and coming restaurants and interesting bars and pubs littered the area.

It definitely pays to reserve a table in advance at this particular gastropub. A number of times we saw a party of two being turned away when arriving, only being told that the entire restaurant was booked out for the night. The tiny space is made the most of, although thankfully the tables are arranged in such a way you’re still sitting closer to your dining companions than those at the table next to you.

I started with the scrambled eggs and mushrooms although it wasn’t as tasty as I thought it would be. The soft egg was really well done but the “toasted” sourdough really should have more crispy to offset the soft flavours.

On a vegetarian day, I went for the mushroom stroganoff that was piled on a huge amount of mash. The “stroganoff” could have done with a bit more mushroom and more sauce but it was still very flavoursome.

It didn’t come with any sides, so went for the pear, rocket and hazelnut salad to have some greens.

I finished off the meal with a very nice lime cheesecake that was perfectly offset with the swirls of raspberries floating around.

Not a cheap meal, but overall a great atmosphere and pretty good food.

Name: The Garrison
Found at: 99 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XB
Website: http://www.thegarrison.co.uk/

June 21, 2011

The Modern Pantry Visits Meza

I’m very behind the times on this particular post. As you can tell from the photo below, the date of this is well out of date. In fact, it’s so late that someone else is already cooking at Meza. Fortunately we were able to get a booking for The Modern Pantry on a Saturday night there. Not only is a crazy busy place normally, but the restaurant is also very popular so combine the two and you get some good things happening.

Of course they do their normal menu, but the best value part of this short-lived pop up is the tasting menu that lets you explore a vastly unusual yet excellently delivered set of ingredients.

As you can see, we arrived quite early for our booking. We were far away enough from the bar (this is a good thing) as it started to get extremely busy later on as people arrived just for drinks, and we didn’t exactly feel like putting on a show for people just by sitting on one of the edge tables. Not our sort of thing.

At the time, the New Zealand earthquake had occurred so it was nice to see them collecting money for them, instead of the usual charity places like this might give to. It’s great they had a little placard describing where the money was going as well.

As I mentioned earlier, it started getting much busier, and they even had a DJ set up not far from the other bar (pictured below).

You’ll have to forgive the lack of detail in these posts. I am writing this almost two or three months later and I neglected to take a very good shot of the menu. These were the beetroot fritters. I remember it being mixed with some Indian-style spices and a refreshing topping of yogurt on top. Hot and cold and a great way to start.

Next up, a fresh Ceviche of sorts. Strong yuzu flavours (my favourite citrus fruit) bringing its gloriously sharp zing to the dish. I remember this having little bits of roe on top, although I remember not really enjoying the texture mixed up with all the others. It would have been perfect without this additionally decadent ingredient.

If you dine at their real restaurant, you must have this dish, a self preserved prawn omelette with spicy chilli paste. Not as large as their normal portion (it was a tasting menu of course) but just as addictive.

Next up, some snails although I can’t really remember how they served it. Not particularly offensive, nor memorable.

They soon delivered the roast pollock with a lot of accompanying seafood, some greens and strongly flavoured chorizo.

Next came the pork belly with sweet potato mash, a little bit of a disappointment to be honest. Not only was the piece rather tough and chewy, they managed to sear the top of the skin to crisp (almost burn!) but the rest stayed fatty. Probably the least impressive of the evening .

Finally on to dessert. A perfect finish with a cinder toffee affogato, sweet smoky, and the perfect hot cold sensations of mixing liquid and cream.

They almost forgot to serve the chocolate truffles although we probably didn’t need much more food at this point.

A really great dining experience and from memory, pretty good value for this many courses at just over £60 without drinks. I love the food they serve at the Modern Pantry and although not all the dishes excelled, many of them did and the experience was worth the wait.

June 18, 2011

Fox and Anchor

Firstly, I can’t believe that I haven’t written about this place before. It’s one of my favourite gastropubs and it gets many rave reviews from other bloggers. I love the fact that it’s slightly hidden away, although enough people seem to know about it that it’s continually busy throughout the week. They have awesome ales, offer fresh British oysters (what pub often serves that!), and a hearty menu for all.

For this latest occasion (yes, I have been many times), I was meeting a good friend, Stace (pictured above) who I’ve known for many years but who lives in far north Scotland these days. This means that I don’t get to see her, and her husband, Wes that often. Sometimes she comes down to London for work, and it so happened I also was in London for the three days that overlapped with her last week in London (she’s expecting a baby soon). How serendipitous!

Anyway, back to the food. Stace ordered the mutton shanks (a strange, but just as delicious choice) that came with a good assortment of freshly shucked peas and beans.

Debating about the wonderful burger and the tempting hickory smoked ribs, I asked what our waitress recommended and it turned out to be the latter. What arrived was a generous serving of gorgeously smoked and tender ribs where the meat pulled away from the bone with minimal fuss. It came with some fresh sweet corn, coleslaw and some fat fries that weren’t as good as I’ve had there before. Knowing my dish was going to come without any greens, I ordered a fresh side salad that proved the perfect accompaniment.

We considered some dessert, but both of the main meals defeated us. My choice would have been the eton mess.

Describing the Fox and Anchor as having plenty of character would be an understatement. On a good day, you can find some proper metallic tankards to drink some local British ale, and find little enclaves in the back such as the Foxes Lare.

Although I chose to share this with the world, this place is really too good to spread the word too loudly.

Name: The Fox and Anchor
Found at: 115 Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6AA
Website: http://www.foxandanchor.com/