Launceston Place

Patrick British, Restaurants, UK

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

Dinner at The Garrison

Patrick British, Gastropub, Restaurants, UK

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/

Brunching at Giant Robot

Patrick American, Brunch, Coffee, Restaurants, UK

I remember hearing about Giant Robot when it first opened to much hurrahed fanfare. I understand there’s a shortage of restaurants serving good American food, but it seemed there was a bit more fuss than there should have been. Turning up for a Saturday morning brunch, it seems like the patrons agreed with me – we were seated pretty much immediately.

I ordered a flat white that was served in a mug. Decently flavoured and no real complaints about it.

We also ordered the brunch burger that was apparently pretty good. It had the bright yellow melty cheese one would expect from an American diner.

I went for the three-egg omelette, served with a huge slice of sourdough toast.

Perhaps it was just what I ordered, but I can’t say I was particularly impressed by the food. The dinner menu looks a bit more interesting but for brunch, I’ll have to try somewhere else next time.

Name: Giant Robot
Found at: 45-47 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5RS
Website: http://www.gntrbt.com/

Cafe VN

Patrick Asian, Restaurants, UK, Vietnamese

My sister was constantly talking about going to this vietnamese place called Cafe VN that wasn’t so far from me, so we decided to go for dinner one night. It’s a place that hadn’t really registered but thought we’d try to give it a go.

Bright green lighting draws diners in, like a moth to a flame.

We started with some spring rolls and then the chilli salt squid. I was a bit disappointed by the spring rolls. For a Chinese equivalent of a spring roll, it was pretty decent – large and filled with lots of real filling instead of simply just wrapper. Unfortunately I was looking forward to the great crispy skinned vietnamese spring rolls when they use rice paper wrapping instead.

The sqiud was actually pretty good and a huge serve as well. Pieces were soft and juicy though there could have been much more chilli around.

Being a huge pho fanatic, I ordered the house special that came with prawns and beef. The serving size was huge and, even I didn’t finish all everything the came. The prawns were huge and there was plenty of meat, the only thing of note was that they didn’t use very traditional pho rice noodles, instead flatter, thicker noodles I’d expect in a stir fry.

It looked the same when my sister ordered the pork bun (rice noodle) dish with the wrong noodles.

Service was great and friendly, mostly due to a warm Australian waitress helping us out. Food was okay, although not very authentic.

Name: Cafe VN
Found at: 144 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DP
Website: http://www.cafevn.co.uk/

Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester

Patrick French, Michelin Starred, Restaurants, UK

My sister and I have this agreement when it comes to any event where presents are involved: Don’t buy me anything I don’t really need. The consequences of this mean that often we spend time buying each other experiences, rather than material goods that will often go unused. When it came to my birthday this year, she suggested that we dine at the 3-starred, Alain Ducasse in the Dorchester.

I’ve been past here, plenty of times before although normally it’s on the the top floor of the double decker buses that zoom around Hyde Park as you admire the fancy cars that sit in their driveway. Not tonight! This time, all suited up to go (apparently a “highly” recommended dress code of at least a jacket) and enter the hotel we are.

Being the first time in this hotel, I notice how the doormen manually revolve the revolving doors as you enter the building, and arriving for our 6:30pm (early I know!) booking, are greeting by no more than four or five different people in the lobby all decadently dressed up, as one would expect for such a well known British hotel.

We move into the stretched hallway, lined with gilded statues, overly ornate furnishings that shine in constrast to the dark streets we just stepped out of. Families celebrating birthdays, and obviously special events sit in comfy lounges entertained by a talented pianist and celebrate with a late afternoon tea. We walk amongst them as we move towards the entrance to Alain Ducasse.

Slightly early for our booking, we perch at the bar for a drink. The prices are sharp contrast to the cheap berlin bars I’m used to frequenting. Even when we went to Tausend to “splash out” on ‚Ǩ10 cocktails in Berlin, the ¬£20 equivalents here I’m sure are to be good. I opt for a simple classic Martini Bianco with a lemon slice as it seems to be my current apertif of choice.

The restaurant opens and slowly but surely we’re seen into the cavernous dining room. We are shown into one of the comfy corners. There’s plenty of space, and the drapes around make it feel a lot more intimate than waht the space realistically is. I note three two-person dining tables in our area, a couple already present against one side, we are seated against the opposite. Already able to overhear the furtherest table, I’m thankful the middle table remains unoccupied for the rest of the evening.

As we peruse the menu, a mountain of gruyere profiteroles arrives, freshly made, warm salty and ever so light. It’s tempting to continue snacking on them as we consider the two menus but I’m conscious we’ll be trying the tasting menu up ahead of us.

There are actually two different menus to choose from. A reasonable seven course menu that is listed on the website, and another using more in-season ingredients that comes in at almost double. We opt for the first and the menus are whisked away.

It’s not long until the bread basket lies. We have a choice from many breads. Not quite the same selection that Tom Aikens offers that requires a push-cart for just the bread itself, but good nevertheless. An interesting range from bread with bacon, an olive bread, sourdough, plain white roll and a baguette. Not super warm, but the winner for me is the small baguette, crispy on the outside and definitely freshly made.

It comes served with creamed cheese, and a pat of salted french butter shaped into what looks like a giant Chinese dumpling, or maybe more approrpiately, a bulb of garlic.

It’s not long before the first course arrives, a Spicy crab and broccoletti dish. The streak of red is some sort of spicy salt that definitely gives the dish zing. The foam on top suspending luscious amounts of crab, and a warmed jelly like seafood concoction that is as velvety as a very smooth foie gras. It’s a good start to the meal, a generous heaping of seafood and packed full of flavour.

In what seems like a trend to come, it seems almost as soon as we’ve finished one course, our plates are whisked away and another soon replaces them. I’m still uncertain as to whether or not they were rushing us (they weren’t really doing another sitting) or this was some aspect to the service that gets them that second or third star.

Anyway, the second dish arrives, Crispy raw and cooked vegetable tart served with a fresh herb condiment. This dish was not only spectacular to look at, but also an wonderful confusing mix of flavours and textures. Raw vegetables give the dish a fresh crunch that contrasts against the stewed vegetables that sit in a circle at the bottom of the dish. I break the flaky pastry dish, destroying the beautiful masterpiece, but eagerly using it to soak up all the amazing flavours that make up this dish. I almost think that my vegetarian friends would be amazed at finding this dish in a french restaurant, but a part of me suspects some of the strength of flavour from the sauces must come from a basis of animal stock. Not that I care as I scrape the last bits from the dish.

Our waiter presents, the next dish, apparently a very signature dish of Mr Ducasse, a “Saute gourmand”of lobtser, and truffled chicken quenelles. Exquisite, luciscious and no wonder Ducasse’s customers demanded for this dish to be brought back on the menu. Huge chunks of lobster sit amongst freshly made, perfectly Italian al-dente pasta, made even more divine by the chicken dumplings flavoured generiously with truffle. Strongly aromatic and a sauce so gorgeous that I cannot help but soak up some of the left over sauce with the remnants of my baguette. Probably breaking lots of ettiquette, but hey, I’m appreciating the food right?

Visually bland, at least in contrast to the previous dish, we start on the Simmered halibut, celeriac, shellfish and squid. I can only imagine how much butter (it’s French cooking, mmm-kay) went into the velvety sauce that surrounds the fish. A good meaty fish that flakes easily with a fork, with “tears” of celeriac dotting the plate. Shellfish came in the form of tiny cockels that provided pepper-like contrast to the dish.

We finish with the seafood course and then arrives our main meat course, Saddle of venison, grand-veneur, pumpkin, beetroot and quince. It’s a good thing too because it’s a sizable chunk. I take a sip of the Rioja wine that I enjoy even more having actually went against the sommerlier’s recommendation for a merlot, it’s strength of flavour matching well and not outpowered by the venison hung for only two weeks. He seemed to want to recommend all the most expensive glasses of wine which I’m sure were good, but my wine pallette’s not that refined. I take a slice of the venison, swoosh it around in the rich dark sauce, perfectly balanced with background notes of dark chocolate and enjoy the dish very slowly as the amount of food consumed starts to kick in.

Fortunately that was our last main course, with the cheese platter to arrive next. It’s spectuculalrly laid out with four different cheeses. A goat’s cheese accompanied by a red-pepper paste (very good!), a camembert with apple chutney, a hard cheese (can’t remember which) with a mushroom and macadamia paste (didn’t really do it for me) and my favourite of the evening, a roquefort blue cheese with quince chutney with a slight kick provided by mustard.

I found it a bit strange but they served it with a side salad topped with blanched almonds.

And more appropriately a walnut and sultana bread. Of course there were crackers as well.

Amazing the petite fours arrive without even being asked for tea and coffe and we’re both struggling to put away more of the food. There were six(!) macaroons. Flavours we think included strawberry, lemon and coconut.

The truffles were also very good – a hazelnut with crispy rice crackers remindining me of my favourite Finish chocolate brand, Geisha, and a more classic chocolate truffle.

My sister wans’t particularly thrilled by the sound of our last dish on the menu, and they substituted for her, the raspberry almond dish that looked delightful and appropriately red for my birthday (Chinese tradition says it’s good luck to be wearing red on your birthday).

Still not excited by the prospect, what arrived was definitely a good surprise in my book for the exoctic fruits dessert containing two different sorbets (vanilla and lime, mango and passion fruit), light puffs in the form of coconut meringue chunks of fruit and finished off by a warm mango passionfruit sauce. My only complaint was that it was a bit sweet for me (but I think that’s just me more than anything).

Thinking that we were completly finished, we were then shocked to have a whole dessert trolley roll up to us including many sweets, biscuits adn extra pastry cakes for us to choose from. We could have any and all although at this time, only opted for a small caramel and a pistachio pastry to split between the two of us.

They even gave my sister a nice “breakfast” take-away dish to go.

Everything about the evening was pretty good, as one would expect from a 3-starred Michelin place. I found the dishes coming a little bit too fast for my liking, but maybe that’s part of the service that is required for a place like this. Food was amazing, and some of the flavours really refined and divine.

Name: Alian Ducasse at the Dorchester
Found at: The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London W1K 1QA
Website: http://www.alainducasse-dorchester.com/

Assortment of four french cheeses (goat’s cheese, blue, camembert)
Exotic fruits – coconut meringue, vanilla lime sorbet, mango passionfruit.

Almont raspberry

Spuntino

Patrick American, Restaurants, UK

Alright I’m a little behind the times about eating and blogging about Spuntino. It’s hard given that I’ve spent most of my year working in another country for a different client. Fortunately I managed to agree to catch up with my sister for an early dinner (just before 6pm) on a Sunday. It’s a good thing too with the queue for seats starting almost as soon as we sat down.

Saying that there’s not much space is a bit of an understatement. It’s pretty much just a U-shaped countertop serving probably about twenty people. With the young hipsters behind the bar mixing cocktails and various things to drink it’s quite all up for show.

The waiting area behind the “dining area”.

As soon as we sat down, they served us some popcorn with chilli oil. You can see them pop the corn with a proper cinema popcorn maker although it really felt a bit too greasy for me. Didn’t really taste the spice either.

The idea behind this New York inspired dining eating is small plates for sharing. It works in a whole lot of ways. You can eat progressively, as much as you like or as little as you like without feeling like you’re constrained to a normal two or three course meal, though you can do that as well. My recommendation to you is to do make progressive orders as the space on the countertop doesn’t really let you stack that many plates. Now on to the food that we ordered.

Although the both of us aren’t particularly fond of olives, I’d read good reviews of their stuffed olives (£4). Imagine a mini version of scotch egg except that instead of an egg, they use an olive and the stuffing is an anchovy mix. I can’t really say that worked for us and I found myself eating them all myself. Terribly salty (olives + anchovies) and honestly a little bit greasy. But hey, that could work for you if you’ve been waiting in line and drinking for a little bit already.

A huge winner and something I don’t think that you can indulge in everyday was the truffled egg toast (£5.50). What arrived was a huge piece of bread, with melted cheese and aromatic melted cheese enriched (like it needed any more!) with a puddle of egg yolk on top just to add that extra bit of egginess. It was good to split this between two people as I can imagine as a dish for yourself might be a bit much.

We ordered a couple of the “sliders” that are basically an American name for almost bite sized burgers. I say almost because these were pretty big and you would hope so for the prices. We tried the ground beef and bone marrow (£4.50) and the lamb and picked cucumber (£5). Both tasty, moist and served on a nice tasty bun that wasn’t too dry.

The next few dishes almost arrived at the same time meaning we struggled for counter top space – swapping drinks for meals and lightly arranging dishes so they maximised the tiny counter top that we had. We split the next dish, the zucchini, chill and mint pizzeta (£6.50) in half. Thin base, perfectly balanced spicy, cool and fresh vegetables made this dish a big winner in my eyes. Probably one of the better valued dishes as well.

Like we didn’t have enough stodge in our meal, my sister wanted to try the famous mac and cheese (£8) that we probably should have split with our neighbours that there was so much and so rich. Whilst good, I think we were craving the small bigs of truffle shavings of truffle oil that has made this dish an even bigger winner for me in other restaurants.

Pretty much full after this huge amount of food, I opted out for dessert, instead just trying a bit of the peanut butter and jelly “sandwich” (£6.50) dessert that my sister ordered. It’s a cleverly constructed dish with the “bread” made out of slabs of peanut butter ice cream, filled with jam and sprinklings of crunchy, sweet peanut brittle providing the perfect amount of crunch to the dish. Had I not eaten so much, I probably would have enjoyed this dessert although my only criticism is that it was far too sweet for my taste and I barely even touched the jam with the small amount of ice cream I had.

I can see why this place gets great reviews. I think the bill was reasonable considering the amount of food we ordered. The price would obviously go up as soon as you hit the alcoholic drinks, and if you’re interested in some of the interesting bourbon based whiskey cocktails, there were definitely a few interesting ones to go for. Service was cordial, prompt and much deserved of their 12.5% service I think. Be warned that it’s worth going early if you don’t want to wait, but I guess half the fun could be indulging in the tiny crowded space imagining that you’ve been transported to some part of New York.

Name: Spuntino
Found at: 61 Rupert Street, Soho, London, W1D 7PW (it’s not very well signed and we walked right by it but maybe look out for the large group of people that may be queuing.
Website: http://spuntino.co.uk/

The Modern Pantry Visits Meza

Patrick Asian, British, Restaurants, UK

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.

Fox and Anchor

Patrick British, Gastropub, UK

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/

Italian Beetroot Salad

Patrick Berlin, Recipe, UK

Over the early May bank holiday weekend, I decided to actually come back from Berlin and spend a proper weekend at home. I even went to the trouble of cooking up a meal. To be honest, it’s probably one of the very first real home cooked meals (I don’t really count M&S salads or heated up meals from the freezer or store cabinet) I made since the start of the year. Terrible life of a consultant.

My sister came around and my flatmate was around, so we indulged in some great food made form some good ingredients sourced from some quality places.

I made some garlic and tomato rubbed toast to nibble on before our meal, although my focus was entirely on the main this time. I spent some time putting together a salad I’d enjoyed from an Italian place in Berlin and was trying to recreate it without the recipe and from memory. Not quite perfect, but very close.

Some of its constituent elements includes fresh radishes – I think it was a 100g packet of small radishes. Roughly chopped up into the same sized pieces

Spring Onions – Just one spring onion chopped up

Walnuts – I tried 30g here

Some red onions – Just a half because I didn’t want it too strong

Ginger – Once again just a nib, chopped into tiny, tiny bits

Some beetroot – I think I had four cooked beetroots that I then chopped into tiny pieces. Mix this all together with some plain unsweetened yogurt, just enough to cover everything. The final result was the salad below:

I then served this salad with some wonderful steaks sourced from The Ginger Pig alongside some freshly grilled asparagus (in season), and some goose-fat roasted potatoes.

Cooking three steaks at the same time at home, I think they all turned out perfectly medium or medium rare, and went down well with the freshly made mushroom sauce I also made from scratch.

Our wonderful meal finished off my a home made eaton mess that my flat mate made. Mmmm.

Nom nom nom at Nopi

Patrick Restaurants, UK

Travelling for work gives you only a short amount of time to pick the activities and things you want to do when you do get back into London. Picking which places to go and eat is already a challenge even without the travel – new places constantly open up, and even ones that seem pretty good surprisingly shut down ever so frequently. A few places of recent received some good reviews, and so decided to catch up with a good friend at Nopi – the new eatery set up by famed vegetarian restauranteur Ottolenghi.

Fear not, brave reader. Unlike his other self, named vegetarian outlets, this one serves meat for those that cannot go one meal without it.

This is a restaurant that earns it service. As soon as we arrived, our waitress immediately brought bread to the table. It’s cut fresh from the huge loaves of sourdough that are noticeable as you walk into the entrance.

The menu is clear and simple, with many tempting offers. Fortunately (and unfortunately) they change the menu fairly frequently. One of the very good dishes recommended by others (the beef croquettes) wasn’t on our menu, though pleased to see several others were. Vegetarians will still delight, as their choices sit centre stage along with the meat and the seafood dishes. For me, it’s a bit hard to describe where all the flavours come from. It almost seems a little confused. Mediterranean ingredients, fused with Moroccan spices, uplifted by asiatic spices and sauces.

We had a table close to the door, although well placed so that you’re out of people’s way when they walk in, and you can appreciate the rest of the dining room. The restaurant is modern and airy, though not particularly bright (my photos requiring fairly high ISO levels and definitely needing the image stabilisation). Bonus points to them for not placing tables so close that you’re literally sitting next to people at the next table and the acoustics great so that you’re not having to shout across the table.

An impressive soft napkin surrounded by a large gold ring sits on top of the plate in front of you when you arrive.

Bread served with a great tasting olive oil, and an amazingly delicious roasted beetroot dip. You can see the ginger and the yogurt on top, and I could taste elements of cinnamon and cardamom although we were told it had a “Moroccan spice blend” added to it. Unlike other places, they didn’t have any problem offering more of the soft, chewy and delightfully crunchy crusty bread to mop up the rest of the dip.

Rather than starting with a prosecco, out waitress offered a pineapple martini. Strong in flavour and a great way to clean the palette, these extremely strong cocktails provided a way to start the appetite going.

They recommend three dishes per diner, and highly recommend sharing plates between, so we did as they suggested. This was pretty easy given a number of recommendations from other reviewers. The kitchen and attendants know how to serve their dish with three dishes arriving first and just enough to fill up our table. Any more and the pressure to fill our plates and get through the food faster would have soured the dining experience. We took our time eating these three plates before the next set arrived.

The twice cooked baby chicken was a little bit of a disappointment. I heard mixed reviews when ordering it, and if given the choice again, would have tried something different. Our main problems with this dish turned out how dry the chicken ended up despite its sweet sticky soy glaze. The accompanying seasoned salt and chilli paste, whilst good additions, did little to address the dryness of the meat. This dish definitely had potential but failed when we tried it.

My dining companion appreciated the artichoke dish. Freshly cooked served with crumbled feta, some grains and freshly shucked beans turned out to be a refreshingly balanced dish.

My favourite of our first three dishes was definitely the aubergine. Served with fine slivers of chilli, pomegranate, and grilled before being split and topped with micro greens. Utterly delicious with the good balance of char, heat and sweetness working its magic.

After reading about the pork cheeks, this was one dish I had to have. Pork cheeks are naturally super soft and when they were braised as they came, turned to be one of the softest melting flesh full of flavour. They served it withs some “noodles” made out of celeriac and some other herbs.

I was a bit indifferent about the carpaccio that proved a little bit too light tasting and had a lot of things going for it. I would have preferred something with a bit of a stronger flavour. Nice though.

The other dish I’d definitely order again is the prawns. Served with a richly deep tomato broth, this dish was probably one of the best value for money with four huge prawns in a sauce desperately waiting to be mopped up by more of the sourdough bread (also offered again). It comes in a nifty little pan as well.

Here’s a picture of the prawn although I’m not sure if you get a real sense of how large it is.

Up for desserts, I went for the much raved about pineapple galette served with coconut ice-cream. It’s the perfect tropical balancing act between hot and cold, and the pineapple chunks, perhaps soaked in something with pandan essence used to bridge the two elements of this dish perfectly.

The other dish was a peanut butter brittle chocolate dish, much heavier though chock full of flavour. I only had a small taste of this dish, and what a dish it was.

I’ll say that dining at Nopi isn’t the cheapest dinner you’ll get in London. Our four dishes each, bottled water, 5 cocktails and 2 coffees later averaged about £80 including service. However what a great dining experience it was. Service was exactly how it should be – there when you need it, things topped up and taken away when you’re not. Even though we were booked in for two hours, we did stay a little bit longer and never felt like we were being shooed away. Not all the dishes worked perfectly, but most of the dishes did. Those that did work were pretty spectacular as well.

Name: Nopi
Found at: 21-22 Warwick Street, London W1B 5NE
Website: http://www.nopi-restaurant.com/