A Birthday Indulgence: Launceston Place & Assa - Kensington & Soho, Sunday September 16th, 2012

One of the downsides of living in an old building (our home is over 100 years old) is that sometimes facilities are not the best. Over the past few years, our hot water has been known to trip into either overdrive or total failure. On one Sunday last year the unthinkable happened and we were without hot water for the whole day. This was supposed to be my Valentine's Day surprise for 2012 but the wife flew into a seething rage which lasted about eight hours and in the process, cancelled our plans for the day.

Now the plan itself had been a surprise so I didn't really lose much. In fact, the surprise came anyway when she took me for a lovely dinner later that week. I think she must have felt bad because she then re-arranged our lunch for one Sunday in September and off we went to Launceston Place, somewhere which has become a firm favourite for the both of us over the last few years.

It just so happened that the re-arrangement was the day before her birthday too, so it turned into something of a double celebration. Sunday lunch is a great time to go to Launceston Place because their set menu is always reasonable and offers good quality and variety. As usual, their impeccable bread and butter got us off to a superbly appetising, moderately too-filling start.

Along with the bread, we were presented with some choux pastry bon bons with cheese and bechamel sauce inside (left). These were buttery, crunchy morsels of absolute indulgence, or exactly what good amuse bouches should be. The cheese was not overpowering but strong enough to stand out and the pastry was perfect. Our pre-starter was a wild mushroom foam with hazelnuts and some oil. This was less impressive since I didn't understand the nuts at all and they lent nothing other than a distracting contrast of texture and flavour to a delicious mushroom soup.

The wife was unshakably decided on the scallops to start from the moment we read the menu. Costing an extra £6, these were a delight (right). Expertly seared and soft in the middle, they were served with a slab of pork belly with a delicious sweet glaze which elevated the dish well above just another plate of scallops. Celeriac purée and various apple accompaniments tied it together superbly. As a combination of ingredients it's a bit of a no-brainer but in terms of the execution it couldn't be faulted.

My starter was something a little more restrained. A poached hen's egg with pea velouté and prosciutto lardo was presented in just about the most appetising way possible (left). Thick, rich soup with a perfectly poached, large egg sitting in, garnished with pea shoots and draped with salty, shiny strips of fat was a delicious, hearty starter. The egg yolk added a stark richness to the creaminess of the peas and the bacon fat contributed a delicious sheen of savoury punch.

After plenty of bread and a very satisfying starter, I felt a bit of fish was in order, especially when hand-speared plaice was on the menu (right). Served with salt cod bon bons, cauliflower purée, samphire, capers and chicken jus, the flavour definition of the dish was exceptional. I am not a huge lover of fish when meat is an option but this was an outstanding balance of varying texture and harmony.

The wife needed no encouragement to pay another supplementary cost and enjoy the classic Launceston Place roast beef (left). Excellently medium-rare, served with proper dripping-cooked potatoes, vegetables and their glorious red wine gravy with a hint of truffle... This sort of meal is the kind any gastro-pub proprietor needs to eat and understand what a decent roast Sunday lunch really tastes like.

Desserts at Launceston Place always make me happy. Usually before I've even eaten them. The menu reads precisely how you want an English menu to: simple, elegant desserts which make sense. Baked yoghurt with yoghurt ice cream and fruits is one such sensible yet exciting pudding (right). This was not the sort of dessert that explodes with intricate and sensational flavour, but one which just makes you feel good about what you're eating. Need we ask for more? Puddings aren't good for us but they should make us feel good. The yoghurt ice cream was a little tart but the sweet fruits and meringue compensated and the result was a friendly pot of summer dessert.

The wife went down the route of a slightly more extravagant finisher in the form of chocolate and caramel mousse (left). The overt sweetness of the mousse was beautifully contrasted with poached pear, pear sorbet and some salted caramel smeared on the plate. Pastry was added to jazz up the overall texture and the result was a delicious and rewarding combination of satisfying sweetness. I wasn't allowed much of this but what I had was a treat.

Launceston Place has come a long way in my estimation since my first semi-disastrous visit. It has slowly changed from a modern European restaurant with great potential to the real deal. It now owns a Michelin Star (though it didn't at the time of this visit) and focuses on proper local tastes and dishes. (The 'British' tag for this particular review is the first for Launceston Place.) In terms of upmarket Sunday lunch, I don't believe there is anywhere better in London.

Now, on the Friday visit to Duck Soup, the wife had been lobbying for a return to the Soho branch of the Korean restaurant Assa. Somewhere we'd enjoyed plenty before, and given that it was her birthday weekend, I relented and for some reason we found ourselves eating dinner there after a pretty indulgent lunch.

Assa is a really enjoyable, no-frills Korean joint. It does not flatter to deceive and the food (by and large) is worth what they are charging. My standard is usually the Korean classic of bim bim bap: rice with egg, beef, vegetables and sauce, mixed together in a hot pot at the table (right). There is something assuredly rustic about dishes like this which makes them so appealing to me. Mixing the fresh ingredients together in the pot, cooking them in the process, is the very essence of Asian eating which can sometimes be lost in London's Asian restaurants. The flavour, in Assa's case, is always a sweet, sour, salty and refreshingly comfortable one.


The wife was given free reign over the menu since it was a birthday treat for her and she went for the spicy kim-chi tofu soup (left). This is the kind of stuff I simply cannot abide because it is ridiculously spicy and sour (and it contains tofu). But for her it is always a treat which means it is a decent appropriation of genuine Asian cuisine. We also always seem to eat glass noodles when we're at Assa; they tend to be very consistent (above right). Slippery, clean noodles with stir-fried pork mince and vegetables is a satisfying plate indeed.

Another of our standard dishes was brought to the table in the form of a seafood pancake (left). Crisp-fried and filled with prawn & chives and served with some vinegar for dipping, dishes as rich and flavoursome as this are going to remain on our go-to list for a while. Additionally, we ordered some crispy pork to finish things off (above right). This was a pleasantly fresh accompaniment, not being greasy or heavy at all. It was a nice balance of salty pork with slightly neutralising notes from the cucumber and peppers within. A very reasonable side piece to a totally unreasonable dinner, given our lunch.

Assa, like Launceston Place, is a great favourite of ours. The food is reasonably-priced and almost always delivers on flavour and texture. The sheer rusticity of the place makes it a Soho must-visit and when it's good, it's very good. The fact that they still don't have a website somehow makes it all the better: it's not a secret, but it is a great place to tell your friends about. As for this particular Sunday, the wife was elated that we'd managed to take in two of her favourite places in one day, at the very least.

Launceston Place