Shanghai - Knightsbridge, Sunday 22nd July, 2012

Lazy summer afternoons in the city are always a lovely thing. Except they're rarely actually lazy in London since it's always so bustling and lively. A year ago the wife and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather to have a stroll around Knightsbridge (inevitably ending up with shopping) and through on to Hyde Park (inevitably ending up with a meal.)

We decided some dim sum was in order, so we tried Shanghai, situated on the Old Brompton Road and with a suitably serene, tranquil atmosphere within. It was a nice break from the packed, sun-bathed streets and dim sum is a great afternoon food whatever the location or season.

We went for mixed noodles and these were definitely worth the visit (left). A properly balanced array of squid, prawns and scallops, these were moist and substantial. The vegetables were all well-cooked, retaining some crunch but with a nice sheen from the sauce. Despite the heat, this was on the money. Mixed noodles from a decent Chinese restaurant is one of those mythical dishes: simple enough to make but rarely ever executed well enough to be enjoyable.

As with any (and I do mean any) dim sum meal, dumplings and buns had to be ordered (left and right respectively). These were unfortunately not on the same level as the dumplings: over-heavy, under-seasoned and a long way from the wholesome comfort eating they should have been.

This is perhaps the biggest risk of eating anywhere in Knightsbridge: the price. Whilst the noodles were a bit toppy, they were fine since the delivery was great. Dishes like this just aren't worth the extra couple of quid you get charged at places like this. We also ordered a couple of miscellaneous side dishes of vegetables and white radish but none of it could compare with the noodles. The best places to be for food like this on any given London day in the sun are in Chinatown and Bayswater.

Shanghai

Saporitalia - Notting Hill, Saturday July 7th, 2012

Having enjoyed a rather indulgent week of burgers, take-away pizza, tapas and mangoes, the wife and I had resolved to put a stop to any meals out for a little while. Whilst we hadn't spent a great deal on food, it would have done us good to cease our waistline-troubling frippery. Then, the day after Barrafina, we had no idea what to do in the evening. So we went out for dinner. It was late on Saturday, we didn't feel like cooking, so in our defence, dinner out made sense.

Shoddy rationalisation aside, we fancied a proper Italian meal out. I had been motivated by the master of comfort food whom had curated our visit to Joe Allen. Daniel Young's list of the best 10 pizzas in London is a mouth-watering read and it was with this in mind that we ventured up to Notting Hill for some rustic, filling dinner. Devotees may recall the wife and I made a pilgrimage to what was supposed to be London's best pizza place a couple of years ago and pretty awesome it was too. I was surprised to see Santa Maria not on the Young & Foodish list at all but the number one spot certainly merited investigation.

We were there for the pizza, but other things on the menu caught our eyes. Firstly the fried seafood - more or less fritto miso - was one the wife leapt at instantly (left). Despite not delivering quite the rustic crunch of somewhere like Bocca di Lupo or Polpo, the flavours and freshness were there. The squid in particular was delicious and the salad was far from irrelevant as a dressing.

There was a summer special on which neither of us needed much encouragement to order: spaghettini al tartufo (right). With black summer truffle and spaghetti costing only £10, it was one of the most reasonably priced dishes I can remember eating last year. The flavour was far from overpowering, with fresh truffles perfectly complimenting the thick, rich butter sauce & parmesan on top of perfectly cooked pasta. It was a glorious plate of food.

After such amazing starters, we were fairly sure the pizza was going to be worth the trip. Unfortunately we were both pretty full after the appetisers but the mission was to eat pizza, so we ordered two. Now no pizza place can be put through its paces properly unless a margherita is ordered. Only here it's called a 'marinara' which I suppose makes sense (left). Instantly we could tell that  this was serious pizza: proper thin, crisp dough with some chewiness in the middle. The sauce was rich and comforting, the basil a welcome addition, the pizza terrific.

We also tried the Pomodorini, Rucola e Crudo pizza, a more upmarket and drier proposition (right). This included sublime matured san Daniele ham and cherry tomatoes with some rocket to cut through the richness of the meat. This was possibly even better than the first pizza, offering a little more in terms of variation, in both texture and taste. The dough again was perfect, with the toppings coming together to ensure a quite wonderful dish.

Of course we were far too full to finish both pizzas, taking away the remnants for Sunday's dinner. To answer the question of whether or not this place is actually the best in London..? It is one year on (to the day) and I can recall every part of this meal with clarity and fondness to the degree that it just has to be. Incredible, reasonably-priced pizzas ably supported by an array of perfect Italian dishes from a charming restaurant. Life doesn't get much better.

Saporitalia

Barrafina & Madd - Soho, Friday July 6th, 2012

During my birthday week last year, the wife and I had taken in one enjoyable event at Joe Allen and had a pleasant pizza evening at home on the actual day. Ever in the mood for celebrating and eating, she suggested we take in a proper meal to cap things off. Tapas restaurant Barrafina was somewhere we'd long been interested in trying so the pretext of a birthday meal was a welcome one.

You can't book at Barrafina, like seemingly every Soho restaurant these days, so we got there in plenty of time to have an outside seat on a sunny Friday. It was a lovely moment in that we'd never before eaten a proper dinner outside on a beautiful Soho evening. However, before we'd had the chance to sit, we were asked to wait until a table became free. As such, we ordered some snacks while we waited.

Some chorizo wrapped in thin, fried bread got things off to a chewy, greasy start (left). And I mean chewy and greasy in the most positive way. Spanish sausage is wonderfully rich and indulgent and I quite liked the idea of serving them wrapped in crisp bread to provide some contrast and body. More simply, we also plumped for toast with alioli (right). There's not much to say about crusty bread with garlic mayonnaise except that it had better be done properly. And this was.

After our appetisers were out of the way, we sat down and immediately asked our waiter where we could find deep fried baby squid since it wasn't on the main menu. Fortunately, the chipirones were a special of the day so we wasted no time in getting stuck in (left). These were exactly as you want squid to be: crispy, a touch of chewy texture but enough moisture to make it a perfect savoury plate of summery Spanish seafood. Everything that's great about Spanish food in one simple plate.

Another special was one I ordered without a moments hesitation: summer asparagus (right). This was a delectable mixture of green and white, giving a nice variation in texture and richness, served with shaved payoyo cheese and balsamic vinegar. The cook on the asparagus was flawless and the combination of flavours was a mixture of sweet-sour from the vinegar and salty from the parmesan-like cheese, perfectly counter-balancing the sweet vegetables. Reminiscent of Bocca di Lupo some weeks earlier, this was a beautiful summer plate of food.

No visit to a tapas restaurant is complete without bravas potatoes of some kind, so we went for the option on the Barrafina menu which was 'Chips with Brava sauce' (left). The chips themselves were crunchy and properly prepared, with salt & thyme flowers to season. The sauce was a little too sour though, leaving me wishing they had really gone for the sweeter more classic Spanish option with some mayo and more balance to the dish.

We fancied some chicken and the thigh with Romesco sauce was one dish which jumped out at us (right). The chicken was well-cooked with a delicious crispy skin but the sauce, garnish and seasoning did not work. Almonds on top were more confusing than anything else and the whole thing was so covered in thyme salt that it was overpowering and a little too bitter in the event. We got little of the mildly spicy tomato sauce either, with a similar problem to the brava sauce which came with the chips.

More sausage next, with the very modern-sounding 'chorizo, potato & watercress', which was exactly what the dish was (left). Nothing fancy here, just a hearty and well-constructed array of complimentary ingredients. It didn't really feel like tapas as such, but the plate of food was nicely filling without being too rich or salty.

We had one more dish to come and it was possibly the one I'd been looking forward to the most. Pork belly from the specials board was an enticing-sounding thing and it looked pretty impressive too (right). However, it didn't really sit very well as part of a Spanish tapas meal. Where the chorizo with potatoes was a brisk, modern take on classic Spanish dinner, this was an English dish forced into a Spanish menu. The addition of mashed potato added little more than filler and the sauce was so rich and salty that it overwhelmed the pork. A shame to finish on such a strange dish but we were very satisfied overall.

There was not a lot to tempt us on the dessert menu, so we took a short stroll down on to Rupert Street and stumbled upon Madd, a relatively new (at the time) dessert shop/café with a strong mango theme. The setup here is refreshingly simple: you take your mango dessert, add whatever kinds of fresh fruit or dressing you feel like and away you go. The prices seemed a little high but the temptation of a mango creme brulée was too great (left). It was pretty decent in the event, a well-set custard and not too much burnt sugar on top. The mango flavour itself was not so strong, but the scoop of mango ice cream on the side was compensation enough.

I put them to the true mango test by ordering a lassi, one of my favourite drinks if done well (right). It was not the best lassi I have ever had but it was a decent effort: creamy, refreshing and sweet. It was certainly a lovely finisher to an evening of Spanish tapas in the sun. The youth hostel-like atmosphere in the place actually adds something to it, with the board games, pick-up sticks and drawings on the wall reminding you that desserts should always be carefree and enjoyable.

There is no doubting that Barrafina is one of the very best places to eat tapas in London. Especially when the sun is out. By and large the food was delicious and even though not every dish hit the spot, for a little grazing over proper Spanish, it's got my recommendation.

Madd is a different proposition but another well-crafted Soho venture. Properly put together mango desserts at semi-reasonable prices mean punters will keep coming back. For some light-hearted after dinner eats, I'll certainly be back before long. If things in Soho continue to trend as often happens, we might see a second Madd location in the near future.

Barrafina

Madd

Burger Night at Joe Allen - Covent Garden, Monday July 3rd, 2013

I've written about Joe Allen before. Especially about what an awesome, friendly place it is and how great the burgers are there. A friend had booked tickets to the burger night event run by American food writer Daniel Young of the award-winning Young And Foodish website and ended up with two spare, so the wife and I joined to make four for the night.

Mr. Young organises regular events through his website, inviting punters to participate in comfort food themed nights. His Burger Mondays are over-subscribed successes on a regular basis and, due to excessive demand, the mid-summer outing to Joe Allen had been pushed to two nights. It was on the Tuesday that the four of us headed down to see what the fuss was about.

Now, Joe Allen and burgers are as much a part of Covent Garden as theatres. There is no getting around the fact that the burger is what a lot of people go there for. The atmosphere, staff and decor are nothing to sniff at either, making the offer of spare tickets an enticing one.

Mr. Young is a dab hand at organising food events. Merrily milling around between tables, offering opinions and topics for discussion amongst the diners, the evening was underway in a seamless and spritely fashion. Because of the number of tables and attendees, every table is made up of randomly assorted groups or couples which adds to the spirit of the event.

Without much ado, we were into the starters and boy were we excited. Buffalo chicken wing sliders with celery & apple salad is more or less the most appetising thing one can read on any menu (with maybe the exception of "pulled pork") so we were hankering to get stuck in. The sliders themselves were an absolute vision: chock full of greasy, deliciously tender chicken wing meat slathered in proper barbecue sauce (left).

Chicken wings are some of the juiciest, most flavoursome parts of the bird. They're also very cheap, which is why they're the base for most good home-made chicken stocks. However, removing the meat from the bones and covering them with sauce is a real touch of class. Combine this with the fresh well-balanced salad and blue cheese dressing on the side and you have one hell of a satisfying starter.

The main course was the standard main Joe Allen event: burger with bacon and cheese, onion inside and gherkin on the side, with skin-on fries in sharing bowls on the table. Amazing stuff as usual and we were so impressed/greedy that we tucked in so fast as to forget a photo. That said, I have taken Joe Allen burger photos before so I don't feel too bad about it. The burger, as ever, was a treat and about as good as you'll get in a proper London restaurant.

The dessert had excited me the second we saw the menu. Peach cobbler and clotted cream was a dish I was dying to get into. Cobbler is basically like a pie or a crumble except the top is made up of biscuit or dumpling. It's a wonderful thing but what we were presented with was a strange dish of stewed fruit with a sweet scone on top (right). It wasn't a traditional cobbler but a more modern interpretation, as Mr. Young explained.

Apparently the cobbler is under serious threat in the USA where crumbles are becoming ever more popular. If this was an effort on behalf of the kitchen to remind us how wonderful they can be, they did a good job. The balance was excellent, between spongy topping, soft fruit and a deliciously sweet note all the way through. The whole thing capped off a sensational evening of comfort food at a reasonable price.

Two things to take away from this: firstly, if you still haven't been to Joe Allen, it's high time you paid a visit there. Despite the recent sale of the premises, under new ownership it's still going strong and is the most fun place to eat if you want proper food in the west end. Secondly, Burger Mondays by Young And Foodish are a great event: well-run, properly-priced and damn fine burgers to boot.

Joe Allen

Taste Of London - Regent's Park, Sunday 24th June, 2012

With the yearly trip to Taste Of London, the usual expectations surface. There should be good food, lots of it and a decent selection of dishes to enjoy. Last year we went back with a friend - three is usually a pretty good number for an event like this - and ended up eating more or less as much as I can remember. This being my fourth consecutive Taste Of London outing, you know the drill: summary of dishes, menu of the day, done. Let's begin...

Our first stop was at a special Action Against Hunger pop-up and not a London venue at all. Four different restaurants had their turn at the tent, one for each day, and ours happened to be Michael Wignall's restaurant at The Latymer. The dish itself was one of rich complexity, especially on a tasting plate at a festival: slow-cooked pork belly with pork popcorn, white beans, smoked eel and sage & apple (left). It was a glorious, full-flavoured and well-balanced dish, kicking the day off to an impressive start.

Our next stop was a double at Jamie Oliver's city restaurant Barbecoa. Their menu was one of the more expensive of the day but two of their savoury barbecue treats looked good to us. Pulled pork is something anyone who eats meat should like so the pulled shoulder with coleslaw was a no-brainer. Along with this, we had the crispy pig cheeks with piccalilli (both right). These were both enjoyable but reminded me too much of a mass-catered barbecue to be as great as they might be in a restaurant.

Next up was a dish from Pollen Street Social's stand. Following a Christmas meal which blew our socks off, the wife and I were determined to try something from them. Their main course dish of slow-cooked ox cheek with apple pomme purée and turnip was comforting, soft and rich (left). It was never going to be as fine as the outstanding food in the restaurant but it was a rather pleasant dish in all.

We swung by Gary Rhodes' Rhodes 24 stall, a standard of festivals past, for the main course dish of braised lamb with fondant potato and onion with gravy (right). The lamb was nice - though perhaps a little too similar to the dish we'd just tried - and very soft. The onion and gravy was delicious but sadly the potato tasted a little undercooked, a mistake that anyone who has watched MasterChef will tell you is pretty poor.

Whilst the wife and I were debating our next move, our friend went off-piste and snuck over to Bocca di Lupo to buy their signature dish of foie gras & pork sausage, served with polenta and balsamic vinegar (left). It wasn't something I'd been keen to try and after tasting it, I was convinced. Confusingly flavoured and constructed, the components of the sausage were lost amongst the sides and the seasoning. Not a good use of rather a lot of our crowns.

Despite our ups and downs with Gauthier Soho, there is one dish that holds a place in our hearts: the truffle risotto (right). It is still gloriously rich, creamy and indulgent, balancing the brown chicken jus with the light parmesan cheese and al dente rice. It's a great dish and one that I was happy to pay the equivalent of £6 per plate for.

The Savoy Grill was up next, with their Lake District sirloin steak served with Café de Paris sauce (left). I'd not heard of this sauce before and it is similar to Béarnaise without the strong tarragon flavour. In the event, the steak - which was cooked perfectly - did not really sing along with the sauce and left us wanting a bit more. Not a disappointment but nothing to write home about either.

One of London's finest (and now purveyor of a Michelin Star), Launceston Place was up next. They were serving a main course of slow-cooked pork belly with truffle mashed potato, apple jam and pork popcorn. The pork itself was pleasant enough and the combination was classic but the overall dish wasn't cohesive which I suppose is the very problem with Taste of London: restaurants have to pare their dishes back to be marketable as snack plates and sometimes it just doesn't work.

Oysters were next on the menu, as the signature dish from Kensington Place (left). At 4 tokens (£2) per oyster, they were about average for a market or festival and they were pretty fresh. What was nice about them was the break from some of the heavier food we'd been eating. However, as simple oysters, they were not a lot more than 'good'.

Continuing our seafood break in the day, we went for salt & pepper squid from Gordon Ramsay's Maze as another of the lighter dishes on show (right). It was indeed salty and spicy with chilli scattered throughout but it missed the mark on flavour overall. The squid itself was lost amongst all the seasoning and dressing, leaving us a little disappointed with the dish eventually.

We went back to meat with a stop at the Opera Tavern's stall and ordered their signature burger dish of Ibérico pork and foie gras (left). Slider-sized for easy festival eating and topped with truffled pecorino cheese, it was succulent, well-flavoured and perfectly-sized. My only criticism was that it was a little dry. It was certainly enough to pique my interest for a future visit. One thing that must be said is 14 tokens (£7) for a slider is rather dear, no matter how rich it is.

Another non-London venue had set up shop as a regular stand for the festival, with Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head crashing the capital. As such, it was always going to be one of the places near the top of our list, and their braised ox cheek with smoked mash was a hearty plate, despite costing the equivalent of £6 (right). The meat was deliciously cooked as one would expect, with a delicious rich gravy. I couldn't really identify what the smoked mash brought to the dish; as a menu item it's something that tends to rile me as a diner: showiness for no real reason by and large.

Benares were of course one of our top targets, having long been held as the very best Indian food I've eaten anywhere. Their starter dish was a rustic-sounding chicken tikka pie with spiced berry compote (left). It was very rich, filling and satisfying, but it didn't work as well as I would have hoped. The crust was a bit too hard, making it more of a tart than a pie. The contrast of compote to filling was fun, but there was too much potato in it and I wanted more chicken pieces to contrast with the filling and sauce. Unfortunately the whole thing was just a touch too mushy.

In search of yet more meat (remember, there were three of us), we headed over to the Pétrus stand for their appetising-sounding main course dish of suckling pig belly, apple & prune compote and sage jus (right). It was pretty good, despite being about as stereotypical a London festival dish could be. The mash on the plate was smooth and the pork was delicious. The compote was very tart and there may have been too much but it was good food for sure.

After some fifteen savoury dishes, we were (un)comfortably ready for desserts to start. Our first stop for pudding was the usually dessert-reliable Rhodes 24 for passion fruit tart with strawberries (left). Made in mould of a classic lemon tart, the texture was perfect. The strawberries added some lightness and contrast to the sharp sweetness of the tart and the excellent pastry. A fine effort and no mistake.

Our next dessert was another re-visit, to the Savoy Grill stand for their peach melba (right). This should have been great - an easily-produced, refreshing, summer dessert - but ended up being a damp squib. Too mushy and simplistic, it ended up being fruit salad with cream. The flavours weren't bad but it could've been so much more.

Our next stop was one that has been as much of a fixture as any on festivals past: the heavenly chocolate mousse cake from Theo Randall (left). Still a sumptuously rich and moist chocolate cake with light, sweet mascarpone cream, this is something that I could (and will) happily eat once a year for as long as I can hold off diabetes.

Club Gascon presented the penultimate dish of the day, with a typically extravagant dessert. Their dessert for the day was a 'Wahoo Cornetto', imitating the popular commercial ice cream (right). Instead of actual ice cream, they combined mousse, fruit, crumble and armagnac, topped with "space dust". It was fun, light and charismatic in every way but taste, leaving little or no impression on us as a single dessert.

By this point, we were outrageously full and the only reason we had a dish more was to take the count up to an even twenty for the day. And the fact that we had precisely six crowns left. Usually priced at ten, Bar Boulud were trying to clear out their dessert of a berry cupcake and chocolate éclair, so we tied off the day and our spending by indulging (left). These were perfectly acceptable but no more: lesser versions of what you can enjoy on their afternoon tea menu. Besides, at this point I was in no mood for any more, particularly rich pastry. The cupcake was the better of the two, with a fruity twist adding something lively to the plate.

After a few deep breaths, we were done. It had been a fun day, but a pretty exhausting one. And it had only taken three or four hours. As we reflected, we decided this would be our last Taste of London for a while. Several years in a row had taken their toll and a bit of the magic has been lost for now. Given that the 2013 edition is a few weeks away now (again, I hang my head in shame as to how long this has taken to post), I can't say I've been dying to go back this year and we won't be.

If you have not been, Taste of London is a great day out with some wonderful restaurants offering exquisite dishes. But it isn't cheap and it can get quite repetitive if you go for three or four years in a row. I would recommend it, but maybe every other year is the way to go.

Time for the menu of the festival, with this being one of those years where not a great deal stood out for me. In the spirit of equality and a big nod to my partner in crime, this is the wife's menu of Taste of London 2012:

Starter: Truffle Risotto from Gauthier Soho - "Still really good: creamy, nice taste and the truffle flavour is delicious"

Main Course: Slow-Cooked Ox Cheek from Pollen Street Social - "Creamy mash with delicate textured ox cheek and well-balanced sauce"

Dessert: Passion Fruit Tart with Strawberries from Rhodes Twenty Four - "The passion fruit was really strong and very nice with the strawberry. Excellent texture"

So there you have it. Not too dissimilar from what I would have picked if I'd been forced into it but it's good to get a slightly different perspective on things. I won't be there this year but I maintain that Taste of London is a great event in the food calendar and one which deserves to keep coming back.