Patara: Soho, Thursday May 9th, 2013

Anybody who has been reading these pages for some time now will know my feelings on Thai food have changed a lot in the last few years. Once I felt it was a sort of fad which meant Asian food I liked was getting unfairly overlooked. More recently, I have come around to the fact that it can actually deliver on the sort of flavours and sensations I really enjoy in Asian foods. Of course, there's the natural level of spice which doesn't agree with me and the frequent use of ingredients I can't stand, but I have discovered there's plenty out there I can get on board with.

Last May a former colleague of mine was visiting London with his family, so a meal out was suggested, as tends to be my way. The wife and I met the family of four in Covent Garden and took a walk down to Soho in search of somewhere suitable. We decided Thai food was a viable option so went for a table for six at Patara, a chain which has several branches across the world, with a strong presence in London.

The atmosphere within the restaurant is quite a pleasant, refined one. It is quiet - possibly a little too quiet if the meal was for just the two of us - which made it a well-judged choice for the two children at the table. What I found slightly off-putting was the way it occasionally, in terms of service and menu, veered into the realms of that slightly tacky stereotypical Asian style which can be most unappealing. Fortunately it never became patronising which was a relief.

The food itself was pleasant and rather varied. The menu did have a slightly vague feel to it, with probably a few too many dishes at first glance. Things started with a surprisingly refreshing stuffed chicken wings plate (left). They were tender, moist and crispy, with crunchy lemongrass and lime as a dressing. This is the kind of comfort food I didn't think was possible in a Thai restaurant.

Next up were some kong neum ruam, or dumplings (right). These were fairly close to the kind of dim sum snacks I just adore and they were not bad at all. A combination of attractive colours with prawns, chicken and pork made for a great sharing starter. Elsewhere we had some chicken skewers with satay sauce which wasn't far away from the kind of standard fare one expects from a takeaway place.

Main courses featured an interesting beef cooked in an 'aromatic coconut reduction' (left). The beef was nicely slow-cooked, falling apart with minimal fuss. The sauce was a little too heady for me, too strong with coconut but the spicing was excellent. A dish which really surprised me and I finished almost all of it.

The wife ordered a speciality dish of lamb shank braised in red coconut curry (right). It was too hot for me but the meat was cooked expertly, even better than the beef I'd chosen. The sauce was a rich, deep orange which coated the meat appetisingly. It was an interesting take on Thai food which I had not seen before, taking something rather rustic and homely, transforming it into a special, celebratory plate of food.

Another dish which was a bit much for me but widely praised by others was the sliced duck served with garlic, chilli and crispy basil (left). I'd not seen much duck used in Thai cookery until this but it was inventive, if over-spiced. There was a distinct freshness to the dish which helped elevate it.

The evening progressed in a pleasant and comfortable sort of way. There is something quite incongruous about a refined Thai restaurant in Soho - it certainly doesn't capture the Zeitgeist of where Soho is moving these days - but it's a nice place to be. The younger of the children was very tired but the staff were perfectly happy to let her take a nap on the banquette. It was a fun evening with friends and - though it's not somewhere I'd go again in a hurry - if you're into your Thai food in a classic surrounding, it may well be the place for you.

Patara

Birthday Tapas - Barrafina: Soho, Sunday May 5th, 2013

I always believed that the finest food was found somewhere between Italy and France. People have remarked that northern Italy is fantastic in this regard because it combines both extraordinary European cuisines in a perfect way. My father once took a business trip to the region and returned saying he was almost fed up of truffles, so rich and common were they in the season he'd visited. They don't mess about in Piedmont.

This remained my opinion for a number of years until the wife and I met a fellow food writer in Barcelona where we had a wonderful lunch. We went to a lovely restaurant and got some really interesting insight into Catalan and Spanish cuisine. I also realised there may be a second place in the world in which to find the finest food. San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain borders France and, in much the same way as northern Italy, you get the best of both worlds. I'm now torn as to which place I should visit first, but proper tapas in San Sebastian is something I can't wait to sample one day. The man behind this excellent site certainly sold me on the idea.

Good tapas is hard to find anywhere. Many places serve it, few can get it right. Barrafina was a great meal out for my birthday a while back and, when a friend of ours suggested a meal for her birthday there, we were only to keen to join. In the event, three of us attended, but for an early lunch on a Sunday, it was just about right. We took an outside table, ordered a huge variety of dishes and whiled away the early afternoon as they arrived.

We split our orders between the specials board and the main menu, meaning we had a pleasant spread of familiarity and adventure. The first thing we ate was the reliable, dependable, un-exciting but totally reassuring ham croquette (left). Salty but slightly sweet, soft and creamy on the inside, two of these for £4.50 is nothing to sniff at. Spanish ham is never to be taken for granted, and putting it in a croquette is a beautiful way to invoke such excellent flavour.

Next up was a special in the form of cuttlefish with fennel alioli (right). This was very well prepared and fresh. I am not the hugest fan of shellfish but it was an enjoyable taster. The fennel mayonnaise worked quite well, adding some sharp flavour to the dish. I do think it was slightly over-priced at nearly £8 but that's probably down to my tastes. The girls enjoyed it very much and polished it off promptly.

If the cuttlefish hadn't quite done it for me, the next seafood special was much closer to my idea of fun: razor clams (left). These were the same £7.80 as the cuttlefish but, for me, far more enjoyable. Served with diced fresh parsley and seasoned butter, they were worth every penny. Cooked to a just-right resistance, they were soft with enough bite to be flavoursome and rich. The seasoning was understated enough to bring the seafood to the fore and the whole plate was excellent.

There are certain things on a menu which cannot be ignored. When you see a certain dish, said dish must be ordered without delay. The words "Chicken Thigh with Romesco Sauce" lend themselves to such an impulse (right). We'd eaten this before but this was better. The over-seasoning from our first visit had been dealt with, the skin was gorgeously crispy, the spicy tomato sauce and the garlic mayonnaise were superb complementary dressings. When upmarket Spanish tapas becomes comforting and homely, it's a lovely thing.

The girls were drawn to the oysters from the specials board and ordered one each (left). served with diced red pepper and spring onion, they enjoyed them without much fuss. At £2.80 per oyster they were a bit toppy but that's what one should expect in Soho for fresh oysters. I was feeling a little more rustic so I occupied myself with chips & bravas sauce (right). Crunchy, crisp chips seasoned with thyme salt, spicy tomato sauce on the side... Nothing wrong here, which means they were excellent.

Last visit, we'd ordered some pork belly which was an indulgence we regretted. This time, pig cheeks with celeriac purée was something the three of us couldn't resist. Maybe it was the fact that three of us meant it was more reasonably spread, but this was much better judged than the belly had been. Tender, slow-cooked meat in rich, strong gravy with a smooth root purée was just lovely and not at all like the forced dish we'd tried the year before (left). To go with this, we ordered some beautifully fresh summer peas with ham (right). Perfectly balanced, this was a side plate to remind us how much we should treasure the simple things on our tables.

Three diners, three desserts seems like a simple equation. The wife and I have been known to buck that trend, along with various friends over time. The ordering of four desserts between three, six between four and so on is a total luxury but a lot of fun if you're as fond of sugar as I. In the event, the three along with all the food we'd already eaten were plenty (left). We tried a Santiago Tart, which turned out to be a bit like a fruit cake in pastry-based form. It was rich with fruit, spicing and soft filling. I loved it, despite the presence of almonds (which aren't really nuts anyway).

The Catalan Cream (Spanish crème brulee to you and me) was perfectly nice. Not over-hard on top and suitably comforting underneath, it's like it's French equivalent - or the one that was invented in England first - just not quite as fine. Still, there was none left so I shan't complain. The chocolate tart was a thing of rich and sumptuous quality, with pastry of the right crumbly texture and the chocolate ganache dark, thick and strong. The richness of the mix lent a slight nuttiness to the tart which convinced the wife there were actual nuts in it. A literal debate with the waiter began, much to my amusement as I continued to eat about 60% of the pudding we'd ordered.

This was a lovely birthday meal: an excellent choice for some Sunday lunch at a quality which is frequently unattainable when looking for tapas in London. We were very satisfied with our choices, the service and most importantly the quality of the dishes on show. The big drawback of this place can be the waiting time for a table, but once you're there it's in a league of its own.

Barrafina

Top 100 UK Restaurants 2014 - London

As with every year, the 100 best restaurants in the UK gives me an opportunity to maintain some sort of freshness and relevance. Whilst massively out-of-date reviews are of little consequence to anyone, making sure we all know where's where to eat is actually pretty useful. At the end of June, the National Restaurant Awards were held, giving us a revised list of the hundred best places to eat in the UK. As usual, I have catalogued the capital's interests, complete with last year's positions.

The most impressive news for London is the reclaiming of the top spot, with Mayfair's Gymkhana storming in at number one after less than a year in operation. Karam Sethi has been winning over diners and critics with an authentic style of cooking which I can't wait to sample. Something of a shock but an exciting surprise nonetheless.

The Clove Club of Shoreditch continues its meteoric rise, sitting at number 2, whilst The Ledbury's position of third is testament to the hard work which has given the restaurant years at the top. Hedone rises into the top ten whilst The Square deservedly holds its place in the higher rankings. Restaurant Story in Bermondsey won the award for highest climber, moving up nearly 70 places.

Other notable runs up the list came from the Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs, somewhere I had not realised as being such an appealing prospect, Koya of Soho which rose 30 places and Jose, shooting into the top 40. Goodman Mayfair may be at number 40 this year, but that's still a remarkable jump of 53 places. Conversely, there are significant drops for 10 Greek Street (42 places), La Petite Maison (40 places) and, most dramatically, Chez Bruce (49 places). Consistency expected at the highest level is unwavering.

The new entry count is encouraging too, with The Chiltern Firehouse cracking the top 20, The Dairy in Clapham the top 30 and Sushi Tetsu a rather disappointing 41. I say disappointing because there is a review of this place in the offing. And yes, it's superbly late as ever. Marcus Wareing's re-launch of his Berkeley Hotel outfit (as simply 'Marcus') sees the newly-appointed BBC MasterChef Professionals judge re-take a top 50 place.

Have a read, make a reservation, sample some of the UK's best. London might have a couple fewer restaurants in the top 100 than last year, but it's taken back the number one spot, shot a load of new places into the list and is still a great place to be eating food.

1 Gymkhana - New Entry

2 The Clove Club (5)

3 The Ledbury (2)

5 Pollen Street Social (3)

7 Hedone (14)

9 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (10)

10 The Square (8)

15 Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs (38)

17 Chiltern Firehouse - New Entry

21 Le Gavroche (19)

22 Koya (52)

24 The Dairy - New Entry

25 Hibiscus (21)

26 Restaurant Story (95)

28 Grain Store (9)

29 Brasserie Chavot (16)

30 Mayfields - New Entry

31 Bocca di Lupo (15)

33 The River Café (44)

34 St John (42)

35 Quo Vadis (23)

37 The Quality Chop House (27)

38 Jose (63)

40 Goodman Mayfair (93)

41 Sushi Tetsu - New Entry

43 Social Eating House (33)

45 Galvin at Windows (71)

46 Berners Tavern - New Entry

47 Barrafina (46)

48 HKK (29)

49 Marcus - New Entry

53 Merchants Tavern - New Entry

57 Hawksmoor Air Street (32)

59 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (62)

60 10 Greek Street (18)

61 Ember Yard - New Entry

64 Koffmann's - New Entry

65 L'Anima (30)

67 40 Maltby Street - New Entry

69 Alyn Williams at the Westbury (39)

70 Pitt Cue (70)

79 Hutong (88)

80 MEATliquor (77)

83 Chez Bruce (34)

86 La Trompette - New Entry

87 Bar Boulud (53)

89 Café Murano - New Entry

90 Toasted - New Entry

91 The Wolseley - New Entry

92 Newman Street Tavern (97)

94 Moro - New Entry

97 The Greenhouse - New Entry

98 La Petite Maison (58)

99 Gauthier Soho - New Entry

100 Umu - New Entry

Ducksoup: Soho, Thursday April 25th, 2013

Back in the days when this blog was only laughably out of date, I wrote a review of a Ducksoup dinner for three. It was an unexpectedly enjoyable evening with some impressive dishes which still stick in the memory today. Some time on - with the blog now hilariously out of date - I'm writing about another visit there when four of us went for dinner.

Ducksoup remains a place I find exciting and interesting. It's quirky with its handwritten menus and wine list daubed on the room-wide mirrors, welcoming with the low-lit candles and vinyl player and - most importantly - good food. It's the last part that makes the whole thing work, since without good food, gimmicks become mind-numbing and irrelevant.

We ate dinner the way four friends should eat dinner - in a collaborative and unreserved way. After bread & butter were dispensed with, we ordered some salted foie gras on crispy toast (left). It was soft, unctuously rich and satisfying but (critically) not over-dressed or showy. For something that tends to be considered rather pretentious, this was refreshingly simple and fairly priced at £8.

Our next choice was a pleasant-sounding combination of goat's curd, courgette flowers and honeycomb. These delivered visually but the taste was a revelation for me (right). They were crisp-fried golden in a light batter, but the creamy, salty filling was complemented perfectly by the refreshing crunchy coating and the coarse, sweet honeycomb. For someone who usually steers clear of goat's cheese, this was a huge surprise, which we hadn't heard the last of...

We spent £10 on some raw langoustines with chilli & lemon, which meant half of one each around the table (left). This was a mistake since, whilst fresh and nicely chilled, the seafood was rather tasteless and an unrewarding struggle to remove from the shells. There was a distinct absence of flavour, which made me wonder if we'd missed something in eating these. At £5 a prawn, I would expect more bang for my buck here.

It was back to familiar and reliable territory for the next small plate, which was lardo on toast (right). At this point, we had started to overdo it with the bread, but the silky, salty meat was a welcome savoury punch, showing again that with a dish like this, simple really is the way to go.

A Lyonnaise salad was the first choice from the 'kitchen' section of the menu, and at £7, this was just about right (left). A proper blend of bitter leaves with lardons, breadcrumbs and vinaigrette over a deliciously-poached egg, it was balanced, delicate, flavoursome and enjoyable. If you're going to eat salad, this is the way to do it. Our friends were particularly impressed and started debating how it could be recreated at home.

Our next larger plate was an interesting-sounding lamb, broad beans & labneh combination (right). There was something off about this, though it wasn't the temperature of the meat, which was a lovely red-pink inside. However, it was slightly charred on the outside, which doesn't really suit lamb - had it been a piece of beef it might have been great. Combined with the very mild yoghurt dressing and the inoffensive broad beans, this was a plate really missing a hit of flavour to take it to the next level.

We shared a plate of St. George's mushrooms with thyme & parmesan (left). These are (I later found out) very popular seasonal mushrooms in Europe and I really hope they had been picked locally - particularly given the name. They were an interesting variation of textures and sizes and they certainly had the flavour the lamb had been missing. The delicate seasoning of thyme and the saltiness of the cheese made for a sensible overall plate but there was still something nagging away at me. I think it was the relative insubstantial feel of the whole thing. It just didn't feel right without a bit of starch to give it body. I'm aware that's probably not what the kitchen was going for but in terms of textural dimension, it was a near miss.

At this point, we decided the courgette flowers were so great we had to have another couple before turning our thoughts to pudding. The wife and friends demolished their crème caramel as soon as it hit the table (right). There's something about this classic which never hits the mark for me. Always too gelatinous to the touch and too bitter from the caramel sauce, I can't say I've ever loved it. However, the guys all thought it was excellent and - as often in cases like these - I bow to their superior knowledge.

I, on the other hand, was quietly working my way through a glass of chocolate mousse (left). This was a sweet, rich, hint-of-bitterness triumph. Unless you go seriously upmarket with a chocolate mousse, there are two outcomes: it's either good or it's not. In this case, it definitely was and as such we ordered another straight away. The crème fraiche as a topping was the right way to temper the richness and there's no finer endorsement of this dessert than the fact we ate two.

Ducksoup is now affirmed as one of my very favourite casual places to eat. Always affordable, rarely off point and adorably appropriate. This is a restaurant which deserves to be more than just an also-ran in the Soho pantheon of friendly, rustic eateries. It's a great restaurant in its own right.

Ducksoup

Bone Daddies: Soho, Sunday April 7th, 2013

Soho as a food district is still the most happening place in London. For all the east end's newfound hipster energy and the expansion of Brixton's food scene, pretty much all successful new franchises are opening up in the busiest part of the west end. Any new opening in Soho is worth a study, and Bone Daddies ramen bar was a place the wife and I were hoping to try sooner rather than later.

Last spring presented an opportunity with a friend from Germany dropping into town for a few days so three of us showed up on a Sunday evening and had a pleasantly short wait for a table (of course you can't reserve tables since it's a modern-day Soho restaurant.) It has the perfect look and feel: bustling, noisy, casual and welcoming. For anywhere calling itself a ramen bar, this is what I'm interested in.

The menu is refreshingly simple too. A few types of ramen noodle bowls, a few specials on the board, a small variety of drinks... this is modern Japanese eating in the most appealing way. We got started with a few different items from the 'snacks' portion of the menu. First up were sweet 'n spicy ribs, which had the wife in particular in raptures (left). They were chunky, meaty, spicy as anything and genuinely close to the sort of pork ribs you might find in Asia, I was told. They were too hot for me but the wife and our friend made short work of them.

I was more interested in the fried chicken (right). Served oh-so-Soho in a mini metal bucket, it was crispy, tender and moist. The skin had been left on before frying which added a juicy, fatty texture without being flabby or excessive. The girls both tried some but about 75% of this was wolfed down by yours truly. If this is really a 'snack', I want a bucketful at my desk daily. Genuinely excellent starter finger food.

We also went for some yellowtail sashimi with lime & soy sauce (left). This was chilled, fresh, soft and just about everything you want for a cold fish starter. The nature of this starter was that little bit more upmarket than the chicken and ribs. It was scaled back, elegant and just surprisingly fine. From the so-called 'snacks' alone, Bone Daddies had already won me over. The real challenge was to come with the main course though, since I'm not a huge fan of ramen or Asian soups in general.

I tend to enjoy thick, rich, velouté-style soups. The kinds of bowls which are the kind of sumptuous thing you need a spoon to eat, rather than being able to drink it out of a glass. Since Asian soups are most often thin they don't quite sit well with me. That said, anything one terms as 'soup' which also contains cuts of meat, eggs, vegetables and other tasty gubbins is a pleasant misnomer for me.

I looked at the menu and it advertised a special of 'BLTEC ramen'. As a joke I remarked that it might stand for bacon, lettuce, tomato, egg & cheese. A passing waitress mentioned that I was actually right, so I just had to give it a go. What I got was not quite in line with what I had imagined (right). It was more or less carbonara soup but thinner, with too much pepper. It was so rich you couldn't really taste the noodles and whilst some of the flavours were enjoyable, it just wasn't a bowl of what I would call Japanese food.

The ladies decided to stick to more traditional ramen fare and were happy in doing so. The classic pork ramen was a sight to behold even to me (left). Combining shredded pork meat, pork bone broth, a poached egg, grilled sweetcorn, seaweed and all manner of subtle seasoning, this was a surprise to me and a happy familiarity to the wife and our friend. This had changed my opinion of ramen as I knew it which is no mean feat. The wife opted for a similarly soothing and fresh broth with seafood and Korean kim-chi. Too spicy for me by half but it was met with resounding approval.

Bone Daddies is one of the places in Soho which doesn't feel forced or tired. It's worth a visit because it is a smartly exciting restaurant serving food which actively stands out against its competition in the west end. It's authentic, inexpensive and fun. What else could one want?

Bone Daddies