I didn’t enjoy this year’s edition of Taste of London as much as I did last year’s as I rushed to Regents Park on Thursday after work. It was my only chance to attend because I was away at the weekend.

Because I was slightly rushed, and tired, I decided to only divide my attention between the restaurants and the Electrolux Taste Theatre and give the other vendors a miss. I really enjoyed some of the food and was rather unimpressed with others.

My first treat was a delicious Bar Boulud hot dog made from pork and Somerset cheddar with a cumberland glaze and Savoy cabbage.

Next up was steak from Argentinian Zoilo. I had the asado; skirt steak with celeriac and parsley salad and bone marrow sauce. The steak was delicious and perfectly cooked, but the salad was really disappointing. The bone marrow sauce was more like jus than a sauce and added umami but wasn’t as strong in flavour as I had hoped.

Gourmet marshmallows.

Serious BBQs at Gordon Ramsay.

Just before I headed to the Taste Theatre I grabbed this Barbecoa burger. And I was so disappointed. It tasted like any homemade beef patty and the bun and condiments (cheddar, heritage tomato and charred red onion) weren’t amazing either.

Cooking on stage this evening was Magnus Nilsson (from Swedish restaurant Fäviken). He was very charismatic and cooked two dishes for us while chatting to a journalist. And in the end the journalist got to try homemade Swedish snus – which was quite fun to watch. 

At Alyn Williams at the Westbury I had the fennel cured salmon with nettle vichyssoise and taleggio. Both the salmon and the soup were lovely, but it didn’t seem like a finished dish.

But Sushisamba delivered! This gorgeous sasa roll (shrimp tempura, shishito, coriander, spicy mayo and red onions) was delicious. Also the yellow wrap was edible and tasted surprisingly nice.

To finish I went back to where I started – at Bar Boulud – and had the macaron sandwich with strawberry yoghurt icecream. Sweet and refreshing at the same time!