LONDON-guide – Page 13

Breakfast at The Chelsea Quarter Café, Chelsea

Published on November 13, 2013November 14, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I really should start a survey comparing London’s Eggs Benedicts. It is my absolutely favourite breakfast dish both at home and out. When I’m not sampling Eggs Benedicts I usually go for a croissant on the go. And yes, my breakfast choices are super healthy.

These eggs from The Chelsea Quarter Café on Kings Road were perfect. Consisting of a slice of toasted sourdough with proper ham (not the pressed version – shudder), perfectly poached eggs and bright yellow hollandaise they were a delight to tuck into.

The worst Eggs Benedict I’ve ever had was at Bluebird Café, also on Kings Road, which I didn’t expect at all since the restaurant is really nice. Hopefully the café chef was just having a bad day but that was a terrible breakfast; cold eggs, cold hollandaise and not very nice flavours. Shudder indeed.

The Chelsea Quarter Café, 219 Kings Road, London SW3

Lunch at Flat Iron, Soho

Published on November 11, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I love the rustle and bustle in Soho and that there is such an eclectic mix of restaurants. A new-ish restaurant I tried a couple of weeks ago has a very limited menu but offers, as the name suggests, flatiron steak. One of my favourite cuts; quite grainy fibers but very tender meat.

Like a lot of Soho’s restaurant, this is a first come, first serve type place with no table reservations. Arriving in the middle of the lunch rush we were lucky to nab the last two seats at one of the communal tables.

As soon as we sat down water and a bowl of popcorn appeared at the table. Awesome!

The menu is sparse with only the flatiron steak and sides or today’s special; a slowcooked beef stew. My colleague and I both went for the steak, cooked medium-rare as suggested by the waitress with chips, bearnaise sauce and a side of creamed spinach to share.

The steak was really nice and the chips crispy. The bearnaise sauce (which I am extremely picky with) got my approval, although it had a tad too much vinegar in it.

I really like this place. It’s unpretentious and what you see is what you get. And the food is well-prepared, very tasty and not expensive at all. It makes perfect sense to start this type of restaurant in recession. Good steak restaurants in London are, let’s face it, quite expensive and so many places offers very disappointing steak although for a better price.

To instead specialize in just one cut (but a great and affordable one) to keep the costs down is in my opinion, brilliant.

Flat Iron, 17 Beak St, Soho, London W1F 9RW

Dinner at Randall & Aubin, Soho

Published on November 6, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

London has plenty of cosy restaurants and one is certainly Randall & Aubin, bang in the middle of bustling Soho.

Randall & Aubin is a French brasserie with a lot of seafood on the menu. It is relaxed yet still a little bit decadent with oysters and shellfish plateaus on the menu. It is first come first served and usually packed with people, but if you get here around 6pm you usually don’t have to wait too long. Alternatively show up for a late supper when the crowd has petered out.

I came here with a group of girls celebrating an engagement. Luckily we got a table straight away and had a relaxed supper with a few bottles of cava, some nibbles and a main course each.

The photo above shows how hungry we all were; reaching out for the food as soon as it was placed on the table. That’s my girls! 🙂 We shared a half pint of shell-on prawns to peel and dip in mayo (that’s how we do it in Sweden too) and a few servings of their zucchini frites with basil mayo that are a-ma-zing!

Gaby and I were seduced by the specials on the black board and both thoroughly enjoyed the lobster roll in broiche with skinny frites. So fresh and juicy!

Laura chose the bouillabaisse traditionally served with croûtons and rouille.

And Jenny had the crab and lemon risotto that looked fab, although the portion was rather small…

We had a great evening here with wine, good food and plenty of fun chat. It is quiet enough to be able to carry a conversation but still bustling enough inside to remind you that you’re in Soho. I would recommend Randall and Aubin for a date, dinner with other couples or just a group of friends.

Randall & Aubin, 14-16 Brewer Street, London W1F 0SG

Dinner at one of my favourites; Terroirs, West End

Published on October 14, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

Some things in life we fall in love with. I have definitely fallen hard for London and some of its restaurant. One I always come back to and which has yet to disappoint me (like that’s possible) is Terroirs.

If it wasn’t for all the French people I work with I may have missed out on visiting this gem in the beginning. Now, a few years on, it has been voted best restaurant in London by Time Out and has expanded down in the basement as well as opened sister restaurants all over town. But I am really glad I was there in the beginning, as it feels more like my restaurant that way.

But even if you walk in now and become a regular I hope you will enjoy it here as much as I do. The staff is so friendly and familiar, the food is always lovely and pretty fuss-free and the atmosphere is just nice and relaxed.

A few weeks ago I met up with Jenny to celebrate a few things and dragged her here. We started off with a glass of bubbly (Dne Agnes & Rene Mosse, Anjou), a lovely deep rosé sparkling wine. In fact we liked it so much we decided to go for a bottle as well.

And some food. Everything on the menu looked lovely but we both chose the whole crab. The chef thought they didn’t have enough brown meat in them and gave us a crab toast too, which was very kind. The (quite spicy) crab toast on sourdough was really nice, but nothing beat the simplicity of the fresh crab with luscious mayonnaise and lamb’s lettuce, fresh baguette and salted butter.

Such a nice meal (and rather fun with all the mess, especially as we sat perched on stools at the bar) and a wonderful evening.

And that’s why I recommend Terroirs. Again. And again.

Terroirs Wine Bar and Restaurant, 5 William IV St London WC2N 4DW

Dinner at Bluebird, Chelsea

Published on October 1, 2013 by Hanna1 Comment

I’ve always loved the sight of Bluebird passing it by on the Kings Road. The restaurant empire almost looks like its own little town with a café, cosy courtyard tables, bar, restaurant, shop and function rooms.

And now finally I tried the restaurant for dinner. The interior is very nice; a tad luxurious without being stuffy and I was happy to see Iittala glassware on the table, a nice touch.

Sinead and I went here on a Friday night and we were both really hungry, so we ordered a glass or champagne each and then went straight for the maincourse. I managed to pinch their last Friday special; Lobster Thermidor with frites and Sinead chose their tiger prawn and monkfish curry.

My half lobster was perfectly cooked and the creamy Thermidor sauce delicious! There was enough sauce to dip the frites in and a simple leafy salad to freshen up the dish. A perfect Friday treat in my world.

Sinead’s curry was prettily served in a shallow copper dish with the rice in a matching container. Poppadoms were served on a separate plate and both were very nice.

As it was a Friday we felt we could treat ourselves to pudding. Sinead received this pyramid of still warm donuts rolled in cinnamon sugar served with a thick custard and jam. They were utterly delicious! Although the wooden board it was served on was almost too small to hold them all.

I went for one scoop vanilla icecream and one scoop raspberry sorbet and they were both delicious. The icecream was creamy and tasted properly from vanilla and the sorbet had a rich raspberry taste.

Bluebird was exactly what I had expected; lovely food with nice ambiance and decor. The service was a bit bumpy, but the waiters really tried their best and were very friendly. It just seemed to be some confusion as to to was covering our table.

Bluebird Chelsea, 350 King’s Road, London SW3 5UU

(Birthday)Dinner at Mele e Pere, Soho

Published on August 9, 2013July 31, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I wanted to celebrate my birthday with my girls around nice but unpretentious food just having a good time. And Mele e Pere offered just that. And they had decent prosecco on tap! Amazing!

One of my friends can’t eat wheat and the staff were really sweet trying to amend the dishes to suit her.

We started off with some prosecco and rosé at a table in the bar before sitting down in the restaurant sharing lots of starters.

We had two burratas (one with a tomato sauce containing bread and one with just cherry tomatoes and olive oil), ricotta with peas and broad beans, octopus scewer with potatoes, melon and San Daniele ham, vitello tonnao and gnocchi with speck and parmesan.

Octopus scewer with potato and a lovely purée

Ricotta with peas and broad beans

Min plate with all the different dishes

After all that we were quite happy to order small portions of our mains, which were just the right size. The different take on spaghetti carbonara with ravioli (above) looked delicious and I can’t wait to try that next time.

This time I had the lobster risotto which was amazing too! Absolutely loved it!

I really enjoyed our dinner here. It was quite spacious so you could just sit and talk about whatever without feeling like the table next to you can hear every word. The staff was friendly, utterly helpful and efficient and the atmosphere is laid back and relaxed. Can’t wait to go back. Soon. Very soon.

46 Brewer St, Soho, London W1F 9TF

Dinner at Copita, Soho

Published on August 9, 2013August 10, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I met my friends Laura and Jess at Copita in Soho the other night for a belated birthday dinner. Sadly Jess was unwell and only had bread while Laura and I shared a selection of dishes.

Copita is a sister restauran to Barrica and although they both serve tapas style small plates, the vibe in the two restaurants are quite different. Copita is more buzzing and feels like a wine bar with very nice snacks where as Barrica has some proper tables and serves more traditional tapas, making it feel more like a restaurant.

I like both, however and food wise they are quite different to compare as their menus differ a lot.

The scallops (above) with broad beans and a creamy sauce were probably my favourite dish of the evening. Very pretty too, but just lovely in taste.

Almost as nice were the mushroom croquetas with oozing mushroom bechamel in the middle and a nice and crisp shell keeping it in place.

The aubergine with harissa and mint was nice, but not extraordinary.

The octopus with paella style rice I really enjoyed but it was pretty sparse with the fish.

Gnocchi with saffron, butternut squash and almonds was a nice and fresh dish, although I wanted another dimension with different textures. The almond slivers didn’t quite to the trick, maybe some crisp breadcrumbs or chopped hazelnuts would have worked butter. Otherwise great in flavour!

The duck breast with beetroots, apple and raisins was probably my least favourite, but only because I have a fobia for raisins in food so I couldn’t fully enjoy it. The meat was lovely and rich in flavour though and super moist and the thin apple slices worked well with it.

Drink wise I was really tempted by a proper G&T with Hendrick’s gin, but we decided on wine instead and had a caraffe of what they called super fresh, which we thought was quite funny. It was indeed a fresh wine and it worked well with the different dishes.

Copita, 26-27 d’Arblay Street, London W1F 8EP

Dinner at Clarke’s, Kensington

Published on August 4, 2013July 31, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

After a cultural afternoon at Kensington Palace our little trio (Laura, myself and birthday girl Gaby) went out for dinner at Clarke’s in Kensington, a restaurant very special to Gaby as she need to come here often with her parents when she was a little girl.

I really liked Clarke’s with its fresh produce and fuss free approach to food. Everything we had was delicious and very well prepared.

Gaby chose the warm goat’s cheese with crispy crumbs on top, lettuce, chopped nuts and soft apricots to balance the flavour. Delicious!

Laura had the smoked salmon with pheasant egg, lettuce and sour cream. It looked great and was very fresh.

I chose the San Daniele ham with figs and although this dish requires no cooking, the ingredients were exceptional. The figs were lovely and sweet, a far cry from what the supermarkets have to offer and the ham was delicious too.

Both Gaby and I had the beef tonnato; thinly sliced rare roast beef with the famous anchovy dressing and capers served with crispy chips and some lamb’s lettuce. I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and thought it was a great way to serve beef in the summer.

Laura had the duck leg which was melt-in-the-mouth fantastic and served with cabbage and cherries.

Although full we still ordered starters. Gaby’s deconstruced cannoli with noozy ricotta and strawberries was delightful and Laura got the most amazing cheese plate with oat cakes.

I went for the lightest of the puddings, a summer fruit jelly with cream on top and delicate cat’s tongue biscuits (and a piece of chocolate cake and a candle because Gaby told the kitchen it was my birthday and not hers. Luckily no one sang!).

I simply adore this place and can’t wait to go back after the big refurbishment. The restaurant will be closed for five weeks altogether, opening again in the beginning of September.

Clarke’s, 122 & 124 Kensington Church Street, London W8 4BH

A visit to Kensington Palace

Published on August 3, 2013July 31, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

Two days after my birthday it was my dear friend Gaby’s time to turn a year older, and as it was a Saturday we could do something during the day as well. Together with Gaby’s friend Laura we went to Kensington Palace to mainly look at the royal dresses exhibition but we ended up seeing all the different exhibitions and I was really impressed by them all.

In The King’s State Apartments the exhibition centered around Charles I and Charles II and it was decorated in a rather masculine style to cement that.

In The Queen’s State Apartments we got to know Mary II and learn about the end of the Stuart dynasty. This exhibition was more feminine and delicate, yet very good.

In fact, both these exhibitions were very educational and had plenty of things for children to look at, touch and do. You could practice being a princess at the court and carry books on your head for example (which we sadly felt a bit too old for).

Fashion Rules was the reason we went, though (love the title by the way). It started off with the Queen’s dresses from the 1950s and 1960s, then onto the end of the 1960s and 1970s with Princess Margaret’s dresses and finishing in the 1980s with Princess Diana’s frocks. I prefered the Queen’s gowns; they were the most stylish. The dresses from the 1980s were all very on trend then, but rather hideous now, yet princess Diana looked gorgeous in them. Amazing!

We also went to the Victoria Revealed about Queen Victoria’s life. She actually grew up at Kensington Palace and the exhibition follows her through her whole life and of course focuses a lot on her marriage to prince Albert. Very interesting!

Kensington Palace Gardens

After walking around the palace for hours we desperately needed to sit down and rest and walked over to the orangery for cake and bubbly before heading off to Notting Hill for dinner. It was such a lovely day and the palace is well worth a visit.

Kensington Palace State Apartments, Kensington Gardens, London W8 4PX

Lunch at Massimo, West End

Published on July 31, 2013July 30, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

What started off as a girlie lunch, just coinciding with my birthday turned into a lunch for four and was sort of a birthday lunch as my lovely colleagues gave me a card and a gift. Thanks guys!

We decided on having both starter and main course as we were in no rush to get back to the office. Luckily July is pretty quiet. Three of us started off with the raw scallops flavoured with orange and vanilla salt and it was utterly delicious, fresh and fragrant.

Ria, less fond of raw seafood, opted for baked prawns instead which were also delicious. In fact, the whole crudo and antipasti menu looked wonderful.

We all had pasta for our main course, Rich and Caroline chose the crab and tomato linguine which looked really fresh and nice, but they were a little bit disappointed flavour wise.

Ria and I had the spaghetti Carbonara with lightly baked egg and truffle which sounded delicious. Unfortunately it was really oily and a bit too salty. I was quite disappointed but will give Massimo another chance as I know people who have had delicious pastas here.

The service was nice and efficient which weighed up a little bit and the art deco interior with pillars and large lamps is quite extraordinary and creates a nice setting for any meal.

Massimo, 10 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AE