Category: LONDON-guide

I often get the question ‘Which restaurants do you recommend in London?’ and as much as I like to recommend the gourmet places I save up to go to, it is quite good to focus on the everyday eats as well. London is a jungle when it comes to restaurants, and there are so many tourist traps with bad food, that can ruin your day, so I’d like to name a few cheaper restaurants (many are chain restaurants that you find all over town) that I recommend, and a few that needs to be avoided in my opinion. 🙂

If you want to grab a sandwich I recommend Pret or Eat, where most office staff buy there lunch. I am not a big fan of the triangle sandwich, but here at least everything is fresh. I prefer Paul or Patisserie Valerie, where they have decent European bread, quiches and delicious-looking cakes.

If you want something more substantial than I sandwich I recommend:

Carluccio’s – Proper Italian pasta, only slow service sometimes. 

Pizza Express – Probably the most popular pizza chain in London. Nice pizzas and I like their doughballs with garlic butter. Service is usually alright. 

Strada – Even better pizzas than Pizza Express, and the pasta is also a bit better, but if you want pasta go to Carluccio’s. Nicer ambiance than Pizza express but slightly mroe expensive. Slow service sometimes.

Nando’s – Piri piri marinated chicken is the only thing on the menu (nearly) with lots of different sides. You order and pay at the bar and get the food brought to your table. Quite greasy but they have a nice sweet potato mash. Good value for money.

Las Iguanas – Mexican chain who serve both good cocktails and nice food. Not the cheapest eat, but good.

Wagamama – Nice rice and noodles dishes. You sit at communal tables with benches. Nice and fresh.  

Gourmet Burger Kitchen – Burgers from New Zeeland. Their garlic mayo and BBQ sauce are great and their burgers certainly does the trick when hangover.

Feng Sushi – A sushi chain with decent sushi. Haven’t tried any of the other chains though, there might be a better one.

Tobiko – Small sushi place in Covent Garden who serve really nice and fresh sushi. Only downside is the size of the maki rolls – they’re huge and makes them a bit tricky to eat. But it is too good to bother about that.

China Town – Lots of restaurants from choose from. Most serve great food to a cheap prize.

Ping Pong – Dim Sum chain which is quite nice. Of course not as good as dim sum in China Town, but still nice. Usually quite a queue, so come early.

Jamie’s Italian – Nice for a weekday supper. Rustic and great charkuteries. Lacks a little finesse.

Avoid:

Wahaca – mexican street food restaurant in Covent Garden that is quite popluar. But I can’t understand why. Everything tastes the same and not good at all.

Fire & Stone – pizza plca in Covent Garden that again is popular for reasons I don’t understand. They have odd combinations of toppings which could have worked if the pizza base was any good, but it isn’t. Bad service.

Garfunkel’s – a real tourist trap around Oxford St/Piccadilly. Bad food and not good value for money. 

Angus Steakhouse – another tourist trap you will pass by lots of times. Not very cheap and not very good steak.

I am finally feeling like myself today. Back to normal! I managed to eat a proper dinner last night and today I ventured out of the flat for the first time since Tuesday. It wasn’t for long, but it did me good with some fresh (?) air and to see my friends for brunch for a couple of hours. Jenny was kind enough to meet me already at the tube and we went in to central London together, where we meet the other six girls for brunch at Dishoom.

I have mentioned this place earlier, it is a Bombay Café in Covent Garden / Leicester Square.

It was nice to try different brunch dishes than the regular fry-up or Eggs Benedict, and it was fresh and done well.

We had booked a table for noon, and they serve breakfast until 1pm, but they also start serving lunch from noon, so we could have whatever we wanted on both menus. I hadn’t had any breakfast and since my stomach has been bad this week I wanted something safe and tried the bacon naan roll with chilli jam and a glass of chai. It wasn’t really a roll, more a naan folded in half filled with the jam, smoked bacon and coriander and cut in half.

Most of the others chose the full Bombay which was a plate with fried tomatoes, mushrooms, a slice of toast, bacon and an omelette with vegetables in. Even though it was plenty of food and looked really nice, I was happy with my choice as the bacon naan was really good, but also I prefer my omelette creamy and runny and this one was dry. 🙂 One of the girls tried the sausage naan roll and it was filled to the brim with sausage. Two of the girls also shared a side of calamari. That would have been to early for me but I know since my last visit that they are really nice.

Compared to the Friday evening in December when I was here last, when it was buzzing and fully booked, the ground floor was only half-full at this time of day today. But it is January, every restaurants least busy month of the year. The service was a bit slower this Saturday but there were more of us, and we hat lots to chat about so it didn’t matter.

This brunch set us back about £10 each including service charge, which is great for a breakfast.

A long time ago I went here now, but have simply been too busy cooking over Christmas to write about this little gem in the heart of Covent Garden.

In the beginning of December my Swedish friends Henrik and Susanna came to London for a weekend. We met up with them after work on the Friday and had a few cocktails at the London Cocktail Club and then walked around the corner to Dishoom, a bombay café I waas dying to try. I knew beforehand that it was a fairly cheap eat and I was surprised of how nice the interior was. Although Praveen at work, who recommended it to me, said that it was good indian food and a nice interior, I didn’t expect it to be this nice.

We hadn’t booked when we got there and the place was really popular so we had to wait 45 minutes. No problem, we walked to the pub two doors down and 45 minutes passed by quickly. When we got back to the restaurant our table wasn’t quite ready. They apologised and had us sat down on a sofa and offered us chai, so we weren’t exactly annoyed. 🙂 After just a few minutes a table came free, a waiter sat us down and explained that they don’t really serve a three-course meal, and encouraged us to share the food. We decided on quite a few dishes; vegetable samosas, calamari, raijta, lamb biryani, grilled chicken tikka, curry of the day with chicken and lamb kebabs. We also ordered rice and naans. and had the choice of plain or garlic naans either with butter or without. I chose a garlic naan with butter and it was excellent. Maybe even the best naan I’ve ever had… 🙂 We ordered three rice, and that was a bit much, especially since the biryani has rice in it. Even the boys were struggling to finish all the food, so the amount we ordered was definitely enough.

The food was quite spicy, especially the chicken tikka, so the raijta was popular! Great service as well, as soon as we’d finished a glass of water a new one magically appeared. The food arrived quickly and was really nice. Plenty of choice and very good value for money.

We also had a bottle of wine, and even though the food was quite cheap they didn’t have any really cheap bottles of wine that no-one wants to drink. The wines were decent and started on £18 a bottle.

The food was excellent and we got plenty of it, but what really made this a nice evening out is the interior of the restaurant. Tiles on the floor, nice and clean, simple design with a hint of the east. Dark wooden tables and chairs, an open kitchen at the back and light and spacious on the ground floor. Downstairs was even nicer with cosy booths and this is where you can have private parties I think, because there was a big group of beautiful Indian women in saris dancing around and chatting. We caught a glimpse of this when we made a visit to the loos, and they were also really nice. In every booth there was a large glass and frame and behind the glass was an array of Indian toys, toileteries and such. A nice personal touch to the place!

The food was indeed of good value for money. For the four of us, all that food and a bottle of wine was only around £70, so this is a place I highly recommend after a few drinks in town.

Dishoom also serve breakfast and lunch, and I am especially curious about the breakfast. A breakfast naan sounds pretty amazing to me! 🙂

I just realised that I completely forgot to write about my first Thanksgiving experience ever. Better late than never right, so here goes:

Gaby and I managed to arrive a few minutes early (for once!) to the supperclub despite trouble on the tube and we were the first ones there. Shelley, the Nomad Chef, greeted us and showed us into the living room while another girl helped us with our coats. We were given a glass of prosecco and a cone with spicy popcorn and we had a little look around. The open-plan living room/conservatory/kitchen was really large and felt very homely with lots of art, books and cookbooks. It was a great room for hosting a supperclub, and after probably a few days of cooking, the kitchen was spotless. Very impressive and organised! Soon after we had a few sips of prosecco more people arrived.

There were (of course) a few American families, with their children and two families knew each other since before, a few couples, groups of girl friends (one girl was turning 30 at midningt and was there with her friends) and a few people on their own. Because a few people knew each other since before everyone was mingling around and it felt like being at a dinner party. A few people were late getting there because of bus and tube problems, but Shelley waited for everyone to arrive which was really nice of her. When we after quite a while, sat down to eat, we were sat around smaller tables in the conservatory end of the room. All tables had matching red table mats and this made it feel even more like a dinner party.

The first course was something I didn’t even knew existed; oyster pie with salad, but I really enjoyed it. We only had small pieces as this is not for everyone, but I liked it so much I had seconds. 🙂 The pie was nice and crisp on the outside with a moist inner, and you could properly taste the oysters but the filling also had a bit of a kick to it, either from chillies or cayenne pepper I think. The salad was just mixed leaves with a dressing, but had mint leaves in it, and that worked really well in a salad.

The next course was the turkey with all the trimmings. Jill and Cinzia from Cucina Cinzia were there with their families and Jill had the honor (or hard work) of carving the turkey. We received a plate each full of perfect creamy and fluffy mashed potatoes, moist turkey, artichoke and walnut stuffing, pumpkin muffin, spicy green beans and two sauces/chutneys. 

After ths lovely course it was time for dessert. We had the choice of pumpkin pie or pecan pie with whipped cream, and the whole table wanted both (of course!). The pumpkin pie tasted a bit too much of cinnamon for me, so I stuck to the lovely pecan pie with caramel sauce. Even though I had the best intentions, I was too full to finish it, but it was the perfect ending to a lovely meal.

This was a perfect evening and it felt very ‘real’ to celebrate Thanksgiving with that many Americans in the room. After dinner we all got to say what we were grateful for or wished for, everyone participated even though we were allowed to pass, and it was a magical evening for me. I think most people felt the same way because everyone was loitering around chatting and no one seemed to want to go home.

Thank you, Shelley, we will be back! 🙂 It is worth mentioning that usually the Nomad Chef does fusion food, and not traditional dinners like this, and I can’t wait to try it.

About two weeks ago we went to the Wolseley for lunch with Ian and Anna to celebrate Christopher’s birthday. There was lots of celebrations for him! 🙂

When we arrived the place was packed with people and we had to wait in the tiny bar for a few minutes for our table. It always amazes me how small the bar is, but I do understand why. This is place where you come for food and not just drinks. The bar is only a waiting area, and it would be a shame if the took space from the restaurant to make a bigger bar.

After a few minutes of waiting Ian and Anna arrive and our table is ready at the same time. It took us quite a while to decide on what to have. I could eat everything on that menu, but tried to be tactic as we had cheese and a birthday cake waiting, not to indulge in something too heavy like the quail’s eggs with hollandaise. Instead I go for the beetroot soup with horseradish and Christopher chooses the same. The soup is nice and smooth with a swirl of white horseradish in the middle of the deep red. Christopher thought the portion was too large, but I didn’t understand what he meant and finished my soup. I was hungry… 🙂

Anna has the avocado vinegrette and Ian a chicken soup with dumplings. The avocado is perfectly ripe and comes with a lot of the vinegrette, it looks simple and lovely. Ian’s soup is a clear broth with chicken, vegetables and dumplings and he seems very happy with it.

For main courses, we all decided on different dishes, am sure the chefs loved us… 🙂 Anna went for fillet of oat-crusted whiting with remoulade, and it looked very nice. Christopher chose the roast beef with yorkshire pudding and gravy. He enjoyed it and said that it was as good as the one he’s had at Trinity, but that my roast potatoes where better. Ian chose the double lamp chop with bubble and squeak and was extremely happy with it. I went for the scallops and risotto nero. It was the best scallops I have ever had, they were silky and perfectly cooked and came with a nice herb oil. The risotto was a bit too salty (and I love salt) and had a bit too much ink in it. It made the pearl-coloured scallops go black as well.

We decided to skip dessert and have teas and coffees instead, as there was plenty of food awaiting us at home.

I really love this place, but compared to proper gourmet-places, this doesn’t really match the category. The food is always well cooked and nice, but it is not innovative and playful like gourmet restaurants. I think that the more I come here, the more I see it as a place for breakfast, a quick lunch when you’re out and about and a simpler evening meal, instead of a full on three course meal.

I still love the Wolseley, and will come back again and again, the food is always well executed, but very classic and the interior and service is amazing. It is well worth a visit if you come to London!

You might remember that before my trips to Devon and Sweden, Gaby and I went to our second supperclub?! I am now going to tell you all about that lovely experience!

This supperclub, Cucina Cinzia, is in south London and not that far from home, but we were still slightly late getting there. A combination of time optimism, delayed tubes and bad sense of direction… Sorry! When we arrived to Jill’s home, the other guests had gathered in the living room, having a glass of prosecco and some unusal nibbles. We got a glass each and started to chat with the other guests. They were in good spirits and raved about the nibbles already. It was fried sage leaves and small pieces of cured meat, which we later learned was pig’s head. All of the head, compressed. Unusual indeed.

Soon after the hostess told us about the menu and invited us over to the table. She opened everyone’s wine bottles and distributed them. The table was set with lovely china, all matching. It felt more like going to a dinner party were you only know a few people, than a supperclub. The house was big and there was easily room for the twelve of us around the table. The dining room/kitchen was open plan so we could see the cook, Cinzia in action in the kitchen.

The other guests were an interesting bunch of people. One young Asian couple had been to many supperclubs around London and liked this one so much that they invited their neighbours, a middleaged couple that were very sociable. There was also an Italian woman and her twenty-something daughter, and this lady had met Cinzia on a plane and they became friends. There was also a twenty-something couple where the girl had a website about how to plan dates, and she had discovered supperclubs that way. There were a few more girls, but the evening went so quickly I didn’t get a chance to speak to them.

It was a very relaxed atmosphere, Cinzia seemed relaxed in the kitchen and Jill seem to like being the hostess. The food arrived quickly (even quicker than some restaurants) and every course was introduced to us again, in case we’d forgotten.

The first course was a torta salata (salty cake) made with chickpea flour served with fennel salami and crostinis with chicken liver mousse. Everything was lovely, and the portion very generous. We learned that the trick to take away the strong liver taste was to add a anchovy. Both the chickpea flour (that was milled locally to where Cinzia lives) and the salami travelled all the way from Tuscany in Cinzia’s suitcase!

Next up was my favourite, pappa al pomodoro (bread and tomato soup). It was a large portion, and I’m still sad I couldn’t finish it all. It was not at all what I expected, as it was the least ‘soupy’ soup I’ve ever had, more like a bread porridge, but that doesn’t sound very nice. 🙂 This was nice though, better than nice. Absolutely divine with the flavours if the tomato, olive oil and bread working together. Extremely comforting as well.  This is what I would like to make then the rain is poring down, it’s cold and dark outside and I’ve had a absolutely shitty day at work, because this soup would put the smile back on my face after a day like that.

Next up was salsicce sausages with cannellini beans. Again a very generous portion, and I was once again sorry I couldn’t finish it. This felt like real peasant food but less stodgy than bangers and mash, and the sausages was much nicer (I might add that I’m not a fan of English sausages but I’m learning to like them).

To finish off the dinner we were served a piece of chestnut cake with raisins, nuts and rosemary. It was made from chestnut flour (also brought in the suitcase) and olive oil but without sugar. The diplomatic word for this was interesting, no only joking. It was very different from normal desserts but we learned that in Tuscany, desserts are usually not very sweet. It was strange to me to have rosemary in a dessert, my thoughts went to lamb as soon as I tasted it, but after a while the other flavours from the chestnuts and the raisins came out. We also got a glass of Vin Santo with it, and the sweet wine made the chestnut cake feel more like a dessert.

The dinner was finished around 11.30pm so there was plenty of time to catch the last tube. People stayed for a while and chatted, and Cinzia answered lots of questions about the food. We still had some wine left and stayed a bit longer chatting to Jill. Before we left everyone got a little jar with herb salt that Cinzia made herself. So sweet and unexpected!

This supperclub was very different to Fernandez and Leluu (read my post here), the first one we went to, and we love both, but in different ways. F&L is trendier and more of a party with 25 people in a small space. People drank a lot here (maybe a bit too much somtimes), started singing and shouting, and it was a shame that it was so little interaction with the lovely Fernandez and Leluu themselves, but they were in the kitchen a floor above and of course extremely busy catering for so many people.

Cucina Cinzia feels classier, and Jill’s home is a lovely setting. It is more relaxed, more efficient, and of course less guests. This is a place were I could bring my mother as well as enjoy it myself, but at Fernandez and Leluu the crowd is a bit younger and artier.

I am pretty certain I will come back to both, because they are both great supperclubs with excellent food, and of course I want to visit others as well.

I didn’t take any photos during the dinner, because I wanted to relax and fully enjoy it and not having to think about taking photos, the light etc.

I think all Londoners have heard about the Wolseley – that’s how fabulous the restaurant is. I absolutely adore the place, for a number of reasons. The personal one is because this is where Christopher took me for dinner on our first date. I must say I wasn’t concentrating completely on the food, but it was the perfect backdrop to our date. The starters I don’t remember, but I think I had the asparagus, but I was too nervous to notice at that stage. The main course I remember however, because I tried to be girly and had the seabass, which was beautifully cooked, but I was at the same time longing for Christopher’s steak frites, as I love my meat. After two courses we were very full and decided to go somewhere else and have cocktails for dessert.

This was the first time I went to the Wolseley, but I (we) have been back since. You often need to plan ahead and book, but we have been lucky a few times and got a table by just walking in. Usually this occurs when we’re shopping around Piccadilly and Jermyn Street and we realise that we’re hungry. Christopher always have the same lighter dish, the steak tartare, he claims the Wolseley’s is the best there is. I have tried both soups and salads and they have been simple yet perfect. We have also had cream tea here, but we are both dying to go here for breakfast. The closest we’ve got to that, is the Eggs Benedict I made last weekend with the book about the restaurant’s breakfasts. It has been a while since we’ve been here for dinner too, but I really want to go soon.

Other reasons why I adore this place, is both the decor, the service and the food. The decor is from the 1920s, very art deco with black, gold and mirrors, but in a very tastefull way. Every detail is wonderful, right down to the silverware and tableware, especially the teastrainers (ohh the teastrainers!). In the 1920s the restaurant was actually a car show room for the Wolseley motor company, but they went bust in 1926 and after that Barclays used the building until 1999. After restoring the interior the current restaurant opened in 2003, and keeps serving a mix of business men, tourists and Londoners everyday.

The service is excellent as well. The staff is always friendly, incredibly efficient and sometimes you hardly even notice they are there, they’re so swift and quick, dancing around the tables like ballerinas.

And then we have the food. The menu is classic french café and fine dining, and it is done to perfection. Even a salad is amazing here, because it is the best produce, and the chefs are perfectionists. The best thing is of course that you can pop in at any time of day and have breakfast, coffee and cake, cream tea, a light bite or a full on three course meal.

Make sure you pop by – everyone should experience this place!