Category: RESTAURANT FILE

Taste of London part I

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I spent Saturday afternoon in Regent’s Park at the Taste of London festival. As most vendors were the same as on the Foodies Festival, I mainly looked at the different restaurants. Each restaurant (40 in total) offered 3-4 dishes where as one was usually a signature dish with more expensive ingredients.

I tried lots of dishes which I will tell you all about tomorrow, but there are still more I would like to mention.

Jamie Oliver and Adam Perry Lang’s Barbecoa, their meat restaurant in the City was very popular and their burger looked really good.

Opera Tavern were there with their mini burgers but I eat there often enough anyway, so no need to try it out here.

The cheap thai chain Busaba Eathai were there too, and I have eaten here enough times to know it is good.

The Savoy had both Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill and the River Restauant represented.

Swedish cider from Rekorderlig Cider was there too, but I can’t understand why this sweet cider has become so popular in the UK at the moment as I prefer dry cider myself.

Of the more exotic vendors Trinidad and Tobago had dancers with sequins and feathers and there were a whole Thailand village.

Club Gascon won the best dish this year and it is pictured above. It was a cheesy and marmite-y spread served in a Marmite jar with thick slices of sourdough bread.

Heston Blumenthal had his Bray pub, Hinds Head here and although the food looked good it seemed very simple compared to most resturants and that is probably why I didn’t try it.

L’anima’s signature dish was fettucine with truffle which I would happily have tried if I wasn’t so full at this stage. The trends this year was definitely truffle, pork and slowcooked meat. No surprises there.

Every slot has different chefs speaking and during my Saturday afternoon slot it was among others Jason Atherton, trained by Gordon Ramsay and known for his London restaurant Pollen St Social. It was good fun listening to him. He prefers natural flavours and does not compromise on produce. He even told us how much everything cost. Also two lucky people from the audience got to cook with him!

 

Opera Tavern still delivers

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Although I like nothing better than trying new restaurants I also like to go back to places I know I can trust.

So when Liz, Felicity, Jess, Laura and I were to meet up one rainy Monday evening, I wanted us to go to a place that is comfortable to sit and chat but still be vowed with good food. I have dined at Opera Tavern quite a few times now with out ever being disappointed about the anything, and that definitely makes it worth coming back.

We started with a nice cava and some buttery light green olives while waiting for everyone to arrive. Because of the rainy weather we quite neglected the charkuteries and cheeses and only had warm tapas.

I started with crispy soft shell crab with a fresh salad of radish and celery as well as herb mayonnaise. It was good. Real good.

Three of the girls chose the same bass ceviche with basil sorbet that looked and tasted amazing. Very fresh!

Liz tried the asparagus with wild mushrooms and slowcooked egg yolk. It looked fabulous and judging by the speed it was eaten it tasted just as nice as it looked.

Jess and Laura ordered scallops with prosciutto, pea purée and wild garlic butter which they throughlly enjoyed. Laura, Felicity and I all chose the in season goat’s cheese stuffed courgette flowers with honey. So good.

Jess tried the roasted carrot salad with date puréw, cumin and pine nuts and it looked really good (but not on my shaky picture), just like the lovely mozzarella, tomato and grilled peach salad. Yum!

Opera Tavern’s most famous little dish must be their mini pork and foie gras burger that I have yet to resist. The flavours, the different textures, and the size makes it pretty perfect.

For the first time here we also had space for pudding. I suspect we talked a lot and therefore ate slowly. Anyway, I’m very happy indeed that we tied the puddings because they were just as wonderful as the savoury dishes.

Liz and Laura chose pistachio tarte with goat’s curd icecream and fig purée. Very nice but quite a big slice.

Felicity chose the rice pudding with cherries, almond icecream and thyme, which I had my eye on too. She loved it!

But I am a predictable creature and by the sight of salted caramel I chose a cold chocolate fondant with salty cookie crumbs, milk icecream and that salted caramel. Lovely but rich, but that’s what you expect. 🙂

I still can’t fault this place. It is relaxed didning in a nice interior, central location and really good food.

I do suggest you make a visit if you haven’t already.

Opera Tavern

23 Catherine Street  London WC2B 5JS

Vinoteca, Soho

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Vinoteca branches seem to pop up all over town, so when it was time for the Soho branch to open a month ago, I realised I’d better got and try what it is all about. Last week Sinead and I met there for an early supper and wine.

When we got there around 6.30pm the restaurant was almost empty, but after a while there were plenty of people. I’m usually worried when a restaurant in a big city like London is empty; it is usually not a good sign.

Vinoteca has a long wine list and the evening we were there they offered samples of three British wines with matching nibbles for £15. A nice idea, but we wanted a proper meal and decided on a bottle of white to go with it.

The menu here is very seasonal and changes often, which I really like. Since asparagus is in season Sinead tried some with ham and crisoy egg. It was cooked well and was very nice.

I chose goat’s cheese stuffed courgette flowers with a tomato salad which I really liked.

Instead of a maincourse Sinead opted for another starter and chose the scallops with carrot purée that seemed really nice but it was quite small, even for a starter.

I chose grilled fish (but have forgotten which…) which was perfectly cooked and came with a salad of fennel, artichokes and orange segments. I had my doubts about this flavour combination but it worked better than I expected, but it would have been nice with some warm elements in the salad o go with the warm fish.

Since Sinead had two small starters she had room for dessert, and I of course helped too. The lemon and elderflower drizzle cake with rhubarb and cream was nice and fresh.

I quite like Vinoteca Soho, all in all, but I think the food is lacking a bit of oomph. I want to be blown away when I eat out, not feel that I could almost cook it myself. Admittedly, the dishes were easy ones, but they should still be absolutely perfect when eating out. I also think the starters were stronger than the mains, at least mine.

Vinoteca Soho

53-55 Beak Street

London W1F 9SH

Bistro Union, Clapham

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Last Saturday I had the most wonderful day with my friend Gaby. We met at Bistro Union in Clapham and had a fab lunch, when looked in a few shops on the way to the V&A for the Ballgowns exhibition.

Bistro Union is situated on the very cosy street, Abbeville Road in Clapham, and it is run by the team behind Trinity (often mentioned on this blog) and head chef Adam Byatt. Both Gaby and I had high expectations, but were seriously impressed.

The interior is simple with lots of old details and we found it very charming. The menu looks like an old school notebook and offers fabulous treats for not much money at all. We decided to try quite a few of the snacks to make up our meal but we are definitely coming back for a full three-course meal.

Lovely flavours in the chicken liver paté with toast.

The best sausage puffs we’ve both had, and I’m usually not even that keen on English sausages. Which says a lot.

Asparagus served with hazelnut sauce and savoury creme. An unusual but welcome combination of flavours.

The pickled mackrell with onions, sour cream and chives took me back to Sweden for a moment – delicious.

Ham terrine with homemade piccalill. I liked the terrine but the piccalilli was rather too sharp and overpowered the pork.

Rabbit and pea spread. The slight sweetness of both rabbit and green peas really worked together.

The couple at the table next to us were really enjoying their icecream so I had to try it too. This is honeycomb icecream (divine), served in a jar.

Gaby and I both really enjoyed Bistro Union and we will definitely be back soon. The food was gorgeous and we liked all the little details in presentation. It is probably the most recession-friendly restaurant for its guests too, as the prices are very modest without compromising on the produce. To illustrate this, I can tell you that our bill came to only £39 for the two of us, including everything above, a soft drink, a glass of wine, a coffee and service charge. Seriously good value for money.

Bistro Union

40 Abbeville Road

Clapham

London SW4 9NG

Tel: 0207 042 6400


Lunch at Restaurang Kungstorget, Gothenburg, Sweden

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When we arrived to Gothenburg a few weeks ago, it was on a Friday morning. We went to my friend’s flat and dropped our bags off and then met up with him for lunch. He was busy at work so we chose a place close to his office.

When I walked in to Restaurang Kungstorget I recognised the gold-coloured chairs and dark sofas because we went here for cocktails last time I was in town. I had no idea it was a restaurant by day and was quite surprised when the food came out looking so good. Prejudice – me?! -No.

Linus chose the meatballs served with a creamy sauce, mash and lingonberries. A plate of Sweden basically.

I started regretting my choice of salad when I saw the meatballs, but my salad with plenty of fresh prawns, egg and mayonnaise was nice too.

Laura chose fried haddock with boiled potatoes and creamy sauce. Yes, Sweden is all about the creamy sauces. A nice place with nice food, all very Swedish actually.

Restaurang Kungstorget
Kungstorget 7
Göteborg

Björns Bar, Gothenburg, Sweden

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A Gothenburg restaurant I have wanted to try for a while is Björns Bar, a laid back restaurant in the basement of Kock & Vin, part of the same company as Restaurang Familjen where I went last year.

When we entered the basement restaurant it was already full, but we were put on the waiting list and had a drink at the bar to start. The bar was full too, and inconveniently we had to stand by the service area, but the staff were very nice to us even though we were clearly in the way.

After approximately 20 minutes we were shown to our table at the back of the restaurant. We ordered straight away having studied the menu at the bar and decided to start with a little platter of cheeses, homemade (?) cream cheese with herbs, olives and bread. We were extremely hungry and demolished it pretty quickly.

After the shared starter we waited for our maincourses for quite a while although there were only two warm dishes to choose from;  and one vegetarian. I had eyed up the meat option at the bar and could not wait to try the slowcooked ox cheeks with creamy polenta, gremolata and carrots. It was just as delicious as it looks.

Laura chose the vegetarian option being a plate of spring vegetables including thick white asparagus and wild garlic creme. I so wish I could have been able to eat both plates.

The food was very well cooked, was nicely presented and the basement restaurant had a nice atmosphere. The service was great too, with good attention to detail.

The only thing that was not satisfactory was the wait for the food. It took a while for our starter to appear but even worse was waiting for the maincourse. We were still happy because the food was so good, and I want to visit again, but it is a shame about the wait as it is an easy problem to fix.

Björns Bar
Viktoriagatan 12
411 25 Göteborg
Sweden

Atari-ya sushi bar, Swiss Cottage

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One evening when I found myself in Swiss Cottage in between flat viewings I stumbled upon a sushi bar that seemed promising.

You see, in London it is quite difficult to find good sushi, which I have trouble understandning. I mean, there is plenty of sushi to go around, but some chains are absolutely awful and it is difficult to find the good places amongst all the average ones.

So this sushi bar, named Atari-ya, looked promising because the menu seemed to offer authentic dishes made to order.

Once seated at the bar counter I realised that this must the the (small) chain of sushi restaurants my friend Laura suggested we would go to.

After having ordered way too much sushi, I received an amuse bouche in the shape of a little bowl filled with mooli (cooked daikon). Shortly after the most amazing miso soup arrived with fluffy bits of tofu and far from the prepacked stuff some chain restaurants use.

Then my sushi arrived. My favourite was the salmon and avocado roll which was just perfect. Next was the flavourful salmon skin roll which I also enjoyed. The only thing to disappoint slightly was the shrimp tempura roll. In general that is my favourite roll because of the crunchiness of the tempura. These freshly deep-fried prawns were a bit too light in the batter to be crispy. They were also paired with asparagus, which to be honest wasn’t a combination I liked because the asparagus took over. In all other contexts, though, I love asparagus, but it is quite a strong flavour and the prawn could not compete.

Apart from the food being delicious and freshly prepared, the staff was equally good. I had two waiters fussying around me yet still leaving me to enjoy my meal.

Atari-ya sushi bar
75 Fairfax Road
London NW6 4EE
Tel: 020 7328 5338

Mint Leaf, West End

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Maria and Daniel’s last day in London they wanted to eat proper Indian food as it is difficult to get in the south of Sweden. My first idea was to go to Tayyabs, which I had read about on a food blog, but it is quite a trek away from both where I work and live, so when I heard from two colleagues that Mint Leaf on Haymarket was good, we decided to go there instead. (And as it was a weekday we got 50% off food with my Tastcard.)

The restaurant is really nice and divided into different rooms to make it cosy. Our waiter was friendly and helpful to an extent but he couldn’t really answer our food related questions which was a shame.

We started off with some mini poppadums and two sauces; but not the usual mango chutney and raita. We chose to share a rabbit seekh kebab with honey and mustard drizzle to start. It was nice and tasty, but the seasoning didn’t feel Indian at all, which we coluld have guessed… It was then we realised that the food on offer was Indian but aimed towards Europeans and therefore not entirely authentic.

As their maincourse Maria and Daniel chose Tandoori chicken with dal makhani and sautéed broccoli. I chose a more curry-like dish called Tariwala chicken.

We also ordered pilau rice, raita and a naan each, and the naans were great – probably the best I’ve had. The rest of the food was a bit blander than expected. It had some heat but didn’t have the flavour punch you usually get from good Indian. You want all those spices to interact but it didn’t work all the way here which was the shame. The dal was still good though.

Next time I’m in the mood for Indian I will either try Tayyabs as we intended or Lahore One Kebab House which are probably the most authentic Indian restaurants in London.

Min Leaf Restaurant
Suffolk Place
Haymarket
London SW1Y 4HX
T: 020 7930 9020

Lunch at Daylesford Organic, Notting Hill

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Saturday was a particular rainy and grey day in London. Not what you want when you have Swedish friends in town, but not much more to do than grab the umbrella. We went to Portobello Road, which was more painful than usual as all you could see where umbrellas everywhere. Also I think the whole population of Italy was there that day. After a few pit stops in shops and at Hummingbird Bakery we escaped tourist central and entered the real Notting Hill; Westbourne Grove.

We had lunch at Daylesford Organic and a look arond their shop and it was so nice to feel dry before heading out in the rain again.

If you want lunch here it is normally a queue, which is fine, but this time we didn’t have to wait very long at all, and the service in general had definitely improved since last time I was here.

The menu is quite simple and offers an eclectic mix of dishes; some brunch dishes, a few starters and some more substaintial platefuls. Daniel, who was really hungry had the burger with potato wedges while Maria and I chose some lighter dishes but made up for it by sharing a cheeseboard as well.

Daniel’s burger was really nice and came with a homemade bun, chunky potato wedges and strong melted cheese. He also got to try their own ketchup which was really tasty. Plenty of tomato flavour and perfectly balanced sweetness.

Maria had the soup of the day; asparagus soup and liked it although it was rather plain to begin with. It somewhat improved after a few spoonfuls.

I had a Cornish crab toast which was really nice, so nice that my table neighbour got order envy once she saw it arrive.

The cheese platter was also nice, consisting of three hard cheeses and one creamy goat’s cheese, all from their own label. It came with apple wedges, celery, bread and a chutney and was a nice finish to our meal.

Daylesford Organic
208-212 Westbourne Grove
Notting Hill
London W11 2RH

 

The Blue Legume, Islington

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On Saturday I met up with my friend Laura in North London. We hadn’t made a reservation anywhere but walking around Upper Street in Islington, we spotted The Blue Legume. It looked nice and cosy and Laura remembered that our friend Jess had mentioned the place. So we walked in and they had a table available.

Figuring out what to order was a little bit harder than scoring the table though. The food looked really good at the tables around us, but I noticed the cheap prices on the menu and got suspicious. Good produce costs more than bad and it just looked like this place was too cheaply priced to be able to buy good produce and still make money.

Luckily I was wrong!

Laura loves seafood and ordered the calamari after our waiter recommended it. It was nice and soft because it had been baked in the oven.

I chose the asparagus with hollandaise and was very surprised when I saw the thick but tender, and perfectly cooked asparagus stems on my plate with a lovely hollandaise.

It is not very often I am happy with a restaurant version of hollandaise/bearnaise sauce, usually they are too acidic or too runny but this one was thick and had just enough acid to cover the butter’s richness.

So I figured I might as well order the steak with bearnaise sauce as well then. The steak was hu-uge and very tender although cooked blue, and once again the sauce was very enjoyable. I really started to like this place!

So did Laura with her lovely salad topped with teriyaki salmon. It was perfectly cooked and just fell apart.

Both maincourses were really large and would have made any man working in hard labour happy, but it was a tad too much for us office girls. Sadly we were too full to even contemplate dessert. But we promised each other we would be back.

The damage? Not much at all, I think all in all around £50 for the both of us including a decent bottle of wine.

The Blue Legume
177 Upper Street
Islington N1 1RG