London – Page 12 – Scandelights

Wonderful food at Honey & Co, Fitzrovia

Published on March 14, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

I’ve wanted to go to Honey & Co, a small all day restaurant on Warren Street, run by a seriously passionate couple, for ages now. It’s difficult to get a table, so book ahead.

I went here with my friend Daisy on a Friday night and the small space was filled to the brim with guests and staff. The atmosphere was nice and busy without being too loud.

We started our meal with three different types of mezze as they all sounded so nice! My favourite was the poached quince with curd cheese and hazelnuts (top), the flavour combination was just fantastic. The citrus and tomato salad with za’atar (above) was also nice, but not as amazing.

The hummus with fried mushrooms, crispy onions and pitta was one of the best hummuses I’ve ever eaten. The mushrooms worked so well with it, I feel the urge to instantly copy it at home.

The mezzes were all really big, so three was too mush for two people but we really wanted to try them all so ate as much as we could.

We decided to share two main courses as well. The barbecued aubergine with tahini crust and jewelled rice salad (above) was just amazing.

And the slow-cooked duck with clementines and apricots baked in kadaif pastry was tasted like nothing I’ve ever tried before. It was a little sweet and a little sour and just full of flavour. The meat was very tender and rich and the crispy pastry was a nice contrast.

Apart from the bad lighting (too white for an evening), I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner here. The service could have been a little more switched on, but they did a decent job and besides the amazing food makes up for everything else.

Honey & Co, 25A Warren St, London W1T 5LZ

Smith & Wollensky, The Strand

Published on March 9, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

When a famous New York restaurant opens its London restaurant a mere stone’s throw from the office you certainly want to check it out. In fact, I think everybody at the office have been there at least once.

Smith & Wollensky is a very good steak restaurant, which of course the prices reflect (in fact, I would be scared if the meat here was cheap!). But the lunch menu offers a few smaller steaks, as well as burgers, pork chops and plenty of other nice things, so it’s a good idea to go here for lunch.

I was here with my colleague Max, who likes meat, so we tend to go to steak restaurants of nice burger places for lunch. Max actually chose the burger here too, a huge one ground in house, with cheddar and bacon. Delicious!

I chose the steak on the lunch menu, fillet of beef, cooked to perfection, served with bearnaise sauce (very good), nice crispy fries and creamed spinach, that was also very good.

I really like this place, and I recommend going either for lunch or for a real splurge. And if you have room for pudding, the chocolate cake is pure perfection.

Smith & Wollensky, The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam St, London WC2N 6HT

Oaxen Krog & Slip pop-up

Published on March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

One of the best restaurants in Stockholm had a two week pop-up here in London a few weeks ago. I made sure to book tickets for me and my no 1. foodie friend Caroline.

The venue, Carousel, was a fairly small space with three long communal tables and every seat was taken. Our table neighbours were an American couple around the same age as us and an older Georgian couple who were regulars. The six of us got to share the food served on big platters.

But we started with a little snack. I have already forgotten what the deicious cream was but at least I can remember it was served on puffed rye.

The food was more or less what I had expected from Oaxen Krog & Slip; delicious (!) and relaxed, gourmet but not molecular gastronomy.

The first two dishes were served at the same time. Above is the amazing steak tartare of topside with mustard mayonnaise, soured cream and sourdough croutons. The cured herring with fried pickled shallots and a potato and leek purée was just as beautifully plated, I just forgot to take a picture of it. It was a little on the sharp side so not everyone at the table loved it, but it was a great dish even if the tartare was my favourite.

Next up was grilled celeriac baked in cheese whey with bleak roe and chives – just stunning!

An optional dish on the menu (i.e. not included in the set menu), was this smoked eel with broad bean tops, samphire and lemon butter, it was a nice combination of flavours and the eel was perfectly (not too much) smoked.

The main course was definitely the evening’s piece de resistance: knuckle of veal confit with roasted vegetables, purée and oxtail jus. So incredibly delicious!!

After all the heavy food a light pudding of salt fudge ice cream with cream of lingonberries and nut caramel was just what we wanted. This time we shared it two and two and it was a lovely end to our meal.

Oaxen Krog och Slip gästspel på Carousel London, 71 Blandford St, London W1U 8AB

Meat feast at Chop Shop

Published on February 11, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

It was thanks to Taste of London that I heard of Chop Shop in the first place. At the festival in June Caroline and I tried two dishes from Chop Shop and they were both really nice, so when a colleague suggested a meaty lunch (his favourite) it was the first place I suggested.

I eat plenty of vegetarian meals when I cook for myself, so when I choose meat I want to make sure it’s of good quality. And it certainly was here at Chop Shop. Don’t let the type of food served here fool you; it’s all properly done from scratch.

To start our meal we had two starters to share, both typical fast food dishes but done very well. The sausage roll, with nothing in common with the ones sold in Greggs, was utterly delicious. The meat inside was very nicely seasoned and nice and soft, and the pastry was lovely too.

The chicken wings were some of the best I’ve had. The waitress told us the chilli sauce was very hot, so on her suggestion we had the barbecue sauce on them instead. Although delicious, I missed the heat that I associate with buffalo chicken wings. I guess I just have to come back and have the chilli sauce next time.

For his main course Max had the burger (which I can’t wait to try next time), and he made purring sounds all the way through it, it was that good. Just look at it, it’s burger perfection.

I had the hanger steak (so tender!), with rosemary fries and the most wonderful bearnaise sauce. Probably the best one I’ve ever had in a restaurant.

I was so full after my steak I could barely muster the slow walk back to the office but Max still had room for pudding, and decided on this beast or a butterscotch pudding. It was also really nice, so top marks all round.

Chop Shop, 66 Haymarket, St. James’s, London SW1Y 4RF

Peruvian food at Ceviche, Soho

Published on February 5, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

Still going through the posts from last year, this is definitely a review I want to share with you:

My flatmate Daisy and I wanted a fun Soho dinner after work one day in the autumn and decided on Ceviche which be both really wanted to try.

We started off with fantastic pisco sours, and then had wine with the food. Only to have some more cocktails after dinner – I’m not a huge cocktail fun but these were great, especially those pisco sours.

Food-wise we started with cheese puffs with quince, chilli and sour cream. I remember them being crunchy and nice, the sweet and the sour taking the edge off the fried stuff.

Obviously we had ceviche in the place called ceviche and this one with seabass, chilli, red onions and sweet potato crisps was seriously good!

These crispy parcels with pork, spices (more chilli) and coriander were also really nice. The texture of the pork was stringy and soft, just like pulled pork.

One of my favourites was our second ceviche, with razor clams with chilli and borage. So delicious!

I also really liked these skewers with extremely tender octopus and fiery chorizo, with coriander mash underneath. Amazing!

The token vegetable dish was the grilled asparagus with chilli mayo. It worked well with our dishes and was really nice on its own too.

I must say I really enjoyed out visit here and can’t wait to go back. The busy atmosphere, the loudness and the very many tables crammed into the restaurant area together with the excellent food and drink just transports you to South America for the night. Another pisco sour, please!

Ceviche Soho, 17 Frith Street, London W1D 4RG

Bo Drake, Soho

Published on February 1, 2016February 1, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

Before Christmas the girls and I managed to fit in a dinner in Soho and we decided we wanted to try Bo Drake, a Korean restaurant in Soho. When we arrived, thinking we had booked a table but it was for another evening, the staff luckily managed to seat us at the communal table.

After some prosecco we decided to order a few different dishes to share, some from the special’s board and some from the a’la carte menu.

First up were the specials: wagyu beef sliders with truffle mayo (yum!), cheddar and red onion jelly in brioche buns (above) and lobster baos with squid ink. Both were utterly amazing!

We also had some sweet potato fries with kimchi island (a spin on Thousand Island that really worked), and the fries were really good. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Which isn’t that easy to do with sweet potatoes.

We also had aubergine in miso which was soft, sweet and sticky. I just love aubergine in Asian cooking!

We also shared a bo ssäm; pulled pork with a bit of heat served with lettuce leaves, kimchi and dips. It’s messy but fun to make the little parcels and the flavours of the meat were really nice.

The last dish of the evening was the smoked bobo chicken with a sticky glaze, sesame seeds, spring onions and spicy mayo. Also very nice!

The food at Bo Drake was great and I would happily go back. Initially the service was good but as the restaurant got busier it became quite slow, leaving a little room for improvement but I otherwise like this cosy place a lot.

Bo Drake, 6 Greek St, London W1D 4DE

Burgers at Patty & Bun

Published on January 19, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

There are plenty of burger places (joints sounds so American!) in London, it seems we just can’t get enough of it. And although I have a few favourites I never want to miss out on a good burger.

My friend Ro took me to Patty & Bun by Liverpool Street station one Sunday and although this place is a chain (albeit a small one), the burgers are really good.

The few times I’ve eaten here I’ve always had the same burger, Ari Gold, served with cheese and an amazing chilli mayo. The burgers are seriously messy to eat but very good. The bun is a brioche-style bun, that I prefer, and the fries are skin-on, also a plus in my book!

Patty & Bun, 22/23 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 7PD

Revisiting Kurobuta, Chelsea

Published on January 14, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

A Saturday a looong time ago now, Caroline and I met up for dinner in Chelsea. We hadn’t booked anywhere but wanted Japanese and when we tried Kurobuta they luckily had space for us at the communal table.

I’d only been to Kurobuta once before this, when it was still a pop-up at a different location on the Kings Road, but the permanent space is so much better. The ambiance feels more restaurant-y and the food is just as good – if not even better!

A group at our communal table were eating the tempura prawns when we arrived, they looked really good so it was the first thing we ordered. They were nice and crispy on the outside but the prawn within was still nice and juicy and the onions and chilli worked well with the prawns and the delicious mayo. The fried white shreds underneath the prawns were not that nice, but at least it looked nice!

Our next dish was these a-ma-zing wagyu beef sliders with steamed buns, crispy onion, pickled cucumber and umami mayo. Sooo good and my favourite dish this evening!

The wellowtail sashimi was nice but a little too wet for my liking as it was resting in a pool of yuzu and soy.

Also the maki roll with spicy tuna was a bit of a let down. It was lacking a bit in flavour and all the spice came from the sauce on top, not from the roll itself..

But we absolutely loved the grilled miso chicken! Nice charred flavour from the grill and it was perfectly cooked.

Despite not finding all the dishes perfect, I do really enjoy coming here. The food is always good and some dishes are excellent. And compared tp many other restaurants offering Japanese small dishes or Asian fusion this is one of the better! Just promise me you try the Wagyu slider, and you’ll see what I mean!

Kurobuta, 312 Kings Road, London SW3 5UH

Onthebab, Covent Garden

Published on November 23, 2015 by HannaLeave a comment

My friend Gaby introduced me to Onthebab one evening when we wanted to catch over a cheap and cheerful meal one evening. I’ve been there once more since, for lunch, and more or less ordered the same food as I really enjoyed what I had the first time.

Onthebab is not a fancy place, but it’s great if you want a quick bite. The prices are friendly too, which helps. The food is of Korean street food type and they’ve made it very accessible here (gyozas, bibimbab, filled buns) and really nice.

I had the gyozas (chicken and prawn respectively) which were really nice (much nicer than say Wagamama’s and other chains), and the buns with spicy pork which were delicious too. They were also very helpful, serving mine without cabbage, and the table’s are stocked with several dipping sauces, including gochujang.

Onthebab, 36 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7BD

Tom’s Kitchen, Chelsea – revisited

Published on November 19, 2015 by HannaLeave a comment

Tom’s Kitchen is one of those homely restaurants, almost with a pub feel, serving nice food you can count on. It’s basically where I want to go when I don’t want to go to a fancy restaurant. And it was exactly where my parents and I wanted to go on their last evening in town in September, when we after a long day of exploring London just wanted to sit down to a really nice meal but without the fuss.

It was fairly quiet at the restaurant that Sunday evening, but the staff was getting ready to pack the restaurant in boxes for refurbishment.

We started with a lovely dressed crab and toasted bread to start. We all love seafood and one each. Such a treat!

Mum and I continued the seafood theme and had fried lemon sole with seaweed butter, with potato mash and spinach on the side. I forgot to take a picture, but the fish was truly lovely. I was just a bit annoyed as we had to wait about 10 minutes for the sides, and had to remind the staff. But once it had all arrived on the table we had a lovely meal.

Dad had the burger, which is really really nice, and enjoyed it immensely! The service could have been a bit more focused this evening, but the food was great!

Tom’s Kitchen, 27 Cale St, London SW3 3QP