Tag: London

Amazing pizza at Santa Maria Pizzeria, Ealing

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I don’t remember exactly how I heard about these fab pizzas to begin with, but I think it was through Twitter. Then later I saw this article in the FT about the five best pizzerias in London. Since my friend Jenny lives in Ealing I made sure to tell her about this place before visiting her last weekend. But when we were strolling along looking for a lunch place it had slipped my mind, but suddenly we saw this cute little pizza place and I realised that is the one, and our lunch plans were sorted.

The pizzas looked amazing and we were starving, but it was hard to decide which pizza to go for; they all sounded lovely. In the end I chose one with buffalo mozzarella, mushrooms and truffle oil and it was amazing. Best pizza ever – hand on heart!

Jenny’s pizza was just as delicious (I know because I tried it), topped with prosciutto, parmesan, tomatoes and rocket. I struggle for words to describe it, that’s how good it is.

Once we had finished our meal and could lift our gaze from the plates we realised that the pizzeria looked really nice and cosy on the inside too. And everything they served was Italian. The wine, the sparkling water, the soft drinks and the icecream.

I have one last thing to say: GO!

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

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

Zucca, Bermondsey – wow!

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We had time for another restaurant visit when my friends Malin and Tobbe were here last weekend. They wanted to go to an Italian restaurant and I gave them a short list with a few names on, and from that list they chose Zucca, which I was super excited about since it has been on my to-eat list for quite a while ago.

They are very popular, so book well in advance. I was really happy that they could find us a table and although we arrived a few minutes early our table was ready for us.

We had a seat in the dining room decorated with plush carpet and modern white glossy furniture. On one wall you have the open kitchen so regardless of where you are sitting you will have a view of the kitchen.

We started with the suggested aperitif; prosecco with pomegranate. I can never resist bubbly and this drink was refreshing and nice. After the waitress had taken our order everything was very efficient in a definitely non-stressful way. The waiting staff just did their job really well and knew when we were ready for the next step.

The bread basket consisted of three types of bread, that were all delicious but the foccacia really stood out. It was soft in the middle, nice and oily but crusty on the outside.

Next was our amuse bouche; frittata. Also very nice.

Then our starters. Malin chose the olive crostini with charkuterie and was very please with her decision.

My popo al pomodoro with burrata was pure indulgence and I savoured every bite. The ‘soup’ was full of flavour and the burrata was creamy and salty. Pure joy on a plate!

Tobbe ordered the Zucca fritti and received a smaller mountain of freshly pan-fried goodies in a light airy batter. Malin and I helped him out too and really enjoyed it.

Malin chose rigatoni with cauliflower, tomatoes and sultanas and it looked very scrumptious, don’t you agree?!

My tagliatelle with duck ragu was perfection. I enjoyed every bite.

Tobbe’s seared tuna was perfectly dark red in the middle. It was served with a picante sauce and marinated shavings of fennel and courgettes.

After all of that we still had room for dessert. Tobbe chose this scoop of pistachio icecream and it was absolutely delicious.

I couldn’t resist the pannacotta with rhubarb which felt very light although fillinf. I had to give up after half.

Malin was happy with coffee instead and while that arrived we also got these little treats, which was the only thing I wasn’t ove the moon about. The short bread was a tad too sweet and the brittle was a bit too dark and therefore tasted too much of burnt sugar. But I won’t let my opinion of these little freebies taint my view of the evening, which all in all was perfect.

I think you can see how wonderful the food was. THe wine list was also impressive with only Italian wines.

The staff was very efficient and professional and so pro active they would open the door to the restrooms for you when they saw you were on your way there. That’s service! Also the ambiance was lovely – people really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Good food is always good food, but sometimes the price helps to make your mind up about something. In this case I would have paid a lot for the food, but the fact that it is rather cheap (including a bottle of wine for £33 we paid about just under £50 each for all of the above) just makes me love this place even more.

I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of our evening here and I will so be back. Pretty soon too, I hope!

Zucca
184 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3TQ

Scandi tip #14: Nordic Bar

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If you want to experience Scandinavian themed drinks and some Nordic kitsch, I have just the place for you – Nordic Bar.

My friend Nick introduced me to this place when I was new in town, and it is a quite fun place with lots of kitschy decorations and a stuffed reindeer on the wall. The bar feels a little bit shabby, but the Scandinavian themed cocktails make up for it. They have lots of flavoured vodkas and even snaps in stock, and you can even have a mini smorgasbord here.

Image courtesy of http://www.nordicbar.com/

 

Best burgers in town – Meatliquor

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On Thursday Kristin and I met up in the insanely large queue outside probably the most popular restaurant in London right now; Meatliquor.

We were standing in the queue for a whole hour and a half before we finally were seated in the restaurant. It was even snowing as we were outside and we were so so cold, although as soon as we got into the restaurant we warmed up quickly.

The interior is rock chic with a modern painted ceiling as well as some Victorian decorations. It is dimly lit, with good music playing and the ambiance is very laid back.

Because of the large queue we expected the staff to be really on the ball to seat everyone and turn the tables around quickly, this was not the case however, we saw several empty tables before it was our turn to sit down. But as soon as we ordered the food the service improved.

Our cokes, served in the old style glass bottles and with an old jam jar as a glass, arrived instantly and short there after the fabulous chicken wings we shared as a starter. They were succulent and juicy with crispy skin and a nice spicy sauce, served with homemade blue cheese dressing. Yu-um!

Shortly after our burgers, fries and slaw arrived on a large tray. Kristin went for the green chilli burger and on close inspection we noticed there was a lot of crushed chilli in it. I chose a traditional bacon cheese burger and loved every bite.

The buns were soft and held together well, not like the dryish ones you get in some places. This was quite buttery as well, bioche style. The burger it self was lovely and rare in the middle and proper grilled on the outside adding a lot of flavour. It was seasoned well too. The bacon was nice and crisp and underneath the burger were large pieces of gherkins and dressed lettuce.

The fries (skinny ones) were ordinary, but still perfect because they were freshly cooked and very crispy. Also the slaw was nice, not too greasy, instead fresh and crunchy with carrots and white and red cabbage.

It is safe to say that we will come back, and I urge everyone to pay this place a visit. But try to go either at lunch time (they open at noon) or early or late evening.

Oh, I almost forgot. The price. We almost got a shock when we saw that the bill only came to £30 for the two of us; it felt like we had eaten more than that. But it was accurate. We’re certainly not complaining!

MEATliquor
74 Welbeck Street
London W1G 0BA

A wonderful day – spa, Busaba and cake

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I had the afternoon off yesterday to go to a spa with Jenny. We had some time before our appointment, so we started with the sauna and the pool. After an hour or so we had our hot sugar scrub that after having showered the sticky mixture off, left the skin feeling sooo soft. The next treatment was a full body massage which was wonderful, and after this we were feeling very relaxed. After a nice hot shower we felt reborn and went up to the hotel bar to have a wonderful fruit smoothie and a fruit platter, all included in the package, and that truly hit the spot.

By this point it was early evening and we were hungry, so we went to Busaba Eathai for dinner. I really like this place, founded by the man behind Wagamama and Hakkasan, it is cheap, really nice food in nice surroundings. Compared to Wagamama this feels more luxurious because of the dark wood decor and burning incense, but the idea is the same; you sit at communal tables and you can not book in advance.

We started with something to drink, of course, and I tried coconut water for the first time. It came with ice and fresh muddled raspberries and it was amazing. Why have I not tried this sooner?! I am definitely hooked now. Jenny tried an equally amazing mango lassi. It was silky smooth and tasted lovely.

We ordered quite a lot of food, vegetarian spring rolls with the best sweet chilli dip I have ever had, Pat King Talay was my choice (stir fry with squid, scallops, prawns and woodear mushrooms), Jenny opted for the Pla Sam Rod (talapia fillets with a gorgeous pomegranate sauce) and perfect coconut rice and Morning Glory as a side; water spinach with garlic and chilli – absolutely fantastic and Jenny said it tasted exactly the same as in Thailand.

A happy and content Jenny!

We were very pleased with our cheap eat, the bill only came to around £40, so very good value for money. It is definitely worth going, and it is best to come around or before 6pm to avoid the queue, but it would be worth queueing for a little while as well.

On our way to the restaurant we had noticed a few bakeries on the same street (Wardour Street) and we felt we had to have something sweet to finish off the meal. We noticed a new (for us at least) branch of the Hummingbird Bakery but they did not have much left to choose from this late in the day. Instead we went to the place next door; L’Eto who had plenty of good-looking cakes in the window. After a few minutes to decide we went for the lemon meringue pie and the mille feuille with strawberry and plum. The lemon filling in the pie was nice and creamy, and the meringue on top was the almost unbaked one which was lovely. The mille feuille has obscene amounts of cream in it, which we happily scoffed down. Delicious! This place seems to be great for lunch as well with fresh looking salads, chicken patties, baked salmon etc.

Tsunami, Clapham

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I have to post twice today, because I can not keep this to myself any longer: yesterday I had the best sushi in my life!

My friend Carina is staying with me while working in London this week, and last night we had a fab girl’s night out. First shopping in Covent Garden after work, then sushi and a glass of wine for supper.

And that is all thanks to my friend Gaby who I emailed yesterday asking for sushi recommendations, because I know she is great at that. After all, this is the girl who introduced me to Trinity. And I think you all know how I feel about Trinity. Pure foodie love. 😉

And now I have found another place to love – Tsunami. Gaby just told me that the chef is ex Nobu, so no wonder it was so good!

We arrived around 8pm and the place was nearly full, so I was glad I had booked before hand. The restaurant feels nice and cosy with an Asian touch, a perfect date venue by the way, and it was dimly lit and felt intimite.

Our lovely waiter for the evening was all charm and even sensed when we were about to pay, so we didn’t had to ask for the bill, he beat us to it by putting it on the table. Little things like that means a lot to me, and shows that the staff is on the ball and alert.

Worst iPhone photo ever, but I hope you get the idea.

It actually took a good while until we got the food we had ordered on the table, but it was of course freshly prepared and worth waiting for. We were blown away by the first bite. And half way into the meal we realised that we had to order more – that’s how good it was. So we did. A girls gotta eat, right?

Above you can (barely) see what we had, but I hope you can make out that it is nice sushi on the plate. The dim lighting and an iPhone camera was not the best combination… Anyway, for each maki roll we got six pieces so we started off ordering three maki rolls (salmon, spicy tuna and avocado and tempura shrimp) and two nigiri with scallops for me. The salmon rolls were really nice, and probably the best salmon rolls I have ever had, and yet they were not up for the competition from the other two rolls. The spicy tuna and avocado roll was excellent, served with a sauce on top and full in flavour, and even better (yes, it is possible!) was the tempura shrimp rolls. OMG, they were the best! They also had a sauce on top (a little similar to Rhode Island, but better) and absolutely lovely, Carina and I agreed. And the scallop nigiri was generous with the scallop and melted in your mouth. Lovely that one too.

Even though I am all nice adjectives, I am still struggling to explain just how nice it was, but I can say this at least: for every bite we were surprised by how good it was. By every bite. A nice experience I can tell you.  

It was very good value as well, for our massive portions (we had five rolls and two nigiri in the end), two glasses of wine, a bottle of water and service charge the bill landed on around £50 for two. Not bad at all.

If you’re dying to go (and you should be) but don’t want to venture to south-west London, you can visit their branch on Charlotte Street.