restaurant review – Page 9

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

Danish sandwiches at Copenhagen Airport

Published on February 3, 2016 by Hanna2 Comments

When I go home to visit my family and friends in Sweden, I actually fly to Denmark as Copenhagen airport is the closest international airport. The train to Sweden takes only 12 minutes (over that famous bridge) so it’s very easy to get there.

I find myself spending a fair bit of time at this airport and although I have always liked certain things about it (the dark wooden floors, the hand luggage trolley and the shopping) the food selection has never been that great. This has changed in the last couple of years though and on my last visit, in January, I noticed that the well-known smørrebrød restaurant Aamann’s had opened a sandwich bar here that I just had to try.

I love the elaborate open-faced Danish sandwiches (smørrebrød) with more topping than bread and this one with steak tartar, tarragon mayo, capers, crispy onions, pickled red onions and cornichons was wonderful! It was also so filling I only managed the one (I will have to try the other ones another time) and very good value for money too at only DKK 65.

There are more places worth visiting for food at Copenhagen airport; Lagkagehuset and Joe and the juice have been around for a while now but I saw that Gorm’s pizza opened recently as well. It’s come a long way since the awful (and overpriced) sandwiches from a few years ago when the only safe option was a hot dog.

New Year’s Eve luncheon

Published on January 22, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

I know a lot of people think NYE is a real anti-climax, but I really enjoy celebrating it. Any excuse to dress up and drink champagne works for me!

Growing up, my parents and their friends made it special, always making it an occasion. Us children got to play with each others new toys (one NYE turned into Super Mario tournament), but also celebrate with the grown-ups, cheering with alcohol free cider instead of champagne, watching the fire works through the windows (to this day I still don’t like to go outside in the cold on the stroke of midnight), and watch the speech and the countdown on Swedish Television. It felt magical and that’s the feeling I carry with me now on New Year’s Eves with friends.

Nowadays the food make it special, and we really enjoy the Kalix roe, lobster and fillet of beef, but we have also realised that it’s really nice to do something on the day. So we prep as much as we can the day (or days, depending on the ambition) before NYE, so that we have the day free to hang out together until it’s time to get ready and cook dinner.

This year, we thought a lunch in Malmö would be ideal. We went to Copenhagen last year for lunch and although lovely it felt a little rushed. But, it turned out, no restaurants in Malmö were open for lunch on New Year’s Eve. Maybe it’s un-Swedish to go out for lunch before a big evening celebration, who knows?! Luckily, after a lot of googling, we did find ONE restaurant open for lunch so we quickly booked a table and enjoyed a nice French lunch.

La Bonne Vie is a cosy French restaurant in the middle of town, just on Davidshalls Torg, and when we arrived for a late-ish lunch the restaurant was full up. And, just like us, most guests were drinking bubbly.

The lunch menu was classic French with a few Swedish touches and very affordable. Emma and I both had the Toast Skagen with a very generous portion of prawns with mayonnaise and dill on butter-fried bread. Delicious!

Claes had the moules frites and also received a very generous portion of mussels, nice crispy fries and rouille.

We had a lovely lunch and will certainly be back this year too. Thank you for staying open!

La Bonne Vie, Davidshallstorg 7, Malmö, Sweden

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

Dinner at Brasserie Kungliga Posten, Malmö, Sweden

Published on October 1, 2014October 1, 2014 by HannaLeave a comment

This is a delayed review since my Sweden visit in August when I visited the newish restaurant Brasserie Kungliga Posten in Malmö with a bunch of friends.

The restaurant is situated in what used to the an old post office but is now a swish brasserie instead. The interior is cosy with sofas as well as chairs to break up the large space, which works well.

When we visited in the height of summer, albeit on a Wednesday evening, the restaurant was fairly quiet, which actually surprised me as Swedes tent to eat out more when they have time off. The menu was very summery and simpler than the regular menu. The salmon tartar (above) was perfect summer food with cool and fresh flavours.

Also the mozzarella with tomato salad and toast was nice and fresh.

And the charkuterie board nice with pickled small onions, cornichons and four types of charkuterie.

The menu offered some smaller and some larger plate, without being divided into starters and mains, so some in the group had two starters or shared a starter and had a maincourse and the hungry ones had a starter and main, which worked really well.

Also the maincourses were nice; the cod (above) was perfectly cooked, the pork with Asian flavours really nice and the flank steak with bearnaise sauce and fries also really good.

But I wasn’t bawled over. Probably because I didn’t expect a summer menu. Everything our group sampled was cooked very well and the flavours were there, so we had a great evening, but as a foodie it was too close to what I cook myself at home.

So I look forward to visiting again and trying the regular menu and see what the kitchen can do. The summer menu definitely showed potential!

The staff was friendly and helpful and the wine list very suitable for the type of restaurant it is!

Brasserie Kungliga Posten, Posthusplatsen 4, 211 20 Malmö

Lovely luncheon at Dvor, Split, Croatia

Published on September 12, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

Split is not a large town so after a few days we had exhausted the town centre and explored different areas of the town and stumbled upon this wealthier area with tennis courts, fancy cars and among others, restaurant Dvor, where we had lunch.

It was placed just by the waterfront overlooking a beach. We sat in the garden enjoying the amazing view and gorgeous food.

We started off with an amuse bouche; a wooden board with grassy olive oil, crostini toasted in an wood-fired and house charcuterie (prosciutto and salami). Such an amazing way to start out meal.

The menu was charmingly written in perfect English with funny (and slightly arrogant) comments from the chef on it, stating how nice his food was. We had a tough time choosing from the menu as we could eat it all, but in the end Gaby decided on a cod risotto, which to me, sounded a bit strange but it was utterly delicious! A chef who can cook like that is allowed to be a bit arrogant…

I had the homemade tagliatelle with prusciutto, black truffle (which I never seem to be able to resist) and rocket. It was seriously creamy with deliciously strong flavour. I absolutely loved it!

After stuffing us full with the gorgeous food we sat enjoying the view and our wine for a while people watching. The other guests seemed to be a mix of families, couples and ladies who lunch.

The only downside with Dvor was (unfortunately) the service. Both the food and the lovely setting weighed up, but I still find it inexcusable for a good restaurant to have bad service. Our waiter was both a little grumpy and left us waiting when the kitchen was backed up, the apology arrived at the same time as our food. And when we wanted to settle the bill our waiter was nowhere to be found so we had to wait again.Hopefully it was just a temporary glitch otherwise I would suggesting hiring some new waiters.

Dvor, Put Firula 14, 21000 Split, Croatia