Restaurant

March 6, 2012 British

Browns Hotel, Mayfair

Today the Breakfast venue is Browns. Arguably, the first hotel in London, established in 1837, the website says that this five star establishment welcomes guests that are ‘in the know’. I have no idea what that means, so I must be completely clueless. Armed with that knowledge, I’m expecting to be greeted by a doorman extending a hand for some secret handshake, or worse expecting me to deliver a password, the failure to deliver either resulting in me being thrown out onto the street. Disappointingly, I’m asked for neither, and am shown to the Hix restaurant.

I’d describe the decor as corporate dining chic. Wood panneling, crisp white table cloths, with potraits and other art works adorning the walls, and olive green upholstery. It’s a long, light room and gives a feeling of space and openness.

I’m asked promptly if I desire drinks and ask for a cappuccino and grapefruit juice, in the absence of being offered anything more exotic. The breakfast menu is as extensive as you’d expect from a five star hotel. I regularly avoid buffet breakfasts, and there is one here which looks extensive and varied. I happen to notice an addition not listed on the website menu and decide to choose it: Poached Eggs on Mushroom.

Within a reasonable amount of time, the plate arrives. It looks very appetising, two portabello mushrooms large enough to support two poached eggs, with a reasonable amount of hollandaise sauce. Gliding the knife through it all, it reveals two medium cooked eggs, with nice runny yolks and firm, but well cooked mushrooms. All nicely put together, and well cooked, but I’m just a little disappointed. For some reason I had assume the strap line of green herbs referred to a herb butter, but in fact it was a herb crust. As the egg sat on top of the crust, it went slightly soggy, and the flavour, though nicely cooked didn’t seem to marry well. The combination particularly of the herb crust and hollandaise seemed quite alien to my tastebuds when combined with mushroom and egg – all the textures were too soft.

The room is comfortable and the service is discreet, but I struggle to make sense of how I feel about it. The food was well prepared and cooked, but I need more texture in my breakfast. I decide I’m not a fan of herb crusted mushrooms which taste too… green… I don’t believe I’m gifted with synesthesia, so on a scale of 1 to 10, I give this a purple.

Brown’s Hotel,

Albemarle Street,

London W1S 4BP

March 6, 2012 Restaurant

Mark Lloyd at Ben’s Canteen, Wandsworth

Ben’s Canteen sits on St John’s Hill, one of the busiest restaurant streets running between Wandsworth and Clapham. Alongside The Ship down the road, the Canteen is a regular favourite of SW cooks, bloggers and foodies – I’d been hearing lots of good things about it. I’m not generally a burger and scotch egg kind of girl, not a surprise to my regular readers I’m sure, but when we heard that Ben was hosting a Mark Lloyd pop-up featuring game, our interest was definitely piqued.

The Canteen is in a good location, and has a large, lively and animated room, with doors which open out onto the street. The staff are cheerful, attentive, and everything is relaxed and welcoming. The specials board has lots and lots of variety on it, with everything from cod cheek to oxtail risotto, via a brunch, lunch and dinner menu. The kitchen is run by Dave Aherne, and it’s a go-to local place for everything from your breakfast to your Sunday lunch. It’s also very proactive at keeping its customers informed via Twitter and Facebook on the day’s specials etc. On this occasion the menu was set in advance, and we would all be served at the same time.

To begin we had a pigeon breast spring roll – the pigeon may look a little pink in this photo, but I must apologise for the flash, I couldn’t find my normal camera! The pigeon was perfectly cooked, gamey but light, good texture, not as fibrous as duck, much finer and more delicate. The pigeon breast is wrapped in filo pastry and served with a smoked aubergine puree (the best I’ve had), candied red beetroot (sweet and smooth), a brandy soused date and a slice of soused yellow beetroot (the sousing liquor was a little too fierce compared to the finesse of the other ingredients).

The second dish was a partridge breast dusted in a spice mix, then pan fried. It was served with pearled spelt (lovely, texture just right), tadpole radishes (small, intense, and a brilliant way of incorporating radish in a beautiful format), and a variety of micro leaves, including borage, which added a lovely light and bright note to the dish, and peppery nasturtium leaves. The confit leg had an excellent flavour, but was too tight and dry, almost air dried rather than confit. I spoke to Mark after the meal and almost the first thing out of his mouth was his dissatisfaction with this element of the menu. Hubby thought the rest of the dish was so good, the confit should have been omitted altogether.

The main dish was venison, served with red cabbage, a thyme fondant, a very good celeriac puree and a bone gravy. The venison was a little too rare, which altered the texture, but the quality of the meat still shone through. Under the cabbage was an excellent braised haunch, rich, deep and earthy. The plate was beautifully decorated with radish flowers, and not swamped with gravy – a very good dish.

For dessert, an excellent fondant, perfectly cooked, and you can find Mark’s recipe here. It was served with a cocoa sorbet (rich, dense, good texture) and a really great combination of raw rhubarb dressed in rosewater – this perfectly cut through the richness of the sorbet.

Overall I thought Mark’s menu was a great success and I look forward to following his progress. Ben’s Canteen is a great, fun, go-to place. I think your appreciation of it may depend on your age range – I think in my 20/30’s I’d have hung out here a lot! In my 40’s, the wine list is just a tad light for me (chablis being the height of the burgundy list), though the wine chap had very good wine etiquette, a known bug bear of mine. I’ll need to speak to the eponymous Ben (charming btw), and convince him to hold a case of something more serious in the cellar, and I’ll definitely come back to try some of the other dishes on the menu.

Ben’s Canteen
140 St John’s Hill
London SW11 1SL

Pigeon Spring Roll, Smoked Aubergine, Candied Beetroot,

Somerset Cider Brandy Soused Dates

Warm Salad of Spiced Partridge, Confit Leg,

Radish Tadpoles, Pearled Spelt, Fennel Pollen

Berkshire Venison Fillet, Braised Haunch, Thyme Fondant,

Celeriac Puree, Red Cabbage Pressing, Roasted Bone Sauce

Chocolate Fondant, Cocoa Sorbet, Rosewater and Rhubarb, Floral Salad

February 29, 2012 British

Axis, Aldwych

It’s best if I declare that I’ve been talking to Tony Fleming, the Executive Chef at Axis, for months now. In those conversations we’ve established that over the years I’ve been following Tony around London. I’ve eaten in almost every restaurant he’s has cooked in, and that list includes the Criterion, the Oak Room, Escargot, Richard Neat and the Great Eastern Hotel. When we did finally speak, it was because Tony appeared on ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish cooking a blackberry soufflé… Well. I’m a bit of a soufflé obsessive, so it was inevitable that this would be the thing that would draw us into conversation.

Since then I’ve been meaning to get into Axis to try Tony’s food circa 2012. As well as running Axis, the fine dining restaurant at No. One Aldwych, he also runs Indigo, and all of the food within the hotel. This is a daunting task given that the menu at Axis is updated frequently, and the hotel has a number of regular guests who would spot any repetitiveness. Fortnightly there’s also the monthly Movie Night, where you can watch a film in the hotel’s private cinema, and then have a fixed menu dinner in the restaurant – the menu changes each time and is seasonal.

You enter Axis on the very corner of No. 1 Aldwych, then descend down the giant marble spiralling staircase, down into the rabbit hole… On one side there are large metal tree trunks running along the side, and there are eating areas on two levels, in two giant circles echoed by the circular balcony. I like the space, though I don’t like the decor – that Art Deco interior would be the absolute ideal setting for some fabulous smoke filled Poirot set – but I digress…

We ate from a menu that was just a few days old, and following some consultation about what was proving popular. To whet our appetite we were given a tiny tartlett of goats cheese with anchovies, tangy, sharp, piquant anchovy with rich and savoury onion. There was also a plump langoustine served scampi style, like the scampi you always dream of, but rarely find, served in a little pool of intense tartare sauce.

The Hubby chose the scallops first, plump little spheres served on a chunky strip of Asian style pork belly. This sits on a cauliflower purée, with fine slices of raw cauliflower dressed in rock salt and olive oil. The pork belly is marinated in soy sauce, honey, citrus, cinnamon and 5 spice. It’s then finished in the pan with the sticky sauce drizzled over the dish. I was quite torn between that dish and my own…

I ordered the duck egg with truffle soldiers. The egg is served on a bed of onion jam – it had that savoury cheek-sucking intensity that can only be achieved through long and slow reduction, in this case in brown chicken jus. Around the dish were scattered shemiji and pied bleu mushrooms, with peppery intense watercress. And the piece de resistance, the perfectly fried duck egg was placed on the top of the disc of onions, and then scattered with shaved truffles. To the side were crisp brioche soldiers, with a duxelle of mushrooms, topped with winter black truffles, and chives. The duxelle proved the perfect vehicle for the truffle, drifting the scent through the dish, without dominating it. I loved this dish so much, within a few days I’d made it at myself, albeit a poorer home version.

Himself had the lamb barbecue lamb ribs, baked glazed shallot, grilled spring onions, onion purée and a shepherd’s pie croquette. I’m not a huge fan of lamb so he chooses it when he can. He thought it was the best lamb he’d eaten in years (it was Herdwick incidentally, from the lake district). The croquette was made with the shoulder, before being mixed with mash, crumbed and fried.

I chose the butter poached loin of hare, jugged leg, root vegetable purée, game chips and watercress – a witty take on the hare and his daily diet. The loin of hare is coated in dehydrated trompette de morte, which adds a piquant layer to the dense and soft meat. I haven’t eaten hare for some time, and it’s delicious. The texture is that of very good venison, but the flavour is much lighter, and has a grassy quality, it’s actually rather a delicate taste. The root vegetable purée (made from separately roasted parsnip, celeriac, swede and carrot) provides a sweet and creamy hit to contrast to the peppery watercress and crisp chips. The jugged hare has the texture of pulled pork, but is much more intense. Marinated in red wine, then braised in stock and the marinade, it’s thickened in the final moments with the blood from the hare – an intense little morsel. The green watercress purée compliments the grassiness of the hare. Hidden amongst the dish are cubes of pommes Anna, the potato scented with thyme, and is genuinely the best pommes Anna I’ve had. Given that I make a truffle scented one, I don’t make that statement lightly.

Of course I was going to have the soufflé, it was inconceivable that I’d have anything else, except there were some amazing alternatives on the menu: morello sorbet with pistachio foam (with the chocolate tarte), and on the specials a textures of rhubarb: jelly, foam, sorbet, crisps and crumble… The soufflé was perfectly cooked, of course, I would expect no less of Tony. I wasn’t utterly convinced about the balance of the spices in the soufflé itself, but when I discussed it with Tony, neither was he. The Hubby felt the nutmeg was slightly too prevalent, but as the dish has only been on the menu for two days, it’s still a work in progress. I’ve also documented elsewhere my dread of cooked banana, but actually the banana ice-cream was fine and came with a crisp shard of sugar craquelure, and a delicious swirl of salted caramel which complimented it perfectly. I look forward to eating the final version.

The Hubby, feeling particularly generous after his two perfect dishes, decided to indulge me and order the dessert tasting plate containing my morello cherry sorbet. Beautifully sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream, and toffee sauce; cookies and cream parfait, mocha cappuccino, warm berries and dark chocolate cookies; and the bitter chocolate tart, pistachio foam, morello cherry sorbet. Each element of the dessert was a tiny dense hit of very intense flavours. I tried the tart which has such a high cocoa content you could fly to the moon on that tiny wedge, but is lightened by the pistachio foam – lovely.

During the course of the evening we took time to look at our fellow diners, and there is an amazing mix in the room. From the family in the corner, to the suits in the other half of the room, the entire space was packed. On the table next to us was a chap on his 71st stay, and he was greeted like an old friend by the head waiter Henry Knight. Henry brought him things he thought would interest him and they chatted with a familiarity that comes from a long and genuine relationship. I don’t think I’ve considered the relationship a hotel restaurant has with its regulars before, especially when it comes to keeping the menu seasonal and interesting.

I have to say, even though I had eaten Tony’s food before over the years, I was genuinely, genuinely impressed by his menu. How is this place not a destination restaurant? I spoke to a well known food blogger and we discussed how, particularly in with hotel restaurants, good restaurants can fall through the ‘word of mouth’ cracks. With a regular stream of hotel guests, they’re not quite as reliant on that kind of business. However, this is as accomplished as many of the restaurants we eat in, in you can see from my list, that’s pretty good company to keep. Next time you want to try something new, get down to Axis. I’ve already been back to the Lobby Bar, the Hubby has already booked himself in for a business dinner with clients. This place is going straight onto our favourites list.

Addendum: I really wanted to try that rhubarb dish before it went off the menu, so I popped back to Axis – the best £8 I’ve spent in ages – what an absolute delight! There’s a delicious little pot of rhubarb crumble, scented with vanilla; a rhubarb purée; a beautiful rhubarb foam made of rhubarb purée, sugar and gelatine; delicate mounds of intense jelly; sorbet, and dehydrated rhubarb crisps. The combination is light, absolutely mouthwatering, and very refreshing. The absolutely pièce de résistance are apple blossom flowers. What an absolute revelation – they are mouthwatering, crisp, zingy, scented – who knew? I’m going to be going around my garden raiding those trees that have a great abundance of blossom. Only on for another week, get it while you can – a scent’sational dish!

Axis
One Aldwych
London
WC2B 4BZ

Starters £9

oxtail, wild mushroom and horseradish

consommé, spring onions, parsley

welsh rarebit on toast, plum tomato salad (v)

chicken liver parfait,pickled radish, poached quince, hot brioche

roast beetroot, baby carrots, English mozzarella, bitter leaves, lemon thyme dressing (v)

deep fried pig’s trotter, braised head, celeriac purée, lentil jus

endive salad, roast walnuts, blue cheese, honey mustard dressing (v)(n)

selection of english charcuterie, piccalilli, garlic toasts (£3 supplement)

fried duck egg, onion jam, mushroom and truffle soldiers

seafooD £13

lobster ravioli, salad of sea vegetables, basil oil (£2 supplement)

dressed crab cocktail,watercress salad, Granny Smith apple, crab bon-bons

seared scallops, oriental braised pork belly, soy sauce, cauliflower and coriander

smoked and poached scottish salmon, avocado and lime mousse, pickled baby vegetables

Light Main courses £14

potato, caramelised onion and goat’s cheese tatin, sautéed spinach, tomato and coriander dressing (v)

steamed fillet of sea bass, stuffed with crab and soft herbs, cucumber, fennel and dill salad, raspberry vinaigrette (£4 supplement)

side orders £4

tomato salad green beans and shallots

french fries crushed charlotte potatoes

wilted spinach purple sprouting broccoli

main courses £19

roast cod, parsnip and honey purée, home-smoked cod kedgeree, spiced fish velouté

loch duart salmon, crispy smoked pork belly, braised kale, bittersweet onions, red wine fumet

roast halibut, smoked duck gnocchi, purple broccoli, jus gras (£4 supplement)

slow cooked celeriac, cumin fried spinach, lightly spiced vegetables, lentil dahl, green chilli and cauliflower bhajis (v)

roast chicken, truffled macaroni, crispy Worcestershire cured ham, figs, Madeira shallot jus

braised beef bourguignon, smoked bacon, mashed potato, red wine sauce

roast rump of herdwick lamb, barbecue lamb ribs, baked glazed shallot, grilled spring onions, shepherd’s pie fritter (£4 supplement)

char-grilled 35 day aged galloway rib-eye, slow cooked tomatoes, button mushrooms with dauphinoise or beef dripping chips and peppercorn sauce or béarnaise (£5 supplement)

haunch of denham estate venison, red wine apple purée, creamed cabbage, braised shank boulangère, chocolate oil (n) (£3 supplement)

butter poached loin of hare, jugged leg, root vegetable purée, game chips, watercress (£4 supplement)

dessertS £7

tarte tatin of apple, butterscotch ice cream, cinnamon and raisin caramel

floating islands, vanilla custard, honeycomb
gingerbread soufflé, banana ice cream, caramelised bananas
cookies and cream parfait, mocha cappuccino, warm berries and dark chocolate cookies
bitter chocolate tart, pistachio foam, morello cherry sorbet

sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream, toffee sauce
lemon tart, confit lemon

selection of british cheeses £9

with oatcakes and Granny Smith

dessert sampling plate £11

Sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream, toffee sauce

Cookies and cream parfait, mocha cappuccino, warm berries and dark chocolate cookies

Bitter chocolate tart, pistachio foam, morello cherry sorbet

February 28, 2012 British

Spuntino, Soho

I’ve been trying to get along to Spuntino for some time now, and let’s face it, hundreds and hundreds of people have managed to get along before me to write about it. Still, Nicola and I are both ardent food lovers, and there’s always something to be learnt by having the experience first hand. We pitched up in Rupert Street straight from the Hockney exhibition, and spotted Spuntino just in front of us. Rather marvellously its artfully dishevilled window treatment was propping up two fluorescent and garish policemen, which somehow utterly set it off to perfection. How I wish I’d taken that photograph!

Being a Russell Norman joint, the restaurant interior is kitsch, with a large bar dominating the room, around which wraps a NY diner style counter with high stools. There is also a further table at the back of the room in a little alcove. The bar itself is set up with various bottles containing spirits, mixers etc, and given the amount of space set aside for this, you definitely know that a good deal of the action is actually about the mixology and the drinks. Menus are paper place mats, and the daily specials are written on by hand. We didn’t have to wait, and went straight to a table. (Just a reminder that they don’t take bookings).

We decided to have some things individually, but some things to share. We ordered the truffled toast, of course, a slider each, and a couple of vegetable dishes.

The pickled vegetables were crisp, with a good variety of fennel, beetroot, carrot, etc, and weren’t over pickled. You could still taste the inherent flavour of each variety, and it was interesting to compare the way in which the flavours matched certain veg better than others (for me, anyway). I particularly liked the fennel, which really works as a soused veg, I’ll be giving that one a go at home. The gentle aniseed flavour balanced nicely with the pickling liquor.

The stir fried olives really weren’t to my taste, but I know some people who rave about them. Stuffed with anchovies, covered with breadcrumbs and fried, they were just a little too overpowering for me. I’m sure it was the temperature, that mid-heat point where you awaken the ingredient, but don’t necessarily let it shine.

The truffled egg toast, much raved about, really wasn’t as fabulous as I was expecting either. So difficult when you’ve read people rave about a dish, to be served a hard piece of bread, with bland cheese, with no discernible truffle taste.

But then our sliders arrived, and suddenly the kitchen had redeemed itself in my eyes. The pulled pork slider was chunky, and succulent, but spiked with little crispy bits too… The pickled apple was just a fabulous addition, not only fulfilling that pork/apple combo, but offsetting the richness of the pork, and adding just a little juiciness to the slider. Delicious.

Roast cauliflower with chermoula and smoked almonds was just bizarre. I associate strong tastes with chermoula: pungent, powerful, sometimes acidic and scented, here it was just flat. The cauliflower was fine, but the almonds just looked as though someone had thrown a handful onto the plate. Broccoli with an anchovy dressing was no more successful to be honest. The dressing may have been nice, but I couldn’t really tell – the broccoli (which was actually good fresh broccoli) was waterlogged, all the flavours became waterlogged too…

Then yet again redemption arrived in the form of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’d happily cross London for this, which given everything that had gone before, is saying something. The frozen parfait is salty and sweet, smooth, creamy cold… Sandwiched with what appears to be crushed raspberries in a loose jam, it’s topped with crushed peanuts and brittle – very moreish!

Nicola had a burnt sugar cheesecake, with prunes soaked in alcohol. I didn’t taste it, but Nicola said that it tasted exactly how you would imagine it would. I think she preferred my peanut butter sandwich.

I’m still not sure what to make of Spuntino, as many others have reported the service is very, very casual, but individually people were nice, smiley, happy and attentive. A lot of the time though it appeared to be some sort of staff social club. I appreciate this is a contradiction, but for me the whole experience was a contradiction. I loved Mishkins, but this one sort of passes me by… I think the best thing to do is to go in when you have a hangover, or you’re really setting out to get one. I imagine under those circumstances it will absolutely hit the spot. But the slider, and the peanut butter sandwich are absolutely worth going in to try, and may just mean I give it another go.

Spuntino
61 Rupert Street
London
W1D 7PW

February 22, 2012 British

The Wolseley

My guest today suggests we meet at the Wolseley, a venue I have been to before, but only because of its proximity to Green Park tube station. The favourite haunt of footballers, politicians, hedge fund managers, tourists and journalists, it inspired A.A.Gill to create his book Breakfast at The Wolseley. The Wolseley quotes Gill’s introduction on their web site, he writes “Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful that is the commitment to a new day, a continuing life“. I wholly subscribe to this.

The Wolseley is so named after Wolseley Motors Limited commissioned a car showroom in 1921. However, the Italian architecture, marble floors and grand setting, did not do enough to stop the company going bankrupt in 1926. Between 1927 and 2003 it was a branch of Barclays Bank, until Chris Corbin and Jeremy King turned into the venue it is today. Previously at Caprice Holdings, and now Rex Restaurant Associates, Messrs Corbin and King do have an eye for a commercial opportunity.

Walking into the dining space itself, it’s a picture of frenetic activity, a loud hubbub of conversation and of business being done. One immediately thinks of an old railway station café, or worse given the closeness of the tables, the layout looks like a speed dating venue.

I order a fresh grapefruit juice and cappuccino. Within five minutes the drinks arrive and I order The English, with my eggs poached. In the times I have been here, I will say, this venue has the best cappuccino of any I’ve had before. Beautifully presented with a heart shaped chocolate flourish in the foam, the right temperature and creamy consistency, I always have more than one and this time is no exception.

The English duly arrives and I realise I hadn’t spotted it included baked beans. Now, I do occasionally like baked beans, but they overpower everything else in terms of taste – everything tastes of beans. There is also half a tomato, a mushroom, two poached eggs, a Cumberland sausage, a piece of black pudding (about a quarter of a sausage of black pudding), and several rashers of bacon.

I try the black pudding first as there’s such a small amount. It falls apart on the first touch, so is difficult to eat on its own. However, is does have a strong flavour and is very moist, but it needs to be more substantial to get a true sense of it. The eggs are strangely inconsistent: one is cooked perfectly as a medium egg with a nice runny yolk, but the other overdone with a solid centre; the sausage looks good, but lacks any real flavour other than meat; there’s a perfectly cooked mushroom, not too soggy, firm and tasty; and the bacon is slightly burnt, adding some level of caramelisation to it. It’s nicely smoked, with a salty flavour, which I liked a lot. I leave the tomato, as I always do – cooked tomato is one of my pet hates.

The plates are cleared immediately and we’re asked if we would like anything else. I suspect this is to encourage us to move on, as the restaurant is now at capacity. I order the bill and it’s settled very efficiently. Forty minutes from the time of entering, to the time I’m back outside on the pavement needing a short walk to clear the indigestion. An old Tommy Cooper joke comes to mind: ‘Two giants sitting on a wall, one says ‘I ate a clown for breakfast this morning, I feel a bit funny now!’.

Clement Freud once said, ‘Breakfast is a notoriously difficult meal to serve with a flourish.’ I don’t necessarily agree: I think that the experience is down to well-prepared, high-quality ingredients, in relaxed and ambient surroundings. The Wolseley has everything in terms of ingredients, but you do get the impression of hurried preparation in line with the hustle and bustle of the restaurant itself.

I subscribe to AA Gill’s sentiments about breakfast, but I just can’t marry those comments to the indigestion induced speed with which The Wolseley deals with its clientele. This is rather ironic given the quote is on The Wolseley’s own breakfast webpage, but it should be no surprise really, given that they turn around 1,000 covers a day. No doubt I will return, as it’s in a great location, but next time perhaps for just the continental breakfast or fruit bowl I think.

The Wolseley
160 Piccadilly
Mayfair

London

W1J 9EB

February 22, 2012 British

The Abbeville Kitchen, Clapham

It’s cold, and John and I are standing in the street, shivering… We’re right in the middle of Abbeville Road, and we are completely surrounded by restaurants. We’re supposed to be here to try a new restaurant, but John mentions that he’s heard good things about Abbeville Kitchen. We look at the menu. Wow. Good olives, charcuterie, etc, looks very inviting. John insists we look at the other menus, although I’m sold on the first glance. Nearby is very appealing food, well plated food, but really we’re after chat, and variety, and lots of picky things…

We return to the Abbeville Kitchen and of course opt for the table right next to the open kitchen, which I think the staff perhaps found a little disconcerting. We on the other hand, want a good look at what’s going on around us. The room is all wooden floor, wooden tables – it’s functional, comfortable.

The menu isn’t huge, but what’s on here is here for a reason. Products look to be very carefully sourced, and everything looks appealing. We decide not to have mains, but to order a variety of dishes. We have huge, plump Gordal olives, Marcona almonds, a plate of charcuterie, and John has a duck heart salad. The bread includes, I think, baguette, ciabatta, and focaccia. My bit of baguette smells good, properly proved, nice mouthfeel, as they say.

The charcuterie includes finocchiona, Iberico ham and Italian ham. The Iberico is exquisite – packed full of flavour, complete melt in the mouth texture, as silky and as fine as you’d want it to be. The finocchiona is denser, not as good as the one I get from Natoora, if I’m truthful, but it has a complete honesty about it. (This is probably where I discover that it *is* the one I get from Natoora)

I don’t try John’s heart salad, but it looks delicious – well, I steal a bit of bacon from it – and it’s good. He shows me the duck hearts, they are beautifully cooked, and pink in the middle.

My own obligatory green salad is very well dressed and seasoned, a hint of mustard to tickle the tastebuds, but not enough to overwhelm it. It also has a really good variety of leaves, a good balance of bitter and delicate.

We stay for hours talking, and the charming staff keep topping up our filtered water, bring excellent coffee and sharp, proper lemonade. I think about all the people I want to bring here, and when we discuss it later, John has been thinking the same thing. It’s a great place. We visited at lunchtime and it wasn’t terribly busy, but judging by the constant prep taking place in the kitchen I’d say this place probably does good business at night. I hadn’t checked out the drinks list, but I will do next time I’m in. Oh, and they appear to do amazing things with prosecco – I see from a past menu they had spiced clementine and when we visited they had quince prosecco. Now how delicious does that sound?

The Abbeville Kitchen

47 Abbeville Rd
London

SW4 9JX

February 21, 2012 1 Michelin Star

The Lanesborough, Belgravia

Breakfast number two of the week and today the venue is the Lanesborough on Hyde Park Corner. An impressive 19th century building which is now a small, but luxurious hotel, in the heart of London. Originally built as a hospital (St. Georges) in the 18C, it was demolished and rebuilt in 1827 by William Wilkins. The hospital itself transferred to Tooting in 1980, and the building fell into disrepair until 1991 when it was refurbished and re-opened, and now is arguably the most expensive hotel in London.

I’ve been here many times before, though I’ve never stayed overnight, and I’ve certainly enjoyed the hospitality of the restaurants and bars – the library bar is a favourite of mine. On entering the hotel I’n directed to Apsleys, the restaurant. Taken over by Heinz Beck in 2009, it is his first restaurant outside of Italy and was awarded a Michelin star in 2010 (the fastest for a London restaurant at the time).

The last time I was here was for dinner before the refurbishment, then, it was a colonial style greenhouse with pastille coloured 80’s styling, with a very loud piano playing in the centre – we expected to find George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley hiding behind the palms with fake tans and shorts. Now it has the feeling of a light, open, Italian venue, with a Titian-esque artwork as a centrepiece. I assume this is to announce the ‘rebirth’ of the restaurant itself (although for some reason the artwork has go-faster stripes).

The menu is extensive and they even encourage you to be creative and go ‘off menu’. Given my recent disappointment, I know I’m going to go down the Eggs Benedict route again. The orange juice is already in the waiters’ hands, so I accept the invitation and give my order.

I assume the go-faster stripes on the centrepiece give the illusion that orders are being handled much more quickly than they are, and we wait what seems to be an age. All three of us have ordered eggs, so I assume only one egg chef is on, or they are out the back squeezing a couple from the chicken. Finally, the dishes arrive. Again the food looks great, though as I found to my cost yesterday, looks can be deceiving. I look more closely…

Two nicely formed poached eggs on top of an abundance of ham, and one half of a largish muffin. A decent, but not overwhelming amount of hollandaise with a pinch of paprika. My knife glides through the egg revealing a medium cooked egg with a yolk that flows down over the ham and muffin, but is not indiscreet enough to damage the texture of either. The ham is a honey roast ham, organically sourced, and full of flavour; and the muffin is nice and fluffy. The hollandaise, is creamy, but could do with just a touch more acidity – but I feel I’m splitting hairs now.

I enjoy the venue, the eggs Benedict were good. The service, other than waiting for too long, was fine and I leave in good humour – joking with the staff as I leave. One tells me his favourite egg joke:

How do Monsters like their eggs cooked – Terri-fried.

Update:

I had breakfast again this morning, and things have definitely deteriorated since my last visit. Eggs were undercooked, the staff kept trying to sell us pastries every five minutes and I had to ask for juice three times. A glass of grapefruit juice finally arrived, but had been watered down. I also had to ask for a cup of coffee twice, and finally got it at the end of the meal. The bill also had to be requested three times! 17/9/12

February 19, 2012 British

Goodman, Mayfair

Whilst Goodman Mayfair may resemble a NY steak joint, I’m wondering how many of those have a steady stream of diners descending to the meat locker to gawp at their wares… There is so much interest in steak at the moment that steak joints have become destination restaurants – the breeds, the sourcing, the cooking, all to be endlessly poured over.

There are at least three good restaurant groups with dedicated steak houses in London at the moment (including Goodman, Hawksmoor, and Wolfgang Puck’s CUT at 45 Park Lane). With such heavy hitters in the market, and with the prices being charged, Londoners are suddenly taking their meat very, very seriously indeed.

Ordinarily I like my steak grilled on the open fire at the Cheyne Walk Brasserie, but one can’t ignore the trend towards these places. Having eaten at Burger & Lobster the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it, I though it would be fun to start with Goodman Mayfair. Booking a table proved rather difficult actually, and on arriving we understood why: the room is pretty big, but was packed to the rafters with noisy diners full of bonhomie…. A quick scan of the room identified that at least 80% of the diners are men, and they all seemed to be having a great time! The decor is very much that of a NY diner, all wooden floors, wooden tables, lots and lots of wood. I kept having flashbacks to the Cheers bar, but it feels very authentic, like a London Smith and Wollensky…

Staff are busy and efficient – before you make up your mind, they bring around a platter of raw meat, and explain the various cuts and choices with you. From US ribeye to Irish grass-fed fillet, the choice is impressive. In addition to the menu, any special cuts are displayed on The Cut blackboard, and on our day included Chilean wagyu. I asked about the regulations for cattle rearing in Chile, and this was the only question the staff were unable to answer – I’m guessing not many chaps ask! Didn’t stop me from ordering it, but as Japan apparently doesn’t export its wagyu, and I think they use Australian at CUT, I was just curious.

To begin I had the pan fried foie gras… Served with roasted dry figs, oyster mushrooms and truffle honey, it was delicately sweet and offset by vinegar in the sauce – the acid is a necessary counterpoint, but here was a little harsh for me. the slice of foie was slim, but perfectly cooked, charred outside, delicate and tender inside.

Himself had the tiger prawn tempura with avocado and mango salsa, and a cajun mayonnaise. The tempura batter was crisp, and the salsa fresh. The combination is a pretty common one, but he liked the heat of the sauce and thought it added to the dish, but tasted more curry than cajun.

We both chose the wagyu, but went for different cuts: I had the sirloin, and he the ribeye. When it came we was completely astonished by the difference in cut. The steaks both look similar, they were both rested fully, with no apparent leakage of blood, and there the similarity ends. The sirloin had a tight, dense grain structure, whereas the ribeye was soft, loose, much juicier and tender. The texture of mine did open little over the next ten minutes, but nothing like that of the ribeye. My béarnaise wasn’t the best I’ve had, but ten minutes later it still had the same consistency, which certainly can’t be said of all the examples I’ve had. Hubby had the peppercorn sauce, which was fiery, creamy and delicious.

As sides we ordered salads, greens beans with shallots and truffled chips. The salad was well dressed, and had good variety of leaves. The truffled chips are delicious – crusty and crunchy, with a very discernible scent and taste of truffle. We discovered that if you dipped the chips into the pepper sauce you had a hit of umami on the front of the palate and the heat of the pepper in the back – a very addictive combination. As Goodman offer to bring you a selection of sauces, do try this for yourself.

Goodman’s wine list is very heavy on red, much to the Hubby’s delight! Alex, the ‘wine guy’ noted our choices and offered us something we’d not had before, which was delicious. We had an interesting discussion around different vineyards, and I’m definitely going to be ordering that recommendation – the first red wine I’ll have bought for myself in a decade!

Now for the technical bit: a number of us went down to see the meat room in the kitchen – the manager Nik was like the pied piper leading us into the mountain to meet the head chef, Phil… I’m going to do this bit in bullet form…

The meat comes in to be assessed individually by the chef. If he’s happy with the offerings, they make it into the locker, if not, they’re turned away, regardless of supplier
Meat from this country comes in at around 4 days and is cured in the locker by the staff
Meat from the US and Chile comes in vacuum packs, wet cured, and effectively already aged in the pack, This then needs to be aged for 4-5 days to remove the excess moisture
Any meat of particular merit can be aged for up to 45 days, though typically it’s aged for 28 days. During this ageing process there can be up to 25% wastage
Any meat served on the bone is aged for an additional two weeks on site
The room is kept at 75% humidity, and is monitored regularly. The humidity is regulated with a fan, and the room is lined with Himalayan rock salt.
In terms of what they look for, we had a quick discussion about the way in which feeds effect the end product, the cut obviously, the level of marbling and fat around the cut… It would be impossible for me to describe this too you as Tim was holding up particular cuts to demonstrate that to us. Do ask if you can see the locker for yourself.
In Mayfair alone, they’re getting through two tonnes of meat a month
On average people are eating under 500g, but just sometimes, someone will come in and order a kilo of steak – yes, a kilo of steak!

Out in the kitchen, the staff operate two ridiculously hot Josper charcoal grills! They are fed twice a day in rotation and take around two hours to come up to temperature… Because of this they are also used in rotation. The chef explained that the four staff who work this section effectively build the grill to the temperature they require – some like it very hot, others prefer to build the heat more slowly. The meat is turned constantly once it’s seared, keeping in the meat juices. At the end of service, the grill fed first is considerably colder than the later one… It’s insanely hot down there, and as I went in February, one can only imagine what it’s like in the summer.

I’ll definitely be back to Goodman, it’s loud, it’s boisterous, and the beef is great – a great place to go with a gang of chums. One tiny bit of advice though: if you’re a girl and you’re looking to impress a chap, bring him here, he’ll utterly love it. And if you’re a chap looking to impress a girl, and you don’t know her that well, take her for wagyu at the Cheyne Walk Brasserie first. You can always build her up to Goodman…

Other information:

Chilean beef cuts

Beef cattle breeds

An interesting but out of date assessment of the Chilean beef industry

The pictures of the food are my own, the interior shots are from the Goodman web site.

S·T·A·R·T·E·R·S

BEEF CARPACCIO, BASIL CRESS, SHAVED PARMESAN, AGED BALSAMIC AND OLIVE OIL £8

SWEET HERRING, TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN PRESENTATION, HOT MUSTARD AND CORNICHON £8

IRISH SMOKED SALMON BY FRANK HEDERMAN, DARK RYE BREAD, ONIONS AND CAPERS £13

TIGER PRAWN TEMPURA, AVOCADO, MANGO AND CAJUN MAYONNAISE £12

LOBSTER COCKTAIL, GREENS AND LEMON MAYONNAISE £16

LOBSTER BISQUE, TARRAGON CRÈME FRAICH E £7.5

CAESAR SALAD, PARMESAN AND WHITE ANCHOVIES £8.5

WEDGE SALAD, STILTON, TOMATO AND SMOKED BACON £9

BURRATA, SPANISH WAGYU BEEF CHORIZO, GRILLED SOURDOUGH £13

TOMATO, SLICED WITH CRUMBLED STILTON, RED ONIONS AND AGED BALSAMIC £8

PAN FRIED FOIE GRAS, ROASTED FIG, OYSTER MUSHROOM, TRUFFLE HONEY £15

S·T·E·A·K·S

We have teamed up with the finest producers of natural beef in the US and the British Isles.We cut beef every day, please check the blackboards for THE CUT

USDA ANGUS BEEF 150 DAY CORN FED

PORTERHOUSE & BONE IN RIB-‐EYE page1image29064

PER 100G £6.75

T-‐BONE & BONE IN SIRLOIN PER 100G £6.75

GOODMAN RIB-‐EYE (400G) £32

NEW YORK SIRLOIN (350G) page1image98792

£30

FILLET (250G) page1image100248

£34

SCOTTISH AND IRISH GRASS FED

FILLET (400G) £45
page1image172088

FILLET (250G) page1image173144

£28

CHOICE OF ONE SAUCE: BÉARNAISE, PEPPER, STILTON

HALF GRILLED LOBSTER TAIL WITH GARLIC BUTTER page1image187104

£12.5

ADD PAN FRIED FOIE GRAS (100G) page1image196592

£13

M·A·I·N·S

GOODMAN BURGER WITH LETTUCE, PICKLE, TOMATO, ONION AND CHIPS £14

EXTRAS: SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS, CHEDDAR, BACON, FRIED EGG OR FRIED ONIONS

CHICKEN, ROAST BREAST WITH CRUSHED POTATOES AND OYSTER MUSHROOMS £15

FISH OF THE DAY £Market Price

S·I·D·E D·I·S·H·E·S
TRUFFLE CHIPS £5

SPINACH, CREAMED WITH GRUYERE CHEESE £4.5

CARROTS, HONEY AND GINGER GLAZED £3.5

ROCKET AND PARMESAN SALAD £4
HAND CUT CHIPS £4.5

GREEN BEANS, SAUTÉED WITH SHALLOTS £4

MUSHROOMS WITH GARLIC BUTTER £4.5

MAC AND CHEESE, TRUFFLE SAUCE AND PARMESAN £4

GREEN SALAD, RED ONIONS AND TOMATOES £4

CREAMY MASH POTATO £5

STEAMED SPINACH £4.5

SPINACH WITH GARLIC AND LEMON £4.5

ROASTED WHITE ONION £4

LOBSTER MAC & CHEESE £8

A discretionary 12.5% service charge will be added to your bill

February 15, 2012 Italian

Quadrato, Canary Wharf

I may be apart from the majority of people when I say that I consider breakfast to be the most important meal of the day. A good breakfast puts a smile on my face, and helps prepare me for the onslaught of the day.

So, given that, it’s only natural that I eat breakfast out on a regular basis, and when I see ‘Breakfast Served at all Times‘ I can’t help myself emulating the comedian Steve Wright and ordering “French toast during the Renaissance”.

Today the venue is Quadrato at the Four Seasons in Canary Wharf. For well over a decade I’ve eaten in Quadrato and know it extremely well – it has always been a trusted source of a good meal, especially in truffle season. Walking into the restaurant is like walking into a friends house – the doorman welcomes me back, takes my coat and I’m seated immediately with efficiency and charm. The decor is clean, functional, hotel-esque, and hasn’t changed materially in 12 years. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but what was shiny and modern twelve years ago, is now just a little dull.

The waitress immediately asks if I’d like a juice – there are three on offer: orange; grapefruit; and cranberry. Usually Quadrato has a juice of the day, but either this has been dropped for the day, or forgotten about. I order a grapefruit juice and a cappuccino.

As you would expect in a Four Seasons Hotel, the breakfast menu is extensive. As I’m in the furthest enclave of the City, and folklore states that Mr Benedict was a Wall Street investment banker, I decide to honour him and order the Eggs Benedict. I have had it here many times, and it has historically been my favourite. I was surprised this time not to be asked how I’d like my eggs, as this has always been a nice feature of the restaurant. It demonstrates that they are making the dish for me, personally, and yes, they care how I prefer them.

My grapefruit juice and cappuccino arrive in good order, and my Eggs Benedict arrives a little too fast for comfort. Now, I don’t consider myself an expert, but over the years I’ve eaten this dish in many different restaurants and countries. Here the presentation looked great, the product looked appetising, and I was looking forward to the dish.

There was quite a lot of Hollandaise. I began to realise that this was hiding the lack of ham I’d expected between the egg and English muffin. What I did encounter was such a thin slice of ham that it deemed it pointless and tasteless. However there was a surprisingly and relatively large quantity of very wet and soggy spinach. Just to be sure, I ask the waitress if this is the correct order and she confirms that this is my Eggs Benedict and not the Florentine (typically with spinach). I plow on, determined to put my spinach phobia aside. As I pierce the egg an unreasonable quantity of water is ejected. Worse still, the egg itself is undercooked, just a small white bag of fluid, adding to my general depression and making the muffin even soggier than the spinach. I’m left reminiscing about all of my past Eggs Benedict, as if bereaving an absent friend.

Disappointed, I leave half the breakfast untouched, and I’m not asked why. I pay the bill, my coat and bag arrives with speed and I leave…

In my view a perfect Eggs Benedict should have a muffin which is crisp on top and fluffy throughout. The ham should be of sufficient quantity that you can discern which type of ham it is; and the egg should be fresh and firm. The egg yolk should have enough oozing viscosity to drip over the ham and muffin, but not to permeate the bread. It’s important to maintain the various textures of the food. The hollandaise should be creamy and exhibit a level of acidity which pokes your palate and gets your juices flowing. And nowhere, other than possibly somewhere in the kitchen drawer, or back in Florence, should there be spinach.

On my way to my next meeting I grab a croissant, and needless to say, I have a bad day.

Update: We were contacted by Four Seasons almost as soon as this piece went onto Urbanspoon, keen to find out where they went wrong.

Quadrato
Four Seasons Hotel

46 Westferry Circus
London

E14 8RS

February 10, 2012 1 Michelin Star

Galvin at Windows, Mayfair

Galvin at Windows is a bit of a favourite in our house, not least because it’s wonderfully friendly and relaxed. Add to that the near 360o views of London from its high perch on the twenty-eighth floor of the Hilton at Hyde Park, and it’s difficult to beat.

The kitchens are run by Head Chef André Garrett, now well-known for his appearances on The Great British Menu, and Chris Galvin is the Chef Patron.

Our 10 year old is a bit of a foodie – I can remember her eating Barolo and gorgonzola risotto at a year, carpaccio at two, and now at ten she eats sashimi, and the like. Each school holiday we like to take her somewhere special, and this time it was the turn of the Galvin team.

The room is divided very cleverly, a large horseshoe of tables extends around the exterior of the room, giving almost everyone a view from the windows. You could sit at the same table several times and the view is never the same twice. On this occasion we were overlooking Buckingham Palace, and she took great delight in trying to orient herself around the darkening landscape. Those views soon gave way to a glittering night-time panorama. The centre of the room is on a slightly raised platform, which also gives a view across London, without compromising the view on the lower level.

As you look over the menu the staff bring you a white pain d’Epi – always beautifully crisp and shaped, you break off your ‘wheat ears’ individually – it’s a good way of providing decent crust and chew in the bread, and is a variety I like very much*.

The amuse is an incredibly scented and flavoured shot of tomato water – incredibly time consuming to make, it’s elegant, refreshing, mouthwatering yet deeply satisfying. I always leave thinking I’m going to make some for myself, and return having failed to set aside the necessary time.

I’ve long favoured the seared foie gras dish, and the 10 year old bravely opted to give it a go. The dish is served in a soup plate, on a bed of chicorino, topped with a large seared piece of foie gras. This is then topped with a crunchy duck pastilla, full of tender shredded duck, redolent of crispy aromatic duck. There is also a piece of confit lemon – tangy, rich, ridiculously moreish, palate cleansing umami… Into the dish is poured the date consommé which is fully flavoured and sweet, but with a savoury depth. It’s simply one of my favourite dishes in London, and I know several other customers who like me, never eat anything else here. We both had this, and though she loved the majority of the dish, she wasn’t so keen on the foie gras – she’s ten – it’s a texture thing.

Hubby had the terrine of foie gras, which is served with a bitter-sweet tangy orange purée, spiced salt and toasted brioche. The brioche is always crisp, rich and light.

Just lately three of our children have become beef addicts, and their tastes are for rarer and rarer meat. Spotting a fillet of Scotch beef on the menu, the 10 yo decided to go with that. It is served medium by the kitchen, on top of a disk of rich dense braised ox cheek, and the smoothest mash imaginable. She loved the beef, and the mash, but after taking a couple of mouthfuls of the ox cheek, found that too rich for her. Again – she’s ten – I’d have been slightly surprised if she had eaten it all.

I find myself increasingly hankering for firm fish these days, so had the John Dory. Served with endive braised in orange, a cauliflower purée, curry oil and golden raisins the bitter-sweet endive offsets the purée and the dense fish.

The Hubby plumped for his favourite: poached Cotswold white chicken, a little Borettane onion tart, foie gras, some spring garlic purée, and baby vegetables. Borretane onions are small, firm, mild and slightly sweeter than most onions. Offset with the incredibly densely flavoured garlic purée (much nicer than perhaps it sounds), they provide a counterpoint to the rich savouriness of the chicken. I often have this dish too, and it just proves how far removed good chicken is from most of the insipid fowl that crosses our plates.The 10 year old is rather partial to dessert, and fancied the tarte tartin (I make a plum tarte tartin she likes), but as it’s for two, I said perhaps we could share it. When it duly arrived I doubted an army could share it – but I do know someone who regularly orders a double portion at Claridge’s just for himself. In our case the tarte triumphed over us, and Andrew Sicklin, the restaurant manager, kindly popped it into a doggy bag for to us to take home.

The Hubby had the banana soufflé served with chocolate and peanut – I’ve had this myself in the past, and it’s not my favourite combination. There’s something about warm bananas that I think could divide diners. Served with a good hit of alcohol, of almost any description, I think warm banana works. Without alcohol is reminds me of baby-food – but given how many children I’ve had, perhaps it’s just me. The peanut butter ice-cream is delicious.

Galvin works as a restaurant on many levels. As a couple, you can have a romantic evening, overlooking that glittering view; as a group of chums – there’s a great bar just next door that you can go to before and after you eat. You could just as easily impress you maiden aunt here, as a new conquest, or your boss.

The key to this success is as much about the absolutely perfect service as the excellent food. As this is the home of Fred Sirieix, the renowned creator of The Art of Service, this is really not a surprise. These standards are meticulously maintained by Andrew Sicklin and his team, but with good cheer, hospitality and warmth to boot. The 10 year old floated out of the restaurant declaring it her favourite to date. Now how can you argue with that?

Galvin at Windows

London Hilton
22 Park Lane

London W1K 1BE

* I believe Galvin buy in their bread, like a number of restaurants these days – it is however consistently good.

Starters

Terrine of foie gras, orange purée, spiced salt & toasted brioche.

Seared foie gras, spiced duck pastilla, confit lemon & date consommé.

Cured Loch Duart salmon, Cornish crab, avocado cream & fennel compote.

Salad of crisp organic egg, pickled carrot, yellow beetroot & truffle dressing.

Ballotine of organic pork, crispy trotter, pickled apple & mustard.

Seared Scottish scallops, wild sea vegetables & oyster emulsion.

————

Main Courses

Fillet of wild salmon, ragout of mussels, girolles,
broad beans & borlotti, jus of the earth & sea.

South Coast John Dory, orange braised endive,
cauliflower purée, curry oil & golden raisins.

Braised turbot, cucumber, oyster, linguini, wasabi & oyster velouté.

Pithivier of hay baked celeriac, kohlrabi, carrot purée,
trompette & Champagne vinaigrette.

Cornish spring lamb, baby artichoke, anchovy &
caper condiment & shepherd’s pie.

Poached Cotswold white chicken, Borettane onion tart, foie gras,
spring garlic purée, English baby summer vegetables & hazelnut jus gras.

Slow cooked fillet of Scotch beef, cooked medium,
braised ox cheek, pomme purée & red wine jus

————

Desserts

Wild strawberries, rosewater jelly, fontainebleau & jus de fraise

Caramelised Royal Gala apple tarte tatin, Tahitian vanilla ice cream & caramel sauce (for 2)

Manjari chocolate ganache, hazelnut & salted caramel

Coffee crème brulée, Marsala mascarpone, Lady fingers & cacao ice cream

Baba au rhum, crème Chantilly

Hot soufflé of banana, chocolate & caramelised peanut

Selection of seasonal cheeses by Maître affineur “La Fromagerie”

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