Finally! A Bistrotheque pop-up

Last Bistrotheque pop-up was epic. In the middle of the Olympic site, amazing views, great food, convivial atmosphere, tequlia cockails (thus convivial atmosphere).

Now they're finally back with a new pop-up, somewhere near Canary Wharf, how fitting, the epicentre of all things 80s and slightly gaudy in London. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, there's an 80s theme.

Hopefully they won't be pulling a Blumenthal and making glorified toasties.

You need to book ahead, actually, you need to book right now, on the link below.

https://uk.patronbase.com/_CreateLondon/Productions/RR4S/Performances

It's £45 a head, with booze. DO IT. NOW.

The Princess of Shoreditch: spoiled, superficial and inconsistent.

Feckin fitting. The darling gastropub of Shoreditch is just as much a vacuous wannabee as the crowd that now infests the neighborhood.

Just as the gritty, cool, authentically care free and creative generation that made Shoreditch is now copied by empty, overly produced shells, so is the Princess of Shoreditch a try hard, mediocre place to eat.


Yeah, there's some nice fluorescent portraits, and everything is in the de rigueur shabby chic, muted style. But the food is crap. I mean, the sticky toffee pudding was great, granted. But I've pulled better things out of my own ars£$%$. My friend had this ravioli, which turned out to be this doughy, oversized, clumsy mess.


The roast was £15 quid, and I can get better for half the price around town. The bloody mary was appalling.


And Mischa Barton, darling, you desperately need a new colourist.



Blargh.

Lunch menus at top London Restaurants

You may have gathered I quite enjoy fine dining (and pizza). Unfortunately, my wallet hasn't taken to it as much as I would have hoped.





So welcome to fine lunching! Most top London restaurants offer significantly cheaper lunch menus that allow you to sample the goods without breaking the bank. I'll be going to the dentist a lot more around 2pm it seems (wink, wink).

I've gone and done the dirty work, and checked out which top restaurants do lunch menus, and what they offer:

1. Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester: no secret this is my favourite place to eat in London. The lunch menu is at £50, with two glasses of wine and three courses. Still expensive, but considering the quality of the food (and the three stars), a steal. http://www.alainducasse-dorchester.com/

2. Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley: a minimal lunch menu, with some great looking fare: Cornish Pollock, orecchiette, dead nettle, preserved lemon, olive. £50 with glasse of wine, three courses, as above. http://www.the-berkeley.co.uk/marcus_wareing.aspx

3. Dinner by Blumenthal: I was totally underwhelmed when I went, I have to admit. The food was well prepared, but rather uninspired. But it's lovely at lunch time, with a nice garden, and the three course menu is really quite decent at £38 for three courses. Really not bad for a celebrity chef. http://www.dinnerbyheston.com/

meatfruit at dinner, photo Paul Winch-Furness / www.paulwf.co.uk

4. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon: there is a menu du jour, three courses for £27, no wine. A rather informal menu, oxtail, spaghetti... http://www.joelrobuchon.co.uk/

5. Hibiscus in Mayfair: this seems like the best deal so far, £29.50 for three courses, throw in another tenner for two glasses of wine. The menu looks grand, with an amazing foie gras ravioli for a starter. I'm dying to try out this place! http://www.hibiscusrestaurant.co.uk/

6. Pollen Street Social: just opened, and already hyped. Former Maze chef moves on to hipper pastures, it seems. £23.50 lunch menu for three courses, best price yet, and considering this is set to be a staple round town, best have a go at the "Cornish native brown crab risotto, finished with seaweed butter" and see what the fuss is about...http://www.pollenstreetsocial.com/


Pollen Street Social, photos Paul Winch-Furness / www.paulwf.co.uk

7. Sketch: this place is a bit much for my taste, too pretentious, too overly decorated. But it is certainly an experience, and if you're loitering about shopping in Central London, this could be a really cool lunch. Also a great one to take tourists (including those you know and like). Three courses for £35, or £50 with wine. Steep. http://www.sketch.uk.com/

sketch restaurant, photo from www.sketch.uk.com

8. Tamarind: uber posh Indian? on a shoestring, why not! The lunch menu at Tamarind looks amazing, and you get three courses with wine for £29.50, or without for £19.50. http://www.tamarindrestaurant.com/

9. The Boundary: they're now doing weekend lunches, which means you can hit the Columbia Road market or Brick Lane and have uncomplicated food for £24.50. Bonus points for a drink afterwards soaking in the view at The Rooftop. http://www.theboundary.co.uk/

Conran's The Boundary, photo from http://www.theboundary.co.uk/

10. Helene Darroze at The Connaught: I love this hotel, home to arguably one of the best cocktail bars in the World. The chef has quite a following in Paris, though the menu, including wine, is on the steep side at £42.00. http://www.the-connaught.co.uk/helene-daroze-london-restaurant.aspx

I think I'm going to start with Hibiscus, because I have no personality and it made the Top 50 list so I'm curious...

Best pizza in London, Datte Foco rules!

This is amazing. I've found the best pizza joint EVER in London, and it's right here in Stokey. I could cry.

They do pizza al taglio, in square, crunchy, perfect slices.


Wait. They deliver, and they're not expensive.. Pizza for two at around twenty pounds.



We had a slice with mozzarella, a slice without tomato sauce, with sausage and smoked cheese. So good and creamy and peppery over the crunchy dough I was scarfing it down straight from the box in the kitchen. Not pretty. We also had the classic rosemary potato. Scrumptious.

Their premises are quite small and uninviting, so I would say this is more of a take-out option than a restaurant. The staff are truly lovely though.


I guess they're quite new, and quite down the street, which is why people are still settling for the uninspired stuff from Il Bacio. FORGET Il Bacio. This is where it's at.


Infos
Datte Foco
10 Stoke Newington Church Street
N16 0LU
020 7254 6055
www.dattefoco.co.uk

Google Maps tour of East London

I've done it, finally. I made a google maps tour of East London, so if you've got people staying, or don't know the area, you can explore.

There's some nice places to eat, some of the good graffiti spots in East London, nice markets, vintage, the works...

Phew....


View Getting to know East London in a larger map

The World's Top 50

We have two in London!

The Fat Duck (of course), and Hibiscus, which I've never been to.

Noma is No.1 again. Wowzas.

Look at this interactive map from The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/interactive/2011/apr/18/worlds-50-best-restaurants-2011

Vietnamese restaurants in Hoxton

These joints are London classics. For some reason there are several adjacent vietnamese restaurants on Kingsland Road. These places are always packed, and swarming with the hipsters de rigueur....

My absolute favourite is the Viet Grill. I shall do a better review soon enough, with photos and what not. I guess this is a place I come to so often, I end up never getting round to doing this properly.



There is also its little sister on Old Street, Cay Tre. Gorgeous food. Curries, Pho, seabass, lemongrass. Outstanding.


But this is the ultimate London cheap eat. I UUUURGE you to pop round.

You can have a tipper at the Jaguar Shoes afterwards, classic Shoreditch night out it is...

Infos
Viet Grill
58 Kingsland Road
Shoreditch, London E28DP, United Kingdom
020 7739 6686

More weird stuff. Fancy squirrel confit?

And after the breast milk ice cream debacle, we proudly present...the squirrel confit.

I guess it's like eating pigeon? Just another small creature, right? A restaurant in Clapham called Trinity has added squirrel to the menu, in pot roast or confit form.

Would you? I'll pass, but only because Clapham is a bit far for me nowadays...

Unfortunately these are farmed, and not hunted in Clapham Common with a BB gun. That would be cool.

Trinity actually seems like quite a nice joint, and has picked up a Time Out award for best local restaurant. Inerestin....

Infos
Trinity
4, The Polygon, Clapham Old Town
SW4 0JG
Tel. 020 7622 1199

Morito in Exmouth Market

I'm in love. I just have the biggest food crush ever since moving to London. Wowzas. I'd heard about Morito several times, but because they don't take reservations never really ended up making it.


Well, what a waste of my time it has been to spend so many years this close without coming at least once a month to this place to gorge on the SPECTACULAR tapas.


The place is lovely, a tiny little spot, unpretentious, tiles and orange formica, tucked next to the mothership Moro in Exmouth Market. It's just what a tapas bar in Spain looks like, boisterous, busy, and fun.

And the food is out of this world. We started off with cute little pomegranate and cava cocktails, and got to work picking our tapas. We kicked off the festivities with a lamb and prune tagine. This is probably one of the best pieces of meat I have ever eaten. The spices (a hint of cardamon), the tenderness, just outrageous.

Then we had a classic pan con tomate, which was a bit too much tomate for the pan, but still lovely. We followed that with a bocadillo of bread, with jamon and fried quail eggs. I'm a sucker for a runny yolk, and this was just delicious, runny, crunchy, savoury, and beautifully cut by the acidity of the tomatoes.



We moved on to spinach with red onions, anchovies, pine nuts and raisins. Also nice, but maybe a bit heavy on the onion. We ate that together with some goat cheese, and everything worked rather nicely together.

And then, finally, lamb chops, succulent, doused with cumin and lime, exploding with flavour. Amazing. Finger licking good.


The bill was quite decent, five tapas, four cocktails, two beers, £60 pounds. Considering the quality of the food, a steal in my book.

I'm coming back here all the time. The food is on another level. The service is fantastic, the staff are lovely without being forced. The only hassle is the non booking policy, which basically means you have to arrive, leave your name at the door, go for a pint in the pub in the corner, and come back 45 minutes later when they call your mobile. A bit of a drag, but truly worth it.

Infos
Morito
32 Exmouth Market
EC1R 4QL.
Tel. 020 7278 7007

The revival of the "Great London Hotels"

I find the whole buzz a bit lame, I must admit. But hotels in London are undoubtedly a key aspect of the social scene, as well as the travel scene. And with the Olympics just round the corner, well I guess hotels could come in handy...

So I shall have my few words and get done with it. So you may have heard that we have seen some pretty major renovations lately, including the Savoy, and the 45 Park Lane (little brother to The Dorchester). The Savoy, on the Strand, is a classic, and looks lovely redone (it's right by LSE, so I do happen to swing by...). This is the first luxury hotel in London, and it has truly found its groove back. Gordon Ramsay is running the kitchen, and no matter how you feel about the guy, the food is never off key.



But really, what I cannot wait to see is the refurbished St. Pancras station hotel back in business. The neo-goth monstrosity (or pinacle of emo architecture, as I've decided to call it), which had been abandoned and had thus far somehow managed to resist many demolition attempts, has become a fixture of this city, and a symbol of its brash, innovative, risk-taking, and quirky people. It's kind of hideous, but I love it.




The hotel is set to reopen in May of this month, under the Renaissance brand, with spa rooms, barbers, a private club, and hopefully, a restaurant to match the decor in opulence. Markus Wareing is set to command something like a "British brasserie".



There is also Blumenthal taking over the kitchen at the Mandarin Oriental, and last year saw Bruno Loubet take over at The Zetter and Koffman at The Berkeley.

Hotel dining it is, then.

Trullo in Islington

I've FINALLY managed to make it to Trullo, the little italian on St. Paul's Road. It's generated quite a buzz since it opened last year, and I've been dying to go.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so you will have to content yourself with this PR shot from outside the restaurant (and my humble words).


The decoration is understated, there are few tables and the kitchen is open. My kind of joint already. This is a joint venture between someone from the River Cafe and a graduate of Fifteen. So the unpretentious, friendly, italian theme would be de rigueur.

The food was outstanding. Really. Beautiful little steak tartare for starter, then pumpkin ravioli with a creamy gorgonzola sauce, set off by a judicious sprinkle of chili. The secondo, a baked seabream with lentils was impeccable.

Desert was rubbish, though. A quince and chocolate tart, boring, mousse topping over a pie crust. But the mousse was correct, and the pie crust impeccably crunchy. It was just boring and did not taste of quince. But desert is often rubbish in Italian joints, so points for authenticity.

We had a bottle of house wine (an unassuming little red from Sicily), a shared antipasto, two primi, a shared secondo a and a shared desert. The bill was £65 pounds, which is incredibly reasonable. Considering what you pay for rubbish food in this city, I will definitely be returning to Trullo on a regular basis.

The only criticism I would have, and it is unfortunately a rather grave one in my book, is that service was a bit of a mess. Granted, I arrived at 10pm, and they were just having an off night. That happens. They were extremely courteous and apologetic about screwing up my order, though. I won't hold it against them.

I've just found my new favourite local restaurant. Hurray. Adios Bistrotheque.

Infos
300 St Paul's Rd
London N1 2LH
020 7226 2733

Heston Blumenthal - Dinner

OOOH!!! Exciting! The real food critics have been allowed into the newly opened Dinner, at Mandarin Oriental, the latest by Herston Blumenthal.

Here is a little video from The Guardian.


Me, the not so real food critic, have been fighting it out with the other mere mortals, and have secured a reservation for early March (I booked in November).

I'm just going to watch this on repeat, I guess.

London Cheap Eats: Gallipolli

This one is maybe not the best Turkish food in the region (it's Stokey, that's a tall order), but it's probably the cutest. Ambiance is lacking at the more traditional places.

The location is perfect, right on Upper St., and the decoration, with all the lamps hanging from the ceiling, really sets the mood. Great for a date.



The Iskender, yoghurt, lamb, pitta, "special sauce" is great, the hoummous is also good. The tarama was a little dreck, I'm afraid.



They also only serve an obscure Turkish beer, which is rubbish, however authentic....

But all in all a cute little spot for an unpretentious dinner, and bonus points for ambiance..


The "Gallipolli" family comprises of three restaurants/bars on Upper Street, I prefer Bazaar.

Infos:
Gallipolli
107 Upper St, London, N1 1QP,
020 7226 53 33
http://www.cafegallipoli.com/bazaar/

London Breakfasts: Gastro in Clapham

Well, I'll refrain from sharing what I was doing having breakfast on the other side of the city. But I did wake up in great spirits, and had the most lovely little breakfast.



Actually, this is a cute cute little french joint I quite enjoy. The prices are decent, the atmosphere is truly French, not snotty "international cuisine" French, but homely "cafe du coin" French. The croque-madame was a treat, and where else can you get your coffee in a bowl in London?



This is also a good place to come for dinner, they do a great bavette with bearnaise.


I'll miss Clapham, the park is lovely. Oh well, we'll always have Paris.

Infos:
Gastro
67 Venn Street,
SW4 0BD

London Art Fair

Well hello blog. Long time no see. I've been living it up on the hyped shores of Bali, you see. No time for pesky little blogs like yourself on my holiday.

Now, now. Don't make such a fuss. I'm a fickle master, but I can be fun (on occasion).

I'm going to kick things off for the year with the London Art Fair, happening next week, 19 to 23 of January, in Islington.



This is the largest British art fair, and as it enters into its 23rd edition, we can expect to encounter over 100 galleries pluggin their stuff to over 23000 visitors.




Tickets are available online, at the fair's website:

http://www.londonartfair.co.uk

It's on Upper Street, so afterwards you can hit The Afghan Kitchen, a little gem that is sure to feature soon enough on the London Cheap Eats section...

See? All better now.

Infos

London Art Fair
Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, London N1

The Afghan Kitchen
35 Islington Green

London Cheap Eats - PRINCI

Aah. Princi. This is one of my all time favourite places in London, because it reminds me of not being in London, basically.



Princi is the quintessential Milanese experience, the Armani of the bakeries. Minimal beige stone interiors, impeccable music selection, and slightly pompous pretention. Loves it. I used to gorge on the goodies every weekeend when I was commuting for love to Milan, a bygone era, fortunately, as my waistline, pocketbook and achy-breaky-heart could not have held out much longer.

But there is a certain brand of chic that you only find in Milan, and coming into Princi in London is just an amazing throwback. Recherche but understated, like a mink coat against a collarless navy blue dress.



The food here is rustic, italian, simple, and well priced, but the feel is luxurious and exclusive. Patrons sprawl cozily across the large communal table and the odd bar stools. There is a constellation of primi to choose from, pastas, salads, and the odd pizza and foccacia.



Now ordinarily italians do a rather poor job of desert (seriously, is tiramissu the best your entire cultural history can amount to? I'm not impressed). But the options here are lovely, cannoli, millefoglie and crostate will do the job beautifully.




If I can get a whiff of Milan without the airport cues and the heartache, and for around a tenner, well, this is just the Cheap Eat to top all Cheap Eats.

Oh, and they open late!

You can catch up on the latest London reviews, recipes and stuff on my new blog, www.thenoshdiaries.com


Infos
Princi
135 - 137 Wardour Street
W1F 0UT
http://www.princi.co.uk/

London Cheap Eats

Yes, though I've ignored it long enough, it seems we are in the middle of a recession. Since it hasn't really come up in Vogue, ID or Numero, it has perhaps taken me a bit longer than expected to catch on (I'm joking, I read Grazia too).

Apparently it's cool to be a recessionista now, which means you basically still buy the Birkin, but in tan, because you will use it more and therefore it's a savvy buy, really. Unfortunately that is not the kind of rationalization that will win over the folks at American Express, believe me. I've tried.

So in order to keep up with the inevitable zeitgeist, I am launching a session on cheap eats, because, let's face it, life isn't all about Sauternes and Foie Gras, you gotta eat too. But my standards shall remain impossibly high (yes mother, that is probably why I am still unmarried, can we talk about this later please?). Now it's rather hard to pull this off in London, because the baseline is, well, beans on toast, rather than rillettes, or piadinas, or the pan con tomate you would get in the continent. Sigh.

It's therefore no surprise that a lot of the places I go to for a quick, cheap, but gastronomically appropriate bite are often not British. I will throw in a couple of fish and chip, pubs and what not. But mostly, it's Indian, Italian, Afghan and all sorts of foreign in this price range.

Well, I'm off. Wish me luck!

Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental

What a revival for hotel dining in London. The Savoy is back, Koffman is at the Berkeley. And now Boulud and Blumenthal are both going to be holding court at the Mandarin Oriental.


Dinner by Herston Blumenthal opens its doors on Monday, 31st of January 2011. Reservations opened on Wednesday, and I only managed to book for March.

Apparently this won't be a "molecular gastronomy" kind of deal, like the Fat Duck, so I'm really curious about what he'll be coming up with.



Reviews should be coming in sooner than March, I expect, so I will report back as soon as I find out.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge,
Tel. + 44 20 7235 2000