Food Spectrum's Free Company @ The Endurance

I was really excited to read that The Endurance pub in the heart of Soho was starting a concept called Food Spectrum whereby upcoming chefs take over the kitchen for a month or so and you can then try their delicious food. In residence at the moment is Free Company, which is a collective of chefs that specialise in pop-ups. It consists of three in total - David Boycott, Billy Stock and Josh Rhodes, which will sure be names to watch in the future from the standard of food I ate.

They claim to bring inventive, modern British food to Berwick Street and yup, they have done it! It was by far one of my best lunches in the vicinity at any rate. All the staff were exceptionally hospitable, so you don't mind paying the 12.5% service charge as it really is faultless.

For just £1 a head you can start the meal with fresh bread and hand salted butter, which is 'limitless' as they top you up with as much as you would like, perfect for padding out a couple of dishes.  One can chooose a big main dish or opt for several smaller ones a la tapas style, which suits best if you like to try lots of different things and demonstrates the depth of their skills.

First off, we tried roasted and pickled beetroot with puree, beet leaves and goats cheese: a feast for the eye with it's jewelled beetroot, green leaves and white cheese. A wonderful explosion of flavours on the tongue and a treat for vegetarians that often get same old same old options. Another of the veggie dishes we chose was the king oyster mushroom with braised shallot, migas (Spanish for breadcrumbs) - toasted - and a mash. Once again it was beautifully presented, well executed with a perfect balance of all the elements to get enough bits on each forkful. 

For my carnivore friend, we ordered the chicken drumstick, replete with girolle and roasted garlic gnocchi. Not normally a fan of these double carb bites which can often be cloying too heavy and tasteless, these were
more melt in the mouth style, and were a really refreshingly new accompaniment to the chicken drumstick with the woody girolles. Lastly, the other meat dish we ate was braised pork cheek with cauliflower and roasted pumkin with a mosctel sauce, again a perfect combination for a just-so dish with warm, rich flavours.

All in all, I think one of the keys to their success is in the not trying too hard - not meddling with established combinations too much,  not trying to use too many or too whackier an ingredient and knowing the right amount of varying flavours one plate can take. These boys know that. Go before it goes!

http://www.fcfood.co.uk/blog/
http://www.theendurance.co.uk/

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Burger & Lobster

So I had been wanting to go to Burger & Lobster for a while but it's not easy to go to being one of those annoying places where you can't book and you have to queue up outside early in the evening. Which means that you inevitably go to have a few drinks whilst you're waiting and luckily Dean St Townhouse is right opposite.

As the menu implies, you can either have burger or lobster and the lobster can either be grilled or boiled. I definitely think that the lobster is a better deal, although both are filling, coming with a salad and chips (as well as a butter dipping sauce for the lobster). There's even a tank where you can see them all swimming around. 

We had a really nice waitress called Esther who looked after us well and we needed it after an extra wait when the hostess let her friends in to get a table as soon as they walked in...but the food soon made up for it when it arrived.  And they managed to double up on our drinks order so at least we had enough to keep us occuied .Then there was a delicious chocolate mousse that we shared for pudding which satisfied the sweet cravings.

Prices are pretty much set at £20/course for either lobster or a burger - with the lobster in my eyes being the better buy with the burger subsidising its price. There may be other sides but I don't recall...The coffee, drinks and pudding are all quite good value considering...

http://burgerandlobster.com/

Quilon

Westminster's Michelin starred south Indian restaurant Quilon has just re-launched, having  under-gone a three month re-furb with traditional decor and features as well as a new 'Q bar' to hang out in, giving locals both a new drinking spot as well as a private dining area, complete with an Indian fishing boat.

Owned by the Taj Group, this is actually the first overhaul that the interior has seen in 12 years by designLSM. Jaali or latticed screens master the traditional inspiration combined with a bespoke candle wall with flickering tea-lights. Then there are over 1,000 individual hand-printed ceramic tiles placed just so to resemble fish scales, this together with fabrics imported from India and the fishing boat reflect Quilon’s coastal roots.

But for me, the all important is that the bar has a new menu - both drinks and food, which Executive Chef Sriram Aylur has carefully selected with the help of MW Peter McCombie. It boasts over 135 well-known wine bins from well-known producers in addition to smaller 'boutique vineyards'. But those that aren't as fond of the grape will be pleased with the whisky menu (well my mother would be) with over 50 varieties and over 20 different beers. There’s even spicy inspired cocktails like the signature ‘Quojito’.

The bar canapé menu has been specially created so that you can have a small taster of the style of their dishes even if you’re not sitting down for a full meal – great for a light snack or sharing plates to sample the wonderful Michelin starred cuisine. Dishes include crispy fried spiced silver fish; tamarind glazed chicken winglets; semolina chips with tomato chutney and batter fried plaintain, asparagus and baby carrot with artichoke dip, all very reasonably priced.

I would say more, but you should go and try for yourself, especially as the staff are delightful also.

Quilon, 41 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AF, http://www.quilon.co.uk/ 020 7821 1899

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Soif - a thirst for wine

Opened up not so long ago on the old site of Giraffe on Battersea Rise is Soif - a very French feeling wine bar from the Terroirs and Brawn group. The philisophy being the same as that for Terroirs - 'Great food and great wine sourced with an eager eye for provenance'. In reality though, food doesn't just com from France - there are both Italian and Spanish origin dishes and ingredients, to be combined together with wine as you please.


With relaxed seating - a sofa and coffee table, barrel tables with high stools as well as standard tables and chairs or banquettes, it is quirky and homely looking - like a real French local with paraphenalia littering the bar. There's a small terrace in much the same style for the smokers or the spill over when it gets full inside at the weekends. But the decor I liked best was the light with glasses dangling from it, catching the light.


As aforementioned - the dishes are mixed origin but the idea is to pick a few dishes to share tapas style from prawns, to a meat board with rillettes, salami - Toscano and pate with lighter dishes like broad beans with fresh gooey mozarella, tasty peppers filled with tomatoes and garlic, And for those that don't like to share - there was a special of a pan-fried steak whilst we were these to supplement the usual mains of Lamb, Quail and a fish option. I tried the tapas style approach which were all very tasty and satisfying.


Even if you don't want to make a night of it but fancy a nibble - you can order a snack like juicy young olives and pork scratchings to soak up a little of the delicious wine if you need it. And the much of the wine comes in a carafe (500ml) sizes which is nice if you just want to pop in for a quick drink.


Well anytime apart from a Sunday evening. I would advise to go during the off-peak times to avoid things like having to have warm glasses and sitting down to eat straight away. There was something about the Verdicchio the second time around that just wasn't as good...maybe it just lacked the olives as an accompaniment. But that's my only fault as the staff are really friendly and full of initiative. This is one place where I'm happy to pay the 12.5% service.

http://terroirswinebar.com/

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Duke on the Green

There's three main places around Parsons Green that Parson-Greeners and fulhamites hang out in - Sloaney Pony, Aragon House and Duke on the Green. This weekend - for a friend's birthday I headed to Duke on the Green for Sunday lunch and to catch up with all the old school friends. A lovely day for it with the sun shining and pouring through the spring-like dining room.


The Sunday menu apart from brunch, really homes in on the roast - lamb, chicken, beef. Peppered with a few other classics - sausage and mash, fish and chips as well as the ubiquitious burger, with mushroom and toasted almond risotto as the vegetarian option. The starters are slightly more varied and intriguing with a duck and pheasant terrine, scallops with prosciutto and cauliflower puree as well as crispy fried squid and chorizo with sweet chilli.


I tried the squid which was nicely peppered to give it a kick, yet perfectly crispy - without too much extra batter, which can easily ruin a dish like this. The chorizo slithers were beautifully crunchy too, makin up for the weeping greenery - more for show than anything else.


I then moved onto a chicken breast roast which I did find a teency bit alarming from the description thinking that there was a capacity for it to be too dry. But I was promised extra gravy if needs be and a homemade one from both beef and chicken stocks as well as something else stock or gravy making. The chicken was tasty but as not as succulent as some I've had. The strong gravy made up for that but that one was too overpowering for the lighter chicken option and better suited to the beef I felt. Ditto some of the rich root veg that it came with (red cabbage in particukar). But a large satisying portion nfor large apetites, completed with the ultra crisp goose fat roasted potatoes. Good for yorkshire pudding fans too - which come with each roast variety.


I didn't get a chance to try the pudding as a) I was too repleat and b) a wonderful cake was organised for the birthday girl. All in all a nice place for catching up with friends over food.

http://www.dukeonthegreen.co.uk/

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Cucarachas

Mexican is a speciality is hard to come by unless you know where to go. Although most Mexican restaurants that you get in central London will be more of the tex-mex variety - a fusion of classical mexican dishes adapted to suit the British palette. They also seem to all be served in the traditional american style - consisting of large portions. You wouldn't actively seek out somewhere which translates as cockroaches but having recently had a fire and reopened I was worried that it had gone foerever as it has become a go-to place when I'm in need of a good margarita.


It's a really good filling cuisine when you are super hungry and although it has a reputation for being unhealthy if you go for cheesy, guacamole laden dishes but actually can be quite the opposite providing you with healthy satisfying meals with essential fatty acids and some of your five a day portions. Take peri-peri chargrilled chicken atop sizzling cajun vegtables, drenched in the peri-peri sauce, served with mexican rice and a 'cuban' bean salad. A treat for the senses listening to the hiss of the vegetables and breathing in the aroma of chilli mingling with herbs and spices in all its bright array of pretty colours - multi-cloured peppers and chillis, green coriander, yellow rice, brown beans.


A classic and hot faviourite is chilli beef - minced beef laden with onions, peppers and chillis perched on a mound of mexi rice, surrounded by triangles of tortilla chips - more authentiically known as totopos - not dissimilar to the little chilli bowl starter or the nachos with chilli beef where you also get the additional extra of guacamole and salsa as well as sour cream and manchego cheese. There are dozens of options to choose from for whatever you feel like from fajitas to chimichangas and quesadillas, from grills and mexi-burgers to salads and seafood.


The meal is perfected with well mixed cocktails and the offer of a variety of mexican beers - incuding the favourites sol and corona. Having tried a watermelom margarita I can't look back - it reminds me of my year away in Spain when the local barmen would always make me strawberry margarita if I didn't know what to order. But I have to branch out and try some new ones - with blueberry, mango and pomegranate available. The traditional flavoured water is very thirst quenching if you don't want alcohol - you won't need to order two at the size of these!


www.cucarachas.co.uk 1 Battersea Rise, Battersea,London SW11 1HG
Tel: 020 7978 7900
email: info@cucarachas.co.uk

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Apples and pears and I'm not talking stairs

This week I went to check out the latest offering from the Polpo group - Mele e Pere. I had been dying to try this place - being a big fan of Polpo but slightly put off by the non-booking system and tables squished so close together you elbow next door on your way to the loo. Everytime I tried calling before though I couln't get through - I think the wrong nmber was listed. After I found the place - I walked past twice mistaking it for somewhere else as I was looking for a smaller entrance - I was amazed by how airy and light it was - especially for a basement. With so much space between tables and the diners in that lunchtime - no conversations to be overheard here!


The quality of the decor is matched by the cuisine or rather the decor pales into insignificance in the face of the dishes. Each one delighting the senses. From the appearance of the bread basket with the freshest, tastiest different varieties - a soft focaccia, crunchy breadsticks, you're spoilt for choice. Each morsel bursts with flavour - the Sardinian ham melts in your mouth, whilst you could taste the sunshine in the peppers bringing out the best of the buffalo mozzarella salad; also a treat for the eye with all those bright colours.


Then the raviolini were like no other I had ever tasted stuffed with ricotta and veggies, drizzled with pesto. Just the perfect amount to satiate the appetite. I also tried my friend's risotto with lamb neck and mint - an odd combination for a risotto but which oddly works well together with soft rice and tender lamb.


After this and washing it down with a beautiful verdicchio there was no more room for pudding. A pity as Jay Rayner - who I was surprised to not see there normally seeing him in the newest restaurants - had already been and written about Zabaglione - one of my hot favourite desserts that is so simple but perfect if done well.


A versatile place - with a lunchtime set menu as well as pre theatre menu, pastas and bigger mains. I will be bearing this plce in mind for future, especially lunch meetings.

Mele e Pere, 46 Brewer St, London, W1F 9TF 0207 096 2096 info@meleepere.co.uk

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Uniting and Reuniting at the Bistro?

This week I agreed to catch up with my friend at the newly opened Bistro Union around the corner from her flat in Abbeville Rd. From the creators of Trinity in Clapham old town, the bistro purports to be a more relaxed local place to grab a bite to eat. The decor and atmosphere is certainly so - with unprententious furniture and a laid-back back feel to it. Like a few other places that have opened up recently, the bistro has a bar where you can sit and enjoy a few drinks and fresh traditional nibbles, like sausage rolls, scotch eggs and pork scratchings and apparently you even help yourself to your own cutlery from the drawers in front of you.


Being around the little tables was comfortable enough to be conducive to sitting around chatting, even if somewhat a little too squished together. The waiting staff were really lovely and friendly though, going a long way to making up for the food and sometimes lack of flavour. Drinks also helped to ease the pain of this a little - I was impressed with the array of interesing and old-fashioned cocktails on the menu with a beautiful gin cucumber and ginger ale number taking the heat off the long wait til our food arrived. The house wine is also to be commended - none of that cheap-drink-only-to-get-drunk stuff. Unfortunately the bread wasn't up to much being a little stale and the butter neither.


We were just on the cusp of ordering a couple of those little snacks when our dishes arrived but we were shocked when the toad-in-the-hole plonked down was completely charred on top. We were unanimous that we wouldn't dare even serve this to our friends at home, let alone in a restaurant (at £11). The second waiter concurred (as I think the table next to our elbows did too I suspect) and whisked this away to be replaced with another and took it off our bill. Sadly the next one served wasn't really up to much either. The plaice was tasty but the flavour paled by the fact I kept on getting mouthfuls of bones. The greens and chips were nice accompaniments, although the addition of lots of garlic in the greens wasn't as good a pairing with the toad-in-the-hole
per the waiter's recommendation. With simply written menus, you don't find out these things until they are too late. Raspberry ripple ice cream was a nice ending, quaintly served in a little jar with a screw top.


After discussing the food and our impressions we heard next-door complaining about theirs to the waiter - the distinct lack of meat in the cottage pie for one. As we finished our pudding, this table by our elbows asked how our food was. She had been planning to bring her friends here for her birthday but was put off by the portions and at those prices. (around £15 for a main plus 12.5% service) They were promised that these were just teething problems, but how can you be so sure? Surely this should be over after their 'dry-run' period?

Well I think the moral of the story is don't try these places too soon - but not too long after they've opened either (the good staff by then have flown the nest). I'd go back for drinks and snacks but not hurry back for the mains too soon.

www.bistrounion.co.uk

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Bánhmì

I was so excited this last weeek to discover that there was a new stall outside my work which is vietnamese; my current new favourite cuisine. I have slowly become more and more addicted over the past few months but I recall what I said about Pho which still stands - at least this is a good addiction as addictions go.


They have their own version of Pho, the nourishing traditional beef noodle soup filling you full of warmth and goodness - you can even get two different sizes - a little and a large. Perfect for me, who usually tries to stuff myself full of whatever size portion I'm given. Also on offer are noodle boxes with salad and a choice of the day's toppings - cat fish, lemongrass chicken and two type of pork - including a nice crispy pork belly variety. Or if you prefer you can also have these in a mini baguette, known as bánhmì - hence the name of the stall. Plus there are vietnamese rolls - pork and crab when I went there that day, which I have to go back and try.


Prices are as you expect for street food - around 5 for a box or a very large noodle soup a about half of that for a mini soup or a couple of rolls. Even my colleague who never would buy food from the street conceded that she had to try this.


The stall is at Berwick St market Monday to Fridays frm 11am til 3pm. You can even pre-order your food in advance. http://www.facebook.com/#!/Banhmi11

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10 Greek St

One of the latest trends in restuarants is to name a place after the street, the area and heritage of where it is located. 10 Greek St is one of the followers of this fad. But at least with a name like that it makes it easy to find as you don't have a chance of forgetting the address. In my case though, you also have to remember the name too!


From the Wapping Project ex head chef, and Luke White, restuarant manager fresh from Exmouth Market come this wonderfully relaxed, easy going, good value restaurant - a dream of theirs. You choose from small plates and bar snacks or larger mains from a menu that apparently changes daily.


For me it's generally always going to be the smaller dishes that win, espcially at lunchtime. And there were some real delights - smoked eel, mushroom risotto, butternut rotolo and new delicacies that I felt I should try such as crumbed rabbit. And was I impressed! It was all delicious, full of flavour, using only local and seasonal ingredients. I've never had such thick pieces of eel which were freshly smoked but it still worked well as did the rabbit,which was very tasty. My favourite thing though was actually the fresh onion focaccia which you could dip in oil - i'm there was balsmaic around too as they normally come in pairs. So fresh. So flavousome.


Being lunchtime on a busy workday, we didn't try any of the wine from the list which also serves many by the carafe. Although we did indulge in a little pudding - apple pie - which was very wholesome and warming, just the ticket for a day so cold it snowed. There is always another day or evening.

Spotted the Guardian restaurant reviewer, Jay Rayner again, so keep eyes peeled for he says about the place.
http://www.10greekstreet.com/#
020 7734 4677

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Evening Standard Menu at The Orrery

I love the new Evening Standard. Better features, fantastic campaigns, a newer funkier ES Magazine - especially under Andy Barker. And most of all I love the special deals that they offer at certain restaurants. The current offering is in association with D&D restaurant group as well as Piper Heidsieck Champagne. So we went en famille avec boyfriend to The Orrery, which was at the higher end of the scale - £30 for three courses and Champagne. I've been once before for my father's 60th and brother's 30th so knew that it would be a good bet, although probably not as good as the tasting menu with wine I had last time!


In reality if you drink (alcohol) then you'll probably end up spending double that price - especially when you factor in the 12.5% service charge, which is well worth it here. Even with the Evening Standard menu, you are showered with amuse bouche and pre courses - cheese gougere balls - think cheesy mini profiteroles, the sweetest french onion soup, apple jelly crumble and fresh assorted chocolate truffles. All divine although I wasn't keen on those particular truffle flavours.


It was a decent paired down menu with about five options for each course. This included amongst the starters a type of venison terrine with betreet chuntey consisting of betroot and jelly chunks, seafood raviolo in a bisque broth with a rich but not overpowering flavour as some bisques can be and a caramelised onion and goats cheese tart with perfectly ripe goats cheese. And the breads that accompanied these were to die for. I'm not normally a bread girl unless they are beautifully fresh like these and made without preservatives, so you can really taste the ingredients.


The main courses were not quite as enticing once they arrived as they were on the menu. As the crown of partridge was sat atop puff pastry whilst the mushroom feuillete with poached egg with hollandaise appeared on the same base - bit too much pastry for me - perhaps I should have ordered the sea bass with citrus fruits which looked amazing that a couple of the others enjoyed.


The service is incredible - they didn't seem to bat an eyelid when I asked to check my snow boots into the cloakroom. And you're defintely not left wanting for anything. They kindly let us order a cheese and the sorbet & ice cream selection and waved the supplement for these cheese as we only wantd those two puddings out of our allocated four. The cheese cart is a must for fanatics - you can see why it s worthy of a supplement - with pretty much something for all. Mild goats cheese, mature manchego and stinky gooey cheese the could run off your plate. As offers go - this far outsrips any of the others on the discount sites where you end up paying the normal price for a rather rushed and often not enjoyable meal (Marco Pierre White's Kings Rd Steakhouse springs to mind)


You have until 19th February to check out the resaurant at these special prices.
http://www.orrery-restaurant.co.uk/offer/evening-standard-at-orrery/350
020 7616 8000

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