You are what they eat

Recently, I've been reading through the Ginger Pig book (got given this for valentine's, yes I'm very lucky!). As well as some great recipes, it has some fascinating info on rearing, and the conventional way of doing it, which has lead to me cutting out supermarket bought meats. Convenience is killing my meals and my health.

All you need is Lovage - Roganic

Roganic
19 Blandford Street, W1U 3DH

I have to admit the timing of this review is not the most convenient, but then how many times do you visit a restaurant knowing it's going to close in 6 weeks? Having occupied its space on Blandford Street for the past two years to great success and spawning a very promising career for Ben Spalding (check out our reviews for the now defunct Ben Spalding at John Salt and StrippedBack for more) in its wake, we decided to try the 3 course lunch menu (£30, £35 with wine pairings!) whilst I still had my chance. 

Big Dirty Burger

Over the last few years the popularity of 'fast food for middle class' has grown exponentially, with the humble burger being a dominant player. People are no longer satisfied with grilled to death low quality patties, much effort is spent in sourcing rare-breed cows, finely selecting choice cuts to give a perfect meat to fat ratio with the right flavour profile and cooking it to a perfect medium rare (shhh, don't tell Westminster city council). It's got the stage where this is big business, only this week first round of bidding for Byron was for an approximate £100m, based on profits of £10m(!) for this financial year (see The Independent)  Not bad for only 30 odd stores. Put it this way, that's about £920 profit for an average store each day, if open 7 days a week. Obviously, there is going to be a difference between their scale and somewhere smaller like Honest Burger, that won't have the same economies of scale, but still, most of the top burger joints are constantly packed with +1 hour waiting times. With Five Guys and Shake Shack coming over from across the pond, it's hard for new smaller players to get their foot in the door without necessary investment to compete. 

Street food offers that flexibility of not needing as much capital to get going, and less of a commitment as a bricks & mortar place. Notable mentions for Bleecker St Burger, Burger Bear, & Mother Flipper. Big Dirty Burger are plucky young 'part timers' yet to be able to fully commit, but with a great range of burgers, it's worth keeping an eye out for when they appear. Luckily for me, they appear most at Camden Brewery, one of my locals; burgers and Hells larger definitely hit the spot on a weekend!

Panino Giusto - Not just a sandwich

Panino Guisto @PaninoGiustoUK
1-3 Royal Exchange Buildings, EC3V 3LR

Enough of ubiquitous poor quality sandwich places, Panino Guisto (highly established in Milan) brings lunchtime Italy to the city. With individually sourced and imported ingredients such as fabulous 24 month aged Parma ham and Braesola from Valtellina, quality produce stands out from their usual fair. Something  as simple as this lives and dies on the quality produce especially in a such a food concious and critical city such as this. Obviously not everything can be imported, such as the bread, but they have gone to lengths to ensure authenticity by sourcing a local Italian baker who makes the panino bread bespoke fresh daily. They also have a carefully selected wine list, which the staff will recommend pairings with paninos. Great wine and ham beings back good memories of being out in Italy.

How Bazaar

Chor Bizarre

16 Albemarle Street, W1S 4HW

Stepping off the street in one of London's most extravagantly cosmopolitan areas, it's almost ironic that stepping into an Indian restaurant has an almost homely familiarity about it in this city. Despite Chinese food overtaking Indian as the nation's favourite takeaway, (I suspect the proliferation of late night/24 hour Chinese takeaways has something to do with this...Indian takeaways rarely open during the later hours), the South Asian cuisine remains a firm favourite amongst Londoners, with more modern interpretations such as Amaya, Dishoom and Masala Zone packing out with punters as much as the ''older'' favourites.

Social climbing up Pollen Street

Pollen Street Social @PollenStSocial
8 Pollen Street, W1S 1NQ

Given the responsibility of booking somewhere for my parent's birthday is always one riddled with high expectations, due to somehow having 'expertise' in the matter. My PhD funding doesn't exactly stretch a great deal, so needed to find a great value lunch deal that also had some edge of sophistication  After about 2 hours sifting through menus, reviews and locations, I finally came across Pollen Street Social with 3 courses for £29.50. Stands to reason then after all that time the Evening Standard published a great piece on set menus, not more than a few days after my tiresome search,  no PSS in it though. But after an ringing endorsement from Shahz  (worth 10 reviews!) I was pretty pleased to get a reservation for a Saturday lunch with a week to go!

Bea's Diner - Butter(milk) me up

Bea's Diner @Beas_bloomsbury

Arch 76, Druid St, London Bridge

Recently, Maltby Street Market has been getting a growing reputation for great produce and food. However, not being a particularly early bird, I've always managed to miss out on the infamous St.John bakery custard doughnuts and breakfast at Bea's Diner. Having just got back from the US I really miss epic breakfasts that aren't as frequent to get over here, just your typical english fry up. This time would be different, after an 'early' wake up managed to get to Bea's Diner for about 12.30. They advertise they are open from 9-2am, but once things have sold out thats it. So if you are planning a visit get there for before 12, as by the time we got there, no orange juice, only one and half cups of 'bottomless' coffee. Least we managed to get their amazing buttermilk pancakes and roasted strawberries, and eggs benedict. Roasted strawberries are a bit of a revelation, can't say I've ever tried these before but wow that hit of flavour is fantastic. Great start to weekend.

Yum bun, it's all in the name

Yum Bun @Yum_bun
31 Featherstone St, EC1Y 2BJ 

The tide doesn't seem to be going out for these pop-up/street food to permanent ventures. From Pitt Cue Co, Flat Iron to Patty&Bun and a few more to be opened soon, seems like not a month goes by without another coming to fruition. Now it's Yum Bun's turn in the sun (which is where exactly?).

After a few months off the streets the much revered 'Yum Bun' are back and with their own place right near Old Street tube.  It's a very simple, small unit that has not lost it's streetfood roots as it's primarily a takeaway with little space in to eat (although you can take next door to the Rotary Bar & diner). They are much the same mini luxuries of a steamed bun with fantastic flavour combinations as we've had from their stall. The menu is beautifully cartooned above the ordering counter. As well as the usual staples we've enjoyed so much of pork belly with hoisin and portabello mushroom, miso & walnut, they are joined by ox cheek & coriander, and chicken with tartare sauce. It's £6 for 2 buns, so you can mix and match if you want, or get a bento box with miso soup, salad, and a gyoza if you really feel hungry. And if you fancy sweet to round it off there is the Ice Cream bun, with coconut meringue and ice cream from sorbitum ices, another street food success.

Second time lucky

Since we started this blog, we've managed to get through our fair share of burgers, however up until now, not had a chance to sample any of Lucky Chip's offerings, bar their tiny ones at Slider Bar. Lucky Chip have been expanding to different corners of the city, from their van in Neilt market, to Bethnal Green, Soho and now Kentish Town, while becoming Chilli Stand Off champions in between. Then, they moved onto another increasing popular fast-food staple 'done properly' with  their short lived Lucky Fried Chicken residency upstairs at the Grafton (no thanks to a cease & desist from the Colonel :(  ), and it was as good as fried chicken gets, the mash was pure indulgence as well. However it's gone now, but they are staying on purely as a burger bar. Maybe they should have kept on the chicken in a 'now you didn't see anything here, you hear' as a paper bag of edible goodies slides from under the counter.

The Battle of the Brasseries: Balthazar vs Delaunay vs Zedel

So we recently had the pleasure of trying out the new hot table in town Balthazar as well as the slightly more established Delaunay. Instead of doing straight reviews, we thought we'd try something a little different with a post comparing the two restaurants as well as the other very reputable London brasserie, Brasserie Zedel. So without any further ado, let's get ready to rumble...

Round 1: Balthazar

4-6 Russell St, WC2E 7BN

First up is the new kid in town, the London outpost of the fêted New York original. Balthazar doesn't need much of an introduction from me, as you probably know it's one of the most hyped openings of the year so far and notoriously difficult to get a table for (one long day of repeated calling got us a table at 5.45 pm on the third day after opening).