Fantastic Feasts: Dinner by Heston

Dinner by Heston

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7LA

This was the second of our visits to Heston Blumenthal's London outpost (the first was 2 years ago).  In the time since our last visit it has rapidly picked up a Michelin Star as well as places on some pretty impressive lists. Rather than take full control over the venture himself, Heston has delegated a significant amount of control to Dinner executive chef is Ashley Palmer Watts, a Fat Duck alumnus who is beginning to gain a name for himself in the food festival circuit (he did a demonstration at the Taste Lab, for example).

Brown Bread Ice Cream

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.

High and (mostly) Dry

Duck & Waffle (@DuckandWaffle)
Heron Tower, 110 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AY

Duck N' Waffle

Zooming up in the much-discussed Roald Dahl-like glass elevator to the 40th floor of the Heron Tower is as much the exhilarating, if nerve-shattering, experience as has been discussed in other blogs. Once at the top, you are lead to the main dining room, a surprisingly intimate affair, with floor-to-ceiling windows surrounding three quarters of the space. The panoramic view here is largely unbroken and the table setting allows for pretty modest views even for the middle tables (unlike our experience with Galvin at Windows). We went for breakfast in this case, but they are impressively open all night. I'm guessing this for the benefit of the more industrious workers in the city, as well as late night revellers looking for something more adventurous than the standard dirty doner (must be quite a sight at 2 am!).

Street food revolution

The list of great street food places is almost never ending, from KERB to Broadway market, London is truly spoilt for choice. New vendors are popping up all the time and we have got on board the revolving door that is 'London's best street food'. Make sure to check out their twitter feeds to make sure where they are on a particular day. 

This Mex is on Fire

La Bodega Negra @BodegaNegra 
9 Old Compton Street, London, W1T 6JF

Standing outside La Bodega Negra, where the words ''Adult Video'' and ''Peep Show'' are emblazoned in bright red neon on the windows, you almost have to check twice you've got the right place. But fortune favours the brave, and once you go down the unassuming stairway, the cellar opens up to reveal a lively space. I really loved the atmosphere and decor of the place. A macabre blend of SoHo, NYC (where the original branch is located) and Soho, London, it has a kind of Bohemian Day of the Dead feel, which matches the modern Mexican tapas menu.

Lamb Tacos

Hawksmoor (& more)

Hawksmoor Air Street
5a Air Street, London, W1J 0AD

Hawksmoor have really put Steakhouses in London back on the map. Their success with there 3 other enterprises have justified this huge new restaurant in air street that spans most of the Reagent's Street, knowing that they are going to have no problems filling it. This really is in the heart of tourist London, but like the Seven Dials restaurant, despite location, the entrance is subtle with heavy doors. Only those steak worthy may enter. Unlike the other Hawksmoors, they've tried to split this between steak and fish, having teamed up with Mitch Tonks of the Seahorse. The ultimate surf 'n' turf?

Cooking with Olives II: Olive Hash Browns

Olive Hash Browns

This is the second of our olive-based recipes, and this time I've gone with a combination with potato as again I thought the starchy, creamy potato flavours would go well with the salty, anise-tinged black olives. I've seen recipes for olive mash before, so I thought I'd take a slightly different spin and go for a hash brown.

This recipe was created using black olives from Fragata, which they kindly provided for me along with some other great ingredients. Fragata are currently running a promotion in order to win a chance to cook with the one and only Jose Pizarro! If you're interested in entering the competition, please click here. The second recipe contains piri piri peppers, which were also kindly provided by Fragata!

Cooking with Olives I: Monkfish with Saffron and Olive Sauce on Cous Cous

Monkfish with Saffron and Olive Sauce on Cous Cous

This is the first of my two recipes using black olives. I basically wanted to combine black olives with fish, because I think that neutral, meaty fish like monkfish is complimented so well by that salty, anise-like taste of the black olives. I also like to cook down the sauce until it's a thick paste, almost East African style so that the paprika, coarse garlic and saffron retain their characteristic fiery intensity.

This recipe was created using black olives from Fragata, which they kindly provided for me along with some other great ingredients. Fragata are currently running a promotion in order to win a chance to cook with the one and only Jose Pizarro! If you're interested in entering the competition, please click here.

Here goes:

The Beer Chronicles: Grimbergen (Belgium)

Grimbergen (Belgium)

This is the first article in our brand new category, where we will be reviewing beers (and perhaps other drinks too!). We're going to hopefully focus on mainly some more artisan beers, rather than the big name brands unless they have a clear brewing tradition that deserves to be highlighted.

Grimbergen is an abbey beer (not to be confused with Trappist beer) taking it's name from  what is effectively a northern suburb of Brussels. This is the location I've highlighted on the map. However, it is now produced by the Belgian Alken-Maes brewery, a large-scale producer. The original beer was established in the 11th century by St Norbert (amazing name!), the founder of the Norbertine order. The glass is a chalice with a perpendicular rim.

Burger & Lobster - No Alarms and No Surprises

Burger & Lobster (@londonlobster)
36 Dean Street, London, W1D 4PS

Well, you couldn't accuse this one of false advertising. Featuring a minimalistic menu consisting simply of burger and lobster (either whole or as a roll), the Dean Street branch is the second of the two B&L restaurants opened by the team behind the eponymous Goodman in Mayfair. Goodman is famous for boasting some of the best steaks and burgers here, but we were particularly intrigued here by the prospect of £20 lobster.

A Lad's Salad : Duck Salad with Fatty Croutons

I'm going for a slightly different angle on this one. So this came out of a combination of wanting to empty out some ingredients from my fridge left-over from the lab barbecue and wanting to do a recipe post about salad as opposed to strictly meat and veg on the side. OK, as you can see from the photo above there is definitely an abundance of meat here, but I hope that there are enough greens here to keep your mum happy!

Bubbledogs - Blogging and dogging

Bubbledogs& @bubbledogsuk

40 Charlotte Street

Bubbledogs is the new venture by James Knappett, who has previously held stints at Noma and the Ledbury. With that kind of pedigree, this was always going to be somewhere that needed checking out. Together with his wife Sandia Chang (of Roganic fame), the menu features a combination of hot dogs and grower champagne. This seems a bit of a strange combination initially, but the place itself inside is a kind of classy, upmarket (although not necessarily in terms of prices) diner with bar seating and tongue-in-cheek illustrations of sausage dogs drinking champagne.

Food Over Canada Part I: Breakfast of Champions

So I spent the last week over in Toronto and Georgia Bay for my cousin's wedding, and thought I'd do a couple of posts about the food we ate. After all, what's a good wedding holiday without lots of delicious food? My first post is on the breakfast we had over at the Bluebird Meadows B&B in Midland, Ontario. Basically at this place, every morning there was a freshly cooked breakfast by the lovely lady who ran the hotel with her husband. Needless we all spent hours at night discussing what would be for breakfast the next morning. It was that good...

Tonkotsu - Another mean eat on Dean Street

Tonkotsu

63 Dean Street, London, W1D 4QG

Today I'm again reviewing a new Dean/Frith Street restaurant. I promise that there'll be some geographical variation in the future! Tonkotsu is a new Japanese restaurant, with a familiar concept of being a ramen bar with a sort of informal cafe atmosphere. However, there are a couple of factors that do set it apart. The first thing you notice are the big bubbling vats of stock preparing the broth for the next day's ramen. A very deliberate move to show people walking past where the food is coming from, breaking down the barrier between the dining room and the kitchen. This is supplemented by information on the menu as to the origin of the ingredients and the preparation of the meats. We're certainly moving towards the age where people are becoming very mindful of sourcing, and this can only be a good thing.

Ceviche - Pisco Fever

Ceviche
17 Frith Street, W1D 4RG

Spearheading the new wave of Peruvian food in Central London, Ceviche has taken up its spot in the newly invigorated (some would say gentrified) Dean and Frith Street in Soho. Every week there seems to be a new batch of mid-range venues being added as opposed to the traditionally pricier restaurants that have opened in the past 5 years. Always one of the most open-minded of areas in London, it's good to see some interesting new cuisines appearing in this dynamic quarter.

Let the FEASTivities begin

Situated in the quad of Guy's hospital, Feast capitalised on the growing street food market, to bring together an amalgamation of the best restaurants, pop-ups and street food vendors in London. With the likes of Hawksmoor, Moro, Jose Pizzaro,  Bread Street Kitchen, Barbecoa, Banhmi11 to name just a few(!), we certainly were not going to be left disappointed or hungry

Feast yourself

Dabbous - ''Congratulations, you've won the golden ticket!''

Dabbous
39 Whitfield Street, W1T 2SF

I've never heard that reply to a restaurant reservation before. But then, Dabbous is no ordinary restaurant. With a striking industrial interior housed in a former internet cafe (R.I.P. Cyberia!), Dabbous doesn't immediately strike you as the site of one of the most sought after reservations (April 2013 as of this post) in London. This may partially be down to the fact that there' only about 14 tables, which I would imagine would allow for something like 30 covers per night. Accordingly, the speed of service on the night was very impressive for food of that quality. Also, even though the food is easily Michelin star standard (it will undoubtably win one very soon), prices are very reasonable. £54 for the tasting menu (extra £25 for wine, £6 for a cheese platter), with mains running at about £15 makes for excellent value, I think.

Shimogamo - ''Can I have more Urchins please?''

Shimogamo

108 Parkway, NW1 7AN

A new shrine has opened to Japanese food in Camden. It's located on Parkway, which is fast becoming a popular spot for new restaurants in the area. The dining room is small - there's only about 5-6 tables, but it allows for a cosy atmosphere with very attentive service.

London's Best Ice Creams

Summer's here! Well, at least until the end of the week... In celebration, here are our favourite ice creams in central London:

The (food) revolution is here

While this recession continues to linger on, people are becoming more and more 'value for money' conscious. Whether it be at home or out, We don't want to be paying over the odds for processed, bland, nutritious-less food. Often called 'guilty pleasures'...well you should be guilty because there is A LOT better out there. Because of this there has been a rise in quality street food, and with twitter great places can be known by 'word of mouth' very fast, very far, very quickly (See: Portland, Oregon). Without the need for pointless things like knives and forks, or napkins these gourmet take-aways are becoming increasingly popular. These enterprises 'out of a truck' has led to two great successes of the 'MeatWagon' (then #MeatEasy, followed by MeatLiquor/Market) and Pitt Cue Co branching out into their own fixed residence...minus the wheels!