This.Is.Burger.Wars...Let battle commence

To the dread of all colonoscopists, London's love affair with the humble burger shows no signs of abating, instead increasing at an exponential rate. This week saw the opening of 4 new central burger joints of Patty & Bun, Byron Burger (Store Street), and new boys on the scene Burger & Shake, and BRGR.CO Soho. We went to all 4...I need a lie down now.

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?

This is Pho you

Pho 
48 Brushfield Street

In need of a quick, healthy and filling lunch, Vietnamese is ideal. While the hub of most traditional vietnamese restaurants can be found in Kingsland Rd, it's is a bit out of the way (for us). For a working lunch, we were invited to Pho, their latest opening in Spitafields. Pho has been around since 2005 and has 6 restaurants in London now, and set up by an inspired British couple their mini empire has grown. Clearly they are doing something right, it was packed out on a Thursday lunchtime, hardly a table to spare. Right near liverpool street station, this really is an ideal location.

Salt of the Earth

John Salt @John__Salt
131 Upper Street Islington, N1 1QP

The newly open John Salt in Islington is home to a 6 month residency of Ben Spalding, formly head chef at Roganic. Despite only just opening, it's already booked out until January, so get in quick before the queue gets longer. No doubt this is due to the hype surrounding Ben after the success of Strippedback, and a few other events he's done since leaving Roganic. I've been to Strippedback a few times, and really enjoyed it. I was excited at the prospect of what could be done with a proper kitchen and team behind him, had I set the expectation bar too high? In a word, no.

What instantly hits about the John Salt is that not only are they concentrating on creating great dishes, but for good value. Wider accessibility to good food is important and £28 is value for the 4 courses (more like 7 with all the extras), but if that is too much for some their bar food all dishes are under a tenner. Now pass the salt...

Chicken Shop - On a wing and a prayer

Chicken Shop
79 Highgate Rd, Kentish Town

Chicken Shop is one of 3 Soho House Group food places to invade Kentish Town, just up the road from the forum, alongside Dirty Burger and Pizza East. The entrance is very minimalist to say the least, no sign on the door, just a 'Chicken Shop' bag attached to the handle. Walking downstairs there was a wonderful aroma of chicken and chatter from a full house, even at 10pm. Inside is a candle lit 50 style diner with food served in tin camping style dishes. I'd heard a few good things about this place from some other locals, so was looking forward to some chicken 'n' chips. As with most new London restaurants, it's no reservations, so if you are going  The Vine is nearby if you have to wait a while.

Hellfire halloween at Ben's Canteen with Noshable

Halloween Dinner party - Ben's Canteen - A Noshable Event

140 St. John's Hill, Clapham

For this Halloween, Noshable, known for his previous american themed events, had organised a dinner party with the promise of suicide wings, Cuban Ropa Vieja and Pumpkin Pie. It was time for a hellish night, and with Judas is scary hot (iscariot) sauce supplied from Ribman made from naga chillis, one of the hottest on the planet, things were definitely due to heat up. 

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!

Cinnamon Club with Eric Chavot

Cinnamon Club

30-32 Great Smith Street

Yet again, I've managed to be the lucky beneficiary of a free meal courtesy of some promotion or another on twitter. Yes, I'm a jammy ****, but you gotta be in it to win it, heed my advice and keep your eyes on the prize, especially during a time like London restaurant festival. 

This was a Amex LRF event called 'Kitchen influentials' with Vivek Singh, of the Cinnamon Club, and Eric Chavot, who was head chef at the Capital hotel restaurant when it claimed it's 2 michelin stars (and subsequently lost, when he left). So with this pedigree I was eagerly anticipating their preset menu, what french influences would Chavot add to these . However, 12.30pm on a sunday is quite early for me, and would normally only just about be contemplating breakfast, so wasn't sure how awake my stomach would be to handle a full indian!

Cucumber and mint soup with lamb seekh kebab and duck samosas

This 'Gull makes me clam up

Bonnie Gull @Bonnie Gull
21A Foley Street

Yet another pop-up to go permanent, this time in the guise of Bonnie Gull, who previously were seen as the Seafood Shack in hackney, and after a couple of projects they are now in this set up in Fitzrovia. All their seafood is British, and responsibly sourced. It will change every day depending on what's fresh, I suppose we'll wait and see if some things will be more regular than others. Reasonably priced, great seafood restaurants are hard to come by in London, but this place certainly fits the bill. 

You make me wanna breakout

Burger Breakout @ The Old Crown 

33  New Oxford Street, WC1A 1BH

3 months after his successful Pop-up at Chad's Place (see here), Dave Ahern is back with a permanent, and even more adventurous, venture in the heart of London, a stone's throw from the British Museum. The foundation of the menu is built on those burgers at the pop up, so the whiskey beast, swine time, the Bambi Bought it, and the baa-baa baby. In addition to these are the OC burger (with Devon Long Horn patty), the camilla burger (chicken burger), and the 'I don't need your bull' veggie option. Each comes with it's own bespoke sauce befitting it's own meat. The choices don't stop there though with steak, chicken wings (10 different sauces!),... each dish has it's own unique twist, with undoubtably a lot of labour (and love) required to go into each of them