All posts tagged: londonrestaurant

“I want my great Thai food back!” Review of Busaba Eathai

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Last weekend, I caught up with my lovely family for my brother’s graduation at Kingston Uni. We always seem to end up in the same two places whenever my parents come to visit  – The Druids Head, Kingston-Upon-Thames (a great central pub with a cute pub garden for the Summer and wood fireplaces and mulled wine in the Winter), and then Busaba Eathai: One average Thai dish too many! I used to really rate Busaba Eathai. I first visited the Shoreditch branch around three years ago when the restaurants were only in Central London locations (no shopping centres) and the food was amazing – the jungle curry nearly blew my face off, in a really good way. But now they seem to have sold out, opening restaurants here there and everywhere, each with less charisma than the last. Vouchers and offer codes have taken over, and now it’s the sort of place that you’d never go unless you were getting at least a 25% discount (just like Pizza Express or another below average soulless chain.) A group of us visited …

Summer in Provence at Aubaine

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Last Monday, I was lucky enough to travel all the way to sunny Provence (through the medium of food and drink) for ‘a celebration of Summer in Provence’ at French restaurant, patisserie and boulangerie Aubaine. I was invited by fellow food blogger and Indian food extraordinaire Binny, of Binny’s Kitchen. One of my favourite Indian inspagrammers (inspirational instagrammer!), her website has recipes for the most delicious, homecooked Indian dishes you’ve ever seen. We only met recently at a Find Your Feet charity event, where I picked her brains about her own food blogging and supper club experience. I love meeting like-minded foodies at foodie events, over conversations about food – it’s a topic I will never be bored of! We were introduced to loads of different little tasters that bursted with the flavours of summer. From brioche buns filled with mushroom duxelles (like a creamy mushroom pate), steak and chips on skewers, chicken terrine wrapped in ham and plenty of fine French wines. Below are some of my personal favourites from the night, and some ideas I will definitely be taking home …

The Big Food Fight

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Of the 481 accounts I follow on Twitter, aproximately: 200 are chefs 150are  restaurants 81 are food writers 50 are food fanatics and a fair few MasterChef contestants are thrown in there too. I am bombarded with tweets about new places to eat and new things to try. From the short-lived ‘Cronut’ hype of 2013 to the recent gravy-dipped burger trend that I keep bloody hearing about, its safe to say nobody’s stuck for choice when deciding what’s for dins. Take the beloved beefburger: Cool person 1: ‘Have you been to (restaurant title including one or more of the following words: dirty, bun, burger, cow, liquor, meat, patty). It’s the best burger in London!’ Cool person 2: ‘I beg to differ.. you’ve gotta try (another restaurant title including one or more of the following words: dirty, bun, burger, cow, liquor, meat, patty). Cool person 3: ‘What about (yet another restaurant title including one or more of the following words: dirty, bun, burger, cow, liquor, meat, patty)? It’s the bomb!’ Well, which is it then people?! Are these new places ‘WE’VE GOT TO TRY’ actually that special? Are …

Cooking with matcha

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I have recently rekindled my love of green tea after discovering matcha – a powdered green tea made from specially selected green tea plants, which are shade grown for a few weeks before being ground up. The result is a clean, smooth-tasting tea that doesn’t have that horribly bitter after taste that first put me off regular green. It’s really easy to drink and has helped me through many a starvation lull on one of my fast days, as i’m currently trialing out the intermittent fasting (or the fast diet) in an attempt to (pun-alert) have my cake and eat it too (sorry.) But I’m more interested in matcha being used as an ingredient in cooking. The first time I tasted matcha was in a life changing dessert at So Japanese, Soho. This place was recommended to me by an ex colleague for its unbeatable sushi (and at a reasonable price for sushi) but I would also highly recommend the Japanese desserts. The Matcha & White Chocolate Cake with Black Sesame Ice Cream & Fruit Mousse   This was ordered …

What I learned at Cinnamon: the art of Indian cooking

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I ate like a Queen this weekend. Beautiful, refined and proper clever Indian cooking. The food successfully mixed authentic flavours from all over India with more classic European cooking techniques and styles, which always did service to the original dishes but enhanced the dining experience. This type of cooking is a real art; a dish is never changed for the sake of being different. Everything I tasted was true and intelligent, without trying to be fashionable or in trend. I was privileged enough to spend the weekend as the guest of Vivek Singh at two of his three London restaurants, Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen. As well as the chance to explore the kitchen at Cinnamon Club, where I skipping around with a spoon like a kid in a sweet shop, I also attended their Wine & Spice pairing at Cinnamon Club and a Vegetarian Masterclass at Cinnamon Kitchen, hosted by head chef at Cinnamon Club Rakesh Ravindran Nair and manager Hari Nagaraj. I took away with me so many tips. Here are my favourites: A pinch of sugar: …

Song Que Cafe – Review

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Real Vietnamese food in East London Song Que was recommended by an Instagram follower, who described the Pho as ‘Boom ting!’ I had to give this place a mention. We had a fleeting visit from an old friend last night and wanted to take him somewhere authentic, and try something new in East London before my move in two months (only down to South London but still!).    Song Que In a sea of fairly decent looking Vietnamese restaurants, the only thing that makes Song Que really stand out (apart from the tacky lime green front) is the fact that it was absolutely rammo – Vietnamese, Londoners, old, young, couples, catchups, families, predrinks. We felt at home straight away in this echoey, green canteen style joint, where the waiters are speedy and the prawn crackers are free (I mean, where can you find free prawn crackers anywhere anymore?) The words ‘authentic’ ‘true’ and ‘famous’ are plastered over their menu so I don’t have to go into this. But all I can say is believe their glowing …

Clutch – Review

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CLUTCH Clutch, 4 Ravenscroft Street, London E2 7QG http://www.clutchchicken.com Fifth result down on a quick google search, after discount handbags, care repair advice and gig dates for a 90’s American rock band, you’ll find Clutch- ‘the home of guilt-free chicken.’ This restaurant’s website has been at a practically blank holding page for months now, but I can tell you for free that the fried chicken here is clean-tasting yet completely addictive. We ate more chickens than there were diners at our table on the night in question and no, I do not feel at all guilty. Right around the corner from Columbia Road, Clutch pops up out of nowhere, like a petrol garage in the desert. The building was once a dirty little East End boozer, but now, painted cartoon yellow, with a faux turf lawn and dolls house-style garden furniture out front, Clutch couldn’t be further than its former haunt. A chirpy and sour ‘Jay Z’ (cocktail) started our night off nicely – the making of which had so many different elements it resembled that classic Rowan …

The Rise of the Chicken Shop, how not to do it & a Chicken orgasm at Clutch.

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The chicken shop market is a crowded coop.  Gone are the days that fried chicken was reserved as fuel for gangs of teenage boys or a second dinner for drunks stumbling home. Just like the burger before it, and the chip before that, fried chicken has shed it’s ‘fast food’ reputation and been given a makeover. First came the dirty (Monkey Fingers at CHICKENLiquor and the like); American-style chicken burgers and wings, clogging you up with thick, sticky stuff, served in paper wrap on a big metal tray (or dogs bowl, or whatever looks the most filthy). As tasty as this face-plant inducing, cheese-drenched, bacon-suffocated cuisine is, this type of eating is not sustainable. I mean, it’s not the right type of food to set you up for for a quiet night, let alone a night of dancing (plus, you don’t want to add to that morning-after guilt with the regret that you scoffed all that greasy poultry). Now there’s a surge of ‘high quality’ chicken shops that achieve perfect balance – that amazing fried …

Mission E2 – Review

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Mission – Arch 250, Paradise Row, E2 9LE The initial appeal of this East London wine bar was that its just around the corner from our humble East London flat, and I get lazy. But since it’s opening late last year Mission has gained plenty of attention and really caught my eye in an online review I was reading last week (initially because of the pretty-flash palm tree centre piece that swoons over the bar, but then for the soothing sound if its rustic, unpretentious tapas-style dishes).  I won’t pretend I know a hell of a lot about wine. I’m embarrassed to say it. But I do know East London. And good food. And where to get good food in East London, with a glass of wine. So that’s what I am going to comment on. Mission is placed in a railway arch, with a dark, curved wooden ceiling that makes you feel like you’re walking straight into a wine barrel. Fittingly, the whole place was drunk – loud, bustling, a bit dizzying. But very inviting. On Friday night our waiting staff were mental; too …