Welcome to my first attempt at a blog. I have no idea who, or if anyone, will be interested in reading about my foodie travels and experiences, but a lot of people have told me they would be interested and that I should write a blog. Possibly they were just being polite, but I decided to give it a go. I'll post my interesting experiences in dining, food, wine and travel...and the odd random musing. I hope you like it...
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The class itself was a bit lame because the Japanese chap running it barely spoke during the 90 min session. He did shout at us a few times "roll it tighter", "not that tight", "only 80g of rice"(like we knew what 80 grams of rice looked like), but it was actually pretty fun nonetheless and it gave me the basics I needed to now give it a try at home.
We gave away the sushi we made to the two teenage girls who sat at the same table as us since a) we didn't feel like making our first (rubbish) attempt at sushi our lunch, and b) we were staying in a hotel that night.
On the way to our hotel (The London Edition, more later), we walked by an Honest Burgers. I'd read that this was one of the better new gourmet burger chains that have popped up in London in recent years so it was a perfect place to stop for lunch.
Both waitresses that served us were particularly charming and friendly. The menu is short and sweet (and the better for it) and was described for us by the waitress, including mentioning the gluten free options. Mrs. T ordered what turned out to be a lovely beer from a local London brewery and as I don't drink beer, I ordered the red wine (there was only one white and one red on offer). It was a perfectly serviceable Malbec that came it a water glass which was fine at a burger joint I guess.
I had the chicken burger and Mrs. T opted for the "special" burger which is an homage to the In and Out Burger from the US - the USP of this being that it is fried in yellow mustard for a bit at the end of the cooking process. Both came with chips which were perfectly cooked, crispy and not too greasy. They are "rosemary" flavoured so tasted just like roast potatoes. The burger was very good and my chicken burger was even better - some real alchemy going on as it was really tender and juicy chicken - I think it was probably marinaded in something.
Honest Burgers
4A Meard St, Soho, London W1F 0EF
http://www.honestburgers.co.uk/
https://goo.gl/maps/Pc4SbApXME82
On to the hotel...
We have stayed at the 5 star boutique London EDITION before, it being a Marriott owned property where I can use my points for free stays. It is in a great location, just a block off of the busy Oxford Street shopping mecca and a short walk to both Soho and Fitzrovia/Charlotte street where so many great restaurants, cafes and bars are located. I think it is really too big to be a "boutique" hotel and it sometimes strikes me as trying a bit to hard to be hip, but it does seem to be doing well since it opened a few years ago. The lobby bar was very lively both before and especially after our dinner. I know from the past they do very nice (and expensive) cocktails and wine here - if you can find a seat amongst all the beautiful and seemingly very affluent clientele. One little bugbear of ours was in full force here - you get bombarded with a strong fake floral smell when you enter. I don't really need to be covered in perfume when I enter a hotel - makes me wonder what smell they are trying to cover up.
The rooms are very minimalist with a large hipster/arty portrait on the wall. Can't remember what it was last year, but our room this year had a lady with a head scarf...upon closer inspection, the head scarf was actually made of toilet paper, including the rolls themselves being wrapped in her hair like curlers...hmmmm. We had a disabled room so it was large and had some odd features like a really high toilet that left your feet dangling and there was a mini-sink next to the toilet and a huge walk-in shower room (no bath). The main sink, like so many fancy hotel bathrooms, was form over function. It was one of the huge shallow rectangle sinks that looks great but with no counter space so you have to perch your toiletries on the the narrow ledge at the back of the sink. There were also no obvious tissues in the room, but I finally found them tucked away under the sink.
We did get a king bed, but it was oddly rock hard and we both found it uncomfortable. I had forgotten this from the last time we stayed here. My pillow was also weirdly lumpy. Not good enough in a 5 star hotel. The room was reasonably quiet, although there was some street noise noticeable now and again (we were on the 4th floor) - par for the course in a central London hotel I guess. The windows did have proper black-out blinds and the AC worked well.
The London EDITION
10 Berners St, Fitzrovia, London W1T 3NP
www.editionhotels.com/london/
https://goo.gl/maps/D5GencwpCMH2
Apart from the Sushi Workshop, the raison d'etre of this trip was a visit to Mere (pronounced Mary - the name derives from the French word for mother and is also the name of chef's mother in her native Samoan). It is the first restaurant from Monica Galetti and her sommelier husband David, both from the 2* La Gavroche in London. I have really liked Monica on all the TV shows she has been on in the last few years and was really looking forward to our visit. I always have a bit of trepidation on these nights where my hopes and expectations are so high - I've been let down before - but thankfully that was not going to be the case today.
Instead of having a drink at the hotel, we decided to have a drink at the restaurant as they have a nice bar on the ground level (the restaurant is downstairs). Mrs. T had a great cocktail - a Tommy Collins - which was essentially like a Tom Collins you can get in the US, but with added elder-flower cordial. I had a very nice Pinot Gris from New Zealand. The menu is either a 6 course tasting menu (normal or veggie) or ALC. The tasting menu looked great so we chose that - we generally prefer these anyway - along with the wine pairing which I knew would be good here.
We moved downstairs to the gorgeous modern restaurant with touches of polynesian decoration, no stuffy white table cloths here. The restaurant was well lit, the chairs were comfortable and every table had a very cool light fixture attached - it was basically a metal rod with a small light at the top which magnetically attached to a metal plate that was set flush in the table top. The whole thing could just be lifted off the table so the light must be battery powered. Not sure why I found this so cool, but I did. :)
Unusually, they offer free(!!) still or sparkling mineral water for the table and they kept our water glasses topped up all evening. In fact the service was some of the most friendly and slick I've seen in a while - the best since we ate at Sat Bains' restaurant earlier in the year. It was a very well-oiled machine for such a new restaurant. Our wine waiter was also excellent - friendly, enthusiastic, informative and was always ready to pour right after each course was delivered to the table and described in detail. He actually had to literally run over to our table once when the food had arrived and he was still at another table - we had a good natured joke about it.
You can see from the pictures below that the food was beautiful and not overly complicated with dozens of ingredients. Everything on the plate had a flavour or texture reason to be there. The thing that really stood out were the flavours though - each mouthful of every dish was absolutely delicious - not one single exception all night.
The first course highlighted Tomato and had a few incredibly sweet and tasty tomatoes along with a tomato jelly, a piece of crunchy lettuce, some pickled onion and a crispy wafer for some texture. The unusual element of this dish was a marmite emulsion (you can't really see it in the picture, it is behind that crisp). I don't normally like marmite so I wasn't sure about this, but it was actually quite mild and worked really well with the dish.
The second course was a very delicious beetroot marinated salmon with a lovely and mild horseradish cream.
The fish course was a masterclass in french cooking...a perfectly cooked John Dory with a proper french butter/chive sauce and a few tasty mussels. The Bottarga listed on the menu didn't really feature much as there were just a few crumbs around the plate.
The main event was an perfectly cooked lamb rump (my favourite cut) and a braised shoulder with a delicious lamb jus. The squash and aubergine sides were very well cooked, but I might have liked a bit more harrisa zing as the chilli heat was very mild.
A "shaved" cheese course came next with a very nice Verjus jelly and the crispiest crackers you could imagine. We've seen the making of this type of flower-looking cheese shape at a restaurant before...they use a special spiral shaving tool.
I didn't fancy the Pimms dessert so I asked if they could substitute another dessert. This was no problem and I got an amazing chocolate, honeycomb and ice cream dish. Mrs. T had the Pimms dessert and loved it.
The wines were all very interesting and perfect pairings with the food as far as I was concerned...and they even brought me a different sweet wine to better match with my chocolate (a Banyuls).
I could go on gushing about this place, but I think you get the idea by now. A new favourite in London and they will surely go straight in with a Michelin star when they get announced in the Autumn.
Mere Restaurant
74 Charlotte St, Bloomsbury, London W1T
www.mere-restaurant.com
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For breakfast the next day, we decided to forego the Berners Tavern restaurant attached to the hotel and opted for a quick Starbucks breakfast. Berners Tavern is actually very nice, we ate there last year, but we had plans for a large dim sum lunch so we didn't want to have a heavy breakfast - and you can't help but have a heavy breakfast there.
We checked out of the hotel late and strolled through Soho to Yauatcha for our lunch. It is a Michelin starred Chinese restaurant in Soho that has both dim sum and normal Chinese main course dishes as well as very fancy European style desserts.
The restaurant is very modern and going for the uber chic look with Budda Bar type music playing in the background. There is light and bright seating at street level, but the main room is a darker more atmospheric space downstairs. We were a bit unlucky with our table, being back in a corner near the servers computer station, so there was a lot of traffic around our table. The tables/chairs are also strangely low and without much space between them. We had been looking forward to this and duly ordered a mix of dishes. The cocktails here are also renowned so we had to get a couple on the go asap. I ordered a Lychee martini (vodka, lychee liquer, lychee juice, lime) and Mrs. T ordered a Hakka (vodka, sake, lychee juice, lime, coconut and passion fruit). Both were excellent and, er, we might have had two.
The food normally comes pretty fast in dim sum places, and that was the case here. The first of the food to arrive was the sesame prawn "toast" quickly followed by the prawn shui mai with chicken. These were both highlights of the meal. Mrs. T called the shui mai a revelation as she hasn't really liked previous shui mai she had tried.
Next was the spicy pork Szechuan wonton dish, but it was a bit of a dichotomy. Out of the 4 wontons, two were tasteless and two were good. It is almost like the meat mixture didn't get properly mixed up before going into the wontons. Also, for a Szechuan dish, it was not actually very hot - if something bills itself as a hot Szechuan dish, I want a hot Szechuan dish. An OK dish that without the error and a bit more spice would have been much better.
Next up was the sweet and sour soup. This was another highlight of our lunch...not only was it a bit nostalgic for us as we used to have this soup in America 30+ years ago, but it was a perfect mix of hot, sour and savoury...a real winner.
The final dish was sadly a let down. It was listed as Chicken Shanghai Dumplings and I thought these would be the famous soup dumplings from Shanghai (which I trekked all over Shanghai to seek out the best ones a few years ago), but there was no soup inside these. They were basically just pot sticker dumplings with really thick dough and an OK tasting meat morsel inside. (Note: There were actually 4 of them but I forgot to take a picture before we ate the first two.)
We contemplated having one of the fancy desserts on offer, but were really too full at this stage so we decided to call it a day and start making our way back home. Yauatcha is a very modern restaurant with a modern take on Dim Sum. We were unlucky with a couple dishes, but we actually came away happy as the good dishes were very good indeed and the cocktails were also very nice. The service was fine, but nothing to write home about. Our waitress was nice and our water glasses were topped up regularly, but she did bring an incorrect dish. In the loud restaurant I think she simply misheard "shui mai" for "Shanghai" - but when we pointed out we hadn't ordered the Chicken Shui mai, she quickly clarified what we wanted and got the correct dish reordered with an apology and no fuss. A simple misunderstanding expertly dealt with.
Yauatcha Soho
15-17 Broadwick St, Soho, London W1F 0DL
http://www.yauatcha.com/
https://goo.gl/maps/tjwU1Hj8znH2
A successful weekend all around and the end to my first ever blog post! Phew. Hope you like it - do let me know.
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August 12-13, 2017, London
My wife and I spent Saturday and Sunday in London last weekend and had a packed "foodie" schedule as usual. First port of call Saturday morning was a sushi making course at Yo! Sushi Baker Street...this was an xmas gift from our kids and it has taken us a while to get it scheduled as they only offer these in some of their London outlets.The class itself was a bit lame because the Japanese chap running it barely spoke during the 90 min session. He did shout at us a few times "roll it tighter", "not that tight", "only 80g of rice"(like we knew what 80 grams of rice looked like), but it was actually pretty fun nonetheless and it gave me the basics I needed to now give it a try at home.
We gave away the sushi we made to the two teenage girls who sat at the same table as us since a) we didn't feel like making our first (rubbish) attempt at sushi our lunch, and b) we were staying in a hotel that night.
On the way to our hotel (The London Edition, more later), we walked by an Honest Burgers. I'd read that this was one of the better new gourmet burger chains that have popped up in London in recent years so it was a perfect place to stop for lunch.
Both waitresses that served us were particularly charming and friendly. The menu is short and sweet (and the better for it) and was described for us by the waitress, including mentioning the gluten free options. Mrs. T ordered what turned out to be a lovely beer from a local London brewery and as I don't drink beer, I ordered the red wine (there was only one white and one red on offer). It was a perfectly serviceable Malbec that came it a water glass which was fine at a burger joint I guess.
I had the chicken burger and Mrs. T opted for the "special" burger which is an homage to the In and Out Burger from the US - the USP of this being that it is fried in yellow mustard for a bit at the end of the cooking process. Both came with chips which were perfectly cooked, crispy and not too greasy. They are "rosemary" flavoured so tasted just like roast potatoes. The burger was very good and my chicken burger was even better - some real alchemy going on as it was really tender and juicy chicken - I think it was probably marinaded in something.
Honest Burgers
4A Meard St, Soho, London W1F 0EF
http://www.honestburgers.co.uk/
https://goo.gl/maps/Pc4SbApXME82
--
On to the hotel...
We have stayed at the 5 star boutique London EDITION before, it being a Marriott owned property where I can use my points for free stays. It is in a great location, just a block off of the busy Oxford Street shopping mecca and a short walk to both Soho and Fitzrovia/Charlotte street where so many great restaurants, cafes and bars are located. I think it is really too big to be a "boutique" hotel and it sometimes strikes me as trying a bit to hard to be hip, but it does seem to be doing well since it opened a few years ago. The lobby bar was very lively both before and especially after our dinner. I know from the past they do very nice (and expensive) cocktails and wine here - if you can find a seat amongst all the beautiful and seemingly very affluent clientele. One little bugbear of ours was in full force here - you get bombarded with a strong fake floral smell when you enter. I don't really need to be covered in perfume when I enter a hotel - makes me wonder what smell they are trying to cover up.
The rooms are very minimalist with a large hipster/arty portrait on the wall. Can't remember what it was last year, but our room this year had a lady with a head scarf...upon closer inspection, the head scarf was actually made of toilet paper, including the rolls themselves being wrapped in her hair like curlers...hmmmm. We had a disabled room so it was large and had some odd features like a really high toilet that left your feet dangling and there was a mini-sink next to the toilet and a huge walk-in shower room (no bath). The main sink, like so many fancy hotel bathrooms, was form over function. It was one of the huge shallow rectangle sinks that looks great but with no counter space so you have to perch your toiletries on the the narrow ledge at the back of the sink. There were also no obvious tissues in the room, but I finally found them tucked away under the sink.
We did get a king bed, but it was oddly rock hard and we both found it uncomfortable. I had forgotten this from the last time we stayed here. My pillow was also weirdly lumpy. Not good enough in a 5 star hotel. The room was reasonably quiet, although there was some street noise noticeable now and again (we were on the 4th floor) - par for the course in a central London hotel I guess. The windows did have proper black-out blinds and the AC worked well.
The London EDITION
10 Berners St, Fitzrovia, London W1T 3NP
www.editionhotels.com/london/
https://goo.gl/maps/D5GencwpCMH2
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Apart from the Sushi Workshop, the raison d'etre of this trip was a visit to Mere (pronounced Mary - the name derives from the French word for mother and is also the name of chef's mother in her native Samoan). It is the first restaurant from Monica Galetti and her sommelier husband David, both from the 2* La Gavroche in London. I have really liked Monica on all the TV shows she has been on in the last few years and was really looking forward to our visit. I always have a bit of trepidation on these nights where my hopes and expectations are so high - I've been let down before - but thankfully that was not going to be the case today.
 |
We moved downstairs to the gorgeous modern restaurant with touches of polynesian decoration, no stuffy white table cloths here. The restaurant was well lit, the chairs were comfortable and every table had a very cool light fixture attached - it was basically a metal rod with a small light at the top which magnetically attached to a metal plate that was set flush in the table top. The whole thing could just be lifted off the table so the light must be battery powered. Not sure why I found this so cool, but I did. :)
Unusually, they offer free(!!) still or sparkling mineral water for the table and they kept our water glasses topped up all evening. In fact the service was some of the most friendly and slick I've seen in a while - the best since we ate at Sat Bains' restaurant earlier in the year. It was a very well-oiled machine for such a new restaurant. Our wine waiter was also excellent - friendly, enthusiastic, informative and was always ready to pour right after each course was delivered to the table and described in detail. He actually had to literally run over to our table once when the food had arrived and he was still at another table - we had a good natured joke about it.
You can see from the pictures below that the food was beautiful and not overly complicated with dozens of ingredients. Everything on the plate had a flavour or texture reason to be there. The thing that really stood out were the flavours though - each mouthful of every dish was absolutely delicious - not one single exception all night.
The first course highlighted Tomato and had a few incredibly sweet and tasty tomatoes along with a tomato jelly, a piece of crunchy lettuce, some pickled onion and a crispy wafer for some texture. The unusual element of this dish was a marmite emulsion (you can't really see it in the picture, it is behind that crisp). I don't normally like marmite so I wasn't sure about this, but it was actually quite mild and worked really well with the dish.
The second course was a very delicious beetroot marinated salmon with a lovely and mild horseradish cream.
The fish course was a masterclass in french cooking...a perfectly cooked John Dory with a proper french butter/chive sauce and a few tasty mussels. The Bottarga listed on the menu didn't really feature much as there were just a few crumbs around the plate.
The main event was an perfectly cooked lamb rump (my favourite cut) and a braised shoulder with a delicious lamb jus. The squash and aubergine sides were very well cooked, but I might have liked a bit more harrisa zing as the chilli heat was very mild.
A "shaved" cheese course came next with a very nice Verjus jelly and the crispiest crackers you could imagine. We've seen the making of this type of flower-looking cheese shape at a restaurant before...they use a special spiral shaving tool.
I didn't fancy the Pimms dessert so I asked if they could substitute another dessert. This was no problem and I got an amazing chocolate, honeycomb and ice cream dish. Mrs. T had the Pimms dessert and loved it.
I could go on gushing about this place, but I think you get the idea by now. A new favourite in London and they will surely go straight in with a Michelin star when they get announced in the Autumn.
Mere Restaurant
74 Charlotte St, Bloomsbury, London W1T
www.mere-restaurant.com
--
For breakfast the next day, we decided to forego the Berners Tavern restaurant attached to the hotel and opted for a quick Starbucks breakfast. Berners Tavern is actually very nice, we ate there last year, but we had plans for a large dim sum lunch so we didn't want to have a heavy breakfast - and you can't help but have a heavy breakfast there.
We checked out of the hotel late and strolled through Soho to Yauatcha for our lunch. It is a Michelin starred Chinese restaurant in Soho that has both dim sum and normal Chinese main course dishes as well as very fancy European style desserts.
The restaurant is very modern and going for the uber chic look with Budda Bar type music playing in the background. There is light and bright seating at street level, but the main room is a darker more atmospheric space downstairs. We were a bit unlucky with our table, being back in a corner near the servers computer station, so there was a lot of traffic around our table. The tables/chairs are also strangely low and without much space between them. We had been looking forward to this and duly ordered a mix of dishes. The cocktails here are also renowned so we had to get a couple on the go asap. I ordered a Lychee martini (vodka, lychee liquer, lychee juice, lime) and Mrs. T ordered a Hakka (vodka, sake, lychee juice, lime, coconut and passion fruit). Both were excellent and, er, we might have had two.
We contemplated having one of the fancy desserts on offer, but were really too full at this stage so we decided to call it a day and start making our way back home. Yauatcha is a very modern restaurant with a modern take on Dim Sum. We were unlucky with a couple dishes, but we actually came away happy as the good dishes were very good indeed and the cocktails were also very nice. The service was fine, but nothing to write home about. Our waitress was nice and our water glasses were topped up regularly, but she did bring an incorrect dish. In the loud restaurant I think she simply misheard "shui mai" for "Shanghai" - but when we pointed out we hadn't ordered the Chicken Shui mai, she quickly clarified what we wanted and got the correct dish reordered with an apology and no fuss. A simple misunderstanding expertly dealt with.
Yauatcha Soho
15-17 Broadwick St, Soho, London W1F 0DL
http://www.yauatcha.com/
https://goo.gl/maps/tjwU1Hj8znH2
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A successful weekend all around and the end to my first ever blog post! Phew. Hope you like it - do let me know.
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