Category Archives: Eating out

Hix Soho … or was it?

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Rack of hogget at Hix Soho

Stuffed sea gulls hanging from the roof, a blood pudding and potato dish called “heaven and earth”, “professional mentalist” Derren Brown in the basement. Surely this was a weird dream brought about by tiredness or a red meat deficit?

But what if it wasn’t, what if I only thought I was eating out with ol’ Derren in the basement, what if I were really on stage in the Albert Hall, hypnotised by the illusionist into thinking I was eating in Soho? And my thoughts just kept on coming back to that stuffed seagull, and the upside down cake-mobile describing slow circles over my head. Continue reading →

Goodbye Eastside Inn

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Veal chop at The Eastside Inn

It’s always sad when a much loved place closes its doors. Doubly so when it’s unexpected. So it was with some sadness, and not a little shock, that I found out on Twitter last week that Eastside Inn has closed its doors for good.

The surprising bit is that it was a great place. The food was excellent and the service spot on. But then, maybe that’s why. Overheads in central London must be prohibitively expensive and ESI was a big space. Continue reading →

3 courses for £12? A grand deal at The Little Bay

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Hello there! It’s me, Catty! While Aaron’s busy honeymooning around Japan (me? jealous? NEVER!), we’ve hi-jacked his blog so that you don’t go hungry, and we’ll continue to post on his behalf, keeping them gastronomous eyes of yours well fed!

I thought I’d share with you all something a little special to Aaron and I. I went to The Little Bay Restaurant back in March this year. I hadn’t even met Aaron at the time and when he saw I’d tweeted that I was going, he responded and said I absolutely had to, HAD TO, have the pig’s cheek. And much to the disgust of my near-vegetarian colleague, I did have the pig’s cheek and boy was it awesome.
Continue reading →

Eastside Inn cocktail bar and food

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Jamon at Eastside Inn bar

Having been invited to the Eastside Inn for a cocktail and chat with restaurant co-creator Justine, I had images of leaning back Don Draper style, cocktail casually clutched in my hand, cooly dispensing anecdotes. I did not picture getting in an excited lather over seaweed infused Normandy butter and moaning ecstaticlly over some particularly fine jamon.

But that’s the Eastside Inn for you. I have talked – well, raved really – about it before. Twice. But this time I wasn’t stopping in for dinner. I was there to try out their newly-minted bar and maybe sample one or two of their bar snacks. Curious to see if they put as much into mixing drinks as they do into preparing food. Continue reading →

Tohbang’s new lunch menu

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Jjigae at Tohbang

Big lumps of slippery smooth tofu the texture of crème caramel rose and fell in the chilli hot currents of the deep red liquid slowly swirling in front of me, the odd prawn floating to the surface. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting jjigae to to be, but it wasn’t this.

Not that I was disappointed, far from it, this was exciting. I’ve eaten a lot of food from a lot of countries over the last three decades but Korean is a new thing to me. And boy, have I been missing out. Continue reading →

Chilli Cool revisited

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Crispy fried intestines

My first brush with proper Sichuan/Szechuan cuisine was something of a sweat soaked revelation. It left me panting for more. The question is, would Chilli Cool get through that notoriously tough second visit? All that expectation and the unrepeatable joy of a new discovery is tough to beat.

I remembered the crispy flavourful intestines, the earthy and hot lamb skewers and most of all that heavenly aubergine. Oh God the aubergine. Obscenely tasty I’d elevated it onto an oil-drenched pedestal.  So it was with both trepidation and excitment that I wandered into the dining room. Continue reading →

Lunch at 28-50

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Pork belly at 28-50

Pork belly. Those two words open up vistas of pleasure for most carnivores. Who would have thought that something so simple sounding could deliver so much pleasure? The antithesis of the push for lean dry tasteless meat that blighted the menus and school lunches of my eighties childhood, belly is full of interest and excitement.

And at lunch, well, it’d be a sin to pass it up. Meemalee, Mr Noodles and I were trying out 28-50. Named for the latitudes between which most wine is grown, it’s the more casual, wine-focussed, sibling of Texture. With the stripped back simple wood tables and underground space, there is something of both Terroirs and Vinoteca about 28-50. Continue reading →

Tea and chocolate: unusual bedfellows

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Tea in a white cup

Tea and chocolate. More daddy or chips than port and Stilton surely? That’s what I thought as I wended my sticky and hot way through sunbaked Fitzrovia trying to find Tapped and Packed, where I was to participate in a tea, coffee and chocolate matching evening run by Green & Blacks.

Coffee and chocolate, that I could see. They’ve closed the curtains on a multitude of meals from Turkish grills to Aussie seafood. I just couldn’t see fine teas standing up to a deep and bitter 75% cocoa dark chocolate. Just goes to show how much I know. Continue reading →

Koya

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Koya udon

If Koya had ears, they would’ve been incandescent in the months since its low key opening back in April this year. Quiet the opening might have been, but within days cyberspace was awash with excited chatter as foodies across the capital and beyond sampled the deceptively simple noddle-centric menu.

Of course, the worry is, when you hear so many good things, can the place itself actually live up to the hype. And so it was with some excitement, tempered with more than a dash of trepidation, I found myself in a queue with a group that included Mr Noodles, Tom and Jen, Uyen and others, patiently waiting for table. Continue reading →

Vinoteca

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Morcilla & a poached egg at Vinoteca

Vinoteca. Vino Teca. It’s all in the name really. Vino, wine, the glorious grape. Rightly known and talked about for it’s fabulous choice of wines by the glass, this simple wooden floored winebar has a (albeit widely known) secret. The food here is pretty damn good too.

These guys pay a lot of attention, not just to the food and the wine, but to how the two combine. Their daily changing menu has glasses of wine matched to each dish that you are free to select should you want. And the cooking, like a good wine, is full of clear, well balanced flavours. Continue reading →