London-eaten. Latest reviews and some odd things we've been to
Restaurants reviewed recently
A bit of a quiet time the last four weeks, as you might expect
Hereford Road Maida Vale. Classic British cooking
Waterloo Brasserie Waterloo. Not bad, but...
Landau Regent St. Andrew Turner returns in a tasting menu triumph
May we, as usual take this opportunity to remind you that if a restaurant really gives you a bad time, please talk to them and allow them a chance to explain/ buy you off/ make amends before you trash them on the website!
And it would be nice if restaurants could stop hyping themselves on site!
Hello jimmy choo, meet Dr Martin
IThe nice chap at the table introduces himself as Jimmy Choo. 'Oh just like the shoe chap,' says I. 'Yes' he replies, ''that's me.' Oops. I show him my shoes by hauling my ankles onto the table; Dr Martin's classic clodhoppers. He seems impressed. I think. All evening a flow of emaciated women flock to his side to Mwah! Mwah! including some people from Eastenders, I am told, and singer Beverley Knight (MBE). The paparazzi flash and I bury my head in my noodles to avoid being labelled Mystery Date the next day.
It's the Mango Tree launch of Noodles Noodles a festival of, well have a guess. It lasts until the 24th January and features some stunning dishes you won't get anywhere else and may not see again. Mango Tree is of course a popular place for celebs to get their chilli and fish sauce fix and remains one of fhe best Thai places in town, if your taste is more for fine dining than Hoxton hang out. Well worth checking out before the end of the festival for the food and for feeling a bit insignif when the paparazzi all lower their lenses when they see it's you leaving and not a star. Ah, fickle fame.
Valentine's Day. Steak your claim to love
What do you give to the gourmet man or woman in your life who has everything? One of the best-kept “foodie” secrets, online* supplier Broad Stripe Butchers has just launched a ‘Steak Gift Box’. This makes the ideal gift for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day…..you name it! What’s more, as well as containing two x 10oz rump steaks, two x 8 oz sirloin steaks, two x 8 oz fillet steaks and two very generous 12 oz T-bone steaks, it has a hardback copy of the book ‘Steak’ by top chef Paul Gayler, (worth £16.99), so there is no excuse for not having recipe ideas! All this would normally cost over £75 but it costs just £56 plus delivery.
Broad Stripe Butchers is so named because, traditionally, the wider the stripe on a butcher’s apron, the more senior the butcher. All the meat is British and the company supplies meat under the ‘Red Tractor’ scheme managed by Assured Food Standards and ‘Free-Range’ criteria. All the meat is processed in Somerset, which improves animal welfare and reduces food miles.
Special london-eating offer - a big discount and free delivery on Broad Stripe meat
The kind butchers at Broad Stripe are offering london-eating readers 30% off your first order when you spend £75 or above plus free delivery so this is a great way to stock up your freezer with proper quality meat you can trust.
All cuts of meat are available on the site, from larder-trimmed sirloin steaks to French-trimmed oven-ready five bone fore-ribs through to whole, oven-ready pheasant, partridge, guinea fowl, quail and Gressingham duck. If a special cut of meat is needed and not already available on the site,Broad Stripe Butchers will be happy to fulfil specific requests.
To claim the discount, just enter the promotional code LE OFFER on the site.
Loyd's nuts-taste them today
Loyd Daniel Gilman Grossman, the man with the most challenged vowels in the UK, has gone nuts. Already behind a successful range of cooking sauces he now offers some nice nibbles to impress guests while they wait for the lovely supper you’ve cooked. Grossman actually is a serious foodie and has been involved in helping improve hospital food for some years, so he isn’t just attaching his name to any old stuff.
The packet we were sent went fast. He calls them Indulgent Nut Mixes and we indulged pretty hard. The pack of Nut Mix with black olive wedges was seasoned with roast garlic and black olive spice and ‘drizzled’ with extra virgin olive oil, presumably by a drizzling machine. People were guilty of separating out the cashews, pecans, almonds and pistachios according to personal taste, but the best method of eating was the time honoured one of filling your palm with a mix and shovelling them in. Mmmmm salty snacks!
Actually very tasty and rather addictive, old Lloydy’s snacks also available as Sun Dried Tomato and Caramelised Red Onion are good enough to recommend and at £2.99 not too pricey either. You’ll find them in Waitrose (naturally) and in some of the more common supermarkets, too.
Urban Turban -keep it under your hat
Launched on a river of Champagne, Vineet Bhatia’s new venture, Urban Turban is shaping up to be a rather special place. As you walk into the restaurant your first view is of a very impressive bar. Use of great lighting, metallic wall coverings and shades of brown in this space gives it a chic, but warm feel. This area is to form a grill, where diners will be able to watch their food being prepared and cooked.
Vineet and Rushima Bhatia provided their guests with a range of canapés, including spicy cauliflower, some very delicately seasoned seared scallop, croustades filled with tangy potato, various differently topped nan bread and goujons of white fish in a hot spiced batter, all very tasty. If these were samples of the range of the tapas style food that Vineet will be putting on his menu, customers at the Urban Turban will experience beautifully balanced flavours dancing in their mouths. Washed down with a very good Laurent Perrier Champagne this was a very pleasant taste of things to come, and an enjoyable evening.
On the evidence of our walk from Bayswater Station, Westbourne Grove and the surrounding area appears to have an abundane of restaurants, of varying degrees of popularity, as you might imagine. Urban Turban stands out among them both for it’s exterior and interior décor. We understand that the finishing touches are still being made to the restaurant area on the lower ground floor so we were unable to see this, but if the entrance floor is anything to go by its going to be a great place to spend an evening exploring what promises to be excellent Indian cuisine.
akandpa
