Fitzrovia

Chinese New Year @ Hakkasan

January 29, 2017 by Adrian

Hakkasan Fitzrovia

Hakkasan Hanway Place, 8 Hanway Place, W1T 1HD

http://hakkasan.com/locations/hakkasan-hanway-place/+44 (0)20 7927 7000

I hadn’t been to the original Hakkasan in Hanway Place for many years so it was a pleasure to reenter its Christian Liaigre designed dark sexy interior. Who would have guessed in 2001 that this hot new basement Chinese restaurant with its decadent style would develop into a global group. With a Eurodisco soundtrack playing discreetly in the background Fiona and I had come to review their Chinese New Year signature menu (£88 or £108 per person for parties of two or more) which runs until February 11th. It’s difficult for restaurants to maintain their level of quality especially when the ‘concept’ has been spun off internationally so I was fascinated to see if Hakkasan retained its old magic.

We started with a couple of cocktails inspired by the Year of the Rooster. A Waltzing Collins was a blend of that favourite Chinese spirit Baiju, blended with sake, mandarin, lemon, grenadine, cucumber and sparkling wine (£13.50). If you’re a Baiju fan you will love it-if you’ve never had it you should try it.

The Waltzing Temple (£8) was a non-alcoholic take on the same dance with a blend of mandarin, lemon, grenadine, cucumber and lemonade. It was a bit too sweet for me.

Then the serious business began. Braised Chilean abalone with wind dried oyster and gold leaf was a fantastic plate of food with rich umami flavours bursting through the unctuous abalone. Delicately flavoured golden fried soft-shell crab sat on an amazing looking nest of shredded egg floss. Post-cocktails we were drinking a lovely German Pinot Noir Jülg 2014 Spätburgunder-light and crisp with cherry notes. I’m starting to drink Pinots quite regularly with the more robust fish and seafood dishes.

Stir-fry lobster came in a white pepper sauce, flavoured with hot fragrant Szechuan peppercorns. I’ve had more hardcore versions of this dish before that were simply too hot for me but this was beautifully balanced between the delicacy of the crustacean and the heat.

Steamed turbot was served in supreme stock with cloud’s ear and saffron. There was a wonderful counterpoint of flavours in this dish played out between the saffron, fish and garlic.

Sautéed duck breast in spicy bean sauce with pickled lotus root was really tender with a spicy kick. Egg fried rice with spring onion was very moreish and a great base for the protein.

Our stir-fried selection of mushroom in abalone sauce was a mycologist’s wet dream. Rich and savoury I am now a huge fan of abalone sauce.

I’m not often excited by desserts in a Chinese restaurant but these were something else. Golden feather ginger pannacotta, mandarin and caramelised white chocolate shell was extraordinary. Cracking through the shell the quivering pannacotta ‘white’ tumbled out followed by the mandarin sauce ‘yolk’. It was a delicious blend of citrus sweetness with the oriental ginger twist.

Deep fried sesame balls were crisp and hot with a liquid interior.

Steamed custard and red bean rice cake came sexily shaped as a fish. I love steamed red bean buns and this was by far the prettiest take on the classic dish that I have ever had.

I was half expecting standards to have slipped at Hakkasan-it’s been around a long time and with the expansion it’s almost counter-intuitive that the food seems better to me than when it opened. But they are obviously trying hard to hang onto to their deserved Michelin star and with the Chinese New Year menu have created a generous offer that is excellent value for the price point given the quality.

The interior still looks good and despite fierce competition in the pan-Asian market from newcomers such as the ultra-bling Sexy Fish, Hakkasan is still a real contender.

The Dalloway Terrace @ The Bloomsbury hotel – Review

March 22, 2016 by Adrian Leave a Comment

0207 347 1221/http://dallowayterrace.com

16-22 Great Russell Street, WC1B 3NN

I have been invited to review The Dalloway Terrace, a new inside/outside place with an all day menu at The Bloomsbury Hotel. It’s named after the eponymous heroine of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. I hope that the themes of regret and disappointment that permeate its pages are not reflected in my meal!

I’m sitting ‘inside’ in the outside covered terrace in early March but the heaters and blankets as well as the sparkling lights and greenery make for a cosy atmosphere. In the summer it’s going to be packed to the gills.

My opening gambit is a Mrs Dalloway cocktail (£12)-a champagne cocktail that blends Perrier-Jouet fizz, Courvoisier, sugar and Angostura which gives a delicious hint of bitterness.

A deftly constructed dish of seared tuna, soy & ginger dressing and pickled radish (£11) was an exercise in oriental minimalism, packing a hefty but well balanced flavour punch.

More generously portioned was a Dublin Bay prawn cocktail with Marie Rose, avocado & lime (£12). This was a great version of the classic with a real citrus zing.

A bottle of Cuatro Rayas Verdejo, Rueda, (£27) was full-bodied enough to match the main courses but still had enough acidity for the seafood. I ordered a lemon sole meunière on the bone, (£25) which was perfectly executed with a few capers to cut through the butter.

Dry aged Aberdeen Angus Beef 6oz fillet (£27) was tender and full of flavour. A really good cut of meat.

Sides of mash, some crisp fries, green beans and crunchy kale (all at £4.50) were all well executed in a little price-heavy.

Lemon tart (£7) was suitably tart and nicely caramelised with a handful of raspberries for sweetness.

A Selection of natural Dorset ice cream (£7) was particularly creamy-especially the salt caramel.

There is no clever concept at The Dalloway Terrace, just straightforward food that you want to eat done well in a great space. London needs more places like this. I think the bourgeois Mrs D would approve!

The Lockhart – Review

August 29, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The Lockhart Fitzrovia

22-24 Seymour Pl, W1H 7NL

lockhartlondon.com/02030115400

Sometimes people ask me why I don’t open my own restaurant. It seems that the combination of going out a lot and being an opinionated bugger qualifies me to become a restaurateur. Or maybe they just want to see me bankrupted…

Anyway a year or so ago two London-based Texan couples decided that what our city needed was a joint serving up food from the American South. To this end they hired a British chef who had impressed on ‘Masterchef’, trained him up, hired a crack front-of-house team and then closed the restaurant shortly afterwards after a spate of bad reviews.

But Texans don’t give up-in the case of Bobby Ewing they even come back from the dead-and their next play was a smart move. On reopening they hired chef Brad McDonald who hails from Louisiana. McDonald combines authenticity with heavyweight foodie credentials having done time at Noma and Per Se as well as the urban cool of Brooklyn’s Colonie.

The room is stripped back and some critics have felt it’s a bit bleak. It may not be as chichi as other Fitzrovia haunts but better a cool urban vibe than a retro take on a dubious antebellum past. The relatively neutral background.gives the food room to speak.

We snacked on pickled quails eggs (£1 each), soft and piquant and washed down with a smokey Margarita; but then the kitchen really got into gear.

Hot devilled Cornish crab (£9) had plenty of spice giving the brown meat a proper kick up the arse. Supping with the devil has its compensations…

Catfish Goujons were crisp and piping hot from the fryer accompanied by a spiky mustardy Creole remoulade sauce that left you in no doubt that this kitchen means business.

Her Ladyship and I moved on to a bottle of Willamette Pinot Gris , Oregon (£36) which was fruity and smooth and more than stood up to my dish of shrimp and grits (£18). I love this dish more than I can say. Southern comfort food that caresses the soul and makes you believe in I don’t know what…something…

Southern fried chicken came with collard greens and coleslaw (£17). This dish is about as far away from high street iterations as I am from Mo Farah at 1000 metres. Crisp and juicy, her Ladyship who isn’t inclined to the deep-fried thought it was lovely.

And finally it came…bread from heaven…freshly baked cornbread (£6) wet with butter, hot and coarse. You know you’re going to get in trouble but sometimes…

I love The Lockhart. Part of me lives in a fantasy south of my own imagination. A south where slavery never happened and the beauty of the country, music and food comes together to create something wonderful and new and unexpected. That south doesn’t exist but The Lockhart does. You should go.

Kitchen Table @ Bubbledogs – Review

March 21, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Kitchen Table @ Bubbledogs Fitzrovia

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70 Charlotte Street, W1T 4QG

020 7637 7770/http://www.kitchentablelondon.co.uk

Imagine you’re an up and coming young chef (James Knappett), you’ve worked at the top end of international fine dining at Noma, Per Se and Marcus Wareing, and your wife is the sommelier at Simon Rogan’s Roganic (Sandia Chang). Maybe over a coffee the two of you are idly dreaming about opening your own place. You want to create something different-something with strong branding and good margins that will draw in the punters…and so Bubbledogs was born, a surreal and inspired fusion of gourmet hot dogs with grower champagne. But Knappett had a cunning plan and sitting at the back of the fizz and dog emporium is his intimate fine dining joint Kitchen Table.

The name tells the story as the 19 diners are seated around the chef’s station on high stools so you really feel part of the action.

You come for the tasting menu of 12 – 14 courses at £88, with a wine flight at an additional £68. Her ladyship and I didn’t go for the wine pairings and chose a mineral and reasonably priced Txacoli (Basque cava) instead.

The food service opened with smoked brill roe, dried yuzu zest and baby radish. The roe had a subtly fishy taste, like a properly made tarama, and a creamy texture. The citrus of the yuzu spiked things up and the sweet crunch of the radish gave contrast.

A potato water cracker was studded with sour cream, salmon from Maldon and brown sugar from Beijing. It was a crunchy breath of sweet fishiness.

Cornish raw shrimp came with pearl barley crisp bread, pear and tarragon, brown butter and lemon zest. This dish was the one misfire of the evening for me simply because the shrimp were lacking in flavour-apparently they are a particularly rare variety but their scarcity value didn’t translate into flavour. However a purple heritage carrot cooked in pickling liquor with sorrel and creme fraiche was another iteration of the sweet crunchy trope.

as was the chickpea wafer slathered with marscapone and blobs of a chilli tomato jam.

A scallop was perfectly roasted and perked up with dried chilli and a gentle ginger mayonnaise.

Perfectly cooked brill came lightly steamed with turnips from Tokyo and a home-made miso and lemon paste.

For a supplement a dish of Perigord truffle with pasta in a champagne sauce was wonderful. This dish felt like a very contemporary articulation of fine dining. Simple and luxurious.

Salmon collar was charcoal cooked coming with a parsley mayo and a candied olive. The fish was deliciously fatty in flavour and was the salmon equivalent of Toro tuna.

A creamy Waterloo cheese came with sweet-sour rhubarb and the crunch of toasted barley.

A mango slush puppy was a fantastically refreshing mango ice made with coconut water.

Milk, cookie dough and caramel ice-cream were fantastic.

Roasted liqourice ice cream was coated in chilled dark chocolate over a hibiscus biscuit base. The gentle liqourice flavour was offset by the crisp bitter chocolate.

Salted Madagascar vanilla fudge slipped onto the tongue with a lover’s caress.

Gastronomically Kitchen Table is operating in the same kind of area as Lyle’s and The Clove Club, but the experience is so personal with James Knappett explaining and presenting each dish that has been prepared in front of you, that the whole fine dining experience is deconstructed. I think the whole operation is really intelligently put together and Knappett’s Michelin star is deserved. I’m sure he is a chef who will continue to develop new ideas and if they don’t franchise Bubbledogs soon they are missing a trick.

Ceru – Review

February 19, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Ceru Fitzrovia

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29 Rathbone Place, W1T 1JG,

0203 195 3001/www.cerurestaurants.com

Fitzrovia has an eclectic and vibrant restaurant scene ranging from the austere modernism of Ollie Dabbous’ eponymous restaurant to the fizz and haute hot-dog frivolity of Bubbledogs. The latest arrival is Ceru, a three-month Levantine pop-upwhich Fiona and I have been asked to review; it’s an all-day kind of place where you can breakfast on a za’atar laced wrap and move onto something more substantial for lunch and dinner.

Ceru is a friendly if cramped space seating only 20 on cheerful yellow high stools either at a wooden counter or at the high tables that circle the room. The food offer is based around small sharing plates which adds to the informal feel of the place.

Executive chef is Tom Kime, whose credits include The River Café, Le Pont de la Tour and Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant, and the menu takes inspiration from his passion for Levantine cuisine showcased in his award-winning book “Tasting”.

From 5-7pm Ceru has a happy hour when all cocktails are just £5. Fiona and I tried the Pomegranate Margarita (£8) with fresh pomegranate, lime, lemon, agave syrup & mint which had an unexpected salt/sugar rim, and the excitingly named Passionista (£8) with vanilla-infused vodka, fresh passion fruit & kaffir lime syrup, which was particularly good .

We started with a selection of dips (£6.50) which include Pancar (roast beetroot, yoghurt, garlic and pistachio) and Fadi (fried baby courgette purée with tahini, roast garlic, yoghurt & lemon) served with freshly baked pita; they all had great texture and zinged with flavour.

Seared Sea Bream, oregano and chilli served with warm lemon dressing and fried garlic (£9) was a lovely way to serve this fish; it was iridescent, flaky, full of flavour and able to stand up to the robust herbs and spices. By this point we were glugging a bottle of Lebanese Ixsir Grande Reserve (£26.50), a blend of Viognier, Sauvignon and Chardonnay with a very fresh mouth feel and oak and vanilla notes.

Slow Roast Lamb shoulder with Shawarma spices (£9) was fall off the bone tender with delicious spicing.

Roast Baby Aubergine with tomato and chilli (£6) were spicy and squishy.

Prawn, tomato and feta tasted like the best of home-cooking; juicy prawns given a kick by the feta.

Salad of Baby Spinach and Labne £5.50 with dried cranberries and toasted flatbread with za’atar was a great collision of crunch, sweet and chlorophyll.

We tried two of the three desserts; a dish of roast pears with cinnamon and orange zest (£4.50) had a rich flavour but wasn’t uniformly cooked-some bits were crunchy and some soft. Yoghurt, walnut and pistachio cake (£5.50) came with vanilla poached apricot and was moist and tasty.

Post pop-up I’d love to see Ceru located in Soho rather than the primmer environs of Fitzrovia. The food is reasonably priced, focussed and sits at the level of recent Soho hits such as Palomar, and with Ceru’s lack of formality it seems like an obvious fit. I’d go.