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The Hedonist

Padella – Review

March 26, 2018 by Adrian

Padella                         London Bridge

6 Southwark St, London, SE1 1TQ

http://padella.co/

I was with my 16 year old son near London Bridge. We had been to the DC comic exhibition at the O2 and it was snowing… quite heavily. We were hungry so the obvious thing to do was to queue for an hour in the cold to go to a pasta restaurant called Padella. Padella extPadella is on the edge of Borough Market. There are lots of other good places to eat in the neighbourhood including another pasta restaurant just over the road; so why on earth would we risk hypothermia for a plate of ravioli? Well, Padella isn’t any old pasta restaurant. It’s an offshoot of the much loved Highbury Corner staple Trullo (see my review) and since it opened has become one of the hardest to get into restaurants in London. With its no booking policy there are constant queues full of locals, tourists and the international Instagram food bloggerati. So on the basis that it was snowing I thought it might be just a little easier to get a table…An hour later after making friends with a venerable Chinese-American couple in the queue full of tales of their Scotch pilgrimage to Islay, Mr Freeze and The Ice Man finally made it inside. We were ushered into the rather cramped basement and soon realised from the other punters that the only way to keep your table long enough to defrost was to order lots of plates of pasta.Padella agrettiFour plates between the two of us didn’t seem unreasonable but just to keep the health police happy we ordered a dish of Agretti with Amalfi lemon. Agretti are often listed on menus as Barba di Frate (monk’s beard) which is a damn sight sexier than the English name of Saltwort. The straggly succulent leaves with a chlorophyll tang and a citrus zing from the lemon were an effective mouth freshener for the upcoming carb fest.Padella GnocchiFirst up was a dish of pert Gnocchi slathered with an intense sage and nutmeg butter with the nutmeg adding a little sweetness to the astringent herb.  I could  sense the little dumplings’ joy as they danced down my oesophagus…Padella TagliariniProperly al dente Tagliarini came with a slow-cooked tomato sauce made with 2017 Confini olive oil. The pasta had terrific bite and the intense sauce had a deep rich southern Italian flavour that was somehow unexpected and almost shocking on a snowy day in Borough.Padella PiciPici are hand-rolled ‘fat’ spaghetti from near Siena in Tuscany and at Padella are served in a Cacio e Pepe (cheese and pepper) sauce. This simplest of dishes can turn into a claggy mess. But this was a full-flavoured lubricious delight.Padella PappardelleLast up was a peppery, caramelised and aromatic dish of Pappardelle with a 8 hour Dexter beef shin ragu – this was a perfect warming winter dish – rich and unctuous.Padella int 1There are only a handful of places in London that make great pasta dishes and Padella is one of them. With prices around the £7  mark per dish it is affordable and whether you want to brave the queues is strictly a matter for you. However, probably because of its popularity it does feel a little as if they are doing you a favour by letting you in; but that aside, if you like your pasta fresh, beautifully cooked and intensely flavoured then you should visit.

Padella Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Brigade Bar & Bistro- Review

March 10, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Brigade Bar and Bistro         London Bridge

Follow @Hedonisttweets

 

139 Tooley Street, Southwark, SE1 2HZ

0844-346-1225/www.thebrigade.co.uk

Brigade Bar and Restaurant

Restaurants seem to be opening in converted fire stations at an alarming rate at the moment (where are all the fire engines going to go!). Brigade Bar and Bistro is situated in a historic old fire house built following the 1861 Tooley Street Fire. Brigade is not just a restaurant but is also a social enterprise that in partnership with the Beyond Food Foundation is offering catering apprenticeships to the vulnerable. Chef Simon Boyle has developed a system in which each apprentice is teamed up with a more experienced staff member and unlike on many work experience schemes, everyone gets paid. We have seem this kind of set – up before with Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen but it is a brave person that takes on such a project without the profile of a celebrity chef.

Brigade Bar and Restaurant interior

Brigade is a much bigger operation than I was expecting. There is an upstairs that is utilised for private events and a cookery school and the downstairs is split between sizeable bar and restaurant areas bisected by an open kitchen.

Brigade Bar and Restaurant kitchen

Both the restaurant and bar areas were buzzing, full of suits and suitettes happily drinking and chowing down.

Brigade Bar and Restaurant Scotch Egg Worthy social enterprise intentions are one thing, but would the food deliver? Scotch Eggs, beetroot piccalilli, fennel, green apple slaw (£8.95) arrived as a single egg rather than the plural offered by the menu, which might be an issue for the accountants from Ernst & Young around the corner, but the potted pork belly and breadcrumb casing was crisp and full of flavour and the egg just the right side of runny.

Brigade Bar and Restaurant seafood cocktail

South Coast Seafood Cocktail, topped with Cromer crab and a spiced Chase vodka sauce (£8.95) was a straightforward prawn cocktail with a piquant Marie-Rose sauce enlivened by the fresh crab meat on top-simple but really effective.

We were drinking a bottle of La Cote Flamenc Picpoul de Pinet 2013 (£25), a medium-bodied Languedoc white with lime and floral notes that was a good match for my seafood starter and our mains.

Brigade Bar & Bistro pollock

Steamed Pollock with beetroot and risotto (£15.95)  was delicious. The fish was perfectly cooked, flaky and full of flavour and the risotto was crunchy and with the earthy beetroot tones turned into something more delicate.

Brigade Bar & Bistro seabass and tomato stew

Seabass, mussel and razor clam tomato stew (£19.95) had Spanish notes of smoked paprika which gave the tomato sauce an attractive depth of flavour. It was slightly oversalted for me but still a good dish. Zesty greens with butter and garlic (£2.95) were crunchy and buttery with a garlic kick.

Brigade Bar & Bistro spiced apple tart Spiced apple tart with pistachio ice cream (£6.95) was rich and gooey, offset by the cool elegance of the pistachio ice-cream.

Brigade Bar & Bistro cappuccino creme bruleeCappuccino creme brûlée (£6.95) was a cup of frothy,eggy, caffeine-drenched sweetness and quite simply made me very happy.

It’s a good thing that chef Simon Boyle is taking on apprentices but if the food at Brigade wasn’t delivering then it’s not a good enough reason to pay it a visit. The good news is that the restaurant is quite the model of a contemporary urban bistro serving starightforward food with a twist at a reasonable price point in convivial surroundings with the added bonus of feeling worthy at the same time!

Disclosure: The Hedonist was a guest of  Brigade

 
Square Meal

Brigade Bar & Bistro on Urbanspoon

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