Restaurant

Cannizaro House – Review

September 9, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Cannizaro House Wimbledon

W Side Common, Wimbledon, London SW19 4UE

020 8879 1464/http://www.cannizarohouse.com

Cannizaro House Hotel is a curious hybrid. Situated in the heart of Wimbledon Common, from the outside it looks like a rather elegant country house hotel, however the interiors mix up the classic with a slightly disconcerting blend of Soho style and Essex chic.

I got to investigate one of the rooms as Fiona was staying over but my real mission was to review the restaurant which we had been invited to do.

We opted for the five course menu (£50) with wine pairing which was a £30 supplement. Bread was freshly made with good flavour and consistency.

First out of the kitchen came some flaky poached salt cod with mash, mint crumb and samphire garnish. As a pre-starter it boded well with contrasting textures, colours and flavours. Our first wine was a well-balanced 2012 Villa Wolf Pinot Blanc from German producer Ernst Loosen with floral and baked apple notes.

Next out was a beautiful risotto made with arborio rice, black truffle and mascarpone. It was crunch and nutty but simultaneously unctuous and rich.

A deconstructed gazpacho came with a smoked consommé and buttermilk ice to create a beautiful and delicate dish.

Salmon came slow-cooked at a low temperature with an overly vinegary beetroot purée, a salmon purée spring roll and baby vegetables. This was a pretty plate that was well matched with our buttery 2012 Saint-Marc Chablis.

Deep-fried Courgette Flower came with goat’s cheese, bee pollen and a yuzu dressing. This was another deconstructed version of a classic but I think I prefer the old-fashioned version in this case. Our accompanying 2012 Pinot Noir Jean-Marc Pillot was a good blend of fruit and tannin.

Armed with a glass of sweet, fruity and fresh Castelnau de Suduiraut Sauternes 2007 we tackled the Strawberry Sorbet which was full of flavour but marred by annoying plating.

However the Pina Colada parfait with passion fruit, mango, a coconut rum jelly and dehydrated flakes of matcha tea was a wonderful dessert on all fronts and not too sweet.

With chocolate macarons and passion fruit jelly to finish this was a dinner from an accomplished kitchen with ambition and technique. Service was friendly without matching the level of skill shown in the food preparation, and the wine pairings were intelligent and interesting. For fine dining in Wimbledon Cannizaro House is well worth a visit.

The Palomar – Review

July 20, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The Palomar Soho

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34 Rupert Street, W1D 6DN

(0)207 439 8777/reservations@thepalomar.co.uk

Soho’s latest hot opening is The Palomar, sister restaurant to Jerusalem’s Machneyuda. We have all had some exposure to the hybrid cuisine of this most fractious of cities courtesy of Yotam Ottolenghi, his business partner Sami Tamimi and their restaurants, TV shows, journalism and books. On the back of their welcome interventions into British food culture pomegranate seeds have become so ubiquitous at trendy middle-class dinner parties that their descent into the pantheon of culinary oblivion sitting proudly next to the kiwi fruit is all but guaranteed. However Palomar promised a less mediated experience coming direct from the heart of Jerusalem’s food market. Palomar’s London connection comes through creative director Layo who was behind Bloomsbury’s underground dance club The End and DJ/cocktail bar AKA.

The hip place to eat is up at the 16 seat zinc Kitchen Bar where you can perch like greedy birds watching the chefs do their preparation. However her ladyship and I are in the more sedate back room which is lined with navy banquettes and dark oak panelled walls. It gets busy with serious looking young chaps trying to impress their clients by being gastronomically on-trend.

The menu is divided into Nishnushim (nibbles), plates from the Raw Bar and hot food from the Josper grill, stove and plancha.

We settle on some spiced olives (£3) and a couple of glasses of crisp and lively Vauban Freres Brut Special Cuvée fizz (£8.50) whilst we work out our ordering options. As a greedy person I enjoy the small plates approach as it offers a wider range of taste and texture options and combinations but it does make the process more complicated. Also if a restaurant is serving olives they need to provide cocktail sticks…just saying.

Polpo à la Papi (£8.50) was first out of the blocks. Tender grilled octopus came in a salad of Mulukhiyah leaves, chickpea, spinach, yogurt with a touch of chilli. It was fresh tasting and succulent with the textures of octopus and chickpea creating a textural dialectic resolved only in the mouth. By now we were laying waste to a bottle of Roaring Meg Sauvignon Blanc, Mt Difficulty, No. ’13, New Zealand (£29.50) which was full of the flavours of grapefruit and tropical fruits.

Fattoush salad (£8) arrived as a comp. from the kitchen. It is the classic Levantine salad of tomato, cucumber, za’atar, the sour note of sumac, pita croutons and homemade labneh (strained yoghurt).

After the sour crunch of the Fattoush, the Spring salad (£7) with fresh fennel, asparagus, kohlrabi, sunflower and poppy seeds, and a feta vinaigrette was crisp and cooling.

Polenta Jerusalem style (£9) came with asparagus, mushroom ragout, parmesan & truffle oil. It was rich, unctuous and totally delicious. One of my dishes of the year so far.

Mussels Hamusta (£12) was served Kurdish style with fennel, courgettes, swiss chard, arak & lemon butter. This was not the most kosher of dishes and you should know that this is not a kosher restaurant. Although the mussels were plump and juicy, the flavours were underpowered. Mussels are pretty robust and after the polenta dish this was too lightweight with the anis notes of the Arak not coming through.

Sea bass fillet (£15) was Grilled in the Josper with braised cauliflower, cardamom crispy potatoes & citrus vinaigrette. I’m not sure that the Josper is ideal for sea bass as the flesh tends to get overcooked in relation to the skin. I prefer it pan fried.

A rich silky Chocolate Cremeux (£6.5) turned up with a puffed rice crunch (posh Coco Pops), a pomegranate coulis, cocoa tuile and almond streusel (crumble).

If we didn’t have Ottolenghi’s joints and wonderful restaurants such as Moro and Granary Store in London inhabiting the same flavour worlds then I would be more excited about The Palomar. As it is the place makes a welcome addition to the Soho scene without setting the world on fire. Go for the polenta dish.

Amsterdam-Johannes Restaurant – Review

April 8, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Johannes Amsterdam

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Herengracht 413, 1017 BP, Amsterdam +31206269503/info@restaurantjohannes.nl

Johannes is a relatively new opening in a smart part of town (Amsterdam) that seems not to have had anywhere the level of media hype that accompanies comparable UK events. Rumour has it that the restaurant is named after the grand old man of Amsterdam food critics Johannes van Dam… but I couldn’t possible comment. Johannes sits on the ground floor of a canalside house on the Herengracht, one of the prettiest of the city’s canals. The dining room is understated and full of bourgeois locals, but the real action is in the kitchen. Run by chefs Arne Andreasson and Tommy den Hartog, there is no menu, you just select from a choice of 4 (€48), 5 (€60) or 6 courses (€72) with a cheese course at €12 and wine pairings priced at €30, €37,50 and €45.

We opened the proceedings with a delicious glass of Cremant de Bourgogne, Cuvée Lucien Brut (a blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Aligoté) made by Vitteaut Alberti, a small company in Rully in the southern part of Burgundy. It tasted of pears and had a good balance of acidity.

And then the food started to come.

Croquettes are a Dutch staple and whilst my knowledge of the Dutch gastro scene is relatively underdeveloped it appears that that the aforementioned Mr van Dam is known locally as ‘Monsieur Croquette’ so this is clearly a nod to him. The Johannes versions were stuffed variously with mustard duxelles and a ballotine of pheasant in a mustard sauce. Both were pretty sensational with a depth of flavour and richness that was probably meant to surprise.

We were drinking a bottle of Michel Gassier 2012 Viognier which was probably too southern in its richness and full of the flavour of apricots for the food.

The next course also showed a sense of humour. The Full English Breakfast was just that, albeit a deconstructed version; eggs, tomatoes, beans, bacon and sausage.

Smoked eel is another classic Dutch ingredient. Here it was presented with beetroot sorbet, roast beetroot, apple and foie gras. This was a lovely dish that was like a modernist still life, an exercise in flavour and colour.

A lovely piece of turbot was overcooked and lacking in flavour but the accompanying puy lentils in a sauce perigord (truffles and foie gras) served with slivers of a creamy Dutch cheese, were delicious.

Delicate and perfectly cooked Sweetbreads came with wild spinach, truffles and a red wine sauce.

Silky Ravioli were stuffed with a cream of Jerusalem artichoke and lobster and served with wild spinach-another terrific dish.

Cod with pumpkin cannelloni came with a seafood sauce. The fish was perfect, full of flavour.

We opted for the organic cheese plate. There was a surrogate Brie, a sticky cream cheese, the inevitable Edam, a herby hard goat’s cheese and a blue. I was hoping for more interesting tastes from the cheese selection which was a little underwhelming.

However the dessert really delivered. Blood orange sorbet, blood orange pannacotta with a chocolate brownie and white chocolate mousse. It was a deconstructed chocolate orange, a taste collage of bitter, sweet and citrus with great textural variety.

Johannes is a restaurant to visit if you are looking for something contemporary to eat in Amsterdam. There are a few issues to resolve but it is already operating at. a high level. The closest London equivalent for me in terms of the food is Pollen St Social so if that’s your kind of thing you should go.

Brigade Bar & Bistro- Review

March 10, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Brigade Bar and Bistro London Bridge

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139 Tooley Street, Southwark, SE1 2HZ

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Cappuccino 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

Salaam Namaste – Review

May 2, 2013 by Adrian 1 Comment

Salaam Namaste Bloomsbury

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68 Millman Street Bloomsbury, WC1N 3EF

02074053697/www.salaam-namaste.co.uk/index.html

A couple of months ago I went for lunch to Namaaste Kitchen in Camden, one of the new wave of Indian restaurants offering a lighter and more refined take on the subcontinent’s cuisine. The food was terrific and when asked to review its sister restaurant Salaam Namaste in Bloomsbury it would have been churlish to refuse.

Chef/patron Sabbir Karim had told me that he was keen to refresh both the decor and menu at Salaam Namaste bringing in more of the kind of dishes that he was serving in Camden and moving away from the more traditional curry house menu that the restaurant had been serving.

We decided to sit outside and whilst we looked over the menu La Hedonista drank a Kir Royale (£7.50) which was perfect for the first warm day of spring and I had a Goa on the Rocks (£5.50), a cocktail made out of lime and vodka and sugar.

The drinks complemented the poppadums and delicious home made chutneys (Sesame and tomato, Mango, Coriander yoghurt and mint) rather well.

We were feeling hungry and ordered three starters. Chowpatti Bhelpoori. (£3.95) was the restaurant’s take on the classic Mumbai street snack. It was a crispy explosion of chickpeas, puffed rice, tamarind, pomegranate, peanuts, chopped chillies and red onion. It was the perfect way to set up the rest of the meal.

Goan Spiced Scallops, mango chutney ( £5.50) were flavoured with coconut, chilli and garam masala. They were seared on the outside but tender inside with a rich depth of taste.

Mangalorean Soft Shell Crab (£5.95) had a lightly spiced dry batter with the crab oozing juices-it came with a spicy tomato chutney. It is hard to find soft shell crab where the flavour isn’t overwhelmed and this dish managed it.

With our meal we were drinking a 2011 Pampas del Sur Chenin/Chardonnay from Argentina with notes of sherbet and lime which was robust enough to stand up to the heat and intensity of the flavours.

Sea bass was well spiced and fried to the point where the fish was crisp and the skin crunchy. It came with a rich tomato sauce and semolina cake (cornbread). Normally I wouldn’t choose to have bass fried like this but the dish really worked.

Char Grill Jingha (£14.95). The prawns were cooked on the Tandoori but still moist and tender and full of flavour.

Lemon Pilaff steamed with curry leaf and cashew nut (£3.95). I’d not had a lemon rice like this before, studded with curry leaves and pieces of lemon, and it made a refreshing alternative.

Date and Ginger Nan (£3.25). Another combination that was unfamiliar to me. The bread was sweet and gingery with deliciously charred edges.

Sesame Baby Aubergine with mustard and curry leaf sauce (£4.50) had a deep melting mouth feel and was flavoured with tomatoes and spices.

I finished off the meal with Tandoori Pineapple and Coconut Ice cream (£4.95). Grilled pineapple and coconut-what’s not to like?

Indian Carrot Cake Gajjar Halwa with vanilla ice-cream (£3.95) was surprisingly unsweetened and all the better for it. For me some Indian desserts are over sweet and this wasn’t.

Im an admirer of Sabbir Karim and his restaurants. He is committed to presenting a more sophisticated take on Indian food in comfortable surroundings without the pricing premium that the top end normally demands. Go and support him and his restaurants.

The Hedonist was a guest of Salaam Namaste

Gallery Mess – Review

April 29, 2013 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Gallery Mess Café/Bar Sloane Square

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Duke of York’s HQ, Saatchi Gallery, King’s Road, SW3 4RY

0207 730 8135/http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/gallerymess/

I love The Saatchi Gallery. It’s a great space for showing contemporary art and the Duke of York’s HQ retail area surrounding it has been tastefully developed creating its own little ‘Sloane quartier.’ But where to eat after a hard day at the coal face of cutting edge visual culture or … shopping? Sloane Square is renowned for places not to eat and Colbert is always busy so what about Gallery Mess Café/Bar which is the Saatchi’s in-house pit-stop?

Run by the “rhubarb’ food consultancy and situated in an attractively bright and airy space dotted with artworks, Gallery Mess offers more than the cafe/bar tag suggests with a full Modern European menu on offer along with the cocktails and cakes.

Platter of British Smoked Fish

We started with a Platter of British Smoked Fish (£14) made up of Smoked mackerel rillette, potted shrimps, smoked salmon, creme fraiche and quails eggs accompanied by decent sourdough bread. This was pretty good with the potted shrimps and mackerel having good flavour and some of the salmon being of the very trendy beetroot cured variety. My only caveat would be size of the portion which wasn’t quite enough as a starter for two greedy people but would be fine for a light snack for one.

Cod, broad beans, soft boiled egg and aioli

My luncheon companion, the fragrant Fiona from London Unattached, chose for her main course what she described as a ‘beautifully composed’ special of cod, broad beans, soft boiled egg and aioli. It was a gentle combination given a bit of bite with the aioli, but the fish was overdone, as it was in my choice of Pan Fried Hake, peperonata, black olive and confit shallot dressing (£18.75) which was potentially delicious.

Pan Fried Hake, peperonata, black olive and confit shallot dressing

Both dishes looked as if they had been sitting on the pass too long which was a shame as their is clearly some in the kitchen who can cook. Sides of chips and spinach (£3.50 each) were perfect.

We were drinking a bottle of 2011 Dopff au Moulin Pinot Blanc which had an apple blossom nose and notes of ripe pears and almonds. I’m a fan of Alsatian Pinot Blanc and this was light but with enough minerality to stand up to the aioli and peperonata.

Homemade chocolate truffles

For dessert Fiona had the Homemade chocolate truffles (£2.75) which were perfect with her coffee and I had the

Chocolate and Orange pudding (£6.50) which was the standout dish of the meal.

Chocolate and Orange pudding

Normally I prefer my chocolate to be bitter but with a light orange sponge this lighter ganache was lovely.

Gallery Mess is a lovely space for shoppers, art hounds, lunching ladies and the local yummy mummies. The menu is flexible enough to make it an all day option and with a little more care with the service it could become a local destination.

The Hedonist was a guest of Gallery Mess

House Of Wolf – Review

April 7, 2013 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The House of Wolf Islington

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181 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 1RQ

0207 2881470/www.houseofwolf.co.uk

The House of Wolf

Islington’s The House of Wolf describes itself as a ‘multi-functional, multi-sensory pleasure palace, dedicated to the creative pursuits of dining, drinking, art and entertainment.’

The Apothecary

What that means in practice is a ground floor Victorian-era styled pub area known as the Music Hall Bar serving superior bar snacks, an experimental cocktail department, located in The Apothecary on the first floor run by cocktail maestro Stephen Quainton and his team, and a fine dining restaurant on the top floor. The interior of each area offers an atmospheric and quirky take on gothic Victoriana; but don’t be put off by the edgy aura of Islington cool that the venue emits, because the staff are friendly and unlikely to need a stake driving through their hearts this side of a full moon.

Scared? Dont be…

The House of Wolf operates a series of chef residencies, essentially a rolling season of popups, and the latest chef to accept the challenge is an Irish chap called David Ahern who is resident until April 27th. He is a slightly larger than life personality who has only been cooking professionally for two and a half years and is not only fronting a kitchen in Islington’s most self-consciously cutting edge restaurant, but has also taken it upon himself to feed London’s homeless by sending out tureens of stew to the needy. But we are not here to judge his charitable efforts but the five course £42.50 tasting menu that is the offer in the House of Wolf restaurant.

Ahern describes his food as being ‘reverse engineered’; he starts from a conceptual vision and builds the dish from there. He has made his name cooking at The Ship, The Engineer and Bens Canteen as well as at Burger Breakout, a one day pop-up that transformed into a 6 month residency. So with such a diverse background I was unsure what to expect.

SBLT

Our first course was described as an SBLT, a fishy take on the classic BLT sandwich. Using a cured piece of the fatty flesh by the salmon’s stomach and placing it between some good white bread, this was a melt-in-the-mouth experience. A liquid tomatoey lettuce butter added moisture and richness and the whole dish felt really integrated with a terrific mouth feel. It reminded me of Jeremy Lee’s Smoked Eel Sandwich at Quo Vadis and is just as good.
We were drinking a 2011 Alpha Zeta Garganega (£21) from near Verona that had a grassy nose and citrus and elderflower notes. It cut through the delicious salty fatty SBLT very effectively.

Heritage Beetroots, pearl spelt, wild herbs and pickled berries

Heritage Beetroots, pearl spelt, wild herbs and pickled berries was a dish from the vegetarian menu; a terrific construction of natural flavours and textures that took me into a northern wilderness far wilder than Upper St.

Quails Nest

Quails Nest, was a nest made from quail leg confit, spelt and herbs, with a warm devilled quail’s egg inside. Fiona from London Unattached described the quail as being sweet and moist with the ‘nest’ being made up of the same elements as my non-meat version.

Chowder

Our next course was a deconstructed chowder, with scallops, mussels and cod cheeks, served with bacon and sweetcorn milk jellies and a fish broth. This was a playful and light version of a chowder, the milky jellies and the purity of the fish broth redolent of the nursery and not overwhelming the protein elements which were perfectly cooked.

Beef Cheek

Beef Cheek was a dark, sticky and unctuous dish, braised for 12 hours with wild mushrooms, horseradish purée and mustard mash , beef tendon puffs and a black garlic jus. It had terrific depth of flavour

Mustard Gnocchi, Wild Mushrooms

Mustard Gnocchi with wild mushrooms was the vegetarian alternative to the Beef Cheek. The gnocchi were light and well-matched with the umami flavours of the mushroom.

Red fruit Slush Puppy

At this point we entered the Pop tarts and lollipops segment of the menu and a surprise Red fruit Slush Puppy cocktail turned up-a mix of Prosecco with cherry and raspberry liqueur. It was a bit too sweet for me.

Rhubarb poptart, toffee apple lollipops, unsweetened Deuchars IPA beer custard & candy floss.

Dessert took us on a trip to the funfair with a Rhubarb poptart, apple lollipops with dipping sherbert, an unsweetened Deuchars IPA beer custard and a cold candy floss infusion. In a good sense this dish was as chaotic as a trip to the fair. The beer custard was properly bitter and played against the subtle sweetness of the ‘candy floss’. It would have been fun if the apple lollipops had been covered with toffee but I do love sherbert…

Dave Ahern is a brave chef with a respect for ingredients and the natural world . But there is also a more sophisticated urban sense of playfulness in his food that makes me look forward to his next professional move. I don’t know who will be the next occupant of the House of Wolf’s kitchen, but I do get the sense that this is a location that is finding its own identity and in giving talented chefs an outlet to experiment, should be supported.

Disclosure: The Hedonist was a guest of The House of Wolf

Sam’s Brasserie and Bar-Review

April 3, 2013 by Adrian 1 Comment

Sam’s Brasserie and Bar Chiswick

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11 Barley Mow Passage, Chiswick, London, W4 4PH

020 8987 0555/www.samsbrasserie.co.uk/

Sam’s Brasserie and Bar

I spent my first few years in Chiswick and back in the early 1960s it wasn’t a place you went to eat. There was the mysteriously named 007 Restaurant that seemed like a palace of forbidden pleasures to a young boy, and, near to where Sam’s is on the High Rd, glowing like Las Vegas in the desert stood an American style ice cream parlour called Mylos-which I was banned from because my mother had heard that ‘it wasn’t clean’.

These days with the influx of city and media money there are plenty of options to choose from. Hedone and La Trompette rule the top end and there is every mid-range chain outlet you could imagine to soak up the yummy mummy money.

Sam Harrison is a restaurateur with a mission. He is slowly building a group of Modern European Brasseries in the London suburbs delivering something more idiosyncratic and better quality than the chains can manage whilst keeping prices at a reasonable level. Having worked front of house for Rick Stein he opened Sam’s in 2005 with backing from the King of Padstow and Harrison’s in Balham more recently (see our review).

Situated in a converted paper factory the room retains its industrial character but this has been softened through the use of wood and contemporary light fittings.

There is a longish zinc bar and an area for drinking and lighter bites as well as the main restaurant. With live jazz and soul on the weekends it is positioning itself as your ideal local hangout if you want a drink, some food or entertainment. Would it deliver?

Aperol Spritz

The bar features an extensive cocktail list; classics such as a Cosmopolitan, Negroni or Manhattan, long, champagne-based or virgin blends and then Sam’s favourites-mostly Martinis. Prices are around the £8 mark. I didn’t want anything too strong so went for an Aperol Spritz (£6.50). Aperol is similar to Campari but sweeter, less alcoholic and with a distinct orange flavour. Mixed with prosecco it is one of the great Italian aperitifs and on a grey day it has a definite cheering effect.

The bar menu is long and varied with small bites ranging from £1.50 for a bag of ‘brown bag’ crisps to bigger plates of food such as Ham Hock Terrine with a Celeriac Remoulade (£7.50) or a Sam’s Cheeseburger with relish and chips (£12). But my companion Fiona from London Unattached were here to lunch properly and not have a burger-it was her birthday after all.

Padron Peppers with Maldon Sea Salt

Some of the bar snacks double as small plate starters and so Fiona who had been out for a large steak the night before, chose the Padron Peppers with Maldon Sea Salt (£4.50) and the Hummus with Flatbread (£3.50). The peppers, which come from the Galician province of Padron in northern Spain, were fried in olive oil and served with good salt. It’s a simple dish that is to be found in the better tapas bars-the piquancy and occasional heat of the peppers is softened by the oil and offset by the sharpness of the salt. What is interesting is that in a little joint off the Chiswick High Rd they got it right.

Hummus with Flatbread

The hummus was also better than it needed to be. Well spiced and with enough oil to be satisfactory it had texture and that delicious earthy taste.

Maldon Rock Oysters

As I was feeling a bit jaded I went for half a dozen Maldon Rock Oysters (£2 each). Smooth textured, creamy and served with a red wine and shallot sauce, I soon got my required mineral hit helped along by a couple of glasses of a young well-rounded 2012 Sauvignon Blanc from the Morton Estate in Marlborough, NZ (£20.75 for a 500ml carafe).

Roast Cod, Buttered Leeks, Clams, Chervil Pesto

Roast Cod, Buttered Leeks, Clams, Chervil Pesto (£16) was a lovely dish. The leeks were soft and sweet and the cod fresh, firm-bodied and full of flavour and not overwhelmed by the light aniseed taste of the chervil pesto.

Roast Trout, Bacon, Pearl Barley, Monk’s Beard, Tomato Beurre Blanc

Roast Trout, Bacon, Pearl Barley, Monk’s Beard, Tomato Beurre Blanc (£14.50) was a more rustic looking plate of food- the fish had lots of flavour, the Barba di Frate (Monk’s Beard) was crisp and the barley soaked up the tomatoey beurre blanc. Perfect for a freezing spring day…

Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding

The birthday girl’s Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding (£6.50) came and went so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to taste it but she pronounced it to be excellent.

Chocolate Tart

My Chocolate Tart (£6.50) with honeycomb was like a dark and sophisticated Crunchy Bar! It didn’t last long on the plate either…

To wash down our desserts we tried the two sweet wines on the menu: a punchy 2008 Sauternes Chateau Petit Vedrines from Bordeaux with notes of orange peel and citrus which matched the chocolate perfectly and a lighter pineappley 2008 Riesling Noble Rot from Seresin in Marlborough, NZ. that worked well with the bread and butter pudding.

With his small group of restaurants it doesn’t feel as if Sam Harrison is trying to reinvent the wheel, but genuinely wanting to provide what we all want-a relaxed local hangout with good food and drink, enough variety to bring us back and some entertainment on the weekend. It sounds as if it should be easy to pull off but it isn’t and he manages it. The restaurants are able to punch above their weight on the food front at a price point that is reasonable and I for one will be back.

Disclosure: The Hedonist was a guest of Sam’s

Review-Balthazar

March 4, 2013 by Adrian 2 Comments

Balthazar Covent Garden

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4-6 Russell St, Covent Garden, WC2B5HZ

020 3301 1155/www.balthazarlondon.com/

Balthazar-Scarlet and Black or Cafe Rouge?

Bethnal Green Boy Keith McNally is one of New York’s top restaurateurs and is now making his London debut with the backing of Richard Caring, opening Balthazar, an all-day 150 seater Grand Brasserie in the refurbished London Transport Museum site in Covent Garden. It shares the same name as his New York flagship and there is a bakery attached to the restaurant overseen by Regis Beauregard, ex-Ritz head pastry chef.

There is no pretending-Balthazar is the hot table du jour. To get a table I had to go on repeat dial for an hour as the booking line opened and the restaurant was packed to the gills with food bloggers like moi and celebrities such as …Heston Blumenthal wearing specs that somehow made him look like Atom Ant. Now London is not short of faux French Brasseries and with Zedel, Colbert, The Wolseley and The Delaunay at the top end of the market there is definitely competition for McNally. However Covent Garden is undergoing something of a rebirth as a gastro-destination and there is nothing quite like this in the area and certainly nothing that has McNally’s transatlantic pulling power.

The room is dark wood and red leather, distressed walls and Art Deco flourishes. It’s a Hollywood set designer’s Brasserie wet dream and feels a bit fake compared to Zedel or the Wolseley which seem to be natural extensions of the pre-existing spaces. It’s also the doppelgänger of the New York room. None of this really matters except is there something a bit weird culturally about an Englishman opening a French brasserie in New York and then transplanting it to London? However none of this will matter if the food and vibe are great.

McNally has put together a crack team to realise his vision. Behind the bar is Brian Silva who had made a name for himself running the upstairs bar at Rules around the corner on Maiden Lane. He has put together a drinks list that combines classics with some house cocktails.

Negroni Finis

I ordered a Negroni Finis (£9.50) from the bar-a classic Negroni comprises equal measures of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth. This version replaces the sweet vermouth with Cinzano Orancio-an orange tinged vermouth-Byrrh, an aperitif made of red wine, mistelle (a part fermented grape juice), quinine, and passion fruit. The result is lighter and more fragrant than the original but retaining the complexity of flavour and delicious bitter Campari aftertaste. This was a great drink and perfect for pre-meal. So far so good-would the food stand up? The kitchen is overseen by executive chef Robert Reid, a man with real form, who had been in charge at Marco Pierre White’s 3 Michelin starred Oak Room in the Hyde Park Hotel.

Bread soon arrived-Poilane style brown slices and a small white baguette from their bakery next door. The brown was excellent with a wonderful malty crust.

For our starters we decided to share the Lobster and Black Truffle Risotto (£10.50) with cauliflower cream and black truffle butter. The rice still had plenty of bite and was encased in an unctuous sauce with plenty of lobster chunks and a deep rich truffle and lobster flavour. This was a very well executed dish showing a sense of care and precision from the kitchen.

By this point I was drinking a 2011 Daniel Chotard Sancerre (£10.50), an elegant manifestation of the grape with citrus and floral notes.

Roasted Fillet of Cod with crushed potatoes, olive tapenade and pistachios (£18.50) was a really well balanced plate of food. A good piece of fish presented Provençal style, not in any way showy but in some way recognisable as something put together by someone who constructed those amazing plates at The Oak Room and now working at a much lower price point in the context of the much larger turnover of a brasserie.

My friend Catherine ordered the Balthazar Cheeseburger (£16). Since this is the London iteration of a New York restaurant why not? It came encased in a brioche bun and garnered the comment that it ‘was not the best that she had eaten. ‘ However the real point of interest on her plate were the frites. The Balthazar frites had already been the subject of negative critical comment and in a joint like this should be perfect. Properly done they should be limp- these were hard and crisp all the way through and not in a good way. Sort out your frites Balthazar! However our garlicky side of Sauteed Spinach (£4.50) was impeccable.

At this point our waitress (who was tres jolie et agreable) forced dessert upon us. We shared a chocolate souffle (£10) which wobbled delightfully but was a bit too Hershey Bar in flavour for my liking. To help it down I drank a glass of Banyuls, Cuvee Leon Parce, Domaine de la Rectorie 2009 (£7 for 100ml). Banyuls is a fortified wine from Roussillon which drinks rather like a young port and it was a pretty good match for the souffle as neither of them were carrying the burden of intensity…

Balthazar is the hottest room in London at the moment. Go and enjoy that-and there’s some pretty good food there as well. And for the echt New York/Paris/London experience there is nowhere to beat it!

Review-Coya

February 6, 2013 by Adrian 1 Comment

COYA Mayfair

Follow @Hedonisttweets

118 Piccadilly, London W1J 7NW

020 7042 7118/www.coyarestaurant.com/

Coya

When I grow up I think I want to be Arjun Waney. He is the restaurateur behind many of London’s more glamorous joints, creating stylish spaces with food that takes a concept and then runs with it-all perfectly attuned to the wealthier end of the London market. Whether it’s Japanese at Zuma and Roka, Provençal at Le Petit Maison, Italian at Banca and now Peruvian at Coya his locations and menus are grown up and sophisticated without being stuffy in any way.

Coya artwork

After a slightly chaotic start to our lunch with Google Maps sending us to the wrong end of Piccadilly, we descended into the surprisingly large and airy basement that Coya inhabits.

The Ceviche Bar and Open Charcoal Grill are blended in to provide some theatre.

Charcoal Grill

The look is ethnic Peruvian chic contrasting with London’s other Peruvian hangouts-Ceviche’s street cool and Lima’s urban style.

The bar at Coya

To celebrate our arrival we downed a couple of perfectly mixed Pisco Sours. They were so good with their trademark citrus kick that we decided against ordering any wine and stuck with them through most of the meal.

Pisco Sour

Peruvian food brings together influences from the indigenous population as well as from the Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and West African immigrant communities. Coya’s food concept is based around sharing plates with several menus covering different styles and our waiter suggested ordering one from each.

Lubina Clasico

We started from the Ceviche menu with the Lubina Clasico-Sea Bass, red onions, sweet potato, white corn (£8). Ceviche is a Peruvian staple-raw fish marinated for a short amount of time in citrus juice spiced with chilli (aji in Spanish). This was as good to eat as it was to look at-the fish was very fresh and full of flavour and not overwelmed by the chilli in the tiger’s milk dressing.

Conchas de Abanico

Our next dish was Conchas de Abanico (£12) from the Tiraditos menu. Tiradito is a serving of raw fish, similar to a carpaccio or sashimi and served in a hot sauce but with no onions. Our dish contained scallops, carrot, ginger and coriander cress and again had that delicious citrus and chilli combination.

Calamares Fritos con Ocopa

From the Para Picar (small dishes) menu Calamares Fritos con Ocopa (£8.50) (Baby Squid, Peruvian Marigold, Quinoa) were well battered and came with a delicious green sauce made with Peruvian marigold which tastes similar to mint and is known as Huacatai.

Setas

Anticuchos are skewers of meat,fish or vegetable cooked over a charcoal grill. We chose Setas (£4.50)-Forest mushrooms, aji mirasol and parsley which turned out to be a highlight of the meal. They were wonderfully rich and meaty with a slight taste of cumin.

Josper charcoal grill

Moving at this point onto raspberry and mango Pisco sours we moved on to the Josper charcoal grill section of the menu. Originating from Spain, the Josper grill is fast becoming a mainstay of kitchens in many of the restaurants and steakhouses in London. It can reach temperatures of over 300 degrees celsius, gives a good char to the food and because the grill is enclosed, the fish, meat or vegetables being cooked retain their moisture and flavour.

Langostino Tigre

Hopefully you can see from the picture that my Langostino Tigre (£27) -Tiger prawns, chilli salsa-achieved the holy grail of grilling, char and tenderness without drying out.

My dining companion the redoubtable Fiona from London Unattached gets very excited at the prospect of South American steak and so chose the Lomo de Res (£29) -Rib eye, chimichurri, aji rocoto salsa-which also benefitted from the caress of the Josper. South Americans like their steak cooked medium and this was a classic combination with the parsley based chimichurri sauce (a salsa verde with added chilli) and the fierce heat of the rocoto pepper salsa which she pronounced delicious.

Esparragos Peruanos

For our sides we had Esparragos Peruanos (£6) -Peruvian asparagus, panca chilli, garlic-which had been grilled to within an inch of their life but were full of flavour, and Patatas Bravas a la Peruana (£5)-Crisp potatoes, spicy tomatoes, huancaina sauce-.

Patatas Bravas a la Peruana

The Patatas Bravas were given a Peruvian slant with the addition of huancaina sauce-a mix of amarillo chillies, queso fresco (fresh farmers cheese), milk, garlic and saltine crackers that managed to be creamy at the same time as having a spicy edge to its flavour.

Chocolate Fundido

Having eaten a lot by this point it would have been churlish not to have dessert, and with our Pisco sours finished the matched dessert wines seemed like a very attractive prospect. The Chocolate Fundido (£8) -Fortunato Chocolate, almond, white chocolate ice cream-was perfectly complemented by the glass of Maury, Mas Mudigliza, Rousillon, France 2009 (£14). The hot melted (fundido) chocolate oozed in a rather sexy manner out of and all over the chocolate sponge but without overwhelming the wine, made from the grenache grape by the vin doux naturel method of mutage where wine is fortified with unfermented grape juice and grape spirit.

Lucuma Bavarois, Passion Fruit Sorbet

Our second dessert was a Lucuma Bavarois, Passion Fruit Sorbet (£8). This was paired with a Gewurztraminer Vendage Tardive Hugel, Alsace, France 2000 (£12). The Lucuma was described to us as a cross between mango and avocado and is known for its dry flesh, with the texture of a hard-boiled egg yoke. This was an altogether lighter proposition, sweet and refreshing and beautifully set off by the floral notes of the wine.

I’m slowly starting to get a grip on aspects of South American food and drink. There has been such an explosion of restaurant openings and the concomitant interest in Mexican, Argentinian, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine that it must be on the radar of anyone interested in the contemporary scene. The combination of citrus and chilli with raw seafood, the new varieties of potato and corn, the use of the charcoal grill and the ubiquitous Pisco sour are all starting to enter our food consciousness. In the firmament of this welcome South American culinary invasion Coya stands out as a very classy act. As with all of Arjun Waney’s projects the level of investment is there to be seen; in the location, the size and specification of the kitchens and the standard of finish for the interior. Whilst we were there on a quiet Monday lunch it is easy to imagine the place really buzzing with good looking South Americans and London’s well-heeled enjoying the cultural and culinary adventure that the restaurant offers. Did I have any complaints? Well, my teapot for my mint tea clearly thought it was a watering can, managing to shower the table quite effectively, but apart from that Coya was perfect.

The Hedonist was a guest of Coya.