Bob Bob Ricard

This has been a long time coming.  I finally had dinner at Bob Bob Ricard last weekend and have to say up front that it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

I think I'll leave the pictures to do the talking as they more than do the experience justice.  If I add more words, there is a danger I might be embarrassingly gushing.  Suffice to say that the lighting and ambience, the glassware, the service and the food more than lived up to the hype and I happily parted with £90 at the end of the evening. 

Clear bloody Mary with homemade essence of tomato (£13.50)

Slightly murky due to tabasco and worcester sauce additions

Fillet medallions rossini, served with seared fois gras, fois gras

crouton, truffle gravy (not yet poured) and spinach (£28.50)

Pressed roasted belly of suckling pork with red cabbage

and truffle gravy (£22.25)

Lobster burger with marie rose sauce (£27.75)

Lobster mac & cheese (£6.50)

Sides of fries, tomato salad, parsnips & carrots (£4.50 each) 

3 bird burger lurking in the background (£21.50)

Eton mess en perle (£8.25)

Striped strawberries and cream soufflé (£6.25)

Warm chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream (£8.25)

Trio of brulées, chocolate, passionfruit and earl gray tea (£7.50)

Now, I'm not usually crazy about desserts but each one of these was magnificant, and I also wanted to try the rice pudding brulée and the signature chocolate sundae dessert.  It's rare that I'm so torn when it comes to deciding what to have, but at BBR, everything is done so perfectly that it's a real dilema.

I genuinely loved everything about it.  If I had to find a negative, it would be that the butter served with the bread was hard and unspreadable, but it was a mere blip in an otherwise faultless evening.  It is a venue for wanton extravagance and abandon, it's positively encouraged and I hope to be back many many times.  And yes, we pressed for champagne! 

Bob Bob Ricard
1 Upper James St
Soho
W1F 9DF
9.5/10

Electric Diner

 

I brunched this weekend at Electric Diner, which has been almost universally praised since it's late 2012 reopening, following a kitchen fire earlier last year.

It's totally changed, I went for brunch about 6 years ago, pre blog, and returned with the girls (minus Noy, who's sunning herself in Oz) last Saturday.  We arrived at 2, put our names down (no reservations) and were called about 20 minutes later as our booth was ready.  You only get an hour which means they're pretty swift at turning tables.  I didn't feel particularly rushed, but post meal lingering is certainly off limits.

I tried the bloody mary (£8), which really whacks you around the head with a hefty punch of all the usual trappings and many in addition to what you'd expect.  Sliced pickles, lots of lemon and olives giving it quite a tang.  Very good and did the job on on my hangover.

I ate the ham and gruyere open sandwich topped with a fried egg (£9) with a side of hash browns (£4).  This came with brioche bread with butter (room temperature so spreadable - an important note), jam and marmalade.  The fried egg was cooked how it should be and the cheese fondue ws lovely, essentially a bechamel with loads of cheese resulting in stringiness (a good thing) and there was a nice scattering of smoked ham, all topped with parsely.  I was pleased with my choice and the hash browns, whilst not what I was expecting were good.  They were more like rostis really.

Both the girls had the full English (£11) which they seemed more than happy with.  The thick cut bacon is particularly impressive.  I thought cynically that most of this would be fat but it was actually mostly pork and I heard no complaints from the girls.  In a thoughtful way the baked beans are ensconced in a little pot, albeit an overflowing one.  I know many a person who objects to bean juice infiltrating where it's not wanted.

I liked the meal but I can't see me returning any time soon, it's been 6 years since my last visit.  Nice location mind.  The no bookings policy will no doubt put many off, if the market happens to be on, it's obviously not a problem, but at other times, hanging around waiting for a table will be a bit boring.  Also, with all the chaos of primetime, people were not respecting the queue situation, behaviour which I absolutely cannot tolerate.

Electric Diner
191 Portobello Road
W11 2ED
7/10

 

Lucky Fried Chicken

For a very limited time Lucky Chip have popped up at The Grafton in Kentish Town.  They're offering Lucky Fried Chicken Tuesday-Saturday, and roast dinners of a Sunday.

I expected the place to be packed out but we ordered a drink at the bar and sat straight down at 7:30 last Thursday evening.

There were 3 of us and we ordered the bucket o' chicken (£28.50) from the small but perfectly formed menu.  It supposedly serves 5-7 but we were hungry and only just beaten.  Think Colonel Sanders but with really succulent and not in the least bit dry chicken.  The crumb had a fine kick to it but unfortunately the bucket, whilst being a fun play on the KFC family deal, is not an ideal vessel for piping hot chicken pieces as they're stacked right on top of each other and the coating got a bit soggy and damp.

Accompaniments of dinner rolls and gravy, coleslaw and fries were excellent but I was really beating myself up at the end of the night when I realised I'd missed out on the mash, apparently it's well worth the visit for that alone.

If you can, get yourself down there sharpish, it's a really nice pub to boot.  Also available are sandwiches (chicken burgers), Wednesday only livers and gizzards (I'm intrigued) and desserts of the apple and cherry pie persuasion.  We were way too full for those.  I'm actually not mad keen on fried chicken, weird I know, but this is good, and a fine way to spend a cold February evening. Careful not to burn yourselves though, it's v. hot.

Lucky Fried Chicken
The Grafton Arms
20 Prince of Wales Road
Kentish Town
NW5
7/10

And, I'm moving to the area soon, woo!  Hopefully more of the same to come.

The Jugged Hare

I've had a couple of work lunches at the Jugged Hare.  I was tempted to revisit last week while I'm still in the area because of the recent release of the top 50 gastropub list for 2013.

Special mention here to the pub coming in 2nd place, The Sportsman, my top meal of 2012.  Representing Kent, go guys!

So The Jugged Hare is 24th on the list, in general London pubs did very well, see a run down here.  I'm not entirely sure this place should technically be classified as a gastropub, but I have only eaten in the restaurant area.  There is a small front pub section and a larger formal dining room at the rear.  The decor is reminiscent of Goodman, Mayfair, lots of dark wood and leather.

The menu is meaty, there are plenty of daily specials, hawked on twitter.  There's also a lot of fish and a pie of the day.  I liked the sound of the majority of the menu and could happily eat my way through the lot.  I tried the fish pie on one occasion which was small but perfectly formed.   Generous amounts of salmon, haddock, prawns and scallop with a nice crispy mash potato topping.

Once seated, you are given a small sourdough loaf with salted butter. I really like the bread, there's no cover charge but the dishes don't come cheap with mains between £16 and £30.  When I sat down, somebody had a laptop bag sprawled across the seat I'd been allocated, nobody volunteered to move it, so I moved it myself, an act which was treated with general disdain from both the neighbouring table and the waitress.

I had the special of braised herdwick lamb shank with mash and savoy cabbage.  I drank water which was topped up once from a jug closely guarded by the wait staff, and was never seen again.  The lamb was lovely though.  So tender, off the bone served on top of the mash and veg.  There was the slightly bizarre appearance of baby spinach leaves, I ate them but it seemed unnecessary.  In all I was very happy with my choice.

Thomas had the Tamworth pork shoulder with caramel apple sauce.  Some of the specials come with sides and others do not which is strange.  Thomas' did not so he also ordered a green salad and some suede mash.  The pork was ok, not particularly mindblowing but the apple element was pretty great, sweet and tangy it livened up and otherwise average dish.  More inexplicable foliage to decorate. 

The whole thing is a bit stuffy and not in keeping with what a gastropub is all about for me.  The food is good, but expensive (we paid about £30 a head for 1 dish each) and I'd much rather go to the Bull & Last, recent find The Pig & Butcher, or back to The Sportsman, quite possibly my favourite pub anywhere in the world!

The Jugged Hare
49 Chiswell St
Barbican
EC1Y
6/10

The Longroom

It may sound like I have done little but blow the trumpet for EC1 of late, and thinking about it, there is actually a lot of good food to be eaten around the Old St/Clerkenwell/Farringdon area, despite my initial trepidation when accepting a job there.  One of the newer openings, is The Longroom.

It is indeed a rather long room with a central open kitchen where the limited menu is prepared and served.  Their schtick is quality meat and beer, as it's still early days they are rarely full yet and the room feels a tad vacuous.  There's been minimal buzz surrounding the place on twitter and I'm yet to read a review.  I was keen to try before I leave the area and head back to Soho for work.

The short and sweet menu reads well.  Home cured salt beef is the star, in sandwich or sharing board form, the menu bolstered by some home made soups and cheese toasties.  As long as the beef is good, what's not to like?

And I did like the beef.  It bared the requisite characteristics, in that it's suitably salty, stringy and tender.  It's Keevil and Keevil brisket, sourced from around the corner at Smithfield market.  It was the accompaniments I was not 100% sold on.  The bread, sourdough from Gail's Bakery, is very good bread, but I wasn't sure of it's place in this context.  I'm not certain why they've veered from the traditional and shied away from rye.  It is nice bread though. 

The house pickles were very generous, onions and gherkins and other crunchy vinegary specimens, vying for your attention and rendering the beef all but tasteless in the sandwich.  I had the Reuben with swiss cheese, thousand island dressing, english mustard and sauerkraut also thrown into the mix. Ideal to soak up the many beers on offer.  I felt there was something missing but can't be sure what, or perhaps it's that the sandwich isn't perfectly in harmony with a bit too much going on.  It's not quite up there with the Mishkin's Reuben for me, but they are completely different beasts.

That said, I'll be heading back later this week for my leaving lunch, and I'll be trying a cheese toastie next time.  I love the idea of the place, perhaps it's early days and things will develop with time, what they are doing right, is the drinks.  I had a pint of the London Fields Hackney Hopster pale ale.  All citrusy and light, I forget that I'm not keen on beer when I drink this!  As well as the multiple draught options, there are plenty of imported bottled beers on the drinks menu.  Of particular interest, the Little Creatures pale ale all the way from Oz.  (Imported by Aspalls, but still craft, right?! Hmm.)

Prices are reasonable, £5-9 for the sandwiches, with a lunch special available of half a serving of soup with half of any sandwich for £7.50.  The beers are available in quarter, half and pint measures, which is handy for me as I'm in lightweight form at the moment since my pathetic attempt at #dryjan.

The Longroom
18-20 St John Street
EC1M 4AY
6/10

The Pig & Butcher

I'd all but given up trying to find a decent Sunday roast in a London pub.  After multiple disappointments, and a phase of not really feeling the humble roast dinner, it seemed like a thing of my past.

Living in Islington is great.  There are almost too many cosy local pubs offering increasingly impressive selections of craft beers and ales, though most lack an equally remarkable menu to entice those more interested in the food than booze.  I harbour a healthy (ahem) interest in both and am happy to report my latest find, an establishment which invests equal thought and time in both the beverages and the eats on offer.

I reside a mere 5 minute walk from The Pig and Butcher and they will no doubt be seeing a lot more of me.  The decor is rustic and charming, miles better than the dingy old interior of The Islington Tap, think sticky floors and drafty corners.

My friends and I arrived for 12, and they were full by 12:30.  It's certainly popular with locals, staff are friendly and service is deft.  It's advisable to book in advance though early birds will snag a bar table.  We each went for a different roast, all come with seasonal veggies, creamed leeks, a yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes.

Roast leg of Kentish lamb.  Loved everything about it, except the tats, 

which were disappointingly anemic.

Slow roasted, pulled Old Spot pork shoulder & apple sauce was a hit.  

Creamed leeks in the foreground, were an excellent accompaniment.

35 day-aged roasted Hereford beef sirloin was also well received, 

all needed more gravy, an extra jug was served when we asked.

Roasts are £15.95 so they're not cheap.  Only grumbles were the potatoes, and the lack of gravy, otherwise excellent and the quality of the meat really shines through.  As an ex waitress I rather like the idea that they spoon out your chosen sauce for you, rather than delivering multiple sauces per table, smart of them.  Reduces unnecessary waste and mess.

There are a couple of non roast options and some really interesting sounding starters and desserts.  I'm keen to sample the weekday dinner menu but was not up to anything more than 1 course on this visit.  Sue and John tried some of the many beers, there's also a weekly special, this week's was an offering from Hawaii with pineapple.

The whole thing was reminiscent of The Bull and Last, my favourite gastropub in London.  Leaning towards the carnivorous, there's a butchery room on site and daily deliveries of meat and fish result in an oft changing menu.  I love the vibe and am happy to have found the place.

The Pig & Butcher
80 Liverpool Road
Islington, N1
8/10

EC1 Cafe Lunches

So far, January has been a pretty dull month, I tried to forgo any alcohol and only managed 12 days so for the first half of the month, I tried to liven things up come lunchtime.  It hasn't really worked, save for the odd trip to Burger & Lobster but I've realized I've not written about a couple of EC1 cafes I have frequented fairly often since starting at my current place of work in July (I'm back to Soho in Feb).

J & A Cafe
This place is a hidden gem, off of Clerkenwell Road down a small alleyway but always busy and serving a solid menu of homemade goodies to eat in or takeaway.  I usually have the soup of the day, 2 or 3 varieties are chalked on the board, the soda bread served with it is brilliant, the best I've had.

Chicken and bacon chowder with soda bread (£6.50)

The blackboards advertise the daily menu, selections of salads, pies, tarts, stews and sandwiches.  Another favourite is the savoury tart, more of a quiche really served alongside a choice of salad.  There's such a variety available each day, a potato, rice, pearl barley and a leafy option always with interesting sounding ingredients.  I've never had a duff order here.  Wholeheartedly recommend it, if you're in the area and I'll miss it when I'm not.

Pie of the day (£10.50) served hot with a choice of potato, salad or champ.

Tart of the day (pea and feta pictured, £9.50) served with leaves and a salad of choice

Service is efficient, the food served very quickly and I'm usually in an out within half an hour.  There's a bar in the evenings and weekend brunch looks appealing.  I'll definitely be back to check that out.

Workshop Coffee
Formerly St Ali, of Melbourne fame, I'd been meaning to visit Workshop cafe for some time.  After an acrimonious split, they re-branded as Workshop and seem to be flourishing.  There's a second branch in Marylebone but I've only eaten at the original and biggest Clerkenwell Road venue.  There's a focus on coffee and brunch, in true Antipodean style but they take the rest seriously too, a recent pop up collaboration with The Hart and Fuggle looked very interesting.

Tarragon chicken caesar salad (£11.50)

Hamburger, comté, chipotle mayo, ratte potatoes (£13.50)

Sweetcorn fritters, halloumi, spinach, poached eggs and kasundi (£11.50)

The kasundi in the photo above is a mustard relish.  I wasn't too keen on it actually, it had a rather acrid aniseed flavour.  This is a bit pricy for an everyday lunch, but nice once in a while.  I find the service can be a bit slack, they are always very busy though, so they're doing something right. Best for breakfast or weekend brunch.  They used to offer a selection of sandwiches on the coffee counter, which were always good and better value, but these were gone when I visited last week.

Salvation Jane
I don't have a bad word to say about the food at Lantana, so was keen to try sister restaurant Salvation Jane when I heard Shelagh was expanding.  I've been for weekend brunch and weekday lunch, and much preferred the former. 

Corn fritters (£10.50) were under seasoned and thai fish cakes with noodle salad (£9.50) were uninspiring.  Much better was the grilled halloumi with toasted turkish bread, hummus and dukkah topped with poached eggs (£9).  That's a dish I'd definitely return for.

As at Lantana, the coffee on offer is lovely as are the selection of sweet dishes on the counter.  It's a much larger venue than the original site so easier to nab a table, no sign of a queue on either of my visits.  I do so love Lantana though, the first of it's kind in London, and still one of my top choices for brunch.  The menus seem to be remarkably similar if true to what's advertised on the website.  

Service is friendly and the place has a charming relaxed vibe.  It's good value too and being only a few steps away from the Old St roundabout, it's a shining beacon in a grimy little strip on City Road.  Shame on anyone walking by and going to the Pret next door.

J & A Cafe
1-4 Sutton Lane
Clerkenwell
EC1M 5PU
8/10



Workshop Cafe
27 Clerkenwell Road
Clerkenwell
EC1M 5RN
6/10



Salvation Jane
55 City Road
Old Street
EC1Y 1HQ
6/10