The Roundup - 2012

So 2012… I have to say, it wasn't been a classic for many, many reasons. I've done a lot of working (you may have noticed that the posts dry up as the stress levels rise) and not nearly enough eating (well, that's my opinion). Hopefully the balance will sway back the other way in 2013 and I'll be back in the saddle...

Rather than 'treat' you to a top 5 or a top 10 that will inevitably be better written (and certainly better researched) by one of the pros, I thought I'd end the year by mentioning a few of my favourite things and linking to some of my favourite posts that you may have missed. In no particular order...


Opening of the year - Brasserie Zedel: 
The food isn't ever going to win an award, but it's fine, ridiculously cheap, served in the most wonderful surroundings and in doing those things so well in the centre of Piccadilly Circus managed to change the game for London restaurant openings this year. Oh and they do a mean cocktail too... (full review here)

2012 / 2013 - Food trends of note:
Street food, burgers, ramen, ceviche and the no reservation hype machine. Over. Them. All. Now... Next year I think we're going to start with much of the same, though expect the American invasion to continue unabated. Hot on the heels of MASH (Danish but heavily American influenced) and STK on the Strand, we'll be getting a sister to Keith McNally's iconic New York dinner hall and bakery Balthazar, the Standard Grill, the long, long awaited La Esquina and in the biggest news to anyone obsessed with the trend of 2012, Danny Meyer will be opening Shake Shack in Covent Garden. You ain't seen a queue till you've seen a Shake Shack queue. In slightly more interesting news, expect a few more Peruvian / Argentinian openings, a return to London for Eric Chavot and the first international venture from the father / daughter team behind the legendary Arzak in San Sebastian. 

My personal food trend: Dim Sunday

I've had a bit of a Chinese obsession this year (yeah, I know, alongside the burger obsession, the steak obsession and the calorie obsession) which has wonderfully and    reasonably frugally manifested itself in a huge propensity to do dim sum. As a weekend hangover cure, it knows no equal. Freshly steamed parcels of sweet prawn, herby pork and umami filled dumplings arriving in an endless stream to your table. We've mainly been at the redoubtable Dragon Castle and the slightly less salubrious Hong Kong City, both South East London and both highly recommended.

Openings of interest: 

Antico (lovely little Italian on the bottom of Bermondsey Street, great for eating fresh pasta and laughing at the 3 customers in Greg Wallace's place across the road) Ceviche (fresh, loud and exciting Peruvian joint), 10 Greek Street (wasn't too impressed, but I know others are wowed), La Bodega Negra (tasty if pricy haute Mexican) and the Green Man & The French Horn (a grotty Covent Garden boozer given the Terroirs treatment).

The worst things I ate:

Or, things I do in the line of misguided duty... ChaCha Moon was pretty bad and Carluccios as repressively pointless as ever but, the winner has to go to the King's Cross abomination that was Bistro de la Gare. 

Some of the best things I ate:
Damn it, despite declaring an end to my burger reviewing, any list has to include one of the many, many burgers I've slammed down my impatient cakehole… maybe one of the specials at still quality chain Byron (their three cheese is a heady delight), or one of the many MEATempire patties I've noshed, or indeed maybe the exceptional off-menu effort from Covent Garden stalwart Joe Allen, serving poverty stricken actors since Yanni Papoutsis was a lad.

Other than those, I had the best BBQ of my life while in New York recently, slow, soft smoked brisket served alongside headsplittingly strong cocktails in jam jars by Williamsburg hipsters Fette Sau (www.fettesaubbq.com). I may have been a little drunk, but I'd be willing to swear that it's worth the plane fare just for another go on one of their pulled pork sandwiches.

I'd also go a long distance for Jose Pizarro's fabulous croquettes (thankfully I don't have to) and I've been pulled back to Indian street food specialists Roti Chai a couple of times for tender, delicately spiced and moreish chicken lollipops. It's been a good year! Hype aside though, nothing beats the satisfaction of great food, simply and well cooked. And no matter what 2013 brings, it's almost certainly going to bring a couple of trips to perennial favourites like Zucca, Hawksmoor and Andrew Edmunds.

Unequivocally though, the winner has to be the fresh bread and pomegranate sauce starter at FM Mangal, foodie crack cocaine and one of the best kept secrets in South East London (until Rayner told everyone…)

 That Shake Shack burger... coming your way soon!

 A pile of sliders... 

 The most perfect veal chop from Zucca

  And ramen... This one from Bone Daddies 

Burger off… Dec 2012

On a recent trip to the States, my hotel was near the Upper West Side Shake Shack. I nipped in on the way back from a meeting as there was no queue at 4 in the afternoon. I had one. It was a well prepared, flavoursome, well cooked burger. With cheese. And on a cold, depressing New York afternoon it made me as happy as only a moist fatty meat product covered in cheese and dripping with juice can. However I've also come to the conclusion that there's not much more you can say about the damn things.

It feels appropriate to reach that conclusion in one of Danny Meyer's earliest outposts. After all, Shake Shack has been one of the biggest brands in the American gourmet burger scene since the Madison Square original opened in 2004. And when it comes to London next year, the city will likely reach the sort of frothing fever pitch not seen since the Beatles. (Look at the evidence)

Now I like a burger as much as (hell, much more than) the next man, but I've reached my limit of writing about them. In the last year, London has been swamped in special secret sauce, covered several times over by steamed or brioche buns and beaten almost to death with a variety of soft meat patties. We get it. We really do.

In summary, here are the rules:

• If they don't ask how you want it cooked, or can't serve it below medium, then it doesn't bode well 
• The new wave London chains of Honest, Byron, Burger & Lobster and the various outposts of the MEATempire are generally pretty good 
• Independents (or nascent chains) such as Patty and Bun and Lucky Chip often achieve rabid followings but there will always be low grade impostors such as BRGR (just bland..) seeking to jump on the beef scented bandwagon 
• The Gourmet Burger Kitchen is poor, as is Ed's Diner (and anywhere else calling itself a Diner for that matter) 
• There are a handful of decent pub and restaurant burgers (Chelsea's Admiral Coddrington being the best) but they tend to get pricy 
• The 'secret' burger at Joe Allen has been around for longer than all of them and is the thing I want to eat on Death Row before they wheel the gurney in 
• If you go to New York or Miami then Shake Shack is good (though comes with a ludicrously long queue), if you get to the West coast then you have to try In'n'Out 
• If you ever contemplate Maccy D and you're not either very drunk, or very hungover then please just walk away from me now. 

Other than that, it ends here.

  

Goodmans Burger review - Apr 2010

Where: Goodmans, Mayfair
With whom: The Trustafarian
How much?: £22 for a burger and a couple of beers

A couple of postwork beers turned into talk of food, and the joys of an office in Soho is that there are plenty of choices close at hand. 


The Trustafarian and I had a few things to celebrate though it could have turned nasty when we got into a rather lazy argument on the best burger in the vicinity of the office and my ill-considered companion held up the Gourmet Burger Kitchen as his choice. 


I could have just shaken my head and left, but I can't walk away from a winnable argument, and I had only had a salad for lunch.

Within 5 minutes we were sat at the bar in Goodmans and already I wished I'd had money on this one. The Trustafarian fitted right in among the braying hedge fundies clustering the bar, handy, as even on a Monday night there few spaces elsewhere. 


It has a typically upper class NYC steakhouse vibe - dark panelled woods, blood red leather seating and a personable Irishman behind the bar. We went for a very acceptable IPA from local London brewery Meantime and racked up a pair of burgers, medium rare.


A satisfied smug silence from me as the glazed brioche bun covered patties arrived. The toasted crisp top broke under knife and juices flooded the lower layer. 

Now this is a real American style burger. Dense and sweet pink meat kept its moisture under the crisp charred exterior and a minimum of extraneous greenery. 


The Trustafarian mumbled of his defeat between crammed mouthfuls and I graciously accepted my plaudits. There were a couple of grumbles, the pickles were well warmed within the bun rather than the spears of refreshment I wanted alongside (though to be fair, I could have asked, and received, so my own fault) and I wasn't a fan of the chips. They were dry and crispy, but thick, a little oily, and not unlike eating many roast potatoes. 


With a satisfied belch my converted companion and I stepped out into the night. Game, steak and match.

Review of Black & Blue, Borough Market - April 2010

Where: Black and Blue, Borough
With whom: The Vole
How much?: £40 for the Cote de Boeuf to share, a drink and service



We were feeling all cultured (innit) after a beautiful couple of hours spent at Southwark Cathedral's Good Friday concert (a collection of Lenten motets followed by Fauvre's Requiem). I'm not a huge one for choral concerts but Vole wanted to hear the choir do a collection of Thomas Tallis 'hits'. Beautiful, wonderful and absorbing. 


We'd started the evening with a thoroughly nice, but pricey, pair of ales at The Rake in Borough Market, and had been hotly debating (as always) our food plans for the evening. We toyed with the Swan at the Globe, Feng Sushi and Brindisa before settling on Black and Blue. It's not the most obvious of the four, but we were really yearning (well I was..) for a big steak and both tapas and sushi have been consumed recently.


Not having been in before, it's immediately obvious that it is a chain. I've got nothing against Gaucho, Masala Zone or Tas and when on the West Coast would walk a long way for an In 'n' Out burger, but if you are a chain restaurant, you've got to really go some to stick out, particularly if surrounded by a massive food market!

Bare brick walls domed under the railway arches, glass and steel abound. Slimmed down menu focussing on the expected staples. We skipped the starter and headed straight for the Cote De Boeuf. There was much to recommend the meal; the house Shiraz was a perfectly balanced South African with a good spice and berry kick, the (free and unadvertised) house salad was a welcome addition (albeit served with an incongruous grated cheddar) and the service was warm and friendly.


Sadly though, the chips seemed very much pre-prepared and the disc of foie served (for a £3 supplement) alongside came fridge cold. Worse still, the steak was flavourless. Well marbled and well prepared, a good Cote de Boeuf should be really packing, but this one packed up early and didn't give us anything. 

I don't know whether it was a one off, and bearing everything else in mind, I'd give them another go. It was an assured, if pedestrian, performance overall and had the steak been a bit more flavoursome, I'd be giving them a higher score. Of course it's not The Hawksmoor, but it's a good safe option if you're in the area.

Yalla Yalla - Feb 2010

Where: Yalla Yalla, Soho
With whom: Me, myself and I
How much?: Just a snack... couple of bits for lunch, only £6.50...

Tucked away on a side street in Soho, it's very easy to miss Yalla Yalla's cheery yellow facade, however it's been packed with local workers, Lebanese and the odd bewildered tourist ever since I've been going there.

Inside it's a small front room with appropriately home styled paintings of a Lebanese nonna preparing flatbreads and rustic wooden furniture it wasn't my plan to eat in, just to grab and go, but the prospect of a table was so rare I had to take advantage. Bowl of good mixed olives and some pickled pepper came with tart strips of a pinkish vegtable, identified by the cheery server as turnip. Unusual and tasty, though definitely an accompaniment rather than an appetiser, they needed to be offset with a softer flavour to balance the powerful pickle.

I went for one of their lamb shwarma wraps and a hallumi flatbread. The latter had an excellent taste, sprinkled with sesame seads, but had been warmed in the microwave and was a little chewy. The lamb wrap is normally excellent, well cooked, well spiced large portions of lamb with a selection of pickled veg and a yogurt sauce in a toasted flatbread. Today however it felt like it'd been there a bit too long and the yogurt had made the inside of the bread soggy.

Ordinarily better, but still street (foods) ahead of similar lunch options both in terms of price, taste and service.

Angels & Gypsies - Feb 2010

A long overdue opening in Camberwell. We've been waiting for the promised 'Cafe, Ceverzeria & Tapas' of Camberwell's newest restaurant, ever since the sign went up nearly three years ago..


Where: Angels & Gypsies, Camberwell Church Street
With whom: Three of us, proper middle class mix, Teacher Boy and The Ginger Prince. We brayed outside over a cig and talked far too loudly...
How much?: a very reasonable £30 per head for 10 dishes and a couple of bottles of wine


With this, the Grand Union and the forthcoming Tiger pub, there seems to be a definite move to drag us up, steadily up in the world... "my, at this rate, we'll be in Dulwich soon!" *leaves*...


Without sounding like a complete nob, I have to admit to nearly boycotting this place after the first couple of attempts to book / turn up resulted in failure and total mixed messages from the rather too smug Front of House lady but gave it a chance on Monday night. It definitely needs to be booked... the reviews in Time Out and The Standard were positive (though the Standard was v patronising about the 'warzone' we live in, F' off back to Kensington please) and it's still packed, even on a Monday night.


Initial impressions were positive, nice fino by the glass and a very good value wine list (the house is a very acceptable Tempranillo at £13... well worth it). The Ginger Prince and I felt almost civilised until Teacher Boy turned up to lower the tone...


The selection covers all bases with some surprisingly inventive vegetarian options to balance out the meat. We started with the Iberico Ham, the Jamon Croquetas and an unusual tortilla with piquillo peppers and chorizo... oddly the Serrano was off, leading us to think that the 8 or 10 legs hanging from the walls must have been fakes... the Iberico was good, fatty and unctuous and the tortilla worked well with the additional ingredients, though the croquetas were a little too pureed for my liking. Great breadcrumb, light and fresh, but without those little shards of ham that just make a good croqueta. The bread deserves an honourable mention, good sourdough and The Ginger Prince particularly enjoyed the slightly old school oil and (sherry) balsamic combination


We then went on to a slightly less successful fish course. We all loved the Salt Cod bolinhos, the mashed fish coated in a light batter vanished in seconds but I was less impressed by the Romana style Calamari... The Ginger Prince and Teacher Boy professed more enjoyment, but they didn't exactly vanish. The batter was patchy and they were a little overcooked, but the kitchen was getting busy by now so maybe not surprising... they came with an orange alioli, this was maybe a little too subtle for me so didn't get the effect.. The pulpo was 'meh', nothing special, but not bad (bulked out with a base of slightly tasteless potato... odd move). Had it before, know what you're getting, move on...


Moved back to the meat for the final round, with the best dish we had coming first. The lamb cutlets, rubbed with rosemary and lavender, are stunning. Charred bone and beautifully moist and pink inside. only a couple of mouthfuls, but I will come back to A&G for these alone... Wonderful quality meat cooked perfectly. No two ways about it.


To finish we had a chorizo in cider with some gorgeous pickled peppers (lifted it from acceptable to good) and the pork belly. Served with a clever cox apple salad (nearer a 'slaw to be honest) and a plum jam, it looked good... a huge portion. Unfortunately the amount of meat we had was meagre, and good as the fat and crackling were, I was just a little bit disappointed...


We retired, to the Hermits and a remembrance of 'olde Camberwell'