Grillshack

August 28, 2013 By Nick Savage

Grillshack

Beak Street has another good option to add to its plenitude of dining destinations, this one coming in the form of a grill counter from the brilliant brains behind The Ivy and Scott’s. Grillshack will be providing Soho-ites starved for all-day eating with daring nouveau diner dishes served from an open plan kitchen. Early risers will be able to get their breakfast fix with grilled sourdough and scrambled eggs or apple buckwheat pancakes, and those who are in search of lunchtime sustenance will find it in Manhattan-ish options like rump steak with shoestring fries and smoked butter or a double stack beef burger with Monterrey Jack and bacon. Where owner Richard Caring is really innovating is the ordering system, which will enable guests to order by an online Grillshack app prior to arriving, or, for luddites, on a touchscreen in the restaurant. Let’s just hope that this technology doesn’t go all HAL 9000, or else there may be a few discomfited diners at the Grillshack. “Stop pushing my buttons, Dave.”

Smokey Tails

August 14, 2013 By Nick Savage

Smokey Tails

Detroit-born tech house DJ and celebrated personality Seth Troxler has been making waves as of late as a rising star in electronic music, and he’s put Hackney Wick in his crosshairs for his first foray as a budding restaurateur. His new pop-up, Smokey Tails, is perched on the banks of the River Lea and will be serving a sublime medley of smoked meats and frozen cocktails (hence the name, obvi). There will also be plenty of salads, craft beer and desserts to keep things cracking, not to mention some fat beats… if you’re out Hackney Wick way, Smokey Tails seems worth an investigation after a few pints and pizzas at Crate Brewery.
 

Le Café Anglais - Brilliance in Bayswater

October 4, 2013 By Nick Savage Restaurant

Remember Rowley Leigh? Well, following his stint at the above restaurant, he came into his own with a little joint at Whiteley’s Shopping Centre named Le Café Anglais. Taking quite a departure from its environs (Café Rouge, Yo! Sushi), Leigh’s elegant eatery takes cues from the classic, egalitarian Parisian brasserie, but serves pre-eminently English fare. His starters, particularly his parmesan custard with anchovy toast, have charmed the palates of many a restaurant writer, however the rotisserie, reposing in the centre of the room, has vied for broadsheet inches by churning out a variety of crisp-skinned roasts. On the night when we visited, suckling pig was the victim of choice, stuffed porchetta style with fennel, oregano and garlic, and delivered with a detonating crackling.

Le Caprice Jazz Sessions

September 25, 2013 By Nick Savage

This coming Sunday, 29th September (and on the last Sunday of every month after that), St James’s most iconic restaurant will be teaming up with Martell Cognac and Jazz FM to launch Le Caprice Jazz Sessions. For one evening only, Theo Jackson, one of London’s most promising young jazz singers, will be gracing Le Caprice’s elegant dining room to serenade the audience and ensure that the experience is an auditory as well as a gustatory pleasure. Jazz wouldn’t be complete without a strong cocktail to sip, and those will be provided by Martell, one of the eldest and most esteemed cognac houses – who have drafted some of the best minds in mixology to assemble a special cocktail list.

Jubo

August 14, 2013 By Nick Savage

Jubo

KFC is coming to London. Well, a different sort of KFC than what you’re probably familiar with. Korean fried chicken packs an inimitable punch, and it’s now available at the Jubo canteen at The Bedroom Bar in Shoreditch. Inspired by the clucker shops in Manhattan’s K-Town and Seoul, Jubo is serving crunchy, crispy chicken wings and strips with a Gangnam Style attitude. If that doesn’t put an itch in your gobbler, there are also some Korean classics on offer including homemade pickles, kimchi, kimchi slaw, steamed buns with pork belly, Hite Beer and lashings of Shochu of course. Hite it up, get lashed, figure out what Korean drinking food’s all about.

Sanderson Green

August 14, 2013 By Nick Savage

Sanderson Green

The perennially popular Sanderson hotel is keeping their courtyard terrace fresh-faced with an especially a la mode pop-up. Named Sanderson Green, they’ll be serving the laidback haute fast food American cuisine that has become so ubiquitous in the Big Smoke over the past few years. This will include burgers (of course), chili dogs, pulled pork sandwiches and a deconstructed lobster roll grilled with garlic and served with a fluffy brioche bun. The bar staff has put together a new cocktail menu including a selection of tipsy shakes, which distils the punch of a hard shake into something a little more sip-able. If you want to keep yourself cool in Fitzrovia, Sanderson, as ever, is the perfect place to do so, with delicious refreshments and one of the best outdoor areas (with covered options) in central London.

Albion at NEO Bankside

September 25, 2013 By Nick Savage

Last week we had the special opportunity of attending a suppliers’ dinner at Albion at NEO Bankside, sibling restaurant to the popular ground floor café/grocer in Terrance Conran’s classy Shoreditch hotel, The Boundary. Tucked behind the Tate on Holland Street, it looks well poised to become a destination for foodies, art enthusiasts in need of some sustenance, and the local workforce – and in doing so, will bring a bit of the locavore ethos of Bermondsey and Borough Market to the Southbank. The long, narrow room recalls its East End elder with a bit more of a contemporary slant. Both the menu and the shop showcase the best of British produce. Our table was spoilt for choice with an opening salvo of crisp, saline Jersey Royale oysters from Wright Brothers, thick-cut slabs of smoked salmon from Hansen & Lydersen, Kentish charcuterie from Cannon & Cannon (highlights included air-dried mutton, blood chorizo and wild cobnut salami), washed down with a sparkling Chapel Down Pinot Reserve from 2005. What then followed was a sumptuous roast of Klucky Chicken and Aubrey Allen beef, then a Bramley Apple crumble from Chegworth Valley and British farm cheeses from Neal’s Yard. You’d be hard pressed to find a better way to round off a day of admiring modern art then to tuck into the homey, patriotic fare at this newest Albion.

Paesan

August 7, 2013 By Nick Savage

Paesan

Anthony Brown will be championing cucina povera, Italian rustic cuisine, at his new restaurant Paesan which has opened at the mouth of Exmouth Market. With a design by the team behind Bubbledogs, the dining room will feature the same kind of stripped-back ethos that informs the food. Simple, vividly flavoured plates will be served with options like chargrilled sardine bruschetta; pork involtini with smoked ham and ceps; and pizza fritta with taleggio, rabe and chilli. The basement bar will feature a selection of vintage Italian cocktails including martinis and negronis, not to mention a selection of wines, homemade limoncello and sambucca.

Pizza Pilgrims

August 7, 2013 By Nick Savage

Pizza Pilgrims

It’s happening again. Bloggers’ darlings Pizza Pilgrims have won the hearts and mouths of critics across the capital with their Neapolitan style pies, published a popular cookbook and now are making the move from pop-up to permanence. Their bricks and mortar resto on Soho’s Dean Street will serve many of the same ‘zas that won PP a cult following, with a few other additions to their pizza playbook, starters like fennel grissini wrapped in prosciutto or panzanella salad, and desserts including ice cream from Gelupo, affogatos and nutella pizza rings. Libations will range from white and red Italian wine and Prosecco on tap as well as Birra Moretti and San Pelegrino… expect to queue!

Gymkhana

September 25, 2013 By Nick Savage

Last year Karam Sethi made waves in Marylebone by winning a Michelin-star at his breezy, flavoursome Indian eatery Trishna. For his second London venture, Gymkhana, he’s chosen chic Albemarle Street to offer an experience inspired by the members’ clubs of yore, with a distinctly Mayfair persona and exceptional tandoori cuisine. The darkly elegant restaurant spans two floors with oak booths, marble tables and dark lacquered oak ceiling fans performing lazy revolutions beneath a dark lacquered oak ceiling. At the end of the room reposes a marble bar from which an array of Indian-influenced cocktails are served; many of which include subcontinental whiskeys, arracks and absinthes. The menu doesn’t marginalise the cuisine with contemporary accents, rather it is traditional Indian par excellence, using the finest ingredients. Keralan Moilee mussels with curry leaf and lamb nalli barra with pickled onion and turmeric were arresting in their quality, but the real showstopper, kid goat methi keema with the option of adding bheja, was not for the squeamish. Bheja translates to English as brain, and brought a whole new dimension of flavour to the spicy, earthy minced goat. Wine buffs are in for a treat as award-winning sommelier Sunaina Sethi has created a laudable list, and for those that prefer complementing a curry with beer, Gymkhana has two house brews. All in, this new gem is thoroughly recommendable.