Pheasant

Review: Crispin, Clapham

We moved to Clapham five years ago, and the only small independent restaurant that critics and bloggers were ever bothered with – the Dairy – immediately closed. Roll on five years, and we’ve now got Crispin at Studio Voltaire, the third or fourth outpost of this lil’ bunch of small plate places. Let’s hope they …

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Shepherd's pie

Review: Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent Garden

Can I write a fair review here? We met up at Cinnamon Bazaar with friends, six of us for a sociable dinner a few weeks before Christmas (though close enough for all the decorations to be up in the streets and the festive menus to be popping up in the restaurants). So perhaps my mind …

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Edamame at Drunken Lobster

Review: Drunken Lobster, Ventnor

The Isle of Wight needs a bridge. How else am I to get over more regularly for good food? Looks to me that the Solent at its narrowest point is only a bit longer than the Isle of Skye bridge, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Loads more people live on and visit Wight than …

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Long Chim rolls

Review: Long Chim, Soho

It feels like Long Chim kinda tricked me. A little bit. Their spiel says: “Long Chim, meaning to ‘come and try,’ invites you to an authentic Thai dining experience. We strive to capture the vibrancy and energy of modern Bangkok, serving the food found in the alleyways, the markets and the shop houses in Thailand’s …

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Review: The Greene Oak, Windsor

Coming back from a long enough trip abroad (this time, a six week jaunt around northern Spain) gives you the chance to look at what’s back home with a somewhat fresh gaze. At least, if you try hard enough. The English pub really is perhaps the most distinctive piece of our human landscape, very different …

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Review: Crispin, ClaphamReview: Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent GardenReview: Drunken Lobster, VentnorReview: Long Chim, SohoReview: The Greene Oak, Windsor

Review: The Small Holding, Kent

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

25 September 2022

Peas

Peas

Well that was foolish. Go for a seven hour hike on a blazing hot day and then try to have an evening tasting menu at 8:30. Reader, I did very nearly fall asleep in my dessert.

So I’m maybe not going to do The Small Holding justice, which is a shame because what I absolutely remember is that it’s a gorgeous little place with the most excellent “posh garden shed” atmosphere and a lot of very good food that’s right up my street. Service was friendly and excellent, and we found some spiffy natural wine options to go with.

They go big on local, seasonal, forage, ferment and pickle. It’s the kind of modern British food that hits my tastebuds just right. Why not have a starter of smoked garden peas with pea puree and a pea crispy fritter? The smoky note was an inspired one. Another starter was a crunchy

Serious pork

Serious pork

tempura oyster and caviar, given a big jolt with a friendly dose of floral vinegar on top. Lovely to crunch through and the vinegar cut nicely into the rich oyster. Scallop tartare with crispy seaweed and neat little fermented currants worked out well, very funky and creamy. This all has the feel of a kitchen that really enjoys playing with what might work.

Local chalk stream trout was a decent chunk of fish, but the star of this dish was the bright and fresh lovage foam/sauce alongside it. Nicely piggy main course, in particular the breadcrumbed pork cheek and the sturdy chunk of bacon. A bit of roast beetroot and a tangy beetrooty ketchup paired nicely. I really rather loved the pre-dessert of macerated apricots and super-herby lemon balm ice cream, even if the ice cream was only just barely set. And… yeah… I can’t remember the main dessert. What a rubbish food blogger.

The menu is £85 before drinks, and I can definitely see myself going back. The Small Holding is a very strong representative of the best kind of modern British cuisine; paying very little attention to classic French roots, focusing on quality local produce, and emphasising clean, bold, bright combinations of smoke and vinegar and ferment.

Apricot and lemon balm

Apricot and lemon balm

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Review: Meadowsweet, Holt

Categories:

Michelin, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

25 September 2022

Jewel-like canapes

Jewel-like canapes

You can tell when a hotel room has been designed by someone (probably a woman) who stays in hotels a lot. There are a few telltale signs, but the most infallible is the full-length mirror. The first point: does the place even have a full-length mirror? Does it have any kind of useful mirror at all, for that matter? The second point: is the light good where the mirror is? And the killer third point: is there a powerpoint within easy reach of the mirror? For a hairdryer.

Our room at Meadowsweet passed the test with flying colours, being really thoughtfully designed and very comfortable. The dining room downstairs is calmly decorated and I loved the hand-built tables with a little cutlery drawer for each diner built into the corner. It’s a place to have a romantic meal and the very excellent cooking did nothing but enhance the mood.

Splendid scallop

Splendid scallop

We had about eight courses, beautifully plated, classically fine dining but never too rich or heavy. The jewel-like canapes made for a bewitching opener; chicken liver parfait encased in black cherry and baron bigod encased in beetroot respectively. The series of little seafood starters that followed were all magic, especially the breadcrumbed oyster with a dab of peppy jalapeno mayo. The real cracker was the caramelised Orkney scallop with a blob of strawberry jelly and a punchy verjus-infused beurre blanc. The sweet fragrant strawberry worked so well with the creamy scallop, burnt edges and tangy verjus.

The little veggie pasta dish with parmesan and asparagus was merely okay but everything was good about the halibut – delicately cooked – with peas and potato and a herby butter sauce. Beef with mushrooms was a good main and the jus really made the dish. First pudding was a delicate little vacherin of crispy meringue with a strawberry sorbet inside, pretty to look at and just okay to eat. I was in a chocolately mood, so the salty chocolate confection with a big honking tonka bean hit was a fine finale.

This was a £110 menu and I think that’s okay. I’ve had more exciting tasting menus this year at a lower price. But if you’re after a romantic weekend break in Norfolk then a stay and a meal at Meadowsweet is not going to disappoint.

Pretty vacherin

Pretty vacherin

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Review: Chez Bruce, Wandsworth

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Michelin, Restaurant Reviews

5 June 2022

Squid salad

Squid salad

So then I realised that I hadn’t been back to Chez Bruce since I started the blog, and that was twelve years ago. Which meant we finally got back here, to discover that it is still an effortlessly brilliant place to have a splendid meal in convivial surroundings.

I could spend the rest of the article trying to work out how they do it, because Chez Bruce regularly crops up high on “favourite restaurant” lists. Not “the best restaurant in the UK” lists, because that’s not their ambition. They seem to have targeted “favourite” as their ambition, and nailed it. But I spent a while thinking about this and I’m just not canny enough to work it out. It’s a magical formula.

My ox tongue-and-tail starter was superb. Beautiful oxtail croquettes, some slices of soft and deep flavoured tongue, bound together with a “dragoncello” sauce (a bit like Italian gribiche with lots of tarragon) and paired with beetroot. Maureen’s squid salad was an equally satisfying melange, with monksbeard, chorizo, chickpeas and aioli working wonders with delicately cooked pieces of squid.

Veal main

Veal main

For main course I was a sucker for “sweetbread, veal fillet and trotter sausage.” The beautiful medallion of rose-pink veal was perhaps the star, although every element was frankly lovely. Roast onion was a great accompaniment, as was the wild garlic puree. Maureen’s slow roast pork belly had a wonderful wafer-thin slice of porchetta draped over it and was served on a bed of crunchy fried black rice, with a sweetcorn sauce on the side. This was a really clever set of earthy and sweet flavours and went down a treat.

All a bit more classic to finish: a smashing creme brulee for Maureen and an assiette de fromage for me. But what an assiette! Ten cheeses… eleven, because they had some nice Gorgonzola they added to the middle of the plate. All well kept, and including various old favourites as well as some new ones on me.

The three course menu is £75 each before drinks, and I’d say that’s a spot-on price point. But I’d have to add that there really is a certain je ne sais pas about Chez Bruce, and it’s quite hard to put a £ value on that!

Pork belly

Pork belly

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Review: Plaza Khao Gaeng, Soho

Categories:

London, Restaurant Reviews

5 June 2022

Super-snack Miang Phuket

Super-snack Miang Phuket

Plaza Khao Gaeng hit the spot in so many ways.

They’ve gone all-out to echo the street food markets of Bangkok, with tables wrapped in brightly coloured plastic tablecloths, little metal boxes with your eating implements in and stacks of bowls and plates in pale blue or pale pink. This would all have been so much pastiche if the food itself hadn’t done an even better job of conjuring the bright, fiery, sour-sweet flavours of Thai street food.

We kicked off with the only “starter”. Miang Phuket is just a little pile of sticky sweet, fragrant, nutty, fiery, tangy gubbins that you wrap in a fragrant leaf and then scoff, like a tiny herbal fire taco. Luckily they do some classically refreshing cold drinks to go with; a snake fruit soda is bright pink and eerily flavoured if you’re not familiar with snake fruit. My iced coffee is sweetened with condensed milk, which always makes everything better.

Beef massaman

Beef massaman

The rest of the dishes come out in a fluffy. There’s slow-braised pork belly in a broth of the most amazingly warm and earthy spices, a gooey piece of meat absolutely permeated with flavour. The beef massaman is an equally yielding bit of shoulder cooked in another heart-warming gravy with only a hint of fire. It’s the sea bream that brings the heat. Two beautiful pieces cooked in a fragrant oil packed with chillies, garlic, kaffir lime, holy basil and who knows what other spices. It’s fierce but incredibly satisfying and I can taste it hours later. Finally, a dish of morning glory stir-fried with chillies in a sauce of fermented soy beans. The smoky-umami flavour of this humble vegetable side added a whole extra dimension to the meal.

You’ll pay less than £25 each for lunch, and you’ll instantly mark it as a place to come back to whenever you want some proper Thai food. Or you’ll drain five cups of tap water and stagger out sweating and realise you never want proper Thai food. Up to you!

Plaza Khao Gaeng

Plaza Khao Gaeng

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Review: The Watergate, Deptford

Categories:

Cafes etc., London, Restaurant Reviews

5 June 2022

The Watergate

The Watergate

So if you ever find yourself in Deptford for some reason, I think I can probably recommend The Watergate on the strength of a very good brunch. In the evening it’s a cocktail/wine bar with small plates.

The place is pared-back industrial-modern, but kinda welcoming for all that. There’s a bit of a Carribean vibe going on. Maureen’s salt beef turned out to be two very sturdy slabs, beautifully slow cooked and packed full of flavour, served with two good poached eggs and hollandaise. There was also a big breadcrumb-fried ball of bubble and squeak, very well done. I went with a sweet option; a piece of coconut cornbread with poached rhubarb and lemon custard. The coconut bread was absolutely superb, moist and crumby, I could have eaten a loaf. It went a treat with the tangy custard and the rhubarb.

Yeah, so there we go. Brunch dishes were between £8 and £12 and coffee was pretty good. Nice to know a place worth eating in Deptford.

Salt beef and bubble squeak ball

Salt beef and bubble squeak ball

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