Ducksoup

Review: Ducksoup, Soho

Ducksoup is a tiny wine bar in Soho serving up small plates alongside natural wines. They try very hard to pack everyone in. If you’re sat at the bar counter your elbows will be wedged to your ribs by the folks either side of you. We were sat at one of the little tables down …

View full post
Seafood tapas at Barra de Cañabota

Tapas in Seville

San Sebastian might have become the darling of international foodies with its buzzing Basque pintxo culture, but Andalusia and it’s great capital of Seville are the original home of the tapas cuisine that now spans the globe. I can certainly remember that awkward phase of “British tapas”, “Thai tapas” and “modern tapas” before restaurants thankfully …

View full post
Lechon with liver peppercorn sauce

Review: Donia, Soho

Donia, up on the top floor of Kingly Court, are serving up Philippine food through the filter of London modern high-end small-plate cooking. I find Philippine cuisine hard to pin down. It doesn’t have any of the powerful sweet-salt-hot-sour melange of other SE Asian cuisines, and doesn’t go in heavily on the spices like South …

View full post
Hake and gorgonzola

Review: The Gaff, Bath

Whether the name of this restaurant rhymes with the city it is set in depends on what part of the country you come from. : ) Having not visited Bath properly for a few years it was nice to go back and mooch around for a day. I was struck yet again by what a …

View full post
The Compleat Angler

Review: Sindhu, Marlow

A rambling old Victorian pub-hotel on the banks of the Thames at Marlow called “The Compleat Angler” is an odd venue for modern Indian cooking, but that’s where Sindhu is – one of Atul Kolchar’s growing crop of restaurants in the Thames Valley. We came for a mid-week lunch and we decided on the lunch …

View full post
Review: Ducksoup, SohoTapas in SevilleReview: Donia, SohoReview: The Gaff, BathReview: Sindhu, Marlow

Review: Root, Bristol

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

14 July 2018

View from Root

View from Root

We’re seriously contemplating getting a flat overlooking the floating harbour in Bristol. Just nosing around the Cargo complex of re-skinned shipping containers it feels like we could have a great bite to eat at a different place every night for two weeks and still not run out of options. Today we had lunch at Root, Josh Eggleton’s newest place, and the view from the terrace doesn’t get much better.

It’s British small plate cooking, a real mixture but definitely nothing more than a nod towards the Mediterranean. There’s a short drink list, but the blazing July day absolutely demanded an Aperol Spritz. We picked a half-dozen dishes and they came pretty promptly…

Leek rarebit

Leek rarebit

Beetroot with hazelnut was good, a generous helping with a light pickling and some fruity blackberry notes. Couldn’t really work out where the promised “seaweed” element was, and at heart this really wanted to be a side dish rather than a main event.

The leek and rarebit was a massively tasty success. Softly sweet leeks, smothered in a nicely yeasty rarebit made with strong cheddar, topped with wafer-fine pastry and a scatter of dukkah.

Onglet tartare

Onglet tartare


Neat single piece of fried chicken in a perfect crisp/light batter. The gooseberry chutney worked well, sweet and sharp. Another dish I enjoyed was a smokey aubergine goo topped with char-grilled aubergine and bits of feta and dates. Finally, a very good bit of onglet tartare with a mountain of salty game chips on top. The tartare was well-mixed, unctuous, with plenty enough capers to balance the flavour.

This was a good lunch in pleasant surroundings. At around £21 for 3 plates it feels like fair value. I’d definitely make Root a common haunt if I lived down on Bristol’s floating harbour, although to be fair I’d probably try the other dozen options first, just in case there’s something even better…

Beetroot@Root

Beetroot@Root

Tags: ,

Leave comment

Review: Kuch, Bristol

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

2 July 2018

Kuch

Kuch

Kuch is yet another smashing place to eat in Bristol’s Cotham Hill area. I’ve reviewed Bellita and Pasta Loco too, and I’m wondering what the next culinary smash hit to open here will be. Kuch is straight-up, generous, flavour-packed Persian cooking. The interior has been decked out in a modern and colourful style that emulates Comptoir Libanais but with a tad less kitsch.

Just stopping for lunch we mix a couple of small plates with one main dish from the barbecue. Chargrilled sardine fillets are beauties, more meat than bones (always a good sign). “Kashk bazanjon” is a dish of gooey and smoky aubergine, with lentils and walnuts to give an earthy balance, and scattered over with a heap of crispy fried onion and garlic. The lovely scorched flatbread is perfect for scooping this up.

Aubergines

Aubergines

The main we pick is hand-pulled lamb shoulder with a glaze of cinnamon and date molasses. This is exactly as brilliant as it sounds. The cinnamon plays nicely with the well-flavoured lamb, just as the sweet glaze plays nicely with the seared edges of the meat. The whole plate is rounded out with broad bean and dill rice, a whippy-soft hummus, fresh salad and harrisa.

We didn’t explore puds (stuffed!) but you’d be looking at £22 if you turned this into a traditional three course meal. It’s great value for an absolute bucketload of middle eastern flavours.

Sardines

Sardines

Tags: , ,

Leave comment

Review: Pasta Loco, Bristol

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

2 July 2018

Bugatini pasta

Bugatini pasta

They’re turning them away in droves at Pasta Loco, and you’ve got more chance of finding Heinz Spaghetti Hoops on the menu than you have of getting a table on a Saturday evening! Determined to find out what all the fuss is about, we found a lunchtime excuse for a visit.

Pasta Loco is tiny and spartan. It’s a nice, relaxed place for a meal but don’t be expecting white tablecloths and comfy upholstery. It’s the food that’s going to make you feel at home. Well, and the service. They’re a friendly bunch.

Maureen’s starter is an antipasti of long green peppers, thick white goat curd, sweetly vinegary barley with a little belt of harissa. It’s a magic combo, fresh and tasty with a bunch of contrasting textures. My starter is centred on three beautiful little slices of cold seared beef, on top of a silky-sexy sauce gribiche, with texture from tiny little sweet onion rings and a parmesan crisp. That beef on top of that sauce was definitely an x-rated pleasure. Phew.

Beef stack

Beef stack

Fortunately my main course was so beautifully soothing that I calmed right down. I’ll admit, I’m no expert on pastas. For those of you that also aren’t: bucatini is like thick spaghetti but with a hole all the way down the middle. This one was green with spinach and muddled up in a creamy truffle sauce along with girolle mushrooms and garlic scapes – which turns out to be short, sweet sections of garlic stalk. The pasta itself was as perfectly cooked as I am qualified to judge!

Maureen’s pasta was tortellini of rabbit ragu. And let me tell you that bunny was superb. Doused well in sage butter, along with some tender charred veggies. But the bunny! Soft, deep in flavour, just a tiny bit of bite left.

In true Italian style, there was no failure in the pud department. My coconut and cherry frangipane filled in all the holes just beautifully, and Maureen got a plate of beautifully kept Gorgonzola dolce perfectly partnered by a spiky-sweet little pumpkin relish.

At £26 for three courses, you’d be just delighted to have Pasta Loco as your neighbourhood Italian. That they’re booked out sooooo far in advance shows just how far they’re elevating pasta above “good neighbourhood Italian” levels! You know what they really need to do? Open another branch. In Cheltenham, please.

Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola

Tags: , ,

1 comment

Review: Le Cercle, Bourges

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Overseas, Restaurant Reviews

23 June 2018

Car crash pud

Car crash pud

What is it with French fine dining and puddings? Sorry, desserts. Are there other food writers out there properly bemoaning the complete lack of decent pastry chefs in French provincial 1 Michelin star restaurants? Or am I just dismally unlucky to have had crap desserts in the last five French provincial 1 Michelin star restaurants I’ve dined in?

I’m not bloody kidding. Check the reviews. Here’s Septieme Peche in Bordeaux, Le Gabriel in Bordeaux, Le Gambette in Saumur, and I’ve just realised I never even blogged Les Berceaux in Epernay but take it from me: crap dessert.

Nice fish

Nice fish

And blimey if the dessert at Le Cercle in Bourges wasn’t crap too. Room temperature cheese curds, frozen balls of apple with thin strips of peel unappealingly still attached, a sesame snap, I have no idea what they were going for but it fell way short.

Which is a pity, because right up until then we’d been enjoying a very good meal indeed!

Some decent hors d’oeuvre to kick off, and then a jolly good starter of snails in a nettle and wild garlic butter with morels, scorched strips of scallion and other odds and ends. Pleasing combo, rich with flavour. Across the table, a classic block of foie gras mi-cuit with gingerbread crumb and sharp apple goo was declared good, if predictable.

Fish was perhaps the success of the evening, a glistening slab of monkfish with bright peas and a sour rhubarb gravy. Summery and delish. Oh, and at Le Cercle they have this cute schtick where they serve a separate little bowl with each dish, containing the same main ingredient done a

Nice veal

Nice veal

different way. So we also had a bit of monkfish tartare on a bed of minced mushroom with a fragrant oil. Yeah, kindof a gimmick. Okay, totally a gimmick. Some of these little asides worked, others didn’t.

The little aside for the veal main worked very well: a thin sliver of belly, cooked to crispy goodness. The roast lump of veal was also good, with a curry-perfumed gravy that complemented very nicely indeed, along with girolles and fresh cherries. Also some juicy pieces of turnip. The whole combo was a really engaging affair.

Then the complete poop of a dessert. Which is a shame. The four courses were about £60 before wine, and I’d have paid a bit less if I’m honest. It’s a handsome dining room in a big old town house, service was good, and of course there’s a great big wine list full of good Loire wines.

Le wine list!

Le wine list!

This post has no tag

Leave comment

Wine tasting in the central Loire

Categories:

Events and Visits

23 June 2018

The Loire changes as you head upstream. Down near the sea it’s awash with Muscadet, head upstream and it becomes a broad flow of Chenin Blanc, but keep going and eventually you’ll be swimming in pure Sauvignon Blanc. This is the grape of Sancerre, Poilly-Fume and Reuilly. And Menetou-Salon but I’ll come back to that. And this is the central Loire. Further upstream as far as I can tell the Loire is just water. So pretty much pointless.

Sancerre

Sancerre


I don’t like most Sauv Blanc. I don’t like the sharp, citric blast of zesty greenery. Actually, show me any wine described as “zesty” and I’ll run a mile. That’s just a preference of mine. Luckily the folk of the central Loire feel the same, and try to turn SB into something more elegant and occasionally surprising. They also throw in some light Pinot Noir for the reds.

We based ourselves this year in Bourges, an absolute gem of a little city with a wonderful huge cathedral and a warren of streets full of medieval half-timber buildings. It really oughta be on the tourist trail, it’s a seriously splendid place to spend a day. Look for the Comptoir de Paris for a great bistro meal in the old town.

Comptoir de Paris, Bourges

Comptoir de Paris, Bourges

We successfully deployed all of our well-honed wine tasting tactics on our three days of touring. (1) Find a couple of recommendations from the Oz Clarke book and visit them – check. (2) Ask someone friendly at a winery where you just found some good wine to recommend other good wineries in the area and then visit those – check. (3) Enjoy a great local wine with a meal and then seek out the winery it came from the next day – check. (4) Try at least one completely random place – check.

In the renowned AOCs of Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre it seems hard to find cheap bargains; the wineries we visited all started their bottles at £8-9 for the basic 2017. On the other hand, pretty much everything was excellent, all the winemakers we met were friendly, and there were plenty of places open any day of the week. The wines I love are typically the ones that have been given some more attention – kept for 3 years or so, perhaps on the lees (sur lie) and perhaps some time in oak. This all adds complexity and balance to the Sauv Blanc and rounds out the green acidic flavours beautifully. Sometimes you even get the smokiness that gives Pouilly-Fume it’s name.

Menetou-Salon is the small AOC nearby that you’ve never heard of, but which is pretty much the same geology and climate. It sounds like it might have been a bit cheap and cheerful in the past, but there are some producers now making wines (to my tastebuds) pretty much as good as most of the ones we tried in Sancerre. So that’s my tip for this wine trip!

To be honest, there are more knock-out tourist destinations, and a wider variety of wine available, if you base yourself further down the Loire near Saumur or Tours. But the central Loire is a great alternative and – for me – the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world.

Bourges cathedral

Bourges cathedral

This post has no tag

Leave comment