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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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

Review: Horse and Groom, Bourton-on-the-Hill

Categories:

Pubs, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

25 February 2018

Sardines on bread

Sardines on bread

The Cotswolds are positively awash with gastropubs. You’re surely no more than fifteen minutes drive from a Harden’s entry no matter where you are around here. Having not had a Sunday lunch out for a while, we decided to check out yet another one; the Horse and Groom, perched up in Bourton-on-the-Hill.

It’s certainly a handsome pub, inside and out, with thick beams and bare stone walls, an eclectic mix of scrub-top tables and a good selection of beers at the bar. Along with the obligatory collection of artisanal gins, of course! Some nice choices. Shame the barman empties the entire 200ml bottle of tonic into the glass with Maureen’s single shot. The list of wines by the glass isn’t particularly thrilling.

Tomato salad

Tomato salad

But we’re here for the roasts. Starters first, and the choice is short and trad. Maureen picks a heritage tomato salad, an odd thing to find on in February, and it is what it is. My sardines are good, skilfully butterflied and gently fried. Served on a slice of simple wholegrain bread that has gone soggy from the leaf salad under the fish.

We’re on better ground with the roasts. My lamb rack is full of flavour, pink within and firmly juicy. The gravy is outstanding. The yorkshire pud is a fine specimen, fluffy and crispy. Roast potatoes are big lumps and just fine. Veg is simply boiled. Not to death, there’s just enough bite to them, but there isn’t anything remotely interesting about them either. Maureen’s beef knocks my lamb into a cocked hat. It is an absolute dream of beef. Silken. Beefy. Perfect.

Lamb rack

Lamb rack

Sticky toffee pudding: a light and moist specimen, good enough to eat, the caramel sauce a bit over-sweet. Lemon posset: lovely example, and I like the diced tropical fruit crumble topping.

It’s a reasonable £28-30 for three courses without drinks. Seems about right to me. In my head I’ve lodged the Horse & Groom as: “if I’m ever in this part of the Cotswolds and in need of a bite to eat, this will do just fine.” You can call that damning with faint praise if you like!

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Review: Whatley Manor, Easton Grey

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

25 February 2018

Tofu and caviar

Tofu and caviar

The infusion of Japanese and east Asian ingredients and techniques into modern British high-end dining is in full swing, and the work of chef Niall Keating at Whatley Manor is a pretty spiffy example.

Lime and parmesan crackers were a great start: two ingredients I don’t think I’ve ever seen listed together, but the perfumed lime and nutty parmesan married really well. A couple of nibbles later, a beautiful piece of turbot balanced on a crisp wedge of pear was less of a happy marriage. It sorta makes sense on paper, but the scrunch of the fruit was all wrong with the toothy piece of raw fish.

Tuna and kimchi

Tuna and kimchi

That was a rare mis-fire, though. I particularly loved a white disc of silken tofu, like a savoury pannacotta, with a scoop of Exmoor caviar on top and a warm chicken broth because tofu loves umami. Raw tuna and kimchi in a delicate pastry basket was my “ok, I’ll take ten of these!” dish. Genuinely impressed with how little they’d toned down the funky kimchi hit, given how often a crisp white tablecloth is taken as an excuse to take all the punch out of oriental sauces and combinations.

We enjoyed about a dozen courses in all. The main of pigeon was less exotic than the preceding starters, but beautifully cooked with a charred lettuce accompaniment and a good, deep, gravy. Big fan of the pre-dessert; a good clementine sorbet with generous black truffle shavings and a couple of shiso leaves. Now that’s what I call fusion! The main dessert was a very pretty apple dish.

Pigeon

Pigeon

Shout out to Whatley’s sommelier, who was very helpful and really knows his stuff. The wine list was on the expensive side, perhaps not surprisingly, but our selections all turned out to be superb. The tasting menu is £110 without wine. It’s also worth mentioning that Whatley Manor is an elegantly bucolic spot for a meal. From my experience, it’s a menu high on invention, and if a few of the plates aren’t quite masterful yet then that’s quite made-up for by the obvious love of experiment. I’d say the price is fair and I’d recommend a special trip.
Apple pud

Apple pud

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Review: Mowgli, Birmingham

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

19 January 2018

Chat bombs

Chat bombs

I love the arrival of Indian streetfood in the UK. It’s such a breath of fresh air after the decades of meat-in-sauce curry house cooking that was all you could find anywhere unless you went for the handful of fine dining Indians that started to appear in the late 90’s.

That said, I found Mowgli to be a terrific disappointment. I’m reviewing my second visit, but the different dishes I had on my first gave me the same impression. Part of the disappointment, perhaps, is just that I really wanted to love them, as they seem to have an earnest and honest presence on social media while they start to expand themselves beyond their apparently much-loved birthplace in Liverpool.

Mowgli

Mowgli

So, we start with chat bombs. And they are nice, light, crisp shells. But the filling is mostly sweet and creamy, nowhere near enough fire and sour to balance it out. Our other pick from the street food side is treacle tamarind fries. Well… not really fries, they are chunks of potato. They might have been sauted, but the sticky coating has removed any crispiness. Certainly sticky and treacly, but again sweet is the main flavour with not enough sour tamarind to balance it. An entire dish of them is just a bit much.

On to mains. In spite of the cute “it’s street food, it arrives when it’s cooked!” message from our server at the outset, on both my visits it basically goes starters (the street food) and then mains (the rest of the menu). They could just say that.

Tomato-y potatoes

Tomato-y potatoes

The house keema is… mince, with some chickpeas, and a generic spicy gravy. I really had hoped it might hum with flavour and build warmth in my mouth. It’s inoffensive. The potato curry is poor. It’s chunks of potato in a tomato sauce. In fact, it’s exactly the same as the first potato curry I ever made as a student. An attempt I was very disappointed with, even all those years ago, because it didn’t taste like a proper curry; it just tasted like cooked tomato with some heat.

The rice and breads are fine. The rose and cardamon lassi is good enough, though the cardamon flavour is very hard to detect. The dining room is beautiful, modern, fun, and has people queuing up to get in. It’s a nice place for a bite to eat with friends. If you are an aficionado of great Indian cooking, it’s not for you. Check out 3Bs in Cardiff!

Tamarind fries

Tamarind fries

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Review: Bellita, Bristol

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

5 January 2018

Pulpo!

Pulpo!

I’ve already reviewed the classic Bell’s Diner, an absolute pin-perfect neighbourhood bistro. And now I’m jotting down a few words about their other outpost in another Bristol neighbourhood: Bellita. A bit more bijou, more of a bar with a menu, but every bit as adept with the Mediterranean small-plates.

We had a masterfully cooked bit of octopus, truly generous chunks of tentacle with exactly the right meaty texture. The smoky aubergine puree with olives and lemon would have been an excellent tapa on its own but accompanied the cephalopod perfectly.

Panisse are more of a snack: soft little chunks with a crispy polenta-dusted exterior and a creamy soft interior. Dressed with an anchovy and vinegar dressing they are insanely moorish.

Turnip

Turnip

And then there’s an entire white turnip, presented whole and steaming. Of course it is soft and wet inside, terrifically soothing with the gentle sour brassica tang at the back. The salad of winter leaves with persimmon and hazelnut is tasty as a side dish.

Finally, the star of the show. Hake head with aioli. Seeing that on the board I couldn’t not order it. I had no idea he’d be such a monster! Not something I’d like to meet in his element. But on a plate I can cope, and by the time I’d skilfully picked and winkled around the bony skull I had a pile of silky translucent meat bigger than a handsome fillet and arguably more tasty (and all for a fiver – how crazy is that?).

Bellita is just as good as Bell’s and just as great value. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend either to anyone needing a great bite to eat in Bristol.

Haaaaaake!

Haaaaaake!

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Review: House of Trembling Madness, York

Categories:

Pubs, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

5 January 2018

House of Trembling Madness

House of Trembling Madness

Not really a proper dining review, as will become clear, but everyone who visits York ought to be aware of this iconic hidden gem.

House of Trembling Madness? It’s an homage to “delirium tremens” or “DTs” – the shakes you get if you’ve really done yourself some serious over-drinking. And you could easily do that downstairs here, in an absolute cavern of beery goodness. I’ve never seen such a well-stocked beer shop, and I’ve seen a few! There’s a nice collection of spirits in the basement too (woooOOOOooo!), but the fun part is upstairs.

Upstairs is the “pub” although I think their own description – “medieval drinking hall” – is far more accurate. It certainly looks the part, with a wood-beamed ceiling and old timber crucks forming the walls at either end, an entire wall covered in the trophy heads of an eclectic collection of beasts from antelope to canada goose, and a dense maze of small wooden tables surrounded by high-backed chairs that you imagine a skald might sit at to sing a song of legendary battles. The only thing missing are rushes strewn on the floor.

This being York, the history is real. Those walls and the ship beams holding them up are over 800 years old. Medieval literally as well as thematically.

As you’d expect, the beers on tap are all eclectic and from small breweries. Mine was a “ganache stout” which was sweet and richly delicious. They have a good selection of food suitable for a beery evening, from pies and burgers to snacks and sharing platters. And in a very civilised manner they serve food at all times, believing (as their website says) that making sure drink can always be partnered by food is the best way to chip away at the sh*tty drinking culture in this country.

Platter

Platter

Except we showed up for some dinner (and a beer) at 10:20pm on an evening when they had been so busy that they had literally sold every hot thing. And at 10:20pm this really was the only alternative to McDonalds. The barman couldn’t have been more thoughtful, though, putting together a sharing plate and piling extra bits on to make sure we’d not go hungry. Some of the bits were jolly good too: chilli pickled eggs that made me growl like a viking and tiny toe-sized salami sausages with a manic juniper flavour.

The layout is thoughtful too, by the by. They’ve packed every inch with tables and chairs, so this is a pub where there really isn’t any standing room. They’ve optimised for a buzzing and convivial atmosphere, rather than an elbow-to-elbow scrum of beer-swiggers around the bar. Good for them! Long live the House of Trembling Madness!

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