Dinner for 1 with epic amounts of wine: £60.00

My good friend Ian recently became old and to celebrate this fact he had a birthday lunch at his favorite local French bistro.  As usual I was the first to arrive (why does this always happen to me?).

Having anticipated a big meal I had not had breakfast.  So I decided to start off lightly with a Bellini or 2 or 3.  This is a place where all of the bartenders and the maitre d’ know how to make a proper drink – and from scratch – nothing from a bottle or pre-made mix.  Lovely.

When the rest of the celebrants arrived we were shown to our table and were taken care of by a wonderfully attentive wait staff. Most of the staff at Bouchon Breton are either ludicrously French or pretending to be.  Expect a lot of rolling rrrrs and hand flourishes.

Les Huitres

For my first starter I ordered two oysters – one from France and one a local British variety.  They were beautifully fresh and perfectly shucked (no clumps of loose shell) and served with shallot and vinegar which is my preferred accompaniment.  While enjoying them our waiter asked if I would like to try an oyster that they estimated at 20 years of age.  I expected it to be rubbery and well old tasting – but aside from its ludicrous size – it was just marvelous.  Very sweet and briny all at the same time.  For some reason I did not photograph the old man of the sea but just imagine an oyster 3 times the size of the one on the right in the photo – seriously.

La Terrine de Campagne, compote d’Oignons Rouges

For my second starter – yeah you heard me right 2 starters – I had a country style pate with red onion compote.  It was fine, nothing to complain about, just a competent pate.  The onion compote was very nice but if I didn’t have a photograph of this course I might’ve forgotten it.  In hindsight I probably should have skipped this course because for my main I went a little nuts.

For this course we drank a nice bottle of Gigondas – which is one of my favorite less expensive French reds.

Cassoulet des Landes

This was one of the best cassoulets I’ve been served.  You can see how yummy it is in the photo.  The flavors were fantastic – the beans and pork fat and sausage – oh my god it was really good.  My only criticism of the dish is that the confit duck was a little dry.  I had a nice light side of daphinois potatoes with it, which combined with the cassoulet, almost put me into a coma.

I am pretty sure that at this point we were drinking a Burgundy – but really who knows.  Whatever it was I remember it paired well with the cassoulet.

Smartly at this point I decided to take it easy and skip desert.  Not so smartly I decided to keep drinking and ordered a glass of lovely Sauternes to cap off the meal.  I should point out again that this was lunch.  I had a wicked hangover by 4pm but the food, friends, service and atmosphere made it all worth it.

This is a great place to come for either a special occasion or for no reason at all.  It has all that you want in a good bistro – good food, professional friendly waitstaff and sommeliers, an excellent wine list and a relaxed but not sloppy atmosphere.

Le Bouchon Breton
1st Floor
8 Horner Square
Old Spitalfields Market
London E1 6EW

Dinner for 3 with several beers: £60

This meal began with an email from Inge (of whom I have written before and who’s taste in food is impeccable) saying that she and Jackie had eaten in a Szechuan restaurant and had thought of me and would I like to join them for a meal.  Silly question really.

When I arrived Inge was running a little late so Jackie and I started off with some beers and lamb shashlik which I’ve never seen on a Szechuan menu before. But regardless of its authenticity to the Szechuan region of China you should definitely order if you should ever eat here because it is amazing.  It was so amazing that I was not at all concerned about it being served on a child’s plastic Christmas themed plate.  It could have arrived in a shoe I still would have eaten it.

Lamb Shashlik

We opted to skip any other starters and ordered three mains instead.  The first was aubergine with peppers and potatoes in a garlic sauce.  It was divine.  This is not a dish to order on a first date however as all three of us absolutely reeked of garlic for quite some time after the meal.

Aubergine with peppers and potatoes in garlic sauce

Next was spicy beef with chili.  I had hoped that the dish would melt my face off but it was surprisingly mild.  I wouldn’t order it again if only for the fact that it was just fine – but not fantastic.

Chili Crab

My favorite dish of the evening was their version of chili crab.  This is not the chili crab you would get in Singapore.  I.e. its not saucy.  It is a pungent and fragrant dish of deep fried crab smothered in whole szechuan peppercorns and dried chilis.  The perfume of the dish was incredible.

The restaurant no longer has only 2 menus in English – they have plenty now and the service was quite a bit friendlier than I had expected.  I would still get there early as there was a line out the door by the time we were done with our meal.

Gourmet San
261 Bethnal Green Rd
London, E2 6

Dinner for 4 (no alcohol served): £60

I have a friend Jenelle who, like me,  is utterly and completely obsessed with Malaysian food and she and I have developed a bad (good) habit of going out and ordering an absolutely stupid amount of food together.  She mentioned that she had walked passed a Malaysian restaurant near Paddington but couldn’t remember the name or exact location.  After a 30 minute wander around the neighborhood and just before we were about to give up and go to some horrible chain we did actually manage to find Bonda Cafe.

Its not an obvious choice for the passerby.  It has a sign outside which hints that there might be a restaurant in the basement of the building, but when you look down into the windows the harsh florescent lights make it look rather uninviting.  The interior itself also lacks any charm.  Luckily this is usually a good sign in a Malaysian restaurant.  For some strange reason a Malaysian place with really nice decor often indicates dummed down, westernized food.

We invited Jenelle’s boyfriend and another friend along so that we could pretend to justify ordering enough food for 16 people and started out with what they called popiah but which were really just blah fried spring rolls – not even worth showing the photograph – just imagine the last spring rolls you had anywhere and that will suffice.

Satay Ayam

Next we ordered satay ayam.  The chicken satay was served with nasi imput (rice cubes) which the boys thought were weird but Jenelle and I loved.  Very good satay indeed.

In addition to the satay we ordered a roti canai which was interesting for me as the dipping sauce was dalcha – which is lentil based and tastes much more of its Indian roots then the Singaporean version I am used to which is a coconut milk based curry.  It was yummy.

Kari Ikan

So after the 3 starters we ordered 4 mains and 2 sides.  I had the kari ikan which was brave of me because though I like a good fishy fish I really really do not like mackerel.  And unfortunately even though the kari ikan did its best to help me learn to love the fish – it simply did not work.  If mackerel is your thing though I bet you would just love it.

We also had kari ayam – a homey, comforting chicken curry and beef rendang – a slow cooked curry beef.  But my absolute favorite of the evening was the sambal ikan billis.

Sambal Ikan Billis

Its made from tiny crispy chewy fried anchovies swimming in a spicy sambal sauce.  If this sounds gross to you – then Malaysian food might not be your thing.  The dish is the essence of my one of my favorite Malaysian flavors – a mix of hot, sour and fishy.  Even though this dish belonged to someone else I am pretty sure I ate most of it right out from under him.

Because we are insane we also had a side order of okra which was nice and a fairly bland telur dadar – omelette with chilis.

I know you’re thinking what pigs how could they possibly have split 8 dishes?  But I haven’t gotten to desert yet.

Pandan Pudding and Mango Cheesecake

Bonda does several steamed milk puddings which change daily.  Both the pandan and cheesecake were very nice.

As we were enjoying our puddings and were slowly slipping into unconsciousness a girls choir from Denmark came in with their choir master for dinner.  We’re talking 30 teenage girls from a singing group who were visiting London.  How this group ended up in this tiny out of the way restaurant is beyond me and in my food coma I completely forgot to ask why the choir master chose this particular place for a big group dinner or for them to sing us a song.

Bonda is a great place to go for truly authentic Malaysian food.  Jenelle and I are planning a trip back on a weekend which is the only time they serve their Laksa.

Bonda Cafe
190 Sussex Garden
London, W2 1TU

Dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine: £80.00

My good friend the Vegetarian and I treated ourselves to a meal out after work one evening at The Gate in Hammersmith.   The Vegetarian chose the venue and I did not read any reviews prior, so I had relatively few expectations other than that there would be no meat in my meal.

The entrance to the Gate is a little odd – you go in through the courtyard of a church and the restaurant is indeed in the same building as the church – though is not at all affiliated to it.  Once you get past the Jesus loves you pamphlets on the ground floor the restaurant itself is quite cozy.  My only criticism of the interior is that it’s so dark that if you have vision problems you should bring a torch so that you can read the menu or see your food.  And if you are a food blogger be prepared to have to use your flash no matter how much this pains you.

Confit Artichoke Salad

I started with the confit of artichoke salad which was spectacular. You know how sometimes a cooked artichoke heart still has the odd chewy hard bit that sticks you in the throat?  None of that here.  The artichokes were sweet and soft without being oily and the addition of hazelnuts and sweet oven dried tomatoes were just great.  I made a note that I need to get a recipe for cooking artichokes this way.

I should also mention that the wine list is all vegetarian/vegan friendly and we drank a lovely chardonnay from Carmel Wineries.  It was expensive at £30 but it was as I said lovely.  There are less expensive wines on the menu as well.

Wild Mushroom Rosti

For my main course I ordered the wild mushroom rosti which just sounded like it was going to be ridiculously luxurious.  Four different kinds of wild mushrooms over a potato and celeriac rosti with a cep mushroom (porcini for anyone not British) sauce all topped with rocket.  I was really excited about this dish and it is with heavy heart that I have to report it was a letdown.

The reason for the heart heaviness is that we had the best service I’ve ever had in a restaurant in London and I just really wanted to give the Gate a 100% positive review.  But it was just completely over salted.  If the chef had gone easier on the salt I am pretty sure it would have been a fantastic dish – the textures were all right, it looked good on the plate but the salt was seriously overwhelming.  Clearly no one tasted the dish before it came out of the kitchen.

All that aside though I would really like to go back and if the place a second try.  The salad alone was good enough to make me want to try their other dishes.

Update: I’ve since gone back to the gate for another try and the over salting was indeed a fluke.  I had a lovely creamy and somehow completely vegan Jerusalem artichoke soup and the pumpkin cannelloni both of which were delicious.  Great service again as well.

The Gate
51 Queen Caroline Street
Hammersmith, W6 9QL

Lunch for 1 with Vietnamese Coffee: £15.00

Recommended by: Cheese and Biscuits

The purpose of my trip to Clapham a couple of weeks ago was to see if it was a neighborhood I might like to live in.  It should come as no surprise that one requirement for any place I choose to live is proximity to good food shops and restaurants.  Since I didn’t know the neighborhood at all I looked around at some of my favorite food blogs for ideas.

Mien Tay was enthusiastically reviewed by Cheese and Biscuits and since I love Vietnamese food I was eager to try out one that I might be able to get regular take away from.

Mien Tay is a short walk from the train station and it has that fairly standard bland interior of many a Vietnamese restaurant.  The welcome I received from the staff however was so friendly that it warmed the place right up.  You so often forget what its like to get personal service in a restaurant in London, its such a pleasant surprise when you do.

Ban Xeo with Pork, Prawn & Beansprouts

I started out with the Ban Xeo with shrimp and pork.  I love Ban Xeo and this one was good.  It was also completely enormous which makes them better to share – especially if like me – you also order a main.

Next up came the Bun – rice vermicelli with spring roll and char grilled pork.  Anyone who has ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant with me knows that I am rather obsessed with this particular dish.  9 times out of 10 this is what I will order.  And this was really one of the best servings I’ve ever had of it.

Rice Vermicelli with Spring Roll & Chargrilled Pork

The pork was excellent and the spring rolls were super crispy.  There were plenty of fresh herbs and vegetables.  It all tasted freshly prepared – so much better than much I’ve had on Kingsland road (though I’ve never been to the Mien Tay on Kingsland).  I thoroughly enjoyed this meal.

Having Mien Tay as a local is definitely a draw to Clapham, but even if I don’t end up living there I’ll go back for the food.

Book I was reading: The Wordy Shipmates

Mien Tay
180 Lavender Hill,
London, SW11 5TQ