Dinner with several cocktails and wine: £60.00 per person

Well it’s been months since I’ve last posted.  My excuse is that I’ve recently become a full-time rather than a part-time expat so I’ve been running around doing things like finding a place to live and figuring out the NHS.  I haven’t stopped eating during this time however, and I now have a back log of posts to put through.

It’s been so long since I’ve put a post up that this review is for a restaurant that has unfortunately burned to the ground since I last ate there.

The East Room is (was) in theory a private member’s club which you could – if you were in the know – make a reservation to have dinner in their restaurant.  Having never been to a private supper club I had all sorts of strange expectations.  Russian oligarchs, Saudi Princes, Geishas, etc.  The actual club however was full of regular looking punters like myself.  A few looked like they might have come from work in the City – ties and jackets – but aside from that there was not much on display to make you feel like outclassed or out of place.  It was a very welcoming space in fact.

Spread over several floors the club was done up with understated style.  Exposed brick, comfortable leather chairs, low low light (e.g. excuse for the terrible photos).  Even the loos were super stylish.  The staff were lovely and the entire evening was marked by excellent, unhurried service.

We started with some cocktails and I was pleased to find that the bartender made an absolutely perfect perfect Manhattan.  So much so that I had several.

Ceviche of single scallop

For my starter I ordered the scallop ceviche.  I love a good ceviche and had high hopes for mine.  I expected the scallops to be super fresh and sweet – which they were.  Only they is a misnomer because – as the photo shows – I am pretty sure I was served ceviche of one single scallop.  The lights were so low and the portion so small that at first I didn’t realize there was actually anything on my plate.  It was delicious – but the portion size was so miserly that I would not recommend ordering it.

While waiting for my main I went through a mental note of what I had at home in the fridge as I figured I would leave half starved to death.  Luckily I was not to be disappointed either by the portion size or quality of my Crab Linguini.

Crab Linguini

The photo is simply terrible.  The dish was divine.  Fresh linguini with saffron and crab.  It was really special.  Easily the single best serving of pasta I have had in London.  I was already plotting my return visit to have it again when I heard the terrible news that the East Room was destroyed by fire.  Such a shame.  They do have plans to reopen and when they do you should go there.

The East Room
2a Tabernacle St
Shoreditch, EC2A 4LU

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 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

Dinner for 1 with wine £35.00

I recently went to Scotland for the first time and despite what all the naysayers say about Scottish food, I went to eat.  I mean not just to eat.  I went to hike and drink whiskey and well mostly to drink whiskey but also to eat.  I was determined to come back to London with tales of the incredible meals I’d had.

My first attempt was the Loch Fyne Oyster bar on Loch Fyne.  This is by no means an off the beaten path restaurant.  It has branches all over the UK promoting Scottish seafood.  This however is the original and is supposed to be the best.  It also gets very mixed reviews for service so I was pleasantly surprised when I called to make a reservation that the nice man on the phone promised me a table with a great view.

The drive up to Loch Fyne from Glasgow was chock full of jaw droppingly gorgeous views.  I kept having to pull over to get out of the car and just gawk.  I figured that when I got to Cairndow the beauty would be marred by an enormous tour bus welcoming commercial mega-enterprise,  but it wasn’t.  Simple sign, the place is not very big and shares its space with a garden center.  If you didn’t know it was a famous location you might just pass it by.

Unbelievably I ended up at, as promised, at a great corner table with the best view of the Loch.  I couldn’t believe they’d actually remembered.  So far so good.

The service was a little slow but it was just as well as I had serious trouble deciding what to order.  So I ordered everything.  I started with oysters of course.  I had high hopes for these oysters.  In theory these should have been some of the freshest, sweetest, bestest oysters I’ve ever eaten.

Oysters with Shallot Vinaigrette

And they were.  They were some really really amazing oysters.  I briefly considered canceling the rest of my meal and just having 18 more oysters.

Next came the salmon course.  Even though its called an oyster bar, Loch Fyne is also very well known for their smoked salmon.  I had a sampler which came with salmon smoked four different ways.  Gravlax,  smoked, Braden Orach (strongly smoked) and Braden Rost (kiln roasted).

Salmon Sampler

Choosing the sampler was the best way to go.  It was so interesting to have such significantly different flavors and textures from the same fish.  They were all spectacular and a great introduction to Scottish salmon.  All that was missing was a bagel and cream cheese.

For my last course I moved on to my beloved scallops.  These particular scallops were baked in their shells with mashed potato.

Scallops

The most intelligent thing I can think of to say about these scallops is aaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhh…  They were just so sweet and creamy.  The mash had a good crusty top to it with the scallops inside perfectly cooked.   This is a dish that looks like it is possible to replicate at home.  Really simple – no extra faff – just perfect.

I could not force myself to eat a pudding I was so stuffed.

If you are anywhere near Cairndow in your Scottish travels definitely book a table here – it will be worth it.  And if you can’t manage to get in for a meal they have a fantastic shop right next door where you can buy fresh and smoked fish and fixings.

Book I was reading:  Scotland A New History

Loch Fyne Oyster Bar
Clachan
Cairndow
Scotland PA26 8BL

Dinner for 1 with wine: £60.00

I am not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination but I love vegetarian fare and if you read this blog often enough you will notice that many of my favorite dining experiences involve no meat at all.  Saravanna Bhavan for example is still one of my all time favorite dinners.  Also some of my best friends are vegetarians – some are even vegans.

If you spend enough time going out to dinner with vegans/vegetarians you often end up feeling sorry for them as they have only 1 or 2 options on the menu to choose from.  Conversely it can be a whole lot of fun to take a vegan out to a restaurant where no item on the menu is off limits to them.  The sensory overload is amazing -  the whole part of the brain that is employed in decision making has atrophied and watching the gears grind away can be highly amusing.  So with this in mind we have headed out for a special evening to see two friends off on an epic 7 week vacation.  Since the couple is comprised of one vegan and one vegetarian we decide to go out to Saf a vegan, raw food restaurant near Spitalfields in East London.

When we arrived we were promptly shown to a great table in the back.  I love round tables for large groups and there was plenty of room for the pram one of the couples was toting their newborn around in.  The vegan/vegetarian friends were running late so we ordered some pre-dinner drinks and snacks and relaxed.

When our friends did arrive we had been at the restaurant for at least 25 minutes and by the time we had all made our decisions we’d been in our seats for 45 minutes at the very very least.  I had decided that I was going to have the Saf bowl.  I was really looking forward to it.  So boy was I annoyed when while placing my order the waitress informed me that they didn’t have it that evening but that there was a mushroom risotto special instead.  Now in my experience the way it usually works is that the waiter/tress tells you what the specials are and any changes to the menu BEFORE they take your order.

Apple Cashew Mille Feuille

Luckily they did have the starter I wanted.  I like vegan “cheese” which is generally made with nuts (almost always cashew for some reason).  The Apple Cashew Mille feuille turned out to be the winner amongst the starters.  The “cheese” was good and spicey and paired nicely with the apple.  I ignored the odd frisee hat it was wearing and terrifically 80’s balsamic reduction decoration because the dish itself was pretty good.

For my main I did in the end go for the surprise special that was not the Saf bowl.

Not the Saf Bowl

Ok so what is wrong with the picture of the dish?  Why is my garnish segregated from the rest of the dish by a diagonal line of shiny red sauce and black olives?  Is the chef trying to make an artistic statement? Perhaps something about man’s isolation in modern society?  WTF?

I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more if it had just been served in the center of a smaller plate and didn’t have all the crazy squeeze bottle mayhem going on.  I hate this kind of plating with a passion.  And I just couldn’t take the dish seriously – I mean why black olives?  I don’t even know what was going on on the other side of the sauce fence with the pile of garnishes.

I don’t understand the trend in raw food restaurants for over decoration.  Pure Food and Wine in NYC has the same problem with stacking and squeeze bottling in the presentation (however both the food and service are better there).

The risotto itself was ok, underseasoned but with a creamy texture all accomplished without cheese or butter or cream.

The food was just alright, the service was pretty poor, and the meal was ridiculously overpriced.

Saf
152-154 Curtain Road
London, EC2A 3AT