Dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine: £50ish

The ish is because this was a birthday dinner (mine) and Chris treated me so I didn’t pay close attention to the bill.

I noticed Ida whilst whizzing by on a bus on my way home from a shopping trip.  It intrigued me right away because it reminded me of a typical neighborhood Brooklyn Italian restaurant.  At least it looked like one from the outside anyway.  I love eating in London (no surprise there) but I do miss the food in New York from time to time.  London has a lot of fantastic food – but small, family owned Italian restaurants where you can go and get an inexpensive, unpretentious freshly prepared Italian meal are sadly a rarity as they have been pushed out by the horrible Bella Italias and awful Pizza Expresses.  So as you can imagine I was excited to try out Ida.

The restaurant itself is cozy and welcoming.  It’s decor is definitely not slick or fabulous, but that lack of polish lends to the comfortable neighborhood restaurant vibe.  I could easily see myself popping in on a weeknight on my own with a book for a leisurely meal here.

Insalate frutti de mari

We started with seafood salad and a crostini.  The salad was very nice and fresh – it won’t win the chef any Michelin starts but it was very enjoyable.  The crostini was a scrumptious mix of pancetta, fava and herbs – delicious.

Crostini

Next we both had pastas.  Chris had a simple but lovely spaghetti with olives and I went a little more decadent with a house made ravioli stuffed with venison prosciutto which was delicious.  I should point out that Ida make all their pasta fresh which makes all the difference.  They also focus on the food of a specific Italian region every month.

Ravioli with venison prosciutto

We then shared a dish of cuttlefish and sausage with peas which was just so so.  I think at Ida the pasta dishes are the real stand outs.   And then for dessert…just kidding that would have been nuts.

This is really my favorite kind of restaurant.  Small, staffed by the owner his chef and one waitress serving lovingly prepared food to a manageable number of tables.  No multi-chain empire – just good, honest food on a human scale.

Ida is a great place for a romantic but laid back dinner that you can have in jeans.  Also good for a small group of friends (it’s not big enough for a huge party of people).  I will definitely be making this a regular stop as it is only a five minute walk from my flat but it is worth hopping on the tube for.  They have cooking classes too which I just might have to check out.

Ida
167 5th Ave
London, W10 4DT

Tapas and epic amounts of Cava for one: no idea but it was all worth it

Recently I took advantage of my proximity to the rest of Europe by hopping over for 5 days in Barcelona.  I’ve been to Spain before and loved it but I can say that Barcelona is definitely my favorite city there.  Its a great place to visit if you are interested in art, architecture, design and most especially eating yourself into a coma.  While I did have quite a few very nice proper sit down meals in restaurants I spent most of my time wandering from bar to bar sampling more tapas than were probably healthy and here are some of my favorites.  They are all over the city so check your maps before you try to hit all of them in one day.

Bar Celta
C/ Mercè, 16
08002 Barcelona

24€ for 3 dishes and 2 glasses of Cava

Celta is a pulperia which means it specializes in pulpo (octopus) and other seafoody items.  It’s a great place to try a whole bunch of things as everything is out on the counters and you can just point at whatever looks good.  It all looks good though so an appetite is recommended.

Pulpo a la plancha

I had the grilled pulpo of course.  So simple and so delicious – very fresh octopus grilled with a little lemon and pimiento (hot paprika).  I also had a plate of grilled razor clams which were quite a bit bigger then I usually like to eat my razor clams.  But they were fresh and sweet and delicious.

The Bar at Bar Celta

Euskal Etxea
Placeta Montcada, 1-3
08003 Barcelona

I did not note the cost – but it wasn’t much

Euskal Etxea specializes in Basque food – especially Basque tapas called pintxos.  This place is great fun as you order a drink (I recommend the cider) and grab a plate and then you graze.  This was one of my favorites and I came back several times over the 5 days I was there.  I recommend – everything.

Pintxos

Xampanyet
C/ Montcada, 22
08003 Barcelona

Again no idea what it cost me

Basically right across the street from Euskal Etxea this Catalan joint was rammed with a combo of locals and tourists.  The place is absolutely tiny and a bit hectic but the tapas and all of the canned seafood on offer were lovely.  I’ve never enjoyed fish out of a can so much.

Canned is sometimes a good thing

Tapa ç24

C/ Diputació, 269
08007 Barcelona

15€ for one tapas and a glass of Cava

Tapa C24 is definitely a bit more upscale than your average tapas bar.  This is a gourmands dream come true.  I only stopped in to have a little nibble before a dinner reservation at an actual restaurant but the single item I did have was just ridiculous.

Morels with Foie Gras

I asked the nice man behind the bar what he recommended and he literally picked up a box of fresh morels, dug his hands in and held a bunch of them out for me to inspect with a huge smile on his face.  After that level of enthusiasm how could I refuse.  Little did I know that they were going to return bathed in butter and topped of with a perfectly grilled piece of Foie.  It definitely did not appear to be traditionally Spanish, Basque or Catalan but oh my word was it delicious.

Cerveceria Catalana
C/ Mallorca, 236
08008 Barcelona

Yet again not even a remote idea of what I spent!

Cerveceria Catalana is recommend in all the guide books and by everyone I know who ever was in Barcelona and while often that does not bode well in this case it is with good reason.  Its so popular that you are actually at an advantage being on your own as there is always a single stool at one of the two bars to grab rather than having to queue up for a table.   The food here is fantastic.

On offer at Cerverceria Catalana

I also stopped by one morning for breakfast which was also very very good.

Taller de Tapas
C/ Argenteria, 51
08003 Barcelona

40€ but I really pigged out at this place

Taller de Tapas was recommended by my friend Jennie with such reverie that I knew I had to try it.  Again I got lucky being on my own as I was able to sidle up to the bar and grab the lone single stool.  The service here was absolutely fantastic and I was steered towards what was fresh that evening.  I really overdid it here with squid, grilled wild mushrooms, botiffara (Catalan sausage) and beans AND a plate of Jamon Iberico.  I was so full when I left that I had to fight the temptation to just lay down on the street and take a nap.

Calamar a la plancha

El Quim de La Boqueria
Inside the Boqueria Market

18€ for 2 tapas and wine

Saving the best for last there is El Quim which is a stall in the Boqueria Market.  I visited several other markets throughout the city which I thought were better for shopping (i.e. not aimed at the tourist trade) but Boqueria is still an incredible place and well worth wandering around in.  At lunch time it is absolutely mental with people standing menacingly behind diners at the more popular eateries in an attempt to hurry them off of their seats.  I had the worst tapas I have ever had in my entire life in the Boqueria so just note that if a tapas bar isn’t busy at lunch time – there is probably a reason.

I got lucky when I was walking past El Quim when again a magical single stool became free and I grabbed it.  I asked one of the at least 6 full sized men squeezed into the tiny kitchen behind the bar what I should have and he told me that one of their specialties was fried eggs with small squids – which sounded frankly wrong.  I am so so glad that I just decided to give it a go because it ended up being my single favorite thing that I ate in my entire trip.

Fried eggs with small squids

It was astonishingly good.  Very simple – literally two ingredients – very fresh and cooked perfectly.  The sweetness of the little squids with the egg was superb.  I insist that you go stand behind someone at this stall until you can pull a chair up to try this or any of their other interesting looking creations.

Barcelona is an excellent city for an eater and it is especially easy to eat out on your own here.  Restaurant and bar service was generally excellent.  Expect to part with quite a bit of cash here as nothing is cheap.

Dinner for 3 with wine: £69.00

I get my hair done at a place on Portobello road and it is becoming something of a tradition that I meet up with friends who live right down the road for dinner afterward.  After this particular haircut we were headed to try a recently opened restaurant on Portobello called Persian Kitchen.

We had a reservation for 8:30 but when my haircut was running a little behind schedule (beauty takes time people) my friend had called the restaurant to let them know that we were going to be late and had been assured that this was not a problem.  This message was not passed on to the other waitstaff apparently.  When we walked in at 8:45 for our 8:30 reservation and asked for the table the waiter barked “And what time is it now?” – us “sorry?” – him – “Your reservation was for 8:30 – AND WHAT TIME IS IT NOW?”  The other waiter noticed the impending fracas and let his colleague know that we had actually called and he then sat us with out so much as an apology.

At this point my friends were considering leaving on principle.  I as a New Yorker was considering making an incredible scene.  But we were hungry and had gotten all excited for Persian so we decided to stay.

After this unforgivable breech of waiterly conduct I was prepared to absolutely, positively hate the restaurant and give it as scathing a review as possible.  And I should note that the obnoxious waiter became friendly and helpful only after I took my camera out to photograph the starters.

We started with a selection of mezze – Dolmeh, Sabzi Khordan and Mirza Ghasemi.  They were all quite delicious but the Mirza (eggplant with tomato and garlic) was the most interesting.

For my main I had the Koobideh – grilled minced lamb.  It was very tasty.  The meat was moist and well seasoned – grilled just right.  The rice was also delicious – buttery and fluffy.  But what the hell is going on with that “salad” on the left hand side of the plate?  Iceberg lettuce is not a food – not in my book and the whole dish was seriously letdown by its presence and the cold, tasteless tomato wedges sitting on top of it.  Put the whole disj on a smaller plate and just give me cucumbers or something – iceberg lettuce is bleh. This restaurant is clearly trying to go upscale but the iceberg belies kebab shop roots.

Another main dish was a fantastic lamb and aubergine stew called Gheimeh Bademjan.  It was delicious and is definitely worth trying.

We also had several deserts – Faloodeh and Zoolbia Bamieh which were very nice.  The second being given to us on the house – mostly because the waiter thought he had offended some important food writer.

I hesitate to recommend this place because while the food was really very good (iceberg aside) – our greeting was seriously unforgivable – especially for a new restaurant trying to build a customer base.  I probably would not go out of my way to go again entirely because of that bad first impression.  I will probably order takeaway because they deliver to my area and the food was very good – but I would not recommend coming all the way across London to be treated poorly by a waiter.  I am sure you can find that experience much closer to home.

Anar Persian Kitchen
349 Portobello Road
London, W10 5SA

Dinner for 2 with copious amounts of Obe beer: £75.00

Korean BBQ is to me – and I know many will disagree – the best BBQ that there ever was.  In fact since it is nigh impossible to get even remotely authentic Southern BBQ in New York City (where I am from) I would have to say that Korean is the closest my hometown has to a local BBQ culture.  I love it and I am amazed that its just not more common here in London.  So anytime I have the chance to trick someone into going out for Korean food with me (this time it was a date) I jump at the chance.

Koba is pretty small so if you’re expecting anything resembling one of the Manhattan/Queens style hangar sized BBQ palaces you’ll be dissapointed.  I’d think the biggest party you could possibly get away with is 8 people comfortably around a table.  Also if you want to sit and stare deeply into someone’s eyes its a bit of a stretch as the tables have to be big enough to accommodate a grill and an extraction hood.  Both myself and my date each smacked our heads into the extraction hood over the table during the meal.

The one major disappointment I have with all Korean restaurants here in London so far is that you have to order and pay for your namool – little dishes of most often pickled things.  In NYC at any Korean restaurant they are complimentary and are often a real highlight as you get a chance to try all sorts of things you might be scared to order off of a menu.  For example I never knew that I loved dry shredded squid until I was served a small dish of it once.

Assorted Kimchi/Pickles

We started with a selection of kimchi which were absolutely fine though quite a bit less spicy than usual.  I think this is a case of dumbing things down for a Western palette.  But they were still spicy enough to get your appetite going.

mmmmm.....Ddukbokki

Next we had Pajun – a pancake with seafood and spring onions (not pictured) which was yummy.  And ddukbokki – rice and fish cakes in spicy sauce – one of my absolute favorites .  I cannot explain my obsession with this particular dish.  Its full of all sorts of strange textures and flavors and I just love love love it.  Their version was pretty good – not nearly the best I’ve had – but pretty good.

Kalbi

The main event is of course the meat and I cannot express to you how delicious the meat is.  I don’t know what it is that Korean chefs do to make it all taste so good but whatever it is it works.  We had a selection starting with Kalbi – marinated beef spare rib.  The marinade is slightly sweet and the beef was incredibly tender.

Next up was daeji bulgogi (not pictured) which is spicy pork – ridiculously good.  And last we had prawns which were not marinated and which were so fresh and sweet that they really didn’t need any sauce at all.

It was a fabulous meal and I am already plotting to go back. I am pretty sure my date liked it too.

Koba
11 Rathbone Street
London W1T 1NA

Dinner with lots of wine: Jenelle and Tom paid! (but expect to pay around £50)

Man I love the name of this restaurant. I’ve giggled every time I walked by it for about a year on my to and from other meals. I giggled again when I was recently invited to attend a birthday dinner there for a person I’d never met.  The birthday girl who turned out be named Yvette, also turned out to be a lot of fun and didn’t mind having a total stranger celebrate with her.

The restaurant itself is decorated in an odd form of minimalism – black walls, bench seats, low lighting.  It all works well though as even though the tables are fairly close together you don’t really notice the other diners.  That or the 2 Manhattans I’d had before dinner at Beach Blanket Babylon made me completely oblivious to the other patrons.

Before I realized that my friends were going to spring for the meal I decided to go for a completely decadent experience starting with smoke salmon with blini and creme fraiche.

Smoked salmon with blini

The salmon was nice – nothing new or earth shattering – just decent smoked salmon.  The creme fraiche was fresh.  The blini however was too big and a wee bit dry.  I think a couple of smaller blini would have been better.  You can see the size of that thing relative to the lemon wedge – it was enormous.  And I’m not quite sure what the green squizzle was in the bottom corner of the plate – there wasn’t enough of it to add any significant flavor to the dish or to moisten the blini so I ignored it.

It was fine but it wasn’t quite the decadence I was after.  Luckily I had a plate of yummy happiness on the way.

Now I am not a big beef eater.  I can probably count the number of times I eat steak in a year on one hand.  When I do eat a steak though I have very high standards and very specific requirements.  I like my steak black and blue.  This means that my steak should have a good deep sear on the outside – all caramelized and delicious – while the center should be uncooked.  When I order a steak and ask for it black and blue and the waiter has no idea what that means – I immediately change my order to nearest vegetarian option.

Ribeye black and blue

The waiter at Bloody French nodded his head approvingly at my request for black and blue so I was confident that I would in fact be enjoying a good properly cooked steak.

From the photo above (where a bite or two has gone missing) you can see that my steak was well seared on the outside (not as black as I had hoped for but still very good) and is pink pink pink on the inside (perfect).  Smothered in peppercorns and butter the steak was just lovely.  The frites were very good as well.  There’s a pot of excellent house made mayonnaise somewhere outside of the frame that was also making me very happy.

My friend Tom also had the steak. He had it cooked medium I think (wuss) and seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.

Next time I crave a steak I will be heading back here.

Bloody French
149 Westbourne Grove
Notting Hill, London
W11 2RS