Hot off the grill - Ikoyi in Mayfair

Manx Ribs

If you go for one blow-out meal this year, go to Ikoyi, and go soon. It is only a matter of time before Grace Dent or Jay Rayner give it a glowing review by which point the waiting list will quadruple leaving only a small smattering of Monday dinner slots, if you are lucky. 


This was without a doubt the best meal I have had in London all year – no faint praise considering the amount that I eat out. It easily tops the Ninth, Luca and Xu which were all similarly priced and good.

Nigerian Prawn

The menu is just the thing to excite our jaded London taste-buds and packs quite the punch with its smoky, indigenous Nigerian peppercorns, fermented scotch bonnet chillies and gigantic lobster-like prawns. Every dish sings with well-balanced spicing and deep smokiness.

Beef

Spice-fiends will rejoice in the Cassava dish and grilled Beef Blade. For those with a more sensitive palate, the Octopus Pepper Soup is sublime – a beautifully tender tentacle with a potent, meaty master-stock that is so good and so complex you’ll wish you had a pint of it just to work out the different notes. The papaya buttermilk dessert is inspired.

Papaya

The restaurant itself is small, intimate and designed with taste and intelligence. The specially commissioned crockery add to the sense that you are eating works of art without anything being overly fussy or superfluous. The unusual lights that hang from the ceiling cleverly spotlight the food in the middle of the table, a kind nod to those who feel the need to Instagram whatever we eat (guilty!). The service was relaxed whilst retaining a sense of calm efficiency. As a consultant I am always looking for what could be better but this restaurant genuinely left me speechless. 

Expect to Spend: £100-150 for two including a bottle of wine
Cuisine: West African-Inspired, Michelin* style
Good For: Couples and small groups


Ikoyi opened in St James Market on the 11th July. For more details see here. 

Supperclub: The Water House Project in Bethnal Green

Gabriel Waterhouse, Chef (left) & Brother (right)

This season is all about supper clubbing and chef's tables... Why go to a regular restaurant when you can try something unique, bring your own wine and meet interesting people?

If you aren't yet sold on the idea, the Water House Project's menu, skill and general deliciousness should sway you...
Here goes:

Watercress velouté with a hens egg and asparagus (this was fresh and summery with a beautiful rich, orange egg yolk in the middle)

Flamed mackerel with rhubarb and beetroot (subtle, charcoal-y fish with earthy beetroot and tart rhubarb was a match made in heaven)

Cumbrian Herdwick lamb with pea, mint and goats curd (by god this lamb was good, and it shone through as the main element in this traditional combination)

Brillat-savarin and white chocolate ganache, strawberry and basil soup, strawberry sorbet (a lovely, light end to the meal)

Or so I thought... we topped it off with Androuet cheeses with sourdough bread (fantastic selection, so good I couldn't resist and left feeling uncomfortably full!)

All this with wonderful company, what more could you wish for? 

We also booked as a relatively large group (six of the fourteen) so it was almost like having you own private dinner party.

Gabriel Waterhouse is a truly talented chef who I am sure will go onto great things... watch this space but in the mean time, treat yourself! 

You can book into the next one here...

Supperclub: Ferdie's Food Lab at The London Cooking Project

A remarkable thing happened last week... I went to my very first supperclub. I don't know how or why it took my so long but I did it and will never look back again. 

It all began with Ferdie chefing my birthday party... many gin cocktail's into the night he kindly invited me and the Mr to his supperclub, not sure if he remembered but we were not going to miss the opportunity!

The food, as before, did not disappoint and a the company was a lot of fun. We were sat next to the hilarious duo behind the foodie boys blog, who reviewed the same meal here.

After quite a few glasses of wine, we started with pressed lamb cubes with a herby dip..

Followed by that delicious beetroot cured salmon I had on my birthday, and delightful 'green bombs' that came with a delicious Asian salad...

But we both agreed that the rose veal cutlets stole the show with their melt-in-the-mouth tenderness and gentle beefy flavour... 

Other than the great food and company, the best thing about supperclubs is the bring your own booze, allowing you to drink some pretty fine wines for the price of a house white in a restaurant.

Despite the foodie boy's (and Vivino's) claims, our Hugel et Fils 2013 Reisling far surpassed their Asda quaff though I am no stranger to a wine bargain... For the boys,  Asda's Marques de Concha Chardonnay is a favourite of mine and currently on rollback.

All in all, a wonderful first supperclub experience and a definite start of more to come..

Foodie boys, perhaps we can found our own food fight club, starting with Twinny Feast in East Asia. Elle will come too. Shiso up for it, miso ready, yuzu guys are in trouble...

Available for Hire: Ferdie's Food Lab

I first met Simon (a.k.a. Ferdie) when I was trawling through grubclub looking for a chef to host my birthday. As soon as we spoke, he won me over with his humour and down to earth style, focusing on bold flavours and sharing dishes. 

We began designing a menu together right away and settled upon five savoury courses leaving me to come up with dessert.

The food was fantastic and I had so much fun I forgot to take proper photos (always a good sign)... But here are some of the highlights...

My very own thrifty table decorations consisting of a £2 tube of gold acrylic, three £1 pineapples and leaves from the garden!

Incredibly delicious Vietnamese carrot salad with Thai basil and shredded chicken. So so good

Beetroot cured salmon with horseradish parfait and orange candy

Slow cooked pigs cheeks in a crackling crumb served with a herb and lime sauce and afghan bread

Pork loin with a passion fruit gravy 

My birthday cake (as in I made it - sad, I know), a dense chocolate and hazelnut cake served with milk ice-cream

My photography skills rapidly deteriorating...

Simon was great fun to work with and utterly recommended. If you don't have any private parties coming up, you can eat his marvellous food at the London Cooking Project in Battersea. I went for the first time last week and had an excellent time getting (too) drunk and eating incredible food. Review of that coming soon...

Get it while it's hot! Locadeli

Michelin starred Italian restaurant Locanda Locateli is undergoing refurbishment this month. In the meantime, rather than twiddle his thumbs, Georgio has set up a pizza and pasta pop-up - Locadeli - around the corner in Marylebone. 

The menu is simple and super cheap for Locatelli quality. You can choose from a handful of starters, around ten pizza dishes and three pasta dishes (around £12 each). Everything we tried was delicious and quite a bit more interesting that your average Margherita.

Georgio's favourite - the Calabrese - was described by one of my dinner guests as 'a life changing experience'. It was damn good; spicy spreadable sausage 'nduja' and that heavenly cousin of mozzarella 'burrata' strewn over a thin, tomatoey pizza base... I just can't get enough. Other highlights have to be the chestnut tagliatelle with wild mushrooms and a devilishly boozy rum baba. Needless to say I will be back in there soon to get another fix.

My accessory twins!

Unlike so many London 'pop-ups' this venture is popping back down again on the 4th October so you had better get in soon if you want a slice of the pizza action.

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An alternative to boredom: Lost Lectures

If you haven't yet been to The Lost Lectures, you must. This series of talks that open up new dimensions in your thinking, export you to previously undiscovered venues and provide you with a totally different kind of night out to the default: go down the pub/ out for a meal with the beard or the bird/ fall over face first into a kebab.

I went to Lost Lectures towards the end of last year and had a refreshing time drinking mulled wine, avoiding other people's squeezey mustard hotdogs (we had already eaten), and listening to a wonderful variety of talks from Ruby Wax, Simon Baron Cohen (yes, that is Sacha's brother but more importantly he is a neuroscientist) and a rap vs. poetry battle. The whole thing took place in Bethnal Green's working boxing ring, giving it a rough and ready atmosphere and filling the speakers with adrenaline which most of them couldn't help but comment on.

Unfortunately, if you follow my advice and book for their next talk, you will not have the same experience that I had. The point of Lost Lectures is to enlighten you differently every time you go. I was lucky enough to hear Ruby Wax speak out about mental illness which was both brilliantly inspiring and... well, a little bit mental. This is an aside, but I was quite shocked by the horrible playground tittering that was going on behind me at one point. Whilst everyone else was mesmerised by the bravery of her honest personal account, there were a few who found it easier to laugh at the problem she was highlighting. Ironically, she spoke of the denial by 'polite society' of mental illness and how when it's something that people can actually see, they are far more sympathetic. Sorry for this tangent but I have to send a message to the haters that their hating comes from weakness and their judgement was misplaced as well as just plain RUDE. Ruby - you are right: you are quite mad but we love you all the more for it.

This January, Lost Lectures is putting on The Festival of The Imagination so if you're looking for a little more inspiration this January than dry nights, 'New Year, New You' drizzle and Orange Wednesdays then look no further than here. You won't regret it. You would however regret waking up unenlightened, bored of your own brain and face down in a kebab once again. This, friends is the alternative. Think about it.

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Bar Shu - Sichuanese in the heart of Soho

Sichuanese Hot Pot - Chengdu

In these cold winter months I have been longing for a nostalgic taste of my Eastern travels. After all, there is nothing like a load of chillies and Sichuan peppercorns to scare away a cold. I enjoyed Sichuan Folk a few months ago but went a little closer to home this time - to Bar Shu in Soho - for my Sichuan fix.

Although I didn't enjoy my travels in China overall - oppressive politics, declined Tibetan visas and closed Tibetan provinces meant that I wasted a lot of time in Chengdu - the Sichuanese food that we experienced there ended up being a real highlight. Exploring the city, ducking in and out of torrential tropical rainfall, I stumbled upon all sorts of unlikely places serving just one or two mind-blowing dishes.

Bar Shu

Bar Shu hit the spot in that respect with the street food part of their menu which offers by far the best value of what they do. The Dandan noodles and sweet potato noodles were the best things we had and at £4.50 each are great value (compare that to the pork / beef dishes of £17-£22 or a simple plate of greens at £10).

Dandan Noodles

Sweet Potato Noodles

Alongside these we had the pickled lotus which I wouldn't recommend since I have had better elsewhere and the morning glory which was delicious but bad value at £10.

For our main sharing dishes we had a spicy crab dish which was delicious but a pain to eat - we were literally picking through the honeycomb of the crab with our chopsticks - and so messy that I would not recommend it. We also had the dry wok beef that was perfectly spicy and very, very tasty. 

All in all I would definitely recommend it and feel that if / when I return I will now know how to order much better. I would go for 3 street food dishes between 2 (2 noodle dishes and 1 dumpling dish), plain rice and 1-2 meat / fish mains (the gung bao chicken is an absolute classic if you haven't tried it already and only £12). This would come to around £20-30 each on food whereas we spent around £50 each leaving us feeling a little out of pocket. 

P.S. If you are thinking of going to ‘My Old Place’ in Liverpool Street instead, I would strongly recommend against it. It serves mucus-y MSG filled fast food that tastes a bit stale. I was pretty ill after eating there.

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Quick Review: Flesh and Buns

Flesh and buns somewhat pretentiously describes itself as an Izakaya (a sort of fast-moving, rough and ready Japanese bar which serves food alongside alcohol and is generally stuffed with world-weary workers). During my month in Tokyo I wandered through alleyway after alleyway of these and joined the one with the longest queue, in the hope that the locals knew best. I was never disappointed and would sit with a glass of Umeshu (ume fruit liquor) and soda, grazing on simple chicken yakitori, stuffed onto a lemon grass stalk or grilled vegetables before moving onto the next. Flesh and buns, with its oppressively loud music and vast communal canteen table doesn’t really approach the crowded but intimate atmosphere of your typical Izakaya. It sells food and drinks with a Japanese heritage which is pretty much where its likeness to an Izakaya ends.

Moving on to the food… the flesh and buns name is in reference to the Taiwanese street food dish of gua bao (steamed rice flour buns filled with meat), which I don’t think is a traditional Izakaya dish either…. rant over…  These have been around in London for quite some time, specifically East London (see Yum Bun, Bao London and Jubo for example), but have been made ‘trendy’ by this...ahem... "izakaya's" 'does what it says on the tin’ name and the conversation / confusion that creates (I bet some of you were expecting another burger joint). I have to admit, these gua bao were new to me too, and I was intrigued to try out the most talked about ones. I wasn’t however prepared to queue for them so turned up  late on a Wednesday evening following a couple of rounds of cocktails at the Donovan bar (try a whiskey sour with rose syrup and you won't regret it!).

For me the small sharing dishes were the better than the buns: the spicy tuna sushi was original because of the crispy crumb coating it - I am not sure quite what this delicate crumb was made of but it tasted a bit like crushed tempura batter. In the middle of it, the spicy tuna was firm and fresh, if a little under-spiced. The deep fried spider crab was another highlight. Just the right level of crispy exterior and fresh, fleshy centre, served with a creamy horseradish sauce instead of wasabi. I liked this little touch that conjured up memories of Sunday lunch in an incongruous context. The crispy squid was good to begin with but so, so salty I found myself drinking an entire pint of water soon after – I could have shared a couple of those crabs instead. The grilled asparagus were the right antidote to the deep fried dishes. Sweet, a little crunchy and lathered in an authentic miso-based sauce.

The buns part of the meal was somewhat less pleasing. The flesh was all very good - we shared the crispy piglet belly which was divine on its own  - but when combined with the sauce and bun it all became a little bland and cloying. The pickled apple was a good addition but there wasn’t quite enough of this to cut through the bun. I ended going without but understanding why they hadn’t just called themselves ‘Flesh’, which would be rather creepy.

When it came to drinks I was very disappointed at the lack of Umeshu but had an ume flavoured Sake instead, Ume No Yado, which was actually great (but not cheap). By the time I came to dessert I was too stuffed to order anything but envious of the gimmicky but fun marshmallow toasting going on around us.

 

All in all Flesh and Buns was a mixed experience. While I would happily go there again, I felt it was rather overpriced so I couldn’t just relax and order everything I wanted (I spent just under £40 on 2 small dishes, half a ‘flesh and buns’ main and a drink). I think I will be venturing further East for my buns fix in the future

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