London Food Detective

The Banana Leaf: Croydon's best curry house

There are so many things not to like about the Banana Leaf that it says something about the quality of the food that it was able to overcome them all to provide one of the best Indian meals I've had.

Located in a run down area of West Croydon, there is an icy draft blasting through the door on my first visit.  The walls and tired looking decor tell of past glories from the 1990's. The tablecloths are frayed and stained with the juices of thousands of curries and the glasses and cutlery are tired and tarnished. 

Not a good start, but the friendly waiter greets us like long lost friends and presents us with a menu that specialises in authentic South Indian dishes.

 
Sizzling King Prawn

We started by sharing some large, juicy and subtlety spiced King Prawns.  Served on a sizzling platter with onions they were a good introduction to the delights to come.

Spicy South Indian Fried Meat

Sadly, the photo doesn't do this justice. One of the best Indian dishes I've ever had.  I've been back since my first visit to have this dish again, which is rare for me, as I always like to try something new.

The dish consists of tender bits of lamb marinated in garlic, ginger, almond powder and coriander.  It's one of the house specialities and is served dry, which allows the flavours to come through.  It's not too hot (medium/mild) but the different flavours come through to make a truly memorable dish. Very impressive.

The vegetable side dishes

Grace and I have increasingly been having more vegetable dishes when we go for a curry, as we've found them more interesting than some of the traditional meat dishes.

At the Banana Leaf we shared a spinach and mushroom dry masala and an aubergine curry.

The spinach and mushroom had a real kick to it and provided a bit of heat to go with the subtler main.  The aubergine curry was in a thick sauce, but had a generous helping of soft aubergine that had soaked up the flavours and was also very good.

I wish I could say that the Banana Leaf was a new discovery, but it's been in the Harden guide for a number of years and it's been the place I've been recommended by local people in the know.  It definitely lived up to my expectations and will definitely become my curry house of choice in Croydon...

March Round-Up: Oxtail & venison brightens a quiet month...

March was probably the quietest month I've had in terms of eating out since I moved to London as I continue to save for my wedding.  In fact, I'm going to be asking for your advice in the next couple of weeks for a post wedding splurge! Further details soon...

Leon, The Strand

I met up with a friend to go to an RSA lecture on Incentives and then grabbed a quick lunch.  We decided on a trip to Leon on the Strand and was pleasantly surprised with the food.  I had the Moroccan meatballs washed down with a refreshing lemon, ginger and mint cooler.  The meatballs were served with some great hummus and flatbread and it makes a good, quick, lunch option.

Draft House, Tower Bridge

Grace's had her first wedding dress fitting at Candy Anthony and so what better way to celebrate than with a burger and sticky toffee pudding at the Draft House, Tower Bridge.

What better way to celebrate trying on your wedding dress?

The burger was good.  Served in a sweet brioche bun the 8oz burger was cooked medium and had juices running down my chin when I bit into it.  Fries were crisp and lovely too, but the onion rings were a bit of a let down.  They were far too greasy and coated the mouth with a film of fat.

We decided to share a dessert and went for sticky toffee pudding.  Again this was a bit of a let down.  The toffee sauce had too much of a bitter burnt caramel taste that I struggled with  after a few mouthfuls.  I prefer my toffee sauce sweeter and so left most of it to Grace. 

The Tree House, South Croydon

One of our favourite places in Croydon.  This gastro-pub serves up decent, competitively priced meals in a cosy, welcoming setting - though sometimes the loud music from the bar and upstairs can be irritating on a weekend!

Special mention this time for the oxtail, which I'd never had before.  It just fell off the bone and melted in the mouth and was delicious.  I enjoyed it so much that I was inspired to go out and buy some the next week to cook at home.  It was let down by some dry (reheated?) dauphinoise, but I can forgive them that.  Personally I think it provides better value and equal cooking to the over-rated Albert's Table and Fish & Grill down the road.

The Bay Horse, Hurworth, Darlington

Being the dutiful son, we went up to visit my parents the week before Mother's Day and wanted to mention a great meal we had at the Bay Horse.  It's in the running for the Good Pub Guide Food PUb of th Year and has a Bib Gourmand and it's easy to see why.

Venison served two ways

I had venison cooked two ways and it was excellent. Whilst probably not quite as good as the wonderful Star at Harome, it wasn't too far behind and if you find yourself in the North East and are looking for somewhere to eat then you could do a lot, lot worse.

A cheesy night at GAIL's Artisan Bakery

Bread and cheese.  Two of my favourite food stuffs, with me being an unashamed food snob when it comes to decent bread.  In fact, I think you can often judge how good a restaurant is likely to be based on the quality of bread they serve.

So, when I got an invite to attend a tasting evening pairing different breads from GAIL's and cheeses from Paxton & Whitfield I jumped at the chance.

The selection of breads we were served.

The idea of the evening was simple, Emma from GAIL's and Rhuaridh from Paxton & Whitfield talked us through the various breads and cheeses they had picked for us and then we had to decide which combinations were our favourites.

A serious task and one I wanted to do a thorough job with, so (in the interests of research) I ate about a kilo of cheese and a couple of loafs!

 

 

 

 

The two cheese platters to choose from.

Most of the breads were varieties of sourdough and varied from a couple of simple types to ones with fruit/veg in.  Emma explained all the loaves are baked fresh everyday and are hand kneaded by their bakers.

The fruit breads at the top, cracker in the middle and sourdoughs at the bottom.

I thought the milder cheeses such as the delicious, creamy Cerney goats cheese and the St Felicien worked best on the plainer sourdough, while the more pungent cheeses such as the Gorgonzola Dulce and Highland Blue went well with the fruit bread such as the currant & cherry and apricot & hazlenut sourdoughs.

The thin, crunchy, seeded crackers provided a good alternative to the bread and went with most of the cheeses.

As usual, my favourite cheese was a Comte, though this was a bit younger (about 6 months old) and not as strongly flavoured as others I have had.

We were given a potato and rosemary loaf and an olive sourdough to take home and try and these were possibly my two favourite breads overall.

The potato and rosemary was excellent toasted with lashings of melted butter (I've had about five slices over the weekend!) and the olive sourdough was packed with big, juicy black and green olives that gave it bags of flavour.

The bread at GAIL's isn't cheap at £2.25-£2.99 per loaf, but the quality can't be faulted.  It would be ideal if you are looking to impress for a dinner party or just want to treat yourself to something a bit special and a class above most other breads.

Salt Yard, Fitzrovia: Some hits, some misses at tapas tavern

Before we all got partners and settled down a bit, I used to go on regular football, food and drinking trips to Spain with some friends from uni.  My love of Spanish food developed from trips to Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and other Spanish cities.

Anytime we meet up (usually in London or Liverpool) the first thought is to look for a Spanish restaurant to try and so it was with this in mind that four of us decided to give the Salt Yard a try on a cold Monday night.

It's normally a good sign if a restaurant is full on a Monday night and as were led through the bustling bar area to a downstairs table the place had a good vibe to it.

The menu is compact with six or seven choices in the meat, fish and vegetable sections of the menu.

The good:

If a Spanish restaurant can't get it's chorizo right then it's in trouble. Fortunately, the Salt Yard produced some excellent, hot, smoky chorizo on a bed of slow roasted peppers. Moreish.

It's only in the last few years that i've really got into calamari, but it's now one of my favourites. This crisp, lightly battered version came with a powerful aioli and went in a flash.

The butternut squash gnocchi was an unexpected hit.  Served with sweet, golden sultanas, pine nuts and a sage and butter sauce the contrasts of textures and flavours worked really well.  My favourite dish of the night.

The mediocre

My friends reported that "an excellent salsa verde didn’t quite rescue the Fillet of Lamb, which didn’t seem well matched with crushed Jerusalem artichokes."

The bavette (flank steak) would have been sent back if it wasn't the last dish we received and we weren't so full already. Served with luke warm onion rings, the beef was chewy, tasteless and very disappointing. I've a feeling this was the last bit of steak they had on the evening (another table near us were told it was finished) and it just wasn't up to scratch.

Overall, though we had a really good meal.  It was great to catch up with friends and the relaxed, informal and unobtrusive service added to the ambiance. 

You can see why the Salt Yard is a popular restaurant.  The beef aside, everything was of a high quality and, like the best Spanish cooking, the kitchen kept things simple and let the quality of the produce shine through.

 

Mystery pork scratchings & some pleasant surprises: February Restaurant Highlights

February started with visits from two sets of friends, which gave us an excuse to eat out a fair bit as two of the girls were pregnant and so pubs & clubs were out!

The first week of February we went to the Salt Yard (full review to follow) and then the following evening I took them for their first Byron Burger - I should be on commission for the place - which they both loved.

Later that week, I squeezed in a visit to meet a friend near Victoria and before drinking far too much and dancing badly in a dodgy club, I had a decent meal at the The Queen's Arms in Pimlico.

A good sized and tasty pork chop, which was only let down by the fat not being properly crisped and an excellent sticky toffee pudding with salted caramel ice-cream (though they could've been more generous with the icecream).  The pub had a good selection of real ales in the pub and it's worth a look if you're in the area.

The next day was a trip to Polpofor lunch.  It's the first time i've been and I enjoyed it much more than my visit to Polpetto. Favourite dishes were the mushroom piadina and the duck ragu.  The restaurant was buzzing and it was a relaxed, enjoyable meal with good food.  I'll be back...

We then crossed the road to Yu-Foria for some frozen yoghurt.  The toppings were very good (I had Oreo's and choc-mint sprinkles) but at the end of the day it's just not as good as proper ice-cream!

On the evening we went to the Crack Comedy comedy club in Wimbledon.  As part of the deal you got a two course meal at the local Thai place - Mae Ping.  Normally these offers result in some pretty dodgy food, but I was really impressed with the quality and portion size of what we were served.  The chicken satay was especially good and came with a spicy peanut dip. They have five branches across south London and I'd definitely go back to try the full menu.

I had my first trip to Tas on The Cut near Waterloo with some work colleagues and, like Mae Ping, was pleasantly surprised.  It's a Turkish restaurant and we went for a meze style selection of dishes that we all shared.  Everything came served with some excellent warm pitta bread and the best dishes were the fresh cold starters, such as the humus and aubergine with chickpeas.  There were a few mistakes with the meat and fish dishes (mussels were badly overcooked and chewy) but overall it was a decent meal and good for a works outing where there should be something for everyone to enjoy.

Everton beating Chelsea in the FA Cup resulted in an unplanned 8 hour drinking session in Victoria.  Memories of the evening are a bit blurry, but I do remembering drinking too many Jager bombs with a random group of Americans and these amazing, 10 inch pork scratchings from a pub that I can't find via google. If anyone recognises them then let me know!

Amazing pork scratchings, but where did I have them?!

 

 

 

Chinese New Year at Ping Pong

Chinese New Year began on the 3rd February this year and I was invited along to Ping Pong to sample some of their special dishes and drinks to celebrate the year of the rabbit. 

Ping Pong is a bit of a favourite of mine and Grace's and we often take friends and family if they are visiting and have also held a couple of work outings there.  It's package of decent dim sum, good drinks list, quick service and well designed restaurants is a winner for me.

Anyway, we started off with some of the Chinese New Year specials before Khin, Ping Pong's development chef, ordered us a selection from the main menu to sample.  I'll pick out some of my highlights from the evening.  See if you can spot Ping Pong's PR photos v my phone ones... ;)

Chinese shitake mushroom & chicken hotpot

My favourite of the specials was this hotpot.  The slow cooked chicken and the mushrooms both soaked up all the flavour from the cooking juices and were delicious.

Celery dumpling in pumpkin pastry and Seabass dumpling in red cabbage pastry

As well as being aesthetically pleasing, the seabass was also very good with a generous chunk of seabass being surrounded by bits of water chestnut and prawn.  As a bit of a soy sauce addict I added a generous splash on it which I thought went well with the seabass.

Char Sui buns remain a favourite.

From previous visits I knew the duck spring rolls (like a deep fried duck pancake) with hoisin sauce and the sweet and sticky char sui buns with honey roast barbequed pork were both favourites and I was pleased when Keith had included these in his order.  Both lived up to expectations.

Vietnamese rice paper prawn roll

Out of dishes that I hadn't previously tried then two stood out.

The green chive dumplings with king prawn.  They were a lurid green colour, but you could really taste the chive in the pastry and they were completely different to anything else we had.

I also enjoyed the Vietnamese prawn rolls, which you wrapped in a lettuce leaf and a sprig of mint.  

My only disappointment was the prawn toast.  It used to be a favourite, but a couple of visits ago they changed the recipe and I don't think it's as good as previous.

Pear and Elderflower Collins

Another big plus point of Ping Pong is the drinks list.  They have one of the best range of non-alcoholic drinks I've seen and the cocktail menu is excellent.

We were given a couple of the special Pear and Elderflower Collins to kick start the evening before I moved on to my favourite Lemongrass and Lime.

Overall Ping Pong remains a guilty pleasure and one that I'll continue to go back to.

I'll be honest and say that I haven't visited any of the top London dim-sum places like Royal China or Yautacha (and I'd like to go and compare), but in a dozen or so visits to Ping Pong I haven't had a complaint and the people I have taken along have always enjoyed it.

 

Burgers, beef & rhubarb pannacotta - January's Restaurant Highlights

I tend to eat out at least once a week, but often circumstances don’t allow me to take photos or write up where I’ve been. 

For example, it would be a little bit rude if I’m out with non-foody friends or with work and I write up a scathing or just simply dull review of a place.  Frankly, I’d look a bit of a **** and I do this blog as a hobby rather than anything too serious.

Anyway, the orginal idea of the blog was to be an online diary and so I’m going to make a more conscious effort to round up the places I’ve been in a particularly month.

So, in short, that’s really a long, convoluted way of saying here is a quick summary of places I’ve eaten in January...

#MEATEASY, New Cross

There’s been a lot of hype and reviews about this place and even Marina at the Metro (my fav restaurant critic) reviewed it this week.  I took my friend who was on a flying visit from Uganda and said she was craving meat, so it seemed an obvious choice.

It was a fun place – a cool, speakeasy type joint above a pub in New Cross.  They had a slightly chaotic ordering system and the food arrived in a bit of a haphazard way, but it was made up by a top-notch burger and some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had.

Would I go back? Possibly, but MEATEASY might lose its charm/novelty factor on subsequent visits. Although the burgers were really good, I’m not sure they were that much better than my favourite Byron burger (and Byron’s fries are much better) and I’ll probably stay in town with them and their ordered service and professionalism then venture out to New Cross. 

Sartoria, Saville Row

An agency I used to work with invited me to their post-Christmas dinner at Sartoria, a D&D restaurant near Saville Row.  They’d hired the whole restaurant and as well as having our glasses of wine generously topped up at every opportunity we were served a surprisingly good medium-rare steak, which is unusual for banqueting/mass catering as it’s usually over done and/or cold.

I’d consider going back and trying the normal menu and hope it’s more Launceston Place (yay!) than the Blueprint Cafe (boo!) in the D&D stable...

Giraffe, South Bank

This place is fast becoming my quick dinner (i.e. lunch to you non-northerners) meeting venue near work and I went three times in January.  Plenty of choice, good booths to have a conversation in and excellent value.  The food is consistent and flavoursome with my favourites being the hot 'Thai' duck stir fry and the simple but tasty chicken schnitzel. Along with Byron it’s probably my favourite restaurant chain in London.

Zucca, Bermondsey

I wanted to take my team out somewhere nice before Christmas to say thank you for their hard work over the course of 2010.  Unfortunately we had to postpone due to illness and so went along a couple of weeks ago and I was seriously impressed.

I’m not always the biggest Italian fan, but the food from the small, compact menu was excellent.  I had a luxurious, warming oxtail ragu with polenta to begin with, followed by a rustic, wholesome slow cooked chicken stew with sausage.  The chicken was especially good – served on the bone in the pot it fell off the bone and melted in the mouth and was simply delicious.

I finished off with an excellent milky pannacotta with teasingly tart stewed rhubarb.  I will definitely be back...

Bob Bob Ricard: Super Sunday lunch in sumptious surroundings

I've been wanting an excuse to go to Bob Bob Ricard for a long time and when my parents got tickets for Terry Wogan and wanted to go somewhere for Sunday lunch afterwards then I knew the time had come.

Located in Soho, the first thing to say is that decor in BBR is a decadent, opulent and over the top.  It conjures up images of a fancy dining car on the Orient Express and is a delightful throw back. You instantly feel like you're somewhere special and we received a warm welcome from the staff. 

In some ways the whole experience - menu, service, venue - at BBR reminds me of the The Ivy, but done just better on the whole.  The menu is nothing too flash or pretentious containing classic British dishes with a Russian influence.  I know that doesn't sound too inspiring, but it works.

Before moving on to the food a quick word about the service. 

Our server really struggled with my dad's North-East accent and it resulted in us being brought a wrong drinks order and having to repeat things a number of times (which we found quite amusing). 

However, I thought the waitress handled it really well - she apologised profusely about the drinks, proclaiming the memorable "It is no problem - here is the customer is king! I will sort it out for you" and then making sure she repeated everything we ordered back to us *very* slowly.  She was affable, friendly and attentive - for example, she made sure the water on the table was topped up constantly without asking.  A small thing, but it does make a difference and it's amazing how many restaurants fail to do it without asking.

As it was a Sunday three of us went for the roast beef Sunday lunch:

 

Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roasted veg and gravy

On our last Sunday lunch out together we went to Corrigan's and we all agreed this was better.  The roast beef (sourced from O'Shea's) was excellent.  Served medium-rare it was full of flavour and melted in the mouth.  The huge Yorkshire puddings were light and crisp and the roasted veg and greens all cooked perfectly.  Overall I was really impressed and it's got to be one of the best Sunday lunches I've had.

Cornish Crab Cake with tomatoes, leeks and a fired Quail's egg

My mum went for the crab cakes and was equally delighted. There was plenty of sweet crab meat in the cake and it went well with the tomoatoes and egg.

Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

I was a little disappointed with my chocolate raspberry trifle as I felt the proportions were wrong.  Too much cream on the top and not enough of the delicious chocolate and raspberry at the bottom!

A mini-selection of cakes

Grace went for a mini-selection of cakes, which she wolfed down in a flash and didn't share with anyone! Her favourites were a rum-baba (minus the rum) and a light Battenberg cake.

Overall, BBR really impressed from start to finish. It's now the place I'd go and  recommend to people if they want a high quality, but non-Michelin star style, meal in London. Good stuff.

 

Gingerbread House Making: Construction & Destruction

Just before Christmas I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Lex Cook You Eat supper club constructing Gingerbread Houses.

It was great fun and I had to laugh at the amount of thought, effort and planning Grace put into her design.  I went a bit more care free and with the flow in my construction with the aim of getting as much chocolate and gummy delights on it as possible!

Looking at all the photos on Lex's blog it's clear to see how much time and effort people around the world put into making some fabulous houses.

You can read all about the day on Lex's and Kavey's blog, but I thought it would be nice to show what happened next and the destruction and eating of the houses.

We took a house along on Christmas Day and one to a Boxing Day party and let our nieces and nephews destroy and then eat the houses.

They took great delight in smashing up the houses and then gorged themselves on e-numbers resulting in a number of hyper kids running round the house until gone midnight...

Anyway, hopefully we've started a tradition of building gingerbread houses this year and plan to do it again this year (though we'll bake the gingerbread Lex).

Happy 2011 everyone - hope it's a good one and thanks for reading.

 

 

Hawksmoor, Seven Dials: Stupendous steaks, champion chips & classy cocktails

Often when I have steak in a restaurant I end up disappointed as it turns up badly cooked or is a poor cut of meat.  I generally prefer to buy the best quality of steak I can and cook it at home in my trusty griddle pan.

My current butcher of choice of is the Ginger Pig and I've popped in a few times to their branch in Greensmiths on Lower Marsh near work to pick up a steak or two.  It isn't cheap (about £8-£12 per steak), but the quality of the meat makes it far better value than going to an average restaurant for one.

The only restaurants that serve a similar quality meat are generally out my price range and so I jumped at the chance to sample Hawksmoor, Seven Dials, not once, but twice, during their soft opening.

Based close to Covent Garden they've done a great job in converting a basement (apparently it used to be a brewery) into a dark, atmospheric dining space and bar.

They also use beef from the Ginger Pig and have a chalk board with the cuts of steak and sizes available listed, which is a nice touch.

My first visit was for the excellent Dine with Dos Hermanos event and we were lucky enough to sample a huge part of the menu.  I then returned on the Saturday for second helpings.

There is a wide selection of meaty and fishy starters and my favourites on two visits were the lamb chops and the corned beef.

The lamb chops & corned beef, pickles & mustard

However, it's the beef that's the star of the show and on both occassions we were served the different cuts of beef sliced in a large platter.

The star of the show & bone marow

All the larger steaks are served on the bone and have a perfect char and a juicy, bloody centre, which makes for a great steak.  My favourite cut on my two visits was the tenderloin part of the Porterhouse.  It just melted in the mouth and was packed full of flavour.

Another big plus for Hawksmoor is the quality of their sides. The bone marrow (pictured) was rich, unctious and delicious on the bread we were served. 

My favourite of the two types of chips were the beef dripping roast potatoes.  Incredibly crisp on the outside and super fluffy inside they are simply some of the best i've ever had and worth a visit for those alone.  The tokens bits of veg I consumed were also well cooked, though can easily be neglected in favour of the beef, chips and moreish bernaise sauce.

Seeing how much effort goes into the steak, then you might think that desserts would be a secondary consideration, but they were a pleasant surprise.

Lemon curd & shortbread and Chocolate pudding

I particularly enjoyed the lemon curd and short bread.  The zesty lemon and sugary shortbread were a perfect pallette cleanser after all the beef.

A rich chocolate pudding should have been too heavy a finish to the meal, but somehow I managed to shovel all the gooey chocolately goodness in!

With an impressive cocktail and drinks menu, Hawksmoor really has a lot going for it and it is definitely up there with Goodman as the best steak restaurant in London. 

I know a lot of people who name the Gaucho Grill as their favourite London steak place.  However, to me these two restaurants are a class above and now Hawksmoor has a more central branch, i'd urge you to give it a try and see the difference.  I'm confident you won't be disappointed...