Death by Burrito at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, 3rd July

Having been to Death by Burrito when they were a pop-up at Catch, I was excited that they had a permanent place at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (one of my ‘go-to’ bars when I’m in the area). My thinking was that, as with Rita’s, it would give them space and time to get creative and put some new items on the menu that would really show the breadth of what they could do. I was pleased to be invited for a sneak peek the day before they opened up officially. I imagined a sit down event with a selection of everything on the menu for everyone to try and maybe with some explanation of it all as well.

It turns out the night wasn’t quite like that. It was more of a party than a food event. Ryan Chetiyawardana (otherwise known as Mr Lyan of White Lyan which I have yet to get to) was responsible for the cocktail menu and the three I tried were all delicious, and strong, so no complaints there. But you start serving cocktails, and free cocktails at that, and the bar becomes a blockade very, very quickly. They probably should have just whipped up batches of one cocktail and lined them up on the bar for you to take as you pleased – let’s be honest, when something is free, people aren’t that picky about what it is.

(c) Vivek Vadoliya

I ended up talking to one of the bloggers from InformedLondon and his friend, and one of the BarChick girls, who, like me, were there to see what the menu was all about. We came hungry and we wanted burritos! And we stayed that way for quite a while as food didn’t start coming out until past 9pm. Finally, it arrived to a chorus of grumbling stomachs – a basket of chicken wings to share and a slider each. Not quite as Mexican as I was expecting. We waited for more, or, specifically – some burritos. But – can you believe this? – no burritos were to be found! What was even more bizarre was that the food we did get wasn’t even very good. If you’d never had DBB before, I don't think this offering would persuade you to come back to try the main event, unless of course once you had a hankering for burritos you couldn’t rest until you’d been back to get some. 

The chicken wings were alright – the agave gave them a sweet taste that I liked but they weren't as good as wings I’ve had elsewhere. Then we tried the sliders. Now, I know I’m not a burger fan but even I could tell these were not the way to do burgers. They were cold by the time we ate them, and had dried out (though there were signs they were cooked well originally, being slightly pink in the middle), and there was far, far too much bread. Assuming these were the candied bacon and jalapeno burgers on the menu, I didn’t realize any bacon was involved until looking at the menu afterwards, and the jalapeno might as well not have been there for all the kick it gave it. The mini-tacos were okay – the meat in particular was lovely; a slightly sweet, smoky flavour and a barbecued texture to it, and I liked the crunch of the radish on top, but they too were a little dry. I applied hot sauce liberally.

(c) Vivek Vadoliya

(c) Vivek Vadoliya

But don’t be too disheartened. I spied on the menu the items I’d had before, so if you wanted to know what their burritos are all about, which is where their strengths lie, read my previous post on them.

(c) Vivek Vadoliya

Because this was also to launch of their cook book there were a few copies on sale and I had a browse through it. Some pretty tasty-looking food in there, but I don’t cook so it was pointless me getting a copy. Several people did though, and there was a flurry of transactions which seemed to double as a signal for half the party to clear off! Which was a shame because the DJ they had was banging and if it had been a Friday I’d have merrily sipped a few more cocktails soaking in the tunes. The place has been done up all Mexi-macabre and looks the business so it’s a pretty cool place to hang out. And those cocktails are certainly worth a visit.

They didn’t have the slushie machine for slushie negronis, and they couldn’t make the most interesting-sounding drink on the list – the Sweet Papel with sweetcorn and coriander atomisation. But I tried the Pineapple and Cacao Smash, the Bandito Hi-Ball and the Ring-a-Ting-Ting. All were very easy to drink, easy on the mixer and strong on the liquor. I worried that the Bandito, being in a high-ball glass would be mostly ginger ale, but I needn’t have: slug after slug of tequila went into the cocktail shaker, and the ginger ale was only a quick gesture to sweeten things up at the end. My favourite though was definitely the Ring-a-ting-ting – not too sugary with a cucumber background aroma making it super-refreshing. I would have stuck to these but for the blogger in me wanting variety.

So, not sure what to make of this place. If you’ve been, let me know what you thought!

Death by Burrito, 7th August

We got over to Catch at about 6:15. There were only a couple of other people in the place so we were told to just grab a seat and were asked if we were eating. We most certainly were. 

I'd done a little research on the place and commonly came across the fact that the burrito was £12 and therefore ridiculously expensive, that the service was pretty poor and cocktails miniscule. None of these things were true of my visit.

I greedily looked at the menu and decided that everything sounded really good. But Stephen wouldn't allow me to order anything other than a main, as it was the day before my birthday and we had 'three days of eating and drinking ahead of us'. Party-pooper. He also came to regret this, as Death by Burrito is rather a misnomer. Perhaps 'Minor injury by burrito' or 'Inconvenience by Burrito' would be more apt. Suggesting that you will die by burrito implies these will be so bursting and so hearty that you'll be rendered incapacitated. In fact, they were probably the smallest burritos we have ever had. 

Fairly tall cocktail

We got one beef burrito for £9.50 and one order of tacos for £6.50. That gives you two tacos so we had one each and split the burrito, which handily came cut in half already. And that was all. I had expected we would also get some blue corn tortillas and quacamole with our mains, as that is what I'd read but I can only assume that the trade-off from reducing the price was that you don't get any extras with it anymore. 

The tacos and the burrito were fairly equally delicious. The short rib was perhaps a little drier than other burritos but this could partly have been because the burrito is made up of all meat plus some lettuce - no refried or black beans providing any other moisture. But not having any of these usual extras means the burrito is very compact and not as filling as the ones you get... well... anywhere else. So even at £9.50 the price tag is still a little steep. A nice touch was the shredded sweet potato which wasn't just a gesture but a discernible texture and flavour that complemented the smoky short rib really well. The burrito came with a pot of fiery salsa on the side, which was delicious, but the serving was tiny, and it was in a very impractical container - dipping your burrito in it was quite the task and you weren't provided with any other means of getting the sauce onto anything.  

Item 1 (burrito) does not fit into item 2 (salsa)

The pork tacos were very juicy, sitting on the right amount of coleslaw. Pieces of crackling were dotted throughout providing a very pleasant crunch, in, I'd say, every other mouthful. For tacos, they were quite generously portioned (compare to the size of Breddo's tacos for example) but only having two of them meant they still weren't all that filling.

I fear we did not do DBB justice, again succumbing to the tyranny of our waistlines and wallets. Judged on these two dishes alone, the food was very tasty and I wish we had tried some of the other things on the menu. The courgette flower and poblano crepes for instance, or the chipotle poppers on the small plates side (all only £6.00). Yes, the burritos are a little pricier than, say, Luardos or Chipotle but when I'm getting dinner out, not just some food on the go for lunch, I don't really mind a little extra cost. We still only spent about £8 between us on food, my cocktail is what bumped the bill up past the £20 mark. 

Must admit, the cocktail I ordered from the DBB menu (see above) was nice but probably not worth inflating your bill for. I had the pink paloma, for £7.50 which was tequila, 'raspberry and aperol charged with homemade vanilla salted grapefruit soda'. I didn't really detect anything exotic about the soda but as I said it was nice enough to drink. Some of Catch's own creations sounded even better, I'd give them a try next time. 

The Diner, 20th November

Ok, so I know this is beginning to look suspiciously like a food blog. And the next few posts are not going to do anything to dissuade you of that notion. But bear with me - I will have non-food related posts very soon. I'm working to a backlog so this is not an empty promise - I have something in mind I will write up very soon.

Right. On to the topic in question - The Diner. For brunch. 

I've actually been to the Diner once before years ago, but I didn't have anything to eat. My companion had a burrito. This same companion was with me when we went back the other weekend for brunch. We had first tried the Breakfast Club in Liverpool Street but there was a pretty big queue so we had to find somewhere else. The Diner in Shoreditch also had a bit of a wait, but only about 15 minutes. I didn't remember what the menu was like before, but the Diner had been popping up in recommendations for brunch in stuff like Secret London and Yelp so I wanted to give it a try.

The menu for the breakfast type stuff was extensive. It was quite a task to decide. I thought I was in the mood for pancakes but after careful perusal the western eggs seemed to be calling me. Western eggs - scrambled eggs with onions, peppers and cheese. Stephen, for some strange reason decided to go for the burrito again. I didn't think this was really in the spirit of brunch but he seemed to recall the burrito being good and couldn't be convinced to order otherwise.

I also ordered a side of toast and some hash browns.

This was a mistake. A slightly embarrassing mistake. I did not realise that the portion of eggs would be phenomenal and that they would also come with a side of home fries with onions. I looked like a total greedy pig. I forgot to take a picture and I deeply regret it. The food looked delicious when it arrived and it tasted even better with my mouth than it had with my eyes. The toast and hash browns were completely superfluous, though I did my best to get through them.

As it happens, it was quite fortuitous that I ordered the sides - not for me, but for Stephen.

His steak burrito was a disappointment. He gave me some precise adjectives to use to describe it but I can't remember them now.* It didn't live up to his memory of it and I think the problem was this: he had last eaten the burrito before the proliferation of all the very good burrito places over here. He had nothing to really compare it to at the time. But now he did and it was found sadly lacking. As I said before, I had over-ordered and this was lucky because he made up for the lack in both quality and size of the burrito by finishing off my hash browns. They were tasty.

So, to conclude - I shall be going back to The Diner. There are many more breakfast items that I have faith they do very well that I wish to sample. But I will probably stay away from any of the other things on the menu... apart from the hard shakes. I bet they're good.
*I consulted stephen about his burrito and he wishes me to say that there wasn't enough rice, not enough steak which was dry anyway, and too much of that crappy American cheese.