Circus, 12th July

I thought Circus was going to serve up something along the lines of the London Cabaret Club – a show that was fun, but inoffensive, not too risqué. But Circus is an altogether racier night. Not so at first, when a duo dressed in polka dot swimsuits a la 50s pin ups did an aerial hoop performance against a backdrop of doo wop music. But each act got naughtier and sexier, culminating in a fire-eating performance to Welcome to the Jungle, where the fire eater whipped out her tatas and set her pasties alight!

I was impressed by every act and enjoyed the soundtrack of uncensored hip hop and Missy Elliot tracks so I was, I must admit, a little surprised that the food more than passed muster. The place serves pan-Asian food – so you can have dim sum, or sushi/sashimi or tempura, and then most of the mains have an Oriental flavouring to them. I was invited to dine here and we had one starter, main and dessert each. I was stuffed to the gills afterwards.

First I had the chicken truffle shumai with yuzu ponzu. These little parcels were packed with chickeny goodness and were quickly devoured. My friend Sam had the black cod tempura with a tequila salsa which really had a boozy bite to it. The light batter and delicate flesh melted on your tongue.

Next I had the black miso cod – amazingly sweet flavours with firm fish flesh. And a very generous amount!

Sam ordered the New York Strip which you could cook to your liking because it came served on hot (very hot) rocks sizzling away.

For sides you can have smoked aubergine, steamed rice or baby bok choy. We had one of each and that smoked and sweet aubergine is the best aubergine I’ve ever had.

Dessert was good but I think I went for the ‘too safe’ option of a chocolate fondant so I wasn’t wowed by it. It oozed as it should have done but yeah, not much else I am tempted to write about it. Sam’s yoghurt cake, however, was definitely different and therefore stood out. Slightly dense and sweet. 

The overall experience definitely had the wow factor - it would be an excellent treat for a date, or a close friend. And definitely one to put you in a sexy mood...

The Port House, 16th April

I have a tendency to walk past places I think look nice and then put them on my List so I don’t forget to investigate them. When I came across The Port House on the Strand, I made a note of it because port is a favourite drink of Stephen’s. As it happens, when I finally went I didn’t take Stephen and didn’t drink any port.

Instead I went for a (very) light bite with my mum before we watched the five-star show Gypsy.

I walked in and was quite enchanted by the place. It feels like walking into a cellar or cave – in a good way. It is extremely dark and cosy with candlelight. It would make a really good romantic meal. I had expected to waltz in at 6:15 and get a table but it must get a lot of pre-theatre business as the place was pretty much full.

My mum doesn’t eat very much these days so we only ordered three dishes to share between us (and I ate most of those). Luckily I had had a snack beforehand. We got the confitado de pato and patatas bravas con alioli and, because we felt we should have some vegetables, the pisto – diced, slow cooked vegetables with oregano, paprika and olive oil with a fried egg on top instead of manchego. The dishes were a bit hit and miss. The vegetables were really just a slightly watery ratatouille which an egg on top didn’t make particularly interesting.

The duck confit leg was delicious, as duck is wont to be. The membrillo sauce it was served with was a nice, sweet contrast.

The patatas bravas were decent – I didn’t think the ‘fiery’ tomato sauce was particularly hot but the garlic mayo was definitely garlicky and I liked them.

Everything is around the £4 or £5 mark and I think you get a decent portions for this. We also had a glass of very nice red wine.

Sadly, that’s all I had so I don’t know what their pintxos or other, more interesting dishes were like. I would like to go back to give a broader, perhaps fairer review but there are so many places to get to, a repeat visit is low on my priorities. I would definitely say, nip in and if there’s a free table/seat at the bar, stay a while with a nice glass of wine and give it a try. There could be some nice surprises on the menu.

Joe's Southern Kitchen, 24th March

I’m all for getting bang for your buck but sometimes a little warning of how much food is about to come your way would be a good idea! We totally over-ordered at Bird because of this, and then, seemingly due to a quirk of fate, my friend and I did this at Joe’s as well.

I know that Stephen and I can easily eat a whole chicken between us so ordering a half chicken and another main between me and my friend seemed like a pretty sensible decision. It wasn’t. So we ordered the beef rib. What came to the table was not just one rib to share as I would have expected, but two! Yes… two! I asked Joe’s on Twitter and they confirmed that this dish is normally the one rib at 1kg. But they said sometimes, if the chef thinks it looks a bit small he’ll give you extra. So this must have been the case here which ordinarily is great but it did mean we couldn’t face finishing the equally good chicken. Without a beef rib each to eat I think we would have polished it off with room for more quite easily. But sadly we got well stuck into the beef and it was so good we couldn’t stop so we ended up leaving half the fried chicken languishing. And what I did eat of the chicken I ate out of a duty to try it, I certainly didn’t have any need to eat more! Should have asked for a doggy bag. (Or better yet – UK restaurants – start doing this as standard!). 

Joe’s Southern Kitchen first caught my eye when I noticed they had spinach and artichoke dip on their menu, something I haven’t seen on UK menus at all. This was my sole reason for putting it on my List. But in the interim, from following their twitter account, I began to want to try some of their other food as well. For ages they were known for their beer can chicken (another American standard) but lately they’ve got quite a following for their fried chicken (and even changed their Twitter handle to reflect this). And so it was the fried chicken that we tried.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I got there at about 6:15 and I noticed that happy hour finished at 6:30 so I quickly ordered me and my friend a margarita for £4 each. Worth noting that cocktails are £8 otherwise for the classics which isn’t a bad price at all for central London.

I did indeed manage to get the artichoke dip to start and we also got the corn bread with paprika butter and green tomato chutney. They have a strong ‘snacks’ menu – even better than their starters menu I would say. Jalapeno poppers and popcorn shrimp also feature so it was hard to narrow it down. I was a little disappointed when the dip arrived. It was in a tiny bowl. Typical England, I thought, thinking about the vat it would probably have come in in the States. Oh Joe’s – you totally fooled us with this serving size – we had no idea of the portions to come! The dip was ok – very cheesy, but could have done with being a tad warmer to make it easier to scoop. A bit more seasoning wouldn’t have gone amiss. Also, it was supposed to be toasted bread but as you can see this has barely seen the inside of a toaster. Crunchy bread would have made for easier dipping. Pita chips might have worked nicely.

The cornbread, however, was fantastic. It was much cakier than cornbread I’ve had in the past and we smothered it with the paprika butter which melted into the warm bread. Just yummy. The tomato chutney was nice enough but I didn't think it was needed here.

Then came the mains, which we ordered with southern fried potatoes (or home fries). You can't go massively wrong with fried potatoes but I have to say they did get them massively right, having a really good crunch and seasoning. I’ve already said how defeated we were by the mains. The chicken was spot on – succulent, with a crunchy, well flavoured coating, though it didn't seem to come with the tabasco honey I'd heard so much of. Perhaps this was the hot sauce provided on the table anyway. The beef had a nice bite and a great taste. Can it compete with somewhere like Pitt Cue or Hot Box? It’s not quite there (few places are) but it is much more than just lip service to BBQ food. I would happily order the same again. It's just what you want out of this kind of restaurant - nothing fancy, just tasty, dependable food.

Unsurprisingly for this part of town, there seemed to be quite a lot of tourists. You could tell by the conversation that the two parties next to us were on holiday (there was talk of trains to catch and ‘treating themselves to dessert cos they’re only here once’) but unlike many other places in Tourist Hell (Covent Garden), Joe’s isn’t just phoning it in. I need to go back and work my way through the rest of their snacks and give the beer can chicken a try! Or I might just have to try their new outpost in Kentish Town. That area is ripe for exploration…

London Cocktail Week/El Nivel, 10th October

I’ll be honest – I like most of the places that I put on my List, because I put them on my List for a reason. I think they sound good. But every now and again something doesn’t quite live up to my expectations. And so it was with El Nivel, one of the bars we went to, to round off London Cocktail Week.

London Cocktail Week, if you didn’t know, is a week-long festival of cocktails. Hundreds of bars all over town participate and either create a cocktail or offer an existing one for only £4 if you have bought a wristband. On top of this, they have masterclasses, mixology sessions and pop-ups going on all over the place. I didn’t manage to go to any of these, but I did get to sip quite a few cut-price cocktails, which makes it all worthwhile.

First on the list was El Nivel, a bar specializing in tequila and mezcal but whose licensing restrictions mean you also have to eat while drinking there. That was fine with me. The menu sounded pretty good and I liked the sound of the LCW offering. And it was good. But for a Mexican bar it was rather devoid of atmosphere. I had tried to book but the booking system said it was full so we chanced it. We managed to get a seat and to be honest, while there were plenty of people there, it was never completely full the whole time we were there. Even with it more than half full though, it seemed rather quiet and subdued. Especially considering it was 8pm on a Friday night. Even thought it aims to be 'one of the best new bars in London', this place is really a quiet restaurant with a good drinks selection rather than the other way around.

We ordered the special LCW cocktail, a fizzy little tequila number with coctel de marisco to eat and then got another plate each. I really enjoyed the seafood cocktail – they didn’t skimp on the shrimp or scallop and it all tasted fresh and juicy in a salsa equivalent of marie rose - a tomatoey 'sangrita' sauce. My plate of tres chiles beef was also enjoyable, served with sour cream and tortillas to create little tacos if you wished. I had five of these and there was plenty of beef to eat on its own as well. It had quite a rich, savoury taste, a Mexican stew. Service was a little hit and miss – we ordered two glasses of red, for white to turn up. When we sent that away it took a good long while for the correct drinks to show – we had to check again they were on their way.

If you want a very quiet drink and bite to eat then head here, but for some reason quiet + Latin don’t go together in my mind so I probably won't make it back here.

However, after this we went to some much livelier places. First we went into Adventure Bar. Kind of on accident as we actually wanted to try out Dub Jam. This was exactly the kind of place I would normally avoid. Lots of drunk people dancing to mainstream music but I must admit there was something about the place that was likeable.Our cocktails were really tasty and came with a cute fortune cookie. It was called the Appleton Dreamcatcher and was made up of Appleton Estate Rum, black raspberry liqueur, vanilla, apple and passion fruit. It didn't taste too complicated and was easy to drink. The fun everyone was having was quite infectious and everyone seemed pretty friendly, especially the bar staff, so had it been a bigger night for me, I could happily have stayed and joined the dancing revellers.

I would say - not true.

However, my friend and I really wanted to be able to talk and hear each other so after one, we went upstairs to the buzzy but quieter Dub Jam where we had a really lovely rum punch, which was sprinkled with either nutmeg or cinnamon and made it very hard to sip slowly. At first the bartender warned us they were all out of tin cans in which to serve them (some scallywags keep nicking them) but he managed to procure a couple from somewhere so we got the full authentic experience. This place is really barely more than a hole in the wall but it’s a fun one, encapsulating sunny vibes in such a small spot and I’d happily go back.

Finally, we went over to the Big Easy and had the prettiest mojito I’ve seen. It was too dark to take a good picture and do it justice but it was a cocktail which seemed to have a ball of lime sorbet in the middle. Hands down one of the most memorable ways to serve this classic cocktail and a really good blend of sweetness and refreshment. Now my favourite mojito – I hope they do these all the time and not just for London Cocktail Week!

And so we concluded our cocktail self-tour. Can’t wait to do it again next year.

Freemasons' Grand Lodge Tour, 18th August

Just realised I wrote this blog post ages ago and then forgot to put it live! So here it is...

One of the (very few) upsides to having the ‘in-laws’ visiting is that it gives you an excuse to geek out a little and be a tourist. Having lived in London a long time, we’ve pretty much run out of the traditional touristy things to do and have started to look for the stuff that is more under the radar. (Having said that, the afternoon was filled with wandering round the Imperial War Museum which is pretty obvious.)

So, for one of our ‘things to do’ we went to the Grand United Freemasons Lodge in Covent Garden/Holborn and had a tour. It’s only 45 minutes, and if you expected a treatise on the history and evolution of the Freemasons you’ll be disappointed, but it does give you the chance to gawp and marvel at some architectural splendour. You start in the library/museum and from there go to the robing room where the masters put on their gowns and then down the corridor they walk in procession towards the Great Hall/Temple where they convene. You also get to see the route the lowlier Masons would take, through the three halls representing the stages of a mason’s career through the huge copper doors into a hall almost as high as a six-story building, and completely hidden from the outside world.

The place is literally full of symbolism. There doesn’t seem to be a symbolism they didn’t appropriate from Greek gods to astrology to the expected religious artefacts and symbolism. The hall formerly known as the peace hall is one such wonder with a shrine to those Freemasons who lost their lives in the Great War – all of their names have been transcribed and are held in an engraved chest bedecked with idols.

The place is mainly art deco and is full of Italian marble (plus some Tasmanian timber) and several beautiful stained glass windows. But when it was built in the 1920s-30s Egypt was also in fashion so there’s a bit of that thrown in as well. Unsurprisingly a lot of the tableaux represent masonry and also, there are a lot of religious references which will surprise no one who has read or watched The Da Vinci Code. Hearing how it is headed up by some of the wealthiest and, traditionally, powerful men in the land also doesn’t help – heirs to the throne have routinely been Grand Masters until taking the Kingship themselves.

No photos are allowed on the tour and there are so few people it’s impossibly to flout the rule. So you will just have to go and see this ridiculously extravagant building for yourself. It’s well worth doing. 

Shoot From the Hip, 20th May

I wasn't sure what to expect from an improvised comedy show. My only real experience of improv was the fabulous Austentatious crew who take an audience's made up title of a ‘lost’ Jane Austen work and from it construct an entire play, completely off the cuff. I didn't think Shoot From the Hip would be doing anything like that, but didn't know what it was they would do. I guess, in my head, they would just be doing something akin to standup, only without a fixed routine.

Instead, we were treated to a lot of shorter, scenario-based scenes, along the lines of that great comedy show Whose Line is It Anyway? The audience were invited to make suggestions which were woven into the content in the scene, or used as a starting point. And the results were absolutely bloody hilarious, having us in stitches the whole time. It far exceeded my rather vague expectations.

The troupe consists of five lads (very easy on the eye I might add), and they were all as strong as each other in terms of comedic performance and timing. Each 'round' if I can call it that, followed a different format, some of which were straight improvisations in a scenario, others were more like a game. In the first one for instance, four of them lined up and one 'conducted' the others. They were doing a verbal version of that game everyone (girls anyway) plays when they're younger - writing a sentence down and then passing it to someone else to continue the story. The one conducting pointed at each of the others randomly, and if they weren’t quick enough off the mark, or if they said something that didn't make sense, we all had to jeer, and they were forced out of the sequence, taking over the role of conductor instead. Or, there was a round where they played out a scene, but the emotion they portrayed changed whenever the audience was prompted to shout out a new one. Rage segued seamlessly into despair which, in a flash became lust.

One of my favourites was the 'Foreign film' round. Two of them played out a storyline on stage in 'Spanish' - and what excellent, completely fake Spanish skills they had. Then the others on the side proceeded to 'translate' the scene in English as it unfolded. Describing such a thing does no justice to the hilarity it provoked.

There were some more 'straightforward' scenes, if you can call a pirate sci-fi story set in a tree straightforward. or one in which an alcoholic doctor is forced out of the army to come home to his sweetheart only to sober up and realise he's been viewing her with beer goggles for the entire romance. 

They played it so well, some of them playing it straight, some of them slightly sillier. It all zipped along apace and there wasn't a dull, unfunny moment. My friend and I cackled ourselves silly throughout the whole thing, and I'm sure we'll be back. They're on every Tuesday at the Top Secret Comedy club, and I would never have known had they not tweeted me and suggested I come along. Entry is free to everyone, just get down there early enough to grab a seat (the whole place was pretty full by the time we got there just before it started). 

21 Covent Garden, 24th March

There has been quite the furore about 'bloggers vs blaggers' and whether you can trust a blog's review if they've been treated to the meal/event/whatever.

To be honest, the number of places I get invited to are minimal, what I write about almost always comes out of my pocket and I've never really had to worry about how much I've been influenced by the 'free' aspect as I've always objectively liked the thing anyway. Plus I do always say when it's been comped and will freely admit that something free always is a bit better than something you've paid for...

To throw my two cents in, I think there is a big difference between bloggers who are invited to something and those who solicit the invitations and try to wangle, literally, a free lunch. I definitely don't do the latter, but I will take up an invitation now and again. This was one of those times.

I don't think I'm doing 21 Covent Garden a disservice when I say it's an 'everyday' restaurant. It's not the kind of place you'd go for a special occasion, although its setting and decor are perfect for a romantic rendezvous. Every table feels like it is its own private enclave and we were really impressed by what they had done with the place (apparently the cellar was previously disused and it was a pretty terrible touristy bar upstairs). The food is all Italian with the pasta all made in-house.

It's the kind of place that is good for Covent Garden - somewhere that a Londoner can go and know they'll have a decent meal, not some swill being served because the place is full of tourists, and they won't get ripped off.

Aperitifs

I was particularly impressed by the cheese/meat board. Special mention has to go to the chutney. I don't know exactly what was in it but it definitely had apples – it was like eating the inside of a spot-on apple pie and I could have scoffed this on its own. It was a delightful accompaniment to the cheeses. Please, can all restaurants serve apple chutney from now on?

There was one cheese on there I hadn't had before and swiftly became a favourite (a creamy yet firm, pale cheese – the one at the back), and we were particularly taken by the peppery finnochiona sausage. We ordered a bread basket to go with our platter – some lovely thin crispbreads, a couple of slices of baguette and some well made focaccia.

I must admit, I'd been out for lunch and after sharing this was already teetering towards being full. I had ordered a fish pasta dish to keep it light, not expecting the ridiculously generous portion that I was served. I enjoyed this dish - I thought the pasta was of good quality and found the buttery sauce unhealthily delicious. I actually just loved the pasta and veggies and sauce on their own – it didn't even need the fish, which wasn't quite as flaky as I would have liked.

Stephen had the lamb ragu which came with some focaccia on the side and also some new potatoes. Given that there were potatoes in the ragu this seemed carb overload and we barely touched the side dish. Stephen wasn't as happy with his dish as I was with mine. The lamb varied quite a lot in size so it wasn't all cooked to the same consistency – some of it was still a bit tough. The taste wasn't as light and tomatoey as we expected, reminding him of a thick tomato-based curry! More of a winter dish this one.

We didn't have any pizza but must admit the stuff we saw coming out looked good – the bases looked pretty thin and crispy anyway!

I really was utterly stuffed after my pasta but our waiter suggested we take a moment and then see if we couldn't fit something else in. Stephen and I decided to share some gelato. We had a scoop each of pineapple, orange and raspberry. These were a good, refreshing choice to end our meal with but not the best gelato I've ever had. The taste to all three was strong – no complaints there – but the texture varied; the raspberry was wonderfully smooth, the orange was the least light, with a consistency that made you feel you were cutting it, and the pineapple was somewhere in between. 

All in all I liked the place. The staff were very friendly and even though we might have had special treatment it seemed like the other customers were also getting a lot of attention. If you find yourself in Covent Garden and hungry, don't despair. 21 Covent Garden with its Italian comfort/home cooking is here for you, with a lovely, cosy and warm setting. 





Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Opera Tavern, 13th February

My boyfriend and I are developing a few of our own Valentine's Day traditions. Firstly, we stopped celebrating it on Valentine's Day and instead do it the day before (or after) so that if we want to go to a restaurant we aren't forced into choosing from a special Valentine's Menu and the place isn't full of sickening couples. Secondly, we seem to end up at slightly weird places (last year - Naked Girls Reading, the year before, a war memorial). And thirdly, my boyfriend buys 'me' some chocolate from Paul A Young (which he gets to share of course).

This year we took the day off and went for lunch at the Opera Tavern for the first part of our celebrations and then went to the Romantic Misadventures event in the evening (see next post about that).

Opera Tavern is run by the same people who own Salt Yard (and Dehesa, and their new one Ember Yard). We'd been to Salt Yard for my birthday a few years ago and loved it so we thought we should try one of the other ones. 

Salt Yard is a basement restaurant, with a bar for drinking and charcuterie upstairs, whereas Opera Tavern has its bar on ground level and the restaurant upstairs. Which makes for quite a bright and airy room, not quite the romantic cavern we had imagined. The romance was dialled down another notch by the room being mainly occupied by parties of six or more, and so was rather boisterous. Oh well - our own folly for bucking the V-day trend.

First things first - a portion of fluffy, chargrilled bread with a mild, light olive oil was lovely, and the bread was good enough on its own without the oil. Next up came the smoke haddock croquettes with saffron aioli. That aioli was not taking any prisoners with its full-on garlic taste. The haddock croquettes were creamy and fishy, but not overpoweringly so - very happy with those. 

One of the differences between Salt Yard and Opera Tavern is Opera Tavern's grilled selections, so we made sure to choose something from that section. While the food was lovely on the whole, it was probably the grilled dishes that weren't quite as fantastic as they might have been. We ordered a beef and beetroot and a lamb neck and pear skewer and while they were tasty, they weren't quite as juicy or moreish as I thought they might be. There wasn't as much pear on the lamb skewer as I'd hoped – I thought there would be chunks of it cooked on the skewer – and there could have been more of the pomegranate sticky sauce the beef came with.

Another thing that marks out Opera Tavern from its sister restaurants is the focus on iberico pork, which they serve as a burger instead of just in jamon form. Taking advantage of this and the charcoal grill, we ordered the pork and fois gras burger. This didn't quite live up to its expectations on Stephen's behalf, but I really liked it. He thinks this is because I don't partake of the full joy a beef burger can give you but I thought the flavour was lovely, even if I was a little taken aback by the very pink middle at first. I liked the crispy onion and the sweet, charred bun, but must admit, didn't discern the fois gras making much of a difference to the porky taste. Stephen thought that it being served rare did its texture no favours and also lead to a lack of taste. I agree that I thought the firmer edges of the burger were the better parts.

We then had a salad of ndjuja, honey parsnips and quail's eggs, and bavette with braised onions and trevise. The steak was my favourite dish - the bavette being incredibly tender and full of flavour and slow cooked onions pretty much always steal my heart. But the nduja salad put up a pretty good fight - the quail's eggs were perfectly cooked, the parsnips were sweet and the nduja was spicy, with some nice peppery and robust greens to make up the salad part. The spicy chorizo-like oil did a good job of making us feel like we weren't eating anything too healthy for our celebratory meal.

The only real disappointment on the savoury front was the monkfish with orzo and mussels which had a sauce which was a little too bitter for both of our taste buds. Whether this was the sea purslane effect or the choricera pepper I don't know. 

We weren't sure if we really needed dessert but two interesting ones caught our eye and we caved. I had the rhubarb with italian meringue and shortbread while Stephen had the blood orange tart. By gum were they good. Mine was like eating a thick eton mess (but without berries for once) - the shortbread was sprinkled on top, pieces of stewed rhubarb were laden on top and there were lovely chewy bits to the meringue, as well as a sweet rhubarb sauce. Stephen's tart was just that, with a lovely blood orange marmalade and caremelised pistachios. 

I enjoyed my meal at Opera Tavern - the food was accomplished, interesting, and mostly tasty. Stephen had a couple of Alhambra beers with his meal, which he very much liked and I had a very tasty brindisi reserva - a full-bodied red. I think I preferred the cosy intimacy of Salt Yard but allow that it might be purely down to the time of day we visited. However, despite having a lovely lunch, if I would return to one it would be Salt Yard, and I would try one of the others in the group before going here again. 

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato