Grill.My.Cheese, 10th September

When I was a child, I loved eating grilled cheese sandwiches. And non-grilled cheese sandwiches too come to that. But I must have overindulged because I went through a long phase of being so put off by melted cheese that I didn't even like pizza. 

I know.

Happily I have overcome that difficult time of my life and now embrace melted, gooey cheese, on pizza, in fondue and best of all in between toasted bread. And it looks like London is doing the same. There are so many places doing grilled cheese sandwiches these days (or 'toasties' if you want to be all British about it) that there are even features about where to get the best ones in Londonist and Time Out.

I of course consider it my duty to work my way through them all. I finally had the one at Sager and Wilde a while back, and went up to Morty & Bob's quite recently. The first one I tried, but didn't write about was the chorizo one from The Cheese Truck. Spotting that Grill.My.Cheese were at Leather Lane, I thought I'd best try them while they were around.

Their USP is mac n cheese toasties. And the big mac daddy comes with pulled pork besides. Yes. Sounds insane doesn't it? Insanely bad for you. In a good way.

Actually, I have to say, that I didn't find it as bloating or as 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' as I thought it would be. Perhaps because a lot of the space is taken up by pasta with holes in it rather than cheese, it doesn't feel as heavy or as greasy as others can. The one I had from Morty & Bob's for example, was far more filling, and my boyfriend ate about a quarter of it!

They also add BBQ sauce which is a trifle too sweet for me - I'd have preferred the punch of a chilli sauce (Ribman - when is that collab going to happen?) but it was still a mighty fine toastie and I enjoyed eating it immensely. Behold.

CHICK and Victus & Bibo, 21st/22nd August

I am lucky to work in close proximity to Leather Lane, which has dozens of food vendors as well as permanent places lining the street from which to choose a lunch. Some of these are markedly better than others. Daddy Donkeys started off as a van and often had queues snaking down the lane. Now it has its own shop and the queues have not diminished. Tongue and Brisket, a permanent place, does sandwiches of carvery meats and chicken schnitzel. However, if you want that kind of thing, seek out Monty’s Deli or the Beigel shops in Brick Lane rather than here. So it's full of ups and downs. Two places recently caught my attention – Chick and Victus and Bibo.

Chick have done what Pilpel do but instead of only choosing between falafel and falafel, you can have chicken (hence their name) instead. They say it’s schnitzel but really it’s just breaded chicken fillets – of which you get two in a pita – but they're nice so I don’t begrudge them the false description. My first few bites of this were good – warm chicken, crunchy pickles and onions, a layer of hummus underneath it all. A pinch of chilli heat with each bite and the tahini mayo was liberal. I wasn’t too sure about the pita itself, it seemed a little too soft and so it proved. Within a few bites, the wet salad that they put in first had disintegrated the bottom of the pita so that there was a gaping hole. If I hadn’t been holding it in the bag in which it was served, there would have been salad all over my lap. This is such a shame as I was enjoying it until the pita continued to completely deconstruct and the chicken had all been eaten, leaving me with a sorry, claggy mess of bread and wet red cabbage and saurkraut, which is now my lasting memory of it. Next time I fancy similar, I’ll just head to Pilpel again.

And I probably won’t revisit Victus and Bibo either. What I had was actually quite nice for what it was, it just wasn’t my thing. They served ‘diced’ lamb and halloumi wraps and lahmacun. Only they never seem to serve the lahmacun, so finally I decided to just go for a wrap. This place is pretty popular and always has long queues but the service is quick. I discovered 'diced' means 'minced', which isn’t my favourite way of presenting meat and is my sole reason for not going back really. It is grilled in front of you with lots of spices and onions and tomatoes and is then wrapped with salad and fresh tomatoes. I find mince meat to be quite dry and coarse, and this was too, in essence, though what it was cooked with gave it a juiciness and a really nice flavour. The whole thing got better as you worked your way down to the leaves and fresh tomatoes. They sprinkle some chilli flakes on it but these are negligible in taste. So yeah, nice, just not for me - had it been shredded, or, indeed, diced, I'd be back again in a shot.

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Crosstown Doughnuts, 29th July

Well Crosstown Doughnuts, I expected more from you and you let me down. But then totally redeemed yourselves.

How so? Well, let me explain.

On a sunny day at Lovebox, instead of the usual summer treat of ice cream, we decided to have a doughnut from Crosstown while we sat in the shade and listened to some 90s R n B. They had several smaller doughnuts with interesting flavours (3 for £5) or a single, classic vanilla iced doughnut for £3.50. I chose that. And wished I hadn’t. The glaze was tasty enough but the doughnut itself? A bit too dry (horrible memories of Dum Dum Donutterie surfaced) and too airy – practically the whole top of mine was a hole.

My friends had also chosen the same and we all shrugged with complacency when we’d finished it. Not much to get excited about.

And yet, something made me think I should give them another chance. Pictures I’d seen of other doughnuts of theirs looked much more inviting. And fortuitously, they can be found daily at Leather Lane – just five minutes away from my office.

So, I went back. And had one hell of a heavenly doughnut. Sea salted caramel banana cream. A filled doughnut with caramel glaze, sticky toffee and cakey crumbled bits, with a wobbly, thick banana custard inside. The topping was more cinder toffee than just salted caramel, giving a deliciously burnt edge to the otherwise very sweet pastry. The dough on its own was still slightly dry, but meant it was a more than able prison for the abundant custard (that was just the right side of bananaey), not allowing it to get too boisterous and fall out all over the place, getting your fingers all sticky.

Do not go to Leather Lane without getting one of these.

But finally – a word on their paper bags. They are high quality bags, the type of bag you feel guilty throwing away. What is the point of them? I appreciate the feel of the heavy paper and the pretty branding on them, but it seems like a bit of a waste of money. It is, ultimately just going to be thrown away (don’t worry – I use the recycling bin). As long as the doughnut inside is up to scratch, fancy paper is irrelevant!