Jamaica Wine House, 28th January

The Jamaica Wine House has the honour of being one of, if not the oldest ‘coffee house’ in the City. It is tucked down one of the many little alleys that you find in this part of London and I think I only discovered it when I went to Simpsons a while ago.

It’s a classic olde pub – lots of ‘compartments’ to roam between, with wood that has been steeped in beer over the years. Of course it was busy and full of suits but this did not diminish its charms at all. Downstairs is the restaurant part where they serve the real food. this thinned out as the evening went on and was quite cute and cosy.

They have jumped on the bandwagon and their offering is mainly small plates – and they’re covering all the bases with something from everywhere - bhajis, tacos, foccaccia. Some dishes even combined cuisines (hoi sin duck taco anyone? Hint: say no). But it was mainly decent enough and you’re not going there to eat, you’re going to drink!

After this we went on to Steam and Rye which was the embodiment of everything I thought I would hate about City bars. If you find yourself here, sneak downstairs to escape the awfulness above. It was actually quite pleasant in the basement! I wouldn’t normally go but I was invited for the blog – we were promised some canapes and cocktails but no one seemed to know anything about it once we got there. An ordeal. 

Trade, 29th August

Trade is, I think, a bit of a local’s secret. I was meeting a friend for brunch (my breakast as I had only just got up, his lunch) and had planned to go to Hotbox but just thought I’d check out the menu for Trade and suddenly thought I wanted to try that instead. When I arrived I walked right in and was just behind two other people. There wasn’t really a queue. Two minutes later and one practically stretched out the door!

It was a balmy day so we sat outside. Eventually I made my decision – avocado on toast with chorizo on the side. My friend had the reuben because they are not that ubiquitous over here.

When they arrived I had total food envy. His sandwich was huge! My dish looked paltry! But Trade knew what they were doing. Mine was more than adequate for a breakfast (as indeed mine was, even though it was 1 pm) and it meant I had room to try one of their delicious baked goods at the front.

It also tasted great. The avocado was mixed with feta which gave it a very pleasant tang and the chorizo was a fine example of what is almost always a sublime sausage. My only quibble would be that the toast should have been given more of a grilling as I wish it had been more crisp. This picture makes it look better than it was. 

My friend really loved his sandwich, and a bite from me confirmed it was a spot on reuben. 

I am keen to make this a regular haunt!

Basil's Sandwiches and Cruffin, 9th March

Basil’s Sandwiches

I’ve seen Time Out have fallen in love with a place called Max’s sandwiches for its oversized portions. Well, I reckon Basil’s would give it a run for its money. I heard about this place from the lovely Alex at Zomato – their offices are near there and she’d tweeted about her mammoth sarnie for lunch. I was transfixed and put it on my List. The only problem was that they are a City lunch place – only open Monday to Friday 12 pm until 3. I had to wait for a day off before I could give them a try!

They make sandwiches fresh for you and have all the usual – egg salad, tuna, chicken tikka, as well as a LOT of variation and some of their own creations. Alex’s sandwich was a scotch egg and corned beef behemoth. I found it really hard to choose – I wanted something your average sandwich deli wouldn’t do but also something that filled my non-specific craving. In the end I felt I was taking too much time looking at all the options plastered over the walls and went for the first thing that I’d liked the look of – the Chicken Swiss Melt (although the sausage crunch melt also sounded tempting – it has crisps in it!). This was a ciabatta stuffed with Basil’s own chilli chicken mix, chicken escalope strips (there was a lot of chicken escalope on the menu) swiss cheese, mustard mayo and chilli flakes.

I was a little worried that the ciabatta would make mincemeat of my gums but it was perfectly soft, yet sturdy enough to stand up to the overflowing filling. It was served warm and I didn’t want to let it go cold before I ate it so I started tucking in on the tube back to mine. Mistake. The chilli mix was packed with onions and peppers (crunchy and fresh they provided a great bit of bite and sweetness) and it was very saucy. I made such a mess. A delicious mess though. They did not skimp on the chilli flakes and the mustard mayo gave off a lot of its own heat as well, (yet without making my nose hurt the way mustard and horseradish can). I loved the breaded chicken strips. The only thing I would say didn’t quite work was the swiss cheese – it hadn’t really melted properly and was rather superfluous.

And this beast was only £4.90! Fabulous.

Fox and Ginger Cruffin

After that brute of a sandwich you would think I would be too full to eat anything else. And I was. But I’d already bought my dessert so I was sure as hell going to eat it. I’m always up for trying the latest craze. I’ve had a cronut, a duffin, a townie (tart/brownie) and the new cronut – the kouign amann (should be kouign amazinn!). Now Foxcroft and Ginger are getting into the mix with their own invention – the cruffin. This is a croissant/muffin hybrid with various fillings and I have to be honest, I can’t see any need for it. Not as buttery and rich as a croissant, not as doughy and sweet as a muffin, it was just a sort of dry, sugary bread that was very unsatisfying to eat. Not even a filling of salted caramelly cream could save it for me. Not worth making a special effort for.

The Wine Library, 23rd December

I wandered past The Wine Library on one of my many strolls around the city and of course I had to investigate what could be going on in there as soon as I got home. A Library of Wine sounded too good to ignore. It turns out it is a wine cellar and shop but it is also a restaurant of sorts during lunch where you can browse its wares, pick out a lovely bottle of wine (or two) and enjoy it with the all you can eat buffet luncheon they provide for only £20.

These are definitely the finer wines so don’t expect to pick up a bottle for the same price you’d get one for in Tesco. You’re still going to pay roughly restaurant-level prices (although I noticed a couple for around the £12 mark). But just imagine how much these would cost if you actually did order them in a restaurant and you can see this is a good-value way of wining while dining.

The food they provide is exactly the sort of thing you want to eat with wine. The table they lay out is festooned with cheeses and meats in charcuterie and ‘pate’ form, as well as plenty of bread and crackers to go with it, chutneys, fruit, dips and even quiche.

I believe they more or less always have the same thing, but when we went we tucked into a deeply flavoured venison terrine, a very fatty and moist pork belly rillete, plus several different cured meats. They also had duck liver pate which I didn’t try and a smoked mackerel mousse which I knew would be too fishy for me. The quiche that day was broccoli and they also had a lovely red pepper hummuslike dip.

Cheeses covered the range from hard to soft and were very, very smelly. In fact when you approach the Wine Library, the smell hits you before you’ve even fully opened the door. One cheese was particularly brutish on the nose, though not quite so strong when you ate it – it had a very intense tang to it, and was one of my favourites. Naturally I have now forgotten what it was. They also include the usual suspects: brie, and a blue cheese and a cheddar as well. We filled our plates and then went back for more! But just the once.

The wine we chose was a Chablis for £18 and making it last long enough to accompany the two plates of food we had was a challenge. Good wine really is such a joy to drink, none of that back of the throat acidity that makes you wince. It is worth splashing out on every now and then. Happily, in this instance, we didn’t have to.

Simpson's Tavern, 27th March

I'm going to be honest and say that the reason to come here is definitely the novelty value and not the food. One of London's oldest Chop Houses (open since 1757), this was pretty much the only reason I wanted to visit. That and the fact that it;s tucked down a little alley and you can easily completely miss its existence (it's address is 38 1/2 Cornhill).

Only open at lunch times, I made an effort to go before I went back to a 9 to 5 office job. From perusing its menu I knew to expect comfort food not fancy food. And as I've indicated, I was right. We went down the tiny alleyway and was asked by the host if we fancied upstairs or downstairs. Downstairs looked cute so we opted for that, not realising we would be smooshed in with a party of four on a table that yes, did fit in two extra people, but not exactly comfortably. I thought this was because the rest of the dining area might be booked out but as we ate, the other tables didn't fill.

There were two ladies overseeing the dining room - the kind of women that don't take any nonsense I'm sure. Tough as old boots springs to mind. The surroundings were quaint - green banquettes, brass fittings, in little booths lining the small, very small square room. I ordered the pork and cider pie, my friend got the salmon. None of the mains included a side dish - you had to order that extra, which meant for a much more expensive lunch than I'd anticipated. Two mains, three sides and two diet cokes came to 35 quid!

There was nothing wrong with the food really. It was proper stodgy, British food - I had bubble and squeak (which had peas in it, is that weird? I thought it was a bit weird.), my friend had mash and spinach. It was decent.

In another area completely was the tiny bar. I was quite surprised by how many people (all Suits, all men) were there on a lunchtime, pint in hand. I guess it was a Friday. Actually, no it wasn’t.

Even the bar is only open on a lunchtime and I do not work in the vicinity so I shall probably never darken Simpson’s door again. I’m not too disappointed to say so, but I am glad I’ve been at least once.