Tombo Poke and Matcha bar, 19th July

Tombo Poke and Matcha bar is a cute little café in Seven Dials bringing the Hawaiian cusine to your lucky faces. 

I was invited along with a friend for a light dinner, which could not have been more perfect for the warm and sunny day we were experiencing. Poke, if you don’t know, is basically a sushi bowl. Diced chunks of raw fish sit on a salad, the construction of which is up to you if you like, or you can go for one of Tombo's signature bowls.

Just look at these bowls of sunshine and deliciousness! It was really very difficult to whittle it down to one sauce, one ‘mix-in’ and two toppings. I started with a base of courgette noodles and added tuna, avocado (of course), spring onion, sahimi and crispy shallots with a ponzu soy on the side. My friend went down the black and white rice route with salmon, nori, and sriracha mayo. Both dishes a joyous little meal and I will happily come back to try more combinations. Lovely idea!

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!

Notes, 23rd December

What a cute, cosy little place this is. I have been meaning to go since a friend of mine recommended it to me and it seemed like the perfect place to go to catch up with a different friend over a cup of coffee. 

The place is small but as we were meeting at the beginning of the hinterland that is London at Christmas, I wasn't too worried about us not finding a seat. And I was right. There were plenty. It was a particularly soggy day so entering this warm cafe (in both atmosphere and heating) was a relief. One of the staff greeted me, noting by my craning neck that I was meeting someone, and so he deposited a menu with me, but didn't pester me for a choice until my companion had arrived. Having several minutes to peruse the menu, I found it hard to decide on what to have. A lot of the options sounded great, and they were all priced at around the £7 mark, making it impossible to rule anything out on price alone.

Eventually, I settled on the salad with pistachio-encrusted chicken, feeling like I should be a little healthier in preparation for the Christmas gluttony. So, the beef and mash and the pork belly special, not to mention the chilli and cheddar tartlet narrowly missed out on being consumed. My friend had eaten heartily earlier so was having dessert with her coffee, choosing the marble cake from the several tempting choices on the counter.

Being priced at seven pounds, I fully expected my salad to be more of the 'side salad' size with a couple of nuggets of chicken on top. Instead a piled-up beast of a plate was served to me, with a whole breast sliced upon it. Chunks of avocado and cherry-tomato halves made the salad a little more interesting. It was drizzled with a sweet, sticky balsamic sauce. It was just what you want when you order a salad - plenty of greens to fill you up. I never understand why places skimp on the core of the salad - the leaves.

I had a mocha to warm me up as an accompaniment to my cold sald. It was very rich and smooth. I'm no coffee connoisseur but to me it tasted like top stuff. Apparently they take their coffee seriously - seriously enough to have their own roastery.

Nothing but good things to report - lovely ambiance, lovely food. 






Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Fernandez and Wells, 23rd September

On Monday night I think I rather spectacularly failed to make the most of my visit to Fernandez & Wells (Lexington Street). I have wanted to go to one of the branches for ages, since being told what great wine they did. And then, when I finally did go, I didn't even have any wine! 

I was seeing a friend I hadn't seen in almost a year and there was so much to catch up on, we spent the first half an hour talking before we even looked at the menus. I did, however, order something to eat - the name of which has escaped me - a vegetable ragout of peppers and onions with a poached egg on top and served with some toasted sourdough bread. It was very tasty, although I must admit, I thought a bit of spice to it - either in the form of chillies, or black pepper, or some spicy chorizo - would have been a welcome addition. It was still very nice to eat and not a bad price at £8.00. My friend ordered the raclette which was a very generous amount of melted cheese all over more sourdough bread and topped with cornichons.

And then we chatted and chatted some more, and by the time I said I was going to get myself a glass of wine, the staff were basically winding down for the evening and were at the other end of the bar doing the washing up. In a way it was quite nice that they left us to it and didn't pester us to order more once our food was done - clearly, if you want somewhere to while away a few hours this is the place to go. On the other hand, I thought maybe just asking us if there was anything else we wanted wouldn't have gone amiss. They would have got an extra bit of money out of me for it. There were plenty of people in there solo, reading or doing a bit of work with a small plate and a glass of wine. When we got there it was still fairly busy but by 8:30 or so, it was practically empty so it's a pretty good place to go later in the evening for a quiet drink and a bite to eat.

Foxcroft and Ginger, 19th October

I discovered Foxcroft and Ginger through perusing London Rob Stuff’s blog, in which he quests after the perfect cup of coffee. I’m not really a coffee drinker but the food he described (some cheesy French toast concoction) sounded amazing. It went on the List.

They have two establishments now – one in Soho and one in the Boxpark in Shoreditch. My mum was in town for the day and so I suggested meeting her in Central London and going here for lunch.

While not exactly hidden, F & G don’t entirely shout out about their presence on Berwick Street, you can easily walk past it without realising it is there, especially when it’s slightly overshadowed by the food market that is there in the week.

But it’s worth seeking it out as it’s a cosy little café but with more space than you’d expect if you just peeked in as they also have a downstairs with seating. The look is rather relaxed and slightly ramshackle. You go in and there’s a counter at the back which displays their wares. I asked the girl serving what the sandwiches were, and made my selection from the 6 or so on offer. She named them by the meat or main ingredient inside (lamb, bacon, falafel) but each sandwich had various ingredients inside.

I also ordered an Americano (or long black depending on your origin) for my mum and we sat downstairs and waited for our sandwiches to be brought to us by the friendly waiter. The coffee came first and there was a bit of confusion over whether we could get some milk for it (though I don’t know why this seemed to cause any confusion – I actually blame my mum in this instance) but he went away and came back swiftly with a little jug of milk.

Soon after he came down with our two sandwiches, which we were sharing – one pork, one bacon. The pork was actually pork belly and came with onion chutney and apple, and the bacon also came with onion chutney but was also served with a bed of rocket. Much to my delight they had been lightly toasted. They were warm and the bread had some solidity to it, holding the sandwich together, but it wasn’t overdone; they were easy to bite into without cutting your mouth. The bread was lovely, and the sandwich altogether really good. Sometimes I think onion chutney can be too sweet and I need only smidgeon before I find it overpowering. The stuff they had had been quite copiously applied, but it worked really well with both meats.

Bacon isn’t my first choice (I know, gasp!) but this was cooked well – overdone rather than under, just the way I like it in fact, so that it is less like a thin piece of gammon and more like crispy bacon. The pork was actually pork belly which was another pleasant surprise and was quickly snaffled by me. Ever unwasteful, and rather partial to salad in my sandwiches, I stuffed all the rocket leaves into both sandwiches which worked a treat. I didn’t have a drink myself and can’t comment on the coffee but they also have carafes of tap water for you to take freely with your meal or drink, which I did.

So yes, a very pleasant lunch at a price that didn’t break the bank – our bill was £13. It definitely encouraged me to come back and try some more – either for brunch or another sandwich or one of the inviting salads, but this time with one of their good looking cakes.



Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Canela, 23rd June

Canela is a Portuguese based restaurant/café. They have a place in Seven Dials and another little one on Oxford Street, and they used to have one near Carnaby Street but that is now Pitt Cue Co. I had been planning on having some feijoada, a traditional Portuguese stew with sausage and black beans but when I got there it was a little more expensive than I was expecting. I didn’t want to pay over £11 for what I was thinking would be a snack, not a sit-down main meal. However, they have a counter full of sweet things (pasteis de nata, chocolate fondants etc) and savouries (lots of quiches, salads) that were of the right size and price range. I chose a chicken coxinha because I didn’t know what it was and it sounded suitably Portuguese, and a Pao de queijo (cheese bread). The man who took my order asked if I wanted them warmed, and I assented. I paid my £4.80 and took my delights with me.

Pointy 'scotch egg'

Its true contents are revealed!

The coxinha was a bit like a Scotch egg. Except that instead of an egg in the middle, it was chicken. And instead of it being encased in sausage, it was encased in potato. And instead of being round it was pointy. But otherwise very similar. So, actually, a coxinha is a filled potato croquette. It was quite nice - the chicken was very nicely seasoned, but it was a little dry. Some sort of hot sauce or dip would have made it really good. 

Mmm cheesy

And then I moved on to my cheese bread. I can imagine me developing a habit for these. They were light, but at the same time reassuringly dense, and chewy. Very cheesy and decadently buttery. I’ll be coming back for more.

Pavilion, 4th June

In the endless requests for good places for brunch/eggs benedict/breakfast that get sent into Secret London on twitter (seriously, does no one ever bother to see what people have said previously?), Pavilion gets mentioned often. It’s just up the road from me in Victoria Park, but for some reason I hadn’t yet really wanted to bother trying it. Until we went up there for a picnic and I saw the menu, the dishes coming out and the freshly baked bread sitting on the side.

Two weeks later and the weather had gone decidedly downhill but we thought this would work in our favour for getting a seat at this small but popular place. It turned out they were doing a roaring trade (and we overheard that they were much busier than even they were expecting) but luckily we still managed to nab a bit of table inside. Pavilion’s name gives you a clue as to what it is – it is a little Pavilion in the park and isn’t much to look at. There are a few outside tables, and of course, the entire park to take your meal to, and inside are a few bench-type tables with basic chairs, and probably some remnants from the last person’s meal on or around your seat.

But the quality of the food is top notch. They serve breakfast type dishes like three all kinds of eggs (benedict, florentine, scrambled etc), various brekkie-type sandwiches and a choice of two full breakfasts – one with black pudding and two eggs, one with mushrooms, tomato and one egg (or something like that, Stephen had the non-black pudding one by mistake). They also have a pancake option which sounded delicious. Then they do some lunch options such as a few different salads and the irresistible-to-me chorizo, aioli, roasted red peppers and rocket focaccia sandwich.

Both our choices were delicious and it was obvious from the taste that Pavilion use top quality, organic or free range ingredients. They even tell you on one of their big boards who is producing the food you’re eating. One slight complaint was that the sausage in Stephen’s breakfast was a little dry (which I’ve noticed seems to be a sign of sausages made from good quality meat, maybe not enough of the fatty bad stuff is in them!). The beans I think were worth a special mention, and you can tell from the colour of that yolk that it was a good'un. 

That looks a bit like black pudding on the plate, but I'm pretty sure it's mushroom.

My only complaint of my sandwich was that it was huge and difficult to eat. I could probably have been happy with just half of it. The chorizo was full of flavour, as was the roasted pepper - one of the best roasted peppers I've had in a good long while. The rocket did what it was supposed to do - but through the fat of the sausage and all topped off with lovely garlickiness, which I can never get enough of.

There is chorizo in there somewhere - lots of it!

There were also some cakes and coffee for sale but after eating our brunch we had no room for any of that. We had hoped to get a loaf of bread to take back with us but they didn’t seem to have any so we had to take a walk up to E5 Bakehouse instead (certainly no hardship).

This is definitely going to become a regular haunt for us. It's great value for money (eggs on various things around £6.00) and I can't not try their pancakes. 

Albion cafe, 12th May

The Albion cafe and bakery/deli is on the ground floor of the Boundary Project - Terence Conran's hotel and restaurant. It is the more affordable option if you want to eat in this establishment (my lunch came to a total of £15 including tip). My friend was in town and suggested meeting up for lunch, somewhere east and so I gave her a couple of options, including Albion. After researching it on her smartphone (what would we do without them) she said the Albion sounded good. We met at 12:30 and while I waited for them to arrive I had a look around the bakery/deli at the front of the cafe.

It was all so utterly tempting. They sell a lot of organic produce like all different kinds of muesli, fresh breads (rosemary and apricot particularly caught my eye) and jams etc. And then, behind the cash register, they sell freshly made sandwiches and pies and all kinds of wonderful-looking cakes and pastries. They do a cookie the same diameter as my head (or possibly larger), flapjakcs, salted caramel tarts - ooh, so much sugary, chocolatey goodness. 

But my friends arrived and we were there for a sit down meal and so I only looked at these before getting seated in the cafe. It was a nice day, and we could have sat outside, but the interior was very pleasant. It has high ceilings, is bright and airy and the kitchen is open so you can see them making all the delicious breads, which are then lined up on the counter.

We had a beverage while we decided - some pear juice for my friend, a hot chocolate for her boyfriend, and an apple juice for me. The hot chocolate, it was said by my companions, was top quality. I wanted to mention this because these guys know their hot chocolate. They do not simply have a jar of instant Options in their cupboard - they have a "collection" so you know if they say it's good, it really is top notch. 

And on to the food. I ordered a cheese omelette with beef dripping chips and my friend ordered one of the wonderful-looking savoury pastries we had seen in the store - a bacon and cheese fougasse. 

At first I wasn't sure about my omelette. It was just freshly cooked and the fat from the cheese inside was making it a bit liquidy. However, after a couple of minutes once the cheese had congealed a little and therefore turned more gooey instead of liquid, it was very nice. The cheese didn't just provide a pleasant chewy, stringiness to the omelette, it was also strong enough for the flavour to come through. The chips were also good - they were no Bull and Last titans, but as far as chips go, better than average.

Omelette, chips and real apple juice

The real star was the Fougasse. Not on the menu but they were happy for us to order anything we'd seen in the shop. My friend ordered the bacon and cheese version and it was excellent. The meat tasted bacony but wasn't exactly a slab of Danepak. It was more like crispy lardons in it's texture. They had clearly seasoned it with herbs or spices of some sort but we couldn't work out what, tasting it blind. Whatever it was, it worked.

I was too full to order any of the cakes I'd been eyeing up when we first got there, which is a bit of a regret. I suppose I can always go back! For a sunny Saturday early afternoon, it was very easy to get a space, which is reassuring, as they don't take bookings for fewer than six people.