Archipelago, 8th August

Archipelago made my list when I was in the States and came across an article by GreatLittleplace.com which listed some of the quirky restaurants in London. It sounded interesting, giving you the chance to try exotic beasts from far and wide. 

It wasn’t the kind of place I could normally persuade Stephen to go to, so I took advantage of it being my birthday and decided to come here to cross it off the list.

Quirky it certainly is, both in menu choices and décor. The inside feels like some kind of opulent African den, with masks and carvings throughout, all dark, lush reds and greens. Our dark wood chairs had patterned cushions on them and we had some kind of carved bird (or possibly seal) resting at the base of the table. Menus are rolled up scrolls hidden inside wooden decorated jars. It certainly looks quite impressive. 

Unfortunately it is also rather expensive. I know that you are paying for the novelty, but at the end of the day, we didn’t feel that the novelty was worth the price tag. The food just wasn’t that good, or that bountiful for the extra pounds they entailed. Of course, exotic meat probably isn’t that cheap to source, but if we were blown away by it, we probably wouldn’t have minded. The fact that they charge you for every little extra does nothing to help.

So, we arrived and after ordering our drinks, we were presented with a selection of canapes: mango and crab, a bruschetta which I was very impressed with, some breads and some sweet potato crisps. This was included in the ‘cover charge’ of £2.00. Would I prefer to save the £2.00 and skip the canapes? Certainly.

For our starters we chose the most extraordinary but still appealing dishes they had on offer: crocodile wrapped in vine leaves, and zebra roulade with mango and raspberry chutney. Zebra, as it turns out, doesn’t have much of its own taste, nor a particularly good texture, but the spices it was cooked in and the chutney made it quite a tasty, Indian-influenced dish. Stephen’s crocodile tasted a bit like fishy chicken, and though I thought it was probably the nicest vine-wrapped dish I’ve ever had, this doesn’t say much as my previous experiences have been of vine-wrapped cold rice. The plum dipping sauce was what really made this dish. Both the crocodile and the zebra came were £10.00 or so and as you can see, you didn’t get much.

Zebra on a zebra plate

Crocodile on stone slab

In between we were offered a palate cleanser – a choice of three granitas. I went for the pink gin which I really enjoyed, and Stephen had the mango and lychee. I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised when we got the bill, but no – we were charged for these palate cleansers. I knew we would be, if they charged for the tiny canapes, but Stephen thought it was sneaky of them not to mention it. Charging for this sort of stuff does feel like a mistake. If you’re going to emulate costlier establishments by offering canapes and palate cleansers, and charging similar amounts for your dishes, then you should know that places like these normally make them complimentary. They should be a bit of a thank you for choosing the restaurant, not a privilege to pay for.

But on to the main. Again, we plumped for the unusual, but ones that sounded good. I had the ‘Hot Marsupial’ which was an Asian-inspired dish of kangaroo with bok choi and water chestnuts, with a tzatziki-like sauce. It was tasty enough, and the meat was similar to beef. Stephen’s choice of bison with cassava chips (the Pontiac Rodeo) was also quite similar to beef, but gamier with more depth of flavour. I actually thought his dish was really good. I really liked the bison and I really liked the cassava chips, but Stephen thought the serving was paltry for the price and that the mushroom ketchup was bitter. Each of these dishes were about £19.00.

Kangaroo with greens

Rare bison

Yes. Extortionate really. We wandered back up to Baker Street and passed one of the Galvin restaurants. In the menu in the window they had only one entrée which was more expensive than the ones at Archipelago. And I bet they don’t charge for bead.  I think if the starters had been priced at around £7.00 and the mains at around £13-£15 I would have been quite happy with my meal. Of course, I was pleased to have gone, and crossed it off my List, but we ended up feeling like we hadn’t really got our money’s worth.

The restaurant is cute, it is so overly decorated it does start to feel a bit like you’ve entered another world. And the service was friendly. Something about it wasn’t quite right though. It should have been quite a romantic setting but the ambience didn’t provide this. I think it was too quiet, even though there was some background music and we were sitting among other diners. When a large party of office workers came in, rather than being annoyed they were spoiling the mood, I was pleased that they created a bit more of an atmosphere.

Apparently Archipelago is closing at the end of the autumn to search for bigger premises, although it wasn’t exactly full when we were there. I wonder if it will actually reopen, or if London will miss it if it doesn’t...

Feast, 4th August

I was so determined to go to Feast that I bought two sets of tickets – one for Saturday and one for Sunday, in case I was too hungover to make it down there on Saturday.

Happily, after an extended slumber, I felt fairly normal, and couldn’t think of a better way to cope with hangover munchies than heading down to a festival of food. Feast was an event coordinated by the same people behind the Long Table in Dalston last year, which I didn’t get to. This time they were bringing together 30 purveyors of food and drink – both street food, and established restaurants, selling their wares. It was a bit like Taste London but with a DJ, more of a festival feel, and less expensive: entry was a mere £6 in advance.

We got there at about 7:30 and spent a good two hours there, browsing the stalls and sharing a few dishes between us, grabbing a drink every now and then to let ourselves digest and make room for more! The weather was luckily very balmy (it was an outdoor event in Guy’s Quadrangle) and the DJ was pretty good – he seemed to be playing all the songs I have on my Spotify playlists.

And so, to the food. Apologies for the lack of photos. I once again forgot at first, and then by the time I remembered it was too dark for my crappy phone.

I straight away went for a dish of spiced lamb, hoummus and chilli butter from Morito. I haven’t yet eaten at Morito, though my boyfriend has several times, so I was pleased to be able to sample their food. This was really good, though perhaps a tad oily, and they let you have as much bread with it as you wanted. For £2.50! I was really impressed with the pricing of all the dishes. The only thing that we thought was maybe a little too expensive were the burgers. The Hawksmoor burgers were going for £9.00, which is probably good value for anything from Hawksmoor, but was the most expensive dish there. The Patty and Bun cheeseburgers with bacon were £7.00 which seemed just that pound too costly. Everything else was around a fiver, or £2.50-£3.00 for smaller dishes. Even the cocktails were £5.00 – very conducive to trying lots of different things.

So, we shared a Patty and Bun burger, which made the cost more bearable. I am not a fan of burgers in general and even though this one didn’t quite convince me, it seemed good as far as burgers go! It had pickled onions, and some ‘P & B’ smoky mayo and I thought those flavour combinations were very good. Stephen’s verdict was that it was nice but the meat wasn’t as steaky as some other burgers he’s had.

I had had a craving for a Yum Bun the day before but they weren’t at Eat Street, so I took advantage of their presence here to have one and to introduce Stephen to them. Mine was as good as I remembered, and Stephen thought the Yum Bun was the best dish of the day. Our next favourite were the tacos from L.A. Sueno, a street food vendor I hadn’t tried before. We had two beef tacos and one pork. I thought the tortilla tacos were good – had a nice flavour to them and not too dry and the beef was delicious. However, the fuego salsa could have done with a bit more ‘fuego’. Didn't even make my nose run!

The only bum note of the day was our last dish, which was ceviche from The Last Days of Pisco. We both thought the leche de tigre that they marinate the fish in was overpoweringly limey. I got one faint taste of fish in my first bite and the rest was lime, lime and more lime. I actually really like lime, but I also like the other things that were supposed to be in the dish so it was a shame not to be able to taste them. Also, there was so much lime that it felt like I had acid burn in my mouth. Not pleasant.

With a couple of pleasing drinks – a spiced cider from the main bar, and then a very impressive rose and raspberry cocktail from the Hendrick’s bar (which mostly tasted of lychee but which I liked all the better for it) we had, I would say, a very impressive roster of consumption. I didn’t feel I could fit any more in, which was a shame as I had my eye on the Bread Street Kitchen chicken wings, and Platform’s pigs’ cheeks with chorizo also sounded very tempting. We mooted the idea of going back the next day, but the weather and feelings of guilt at over indulgence the previous two days prevented us.

Feast is over for now, but if they do something else, I’ll make sure to try it.

The Black Door, August 3rd

This is a rather odd complaint to make of a bar, but the The Black Door was entirely too popular. I guess it has been a long time since I went to a cocktail bar that is more like just a bar, and not the kind of place where you make sit-down reservations. I was ill-prepared for the masses and just didn’t warm to the place, and neither did my party. When I suggested we move on after one drink, everyone was very enthusiastic about this idea. Perhaps it was because there was a sizable group of us and too many people in the way for us to be able to mingle as we would like. I had made arrangements ahead to reserve an area, which was waiting for me when I arrived, and throughout the email exchange they were very professional and accommodated me, but I must admit, they did come across as a bit cold in email. I had a nagging impression they didn’t really care if they got our custom or not (understandable once we got there and saw how full it was). This is in contrast to the Star of Kings who I also emailed about reserving an area and who seemed somehow to exude cheeriness over email, even though, in the end they hadn’t actually set aside an area for me. That didn’t really matter though, as when we got there we pretty much had our pick of places to sit.

After a very enjoyable few hours at the Star of Kings (which was markedly busier than the first time I went there), we moved on to the Black Door. I was firstly disappointed that you couldn’t actually get to the cocktail bar through the black door down the side street. Instead we had to go in through The Fellow, which definitely ruined some of its mystique. Then, there were the aforementioned crowds. So, we found our table, but it was so crowded that not everyone could fit near those of us who were sat down. My friend and I ordered a julep and this was nicely strong and tasty. I have no complaints about the drinks. But the music they were playing wasn’t at all what I was expecting – I thought they stuck to retro 50s and 60s but apart from one Talking Heads song (which doesn't fit that brief anyway), I didn’t know or care for what they were playing. In some ways, this didn’t really matter as there wasn’t any room to dance like I’d hoped there would be anyway. It was a shame though as I am very fond of The Fellow, the pub downstairs. I’ve had a few drinks in there on more than one occasion and think its lovely with a menu that I plan on trying one day. As you’d expect from the sister pub of the Owl and the Pussycat. So I was expecting more of the same charm from the Black Door, and it didn’t deliver.

So, we moved on. To the downstairs part of Drink, Shop and Do, which is called Drink, Shop and Dance. This was MUCH better. Busy, with an atmosphere, but not crowded – there was enough room to start dancing by the bar, but they also had a dedicated dance area at the back which we made much use of. The music policy was commercial but eclectic. Perfect for people who had been drinking for about 5 hours, then.

And, the cherry on the cake, was when we spotted John Torode dancing away in there. So far Stephen and I have seen Michel Roux, Monica Galetti, and now John Torode. Only a matter of time before we see Gregg Wallace chowing down on a pud somewhere and we'll have spotted the full deck.

Boom Boom Club, 2nd August

I was incredibly impressed with the Wonderground setup in general. I expected something a lot flimsier. The show was held in the spiegeltent, which looked like a big red top once inside, with a stage at the back, and a bit of a catwalk leading to a circular stage at the front where the performers did their stuff. We ended up sitting beside the catwalk – I had faith that they wouldn’t have an in-the-round setup if they weren’t good at performing in the round, and on the whole they were, but I think sitting facing the stage probably would have been a tad better. Some of the performers, such as Pirate Phil (an ex-banker who had seen the light and told us about it in song) and the kitty cat – a striptease artist, did roam the audience somewhat, but being nearer the stage and at the front, all in all was beneficial.

The show is very polished, the performers are top class. It’s visually impressive with some great costumes – and it’s sexy. Unfortunately no photography was allowed so you have to go see it yourself to see what I mean.

There was a very loose backstory which tied the acts together and also gave their actions some purpose. The night was called Prospero’s Tavern and the people who came on stage were either regulars of the Tavern or connected to Prospero (of the Tempest fame) in some way. For example, Miranda, his daughter, who was ‘drunkenly’ heckling Prospero for the first half of the act, was allowed to come on stage and ‘embarrass herself’.  And of course, being intoxicated, she was stumbling and falling all over the place, the perfect ruse to allow her to twist and turn herself inside out, for she was in fact a contortionist. Or when a quarrel broke out between two sailors who incorporated their acrobatics into their choreographed fight. They deftly swore at and punched each other in between somersaults and some very impressive balancing acts. 

There were a couple of amusing songs and even a singalong at one point. The hour went by far too quickly. I could really see why the Boom Boom Club has the reputation it does and I imagine most other acts I will see of this ilk will pale in comparison. Certainly those I’ve seen before so far do not even hold a candle to this. I am going to La Reve next week though, who have been going for quite some time and also have a very good reputation so we shall see how they compare.

One of the highlights for me was ‘The King’ hula hooping to some of his greatest hits. This doesn’t sound like much but I was transfixed by what this tubby little guy dressed a bit like Elvis could do with a hoop. Did I say ‘a’ hoop? I mean several hoops at the same time, even manipulating them to start at his waist and then travel off in different directions. His finale was to hoop with upwards of 20 all at once! He looked like a giant slinky. I fear I am not doing this act justice but it was jaw dropping.

I was also completely seduced by the woman who performed one of the burlesque stripteases. Or, rather, I should say, the woman who was stripped and molested by the possessed hand that tormented her. I think this probably needs explanation. Through a clever fake appendage, she made it look like her hand was a severed malevolent being (like an evil version of Thing from the Addams Family) which was attacking her – first it was being a bit of a sex pest, groping her here and there, then it took an even more sinister turn, choking her to the ground and then reviving her with a tickle to her nether regions. It was funny, creepy, weirdly convincing, and she was utterly gorgeous.

After the show is over, you are all invited to clear out so they can move the chairs away, and then you’re called back in for the ‘after party’ should you wish to stay. This only happens after the Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances and is an extra £5. It might be very different on a Friday or Saturday when people don’t have work to think about the next day, but the majority of the audience last night did not return for the afterparty and the atmosphere was muted. Most of my group wanted to stick around though - after all, we had paid the extra and we were promised live music and two more performers who hadn’t been in the show. We danced around a bit to the music, even though few others did, watched the other two performers (a fire hula-hooper, and a girl doing swinging hoop acrobatics) and stayed until the last song. Overall though, I wouldn’t say you should feel hard done by if you happen to go on a night when the afterparty isn’t an option.

If you like this kind of stuff, you will love the Boom Boom Club. And if you don’t, you should still go – this might change your mind. Brilliant. 

Birthdays, 31st July

I went to Birthdays last night sober. I think this was a mistake. I think Birthdays is the kind of sweaty hole that you have to turn up to fairly inebriated, and then continue to numb your brain cells so that you can ignore pesky things like temperature and people bumping into you because they are snogging so copiously that they’ve failed to notice you, and instead concentrate on the reason you’ve come here. Last night the reason was a gig, on other nights it could be a DJ or club night.

Birthdays is a new venue on Stoke Newington Road, owned by Vice. Currently, upstairs is dominated by Rita’s Bar and Dining, which was very busy when we got there. Downstairs is the where the gigs and parties happen. It’s really rather small, which could be a good thing for seeing a band, but it’s also narrow, which means that even though it’s small, it’s quite hard to see anything unless you are right at the top end where the stage is. Or very tall. I am not so we moved to the front where half the space was being occupied by an older ‘gentlemen’ dancing around overly enthusiastically to the music. There’s always one.

The sound was pretty good though and I did enjoy the gig, though it does get very, very hot in there. My hair was already sticking to me when the support band was on (ie fairly empty). Once the Fixers came on (the headliners) it was getting unpleasant, and this is when I began to wish I was drunk so I wouldn’t care.

This isn’t a venue I would rush back to, although they do have quite a lot of live music on, at bargain prices. The gig last night was £6.00 and there were two support acts as well as Fixers. After the gig was over, two girls seemed to take to the decks and started blasting hip hop (weirdly, considering the type of music the Fixers play) and then followed immediately by some house. I don’t know what time it closes, but it seemed like quite a lot of people were up for staying out on a school night, and Birthdays were about to cater to them.

I will, of course, be coming back at some point, just to sample the food at Rita’s, because it sounds great and has been getting amazing reviews. The throngs upstairs confirmed that this was a place I need to try, before they move on to pastures new.

And, after having said all that, if they have more bands I like, the place might grow on me. Having this on the bar has already helped worm its way into my affections:

The Lamb & Flag, 1st August

I very rarely go drinking in Covent Garden, and when I have in the past it has generally been with ‘out-of-towners’ and we tend to end up in places like Browns or All Bar One that we know are reliable. This is one reason why when I read about the Lamb & Flag in an article on the best literary pubs in London, I put it on the List. I thought it would be good to have a nice pub in the bag, for the few times we’re in the area and we don’t know where to go. Another reason was the fact that it sounded like such a lovely pub. It is one of London’s oldest pubs; there has been a drinking establishment on that spot in some form or other since 1772 and it claims that Dickens used to be a regular. It used to be called the Bucket of Blood due to the bare knuckle fighting that used to take place within. With a past like that I had to go.

But I only managed to get there to see what it was like for the first time last night. This is partly because it isn’t the sort of place you just stumble across when you’re out and about. It’s tucked away down a street which, approaching from Long Acre, doesn’t even look like it’s a real street. But if you have faith and persist, you round a corner and, most probably are confronted with masses of people, like I was last night. My heart sank a little – I hadn’t expected it to be so busy! But, luckily, it was just the good weather that had drawn people outside, not a lack of space indoors, and once in, it wasn’t at all crowded. We even managed to grab a table in the back room.

It’s a nice enough pub but nothing particularly outstanding about it. I think it’s mostly its history which lures people to it, or perhaps it is the challenge of even finding it in the first place. Wine is a little on the pricey side – a 175 ml glass of pinot grigiot or sauvignon blanc is the best part of a fiver. We had intended to get some food there but by the time we got around to it they had stopped serving! The kitchen closes at 8, which I think is early. We had to rely on crisps and pistachios – those stalwart pub snacks for the British drinker.

It’s good to know this place exists if I am stuck in Covent Garden and in need of a pub that isn’t a chain. But if I’m not constrained to Covent Garden and just want a nice old pub to go to, I’d stick with Ye Olde Mitre or the Princess Louise which I think are a bit more interesting.   

rainbo, 1st August

Rainbo only very recently made my List after having read the Evening Standard’s article last week on the best 20 Gourmet Food Trucks in London. It was the only one in the list that I liked the sound of and hadn’t been to yet. So it went on the List and by fortuitous circumstance, came to be parked right by King’s Cross Station this week. Of course I had to go.

Rainbo do Asian street food – mostly gyoza, which are Japan’s answer to Chinese dumplings, and also called pot stickers. I love them so was excited that a new street food place was purveying them. They also offer miso soup, edamame and something they call crunchy salad. You can get six gyoza, some of the aforementioned salad and some edamame for £5.60 and that is what I did.

In one fell swoop the girl behind the counter scooped up six dumplings off the grill and popped them in the box, threading through some chopsticks. I sat on a stall with the box warming my lap as I set about eating. 

On the right of the picture is the crunchy salad. This is basically coleslaw – red cabbage, carrots and onion, but without the mayonnaise. Instead, they have ingeniously liberally sprinkled caramelised peanuts all over it. This may totally spoil the health benefits you get by eating salad, but it is totally worth it. It tastes fantastic. Really. Way more impressive than it sounds. The little pot is soy sauce, half of which I used with my dumplings and half of which I poured over the salad. In the middle are edamame beans. They’re covered in sea salt and fairly self-explanatory. 

On the right are the six plump dumplings, their bases nicely crisp and golden from the grill. They only had a choice between pork and tofu (though sometimes they have chicken and coriander) and I went for the pork and pickled ginger (like you needed to be told). Let me just say that they have made it into the inner circle of street food vendors that I will from now on have to pretend aren’t at Eat Street in order to avoid giving in to temptation. In other words, I’m saying they were good. I think I ate three with soy sauce and then three unadulterated. Yum. And what with all the veggie stuff, on top of being full, I felt unwarrantedly healthy, which is always satisfying. 

In case you're wondering, my other Street Food temptresses (I like to think of them as female - 'temptress' sounds more dangerous than 'tempter'), are Yum Bun, the Ribman, Big Apple Hot Dogs, Banhmi11 and Homeslice.