Time for another London Blog.....

Mien Tay

www.mientay.co.uk

Having  been quite dissapointed by my last visit for Vietnemese food along Kingsland road, or 'Pho Mile' as it has been nicknamed, i decided to visit Mien Tay as i had heard lots of positive reviews.

When we arrived at the restaurant it was packed out, which i was shocked by as it was early on a Sunday evening. We were seated quickly, however we were left to our own devices perusing the menu for about 20 minutes before anyone even asked us if we would like a drink. 

The menu was vast, at first i was quite excited by the amount of choice on the menu, then i became a little dubious as to how they could possibly offer all of these dishes without the quality of the food suffering somewhat. For starters we opted for one dish to share and chose chargrilled quail with garlic, honey and spices as i read that this was one of their most popular dishes.

We seemed to be waiting a long time for this dish to arrive, and although the restaurant was very busy, i couldn't understand why one starter could be taking so long. When it did arrive it looked appetising, the flavour of the meat was quite pleasant, but i think the chilli overwhelmed it all a bit and i couldn't detect much of the honey flavour. The amount of small bones was also a bit fiddly to chomp around, therefore we finished the dish both feeling hungry and also frustrated by the poor service we had been receiving.

The service seemed to keep on getting worse during the course of the evening. We waited abot 20 minutes for the main course, looking on as the table next to us who arrived after us, had pretty much eaten up and were paying their bill. When we asked a staff member where our food was he looked at us slightly confused, dissapeared off somewhere only to return and say that we had been pretty much forgotten about, and our food would be coming soon.

By this point i didn't really want to stay and would have gladly left if it wasn't for the fact that it would have meant another trip to go and find somewhere else to eat.

When our main meals arrived, there was no apology for the delay, however all i wanted to do was tuck in. We ordered crispy sea bream with lemongrass and chilli, stirfried mince pork with aubergine and stirfried noodles with beansprouts. The fish looked really nice, and tasted quite good, i liked the light fragrant fish sauce it was sitting on, although i was a bit dissapointed that i couldn't taste the lemongrass much. I would have also prefered the fish to have been filleted to save time.

I took one bite of the minced pork and aubergine dish and in all honesty it was one of the blandest dishes i have ever tasted. The sauce was very synthetic and the whole colour of the dish was extremely unnapetising. The meat tasted like it was very poor quality and the aubergine didn't  have that lovely smokey flavour you would expect. It was a complete crime against the wonderful aubergine, and i couldn't have continued to eat it.

The noodles were fairly standard, the crispy onions on the top were a nice touch though.

I was so suprised by all the positive reviews of this restaurant, and i thought that the total bill of £29.00 was too expensive for the quality of the food and service received.

Naru

www.narurestaurant.com

We enjoyed a much more pleasant experience at Naru, a Korean restaurant right at the top of Shaftesbury Avenue. The atmosphere in the restaurant was relaxing, and our waiter for the evening soon put us at ease with his friendly service and complementary tap water.

After a very long perusal of the menu we chose starters of traditional Korean pancake with seafood and spring onion and sweet potato and enoki mushroom noodle spring rolls. Both these dishes were great. I loved the mixture of soft and crispy textures of the pancake, and the filling was very generous. The rolls were wonderfully crisp and the enoki mushrooms and noodles were a really nice soft texture in contrast to the crisp outside. The only thing that could have made it better  would have been somekind of dipping sauce on the side.

I can't actually remember the name of this dish. However, it consisted of rice noodles, rice cakes, white fish, shitake mushrooms, and was strangely topped with cheese. On the menu it said that this was a traditional Korean dish so i was interested to try it out. It was hot and spicy, packed with chilli, the noodles and ricecakes providing a nice chewy texture, great to soak up the rich sauce. Courgette and carrott ribbons adding a bit of crunch and freshness to the dish. I am still not sure about that cheese topping though!

Total price £23

One of my favourite places along Edgeware road, 'Meya Meya' an unassuming Egyptian takeaway. Doesn't look like much from the outside but it does really interesting Egyptian dishes at reasonable prices. One of the best things about Meya Meya however, is their feteer. An egyptain style pizza which you can have with various sweet and savoury fillings.

Here is a rather lovely chocolate and coconut cream version, mmmm!!

THE THATCH - Bottesford

www.thatchrestaurant.co.uk


The Thatch is a picturesque listed building in the village of Bottesford, situated within the Vale Of Belvoir. The rather old fashioned looking website doesn't really do the building itself much justice. 

We were given a free 'amuse bouche' to start but strangely were not told by the staff what it was we were eating. It consisted of some rather drab looking salad leaves with a dollop of some slow cooked lamb on the top. I found this an odd choice to choose to start the meal and you wouldn't really refer to it as an amuse bouche. Perhaps they were trying a bit too hard to impress but missing the mark somewhat.

First on the starters was a duck pate, with melba toast and red onion jam, which was presented nicely and i am informed by James, that this was very enjoyable. Not being a pate fan myself i tried some of the melba toast and onion jam and pleased to see that the melba toast had not come out of a packet.

My starter was a seafood bouillabaisse, which i was really looking forward to as i had been wanting to try this dish for sometime. When it arrived it did not resemble a bouillabaisse at all. It was a rich earthy looking broth filled with lovely chunks of fish. Instead, i was served a rather thick looking fish soup which had the consistency of baby food and tasted like pureed salmon. Very disappointing!

Whilst waiting for our main courses we were served a complementary sorbet. Again, we were not told by the staff what the flavour of the sorbet was and spent the whole time debating about it. I overheard another member of staff telling another table that this was an orange and aniseed flavoured sorbet, (nice of them to have offered up the information beforehand). My sorbet didn't really have any taste other than that of a syrupy cough mixture which was not very enjoyable and didn't cleanse my pallet at all.

The main meals looked much more appealing, and i was very pleased with the presentation of my Moroccan lamb dish. The amount of lamb was very generous, i think there were three large sized chops all together and the meat was beautifully cooked. This was resting on top of a lovely mixture of morrocan spiced vegetables and rich wine soaked beetroot. At first i thought that this seemed like quite an odd combination but i really enjoyed the dish

.

James had the steak, with a mini shepherds pie and dauphinoise potatoes. When the dish arrived we were both a bit unsure of the rather odd looking serving platter it arrived on. Looking more like a fancy pottery chopping board and making the size of the food look a bit tiny in comparison. Also quite hard to cut the steak on without attracting a lot of attention due to the strange ridges on the platter. Overall opinion on this dish was that the meat was nicely cooked, but the amount of peppercorn sauce was a bit overpowering. It could also have done with more fresh vegetables as an accompaniment as the meat and the pie were both quite rich.

I forgot to photograph my pudding as i was quite underwhelmed first of all by the choices on the pudding menu but also the presentation of my dish. I opted for a lemon tart and cream. The pastry was quite nice and buttery, and not too thick and the lemon filling was nice and fresh. However the cream had big sugar granules in it as though it had not been mixed very well, and was quite unpleasant. I also thought they were a bit mean with their portion sizes. 

James however, did remember to photograph his pudding. This was a rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice cream and a decorative physilis. Overall opinion was that the rhubarb was much too hard and would have been nicer if it had been stewed down a bit more. Also the presentation of the dish was a bit disappointing and probably would have been nicer served in the traditional way with a nice splash of rich creamy custard!

My overall thoughts about 'The Thatch' were that the staff needed to relax a little more, they were very attentive but they seemed on edge and uncomfortable a lot of the time, which didn't put me at ease. They also failed to inform us what we were eating when they put our plates down, and i found this frustrating. I also think that you should have one member of staff wait on your table and not three different members of staff. I think they have a bit of an identity problem, perhaps they are not quite sure what kind of environment they are trying to achieve, and they are taking relatively good pub food and tryin to elevate it to fine dining.


We dined here using a groupon voucher, which entitled us to a three course meal for two for £25.

AQUA FOOD AND MOOD - Warwick

12-14 Jury Street
Warwick
CV34 4EW


www.aqua-food-mood.co.uk


This was my first visit to Warwick and i found that most of the decent sounding restaurants were quite pricey so when i read that there was a Lebanese restaurant in the town which sounded fairly reasonable i decided to give it a go. Also i am a very big fan of Lebanese and mezze food so i was quite excited about the prospect of eating here.

When we arrived at the restaurant on a Saturday night to see there was only one table of people in there we were a little hesitant as i like there to be a bit of an atmosphere. Once we were seated it didn't take long before the restaurant began to fill up, which made me relax more.

The choice of starters on the menu was fairly long with a good range of hot and cold dishes on offer. Not wanting to fill up to much before our main meals, we ordered a starter of mixed dips and bread. Consisting of humous, broad bean dip and baba ganoush. 

When it arrived it seemed quite small, i did think they could have been a bit more generous with the portion sizes of each dip. However, the humous was very good, nice and thick and rich. The baba ganoush was also very nice and had a great smokey flavour and the bread was very nice and fresh tasting. The disappointment came with the supposed broad bean dip, with no broad beans in sight just a few borlotti beans in a murky looking brown sauce which tasted like it had come out of a tin.

On to the mains, we ordered whole grilled baby chicken with garlic sauce, and a lamb and okra stew. The dishes looked very appetizing on arrival and were decently sized. The chicken tasted very good and was grilled very well so it had that lovely charred bbq taste. However, the supposed garlic sauce was just a small ramekin of what resembled garlic mayonaise. It came with rice and a small salad, although the rice didn't have that nice buttery texture that i would expect, it was just plain boiled basmati rice with a few herbs sprinkled on.

The lamb and okra stew was quite an average dish, the lamb was a bit chewy and the sauce tasted quite acidic, and didn't have a rich enough taste of the tomato. I think this was probably because it hadn't been cooked for long enough to get that rich slow cooked taste. 

The meal came to £34 including service. All in all this was a fairly decent place, and for somewhere small like Warwick i am sure it offers a refreshing change to chain restaurants and overpriced gastropubs. However it just didn't quite excel in the kitchen enough to make me want to go back.

Yes yes LONDON again...

Mosob

339 Harrow Road

London

W9 3RB

www.mosob.co.uk

The restaurant was very quiet when we arrived, but it was still quite early on a Sunday evening so i hoped that more people would arrive to liven up the atmosphere. We were given a very warm welcome by one member of staff, who it turned out as the evening went on was the owner of the restaurant. I have eaten African food before but as there was so many dishes to choose from we decided to go for the 'Adi Ugri' lamb, beef and vegetable platter for two.

First to arrive was the starter of spinach and Timitimo injera rolls served with yogurt and Awaze chilli paste

I really liked the rolls, but i felt that they could have been a little more generous with the amount of filling. The lentils were midly spiced and went well with the accompanying chilli paste and cooling yogurt. But it was the spinach roll that came out as the favourite, really simple but the flavours of the spinach were very good.

While we were waiting for the main meal to arrive, the owner proceeded to show us a well thumbed book filled with the Eritrean architecture. I thought it was a nice touch that he wanted his customers to feel at home and provide them with an understanding of the culture from which had led him to open up his restaurant.

Our platter arrived and was placed between us in the traditional way. A stainless steel plate covered completely with a large injera bread. On top sat our dishes of meat and vegetable stews. 

Our platter consisted of....

'Quluwa'- Cubes of lamb with green chillies and tomato

'Minchetabish'- Spicy minced beef stew with boiled eggs

'Hamli' - Spinach cooked with garlic and

'Kik Alicha' - Split peas with tumeric and basil

We tore pieces of the spongey Injera and used it to scoop up mouthfuls of food. The minced beef stew was very rich and thick with tomato, I couldn't detect any egg in there as stated on the menu so i was a little disappointed. The lamb in the 'Quluwa' stew was a bit chewy, and it didn't have any particular standout flavours. I though that both vegetable dishes, particularly the lentil dish which was nicely flavoured with tumeric and worked really well with these particular meat dishes and also with the sourness of the bread. 

Total price £28.

Cay Tre

301 Old Street

London

EC1V 9LA

www.vietnemesekitchen.co.uk

 'Saigon Xeo Pancake'

I really enjoyed the mix of light crispy pancake,combined with the fresh fragrant herbs, and the  generous filling of juicy prawns, chicken and bean sprouts. The lettuce also provided another fresh texture, used to help scoop up chunks of the pancake. The little dish of nuoc cham spiced fish sauce was an ideal accompaniment which injected the dish with anthor big flavour.

'Lotus Stem Salad'

Less enjoyable was the lotus stem salad, served with prawn crackers which i am not a fan of. The positives about this dish were that the prawns were big and juicy, and it had a really nice level of heat and acidity to it from the fresh red chilli and lime juice.i also enjoyed the crunch from the roasted peanuts sitting on the top. The downsides were that the lotus stem was just too stringy and tasted quite sour, and i also found some of the herbs used in the dish a bit overpowering.

'Green mango seabass'

This was my favourite dish, and probably the most simple in terms of ingredients and presentation. Lovely crisply fried seabass, in a delicate, fragrant fish sauce topped with super fine shredded green mango and chilli.

'Cassava Mien'

Not a show stopper of a dish but tasty nevertheless, this dish of cassava vermicelli with crab and tiger prawns had a good combination of textures from the crisp fried vermicelli and fresh beansprouts and was generously topped with large prawns and soft crab meat. I enjoyed the dish but i think there were probably more standout dishes to be found on the menu. 

Total price including one pot of Jasmine tea and steamed rice £37.97

The best Italian meatballs in the world....

Courtesy of my wonderful Nanna Rosa.

LANGAR HALL - Langar

Cropwell Road

Langar

Nottingham

NG13 9HG

www.langarhall.com

I think we picked one of the nicest days we've had this year for a trip out into the country, and my first visit to the very scenic Langar Hall with my two equally enthusiastic foodies Tracey and Emma.

Although not as grand as i had imagined, this homely looking country house has great character and style, and is set amongst beautiful grounds.

First Course

Myself and Emma opted for the 'Smoked salmon with horseradish and beetroot'

The first thing that struck me with my starter was the simple delicate presentation.Thin slithers of extremely fresh smoked salmon, with a punchy kick from the horseradish sauce matched very well with the chunks of beetroot. The savoury crisps provided another nice texture against the softness of the fish.

Tracey went for the 'Roast Duck and Orange Salad'

Second Course

'Venison suet pudding with red cabbage and sesonal vegetables'

Again i was very impressed with the presentation of the dish, and found myself wondering how they had managed to form the mashed potato into such an interesting shape! The pudding itself was gloriously soft and when i cut into it the very generously packed soft venison in rich gravy came spilling out. This was served alongside some very well seasoned roasted parsnips and carrots,rich red wine infused spiced red cabbage, and a lovely soft and creamy mustardy mash.

Emma and Tracey went for the 'Roast Pork with crackling, apple sauce and red cabbage'

Overall a really fulfilling and enjoyable meal. Good portion sizes, which you would expect from the price, as it is a little more expensive than i would usually pay for a set lunch. However, the experience is enhanced by the very attentive and friendly service and of course the fantastic house steeped in history and beautifully preserved in this quiet little corner of the vale of belvoir

Two Course Lunch (not including drinks) £16.95 per person

Sunday Baking - 'Lazy Loaf'

This is a great Nigel Slater recipe for a quick and easy Soda Bread loaf. Doesn't take long to prepare and cooks in under 30 minutes! 

Here is a link to the recipe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/nigels_lazy_loaf_71344

LONDON - A gourmet weekend

St Katherines Docks Good Food Market

St Katherine's Way

Tower Hamlets

E1W 1TW

'Panka' - Peruvian food stall

We had a mixed box which included Corriander beef, mixed vegetable quinoto, grilled chicken and salad for £5.00. The corriander beef was the highlight, the meat was really tender and flavorsome, but they could have been a bit more generous with their serving size. The Quinoto was a mix of quinoa, peas and sweetcorn, nice and healthy but a little bland and could have done with more seasoning. The grilled chicken was quite tasty, but quite subtly flavoured, the cabbage salad was a nice touch, and provided a nice crunch amongst all the meat and grains. 

Also at the market was an extremely appealing Carribean stand 'Creole' selling mostly vegan friendly sweet and savoury loafs, but i did notice they were selling some rather nice looking hot savoury fritters at a reasonable £1.50. After sampling most of the loafs available from the little tasting plate on the stand we went for the mango loaf at £3.50 for half. This is one of the nicest vegan cakes i have tried, so moist and extremely moreish!

'Abu Zaad' - Syrian

29 Uxbridge Road

London

W12 8LH

http://www.abuzaad.co.uk/

There was such a huge selection of dishes we wanted to try on this menu, and i had some recommended dishes that i was interested to sample.

'Pastries filled with lamb, raisins and pinenuts'

The pastry was a bit too thick and chewy which was ashame as the lamb filling was really tasty

'Foul Mukalla' - Broadbeans with corriander, garlic, olive oil and yogurt

This was one of the reccomended dishes and i wasn't dissapointed. It went really well with the flatbreads we were served.

'Bamieh-bil-zeit'  onion with tomato corriander and olive oil

'Harah Isbah' - Pasta cooked with tamarind, lentils and garlic

'Makdous' Aubergine stuffed with walnut and pepper

The 'Harah Isbah' was my favourite dish on this mixed platter, strange sounding combination but worked really well and i liked the crunch of the toasted bread on the top. The aubergine was a bit dissapointing as it was pickled and was a bit too sour.

'Makloba' - Rice cooked with nuts and spices baked with aubergine and topped with lamb.

This was the dish i was most looking forward to and also came highly recommended. Lovely smoky charred sliced of aubergine encasing a mound of spiced rice and slow cooked chunks of lamb.

Portobello Road Market

Kensington

London

'Churros Garcia' 

www.churrosgarcia.co.uk

Churros are a fried dough pastry, and are most popularly known as a 'spanish dougnut' I have always wanted to try them, and i heard that this was the best place to get them. The queue for this stand was very big so i had a good feeling about it. At £3.50 a little pricey but they were really good, crisp hot and chewy, covered in sugar and came with a rather nice hot chocolate dipping sauce.

'C+ R Cafe' - Malaysian

52 Westbourne Grove

London

W2 5SH

www.cnrrestaurant.co.uk

After walking around Portobello Market in the rain, we decided it was time to take cover and get some lunch. Most of the places we ventured past in this area seemed a bit pricey but then we spotted C + R which i had been reading about recently having been recommended by none other than Michel Roux in one of the weekend supplements.

'Pad Thai' - Fried rice noodles with chicken, beansprouts, peanuts and egg

Kampung Style Nasi Goreng - fried rice with chicken, prawns, anchovies and chilli with a fried egg

Gessler at Daquise  - Polish

20 Thurloe Street

London

Sw7 2LT

www.gesslerlondon.com

'Pierozki'  Dumplings filled with pork served with bacon lardons.

These were brought to the table by the chef, still sizzling away in the pan. Served piping hot and drizzled with the cooking oil and crunchy pieces of bacon. They were packed full of soft rich pork, and the pastry was light and not too heavy. Very generous portion for a starter too.

 'Tatar' - beef fillet with egg yolk, gherkin, capers, and anchovies

I had always been a bit reluctant to try steak tatar, i guess the idea of raw meat and raw egg had never seemed that appealing. However, after sampling this i really enjoyed the dish.The beef was very fresh, and seasoned extremely well, the anchovies added a nice extra bit of saltiness. The gherkins and capers giving it a nice crunchy texture in contrast to the softness of the meat.

'Kaczka' - Rosted duck with apples, with cranberries and red cabbage with dill mashed potatoes

Again the main meals were all served to us at the table which i really enjoyed, each component of the dish being brought out in various frying pans and pots.  The duck was lovely and tender with nice crisp skin, and  the mash and red cabbage were both a great accompaniment. 

Medaliony z jelenia - meddalions of dear in armagnac, served with polish noodles and roasted beetroot

Sunday

Maoz

43 Old Compton Street

Westminster

London

W1D 6HG

www.maozusa.com/restaurants/locations/london

Pitta with falafel, humous, and various salads and pickles from the help yourself bar.

£3.40

Really good value, very generously filled and good choice of extra salads and sauces.  They also do good value meal deals, which included belgian fries and drinks.

'Koba' - Korean

11 Rathbone Street

London

W1T 1NA

Mixed pickles of cabbage, carrot and radish

Spring onion and chilli fried rice cake

Tofu Hotpot

19 Numara Bos Cirrik - Turkish

34 Stoke Newington Road

N16 7XJ

I think this is probably one of my favourite places to eat in London, it never disappoints. It's small with tables tightly packed in, but it has a great feel about it, especially when the locals are dining.

You get three salads and bread for free when you order your meal. My favourite is the grilled onion soaked in pomegranate juice. 

'Chicken Beyti Kebab'

Juicy chargrilled pieces of chicken with finely chopped pepper and herbs, wrapped in bread served with buttery rice, yogurt and tomato sauce. 

This is my favourite dish, and i pretty much always order this because i enjoy it so much. Aubergine stuffed with lamb mince and vegetables served with rice and a garlicky tomato sauce.