Saturday eating: Banh Mi Bay/Prufrock/Kerbisher & Malt

With time running out rapidly before I was heading off on holliers, I headed into town again on a rain-soaked Saturday to continue my field research for my cafe article. I had been forwarded an email by my editor which said that I could meet with someone at Prufrock after 1pm on Saturday. Since it was lunchtime, JD and I headed to nearby Banh Mi Bay for some Vietnamese grub beforehand. The place was packed; personally, didn't think the food was up to much. Since it was so cold outside, I plumped for a bowl of home-made banh canh (hot noodle soup, with the noodles being made of tapioca flour). I had never had banh canh before but got the feeling that whatever had been served to me was no the real deal. Noodles should be long rather than small inch-size piece morsels?

JD's pork banh mi on "Vietnamese" bread, ie. baguette? Nothing to write home and not a patch on the ones you can find in Paris either....

Banh canh - does not not look like the dishes I found on Google images?

My day didn't exactly improve after lunch either; on arrival at Prufrock, I was told that the person I was to speak to (Jeremy) would not be free after 1pm as per my email. In fact, there had been a change of plan and he was going to be teaching after 1pm (well, gee thanks for letting me know). In the end, I ended up catching a few moments with the barista behind the bar (who I later found out was in fact Jeremy but only because I found a video of him of Youtube, rather than him introducing himself to me at the time......cos clearly that would make too much sense??!!) but it was awkward cos there was a constant stream of customers coming in for coffee and I didn't want to be a nuisance. All in all, a bit of a nightmare....

Prufrock do have good coffee but after my experience and the "too cool for school" treatment, I would be reluctant to head back. I had started off this research on such a high with Workshop Coffee and was swiftly brought back to reality again - oh wellos.....

The "controversial" (or "too cool for school") coffee menu; 4oz = cortado, 60z = flat white, 8oz = latte)

 

Prufrock's filter brew bar 

Saturday finished with a quick dinner at Kerbisher & Malt before heading to the flicks. The last time we visited this chipped in Brook Green was over a year ago and at the time, our meal was good but not fantastic. This time, all the food was much improved and I am looking forward to our next visit! :)

Workshop Coffee Co

One of my side jobs at the moment is being a food writer for an online magazine. My contributions to date have been resto reviews; that is, until my editor came to visit me at work and suggested that I write a piece on top cafes in the capital, all within Zone 1. I pitched the idea that we could do a list of 5 cafes but rather than a top 5, list them as being the best of a particular category (newcomer, food, cake, established, connoisseur). Of course, this meant doing a bit of field research and my first port of call was Workshop Coffee Co in Clerkenwell. 

Workshop Coffee Co used to be called St Ali (after a famous cafe in Melbourne and until recently, had ties with the cafe in London) and is renowned for serving great coffee and yummy food to match. I had the pleasure of meeting Tim (director of operations) to chat about the cafe and the food they serve over a flat white. The ethos of Workshop is very much trying to use the best ingredients where possible (coffee and food alike) and then treating these ingredients with respect (roasting the coffee properly, cooking food simply) and serving this to the customer in a relaxed environment. Our conversation not only covered what was going on at Workshop but what was happening with the London food scene at the mo - very enjoyable! Had it not been for a prior engagement, we could've been chatting for hours longer! Tim was particularly proud of the burger on the Workshop menu; sadly, the kitchen wasn't open when I was there so I wasn't able to try it.

The burger, however, stuck in my head; so much so, that JD and I returned later on to try it out. The burger is usually served on the 1st floor restaurant but that was fully booked so we sat down on the ground floor and they were more than happy to serve us burgers there. The deets: 250g patty (bigger than most) and using rare breed Dexter beef - very, very good and well worth the trip out East :)

Pork rilletes with cornichons

Corn fritters - a brunch favourite!

 THAT burger!

A filter coffee to finish the meal - I found out that I'm a fan of the "full bodied" stuff :)

Giaconda Dining Room revisit

Ever since our first meal there, we had always planned on going back to Giaconda Dining Room but haven't managed until now. This was due to a few reasons:

1. I was working out in the burbs until quite recently and was too lazy to come back into town for dinner.
2. Giaconda is only open from Tuesdays - Fridays so no option for weekend dining.
3. It is also widely popular and has a small dining room so booking ahead is a must and there have been times when we wanted to go but haven't been organised enough to get a reservation ahead of time.

As it happens, I now work just around the corner from Giaconda giving us the perfect excuse for a re-visit :)

The menu has not changed much since our last visit but still packed with dishes that you want to try - solid cooking at bargain prices! Our dinner was very enjoyable, perhaps the only gripe was our rather gruff waitress who was more interested in being efficient rather than welcoming. Bad service really does stick out like a sore thumb, eeek!

Salad of beetroot and leek vinaigrette - full of flavour and lovely, zingy dressing over fresh salad greens. Perfect start to a meal. 

Roast rack of lamb with gnocchi alla romana - the lamb laid on a bed of ratatouille which was a little too sour for my tastes. The dish was to serve 2 people; it is adequate but fatties like ourselves might find it a little on the small side.

My dessert for white peach vacherin - the scoop of peach sorbet was originally perched on top of the meringues but slid to this position once placed on the table. Tasted great but this picture just reminds me of something lewd instead! (The remnants of a public school education, haha!) 

JD's pud of Délice Joconde

Local eat - Charlotte's Bistro

1st week back at work done and dusted which included a late enough Friday finish, poo! After collecting JD  from the tube station, we decided to head out for dinner down the road at Charlotte's Bistro - quite surprised we could get a walk-in table on a Friday night? Of course, we didn't complain and despite walking in at the stroke of 7pm, we were also offered the early bird offer of 3 courses from the a la carte menu plus an aperitif for 26 squid, pretty good offer!! Naturally, we opted for the early bird and were pretty pleased with the overall standard of cooking. Bon app :)

 Complimentary bread with offers of replenishment!

 Starter of marinated violet artichokes and leek hearts with truffle emulsion - a very tasty dish but could've done with some more trimming of the artichokes which still had some woody bits attached - not that keen on the extra fibre!

 Main of confit duck leg

 Dessert of vanilla cheesecake - pleasantly surprised by its creaminess but JD didn't like it :(

New(ish) resto - Medlar

For our monthly anniversary dinner, I had originally wanted to go to a new resto in our neck of the woods but was upon ringing for table, was told there would be a 3 week(!) wait (one of the many reasons why dining in London is more chore than pleasure) so based on the recommendation of a food blogger I check into regularly, we decided to try our luck at Medlar instead. According to the aforementioned blogger, this was his new local resto opening of the year and he had liked it so much he had been back twice so I guess I was going with high expectations.

We did have a nice night and enjoyed some well-cooked food; however, I couldn't help but feel the dining room was a little soul-less (we had arrived early, there were 3 other tables but the place still felt like a morgue) and that the food, whilst good, was not exciting.....as though I had seen and eaten it somewhere else (quite likely, since the chef had previously worked at Chez Bruce).

The one surprise of the night was the desserts which on paper, did not look particularly inviting but were actually very good (and this is coming from someone who will look at desserts with EXTRA scrutiny!) Definitely worth a visit but am not sure if I would be hurrying back......I guess with all reviews, mainstream and blogs, you have to take them with a pinch of salt......perhaps even more with the latter?

 Starter of crab raviolo with samphire, brown shrimp, fondue of leeks and bisque sauce - nice and perfectly tasty but in terms of shellfish ravioli, does not hit the heights of the langoustine version at L'Ardoise in Paris or the langoustine plus sweetbreads version at Caprice in HK. 

 Main of under blade fillet with persillade snails, salad, triple cooked chips and béarnaise - would've been prefectly happy if I had just been served steak, chips and béarnaise, not sure how the snails add to the dish. The chips were outstanding, only wish there had been more!

 Macaroon with English raspberries and lemon curd - personally, don't think this menu description conveys just how good this dessert was, stunning to look at, every component perfectly executed no dud sour raspberry either!!

 Chocolate and almond torte with honeycomb ice cream and caramel sauce 

Dinner with an old friend - St John Hotel

One of my chums from Ferrandi, Daisy, has recently moved across La Manche and settled here in the big smoke. Its been almost 2 years since I last saw her so a catch up over dinner was waaaaayyyyy overdue :)  


Whilst we were exchanging emails on when and where to meet, she handed me the rather difficult task on finding some place nice for food. My first thoughts were, "this is going to be a challenge", partly due to the fact that some of the better casual restos here in the big smoke that do not require booking are soooo popular that you need to turn up at around 5pm to get a spot (read: Barrafina or Spuntino) or places that are good often get booked up weeks in advance? Luckily for us, I finally had a brain wave and had the good fortune to get a reservation at the resto in St John Hotel.


This newish opening is tucked away on a side street off Leicester Square and on the fringe of Chinatown. Its pretty small - once you enter the front door, you are already met by reception and the resto is a door to the side. The resto is pretty small (Daisy said it reminded her of Paris......not as small as some we came across) with an open kitchen on one side of the dining room. The food, like the original St John is pretty good so a good choice all in all (however, if I had the choice, I would still opt for the original). The resto was packed by the end of our meal which made service a little slower and it was pretty noisy too but we were happy......here's to more foodie trips with Daisy! :)

Starter of snails, pigs cheek and lovage - very tasty with lots of juice to mop up with bread!

Main of pigeon, borlotti beans and anchovy - we also ordered a side of jersey royals, sorry no pic but you cannot beat a fresh spud! :)

Pudding of strawberry trifle - looks very simple but bursting with flavour! Who would've thought that strawberries and violets would go so well??!!

Sunday lunch @ Hawksmoor Covent Garden

Starter of bone marrow on toast with caramelised onions - big portions (compared to St John) but got a bit sickly and lacked the balance of St John's dish which is accompanied but a  piquant parsley salad to cut through the richness of the dish.

Roast rump with all the trimmings - good value at around 18 squid!

Hix Soho

JD and I had been wanting to try out Hix Soho for a while now so we decided to head there for a spot of dinner on Saturday night. The dining room itself is pretty funky and has a nice atmosphere but sadly, that is the only positive thing I have to say about our dinner. Where to begin??? Firstly, the table we sat at was jutting out from a pillar and blatantly screamed "we need to have as many covers as possible". It clearly shouldn't have been put there in the first place as demonstrated by the waiting staff continuously walking into the back of my seat. This brings me on nicely to the staff, who were split between servers and "order takers". By the time we were ready to order, a server approached us to ask the very question........only to tell us that she will now have to go and fetch an "order taker"??? What really is the point? Throughout the duration of our meal, the service just seemed to get worse and worse.......nobody bothered to tell us what each dish was when it arrived, it was literally just plonked in front of us. Similarly, no-one bothered to ask if we had finished and if it would be OK to take our plates, never mind asking how our food was. I don't think I am a particularly fussy diner - what I've just pointed seem to be the basics of service, right? The icing on the cake was when of the "head waiters" went to the all trouble of re-lighting the table candle......right at the end of our meal and another picking up JD's empty dessert plate despite me still eating mine......all in all, pretty disgraceful. Service is a tricky thing, you don't really notice it when it is good (and that is the hallmark of good service) but when it is bad, it really ruins a meal.

So onto the food, was it any good? It was passable but nothing that really wowed us. I got the feeling that it was aspiring to be like St John but just failed to hit the mark. Also, when you get down to the nitty gritty, its an awful lot of money to be spending on mediocrity....I don't think we will be heading back.

My starter of prawn cocktail - average

JD's starter of "heaven and earth" - black pudding with apples and mash....OK but failed to hit the mark as a "signature" dish

 My main of hanger steak with bone marrow - steak was tender but a bit weird with the limp charred exterior. It tasted as though it had been seared, then cooked in a sous-vide and then served without caramelising the outside again. The bone marrow was overpowered by too much breadcrumbs.

JD's main of pork chop with crackling and braised Brussel sprouts - not bad but unforgiveable to be serving pork that was raw in the centre.

JD's dessert of steamed sponge pudding with chocolate and chestnuts - the chocolate overpowered the chestnuts and the chestnuts had not been toasted so were a bit limp and raw tasting.

I was too full so opted for a scoop of pear sorbet - too sweet.