The set up of Shōtō is pretty simple – an open kitchen, a team of chefs (who are also tasked with being the waiters) and a couple of sommeliers’ and everyone is clearly very in-sync with what’s going on. You book your time and are seated alongside your fellow diners and watch the culinary show get started. As we wait for all diners to arrive we are served a number of amuse bouche – breads, soups, rice squares and more; I think there were around 5 in total and as soon as they were put in front of me I gleefully gobbled them up – which means no pictures and alas no recollections of exactly what they were (oops) other than being light and rather delicious!

Our first proper cause was fluke (or flounder as we know it in the UK), served raw and wrapped around a ‘cherry bomb’ pepper which gave each mouthful rather a bigger kick than I was expecting. Sauce was provided by subtle black bean sauce and texture by some crisp fried shallot and these 2 provided a perfect balance to each mouthful. It was served with a Canadian Sake (who knew Canadians made sake eh?) which provided an additional floral note – alas it wasn’t a big dish but remembering that I had still 9 courses to come my disappointment at it’s fast demise was tempered rather. Everything on the dish had a purpose and it was a fantastic start. Another course which met a fast finish (so fast I forgot to snap it) was sweet shrimp, Chinese broccoli and orange. I’ve never had the combination of shellfish and citrus before and I’m guessing without the Asian flavours it wouldn’t have worked but here it certainly did by adding a sweet rush of orange with each bite.

David Chang is famous for his ramen noodle soups so I was pleased to next up receive a broth based dish with a goose broth/comsume providing a meaty accompaniment to 3 goose filled dumplings. Goose is something I very rarely have and associate more with Christmas time and I’m not sure how much it’s used in traditional Asian cuisine but it’s gamey taste was very much the star of the dish though the fried brussel sprouts were surprisingly delicious and provided a bit of crunch when needed.

Goose dumpling soup

The chefs had hit a bit of a purple patch as next up was another winner and probably my dish of the night. A slow cooked duck egg served a top a daikon salad with a very firy Thai chilli dressing and alongside some beef fried egg white. The idea was that you break up the egg and it sauces up the salad, as well as cooling down the chilli heat rather but my egg was a little bit overdone so that missed the boat; but regardless the different levels of flavour brought an instant smile to my face and the fried egg whites are something that I now want to try at home – they were so good and a great way to ensure that they’re not wasted when taken away from the yolk. I could see a few of the other diners (all rather well off middle aged looking people) struggle with the heat but for me it was perfect.

Fried duck egg with thai chilli salad

After two cracking dishes the next one was a bit weird – macaroni with some lamb meatballs, kale and dill. I’ve seen in other reviews people say that at times some dishes feel more like experiments where ingredients are put together in the hope that they work and I can see a little bit of that in this dish. The macaroni and dill weren’t a great combo (I’m not the biggest fan of dill as is it anyways) and the meatballs were rather nice but didn’t really go with the macaroni. More stable footing is found with a classic and rather Spanish inspired dish of halibut, chorizo and various state of onion; the additional twist here is oyster cream (a rather salty cream essentially) that binds all the ingredients together. It’s a good dish but I’m not sure how it fits in with the rest of the menu, it’s ‘Spanishness’ seemed rather out of place…

Before our final meat course we have a beautiful ‘salad’ dish of finely shaved beef heart, bone marrow, parsnip and mushroom. I put salad in quotes because in reality this is one of the meatiest tasting dishes of the night and a perfect balance of textures and tastes once you manage to gather all the elements onto your fork. We finish the savory part of the meal with a fine chunk of venison, creamy grits like lentils and thin sliced and roasted cauliflower; this dish felt very English inspired and again not all that Asian but it was perfectly pink and juicy, a real joy to eat.

Venison with cauliflower and tartar toast

Our sweets started off with an ice-cream float in sparkling apple juice. It didn’t photograph well but was super fresh and intensely apple flavoured. It took an effort not to have ice-cream brain freezes after it slipped down in one but it was a good little dish and the perfect thing to clean the palate after that intense venison from the course before. And then we have dessert. And it’s pineapple. Lots of pineapple. The only non-pineapple themed part of the dish was a burnt Italian meringue which did an amicable job at hiding the taste but alas not quite enough. As I forgot to mention my hate of pineapple before dining or when booking I soldiered through and the varying textures (from both ice-cream and stewed fruit) where certainly a good combo but that taste; those memories… At least it was served with champagne!

All the staff are super friendly, knowledgeable and an integral part of the service. The venue is very intimate and they really make the occasion one that if you’re in town and looking for a special experience dinner you have to labor through the online booking and try out. It’s certainly not cheap but the culinary ride is something that I’ve not experienced anywhere else. The wine matching was spot on and they’re all for pushing the local producers; I was also pleased to have non-wine pairings when clearly wine was not the perfect match for the food, you can see the work that has gone into making things just right. I wonder when we will get a Momofuku in London…

We took a Friday off work and took the train up to Blackburn changing at Preston – you need to take a taxi either way (£20 from Preston, £10 from Blackburn) so if we were to go again I would suggest just getting off at Preston opposed to getting the connecting train. We were welcomed with a warm hello and promptly shown to our room which was cozy and had a VERY lavish bathroom with added mood lights. We overlooked the restaurant gardens and Lancashire countryside which unfortunately was shrouded in fog but that will teach us for going in April! The entertainment on site is a little limited – there is a kitchen garden which at the time was full of seedlings, a small bar which has a great whisky selection and some good local beers and rooms have a TV with Sky Sports and a DVD player which meant we could catch up with Game of Thrones. If that kinda stuff doesn’t float your boat I suggest bringing a car.

Our room (room 8)

As we were there for the weekend we got to sample 2 tasting menus – one ‘small’ 5 gourmet menu and the full blown 7 course chefs tasting, and either of those could be boosted by an extra course with the option of cheese; it’s very fair to say that we were very well fed as we got back into the train to London on the Sunday. All the ingredients used tasted super fresh with I’m guessing the majority of the vegetables being picked that day in the house gardens assortment of green houses, we talk about food miles being an important thing but here we’re literally talking food meters. While we had 12 different plates ahead of us the amuse and pre-starter were the same both nights and featured a double beetroot hit with crisp cubes and a creamy sorbet again adding to the list of successful beetroot dishes I’ve had.

It would take far too many words (and alas there are still a lot), exclamations and superlatives to explains all the food I had so I suggest taking a look at the photos; everything tasted at least as good as it looked but on the gourmet menu the real stand-outs were the final 3 dishes of foragers soup, beef loin and bitter chocolate tea-cake. While it might sound rather basic the depth of flavours coming from the soup of foraged greens (what greens we couldn’t quite work out, and we heard a different list mentioned at each table who asked) really knocking me back as to quite how good it was; a cheese dumpling was on hand to add a bit of soft texture and salt and if there were more provided I could have happily munched it down in one; instead it required a lot of restraint not to.

Foragers soup, goats cheese dumpling

Having been bowled over by the vegetarian soup the meat course of beef loin, beef tartar and oxtail put all thoughts of vegetarianism out of my head. Served perfectly pink and sat on top a mini stash of oxtail and mushrooms the beef could be cut with a spoon and packed a gorgeous flavour. Considering we ALSO had a mini chunk of bone marrow and some perfectly textured tartar we could have potentially have gone with a bit less salt but that could be the only criticism I had of this dish; some people may have said it was a bit ‘too big’ as even for me the prospect of eating cheese after polishing the plate off was a step too far but that’s as close to spiting hairs as I’m willing to go – if the food is good then it’s better having too much than too little I say.

The dessert had nostalgia in the form of a chocolate dusted Tunnocks tea-cake but if nostalgia isn’t your thing there was also a bowl of sweet-treats coming with it – marmalade ice-cream, booze-soaked Jamaican ginger cake AND Darjeeling ice-cream along with some chocolate drops and blood orange sauce. It was a lot of ingredients to get right as a full bowls worth but individually they all tasted rather fine – the rich ice cream bringing everything together on the spoon and confirming that I had no space left for any cheese.

Bitter chocolate and blood orange tea-cake

The 7 course tasting menu was far less rich – meaning that there was indeed room for the additional cheese course though by no means less decadent. The carnivore in me was pleased to have achieved a meat hat-trick of beef, pork AND lamb in the same meal. The beef tartar introduced to us the night before was given center stage as the opening dish and served more traditionally with a quails egg yolk, some toast, game chips and horseradish cream – as before the quality of beef was sublime and backed up well with the sharp capers and onion with some additional strength if needed coming from the horseradish.

Sticking out like rather a sore thumb in between all the traditional English inspired dishes was one called shrimp porridge – a Northcote twist on the dish made famous by Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck with snails (one that wasn’t on the menu when I dined there). As I hadn’t had the original I didn’t have much to base it on other than it not tasting anything like the porridge I grew up eating; and of all the flavours on the plate the only one that really stood out was that of raw spring onion. I couldn’t say that I disliked it but amongst all the other perfectly cooked dishes that came our way it stood out for unfortunately the wrong reasons.

Shrimp porridge

Continuing with out meats a perfectly cooked fillet and cheek of pork couldn’t have been supplemented any better by a opulent and devilish red chorizo and barley risotto – with a slight Spanish taste coming from the chorizo it was a subtle nod to Europe from a menu that was very much based in the British Isles. While not coming in the form of a hotpot the belly and loin of lamb was one of the simpler dishes (‘just’ your meat, red cabbage, potato and carrot puree) but probably the tastiest red meat course with the sweet lamb going perfectly on a fork with a bit of the earthy cabbage and buttery/crisp potato being as close to a hotpot as you can get without it actually being one.

Loin and belly of lamb

Surprisingly the star of the show for me was a perfectly cooked piece of john dory that when paired with some salty ham, smoked onion and an earthy chervil soup. It seemed to hit each of my taste-buds individually as it was joyously devoured; I can’t remember a time where I have been quite as excited with a bit of fish that wasn’t battered and devoured after a heavy drinking session.

John dory

I went to Northcote hoping for a relaxing weekend in the countryside with a few special meals to remember the even more special occasion by and this expectation was certainly met. The food is refined yet hearty, generous, comforting and most importantly delicious with the Lancashire area providing some of the best produce around. Forget all the talk of it being grim up north as even on a foggy and dank weekend the Northcote experience provided a sunny glow in my stomach like it was on a beach in Barbados.

I also had very high hopes for the food and would have come here regardless of beer being served or not as chef Alyn, after learning his trade for the past 5 years fronting up the kitchen at The Berkley under the name of Marcus Wareing is someone I’ve heard great things about from a number of fellow bloggers and food critics. His self-named restaurant is pride of place in The Westbury Hotel in Mayfair and when we visited we received a warm welcome from the front of house, enjoyed a cocktail at the bar and enjoyed the 7 course menu with beer for me and wine for Ella.

We started things off with a delicate crab dish – a small piece of crab topped with a milk puree, meaty consume with a couple of smoked bacon buns on the side, it was a nice clean tasting dish but rather over-shadowed by the second course of scallop, pumpkin and cuttlefish. Taking what I’m guessing was inspiration from Koffmanns the cuttlefish was served as thin pasta-like ribbons on which the scallop (charred on top, tender and juicy in the middle sat proud until I started cutting through it with my knife. The small chunks of pumpkin and fried marjoram provided some extra taste highlights where needed but the stars of the show shone through and provided a dish to remember and we were only on the second course.

Next up we had two of my favourite foods – foie gras and beetroot. Unfortunately the foie was served up as a semi-fredo and personally I don’t think that’s the best way to treat it as you loose a lot of the richness and taste you get when served ‘au natural’, it did go nicely with the beetroot though and did a good job matching up to it’s strong earthy taste. Following this we had cod, topped with truffle shavings and sat on a bed of bean stew – the fish was cooked great but nothing about this dish really jumped out at me, it was certainly hugely edible but it kinda was what it was.

Foie gras semi fredo with heritage beetroots

After going mad in the first couple of paragraphs about the beer matching you’ve probably noticed that I’ve not mentioned any up to now; unfortunately none were really that inspired and a bit boring, there were IPA’s, wheat beer, a light ale but alas they didn’t really add anything to the food up to the main course of devon ruby sirlion which all in all was THE dish of the night and certainly something worthy of repeat custom. A perfect pink cooked cut of beef was served with numerous stock and butter infused chanterelles and joined by what might well be near mash potato perfection; AND matched with a smoked beer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_beer#Bamberg_Rauchbier) that made the beef taste like it had just come off a BBQ – it made me think of summer sunshine opposed to winter darkness.

Devon ruby sirloin

Following this masterpiece we had cheese, a small creme catalan pre-dessert and a nice winter baked apple, ice-cream and rolo (a home-made tribute the type you don’t give your last of away) dessert, a nice way to end a meal though matched with a cider felt a little bit of a cheat.

Baked apple with rolos and hazelnut

I don’t know if I got hit with the Christmas curse again (not sure if it’s me but I never seem to get the best eating experiences close to Christmas) but it certainly felt like something here was missing during my dinner here. I’m not sure if I was expecting too much from the beers (I was certainly expecting there to be a few more British ones), if Christmas boozing had killed my taste buds and I missed a number of the flavour layers or if my mind was distracted by the Christmas tunes on loop but I was expecting a little bit more than what I got. There were great dishes, and THAT mash, but many more failed to make a significant impression.

Walking into the large, high-ceilinged dining room on a dark week-night I didn’t initially realise how lavish the design of the room was (to confirm – it’s very lavish) but instead I noticed that all the tables are booths, the first of many of the quirks I previously mentioned. The second one is the ‘press for champagne’ button, a button that stupidly remained un-pressed for my visit but one that likely won’t be so neglected the next time. Before even touching the menu I’m finding things to like about this place, while it’s clearly a very serious restaurant the little quirks here and there add the kind of special touches that make a dinning experience stand out.

And now we get to the food.

The people I know who have been to Russia haven’t really been that enthusiastic about Russian food but wanting to get an idea of the flavour I didn’t turn my nose up to a ice cool shot of vodka and a mini tasting plate. Stored at -18 the Russian Standard vodka was probably the smoothest I’ve ever drunk and the accompanying double-bite sized morsels provided a good variety of tastes, textures and flavours. The jellied ox tongue is likely an acquired one but the raw cured herring and mini tower of mayo-enriched potato/Russian salad while not making me want more (they’re VERY rich) certainly had me wanting a repeat tasting at a later date.

My official starter was a venison steak tartare topped with a perfectly presented quails egg and a side salad that gave the impression of healthy-ness. The raw venison had a much deeper flavour than the traditionally used steak and this was accentuated further with finely chopped onion and caper hidden in each bite. While I’ve had prettier tartare’s in the past this was close to being one of the tastiest.

Venison Steak tartare

As a regular single diner the Chateaubriand cut of meat is one I very rarely get to sample, and while they couldn’t confirm to me exactly how they manage it I couldn’t resist the chance to get theirs which is specifically made for one. Even though at £38.75 it is close to being their most expensive dish it’s yet another nice little quirk about the place and the menu – you don’t see these kind of things much. When the plate arrives all quirks are out of the window and you’re presented with a fairly serious looking piece of meat that has been cooked to perfection with a charred, crisp outer skin and perfect pink insides. Chips are extra, and £4.50, but you kinda need them to make the most of the béarnaise sauce and to help soak up the delicious meat juices; I also had creamed spinach (£5.50) which really wasn’t needed but you live and learn. If you’re a meat lover I would say that this is worth a travel for.

Chateaubriand for one

Apart from one pineapple themed aberration all the desserts on offer looked tempting but I thought it was ultimately worth trying the restaurant signature of the grandly named ‘Chocolate Glory (mark II)’. This is a real showy dish, one unfortunately not captured with my photo as a grand golden ball of meringue is presented at the table and melted away with the application of some melted chocolate. It looks out of this world and is certainly one for the chocoholic but I didn’t think the passionfruit orange jelly when placed amongst the meringue shells inner chocolate mousse and chunks of brownie added the best complimentary flavour and could have been replaced with maybe a different flavour or texture of chocolate instead.

Chocolate Glory (Mark II)

The wine list is fairly serious and while there are some pricy bottles nearly everyone comes with an additional note of how much more expensive it is served for in another of Londons top restaurants. It doesn’t stop it from being expensive but it was another nice little quirk that made me smile. The front of house staff while dressed in suits and jackets with white gloves are enthusiastic and more than happy to talk about the food and the restaurant history, they also didn’t bat an eyelid at my dress of a very bright yellow t-shirt in a dinning room with a reported dress code of ‘elegant’ (I missed that part of the website when I made my booking).

Thinking back to the word luxury you would expect a luxury restaurant to have attention to detail, expensive food, highly skilled staff, a touch of class and touches special to the restaurant you don’t get else-where. Bob Bob Ricard hits all of these with the addition of the food also being bloody fantastic. I’ll be back, I’m very much wanting to try the beef wellington; and yes the press for champagne button.

So from my little gathering of people I follow on Twitter the things that brought the initial crowds of bloggers was the reuben sandwich – a tower of pastrami, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese pressed down and contained as much as possible by two slightly toasted slices of rye bread. The pastrami didn’t quite have the delicious spiced, crisp crust that I would normally look for but forgiving them that the sandwich as a thing was good and while not quite being Katz Deli big it was a lot of food and certainly more than enough to feed my lunchtime hunger. You get the salty and smooth grilled cheese cut through with the pickled cabbage leading to the smoked meat and slightly spiced mayo dressing. That sounds good right?

The famous reuben on rye

As good as the sandwich was I didn’t really think it would provide the best review of the place, I also wanted to try some of the other traditional Jewish classics that the menu had to offer (and a couple of puddings). The menu has changed a little bit since I was there and one of what I thought was their big sellers of Matzo chicken soup is no longer on it. I had it on a gloomy September day and the hot soup, boiled meat and veg with it’s solitary dumpling did it’s best to warm my insides. I needed a bit of extra pepper but otherwise it was a good simple soup; though I don’t know how authentic compared to the ‘proper’ Jewish version. Another time I went for the chopped liver and again after adding in a little bit extra seasoning it was a good dish given an extra bit of freshness with the radish. Again it’s fair to say that I’ve no idea what a good chopped liver would taste like but for a layperson it was nothing too special and had me craving for a reuben.

Chicken soup and metzo dumpling

On the day I had the chicken soup I had meat loaf for mains and this dish brought a smile to my face. I either missed mention of the soft egg or it has since been added to the menu but cutting through the meat and into a perfectly runny egg was a very nice surprise (but I guess maybe not so much for people with egg allergies) and added a perfect layer of rich sauce to it’s oven cooked minced meat jacket. My mum on occasion when I was a young’un would cook meatloaf so I guess this connection and the surprise twist is the same experience people who raved over the starters I thought were just OK have. I don’t think you can go far wrong with a schnitzel and thankfully they didn’t – a nice slab of turkey covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried was a good autumn/winter dish and given a little bit of extra juice and sweetness to cut the frying fat with the addition of an apple compote. Very nice.

Meat loaf and buttered greens

Puddings are good. Still on the menu the banana’s foster is two sugar coated and cooked bananas topped with a hot toffee sauce and a dollop of quickly melting ice-cream; I also had a now off menu chocolate bread and butter pudding. They’re as good (and simple) as they sound and personally next time I go I’ll avoid a starter to ensure I have the space – both were like receiving a big sugary hug from an invisible honey monster.

The restaurant is of the same group as Polpo and Spuntino and lovingly decorated with red leather booths, a counter so gleaming you can see your reflection from and the odd period piece dotted around the walls. To me the design makes it feel more standard American 30′s diner opposed to being specifically Jewish but it does fit in perfectly with the Covent Garden surroundings. The food is good, the service (when they’re not run off their feet) are nice and chatty and for a small to medium lunch I would say this is a winner. The problem I have with it is that if I wanted to go to a restaurant and went to Mishkins I would be a tad disappointed; there is nothing amazing about the cooking if this isn’t food that you grew up with or if you don’t appreciate a good sandwich. As someone who does appreciate a good sandwich I will be back, though probably just for lunch.

I’m always a little bit cautious of the Jamie Oliver branded restaurants as they seem to focus more on simple cooking done well, and while that’s all well and good I can do that pretty well myself at home; also my initial joy at the ‘Jamie-isms’ plastered all around the menu, decor and staff lips have finally waned. I was therefore rather pleased that this didn’t really feel like a Jamie restaurant at all, not a ‘pukka’ in sight. The staff were all very keen to entertain, we received endless chat, amusing stories and a visual tour of the various BBQ’ing implements in the kitchen – this is probably as ‘Jamie’ as it gets and thankfully that’s the one bit of the brand that will forever work as they did their very best to ensure that everyone has a fun dining experience, and indeed we did.

Unfortunately thinking back on things the quality of the food is rather variable and the great service might well have papered over a couple of the cracks. Take the starters – there are a choice of 12 and considering the way the restaurant is marketed I found it a bit strange that only around half of them had any evidence of having seen flame or any of the cooking styled paraded before us as we entered. Ella ordered the baby back ribs and these were a damn good rib – juicy, falling off the bone and covered in a sticky smoked sauce and while the baby ribs aren’t the biggest with around 8 of them to chew through an awesome starter. But unfortunately the other one failed to live up to expectations.

Pit smoked baby back ribs

When comparing the two dishes side by side the bourbon chicken wings look very pale in comparison. 5 rather anaemic looking wings, burnt in places with a very minimal sauce coating and just chucked on a plate. It was not the BBQ nirvana I was hoping for. They didn’t taste awful but they didn’t taste great and again in comparison after seeing the ribs starter the only thought you’re going to have in your mind is envy. I know restaurants have their signature dishes (and here the ribs were one) but it has been a while since I can remember such a stark contrast in dishes that we’ve ordered.

Bourbon Chicken Wings

Moving on, and again wanting to only sample dishes from the Texas Pit Smoker (which gave us just a choice of 3) we got some pulled pork with waffle (another restaurant signature) and the short rib of beef. The pork and waffle had a good taste but was rather a mess of meat and sauce; not sure how authentic a serving this would be but I would always prefer to have the sauce on the side as a lot of the smokey taste from the cooking was cancelled out with it being smothered in sauce from the start. The beef rib was not quite on the level of the pork ribs unfortunately, it fell off the bone easily enough but lacked a lot of the juice, ironically I think it could have done with a bit of BBQ sauce.

The menu is very much what you see is what you get so you’ll need a couple of sides – the duck fat cooked chips were brought out before being taken away by our waiter to later be replaced with a fresh batch, it was a nice touch but still didn’t provide us with amazing chips. The beans with burnt ends were nice and smokey and provided some extra sauce where needed but the ends weren’t the most prominent or flavourful.

Pulled Pork Shoulder

One thing that did surprise me was how deceptively large the meal was. A starter and a main was all I needed to be full to bursting (maybe I’m getting too old for this) which was a real shame as the desserts looked pretty damn good. A mixture of delights such as apple and custard brioche, layered chocolate brownie and peanut butter ice-cream sundae all actually sound rather ‘Jamie’ in their simplicity but regardless do all sound rather bloody amazing but alas I can’t say anything about how good they really are as I think even one mouthful would have recreated the final restaurant scene from Monty Pythons Meaning of Life.

Barbecoa had me in mixed emotions – had a great time but didn’t enjoy the food as much as I might have hoped. For all the cooking techniques on display the results tasted above average but nowhere near the standards of Pitt Cue, or indeed from what I can gather similar places out in the states where people might be more critical of ‘bad BBQ’. Thinking back to the opening quote I found, ‘a completely unique grilling concept in London’, this might be the rub – the CONCEPT is rather unique in London so hopefully as places like Pitt Cue grow and become more successful they might buck their ideas up and fix the consistency and cooking flaws to provide both amazing service and food. I would certainly come back for that.

Further dowsing my idea that central London during the Olympics would be pleasantly peaceful the place was full and turning people away by the time I arrived with a 6.45pm reservation already booked up. The bar area is kept for the no-reservations crowd but there is a large(ish) area at the back containing tables that you can book; this is where I’m seated and the first thing that hits me is the din. It’s not a huge space and it didn’t seem THAT full but the chat of numerous tables, lack of windows and a low (by restaurant standards ceiling) really keep all that noise in the room. Not to be put off by the racket I put on my best acting voice and start ordering off the menu, they suggest 3 to 4 dishes per person but being able to eat like a horse and wanting to ensure that I’ve sampled a good range of dishes I go for 5 though to be fair one is a salad (or so I thought). *SPOILER ALERT – I over-ate*.

Barranco I Love You – seabass ceviche

The place is called ceviche, their menu says that ceviche is the perfect place to start so I thought why not and went for a ‘Barranco I Love You’ which is seabass marinated in ‘tigers milk’ (nothing to do with Charlie Sheen just a lime based marinade) with green mango, basil and flecks of chilli. It sounds like a pretty dish but presentation wise things were a little bit lacking and it felt like there was rather a large amount of marinade left on the plate but the taste was zingy, the fish was well filleted and firm to bite if cut a little bit thicker than the advertised thin slices. The chilli and mango provided a bit of heat and sweetness to ensure that you don’t just get a mouthful of lime juice. The name of the restaurant is ceviche and while I liked the dish I felt that maybe a bit more effort might have been taken in the presentation of what in all essence is the signature dish.

Next up I get my ‘salad’ of Causa Santa Rosa (beetroot salad on a peruvian potato cake with olive sauce). I’ve had some amazing beetroot dishes in the past but this unfortunately wasn’t one, it was a dish relying a bit too much on mayo to bring everything together – the beetroot salad was finely diced beets mixed with a mayo and the olive sauce being a dollop of purple looking mayo with a pretty delicate olive taste. The peruvian potato cake was little more than a cold coriander mashed potato cake and a thick stoggy one at that. I’ve always gone by the mantra of you don’t win friends with salad and they certainly didn’t with this one, but at least I could say that I had had a salad as part of my 5 courses and not sound as greedy.

Corazón and Pulpo skewers

I get my final 3 dishes all at once and my eyes brighten as these all look really good. I ordered 2 dishes from the grilled skewers menu – corazón (tender beef heart marinated in panca chilli anticucho sauce) and pulpo (braised octopus marinated in panca chilli with chorizo chunks) and a ‘classic’ dish of arroz con pato (confit duck in coriander and dark beer rice ). The duck had a perfect crisp skin and could be pulled apart with a fork, I expected it to still be on the bone but nope, there was no bone in sight meaning that for a sharing dish it’s rather substantial as it sits atop what doesn’t look like the sexiest rice you’ve ever seen but one that I couldn’t stop picking away at well after I told myself I was full. Both skewers (you get 2 per portion) had been cooked in a way that while having a big taste of smoke also kept the main flavour being that of the meat on them. The octopus sandwiched in-between thick chunks of chorizo had maybe taken on a bit too much of the chorizo oil to say that they had the perfect texture (they ended up rather oily) but the sausage/fish combo worked well. For an whole £4 cheaper than octopus the heart was the standout dish for me with thin slices of heart being cooked just pink, having that slightly rich offal taste, tasting perfectly smokey and moist.

Arroz con Pato – confit duck

I had said I would save space for pudding and while to be honest I hadn’t the idea of chocolate physalis volador (crispy cookies filled with Fortunato no4 Peruvian chocolate fudge and aguaymanto jam) sounded rather special but unfortunately again disappointed as in my head I had picture thick, chewy, just cooked dough with a thin layer of rich oozing chocolate but instead got thin cold cookies with a fairly thick, cold layer of rich chocolate. I can’t deny the chocolate sauce was delicious but it could have been served in a pot, or a pisco glass and not had anything else getting in the way of its exquisite taste.

So all in all I had highs and I had lows at Ceviche. The ceviche I liked, the skewers I loved but I could have done without everything else to be honest. I had a couple of cocktails (pisco sour and a coffee based Toro Mata) and wish I had had a couple more instead of a few glasses of very average wine I had while eating my food. It feels like I’ve been rather harsh on Ceviche and in a way I guess I have done but I think that’s more my fault than theirs; it maybe isn’t the best restaurant ever for food but for an experience I can imagine sitting at the bar, sharing plates of ceviche and/or some skewers, drinking my way through the cocktail menu and having a whale of a time. Unfortunately I did pretty much the opposite yesterday – but you live and learn.

Their original venue in Mayfair is yet another no reservations place (you can reserve places in the newly opened and double sized Soho restaurant) where you put your name down on a list and they’ll either call you back or you can find space at the bar. I chose the later and ordered a pint, paid for it in cash, received far less change than I had expected as it turns out a automatic service charge had been added. Space at the bar is limited and in stark contrast to my days lunch venue of the awesome yet empty Ducksoup the place was rammed at 5.30pm and as more and more people levered their way into the bar the more I needed to continually move out of the way of people my desire to think poorly of the meal increased. I then was seated and everything changed.

Even though you can see below the distance between the tables and the people in the bar is touching distance the loud din seemed to magically drop, not having to focus on moving myself out of the way and not treading on people allowed me to see what was really going on in the restaurant – people sitting down, eating lobsters and burgers and really enjoying themselves. You get the option of wearing a bib, and I challenge anyone not to smile as they tie a bib around the neck of a fully grown human and see them eating with it as the last defence against butter meeting shirt; I was dining on my own but pretty much everyone was there in a group and sharing the 3 options of food (burger, lobster, lobster roll) between them – they had come here to eat and I personally find that an enjoyable thing to see.

2lb lobster, chips, dipping sauce and salad

I went for lobster, steamed and grilled and with garlic butter sauce. Not sure how recent this option has been around but for an extra £10 (so £30 instead of £20) you can ‘go large’ and get a 2lb’er – which seemed like the thing for me to do. The food is delivered fairly quick on a big platter type plate with your chips, salad and enough implements to scoop all required bits of meat out of the shell. Seeing that the claws remained encased I was a bit worried about the lack of crackers but all the required cracking had been done in the kitchen meaning you can do the manly thing and crack them open with your bare hands and have a fun old time doing so. The chips were a little bit old and not as crisp as I would have liked and looked as if they had been dumped into the cone rather than placed but they were good, even more so when dipped in the dipping sauce. The lobster while not as sweet and delicate as the one from Edinburgh, and I always knew that it wasn’t going to be, was by no means a bad lobster and good value for money. They are turned around quickly and could have been cleaned a bit better but nothing I couldn’t do myself thankfully.

The remains of the day

You get a choice of puddings and from what I can see they all come in cardboard pots – I had the choices of a chocolate mousse and honeycomb or lemon cheesecake with strawberry. After an entire lobster pudding seemed a bit excessive but it was a nice thing and not overly filling, it was creamy and smooth and made you feel less rich and lobstery after your main meal.

So yeah, I can see why Burger & Lobster is a popular dining choice in London at the moment, and why they seem to be opening up new versions as quick as they possibly can do (new Farringdon opening is coming soon I believe). It’s fun dining, pretty decently priced and more importantly due to their fixed price structure you know what to expect before you go and can plan it into your expenditure. While there is a huge demand for tables at busy periods you don’t see anyone being rushed into eating quickly and that’s appreciated and a good touch from the chatty front of house staff. I’m sure you can find better lobster in London but you’ll likely pay a lot more, and likey eat it in a rather less fun location.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon I popped in for lunch and the first thing that grabbed me was for a place that is seemingly across all the papers and social media it was all but empty. The seat over looking the street was full with it’s maximum 3 people sitting in a line and drinking a glass of red but other than that not a soul to be seen other than the front of house. I took this to my advantage and grabbed the seat with it’s back to the record player (pro-tip: it has extra back room) and got handed the days menu – 1 sheet of orange A5 paper covered in lists of small tapas type dishes, £7 plates, £14 plates and puddings, and a few random boxes containing info about oysters and aperitifs. Remixing a phrase made famous by Roy Walker it’s very a much a ‘say what you see’ menu with the ingredients being listed one by one and no hint of presentation or delivery (opposed to raw being included alongside meats where required). I don’t think I quite got the menu format but from what I can tell the food is served tapas style (or at random if you will). The concept of starters and main doesn’t seem to come into play as a few minutes after tucking into what I thought was my starter my main also arrived.

The restaurant space

With a menu that gives so little away I ignore everything else (assuming no pineapple is abound) and scan the first ingredient in each dish and pick my favourites; this gave me a starter (or £7 pound dish) of sweetbreads, peas, mint and lemon – delivered to the table in a low ceramic bowl containing a light, slightly oiled broth containing the veg and herbs topped with 5 morsels of meat. The dish contained no real surprises and contained a perfect amount of lemon to cut through all the flavours – I’ve had the ingredient combo a few times before but having enjoyed it those times too it was a good starter and again a perfect choice for the muggy weather. I could have done with some bread to help mop up a bit of the broth and only when it was too late did I see that this is something ordered and paid for opposed to being provided as part of the cover – ah well, next time I’ll know.

Sweetbreads, peas, mint, lemon

It’s not that often when front of house warn you about portion sizes, ‘It doesn’t look much for a £14 plate’ but when wondering about whether to go for octopus or poussin this is what I was warned as a pre-cursor to his recommendation of octopus. Thankfully what was provided didn’t look all that small to me – 2 fat, boiled and charred octopus tentacles (suckers and all) with admittedly a rather meagre portion of parsley and caper salad to complement the meat (you don’t win friends with that stuff anyways so I wasn’t all that worried there). They had the taste of a 100% octopus sausage with the charred suckers providing a lovely smoked taste and also a lovely bit of textured crunch both to cut through and chew. The salad balanced things on the palate perfectly without getting in the way of the octopus taste making this a real memorable dish for me – both in terms of the taste but also in how it was presented; totally not what I imagined when I ordered.

Octopus, parsley, lemon

Of the puddings and cheese available for afters my eyes were drawn by the almond and cherry tart that was sitting on the bar. For £6 pounds I maybe would have liked a slightly larger slice but only because it didn’t last long after the first taste as it was rather damn tasty. I hate to think of the amount of butter that was in it, the pastry rich and crisp enclosed the moist and naturally sweet almond filling and inset cherries in a warm buttery embrace that was unfortunately over far too soon but provided a perfect way to end the meal.

To be honest I don’t know what it was that has provided more praise for 10 Greek Street over this; I liked both but felt the cooking at Ducksoup was a step above and had a bit more skill/flair and I preferred the atmosphere of the restaurant. It feels a bit daft commenting on the quality of the menu as it changes so often but on the consecutive days I visited them that at Ducksoup had more to bring me back for more. While the dining space here was rather relaxed and hipster-ish (a ish-ness that normally is not to my liking) it was indeed so relaxing that during my time in there I totally forgot that I had taken a right off Oxford street a few minutes ago. It may not be possible to reproduce this calmness when there is a queue to get in and the bar is full with people but I can’t say – as when I was there I got a relaxing atmosphere and a damned fine meal. I could also hear the kitchen rapping along to a biggie CD they had playing, and that pleased me

I say that they don’t do bookings – turns out that actually is a lie as they do book tables for lunch though I don’t think many places in town would so happily move a table for 2pm to 12.45 as happily as they did. The days menu is held on a whiteboard on the wall and from a list of fresh summery starters (mainly all cold dishes) I went for potted duck with apricot jelly and cornichons. There were no surprises when it came – a nice sized mound of course duck meat topped with a 90% set jelly (the 10% it lost gave it a hint of juice, similar to a really rich chicken stock you see chefs use) that gave added moisture and a sweet kick to the rich deep tasting duck. Just one piece of bread and a fairly decent portion of meat had me wishing I had an extra slice but more lacking was a knife – a fact easily hidden by the manner in which the cutlery is held in a recess on the table but something that even after asking we never received. Thankfully we had a shit load of spoons so I improvised. The duck was what it was – it didn’t get me overly excited but neither did it have me wishing I had ordered something else, it was the kind of good simple rustic cooking I expected.

Next up we had a shared starter of the pork knuckle, a bit of pig not normally given much praise but a piece that if cooked right (the Germans are extremely good at this) gives you everything good about pig (crackling, juicy red meat and a bone to eat the meat from) in one cut. Again the presentation was simple, meat placed upon a trivet of the accompanying side dishes and topped with fresh looking green beans and herbs, serving the meat is left up to you and the joy as you dig in your provided knives and hunks of meat just fall away off the bone is a thing of glee. Personally I think they missed a trick in not getting some crackle on at least some of the outer skin (which as it was delivered to us was unfortunately an inedible salty sliver) but the meat, slightly salted with the brine it was boiled in with the potatoes, beans and some deliciously garlic’ed greens was good stuff and again a perfect dish for a muggy summers day.

Pork knuckle

I can certainly see how the full time critics like this place – good simple cooking of hearty ingredients for a good price in an area that to me has always felt synonymous with over priced places charging extra to be able to keep up with astronomical rent hikes. I can also see where a few of the food bloggers I read are able to pick holes through all the glowing praise. The food was good but there were a few things that could have been improved fairly easily; and something that I felt when I dined there was that while the food was good it was the kind of thing that I’ve been eating in places like the Anchor and Hope or The Canton Arms for AGES now, it didn’t feel like an amazingly unique or original concept.

I liked the 10 Greek Street experience though and with a daily changing menu have no qualms about returning as the seasons change to see how the cooking evolves. Everyone mentions the wine list and yes, it’s extremely good value – the most expensive bottle was £40 and that was for a magnum of the stuff!