Hawksmoor (Spitalfields), 157 Commercial St., London, E1 6BJ

This is perhaps the quickest I’ve ever blogged about a restaurant between when I’ve eaten there, and posted about it. We went here for lunch today, about 3 hours ago, and because I was so annoyed about the service we received, I decided I’d blog about it right now, while I’m still annoyed.



But before you go thinking that I’m letting my annoyance cloud my judgment about the food, let me say now that the food was good. Good along the lines of perhaps being one of the best steaks I’ve had in London, but that’s not saying a lot because the only other steak I’d had in London was from Gaucho’s.

This is not a patch on Peter Luger’s in New York though. Not in terms of food, and definitely not even in the same league (like waaaaaaay in the next league, even) in terms of service.



OK, you should know that I’m not the kind of diner who usually places much importance on service. Like I’ve said many times before, I don’t care if the waiting staff don’t smile when they bring the food, if they just take the order and then come back with the food – no, I don’t care about them not smiling as long as they are efficient, and not rude. Being disinterested is fine by me.



The waiting staff here are rude though. Rude to the point where they made me think I was not good enough to be dining there. Rude enough to make me think that they were being disdainful of my friends and I. Rude to the point where I had to come back and blog about this right now.



My first thought that was maybe it was something we did. Were we being too loud? Disturbing the other diners? Asking too many questions? No, I don’t think we did anything out of the ordinary. However, the service we got was probably the rudest I’ve had from a London restaurant. And that’s saying something.



It was hard enough figuring out who was a waiter there to begin with. They’re dressed casually like how you’d dress if you were slouching around watching telly on a weekend. We only began to identify who was working there by the number of times we saw them go by our table, and even then, it was quite hard getting their attention because not only did they choose to ignore us quite a few times as we tried to make eye contact, but when they came over, it was with the attitude of a sulky teenager who’d been interrupted from doing what they do best – hanging around sulking.



Sulking’s still fine, I guess. But when we asked one of them to suggest how much we should order since we were going to share the bigger cuts between us, the explanation was delivered as though we were receiving a telling off. Seriously, hey, we’re full-price paying guests, not even using a voucher or anything. Chill out with the sulky attitude.



Peppercorn sauce

They (and I use the term collectively because all of them were remarkably consistent in how sulky there were) took our orders as though they were doing us a favour, then told us it would be a half hour wait for the food to be served.

Half an hour?



There were about 5 other tables there, and this was 3.30pm on a Saturday afternoon. I know we asked for our steaks medium rare, but we only ordered 2 huge pieces to be shared so how long did it take to cook those pieces of steak? We waited and waited, talked until we ran out of conversational topics, pondered on why it was taking so long, and still, no steak.

When the food finally arrived, I was actually scared to ask the waiter for anything. Call it classical conditioning, or plain cowardice, but I’d been trained in the 1 hour that I’d been sitting there not to ask them for anything. The less we had to disturb them from their sulking, the better.

But enough ranting. Now on to the food.



We ordered 900g of the Porterhouse (£6.50 per 100g), and asked for it to be served medium rare. Because the piece of meat was quite big, some slices were nice and pink (the ones closer to the bone) while the ones nearer the edges were understandably more towards the well-done end of the scale.



This suited us just fine as one of our group preferred it more cooked anyway, so with a bit of sharing and caring, we divided the pieces between us just fine.



We also ordered the 1.1kg Bone-in Prime Rib (£6.50 per 100g) which again, was cooked to a lovely shade of pink with really great bits of crispy fat here and there, and the flavour and quality of this piece of meat was almost faultless.



Juicy and tender, with just the right amount of charred edges.



One of our friends ordered the 400g Rib-Eye (£26) which seemed to be the best value in terms of how much meat you got for the price. He ordered it medium-rare also, but I only managed to take a picture of the steak before it was eaten, so I can’t really show you what the inside of the meat was like. He enjoyed it lots though, so I’m sure it must have been cooked alright.



To accompany the steaks, we ordered 4 portions of Triple Cooked Chips (£4 a portion) to be shared between us, and to me, this was perhaps the best order of the meal. I’ve not had triple cooked chips before, and I’m not sure what the triple cooking does to it, but I know that this was the best tasting chips I’ve had so far. Not only were they perfectly crispy on the outside, but the inside managed to be slightly mushy and yet firm. Slathered in the peppercorn sauce, mustard and ketchup, this was absolutely amazing.



Bone Marrow Sauce

We also ordered the Peppercorn Sauce and the Bone Marrow Gravy (£2 a sauce) just to add on to the flavour, though the steaks would have tasted just fine as they were.



Being completely unbiased, and completely disregarding the rubbish service, my conclusion of the food here is this.

1. It is one of the more expensive steak places I’ve been to in London, but all the prices are displayed on the menu so if you’re not up for paying big bucks for a piece of steak, you could always order something to be shared, just to have a taste of it.



2. The quality of the beef served here is very good. Despite some of the pieces being served almost well-done (we asked for it medium rare), those pieces were still tender and juicy without any stringiness to it.

3. The chips are perhaps the best chips I’ve ever had. It’s £4 a portion, but it’s worth it.

A few people have recommended this place to us, and none of them mentioned anything about the service being of that standard. I think it’s probably because those people who liked it came with a group of people from work, and maybe the waiting staff here treat those office group types better, because they order more? I don’t know, but I certainly felt that there was plenty of room for improvement.

Finally, you would’ve thought that with the rubbish service we received, we would’ve shown our displeasure by withholding the 12.5% optional service charge they put on the bill. But no. We paid it. Why? Well, we did consider asking them to take it off just to show them what we thought of their service but in the end, I chickened out and decided to pay it anyway. I just couldn’t picture us creating a scene there with the explanation of why we thought the service was below par, how we’d then probably have to talk to the manager about it, and to be honest, those waiters were quite intimidating and I don’t think I would’ve wanted a confrontation with them …



In my opinion, it’s a place that I would’ve liked to have tried once just to see what the fuss is all about, but having tried it, it is unlikely that we’ll be making another visit to the restaurant, least of all the one in Spitalfields. I didn’t feel welcomed there, and I’m sure that with a bit of searching, I’ll find another place with equally as good food, and with waiters to treat their diners with a lot more appreciation. We are, after all, the ones who pay the bill.

Almeida Restaurant (Islington), 30 Almeida Street, London, N1 1TD

Excuse me while I dust this blog off ...

I know it's been a while, and if anyone is still reading, thank you very much. Because it's been quite cold, we've not really been trying out many (if any) new restaurants. We also spent a week skiing at Risoul in France and although I thought I'd get a good week's worth of food posts from it, turns out we didn't eat out much after all (it was really expensive eating out). Who knows? Those pictures of Brie on strawberry jam and raclette might be brought out when material runs low (which is about now).

Anyhow, after weeks and weeks of eating pretty much the same stuff, interspaced by some interesting ways of cooking instant Kimchi noodles (I love those noodles), we finally came out of the winter hibernation mode to meet with some friends. As I've pretty much given up on finding new places to try, it was with much pleasure that I accepted my friend's invitation to have lunch at Almeida; a restaurant located off the main Upper St of Islington on Almeida Street.

It's quite an unassuming restaurant from the outside, and if we weren't looking out for it, we could've easily missed it just walking by.

Immediately inside the restaurant is a small reception counter where the coats are taken, pleasantries are exchanged with the dining guests, or in our case, pictures taken of the flowers by the table.

Our friends were delayed by either the tube (the ever punctual Jubilee line) or a tyre puncture, so despite us being 10 minutes late, we were still on time! Sitting around on the sofa, I checked out the property magazines lying around (maybe they're trying to get diners to live in the area ...?) and promptly put them down again when I saw those prices. Maybe it was my incessant picture snapping from the sofa or the bored looks we had, but the waiting staff were constantly there asking if we needed a drink, if we were OK, etc. Good service from the start hey.

When our friends arrived, we were shown to our table right in the middle of the restaurant. Usually, I only dine out at dinner time which explains why from the months of November to March, the pictures on this blog get rather ... orange. Whenever I get the chance to actually have lunch on a weekend, I try and compensate for dodgy photography skills by asking for a table where the light shines brightly. This one didn't disappoint.

OK, before I continue, let's just set the scene and say the only bad thing I have to say about this place. To set the scene - we had 3 girls from the same school who were meeting up socially for the first time in a long time (ie lots of talking).

These 3 girls were there with their 3 partners who were trying to get a word in edgeways (ie not successful). Despite all the talking and not talking, I still noticed how long it took for the food to get to us in between courses. The main course took a good 20 mins to half an hour to get to us, I dare say. I mean, I wasn't timing it or anything (not socially accepted while trying to maintain a conversation) but it was long enough for us to pause in between conversations to go, 'Hmm it's taking a while, isn't it.'

So there, I've spat out the only negative thing I have to say about this place, so now we can continue on with the post - full of sunshine and good vibes.

We were there on the Toptable deal where 3 courses and a bellini cost £27.50. Without the deal, 3 courses on its own costs £26.50 while you could have 2 courses for about £22. And because we HAD to have a good deal, we HAD to order 3 courses. Oh the things I go through for good deals.

Oh, and a quick peek into the kitchen is always interesting.

Starters:

Crayfish, avocado tian, confit tomato, lemon olive oil

I was torn between having this one and the one I eventually ordered (the beef tartare). I have this stupid thing (dunno if I've mentioned it before) where I go to a restaurant, pick out the thing I really, really want to order, and then order something else. I don't know why I do this - some stupid self-depravation thing maybe, but I then feel almost better about myself because I think, 'Ha! The one I really, really wanted must be really, really bad for me, so if I don't order it, and order something I might not really want instead, it must be better for me.'

Yes, men of the world. That is why ladies are always taking the chips off your plate.

But anyhow, this time, because I was kinda hungry (had funny tum the day before. OK, too much details) I decided to go with the caveman option and order the raw, minced beef (more on that later).

The boyfriend decided on having the charcuterie plate (full of ham and other meats, how yummy) but then when the waiter came to take his order, he ... ordered the wrong thing.

So, this dish is pretty much feeling rejected and unwanted by now, but apparently it tasted quite OK. I had a try though it was only a small bite, and well, what can I say? It tasted like crab with some avocado. Nothing extraordinary but neither was it bad. It just did what it said on the tin.

Is that no longer sufficient in today's demanding, over-achieving world? Yes, it is.

East Anglia fillet beef tartare, Melba toast

So this was what I had when I was feeling quite caveman-like. Say what you like, but to me, beef tartare tastes like BigMac.

(You posh noshers in the back row can pipe down now. Nothing to gasp about. It's fact.)

Why fact? Well, think of it this way. They have the same ingredients - beef mince, gherkins, tomatoey things, and onions. The only difference (OK maybe not the ONLY difference) is that one is cooked while the other is caveman-like roaaaaaaaarrrrrrr (raw, I mean).

And there's a raw egg on it also. But if you just take into account the taste and not the texture, it's almost similar. Because I like BigMacs, I like beef tartare. Simples.

This one was lovely. I couldn't tell the difference between a normal beef tartare and one made from East Anglia fillet of beef, but maybe that was what made it good. Maybe if it had been made with West Anglia rump of beef, it would've been nahhhs-ty. It was almost lean (from what I could tell), and each mouthful tasted of nothing but fresh, good quality beef. I consumed this almost in one.

Papillon Roquefort, chicory, red chicory and watercress salad, toasted walnuts

A friend (who was sitting across the other side of the table from me) had this, so I could not reach out to try some. It looked good though.

Main courses:

Slow roast belly of pork, chantenay carrots, pomme puree, sauteed spinach, sauce aux epices (sauce with spice)

How lovely is that? I briefly considered ordering this and then told myself off for giving in to such luscious temptations. It sounded good, it looked even better, and the friend who was having it said that it tasted like roast pork (which it is), but I mean 'siew yuk' (Chinese roast pork).

Uh huh. I should've ordered it. Slices of tender roasted belly of pork with crispy scratching. Not easily achieved, but they managed it here.

Roast rib of beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables

The fiance decided to go traditional, and being the only English in the group, he went back to basics and ordered the roast beef. I had a taste of it, and rather liked it because from the one mouthful that I had, the beef was tender, meaty-flavoured, and pleasant enough.

The potatoes looked really crispy and fluffy from where I sat, and I looked on longingly as he ate them one by one. When I asked his opinion of the dish, however, he said that while it was good for what it was, again, it just kinda did what it said on the tin.

It didn't have anything of a wow factor about it, but that could also be a good thing because if you're gonna serve roast beef, and then mess about with it, I know some people who'd have real issues about that.

Breast of Barbary duck, pommes dauphinoise, creamed Savoy, sauce au poivre

Said friend who was sitting across the table from me was the one who had the duck. I raised the question during the meal about what exactly was a Barbary duck, and thought he'd know because he's French, and don't the French know everything about food?

Anyhow, no one at the table knew what Barbary duck was, so I consulted Wikipedia but found only references for Muscovy Duck. Strange, I thought. Usually Wikipedia has EVERYTHING about ANYTHING.

A few more searches on Google produced the same baffling returns - Muscovy duck, referred from Muscovy duck, and so on.

Finally, from http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/muscovy_duck.htm - 'In some regions the name Barbary Duck is used for domesticated and "Muscovy Duck" for wild birds; in other places "Barbary Duck" refers specifically to the dressed carcass, while "Muscovy Duck" applies to living C. moschata, regardless of whether they are wild or domesticated. In general, "Barbary Duck" is the usual term for C. moschata in a culinary context.'

Eh ... huh?

Forget I asked the question. It was duck. It was roasted / fried / cooked in some fashion. And I heard it was good.

Baked wild halibut, coco nib and herb crust, sauteed spinach, mushroom veloute

(Note: I've been doing quite a lot of research on Wikipedia for this post. The latest one is on what a 'coco nib' is.)

So, while eating the dish, the only thing that occurred to me was that here was a beautifully fried piece of fish, and I don't know what they did with the herbed crust, but it sure was green and tasted fabulous.

Then, when I was writing this post and had to put the name of the dish down, I started wondering what a 'coco nib' was. A quick search on Google showed that the most common spelling for this was 'cocoa nib' which was described as being the edible part of the cocoa bean. 'Coco nib', on the other hand, didn't come up with many explanations aside from references of how they were used in fish crusts and that.

So, my conclusion is that it's some kind of cocoa bean product which has been mixed in with herbs to form the crust for the fish. There wasn't any particular taste that jumped out from the fish but again, that could be one of those things where if it wasn't in the dish, then it would've tasted less full.
What I really liked about the dish was the mushroom veloute. It tasted (pardon the really unsophisticated references here) like the best version of creamed mushroom soup I've had, and boy oh boy, were those mushrooms juicy!

Each delicate piece of mushroom was delightfully plump and produced this almost squelching burst of mushroom goodness when I bit into it. I could've had more, loads more, and savoured each one with an almost misty-eyed look of chomping satisfaction.

Dessert:

Apple tarte tatin, creme fraiche

The fiance said this was the best part of the meal. I might have had agreed if I ordered this for dessert, but I didn't. I tried a good few mouthfuls of it, and there's no way I can describe it aptly to give it the full credit it deserved. But I'll try.

The pastry was crispy on the outside and very chewy and lovely once you got to the middle. Each mouthful was sticky and chewy and it had the hallmark of a pastry well made. The apple pieces were perfectly baked - so creamy and yet still fruity, and there was not a hint of over / under cooking about it. If I were Goldilocks, this would be the one declared a winner. Oh dear, it's not even lunchtime yet and I'm salivating just thinking about this.

Hot chocolate fondant, honeycomb ice cream

The prettiest dish of the lot. How cute is that! It looked good, and I'm sure it tasted good too as the friend having it seemed to be having a really engrossing good time eating it.

Glazed passion fruit tart, yoghurt sorbet, passion fruit jam

This was what I had. When I ordered it, I dunno what gave me the impression that it would resemble a tart; you know, kinda like an apple tart but with passion fruit pieces on top of it. It might not even BE possible to have passion fruit pieces, I don't know, but when it was served, I almost thought they gave me the wrong dish. Upon closer inspection though, it was a passion fruit tart, with a very thin layer of pastry on the outside, and the most creamy, luxurious passion fruit filling within the tart.

The texture was similar to that of lemon curd, and it had a similar fresh tang about it. It was so luxurious that for one moment, I thought I was having a lemony, passion fruity creme brulee, complete with the slightly burnt crispy sugar topping.

To sum it up, the food here was very enjoyable; with nothing but the freshest of ingredients cooked extremely well. The service was pleasant and prompt, though the time in between courses could've been a little shorter. For what we paid (about £36 each including water and tips - we didn't order any wine) it was a little on the pricey side but considering the location of the restaurant and also the good company we had that day, it was a meal well worth it. You should give it a go if you're there.

The Ox Bar & Inn, 71 Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester, M3 4NQ

Continuing from the last post … (special shout-out to SJ in Japan who requested something on English food!)

After sleeping for what felt like days (it was in fact, only 8 hours) and waking up with my tongue stuck to the top of my mouth, eyes slightly swollen, and hair like a bird’s nest after a flapping session with the girls, I took a well-needed shower and was all ready to eat again. The first thing which took my fancy were the mince pies. As I walked into the kitchen, all 8 of the pies (and 2 cookies) were staring me in the face, so I took the decision to eat half a mince pie. And then the other half.

That craving satisfied, we watched a little weekend telly – a bit of Nigella cooking some terribly-bad-for-you stuff (what’s new), a bit of Australian MasterChef (who knew you could make little sugar balls out of caramelising sugar?) and then who-knows-what (all these cooking programmes blurring into one) which just made me more hungry.

Which made the decision to go for a Sunday roast one of the best decisions of the day.

Now, before I continue, let me state this fact. I have not been much of a fan of Sunday roasts. I mean, I like the idea of it and all, and do understand the fascination that other people have with the stuff, but I can’t say it’s one of the things I’d choose to eat out of all other things. What is my bug bear with it? Well, lack of taste, to be honest. I prefer food with strong, jazz-hands tastes. Food which leap off the plate and onto the taste-buds shouting ‘TAAAAAASTY’. Which is not what I’ve experienced with roasts so far.

Before any of you decide to tell me how wrong I am (was), and that I’m pathetic for not having tasted THEEEE best roast there is before having made these comments, look, this is what the post is about. My roast-realisation, is what I’ll call it. Roast with the most.

How did we find this place? How did we stumble from mince pies to roast with the most? Well, word has it that this place does one of the best Sunday roasts in Manchester. Now if Word has it, then we also have to have it. After having walked past a few frozen canals and through the cobbled streets of Castlefield, we arrived at The Ox.

A sturdy white building right by the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), this was a building I usually walked right past – either on the way to Dpercussion in Castlefield, or to Akbar’s for a curry. Whenever we went by in the summer, there would be quite a few people having drinks outside in the sunshine, and therefore, I always had it in my mind that this wasn’t a place that served food – thus, not interested.

Oh how wrong I was.

Coming in from the cold, grey day that was Sunday in Manchester, we were greeted by the warm, brown, woody interior of this Ye Olde English styled pub. The bar counter was made of dark-brown wood, with lots of brass-coloured pub-things hanging off the top, and huge paintings of (slightly overweight) oxen around the place.

A crackling fireplace, lots of squealing, happy children, and plenty of food around completed the picture of a nice Sunday lunch at the pub.

As we managed to get a last-minute table booking, the 5 of us were sat at a table for 4 right next to the fire. Couldn’t complain though, as that kept us warm and toasty (literally toasty) and that also meant we could try the famed roast out! Menus at the ready …

For £12.95, we could have had 2 courses of either a starter and a main, or a main and a dessert. Add another 2 quid and you could have all 3 courses! Why not!

Because I’ve had too much mince pies, that’s why.

This is what else we could have chosen from the set menu.

2 courses selected, we sat down and waited - me with my pot of tea, and the others with a hangover.

When the first courses arrived, I almost had to calm myself down from the flurry of excitement I felt. It wasn’t even my food that had been served, but hey, sometimes taking pictures of food is even better than eating it (very rarely, I must say).

The pate looked amazing – almost like a very rectangular piece of avocado that was just ripe. Around the outer edge of the rectangle, there was a thin greenish frame while the inside of the rectangle looked pink and soft. For what it was, they sure were generous with their portions. Our friends who had this looked like they enjoyed it a lot. Not much talking, lots of pate eating.

Pity about the melba toast though. I can’t say any of us were Melba toast experts, but from our limited store-bought toast experience, this sure wasn’t Melba toast. It looked more like a well-browned piece of tortilla that had been stacked up nicely on top of the pate.

As friends do, we offered them some of the bread from our starter so that they could make a pate butty with it. Classy stuff, us.

This was the starter I had (actually, I shared this with the fiancé – we were both saving space for the kebab after this). What? What’s wrong with having a kebab after a Sunday roast? Nothing, is the answer, when this is THEEE best kebab in Manchester! Anyway, back to our starter. I had no clue what a rilet was when I ordered it, but as I fancied having some fish, I chose the only fish option on the menu. I won’t lie and say that I was blown over when the dish arrived. It was quite small, and paled in comparison to our friends’ generous chunk of pate.

However, when I had a bite of it, I realised that the menu was true to its word. Describing it as smoked haddock with butter (or something like that), this was exactly it – fishy, tender and flaky, and buttery. So much so that we didn’t have to add any butter to the bread and you could still taste the butter. Despite thinking that the portions were quite miserly when I first started on the dish, I actually thought that it was just the right portion size when I’d finished it. Any more and it would have been too much fish.

Then came the main meals. Boy oh boy was I excited when I saw the others’ meals (we’d all but one ordered the same thing) – the Yorkshire pudding was HEEUUUUGE!

From where I was sitting, I could just about see the beef on the plate when the waitress was bringing it over, and it looked exactly like how I think perfectly cooked beef should look.

Generous slab of roast beef on plate. Magnificence.

Not only did we have mash potato (creamy mm mm), we also had mash sweet potato, roast potatoes (crispy mm mm) and beans which didn’t look like they’d been cooked since last week (like so often the case).

The beef was one of the nicest, if not, THE nicest roast beef I’ve had in a Sunday roast. It wasn’t actually roast beef, in my opinion, which is probably why I liked it so much. It tasted and looked more like steak than it did roast beef. For one, it didn’t have the carving serration you’d find in a carved slice of beef. Also, it wasn’t dry. How amazing is that! Juicy, rare (just the way I like it), and immensely tender, this was one good piece of roast beef.

The roasties were perfect – soft and mushy on the inside, kinda crispy on the outside. The mash was buttery, and the beans – well, only tried one but it was OK (fiancé had the rest).

On the whole, this must be one of the best Sunday roasts I’ve had, and will definitely set the benchmark for others. Rubbing our happy bellies, we then set off to Abdul’s in Fallowfield for some of their mixed kebab – didn’t take any pics so you’re gonna have to check out the older post on this if you wanna see any pics of it.

On the way back to the car park, we walked by the frozen canal – good thing we were warm with food.