The Riding House Cafe, Fitzrovia

Chorizo hash cakes

I thought it might be love at first sight when I first walked into the dapper Riding House Cafe in Ftizrovia. But the love slowly waned, and now I think we might just be distant friends.

It's a great set up, with super potential. But it doesn't quite hit the mark - yet, anyway.

The Riding House cafe has recently come to Fitzrovia from the team behind Village East and The Garrison (a pub in Bermondsey which I love). It's an all day brasserie with a very funky, smart, yet comfy fit out - a restaurant area with big yellow light fittings and orange banquettes (which its own website accurately describes as Heinz Tomato Soup colour), a lovely long bar with high turquoise stools, bunches of lavendar are scattered along a big communal wooden table where groups of girlfriends meet for brunch time Bellinis, spacious round tables by the window and a loungey area for browsing through the papers over your coffee. So far so great.

The menu reads well too - breakfast includes buttermilk pancakes with berries, vanilla clotted cream and maple syrup, chilled grapefruit with ginger, sugar and mint (which is a staple of all our New York brunch favourites), or a peanut butter, banana, strawberry and apple juice smoothie. Lunch and dinner includes a lovely list of small plates (piperade, anchovy, basil; baby squid, chorizo, smoked paprika, chilli olives; slow roasted pork belly, cumin, salt; or lamb cutlets with smoked aubergine - from £3 to £5 each) and mains such as the Titchfield Burger with foie gras and fries (£13.90 or sweet potato and chickpea cake with halloumi and tomato jam (£12).

They only opened in April, so let me preface this post with a disclaimer on their behalf that they are still (obviously) settling in. But things were not running smoothly over Sunday brunch as we waited an age, as did surrounding tables, for some just alright fare to arrive. At least it did, which is more than I can say for my flat white (so, sadly I can't report back on the Caravan coffee). If there's one thing not to forget, it should be a patron's first coffee of the day (fortunately, I had already had one earlier and could see they were struggling so I didn't bother them with a reminder). I believe this was their first Sunday brunch opening, so it would be unfair not to put this down to some teething problems, but after 2 visits, I'm not overly inspired.

TPG's poached eggs on a very lightly, toasted-no-further-than-albino muffin, were fairly plain Jane - the eggs were oddly flavourless if poached to perfect gooeyness (£4). Same goes for those on my more exciting chorizo hash browns with spinach leaves, mushroom and 2 poached eggs (£8.50), which would otherwise have been good.

A Bloody Mary was a little light on the vodka and a little heavy on the Worcester, and the apple, beetroot, carrot and ginger juice (£4) was oddly super sweet as though there might have been some packaged rather than fresh apple juice in there.

The day before, I'd been for a light lunch with girlfriends. The small plates of bitter chicory, sweet pear, fine shavings of radish and lovely, creamy gorgonzola (tiny, but only £3) and cured sea trout with jalapeno and creme fraiche (£4) were gorgeous. You would need at least 3 or 4 small plates for a complete lunch if you're not having a main. The heritage tomato and pesto tart with buffalo mozzarella (£12.80) looked nice, but was the one thing I thought overpriced on an otherwise reasonably priced menu. Most of the girls went for the large chopped salad, with lettuce, avocado, palm heart, radish, Dijon mustard and grilled poussin (£13) which doesn't look special but was a taste hit with them all.

The front of house staff greeting you on entry are absolutely lovely, although service can be a little over attentive in areas where you don't need it - waiters filling up your water glass after each sip and explaining how a rather self explanatory menu works (it's pretty clear what small plates are - it's our first time in the restaurant, not our first day on earth). And while I'm very forgiving on hiccups to a newbie restaurant, and particularly one I walked in with such a soft spot for (even the tone of the website makes you want to love them), I can't help but think that some extra care and rapport developed between waiters and tables might help to hook people in to return just a little bit more.

At the moment, I'm putting this one down as one I thought I'd love, I'm disappointed not to, I hope they do well, but for now I'd rather grab my brunch from Kaffeine across the road. The earth didn't move.

The Riding House Cafe, 43-51 Great Titchfield St, London, W1W 7PQ (Tel: 020 7927 0840)

Hakkasan, Fitzrovia

Buttermilk bavarois

For his birthday this year, The Peanut Gallery chose to be taken to Hakkasan. I can only guess it is no coincidence that the papers announced the next day that it is the most expensive restaurant, per minute of dining, in London. Uncanny.

Hakkasan seems to be one of those places - you'll either love it or you'll hate it. I'm firmly in the love camp.

Soaring ceIlings, dim lighting and dramatic, dark wooden decor reminded me of Buddakan in New York. Unlike in New York, where great grub and a spectacular setting often go hand in hand, it's so rare in London for such a fabulous fit out not to mean the food is complete rubbish.

I have heard rumours of too cool for school service and door bouncers - there's NOTHING I hate more. Although they're glamorous with some gorgeous kit for uniforms (I'd wear those blue dresses on a night out) we found service at all times to be efficient, but quite friendly and helpful. I suppose the area when you first walk and face the line up in could be a tad intimidating. It feels like entering a night club and you have your name ticked off a list before you even step inside.

But we quickly warmed up to it with a few martinis at the bar (lychee for me, classic for the birthday boy). It's fun place for some great cocktails, even if you don't stop for dinner.

Sesame prawn toasts



Crispy duck salad

 Once seated (for our strictly 2 hour time slot of feeding - we arrived early to linger at the bar for a while first), we started with prawn toast and a duck salad.

The large, bulbous sesame prawn toasts are in a different league to anything I've had in a long while. They're fleshy and sweet, topped with sesame and served with a side of fried seaweed and enoki mushrooms. (£13.50)

The crispy duck salad mixes moist strips of duck with crispy fresh greens, pomelo, pine nut and shallots. Very nice, if a tad forgettable. (£19.50)

Stir fry pepper beef

 

Roast duck with Chinese herbs


Our main serving of roast duck with Chinese herbs is soon pronounced by TPG, serious duck addict, to be the best he's ever eaten. It's full juicy, fatty flavour is spiced up by some generous seasoning, and the texture of crispy skin against moist juicy meat is spot on. (£21.00)

Moist chunks of peppery, stir fried, rib-eye beef with merlot come spilling from a delicate, spindly nest. Again, big flavours and execution is just right. (£18.80)



Warm coconut rice pudding


Desserts are artistic creations. Naturally, TPG has the warm coconut rice pudding with mango caviar and black sesame crunch. I have the gorgeous buttermilk bavarois with blood orange jelly and fresh blood orange. (£8.00 each). Both are stunning, with interesting, indulgent flavours - a party in your mouth.

Hakkasan, under chef Tong Chee Hwee, has held a Michelin star since 2003. The food is excellent and the atmosphere is buzzing. Yes, Hakkasan is expensive - expect to upwards of £50 per head for food, and prices can of course soar if you get stuck into the cocktails or the wagyu (there's pair of £58 wagyu dishes). However, you can experience the glamour and some great Chinese food for a fraction of the price if you go for dim sum. It's fresh, interesting and the flavours pack some serious punch.  I'll be back.

Hakkasan, 8 Hanway Place, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 1HD (Tel: 020 7927 7000)

If you're interested in dim sum, you can see my review of the dim sum at Hakkasan's sister restaurant, Yauatcha, here.

Tapped & Packed, Fitzrovia

While we're on the subject of coffee, it doesn't come much better than at Tapped & Packed, where the cool kids hang in Fitzrovia.

The coffee is seriously good - the house blend espresso comes from Climpson & Sons, but there's a range of blends available from trusted roasters such as Square Mile and Union. Different single origin blends are on offer daily. Tapped & Packed are particularly known for their filter brews and have coffee brewed by siphon, aeropress, pour over and cafetiere. It is the kind of place, I suspect, that will be right on top of whatever else emerges as the latest thing in the coffee universe.

There's also an excellent array of hearty sandwiches, cakes and salads available at lunch. I love the salt beef baguette with cream cheese, salad and a hint of gherkin in there somewhere - I now crave it regularly. The crayfish on granary bread is also a favourite. Sandwiches are generally priced at around £3.50-£4.50, while a flat white or latte will set you back £2.20. There are pastries, fruit salads and sandwiches at breakfast - although I've never made it that early, TPG texts me in glee to announce he just paid 50p for 2 slices of toast "with jam, lots of jam" on his way to work.

The mood is casual, with a media/office-y crowd. Big wooden tables are laden with those mysterious types who seem able to conduct their business meetings with laptops in cool cafes all day long (just what do they do, and how can I join?). Or, you can sit up at the bar with a paper and watch the coffee machine work its magic.

Tapped & Packed was a runner up in Time Out London's Best New Coffee 2010 category.

Another fine London coffee haunt to add to the list.

Tapped & Packed, 26 Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 1JD (Tel: 0207 580 2163)

Koba: A Korean BBQ in London

I have now tried walking into Koba so many times, only to find it full, that I had almost given up on it altogether. I'm still not used to having to plan so far ahead in this city. Get with the programme, GD.

Fortunately for me, A Rather Unusual Chinaman, is a man with a plan, and secured us a booking at this fabulous little Korean BBQ restaurant, tucked away near Charlotte Street.

The setting is clean and minimalist, detracting nothing from the food. The delicious, BBQ aromas wafting over from nearby tables had me drooling even before we ordered. Not even the fact that ARUC was drinking cocktails from a curly pink straw could distract us from the main event as plate after plate of scrumptious fare came our way.

Naturally, we started with some obligatory Goona Mandoo (pan fried dumplings - £5.50) - lovely.

Being indecisive about which meats to order for the BBQ, we decided on the Koba Modeum Gooi - a "grand assortment" of meats, prawns and vegetables (£23.90).  Our waiter started off the cooking at the hot plate in front of us, although I think we took over as we got into the swing of things. The sirloin was smoky, tender and absolutely lip-smacking.

Just as good as the BBQ was the Yookwei Dolsot Bibimbap - steamed rice with raw beef and vegetables in a Korean hot stone pot (£9.20). All this was mixed in together at the table. Loved it.

Finally, we had desserts - green tea ice-cream (always a favourite with me) and some weird cakey thing with green stuff in between. I can't remember for the life of me what it was, and it was fine although not really my thing.

So, Koba has a new fan. I've tried a few Korean BBQ places around the West End now, but Koba is a new favourite. If you want to read more, here are some others who agree with me: A Rather Unusual Chinaman; Catty; Meemalee.

Koba, 11 Rathbone Street, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1NA

Comments on London as an emerging "coffee town" & a review of Kaffeine, London

Kaffeine is another antipodean owned coffee shop in the Soho/Fitzrovia region.

An article appeared in the New York Times on the weekend, making the bold claim that London is becoming an emerging "coffee town". For those of us who hail from real coffee towns, this is a somewhat eyebrow raising claim. Melbourne has a population of  around 3.9 million and has hundreds of sublime coffee shops within a 10 square mile radius. What's more, you could walk in to any Melbourne deli or cafe these days, even in the less cosmopolitan outer 'burbs, and they'll likely make a passable attempt to roast you up a fairly decent brew.

London, a city of 7.5 million people, is a stone's throw from Italy, and in any 10 square miles you'll be lucky to hit more than a handful of passable contenders (most of the good ones are named in the Time Out's excellent "London's Best Coffee" feature this month, although it misses Fernandez & Wells, Foxcroft & Ginger and Kaffe Automat, and I don't rate all of those listed that I've tried as within the same league as Flat White, Milk Bar, Monmouth and Fernandez & Wells). And if you haven't done your homework, and dare to gamble on any others outside the select few, I can guarantee you'll be rewarded with a cup of complete pus. Most cafe owners in London don't know, or care about, what good coffee is meant to taste like.

Historically, London just does not have a coffee culture. This is a land where people love their tea - a drink that generally turns me on about as much as stale tea biscuits, but I grant this is a matter of taste. The fact that the current new wave of decent coffee shops is being largely shepherded in by Australians and New Zealanders then is no surprise. Given TPG and I chose our current abode by proximity to the only decent coffee in London (at that time, 3 years ago, Flat White in Soho - although The Providores in Marylebone was the other option if you could bother to queue), the first buds of a potential full bloom of coffee havens is a much welcomed arrival. To be fair, the NY Times article labelled London as "emerging" in coffee status - and if it keeps up the current trend, this could well be true. But for a city of its size and sophistication, London still has a long way to go before I'll ever think of it as having a strong coffee culture. The scars from being forced to drink bland brews from chains or sordid cafes over previous decades due to a complete lack of alternatives still cut too deep.

So it is with this background in mind that TPG and I walk past our beloved Flat White and Fernandez on Saturday morning, to give Kaffeine another try.

I have been to Kaffeine before, soon after it opened (I'm always hot on the heels of any new coffee establishments - TPG claims we "discovered" Fernandez in the days when we were the only bods at the front window seats, and he still likes to tell himself its popularity is almost solely due to the word of mouth emanating from his lips alone). I've also been back to Kaffeine since, but have never taken TPG (1) because getting him to risk his morning coffee on somewhere other than Fernandez is like pulling teeth, and (2) because I've never found it to be quite as good as the others.

Kaffeine has a friendly, chilled out, open vibe as a mixed crowd sit in near the Synesso Espresso machine, chatting, reading the papers and sipping the produce of their well roasted Square Mile coffee beans (the same beans are used at Flat White and Milk Bar). The coffee is warming, rich and strong with a good amount of bite. But it weighs in slightly too much on the bitter side for me, without as much of that lovely round smoothness that's makes those favourites closer to home (for me) so sublime. It's good, but slightly outside my first tier.

This is nothing to be sneezed at. I am splitting hairs a little, but since London is being put on the emerging coffee city pedestal, its coffee outlets should be rated as they would be in a true coffee city where ample alternatives abound. In any case, Peter Dore-Smith (who heads up the team, and is originally from Melbourne like me) has a blog which indicates one of Kaffeine's baristas is placed 7th going into the semi finals of the UK Barista Championships. So try it and make up your own mind.

The food also looks good - Kaffeine's ethos is to search out quality, independent food vendors, at street markets and specialist suppliers. The range of colourful salads, which I've tried at lunch time, are particularly appealing. At breakfast, there are a range of pastries, banana cake, muffins, croissants loaded up with savoury fillings (such as coppa cotta ham, talleggio cheese, spinach and plum tomatoes), a big urn of organic porridge (with a range condiments such as muscovado sugar, rhubarb and raspberry compote, mixed fruit and chopped nuts) and muesli.

TPG's porridge on Saturday was quite gloopy, while my wheat free muesli with yoghurt, chopped dried fruit and nuts, popped corn and compote contained enough broken walnut shells to put have me chewing on tenterhooks for the sake of my teeth. The yoghurt and muesli comes in a pre-packaged plastic cup which is not ideal. The flavour was tasty however. The croissants with savoury fillings looked delicious.

It's a friendly place, where they welcome prams (relevant for some), and one that I'm sure is held dear to the locals and office workers nearby. Despite some quibbles, I would probably go back to it more regularly if I didn't pass my favourite local haunts along the way to get there. And its down to earth, friendly and relaxed charm definitely appeals.

In any case, I'm all up for the sudden interest in coffee around London and the passion it inspires. That can only be a good thing for coffee lovers like me, who may no longer need to scour the streets in a caffeine withdrawal frenzy whenever the need for a good flattie takes grip. Stay tuned for my next post... on the new Brewing Boy coffee van in Soho.

Kaffeine, 66 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London W1.

Lantana Cafe: Melbourne style coffee and brunch in Fitzrovia, London

At 10am on Saturday morning, I find myself lying belly up on a purple yoga matt pondering (1) what on earth the strange smell is, (2) why the man next to me is emitting whale noises, and (3) how long it will be before I vomit, pass out or run screaming from the room in a frantic panic attack. 

"You must not leave the room for 90 minutes" warns the merciless Bikram yoga Lieutenant Colonel through a hazy 41 degree Celsius fog of B.O., visibly steaming body heat and dripping with sweat underarm hair. As I concentrate on the overwhelming task of breathing, she suggests that I and Libby, my fellow Bikram boot camper, wave to the room to earmark ourselves as the only Bikram first timers, presumably for the sole purpose of letting the others know which ones to watch between downward dogs for entertainment purposes. 

I emerge 90 minutes and a confronting communal shower later, relieved of 30 kilos of body fluid, with a traffic light red face, poodle hair frizz and a mildly startled/manic gaze, all of which suggests to Libby she best get me quickly to the nearest source of food. Lantana Cafe beckons.

Behind Lantana Cafe is the story of a woman from Melbourne on a serious mission: to show the London public that breakfast can offer more than "the full English" or eggs florentine, washed down with a mug of workman's tea.

As reported in the February 2010 edition of Olive magazine, Sheelagh Ryan quit her job as a policy advisor to an Australian minister, took on waitressing jobs for free on weekends in Melbourne cafes to learn the ropes while waiting for her visa to clear, and eventually found the site in Charlotte Place that now stands home to one of the most popular cafes in London. The La Marzocca espresso machine was promptly installed, and an Australian style brunch menu was put into action. And so it was that Lantana Cafe won Time Out's award for Best New Cafe 2009.

Like for all caffeine oriented antipodeans, for me the key to a treasured breakfast haunt is the coffee. I'll go out for a morning coffee then go home to make my own breakfast if I must. Lantana's flat whites rate up there with the best of London's (select few) great coffee shops. What differentiates Lantana from all of them (except perhaps The Providores in Marylebone, the enterprise of 2 New Zealanders) is its typically antipodean style, hearty brunch menu. 

I can never go past the grilled haloumi, mushroom, sauteed spinach, corn fritter (slightly charred on this occasion), roasted tomato with chunky, wholemeal sourdough toast. The haloumi is never rubbery or tasteless at Lantana.

I dined here on Saturday with Libby and Moira who sampled the alluringly runny poached eggs on sourdough.

Also popular are the corn fritters, and the baked eggs with chorizo, mushrooms, spinach and spicy tomato sauce served with grilled flatbread and creme fraiche.

Or you can keep it simple with toasted sourdough (with Vegemite - hallelujah) or toasted banana bread with date and pecan butter.

The only downsides - (1) the hideously long Saturday brunch queue, (2) it's not open on Sundays (when the manager indulges her own passion to sample a restful coffee at other spots around town) and (3) the crowd is, by Lantana's own "off the cuff" estimates, 90% Australian (like me, but I'm 100% Australian). Oh, and (4) Lily Allen was apparently there on Saturday.

The good news is that the owners are opening another cafe at a new site in Great Portland Street, Fitzrovia soon. [GD: Aaah, correction. Shelagh has confirmed this GD "inside scoop" is nothing but a scandalous rumour.] Enjoy. Just save some haloumi for me.

Lantana Cafe, 13 Charlotte Place, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1SN

Kikuchi: Fitzrovia, London

Despite, or maybe because of, the dark and eery countenance of the sordid little laneway that is Hanway Street, I never fail to have a good time there. Tucked away discreetly in the midst of it all is Kikuchi - a Japanese restaurant that, with one peek in the window, we dared to dream might be something along the lines of which we had not encountered since our trip to Tokyo early last year.

It's small and basic, but jam packed with tables full of Japanese businessmen eating fresh sashimi and knocking back the sake like it's going out of style. We enter to cries of "Hirashaimaseeee" and a room buzzing with atmosphere. The sushi chef, with his carefully sculpted mo and sidies, works rapidly and ceaselessly at the counter, while the waitresses offer that amazingly friendly "can't do enough for you" service that is rarely seen outside of Japan. But just what do they cry out incessantly to each other, even when no-one seems to register a reaction??

Both the atmosphere and food are more authentic than anything I've found in London to date (noting I haven't yet been to Sushi-Hiro, which I've been hankering to try out - it recently won a Bib Gourmande in the UK 2010 Michelin Guide). At Kikuchi, there's a £20 per head minimum food spend, which means it's not exactly a cheap eats night out once you factor in the obligatory Japanese beers and sake, but on looking around at the food being delivered to nearby tables we were sufficiently caught up in the whirl of our new find and ready to take it on. And, given the quality, it turned out to be good value.

The waitress suggested sushi and sashimi are the house specialities. We didn't try them this time, but (we didn't realise at the time) Jay Rayner reviewed Kikuchi just a few weeks ago [GD: It's 2010 - his review was actually Jan 2009 - blonde moment] and raved about its sushi. It doesn't surprise me. Everything we ate was outstanding.

A little, freebie vegetable potato salad got the stomach juices flowing right from scratch. Our first starter, raw scallops with a smooth, sweet ginger sauce balanced beautifully with the seaweed and pickled vegetables around it. There was already a temptation for The Peanut Gallery and I to high five each other's chopsticks at this point.

Our prawn tempura was perfectly executed - light and crispy batter, with big, flavoursome, juicy prawns wrapped up inside. Another side of grilled eel with a cucumber and sesame salad in a sweet soy-like sauce was also excellent.

The grilled salmon skins with spring onion and radish was lush and crispy, while our chicken yakitori skewers were mouth wateringly tasty.  We finished off with the chicken and vegetable hot pot - a clear, light broth with outstandingly tasty chicken pieces, delicious chicken "rissole" type balls, silky tofu, cabbage and spring onion.

Our food bill came to £42, although we would order more next time (we had initially set out for a light meal). TPG declared it - when we come back again (oh, we will be back) it will be hard not to order the exact same dishes. They were all fantastic.

But I really do want to try the sashimi bar. And I want to see how the festivities end up for all those hard core, sake drinking folk around me. If you love the food in Tokyo, I suggest you'll find this one's a winner.

[Postscript: I have since gone back (many times...) and reviewed the sashimi - see here.]

Kikuchi, 14 Hanway Street, London W1T 1UD

Barrica: Tapas in Fitzrovia, London

It was a scene straight from "Revenge of the Nerds". A Rather Unusual Chinaman and I entered Barrica for an impromptu "I'm tipsy, starving and need to soak up those cocktails" emergency feed on Friday night. We walked in, stepped 2 paces and turned to each other with respective glasses fogged over. Just too cool.

However, we managed to de-mist and recover our composure sufficiently to obtain a barside table in amongst the bustling, Barcelona-like commotion.

Setting up Barrica in its Goodge St locale is one brave move, given the terrific Fino and Salt Yard restaurants can be found within 10 paces. However, Barrica is a slightly more relaxed option than its nearby contemporaries (it is more "tapas bar" than "restaurant"), and - for me - while the food may not be of the same quality, it is more evocative of walking into to your average Barcelona tapas joint on a teeming Friday night.

It boasts chef James Knight, formerly of the much lauded Moro in Exmouth Market, as its head chef as well as a really lovely selection of wines (including over 20 sherries - hooray to that!). It's not a place for a tranquil meal (bah, who wants it?!), or perhaps even ultra fine dining quality or creative fare, but we tried a thorougly enjoyable selection of tapas in a fun and boisterous atmosphere.

I started with a glass of the easy drinking, smooth Tinto Fino ordered from our friendly, Spanish speaking waiter - I got the sense that all of the staff were Spanish.

The finely sliced Jamon Iberico Cebo (£6.50) was not the highest grade jamon on the menu (the pigs are fed on just a cereal feed diet, no acorns - so the taste is less nutty, with less marbling, than higher grades), but it was lovely and creamy. It was a fairly decent serving size for the price and quality.

Other dishes included the bright green and juicy Pimiento del Padron (peppers) and some absolutely delicious mushrooms with jamon and Fino sherry sauce were a highlight. This serving was also quite generous in size, compared to some of the other dishes at our table and those surrounding us.

The breaded pig's trotter with tomato and capers (below) was scrumptious and was wolfed down accordingly.

My very poor photography does not show the black pudding sausages for the delights that they were. Yes, they were ugly little runts but the taste was all fatty goodness. We both loved the flavour and somehow managed to share them between us without coming to blows.

The lowlight was probably the charcoal grilled aubergine, pepper and onions which were not bad, but not particularly great, and oilier than expected.

Service was friendly and helpful. And delivered with a Spanish accent to boot.

In all, I think the traditional and lively ambience here has the edge over the food. This is good, unpretentious, wine-accompanying fare, done Spanish style. For the prices (although only £20 per head for us), you should of course expect very reasonable quality food, which we obtained on the night. And it's certainly a fun place for a drink and a nibble or a widespread graze.

I knew I loved Barrica the moment I walked in (once the glasses had de-fogged) and it did not disappoint. I'll be back.

62 Goodge Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 4NE