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MEATliquor, Marylebone

Posted: June 9, 2015 in American, Burgers, Hot Dogs, London
Tags: American Food, blue cheese dip, Buffalo Hot Wings, Burgers, food porn, Food Under £20, gluten free, London Food Blog, Louisana Deep South Wings, Marylebone, MEATliquor, NW1, Wellbeck Street

MEATliquor located in Marylebone has caused quite the stir with it’s epic queues, no bookings and dress code policy. That is no ballet flat and no suits. Line up behind the barricade and wait for the bouncer to let you in. Expect a hell raising bikey club upon entry but the venue is staffed with surprisingly friendly folk that embody that all round American customer service experience. The venue is dark, dingy and I’m pretty sure sticky. The music is banging out rock anthems at about 150 decibels too high, staff are heavily tatted up with the ceiling/walls intricately masked with graffiti murals. The food is an all-around American junk food tribute to hot wings, mac n cheese, cheese fries, hot dogs and their mains are centred only around burgers.

We tuck into the fried pickles (£3.50) and it offers a sharp tang of vinegar and contrast of a crisp crunchy batter. The interplay of the gooey pickle against the fried batter is really special and is immediately our top pick of the night.

The blue cheese dip is really flavoursome and very authentic. This is exactly as you would find it in the USA. Thick, creamy and lush. I usually find it very difficult to find a blue cheese dip this good anywhere outside of the States and this is authentic it comes.

These Bingo – Buffalo Hot Wings (£7.00) are as gutsy as it gets. These wings mimic the Louisana Deep South Wings flawlessly. Crunchy then coated with hot sauce then served with an authentic blue cheese dip. These can not be beat.

When I am in the States, I am an absolute sucker for buffalo hot wings. They are my absolute ‘go to’ dish and these are spot on.

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Gaylord Indian, Bloggers Dinner – Fitzrovia

Posted: April 25, 2015 in Indian, London
Tags: Best Indian in London, Fitzrovia, Gaylord, London, London Food Blog, North Indian, Restaurant Review, W1, West end

Words and photos by A Girl Has To Eat and myself.

The award winning Gaylord Indian Restaurant was founded in 1966 and is an offshoot of the original Gaylord in Mumbai which opened in 1956. The cuisine originates from North of India with a menu that is long, varied and eclectic. The décor also embodies an authentic Indian experience with artworks by the noted Indian painter Prithvi Soni.

We dined at Gaylord recently as part of a Zomato bloggers’ dinner and Gaylord took the difficulty of choosing from its extensive menu by serving us a selection of their highlight dishes. There was food aplenty, and it was such a delight to have the opportunity to taste so many different things. We started with canapés before moving onto starters, main courses and then desserts.

For canapés, we tried some zaffrani chicken tikka (£8.50/£14) and chicken murg malal tikka (£8.50/£14.50), both of which were nicely cooked and pleasantly spiced. The aloo tokri chhat, a savoury potato basket was also really tasty and really crunchy.

Moving on the starters, and the tandoori tiger prawns (£10/£20) with saffron proved to be the knockout dish of the evening. The tiger prawns were big, fat and juicy with a firm luxurious texture. They were also really well cooked with the tandoor cooking helping to hold in much flavour. The spicing was lovely, and with the prawns being so plump, they were just a joy to eat.

Crab cakes (£11) with curry leaves, southern spices, sesame seeds and mustard cress were cleverly presented, with each crab cake being perched on a sugar stick. The spicing was pleasant, and the crab cake offered a decent flavour, but I would have preferred more crabmeat for a greater taste of the sea.

Andhra scallops (£11) was a slightly disappointing dish with the scallops being fairly bland. They tasted watery, and the combination with crushed black pepper, curry leaves, cherry tomatoes and pink peppercorns did little to lift the flavour of the dish.

There were two interesting taco dishes to be had, one of spicy rajma (£7.50) with red kidney beans, and the other of lamb seekh (£9.50). The red kidney bean taco was lovely and was bursting with freshness and aromatic spices. In contrast, the lamb didn’t hold up as well. More could have been injected into the lamb mince to give it more flavour. The taco shells were also a little stale.

We had a wonderful selection of mains. I adored the slow cooked lamb shank (£18) as the lamb was meltingly tender and simply fell off the bone. The sauce, made with fiery red onions, plum tomato and Kashmiri red chilli wasn’t particularly hot, but it was delicious and worked well with the meat.

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Forge and Co, Shoreditch

Posted: April 7, 2015 in British, Cafe, English, London
Tags: Forge & Co, London Food Blog, Modern British, Restaurant Review, Shoreditch

Forge & Co located on Shoreditch High St offers a unique new social workspace for interested takers. Across four floors, Forge & Co lends it’s offices, hot desks, meeting rooms and event spaces to growing businesses without the burden of overheads. While on the ground floor their Canteen serves a contemporary menu from their British brasserie.

Set in a 1950’s Modernist building, their reasonably priced menu focuses on seasonal modern British cuisine that is locally sourced. They dish up a varied menu across breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner menu. There is also a friendly nod to the traditional English Sunday roast offering a selection of roast meats with all the trimmings. They also offer a great selection of share platters and drinks that include bespoke East London cocktails (of course!), a friendly and affordable wine list, and brewery-fresh local craft beers to cater to the after work drinks crowd.

Leek & Caerphilly cheese croquettes (£5.00) melted in the mouth. Beautifully crumbled, they were soft, creamy and cheesy. The mango and peach puree added a lovely sweetness, cutting through the fattiness of the croquettes.

The duck rillettes, toast & cornichons (£7.50) arrived filled with large doses of shredded duck. This was richly flavoured and textured with duck pieces however this was let down with the bread being slightly stale.

The smoked mackerel, potato salad & poached egg (£7.50) was overall a beautifully flavoured dish. The smoked mackerel enhanced the overall flavour of the potato salad, adding that extra depth of smokey flavour to each bite. With the addition of fresh herbs this gave the dish a lovely lift.

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Kanada- ya Ramen

Posted: March 24, 2015 in Japanese, London, Ramen
Tags: Best Restaurants in London, Chashu Ramen, Popular London Restaurants, Restaurant Review, Tonkostu Ramen, Top 10 Places to Have Ramen

Written by Girl Has to Eat and Food Porn Nation

Photos by Food Porn Nation

Kanada-Ya on St Giles High Street opened its doors in September 2014 and has since cultivated a large following with its special brand of ramen. Kanada-Ya is the brainchild of the award winning tonkostu broth master Mr Kanada who has been making ramen in Japan since 2009. It specialises only in tonkostu ramen and does not stray into shio, shoyu or miso based broths.

The secret to Kanada-Ya’s success is its specially cooked 18-hour pork bone tonkotsu broth which is tended to overnight. There are three different types of ramen bowls available – the original, the moyashi (a lighter broth) and chashu-men (ramen finished with a chashu collar). The word ramen is taken from the Chinese word ‘lamien’ which means ‘hand pulled noodles’ and the ramen at Kanada-Ya is literally that – hand pulled noodles prepared on site by their very own noodle whiz. Kanada-ya also serve onigiri (Japanese rice balls wrapped in nori) that can be washed down with a selection of Japanese beers, sake or soft drinks.

Like Kanada-Ya’s menu, the décor is simple and basic. But it does the trick as ramen is Japanese fast food rather than a lingering sit down dining experience. But Kanada-Ya has become so popular that there are often queues which can lead to about a half hour wait.

chashu-men, Kanadaya, Tottenham Court Road

The chashu-men (£12.50) caught our eye with the promise of an extra chashu pork collar. The tonkotsu broth was delicious – smooth, creamy, fatty and frothy; full of depth and beautifully rounded. The ramen was cooked to order; very firm, firm, regular or soft. We tried both firm and regular and we found the noodles perfectly cooked to order and that they had been pulled to an exact thinness that was lovely and chewy. The chashu is made using the neck so it is far leaner than that of pork belly.

Extra gold label seaweed (nori – £1), chashu cured burford brown egg (hanajuku egg – £2) and the charred black garlic oil (Ma-yu – £1.50) can all be ordered as additional extras. We tried and loved them all. The hanajuku egg was an egg cured with chashu (pork pieces) and was something special. It was both beautifully sweet and savoury and exuded a lovely warm brown glow with a golden gooey centre. The shiny charred black garlic oil was as dark as the night and filled the air with delicious stinky garlic aroma that enhanced the flavours of this brilliant ramen. The nori was excellent with a lovely flavour.

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Tasting Room, Covent Garden

Posted: March 9, 2015 in Food for Thought
Tags: Best Restaurants in London, Covent Garden, Popups, Restaurant Reviews, UK Restaurants

Words by A Girl Has to Eat

Photos by Food Porn Nation

Last weekend, we were invited by Australian chef Chris Jordan, formerly at the acclaimed Flying Fish & 4fourteen restaurants in Sydney, to his pop up restaurant ‘Tasting Room’. Tasting Room is the first venture by Chris, and with it he intends to bring together a variety of themed dinners that draw inspiration from a mixture of local establishments ranging from chicken shops to cocktail lounges.

Tasting Room is located at Startisans, an indoor food market on Shelton Street in Covent Garden that showcases artisan food producers at lunchtime on weekdays. As his home is a local food market, he intends to use ingredients from nearby farmers’ markets and small businesses. The venue will hold a large communal table where diners are encouraged to bring their own drinks and which will also facilitate a sharing dining experience. Six ‘tasting room’ events with be held a month with regularly changing menus. Future events will look to collaborate with pop-up chefs from Michelin-star backgrounds.

Chris says, “I set up ‘A taste’ to provide a genuine alternative in the London restaurant scene. Now with Tasting Room as a more permanent fixture, I’m trying to demonstrate how inventive Modern British cuisine can be with a real emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients served with an air of fun and excitement. But ultimately it’s all about discovering unexpectedly delicious food in a truly relaxed setting.”

Last weekend’s menu drew upon teas by Yumcha, a teashop with locations around London including Soho. The starter was a ‘Caramel Sweetheart’, cauliflower and scallop, a complex dish consisting of beautifully seared scallops and fresh sweet scallop ceviche. Accompanying the scallop was a lovey cauliflower puree flavoured with ‘Caramel Sweetheart’, a white chocolate and caramel fudge tea, some tasty cauliflower cous cous and shaved cauliflower. The latter two elements completed the dish nicely by adding crunchiness and texture. This was a wonderful, skillfully executed plate of food.

Slow roasted Sufflok lamb shoulder with salt baked turnips, pickled baby turnips, turnip tops and ‘Egyptian Nights’ jelly was next. The lamb was tender and paired well with the jelly which was mint and chamomile.

Our next course was a ‘Chai Black’ braised Gloucester Old Spot pork belly with blood orange, burnt leek and shaved carrot was also really tasty. The pork belly was tender and delicious, and the crackling was good and crunchy. The ‘Chai Black’ (cinnamon, ginger, aniseed, chicory root, cloves, black pepper and Assam black tea) was used to flavour the pork and was a nice touch. We were also served a large side dish of orange roasted carrot salad that ensured none of us went hungry.

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Kintan, High Holborn

Posted: February 18, 2015 in Food for Thought, Grill, Japanese
Tags: BBQ grill, Best Japanese Food in London, Holborn, Kintan, Yakiniku Grill

Kintan is the first yakiniku-style restaurant to open in High Holborn, London. Yakiniku literally translates into grilled meat and is considered as the Japanese take on the Korean barbecue. This is a style of Japanese BBQ where the diner can order a selection of bite sized meats, seafood and vegetables to be prepared over table grill. The best part of the experience is being interactive with your food and watching it sizzle away just the way you like it.

Whilst Kintan specialises in grilled meats, there is a selection of appetisers, salads, rice and noodles. To start we ordered the hot oil seared salmon (£7) which came beautifully served with a house citrus sauce. This sashimi grade salmon simply melted in the mouth as the hot oil gave the salmon a gentle warm sear.

We also had the tuna tartar volcano (£7), the tuna tartar was prepared with a delicious spicy mayo. This was delicious and fresh but what made this dish really special was the textual contrast of the deep fried rice cracker against the creamy tartar and the addition of caviar sprinkled on top.

The tofu chigae (£10), a spicy tofu stew was served with a combination of ground chicken, kimchee, enoki mushrooms and egg. The base of the stock was enriched with a gorgeous oxtail stock and enhanced with the spicy addition of kimchee and chiage (soybean) paste. The highlight of this dish was the tofu itself, it had the most incredible, delicate and smooth texture I have ever experienced which absorbed the wonderful intense flavours of the broth. Unfortunately, the egg turned out overcooked and rubbery but otherwise this was still a fantastic bowl of soup with great intense flavours.

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Roka – Aldwych, London

Posted: January 21, 2015 in Japanese, London
Tags: Adlwych, Alan Yau, Best Japanese Restaurants in London, Claudio Silvestrin, Japanese Restaurants in London, L'anima, Modern Japanese Food, Princi, Robata Bar, Robata grill, Roka Aldwych, Wardour Street

Photos and words by A Girl has to Eat and myself.

The chain of Roka restaurants offer a unique style of contemporary Japanese robatayaki cuisine, a cooking method where items of food are slowly grilled over hot charcoal. The original branch of Roka opened on Charlotte Street to much success and subsequent branches followed in Canary Wharf, Mayfair and on Aldwych. But the menu extends beyond just robata dishes. There is also a delectable selection of sashimi and nigiri, fried options including tempura, snacks, soups and rice dishes such as hot pots with lobster and miso butter.

We visited Roka Aldwych which opened last November. Designed by Claudio Silvestrin who was also responsible for L’anima and Alan Yau’s Princi on Wardour Street, the restaurant is spacious and grand with a sleek, contemporary minimalist look, a style for which Silvestrin is well known. Like all the other Rokas, the robata grill plays centre stage at Roka Aldwych, and in addition to the tables in the main dining room, guests can also eat in the lounge area and at the robata bar.

We started with the yellowtail sashimi with truffle yuzu dressing, mizuna and pickled vegetables (£14.60), and the spectacular scent of truffle immediately caught our attention when the dish arrived at our table. This dish was pure perfection. The quality of the fish and the balance of the truffle yuzu dressing was absolutely flawless. It was an exquisite dish and we enjoyed it immensely. If you only order one thing at Roka Aldwych, this has to be it.

We followed this with the 5-piece sashimi selection and the tuna tartare. The sashimi included salmon, tuna, sea bream, yellow tail and sweet shrimp (£26.60) and was delectable. The quality, taste and texture of the sashimi were sublime, and the fish was unquestionably of the highest grade.

The tuna tartare with oscietra caviar and quail egg yolk (£12.60) was a clever spin on a French favourite. The French tradition was not lost as we ceremoniously combined fish with the egg and caviar to enjoy the tartare in its entirety. This was served with a lovely piece of crunchy crispbread which added contrast. Again, this was as marvellous as the previous dishes.

From the tataki section, the seared beef striploin with black truffle dressing, cucumber, daikon pickle and miso tapioca crisp (£13.00) was another enjoyable dish. The beef was wonderfully tender and tasty, although the black truffle dressing was not as aromatic as that of the truffle ponzu dressing in the yellowtail sashimi dish.

The rock shrimp tempura with wasabi pea seasoning and chilli mayonnaise (£14.30) came with rock shrimp that was sweet and plump. As for the batter, it wasn’t a traditional tempura batter, but it was very enjoyable nevertheless as it was light and crispy. This was a tasty modern recreation of a traditional favourite with a solid dipping sauce.

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Japanese Supper Club hosted by Luiz Hara, The London Foodie

Posted: January 14, 2015 in Japanese, London
Tags: Best Japanese Food in London, Food under £45, Islington, Japanese Food in Islington, Japanese Food in London, Japanese Set Menu, Japanese Supper Club, London, Supper Club, The London Foodie

As supper clubs go, Luiz Hara’s Japanese Supper Club is considered one of the most notorious within London’s underground food scene. The Brazilian born half Japanese ex-investment banker aka The London Foodie, introduces a culinary experience like no other and showcases that the possibilities of Japanese home-style cooking are truly infinite. Luiz turned his back on corporate banking by risking it all to pursue his real passion in food that led him straight to this wonderful endeavour.

Take his training in Tokyo in Japanese cuisine and throw in his Grand Diploma from Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Then consider his custom-built supper club basement kitchen, swanky Islington pad and you have yourself an unorthodox recipe for culinary success. Think of Luiz’s supper club as restaurant quality dishes that can go head to head with London’s best, all in the comfort of his gorgeous home. But be prepared for some serious verbal discourse because you’ll be seated intimately at a long dining communal table with some perfectly good strangers.

All this for the nominal price of £45. Well, what are you waiting for?

Things are off to a whopping good start with the tuna & avocado, shiso flavoured sushi rice & wasabi cream. It’s fresh, delectable and gloriously spectacular with the delicious wasabi cream elegantly drooling to one side. The shiso sushi rice shows us what good sushi rice is really made of. It is cooked to perfection, holds the right amount of stickiness, savouriness and a hint of sweetness. The combination of flavours are so spectacular, it is already the hot favourite of the night.

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Shoryu Ramen – Soho, London

Posted: January 11, 2015 in Japanese, London, Ramen
Tags: £15 to £25, Central London, gluten free, Hakata, hirata buns, Island Bell, Japanese Food, Kyushu, Mochi, Ramen, Ramen in London, Restaurant Review, Shoryu Ramen, Shoryu Soho, Soho, Tonkostu Ramen, Top 10 Places to Have Ramen

Shoryu Ramen was launched in November 2012 by the team at Japan Centre and Shoryu have quickly gained a following for their ramen. They now have locations spread across Carnaby, Regent St and Soho. If ramen wasn’t enough, they also dish up the very popular hirata buns, sushi, sashimi and yakitori as part of their sides menu. Recommended in the Michelin Guide 2014 and 2015, Shoryu have come head to head with the likes of Bone Daddies and Tonkostu Ramen. These are the three amigos that are dominating the Soho food scene with their ramen. What makes Shoryu really special is that they specialise in the Hakata style tonkotsu ramen from the Hakata district of Fukuoka city of Japan. They promise that this is a bonafide tonkotsu ramen which you will rarely find outside of Japan. Thanks to Executive Chef Kanji Furukawa, who was born and raised from the region. Londoners can now enjoy the Hakata style ramen made with a thick, rich, white pork soup and thin, straight ramen noodles. This style of ramen is my absolute favourite, so I am really looking forward to see what Shoryu has to offer.

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Buttered Bacon Brussel Sprouts

Posted: January 5, 2015 in American, English, Recipes
Tags: Bacon, Bacon Lardons, Brussel Sprouts, Buttered Bacon Brussel Sprouts, Deep Fried, Dinner Parties, Pancetta, Recipes, Recipes for Christmas, streaky bacon

The idea behind this recipe was inspired from my meal at Swine & Co, in Sydney and my visit to the US. They do a lot of deep fried brussel sprouts there! I wanted to do something similar for Christmas but it had to be quick and easy. I didn’t do a test run before Christmas, all I knew is that I wanted the brussel sprouts to be cooked in butter and bacon fat until the sprouts was blistered and brown. I wanted to create the illusion that they were deep fried by cooking the sprouts in bacon fat and butter. Then I wanted to top it off with crunchy bits of bacon to have the texture of crackling. This turned out really well and it was such a delicious way to enjoy brussel sprouts that I had to share!

Enjoy! x

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