Salon - A truly British affair

One of my favourite places in London is the Granville arcade, better known as Brixton Market, leading into the hotbed of great little food restaurants, Brixton Village. I have spent many hours wandering these hallways trying bites of food at the many food stalls lining the arcade, generally getting lost in the feeding frenzy as others swarm around you with similar ideas. This group of restaurateurs continues to grow, and one of the newer additions is Salon, a small dining room located above Cannon & Cannon (a British deli) cooking up food with a very fresh and mostly British focus.

The dining room is minimal and quite bare, but the hospitality of the chefs/front of house was enough to warm up any room up. As it was a Tuesday night when I visited, the team behind Salon were trialling a nightly weekday dinner (as opposed to just Thursday to Saturday), with just two people manning the dining room. Every night, Salon offers a four course £29 dinner menu, formed from whatever produce has been brought daily, very much at the center of each dish, with a matching wine menu for £20 a head if you fancy a bit of booze. We sat and perused what was to come and beamed when we saw the menu was filled with seasonal treats such as asparagus, peas and strawberries.

First up, little croquettas of chorizo. Lightly fried and stuffed with a smooth chorizo bechamel, tasty little morsels getting my tastebuds going. The first course in earnest was a delightfully light combination of cured mutton, peas and burnt lettuce. It's strange to try and pick out all the nuances of such a seemingly straightforward dish, but a lot of thought has clearly gone into this. The gamy mutton, the slight bitter edge from the burnt lettuce, the smooth pea puree and the vegetal hit from the podded peas, a lovely combination of flavours.

Course two was another fresh and light dish. Home made ricotta a creamy foil to spears of sweet asparagus, scattered with a few toasted hazelnuts for good measure. Nasturtium leaves completed the dish, adding a peppery bite to proceedings. This dish is never going to win any awards for gastronomy or technique, but everything was well cooked and assembled, and the end product was a great reflection of Britain and it's seasons on a plate.

By this stage, I had already fallen in love a little with Salon. The room had begun to fill, there was plenty of chat with my dining partners who I hadn't seen in a while and probably why I didn't really notice that the speed of service had dropped off a bit. By the time the main arrived, all was forgotten. Tender slices of Dexter beef skirt sat on a mound of root vegetable puree (probably celeriac, but I forget), lifted by raw and pickled radishes. Whilst all the other dishes were essentially assembled, this required some decent cooking, and the beef arrived pink and tender, with a smooth puree. The only bit of greenery arrived as a solitary piece of the advertised mustard leaf, which I can't say I really loved a whole deal.

Finishing it all off was an ensemble of lemon curd, crumble and strawberries. Not the prettiest dessert to look at, but the strawberries were slightly macerated bringing out all their natural sweetness, a perfect foil for the tart lemon. Little nuggets of crunchy sweet crumble and shards of honeycomb brought together quite an unusual contrast in flavours and textures.

Salon epitomises a lot of what I find great about food right now. Uncomplicated dishes, produce led and well cooked. Is there anything more pleasing than popping a freshly shelled pea in your mouth or savouring a well cooked piece of meat? Salon may not be the most gastronomic experience, but what it delivers out of it's tiny kitchen is unfussy and packed with clean flavours. Great food, fine wine and a laidback attitude, a perfect place a to while away the evening.

This write up was sponsored by Match.com. They wanted to find interesting places to take a date, and after my visit, I think Salon would be a pretty decent venue.

Salon - 18 Market Row, Atlantic Rd, London SW9 8JB

Food and Tech - Playing with the Nokia at the Social Eating House

When it comes to keeping me happy, I'm pretty easy. Throw me some gadgets, feed me some food and I'm as happy as a pig in muck. When the PR for Windows Phone came knocking asking if I wanted to play with their new phone and eat at the not-yet-open Social Eating House, I jumped at the chance. I've been on iPhone since the beginning but have been seriously been considering a move away to the newer, more innovative platforms. As for Social Eating House, it's basically yet another brasserie with a British twist, but it is the newest opening from Jason Atherton so always worth checking out.

Starting out at the Soho Hotel, we ran through the setup and met the men behind the Windows Phone operating system and Nokia. As you would imagine, they were pretty passionate about the product and ran through a sequence of pretty cool features. In built sat nav with free downloadable global maps, augmented reality recommendations around you, a rather smart interface with plenty of flexibility. There was no denying, there was a lot of thought put into the flow and design of the interface, and there are enough gadgets to keep any geek happy. However, the main focus of the event was the camera. Boasting a Carl Zeiss lens with what Nokia call PureView, it has in built stabilisation to help you out with tricky low light shots or shots on the move. Social Eating House would be a perfect testing ground.

Social Eating House is a lot more casual than it's predecessor on Pollen Street. Lots of bare brick walls and moody lighting abound, all very current for the London dining scene and tricky when it comes to taking pictures. As we played with the settings on the phone, I guess the one time where it was acceptable to play with your phone at the dining table, jars with mixed contents. I really don't love this 'jars' concept. They are fiddly to eat out of and I can't even imagine how hard it would be to try and 'plate' these up. All that having been said, I managed to get a few tastes of the spiced aubergine and mackerel tartare, which were both decent enough. The third of salt cod brandade was the stand out and delicious, I was just disappointed that the contents of the jar were so small.

The starters menu all sounded very decent, but the Duck "Smoked ham, egg and chips" stood out for me. Soon enough, slivers of delicious duck ham, a deep fried breaded egg with an oozy yolk and a few tiny chips acting as soldiers arrived on a wooden board. There's not much to say about this. The duck ham was meaty and slightly gamy, the egg was well cooked, and the chips were too small and too sparse. On the whole, nice enough dish, but really nothing that special to me. Other starters were better in my opinion. A steamed bag of ceps added plenty of theatre, and when the bag was opened, the smell was intoxicating and had me salivating from two seats down. Probably best of the lot, octopus carpaccio with orange and black olive, a great balance of flavours and the most elegantly presented.

I have a terrible compulsion not to order what others had already ordered, always bowing to the curiosity of what the other dishes would be like. In this scenario, I ended up with the onglet, which is something I have grown to love and I was definitely looking forward to it. What arrived was confusing. First, another wooden block (they seem to love serving things here on wooden boards) with my rather small looking piece of meat. Next, two separate sauce boats with a Bearnaise in one and a peppercorn in the other. Alongside, a little metal bucket containing my chips and rounding this off, a bowl of salad. By the time all my accoutrements for my meal had turned up, it took up half the table. I did my best effort at plating up my own dish, and all components were decent enough, although I can't really say any of it was particularly special.

Desserts were all pretty out there. Pineapple baked in salt and szechuan pepper, London Honey almond sponge with a goats curd ice cream, lemon curd pie with a pepper crust pastry etc... As a big fan of chocolate, I opted for a milk chocolate mousse, praline, choc eclair and a salted caramel ice cream. What arrived was sadly slightly muted, a little bit of mousse and an eclair. By the time I realised that the salted caramel ice cream was inside the eclair, it left it a soggy mess, which was kind of sad.

As a restaurant, there are flairs of some great things happening in the kitchen, but on the whole, I found most of what I ate well executed, but sadly a little boring. I fully appreciate that this was before it had even officially opened, and there is still plenty to like so it is not to be dismissed. As for playing with the phone, there was a lot about it I liked. I loved the tile interface, the easy access to not just apps, but phone functions, and the interface and the ability to customise is a great advantage. Some of the add ons like the built in travel adviser and sat nav are also of great value. I'm not a massive of the two tone white on black/black on white interface, it looks a bit clunky and I like things neat. As for the camera, the pictures which came out were sharp and actually seemed to work well in low light. The only issue seems to be the white balance, even with the additional features more accustomed to a manual digital camera, the pictures seemed a bit cold. Having said that, it's nothing a little manual editing wouldn't fix and I'm sure an update in the software would do just the same.

Whether you're using an iphone, android or Windows phone, there is no denying that this is a great bit of kit. It doesn't quite have the polish of the iphone yet, or the flexibility of the android, but it has great potential.

All photos were taken with the Nokia Lumia 920. I tweaked a few in Flickr. I was invited by the PR for Windows Phone

Social Eating House - 58 Poland Street, London W1F 7NR

Ramen, the London Trio - Tonkotsu, Bone Daddies and Shoryu

Before we start, I'm going to lay it out there, I am NOT a ramen expert just a man who has eaten and loved a lot of noodles in his life and can consider myself a noodle fan. Over the last 6 months, London has seen a sudden influx of ramen bars with a focus on the noodle soup, as opposed to relegating this to just another item on the menu. If you aren't acquainted, it is a combination of noodles, rich broth and an array of toppings normally and can be the most wonderful of dishes when executed perfectly. Here is my rundown of three of the Londons finest:

Bone Daddies Ramen Bar

I guess you can say that Bonedaddies isn't your average ramen bar. Pumping out rock and roll (at a very acceptable decible level), it's all high tables, stools and shared dining space. The menu itself consists of eight variations, with two core broth varieties, pork and chicken. I've gone through most of the menu here and I normally opt for the Soy Ramen with some add ons (the chashu pork is delicious, but two meat ramen is always better than one meat).

The noodles have bounce and are plentiful, swimming within a deep meaty broth. On top, a combination of pork or chicken as well as a variety of bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, corn, nori and mizuna. As you would expect from a chef who used to be head chef at one of the outlets of Nobu and Zuma, each bowl is beautifully presented and once you get into it, builds flavour with every mouthful. And the nitamago egg! Unlike the other ramen outlets, you get both halves of a wonderfully oozy soy infused egg. A joy.

Bone Daddies delivers the full package on flavour and satisfaction. Each bowl is packed to the brim with different flavours and textures, and with the different varieties available as well as the rotating specials, you're never going to get bored. And any write up won't be complete without a hat tip to their fried chicken, soft shell crab and their chilli oil which are all excellent.

Bone Daddies Ramen Bar - 31 Peter Street, London W1F 0AR, UK

Tonkotsu

Tonkotsu is an offshoot of the successful Tsuru Sushi restaurants which are based around the city. Normally peddling sushi, katsu curry and a new kara age chicken burger, I was pretty intrigued how their incarnation of ramen would fare.

If you're going to name your restaurant after a product, it puts quite a bit of pressure on the product nailing it. Thankfully, the Tonkotsu ramen is a decent incarnation and a very welcoming bowl of noodles. Although early visits were pretty disappointing (weak broth, terrible service, tasteless pork), they seemed to have turned this around as my last visit was pretty good. My preferred option is the plainer soy version, which is still rich and deep in flavour. The tonkotsu can be a little too porky for me and a bit heavy for lunch.

Tonkotsu is good but something seems to be lacking. The ramen is fine, with good broth and good noodles, I just found the toppings a little disappointing, with far less variety, content and ultimately, taste. The sides are also ok, but the chicken kara age is nothing to write home about. Maybe I'm missing something, but I am just not that into Tonkotsu.

Tonkotsu - 63 Dean Street, W1d 4QG

Shoryu Ramen

So, rounding off this soupy threesome is Shoryu. Arguably, Shoryu can claim to be the most authentic incarnation of a ramen house. Run by those folks across the road (Japan Center) and with a bona fide Japanese chef at the helm, I was fully expecting something great. Unlike the other ramen joints, the menu here is vast. Unlike Bone Daddies with their standard eight or so options, and Tonkotsu with a mere four varieties, Shoryu has more than both of the former combined, a monstrous 14 standard options. Not to mention the vast number of sides and starters too, you've got your work cut out deciding what you're going to have.

On my visit, the Hirata buns had to be tried. Much like ramen, these little steamed buns are making their presence felt on the London dining scene. As enjoyable as these were, these didn't quite stack up to the superior versions by street purveyors Yum Bun or Bao. For the novelty of it, we also ordered a side of Chikuwa fishcakes, an odd combination of battered fried fish and cheese. Strange but weirdly moreish.

For the main event, I went for the Yuzu Tonkotsu, a pork tonkotsu broth with the added citrusy zest of yuzu. Surprisingly, these were perfect bedfellows, cutting through the rich broth. The toppings were mostly great, with a soft nitamago egg (although only half), pieces of nori, beansprouts and kikurage mushrooms. Sadly, the meat was slightly lacking in flavour, although this was the only real weakpoint to a great bowl of noodles.

The restaurant was buzzing, although there were a few core issues for me. I enjoyed the ramen, but all the tables and seats were ridiculously close to each other. But probably the biggest bug bear, that damn drum. Every time somebody paid their bill or got seen to their table, BOOM, there goes the drum. It was cute the first time, but after the tenth or so, it was extremely grating. Especially when you're trying to appreciate a perfectly good bowl of noodles.

Shoryu Ramen - 9 Regent St London SW1Y 4LR

VERDICT

So there you have it, three different ramen joints all with their own merits. It's clear that they won't appeal to everyone, with their bonging drums, dark interiors or rock and roll music, but considering where we were six months ago, we now have three ramen joints to choose from and slurp noodles at your convenience. Personally, after much research/slurping, I name Bone Daddies my favourite. I love the place, I love the ambience and most of all, I think their bowls of ramen are the most balanced with quality through toppings, broth and noodles. Well played.

The Mall Tavern: A quirky classic

The London restaurant scene is growing up at an alarming rate, but even with these new openings every week, I find it hard to be drawn in by many of them. You have the burgeoning junk food scene, for example. Let's not try to tart it up as anything else, it's simply delicious filthy food like burgers, hot dogs and fried chicken but not really something I can cope with eating every day. You have the new wave of brasseries, which have strangely ballooned over the last few months (do we really need more than a few brasserie places?). Sadly, I find these astonishingly dull in principle. You have the new wave, trying to put their own stamp on their food, but normally only either offering expensive tasting menus or bar food.

Deep down, what I really yearn for is somewhere I can sit down and relax, order a reasonably priced beverage and eat good food at my own leisure without feeling over serviced or rushed, which, even with all these new restaurants opening up, I'm finding don't really meet this criteria. Which was probably one of the reasons I was so bowled over by my visit to the Mall Tavern in Notting Hill.

Hidden just off the high street, the Mall Tavern is a gastro pub with a fully functioning utilitarian bar. This isn't a restaurant masquerading as a gastro pub, this is a pub which serves very good food. They have a variety of beers on draught and even stock proper crisps (for proper, read Monster Munch). Add a dart board and a fruit machine and I would happily settle in for a few hours.

Round the back of the bar is the restaurant area, and although the tables are more well dressed, the service is still casual yet attentive. Service with a more human touch, which sounds like a ridiculous thing to say in principle, but I still find myself enamoured by the less robotic approach, versus those who have a pre-prepared routine which has been drilled into them. The menu is a rarity, every item is something I would genuinely consider ordering. Sadly, with just two of us, that wasn't going to happen, so we had to settle for a beef tea, some deep fried camembert and popcorn chicken to start.

The Beef Tea was an outright winner, not just for being pure crazy, but it fully delivered on flavour too. Little scones came with a bovril butter with what I think was a bit of fat speckled on top. Add to that a cup of "beef tea" which was actually a consomme packing in the essence of cow. This was an assault on the eyes, the brain and all my senses. Rock and roll.

You can never go wrong with deep fried triangles of oozy cheese served with a sharp, tangy yet sweet cranberry sauce (never). Perfectly executed and greaseless. Popcorn chicken were moist morsels of chicken, battered and fried to a crunch, but still managing to retain moisture. I loved the peppery cress and the actual popcorn all thrown together. Witty, but mostly tasty.

The mains were an even more difficult decision. With my friend settling on the ever present house chicken kyiv (an all time favourite dish of mine) I plumped for the intriguing pork and pickles dish. After the highs of the starters, it would have been a shame had the mains not stacked up, but I needn't have worried. The pork loin was wonderfully cooked, and those mustard and paprika pickled vegetables cut through the rich pig perfectly. The little crubeen on the side (a little piggy croquette essentially) was packed with fatty pig meat which just coated your mouth in the best possible way. As much as I felt jealous of my friend, I had no arguments with my own dish.

As you can probably imagine, we were stuffed by now, but couldn't leave without having a taste of the house arctic rolls. These may seem like an ordinary retro dessert to you, but at the Mall Tavern, they introduce five or six different choices every evening. On this occasion, we settled for one original, one slice of the black stuff and one red bull. The first was jam, sponge and vanilla ice cream, exactly what you would expect and perfectly nice. The second ramps up the crazy a notch and combined a dark malty sponge with Guinness ice cream, which was by far and away the winner. The red bull had to be ordered for the pure novelty, and although it didn't really taste of red bull (it tasted more like bubblegum), it was pretty decent and a great way to end the meal.

Yes, as you can tell, I love the Mall Tavern. But why not? The food doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't stick to retro or modern, it just sticks to "being great". I loved the inventive little touches to the dishes we tried, and as intimated at the beginning, I think I could have closed my eyes and stuck a pin into each section and still come away with a fantastic meal. I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Mall Tavern - 71-73 Palace Gardens Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, London, W8 4RU

The American Invasion continues: The Electric Diner, Portobello

It seems there is no stopping the American invasion. It's been a juggernaut since last year where parts of the London restaurant scene are starting to resemble New York, from Wolfgang Puck (Cut) and Serge Becker (La Bodega Negra) who opened last year to Keith McNally (Balthazar) and Brendan Sodikoff of the Electric Diner who have been more recent additions. Whisper it, we still have David Meyer and his Shake Shack looming over Covent Garden in the very near future.

The Electric "Complex" (let's call it) comprises of the cinema, the diner, the members bar and the little doughnut shop which sits in the cinema lobby. Affected by a fire in June 2012, it took another six months before it was restored and revamped. The Diner itself, with Sodikoff brought in to consult, started to serve tarted up American Diner food. Think sandwiches (which basically covers everything which involves bread), things served with eggs and a variety of other things cooked on their grill.

We ordered a lot, which seems to be the case whenever I am involved. From the 'sandwiches' section, the bologna sandwich, a towering testament to slices of meat on bread. It came highly recommended and whilst enjoyable, I couldn't help but think that I would have rather tried one of their signature single/double burgers.

Much better was the duck hash from the 'egg' side of the menu. Crispy potato hash topped with shredded duck confit and a sunny side up fried duck egg. With the Americanised 'gravy' on top (more of a ducky bechamel), the whole ensemble is extremely rich but just drags you back.

The dishes from the grill were kind of ridiculous. Best of all was the flat iron chicken, a huge hunk of flattened out chicken cooked on the smoking hot flat iron. Cooked perfectly even throughout and lubricated with garlic jus, this was one of the most addictive pieces of chicken I have ever eaten.

I mean, just look at it. I wish I had something to sit alongside it to show quite how large it was. The flavour of the pork was spot on, the slow roasted apples the perfect accompaniment, although my only qualm was how tough the overall turned out. It's not easy cooking a piece of meat like that to order, and the outcome was a slightly chewy piece of meat. Still, no major complaints, it was another enjoyable dish.

Despite ordering a few other dishes (a salad and a side of crisp bacon), we tried a few desserts too. A chocolate pie was nice enough, but the coconut pie was just fantastic. A berry compote with lemon curd was enjoyable, a classic combination of sweet and sour, and I can't resist ordering a root beer float if it's on the menu, even if it was listed as a dessert and not just a drink (there was a lot of ice cream).

Sadly, there were none of their well praised doughnuts available, but at this stage, even the faint whisper of any food turned my stomach. We were shown around the rest of the complex, from a glimpse of the bar to the impressive Electric cinema. The Electric Diner is far from perfect, but theres's no denying that it's a good eat and you're not going to leave hungry. I for one salute the American influx. London was slightly lacking in these middle of the road places to eat, and places like the Electric Diner fit into that middle space nicely with cocktails and good comfort food. Well worth a visit, and why don't you catch a film in probably the most beautiful cinema I have seen for afters.

*I was invited along to the Electric Diner and had dinner with their PR as well as a few others*

The Electric Diner - 191 Portobello Road, London, W11 2ED

Old School Chinatown - HK Diner

Chinatown holds a lot of fond memories for me. When I first moved to London, I remember the Sunday trips my family and I used to make. Dim Sum at New World and the weekly shop for ingredients at either New Loon Moon or Loon Fung supermarkets (both institutions in their own right), with a special treat of haw flakes or boxes of weird biscuits containing mini robots if we behaved ourselves. For an 8 year old child, weekends built up to these days.

As an adult, I wrote my dissertation on Chinatown, documenting the shift from being a cultural center for the London Chinese to a tourist center for the London tourists. I even worked on Wardour st to fund  my university days, popping into Wong Kei for cheeky roast meats on rice. You could say I'm quite connected. Over the years, Chinatown has changed a lot, with premises seemingly changing names  as often and inevitable as the seasons. One of the few constants has been HK Diner, an institution on Wardour Street, packed equally with local young Chinese students and the older generation alike.

Serving strictly Cantonese food, I hurtled in with a few of my friends and was lucky enough to stroll straight to a table. Navigating the menu in any Cantonese restaurant can often be a minefield, faced with a myriad of choices all sounding a little like the last. Playing it safe, I palmed off ordering duties to my friend who is a little more versed in Cantonese food than I am and awaited the impending feast.

There must be some sort of unwritten three point code of conduct within the restaurants of Chinatown:

1. Surly staff
2. All the food will turn up when it's ready
3. It's not going to break the bank

'Tick" point one. Although the staff weren't rude unlike some of it's neighbours, they took our order without so much as an upward glance. Rushing about the tables, there is an air of efficiency with a whiff of sterility. This is not a place where you are expected to hang around. All being said, the food arrived quickly and certainly lived up to it's reputation.

First up was some jellyfish. Most people who have never eaten jellyfish may balk at the idea of chowing down on jellyfish but it's really more of a texture than a flavour. Think a soft rubber band often doused in sesame oil. Still probably not sounding that appealing, but I am rather fond of it, it's well worth a try and the version at HK Diner had a hint of sweet chilli to it which wasn't displeasing.

Hot on the heels of the jellyfish came the beef ho fun. Flat noodles, slices of beef and bean sprouts cooked in a really hot wok. Simplicity itself, but it's the heat of the industrial wok which seems to reach ridiculous temperatures and impart that deep smoky flavour which really makes the dish.

I'm not really all that fond of tofu. It's bland and the texture is so soft that I rarely see the addition of tofu adding anything to most dishes. On the other hand, stuff it with mince pork and then frying it just about makes it palatable. Dousing it in a garlic and oyster heavy sauce and it becomes a joy.

I find it hard to resist ordering some roast meats the second I venture into the borders of Chinatown, so an obligatory portion of roast duck was up next. Roast Duck, roast pork and rice was my go to comfort food when I started writing this blog and it's been a while since I rated a new contender. This one was pretty decent and served without bones if requested, something I am fond of.

Pea shoots are probably the most expensive of the veggies available, but there's something about that tender stem vegetable stir fried in a little garlic which I just can't resist. I do get horrified at the cost of vegetables in Chinese restaurants (this one weighed in at about £7 a portion) but it's well worth an order for it's delicate flavour and texture.

Pork belly and preserved cabbage is one of those more traditional Cantonese dishes and is packed with flavour. This generous portion is packed with sauce you just want to smother all over your rice, the preserved cabbage adding a pleasing sourness which helps cut through the rich pork fat of the belly. Moreish.

Last but not least, a wobbly comforting steamed egg. Combining standard eggs, century eggs (which are dark in colour and add a slightly chalkier texture) and salted egg yolks, this is simply steamed and served with a bit of soy. The subtle contrast in textures of the egg, combined with the bursts of flavour from the salted egg yolks combine to form an incredibly satisfying and comforting dish.

HK Diner is one of the few restaurants which seems to have stood the test of time. It isn't going to win any awards for it's food, but it's decent and enjoyable and for around £20 a head, you can eat enough food to fill you beyond capacity (tick list point 3).

*This post was sponsored by Cox and Kings as part of their Chinatown review challenge. Check them out, they put together some pretty great holidays to China amongst other places*

HK Diner - 22 Wardour Street, London W1D 6QQ