The Corner Room, Bethnal Green

Viajante was one of my favourite meals of 2010. Off the wall in places, but comprised of some great dishes in a casual dining room. Getting the chefs to deliver the dishes they had just so carefully tweezered into place straight to your table, and to chat through some of the components was interesting and interactive. It was definitely fiddly food (see previous comment about tweezers) but good food. I meant to go back at some stage and give the full tasting menu a go, but with so many great new places opening every month, never had the pennies saved up to warrant another visit. Two years later, I returned to the Town Hall hotel, not to eat at Viiajante, but to give it's little sister a go. The Corner Room is hidden away in a corner of the hotel, once you've found the carpeted moose head, you know you're there. The whole place is smaller but equally beautiful. Understated, quirky and functional.

[In pictures] Feng Sushi

It's not often I head over to Canary Wharf, but I can't help but feel that this is what London should be like. Tall buildings, wide pavements, modern atmosphere. Everything is made of steel, stone and glass and the streets are clean. Add the dark clouds and the torrential rain I was wading through to get to Billingsgate market, and it felt like Gotham. You could almost here the Batman theme in the background (the films, not the camp TV superhero fest of the 60's). All this was in aid of was a specially prepared menu from Silla Bjerum, the Danish owner and head chef of sushi delivery firm, Feng Sushi.

Unshackled: Alyn Williams at the Westbury, Mayfair

Procured off the Westbury website 

When it comes to fine dining, I actually often find it very hard to put the experiences into words. Most of the time, it is impossible to fault the cooking of the food, but I can't help that the higher up the Michelin scale you get, the higher the chance of the food boring you to death. This is partly why I have never got round to writing up mega-restaurants such as Gordon Ramsay or Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester. Both restaurants definitely rolled out course after course of well cooked dishes, with great produce and fantastic service at the core of what it is trying to achieve. Yes they were good, but lacked any wow factor.

Santa Maria, pizza to make you smile

"All men are made equal", but the more I eat and try new food, I realise that those immortal words certainly don’t ring true about food. All food is different. Even the same food is different. For example, take the humble burger, one of the most hotly discussed topic amongst my food loving twitter friends. Open or closed, sauced or unsauced, cheddar or American, pink, how pink? With such a plethora of requirements and protocol around the humble burger, I guess it is unsurprising that many other comestibles have a strict list of points to make it “right”.

Duck Soup, Soho

 

A fair few years ago, I was taken to a little bar come restaurant by the name of Bar du Marché (I believe). Fresh off the plane after a tour of Afghanistan, one of my oldest friends was prepping himself to do what he did best, drink and meet women. First stop, lubrication with me in tow. We walked in and the tiny place centred around a large wooden bar lined with stools, with seemingly fancy men and women sloshing back wine and pecking at food. Suffice to say, what transpired next is not entirely relevant (and probably appropriate for this blog) but when I walked into Duck Soup, I couldn’t help but draw a few parallels. Firstly, the small room is dominated once again by that central wooden bar, stretching almost the entire length of the restaurant. People casually chatting, drinking and eating, the atmosphere is laid back and jovial. As the years have passed, my focus has been less on debauchery and more on getting fed well, and even though they have a pretty decent looking wine selection scrawled on the tiles, I veer towards a fresh cocktail of fresh apple, quince and vodka. Tart yet sweet and very appropriate for the recent sunny weather.

Berwick St newcomers: Banh Mi 11 and Pizza Pilgrims

Berwick Street Market is one of the oldest in town, having been established in the area since the late 19th century. Traditionally home to old school fruit and vegetable salesman, you would walk down the narrow street and be met with the cacophany of tradesman pitching their wares. These days, many of these sounds are muted, and although a few of the fruit and veg salesman remain, new residents are beginning to move in.

NY chic in Soho streets: La Bodega Negra, Soho

If the old adage of "you are what you eat", then right at this moment, I am probably 90% tacos. I've probably overdone it, I admit, but I couldn't help contain the excitement when La Bodega Negra on Moor street finally opened it's doors to the public.With two main areas, a bar and taqueria on the ground floor, and a much more illicit dining room downstairs (located through a fake "sex shop" entrance, it's just a little of the exclusivity and NY buzz that the owners are trying to bring to the place), Serge Becker, an impresario of the New York night life has brought his take on the Mexican taqueria to London alongside Will Ricker, a London restaurateur. With the rich heritage of Mexican food in America, I had hopes.

Wright (but a little wrong) Brothers, Soho

I do feel like a bit of a broken record rolling out the same disclaimer before I write about seafood. I do not really like fish and I doubt that it will never feature highly on my "things to eat before I die" bucket list. All that being said, I am partial to a bit of shellfish, squids and the like and when my sister suggested that she wanted to book Wright Brothers for our traditional family birthday meals, I was not against it and was indeed looking forward to a sumptuous seafood platter as observed on other blogs.

10 Greek Street, Soho

Following Sohos recent growth from culinary wasteland (relative) to restaurant oasis sees the arrival of 10 Greek Street, another restaurant embracing the British bistro ethic, alongside other recent openings such as 10 Cases and Duck Soup. Unsurprisingly, the focus is on good cooking and good ingredients, and much of what is on the menu illustrates this. The daily menu is scribbled on the chalk boards around the small space, and merely lists a roll call of ingredients. No foams, reductions, jus or fancy language on show, what's on the board is essentially what you get.

Cheeky Preview: Pizza Pilgrims, Soho

We all know street food is kind of a big deal at the moment, and rightly so. Everybody discerning Soho worker loves a big blow out on a slap up meal, but this is normally restricted to dinner times (unless you are a media guru with a wanton disregard of your companies expense budget and/or afternoons). Being able to pick up something cheap and delicious that you can enjoy on the go/at your desk is never that easy a task and is often disappointing, but can you imagine a world where you can get a delicious pizza quickly and cheaply as a takeaway lunch? Me neither.

That is until I met the Pizza Pilgrims. Two brothers who spent a few months travelling around Italy eating and learning about pizza, only to return to London to set up their own company. Jacking in their careers in media, and joining up with a 3rd "pilgrim", they created their travelling pizza oven on the back of an old three wheeled Piaggio van and are planning to bring hand held pizzas to a street side near you.

I was invited along to a pre-pre-launch tasting to see if they could make their pizzas better, and oh boy, those boys have got it nailed. First up was an ingredients test, trying out some Laverstoke Park buffalo mozzarella versus their cheese of choice, an imported Italian fior de latte, both unique in their own ways, but equally delicious raw. Best of all was a taster of their scamorza (or smoked mozzarella) which had a subtle oaky flavour. Finally, a shot of san marzano puree and a taste of their cooked dough. So eager was I to taste the final product, that I reconstructed their deconstructed pizza. And good it was too.

So there it is in all it's beauty, the finished pizza. Looks good doesn't it? Upon the first bite, the quality of the ingredients were clear. Even as the slow dribble of molten cheese slowly made it's way down my chin, burning everything in its path, I couldn't help but stick it out and savour the sweet mingle of dough, tomato and cheese. As I finished up that slice, more just kept on coming, just different variations on cheese and even one flecked with nduja that was top notch.

Whilst we digested the frankly obscene amounts of pizza we had just consumed, we had bowl of buffalo milk ice cream drizzled with flecks of salt and olive oil, another taste sensation (seriously, you should all try it). I love what these guys are doing, and the fact that they were already producing a top notch product out of the back of what is essentially a robin reliant, which can rival any high street pizza restaurant is just madness. Or genius. Keep an eye for updates via either their twitter account or their website, but expect an announcement over the next few weeks to find out where you too can get your chops around their pizzas.

Pizza Pilgrims - TBC (but Soho)