The Providores, Marylebone

Ahhh brunch. My favourite meal of the day.

We went to a little place recently called The Providores, a tapas bar in Marylebone that also does a pretty incredible brunch. We did have to queue for about 20 minutes (at 1pm on a Saturday, not too unreasonable I didn't think) but it was so worth the wait. 

I jumped on a freshly made smoothie. They have the usual fare - bananas and mixed berry - but they have caught up with the super healthy crew here, serving a spirulina smoothie, and a baobab smoothie. Although ridiculously expensive at £6, I went for the baobab, soy and blueberry smoothie. I've tried baobab once before at the Eden Project of all places. It's a tree native to Africa and the fruit has some incredible properties. Loads of vitamin C, iron and alkalising minerals. The only problem is that the soy milk probably undid any good that the blueberries and baobab did, since soy is not that great for you. Oh well it all tasted good!

We then ordered two dishes we both loved the sound of and shared, because that's the way greedy people like me get to try as many things as possible.

First up, grilled chorizo with sweet potato and miso hash, a soft boiled egg, garlic labne and star anise and cashew nut praline. Sounds like a dish and a half right?! It was.

Absolutely beautiful. Never had anything quite like it, let alone for brunch. Simply a creative, delicious and rather light brunch.

If you're looking for something a bit (a lot) more hearty, then this next bad boy is for you.

Bruschetta with haggis, smoked tomato relish, rocket, two poached eggs and chorizo hollandaise. No need to eat anything else for the rest of the day!!

This was my first ever taste of haggis and it was pretty damn excellent. I couldn't really taste the chorizo in the hollandaise with so many other powerful flavour, but it wasn't missed as everything else was so delicious and worked so well together. The tomato relish was the perfect addition that took this dish up to another level!

Both incredible, but I think I have to go for the haggis dish as my favourite, for a very boring reason - I love hollandaise way too much.

Coal Vaults

This night happened a little while ago so it's a little hazy...not least from the very strong drinks!

I'd been hearing a lot about a new underground bar in Soho called Coal Vaults that happens to also do fantastic food as well as great drinks.

After walking all the way up Wardour Street, wondering if we'd missed it, we saw a little entrance welcoming us with a skeleton on a throne. Cue posing. 

Then it was time to get looking at the menu. Seated in a little candle lit cave we needed all the table space we could get for this was going to be a feast!

Starting with drinks, I had the Mercuary, a little gin number infused with sage, homemade greengage sorbet, lemon and prosecco. E took a Coxone, golden rum with Carpano Antica and spiced green apple. Very Autumnal don't you think?! All drinks are £9 or under, so it won't break the bank if you order a couple.

Yes, there are three drinks here. The lovely waiter brought us over another drink, which had been incorrectly made from a previous order. 

Then on to food. Very difficult to decide!

We chose the charred quail with pan fried chicken livers and quail. All delightful, especially the chicken livers with the warming lentils, however I always forget that quail is such a tricky bugger to eat. Luckily there were no boys around to impress! We got down and dirty.

Then, my favourite, the sherry braised beef cheek with onion, jam, sage and bread. Deliciously moist, hearty, juicy and tender, it was packed full of flavour, the sherry really coming through.

Next was the pulled rabbit with smoked black beans, sweetcorn and pineapple relish, avocado sour cream and flatbread. A gorgeous, fruity dish. The pineapple only served to complement, not compete, which I was afraid of!

Two desserts had to be ordered because they all sounded too good. The first had to be a salted flourless chocolate cake with a mint creme fraiche and toasted almond brittle. The cake was delicious, but for me the mint in the creme fraiche was a little too sharp and overpowering. The almond brittle was sweet and delicious, but there wasn't enough of it!

I am a crazy chocolate lover, so it is very rare and obviously a fine dessert that beats out the cake....but this little beauty of a crumble here, a blackberry, greengage and cobnut crumble with the most incredible calvados custard blew the cake out of the water. Mouth watering delicious, steaming hot and incredibly fruity, but not too sweet. Usually I don't like hot custard (I'm a weirdo I know, nothing like cold vanilla custard in my opinion) but I smothered this baby with that calvados gold. It was heaven.

We were absolutely stuffed after this, we couldn't even finish the cake and I am not one to waste. The food is inexpensive and the sharing dishes of a good size, more sizable than, say, a tapas bar. We could have done with one less dish and still be extremely full.

I have already told all my friends it's a fantastic little haunt that we all need to go to. Best to book though, for even on a Monday night it was busy. As with all places in London, the secret underground haunt doesn't stay secret for long!