Salon Brixton

Above the cheese and charcuterie shop, Cannon and Cannon, in Brixton Market is a little space filled with a tiny restaurant. It only opens Thursday through Saturday but creates a weekly changing set menu, filled with seasonal produce, delivering a true taste of the season. 

Best to reserve before you go, there is only space for around 16-20 covers and it was full the entire time we were there. The space also only has outdoor-type heaters, so if like me you feel the cold, wrap up before you go. I kept my coat on the whole time and the staff brought over blankets too. Or if you fancy heading, save it for a Summer trip.

Unless you email them before you go, or cleverly can pick out clues from their twitter (I guessed we'd be having pickled beetroot and partridge) the menu will be a surprise until it is placed in front of you.

Advertised on Salon's website is a 4-course menu for £29, which changes weekly. However, when we went, we found that we were having a 5-course menu for £35. Fine, unless you are unable to pay more.

To drink I went for the unusual rosehip sour, made with their homemade rosehip syrup. Off to a great start.

We started with a partridge liver paté, which was divine. Really tasty served with thin slivers of toast, along with complementary salted butter and the most incredible sourdough. I hate it when bread tastes that good.

Then came cured trout, apple, buttermilk and rye.

Really unusual, extremely pretty and a lovely combination of textures.

Next up, festival squash, radicchio, walnuts and lardo.

Again, lovely. The squash was full of flavour and the textures made every mouthful interesting to eat and taste.

Then, after about 40 mins of waiting and with no apology when it finally came, our main meal: partridge, carrot, beetroot, smoked pig's cheek. Minus the pig cheek. No mention from the staff either about the missing pig cheek, however we think they compensated by adding more partridge, which was upsetting! I love a bit of pig's cheek.

Came with claws and all.

This was a little disappointing. I was excited for my first taste of partridge, however the bird I was served was a little…a lot…under done. I'm all for rare. I love my meat rare. But there is a difference between rare and raw flesh. I had to send mine back. And it pretty much put me off the rest of my meal. Every time I saw a bit of pink, I was double checking that it was cooked. 

Saying that, my sister didn't have this problem! Hers was on the right side of raw.

The dessert was, thankfully, bliss. A really good ending to the meal. Had this been bad, the memory of the bad would have overrided the good.

An usual dessert, something I've never had before. Chestnut panna cotta with mulled hawthorns. Very festive! It was my favourite dish out of the whole meal, the hawthorns were delicious and tasted like winter alcoholic drinks, the chestnuts on the side gave a much-needed crunch and the panna cotta, although not technically perfect, tasted divine. An absolutely wonderful Winter dessert.

So, a mixed bag from Salon. Lovely atmosphere and rustic feel of the place, a hipster's paradise. However there was 12.5% service on the bill, which we paid, although didn't think it was fully deserved considering the wait with no explanations or apologies. The meal wasn't exactly cheap and we felt it was a little cheeky from them. 

I would consider trying Salon again in a different season to get a new experience from the produce, and hopefully so I can also leave feeling completely satisfied. I would also go again to try their snacks as a tapas meal, which looked and sound delicious!!

Remember, if you decide to go in Winter, wrap up!!

Barrafina, Soho

I love tapas. I love the concept of sharing when dining, mostly because I'm a greedy so and so who wants to try everything on a menu and that is why tapas is perfect for me.

Emma and I headed to Barrafina, a little place on Frith Street I love so much. We arrived at around 6.45 and had to queue for about an hour.

If you're arriving after around 6.00 on any day of the week you are most likely going to have to queue. There is only space for around 30 diners, all sat around a bar-like seating area where you can watch chefs prepare the food. A mouth-watering marketing technique, that's for sure. I find myself constantly asking them "What's that? Which one is that for?"and it usually concludes with me saying "I'll have 3, please."

However if you are starving, like we were, you can have a glass of sherry and some little nibbles to tide you over while you wait.

We got ourselves started on some sherry, ham croquettas and some chorizo wrapped potato crisps.

For a "nibble", the perfect croquettas were definitely a taste of what was to come. They were packed full with oozing cheese and ham.

Once we were seated it took us all of 3 minutes to decide what we wanted. I love the charm of their hand-written specials blackboard that is passed around to all the guests.

As is with tapas, dishes come when they are ready. We started with a courgette flower filled with goat's cheese.

We then had gorgeously tender gambas al aijillo.

Then the scallop came, maybe the best scallop I've ever had, it was cooked perfectly and completely melted in my mouth.

Then from the specials board, we had the epic-looking sobrasada on toast, which consisted of goat's cheese spead on toast, along with a spreadable chorizo, topped with a duck egg. 

Ohhhh it was my favourite dish of the night. Damn delicious.

Then came the morcilla iberica (spanish black pudding) topped with quail's egg.

I really loved the heavy flavours in this, however E wasn't too keen.

Nearly done…..

Then finally came our grilled quail with al-i-oli.

Juicy tender quail, with a lovely garlic dip. However this is now the 3rd time I've had quail and I think that is a sufficient amount of times to decide that quail just isn't for me. It's not to do with the taste, I find it perfectly appealing. But it is such a small bird that it is basically bone. It is so fiddly to eat, and I am a lazy eater. I will get stuck in and dirty, but it's so difficult to get teeth around all those bones, unlike say a rib joint. I won't eat a fish with too many bones, getting bored of the boning process, so the same obviously applies to meat. Sorry quail! 

I did notice that from my angle the quail looked rather pornographic…

All limbs.

After all that, feeling thoroughly satisfied and stuffed, we obviously then went for two desserts. We chose a crema catalana, a spanish creme brûlée and a chocolate tart.

This was beautiful. A glazed, crunchy top layer which lent a gorgeous caramel flavour throughout and a lovely orangey, spiced centre. The Spanish definitely do it better than the French.

And the purely decadent and rich chocolate tart. A perfect end to a perfect evening.

Tonkotsu, London

Ramen has been on my to-do list for a while - Bone Daddies and Tonkotsu, I'm not fussy - so when my sister and I had a date night a few weeks ago and she suggested ramen I jumped on it!

I've never had ramen and didn't know what to expect. I assumed it would be some kind of soup broth, which in essence it was, however it was so much better than what I was expecting.

We went to Tonkotsu - purely because we found it first. Yes, yes I am fabulous at directions. Even with Google Maps.

As always, to try a bit of everything, we ordered two we fancied and swapped half way through.

First the Tonkotsu. A sea-salt based pork stock with home-made noodles, pork belly, half a boiled egg, menma, bean sprouts and spring onions.

WOW it was porky with a thich, rich and delicious broth. This was not light at all, I would have found it tough to finish a whole one on my own. But incredible flavours nonetheless and something so interesting to taste. The noodles are something special too. Really light and tender, they soak up the flavour of the broth and it was just a joy to eat. This was serious, hearty, comfort food.

Then the Soho Ramen. A salt-based pork and chicken stock with those gorgeous noodles, topped with smoked haddock, pak choi, half an egg, menma and spring onion.

The broth here is much lighter, making for a lighter meal. A lovely smoked, salty taste encompassed this dish. I loved the freshness and again it was packed with flavour. I'm shocked at just how much flavour is in ramen. A very pleasant surprise.

Now to try Bone Daddies and compare….

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!

Burgers Burgers Burgers: ShakeShack, Burger Bear and Disco Bistro

I went recently to one of Somerset House's open air cinema events - brilliant by the way, definitely go - and for dinner I really wanted to take my friend to Patty & Bun as she has yet to try one of the best burgers in London, however this was on a Monday and I completely forgot that they are closed then. My heart absolutely sank - I had been looking forward to that for a while!

So knowing Covent Garden was nearby, we decided to see what all the hype was about and headed to brand new American import ShakeShack. They pride themselves on using 100% all-natural Angus beef, vegetarian fed and humanely raised. I have seen pictures of rows and rows of these burgers all looking perfect and exactly the same. The same Muppet-like features: the lettuce sticking out, cheese melting over the edge and tomatoes lolling like tongues over the bun. They're all bright colours and happy.

From the start I was dubious, however I had read many a review of people saying that this one was great - it was Five Guys here that wasn't so good - so I thought why not, let's forego the brilliance that is MeatMarket around the corner and let's do it - how bad could it be?!

I had no idea.










Here it is: The Muppet. (A plain ShakeShack burger)

My reaction was not good. Take the so-called "perfect-looking" burger out of it's bag and you find the horror of the saggy and deflated bun, looking a little worse for wear. It doesn't look so happy anymore.

Only when I took the burger out of the bag did I realise the lettuce was sticking half way out the burger, to give it it's muppet-esque facade. How was I supposed to eat that?!

One bite in and I knew I hated it. The meat wasn't a good patty. It was flimsy and tasteless - it did not feel like I was eating "100% beef". The "special ShakeShack sauce" was overly sweet. The cheese was not good and there no was no texture in the burger, perhaps this would have been better had I got one with bacon. It was all one soft icky mess in my mouth and I could only stomach eating half of it. It was all very reminiscent of McDonalds - and I detest McDonalds.

The chips were slightly better. I did not like that they were crinkle cut - another mass production sign I do not like to see, but they did taste good. The ones that weren't covered in the same horrible cheese that they use in the burger, however.

We also got a white and black milkshake - chocolate mixed with vanilla. No sign of vanilla in there, only that fake chocolate flavour. So that was left too.

The only redeeming thing at ShakeShake are their concretes. Different kinds of frozen custard which basically taste like ice cream. We had the Union Shack - chocolate custard with St John's Bakery chocolate hazelnut brownie, fudge sauce, Paul A Young, chocolate chunks and sea salt.
If you don't recognise the names in there, St John is an incredible bakery and restaurant - go try a doughnut - and Paul A Young makes some incredibly yummy chocolate. He was one of the first places I tried salted caramel and salted chocolate - an epiphany back then.

This was really really good. Great textures and flavours and you can never go wrong with chocolate in my book.

However after the whole ordeal I was left feeling really disgusting and that horrible fake sweet taste of a cheap burger lingered in my mouth for hours after. Lesson learned: go British and go MeatMarket.

Maybe quality has been falling since the spectacular opening. Maybe it's just not my thing, but neither of us were incredibly impressed. J however managed to finish her burger and the rest of mine.

So I knew I needed another burger STAT to get rid of that horrible memory. Burger Bear is currently in residence at the Old Nun's Head pub in Nunhead, SE London until the 25th August. You can also find him near Old Street during the week, but you have to check his twitter for details because I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway I have heard many a good thing about Burger Bear. So I thought perfect opportunity to have a great burger and see my sis at the same time.

We both ordered a Grizzly Burger - double oak smoked bacon with bacon jam on a cheeseburger along with some angry fries.

Just look at that. That is a proper burger. It is huge, with a hell of a lot of toppings and oozing with juice and cheese.

The moment it entered my mouth I knew this was good. Oh so good. The patty was fat and juicy - but not ridiculously messy. The bacon added the perfect crisp smokiness and my word the bacon jam. Bacon jam. What an absolute epiphany that was, it tasted incredible. The bun wasn't fantastic, however held together nicely with all the juiciness coming from the burger. Safe to say it is now in my top 3 burgers in London.

The angry fries were great - but I was not expecting them to be that spicy! It actually hurt a little bit, there were a few tears, but if you love super spicy you will love them guaranteed.

Next up was Disco Bistro. It's been open at the popup rollerskating rink since July and closed this weekend so I knew I had to get there before time was up!

The burger sounded pretty epic. Cheese, secret "bun sauce", pineapple, onions and -ohmygoodness it's back - bacon jam!!!

This was deliciously oozy, however maybe a little too much. It was dripping everywhere, on my clothes, on body parts and grease was pooling in the bottom of the basket. I guess you definitely can't say it wasn't moist!! As such, the bun didn't hold together great, but it's not something I'm too fussed about.

The burger was really good. The thick-cut onion were delicious and the pineapple - which I wasn't sure on before trying - added a new dimension, a sweet extra flavour. The pineapple was in fact the best bit in there for me! Unfortunately this, plus their bun sauce, didn't allow the bacon jam to shine. Knowing what it tastes like, I couldn't detect it amongst all the other flavours, but it wasn't missed since the burger tasted pretty great already. It was dirty, messy and fabulous.

I'm not sure as yet when the next Disco Bistro burger will be available, but the same chef has collaborated at Rotary Bar Diner (just off Old St roundabout) on their menu, so for a burger of similar style and quality, head there.

Peckham Bazaar

Trudge deep into the heart of Peckham, towards the middle of nowhere, and you will be rewarded, for there is a little restaurant called The Peckham Bazaar which will satisfy all your Greek and grilled needs.

Opening with little fanfare in the middle of sunshine in Summer, Peckham Bazaar has only one chef and a little kitchen outside (soon to be moving inside to be able to stay open for the Winter months), word of mouth has spread and now you are unlikely to be able to eat here without a reservation. 

Food is heavily influenced by Greek and Middle Eastern cooking and with a weekly changing menu, produce is always fresh, innovative and delicious. 

The weather was warm enough for us to sit outside in one of the last hazy Summer evening we had. The atmosphere outside is wonderful, it is sat in the middle of a quiet housing estate and we hardly saw anybody about whilst we were there. Try to visit when you can still sit outside for it all adds to the magic of the evening.

We started with, what Peckham Bazaar are calling, a #wrongungina. Turkish spirit raki mixed with orangina. You wouldn't think it would work but it really does!

Having had a look at the menu earlier, we knew we wanted to order one of everything and with the prices of the food this wasn't going to be a problem!!

We started with grilled pork souvlaki with pickled carrots, nigella seeds and tzatziki and unfortunately I have no picture because we ate it too fast. A mark I think of just how good it was. The pork came on skewers all tender and with a slight smokiness from the grill.

Next was a marinated grilled prawn saganaki, which is apparently a traditional Greek way of preparing a dish in a small frying pan. As all food is prepared on the grill it all comes with a gorgeous but not overpowering smokey flavour. The prawns were juicy and for ease their shells had been taken off. Didn't have to get too messy.

This next one may have been my favourite of them all. At the time I couldn't pick between all of them, they were all too good but I still remember (and I went about two weeks ago now) the flavours that came from the spices in the meatball and how tender it was that it completely fell apart on my fork and melted in my mouth.
It was a huge single veal and pork meatball with a courgette and almond puree and Turkish tarator. The puree was delicious and so different and accompanied the meatball perfectly. 

 Ok wait maybe this one was my fave. Grilled octopus with Greek fava, braised silver skins and capers.  The octopus was crispy from the grill and the puree of fava - yellow split peas - complemented this wonderfully for a beautiful texture.

There was only one dessert to choose from and at the time I thought that it sounded a little boring - cherry baklava with walnut ice cream. Having a parent from a Middle Eastern background I have had plenty of baklava in my life and thought I had been there, done that and knew what to expect.

I was so wrong!

I haven't baklava with huge pieces of real fruit in before - let alone sweet and succulent cherry. The juice of the cherry mixed with the syrup from the baklava toned down the overall sweetness of the pastry and made for a gorgeous, gooey, every so slightly (in a good way) sticky texture. The walnut ice cream was pure brilliance, and when it all started to melt together and there were syrup and cherry flavours all over the bowl I was in pure heaven.

Again, no picture. It was that good.

Reliving them all over again, I can't decide which one was the best. Even the dessert stood up to the mighty meatball!

The service was a little slow - but with there only being one chef on a small grill and a very busy restaurant I will happily let them off.  A warning, it is also cash only!

You can't at the moment get much better value for money anywhere else. The chef clearly loves the food he is cooking and the place has true values and it shows. I hope their success only continues to grow.