Fernandez and Leluu supper club

Updated on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 12:30PM by Vix

The boyfriend doesn’t take well to surprises. He had been in a strange mood all day. I had put it down to a silly squabble we had had in the morning, but it turns out that he was anxious. I should have taken the hints; he had been desperately trying to gather more information on where I was taking him that evening.

I wasn’t letting on much, but he had managed to ascertain the following: 

• It was not The Streets concert in Brixton (disappointing)
• We were heading East
• There would be food involved
• He could wear trainers (he didn’t)
• He needn’t wear a shirt (he did)

But it wasn’t enough. When I stopped the cab a mile too far down the road without explanation it all became too much.

Click to read more ...

David disappoints

“Why haven’t you written a blog about the Thai restaurant I took you to yet?” the boyfriend asked me as we were driving home from a more satisfying dining experience last Sunday.

“Umm... because the photos didn’t come out very well.”

“But you took loads (not true, he just gets very embarrassed about it). You must have got a few good ones.”

“It was really dark in there and the flash makes the food look unappetising and colourless.”

“So a fairly accurate representation then.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just didn’t think it was that great, that’s all. I liked the trout salad and the relish thing you wrote about, but overall it was nothing special and, to be honest, I felt a bit ripped off at the end of it.”

And so it came about that I was able to admit the real reason why I had not written about our experience.

The restaurant in question was Nahm, David Thompson’s Michelin starred restaurant in Mayfair. I have long been a fan of Thompson’s book, Thai Food, and more recently, Thai Street Food, but had never been to one of his restaurants. I told myself afterwards that perhaps my expectations had been too high, but now I am not so sure.

Click to read more ...

Dotori: Japanese & Korean cuisine in Finsbury Park (the dodgy end)

It is thanks to my friend Alex (aka Blumenthal's biatch), a former chef, that I was introduced to this little gem of a restaurant. The fact that he is a former chef is important, because it means I value his opinion on food. So when he told me that this tiny shop front:

 

... which is on one of the most unpleasant stretches of road in Finsbury Park:

(second only to Fonthill Rd, where the reflection of neon shop lights on patent leather is so bright you have to put your sunglasses on to go inside) was one of his favourite restaurants, rather than just nodding politely and never thinking of it again, I found myself intrigued and requesting further information.

Click to read more ...

Sunday lunch at The Drapers Arms

A rather unappealing and geeky habit of mine is buying the latest good food guides, reading them cover to cover and marking venues according to how much I want to try them out. It all started out quite casually with my marking a venue of interest with a small asterisk, but I soon had so many asterisks that they became meaningless and I had to invest in a more rigorous marking system:

• A star with a circle around – absolutely must go, life depends on it
• A star – may self harm if miss out
• An asterisks – yes but no but
• A dot – not going to lose any sleep over it
• Nothing – does this really have any place in the guide?

I now apply this to all my guides, although to save some face I should say that I have only got as far as reading and marking the North and Central London parts of the Which? Good Food Guide 2010 (it covers the whole of the UK, I am not that sad!) and the corresponding chapters in the Michelin London Restaurants and Hotels 2010.

This is the first year that I have bought the Michelin, always having assumed them to err on the side of pretentious and pricey, so I was pleasantly surprised to see so many entries for gastropubs. One such pub is The Drapers Arms, a recommendation corroborated by the Good Food Guide and further substantiated by a star with a circle round in both books (consistent starring and circling on different occasions with no memory of having done so equals extra credibility).

So it was that when my Mum and I found ourselves at the end of a very long line for a table at Ottolenghi, we said a collective “blow this” and headed to The Drapers.

Click to read more ...

Firezza pizza al metro

Following  an unfortunate accident on Saturday, I was incapacitated in the cooking department last night, so the boyfriend offered to order a pizza delivery. We are fortunate enough to have a Firezza pizza about 5-10minutes walk from our house, which is about as good as it gets in the delivery department; the pizza, not the distance. The fact that it is only a short walk to collect the pizza might also be seen as fortuitous, but we are lazy and pay extra for the privilege of being so. In fairness though, the delivery does arrive piping hot having spent barely 2 minutes in transit.

Firezza deal in pizza al metro, or pizza by the metre, a name which is almost literal but for the fact that each pizza is actually only half a metre (which for logistical reasons is quite understandable) and different toppings are ordered by the quarter metre.

Click to read more ...