Tom's Kitchen in Canary Wharf - 10th of August 2013

I quite like Mr Aiken's food and i was looking forward to try his "brasserie style" restaurant called Tom's Kitchen. http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/canary-wharf
Sadly, we came away slightly disappointed and £250 lighter (dinner for 4). Yes, it is a brasserie - not fine dining but the portions were very inconsistent, food arrived too quickly and was not hot etc. Strange since there were only a handful of people in the restaurant.

I started with the "Piquillo Pepper Tartine - sourdough, goat's cheese and onion relish" which was a piece of sourdough with lots (and i mean lots) of caramellised red onion relish. I do love onions don't get me wrong but i had to really look for the peppers and the goat's cheese which were hidden amongst the leaves on top. It tasted perfectly fine but in the end of the day it was mostly bread and onions.

I then had one of the specials. "Pollock with ravioli filled with prawns, courgette puree and a lemon and butter sauce" The fish was unfortunately overcooked and the ravioli were a bit flavour less and the butter sauce was coagulated.

I did not have dessert by my friend had a lovely creme brulee with passionfruit. I tried it and it was tart and creamy at the same time - and a rather large portion. Our husbands both had Eton mess which came in rather small glasses.

I really wanted to like this restaurant but sadly i won't be rushing back in a hurry. The menu had a good mix of comfort food (burgers/shepherd's pie) and some more modern dishes so it would appeal to most. For me it was too expensive for the execution of the dishes.

Ispahan Macaron's - 4th of August 2013

My favorite macaron flavours are salted caramel and pistachio but it is fun to try new combinations now and again. One of the most talked about macarons are the Ispahan by Pierre Herme.. a delicate combination of Lychee, rose & raspberry. I decided to give it a try, following an adaptation of Pierre Herme's recipe.

I have included the adapted recipe below. I always use the same recipe for the macaron shells, from Adriano Zumba which work well for me. The recipe is already on my blog so below you will see the filling recipe only.

Ispahan Macaron

makes filling for about 30 macarons

For the raspberry jelly:
200gr raspberries
20gr caster sugar
1,5 leaf of gelatine


For the lychee and rose ganache:
200g white chocolate
200g lychees (preserved in syrup)
30g double cream
2g rose essence

To finish:
Silver dust

Start by preparing the raspberry jelly. Soak the gelatine leaves for 15 minutes in cold water to soften.

Using a hand blender, blend the raspberries and sugar to a purée. Strain the purée to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the purée to 45°C. Drain and dry the gelatine and add to the hot purée. Stir and add the rest of the raspberry purée.

Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingfilm up to a depth of 4mm. Allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature then put the dish in the freezer for 2 hours. Turn out the jelly and cut it into 1.5cm squares. Return the jelly squares to the freezer.

For the lychee and rose ganache. Drain the lychees well (squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can). Blend then strain them to obtain a fine purée. You will need 100g purée. Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
Pour the ganache into a gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of the ganache. Set aside in the fridge for the ganache to thicken.

Spoon the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe a mound of ganache on to half the shells. Lightly press a square of frozen jelly into the center and finish with a dot of ganache. Top with the remaining shells. Use a brush to lightly swipe the top shell with some silver dust. Cover and chill for 24 hours.

 

Surprise lunch at L'atelier de Joel Robuchon - 20th of July 2013

It was my birthday earlier in the month and 2 of my lovely girlfriends "booked" me out for a belated birthday last Saturday. It started with a lovely 1 h 20 min thai massage in Covent Garden followed by lunch at L'atelier de Joel Robuchon. I do love this restaurant. Great interior in black and red, lovely waiters (all with a french accent) and if you sit by the bar you can watch your lunch being made in front of you!
We had a 2 course meal with wine pairing for £38 per head - not bad for a 2 michelin star restaurant.

First off was a little amuse bouche of foie gras mousse with a port wine reduction and a parmesan foam.. beautiful and indulgent!

My starter was smoked salmon on a potato rosti, confit fennel and creme fraiche. Beautifully presented with caviar and edible flowers.

My main was a Pollock fillet with garden pea broth and baby carrots. The fish was perfectly cooked and the whole dish was lovely and delicate.Note the beautiful and translucent crispy skin shard!

We did not have dessert - instead we had coffee and got some lovely warm mini raspberry friands and homemade lime marshmallows.. they were gone before i remembered to take a photo.
I would happily go back to this restaurant again and again.

And what happend next? Well, we went to the El Bulli exhibition at Somerset house. Very inspiring! Note that the exhibition is on until the 29th of September so catch it whilst you can (£10 entrance fee) http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/elbulli-ferran-adria-and-the-art-of-food

Dinner - Heston Blumenthal - Round 2 - 24th of June 2013

2nd dinner at Dinner in a week! This time a leaving dinner for my boss who is moving to the other side of the pond.
We had the private dining room booked which was really nice and spacious (it was 9 of us).
We had a set menu with a choice of 3 starters etc for the table.

I went for the famous "Meat fruit" this time and it was a velvety smooth pate encased in a orange jelly and served with toasted sourdough bread. It looked amazing and was very tasty indeed.

My main course was a little bit disappointing. I went for the Turbot with Leaf chicory, sea purslane & cockle ketchup. It was all a bit soft in texture for me and i did not like the bitterness from the leaf chicory.

Had to have the Tipsy cake for dessert and yes, it was lovely and gooey.. buttery brioche baked in the oven with some alcohol (hence the "tipsy" part) the roasted pineapple however i didn't really care for that much. I guess it is a bit hyped up since you can see the pineapples being spit roasted in the kitchen.

All in all we had a lovely meal with lovely wines.

Dinner - Heston Blumenthal 18th of June 2013

I have now been married for 2 years - time flies! My lovely husband surprised me with a dinner reservation at Dinner - Heston Blumenthal at Mandarin Oriental in London! Yay!
We arrived bang on time for our booking at 7:45pm so did not have time for a drink in the bar - which by the way looked so cosy and nice.

We were seated close to the windows looking out over Hyde park. The restaurant was pretty busy with a mix of people: families, business men, hotel guests, foodies and the odd celeb (well, my husband spotted a german footballer..)

Service was very friendly and not overly formal (which can be the case in some restaurants) but then again, the dresscode for Dinner is "Comfortable" so it is a bit more laid back then some other establishments.

So, we started with a glass of rose champagne - mind boggling price of £21 per glass.. oh well, you only have a wedding anniversary once a year so why not.

I then had a new dish on the menu which was a "Cold cucumber soup with a lobster salad" it was gorgeous. The lobster salad is on the plate when served and the cold cucumber soup is then poured on the plate at the table. The soup tasted of more cucumber than an actual cucumber - if that makes sense?

For my main i had the "Powdered Duck Breast" with smoked confit fennel and umbles.. the most tender duck i have had i think.. so you might wonder what umbles are? Well, not for the faint hearted.. it is kidneys and heart etc of the animal so in this case - the duck's.
I am not a huge fan of offal but since this was Heston's food i did eat them and you know what - tasted fine :-)

Dessert - well, i was drawn to the "Quaking Pudding" which was described like this "pear, perry, caramel & lime" and it was very nice. A bit like a very light pannacotta with lots of cinnamon and the most amazing poached pears i have ever eaten in a broth (very light) that tasted of caramel and pear.

My husbands dessert was too pretty (and very tasty too) - it was a "Strawberry tarte" with a strawberry sorbet. Just take a look at this!

We really enjoyed our dinner @ Dinner.. and guess what? i am going back again on Monday with work.. so more dishes to be reviewed very soon!

Little Social - 6th of June 2013

Looks like i can't stay away from Jason Atherton's restaurants :-) This time i had a dinner date with my friend Iolanda at "Little Social" which is the little sister to "Pollen Street Social" which is across the road.
Little Social is a cosy, intimate and quite dark restaurant and i really liked the ambiance. It is not cheap but the food was very good and i would go back again.
My one complaint was that the music was pretty loud and later in the evening when the restaurant filled up it got pretty noisy with people talking and the music..so not that great if you are there to have a good old catch up!

So, what about the food? Well, like i said, pretty good! I started with "Crab, tomato and radish salad, miso tomato dressing, marinated beetroot"

The dish was very pretty to look at and tasted light and fresh.

My main was "Lamb shank with spring vegetables". You can't really make a lamb shank look pretty and delicate but here it was off the bone and on top of a medley of vegetables and a lamb jus poured over. The meat was rich, sticky and full of flavour.

I was very naughty with my dessert and went for an ultra decadent and rich chocolate pud! "Hot chocolate moelleux, sea salt and almond ice-cream"
Warm and gooey chocolate with the cold ice cream... very naughty but nice. Iolanda had a really good dessert too. "Brown sugar tart, crème fraiche sorbet, black sesame crumble" I really liked the sesame crumble - so clever!

 

Lovely food in cosy surroundings - just a shame about the noise level.. but that is me being picky! :-)

 

Pollen Street Social - 1st of June 2013

I have been to Pollen Street Social before with my hubby for dinner - this time it was for lunch with my girlfriends.

They have a really well priced set lunch menu - 2 courses for £26 or 3 courses for £29.50 with a choice of 3 options for each course. You also get some included extras: little nibbles to start (green olives, cod brandade, pork scratchings and apple sauce), bread, pre dessert and petit fours.

Pollen Street Social Lunch menu

We were seated close to the bar area which was quite busy and good for some good old fashioned people watching!

I started off with the "Grilled mackerel, "Waldorf salad", peanut powder, English radish"

It was nice but i felt that the description was slightly mis leading since the mackerel was more soused than grilled - i also did not taste the peanut powder.
Saying that - it was a light and tasty starter.

Starter

My main was the "Roasted Atlantic Cod, Catalan paella, Asparagus, Pepper and chorizo puree"

The paella was the star of the show here.. it was served in a side dish so you added it to your plate yourself. It was amazing, rich in flavour and with lots of prawns and perfectly spiced - i could have eaten more! The Cod was perfectly cooked and i really enjoyed the dish.

 

 

Desserts were the star(s) of the show though.. 2 of us went for the Tiramisu and 2 of us for the Eton Mess. I loved the Tiramisu which was almost like a vanilla pannacotta, with chocolate ice cream, chewy cookie crumbs, chocolate chards and a side of thick hot chocolate served in an espresso cup with a hint of coffee. Lovely. The Eton Mess looked absolutely spectacular and it was apparently very good too!

We then had some mint tea and got some petit fours and macarons. The petit fours were interesting -Milk chocolates with a balsamic caramel, yoghurt coated freeze dried raspberries, dark chocolate with a raspberry mousse inside. The macarons nobody really liked - they were too sugary and the filling was just pure buttercream with not much flavour.. they were supposedly, chocolate, green tea and .. hmm.. can't remember!!!

We did however also get some "hot from the oven" Raspberry Financiers.. they were amazing.. and eaten before a photo could be taken!

It was 4 of us for lunch - 3 courses each and with one bottle of wine between us (how sensible!), 2 bottles of water, 3 mint teas, service charge etc it came to £50 per person which i think is pretty good value.