Oh My Dog!

Where My Dogs At?

Nunhead - 19 November 2014

They say every dog has its day. At The Old Nun’s Head, that day is a Wednesday when Oh My Dog! takes over the kitchen.

It’s my favourite pub in London with a relaxed atmosphere and a strong selection of ales and craft beers. Moreover, their revolving door of kitchen residencies allows a variety of fine street food vendors (including the incredible Burger Bear) to hone their skills and develop an eager south-London following. OMD have been in there for a couple of months so we were probably overdue a visit.

I have to admit up front, I’m not really a dog person. Despite the hot dog’s growth in popularity over recent years, a hot dog will never be top dog in my eyes… My first love will always be burgers…That said, we thought these were tasty. The imported German franks have a porky taste, with the skin giving way with a satisfying ‘snap’ when bitten into (hours of Man vs Food having taught me this is the key to a good frank). Their demi brioche buns are dense, but they hold up well under the toppings.  And those toppings are excellent. 

On the Chilli-Steak Dog, the beef chilli is soft, juicy, with the spices balanced well so the flavour of meat isn’t lost; and the jalapenos and onions add twang. The Deputy Dog’s pulled pork is soft and smoky, touch dry, but the barbeque sauce is banging with a real kick to it.

The dogs are winners and have set my benchmark to judge other hotdogs. What actually got me more excited was their sides... First we had a portion of Meaty BBQ Beans packed with pulled pork (no worries about dryness here), at a strong 60:40 ratio. Now that is how you make beans – stick a ton of meaty goodness in there.

And then we had the Deep Fried Mac n Cheese; wow! Three monolithic blocks of fried mac n cheese with a BBQ dip. The mac is perfectly cooked; not a hint of stodginess or heaviness. The cheese holds everything together well, whilst the coating is crunchy, not at all greasy. Again, the BBQ sauce is sweet, smoky and spicy. Loved it.

While I will never love a hot dog anywhere near as much as a burger, these are fine examples of the genre. At £9.50 for the dogs, I think they’re also perhaps a bit on the pricey side, but I guess it boils down to one question; would I go back? Yes. For the Mac n Cheese alone. And while I was there, I’d have some Meaty Beans and then, well, it would seem wrong not to have a dog…

Oh My Dog!

Wednesdays @ The Old Nun's Head

15 Nunhead Green

SE15 3QQ

https://www.facebook.com/OMDhotdogs

theoldnunshead.co.uk

Dip & Flip

It’s all gravy, baby.

Clapham Junction - 30 September 2014

On the hunt for a beefy hit, we washed up in Clapham Junction for a second bite of London’s French-dipping champions Dip & Flip. We’d initially had a taste of the gravy life at Riverside Feast earlier this year and were suitably impressed, so wanted to give them a full appraisal on their own turf.

As testament to their popularity it was crazy busy for a Tuesday evening. We grabbed the last free table, before a period of others queuing out-the-door. The waitress claimed this was an unusual midweek phenomenon, but it was payday. Must be a good sign – even in the otherwise burger-free bleakness of Clapham Junction.

Sadly, the freak nature of the occurrence did mean the staff weren’t ready for it and the service was a bit slow. The worst result being we’d smashed through our incredible Oreo milkshake well before the burgers arrived. A super-thick malty marvel, spiced up with a shot of rum.

When the burgers did arrive, they seemed even bigger than we remembered, a towering beef-hemouth, oozing cheese and gravy with all the sensual swagger of a classic pin up girl. 

It looked dirty. 

The good kind of dirty your mother warned you about. 

Cutting through the thick layer of roast beef was a piece of cake, and the split revealed perfect pink thoughout the patty. And it tasted as good as it looks. 

The soft ground patty and the tender roast beef were both incredibly tasty in and of themselves. 

The gravy adds moisture and just in case you are worried this meat feast is too samey texture-wise, this was dealt with deftly by a liberal dose of mustard and crunchy pickles and slaw. It’s a flipping marvel. And that’s before you even dip it in more of that ridiculous rich meaty gravy, that requires three days of preparation. 

For a side we ordered what used to be called poutine, but is now just chips, cheese, gravy, bacon and chillis. It did exactly what it says on the tin. Boom. Fiery jalapenos. Could stand a couple more sprinklings of bacon, though.

In short, Dip & Flip is on to a winner here. In our view, it’s a London top ten contender. It’s a big beefy beast, and probably the best reason ever to go to Clapham Junction.

Dip & Flip

87 Battersea Rise

London

SW11 1HW

http://www.dipandflip.co.uk/

Sat Bains

Sat-isfaction Guaranteed

Nottingham - 16 September 2014

It was the gf’s birthday. And on such an auspicious occasion, only the finest of dining will suffice. We’d both been impressed by Sat Bains’ chicken muesli dish at Auction Against Hunger earlier this year, so utterly selflessly, I booked us a stay at his self-titled restaurant (with rooms) and we made the trip up to Not-London.

The trip across to the restaurant is not one of Nottingham’s most scenic  (especially if you walk from the station), passing through industrial estates and across a busy dual carriageway. Which makes the quaint farmhouse nature of the restaurant a pleasant surprise. As was the brownie we were presented on arrival – all gooey decadence that boded well for dinner…

It turns out such boding was spot on – what a dinner!

At 10 courses (plus 1, as we added the optional extra course), I can't go into full details on every one or this would soon become the longest blog post ever and I’d run out of superlatives, but 90% of the courses were incredible (100% were made with high levels of skill, however I just don’t like raw mushrooms).

There were two standout dishes, and the first came early on. When you sit down you will be offered the optional extra course – say yes. A Great British Menu winning effort, Sat's take on ham, egg & peas is exceptional modern cooking. A duck egg is poached in a water-bath for two hours, which gives it a creamy, just set, jelly-like wobble with a runny yolk. The ham is of the cured variety; similar to Serrano but locally sourced, and there are textures of peas – garden peas that pop, a refreshing sorbet, and crunchy pea shoots. It was light, fresh and intensely enjoyable.

Our other favourite was the salmon; mouthful-sized chunks, lightly cooked (seemingly sous vide), topped with dill mayo, and sprigs of samphire and dill greenery. The star of this dish however was the broth the salmon sits in. A moreish umami hit, full of flavour. A bowl of the broth alone would have been a satisfying dish, but the soft fatty salmon adds luxury, and the salty samphire accents things beautifully.

Modern techniques dominated the early courses; especially in the mixing of temperatures which keep your senses on their toes, from an unusual horseradish ice cream sandwich amuse bouche to the chicken liver muesli. Inventive and clever.

As was the presentation; for example the first course was scallop 'black'; a fat, perfectly seared scallop with blackened aubergine puree, charred leeks and shallots and squid ink. How much more black could these scallops be? The answer is none, none more black. But there was a lightness of touch in the cooking that allowed the natural scallop sweetness to shine through.

However, it wasn't entirely flawless. We weren't so enthused with aged beef, mushrooms and oyster leaf. As noted, the raw mushrooms didn't do it for me, they were somewhat rubbery and tasteless. And the Sharpe’s Express potato was more of a side dish; a small baked potato with sour cream and cod’s roe. It was a tasty tayto, but nothing to write home about. However, as the gf reasoned at the time, a missed note can make you appreciate the rest of the symphony even more.

There’s more of the classic about the main course, which offered a combination so famous they’ve written songs about it; partridge and pear. The breast and veg – with turnip two ways - were fine (although the meat was so pink that it was slightly underdone for the gf’s taste). But it was the exquisitely rich, iron-y partridge leg ragout and the deeply flavoured jus - the best sauce I’ve had since the Hand & Flowers – which elevated this to a higher ground.

Then we went back to the future for a “crossover” course of miso fudge topped off with passion fruit and tomato. Salt and sweet, tart and umami all at once, it’s a hard thing to explain. Which means it must be witchcraft.

The desserts didn't quite hit the same highs as the savoury selections, and maybe it’s the effects of the wine pairings, but the only memorable one is a pimped-out chocolate aero, flavoured with a mystery ingredient. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so I will leave the smoke and mirrors intact. It was another unusual flavour, which choked the chocolate; you could smell the fumes coming off the plate. But a few drops of cherry jam added some sharpness, and there was an occasional hit of white pepper for bursts of heat, which I did enjoy.

At the end of our meal the wait staff declined our request to take a photo of us together at our table, lest it disturb the other diners (although they were also too polite to say anything when we were snapping away throughout the meal...). We were instead offered the opportunity to have tour of the kitchen, which was a fascinating insight into the way a top establishment is run. The overriding impression was that the kitchen staff really love working there, and there’s a real sense that this is a team effort from Sat down to the pot-washers, who are all named on list in our room.

It was also intriguing to see that they have cameras fixed on every table in the restaurant relayed to screens in the kitchen, in order to time the production of every course – and it showed with the faultless service. It also means they can, and most probably did, see us licking that jus off the plate after the partridge.

And that (bar a banging breakfast and buttery, gooey, fruity flapjacks "...for the journey...") was the Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms experience. It was amazing. Lovely place, polished service (including napkin-folding and crumb-sweeping – Mrs. Eating's benchmarks of good service) and tasty, thoughtful food. What more could one ask for? We're still getting misty-eyed about it two months later.

Restaurant Sat Bains

Lenton Lane

Nottingham

NG7 2SA

www.restaurantsatbains.com

New Tom's

Commencing countdown. Engines... On.

Notting Hill - 6 September 2014

Looking for somewhere new to go for a Saturday night (while we waited and waited for Peckham Bazaar to reopen), Mr Hyde's email appeared offering half price food at a re-vamped Notting Hill bistro. In for a penny, in for £0.50, and away we go.

New Tom's (formerly a deli called Tom's. I guess the restaurant is the newness) is tucked away towards the end of Westbourne Grove, just around the corner from bastions of expensive West London life, the Ledbury and 'Made In Chelsea' featured Beach Blanket Babylon, a fancified pub that charged me 12.5% service for opening and passing me a bottle of wine at the bar. A screw cap, at that. I'm still angry. New Tom's isn't quite in that bracket, thankfully, and I recall this dining experience with far more fondness...

The restaurant is split-level, with the top level comprising of diner-style leather booths, which look comfy and cool. However we're sat downstairs, a mood-lit (i.e. not conducive to good photo taking) basement area you could describe as 'cozy' (or cramped), which apparently gets "quite raucous". It's decorated with cool street art posters, with the buzz of the kitchen to be heard over the music.

The menu offers every dish as a starter or main course option, so we elect to go tapas-style and order four starter-portions, so we can try as much as possible and fit in dessert as well.

From the garden section, we had a creamy celeriac risotto topped with a blue cheese crumb, the cheese adding delightful pockets of savoury saltiness mixed with panko crumbs for crunch. There was little or no need for the apple puree dolloped on top. Maybe intended to add a sweet dimension, it was just - as the gf pointed out - reminiscent of baby food, and entirely unnecessary here.

We had two 'Sea' dishes. The first was a crab and avocado salad. The pickled cucumber in the foliage added a tangy counterpoint to the quenelles of sweet crab with lemon mayonnaise, and there's a warmth brought by a dose of cayenne pepper that doesn’t overpower everything. More panko crumbs again (wholesale order perhaps?) for crunch. This is a great dish.

The scallop was also strong. Normally I’d be peeved at the presentation of one lonely scallop. But this is no ordinary scallop. It’s been working out. It’s got hench. It’s the biggest scallop ever seen. And it’s well cooked – a nice sear to the outside and still soft and creamy inside. There’s some crispy ginger atop for spice and all the colours of the cauliflower rainbow on the side (well…three…it’s a small rainbow) – pureed, charred and cubed.

We finish up the savoury sections by coming ashore to ‘Land’, and some Dingly Dell pork belly. This is served up with artichokes and pommes puree. It’s cooked well enough, if slightly under seasoned, but isn’t really much more than it sounds on the menu. I’m getting bored with pork belly – it’s too light on the meat:fat ratio, and there isn’t too much to get excited about here.

But desserts are memorable. We’ve been on a strong run of form with desserts recently, and these don’t break the streak. We order up a lemon curd with flamed meringue, and chocolate crack.

Subsequent research has shown that chocolate crack is an actual baked treat, and not so-called because it’s addictively moreish. That said, it is moreish, though perhaps not enough for one taste to have Phil Mitchell trashing his house in search of one more hit. This crack includes a creamy chocolate mousse sitting on top of silky salted caramel and a biscuit crumb, with tangy raspberries (classic combination right there). There’s also a little apricot jam on the side too. 

Which doesn’t add anything to the pudding, but more unnecessary baby food dollops.

Their slant on 'eton mess' was killer. Scorched, creamy, Italian meringue, with sweet strawberries, mint leaves and sharp lemon curd, topped with refreshing lemon granita. It looks the business, and tastes it too.

We rounded it all off with a cheese course, which was alright, but not quite “the best cheese ever” as our waiter described it. The menu says it’s milky and gentle. Which it is, on boring - I prefer my cheese to be a bit rougher with me. Plus, it suffered from a total imbalance in the number of crackers (squid ink here) and damson jelly to cheese – I’ve never figured out why this is so hard for restaurants...

All in all, New Tom’s wasn’t flawless, but was enjoyable. The dishes showed good skill and imagination, even if there was the occasional mis-step. The atmosphere was good (I'd struggle to describe it as "raucous", though), and the staff friendly. If this was a neighbourhood restaurant where I lived, I’d be very happy for it to become a regular hangout. 

New Tom's
226 Westbourne Grove
London
W11 2RH
http://www.newtoms.co.uk/

Boom Burger

I came here tonight to hear the crowd go...

Notting Hill - 10 July 2014

In case you haven't noticed, I ruddy love burgers. I am also a massive fan of jerk chicken and Caribbean food in general. And tucked away under the Westway off Portobello Road, these collide to great effect.

It's a ramshackle restaurant that's definitely more Notting Hill carnival than Notting Hill the movie. Which I quite like - it's got a lively, friendly neighbourhood vibe, with a few tables spilling out onto the pavement.

Resisting the urge for a Jerk Boom (I feel that kind of thing is best left in the privacy of your own home), we go for the signature bacon jam & cheese Boom Burger with fries and a side of sticky jerk wings.

On arrival the burger itself looks a bit anaemic with very little char on the outside of the patty, but there is a huge dollop of bacon jam falling out of the side and the patty is smothered in well melted american cheese, so it's still an appealing looking meal. Biting in reveals a perfectly pink patty, coarse grind, not too dense, with burgery juice spilling out. The jam is the most bacon-heavy I've ever had, which demands commendation even if it lacks a bit of the sweetness that makes Burger Bear's so amazing. And I like the addition of a little jerk seasoning through the mayonnaise to provide the requisite Caribbean twist, although I would say it could handle more heat, or on reflection I should have asked if they had hot sauce. Some Encona HPS would have made it. But nit-picking aside, this is a well-made burger that delivers on taste and texture.

The wings are a special, being either extra spicy or extra sticky depending on which of the serving kids you asked. I'm going with the latter, because they're certainly very sticky and not super spicy. The jerk flavouring is strong here (as you might hope from jerk wings), and the fresh chillies add freshness and a little heat. However they are very wee, more like beefed up budgies - the same size as half a lime (see photo). If they'd been bigger, then we're talking winning wings. As it is, yeah they're tasty, but nothing to write home about. Sounds a bit churlish, but it's true.

They can cook a fry, which is always good, but that's all there is to say about it. Disappointingly, we'd heard good tings about their signature plantain fries, only to be discover they were sold out upon our visit. So no news there.

Overall, this a cool little place that is doing an interesting twist on the standard burger imprint and doing it well. So if you're in the area, it's worth checking out.

Boom Burger
272 Portobello Road
London
W10 5TZ
http://www.boomburger.co.uk/

Lima Floral

Deepest Peru

Covent Garden - 21 July 2014

Nine years ago, I spent a few weeks in Peru while backpacking around Latin America, and I left with the impression that the food was pretty unexciting. Yet it is Peruvian cuisine that is the latest London food-trend with restaurants popping up left, right and centre. And given the reviews and awards these places have been receiving, it seems I must have been too hasty in my judgement. Maybe travelling on a shoestring doesn't always allow you to experience the best of a country’s cuisine (mainly meat and potatoes, with a one-time-only meal of spatch-cocked and deep-fried guinea pig served on a bed of chips). Who knew?

One of the restaurants at the vanguard of this Andean invasion is the Michelin-starred Lima Fitzrovia. And clearly business is good, as they've just expanded; opening a branch near Covent Garden and one of the best parts of new openings are those the magical words ‘soft launch’. One of the things I love about a half-off launch is the equalising element of it – it allows you the opportunity to experience places that would otherwise be saved for a special occasion on a regular Monday night instead, whilst leaving enough change in your wallet for something other than gruel for the rest of the week… And in this case let me reappraise Peruvian cuisine. It turns out it is good.

First up, the restaurant itself is a lovely space set in an attractive building at the end of Floral Street (hence the Lima Floral moniker), which once housed a workshop for a stained-glass window manufacturer. The large floor-to-ceiling gothic windows lend the dining room (there’s a basement tapas bar too) a light airy feel. The service was of a good standard – our waitress was friendly and knowledgeable about the food.

And that food is tasty. The menu is packed with exotic and unknown ingredients. Our stand-out starter was Sea Bream ceviche, with Tiger’s Milk. Which as it turns out, doesn't involve a brave kitchen-hand risking life and limb to source (even though cats do have nipples and therefore can be milked). It is the name given to the citrus juice, made cloudy by curing the fish. This dish was wonderful – light and fresh, with smooth avocado cream and the tiger’s milk giving it a sharp bite.

The best main was a similar dish – monkfish in green & red Tiger's Milk. Meaty fish hidden under ribbons of crunchy courgettes, and a smattering of micro herbs – amongst a warm yellow sauce (the yellow chill pepper I assume) although we were unsure what made it green and red tiger milk?

The sharpness of these dishes did slightly overshadow our other orders – a marinated raw beef escabeche salad for starters, and lamb rump with eco dry potato and other pureed stuff for mains. Both of which were very pretty to look at, and cooked well enough (actually, cooked medium rare), but just a bit bland and washed out next to the fish dishes. Plus, there was chewy sinew running through the lamb, that even the knife struggled to cut through let alone our molars.

The desserts saw a return to form, that would stand up to a full-on assault from a whole streak (or, ambush, collective noun fans) of tigers.

The photos don’t do the chocolate dessert justice. The Peruvian Palo Blanco Cacao was smoother than silk and richer than El Dorado, with the oat and wood sorrel topping adding tang and texture – this is next level chocolate pudding.

The Café Peruano also deserves credit, not least for adding purple potato to the list of dessert ingredients. Freeze dried and powdered, it added an unusual, and not unpleasant feel to the sweetness of the coffee ice cream. The red kiwicha added crunch and an exotic element, but little in terms of taste. Overall, not as delicious as the chocolate, but worth trying.

One word of warning: the cherimoya is an acquired taste at best. I would have thought that something variously described as ‘custard apple’ or ‘ice cream fruit’ should be the most delicious thing ever – and in fact Mark Twain described it as such. However, it turns out, Mark Twain was mental. A neighbouring table ordered the Cherimoya Mousse dessert, and promptly stopped after just one mouthful. They offered us a taste, and one spoonful later, we were in complete agreement. It tasted like gone-off milk. I’d rather try guinea pig again.

But that aside, I would visit Lima Floral again. It was a lovely meal, and it’s completely sold me on Peruvian food. Next time  I want to check out the bar downstairs and it’s piqueos menu. The ceviches are on there, so I can get more tiger’s milk coursing through my body. Winning.

Lima Floral

14 Garrick St.

WC2E 9BJ

http://www.limafloral.com

National Burger Day

Oh Happy Day!

Battersea Power Station - 27 August 2014

Record shops. Hugging.  Libraries. Talking like a pirate. Bacon. Gin. Pancakes. Dogs. Every thing has its day. And thanks to the good people of Mr Hyde, burgers have finally been elevated into such illustrious company, with a day of their own. A celebration of all things ground beef and bunned, National Burger Day sees restaurants all over the country offering a 20% discount on burgers (natch). And most importantly for the purposes of this post, it sees Mr Hyde teaming up with Tweat Up to throw a patty party.

This year it took place at the Street Feast's Riverside Feast site right in the shadow of the iconic Battersea Power Station. This has been my favourite Street Feast location yet, and it’s been an awesome summer of street foods down there. It'll be missed, with the power station about to become another beacon to over-priced London property. Impressively shiny, no doubt. But I doubt it'll have a fraction of the vibes.

Anyway, back to the burgers: 12 of London's finest were in attendance, cooking up one-off specials. Most of these being smaller than your average burger, as with all the best will in the world you'd never to be able to try more than a couple...

We managed 5, of which the first was the stand out – Slider Bar’s short rib slider: an aged beef patty (anything else just won’t cut it these days), 10-hour roast chipotle short rib, bone marrow & habanero salsa, American cheese and chipotle ketchup. The patty was excellently cooked, the short rib was rich and tender, and the whole thing had a real chilli kick to it, with the gf feeling the burn. I didn't think it was that spicy, but would happily have gone back for a second if there wasn't so much more to try.

Second was Club Gascon's foie gras burger. I would struggle to call it a burger, however – it was a slab of fried foie gras on truffle cream and crispy gem lettuce, in a brioche roll. A sweet, rich and delicious sandwich. But not a burger…

Similarly, Le Bun's ‘Le Royale with Cheese’ slider wasn't a burger, but was similarly satisfying – a thick chunk of is-the-night-tender short rib, doused in smokey, meaty hickory jus, topped off with fried goats cheese (which wasn't quite cooked enough in our opinion – not really gooey), and crunchy salad. Tres bien.

The next two efforts came from two of the biggest queues – HotBox & Mother Flipper. HotBox's looked beautiful on paper: short rib (a recurring theme), Monterey Jack cheese, chipotle slaw, bbq dripping and chimichurri. Lush. And when cooked it still made for an attractive burger, but sadly, beyond a beautifully cooked course-ground patty, it lacked a little flavour. Pickled chillis added punch (and gave me a dose of hiccups - how the tables turned), but the short-rib wasn't as good as the previous two examples.

And our final savoury burger - Mother Flipper's ‘Smoked BBQ Belly Flipper’ - was our pre-event favourite, a black angus patty topped with cherry BBQ glazed, smoked pork belly, gouda and crispy shallots. But sadly, it didn’t really deliver – our burger seemed a bit too densely packed, and was over-cooked with no pink left. The flavours were there, but the execution was a little off. A shame, because usually I love a Mother-Flipping burger…

After that, I did weigh up one more, having been smitten by the gravy life promised by Dip & Flip on our last trip to the power park. But by 7:30, the queues were off the meat-rack, so we took a call on mains and had a dessert burger instead…

Yep. Dessert burger. The cake dealers at Crumbs & Doilies had got to slinging burger cupcakes. Here is the Elvis, in all its salted caramel, banana mallow, candied bacon, peanut buttery wonder (I avoided the peanut butter. Ewwww).

The side order of cookie fries and sweet sweet sauces were a very clever touch. Expensive for a cupcake, but as a work of craft and imagination, I was very impressed.

All in all, that was a great way to say goodbye to Battersea – burgers, chillibacks, vibes and beats. Burger-y big ups to everyone involved. A fitting send-off to fine times spent down the Power Park.

Porky's

Truly, thou art damned like an ill roasted wing

Bankside - 25 June 2014.

The desirability of originality in art is a relatively new construct. Back in Elizabethan times, borrowing from other works throughout history was seen as the norm. So much so that England's most celebrated literary icon William Shakespeare has been accused of never writing a fully original plot in his life, and 'avoiding any unnecessary invention'.

So it's quite fitting that our latest stop on the barbeque tour of London is on Bankside, next to the Globe Theatre. For at Porky's new restaurant you will definitely not find any wheels being re-invented.

Pig logo? Check. Menu in courier font? Check. Exposed brickwork? Check. Americana on the walls? Check (in this case photos of blues and soul musicians. Plus Morgan Freeman). Rock n Roll soundtrack? Chickity-check.

That's not to say it's always a bad thing. When we visit - at about 6pm on a Wednesday - the place is open and bright, without being crammed in like you are at some BBQ restaurants. It's busy without being overly noisy or boisterous, and the service is friendly - if unspectacular - which makes for a pleasant dining experience.

However, the food never rises above pleasant. For starters we go with wings and pulled pork croquettes. The croquettes suffer badly from being far too much croquette and not nearly enough pulled pork. There's a good crunch to the coating, the potato is creamy and smooth and there's a hint of smokyness throughout. But you could easily be forgiven for not noticing any meat in there. Slathering them in the chunky chilli sauce on the table (the best of three - others being a vinegary 'Sop Mop' and an uninspiring watery barbeque sauce) makes them better. But more meat definitely would not go amiss.

The wings are... not good. Baked rather than fried, they lack the crisp outer coating I prefer on my wings. And they are over-cooked to the point of being tough and dry. I'm struggling to remember being served wings in BBQ restaurant that have been such a let down. While the Blues Kitchen ones were too salty, they were at least cooked well. The only positive here is the sauce they are covered in, which hits all the right barbeque notes - molasses thick, sweet, smoky and with a bit of spice. It's good, but not good enough to save these wings of disappointment.

Our mains fare slightly better. First up the key point to make is on size - their ribs & tips dinner is huge. I've banged on about value before, and my first reaction is that this right here is value - £9.95 for a bumper portion of meat, accompanied by pickles (including some pickled beetroot, which I find to be a pleasant variation from the well worn themes.) - sides are extra. The barbeque sauce makes a welcome return, there appears to be a good char on the meat, and the aroma is heavy on the smoke. So at first glance, it all suggests we're in for a treat.

Only we aren't really. My assumption is that rather than slow-and-low these are cooked average paced-and-high. The smoky aroma does not equal the flavour permeating the meat - there's no deep red smoke ring, and the meat isn't the fall-apart-tender I want from my BBQ. It comes off the bone eventually, but only after some coaxing. The pork tastes porky - and a touch on the fatty-side, again making me question the cooking times. But once liberally coated in sauce, it's not quite the cardinal sin the wings were. And there's loads of them, so by the end I'm stuffed.

So to sum up: It looks like BBQ, it tastes mostly like BBQ, it's served in a place that screams BBQ at you and it's good value. In a corner of London lacking in BBQ options but with a overload of hungry tourists, it should do well. Yet like Shakespeare, it's not original, and I just didn't find it that interesting.

The French House

Mange tout, Rodney. Mange tout.

East Dulwich - 20 June 2014

In The French House, East Dulwich has a lovely new addition to its range of of eateries and abreuvoirs (means watering hole in French, apparently. Hopefully it translates...)

While not having the most unique name ever (Google count: 4 'The French House's in London alone), the atmosphere does stand out. The owners say that the aim is for a 60s/70s Yé-Yé -style cafe-bar. Wikipedia informs me that ye-ye comes from yeah-yeah, and was the French era of pop music that gave the world Serge Gainsbourg & Brigit Bardot. What this means in practice is walls covered with magazine covers of effortlessly cool young French folk (well, young 40/50 years ago) and a soundtrack featuring a cover of The Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black' (my favourite Stones tune) en francais. It's fun.

In a rare move for something French, there's no pretensions about the French House (obligatory English joke about the French there). And that extends to the menu, which is pretty rustic. There is a strong emphasis on cheese, bread and meat, with a few classics thrown in. 

We had escargots (when in Rome...), foie gras and a degustation de fromage. A solid local café, it is delicious - so long as you're not a lactose-intolerant coeliac vegetarian... And it's insanely good value at £6-£7 each. The snails were, as one would expect, basically textured garlic butter. And that is why I will always love escargot. So they were a hit. 

The foie gras less so - you get three slices of duck foie gras, but they were a little on the bland-side. Smooth as butter, but lacking the rich liver-y flavour. Although the fig & gewurtztraminer jam that came with it was a sweet and sharp counter-point to the pâté.

The best was the cheeseboard - 5 different cheeses, all in generous portions, with pickles, more jam & more crusty bread. Although, the promised apples and grapes to accompany were missing. 'Small' it was not. OK, so the emmental was typically rubbery and the 'stinky french cheese' had an unpleasant acidic after-taste, but that's by-the-by. Compared with some places (*cough* Boqueria *cough*) five large lumps of varied cheese is a steal at £7 (and for £12 you get what appears to be as much cheese as you'd find in a typical Tesco Metro). 

A cheeseboard, one of the charcuterie boards (also £7) and a big glass of red wine, and I'd be a happy man. Albeit one who is a step or two closer to a heart attack. 

Also on the menu were some mighty impressive looking tartines, a huge thin flatbread, smothered in cheese and ham. The other people on our table seemed to be loving it. They were £8. Have I mentioned this is great value?

To round things off, the gf ordered a clafoutis for dessert. This was a squashed, dense example of the baked dessert, but sweet and satisfying and packed with raspberries.

In short - a fun, friendly, fabulously French addition to East Dulwich's increasingly appealing hang outs. I'll be back.

www.thefrenchhouse.co