Le Bun x Kelis

Pop will eat itself

Leicester Square - July 2016

It’s not every day you get your dinner cooked for you by a multi-million record selling, Grammy-winning musician. But when Kelis Rogers, of Milkshake/Boys/Yard fame, linked up with French/American street food stars Le Bun for a two week London pop-up (with additional nights at Standon Calling festival), that’s exactly what we got.

There’s no denying Kelis’ cooking credentials. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu part time for 4 years while knocking out albums & having a kid. She’s run a food truck at SWSX. She’s presented a show on the Cooking Channel. She’s released a range of sauces & she’s published a cookbook. Baby, she got this. 

In order to help her bring her passion project over to London (something she’d been wanting to do for years, apparently. I bet she says that to all the food scenes…), she teamed up with Le Bun, who have been growing steadily in reputation since starting up a few years ago at Street Feast, and whose beef bourguignon bun deserves to be on the pantheon of great London street eats.

So this was no mere gimmick, no half-arsed celebrity endorsement. And the lady herself was sweating it out in the kitchen. But was it any good?

In parts.

There were some moments of true brilliance – a sticky, soft, soul-satisfying ox cheek poutine with super tender meat and deep, rich gravy, served over crispy yukka wedges was bowl-licking stuff. 

The off-menu bahn-mi came with dipping gravy we enjoyed straight from the glass (even if the sandwich itself wasn’t setting the world alight). Her chilli & cornbread was a winning combination of deceptively spicy meat and sweet crumbly bread (addition of stem ginger gave it a fiery kick). 











And the truffle-aioli & parmesan coated corn is a mix of sophisticated and homely; the perfectly browned sweet corn matched against rich truffle and salty cheese. Even if the lack of available toothpicks meant the rest of the meal was spent working the bits out.

Then everything else is pretty average. There was a ‘Pho Get Me Not’ that was fragrant, but lacking in any depth, and only two pieces of rubbery chicken. It was pretty phogettable. The sea bass ceviche is pleasantly citrusy and slightly spiced, but the best in the game aren’t merely pleasant; they’re up to 11 with the flavours. (see Lima Floral for details). The arepas have their moments, with the pork being the best of the bunch, but there's nothing in there to convince me they're just inferior tacos.

The most obvious Le Bun portion of the meal was actually a little disappointing. Our cheeseburger was overcooked, the truffle mayo lacked any real truffle hit, and while the flank steak was perfectly  slow cooked and tender, the cherry barbeque sauce coating it was just too sweet like hoi sin for my tastes. It’s a shame, because as we’ve hinted, their food is usually top drawer.

And finally; a word on dessert. Half a fig with some warm almond milk and almond flakes is not ‘A Happy Ending’, it was more like a limp handshake.

As a one-off, I’m glad we tried it. But at £40 it seemed over-priced when you consider the places you can get top quality tasting menus for under £50. Perhaps there’s an element of the Leicester Square location and the nature of the event in that price.. And fair play to Kelis for actually running the service, rather than just landing her name.  Overall, we enjoyed the food, but would we go back if it was on again? Let me put it this way: Might trick me once, won’t let you trick me twice. Whoa-a-oh-a.

Cabana

Brazili-average BBQ

Brixton - September 2015

Recently a new Latin American chain restaurant opened in Brixton, albeit without quite the same amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied Wahaca's arrival last year. One thing that might have helped there is not opening on the site of a once-legendary local nightspot.

The Bon Marche building has its own interesting history, but tucked away behind TK Maxx in a terrible location for any random passing trade, it doesn't scream “great place to open a large restaurant” to me. But then I'm not the multi-millionaire owner of a “family” business with branches in the O2 & Westfield centres, so what do I know? I'm just here to eat the food and give my opinion on if it’s any good.

Which it occasionally is. Kind of.

The restaurant itself is bright and buzzy – the music is samba-tastic, the colours are bright, the furniture is beach-bar shabby chic. The overall effect comes off like a kind of Wahaca de Janerio. The service was friendly, if a touch slapdash (food delivered to wrong tables, requested extras taking an age to arrive). It was the soft launch, and the staff seemed a bit green (and yellow, natch) – I’ll assume they've dramatically improved since the opening proper…

Previously, to me, the terms ‘Brazilian’ and ‘barbeque’ have meant all-you-can-eat meat carved off skewers to the point of near bursting. Here the menu is a single, average-sized serving of meat, delivered to your table on a skewer. The marinated lamb is tender and packs a real punch. Our neighbouring table were delivered a solid lump of steak that looked immense – all dark and glistening on the outside, red and bloody on the inside. Not quite the medium they had ordered, but I thought it looked boss.

On the starter menu, the pulled pork sliders are highly recommended – the meat maybe a bit on the mushy side, but rammed with spicy goodness. The chicken croquettes fall apart a little easily, but the chilli mayo dip is banging.

We also ordered a full rack of ribs: a massive slab that falls off the bone easily, but appears to have been nowhere near a proper grill – there’s no crunchy caramelisation, or nary a hint of a smoke ring. And they’re a bit fatty. But the bbq sauce marinade is thick, sticky, sweet and piquant, so it’s an overall positive experience. However, you can get better ribs in at least three other Brixton restaurants. As the menu proudly states, these ribs featured at Ribstock 2012. They didn't win. Go figure.

While the meats are good, the sides are weak: bland, boring and under-seasoned.

Finally, our dessert of Nutella donuts was an unappetising, overly hot, greasy waste of calories. If  Mrs Eatings is leaving Nutella, then something is seriously up.

To sum up, there’s some decent stuff going on at Cabana (mainly grilled meat), but it’s really not an unqualified success. Less ‘Tudo Bem’, more ‘às vezes bom’.

Cabana
http://www.cabana-brasil.com
201 – 207 Ferndale Road
Brixton
London 
SW9 8BE

Q Grill

Jump into the Q

Camden Town - December 2014

It may seem bizarre to say it now, but there was once a time - not all that long ago in the UK - when pork went un-pulled, ribs were almost exclusively spare, and smoking was something you did to your salmons.

Now you can barely budge for brisket and the place is practically dripping with BBQ sauce. If Marks & Spencer are selling pulled pork, it’s fair to say that BBQ is here to stay. And with this cross-over from fad to bona-fide culinary phenomenon, it’s gone upmarket.

My judgement of barbeque restaurants uses the Bodeans BBQ Benchmark – London’s stalwart original providing a solid balance between portion-size, price and flavour. But, a new breed of restaurant has sprung up, where the weight of the plate and the load on the wallet is more finely balanced. It’s within this more rarefied sphere that Q Grill operates; they’ve got a pop up in Selfridges and branded plates, so this clearly ain’t your standard smoked meat slinger…

It was to their original place in Camden that we headed this past twixmas in search of a meaty  antidote to all that turkey. Thankfully closer to Chalk Farm than Camden Town, the levels of rage Camden Lock invoke in me were avoided and I could rate my meal in a relaxed and balanced way.

All the staples were on show in the restaurant – bare wood, leather booths, rock n roll soundtrack, at least 3 beards. It’s a bit clichéd, but it works to create the relaxed vibe you want when chowing on barbequed meats, particularly when the room is as big as this one; there’s no sitting on top of one another as encountered at other places.

The food is of high quality too. They have a Josper grill that has been a signal flare of smoked excellence, in my mind, since trying the much-missed Ribstock 2012-winning ‘Roxas Racks’ from Redhook. And it’s put to good use in our first starter; a sac magique of juicy, fall-apart tender hen’s wings. Sticky, but sans sauce, the sweet meat is the star here with smoky flavours an able supporting act. And bonus points for serving them in a bag. As theatre goes, it’s hardly Hamlet, but it is fun and I’m easily amused.

Elsewhere we have a ceviche that is light and fresh, but lacks chilli kick and citrus zing that you get with the best, so it’s not hitting the heights of our experience at Lima Floral. But then we’re in a barbeque joint and not a Peruvian restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef, so perhaps that’s an unfair comparison.  The plantain chips are a great crispy addition.

We went for a rib-fest for out mains; pork and shortrib. No visible smoke ring to the pork, but a nice crisp char to the outside which adds crunch to the tender meat. The quality and the flavour of the pork is the main event and shine through. Unfortunately the BBQ sauce that accompanies it is a huge disappointment – watery & insipid, it adds nothing.

The beef rib is impressive, to behold and to eat; meaty, glossy and deeply satisfying. It (note a singular rib – but a hefty one) does all the good stuff you want your shortrib to: fall apart at the merest touch, melt in the mouth, add an inch to the waistline. It comes swimming in an unctuous, glossy gravy, with sweet potato mash and roasted garlic. The whole dish is pretty bloody delicious.

So, where does Q-Grill sit in relation to the B-BBQ-B? Well, the meat and cooking is of a higher quality. This also means higher costs for smaller portions. For example, you’re looking at £18 for the beef – roughly the same price as an entire Bodeans platter. But with the standard of the dish, it doesn’t represent poor value. And here’s the kicker – if you sign up for their Casual Diner’s club, they’ll take £20 off your bill the first time you visit. Which made our tasty meatfest rather reasonable. Score.

 

Q Grill
29-33 Chalk Farm Road
London
NW1 8AJ
http://q-grill.co.uk/

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 Blues Kitchen

Shake, Rattle n Roll

17 April 2014 - Shoreditch

Being a food blogger now, part of my mission must be to boldly go to new frontiers of the restaurantiverse. And so it was with that in mind that the gf and I headed on down to the latest barbecue in the east: The Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch.

I had been to the original Camden joint before for a drink (and was very impressed with the extensive bourbon list and a 16 year-old blues guitarist on the open mic who could really wail) but hadn’t really heard much about the food. But when the internet started making noise about a new place serving  juicy Texan BBQ washed down with hard shakes - the kind of siren song to lead me on to any rock (n roll) – we decided it needed checking out. And we were in for quite the treat.

First let’s make mention of the venue. In its previous incarnation, it was The Music Bar – a cavernous, minimalist, Shoreditch hangout I only ever visited in the middle of the afternoon when it seemed empty and a bit soulless (although that didn’t stop me enjoying a large number of strong Belgian beers there). Following this re-fit they’ve clearly tried to turn the soul-quotient up to 11. And I think it works. The island bar has now been copper-topped and to contrast the still-bare brickwork, they’ve added shabby-chic tiling, whilst the restaurant booths are immaculately upholstered to add a nice homely feel. They’ve even – and this is an excellent touch – stuck an airstream caravan in there that you can hire for private parties. Even the trip down to the toilets (possibly the second longest in London after the Covent Garden Big Easy) has been decked out with corrugated iron and posters of blues legends to give it that dive-bar aesthetic. But, this is far from a dive…

OK, with that out the way, let’s deal with the important issue: the food. Overall it was up there. We went for our usual BBQ-benchmarks of pork belly ribs (slow smoked for 12-hours), buffalo wings, and onion rings, along with their burnt ends as the second main and a side of mac n cheese.

The ribs were pretty special. You get three massive, meaty ribs for your money which, whilst not being the most tender I’ve ever eaten, are juicy. The pork is full of flavour - well seasoned with a decent smokiness, that could be stronger but is still noticeable. Eaten on their own they would be satisfying enough, but what elevates them is The Blues Kitchen’s own barbecue sauce: a treacle-thick, sweet and smoky effort with quite a kick to it. It’s definitely up there with the best in London (hi, Bodean’s Chipotle BBQ sauce!). Ask for a second pot of it – the gf secured us three - you’re gonna want to drown everything in that shit, yo.

The burnt ends were tasty too. I know people that rave about the burnt ends at Bodean’s, but I have found them to be a little dry. Here you get a big bowl of fall-apart-tender, mouthful-sized chunks of charred brisket, liberally doused in their beer & hickory BBQ sauce - a deeply rich and meaty number closer to gravy than the (amazing) BBQ sauce that comes with the ribs. It too was delightful, but not so delightful that I didn’t also add in the amazing rib sauce. Have I mentioned that the BBQ sauce was amazing? Anyway - I’ve not had brisket that tasty since the first year of Pitt Cue’s truck on the South Bank (let’s pause briefly to remember those special days…) and it made me happy.

Both these mains came with a vinegary slaw and skin-on fries, crisp on the outside but woefully under-seasoned. Also, they were probably only once-cooked which in the post-Heston age, is just plain lazy.

The wings and the other sides were less great. The onion rings were anaemic-looking and the mac n cheese solid and dry. The wings were well cooked, with a crispy coating and tender meat, but an unpleasant amount of salt in the buffalo sauce. With a mild heat, it was thick and creamy but too salty where there should have been sweet and vinegary sharpness. This downer was counter-balanced by the blue cheese dipping sauce. It had a shit-load of creamy cheese in it, which is only to be applauded.

So good I lost focus

Finally I’ll get to the real star here – the hard shakes. We ordered the ‘Caramel Captain’, a chocolatey fudge & rum delight that is probably the best milkshake I’ve ever had. Which, for £8, it should be. But it was immense. I’d go back just for the shake, let alone the tasty BBQ.

This place is a winner on two key points – taste and value. We came hungry and left full, with a doggy-bag, all for around £30pp with service (which was slow to begin with, but did pick up).

While I’ve never been to the US, so can’t make any claims about the authenticity of the Texan BBQ on offer, I can vouch for it’s ‘deliciousity’. I enjoyed it and would recommend The Blues Kitchen to all. Which I guess is what I’ve just done. I’d love to go back and see some live music there. And try their Alligator Bites. Maybe next time my Dad is in town; thus far, his only experience of BBQ was when we went to Red Dog Saloon a couple of years ago and I need to redeem that. Given The Blues Kitchen is the place that Red Dog wishes it was, and he loves the blues, this would be a decent do-over.

http://www.theblueskitchen.com/

Red Dog South

Bad BBQ

14 April 2014 - Clapham North

Hoxton BBQ joint Red Dog Saloon (home to London's hottest wings and a pretty impressive feat of burger engineering in 'The Devastator') has moved to Clapham. The girlfriend scored us a table during the soft launch, so we went to check it out.

We generally love soft launches. What's not to like about chowing down on tasty food at half price? Except here, the 50% off probably only made it about 1% less disappointing.





For starters we went for jalapeño poppers and buffalo wings (not the challenge wings, which are made with Naga Viper chillis, one-time world's hottest. I have tasted one at their Hoxton joint, and instantly regretted it - ouch). These wings were ok - a bit of crunch to the coating, the sauce tasty and a decent amount of heat. I thought the blue cheese dipping sauce would have benefited from more blue cheese (like the amazing dip you get at MEATliquor) but it was fine.

The poppers were rubbish, though. The batter fell off as soon at it was touched, and somehow they'd managed to make a jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese taste bland. Which is actually quite impressive when you think about it. I've had better from LiDL.







For mains we went for beef rib and pork ribs. The pork ribs - four decently meaty belly ribs - were surprisingly tasteless. There was a nice deep red smoke ring on them, but overall they weren't that smokey or barbeque-y. I had the occasional bit that got the full effect of the marinade, but generally I had to keep slathering each bite with the (admittedly very good) Kansas City BBQ sauce to keep flavour and moisture levels up, which says a lot.

The beef rib - one rib - was tastier than the pork. We're guessing given the longer cooking times required, it had more of a chance to soak in the smoke and flavour. It was fairly tender (I've definitely had chewier beef ribs), but again was bordering on the dry. Not terrible, not amazing. But - ONE RIB. And it was in danger of being dwarfed by an onion ring…

Had we been paying full price, that morsel would have cost £18. Jesus wept.


Compare and contrast this with the currently missing-in-action (from London) BBQWhiskyBeer for the same price.

And not only was it four times the size, it was at least four times tastier - if not more.

The service at Red Dog was a bit slapdash too - for example, we had to ask three times for some water which was never refilled and had to pour our own wine. It's not even like the place was half-full. Maybe there is an argument to be made that this was a soft-launch, and so service wasn't tight yet. But that didn't prevent  Hawksmoor, Foxlow or Big Easy being on-point when I went to their soft-launches...

Which is the recurring theme with Red Dog; you get much better everything, elsewhere.

So to sum up - if you find yourself in Clapham and have a hankering to eat wings so hot you think you're about to go blind or a ludicrously large burger, then fine, knock yourself out (And this is exactly why they should do pretty well in Clapham). But if you want good bbq, there's a Bodean's down the road and it's a lot nicer than this.

www.reddogsaloon.co.uk