Portland

Dedicated to the winners and the losers (dedicated to all Jeeps and Land Cruisers)

Fitzrovia - February 2017

The world in 2017 is a complex and confusing place. Brexit. Trump. Climate Change. The enduring popularity of The Big Bang Theory. There’s a lot of strange stuff going on.

So in these times of tumult, finding somewhere as simply brilliant as Portland is refreshing.

Set up in a pared-back but appealing wood-panelled dining room halfway up Great Portland Street (hardly the middle of nowhere, but also not a noted culinary hotspot), Portland offers fine dining without the frippery. There is no reliance on excessive technique and theatre, just well cooked dishes delivering huge flavour.

Both our snacks were incredible; a light-as-a-feather chicken skin crisp that melted on your tongue, and an earthy, nutty, fluffy cep muffin – served with truffled butter for that added touch of decadence.

The beef tartare was also a thing of rare (if you’ll pardon the pun) beauty. In an unusual twist, the silky meat appeared lightly seared and there was no runny yolk; a dusting of egg shavings replaced it. An exceptional onion ketchup that added a real tang, brought the whole dish together.

Next up the ewe main. The fillet was cooked a deep pink medium that allowed the intense flavour of the meat to outweigh any toughness from the age of the sheep. It was accompanied by a croquette of shoulder, two days in the making, and a salsa verde that packed a tasty garlic kick that could take out half the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

If there was one off-note, it was the chocolate and crème anglaise dessert that didn’t add up to the sum of its parts, with the custard being little unsatisfying. But that wasn't going to distract from the rest of the meal.

With confident service, classic flavours, reasonable prices (including an extensive wine list with a number of sub-£30 options), little fuss and no pretention, Portland's massive success isn't at all strange.

Portland

http://portlandrestaurant.co.uk/

113 Great Portland Street,  

London,

W1W 6QQ

The Frog

Back once again with the ill behaviour

Brick Lane - January 2017

Hello? 

Hello?

Is this thing on?

After a year off blogging duties, I needed a more positive past-time than scrolling through the ‘fresh-horrors device’ that is current events-twitter these days, and so Big Eatings is back for 2017! Kicking things off with one of London’s hottest 2016 openings - The Frog - are we back with a banger?

In finishing as the runner up in Masterchef: The Professionals in 2013, Adam Handling came across like a fine-dining automaton. Efficiently turning out precision plates, but lacking warmth, that had you gunning for the eventual victor. Emotion aside, no-one gets to the final of Masterchef without great skill and his first independent restaurant has been picking up a load of plaudits (in fact the day we went it was announced he was opening site number 2 in Covent Garden). So we were excited to check it out.

There’s a lot that makes me want to like The Frog. A great graffiti logo, a laid-back dining room that’s full of reclaimed table & chairs with cool art on the walls, and music that may as well be my Spotify discover list. 

It feels very familiar, however. The kraft-paper menu of “British tapas” - split into garden, land & sea - is identical in style to that of The Dairy, as is the quirky stoneware the dishes come on. 

The most raved-about dish is also startlingly similar to Clapham’s finest – warmed sourdough served in a hessian sack, with a quenelle of chicken butter. The Dairy’s version is better. Both are delightful, savoury treats, but the chicken liver mousse is lighter and richer with meaty flavours, than the Frog’s butter. I’d happily eat either with any meal, though.

Elsewhere on the snack menu, the cheese donuts are served buried in a delightful parmesan. It’s lick-the-plate-clean good. 

The cod rolls are well made but an overpriced, and ultimately uninspiring, half-mouthful. 

Two of our mains are labelled as BBQ, but have an interesting contrast. We have a soft silky veal tartare (the steak replacement after running out). Sweet and delicately smoky, with sharpness from the capers. But a gelatinous slow-cooked yolk denied us a joyous puncture and oozing egg moment. 

This was followed by a beautiful-looking plate of octopus tentacle. The sauce and seasonings were balanced to perfection. The garlic puree was absolutely banging. A crying shame then, my half of the octopus was tough and actually lacked the smokiness of the (raw) veal. 30 seconds less cooking time from being an incredible dish.

Now, a word on the house’s signature mac & cheese. In many ways, the nicest I’ve ever eaten... 

The presentation is original – a honeycomb effect of vertically arranged, al dente macaroni, covered in a light creamy cheese sauce that’s almost foam. All topped with an umami mound of parmesan. It lacks a crunchy crumb, but it’s decadent and delicious. 

Then throw in the optional truffle topping, and it’s luxurious to the max... But that comes at a price, for a dish that is already the most expensive on the menu. 

Those truffles shavings (not offered as an optional upgrade on the menu, but by the chef bringing it to the table, with the truffles staring you in the face when you’re waaaaay less likely to say no…) are a £10 supplement to a SIXTEEN pound mac & cheese. Total £26. For a mac & cheese. Delicious it may be, but that is just too rich for what you get. 

Desserts were great. The chocolate caramel & cherries is a classic combination given a theatrical twist with a liquid nitrogen cherry ice-cream smashed over the rich chocolate. And the burnt toffee and malt ice cream is a comforting mix of sweet, crunchy & tart; with shards of lemon that refreshed and delighted at the end of the meal. Neither dish lasted long.

The Frog is good. Decent. But hardly ground-breaking. Hell, some wheels don’t need reinventing when the food is tasty and looks great. It will doubtless be a success in Covent Garden. And if they have a 50% soft launch, I will be back to order the mac & cheese.

The Frog

http://www.thefrogrestaurant.com/

2 Ely's Yard, 

Old Truman Brewery, 

Hanbury Street, 

London,

E1 6QR

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.

Jimmy's Pop Up

In a Clapham Country Garden

Clapham - July 2015

In the summer months, there is no finer way to spend an evening than grilling some meats over open coals (or gas, if you swing such a way) with good friends. One of the issues with this in London is the pure unpredictability of the summer weather – or more accurately, the sheer predictability of it being gloriously hot all week, then pissing with rain when you actually have the time to prepare a delicious feast.

So, serial pop-up organisers Jimmy’s Pop Up have hit on a simple solution; a BBQ Supper club, where all the preparation is taken off your hands, and you just grill the meat. Bring the booze and a few friends to a beautiful back garden in Clapham, and cook everything up on a little table-top barbie.

You don’t do all the cooking – starters, sides and desserts all come from the kitchen team, and they’re tasty, summery delights. Canapés; a playful cream cone packed with blue cheese; beautiful cured beef blinis; and a sweet potato falafel, that’s crunchy on the outside, creamy on in the inside, and delicately spiced.

The starter is an unexpected treat:  a burger patty made with duck. It’s sweet and unctuous, and there’s a lovely sharp tomato salsa to cut through the fattiness. It’s a different way to serve duck, and it’s delicious.

Unfortunately, the main event doesn't live up to the strength of the concept.  There are some well-made sauces (cola and soy being the most intriguing, adding an excellent sweet counterpoint to the beef). But the BBQ-ing of the meats disappoints. 

We have a few technical hitches with our table-top grill not being hot enough (although to their credit, the ultra-friendly and enthusiastic servers help with that). 

It is also far too small a surface to cook enough for the four of us to eat at once. With half the group enjoying their meal at any time, everything takes ages whilst the others look on, waiting and salivating.

The meat is tasty, but we are just talking un-marinated, unseasoned, cheap cuts (wings, bavette, lamb neck), not quite enough to escape the idea that we've paid someone to let us cook our own dinner. 

Dessert included a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with various topping choices laid out on the table (marshmallows, jelly babies, choc chips), after the grill had been cleared away. No skill or cooking required to end the meal.

That said, we all had a fun night (BYOB helped a lot here, tbf), and didn’t have to wash up, which goes some way to justifying the £35pp.

We wouldn't do the BBQ club again, but the quality of the(ir) cooking was enough to warrant keeping an eye on where Jimmy pops up next.

Jimmy's Pop Up

http://www.jimmyspopup.com/#home

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