Towpath: Perfectly Formed

A walk along Regent's Canal has many highlights - winding from the whoops of the monkeys in Regent's Park in the West through the mayhem of Camden in the North, you will eventually find yourself in East London.  Home to Broadway Market and the magnificent (at least since the Olympics swung by) Victoria Park. But take a few steps back. There is less obvious treasure on the canal.  Just by Whitmore Bridge (about halfway between Broadway and Angel), is the Towpath Cafe - an eatery, hewn out of four recesses in the wall.

Set up in 2010 by Lori de Mori, Towpath is always packed to the brim at the weekends - hipsters recovering from the night before, now yummy mummies regaling pre-infant conquests - East London in a recess. We had tried to come before, but had always failed to get a table.

So, with the sun shining one Sunday (albeit briefly as the rain has now returned) we set up stall and waited to see what all the fuss was about. The menu is varied - from standard brunch (sausage sandwiches) to full-on lunch plates (there was pork loin on the menu the day we went along). But we decided to keep it light - a sausage sandwich and a plate of Monk's Beard and Bottarga to share.

Two huge slabs of toasted sourdough encased wonderfully meaty sausages, drenched in homemade Tommy K - all sausage sandwiches should be like this.  

But the real treat was the Monk's Beard and Bottarga.  I have to confess, I had had neither of these ingredients before - Monk's Beard, a long thin leaf from the chicory family, with a season lasting only five weeks, and Bottarga, cured fish roe from Grey Mullet. Drenched in lemon juice and olive oil, we were meant to be sharing, but I almost wolfed the whole lot. A seriously tasty plate of food. 

Along with excellent coffee and freshly squeezed juice, Towpath made for a delightful place to while away a Sunday morning. Small it certainly is, perfectly formed, perhaps.

River Cafe

Value.  What is value?  "The worth of something in terms of the amount or other things for which it can be exchanged".  An inherently subjective concept.  I would not think a five hundred quid  pair of Louboutin's represent value.  Others do.  I thought that four hundred for a meal at Coi in San Francisco (albeit with two hundred of that covered by the restaurant due to the wait) was fair.  It was the best meal I have ever eaten.  By a long way.

Sometimes when I eat out, I wish you didn't see the prices until the end.  But were this to be the case,  the food-loving world would go bankrupt - as it is I am already prone to over-ordering. I just want to try everything.  But prices provide a barometer.  They go up, you expect more. At rock bottom, all you expect is to be fed and watered, preferably without being antagonised in the process.

So when the prices are as high as they are at the River Cafe you're expecting a real treat.  Throw into the mix its Michelin star and a reputation earned over 25 years at the coal face of the London restaurant scene, and the expectations go through the roof.  Perhaps that is unfair.  Perhaps I should have just considered what was on the plate in front of me - but I don't think that is possible.  Value matters.

I was at the River Cafe for a work event -  a closing dinner.  The firm was paying.  So I should have been able to relax - the bill wasn't going to worm its way to me.  But as it was my first time, everything was being judged against a return visit.

To start we shared some antipasti - cold meats, mozzarella and some panzanella.  All excellent - especially the mozzarella, perfect.

We also shared some char grilled squid with chopped chilies.  This was vastly over-seasoned.  Salt, salt and more salt.  Not good at all.

Onto to El Primi.  I went for the wild mushroom ravioli in sage butter sauce.  The pasta was light, well made.  Sage butter (something close to my heart after first encountering it in while stumbling around Eastern Europe as a student in a place called Konoba Mate on Korcula Island - go if you can) worked well with the porcini and girolles.  An accomplished dish.

For el Secondi I had the lamb leg, fresh canellini beans, stuffed yellow peppers pangrattato (or breadcrumbs, for the likes of me) and salsa verde.  Everything was well cooked -  the salsa verde cut through the lamb, the beans were nice.  The peppers didn't add much.

To finish, panacotta with grappa soaked raspberries.  The panacotta was creamy, but lacked flavour. Grappa soaked raspberries, not for me.

And so we come back to "value".  Was the portion of six ravioli worth fifteen pounds?  No.  Was the lamb worth thirty five? Definitely not.  Did I enjoy them both? Yes.  I can see the appeal of River Cafe. Sitting by the river, enjoying a glass of prosecco, feasting on seasonal Italian cuisine.  Could I recommend that you do so?  If money is no option, then yes.  If not, spend your hard-earned coins elsewhere, even taking into account the (almost exclusively) excellent food, it just does not represent value.

Lardo: where is the lardo?

The first thing that drew me to Lardo was the giant disco ball.  Now, don't get me wrong, disco balls are  not generally my kind of thing.  I'm more of a quiet-pint-in-a-corner guy than a disco-diva John Travolta.  But when that gleaming bright disco ball surrounds a fiery furnace turning out proper thin-based pizzas, you've got my attention.  Throw into the mix that the place cures all its own meats and I am surprised I wasn't there, queueing, on the opening night!  Give me a steak and I'll be happy for a night, give me chorizo or some coppa, and I'll be happy for life.

And so, one Sunday evening, we decided to make to short walk up through London Fields to try out our latest local eatery.  Would it match what's now coming out of the kitchen at Market Cafe? Or would it be a damp squib like Market House? 

We shared a few of the smaller plates to start: some delicious arancini stuffed with mozzarella and rich, fiery nduja (soft Italian sausage, rich in paprika), a broad bean salad with pecorino and some of that home-cured coppa (of course) -served by the 25g.  All very nice: simple food, well seasoned at reasonable prices. Can't ask much more than that!

Moving on to what is the main event at Lardo: the pizzas.  Although there are other mains, a rabbit stew was offered the day we were there, the disco ball will get you.  At least one person you are with will order a pizza, such is the draw of the "ball".

The base may be all Naples, thin and crisp, the toppings are more cosmopolitan!  I had the speck, spinach and belper knolle (a 15 week aged cows cheese from Berne, often served, as in Lardo, shaved over food like a truffle).  This all worked wonderfully well together - up there with Homeslice as one of my favourite pizzas of the year!

The Fashionista, her sister and her mate all had the pancetta, mozzarella and marjoram pizza.  I liked this, but not as much.  No tomatoes is fine, provided the pizza still works.  However, without the tomatoes, there was nowhere for the fat from the pancetta to go and it all became a little bit oily.  Nice flavours, just not quite there.

The girls finished off with some ice cream which seemed to go down a treat. 

Lardo is a very good local Italian eatery.  I wouldn't travel half way over London to go there.  But I don't need to, its just round the corner.  The test, does it stand up to the other places opening in East London? Categorically, yes!  This place will go from strength to strength:  after all it does have that disco ball pizza oven!

P.S. An honourable mention to the negroni maker - one of the best in London!

Vinoteca: simple food, very well done

Given the nature of London's Square Mile, you would think that you would be spoilt for choice when it came to choosing a restaurant. How hard can it be to run a small place serving simple dishes at reasonable prices?  Soho can do it. If anyone from Paris ever again dares to query whether it is possible to get great food in London, just send them for a walk along Frith Street and such illusions will be banished within minutes.  Surely then the grand old City, with its bankers and lawyers a plenty, should be able to serve up food beyond our wildest dreams.  And it does.  There are some exceptional restaurants in the City (Hawksmoor for one is tremendous) - but all of this comes somewhat at a price.
And so, casting our net a little wider we ended up in Smithfields (home of my favourite London caf(e) - Beppes).  We thought about Smith of Smithfields, but having had a meat overload the night before at (for the first time) a very disappointing Gauchos, we were looking for something a little lighter.  So we headed to Vinoteca, the first of the three eateries (there are now outposts in Marleybone and Soho) started by Brett Woonton, Charlie Young and Elena Ares. 

The menu is made up of a few smaller bites, and some Mediterranean style rustic starters and mains.  We shared some sprats (small fish, in this case smoked and served cold with horseradish cream) and some Jabugo Peregrina.  The sprats didn't receive unanimous approval, but I enjoyed them.  The Jabugo was a mixture of chorizo and cured meats - all quite nice but not a patch on the Manuel Maldonado meats at Jose and Pizarro.  Someone else had the pigeon breast with potato and truffled shallots - this was delicious, the perfectly cooked, slightly gamey, meat worked wonderfully with sweet shallots.

Slow-cooked rabbit with cannelloni beans

For main, I had the slow cooked rabbit with cannelloni beans, kale and aioli - the rabbit melted and the beans were soft and juicy, the kale provided the much needed greenery.  Others had the bavette steak with roast garlic and shallott butter and chips (seemed to be a favourite), and the cod with fregola (a type of pasta from Sicily, small balls a little larger than couscous), samphire, fennel and salsa verde.  The chargrilled cod was a little overdone in the mouthful I tried, but other than that it was a really well thought out dish.

Cod with fregola and samphire

Two courses in and we were all happily full with delicious food.  With no need for desert, we headed off to a place round the corner for Sierra Nevada pale ale on tap - nice to find, but not at five sixty a pint.  Anyway, back to Vinoteca, great food, reasonable prices and within five minutes walk from St. Pauls - there should be no excuse for anyone ever to go to a Corney and Barrow again!

Mele e Pere: reasonable Italian, served loud

Recently I had friends down from the North and, along with their son and daughter-in-law, we had planned to go out for dinner.  Having failed to make a booking, and given that we were staying central that evening, our options for a good feed were limited.  Someone had mentioned that Mele e Pere, a recently opened Italian in Soho, was a bit above average so, with a reservation secured, I thought we should try it out.

Mele e Pere describes itself as a "relaxed trattorria". Relaxed it was not.  First it is hard to find, looking as it does like a sweet shop from the outside - lots of colourful glass apples and pears.  Once you have found it and made your way down the stairs into the basement restaurant, you are hit by a wall of sound.  We were sat in the middle of the room - now I am no architect but the shape of the room (the slanting walls perhaps?) meant that all of the sound funnelled into the middle.  It was deafening.  And that comes from a guy who loves the hustle and bustle of busy restaurants - quiet and refined I am not.

Anyway, that aside, we moved onto the menu.  Although it is stated to change everyday, I think that the majority of things are actually staples - the menu on the website looks remarkably similar to that which we had. Some cured meats, a few starters followed by pasta and sauce dishes and larger meat secondi.

We shared some Coppa Mantovana which was melt in the mouth.  I had the octopus with desiree potatoes and salsa verde - octopus was perfectly cooked but the potatoes were cold and the salsa verde lacked punch.  The Geek had the beef tartare which was tender and well seasoned.

For main I had the pork belly, lentils and bean sprouts.  I think that the pork belly was meant to be cooked three ways although only two were discernible - crispy and slow cooked.  The lentils and bean sprouts were largely redundant.

Others had the tagliatelle with beef ragu and the spaghetti with clams broccoli and chili- all looked fine and seemed to slip down quite easily, if not splendidly.

There is a wealth of incredible Italian's surrounding Mele e Pere - Boca de Lupo, Polpetto etc etc.  And, while the food at Mele e Pere is okay, and in some cases really quite good (that octopus was really very well cooked indeed), once the new-opening-buzz has died down, I can't see many returning time and time again.  Good if you need a reservation quick snap in central London on a Thursday night, otherwise give it a miss...

Market Cafe: a welcome addition to Broadway

When I went to La Vie en Rose between Christmas and New Year the food was so absolutely terrible that it came as no surprise to me a few weeks later when its doors were shut for the very last time.  The place lay empty for around a month or so and then the builders moved in - someone else was going to give it a shot.

Market Cafe opened at the beginning of March and, if the bustling tables are anything to go by, has been a bit of a hit with the Hackney hipsters.  For, while Broadway has many eating options, there is nothing to fill the market between cheap and cheerful (Solche Cilician etc) at one end and Buen Ayre (an Argentinian steak house) at the other.  The Market Cafe does just that.

I have now been three times, once for breakfast and twice for dinner.  The food has been mostly good and you would have to think that, when they have settled into a rhythm, this place will go from strength to strength.

At breakfast the Fashionista had the homemade granola, fruit and yoghurt- sadly lacking much in the way of fruit.  I had the truffled rarebit on sourdough - mature melted cheese doused in truffle oil, not the healthiest way to start a weekend, but I loved it.

On my first evening visit I had the chicken al mattone and chips (an old recipe in which the chicken is cooked under weights leaving the skin crispy and the meat juicy).  Unforutunately the chicken, although nicely flavoured, was dry and the chips not up to much.  It could really have done with some greens as well (UPDATE: I have been told that this dish now comes with a side of wilted spinach).  LJC had the lamb with polenta and slow cooked carrots - all absolutely delicious.  The Ginger Weegie had the same dish on the second visit and it was a repeat sucess.

Undeterred by the chicken, which I think may have been the result of a very busy restaurant (the press were in that evening we were told), I headed along again last night. This time the Fashionista had the pasta and "meat sauce" (minced pork on that day) - nicely done although nothing spectacular.  I had the Tuscan sausage and bean casserole which came atop a crispy piece of sourdough and with a hunk of slow cooked pork belly. A really great dish which left me wanting more.

A month in and I can see Market Cafe shaping up to be a stallwort of the Broadway scene for years to come. Three visits in as many weeks says all you need to know, this place does simple hearty food in a friendly atmosphere - you can't ask much  more than that from your local eatery.  

Campania: Columbia Road Market

The perennial attraction that is Columbia Road Flower Market rumbles on - packed to the rafters every Sunday with people who would not normally consider going any further East than Liverpool Street.  On Sundays between 11 and 2, however, it is "safe" to go that bit further East and my do the restaurants seek to capitalise on these new found adventurers.  Places that do not open for the rest of the week throw open their doors, tables heaving with croissants, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafts along the street.

Living as I do about a ten minute walk from the market, I too am constantly drawn by the attractions on offer.  However, such is my sense of slumber on a Sunday morning, that I do not normally make it along much before one. By this time the regulars are in residence and it is impossible to get a table without waiting for far longer than the food probably deserves.  So I normally buy a plant and leave (I now have far to many- my flat is stating to resemble some kind of East end jungle), feeling destined never to sample the delicacies on offer.

Not so a couple of weeks ago.  An early night saw me rise at 9.  I was on Columbia Road for 11.  This was quite astounding for me.  One place in particular, Campania, has always had a certain allure.  A constant queue means its good right?  Today I was to find out - there was a table!

I went for the poached eggs with nduja on toast (spicy sausage from Italy which you squish onto bread).  The Fashionista had the fried eggs with chili. 

Now lets start with the good points - the bread was delicious sourdough, the nduja was very good indeed, the coffee nice.

Set against that were incredibly overcooked poached eggs, the yolks were cooked solid like little yellow gobstoppers.  The nduja was a mere smear, the toast half a slice.  The fried eggs were at least runny but were again served with only half a slice of toast.  For around seven pounds I expect more, much more.  Or if not much more, then at least a whole slice of bread!

Campania looks great.  People seem to like it.  Maybe it was an off day, maybe they were just warming up until the crowds arrived.  Sadly it just didn't live up to the standards I would expect from a place apparently so revered.

Polpetto, Incredible Chestnut Pasta

I have now completed three fifths of Russell Norman’s uber-cool restaurant empire:  Spuntino’s (the coolest of the lot) was good, the meatloaf at Mishkins made me smile from ear to ear, and now Polpetto.  Polpo and da Polpo to go. With Spuntino and Mishkins scoring highly I am happy to report that Polpetto did not disappoint.

Dinner last night was with an old friend from Canada who has been studying in London for six months already (I should have met up before much to my shame!).  Her experiences of food in London have, thus far, been expensive and disappointing.  On one occasion, when querying why the pho she had been given lacked the deep flavour that only comes from a stock made over many hours, the restaurant offered soy sauce by way of recompense.  I forgot to ask the name of the restaurant concerned - such laziness should be publicly named and shamed.  So, with such negative experiences to date, the pressure was on to deliver a cheap and cheerful but delicious dinner.  We tried Barafina and Duck Soup but both had queues out the door – we settled on Polpetto.

Located in a tiny space above the French House pub (it seats 28), the décor is all long-hanging light bulbs and stripped-back red bricks – needless to say you know you are in a Russell Norman restaurant.  One difference is noticeable from the outset, however, the staff are incredibly friendly (as opposed to Mishkins and Spuntinos where rumours abound of bad service - although I should say that on all of my visits the service has been nothing but friendly).  Sat at a table by the window, we pondered the menu, the waitress providing useful tips on the dishes.

To start we went for the polpette (meatballs in a rich tomato sauce) and zucchini fritters with lardo (pig back fat cured with rosemary - always good, even if it isn't the healthiest).  Both were delicious and rapidly devoured.

For second course I went for the chestnut maltagliati with sage and butter sauce.  Originally maltagliati pasta was made up from the off-cuts of other bits of pasta – lots of pieces of varying size.  Apparently the interesting shapes have now become so popular in Italy, however, that it is now considered a form of pasta in its own right.  If Polpetto’s chestnut maltagliati is anything to go by I can understand why.  Large trapezoid shapes of al dente chestnut pasta drenched in delicious, rich sage butter with a few crunchy pieces of chestnut interspersed – very good indeed.

My friend order the pork shoulder with rhubarb – the pork melted in your mouth, the rhubarb was tart and cut through the richness of the pork.  We asked for some lentils as well and these came served under the pork and added an earthiness without which the dish might have been lacking.  With the lentils, however, it was delicious.

On the side we also shared some cavolo nero – tender and reasonably tasty but nothing special.

All in all the food at Polpetto was very good indeed.  Perhaps a little pricier than Mishkins and Spuntinos but with the cosy atmosphere, the friendly service and the delicious food it is more than worth it.

P.S. Sorry no pics this time - the restaurant was just too dark for my poxy iPhone 3GS and I didn't have my camera with me.

Zucca: Fantastic Italian

This year I was charged with organising the Christmas lunch for my secretary at work - she asked for "not too posh Italian, somewhere I can have a nice bowl of pasta".  Within minutes I had a shortlist:  Boca de Lupo (still on my to-do-list after all this time), L'Anima, Time Out's London Italian of the year, and Zucca, one of my favourite places in London.  I put the options on the table - Zucca came back as the unanimous favourite.

And so on the last Wednesday before Christmas at 1pm sharp the five of us trooped out of the office and off to Zucca.  Now for a Christmas lunch, Zucca was not very Christmassy - no crackers or paper hats here (a blessing if you ask me!) - but the food is so consistently good I was sure all would be okay.  In fact I was relying on the food being a bit better than okay given that we had a couple of devoted foodies in our midst.

Zucca is at the far end of Bermondsey Street, an area well worth investigating even if you can't manage to get a reservation at Zucca given the excellent food on offer at both Pizarro and Jose and the great drinks at The Woolpack and the Hide!  Inside it is all clean lines with large windows and a kitchen open to the dining room.  The menu (which is made up of the type of food you find in good local restaurants throughout Italy (no pizza or gloopy pasta carbonara here!)) changes daily, although the zucca friti (pumpkin fritters) and veal chop seem to be regulars.

We had a glass of prosecco to start (it is the festive season after all!) and were provided with a bowl of various forms of bread along with a couple of slices of tortilla.  This is one of my favourite parts of any meal at Zucca as the bread comes with their own-brand olive oil - it has a wonderfully grassy flavour, this is probably my favourite olive oil -right up there the oil at Osteria Francescana.

I had the sea bass carpaccio with olive oil and finely diced sweet red peppers and chili.  The thinly sliced fish was absolutely delicious and was complemented well by the sweetness and crunch from the peppers.  A couple of the other diners started with the zucca friti which  also seemed to go down well.


For main, I went for the veal chop.  I had seen this coming out of the kitchen on previous visits but had always been sidetracked by other daily specials, safe in the knowledge that it would be there next time I visited.  This time I was not so distracted.  The wonderfully chargrilled veal chop was tender and juicy, served on top of nicely wilted spinach.  Simple, brilliant.

Being not much of a dessert fan I went for the cheese (served with delicious chutney and fruit bread) for afters, but I have to say that, when the pannacotta and poached pear came out, it seemed as though I had made a mistake.  This looked, and apparently tasted, very good indeed.

I cannot recommend Zucca enough.  The restaurant is welcoming and the food is both consistently good and more interesting than most other Italian restaurants in London.  

Su Sazzagoni

Having put out a last minute request for a Friday night dining location, Martin Yarnit of the blog Taste for Bologna gave a few great tips including Zucca (a terrific little Italian on Bermondsey Street) and Boca de Lupo (near the top of my current wish list!).  By that stage however we were back out East and therefore decided to try and find somewhere nearby- a quick blog search later and I had closed in on Su Sazzagoni- a family run Sardinian eatery in Victoria Park.

The only time I have been over to the quaint little area next to Victoria Park was to visit a branch of the Ginger Pig- a great butcher that has the added benefit of opening on Sundays! There is also a good little wine shop- Bottle Apostle. 

Arriving at Su Sazzagoni you are greeted with a deli counter jammed full of cured meats, sun dried tomatoes and other tasty Sardininan treats.  The interior is bright and modern with low hanging lights and long wooden tables- there are no individual tables so we were sandwiched in between a group of six and another table of four.  Given that a recent poll on lastminute.com found that being too close to other diners was the top-ranked bug bear for people at restaurants, this might not be to everyone's taste, but the convivial atmosphere made up for any lack of personal space.

On to the food- the menu is formed of antipasti (most of which seemed to be based on some form of foccacia), el primi, el secondi and dessert.  Following our recent trip to Bologna we were more than aware of the size of Italian meals and, despite our gargantuan appetites, have suffered the realisation that we are both incapable of eating a full Italian meal. 

In this knowledge we bypassed the rather uninspiring antipasti, shared an el primi, and had a secondi each.  With such tasty offerings as spaghetti with tomato, chili and lobster, and squid ink tagliatelle, it was hard to decide what to go for.  We settled on a papardelle duck ragu- this was a great dish.  Light and springy homemade papardelle, tender duck and fresh ragu.  If I had been served this dish in one of the local restaurants in Bologna, I would have been more than happy.

For el secondi I went for the grilled Sardinian sausage, roast potatoes and grilled aubergine and courgette.  The sausage was delicious- coarsely cut pork, well seasoned with a strong flavour of fennel seeds. The veg and potatoes were simply okay- certainly nothing special.

The Fashionista went for an interesting dish of salmon carpaccio, tuna tartare and prawns with garlic, lemon and parsley butter.  We were both quite excited about this dish, however it was underseasoned and, while the quality of the ingredients was undoubtedly high, it was just a little bland.  The dish really could also have done with some sort of accompaniment - the Fashionista asked for some bread to go along with the mountain of fresh fish.

Su Sazzagoni is a friendly, family-run restaurant and I think that, provided you stick to the more basic items on the menu, you would have a great time- all of the pasta dishes coming out of the restaurant looked tasty as did the pizzas.  Unfortunately though, tuna tartare and salmon carpaccio were just a step too far for this restaurant...

Da Enzos of Modena

This is just a quick blog to let people know about a great little local restaurant which I went to on my recent trip to Modena.

We were in Modena for our visit to Osteria Francescana however we had two nights and so had to find somewhere to eat on the first night.  I had read a great review of a restaurant hidden at the back of a bar(Hosteria Giusti) but we arrived to find that, while the bar was open, the restaurant was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Propped up against the bar we started plotting our next move... 

Thankfully a friendly local guy turned to us and queried our quizzical expressions- what are you looking for?  How much? He pondered for around ten minutes and came back with Da Enzos so we finished our artisanal beer (I never knew the Italians did these so well!) and made our way round the corner to Enzos.

Now when you walk into Enzos I almost guarantee that you are not going to be overly impressed on first sight- its up a narrow staircase and the decor is a little dated.  That, however, is not what this place is about- what it lacks in modernity it makes up for in simple hearty local classics.

The restaurant was a little empty when we arrived but it quickly filled up with local families and by the time we were half way through our el primi it was buzzing.

As we were off to Osteria Francescana the next night the Fashionista and I were "taking it easy" and therefore decided to share a pasta dish of pumpkin tortellini in a sage butter sauce- the pasta was nice but the filling was a little sweet and, rather strangely, had undertones of marzipan.  The local at the bar recommended we try Cotechino (a rich italian sausage which is boiled on a low heat for four hours) and Zampone (a local sausage made in a pig's trotter).  Feeling adventurous I gave the Zampone a shot and the Fashionista had the Cotechino- both, while rather similar, were delicious served simply with potatoes.

Now Enzo's is not a fancy restaurant, and if you are looking for somewhere where the food will be served beautifully in chic surroundings then this is not the place for you- if, however, you are looking for genuine Modenese cooking in a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere then you could do no better than Da Enzos of Modena.