Yum Cha Silk and Spice, Camden, NW1

Dim sum! God I love some dim sum. I must have gone past this place hundreds of times without a second thought on my way to the bars towards Chalk Farm, as it blends into the haggerdy background of discount shoes and £10-for-any-piercing shops that line Camden High Street. But luckily another review drew my attention to it and since then I've returned three times, and will be back again no doubt. Give it a chance. The main thing draw, apart from the delicious food, is the 50% off Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday evening slot. It is quite chaotic and rough-and-ready; we went on a Tuesday night and it was very full, and the waitresses were practically falling over rushing about and one almost tripped over our table.

It is a little badly organised if I'm honest; every time we've been, it's taken a very long time to get drinks. This visit, we had five servers asking us if we are ready to order food in as many minutes, even though we are still desperately waiting for our drinks before we wanted to consider the menu. Spotted a couple nearby dying of neck-crane to try to get someone's attention. So yeah, a bit of a blot.
But I love Yum Cha. It's brilliant really for last minute 'god, dim sum, right now, please' cravings, hungover lunches, and good for groups as well. En route to the Roundhouse for a gig, or going out in Camden generally, this is a great place for a stomach-liner as well. My one disclaimer here is that I should say I am quite new to dim sum, and I haven't widely sampled it, so I may be speaking more from the heart here but Yum Cha really hits the spot for me (and goes down much nicer than our standard gutbuster delivery orders from a Chinese takeaway in Holloway road).

Char sui pork buns

Steamed greens in Oyster sauce

So what did we have? Our old favourite, spicy salt and pepper tofu scattered with chilli and spring onion, which is so moreish that the last time I went, my friends went slightly mad ordered a second plate of it after the meal was done, even though we were literally unbuttoning our jeans we were so stuffed. And pork buns! The must-order of any dim sum experience, for £3.50, were most decent, arrived steaming hot, beautifully soft with the dough melting in the mouth like it should. Awesome.
We were given Chinese vinegar on the side with all the dishes, plus soy sauce and a lovely unsweet chilli dip which was spicy without being too hot. Salty Chinese greens in oyster sauce provided a nice counterpoint to the richness of the fried food. And as for dumplings, the prawn and chive dumplings had a lovely texture while the sieu long bao were juicy and delicious. We ordered nine dishes in total, and the only one that was really quite disappointing was the crispy duck roll which was tough and dry. There was so much more we wanted to try. The entire menu is online here, if you're interested.
And after 50% off? £33 for all that, and service, and three beers which were probably £10 on their own! I love it, and I'll be back soon. Do check it out. 

Yum Cha Silk and Spice, 27-28 Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, NW1 8AG,020 7482 2228

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The Assembly House, Kentish Town, NW5

Just a quick one from me on the Assembly House, another possible food option in Kentish Town (I've been a bit more hungry in Kentish Town recently!). The entire pub was shut for ages this summer for a refit, and inside now it is even more gorgeous than before. It was always beautiful, as it's a huge old building, all mirrors and high ceilings, huge windows, wooden bars, but now it just feels like a super fancy, extremely swish sort of place to have a pint. And Kirin beer on tap! And the all important ale-selection for the ale lovers, as I have many friends who have demonstrated to me the importance of a pub having at least one good ale. But this wasn't about the drinks -  this was about the food.

So alongside this plush interior overhaul comes the fancy-pants pseudo-gastro pub menu. You know exactly what I mean - it's not sausage and mash, it's Suffolk Farmers pork sausage with West Country cheddar mash and red onion gravy. Fair enough I suppose, detail is useful, but it's disappointing when the food doesn't nearly taste as good as the description sounds.

The dining area in the back

Halloumi and chips with side salad

Tempted in by the two meals for £11.95 offer which will run indefinitely, my friend and I both went for veggie options. I had the "Hand-battered Halloumi with skin-on chips, dressed salad and red pepper and chilli dip." whereas my mate had "Caremlised shallot, Croxton Manor cheddar & Ruddles rarebit tart in thyme pastry with a caremlised red onion chutney, served with new potatoes and a dressed salad." Whew, long names! 

Occasionally pub food is greasy but just hits the spot in the right way, but this utterly missed the mark. My halloumi was an oily deep-fried mess and I would have preferred supermarket-bought halloumi dry-fried at home. It had more of the consistency of mozzarella, rather than that squeaky plasticiness I had hoped for. The chilli sauce was a handy addition at least, as virtually all the cheese's flavour and saltiness had drowned in the batter and frying process as a result, and while the chips were fine, the salad was a handful of wilting out-the-bag afterthought with far too little dressing (ironic considering the salad was even advertised as 'dressed', as if that was to be an unusual and pleasant addition). Pub food sort of needs to be greasy but this was a bit much even for me.

Things fared not too much better for the fancy long-named tart. It was small and tough, and drenched in that red onion chutney which overpowered everything and tasted like it had come out of a jar. My friend did say it was nicely cheesy, so maybe not a total loss, but the same situation again as with my deal with its side salad.
It's a shame that although the pub itself is gorgeous after being redone, that what comes out the kitchen got overlooked, but that's how it goes I guess. It's a lovely pub, mind. The staff are friendly and chatty, the interior is beautiful and the drink selection is nice and varied. Just don't bother with the food.

The Assembly House, 292 Kentish Town Road/Leighton Road, Kentish Town, NW5 2TG, 020 7485 2031

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Kentish Canteen, Kentish Town, NW5

Lunch options in Kentish Town are a shade limited if you work here every day - to say we were pretty thrilled when the Pret opposite the tube opened would be an understatement. So when the Kentish Canteen opened, replacing a long-closed restaurant, it was exciting to say the least.

Salads on display when you walk in

It has all the elements - tasteful, modern decor, with a nice outdoor patio section for dining al fresco, a great location near the tube and seemed not too expensive for the odd lunch with a friend.  And an AMAZING menu. So it should be fantastic. But it just isn't, really, and sadly I don't think I've ever come away, apart from once, feeling like I'd really enjoyed it and wanted to go back soon, which shows itself in the mixed reviews it receives.

But it does offer a good lunch deal - £10 for a dish, and a glass of wine, beer or soft drink. So it's popular with the surrounding area, and a good choice for my office if we're doing a group lunch. (I haven't eaten there in the evening time.)

It's just such a shame about the food - at its heart, it's a fantastic idea. Mediterranean food with a modern twist, small plates for making a tapas-style lunch, large sharing platters, simple dishes, brunch (including that ever-popular Eggs Benedict) all day. They also have a little rotating selection of fascinating and inventive salads like "Naanjing black rice with mango, pepper, soy, sesame, ginger" and "roast aubergine, cumin & coriander, lemon yoghurt", all displayed beautifully when you walk in.  Or you know, you can have just have a plate of chilli linguine (small or large!). I love that flexibility and variation. And the food DOES taste okay, and has the potential to be great, it just seems that it comes so close to being very nice, and then falls at the final hurdle.

For instance, on one previous visit, me and a friend went with the £10 lunch menu burger. The chips that it comes with were huge, chunky monsters and very satisfying, and the burger itself was decent enough - but both me and my friend had a completely stale bun. I have no idea how the kitchen could have overseen this, but a half-hearted attempt to toast it didn't hide the fact, which spoiled the dish.

On another visit, I found that the ravioli, which was also quite okay, was advertised on the menu as containing asparagus but didn't hold any trace as far as we can tell, which could have been the buttery sauce overwhelming asparagus's delicate flavour, but the filling was completely yellow and orange.

Onion tart, with pepper and anchovy in the back

Kentish Canteen burger with chunky chips and coleslaw

Finally, my most recent visit, we branched off from the lunch menu which seemed to have been a good choice. I went with an onion tart, which was good value at £8.99 including a side salad of my choice. I went with the stuffed pepper, tomato, and anchovy side (what can I say, I'm obsessed.)

The stuffed pepper was actually very good, but was wonderfully salty and came with the nice afterthought of a crouton of bread to mop up excess juice which I liked. The onion tart was also quite tasty, apart from the fact that I discovered the crust was a little burned - just a little, but enough to drag the meal down from 'good' into 'eh'. Meanwhile, the burger was apparently very nice this time! So who knows.

It's such a shame that the Kentish Canteen falls at the final hurdle. I can't help but feel that if they just sorted out the little niggles like this across the board, they'd be a fantastic place to eat in. And although on this instance, no burger buns were stale, and we were even given a complimentary selection of rather zingy and refreshing lemon posset desserts, I'm still a bit disappointed. I daresay I'll be back - perhaps the breakfasts are superb? - but either I have pretty bad luck in general, or it just seems to be the same failing over and over; not enough attention to detail.

Kentish Canteen, 300 Kentish Town Road, Kentish Town, NW5, 0207 485 7331

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Le Cale, La Plage, Blainville-sur-Mer, France

We had good fortune to be able to enjoy a short holiday in Normandy last weekend, complete with a rented car like real grownups, handling the endless French roundabouts, torrential rain and sparse petrol stations but had a really wonderful time. And I have to tell people about this fantastic place we had dinner on Sunday night - La Cale.

No jazz band the night we were there, sadly.

It might just be me, but when you're on holiday in an area that thrives on tourism, choosing a place to eat which isn't "too touristy" (i.e. crap and overpriced) can be quite a big ask. So you go from street to street knowing in your heart that you're in completely the wrong area in the first place but resolutely refusing to settle for Irish pub food in the medieval town of St. Malo, for instance, so you try to pick something that fits half way between. La Cale, on the other hand, is quite a distance from anything flashy, is anything but easy to find and doesn't really feel all that tourist-targeted, although I daresay they get a few gushing expats and Brits like myself who just adore the whole set up. For starters, its address (on the business card we were given, at least) was "La Cale, la plage". It's just a shack, location: 'the beach'. No number or anything - this is the location on streetview, just down that long lane. Thank god for sat navs is all I'll say, we ended up following a sign that said "La mer, 0.2k" There's no set opening hours either, so you have to just show up and hope it's open, not too full, and not too empty. However, we were in luck! We ran from our car in the torrential rain and burst through the door and sat down at one of the rickety benches, grateful for the roaring fire (good old summer holidays). 
Taking in the whole atmosphere of the place was a great laugh - tonnes of crooked paintings on the wall, mostly boats and nude women, plus a cracked hair drier, all with a full view of the tide. We ordered a drink - local cider! - and watched the swell of the waves in the storm which were really just a scant distance away.

We both ordered moules frites (mussels and chips), not really knowing much about how they'd come, just that there'd be moules and there'd be frites. And by god, there was. Our table number, painted on a stone, was roared from outside the kitchen, and the next thing a HUGE, utterly huge, steel pot was slammed onto our table with a ladle next to it. Beautiful little mussels, swimming in cream, cider, parsley, and who knows what else, they were beyond delicious.

The frites that accompanied the meal were some of the best chips I've ever had, golden and crispy on the outside, but soft and fluffy enough to make eating them alarmingly easy. Combine with a side of oily homemade mayonnaise and we were in heaven.

Such delicious chips! 

Although we were fit to burst after we threw in the towel on the mussels, the boyfriend decided he'd be mad not to order a galette, so went for 'Galette Pere de Voision', recalled from memory but the name loosely meant neighbour's father, which a French pancake with calvados, butter and sugar. It was beyond delicious, the sharpness of the apple brandy combined with the richness of the butter and the carmelisation brought on by the copious amounts of sugar, was gorgeous. And despite knowing I'd probably regret it, I decided to snaffle a few mouthfuls from his plate, even though I felt like I had eaten 60,000 mussels already.
What I liked about La Cale was that although it's probably reasonably easy to do 'rustic France for tourists' style dining or whatever, this place felt like the real deal. The entire experience was utterly practical (want a napkin? BAM a roll of kitchen roll on your table.). The staff were very laid back, and friendly. And the location was to die for. I can't even imagine how great it would be to enjoy such fresh, well-cooked and authentically local food outside looking at the sea, without the driving rain (offset, mind, by the roaring fire - all my clothes stank of woodsmoke when we got home). The outside seating consisted of tables made out of wire-reels, from what I could tell, on a sand-coated wooden deck and looked equally practical and endearing. Imagine, with the sunset, and a warm breeze...sigh.

Hooray for summer holidays! 

I'll not be going back to Normandy for some time, with the whole car rental and distance to travel needed, it's a bit of a mission, but I'll probably remember La Cale as one of the highlights of the entire holiday. Wonderful.


La Cale, La Plage, 50560 Blainville-sur-Mer, France, +33 2 33 47 22 72 ‎

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The Meatwagon, Peckham Rye, SE22

The Meatwagon, famous largely for last year's pop up restaurant The Meateasy, is back. Their van got nicked last year, so they've decked out an American ambulance with a grill, of course. 'Guerilla dining' is how they refer to themselves, and they kind of operate around this nothing-wasted-on-frills-so-enjoy-top-quality-food-instead run down shabby vibe, which is kind of in vogue at the moment and certainly seems to be permeating a lot of London's most beloved trendy restaurants, Spuntino and Polpetto being two that come to mind. A burger van, basically. 
I love a good burger, so I travelled to Peckham, where the Meatwagon started out. (Peckham! You have to get a train from Victoria! I'm sorry, I know it's a bit pathetic, but I'm a North London girl for the time being.) Following the invitation of a friend, we went have a drink in the Rye, and enjoy a burger from the new incarnation of the Meatwagon which was stationed outside, grills-a-sizzling, Kasabian-a-blaring all in that nice twilighty summer evening glow. And a goooorgeous smell. 

So was it worth it? Pretty much. I opted for a cheeseburger, £6.00, which was brought to my pub table. It was thick, sticky-cheese encrusted wedge of happiness, served in a lovely glazed bun which absorbed the juices and flavours, without turning into a sog fest. Proper runny burger cheese as well, none of this 'mature cheddar' rubbish. It needed the addition of ketchup, as I'm a bit of a ketchup fiend, but apart from that it ticked all my boxes. Very rough round the edges, with grease and pink juice dripping down onto the paper plate with each awesome bite, gloriously disgusting, onions everywhere. It made a bloody mess and was a bit tricky to eat, but somehow I managed, hah.

Others I was with went for the bacon burger, £7.00, which also went down extremely well. My boyfriend chose the 'Dead Hippy' burger, a kind of Big-Mac-esque deal with the main interest point being that the meat was fried in mustard. Does anyone else even do that? It was the first I've ever heard of such a thing. In any case it was wonderfully spicy without being overwhelmingly mustard-y, (although he did prefer mine, in the end.)

Phwoar, meatyyyy.

Although staff seemed surprised and a little perplexed when one of our party asked for no cheese on his bacon burger (causes him migraines), and we could have done with some napkins, overall it was a really chilled out, enjoyable experience, and a damn good meal. I desperately want to sink my teeth into another one. 
The Hawksmoore it ain't, and their burgers aren't pretty, but oh yes, I'm pretty delighted I did make the trek dahn sarf to Peckham to give them a whirl. Do make every effort to catch the wagon if it's nearby, they seem to be doing the rounds nowadays - or make an evening of it like we did. 


The Meatwagon, all over London, info@themeatwagon.co.uk 

Seoul, Finchley Road, NW3

Remains of yuke in the bottom right corner - this plate was picked clean before it was taken away

Korean cuisine in London doesn't come close to the widespread reaches enjoyed by Chinese, Thai, Japanese or Indian, possibly because unlike the rest, you can't properly enjoy it as takeaway, because while Kimchi or bibimbap soup might survive reasonably well in transit, the true uniqueness of Korean lies in its hot, freshly barbequed meat dishes. The sheer unfathomed joy of cooking little strips of meat over a barbecue, built into your table, before making a little lettuce wrap with red bean curd paste, salt sauce, rice and then biting into it is something that can't be replicated at home. It's definitely better for meat-lovers. 

Barbecue - each plate of meat waiting to be cooked, £4.00/£4.50 (normally £8.00/£9.50)

I don't have very many pictures of this meal, and they were off my phone, so I'll keep it short and snappy - Seoul is a small, local Korean restaurant in Finchley & Frognal, a two-minute amble from the overground station and not too far from the Jubilee line tube. It's the sister restaurant of a sushi place, and when we went - six of us, on a Saturday night - it was subdued but fairly busy, a brightly lit room with about 20 covers, with quite a few Korean people dining. The meal was outstanding in every sense of the word, and well worth the trip, if you live in North London or are a bus ride away at least. To be fair, we even had someone with us from Peckham who was still glad they came for the journey. This was my second trip here, admittedly it had been two years, but it has remained just as good.
We were with someone who was quite au fait with the whole Korean food experience (I asked her about 10 times what gets dipped in what) who thankfully took over the ordering process. We all agreed that barbecue needed to feature heavily, of course, but we were wondering what to get. Finally enticed by their 50% off offer, and the waiter going "why not just get everything" - that's what we got. Everything on the barbecue menu. Six animals! Vegetarians, look away. Several varieties of marinaded beef, pork, chicken, ox tongue, king prawn, squid, plus some onions, mushrooms, green peppers and garlic. Chucked onto the grill with gusto, cooked by everyone at the table, shared around, eaten piping hot. 10/10 for deliciousness apart from some very bony chunks of steak which we obviously couldn't eat.

We also got yuke, (or yuk hui as it's sometimes written), not for the faint-hearted when it comes to meat, but it sent our table into paroxysms of joy. Cold, raw beef strips, with raw quail egg, sesame oil, pine nuts, and raw pear. You mash it all together, then you eat it as it is. It doesn't sound appealing, but my god, if you're at all daring, you'd want to have a go. We also ordered a swathe of little plates - kimchi, sesame cucumber, pickled bean-sprouts, vinegary shredded radish (my favourite) - which arrived within moments of ordering, around £1.00 to £1.50 on the menu each. The wonderful waiter then told us that these appetisers were on the house, and that we were entitled to as much as we liked. I have no idea if this is standard for this restaurant, or because we were a large group ordering a tonne of food, but either way, it put a big smile on our faces. He also brought us out pickled mooli - kaktoogi - something we didn't order, but he told us that it was a traditional Korean side dish, and all the rest, which was a lovely touch. 
Then, the bill - get ready; for six people, all that food, rice, yuke, plus beers, and a breakaway member of the group who ordered udon noodles and a soup, the bill was £120. £20 or so each! (Without the 50% off all barbecue , it would have been closer to £155 - still a damn good deal.)
By the end of the meal, we were pretty much all dying with being full of amazing food and happiness. It's perfect for group dining, and a total delight - not quite so much for vegetarians though. This is another restaurant that has no website, but do yourself a favour and try some of Seoul's Korean food as soon as you can. Mmm. 

Seoul, 289 Finchley Road, NW3 6ND, 020 7784 9099

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Pollen Street Social, Pollen Street, W1S

Sorry for the lull - three- and four-day weeks make for laziness, and then returning to work makes for high stress! Plus I've been helping out a friend by subbing her master's thesis, as you do, so when I have a moment to myself, all I want to do when is sit in front of the telly playing Playstation (damn you PS3 network, when will you be back up?!) But anyway.

The hype that surrounded the Pollen Street Social before it was opening was quite incredible, so I was desperate to go. And with good reason - former shining star and top chef at Gordon Ramsay's Maze, launching a brand new restaurant just off Regent Street in Mayfair, promising a gorgeous bar for tapas-style munching, or a mix-and-match style menu so you can create your ideal meal from, and a dessert bar? Oh my God. But we'll get to that. All in good time. 

Inside - dessert bar on the left and glass-fronted kitchen on the right

We arrived for the lunch menu, on the day of the Royal Wedding (no comment) and made our way inside to a surprisingly empty dining area. Considering how fraught the booking process seemed to be for many trying to secure an evening table, on a bank holiday, this seemed pretty surprising. It was pretty nerve-racking trying to take some covert snaps, as we were so well attended to by the staff. The main room was as promised - huge, light and airy, decorated tastefully.

What I absolutely adored about the décor above all other things was the use of glass-fronts. The front of the main kitchen is entirely glass, so you can watch the chefs skilfully smearing a teaspoon of purée, or mashed potato across a plate, then carefully building the meal around it, intensely wiping stray drops of sauce from the dish. For me, it was an utter joy to be able to watch it (the best view is from the dessert bar). Then, head downstairs to the bathroom and there's the second kitchen. A glass fridge visible from the corridor to the bathroom acted as a window into the kitchen, with big meaty hocks of lamb and pork hanging off gruesome-looking butcher hooks. All in all a totally fun experience. 

Before we sat down we were given a key - for something to take home at the end? We didn't know! It was a novelty I really liked. To start things off we enjoyed some complimentary bread, for which we were shortly after given a dip which I cannot remember the name of - the waiter said something about smoked trout, and potato, I believe? It was definitely a little bit weird, but quite an interesting addition to the usual butter-and-olive-oil fare.  

Salmon with jersey royals, avocado

The three course lunch menu (£23.50) offered a nice variety, although dishes were almost slightly under described. Ordinarily a restaurant will faff about with pan-fried this and locally sourced that on a bed of whatever. I ordered salmon with jersey royals, and was presented with a thick slice of cured salmon with cucumber, slices of potato, some ice shaving (I think?). It looked incredible, but I would have liked to have known what I was actually having. Also, as a fan of strong flavours I desperately found myself wanting more seasoning. This may be a side effect of drizzling every piece of sushi I eat in soy sauce, but I kept looking for a smokiness or a sweetness, and found very little. It was tremendously refreshing, and a lovely light dish though. 

Salad Lyonnaise

My boyfriend's starter on the other hand - Salad Lyonnaise with roasted quail was fabulous. I kept nicking pieces off his plate. A gorgeous tower of creamed egg, game and salad with some thin crispy bread, oh it was truly amazing. Probably my favourite dish of the entire experience. Ooh la la. 

Shortly after we finished up, the mains arrived. I opted for spiced braised pork cheeks with turnip, celeriac and a coffee purée. The pig cheeks were divine, cooked to perfection and melting off the fork, and the whole dish was presently beautifully, with tiny little purple flowers atop a little mountain of meaty goodness. I didn't discover any coffee-flavours, which was disappointing as I was very curious about it, but a lovely well-rounded dish. 

Braised spiced pig cheeks - the gravy was poured over at the table, beautiful presentation.  

Boyfriend was temped by the Cornish brown crab risotto, with seaweed and samphire. It packed an incredibly salty punch and was right up his street, and again was beautifully presented, in a silver pot that was left on our table for top-up as and when needed. It was a nice touch - it's always fun to feel involved in looking after your food. 

We finished up, and ordered a dessert each - me opting for Eton Mess and boyfriend being brave and going for the Fruta Cru (we'd no idea what it was) with basil sorbet. "Would you like to eat your dessert at the dessert bar?" Why hell yes, we would. 
And it was the total highlight, 100% fantastic. Sitting on a row of bar stools, six or seven or so, full kitchen view, in front of us a lovely chef, working away, chatting intermittently. "What I'm doing here is .... ", "and this is a little drizzle of balsamic syrup..." and so on. It was an absolute delight, as were the puddings. 

Over-exposed shot of our dessert chef making my Eton mess

The basil sorbet in particular was outstandingly delicious. Highly recommend it - plus the presentation of the fruta cru, which turned out to be a compressed fruit dessert drizzled with ginger syrup and caramelised herb leafs tarragon oh my god, was placed in front of us with quite a dramatic flow of dry ice over the counter. My Eton mess was fantastic, quite complex creation for a simple dessert.

Fruta cru. Not pictured: dry ice wafting out bowl

Overall, the Pollen Street Social served really excellent food, but the portions were incredibly small, particularly compared to the Riding Street Cafe, which was where I last reviewed.  Still though, quality over quantity, and that's what you get with fine dining though, I find. Plus, big flavours can often more than make up for small sizes. However, I'd be lying if I didn't mention how the prices were pretty damn high. Although we went with the lunch menu, wine and coffee prices were very off-putting - two black Americanos (not even a froo-froo cappuchino or anything) coming in at £4.00 each, and £7.50 for one fairly small glass of wine, meaning that the Pollen Street Social is most definitely a budget-buster, and best saved for a special occasion.
But the addition of the dessert bar, and the other extra touches, means that you're definitely getting more than the food - like at the end of our meal, we presented our key, and got two little brown scones with some tea, "Afternoon tea, on us". Lovely! There's a wonderful atmosphere, so if that doesn't make it up for you, it'd be wary to recommend going. But you could easily drop in off the street on an afternoon, and enjoy a drink and pudding without spending your life savings, and still enjoy the lovely kitchen view as well. 
The Pollen Street Social, 8/10 Pollen Street, London, W1S 1NQ, 020 7290 7600

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The Riding House Cafe, Great Titchfield Street, W1

So thanks to gradually building up a fairly steady list of good food twitter-types that I follow, I was alerted, in a roundabout way, to the opening of the Riding House Cafe - and not only that, but a 50% off soft opening offer! 

For starters, it's in Fitzrovia/Noho/what most people call "North of Oxford Street", which is sorely lacking in good places to stop in for a bite to eat. Plus it's big inside, with one area (a long, rustic wooden table) purely for walk-ins - although the waitress I spoke to said that if demand is high, they might reserve spaces on that too. For now, though, that's the plan.

I liked the interior. Red leather sofas, proper wooden tables and no tablecloths, heavy silver candlesticks, fringed lampshades, reminding me of the bar area in the Hawksmoor Seven Dials. The other area is a high-ceilinged, and quite a bit noisier, with a bar where you can choose to eat if you prefer, plus the long table which is saved just for for walk ins. Although I do like the 'stripped down' rustic type decoration, I felt the authentically-chipped white water jug was a step too far, as were the authentically-damaged mirrors in the bathroom.  But crucially, it did all work, especially when factoring in the music that played over the sound system (the XX was playing while ordering, hah), which gives the place a nicely informal atmosphere.

Onto the food - we both had a cocktail while perusing the menu. I had a Raspberry and Elderflower Collins which was sadly a bit too much for me; a huge glass with no trace of elderflower, a strong whack of gin and fresh raspberry, which was still delicious but not the elegant concoction I'd hoping for. My boyfriend got on much better with a Pirate Daiquiri (lol) containing mostly Angostura bitters, rum, honey. The bread we ordered was gorgeous, lovely asparagus puree dip to go with, although I thought the olives were bland compared to the garlic-rosemary-salt-oil marinaded monsters I'm used to, so I'd skip those. 

I liked the type and layout of the menu - nice choice of wines on the back too. 

For starters, we absolutely hammered the small plates, ordering six dishes which was probably far too much. Each dish is £3, £4 or £5, so it's hard not to over-order when everything sounded amazing, I promise.
The standout for me was the sea bass ceviche with chilli and lime, sharp, tangy and fresh, then finishing on a wonderfully creamy sheep's ricotta with beetroot and the inspired addition of sunflower seeds to a dish, which gave it a wonderful earthiness usually imparted by an overabundance of watercress. 

Pork belly on the left, squid in the middle and poussin on the right

I was horribly disappointed by the pork belly though, I'm sorry to say. I love pork belly, when it's done right, and I'd heard such good things about the Riding House Cafe's one, but alas. Although the crackling was perfect, the meat was almost inedible for me. It was so dry that I ended up leaving most of it.
We also had a squid, chorizo and tomato dish, which was wonderful, and was my boyfriend's favourite, plus an anchovies-on-toast type dish (which needed more salt to feel properly anchovie-y to me, but that could just be my strange tastes.) The last small dish we had was the grilled poussin kebab with lemon and couscous, which was delicately smokey and quite tasty. 
That alone, if you're wondering, would do lunch I feel, although I'm sure that's not the point. For main, I had a glass of Chenin Blanc which was excellent, and Heritage tomato tart (or 'heirloom tomatoes' as they're sometimes called but this isn't the post to get into it). The tart came with some outstandingly fresh, crunchy rocket on the side, a smear of glorious pesto, a few salad leaves and yellow and red little tomatoes scattered about. 

It was utterly delicious - no heavy pastry, but rather a round of cheesy, crispy, buttery, flaky heaven, baked with some thin slices of tomato, topped with two generous quivering mounds of milky mozzarella. It was just perfect for me.
On the other hand, my boyfriend ordered the rack of pork with lentils and spicy sausage. For starters, the rack of pork was absolutely enormous. He doesn't tend to leave food on his plate all that often (even managing to salvage the uneaten pork belly earlier by dipping it in the squid and tomato sauce) but even he couldn't finish this mammoth serving. So be warned.

Tastewise though, the sausage was meaty and smokey, just what it should have been. The horseradish was creamy, and could have been a little hotter, but overall the dish was nice balance of the pork, the crispy skin in particular adding fantastic crunch.

Bad photo, sorry!

For dessert, we (just about managed to) order the Chocolate Praline Semifreddo and mother of god, I'm so happy we did. Every good restaurant should send you home with at least one dish that you talk about on the bus, and that was this dish for us. A glorious rectangle of creamy, cold praline chocolate, edged with a brownie-type cake, with raspberry coulis and an amazing crunchy circle of cold caramel with nuts (almonds?) and pistachios. It was so perfect in the balance of texture, the sharpness of the raspberry, the richness of the chocolate. And a huge portion too - after all that, me and my boyfriend were quite stuffed and glad we were sharing.
The bill was also most reasonable. Around £60 for all the food for two, and we also sank about £25 into drinks. Then the magic of the soft opening happened where it's 50% off, so in total we paid about £63 including service charge.
They're doing the soft opening offer until May the 3rd, so if you can nab a table, I would definitely recommend doing so. And unlike Nopi, (where I also availed of the soft opening offer), I still think it was great value for what it was. Plus there's no reason to order six bloomin starter plates. Or alternatively, skip on the main. I'm keen to go back some afternoon and just have a bunch of teeny plates at the bar. 


The Riding House Cafe,  43-51 Great Titchfield Street London W1W 7PQ 020 7927 0840

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Lemonia, Primrose Hill, NW1

There's a reason I originally called this blog 'Hungry in Camden', and not something suffocatingly twee like “Nancy’s kitchen” or "My little cookery blog" (lol).  I've done a tiny bit of food writing before for a website run by my colleague, frequent a tonne of brilliant food blogs (which is intimidating to say the least), and love keeping up to speed as best I possibly can with all the various culinary-themed goings on – so want to start writing about restaurants in North London and beyond.

(But yeah, I'm not planning on dropping any side-splitting witticisms or clever, clever writing puns a la some critics, or come up with any groundbreaking new insight. And bear with my incredibly amatuer attempt to take photos without a flash in a restaurant. AlI that aside though, I can certainly tell what I like and what I don't…)

And I can definitely tell you that Lemonia, in Primrose Hill, I liked VERY much. I tend to find that Greek food, for me at least, has been a disappointing mishmash of boney fish (for some reason I always ordered the fish - idiot), lemon wedges and cloying feta. I've obviously never had properly nice Greek food. Which is a shame as I'm wild about Greek cheese, minty-citrusy flavours, yoghurt, hummus, pitta, charcoal - all that good stuff.

Enter Lemonia, widely-popular and massively well known.  We'd been planning to go to this one for over a year, but somehow never got around to it. We even got close enough to cancel a booking! Oh GOD how I wish we'd been sooner. On Wednesday, looking for somewhere un-fancy and relatively cheap but still special to celebrate our anniversary,  (we've just come back from Berlin so really no need to go all out in the slighest) we remembered Lemonia and sorted a table for the next night. Very little planning went into it - and isn't that always the way with the meals you enjoy the most? The NOPI soft opening was so rigourously planned by myself, booking online as soon as the system was announced, and all that jazz, but in the end it was just a little on the side of underwhelming in terms of a dining experience, although the food was marvellous (and massively overpriced if it had been full cost.) This was just a kind of, meh, we’ll see how we go endeavour, and oh boy, we went well.

Quick bit of research beforehand turned up this review from the very even-handed Jay Rayner from 2008, recommending to ignore most of the menu and just get the mezze for two, £18.50 each. Great advice – definitely do this. The menu is bloody massive and you’ll never get to sample so many of their excellent dishes.

Taramasalata

Within 10 minutes of sitting down, having polished off some lovely olive and carrot nibbles, we were tucking into a wide array of cold dips. I'm always a bit safe in restaurants, I like to choose my favourites, but if I'd done that, I'd never have had this oily, smokey aubergine dip before (and if you remember my sweet potato ratatouille post, I'm pretty anti-aubergine so this was a revelation to me.) And the weirdly-unpink but astonishingly delicious taramasalata, MY GOD, it was incredible. We were eating it with a fork by the end, having run out of pitta. Tabboleh, hummus, tzatsiki - everything was delicious. Although, I think I’d have preferred a stronger-tasting shop bought hummus, which I'm sure is sacrilege.

Five minutes into the cold starters, I realise I should have taken a picture.  

Onto the hot starters, which arrived swiftly like the cold starters. I love it when you're presented with an array of plates, tapas is one of my favourites for this reason. It just feels so brilliantly greedy and indulgent - clink, clink, clink, each plates goes down, and it's all for you, all for you! (And maybe the person you're eating with.) The hot starters included some slightly disappointing chewy calamari, which could have done with a crisper batter and a little more seasoning for me but I'm not the biggest fan of calamari anyway - plus deliciously zingy whitebait, sausage, halloumi, spanakofita (which had a weird beery taste, but it seems that may have been just me. ). Plenty to keep swapping from dish to dish, although not as universally delicious as the first course. Starting to get quite full at this point we realise we still had the mains to come. Shit! Oh well, we decided to 'power through', as the phrase goes.

The final course was thankfully simple and a reasonable size - a Greek salad that had a lovely, creamy feta which made my boyfriend go slightly mad with delight, a deliciously seasoned bulghar wheat side, with what I think were sliced onions, and a plate of chargrilled meats. Chicken kebabs, minty pork burgers and little lamb chops, all fantastically smokey. I feel the intense need to have a barbequeue now as soon as is humanly possible.

Main course

The food itself was pretty great, especially the cold starters, but the other main thing I liked so much about Lemonia was the atmosphere, the staff, the interior. On the cycle back from the restaurant (we were feeling daring - managed not to die on Camden Road) we passed Sardo Canale, a well-reviewed restaurant which we ate at but couldn't remember much at all other than that it was absolutely empty, silent and they sat the only other couple there right next to us. CRINGE. Any chance of having a nice meal, for both of us I'd imagine, ruined. But at Lemonia, the staff were wonderfully warm and attentive (we fell a bit in love with our grey-haired waiter because he was so nice), the entire central area is dripping with greenery and plants and feels airy and authentic, and the noisy chatter makes for a relaxing eating environment. 

And did I mention the price? £68 including service charge for a not-bottom-of-the -list bottle of Greek wine, tea and coffee, and enough food that we could burst, plus complimentary turkish delight and olive nibbles. Not bad, not bad at all.

Check it out. They don't have a website, but trust me, give them a call, order the meze (needs two diners at least though). I'm still thinking about that heavenly taramasalta. Oh jeez .They do lunch deals as well... argh.

Lemonia, 89 Regents Park Rd London NW1 8UY - 020 7586 7454

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