Foie gras terrine

The last couple of meals that I had with LD (at The Cadogan Arms and Le Café Anglais) proved to be somewhat unsuccessful. This seemed to have the effect of putting a dent in my ‘restaurant choosing capability’ as this time round she suggested (insisted) that she pick the destination for our next meal out. With a sniff, I agreed. I obviously don’t get it right all the time, but I like holding the mantle of ‘restaurant picker’ amongst my friends, even if it is self-bestowed, and it isn’t a title that I wanted to relinquish easily.

So this is how, at LD’s suggestion, we ended up at Marco at Stamford Bridge (sniff). The restaurant is a collaborative effort between Chef Marco Pierre White and as you might have guessed, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The restaurant has the look of money behind it. The room is filled with leather cubicle seating and glamorous black and white photographs of celebrities from a bygone era. It’s dark and decadent, and if cigars were allowed, I would have almost hazarded a guess that this was an old-fashioned gentlemen’s club house.

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My first impression of the recently opened Hix Soho, the latest offering from celebrity chef Mark Hix on Brewer St, was that it didn’t have a door. If you’ve been to the restaurant you’ll probably understand what I mean. But it obviously does as there were people inside – I could see them – but how they got in was a bit of a mystery to me. Inquiries made of the smokers standing outside the restaurant revealed that the door was in fact the colossal piece of wood (very tall and very wide) with no door handle anchored near the Hix sign. But no amount of pushing would budge it. “You need to push harder” the smokers advised. Obviously all those body pump classes at the gym hadn’t helped. I duly pushed harder and finally the behemoth gave. Clearly, you need some muscles to eat at Hix Soho.

But once I got in, I discovered to my delight that the place looked absolutely fab. Glamorous mirrors with an art deco touch line the length of the elegant bar which stands along one side of the room. The restaurant is finished in black and white, the tables are made from a warm walnut, and the lighting is fantastic. It’s soft, cozy and sexy, all at the same time. Only the various bits of ‘art’ hanging from the ceilings seem a bit odd. I couldn’t work out what they are meant to represent, although I am sure they are very expensive. This place dazzled and no doubt it’s been designed to cater to the well-heeled clientele.

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The bread basket at L'Anima

If you want to know how to make linguine alle vongole, Francesco Mazzei can be found on YouTube with a series of videos demonstrating what to do. I checked them out myself and it all looked very tasty. Francesco Mazzei is the chef patron of L’Anima, a restaurant located near Broadgate Circus which opened last year to some acclaim. It’s garnered several awards this year, including a 2009 Harden’s Remy Martin Restaurant Award for Excellence.

So I decided to go and see for myself what all the fuss is about. The restaurant is one slick joint, catering to the well padded wallets of the city diner – or rather their expense accounts – so it’s not exactly cheap. Other than me, everyone was pretty much decked out in their city finery during my lunchtime. The restaurant is bright and spacious with a translucent feel to it which comes from the floor to ceiling glass panels that run the entire length of the restaurant. This was all very nice, but it made it rather confusing to find the entrance for the door is glass too. I ended up walking back and forth in front of the restaurant a couple of times, and I assure you it wasn’t just me being ditzy – my dining companion had trouble finding the door as well!

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Signature dish of pig's trotter stuffed with veal sweetbreads & morel mushrooms

Pierre Koffmann’s Restaurant on the Roof, aka the latest craze in pop-up restaurants, was originally meant to open for six days only during the London Restaurant Festival. But due to popular demand its run was extended to the end of October. I’ve been a bit slow to jump on this bandwagon, procrastinating about whether I should go or not. But in the end curiosity got the better of the cat, so I finally went this past weekend during what I thought was going to be its final week.

However talk by the restaurant staff has it that the restaurant’s run will again be extended until mid-December, although this is still to be confirmed as it’s only in the discussion stage at the moment. My view is that they shouldn’t extend it. Instead, I think they should let the restaurant go out with a bang on the back of all the success and glorified publicity and return in force next year as there’s sure to be another London Restaurant Festival. Another month and a half and there’s the real possibility that the novelty factor will wear thin, although an extended run would give people who haven’t managed to secure a reservation and want to go that opportunity.

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A Taste of Love

I recently got the opportunity to sample a dinner prepared by pop-up restaurant extraordinaire Rachel Khoo. In the last year or so there has been a growing movement in the underground restaurant scene where home cooks prepare meals for members of the public in the comfort of their own abode. Its growth has no doubt been spurred by the fact that the idea is brilliantly novel, and there are similarities between her pop-up restaurant and the underground ones – you eat in someone’s home and the location is kept secret until you have booked and paid. But Rachel’s events are not regular occurrences which is why she prefers to call them ‘pop-ups’. Furthermore, Rachel always creates a different theme for each event, which on this occasion was endearingly called ‘A Taste of Love at The Loft’.

Rachel Khoo, a ‘food creative’ (stylist), has an Art & Design degree from Central St Martins and a pâtisserie diploma from Le Cordon Bleu and is now based in Paris. ‘A Taste of Love’ was the food theme for the evening; and The Loft, in a secret location in East London, is the personal test kitchen of Nuno Mendes who lends Rachel his digs for these occasions. Nuno, who trained at El Bulli, was previously the head chef of the now closed Bacchus in East London and will be opening a new restaurant, Viajante, in Bethnal Green next year. Nuno was on holiday and therefore did not join us for the evening.

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A fantastic summer berry fool

The lovely people from Gekko invited me out to dinner last week. They like my blog and wanted to chat to me about potentially linking to my reviews on their hotel and restaurant website. I was pretty chuffed. It’s really rewarding to get positive feedback from readers to a point where they like what you do and want to get involved with you.

Their restaurant of choice was The Hawksmoor, a British steakhouse on Commercial Road. In a split second decision that would haunt me, I decided to drive rather than to take the tube. A combination of bad traffic and getting lost worked against me and I ended up being 45 minutes late. Surely this is not a way to make an impression on people you haven’t yet met. But like I said, the crowd from Gekko are really lovely and they were entirely understanding of the situation.

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Foie gras terrine with Pedro Ximénez jelly

Le Café Anglais, an Anglo French restaurant, is situated on the second floor of Whiteleys Shopping Centre in Bayswater, a location that I’ve always thought a little peculiar for an eatery pitched at the higher end of the dining scale. For the ‘geographically disorientated’ like me, I traipsed my way, floor by floor, through the shopping centre to get to the restaurant. But readers who want to go should take heart, for there is a lift that takes you directly to the restaurant from Porchester Gardens, and which I only discovered as I was leaving (doh!).

The restaurant is an enormous 7,000 square feet, but it isn’t so much the floor space as the height space that is impressive. It’s tall, tall, tall, and there are gorgeous art deco windows that run along the height of the walls and which are dressed in lush red curtains. There is an open kitchen situated towards one end of the room, and there are elements of glamour to the restaurant, but I must confess to thinking that the patterned maroon carpet didn’t quite work with the rest of the décor. It all looks expensively done, but there is a sense of sterility to it, and it’s probably better suited for bistro-type lunches than intimate dinners.

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A selection of canapés

It was that time of year again, yes, my birthday. I decided against organising a large celebration this year, instead listing a couple of things that I most wanted to do with a few close friends. First on that list (yes you guessed it) was a good meal, and second was a nice spa afternoon. The latter I duly accomplished in fine fashion, but to the nice meal…

My choice was The Square, a two star Michelin restaurant. It’s been many years since I have been, and I was craving something with great finesse. The chef and co-owner is Philip Howard, who after spending a summer cooking in the Dordogne region in France, went on to work under Albert Roux OBE at the Roux Restaurants group for a year. This was followed by another year long stint with Marco Pierre White at Harvey’s, a restaurant that was situated where Chez Bruz now is, and then a similar amount of time under Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum.

The Square has won many awards along the way since it opened in 1991, and arguably Philip Howard, who is known for his elegant, classical French cooking is one of the best chefs in the UK today.

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