About six months ago I was treated to a superlative dining experience at la vie Restaurant in Osnabrück, Germany which had two Michelin stars. Particularly memorable was the skrei tartare which was every bit a three star dish.

Well I am happy to say that la vie was awarded a much deserved third Michelin star last week to take Germany’s tally of three star restaurants to nine.

Many congratulations to Chef Thomas Bühner and his team!

To read about that meal, click here.

Kopapa Cafe and Restaurant is situation on Monmouth Street in the heart of Seven dials, a Covent Garden hub which plays host to a range of restaurants and bars. There is the Michelin-starred L’Atelier by Joel Robuchon and Hawksmoor Seven Dials, but to name a few. Seven Dials also offers a plethora of shopping options and is well know for its boutiques. No wonder then that Kopapa Cafe serves an all day menu, ‘tapas’ style, to cater for the shopping crowds.

As with Providores in Marylebone, sibling restaurant Kopapa Cafe remains true to New Zealand born Chef Peter Gordon’s approach to fusion cuisine which blends a mixture of Asian, Middle Eastern, European and American influences. This eclectic approach is one that is rarely seen in restaurants elsewhere and can sometimes come across as a little unconventional.

Take for instance, the seared yellowfin tuna (£11.20) which was delicious. But the accompanying nori sauce tasted flat and did not really work with the tuna which needed something with a little bit more acidic zing. A side of green papaya and coriander salad was aromatic and fresh.

Yellowfin tuna

(Continue reading her story…)

Ducksoup has to be the most interesting restaurant name to hit London in recent times, at least I think so anyway. Brought to us by a team of people who previously worked at the Hix chain of restaurants (chef Julian Biggs, Clare Lattin and Rory McCoy), it adopts a similar formula to the one tried and proven in the Russell Norman empire (Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino, da Polpo) of great location (Dean Street), no bookings except at lunch (very annoying), and reasonably priced food (always appreciated).

But Ducksoup’s approach is slightly more no-frills, so much so that paper napkins come from paper napkin dispensers. The décor is also simpler. It’s comfy, but cool like Spuntino it is not.

There are a number of bar food options, mostly at £3.50, which is great value for this part of town. From the daily changing hand written menu (dotted with a few spelling mistakes) we went for the bar choice of bitter greens with gorgonzola. This was really impressive with the greens being fresh, crispy and nicely dressed. The gorgonzola was creamy, rich and served at the correct room temperature.

Bitter greens

(Continue reading her story…)

Le Dauphin Paris is from Basque-born self-taught chef Inaki Aizpitarte who set the bistronomy (bistro-gastronomy) scene in Paris alight when he opened Le Chateaubriand. Famed for its accomplished and affordable cooking, it currently holds 9th place in the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurant in the World Awards. Le Dauphin is the baby sister of Le Chateaubriand and is located next door to its elder sibling. The menu at Le Chateaubriand is a no choice set menu, but at Le Dauphin, the menu offers more variety by way of a tapas-style menu with starter size portions.

The restaurant is modern with lots of marble and simply furnished. A number of tables are allocated for bookings, but there is also a central bar area for walk-in diners.

We started with corn velouté with gouda (€9) which was sublime with its lovely sweet corn flavour and beautiful creamy texture. The dashes of gouda cheese running through the velouté provided a robust contrast, and the sprinkling of fresh dill added a lovely aroma to the dish.

Corn velouté

(Continue reading her story…)

I met Russian foodblogger Katrina from Gastronomicalme a couple of years ago through a food and drink journalism course, and since then I have come to know her as both a passionate foodie and a very good cook. Katrina started organising Russian brunches at her North London home this year and her last event had an added twist to it. The theme was Ukrainian, and she named the event “Eating your way through Ukraine and its lard(er)”. I’ve never eaten Ukrainian food before and so was very excited to explore the tastes of Ukraine.

If you know anything about Ukrainian or Eastern European food, you’ll probably have guessed that the reference to ‘lard’ pays homage to salo, cured slabs of fat popular on Ukrainian and Russian tables, etc. Katrina had exclusively hand selected a number of different types of salo from various Ukrainian regions during a recent visit there. Eating pieces of fat isn’t really my thing, but I can appreciate how on those blistery winter nights salo can be filling and necessary to help keep the cold at bay.

Salo

(Continue reading her story…)

It was hard to know what to expect of Tunis following the Arab Spring, but I found it to be a city oozing old-world charm. There was a dash of the European (the French influence) thrown in with the Arabic, and the locals were altogether friendly and welcoming. A good measure of nice hot weather also played a part in rounding of a lovely long weekend away.

So what are some of the places that you can visit in Tunis? A short, hop and a skip away on the local TGM train (about 30 minutes) takes you to Carthage. A posh neighbourhood with white-washed fanciful buildings and a view of the beautiful coastline, it plays home to dignitaries and Roman ruins which date back some 3,000 years. Interestingly, the deposed ex-president Ben Ali also had his home here, and it is possible to see the remains of his mansion which has now been ransacked by the people.

Then there is the more traditional stuff, like the ancient medina. It’s narrow and windy, and easy to get lost in. But with its clever design that allows it to stay cool during hot weather, it can offer much needed cool relief. Then there’s also the matter of the colourful wares and Tunisian goods on offer should you be in the mood to shop. And if not, it still offers the visitor a great taste of Tunisan culture as the medina has pride of place as the heart of Tunis.

Tunisian sweets found in the medina - filled with dates

(Continue reading her story…)

Note: Ben Spalding has now left Roganic.

Roganic is the two year pop-up restaurant recently opened by Simon Rogan (hence the name Roganic), the head chef behind the critically acclaimed L’Enclume in Cumbria. The pop-up reference relates to the fact that Roganic takes over the remaining two years of the lease at 19 Blandford Street in Marylebone, previously the restaurant, Michael Moore. The current intention may be to operate Roganic for two years only, but it gives Rogan and head chef Ben Spalding a chance to bring to Londoners a sample of the innovative cooking that made L’Enclume such a go-to restaurant for foodies.

Two years hardly feels like a pop-up. Be that as it may, it does go a long way in explaining why Rogan has decided to spend very little on refurbishing the restaurant. The dining room is tiny and the décor is rather bland, but with only 25 covers it’s comfortable enough.

There is a choice of two tasting menus, a 6-course menu for £55 and a 10-course menu for £80. Allegedly, both menus are designed such that you receive the same quantity of food, even though you obviously get fewer courses with the smaller tasting menu. We started with an amuse bouche of squid ink flatbread with aioli, linseeds and cucumber mousse which was lovely. With its delicate hints of cucumber, it was light and refreshing.

Squid ink flatbread

(Continue reading her story…)

This past Wednesday I attended the ETM bloggers bar crawl which was super, super fun. Blogger friends who came along included Greedy Diva, LondonFoodie, WineSleuth, Missimmo, Teatimeinwonderland and Faerietalefoody. ETM operate a number of gastropubs in London and we hopped along from one ETM bar after another, sampling food and drinks (listed at the bottom of this post) along the way.

First up was the lovely, elegant Chiswell Street Dining Rooms where we tried a number of canapés such as seared Isle of Man king scallop with crispy bacon and pea purée; smoked eel with horseradish; foie gras ballotine on brioche with Madeira jelly; leek and wild mushroom tart and soft boiled quail’s egg with truffled duxelle. Particularly delicious was the mini Aberdeen Angus beef Wellington as the meat was plump and juicy.

At The Hat and Tun we had a starter of Herefordshire snail & smoked bacon pie with a Guinness and mushroom cream sauce. The snails were nice, but the sauce was very runny, and both the filling and the pastry needed more seasoning.

Snail & smoked bacon pie

(Continue reading her story…)