I recently went to a bloggers dinner with Greedy Diva and Gourmet Chick, and Gourmet Chick’s MR who was an honourable blogger for the evening. We went to Opera Tavern, not as guests of the restaurant, but as Aussies who love food and who just wanted to have a fun night out.

Opera Tavern is located in the heart of Covent Garden and has a prime spot close to the Opera House. The restaurant is relaxed and inviting with a light airy feel and specialises in Italian and Spanish influenced tapas. There is also a charcoal grill and headlining the grilled selection is the mini Ibérico pork and foie gras burger (£5.95) which was beautifully satisfying with its rich, fatty goodness. The bun was also enjoyable as it was light and airy. Overall this was a resounding success if a little salty.

Iberico pork & foie gras burger

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Chutney Mary is an up marketing Indian restaurant in Chelsea which focuses on Indian cooking from six different regions. The last time I went to Chutney Mary I tried the tasting menu for £45 which I enjoyed (to read that post click here). The service was polished and all around the food was very enjoyable although I had wanted a bit more spicing and a little more veg.

But the food was good enough to go warrant a another try and this time around I again went for the tasting menu (still priced at £45). A generous piece of nizami tandoori prawn chargrilled in roasted seasame, fresh dill and a Kerala white pepper marinade was resplendent with flavour. It had been cooked beautifully, and was moist, plump and juicy. The delicate hints of chilli thrown into the mix had been expertly judged. It was served with a wonderful blueberry chutney made with curry leaf, mustard and garam marsala which gave way to a zingy mix of complex flavours and spices.

Nizami tandoori prawn

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Note: Chefs Massimiliano Blasone and Marco Calenzo have now left the restaurant. Consequently this blog post may not reflect the current state of affairs at Apsleys.

Apsleys, the one Michelin starred Italian restaurant located in the Lanesborough Hotel, kindly invited me back to try their new spring menu. I went to Apsleys about six months ago for what was my second visit and had a glorious meal (for that blog post click here) and it was such an honour to be asked back again. At the helm is Executive chef Massimiliano Blasone, Sous chef Marco Calenzo, and restaurant manager Pasquale Cosmai. Apsleys is the sister restaurant to Heinz Beck’s three Michelin starred La Pergola in Rome.

We kicked the meal off with a wonderful selection of amuse bouches that thrilled. Kingfish sandwiched in sesame ‘waffles’ was a delight, with the wafer-thin texture of the buttery waffles contrasting well with the fish.

Sesame waffle with kingfish

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Hawksmoor Seven Dials is a pretty cool restaurant. The vibe is chilled, the service is relaxed and I loved, loved the plentiful options on the menu. There’s a good range of starters, steaks with optional add-ons, not to mention other ‘stuff’ for non-steak eaters such as chicken, and an array of sides. The cocktails sound great too.

Sitting in the bar meant we had access to the bar menu as well as the main restaurant menu, and for our starter we shared a lobster roll (£25) which was only listed on the bar menu. This dish is based on the lobster roll from a tiny lobster shack in Wiscasset, Maine where a whole lobster is served with garlic and hazelnut butter in a soft toasted bun with béarnaise on the side. It was easy to see why the Hawksmoor has adopted this recipe as it was simply delicious. Chunky pieces of tender lobster claw and tail meat were piled high in a scrumptious, almost brioche-like bun. A touch more seasoning was needed, but the sweetness of the lobster and the nutty flavour of the melted butter running through the soft roll created something of a dreamy delight.

Lobster roll

Hawksmoor steaks uses Longhorn cattle sourced from The Ginger Pig in North Yorkshire and are dry aged for at least 35 days. We were bowled over by the size of a bone-in sirloin (£29 for 600g). The bone was virtually non-existent, and the two of us fed off almost 600g of meat which confirmed to us that it had been a good idea to share. The steak was slightly chewy even though it was cooked to our requested medium rare. But we enjoyed the roasted bone marrow ‘add-on’ (£3) which was soft and gooey and served from the bone with a spoon.

Bone-in sirloin

Bone marrow

I adored the triple cooked chips (£4) which were super, super crunchy, and extremely well made. The bar menu includes an option for a dipping sauce for the chips (not listed on the main restaurant menu), and we selected the stilton hollandaise. The stilton flavour was subtle and helped to produce a fantastic sauce that worked well with the acidity and creaminess of the hollandaise.

For dessert, a delightful cornflake ice cream tasted ‘just’ like cornflakes, and was highly enjoyable. The cornflake flavour was subtle and did not overpower the ice cream.

Cornflake ice cream

Surprisingly, the dish I liked least was the steak. The bone-in sirloin wasn’t bad, but given that the Hawksmoor is a steakhouse, I had expected a piece of meat with a more melt-in-your-mouth effect. But I loved every other aspect of this meal. The lobster roll was divine, the chips were fantastic as was the accompanying stilton hollandaise, and the ice cream was wonderfully clever. The service was pleasant and attentive, and overall the experience was a resounding success. The Hawksmoor Seven Dials is definitely onto a winning formula. I’d happily hop along again.

To read my review of the Hawksmoor on Commercial Road, click here.

Website: http://www.thehawksmoor.co.uk/seven-dials

Summary information

Food rating: 4/5
Service rating: 4/5

Price range: Between £30 – £50 for three courses. Excludes drinks and service.

Yep – somehow I managed to score another reservation at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. I know I only a few weeks ago (check out that post here), so I debated whether I should go again so soon. But in the interests of research (and for another taste of that meat fruit), I thought why the hell not?

So this blog post will be a little different to the others. I won’t be talking about the things I covered the last time such as the décor. Instead, I’ll focus primarily on the new dishes I tried on this second visit.

But it’s a little hard to past up a mention of the meat fruit (£12.50 – c.1500). It again delivered the ‘wow’ factor to my dining companions who were new to Dinner. The meat fruit looked and tasted great, although it was served a little too cold. This truly has to be one of the most dazzling dishes to grace London tables of late.

JL went for the hay smoked mackerel (£14.50 – c.1730) with lemon salad, gentleman’s relish and olive oil. The mackerel was lovely, and there was a wonderful balance of acidity in this dish, especially from the gentlemen’s relish. (For a copy of this recipe which was published in The Guardian, click here).

Hay smoked mackerel

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Nizuni opened its doors at the back end of last year. Owned by the same people as nearby Korean restaurant Koba, it faces stiff competition with its location on Charlotte Street. Not only is this part of Fitzrovia one of the eating hotspots of London, Nizuni also has to contend with Roka and Tsunami, two other well-known Japanese restaurants within walking distance.

The restaurant is pretty funky and has ample seating space. Covering three floors, the basement also houses an intimate bar. The food came thick and fast, almost all at once, which was surprising considering our discussion with the waitress about what were going to be our starters and what were going to be our mains. Trying to eat four dishes at once was difficult, especially as our table was small. It also meant that the cooked food went cold quite quickly.

Still we enjoyed what we had. A nasu dengaku (£4.50), aubergine with a miso sauce, was lovely. The aubergine was soft and gooey, and the miso sauce was sweet and nicely caramelised.

Nasu dengaku

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I went to a sushi making masterclass at Feng Sushi a couple of weeks ago. The class was run by Feng Sushi co-founder Silla Bjerrum. Her CV is impressive. She was the first woman to be invited to the prestigious 7 Samurai Sushi Competition in 2008, and she has regularly travelled to Japan to study sushi making.

Silla, and the beginnings of a roll

Silla is an advocate of sustainable fishing, and this is evident in the choice of seafood used at Feng sushi: Loch Duart sustainable salmon, line caught mackerel, local crabs and hand dived scallops from The Ethical Shellfish Company. I previously knew little about the sourcing of the ingredients at Feng Sushi, but this session provided me with assurance that Feng Sushi operates on a sustainable and ethical basis.

The class provided me with some insights into the art of sushi making. Getting the rice just right is one of the most important aspects of making sushi, and a critical tip I picked up was to wash the sushi rice for ten times to get rid of the starch, and letting it rest for half an hour before cooking. Another good tip I learnt was to cover the bamboo rolling mats with cling film to protect them.

Avocado & ginger maki

Crab and avocado iso maki

During the class we made cucumber maki, avocado maki with pickled ginger, crab and avocado iso maki, iso maki with hand-dived scallop, prawn tempura hand roll and salmon nigiri. We also watched Silla fillet, marinate and cut mackerel sashimi, and cut salmon sashimi. The class was very interesting, although I must confess that my sushi and maki making skills need some work. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Iso maki with hand-dived scallop

Salmon sashimi

Marinated mackerel sashimi

If you are interested in attending one of Silla’s masterclasses, click on the link here. Silla also teaches at Leith’s, Divertimenti and Billingsgate and speaks regularly about sushi and sustainability, (most recently at The Sustainable Seafood Awards 2009 at Billingsgate).

Dinner

The most excited I’ve ever been about getting a restaurant reservation was when the people at El Bulli emailed me to say that I had secured a table. The excitement of getting a reservation at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental came close, except this time I managed to control my screams of euphoria. The restaurant receives about 6,000 phone calls a day and is now booked out until the end of June. The arrival of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal was highly anticipated and it has to be the hottest opening of 2011. It is so hot that reservations are being traded on ebay.

An Adam Tihany design, the restaurant is beautiful with dark wood panelling and leather furnishings. The previous occupant of this space was Foliage, which Tihany also designed. It’s airy and light, and the high ceilings give it an incredibly spacious feel. It’s also elegant but relaxed, and there’s a touch of mischievousness and fun to the room with the use of some cheeky jelly-mould lights. The kitchen is an open one providing diners with a look-in, but that’s if you don’t find yourself getting distracted by the fabulous views of Hyde Park.

The kitchen at Dinner

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