Restaurants – Page 5 – TheKua Does Food

UVA in Funchal, Madeira Islands

February 18, 2013 Patrick Funchal, Restaurants

One of the restaurants that took a while to find when looking for enjoyable dining experiences in Funchal was UVA. I have no idea why, because they have all the makings of a good experience. Reasonable prices (€35 for three courses, €50 for 4), a great wine menu, very good service and a very decadent interior. Perhaps people don’t write about it because they want to keep it well hidden, but here I am writing about it for your benefit!

The restaurant is located on the pool level of the Hotel the Vine, and bookings are recommended. We were able to book the day we wanted to go, but I’m not sure they did multiple seatings and the restaurant was definitely full for most of the evening.

Some of the food we had included Steamed black scabbard fish with basil, tomato chutney vinagerette, risotto, Roasted sea bream pave, vegetables and seasonal fruits tangine, poultry sauce, Roasted duck filet with creamy polenta and chestnut, sautéed spinach, celery, Spices cake with chestnut and quince confit, chestnut ice cream and quince sorbet, and Fresh peppermint in jelly and ice cream, soft Valrhona grand cru chocolate moelleux. I think for this post the pictures speak for themselves.

I will say that the experience was wonderful and we even thought of booking a second meal to try a number of the other dishes.

Name: UVA
Found at: Hotel the Vine, Rua dos Aranhas, Nº 27 – A, Funchal
Website: http://www.hotelthevine.com/en/uva.html

Armazem do Sal

February 17, 2013 Patrick Funchal, Restaurants

Another of the fantastic restaurants we ate at was Armazem do Sal.

The restaurant is tucked down a little alley. The interior walls made with beautifully composed and exposed stones and art that you can buy hanging on the walls. The small alley leading into the restaurant also had a number of alfresco tables for dining where they also had a small jazz band playing the night we went. We reserved a table in advance (it’s a popular place) and I opted for a table inside because it was simply too cold (for me) to be sitting outside.

Bread and butter soon arrive as we are deciding the menu. Like all restaurants, they seemed to offer a great value three course meal (you choose items from the menu yourself).

They even presented a nice palette cleanser (a small iced block of roasted peppers and horseradish or something like that). It was only a mouthful, but beautifully executed.

Not content with serving us a three course meal, this restaurant also served a small charcuterie plate including some silky iberico ham, a picked onion, an olive and cheese. A definitely unneeded, though welcomed dish to kick start our appetites.

Impressed by the prawn starter from Restaurant Mozart, I was tempted to order the crispy prawns at this restaurant as well. Fortunately they did not disappoint. Giant, sweet orange fleshed shellfish sitting atop a small mound of mashed avocado.

My sister opted for the foie gras starter (it’s far too rich for me). Just as beautifully presented and apparently quite tasty.

We both ended up ordering the same meal – my sister on a foie gras rampage (I didn’t really eat mine), or the Filet mignon rossini with a crispy potato “tower”, onion compote and truffle oil topped with a piece of foie gras. Perfectly cooked meat, super tasty and with a good selection of vegetables on the side.

For dessert, I couldn’t resist not having the Chocolate volcano, vanilla ice cream and pistachio crisp. The island seems to have a thing for them on the menu, and they execute them just so well. If you like chocolate-based desserts, this one will not disappoint. I particularly like the hot-cold contrast provided by the vanilla ice cream.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a cake that oozed like this…

A great value meal for less €30 a head. Go, and enjoy the atmosphere and food.

Name: Restaurante Armazém do Sal
Found at: 135 Rua da Alfândega 135, Funchal
Website: http://www.armazemdosal.com/

Restaurant Mozart

February 16, 2013 Patrick Funchal, Restaurants

We ate very well in Funchal, and one of the recommended restaurants on the Island is Restaurant do Forte (or the Fort Restaurant). During one of our walking-around-town days, we stumbled across the fort and tried to book a table for the evening but it was all very full. Fortunately they have a sister restaurant called Restaurant Mozart serving pretty much the same menu only a few blocks away.

Like many of the restaurants around town, they do a very reasonable three course meal including wine for around €30 (I can’t remember exactly how much we paid. They even brought us a little amuse bouche to start with.

Amuse Bouche

And that was before bringing us bread, butter and a fish mousse to spread on the bread as an option.

We both ordered the same appetiser, a fresh mushroom risotto with crispy prawns in a green salad with aromatic basil pesto. The prawns were massive – probably good enough for a main with some more risotto, and the risotto was perfectly cooked, full of umami with the rest level of creaminess. The fiery peppery characteristics of the rocket help cut through the richness of the dish although I think the pesto was just a touch too much.

We ordered a couple of different things. My sister ordered the Salmon steak with raisins, aromatic herbs, and orange and fennel sauce. Pretty good upon report although I didn’t try it.

I, instead, wanted to try something other than the scabbard fish we seemed to be eating all the time, so I ordered the White grouper with olive oil in a crust of herbs and fried garlic. Delicious although the crust wasn’t as crunchy as I had been hoping. I’d imagined a sort of panko-crumb style flavoured crust, but was let down a little bit. The rest of the dish was still very good.

We both ordered the same dessert, a Hot chocolate cake with ice cream. It’s a dish I only really expected to see a lot in Britain, but very well executed here.

Name: Restaurant Mozart
Found at: Street D. Carlos I, nº 50, Zona Velha da Cidade – Old Twon, 9060-051 Funchal – Madeira
Website: http://restaurantedoforte.com.pt/mozart-en/

Christmas Pig at St Johns

January 13, 2013 Patrick British, Michelin Starred, Restaurants, UK, World's 50 Best

For the past two years, I’ve missed a Christmas time tradition run by the former Burger Tuesday crowd but this year I was free to join in on the annual Christmas pig tradition. As I mentioned, the group has got together to order the whole sucking pig at the Michelin starred St John Restaurant (although Chris ended up reserving the original St John restaurant because the Spitalfields one ended up all booked out. )

We had a pretty large table to share the pig – somewhere between 12-14 people and reports from previous years implied that we wouldn’t really have any problem devouring the whole pig. I started with a Gin and Tonic as others downed some beers, and we tucked into the generous sourdough bread slices and yummy British pats of butter (not enough for the table that we ended up asking for more).

The pig comes with a set menu, or at least it did around this time. Trying to order a set of starters and desserts for such a large group is hard, let alone plan in things appropriately for the main event. Our starter was an interesting salad combining fairly raw cauliflower, broad beans, parsley and a very strong vinaigrette. Although a number found it strange, the vegetables were probably a great way to start the appetite without filling it with meat.

We consumed bottles of this nice red wine.

The pig arrived at a table just off in the near corner where we were allowed to take photos before they carved the pigs into smaller pieces for distribution. The pig flesh was soft, moist and amazingly tender. The only strange thing was that the crackling wasn’t very… crackling. It turned out to be a lot more chewy and moist than what I had hoped for.

The pig came served with a generous heaping of potatoes and cabbages. Both perfectly cooked and full of natural flavour. I’m happy to report unlike stereotypical cooking, the vegetables were not overcooked or anything like that.

Some of the people who came along in the evening, including Chris who organised the entire night. Well done!

The remains of one of the pig legs.

And some more of the Burger Tuesday crowd celebrating the annual Christmas pig.

And yes, it was quite a big table… with more people.

For dessert, they ended up serving one of the largest pies I have ever seen served.

Naturally served with custard, although they should have served more with it. They only had two small jugs of custard with it and it disappeared very quickly.

We could see the kitchen from our table. Even the use of the white board, indicating some of the changes to the dishes or the different wines on offer for the evening. Early on we could even see the suckling pig hanging around in the kitchen, just waiting to be served.

Remnants of our wine.

And finally the outside of the hotel.

A marvellous meal with some great company.

Name: St John, Restaurant
Found at: 26 St. John Street, London, EC1M 4AY
Website: https://www.stjohngroup.uk.com/

Christmas Meal at Galvin at Windows

December 28, 2012 Patrick French, Michelin Starred, Restaurants, UK

Another year, and another Christmas meal with my Italian friends. This year, I offered a choice but the group consensus was to try Galvin at Windows Restaurant and Bar. We first met at the Bar, located on the 28th floor of the Hilton Park Lane.

The bar itself was heaving from people visiting for the Christmas spirit. It’s very comfortable, and if you are happy to wait, there are quite a few places to seat with table service with minimal standing space at the bar. The drink selection, impressive and although quite pricy are very well made by their mixologists. I turned up slightly early, waited at the bar for about ten minutes and then was offered a table when everyone else arrived.

As you can see, you get a pretty good view standing.

The bar itself is also just a decadent. The lighting is dim without being dark, and a golden circle highlights the busy bar area where waiters and waitresses alight their table’s empties and collect a few more orders to drink.

Enough about the bar. As we were here to celebrate Christmas. We had a look at the a la carte menu, but finally agreed to settle on the tasting menu. It’s expensive but I think it was a good special occasion to spend it on.

Here’s Luca enjoying the atmosphere.

The bread basket arrived – a classic white plait, small baguette and some brown bread served with a creamy mound of butter. A simple selection, but well executed.

A small amuse bouche arrived, a small mouthful that was part mousse, part sweet and some other ingredients that I’ve sort of forgotten now. I do remember it being very good though. Rich, but just enough to get the palette going.

Our first dish from the tasting arrived, a scallop ceviche, kohlrabi, cucumber, ruby grapefruit and soy. We had the wine pairing, and a relatively sweet wine came alongside this one as it helped bring out the natural sweetness from the scallops. A light dish, well seasoned and tart on the palette but that really all came together.

Here’s the wine that came with this dish.

Our next course was a ballotine of foie gras, kumquat puree, spiced salt and a vanilla brioche. I’m not a huge fan of foie gras – it’s just a little bit rich for me, and the taste doesn’t really do justice to the intense farming process necessary for me. I’ll eat it, but not be one to order it. A brioche pairing works well – although I think having a slightly more toasted brioche provides a nicer texture contrast against the softer flesh.

Our fish course was a poached fillet of Cornish brill, a herb potato crust, Enoki, shellfish and dashi broth. It’s a strangely Asian inspired combination that came from this French kitchen, but one that worked really well. I particularly liked the crust – a soft potato breaking out from a toasted topping then made way for a soft, white flesh. Each bite covered with a salty, earth broth that I just wanted to drink every drop.

Here’s a photo of Marco enjoying his dish.

Our next course was going to be a meat round, so they wheeled out the fancy knifes.

Toni appreciating the weight in the cutlery.

In the end, we didn’t really need the knife since the venison was so soft. Slow cooked saddle of Scottish venison wrapped in Alsace bacon, braised shoulder beignet, red cabbage, watercress and sauce grand veneur. As you can see in the photo, our beignet ended up being more like a croquette, but one that was burstig with flavour from the softly cooked, shoulder. The venison literally melted apart, and the bacon a good addition to season the meat. This was definitely agreed upon as one of the best dishes of the night.

Of course the venison goes with a glass of red.

After the venison, they brought the menu back to ask us whether or not we wanted the cheese course.

Naturally, we said yes. It was our first Christmas meal of the season after all.

An impressive selection of cheeses accompanied with all the usual fruit, chutneys and cracker selection. Very nice.

Our first round of dessert arrives, a lemon posset, strawberry juice and Breton shortbread. This was one of the best posset’s I’ve ever eaten. Super creamy, full of citrusy notes and perfectly paired with a strawberry juice with a tart sweetness that complimented it all. The shortbread was a nice contrast to the posset as well.

The final dessert arrives, after we are getting really full. It’s a white chocolate mousse, blueberry compote and green tea ice cream. Both of the components were relatively light – green tea has a light flavour and white chocolate mousse much better than a heavier plain or dark chocolate mousse would have. A nice course to finish the tasting.

Of course we have espressos to help us digest, and they come accompanied with petite fours.

Finally, our bill arrives with an impressive jar of marshmallows. We try one.

Service impeccable, food very well executed and a great dining venue for special occasions.

Name: Galvin at Windows
Found at: London Hilton Park Lane, 22 Park Lane, London, Greater London W1K 1BE, United Kingdom
Website: http://www.galvinatwindows.com

Breakfasting at Caravan

December 27, 2012 Patrick Aussie, Cafe, Coffee, Restaurants, UK

It was a fairly rainy day that I met up with a colleague to talk breakfast about the new client I was going to join. We decided to meet somewhere close to my work, and decided on Caravan. It’s a great place that roasts its own coffee, has a great brunch offering on weekends and just a nice atmosphere all around.

Although tempted by lots of the different offerings on their menu, I started with a flat white whilst I waited for my colleague to arrive.

Well made – a perfect “heart” and all the things I look for in a well made flat white – not too hot, creamy milk foam, and a good combination, I probably could have gone for a second coffee.

Breakfast finally arrives – I went for the caramelised banana served atop a hearty bowl of porridge. The porridge was perfectly stodgy and there was plenty of banana caramel to go around without being too excessive – it was pretty sweet after all, but just enough for the entire bowl.

Name: Caravan Restaurant
Found at: Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QD
Website: http://caravanonexmouth.co.uk/

Truffle Menu at Cantina Del Ponto

December 25, 2012 Patrick Italian, Restaurants, UK

Truffle season lasts only a very short time around London, and every year many restaurants host a truffle special menu for this short time. We headed down to a D&D London restaurant, Cantina Del Ponto down by Tower Bridge to celebrate with their affordable menu.

This was actually attempt number two, after trying to book for the first day of their truffle menu only to receive a call in the afternoon telling us the truffle delivery had failed and that they weren’t able to offer us the menu that evening. I did appreciate the call to ensure we did waste a trip out there, but I found it strange they couldn’t get a delivery earlier than the day of the menu.

We rebooked for another Monday later in the month, and the restaurant was quite empty. Monday’s tend to be quieter than normal, and this area in particular tends to be very quiet, so the result was a pretty empty restaurant at 6pm. A few tables filled up later in the evening, but it largely remained empty.

They offered us the a la carte menu, but seeing as we were here for the truffle menu, we decided to go for the menu. The only disappointment on the menu was that the truffle dessert wasn’t present and they substituted their well-known chocolate cake.

We started with the bread basket, containing some foccacia, some plain bread and served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The first course on the menu, was a beef carpaccio, served with shavings of parmesan and truffle. I wasn’t quite sure about this dish, but as soon as I put one of the delicate slices of beef into my mouth, it exploded with a mouthful of flavour. Salt, umami, yumminess.

The next dish was a truffle tagliatelle. The pasta was thick, perfectly al dente and covered with a butter truffle sauce. I didn’t find the flavour as strong as the previous dish but it was still very fulfilling.

A little bit of parmesan helped too. We finished up with the chocolate pudding served with a scoop of ice cream. It wasn’t quite the chocolate fondant that many other restaurant serve, but it was good nevertheless.

Name: Cantina Del Ponto
Found at: 36c Shad Thames, London SE1 2YE
Website: http://www.cantinadelponte.co.uk/

Protected post on Ultraviolet

November 23, 2012 Patrick Asian, China, Restaurants, Unique, World's 50 Best

I got a comment on my last post from the Communications Director of Ultraviolet thanking me for writing up my experience, but also asking me to consider rewriting something shorter to allow others to remain surprised. I’ve eaten at lots of great places, and before going, even read a lot on the places that I’ve been going. My personal experience is that reading something is never quite the same as experiencing something, but I do want to respect their wishes.

I’m not going to rewrite the previous post because it took so much time, effort and I personally want to refer to all the details. The other point is that given the very limited seating arrangements, more people would benefit from knowing the details than not because it’s unlikely most people will get the opportunity to dine. Since you are the reader, I’ll let you decide.

I have put a simple password on the previous post, but if you’d like, leave a comment and I’ll email you the password so you can read it.

Protected: Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet

November 17, 2012 Patrick Asian, China, Restaurants, Unique, World's 50 Best

Yu’s Family Kitchen – Chengdu

November 16, 2012 Patrick Asian, China, Restaurants

My sister booked a family dinner at one of Chengdu’s most famous restaurants, Yu’s Family Kitchen. We saw this whilst watching BBC’s great series on Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure (Episode 2). It’s most famous for attempting to bring innovative and creative techniques and fusing them with traditional Chinese cooking methods and ingredients.

The restaurant itself is nondescript, with a simple doorway located on a busy market street leading to a small inner courtyard surrounded by the dining rooms. Although we didn’t get to see other rooms, it felt like Yu’s Family Kitchen was more appropriately named, Yu’s Family Home with each dining group sharing part of their living quarters. As you can see we had an entire lounge room to relax in.

On entering our dining/living room, the golden-clothed dining table already came prepared with 16 assorted dishes all very well presented and proper. Each small dish providing some insight into the flavour roadmap ahead.

I can’t remember all of the dishes in so much detail, but we had green beans with seasame oil and garlic, “knots” of cucumber soaked with numbing sichuan peppers.

Other small plates held century quail’s egg, fresh peppers, tofu and an assortment of mushrooms, vegetables all with different ingredients.

They also served these small dishes with a fiery chilli chicken (cold) that would both numb your mouth and set it on fire at the same time in a fashion very typical for this region of China. We didn’t finish this dish as it was pretty spicy for me and the rest of the family doesn’t like spicy food as much as I do.

We also had a smoke, shredded pigeon dish delicately piled up. It didn’t have a strong game-flavour that I expected but was still pretty tasty.

A very playful dish then arrived, and one that we had seen on the BBC show before. A beautiful “paintbrush” set arrived with each “brush” basically being a pastry shell containing dried pork floss and a home made tomato sauce for the “paint”. A tasty combination made even more delightful by its presentation and playfulness.

The painting set with three small dishes. The first was a gold foil with (Chinese) black truffle.

As well as fresh, young ginseng with icing sugar. I was expecting extremely wood strands for this dish but was surprisingly soft, fresh and very tasty.

The third accompaniment was a blackened garlic. Sweet, sticky and full of flavour.

A new dish arrived after we finished that set, this time being a local river fish in a very delicious creamy broth. The fish was perfectly cooked – flaky, moist and surprisingly meaty. It reminded me a piece of monkfish but even more delicate.

The seafood theme continued with an oyster served atop rice-flour cubes in a spicy chili sauce. Nice presentation again but I’m not a huge oyster fan.

It arrived with a panko-crumbed deep fried prawn with some green chilli flakes. I love prawn so and fried prawns are always a winner. The chilli flakes provided a nice balance to the natural sweetness of the prawn flesh.

Our next dish was alligator in a fish stock. I’d eaten crocodile back in Australia and it reminded me of the same sort of flesh, much like a very soft squid dish. The stock was especially wholesome and full of flavour.

A small saucer of pumpkin soup arrived neat. Super warm, super sweet and just the right small serving to refresh the palette for the next set of dishes.

Smoked fish came next on the menu. It sat atop a series of small pastry knots, slightly sweet and giving that contrast to the heavy smokiness of the fish.

Two dishes arrived in unison at the next time. Firstly, (on the bottom) was a savoury custard dish, very typical of Chinese cuisine. Imagine a savoury steamed egg custard but filled with pork instead of a sweet caramel. The top dish (black) was fresh bamboo flavoured with a fiery chilli kick. I liked moving between the two dishes – one for the spicy and then a soothing cooling sensation of creamy custard.

I don’t eat Sichuan food that often, but of the many dishes, I’m very familiar with this one of a whole pan full of oil peppered with plenty of spicy, herbs and flavour and used to slow-poach fish. It sounds a bit strange, far from healthy but it’s a strange combination that gives a wonderful aroma and depth of flavour.

Here they provided us individual pots with the small bits of fish. Absolutely devine and I was pining for more of this dish.

We were then presented with a couple of small hot pot duck dumplings covered with a thick, sticky and salty sauce. Both dumplings quite generous with their fillings and very flavoursome.

Beijing has its roasted duck. In this part of the country, they prefer tea-smoked duck served cold. Here we had it with tiny little pancakes, a hoisin sauce and cucumbers. A very beautiful presentation and really far too much duck for all of us (considering the number of dishes we were eating).

Finishing our round of main courses was this fiery hotpot noodle soup dish.

Chinese don’t really do dessert very well. This is probably a good thing considering all of the food that we just consumed. I can’t actually remember what this dish was. Sorry but my note-taking wasn’t really happening that night.

This was a fresh poached chestnut balls.

And to finish off, some fresh apples that you see in the markets all over the place. Strangely dry but quite sweet.

Yu’s Family Kitchen is by no-means cheap by Chinese standards. However for the quality of the food and the experience that lasted many hours, it was definitely worth doing on a special trip. Drinks are additional, and unlike many other Chinese restaurants a 10% service charge is added to the final bill.

Name: Yu’s Family Kitchen
Found at: No. 43 Zhai Xiang Zi, Xia Tong Ren Road, Chengdu
Website: None that I could find