Saf Restaurant

Patrick Restaurants, UK, Vegetarian

I’ve heard great things about Saf and based on our dining experience there on Tuesday, lives up to its reputation. I know that they recently opened another branch elsewhere in London although hoping this won’t reduce the attention to detail on what they offer. Saf does vegetarian and raw food although doesn’t do anything near bland or ordinary flavours.

I sat at the bar with a friend whilst waiting for the rest of our companions to join us for dinner. The drinks menu includes a whole range of interesting cocktail recipes, made with their home made flavour infusions all focused on in season ingredients and focused on organic foods. The drinks were not only strong but just like the food, packed full of flavour. Their wine menu is interesting and I’m happy to report many a vegan or vegetarian person doesn’t need to think twice about drinking any of them.

The weather was still fairly nice from the glorious sunny weekend and so we sat outside with a number of other diners in their courtyard. Whilst deciding on what to have, we started with some chilli edamame (pictured below) and some cooked mushrooms, both amazingly packed with flavour. I’m not normally a fan of edamame (who needs more salt in their diet!) but these chilli coated ones had enough punch to give you a slight tingle without an overpowering fire taking away from the bean. Definitely very more-ish.

We all decided on having an appetiser and all the vegetarians at the table exclaimed at how much choice there was – explaining that in other restaurants, there’s normally one or two things to choose from. Of course it wasn’t surprising how long it took for us to decide on what to have. I ended up with their Saf Tacos (Chipotle, Guacamole, Tomato & Pineapples Salsas) for £8.25. Their tacos were a trio, filled with a various of differently flavoured salsas and packed plenty of flavour. I suspect the chipotle actually went into the tacos shells, giving it that slightly heated smokey flavour.

I think four of us picked the Aromatic Thai curry (aubergine, snake beans, okra and brown rice) for £13.75. The curry arrived separately from the rice and it seemed much more like a soup than a curry with plenty of liquid floating around. We weren’t sure if this was a normal state because they didn’t even bring us a spoon until towards the end of our meal. Nevertheless, the curry was packed full of flavour and even the “fishing” for vegetables with our fork seemed to be highly entertaining in a bowl that constantly threatened to spill over its lower edge.

Unfortunately I think we hit Saf in between seasons, or just on a bad night because when it came to dessert, out of the six items on offer, we could only really choose from two of them. Everyone else when for the chocolate tart, where I went for the lighter sorbets (scoop of mango and another of passionfruit). I was surprised at how large the scoops were when the arrived and helped to finish off a wonderful meal.

At the end of the meal, we all commented on how full we felt from something you wouldn’t expect to keep you full and also a round of appreciations went around for the complex flavour profiles. Eating at Saf you will end up paying just as much as any other meal, but I do think you’ll feel better for it.

Name: Saf Restaurant & Bar
Found at: 152-154 Curtain Road – Shoreditch London EC2A 3AT
Website: http://www.safrestaurant.co.uk/
Twitter: @safrestaurant

Hao Zhan

Patrick Asian, Restaurants, UK

Hao Zhan has been on the list for some time, although has been on the “special occasion” list since prices are much higher than your ordinary Chinese restaurant. Fortunately, I found out this restaurant is bookable using the Taste London card, where you can order 2-4-1 on dishes, making it a much more reasonably priced meal after all. Hao Zhan distinguishes itself from other places in Chinatown, taking a more modern and upscale theme on Chinese food. They offer a huge mixture of various cuisines even with dish like Marmite Prawns (didn’t oblige them on them on this one).

Tables for two are packed tightly next to each other, obvious that they are better suited for four people at a time if you want a bit more privacy. However the restaurant is brightly lit, and its black lacquered tables and almost-neon jade green sign (not as cheesy as you would think) definitely makes it stand out from its neighbours.

Here are all the dishes that we tried:

Jasmine Ribs – Amazingly tender with plenty of flavour, these ribs were a perfect way to kick start the meal. Its meat, slightly sweet and lusciously smoked, more importantly pretty much fall of the rib style. Accompanied by a bowl with a lemon wedge and wet towels for additional cleaning power.

Chilli Quail – We shared this as part of our appetiser, including small fried quails legs and wings covered in a chilli salt mix with fried onions. Flavoursome without being overtly salty. The spice was enough to give it gentle heat and add to the flavour without being overwhelming.

Assam Prawns – A strong, flavourful curry concentrated into a rendang-like paste covering prawns and served in a crusty bread bowl. The prawns were massive – much bigger than any king prawn that I’d seen and still flavoursome to boot. The curry paste was a touch salty, concentrated down and then absorbed into the crusty loaf but when eaten with the loaf was a lot more balanced.

Seafood fried rice – This seafood fried rice packed lots of flavour and would have been perfect as a dish on its own. This fried rice also had a decent amount of meats mixed into it. As you can, it was also presented nicely in a little container.

Honey black cod – As you can see from this picture, this piece of black cod was a generous proportion, even for the £18 it cost. The honey was subtlety flavoured yet was still present throughout the entire dish. Even the strength of the Assam prawns couldn’t take away from its flavour. Served with fresh asparagus and a sweet sauce (it tasted like pomegranate mayonnaise) we both weren’t too thrilled about.

Fried ice cream – This is a dish very popular in Australian-Chinese restaurants and I know of only one other Chinese restaurant in London that serves this. Everything about this one was almost perfect, from the crisp outer shell to the perfectly right ice cream consistency – neither too firm or too soft. The only weird thing about this dish was how they put tomato sauce on top (when I’m used to some sort of chocolate or strawberry syrup).

Although pricey, the quality and service of Hao Zhan is definitely better than your average Chinese restaurant. With the Taste London card, it’s made even more affordable and reasonably priced.

Our meal for two (including two lychee juices) cost just over £50 for the two of us.

Name: Hao Zhan
Found at: 8 Gerrard Street, London, W1D 5PJ, London
Website: http://www.haozhan.co.uk/

Blubeckers: The Duck House

Patrick British, Restaurants, UK

Blubeckers is one of those chain restaurants that exist just on the out skirt belt of London. We ate at a similar chain with my work colleagues when we worked at Marlow – the ridiculously cheap Harvester chain. It seemed like the Weatherspoons of the restaurant world.

I don’t think Blubeckers is as big as the Harvester chain although ironically this one we ate at was just opposite the road from one. We went the Duck House version of Blubeckers, located at the end of the Metropolitan line, in Ruislip. Very initial impressions, it’s very well decorated on the inside – almost as if it had recently had a renovation of sorts. The decor is modern and being constructed out of a house, was full of character including the alternatively raised floors and little nook and crannies. The best part about something like this is the way that it was very full, but it felt like you weren’t eating in the open in front of all the tables, so you had a lot more privacy.

The reason we went to Blubeckers was to enjoy the ribs – something that they are apparently well known for (at least according to their website and their menu). Who was I really to judge that without testing it out for myself. They have three different serving sizes on the menu so we decided to try the normal size because we all had a starter and a main. I had the soup of the day, a lovely french onion soup that was both light and very tasty. Although tempted by a ridiculously rich American brownie sundae, I decided to stick with the ice cream treat as I figured it might be a lighter option.

Even the normal sized ribs ended up fairly large and by the end of the meal, I was well and truly stuffed. It was served with crunchy coleslaw and fries – a classic combination that was very well done. Even the fries were exactly how I like them – crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle without being too thin or too thick cut. The ribs were very tender, enough for me to eat my ribs with just knife and fork. Served with a rich and slightly tangy BBQ sauce, these ribs are best described as stewed rather than how I would have preferred them – grilled or BBQed. Fortunately they never took on the ugly pork flavour of reheated ribs.

It’s obvious from the number of people that The Duck House remains a popular choice for locals being fully booked and tables required to turn around every two hours. I can’t really say that it’s worth going all the way out to Ruislip to try them – after all I think we still spent £30 for a three course meal without drinks. However it’s a decent choice if you happen to find yourself out this far.

Name: The Duck House (Blubeckers Chain)
Found at: The Duck House High Street Ruislip Middlesex HA4 7AR
Website: http://www.blubeckers.co.uk/ruislip/

Bar Shu

Patrick Asian, Restaurants, UK

I’d heard much about Bar Shu before finally eating here last Friday. It’s most well known for its Northern Chinese cuisine, easy to probably get in mainland China but distinctly less popular and hard to find around England. I’ve noticed many Northern Chinese restaurants popping up around London and just haven’t found the opportunity to try any of them.

I booked Wednesday night for a party of eight for Friday evening. By booking ahead for such a large party, we ended up in one of their private, more intimate function rooms on the second floor – a little bit hard to find but for the privacy, definitely worth it. Over the phone, they told us we could only have the seating for 2 hours but the evening must have been very quiet since we were allowed to sit there all night.

Not being familiar with Northern Chinese, Bar Shu is considerate to have a highly visual menu making it easy to pick. Fortunately I was dining with lots of people familiar with the cuisine so I didn’t have to worry about it.

Here’s all the different things we dined on:

Fragrant Chicken in a pile of chillies – Reminded me of the black chicken I had in Hong Kong. My mouth watered in anticipation just from trialling the spiciness in this dish. It definitely has a lot of kick although the pieces of chicken were very minuscule, literally hard to separate from many of the other ingredients.

Dry fried green beans with minced pork – Nice green beans that had a subtle flavour, made salty by the addition of the pork.

Pock marked old woman’s beancurd (Ma Po Tofu) that was saucy, but not as fiery as I had hoped. It was a strangely sweet sauce as well.

Assorted meats in a fiery sauce – ox tripe, pig intestines, pig’s blood and luncheon meat in a more subdued spicy sauce. It’s very much a lucky dip for textures.

Boiled sea bass with sizzling chilli oil – This is a spectacular dish that I recently saw cooked on Poh’s kitchen. It’s not for the faint of heart with, literally a bowl of oil at the table. The fish was magnificently cooked though – soft and succulent and that slight heat from all the chillies. It’s not as hot as you’d think it would be considering the fish was immersed in all those spices.

Bar shu cold noodles with chicken slivers – The cold noodles helped bring a slight relief to the bombardment of spices and flavours. The noodles were drenched in a sesame soy sauce with garlic

Jellyfish ribbons in dark chinese vinegar – A lovely mouth feel that also was a great way to prevent the mouth from being overwhelmed by spices.

Lotus Root with Woodear mushrooms – A delicately light dish that was another great, non-spicy dish. The lotus root crispy like an apple and the mushrooms providing a strong earthy flavour.

Numbing Beef – This was supposed to be an appetiser and it simply turned up first before the rest of the dishes made their way to the table. It was definitely what it was called on the menu with the Szechuan peppers kicking in with its numbing effect.

Chinese vegetables – Even a simple dish like this was drizzled with chilli oil, though this one was barely noticeable after all of the other dishes.

Perhaps it was because we had a private room upstairs, but service wasn’t as rushed and prompt as most Chinese restaurants were. They didn’t keep the water topped up as much as they could have, but the waitress checked in just enough for the weekend. The food is decadent and particularly rich with oil and spices, so it’s not a dinner you want to have every night. However there is no doubt the food was well executed and full of flavour and sensations you tend not to have in many other cuisines (even your typical Cantonese Chinese restaurants). Delicious!

Name: Bar Shu
Found at: 28 Frith Street, W1D 5LF, London
Website: http://www.bar-shu.co.uk/
Phone number: +44 20 7287 8822

Where’s the good coffee: Bullet Cafe

Patrick Coffee, UK, Where's the good coffee?

This cafe is literally hidden above all of Covent Garden, located on the fourth floor of the Snow & Rock outdoor store down a side street off the 7 dials. It’s run by Kiwi people so by default they serve the classic flat white – and a great serve at that. The interior is spacious with a number of tables and a set of benches at the front looking out at the skyline. You’re so high up that you can’t really see down on to street although you can see the sky surrounding the top of the other building.

Being a little bit more than just a coffee store, this cafe also serves lunch foods like simple sandwiches, paninis and many cakes and pastries to accompany the coffee you have. They even have a jug of tap water they keep full so you never find yourself thirsty for anything.

The good thing about this cafe, unlike a number of other coffee stores around London is that its opening hours are that of the store it sits in, so it’s open on Sundays as well as Saturdays. Many good coffee places seem to shut down on this day of rest.

It’s got a quiet atmosphere and is a great cafe if you need to get any work done. Highly recommended.

Where’s the good coffee: The Espresso Room

Patrick Coffee, UK, Where's the good coffee?

I’d read about this tiny coffee place a long time ago but since it only opens during the working week, has been impossible to trial whilst commuting for work. With a couple of days in the office, I thought it was a good time to visit. My goal was to get here early so I could sit down and do some work. Whilst they have seating, it’s definitely not suited for working with a laptop with small wooden benches lining the interior walls. If you’ve every been to Dose, the Espresso Room is even smaller stil (if that’s possible). Given the little space that exists, I have to admit they impressed me with what they made of little space.

When I stepped inside, two friendly females greeted me. Like many great cafes these days, they do all the standard espresso based drinks including the wonderful antipodean-inspired flat whites. Whether it was the sunny weather or just what they’re like the baristas like they were very chatty, talking about what books they were reading (apparently The Alchemist is a good one!) and all other sorts of topics.

The important part about any coffee shop is the coffee and this one hits the mark fine. Perfectly creamy milk and a mean tasting espresso vanished far too quickly that I was thinking perhaps staying around for a second wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.

It’d be great if it was open during the weekend but I’m guessing they have plenty of business opening opposite a hospital.

Name: The Espresso Room
Found at: 31-35 Great Ormond Street
Website: http://www.theespressoroom.com/

Konstam

Patrick British, Restaurants, UK

For the past five months, I would walk home from Kings Cross station as part of my daily routine returning from Cambridge. The walk home isn’t particular grand but at least you get some mild level of exercise into the day. I always noticed a few interesting restaurant around that area but it wasn’t until today that I finally got to try one of them, called Konstam.

I have no idea about what sort of food they are supposed to specialise in, but the interior is striking for the surrounding area – modern and hip interior that strikes a sharp contrast will the dull concrete buildings surrounding it. We ended up here after a Friday pub for a late dinner starting at about 9pm. Based on the lightness of the menu, I had the impression that it changes regularly – with three to four choices per course.

I started with Dartford purple sprouting broccoli, poached egg, hollandaise sauce & breadcrumbs concoction (£8) that proved to be a very light and lovely way to start the meal off. The breadcrumbs added another dimension of texture to an otherwise well executed classic.

Three of us at the table then went for the Charcoal-grilled rib-eye steak with braised January King, fried potatoes & horseradish sauce (£21.50). Unfortunately I neglected to take any pictures of this since it was so good. Mine was cooked perfectly rare, so pink and juicy and full of flavour. They served the steak in small strips atop all the other side dishes and was really easy to cut through without the need for a proper steak knife if you wanted to break it up ever further.

Everyone else had coffees but I thought I’d try their Spiced, toasted castle cake with plum jam & sloe gin cream (£7.25), apparently some version of a tea cake. When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised as it was light and deliciously most. The sloe gin was subtle but you can definitely taste the light berry flavour infused from the sloes.

Service was polite and when taking the food orders or plates, was fairly prompt. I think the only they thing they really could have improved on was keeping our water topped up throughout the night – I had to ask twice for a refill of our jug of water.

I’d definitely return here and with the service, we still paid £50 a head which I think is reasonable considering all the things that we ate and the two bottles of wine we drank throughout the night.

Name: Konstam at The Prince Albert (Closed)
Was found at: 2 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NA
Former website: http://www.konstam.co.uk/

The Modern Pantry

Patrick Asian, British, Restaurants, UK

I’ve eaten at Anna Hansen’s bisto for breakfast before so I was pretty happy to go here for my flatmate’s birthday dinner last weekend. What made it all the more exciting was having seen Anna at the Taste of Christmas last year and talk passionately about her cooking interests and the thought behind dishes such as her Sugar-cured New Caledonian prawn omelette, spring onion, coriander, smoked chilli sambal. Therefore when I sat it on their menu as a starter (£8.50), I couldn’t but help myself and order it.

Although it’s pricey for a starter, it was deliciously put together – perfectly cooked egg, slightly sweet prawns and and the homemade chilli sambal adding that depth of heat to the dish. I’d definitely get this one again.

For my main, I ordered the grilled miso marinated steak onglet, cassava chips, feta cheese and salad with green pepper relish (£16.50). The onglet is an interesting cut of meat, often called the butcher’s cut because there is only one of these per cow, and it’s flavour and taste and tenderness often mean butcher’s would rather keep it than sell it. There’s a good reason for it, since it was so tender and really nice. Interesting, the waiter asked if cooking it rare was okay – completely fine with me in a restaurant I trust who knows what to do with it.

I finished the meal off with a hokey-pokey affogato(£4), a combination of two rare items to find in London that I would definitely regret not ordering it the next day. Delicious hokey pokey ice cream (effectively crumble mixed through ice cream) and then served in small cup with an espresso shot tipped on top. I absolutely adore the contrast brought about by dishes mixing hot and cold sensations.

I can highly recommend this place for a great evening. Service was prompt, and not even noticeable at times, the perfect sort. Even though we were the last ones out and hanging around quite late, no one ever asked us to leave.

Name: The Modern Pantry
Found at: 48 Saint John’s Square, London EC1V 4JJ
Website: http://www.themodernpantry.co.uk/

Tripping to Asia and back in one night

Patrick Asian, Cambridge, Indian, Restaurants, Thai, UK

We organised yet another team dinner out in Cambridge, this time deciding to hit a restaurant called Asia. I’d read some great things about it so I was quite excited to do so. I’d arranged the booking a week in advance, although I was surprised when I called up the day before our dinner to find out that our booking disappeared into the ether. Fortunately they still had space for our change in dining numbers.

We sat at a very local freehouse (St Radegund) in Cambridge (highly recommended for a very pub-like experience) when I received a call from the restaurant telling me that their Thai chef did not turn up. I thought this was quite nice of them, though understandable, when half of their menu is Thai.

We also had strange service throughout the entire night, mainly because we had a bit of a newbie waiter asking one of his colleagues to come across. I think it was the first five questions that sent him running that triggered us to have a bit of a laugh of it throughout the night. Strangeness continued throughout the evening, with the wine menu being presented with an one extensive page each, of red and white wines, yet then to be told only four bottles were available of the 20+ listed.

On to the food. The menu was pretty large, although being “pan-asian” they only seemed to have Indian/Pakistani and then Thai foods. This is probably a good choice because pan asian restaurants tend to offer greater variety of cuisines at the cost of quality. Fortunately they hadn’t sacrificed quality. I skipped the starters, although everyone else said their starter was delicious. They certainly looked like it. Then the mains finally arrived and I almost regret ordering the plethora of side dishes.

I ordered their Chicken Lababdar (Tandoori chicken tikka cooked in lababdar gravy with fresh ginger, green chilli, coriander and finished with cream) which ended up deliciously spicy and creamy at the same time. It was a hugely generous serve (as were all of the main dishes), hence regretting the presence of all the side dishes we ordered.

We ended up taking all the leftover food home. Despite all the strangeness, if you simply treated this as an Indian/Pakistani restaurant the food is definitely worth going for. I can also recommend ordering their mango creme brulee.

Name: Asia Dining Room
Found at: 66 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1DP
Website: http://www.asia-dining.co.uk/cambridge

Cambridge Chop House

Patrick British, Cambridge, Restaurants, UK

Cambridge houses two chop houses, run by the same group of people. We went to the one located in the heart of the ring road, The Cambridge Chop House (opposed to their other one, opposite my favourite Cambridge gastropub, The Punter). We tried this one because I was told the atmosphere was much nicer, and with a cellar dining room, did have a lot more of an intimate atmosphere.

Wanting some greens, I started with the Roasted fennel, orange and red onion herb salad – a light and refreshing way to start the meal. The portion size was decent and aniseed-flavoured fennel went well to contrast the sharp herb and slightly tangy orange segments.

They had a number of specials that had gone that day, and what was surprising about this “Chophouse” is lack of a “meat board” or anything like it. In fact, I only remember them having one or two types of steaks! Strange for a chophouse. I succumbed to their temptation of a Venison Wellington, Mash and Gravy that the menu noted (and the staff emphasised) the wait for an additional 20 minutes. Considering that we weren’t in any particular rush, I thought that would have been fine.

As you can see from the picture above, the wellington ended up quite a massive portion and it took me a while to even make a dent in it. I was worried that it wouldn’t come with greens either, so I’d ordered an additional bowl but it also came with some broccoli. It doesn’t hurt to have more greens does it?

Service was odd throughout the evening with waitresses being rather direct. It’s not like they were impolite, but there was definitely an oddity to it and I still can’t quite properly explain it. I’d definitely recommend this over a number of the chain restaurants in Cambridge.

Name: The Cambridge Chop House
Found at: 1 King’s Parade, Cambridge CB2 1SJ
Website: http://www.chophouses.co.uk/TheCambridgeChopHouse/