Restaurants – Page 5 – thekua.com@rest

A prediction for 2008…

February 4, 2008 Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

2008 is the year of the Mexicans. Walking around town this weekend (still no Apple Air in store!), all I seemed to stumble across was plenty of new places all serving mexican (or at least a tex-mex mix) of food.

Just down from Flat White I saw Mexi Cali, apparently replacing a less popular Mexican place. It’s apparently already located in Notting Hill and Chelsea (how did I not hear of this?). Also, I noticed something like four or five places all along Upper Street in Angel. On Thursday, after a recommendation from JK, I checked out Wahaca for lunch (very modern, nice and conveniently located near our office!)

Yauatcha

January 30, 2008 Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

After eating at Alan Yau’s Michelin starred Hakkasan, I was yet to eat at his other Michelin starred restaurant, Yauatcha that also recently got purchased by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. That changed this Sunday. Located in the heart of Soho, it’s easy to mistake the iridescent blue corner striping the outside as some sort of club. Certainly the downstairs dining room, a dark room fitted with lights best described as starry, and a fishtank fronting the entire length of the bar certainly make it feel like one. Upstairs is the brighter and more casual feeling dining room that also serves as a tiny store offerings fanciful macaroons, divine chocolates and the unique varieties of tea on offer in the restaurant.

Unlike his other restaurant, the focus of dim sum makes this place slightly more casual and before the crowd rush hit at 1pm, it was easy enough to take pictures with my, rather not obvious, camera. As we entered the restaurant, three people immediately greeted us, one of them politely guiding us to our table downstairs. I’m sure that it’s probably best to book ahead yet Sunday seemed very quiet and arriving early meant we were seated with a wait and without fuss.

We sat directly in front of the bar where three or four men continuously pumped out the exotic drinks offered on the menu. Their comprehensive list of teas form the base for a number of even more unique and further tea-mixers both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I ordered a lime and passion iced tea that proved refreshingly tart and a great complement to the food ahead (although aptly priced in a place like this at £4).

Most of the food seemed fairly reasonable and not as crazily priced as I thought it would have been, with each plate being about a pound more than you’d pay at other decent Chinese dim sum places in London. We tried a number of new dishes as well seeing as they offered a large number of things you wouldn’t normally have at other places such as an Ostrich dumpling – a gamey ball of meat surrounded by a steamed pastry and enough liquid to rival a well made Xiao Long Bao. Standard dishes such as Siu Mai and Har Gau arrived in cute tiny little baskets both freshly made and extremely tasty. I was slightly disappointed by my favourite BBQ Pork Bun (Cha Xiu Bao) as the bread wasn’t as fluffy and white as other places make it, and the meat mixture inside a little bit too fatty and with an unnaturally overpowering pork taste (my sister was convinced it was the sherry flavour). It still wasn’t too bad although I probably wouldn’t order it there again.

The service throughout the meal was just right, and so it should be for the automatic 12.5% they add to the bill. One waitress in particular had a very enthusiastic, almost over the top, happy approach to serving her customers that it made me chuckle just a little bit. They exchanged our plates once during the meal (though I think it was a bit of a waste) and they presented each dish with its name, whisking away empty baskets and plates shortly after the last piece had been taken. See the rest of the pictures here.

Details: Yauatcha
Found at: 15-17 Broadwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 0DL
Contactable on: +44 20 7494 8888
Highlights: Modern contemporary quality dim sum, lots of tea mixers and a very untraditional dining setting
Room for improvement: Not all of the dim sum had descriptions, making it difficult to choose some more of the exotic dishes as you wouldn’t really know what you’re getting.
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

A Public Dinner

January 23, 2008 Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants, Travel

As I mentioned before, I had dinner at a restaurant called Public with Mike on my last night in New York. It hosts a lovely bar and a beautiful restaurant inside though you need to book ahead if you want a place (it seems like most places in Manhattan). Surprisingly, with a common name like Public I would have expected to have trouble finding their website except it was pretty easy by searching for the terms “public restaurant new york”. The reason I mention their website is that I have to really laugh at the way they call their food “free-spirited fusion” on their FAQ page.

The interior of this restaurant is beautiful – much of it is renovated to look like a modern public library (I guess, hence the name). To your right as you walk in, is a lavishly polished cabinet of what looks like an index card catalogue. You know, those little index cards you used to have to look up to find a book, now replaced by computers these days. If not, I must be getting too old :-). The chairs are sleek and dark that almost blend into the floor to highlight the white tablecloth and the hanging lightbox filled with old fashioned-looking lightbulbs. Like most restaurants these days, the lighting is pretty dim (certainly not great for taking photos of food!) although I guess accentuates the mood of the place.

For the evening, I drank the Guava and Red Chili Margarita (composed of Sauza Tequila, crushed red chilli with lime juice, lemon juice, sugar, orange liqueur and guava puree). It was divine since it wasn’t as sweet as your typical cocktail and the chilli had enough kick to give your mouth some heat without burning it. Of course, the sweetness of the guava and orange liqueur cuts through the bite of the rim of salt and tequila liquor.

I started with my appetiser (shown above) of Marinated white anchovies on quinoa croquettes with spicy saffron aioli. The anchovies didn’t overpower the dish excessively like I though it would though I think it lost the flavour of the soft saffron in the ailoi that also failed to be noticeably spicy. The crunch of the quinoa (a grain) croquette) went well with the soft flesh of the anchovies.

For the main (or the entree as they call it in the US) I had difficulty deciding between the Tasmanian sea trout or the New Zealand Snapper. After asking the waitress, I decided for the snapper dish, on the menu marked as Pan-seared New Zealand snapper on wasabi-boniato mash with poached conch, pickled ginger, and yao choy. The fish was delicately cooked – so soft that poking it with a fork would unfold its white gems of flesh. I’m not sure where the conch was and the subtle wasabi-boniato mash was creamy and slightly sweet that went perfectly with the fish on top of it.

Details: Public
Found at: 210 Elizabeth Street, New York, 10012
Contactable on: +1 212 343 7011
Highlights: Strong classical menu involving lots of Australian and New Zealand seafood and meat with a modern twist.
Room for improvement: Not that I’m vegetarian, but I noticed on their menu they only had one choice for vegetarians from their main dishes.
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

WD-50, The Restaurant

January 21, 2008 Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants

Although the name sounds like some sort of variant of the lubricant, cleaner and anti-corrosive WD-40, this restaurant bears no other resemblance and is actually a combination between the restauranteur’s name and the address. I wanted to try this place out as the chef was well known for matching bizarre and strange ingredients, much along the lines of The Fat Duck. Karl and I had dinner here, first trying an appetizer and entree (main course) the followed by the three course dessert tasting menu. What followed was an extravaganza of a meal.

Our waitress provided fantastic service throughout the night and we joked with her about a number of things (like the endless cutlery that accompanied everything). She also gave us two glasses of free dessert wine (a light rose, and followed with the muscat) that went smashingly with the multi-course desserts we had.

Read on to find more about our culinary journey. Read more “WD-50, The Restaurant”

A Night at Nobu

January 16, 2008 Patrick Food, New York, Restaurants

My family tends to avoid famous restaurants and by habit, we prefer closer to home-cooked meals, at reasonable prices and with an atmosphere that doesn’t have to resemble a club to be enjoyable. Even then, if we end up going to an upscale place, it has to be for a pretty special occasion and what we call special occasions are far and few between. Getting everyone in my immediate family together in New York is one of those special occasions that we thought we’d splash out and celebrate as a family. The result? Dinner for twelve at the famous Japanese restaurant, Nobu.

Although I ate at the Las Vegas version of this restaurant, dining at the flagship restaurant with the family and some other relatives ended up with as a much more enjoyable meal lasting over ten courses and stretching over at least three hours. I’m glad to say that our waiter worked extremely well for his service charge, telling us about the menu in great detail, talking about his own recommendations, topping up everyone’s water frequently and bringing the food at a reasonable pace. He didn’t try to up sell certain types of food or try to push things that we didn’t want to eat or drink, and he didn’t interrupt during our meal at awkward times, breaking the flow of whatever conversations we might have been in.

Read on to see the list of dishes we ate and photos of the food (at least those that turned out). Read more “A Night at Nobu”

Nala’s Kingdom

January 8, 2008 Patrick Food, Life in India, Restaurants, Travel

Arun Kumar, my newly found acquaintance at Port Blair recommended this place for me to eat. Located right at the end of the jetty, it’s open around 7pm for dinner and, like most places on Havelock Island, does multi-cuisine – whatever that means. I’ve had great seafood from this place the four times that I’ve been so far. The owner brings out plates of fresh seafood for you to point at and choose how to cook.

My first outing saw me greedily pick four large prawns, and when I mean large, imagine about double, almost triple the size of the largest king prawn you’ve seen and you have a good idea about what I’m talking about. Although costing 150 rupees each, they cooked them in some sort of masala salt on a bed of spiced rice, and the usual tomato, cucumber and onion mix. Absolutely delicious.

The second time I went, he brought out a plate of two large fish, and then what I thought were even bigger prawns. He called them bay prawns, and later realised they looked like mini lobsters also just as big that a person with large hands could carry only two in one stretched hand at a time. He barbequed these ones this time in a divine spicy tandoor paste, this time only accompanied by the tomato, cucumber and onion mix. I asked for some rice and he also brought a number of the daal and veg curries everyone else seemed to be tucking into.

BBQ The second time around, I chatted to him briefly about Mr Kumar referring me, joyously laughing at the business card Mr Kumar showed me. At the end of the meal, the manager proudly showed me the homemade BBQ at back. What a pleasure it was to see a kitchen – like rotis being made, a hollowed out concrete block fished with ashes acting as a BBQ and a number of busy staff preparing everyone else’s meal.

The most popular meal appears to be the thali served on a large metallic plate with either endless heapings of rice, or a number of rotis ordered on demand. Each table holds a trio of buckets, each filled with a different vegetarian curry – one I could tell was some sort of aloo (potato), another a distinctive daal (lentil) and the other one a very watery curry poured on the rice. Another bucket seemed to float around though I couldn’t work out what it contained. Some parties also ordered a side of fried fish, or some sort of chicken, both arriving on a tiny metal disc.

Details: Nala’s Kingdom
Found at: Jetty, Govind Nagar, Havelock. Beach Number 1, Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Contactable on: 03192-282233 or 9434290610
Highlights: Fantastic food that’s popular with the locals. I can’t highly recommend the BBQ (Tandoori) options especially when it comes to seafood such as lobsters or fish (I had both here). The masala salt prawns were absolutely divine and huge!
Room for improvement: Expect seating on plastic chairs and tables though they seem clean enough.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Flags

December 20, 2007 Patrick Food, Life in India, Pune, Restaurants

A restaurant that serves one or two dishes from almost every country around the world? There’s a very good reason it’s called Flags. Marketed at the higher end of the restaurant market, walking into Flags brings you into a very nice dining experience filled with plush red lounges opposite comfortably large chairs and twirled dining napkins at each settting. The bar at the back underscores the entire dining experience without being overbearing and just enough attendants float around without feeling like they’re all staring at you.

As a foreigner, expect to be asked if you want Evian water – politely decline and go with the mineral water that is at least a quarter of the price. The next question in line will be the push for a bottle of wine – apparently they have a really great bottle and of course, it’s the most expensive on the menu. Settling for a couple of glasses of local wine isn’t such a bad experience.

Now on to the food. When it comes to restaurants that serve this wide variety of food, either they’ll do some dishes very well and will only have a subset of the menu actually available, or they’ll do everything but most of them will end up pretty substandard. This restaurant falls into the latter category and that means you really have to order the right sort of food to actually enjoy your meal. I went for the Boston Clam Chowder followed by the New Orleans Grilled Fish and actually both meals for me was just about right. The clam chowder was a huge portion though the sourdough bread sitting in the midst of it was pretty awful (for sourdough bread at least) whilst the fish, perfectly grilled and well seasoned satiated my appetite perfectly. The other people in our dining experience probably had a much less successful night -the fajitas could have well fed two people but its tasteless mass barely satisfying the single person who couldn’t bear to eat it all. The burrito and a number of other dishes looked just as bad.

Details: Flag’s (Pune)
Found at: INOX Multiplex, Bund Garden Rd, Camp
Highlights: Huge offering of foods from all around the world with a very nice ambient atmosphere.
Room for improvement: Obviously pushy with the higher end products and would be okay if their food matched the quality of the wines on offer.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Favourite Chinese Restaurants in London

December 17, 2007 Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Stacey asked for some advice for a friend who’d had bad experiences with Chinese food in London. Admittedly there’s plenty of opportunity for those, and it’s a shame that they hadn’t hit any of the winners. I suggested a list and thought I’d blog about it so other people might try something new.

Here’s a few recommendations…

Best Peking Duck
You can find the most popular Peking Duck at the Four Seasons in Bayswater. They’ve opened up another outlet in Chinatown though I haven’t been there yet.

Dim Sum (Yum Cha)
Not many places in London do this by the cart (and if they do, the quality tends to be very average). New World is pretty good with carts, but not my most favourite. For what I think is quality Dim Sum I head to Laureate (it’s on Shaftsbury Avenue), or Golden Dragon – both in Chinatown.

Malaysian/Singaporean
Though not exclusively “Chinese”, C&R Cafe, in Chinatown does great Malaysian or Singaporean food. It’s down a little alley somewhere (I think Rupert Court).

Upscale Chinese
London being London means every budget is accommodated for. Hakkasan (very expensive) offers a great dining experience though I think I prefer Shanghai Blues (expensive). Royal China (affordable upscale) is also less formal yet still very enjoyable dining experience. They have locations both in Queensway and Baker Street. Princess Gardens (affordable upscale) is also very nice though has been quite empty when I go there.