Eat Like Ushi

Bargain 3 course lunch for £22.5 when the London City shuts down on weekends.

French at its finest.

Excellent warm bread to start of. The seeded one was warm, crisp shell and so soft inside.

- Coquille Saint Jacques (Orkney Island scallop, bouquet prawns, mussels, puff pastry vol au vent, American sauce) - American sauce tasted like crab/shellfish sauce;
- Venison tartare (celeriac & green apple remoulade, Avruga caviar, black truffle) - a perfect dish to look at. The diced meat was tender and soft and not too strongly flavoured;
- Loup de mer (seared fillet of sea bass, Devon white crab risotto, crab essence)
- Cote de veau (250g Rose veal cutlet vallee d'auge, creamy wild mushrooms, apples, truffled pomme puree) - looked white as (and tasted as if it could have been) pork with the pink of rare. Very flavoursome;
- 2 desserts including my molten dark chocolate fondant with pistachio icecream.

Excellent brunch.

Michelin star Indian comes to London. Surprisingly there wasn't a full complement of guests but maybe they kept it slower for the soft opening. It didn't stop some cheapskate annoying other tables from ordering takeaway. The nerve.

Roast Banana Old Fashioned (tandoor roasted banana with cinnamon, orange & pecan bitters, maple) £8.5 didn't have much banana or roast flavour. But it did taste like a strong but quite smooth slightly smokey old fashioned. It was good.

- Pappadums with chutney
- Naga scallops (smoked chilli spiced diver scallops, parsnips achar, puree & papad) £18 - delicate scallops (slightly overcooked) with excellent flavour and accompaniments for contrast;
- Tibetan guinea fowl thupka (classic north eastern noodle & meat soup with coriander & green onion) £12 - like a perfect Chinese chicken noodle soup dish. I savoured every drop of broth;
- Sagolir manxo (tribal goat curry, cumin, black pepper) £26 - probably the best goat curry I've had with a reasonably strong flavour, the most tender delectable meat pieces and no bones to fill out of the dish. I suppose the most expensive too...;
- Banana leaf steamed seabass (sorrel chutney marinated wild seabass, pineapple & shrimp kutchumber) £28 - excellently cooked and if I recall correctly even de-boned...?;
- Kanishka signature black dal £8 - incredibly rich, creamy with a butter/ghee flavour. It would have to rival the one at world famous Bukhara (https://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/bukhara-delhi-01-2015);
- Bread basket (naan, paratha, roti) £10.

Overall a great meal. It seemed like excellent versions of classic dishes rather than particularly modern takes. Would gladly go back.

With a show in Victoria, I looked and managed to find a half price dinner nearby on First Table. I haven't heard about M previously but apparently they've won awards for both their meat and seafood. What are the odds?

- Crab raviolo (white chocolate, artichoke, caviar) £14.95 - the singular of ravioli is raviolo. Nice although expensive if it was full price...
- Pan fried hake (parsley, swede & celeriac gratin, seaweed butter) £20.95;
- Botswana rib-eye 400g £36.50 - look at how perfectly rare (as requested), full of flavour, not the most tender but good enough. Really good.

Good food at a good price in a nice location and restaurant. Great for pre-theatre.

Salt Yard, Dehesa, Opera Tavern - all names I knew last time in 2012-2013 but never tried. The Opera Tavern foie gras burger was one that was thrown around Hot Dinners back in those days. Finally the opportunity arose in halfprice weekend dinners. No idea why, maybe it is difficult staying new during the quieter months. I chose Ember Yard due to their having a special josper grill.

All the dishes were nice, but particularly the josper roasted duck (turnip, calcot, pork rillons) £9.5 and the iberico cuts plate £30. These were the dishes cooked on the josper so it isn't surprisingly they pleased me most.

Most interesting was the rare to medium-rare pork that only iberico could. The iberico abanico with chicken butter (left, fan that surrounds the ribs), iberico pluma with black pepper (middle, feather blade) and iberico presa with jamon butter (right, shoulder) were all phenomenal. The texture was probably the softest on the presa, the grain and flavour most powerful in the pluma (which was my favourite) and the strong saltiness from the seasoning and chicken butter was sometimes a touch too potent. But boy was it good.

Desserts were ok but nothing special. We ate way too much...

When Neil Rankin started this in 2013 I was there but not so impressed. This was better for Sunday lunch.

Huge lamb shoulder for 4 (but easily fed 5 with two boxes of leftovers).

Soft, delicate, and with flavoured blackened skin.

A decent burger opening up in King's Cross. Although I don't think as good as Meatliquor or for vegan Temple of Seitan nearby. Some of the sides looked good but didn't try them this day.

After passing long queues, queuing this time before lunchtime opening and waiting until the whole party arrived, I finally ate here.

Excellent roti, some of the best I've had. Flaky, chewy, buttery, delicious. Laksa is ok, nice taste but not many ingredients. Char kuay teow wasn't charred enough and lacked flavour.

Would definitely go back for the roti.

Bob’s Your Uncle (pork belly, fried egg, cucumber, spring onion, sriracha and tomato relish in a Cretan pitta) £10.2

After using a Class Pass trial for an unusual "yellow" yoga experience, the closely located Pachamama East was perfect for lunch afterwards. It was a peaceful and quiet Friday afternoon for a short wander around Shoreditch. There seem to be two entrances. We entered the rear one straight onto the bar and a quiet area probably more for coffee than food.

The décor is very café rather than restaurant, with a lot of plants littered around including on the walls. The atmosphere was relaxed.

The menu is Asian-Peruvian (which I associate by habit with Nobu). However the Asian here did have more than just Japanese, with many Sichuan elements also.

It was lunchtime so I didn't feel so much like a cocktail, but the mocktail Chicha Morada (purple corn brewed with apples, cloves, cinnamon, pineapple skins) £7 sounded interesting and certainly the colour was striking. It did taste similar to a cloudy apple juice with spices. I didn't so much taste corn as I had hoped from the description.

- Padron peppers, chilli £5 – perfectly blistered with oil, salt and perhaps a little butter. Delicious. They weren’t very chilli hot, and didn’t see any additional chilli added;
- Yellowfin tuna, pickled potato, XO, cucumber £11 – a pretty dish topped with wispy white sticks. I couldn’t distinguish the XO sauce particularly nor the potato for that matter. It was savoury and ok overall;
- Seabass ceviche, soy tiger’s milk, nori, sesame £9 – this was an excellent dish with soft cubes of fish served in a delicious umami, tangy, and balanced sauce;
- Tuna, avocado jalapeño sauce, fried leeks, lime, radish £11 – nice combination of slivered tuna on an avocado bed with slices of chilli, radish, salty bits of leek creating an excellent combination of textures and flavours;
- Plantain, yacon syrup, feta, black olive £7 – plantains a little stiff and not ripe enough, very strong black olive crumb overpowered the rest, and chalky feta was very mild. The only dish I didn’t understand and didn’t like;
- Crispy lamb belly, green pepper, miso £11 – a little bit of crispness but mainly just pieces of lamb full of fried flavour. The green pepper sauce was contrasted by a bit of tart dark (vinegar maybe?) one and together combined well. Some lamb pieces were quite fatty whilst others were pure meat morsels great for chewing;
- Miso-cured carrot, black quinoa, Peruvian kimchi £7 – nicely roasted carrots with just a hint of something extra in it. Kimchi was thin strands of pickled vegetable;
- Octopus, black quinoa, onion, lime £15 – quinoa stewed and popped (or was it large couscous?) and presenting charred bits of octopus with excellent flavour. The octopus had texture rather than soft and fine, but far from chewy. Very good;
- Whole seabass, pickled chilli, mango, Asian BBQ sauce £23 – a nicely cooked soft fish served whole. It was nice although not particularly special.

Other than the plantains, all the other dishes ranged from good to excellent. I didn't really try the Sichuan options such as fried chicken or cumin lamb stirfry (yum), but that could be for next time.

The modern Indian food scene heats up with this branch launching from India. It's an exciting time around Christmas and NY and perfect for a celebratory meal to welcome 2019. The location is an easy walk from Piccadilly circus and along the main road for some royal atmosphere too. They must be paying a lot for rent.

The cocktail list is quite unusual. There's 12 based upon ayuverdic principles. I'm not sure how evidenced that is, but with one using saffron gin and another mezcal and beetroot, there's some unusual combinations there.

For this 50% soft opening night, they didn't have the razor clams, oysters or sea bass available. Additionally they had run out of the goat shoulder and shawarma biryani, both the dishes I was looking most forward to. Oh well. Next time then.

- Pani poori (coriander water, buttermilk, tamarind) £5 - 4 crisp shells served with a mix of sauces. I liked the coriander water best, although added all 3 into my shell. It did mean that whatever was inside the shell lost its identity;
- Chicken wings (masala rub) £6 - delicious wings heavily spiced and cooked nicely. So good we ordered a second plate;
- Madras pepper prawns £8 - similarly heavily spiced marinade on crunchy prawn flesh and served with a yoghurt and some kind of dust I couldn't determine. So good we ordered seconds. The first serve had 3, the second serve had 4. A bit odd;
- Tuna ceviche (Bengal jhal moorie) £9 - tuna with lime juice, some small herbs and a crisp puffed rice salad. The only fresh dish we ordered and added some good contrast with its more refined flavour;
- Braised lamb chops (maple & kokum glaze) £14 - the maple in the name should have given away the flavour being unusually sweet. It was certainly nice. However the chops were cooked beyond medium and so the tenderness wasn't there;
- Grills of the day £40 - pork belly tikka (murraba glaze) that was slightly sweet but a bit too fatty, grainy mustard salmon tikka (kasundi mint cream) from a kebab was soft and lovely, wagyu seekh kebab (kachumber salad) with earthy spices and a grainy texture of the mince. Looking at the photos online, the serve of each is smaller than getting the dish alone. So you are paying for the variety really and not getting a discount for ordering 3;
- Veal 'osso bucco' Ishtu (dhaniya kulcha) £16 - soft medallions in a rice curry sauce;
- A small nan came out (I think part of the veal dish) and although tiny, it was supple, soft, seasoned and excellent. I should get more next time;
- Grilled baby back ribs (rogan josh) £18 - tender ribs with meat falling from the bone;
- Jhol chicken tangri biryani £16 - served dum style with a soft pastry shell belying a moist heavily spiced biryani and 2 chicken legs. It was delicious and one of the best I've had. Some on the table prefer a lighter drier form, but this was good for me.

4 of us were stuffed after this. But dessert time.

- Rasmalai 'marshmallow', tres leches £7;
- Laddoo, shell, coconut mousse, berries £7 - this bright white chocolate sphere surprised me as I don't like white chocolate. But the contrast of berries inside and around made it rich and tart and delicious;
- Chocolate forest £7.

With all the food, I got a bit food weary toward the end. Which is why the latter dishes (particularly the desserts) have much less memory.

But with the chicken wings, prawns and biryani, and my desire for the goat shoulder and shawarma biryani, there's a lot to entice me to come back.

The competition heats up between Dishoom, Hoppers, Kricket and Gunpowder. All the restaurants have great dishes. For the overall meal, I think Farzi has pipped them all. Let's see next how Indian Accent and Brigadiers is.

Added 01-2019

After the first wonderful experience, I requested to go back. Luckily they would have me and for a delicious (early) meal before walking to see Witness For The Prosecution, I found myself at a nice booth enjoying the food all over again.

The prawns numbered 3 this time (for 4 people). I don't know what to make of that, but so be it.

- Butter chicken bao (green chilli mayo) £7 – sliders rather than baos although made with soft bread and a mild butter chicken. Nice but not particularly worth getting;
- Tandoori goat shoulder (khamiri kulcha) £19 – excellent meat that surprised me in that it looked darkened and charred but didn’t have any of that texture, All the meat was soft and beautifully flavoured. The sauce underneath was strongly flavoured goat stock and yoghurt, and tasted exactly that way. Really good. It was served with a strong garlic dipping sauce;
- Venison irrachi pepper fry (Malabari parantha) £16 – heavily flavoured and seasoned like a meat curry and served with wispy roti. The meat didn’t have much game flavour, but could be detected under the heavy sauce;
- Shawarma biryani £17 – I expected a dum pie crust similar to the chicken one, but ended up with a skewer of nice mutton on top of a circle disk of biryani (less because the bass of the skewer is hidden in there). It was nice overall, but I do think the chicken is better, and comes with much more biryani, without an inferior meat component.
- Srikhand 'air' cheesecake (mango coulis) £7 – very light and smooth, and perfect cheesecake flavour.

This reinforced my high regard for Farzi and also which dishes I should select when paying full price.