Eat Like Ushi

New in the King's Cross block is Happy Face pizza. It's a venture from the Spiritland people around the corner with their insanely expensive sound system. Similarly Happy Face has a pretty good system itself with clear sounds from very funky looking speakers strategically around the venue.

During this 50% soft opening, it did seem they were struggling to keep up with the pizza pace. It took 45mins for our entree and pizzas to arrive, but the table next to us only waited about 10 and therefore we ate at the same time. Go figure.

In any case that's what a soft opening is about. They didn't have milkshakes or chinottos or another drink I asked for, so just water then.

They also ran out of calamari fritti and so we were relegated to zucchini friti £6. Having said that these thin zucchini fries were crisp and delicious and strongly salted so basically replaced normal fries (and our sodium levels). It's quite a small thing for that price (and the wait) and we were so hungry by then. The pizzas are surprisingly simple in their toppings. The dough is chewy with some burnt and very puffy crust parts. Pepperoni £9 and Parmagiana £10 were both alright but too sparse. Particularly the Pepperoni where there was much crust not covered by cheese, tomato or meat. It was a bit disappointing in that sense to be eating plain crust (and I really like a good salty chewy crust).

It was nice to try, but won't be replacing their down-the-road rival Franco Manca for me.

Although there's many a fried chicken place, I haven't found any that compares to my beloved Belle's Hot Chicken (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/belles-hot-chicken-melbourne-02-2016). Nowhere I've found so far does the same degree of spice coating. They actually moreso rely on sauce.

Nonetheless Butchies in Shoreditch was on my list as a fried chicken to be reckoned with and I took the Franksgiving special (combined with Frank's hot sauce) as a reason to visit.

The fried chicken is surprisingly mild in flavour with the meat not heavily seasoned or salty at all. The batter is very crisp and fluffy with a little excess coating. The meat is very good and the wings are large in size. I tried their Wingfest winning Kimchi Honey-Butter version which was alright, but I much preferred the unusual sauce of the Franksgiving with cranberry and hot sauce. It was excellent.

The mini sliders had a great bread to chicken ratio with each chicken tender expanding well outside the boundaries. Similarly these pieces were crisp and juicy. Sweet potato were well fried and well seasoned.

I'll look forward to comparing them to Jollibee and Chick'n'Sours.

 A Sunday roast in Shoreditch. I definitely like the decor with paintings of classic English females adorning the walls.

The roast is pretty good. It's at the rather expensive end at £19.5 for beef and so I'd probably go to Blacklock instead (given I could even get a spot there).

In the heart of theatre district, I'd systematically tried a few places. TOZI is a highly rated Italian offering of Venetian background.

The food is excellent, from the mini pizzas, pastas, aubergine parmagiana and others. The sharing dishes do sound the best but are at a much higher price point.

Overall not a cheap meal as the servings are small (even though the prices aren't too bad).

But it's very tasty.

In King's Cross they had an icecream exhibition. It seems pretty expensive to pay £12 just to walk around and read about icecream. I couldn't justify the entry price but took advantage of the Conehenge stand in the entrance.

If nothing else, the flavours are certainly unique (and expensive).

I tried the daffodil and the cardamom & vanilla flavours. Both were ok. Texture was reasonable, not all that creamy though. The cardamom could have used a stronger cardamom flavour.

Not my favourite place but adequate for a hot summer day.

After trying Black Roe several months ago to test out their new menu (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/black-roe-london-02-2018), once again they offered another special to try this updated one.

The service is a little haphazard and confused. For instance even though I booked for the Hot Dinners set menu for £50pp, they seemed not to notice this when I arrived (until I pointed it out). Additionally I had an email with the menu below. They said "whole lobster" which should indicate one lobster per person, but this was not the case (I was too full anyway to be fair). The email also specifically stated two cocktails per person, which was a mistake on their part (as it's meant to be one each they said). Even with this in writing from them, it took a higher manager to rectify this and only after a few complaints about it.

Oh well.

- Spicy tuna taco (diced raw tuna, corn, and spicy lemon dressing);
- Kurtistown oysters (maui onion salsa) - fat oysters complimented by a tangy relish. Not as good as Ezard's oyster shooters (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/ezard-melbourne-10-2012), but close;
- Waikiki tuna tataki (spicy pineapple salsa);
- Grilled scallops (maitake mushroom, green curry broth) - very flavoursome and creamy;
- Shumai gyoza (chicken and beef dumpling, cherry hoisin);
- Island chicken satay (coconut, shiitake mushroom, coriander) - this was actually exceptional. Tender chicken with a really good crisp skin and topped with satay sauce;
- Beef & black bean (slow cooked in a black bean beef jus);
- Whole lobster “Mac ‘N’ Cheese” - as mentioned previously I was expecting a whole lobster each but only got one to share. Worse than this was that the actual lobster itself had minimal meat and a lot of mac. I wonder where all the meat has gone?;
- Chef’s Dessert - fruit and churros.

Even at half price, £50pp is a lot. I don't think this menu is worth £100 at full price, even with one £12 drink and half a lobster of that quality. It is a large quantity of food and you definitely won't leave hungry. But I'd think twice before going again.

I've been meaning to try Blacklock Sunday roast for a very long time. In fact, I actually had two previous bookings which I cancelled a few days beforehand due to other circumstances. Neither time did I feel bad, because I know someone else will pick up the booking. On the most recent occasion, I cancelled the Soho booking because I got a Shoreditch reservation for the same Sunday. Given the Shoreditch branch is newer and was offering a free round of drinks (as compensation for being one of the 4000(?) who couldn't get a soft launch booking), it seemed the better idea.

It's actually located on a relatively quiet street in Shoreditch near Tramshed, and on a Sunday lunch time there certainly wasn't anyone else around who wasn't going to the restaurant.

The roast menu is quite straightforward. The lamb belly ribs and pigs head do sound delicious, but luckily we didn't order them simply because the roasts were plenty enough for a large meal.

I tried both the 55 day aged beef rump £18 (first picture) and the Cornish lamb leg £17 (second picture). I was curious about the all-in but already ate pork the night before. I did see another table with a 6-person all in and the huge dump of meat and accompaniments was impressive to see.

Both the beef and lamb were expertly cooked, very pink and tender with minimal additives and seasoning. They actually do look kind of similar don't they? They just tasted like good meat. It was pretty tender too and a joy to eat. Yorkshire puddings were gladly not burnt, although didn't have that much flavour in themselves. Roast potatoes were crisp and soft on the inside. The side dish of roots and gremolata £4 was a nice dish of roasted vegetables with thyme and parsley.

Overall it was a very good roast. I'd have to say not as good as The Marksman (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/the-marksman-public-house-london-04-2018) or Harwood Arms (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/the-harwood-arms-london-10-2013). However it's cheaper and difficult to complain really.

With the new and very fancy looking Coal Drops Yard, there's many a new restaurants and other shops to explore. Business seems to be good despite the cold and dreary and often rainy weather. Most of the restaurants are from decent names and so getting to the opportunity to sample one during the 50% soft launch was lucky. Apparently there were an insane number of reservation requests (although not as many as Blacklock Shoreditch) and even though I didn't get one via email, I did on OpenTable and they were happy to honour it. Not sure how that system works, but I'll take it!

I entered from the back after taking the stairs up from Wolf x Badger clothing store. There's also a juice and health food bar on the ground floor that looks interesting. The restaurant is in a very high ceilinged warehouse and I like the industrial feel (as everything in KX these days) and am also impressed how they keep the whole place warm (must be expensive too).

The first section is cold starters and served together on a board.
- Tuna proscuitto, spring onion, lemon creme fraiche £7 - excellent fresh tuna thinly sliced;
- Octopus, seaweed, fennel £7 - standard;
- Beer bread £2 - grilled to a nice crust with soft texture underneath and perfect with the black salt butter.

The next section is skewers from the hot grill.
- Wild red prawns, hicce butter £13 - beautiful colour. The shells could have been more crisp to make them easier to eat, but didn't stop me from eating them whole with heads. The butter/oil and herbs added some contrast;
- Quail eggs, button mushroom, watercress £7 - simple and nice.

The final section is hot dishes.
- Beetroot, black garlic, grape £7 - simple. Not sure where the black garlic was, in the sauce perhaps? Couldn't really tell;
- Monkfish jerusalem artichoke, trompettes £15 - firm and juicy flesh;
- Lamb neck, mojo, tomatoes £11 - very tender and pink, a bit too salty;
- Miso potatoes £4 - firm but not as crunchy on the outsides as I had hoped.

And lastly, naturally a dessert.
- Pecan, chilli, chocolate tart, ricotta icecream £6 - very rich decadent chocolate with some candied chilli. The icecream tasted more plain/vanilla than ricotta to me.

Overall the food quality is good. The flavours seem quite standard and heavily salted. Everything was nice, although I'd have to say it wasn't unique.

I've never heard of murger I must admit. It must be some take on a burger? And yes it seems to be - meat in a steamed bun Shaanxi style. This place near Euston station was a coincidence as the never ending queue at Roti King seems to always defy me.

£5 for a pork murger is a bit too much. The bread is firm and slightly charred - not bad as such. The pork meat is not particularly spiced either. It's ok overall but not worth that price. The photo that shows 3 of them got me thinking that would be a bargain for £5, but not to be. It's only for one.

On the other hand, the Biangbiang noodles (you get 2 per dish, but they aren't ordinary noodles) with braised pork, tomato, egg sauce, chilli oil also comes with a heap of grated ginger and a slightly tangy and salty broth. It's delicious. The noodles are thick and uneven like meat from a kebab. £10.8 isn't a bad price to pay for this.

I'd come back for the noodles.

I haven't eaten much Filipino food in my life. I visited the country in 2005 and was then exposed to adobo and sinigang. But since then other than my own version of adobo, it's been quite sparse and not a strongly represented cuisine anywhere I've lived. This new restaurant in Hoxton (a bit out of the way from anything) specialises in Kinilaw (ceviche) and Buko (icecream).

The bubble teas (one Earl grey and one Chai) were ok for flavour but nothing great £5. You can add an alcholic shot for £3. Chai was much sweeter and stronger than the watery Earl grey. Unfortunately the pearls were large, white and hard to the point of being inedible. Also the thin straws meant the pearls couldn't be sucked up. Would definitely not get either of them again.

- Mustasa cradled duck egg (salted duck egg, heirloom tomato, mustard leaf, grated cured yolk) £5.5 - egg wasn't particularly salty;
- Vinegar soaked talaba (oysters, avocado, onion, ginger, lime, vinegar) £6.5 for 2 - excellent shooter of oyster with balance of flavours;
- Baboy bounty (pork belly, dice cucumber, chilli, chicharron) £6.5;
- Kilawan coconut fire (bream, mango, red pepper, jalapeño, coconut vinegar) £7 - my favourite ceviche dish with good chunks of fish and well balanced with a bit of chilli;
- Diver hauls kapis treasure (hand-dived scallop, cucumber, radish, lime, fermented roe) £8 - one large scallop sliced into 3 with chopped up roe;
- Pusit hides in kang kang (squid, ink, coconut, peppers, water spinach) £6 - bouncy squid bits
- Hilaw na papaya & prawn (king prawns, green papaya, picked cucumber, achiote prawn oil) £7 - quite good but the prawns themselves were a bit soft and uninspired;
- Steamed rice with kanin-asawa rice seasoning £2.8 - tried the slightly salty pork floss version and strangely sweet fish. It was ok but necessary for the meal. I'd get the pork or try the chicken next time.

Interestingly all the dishes are cold. I suppose as ceviche that is expected. It's the hot rice that you eat it with that makes it feel more like a normal meal, particularly on a colder evening out.

- Red bean butterscotch bomb (red bean icecream, miso butterscotch sauce, ginger anzac biscuit) £3 served in a ube purple yam cone £0.3 - the red bean icecream was very good and unique. The sauces and anzac added even more sweetness, which wasn't necessarily necessary. The purple cone was surprisingly not purple and didn't have a strong yam flavour;
- Ube buko (purple yam & coconut, tapioca pearls) £3 served in a buko pandan cone £0.3 - unlike the cone, the icecream had a strong sweet yam flavour and was excellent. The cone was sweet but almost to the point that it overpowered the icecream and I preferred to eat it without.

Would order again the Kilawan (bream), the oysters and the scallop and rice with either pork or try the chicken (and hope it was salty). Otherwise I have to admit that many of dishes seemed to blend into each other. I would get both icecreams but without the cones.