Eat Like Ushi

Fresh from Dubai comes an Anatolian restaurant to Mayfair. It certainly has that element of middle eastern wealth which is right at home in a suburb that I otherwise wouldn't be visiting. The female welcoming staff are all stunningly dressed in white gowns and the wait staff are in equally attractive suits for some females and long middle eastern style shirts.

The service is attentive - very attentive with lots of water top-ups, a sommelier, and multiple staff asking us how the meal is throughout the night. It is their soft opening with 50% off the food and so I suppose they want all the feedback they can get in exchange for the discount. And so be it because the prices are otherwise what I would expect for Mayfair. Luckily it is excellent and alluring for the return at full price.

The menu is explained (as well as the correct pronunciations I have been butchering for years) as modern Anatolian cuisine with a few twists. It is a far difference from the repetitive pides, kebabs and grills I have (lovingly don't get me wrong) experienced on multiple trips to Turkey. A cocktail cost £13 which is higher than usual but not extreme, although admittedly didn't taste very strong. Their cocktail menu definitely has some unusual and excellent ideas based upon various regions of Anatolia.

I've listed the full food prices, but paid 50% of it.

- Citir Kalamar (simit coated baby squid, avocado haydari) £6.5 - small pieces of crisp salty spiced kalamari with a coriander (green) sauce and a (red) pepper sauce;
- Zeytinyagli Ahtapot (marinated grilled octopus, black eyed beans, apple vinaigrette) £11.5 - remarkably tender octopus grilled to a bitey coat with a slightly tangy vinaigrette;
- 2 Cheese Pide from the Black Sea (slow-cooked egg) £10.5 - the dish is low baked for 90mins to get the poached egg which is then broken and smeared over the top. The bread and 2 cheeses have an excellent saltiness and deliciousness throughout. The best pide I've had;
- Keskek (barley risotto with pulled lamb & spices) £20 - an unexpectedly sweet risotto with tender lamb pieces stirred through;
- 24h Slow Cooked Short Rib (Turkish chilli BBQ glaze, spiced konya chickpea puree) £28.5 - the waiter recommended this as their most popular dish (over the whole grilled seabream) and the reasonably tender rib didn't disappoint with the slightly tangy sweet BBQ wet rub. The chilli sauce was an outstanding savoury one and quite spicy. The hummus was more subdued but still a good balance. I think some flatbread or salad could've transformed this into the next step. But that is just extras, the dish itself is pretty good already;
- Umut's Bayildi (grilled confit of aubergine, slow-cooked onions, tomato sauce, goat's cheese) £6.5 - a roast vegetable side to balance out the heavy meat main dishes. It was relatively plain in flavour with just the natural ones coming through;
- Kunefe to share (baked kadayif pastry, melted Majdule cheese, rose & orange blossom syrup, pistachio icecream) £9.5 - the freshly cooked sweet pastry hid a chewy and lightly (plainly) savoury cheese. The pistachio icecream was coated in pistachios but didn't have the strong flavour I like on my pistachio-gelato -connoisseur taste buds.

Overall the meal was exceptional from the flavours, presentation and service. Would I pay full price? I would be very tempted - I would probably order less dishes (as this was a lot for 2) and perhaps not alcohol.

I was heading to the Barbican Theatre to see the interesting full immersive show The Encounter.

Luca is a well reputed Italian restaurant nearby complete with its own £160 pasta workshop (for another time).

With an early booking, we eventually moved from the bar to the restaurant. After they discovered we actually wanted the pre-theatre menu, they moved us back to the bar. No whitetable service (but that suits me better) and a 2 course for £17 menu.

Starters
- Fried baby squid (with devilled spices, lemon mayonnaise) - crisp little bits in a spicy coating;
- Cornish mussels alla puttanesca - soft mussels in caper and olive sauce;
- Rigatoni with pork sausage ragu, tomato, anchovy, mint - this was tasty but MUCH too salty. It wasn't anchovy salty (as I like that), but simply salt salty.

Mains
- Roast leg of guinea fowl (with Jersey royals, spring greens) - very good actually with tender meat and a savoury gravy;
- Crisp pork belly (caramelised chicory, dried figs, pickled apple) - reasonable but a little too fatty a pork belly;
- Breaded plaice (with peas, mousseron mushrooms, lettuce) - buttery, decently cooked fish, alright.

I wasn't enamoured with the meal overall. It just seemed to lack a bit for me. Maybe the full restaurant menu (with its much higher price) will show something different. Maybe I'll try it if I do the pasta course.

After the waiting and the moving there was no time for dessert. Next time. Maybe.

Mildreds is a well known vegetarian/vegan cafe/restaurant with a branch in King's Cross (the one I went to) and also Camden (and others).

When we came in, the waitress said "you know we don't serve meat right?" Yes of course I do. Do I look that carnivorous?

- Halloumi burger (chargrilled aubergine, rocket, red onion, harissa, tahini in flatbread) £8 with sweet potato fries £4 - really nice combination of vouchers. Tasted as expected;
- Green falafel (tahini, lemon) £4 - a good crisp falafel (albeit not as good as Pilpel) and seemingly better value than the large plate version for £12;
- Chicken katsu curry (panko coconut crumb mock chicken, black rice, watermelon radish salad, yuzu dressing) £13 - this tasted nothing like katsu curry. Not to say it was bad, but a completely different flavour. The mock chicken was very soft (seitan?) and black rice chewy and good.

Strange that this hipster veg place doesn't have plant-based lattes. I do find that very odd.

The food was good. It's definitely on the expensive side particularly with service but when feeling guilty (or ethical), there's always a cost.

After 5 months I returned to L'Ami Malo, this time on the back of a Timeout voucher (great value of £19 for 3 courses and a cocktail = £36+ value). As pleased as I was to have a cheap reason to return, it is a bit of a shame that a good niche restaurant in Spitalfields (with a modern twist on the Breton classic) needs to have these vouchers to gain their business. But that's the dining scene...

The glaring omission in my last visit (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/lami-malo-london-01-2018) was not getting to try the chocolate/cherry/pistachio dessert and so it beckoned me.

Kir Normande (cidre bouche Breton, merlet creme de cassis) £8 is a light fizz drink with blackcurrant flavour. Francois Sour (calvados blanche, red wine, lemon, egg white) £10 was also refreshing.

- Roscoff onion tart (poached egg, cider hollandaise) £8 - soft pastry, nice egg, sweet onions, great;
- Smoked salmon maki (capers, shallot, dill, keta caviar, creme fraiche) £8.5 - quite disappointing. The galettes are not thin and crisp and so it just feels too thick and dry;
- Confit duck leg galette (braised red cabbage, caramelised pear, tenderstem broccoli, red wine jus) £14 - as typical of French, the duck is well cooked, quite tender and tasty with crisp skin. Parts of the galette are burnt butter crisp with the characteristic buckwheat flavour coming through;
- Cod wrapped in buckwheat (braised fennel, new baby potatoes, glazed carrot, chorizo sauce) £13.5 - the fish is cooked well but you can't taste the buckwheat flavour in the galette covering. So not a combination or method I want to try again;
- Souffle lemon & blueberries crepe £9 - a very good crepe with an excellent shell, although the souffle in the middle seemed just a strange filling in my opinion;
- Dark chocolate delice (buckwheat nougatine, griottine cherries, pistachio icecream) £6.5 - deep dark chocolate, average pistachio icecream (not strongly nut flavoured and had some freezer/ice texture to it) with sour cherries. The nougatine was sweet and caramel although I couldn't detect buckwheat.

I would go back here. I'm not sure if I'd go to the area specifically to pay full price, but the tart and duck leg galette will make for a good meal.

The service from the gorgeous two waitresses was of high quality and I tipped £10 to them. It's interesting that one told me when using the Timeout voucher alone, they aren't allowed to charge service. Plenty of other places seem to find a way to...

It's been a long time (10/2013) since I ate the wonders of MEATliquor (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/meatliquor-london-03-2012). I still remember the unventilated smell of the original venue along with my first taste of chilli fries, the incredible hotdog and no queues at MEATmarket, and wanting to have the sundae at MEATmission.

With my luck there's a newish branch in King's Cross, where the staff tell me gets busy on Thursday/Friday after work, and otherwise not really without ever any queues. That is music to the ears of my stomach.

These places also have a £10 lunch deal where there is any burger and fries and soda. I went and naturally had to upgrade my fries for chilli fries.

I don't remember thinking that highly of the acclaimed Dead Hippie burger. The meat tastes like meat (slightly cooked too much this day but didn't detract) and I closely analysed the sauce and thought it largely tasted of a cheese-type base. This could be completely wrong and the burger overall was very good. It didn't have the bursting flavour of Bleeker St but had its own place and elements.

The chilli cheese fries were great and as good as I remember, and the reason I use their recipe to make my own layover chilli at home.

I'll be back, for £10 lunch or a non-queue dinner. I'll be back.

MEATliquor gifted me a free burger and side for my birthday. How excellent is that?

Instead of the burger I decided to go for the Chilli Dog as a substitute for the chilli fries. It's a decent frank and of course the chilli remains excellent.

The side was 3 crisp hash browns with a hot sauce and blue cheese.

I washed it down with the Black Forest shake (chocolate liquer, cherry liquer, chocolate, vanilla) £7.95.

I wish I had more birthdays during the year.

I'm a very big fan of matcha and matcha icecream. I probably don't like the original as much as the true aficionados, but a good matcha latte, icecream and mochi will never be lost on me.

Tsujiri is a matcha dessert cafe and everything there is very green to match(a). It isn't the cheapest but I wanted to give it a try.

They have both a matcha and a houjicha (which I've never tried before in any form). Naturally I had to get this as part of a Shiratama sundae £5.8 - the soft squishy mochi balls and red bean were on point. The houjicha has a nuttier flavour than standard matcha. I don't like these to be overly sweet and to have a bit of the tea bitterness discernible, which was present here. It was very very good.

I'll definitely be back. Not sure for houjicha again or to try the matcha, but I'm sure I'll get to both.

Ever since my 30th birthday party at the wonderful Fino (https://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/fino-london-05-2012), I've owned the Barrafina cookbook. I must admit I haven't cooked from it, but it's always been on the cards. I finally got the opportunity to try the tapas sensation that is Barrafina with an early pre-theatre meal before watching The Grinning Man.

Seats are arranged all around a bar setting and so you can see the food being prepared and the activity complete with Spanish frantically spoken here and there.

- Crab croquettes £8 - warm and creamy however the crab flavour wasn't very obvious;
- Ortiguillas frituras £7 - sea anemone fried bits had me intrigued. 4 small pieces had a slightly creamy and mild sea-mushroom flavour;
- Tortilla gambas, ajetes, setas £9.5 - a simple traditional tortilla with small bits of prawn and mushroom. I'm generally not the biggest fan of omelettes, but it was alright;
- Octopus "A Feira" £14.5 - some extremely tender Galician octopus with some smokey paprika;
- Salmorejo, yellow chicory, anchovies Cantabrico "000", quail eggs £9.5 - the most visually stunning dish accompanied by the biggest and best anchovies in the world. These aren't the intensely salty tapas standards, they are bigger fillets with a bit more texture. The soup was light and tangy and all ingredients harmonised together;
- Flan £6.8 - reasonably firm and sweet with a burnt caramel flavour.

The food is good and the cooking shows a modern technique to tapas. It is expensive for the size of each serving though. It would have to be a special occasion for me next time.

The grand opening of Kanada-Ya in Islington included a soft 50% discount. We (foolishly) arrived at 1205pm for the 12pm opening and the queue suggested at least an hour wait. 50% saving is about £5-6 for a bowl, so not really worth an hour of time necessarily. It was nice to see that on a Sunday evening at 8pm there were free tables and only a minimal <5min wait. I'm not sure if that's foreboding for them but it's good for those of us who live a walkable distance to it.

The menu is no different to the others branches (that I remember) and the special Tonkotsu (pork bone broth, chashu pork belly, wood ear fungus, seaweed, spring onion) £10.5 was a thickish, murky, nearly congealing broth with a deep blended pig flavour. It was excellent. My flatmates commented they had thicker broth at Shoryu and in Japan but I don't think I want it much thicker (and I don't remember thinking very much of Shoryu either). The chashu was soft and not too fatty. I could eat the whole piece.

Spicy yuzu ramen (spicy yuzu, pork and corn fed chicken broth, chashu pork collar, wood ear fungus, seaweed, spring onion) £12 had a distinctive yuzu tangy flavour but was more powerful in terms of the umami and salt qualities. I thought it was pretty good and a different twist although not necessarily better than the tonkotsu's relatively less complex flavour. Is it worth the extra £1.5? Probably not but moreso because the tonkotsu is so good. The pork collar is not as soft as the chashu. And the hardboiled egg (£2 extra) is a lovely addition but quite expensive for the luxury.

I had my first set of noodles as hard and the extra serve (kaedama £2) extra hard. I certainly preferred the extra chewy texture of the extra hard and would pick that as my preference next time.

Conveniently located next to Franca Manca is Ekachai, a south-east Asian restaurant chain of 3 or 4 that seems to really specialise in Malaysian with some added Thai. The service isn't overly attentive and so it is fitting that they don't charge service automatically.

- Soft shell crab £6.95 - a relatively big soft shell crab fried with a thick coat until crisp with very juicy meat;
- Seafood curry laksa £9.95 - it isn't very spicy but the curry flavour is the Malaysian style and not the Thai one that most people would probably expect. They are unexpectedly generous with the amount of seafood including green-lip mussels, prawns and calamari. I would prefer thick egg noodles rather than the thin rice ones but that will be the request for next time;
- Char kway teow prawn £9.95 - a fancier serving style but again a good serve of prawns. It was mildly smokey and probably could have used more of it but still good. Lime isn't really standard either but creates some contrast if you like.

Not bad at all and happy that it is closeby. Will definitely come back.

Add-on 11-2018

I've been back a few times and still enjoy the laksa.

However the rendang was a waste of time. It was a generic curry and not cooked down to the thick flavoursome coconut mass that it should be. The roti was alright though.

I looked for somewhere I wanted to eat close to where Chicago had just opened (not worth paying much to see by the way IMO) and Bun House was on my Google Maps. You can't book for the Bun House part but you can for the Tea Room underneath. The Bun House menu is small and cheap whereas the green neon Tea House has more variety and paying for ambiance.

- Brulee tea egg with tea tree nest £5.8 - an egg with some crisp sugar on top and a seaweed (I think) nest;
- Garlicky wings £6.8 - fried wings simple, salty and tasty. They were a good sized piece each too;
- Wok fry black bean duck tongue £7.8 - slim tongues with black bean and some quite hot chilli;
- Lacey dumplings £8.8 - fried until they combine in an impressive lattice. They were delicious with vinegar;
- Oolong smoked quail £10.8 - a wonderful dish of tea smoked quail with the aroma penetrating the meat. Simply divine;
- Iberico char siu rice £14.8 - an expensive char siu on rice. The meat was very soft although not sure could justify the price;
- Lamb shoulder skewers £2.5 each - quite tender and gently seasoned with cumin;
- Pork neck skewers £2.5 each - more tender and with a little chilli;
- Chicken heart skewers £2.5 each - chewy heart pieces that remind me why it's one of my favourite cuts of meat.

Desserts then followed and we ordered one of each to make the process of deciding simpler.

- Ginger milk custard £4.8 - tastes like tofu-fa but much thinner and more watery/mobile;
- Red chocolate bun £2.8 - a really good fried bun with sugar underlay and a searing hot chocolate sauce inside that burnt my finger;
- Butter pineapple bun (no pineapple) £3.8 - like a sweet cake.

The food is good but pretty expensive overall. I would go back for the smoked quail and chicken heart skewers. Also the Bun House menu itself at £2.5 each sounds worth a visit, so I want to try that still.