Eat Like Ushi

On the evening of England's World Cup demise, I took advantage of the quieter restaurant scene to eat at Lokhandwala and take advantage of a 50% off food deal. I had been craving curry and this was no ordinary curry house, which made it a little more exciting.

It didn't start off too well with my choice of drink the Holi (ginger tequila, mezcal, white chocolate, lime, cinnamon) being unavailable. How good does it sound? Instead I opted for the Star of India £12 which was a decent fruity gin drink but really none too distinct.

- Pata ata chaat (crispy spinach leaves served with sweet yoghurt & tamarind chutney) £5.5 - really excellent dish of fried leaves and chickpeas with the contrast of coriander sauce, yoghurt and sour tamarind;
- Lamb chops (marinated for 24 hours with spices, cooked in tandoor) £12 - remarkably tender even though cooked a bit too much until there was little pinkness. Had a nice spiced coating;
- Kurkure okra £3.5 - better than Dishoom's version. Crispy, flavoursome, great;
- Baked neeli (mussels cooked in lemon coriander butter) £9 - 4 good sized greenlip mussels tasted as expected from the description;
- Goan crab (baked crab cooked with ginger, garlic, chilli, cheese) £14 - a gratinated crab (with the occasional speck of shell - forgivable) that was quite good and moderate flavour. Ended up eating it by the spoonful;
- Chicken chettinad (cooked With 18 Different Spices) £13 - unfortunately the lobster curry wasn't available. The waiter recommended this as a stronger flavoured curry but the taste disappointed and was quite generic. The large pieces of chicken were cooked well though;
- Garlic naan £4 - expensive (at full price) and didn't have enough garlic flavour;
- Lokhandwala roti £4 - I'm not sure what the Lokhandwala part refers too. It was a whole wheat bread and so more dense as expected. There didn't seem to be anything else done to it to distinguish it from other Indian roti;
- Rice pudding creme brulee - can't remember the name but it was a cold dish with a thin crispened topshell.

Overall it was an adequate meal although despite it being marketed as Indian "tapas", I can't say there was overly many distinguishing features for the dishes. The prices are on the expensive side (at full price) and I don't think I saw enough to choose this over my other favourite curry houses.

Far from the rustic bike-carrying sports pub in Mile End (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/rusty-bike-london-07-2017), the King's Cross equivalent is a small curry house that plays a random assortment of audio - from ethnic music, to western music, to some kind of commentary on discrimination. Odd.

Luckily the food is reasonably priced and actually pretty good.

- Tandoori platter £6.95 for 1 - green chicken tikka, lamb tikka, tandoori king prawn (best piece of the lot), sheek kebab, fish tikka;
- I can't remember which lamb curry it was precisely. I'll have to ask next time. But it was a good one. And it would have been helpful to know it is served with rice already;
- Vegetable biryani £6.95 - chickpea masala;

Naan is quite expensive at £2.25 minimum (£2.75 for a garlic naan) though.

It won't replace Needoo, but for a local place it is a good substitute.

Summer is here and rooftops are aplenty. Savage Garden at the top of the Double Tree by Hilton hotel isn't the finest view in the city, but it's still a good view of the Tower of London and Tower Hill - and that really isn't bad at all. With 50% off food and 25% off (the still expensive) drinks, there was probably no other occasion I would find myself here.

- Plantain chips
- Charred octopus (fennel, orange chermoula, toasted kasha)
- Pork tomahawk (black pudding fries, salsa verde)
- Fried chicken sliders
- Coconut beef short ribs (savageslaw)
- Whole seabass (samphire)
- Beef sliders
- Calamari fried (served on a pineapple top)
- Doughballs with caramel and jam syringes

The food was good overall with nothing outstanding. The octopus was tender, the pork was excellently cooked and had a simple pork and salt flavour, and the beef rib had a tender Asian slant.

I don't think I'll be back. But it was nice to be in that area for a change.

Sunday Sessions is a new concept from Hoppers where people sit in the tiny restaurant with all the tables turned into long communal ones. You are encouraged to socialise with the other lunchers due to the intentional seating arrangements designed to keep parties together but not enclosed off. I suppose that's a good thing, although does make it more difficult to catch up with the people you intended to.

Nonetheless it simulates a family occasion and we were there for 3 hours, making it the world's longest lunch too!

The menu was exciting for me, because the duck heart chukka is the dish that made me adore Hoppers on my first visit (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/hoppers-london-06-2016) and since they removed it, curry life hasn't been the same.

- Appalams, vinegar, podi - their version of salt and vinegar crisps. Not quite the same but alright;
- Duck hearts, chicken livers, yoghurt, chutney - the curry wasn't as strongly flavoured as I remember, and sadly I didn't get any heart pieces. The liver was strong though;
- Banana leaf mackerel - not enough lettuce and salsa for the amount of fish, but otherwise a nice mesh of textures and flavours;
- Whole roasted black pork belly - delicious and tender meat and fat easily torn away with a tamarind sauce and crackling. Very good indeed;
- Cabbage poriyal - refreshing slaw. Had to ask for more;
- Roasted curried sweet potato - dusted with some curry spices;
- Coconut rolls - I really liked these deceivingly plain looking rolls. There was only a hint of coconut sweetness in it, but it was enough;
- Chocolate biscuit pudding, burnt genever banana cream - like tiramisu and the genever alcohol was also served to those who wanted it.

For £30pp inclusive of food and tips, it was a good value meal and I honestly don't think all the dishes were finished anywhere in the restaurant. They also made it clear that if we wanted any more of any dish, we could easily ask (as we did for the cabbage poriyal, although the waitress seemed surprised when we asked).

I'd go back again for the food. I'm not sure if I'd go back for the social aspect (as that's less what I prefer to do). Having said that, £30pp will get you quite a lot of food from the normal menu too. So I'll definitely be back again for something...

Another week, another new opening this time in the cool area of Shoreditch. Interestingly I couldn't get a booking via email but there was still one online. And the restaurant wasn't completely full either on this Friday night. Strange.

Nonetheless it's a well oiled machine with good service from a variety of staff who are pleasant and banter too.

The location in Shoreditch proper was a nice change as it seems few open here with soft discounts.

- Noir de bigorre ham £6 - nicely cured and quite tasty similar to jamon. Texture was soft and not very chewy at all (unlike jamon);
- Cherrystone clam, Sichuan oil, coriander £9 - let's be honest, it was delicious. But £9 for one clam (at full price)?;
- Oyster flamed £3.7 - a delicious oyster with a tiny amount of wood smoke with a little crispy something I couldn't place;
- Wild bass, lardo, burnt kohlrabi, savoury £12.6 - excellent sashimi topped with the radish in a soy vinegar sauce;
- Smoked eel & foie gras chawanmushi £13.4 - slices of eel positioned under some crackling topping an excellent and different chawanmushi with very distinct foie gras flavour to it. Really good;
- Vegetable plate £14 - this was a big surprise with the plate having non-standard vegetables such as beans, artichoke, peppers and onions. Really good;
- Brill, carabineros, purple basil £24 - I was hoping for full carabineros but could only be satisfied with tiny slices on top of fish. It was good but for £24 was a bit disappointing;
- Tamworth, rowanberry vinegar, garum £28 - when it was served I thought it was undercooked. The pork was so pink. The texture was definitely of cooked pork and seemed to be slices off a whole cooked portion rather than cooking eat slice individually directly on the heat. The flavour was pure pork. It was incredible. Likely the best pork of my life;
- Hispi cabbage, pork fat, xo £5 - burnt cabbage with fat and xo sauce adding lots of flavour;
- Salt caramel & East India sherry tart, cardamom icecream £8 - a very sweet and soft tart slice but the star was the (melting too fast) icecream rich in cardamom spice;
- Green Sichuan pepper pannacotta, sweet cicely icecream, strawberry £6 - the pannacotta had a clear Sichuan flavour to it without any of the heat or numbingness. It was unique and delicious. I don't really know what cicely is and have just read it is chervil/myrrh - not sure what the flavour was particularly;
- Rhum baba, smoked pineapple, black treacle, yogurt sorbet £7 - a taffy cake soaked in strong rum that could have used an ignite. Still good.

This was a very good meal indeeed. The raw seafoods and woodfired dishes all that excellent flavours and cooking techniques. Some just seem too overpriced particularly the clams (including the identically priced razorclams). The beef looked particularly excellent and should have taken advantage of that discount too (although my stomach could not have fit any more).

I've never tried cuisine from Azerbaijan but I do like Georgian food and as neighbours there was a good chance I'd like it too. It was empty during a weekday lunchtime and the special of a lamb kebab for £5.8 (normally £8.95) was a good reason.

They fired up the coals and freshly cooked the lamb. After 15 mins the dish arrived as cubes of lamb, mildly flavoured rice, a roasted tomato, salad and some plain bread. The lamb was fantastic. Firmly cooked through but tender, and spiced with a marinade of chilli, onion, tomato are other things I'll have to discern the next time.

Other than the char items, there's some other dishes like khingali and borsch I want.

I'll be back. Maybe one day I'll visit that part of the world even.

A new branch of an Australian cuisine restaurant opened in Soho. Taking advantage of the location and 50% soft opening were surprisingly few people on a Sunday evening. Maybe there's limited interest in what Australian cuisine is. To be honest after living there for over 30 years, I'm often not so sure myself. There's the international cuisine aspect (particularly with modern use of Asian ingredients) and the pub food, which are both represented in the menu. Although other than the parmigiana, I wouldn't have read the menu blindly and guessed the cuisine was Australian.

The drinks menu is equally interesting with a variety of gins from around the world (although many of them were not available) and some creative cocktails.

Prices listed are full price (and I paid 50%).

- Beetroot, raspberry, goats curd tartlet £3;
- Beef shin cigarillos £7.6 - rare seared beef enclosing a great collection of herbs and greens. Beef shin isn't the standard cut of beef that would be seared and served rare so it was a little chewy but otherwise good;
- Sea bream ceviche, avocado, tigers milk, nori, crunchy corn £9.8 - nicely balanced and not very sour;
- Fire roasted aubergine, crispy rice, tahini, cavlo nero £8.8 - soft chewy wilted aubergine with a nice spiced sauce; 
- Tuna steak 200g £14.4 - quite well cooked and topped with a parsley sauce;
- 30 day ribeye 300g £7.5/100g - a really excellent cut of meat cooked beautifully rare to order and fantastically tender;
- Giant chicken parmigiana (for 2) £30 - it wasn't bad to be fair. The coating was crisp and the flavours were there. The chicken was reasonably tender. Strangely it didn't seem giant. Even the waiter thought it was a single serve, then checked with the kitchen who confirmed it was the giant one. It was charged as a single £19.5 after the waiter's misinterpretation;
- Yogurt pavlova £7.8;
- Vegan chocolate cake £6 - really nice dark chocolate cake that wasn't overly sweet.

Overall the meal was very good. Even though a few interesting things weren't available (Byron bhel puri - perhaps named after Byron Bay) there was plenty to choose from and plenty of good dishes.

However the parmigiana for £30 was certainly not giant and I do find it difficult to justify the full price for that size.

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.