Assaggi

Assaggi is a Italian restaurant above a lovely looking pub on Chepstow road in West London (near Portobello, Queensway & Notting Hill). I had been a couple of times with my ma & pa back in the day & always had pretty much excellent meals, in fact at one point I thought it was the best Italian restaurant in London. It had 1 Michelin star but lost it a couple of years ago & for what ever reason I hadn't been there for ages , so.......

I booked a night to go with Tony, my bro who lives around the corner & was looking forward to going back. It's quite a small space so you do have to book usually & on the night we went it was pretty packed. We ordered a nice white wine & had some bread brought out, they do "Carta di Musica" a sardinian flat bread, then were shown the menus! Tony was immediately not happy as the whole menu was in Italian (I think it was the last time I went but never had a problem before). I can understand some Italian ok but everything is translated by a waitress. As said the room is quite small & very busy so it was really hard to hear everything clearly & as Tony said by the time we got to the bottom he had forgotten what was at the top. "Poncey" & "Disgrace" was just some of the words to come out of Tony so could tell it was going to be one of those sorts of nights. He even texted his friends who had been there recently to ask them for any pointers.

Basically I ordered & Tony said he would have exactly the same as whatever I was having so for starters we had "Lamb sweetbread with some red onions, leaf & some pancetta & a nice sweet balsamic sort of dressing". The sweetbread was very tender & quite tasty though Tony thought it was pretty bland but ok.

For mains we had the "Fritto Misto" which is a selection of fried fish (Prawns, Calamari & red mullet I think) which I've had in Italy many times & also the previous time in Assaggi which I've always loved but this time it seemed a little bland & boring. It also came with very thin crisps/chips which equally were not that enjoyable. The fish seemed fresh & ok but just had no wow or spark of any kind. Tony thought the same & basically said if he wanted fish & chips we should have gone to a proper chippy!

Onto desserts which went down very badly with Tony. The dessert menu was in English! Tony pointed this out to a couple of the bemused waiters & waitresses & asked why the main menu is in Italian & the dessert menu was in English. Not much of an answer back & a little bit of ranting then we got on with ordering. I had a Panna cotta with an espresso poured on top & Tony had a Tiramisu. The Panna cotta was nice & the Tiramisu was ok & we quaffed a couple of brandies with them which probably made them taste better then they probably were.

As we left there was a few more rants by my bro to the staff about the menu & for being to be poncey & the fact he didn't like the food to much. He also threatened to pee through there letterbox so I had to drag him away (Possibly to much wine & brandy I think) & sometime later that night after I left he phoned them up, there answer machine was in English, which riled him up so much he left a abusive message about how rubbish he thought the restaurant to be & that he would never go back! I think there was worse said but probably best not to write! So anyways a pretty bad experience & probably wont/can't ever go back.

Benoit, Le Chartier & Terminus Nord

The benoit salad!

Me & my folks for a Christmas prezzy decided to go for a new year trip to Paris for a few days so I booked lunch at Benoit, a Michelin starred Alain Ducasse bistro, http://www.benoit-paris.com/ which looked rather tasty. They do a 3 course 36 Euro lunch menu which thought sounded rather good.
It's very classic looking inside with a nice buzzing atmosphere & we are shown to a lovely table in a corner so we can see the whole restaurant. I ordered a caraffe of dry white wine which was quite small & pretty expensive I thought at 40 Euros but tasted nice & we were given a little snack of 6 Cheese galette balls which went down very well. I had to ask our waiter for the lunch menu as he had "forgotten" & we ordered!

I ordered for starter the "Saucisson brioche, mache et vinaigrette truffee" which was sausage meat with pistachios surrounded in brioche served with a little side salad (see main photo). It was parfait & delicious! My ma had the "Salade Benoit" which was a meat feast of duck, chicken, pork, Mushrooms & eggs which was excellent & my pa had the "Veloute de topinambours et royale de fois grois" which was cream of artichoke with some lardons & a bit of foie gras thrown in. He ate it pretty fast & didn't say to much so I think he liked it quite a lot.

The Bomb!

On to mains, I went for "Lieu jaune roti, choux braises et au vin d'arbois" which was the bomb! It was roast pollack served on a stuffed cabbage with vegetables & a wine sauce/gravy. It was really delicious, tender & flavoursome! I could of ate it again.
Ma went for "Longe de cochon fermier cuisinee en cocotte, gratin de potiron au jus" which was a slab of pork with a pumpkin gratin. I had a bite & it was pretty tasty but the pork was slightly overcooked.
Pa had "Tranche de boudin noir risolee aux deux pommes" which was black pudding with mash, raw apple & a cooked apple! I had a bite to & the black pudding was lovely & spicy & the mash was really creamy. Quite a winner.

The Bomb of desserts!

So onto the really incredible desserts! My pa started chatting to the maitre d' as my dad is a pastry chef & trained in Lausanne & basically likes all things sweet. The Maitre d' liked this & said we could order desserts of the a la carte menu! Pretty pretty sweet! I went stright in & ordered the "Souffle glace a l'orange et au Grand-Marnier" which was cold orange souffle with lovely spongey cake in the middle with loads of Grand Marnier poured on top! The waiter left the Grand-Marnier on the table & when he left I poured a lot more on. It really was amazing! Possibly best dessert for quite a few years & I ate the lot. It was large to.
Ma had "Nougat glace pistache/passion" which was nougat ice cream with pistachio & passion fruit obviously which was beautiful to look at & pretty tasty & my dad had the "Millefueille classique" which had crumbly pastry & looked very good. We had a lovely red dessert wine with this & at the end after we paid the bill one of the waiters gave us free coffee, madeleines & chocolates! Definitely good excuse to go back & try it again, a lovely restaurant & lovely staff!

Frisee

Whilst I'm waffling about Paris, we also had a lovely meal at "Le Chartier" http://www.restaurant-chartier.com/www/visit/filsdesans.php, a real busy & atmospheric restaurant & very well priced! The waiters are pretty rude but it's all quite fun & I had a lovely steak & chips with garlic butter & a starter of frisee salad with lardons (only 3 Euros) & a nice & simple peach melba. Get there early, it get's really busy!

Yummy

And the last was "Terminus Nord" http://www.terminusnord.com/fr,  exactly opposite Gare du Nord station, a beautiful art deco restaurant with lot's of seafood as well as all the classics. I had some snails here followed by another steak (Pretty filling  weekend), with Bernaise sauce this time & we all shared a il flotante which was delicious. Even saw Juliette Binoche in there!
Thanks to Matt & Anne for Le Chartier & Terminus Nord recommendations!

Yauatcha

Lobster

Hello everybody! Been a while I'm afraid due to writers block & general laziness but raring to go with some new foody items! First off is Yauatcha on Broadwick street, http://www.yauatcha.com/soho/. It's a contemporary Michelin starred Dim sum restaurant & pretty tasty I hasten to add. It's also one my brothers favourite restaurants so we go quite a lot!
Me & Tony (my bro) bowled up on the 2nd of January so fairly quiet. We were shown to a pretty lame table right by a column so we asked to be moved to which we were given 2 different tables to choose from. Not a problem you might think, but quite integral to the plot for later.

We started on a couple of alcoholic grape cocktails. Not much flavour but definitely one of those drinks that creeps up on you then ordered what I have to say was incredibly fine food.

We started with "Crab shuimai, Lobster spinach dumpling, Chilli fried squid & Chicken taro croquette". The croquette was lovely & crispy on the outside, just like a yam paste dumpling from other old school dim sum restaurants! The Lobster was juicy & tender & the fried squid tender & perfectly cooked. Wasn't sure about the crab dumpling, only in the sense I thought it tasted of mackerel & didn't even realise I was eating crab until the waiter said so! But I still ate it so couldn't of been that bad.

Mongolian Venison

Then we moved on to the main dishes which were "Mongolian venison" which was so tender & tasty, "Steamed Halibut" which was really spicy & invigorating! We had some "Pak choi with garlic" as a side & I had a "Yebisu" beer which is a lovely Japanese beer.
So far all very good & possibly one of the best meals that me & Tony have had there. For dessert I had a "Raspberry delice". Not only did it look beautiful but it tasted delice-ous. Chocolate & biscuit going on inside, one of my favourite desserts I've ate there. I think Tony had a "Milk chocolate praline", I can't remember because mine was so good but he said his was good.

Delice-ous

We followed these up with 2 Irish coffees which were very nice & seeing as we were having a nice time decided to order 2 more. It was then that we were told we had to move tables because a previous booking that had cancelled had now decided to turn up! Tony didn't take it to well which I thought was fair enough & said that if we were to move then they should take the service charge off the bill. A couple of minutes later a waiter said this was fine, so we moved to a different table & then basically Tony thought we should leave anyway. There was a bit of an heated debate about the whole of the moving issue with a Maitre'D & a couple of the waiters & I heard Tony saying it was a disgrace a few times seeing as we are regular customers. We then left & Tony popped back in to have a go again whilst I hid outside a column so I don't think we will be going back for a while. Overall though the food is amazing but they really do try & feed you & get you out as soon as possible which can be a little stressful when it's not that busy & you're spending money! Oh & I did notice they do a £28.88 tasting menu for 2 People with 8 dishes & tea, Mon-Thurs 2pm until 630pm!

Koya & Honey My Autobiography

Every time I ever walked past Japanese restaurant Koya http://www.koya.co.uk/ there has always been a long que & I've never fancied waiting but yesterday I finally made it for lunch with Daisy. There's been lots of excellent reviews & awards given to Koya the last couple of weeks so was looking forward to a great bowl of ramen!

Koya is quite smallish inside but everyone's packed in so there was a nice buzz for Monday lunch. We had to share a table which we obviously didn't mind & I ordered a amazing "Hot Ginger (homemade)" tea. It was lovely & gingery (you'd hope it was) & had a lovely sweet edge to it. A lot of Koya's menu seems to be ramen based like "Atsu Atsu" which is Hot udon in Hot Broth & "Hiya - Atsu" which is Cold Udon with Hot Broth but they also do rice bowl dishes which all sound very tasty to. 

Pickled

We chose a small plate of "Otsukemono" which are home made pickles & consisted of beetroot only. Quite tasty & a nice herb sprinkled on top. 

For main I went for a "Buta Miso Hot Udon in Hot Broth (Pork & miso)". Daisy chose the "Kamo Hot Udon in Hot Broth (Duck)". I was lucky to have tried some amazing ramen in Japan a few years ago with my old friend Mike which were incredible & always been disappointed with what I've had in the UK but Koya changed that feeling. The pork stock was delicious & meaty with a little sweet edge to it which I liked very much. The noodles were first rate & I scoffed it down heartily. It was a really nourishing & flavoursome meal. Daisy's duck was equally amazing! The duck was really tender & delicious & the stock was a little lighter then the pork stock so good contrasting flavours between the two dishes. 

I think Koya was excellent, if you're looking for really tasty & warming Japanese food that's not to expensive, this place is amazing. Just maybe expect to que! 

Book

Onto "Honey My Autobiography" which is my dad, Pino Iacaruso's cookbook. He wrote it a couple of years ago & includes stories about his childhood in Italy, cooking for Princess Margaret & Princess Michael of Kent, the Finnish embassy (where he worked for quite a few years) & also contains lot's of amazing recipes such as "Roast venison with chocolate sauce" & "Cold lemon souffle with crystallized tangerine". 

If anyone would like a copy they are £6 including p&p UK. Please email me at ediacaruso@hotmail.com & I will get in touch as soon as possible. 

Tootle ooh for now 

The Canton Arms & Great Queen street

The Canton Arms http://www.cantonarms.com/ is a lovely old school sort of pub between Stockwell & Vauxhall that does amazingly good British food. It's owned by the same people who run the Hope & Anchor on the Cut & Great Queen Street restaurant in Covent garden/Holborn http://twitter.com/#!/greatqueenst. Earlier this year I had a great fish dinner there with Daisy & one Sunday a month or 2 ago I popped there for lunch. I had been to meet a letter carver called Richard Kindersley http://www.kindersleystudio.co.uk/ who has a studio in Kennington. He was seeing what my lettering skills were like (not very good), so after my test I felt a little peckish so got the bus down the road to The Canton Arms.

Inky

I sat at the bar & ordered a little carafe of lovely house white wine. I can't say I was starving so I ordered 2 starters. They consisted of a plate of squid with fennel on toast served with it's ink which was perfectly cooked & very tender & a very refreshing salad of courgette, mint & pecorino! Both were absolutely delicious! I had to have there version of a tiramisu which was amazing. Probably one of the best tiramisu I've had out! It had a real nice crunchy biscuity thing going on & I could of had 2. They also do toasties in the pub section that look excellent & alway's have great ales on tap. A great pub with amazing food!

Bloody good!

Onto Great Queen Street which I've been to many times but had to mention because of a fantastic meal I had the other night. The last couple of times had been a little disappointing. This was mainly for not so great service & a radish dish that involved dipping them into a soft boiled egg which was way overcooked!

So the other night me & daisy (after La Traviata at The Royal Opera House, lah di dah) decided to go. The bread & butter that was given was lovely & we scoffed it down. We also had a carafe of chilled red wine which was very tasty. I went straight in for a pork chop with pureed peas & Daisy ordered hare ragu with spelt, which googled say's "Species of wheat". The pork chop was fantastic! It took 25 min to cook (they did pre warn) & had all the crispy, fatty bits in the right place.The pureed peas were sweet & yummy & we also had a side order of greens (cabbage) that were perfect. Daisy's hare was very tasty though I think she had a bit of food envy! For dessert I had 1 scoop of damson ice cream which was really fruity & delicious. The atmosphere is always great & the service was excellent. Very friendly & charming so will keep on going back many more times.

Moro & Morito

Quail & Grapes? Yep

I've been wanting to go to Moro http://www.moro.co.uk/moro/restaurant/default.asp on Exmouth market for ages so one Saturday me & my old chum Matt wandered down for lunch. It was a lot more laid back then we thought, in a nice way that is & we sat out in the sun! I ordered a dry sherry for starters, I'm getting quite into them at the mo & we were given some lovely homemade bread with olives. Moro is a Moorish/Spanish restaurant & the menu sounded exciting & a little different so was a hard choice to make.

I chose for starter "Charcoal grilled quail with grapes & almond sauce" & Matt went for "Pumpkin mani - Turkish pasta with chilli butter, seasoned yoghurt, pine nuts & sage", MMMmmmhh! I have to say that the quail was absolutely delicious! The skin had a nice crisp to it & the sweetness of the grapes went very well with the quail. A great starter! Matt liked his pumpkin mani very much. I had a bite & thought it was very interesting & equally a good starter.

Paprikary

For main I chose "Mackerel a la plancha with chopped garlic, parsley, hot paprika & patatas a lo pobre" & Matt went for "Wood roasted pork with chorizo rice & braised chard". The mackerel was very light & tasty, very well seasoned & the paprika gave a little oomph. The patatas a lo pobre were simply amazing. As potatoes go some of the best I've ever had. All in all delicious again. Matt's pork was also tasty & absolutely huge. He can usually put away quite a lot of food but he actually couldn't finish it off.

Cake

On to dessert & Matt was absolutely stuffed where I was feeling quite sprightly & managed to scoff down a delicious "Yoghurt cake with pistachios & pomegranate". The pomegranate & pistachio was tangy & I did feel pretty stuffed after. I also had a espresso with a free shot of brandy which was very nice of the waitress after I ordered the wrong thing. Overall amazing food, lovely service & will definitely go back.

                                                                                                                  

Onto Morito which is next door to Moro & serves tapas. Me & Daisy decided to go the other evening after seeing an exhibition by my old college teacher Bill Jackson, http://www.troikaeditions.co.uk/front-room, which was excellent.

The outside of Morito looks pretty cool & it was packed inside so we managed to get a table outside. We had 2 very refreshing glasses of Cruzcampo beer & ordered 6 plates to share.

The first to come were "Jamon & chicken croquetas" which were ok. They looked a bit overcooked on the outside & the filling was a little dry!

"Butifarra sausage with white beans & alioli"  
was also tasty, the sausage was lovely but not  
much of it & Daisy thought the white beans were  a little tasteless, I had to agree.

The next was "Crispy aubergine with miel de cana" which was lovely. Honey on the aubergine really worked but there were only 2 slices!

The "Tomato toast" was excellent & we finished with "Octopus with potato & smoked paprika". I liked the octopus but Daisy thought they had prepared it earlier & heated it up because the potato was quite starchy & fell apart when you put the fork in. It was also a very salty dish.

We didn't have dessert but finished with a lovely sweet sherry. Overall it was ok but not the best tapas I've had recently & Moro is definitely better but there was a lot of other interesting sounding things on the menu so will have to give it another go one day soon.

The Sportsman

Haven't been to good updating the blog the last couple of weeks but have been out chowing down at quite a few restaurants as well as getting back into cooking again which has been ace! There's been three standout meals over the last couple of weeks, one was with my brother at Italian restaurant Assaggi for all the wrong reasons which I'll go into next time, a wonderful meal at Arbutus though I ruined it by having Tripe (Disgusting) & the best meal of the lot was at The Sportsman in Seasalter near Whitstable http://www.thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk/.

The Sportsman is a Michelin starred pub which serves local produce as well as lovely ales. It was Daisy's brother Sam whose idea it was to go so I booked a table for sunday lunch & we bombed it down the motorway to get there for 12:45. It's in a lovely part of Kent & The Sportsman from the outside just looks like a nice local pub, very unassuming. On arrival we ordered a local Whitstable ale & peruse the menu which is written on a blackboard. There's lot's of tasty fish & meat dishes & there's probably 3 or 4 things I would quite easily have if not more!

Big Mack

We order at the bar then get shown to our seat where we have lovely homemade bread of Focaccia & soda bread with homemade butter & olives. All very tasty. My starter arrives which is "Smoked mackerel, bramley apple jelly & horseradish on soda bread" which is amazing. The sweetness of the apple jelly with the smokiness of the mackerel & horseradish is delicious! A wonderful starter. Sam had "Slip sole grilled in seaweed butter" which was served very simply by itself but tasted wonderful & fresh & Daisy had "3 poached rock oysters, pickled cucumber & avruga caviar" which she thought was the best of the starters but I didn't get to try any because she only had 3. A little bit gutted. 

Hake

On to mains where I had "Roast hake fillet with cherry tomato sauce & oyster mayonnaise". It was incredibly amazing! The fish was so fresh & the tomato sauce was light & had little hints of lemon thrown in. One of the best fish dishes I've had this year. This was served with sides of new potatoes & mash which were both done to perfection. Sam had the "Roast rack (served pink) of Monkshill farm lamb & mint sauce"which was tasty & Sam enjoyed it but was a little bit disappointed overall. I think he wanted it to be a bit more like a home roast rather then a restaurant style roast, if that makes sense! Daisy had "Gurnard fillet with bouillabaisse sauce & green olive tapenade" which was also delicious. The Bouillabaisse sauce was so tasty & the gurnard was beautifully cooked. It was a bit difficult to decide which was the best out of the fish dishes  but both were excellent.

Crumbles

Dessert was a classic "Apple crumble & Jersey cream" for me, which was tasty & very filling, Sam had "Rhubarb sorbet & burnt cream" which consisted of sorbet with popping candy, a creme brulee & a delicious homemade shortbread whilst Daisy had "Cream cheese ice cream, pear puree & ginger cake crumbs" which was excellent. 

We finished off with a good coffee & some petit fours that sort of tasted purely of butter with a bit of chocolate chucked in. We all pulled funny faces whilst eating them! With the meal I had a delicious house white & a lovely sweet sherry with the dessert & Daisy continued with the Whitstable ale. All very good value, nice friendly service & would definitely go out of my way to eat there again! A wonderful meal & a lovely pub to.