Pizza East, Shoreditch, London

Another rainy day! When will it stop?!

Tonight was a trip to Shoreditch to go to the up and coming Pizza East near Liverpool Street Station. After my friend Fliss's cousin saw Gordon Ramsey eating here (and no fear kiddos he wasn't filming a Kitchen Nightmare!) we thought it was good enough for us to try it if somebody as sophisticated as he could eat there.

It's incredibly busy so book and get there early. You miss out on a bit of the atmosphere perhaps but when it gets to 8pm you can barely talk to your co-diner in the booth type area. The restaurant is ridiculously huge though, covering a warehouse-type area. There's a big square bar in the centre of the room as well as a pizza bar just behind reception. It's decked out in wooden chairs, rustic tables and it's very urban-chic with lots of wood, brick walls, concrete and a general state of uber fashionable decay. Very modern, very poser-ish and very, very dark! I tried to take photos of the food but I could barely see my pizza, let alone get a picture of it with my iPhone.

The food was good with a small menu so the staff can conserve their energy. The menu is very simple, on a single sheet and ranges from hot and cold antipasti to pizzas to meat dishes.

- Tomato bruschetta
- Speck, tomato, mozzarella, rocket (pizza)
- Spinach, tomato, goats cheese, pine nuts (pizza)

(the best picture I could get of the bruschetta!)

The bruschetta was chunkier than I like normally but warm and the tomatoes were oozing with goodness. They had been cooked till they were soft and it was the best tomatoes on toast I've ever had! It was a small starter for the two of us but the warmth of it and the chunky tomatoes made it a nice taster of what was (hopefully!) to come.

Like I said, it was dark. And honestly? It was hard to see the pizzas. However the cooks had helpfully pre-quartered our pizzas so at least we could cut it quite easily. My speck pizza was fantastic and somebody had - brilliantly - drizzled olive oil on it which made it much tastier and much easier to eat. Fliss's goats cheese was to die for but without the olive oil, it was quite dry.

This is my criticism: it is dry. The dough is over-cooked to the point of crunchy roughness which was hard to eat. I bit my cheek, Fliss scratched the inside of her cheek and we both felt a bit woebegone by the end of the meal! The pizza toppings were original and looked lovely but we felt they were a bit difficult to eat with the texture which was a shame because they were so tasty topping-wise.

I'd go back but I'd ask to sit in a better-lit part of the restaurant. I'd also make sure to book because Pizza East is not the type of place to go into on a whim. It was only mid-week but hugely busy.

Damage: £15/person with wine for one of us

Vitals

Pizza East
Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JJ
Tel: 0207 729 1888
Website: http://www.pizzaeast.com/

Nearest tube: Old Street / Liverpool Street

The Loft, Clapham North, London

The Loft managed to get the lofty position of restaurant of the week a couple of months ago back on tastelondon and ever since then, I've wanted to go. The positive reviews about the place have only spurred me on and so me, along with the lovely Elaine, finally got our feet pointed in the direction of The Loft on Tuesday night.

The Loft is really cool inside. Leather seats with arms, black glass tables, glassware, big bar, lovely staff. It looks like a big warehouse and when you're there, you could easily think you're in New York. It's split into two: with a big bar/seating/chill-out area and a small-ish restaurant and yet you don't feel like it has a split personality. It works well and you don't hear the bar noise which is great when you're mid-conversation.

They had a great 2 for £12 deal on when we went and also 241 on cocktails. This made the night super affordable and with only a £3 surplus for a humongous steak or £2 for gorgeous pork belly, it was well worth it!


- Cocktail: Passion of the Loft (Passionfruit, Zubrowka vodka, Calvados, green chai tea sugar syrup, a hint of peach and apple juice)
- Garlic ciabatta
- Homemade chicken liver pate, served with puy lentils, toast and onion marmalade
- Spiced parsnip soup with a drizzle of herb oil
- Fillet steak, 21-day hung, on a bed of spinach, served with a red wine and shallot jus and
chunky chips
- Gloucester Old Spot pork belly on a potato and celeriac gratin, served with apple chutney
and winter greens

The food? Oh god, the food. It was absolutely scrumptious and hit the spot after a terrible tube trek down to South London. The chicken liver pate was smooth and garlicky and spread onto the bread just brilliantly. The onion chutney was also thick and spread brilliantly, it was lovely tasting too.

I had a sip of the soup and that was sweet & spicy. It was nice and hot and perfect on a cold rainy night and considering the bowl was very empty at the end, Elaine enjoyed it greatly!

My steak was one of the best I've had in a while. A thick, juicy fillet, it was cooked to perfection and my knife sliced through it with no resistance. A great bit of meat and with the chunky chips and the red wine jus, I was in heaven. I have to admit it defeated me - The veg was really kind of surplus after so much food but it made me feel healthy to eat a piece of broccoli.

Elaine's pork belly was also delicious; great-flavoured with crackling on top and a superb dauphinois kind of arrangement consisting of potato and celeriac. It was obvious that the chef had put a lot of attention into creating the menu and the dishes showed both his skill and his attention to detail.

It was a great meal and I couldn't have asked for anything more. I felt happy to pay £20 and although I felt around a stone heavier, it wasn't an 'I feel ill' feeling, more 'I really want more and can't possibly fit any more food in my stomach'. It was really a great experience and a great meal and I would love to go back as soon as I can.

Damage: £20/person

Vitals

The Loft
67 Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7TG
Tel: 020 7627 0792
Website: http://www.theloftclapham.com/

Nearest tube: Equidistance between Clapham North & Clapham Common

Wagamama, Victoria, London

One of my best friends came home from China for a visit last month and Monday night was the first time I was able to see her. She always tends to drag me to Asian restaurants - despite the fact that all she bloody eats is noodles in China - and so although Ping Pong was on the cards, we actually ended up in Victoria's Wagamama.

I've avoided this place thus far just by location - Leicester got their Wagamama not long after I left and Devon's never heard of it! So I was a little intrigued, a little reticent to go but with Giulia by my side, I was happy enough to trot along and trust her.

The restaurant is pretty basic and clean decor-wise, much like I imagine the rest of the restaurants look. Long, low bench-like tables, an open kitchen which you can see into, staff working very quickly. Our waiter wasn't particularly helpful and I was lucky to have Giulia who knew the menu inside out or I probably would have taken an hour to find something on the menu without shellfish in.


Food:
- yasai katsu curry (sweet potato, aubergine and butternut squash deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs, served with a curry sauce and sticky white rice. garnished with mixed leaves and red pickles)
- yaki soba minus prawns (teppan-fried soba noodles with egg, chicken, shrimps, onions, green and red peppers, beansprouts and spring onions. garnished with mixed sesame seeds, fried shallots and pickled ginger)
- Chocolate fudge cake
- Coconut ice-cream with mango sauce and coconut flakes

Honestly, I wasn't sold. However Giulia's tasted lovely and I think I just ordered the wrong thing. I like sauce with my noodles and (foolishly) assumed there would be some sort of sauce on them. I ate everything on my plate because I was starving but I didn't truly enjoy the main.

My pudding was delicious, however. The coconut ice-cream was lovely and creamy with a tantalising hint of coconut but none of the roughness of shredded coconut. The flakes were crunchy and went excellently with the mango sauce. The entire thing was the perfect finish - Refreshing and very good for the digestion.

The chocolate cake with wasabi sauce was also very yummy - The wasabi did something strange to the chocolate which was odd but worked (luckily!). Despite Giulia's protests that she wasn't hungry, she scoffed the lot which was testament both to her appetite and the taste of the fudge cake.

I think I would go back to Wagamama's again but I'd always prefer to go to an independent restaurant was opposed to a UK-wide chain. However, it was the great place for a chat and a chin wag and wasn't too busy so you didn't feel hemmed in.

Damage: £15/person

Vitals

Wagamama
Roof garden level, Cardinal place (off Victoria street), London, SW1E 5JE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7828 0561
Website: http://www.wagamama.com/

Nearest tube: Victoria

Breads Etcetera, Clapham High Street, London

(in memory of the lovely Cyd - above - who is back off to Canada on Sunday!)

London's not-so best kept brunch secret has just been discovered by yours truly. Breads etcetera is a fabulous little breakfast place on Clapham High Street, just a stone's throw from Clapham Common. This place is so hot on a Sunday that you have to queue outside if you're not savvy enough to get there before the brunch rush. Luckily, us clever people got there just before and got the last table big enough for 6 people. Score!

So what's it all about?

Basically, as the name would suggest, bread. But that's not all - They have a menu with about fifteen different breakfasts, ranging from the basic (toast + a side dish) to the delicious (fried egg in white sourdough bread with spicy onion sausage, 2 rashers of bacon and baked beans) and everything in between. All the breakfasts have one great thing in common: DIY toast.

It might seem a bit odd but this restaurant feels a bit like a country kitchen with your own Dualit toasters on the table and big flagons of tap water. In fact, it's the best thing ever. There's a big bread bar at the back of the shop where they have 5 or 6 types of bread to choose from and all the condiments you could ever possibly want (we had lemon curd, victoria plum, rhubarb jam, peanut butter & good old butter). You chop off some bread - again as much as you want - and take it back to the table to toast as you want, ensuring that the food is hot when you want it and exactly what you want! Perfect!

As we were six, we had a varied range of breakfasts:


- 2 DIY toasts + scrambled eggs
- 1 muesli breakfast (as you can see from the pics, lots of fruit and yoghut - yum!)
- 1 french toast
- 1 super duper huge omelette with gruyere, bacon and peppers (any guesses as to who ordered that?)
- 1 soft boiled option (egg + toast)

We also had delicious smoothies and coffees that made us feel revitalised and generally like super healthy people despite the calorific content of our meal.

Would I go back? Um... YES. Bread etcetera is a great, chilled out place where you can hang out with friends, go on that morning after breakfast or just scoff to your heart's content. It's a pretty quick turnaround and they don't want you to linger that long but it's worth the trek down to South London. Two thumbs up from this blogger!

Damage: between £5.50 - 10/person

Vitals

Breads Etcetera
127 Clapham High Street, Clapham, London, SW4 7SS
Tel: 020 7720 3601

Nearest tube: Clapham Common, Clapham North

Strada, St Pauls, London

A Friday lunchtime, a lack of energy, a hard day at the office. What does it mean? Lunch at Strada, of course. I had a craving for pizza, luckily my friend Emma did too and so we ambled over there for a quick bite to eat.

Strada's a chain so I only expect so much. However the staff were brilliant and very attentive despite the lunch rush. We had our drinks in five minutes, our orders in within ten minutes and our food within thirty. Not bad!

There isn't much of an atmosphere but then it's typically Strada-like in decor, much like you'd expect to see. Quite chic, modern and clean - Nothing to write home about.

Food was above-par although the pizza was a bit undercooked for my friend who prefers it crispier. It was rather soggy and I would have preferred for them to have cooked it a couple of minutes more.

The ingredients tasted lovely and fresh and the rocket was peppery and went really well with the ham. The dough was fresh but like I said before, too soggy with the topping, which made it really hard to cut.

- schiacciatella (Basket of hand stretched pizza bread ) with pesto and tomato
- Speck pizza (Slices of northern Italian smoked mountain ham, gorgonzola, tomato, mozzarella and rocket)
- Parma pizza (Tomato and buffalo mozzarella finished with slices of Parma ham, rocket and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil)

All in all it was a decent lunch but wasn't anything special. The service was probably the best part along with the schiacciatella which was lovely but filled me up far too much before my pizza.

Damage: £30 for two

Vitals
Strada St Pauls,
4 St Pauls Churchyard, London, EC4M 8AY
Tel: 020 7248 7178
Website: http://www.strada.co.uk

Nearest tube: St Pauls

Hungry House - Holy Cow, Bhan Thai, Hiro & Sarracino

Today I thought I’d take a bit of a restaurant detour and talk about that favourite British activity; ordering a takeaway. Whilst it can sometimes be a bit of a pain – not having enough cash, restaurants not taking cards – there’s a site I use which makes everything that little bit easier.

What’s it called?

www.hungryhouse.co.uk

Now admittedly there’s probably a few reasons I like it. Firstly diners can review their meals, a great way to get an unbiased look at how the restaurant really is. Secondly you can pay on card which means you don’t have to go through the whole ‘have I got enough cash dilemma?’ after ordering a takeaway. After all, who wants to scrape down the back of the sofa looking for coins?

What does it do then? Essentially hungryhouse is a half-way house between you and the restaurant. You order from the menu on the site and once you’re done and paid-up, it conveys the order over to the restaurant. They then have the choice to either accept or reject your order and will deliver according to when you want it (either ASAP or choose a different time). You can split items on the bill; add special requests and pretty much have an entire phone conversation without having to pick up your mobile. If anything it’s clearer because it’s in black and white on a screen! I have a few favourite takeaways. North-West London has some great takeaways and I’ve eaten some awesome dishes from quite a few. So in no particular order: my top takeaways near me.

Holy Cow – This is an amazing Indian takeaway which is just around the corner from me. If you go in to collect your meal you get free poppadoms (always a plus) but the meals are of a good-size, always hot and it tastes fresh. Plus if you live nearby, sometimes you’ll see David Mitchell from Peep Show. I’ve seen him in there twice now!

Bhan Thai – I love this little Thai place and it’s pad thai jay with beef is amongst the best I’ve ever eaten. Their thai green chicken curry is also good and their starters are excellent – I particularly like the pork wontons and chicken satay skewers. Bhan Thai always delivers really quickly and their food is normally piping hot and doesn’t need microwaving. Brilliant!

Hiro – I’m kind of ‘meh’ about this one as of late but normally they are right on the ball when it comes to their food. Their duck noodles are wonderful, beef satay is fantastic and their prawn crackers are tasty and crunchy. I had their beef in Peking sauce the other day and it was pretty vile – sickly, bright orange and tough beef – and wouldn’t have that again. They’re sometimes quite slow to deliver but most of their food is delicious and they have a large variety of dishes and duck which is something not enough do in my opinion!

Sarracino – This Italian has delicious pizzas and the best arancini I’ve ever tasted. Just go. Go now. It was delivered quickly and tasted fantastic. My only gripe is that they didn’t take the cherry tomatoes off the pizza as I’d asked and that they only take cash – No card payments allowed.

So the next time you want a takeaway and don’t know where to find a decent list of restaurants in the area, take a look at hungryhouse and see what’s on offer. The reviews are a great way of finding out how meals are, the fact that staff members reply by email to your reviews and thank you for them - apologise if meals weren’t up to scratch – is brilliant. I cannot recommend this site enough!

The Rainforest Cafe, Piccadilly, London

So even though I injured my knee last week and promised to stay inside all weekend, it ended up not to be. An unfruitful hospital trip led me to going to the Rainforest Cafe with the delightful Michaela, a work colleague (who wanted to be mentioned so there you go, Mics!).

It was amazing inside. Even as an adult I was still looking at everything in wonder and particularly liked it when there was thunder and lightening. The animals were animatronic-ed up and the foliage, flowers and waterfalls made you feel like you were sitting in the rainforest. Our table was tucked away with a view of the aquarium and it was a very pleasant table. One gripe is that the tables are quite close together, it would be nice to have a bit more space.

So what did we order? Firstly, some drinks at the snake bar. I had a Very Berry smoothie which was delicious and Mics had a Pina Colada which she said had a bit of a chemical-y after taste. They were quite expensive too, coming in at £12.40 before we'd even sat down.

The menu was quite varied and allowed some choice. Meats, fish, salads, pastas, 'international' dishes were described in detail and although the starter choice was smaller, it was by no means less detailed. I was looking forward to my dinner!

We ordered the following:

Starters
- Iggy's enchiladas (Pan-fried chicked strips, oyster mushrooms, roasted bell peppers, caramelised onions & cheddar cheese, tossed with Cajun spices, wrapped in a grilled flour tortilla & served with a Mediterranean salsa & guacamole)
- Caribbean Coconut prawns (Tender skewered tiger prawns, rolled in coconut flakes & fried to a golden brown, with mango sauce & lime wedge served on a banana leaf)

Mains
- Calypso Chicken sandwich (A tender char-grilled Cajun chicken breast with bacon, cheddar cheese fondue roasted red peppers, lettuce & a zesty lime & red ginger mayonnaise, served in toasted rustic bread with fries)
- Highland Primal Steak (Center-cut, choice Scottish strip steak, aged 21 days, char-grilled to perfection, with green peppercorn sauce & herb garlic mash potato)


The starters were good. I asked for the mushrooms to be taken out of my enchiladas but was informed that as they were wrapped in the morning (not so fresh!) they wouldn't be able to accommodate this. I didn't mind but it did mean I had to pull apart my enchiladas to get them out myself which was a shame. The guacamole was delicious as was the salsa but they weren't as spicy as I'd hoped. I was told that the coconut prawns were also very nice and they did look good on the plate.

The mains were mixed. The calypso chicken sandwich was dry and although it had some interesting flavours, it was pretty inedible with the dryness and the crunchy bread. It gave me major dry mouth when I tried to eat more than a mouthful! My steak was not medium-rare as I'd asked but more medium-well. If I hadn't been hungrier I would have sent it back as I believe it cooked off the flavour. The mash was brilliant and very garlic-y and the peppercorn sauce was also really nice and creamy. It was just the meat that let it down and I felt a bit disappointed to pay £20 for it!

After the meal my friend complained about her chicken sandwich and the manager told her she'd 'asked too early to get it taken off the bill'. As if that should even matter! He actually only took half off of the bill and then the 12.5% discretionary charge added it back on again. I was a bit pissed off at how much it cost for a simple meal out and it made me determined not to fall into a tourist trap again.

Also - Watch out for food poisoning! Since getting back to her house, my friend has been incredibly ill and is actually writing to head office to complain. We're not sure if it was uncooked prawns or tainted chicken that has caused the illness but either way, it's not a sign of a good restaurant!

Damage: £65 with the added drinks

Vitals

The Rainforest Cafe
20 Shaftesbury Ave, London, W1D 7EU
Tel: 020 7434 3111
Website: http://www.therainforestcafe.co.uk/

Nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus