In my never ending quest to eat everything, I am fortunately saddled with a curiosity for all manner of restaurants. Take Jack’s for example. Situated next to the farmer’s market in Queens Park (where Cillian Murphy can frequently be seen) , I’ve walked out with a beef burger in hand (superbly grilled by one of the meat mongers) still wanting to try a Jack’s burger while munching on the home-made wholesome farmer’s burger. I’m not a glutton am I?

Let’s google that.

Glutton : “Person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess.” (Princeton)

I prefer this one:

“One who eats voraciously, or to excess; a gormandizer; One who gluts himself; A carnivorous mammal (Gulo gulo), of the family Mustelidæ, about the size of a large badger. It was formerly believed to be inordinately voracious, whence the name; the wolverine…” (Wiktionary)

And so it turns out, I am a glutton, who frequently gluts himself, or at least thinks about voracious gormadizing alot. I have good reason to constantly keep this neighbourhood cafe at the back of my mind, and mainly it is to do with a sign they used to hang outside their door which read “Wagyu Burger”. That sign is no longer there. Very recently, the cafe has undergone a refurbishment which extends the once modest cafe into a modest cafe, with a dining area. Complete with black leather booth seats, and brick walls, business looks better than ever, as this place is constantly packed out. The new dining space is connected to the old cafe via what appears to be a tunnel lit by blue lights. At either side of this limbo land, cabinets and waitresses pop in and out from it. Pop. Or so it seemed anyway. So now we’re in (yes, we’re in). The menu is all day breakfast on one side; steak chips & lambshanks on the reverse and a whole host of greasy sandwiches, with your choice of bread, oh and malted milkshakes. So Byron ain’t the only boys in town who do A&W ice-cream floats, because I just found another. It’s the every greasy spoon I thought it was gonna be, dirty cutlery sans wagyu burgers.

Anyway, I ordered a malted peanut butter & banana milkshake to start. £3.75, it was huge, served in an oversized steel cup (ala GBK) and featuring crunchy peanut bits in the smooth, cold ice cream puddle. Yummy, I like malted things.

Conducting ‘research’ (or as some would say, ‘cheating’) for this piece led me to believe that the origins of the Jack’s burger recipe is American. I have no true experience of the American Hamburger, except to channel interpretations of it from my familiarity with ‘American diners’ in various Asian countries. Today, I’m channelling an old ‘American’ restaurant from my childhood days called Red Wing. The restaurant (no longer exists) was based in the oil town of Seria in Brunei which (still) has an economy that literally runs on oil & gas. If memory serves me correctly, Red Wing was a place for the old cowboys (applied liberally) from Halliburton to gather for a warm meal after a hard day’s slogging it out in the rigs, and it was here that baby Kang came across the curious case of the coleslaw. Ok back to the Jack’s home-made burger. Let’s get the bad bits out of the way first: that burger is overcooked, thinly cut (comparable to Burger King thickness) and dry. So why not write it off, right? Not yet, because everything else about the burger was actually rather good. The bun was toasted till crusty and I’m certain (even though the other half disagrees) that it had been flavoured with fresh garlic, giving it a tingling bite. The coleslaw was sort of yogurty and tasted (for want of a better term) fresh. We stuffed the good stuff into the burger, and it produced a really interesting garlicy and then creamy concoction of flavours, which instantly took me back to 1989, and back to Red Wing. This is about as close to A&W as one can get in London, and maybe its just nostalgia but I remember burgers tasting alot different, much more muscular (like this) back in 1989 as opposed to the progressive movement of gourmet burgers today… or maybe that’s just the carnivorous badger in me getting carried away.

I initially wanted to try the corned beef hash (with two fried eggs) but they had run out at 3.30pm on a Sunday, so I settled for ‘the Yank’ instead.

Further ‘research’ led me to study the diverse landscape of breakfast in America, specifically pancakes. To be honest, I felt a little queasy just reading this selection off the menu: eggs, bacon, french toast, syrup… blech, and this was the cheaper option. The other heftier double yank (oh gosh, I can’t even remember the name of the item) had pancakes AND french toast on the same plate. Yup, just as I expected this protein explosion was a little too much for me to handle. I could just about do the fried bread and bacon, even bravely spreading the syrup on the bread, but once I broke the white of the eggs, and the golden yolks slowly seeping into the sweetened bacon – that was the last straw, the voracious wolverine quivered, and seriously considered turning vegequarian.

In the end though, I was rather glad I gave Jack’s a try, I’d still go back to put my heart at risk and try the corned beef hash (for all the right reasons), and I almost forgot to mention the weird melange of music which played in the background; Bouncing from Jamiraquai to Borcelli. Interestingly enough, I felt abit like an extra in a Tarantino movie and in a funky kinda way, it all worked.

The Gist of It

Jacks Cafe official site
101 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6NH
Tel: 020 7624 8925
Tube: Queen’s Park

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Fridays are always exciting for me, partly because the sun usually decides to come out to play, and also partly because I can put my work hat away come midday. We had planned to see the superspy movie of the decade based on dolphins, but hadn’t thought of lunch yet. That was until the enigmatic supercharz came to our rescue with Fay Maschler’s brilliant piece regarding the latest secret gastro project to hit the smoke.

Here’s what I know so far : Dock Kitchen was started up by Stevie Parle and Joseph Trivelli, the former, a River Cafe alumnus and the main man in the kitchen; the latter still currently at River Cafe. Not the average trendy living room restaurateur I suppose what with the pedigree. Dock Kitchen is a part of their moveable restaurant project which made its debut at The Dock exhibition for the London Design Festival. It has since evolved to become more of a permanent fixture at the Portebello dock, serving lunch on most days and special suppers on selected nights.

We had to buzz to get through to the gated property – a double storey glass encased building of slick lines and bold typography. All very uber artful to my non-designer trained eye. At the entrance, we were greeted by the open kitchen-cum-reception-cum-cake-table-top. The rest of the venue looks abit like a stripped down exhibition space with elemental aspects of bricks, metal and glass working oversized pumpkins as table decoration. It doesn’t really feel like a pop-up to be honest, but more like a stripped down cafe, very relaxing.

The menus are A4 inkjet prints – all very low key – finished with inventive copywriting skills. I was fooled into thinking the choice of ‘Aranciata’, fizzy orange was some sort of special mocktail, but no, its just a fizzy canned drink. Hmm, I’m oh so gullible. The food menu is short, sweet and to the point. Six dishes for the starters/main and five choices for puds. Between the three of us, we chose most of what’s available, except for the wild seabass over roast potatoes and white wine (for 2 at £30).

First dish: Dhal with tomatoes and curry leaves, mustard leaves and chappati bread (£6.5)

Ah, I probably should mention that the menu reads like the chef’s greatest hits from around the world – kind of refreshing. So we poked the dhal paste but the feedback was cold and blobby like mud. We had to send it back to warm and melt, but what came back wasn’t really much better. The mushy paste was missing flavour in spite of it carrying abit of a spiciness. The fine grain texture while good was uninteresting. The chappati bread tasted like undercooked flour, just forgettable and the entire dish felt lethargic to me. C’mon, we’re a nation which knows our dhal well and it’s not suppose to taste like this. Next.

Next: Dorset Crab on Buttery Toast £10, we ordered two… how can you not order two crabs on toast.

Now we’re talking. The crabs were fresh, flossy, juicy and tasted of the sea. I was pulling bits of shell out from the crab – like the chef’s way of saying fresh produce, hand made, yeah. Layered on top of tenderly moisten fennels and a fat slice of bread with a chunk of butter on top, I could eat three of these. I gobbled one, and watched the girls finish the rest, with envy.

Mains: Rabbit biryani – Farmed French rabbit slow cooked with tomato and ginger with cardamom Himalayan basmati rice £15.

Oh yes. This was another winner. The dish was very fragrant, a mellow spiciness – like the gastronomical equivalent of fresh laundry. The rice was amazingly fluffy, cotton-like, and just the slightest touch of spice hitting the back of my throat. The dollop of crème fraiche created an appetizing citrusy contrast to the dish, this was another which I could eat again and again. The rabbit tasted like chicken to me, although some bits were liver-like, mildly seasoned, simple comfort food beautifully cooked.

Finally: Two small red mullet roasted with tomatoes and wild fennel leaves with Florence fennel slowly cooked with olive oil and garlic (£16).

And the umami monster strikes again. The fish are beautifully presented, very smart in the way they kind of sit up on the plate hugging a cluster of roast vegetables. Fresh & flaky, the fishiness was expertly masked with the juices from the roasts. This rustic combo was very comforting and it was like being invited to try out new recipes at the home of a successful chef who cooks for the pure unadulterated love of food.

I know a lot of chefs who would relish the chance to work on these sorts of personal projects. Not have to worry about the bottom line but to simply cook to their heart’s content. A very positive experience. Not the cheapest lunch but not entirely expensive either. Not the largest of servings, but not paltry. Most of all, food was delish and the stripped down nature was a welcomed change to unnecessary grandeur. Dock kitchen gracefully carried out their minimalist approach. It is a wonderful venue and I think London needs more of these type of cafés/brasseries/insert your own moniker/chilled out eateries which just wants to fill yer tummies without the ceremony.

I really heart out loud, and it is always a pleasure eating with Charz, I owe you a burger (or two) for this one. Go visit already.

The Gist of It

Dock Kitchen Offical site
£20-£40 pp
Portobello Dock
342 Ladbroke Grove
W10 5AH
Tel: 02089621610
Nearest Tube: Ladbroke Grove

More photographs of Dock Kitchen here.

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Cast your mind back a couple of years ago and the emergence of the gourmet burger in this country, particularly London. I contributed my two pennies with a burger shoot-out of my own last year, pitching some of the well regarded burger bars against one another. Since then, the momentum for sleek burgers have subsided. And then I saw this post about what our NY cousins have for lunch.. oh man, it blew my insides away and then some. I am told that we are still lightyears behind American burger places. This year’s burger battle is a much more quiet affair, I’ve decided to focus only on the top two burger joints (arguably) in the smoke: Hache and Byron.

I’m no burger connoisseur, I haven’t tried every burger in the city (if I had I probably won’t be writing this), but I have tried most of the big hitters, and on a pretty regular basis. I live in a unique location in West London where I am within about 10 minutes walking distance from a Byron, Hache and two GBKs. Now, I’ve heard much about the Hawksmoor burger but that’s still on my to-eat list so can’t comment as yet. In anycase, feel free to chime in with a recommendation or two if you know something I don’t.

The Case of the Byron

When I did my burger battle last year, Byron was still the new kid on the block, but today it is very much ‘the’ burger joint, springing up in loads of locations (including twitter) and garnering many an internet fan.

One thing I really like about Byron is that they seem to take feedback seriously and make the little adjustments. Take for instance the mini burgers they once had on their menu – now gone, since people thought the portions were too paltry. Byron are also abit like zen masters, preferring to keep their menu short and focused on the delivery of ‘the perfect burger’. Prices start at £5.95 for the classic. Before we get into food, let’s talk abit about the atmosphere. I think it reflects the Byron mantra, steely, calm, controlled.

Alright – let’s get into the food: We have the blue-cheese burger, £6.95.

Let me just start by saying that I was the biggest GBK fan, the tomato relish is still unbeatable in my humble opinion.

I pick up a Byron about once a month (because its so close) and over the months, I had noticed how the Byron got better, and better and better. The bun is much like a floury sponge capable of soaking up all the good juices without falling to pieces. I’ve noticed how the bun seems to get better and better at holding the burger in when you take a bite. Right now, I think it is at that point where it’s abit special, and miles ahead of the competition (especially GBK). As for the burger itself, well its juicy, its beefy, its flavoursome and its sizzles; It is very nearly perfect to my humble palate.

The strength of the Byron is how all the elements gel together to form one consistent taste – a signature taste I might add – which leaves a real impression on you and makes you want to go back, which is to say that th Byron is something I can eat again and again and again.

I used to be Byron skeptic when they first came on the scene, but as the months rolled by, I actually think that they are continually refining the perfect burger and they’ve now got something distinctive.

The Case of Hache

Hache has universally been hailed as the best burger makers in town and few can fault them. Their secret to burger success, is to not to serve burger with their burgers…. They serve steak haches instead. As I said, I’m no connoisseur, but with Hache, I believe the main difference with their burgers is that it is made from chopped steak as opposed to minced beef.

I think the décor at Hache has infinitely more ambiance than any other burger place in town. It has lots of warming lights and it feels more like a neighbourhood restaurant. I especially liked that they were playing Ella Fitzgerald at the Fulham Road branch, it’s magic, especially on a lonely Wednesday night. I was glad that they have relaxed their photography policy, which really ticked me off. When I was there last week, they didn’t seem to mind my D700.

The Hache burgers are just a tad dearer with the classic steak au naturel starting at £6.95. Now, the Hache menu is much longer and has more variety. In addition to steak haches, there are fish burgers, duck burgers and lamb burgers. I was a little disappointed to see the cod burger being taken off, I loved it when I had it.

Anywho – I ordered the Sicilian: parma ham and melted premium mozzarella cheese, £8.95.

I asked for it medium rare, it was cooked as requested. Tick. The hache texture is rubbery and bouncy compared to a ‘normal’ mince burger. I was disappointed that my burger was abit dry and unenthusiastic. It was tepid and it didn’t impart that grilled sensation. Flavourwise, a lot beefiness but on the whole it didn’t feel alive in my mouth. The hache bun is probably its weakest link – in short it’s crap. You cannot palm a hache in your hand, this posh cow requires you to eat it with a fork and knife. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but compared to Byron who have perfected the dark arts of the burger experience, I think Hache has lost abit of its bite.

The king is dead, long live the king

I tell you what was smashing at Hache: the mocha (£2.50) , the deep chocolate infused coffee was a devilish way to end my meal.

I think Hache has taken a step back, I distinctly remember being properly blown to bits once upon a time, last week it was good but not memorable. On the other hand, Byron continues to wow, everytime I go back, I feel like I’m having yet another enhanced version of an already perfect recipe. I just get the feeling that Byron are obsessed with their product, and that can only be good news for this regular burger goer.

If you have yet to give Hache a try, I would still recommend it because it is still pretty special in its own right. But for me, given the choice, I would go to Byron again and again. Long live the king, baby.

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Yes, I do and while London has a notorious reputation for being an expensive place to dine (and by the way, it really is), I do think that out of the several thousands (I think it’s 8000 restaurants in London, but I ain’t sure) there are more than a few gems out there which are great places to eat.

I usually answer this question with the questions: what is your budget and what kind of cuisine? And since no two sets of tastebuds are really ever the same… believe you me, that’s one of the on going dilemmas I have in my very dramatic life as a foodblogger because I’d like to be writing truly objective reviews, but how do I know if my taste buds jive with yours? Ah well, can’t please everybody I suppose – but I do try. So today is finally Friday and that means I’m going for a lunch (wee!) and it will be posted on Tuesday. It’s been about three weeks since I ate out in London so I’m really looking forward to it.

Speaking of lunches, I’d go to these ones for something affordable and tasty:

1. Wild Honey for the £ 17 three course set, in old bond street.
2. Hummus Brothers for really chunky beef stew and…. Hummus, in soho.
3. Hache for the great chopped steak burgers and awesome grilled cod, in Camden town.
4. Sophie’s for a great £11.50 rib eye steaks plus a soup plus bread plus free salami, in Chelsea.

I’ve written reviews for these places and you should be able to find them in my restaurant reviews page.

Greater places to find larnch

Beyond that, I’ve always wanted to highlight the great London reviews blogs floating about which write about even more great places to eat, that I haven’t covered and they’ll provide a pretty honest opinion about whether it’s worth your nosh or not.

1. World foodie guide eats across a range of great restaurants and I think she averages about four reviews a week. Helen’s blog is a firm favourite in my browser and I find her reviews up to date and her recommendations are usually very delicious.

2. Gen.u.ine.ness and Food Snob are abit like fine dining fansites,  they tend to (I say tend to) review all the restaurants either holding at least one Michelin star ( and more ) and also the ones which might win one. They also tend to go full whack with the taster menus so expect incredibly detailed write-ups with multi digit courses and lots of dazzling photos. I usually go here, if I want to read about the latest in the world of haute cuisine.

3. Intoxicating Prose tracks the stylistic hedonistic lifestyle of Douglas Blyde as he eats his way through some very fine establishments across the city – in a similar vein to Gen and Snob – but in less words, I like his photography and prose.

4. Londonelicious Of course, how can I forget Krista in London who’s been blogging London food for a long, long time so she’s well established. I actually admire her supershort reviews because it tells me exactly everything I need to know about whether to eat there or not, if there ever was a walking city directory of restaurants, she just might be it.

There you go, even foodbloggers need recommendations.

Aside from these guys, you might like to check out the Urbanspoon blogger list. You’re bound to find a great recommendation from another great foodblogger whom I havent mentioned. You might have (or not) noticed that I have a little urbanspoon logo at the end of all my reviews; that’s because my stuff gets linked back to the urbanspoon site; most of the London foodies do this too, so that list is quite a good one if you’re searching for London foodblogs. Apart from that, I think there’s a facebook group as well called London Food Blogs (surprise.) to which I think I’m a member of, but I ain’t sure.

(Note:  as of writing, my current FB pic is me and a fluffy cat)

Ok well, its close to lunchtime as I’ve scheduled this to go out and I hope this quick post is useful for anybody looking for lunch in the city.

Have a great weekend, and happy eating!

A tartine is a slice of bread.

The Tartine, on the other hand, is a French eating concept. The concept is simple and Italian loving Londoners familiar with the bruschetta will be comfortable with the Tartine, which are giant slices of Poilane, a type of sourdough topped with a variety of delicatables. Lightly toasted, doused with a sprinkle of olive oil and accompanied by a fresh house salad to round off a very balanced French meal.

The livelihood of most tasty restaurants rests on the skill of the point man in the kitchen, making it a trend, rather than an institution ( are the top 10 places to eat today the same as it was 35 years ago? ) . But if you build an establishment around a concept, ah, now we’re on to something, a concept can be propagated and passed to the No.2 or even No.3 without much dip in quality ( dare I say it? – think McDs and KFC ). Borrowing a line from Chris Nolan’s reason for a Bat minister of Gotham: “ A man can be killed, destroyed but a symbol .…is incorruptible” ( What does this have to do with Tartine, Kang? )

Concept? Symbol? Incorruptible? Too subtle? I’ve always wanted to quote my favourite movies, and I’m not sorry.

I am a resident of the Borough of Chelsea and Kensington

As I write this on a chilly Friday afternoon, classic fm (Netharlands, what a great radio channel) , Il Divo have joined X-factor on jumping on the ‘Hallejulah’ bandwagon, sorry boys and girls, there is only one version which is considered music and that is the haunting Jeff Buckley version. Everything else is just ‘trash’ ( As they say ).

The Victoria and Albert along me old university

South Kensington is beautiful, it’s peaceful has really nice places to chill out, great museums and it also forms one part of the knightsbridge-sloane square-south ken axis of posh power.

Did I mention it’s very French too? At the eye of this axis lies the Michelin building and several small scale fashion shops and some very trendy eating concepts, one of them is (of course) the incorruptible Tartine concept.

Oh mon dieu, the French have landed.

Stepping through the unassuming shop leads me into a dark and low ceiling cosy dining space. The front of the restaurant-cum-bar-cum-café is a long rectangular table which can probably sit about 8 guests and I am greeted by a rather chippy silver maned English gentlemen, complete with a links sweater and an R.P. so standard that it is likely to be pre-approved by the Queen. The low ceilings and the cream walls are well lit with plenty of good spotlights, giving it this cool cavern-like (perhaps lounge is more fitting) feel, oh and it’s also got these long, comfy sofa style seats stuck to the walls. So far so good, the spotlights keep my copy of the Times completely readable, so I am happy.

Choosing a French Bruschetta , or was it Italian Tartine?

The menu is very straightforward, tartines are available with a range of hot/cold toppings including choices such as flaked salmon, pickled cucumber, sweet dill and mustard dressing; Minute steak and caramelised onions; Shredded duck, crispy ginger, cucumber and plum sauce; and Grilled squid, rocket, sweet chilli jam and fresh lime.

As you can see, the toppings cover a pretty wide gamut and is bound to include something which tickles your tastebuds. In addition, they also do chippies, burgers and other mains such as a grilled salmon and even chicken. I did also spot a steak tartare served with toasted poilane, which I must try on my next visit. Opps, I let my verdict out even before tasting the dish. Oh well, Friday slip ups.

Crabs on Toast, with lots of skinny chips.

I decided to defy Gordon Brown’s mess and order the most expensive tartine on the menu: Crab meat with courchamps sauce, £11.50. And skinny chips too, £3.50 a pot. Before I could whip open my copy of the Times, the meal had arrived on my table. Coffee after I suppose, but first – the chips. Chewy, soft and overall, very nice, very frites like and quite ‘authentically Parisian’ … it’s just chips, and it tastes good.

As for my tartine, the crab meat really caught my attention. It was definitely fresh and smelled really aromatic too. I duly squeezed my wedge of lemon and took a taste of the pretty intriguing green courchamp sauce smothered over it. The sauce is a godsend, it has a very clean taste, and an aftertaste that is rather like a cucumber with hoison sauce. It also tasted of capers, parsley and perhaps even garlic. I’m not quite sure what else is in there (pepper?) but it was refreshingly appetising and went so very well with the crab meat. The crab meat is real and does not seem to be some sort of frozen re-formed crap. I could see the fresh flakes and taste the ocean – so it was pretty good. ( I come from a town where we can buy freshly caught live lobsters for £3 per kg so I know my seafood well. )

As for my slice of sourdough, it is dryer and tougher ( crackle and pop as I bite ) than I’d prefer it to be – it is very much like a bruschetta, but I’d still like to hang on to my teeth for a while longer yet so I didn’t appreciate the hardness.

I should also mention that I saw other diners munching on a good looking burger and the fish and chips looked really awesome too – but obviously, I’m going to eat a tartine at Tartine, at least on first pass.

Finishing the rambles

This is quite a good looking Parisian style café featuring rather classic brunch/lunch dishes which all look like winners. Prices are recession friendly and the portions are relatively large.

Special mention as the coffee is ridiculously good here. I ordered the mocha and it tasted as if they melted proper swiss chocolate in there making my cuppa rich and thick and oh so sweet. For a moment, I thought I was drinking a damn good hot chocolate with hints of coffee instead. The creamy and silky smooth foam ( no bubbles , interestingly enough ) was filling and full flavoured.

What a nice way to finish the Times on a quiet, lazy afternoon. Worth a try and I think a bit of a hidden gem for lunch, brunch, coffee and a first date.

The Gist of it

Tartine restaurant and bar, official website
114 Draycott Avenue, SW3 3AE | 020 7589 4981
£10.00 per tartine , £ 3.50 skinny chips £2.50 coffees

Verdict: If you’re looking for a quiet, chilled out cafe serving simple straightforward food then come here and bring your favourite paper.

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