What it must feel like to be Yotam Ottolenghi. Author of two likeable, innovative cook books; Owner of a string of likeable, innovative takeaway/café/restaurants, and the custodian of a weekly vegetarian column in Guardian. And women just love his food.

There is something extremely likeable about the brand Yotam has created for himself. It’s like everything you imagined organic food – healthy, delicious and expensive – to be. There are four Ottolenghis’ dotted around London, and quite a startling 15 years or so it has been for the native Israeli philosophy major. In 1998, he who had come to Cordon Bleu in London to study food before going on to solidify his pastry experience in The Capital, The Kensington Place group (with Rowley Leigh) and then become head pastry man at Baker and Spice (which I believe is somehow tied to the origin of Gail’s). Eventually in 2002, he opened his first Ottolenghi and the rest is history, as they say.

It has been a poster-child kind of success story, therefore the recent opening of his latest venture, Nopi (for North of Picaddily (circus)) is expected to be a high profile – amongst the obsessive gluttons – production that should have industry onlookers salivating with undulated respect.

On the surface, Nopi looks like the latest and greatest Soho-based, egalitarian and super hip all-day diner, though this could not be further from the truth. This is not Polpo 2011, ladies, this is something a lot more precise, better choreographed, a slicker operation; equating to a ridiculously pricy menu.

Naturally, it’s already submerged in overbooked sessions, being that it has only been opened for less than a month. There was no chance in grabbing a table for a late Saturday lunch, so instead I just showed up at 15 minutes before lunch service was planned to stop, to see if I could snatch a small corner table for some solo dining. I did much better, as they placed me at the bar. Décor is kept as elegantly as humanly possible, furnished to a brass and crème finish. The room is a long and narrow rectangle, and it feels rather like eating in a well-dressed and permanent marquee.

Staff are chillaxed and all smiles, the restaurant has a generally laid-back attitude about it, which is rather modern of them. They appear to carbonate their water, and the choice of still or sparkling is on the house.

The ambiance is something Alan Yau would be proud of, understated slickness, all the small touches you expect restaurants to get right, they have got right.

Everything came with a smile.

Kingfish carpaccio, curry powder, lemon oil, shiso, samphire £10

The luxury thick cut carpaccio, the densely buttery texture that melted accordingly, not unlike a Tsar cut of salmon. Crusted with curry powder and then drizzled with lemon oil that set off an ear-ringing zestful charge of citrus. The shiso and samphire was ample for decorative purposes, I think. This was a small platter of glorified sashimi, executed in splendid fashion. It was hard to fault it, in fact I loved it, though I couldn’t shake the feeling that this could well have been done before, such as say the Nobu new-style – wet, drizzly and zesty – sashimi. Is this really worth a tenner?

Twice-cooked baby chicken, lemon myrtle salt, red pepper sauce, £10

Next up was the first broth-boiled, then grilled, twice cooked baby chicken. Sweating with lovely chicken-stock juices. The sweet chilli mix it came it was very good, the chicken itself was reminiscent of soya chicken, redolent of chilli, broth, ginger and spring onion. But again, I couldn’t help but experience another bout of deja vu, that this apparently innovative recipe had been done before elsewhere, and in this scenario, a Chinese soya chicken rice recipe. It is not better than Uncle Lim’s Hainanese chicken rice recipe in my humble opinion, and I am mindful of the fact that Nopi fuses Medi and Asian recipes, but I find myself asking the obvious question : Is any single chicken wing and half a thigh really worth ten pounds?

It didn’t even come with a small bowl of stock infused rice.

Slow cooked pig cheek, celeriac and barberry salad, £10

By the time the third dish landed, I was sold on the fact that this kitchen could cook anything. Everything was delicious, like this buttery tender, superior slow cooked cheek that easily put the Brindisa version to shame. It was intense. Served with an extremely citrusy shaved celeriac salad, which for some reason, failed to equalise in flavour, and was palate piercing instead. Luckily the sourdough was fantastic, and helped to soak up and dilute the strong flavours. It carried a subtle bitterness, as if it was made with tea leaves.

Baked lamb belly, mixed mushrooms, sumac, £12

The procession of savoury hits reached a summit with this dish. I loved every bit of this highlight of muscular on muscular flavours. Sitting on a bed of yoghurt (or crème fraiche), the soured cream took the edge of the intensity of the mushrooms, for the gloopy texture of the cream against the mushy fried ‘shrooms, I felt it created a very stylish texture. The rolled lamb belly was expectedly pungent, but in this tirade of strong flavours, it was not overpowering, rather it was just succinct.

Pineapple galette, pandan, coconut ice cream £7.5

The smell of sweet, hot, burnt, sugar over hot, sweaty and burning pineapple. The winner was the exceptionally thin crust, the pineapple slices sat on, producing just the slightest crisp. The clotty and dense coconut ice cream was regal. Thicker than any gelato than I had ever eaten. This was an ace pudding. It wiped away all the previous strong flavours and left me with a cooling sensation.

The meal was fabulous. I could not fault it for the cooking and for its sheer likeability factor; I believe it is poised to be overbooked for many a cold night in the months ahead. However, I just cannot shake the feeling that they have pumped so much hard work in dazzling clientele that they have managed to fool everybody with their pricing. Plus a double espresso and five small plates of food, the bill was a whopping £58.50 – one hugely expensive all-day diner.

Granted for those who flooded the restaurant during the 50% soft opening, may have glossed over the bottom line after a couple of glasses (I would have too), but I just can’t see myself choosing Nopi over Polpo or even Polpetto, since the concept of sharing platters are so similar; save for that the latter restaurants are so much cheaper, and are more generous in terms of portions. On the otherhand, the food at Nopi is tastier, the recipes are better, and the atmosphere isn’t so rowdy.

Contrary to what the menu says the small plates are designed for (sharing), I don’t think they came out as intended. Portions are laughably tiny, even for one, let alone to be shared. Take the chicken wing for example, surely the most expensive chicken wing in London. If they were truly for sharing, I believe they needn’t suggest a recommended three savouries per person.

Nopi feels like a resurrected Maze (remember that?), another restaurant that has a menu built around the idea of sampling alot of successive small dishes. I feel that the Nopi portions are not big enough to be shared, but that they are just adequate for one person wanting to taste abit of everything. I had five dishes by myself, and I don’t think I would have enjoyed splitting those dishes with anybody else. The dishes did not seem scoop-able or partition-able, it might work for a couple but certainly not divisible for more than that.

The good news is that the cooking is just amazing. At least based on this one visit. Everything rolled out of the kitchen with panache, zest, passion and sheer umami.

In the end, I found Nopi not to be groundbreaking, rather I thought it was refreshing. The recipes are recognisable and are not alien to our palate. They are however, slickly repackaged, and exceptionally cooked. Fusion can swing a lot of ways if done incorrectly, but I think Nopi has got it under contol, and got the recipes just right. I think Nopi is what Kopapa should have been.

It brings the same rebooted feeling that Viajante has brought to the blurred fantasy of one global cuisine. If Viajante is esoteric folksy jazz, then Nopi is mainstream, bubblegum pop. Because of the menu’s apparent liberal nature, I believe it can only evolve to become better, as the chefs get bored with/refine their recipes. And as the loyal patrons, we have reason to keep coming back for more I suppose.

A great start, that comes with a hefty price. For now, I shall be happy to pay the price, but it probably won’t be long before they introduce some kind of set lunch menu. Lest it becomes a deterrent in light of the fact that there are so many nice things to eat in the city, for a lot less money.

The Gist of It

Nopi
Fusion, Medi-Asian and expensive. £50pp
21-22 Warwick Street W1B 5NE
Tel : +44 (0)20 7494 9584
Tube: Picaddily Circus

Soopi : TO , Wennie’s Affairs , What Katie Does, Tofufa , The Bountiful Plate ; The Skinny Bib , Winkypedia

Did you enjoy reading this? You can subscribe to the Newsletter. Alternatively, you cansubscribe to the RSS feed.

We are in the middle of the coldest snap known to mankind. It has decidedly grounded many of us – including the restaurant going republic, in fear that the tipple monster might never lead us home again. Thank the goodens for the dude who invented the neighbourhood cafe, because this means we can venture on nature’s locomotion to fill our tummies without resorting to the perils of mechanical transport.

I have a love and hate relationship with my neighbourhood; on one hand, SW7 is one of the more scenic postcodes. In between the leafy residences, and the perfectly trimmed hedges and the occasional embassy lies an eclectically chic high street which houses an array of quintessential lazy neighbourly cafes. On the otherhand, it’s just too bloody expensive to live there. So I received an email from Val who happens to own one of these neighbourhood cafes in Chelsea and had kindly offered a princely comped meal to in return for a write-up, to which I accepted. The attraction was obviously because I could wake up just in time for a Saturday brunch, and not worry about my tummy imploding on the way there. Situated on Walton Street, the surrounding area is also home to the iconic Michelin house which occupants include the Bibendum restaurant. Also in the area, is a local favourite of mine which serves French style open sandwiches – Tartine.

I was really surprised at how busy this cafe was at one in the afternoon, the place was so packed that I had to fall in line to join the elongating queue. Jak’s operates a manned buffet bar of sorts and the transcations occur over the glass counter in which you pick and choose your plates of food, well actually you find a table first and then get up and order and well, you get my drift. We managed to find two empty spots on one of the large family tables just in front of the counter. Val has turned this cafe into a lovingly cosy space and it certainly is one of the more vibrant spots I’ve been to of late – so much colour and chatter. I suppose the long tables are to accommodate groups of families, which coincidentally, largely formed the clientele on this visit. An educated guess suggested most were local to the area, some had come to read a book amongst the human warmth, while others were simply there to share quality time with the loved ones, and so was I it appears.

As I said, most of the food is cooked and arranged behind the glass counter to which you simply pick and choose what you’d like to have, and they’ll hand it over to you. There is alot of choice, and a largely colourful and seemingly healthy options what with a selection of grilled meat & fish, meatballs in hearty tomato sauces and a smattering of salads and rice which include Quinoas, Tabbouleh, Artichoke Hearts and many more which my memory fails to recall.

One is free to mix and match, and the missus started with an all fibres blazing : Quinoa, artichokes, peppers and spinach.

As the glutton that I am, I had to pause before taking up a spoonful of the healthy stuff. It was my first experience of quinoa, midly seasoned and with a relatively silky and fluffy texture – how else do I describe this, maybe as a cross between cous cous and barley.

As for my own ‘starters’ plate, I ordered the excellent chicken escaloped, breaded, and fried till crispy and still juicy on the inside (See photo here). Our food then came in waves as Val heated them up and brought them over. Next up is this gorgeous looking aubergine bake.

Stuffed with garlic, onions, parsley, and cherry tomatoes, as I said, I’m no green monster, but the evenly sour, sweet and pasty managed to enthrall my carnivorous senses.

Ahh finally then, some meat : pan fried sea bass.

A simply salted and floury fish that was roasty too, which fortunately was not overcooked. More fish came our way, including this tuna steak.

Again very simply charred, and i checked for pinkness in the centre – check.

I was beginning to feel as if this meal was abit of an impromptu detox session, and Val urged us to try his fresh juice bar, to which I obliged to his suggestion of orange, carrot and a dash of ginger. One is of course free to mix and match to create a detoxtail of choice.

Just as I was sipping my latte, Val come to me again to tempt me with a whole table worth of sweet goodies… ohhh..

..ohh… after the super healthy meal I just had, I felt as if I was duly rewarded to select from the droolworthy cakes… and boy did I choose well. The one that really stood out for us were the vibrant red and the rigid golden brown of the strawberry cheesecake. Honestly, mindful of my free meal and expanding waistline, I asked Val to provide me with a just slither.

Instead he brought me a quarter. Oh well, I’ll have to eat that then. Fluffy, puffy, vanilla explosions that melted away my tastebuds, about as luxurious as the woman behind the M&S advert voiceovers. The crumbly biscuit based soaked up the excellent strawberry syrup so lovingly lashed upon the cheesecake. Incredible.

The neighbourly cafe was good enough for us to return about 3 weeks later, this time as a paying customer and with a group of friends. On my return, each of us ordered a mains plus two greens plus coffee and cheesecake (to share) and the bill came to around £17 per person. I was surprised to find that Val recognised me on the second visit, and I could not turn down his requests to down a shot of apertif (I forget the name) with him at the end of the meal. To conclude, I liked Jak’s enough to return to the cafe, as I said before, this is the quintessential neighbourhood place, if you’re looking for a healthy yet delicious lunch with a touch of the Mediterranean, or if you are after sinfully gorgeous cakes or would just like to sip fresh juices and read your favourite book over a lazy weekend (amongst lots children and lots of people) – then Jak’s might apply to you.

Other viewpoints you might like to consider : In Magazines ; Gourmet Chick ; The London Foodie ; Telegraph

More photographs of the meal here.

The Gist of It

Jak’s Cafe official site £15pp
77 Walton Street SW3 2H
Tel : 020 7584 3441
Tube : South Kensington

Did you enjoy reading this post? Why not subscribe to my feed updates for free. Alternatively, You can subscribe via email.

Trend is a funny thing. It is exhilarating riding the hype waves and it had driven me to try Yalla Yalla, especially after reading about it on World Foodie Guide and on Metro. It was a toss up between Tayyabs and this, for a five person feasting on a Saturday night and I chose to go with the new kid on the block.

Right now, I’m going through growing pains with my blabbering, I’m taking cues from a new book – Dianne Jacob’s Will Write for Food – and this wonderful resource is changing the way I articulate myself. The old benchmark was Lindsay Camp’s Can I Change Your Mind – which is a smashing book – but man do I need some inspiration for new ways of expression. This is review #111, its no wonder I no longer fit into my jeans I bought last year. Urgh…. must…not…touch…krispy..kreme…

Meanwhile….

….so there we were on a windy September evening – Saturday – and the shadows of Soho have released themselves from the darkness which they dwell, a sign that the sinful jive of the weekend rhythm has begun moving. Yalla Yalla is smack in the middle of the colourful red light district. Residing in a seedy looking side street, you only need to look next door – an open one – with a hallway lit by red lights, and a sign that reads ‘models upstairs’ to confirm this. Ah yes, the human condition, but of course, I was more tempted by the equally sinful pleasures that Yalla Yalla offers. The restaurant was surprisingly small; It fit no more than five or six tables, and this seemed more like a takeaway caffe than a fully fledged restaurant. We crammed into a corner table – cosy – and naturally, I sat closest to the food counter. I saw pizza-like sfinas, shwarmas and in my direct line of sight…. a platter of baklava. An invisible veil of willpower shielded me from diving headfirst into the table top filled with food. This was my one chance to enact the recurring dream of me swimming in food, ala Mena Suvari, American Beauty… but in hindsight, it was probably best that it remained a dream.

We arrived quarter to seven to an empty restaurant that quickly filled up. Two waitresses tended to customers, and it was immediately obvious that food was a little slow to arrive.

The first starters to arrive, hummus, lamb sfina, some olives and pickled peppers. The hummus was grainy yet smooth, inoffensive but heavily seasoned, while I quite enjoyed the spicy minced meat sfina that was doused with a citrusy pomegranate sauce, like fire and acid.

Next to land on the table was the makalé samak: a medley of powdery and crispily fried seafood. At £5.50, this was a steal. Prawns, squid, white bait (very nice) and all of it resting on a bed of crispy aubergine. A relatively large dish, it was however a little on the salty side, so much so that I was reaching for water as my mouth dried out. And then, I tried some of the pomegranate seeds with the seafood, and discovered how the sweetness of the juice evened out that dehydrating saltiness. I would have appreciated more of the sweet juices, perhaps they could consider making a pomegranate puree of some sort?

Then again, I’m no chef, so I’ll keep my opinions to just the tastings, this one received rave reviews from around the table: Batata harra £3.50, like a Lebanese version of the classic Spanish Tapas Patatas Bravas.

With crackling chilli spiciness, the potatoes gave me a kick on the tongue, yummy.

The last of the starters to arrive: kibbé nayyé, or lamb tartare £4.00. This will be a first, I love steak tartare and have tried a variety of seafood ones, but never one that was made with lamb, we had to order it, being exotic to us.

As it was raw, some were apprehensive, but we slowly succumbed to trying it out. It was heavily seasoned, full of flavour and was much like the meat version of hummus. Seasoned and spiced, the mince was an excellent pitta spread, served with chopped radishes, spring onions and I even tasted mint, I could eat this all day long. This was my personal favourite from the meal.

And so, that were the starters, we were told that the table was to be returned at 8 o’clock, we only had one and a half hours with it, the time was then already approaching 7:45. Our conversation led us to chippys in London, Mickeys in Paddington to be exact, they are supposedly endorsed by Blummental. And then, a flood of dishes landed on the table, colourful, aromatic, the true feast was about to begin! I had to work quickly with the photographs – a little overwhelming – as I did not want to keep the table waiting.

The first dish is Lahem Casserole, which is slow cooked lamb shoulder with carrots, red pepper, swede, bay leaves & tomato, served with seven spiced rice. (£8)

The meat was tremendously tender, heart warming, the spicy tomato based sauce it was served with was delightfully comforting and the mix of ingredients complimented the natural flavour of the lamb well. I noted that there weren’t any beef dishes on the menu.

The next order was the mandatory mixed grill (£9.50). Portions were a little small, just a few pieces of meat, while well-grilled and delicious it wasn’t anything particularly special. On the otherhand, I really enjoyed the heavily seasoned rice, with vermicelli bits.

Dish number three was their special on the day: Grilled Baby Chicken (£10.95)

Portions were again rather measly. Grilled with the taste of burnt chocolate, it was oily and juicy on the outside but a tad dry on the inside. I’m not entire sure what the difference between a normal chicken and a baby one (apart from the obvious) is suppose to be, but for me, this was just premium Nandos.

Half the table were full by the time I came to try the Lokoz meshoué: charcoal grilled sea bass fillet with citrus scented rice and spicy tomato & corriander sauce (£9.75).

The seabass was nicely grilled, very smoky and all, and the tomato based sauce was similar to the one served with the lamb shoulder. Yeah, it’s quite a simple dish really, delicious and free from frills.

Toward the end of the meal, salt bombs were going off on my tongue, the heavy seasoning was only too apparent. Downing glasses of water seemed to help. Aside from the intensity, the meal was decidedly a feast and the food plus five fruit juices came to just under £70, or £15 each. I wasn’t entirely blown away by this venue for dinner, I think Yalla Yalla is much more suited for lunch, or when one feels like a variation on the one plate meal. The starters were enormous for their price, yet the mains were minuscule in comparison. For the most part, it was satisfactory. Now if only I worked closer to the reaches of Soho, as opposed to slave trading for Jabba the Hut in the Outer Rims of Aldershot, I would lunch at Yalla Yalla everyday.

The Gist of It

Yalla Yalla, £15pp Official Site
1 Green Court Soho W1F 0HA
Tel: 0207 287 7663
Nearest Tube Station: Picadilly Circus

Like this blog? Why not subscribe to the email newsletter ; alternatively you can subcribe to the RSS feed.

While in college, two friends decided to pass on the usual fat & furious delights and wanted do healthy. So they wandered into a ‘specialist’ food shop, picked up hummus, olive oil and pitta bread. One of them said “I could eat a meal like that everyday”. The other one stopped talking, an idea lit between the two heads and Hummus Bros was born. 

So this is how it works:

1. Choose a hummus topping (plain, veggie, mushroom, guacamole, chicken, beef)
2. Choose a pitta (white,brown)
3. Tear, dip, eat
4. 
5. Repeat step 1 to 4

I’ve past this place many times over while making my mandatory trips to Yauatcha. And it’s a really good looking shop too, red walls, long tables and chilled out staff. What nice ambiance.  

Credit crunchers

Unless you have been living under a coconut shell, you would have heard about (or in my case, been shocked by) the crisis that has hit our beloved city of smoke. Its already hard to afford a meal in London, but this has just made it alot worse.

Well then its a good thing hummus bros prices are recession proof. A regular portion of chunky beef only costs £5.80. And that’s the most expensive topping on the menu.  

The price includes two pitta breads. The regular portion is quite large, so if you are on a diet then I’d recommend you go small (only 1 pitta for the small). Similarly the breads are quite filling. And if you are a take-away fanatic, they do their entire menu on take-away. A tub of small plain hummus  only costs £1.80! (pitta is such a funky word to say, pitta! pitta!)

So it’s cheap, but how good is it?

This section of the review is my favorite to write. Sometimes I wonder if I should start my reviews with this section and do away with the little introductions.

Anyway, I went there with my mate Jon, who’s just arrived in the country to do a degree in Medicine. Warm welcomes, Jon.

I’m a beef lover, so I sprang for the chunky beef stew topping, regular sized as I was feeling ravenous. Jon went for the chicken.

I’m a white bread kinda guy. I figure I should load up on all of life’s most unhealthy sins while my body can still take it.

Hummusness

Oh, oh, oh. The hummus is oh so smooth. The pitta bread is moist and so soft. Crispy on the outside, very nice, it tastes exactly like how good pitta bread should do. Back to the hummus, oh yes, so smooth and it taste distinctly fresh. You can tell that these guys pumped alot of love and attention into it. Afterall, the success of this place hinges on getting this right. Sumptuous.

Normally with these places, I don’t expect much from the extra ‘add-ons’. To me, the toppings are abit gimmicky.

Oh, how wrong was I.

Chunky beefcakes

That is a cracking beef stew. The meat is so tender, full of flavour and the sauce is reminiscent of an Indonesian beef rendang. With a carefully selected balance of herbs and spices, its managed to produce a rich and very full flavored sauce to compliment the beef. Just excellent. This is beef stew heaven.

Ok so a dollop of hummus with the excellent stew on a piece of warm pitta bread… the bros are right, I could eat this all day, everyday.

Really cool service and free pudding

The waiter who served us was really great. He came over and asked if it was our first time and then proceeded to give us a friendly briefing of the shop concept. He suggested we try the malabi, which is a kind of milk-based dessert, abit like pannacota. Since we were both already pretty stuffed from the excellent meal, we declined.

But then he brought us a portion anyway, plus two glasses of warm mint tea – on the house!

It was really nice of him. I am a strong believer that eating is an experience. For a restaurant, the kitchen may be the heart, but the staff are the soul. And that human connection is so very important. I mean, just think about all the best places you have been to, and would like to go back to, apart from the great food, who else do you remember?

Back to the pudding. Oh it is so wonderful too. Bathed in a date honey sauce, abit like a smoother version of caramel. Less sticky, healthy and really tasty.

Thoughts and more thoughts

As I sip the warm mint tea on a beautiful summer’s day (in September…) I wonder why it took me this long to find this place. This is easily one of the best places for a quick lunch after shopping in regents street or before taking in a show at the west end, or for just a really good meal. Friendly staff, great food and excellent service all inclusive.

Tip generously folks.