The reception for the Robot franchise, has been lukewarm, to say the least. Blogs can’t seem to get excited about either Tiny or Giant. Nevertheless, I was still interested in visiting at least one of the two all day diners in town, mainly because they serve one of my childhood nostalgic puddings – the baked alaska. Oh I wet many a diaper watching a waiter set meringue on fire to the effervescence of evaporating alcohol, right by the table. The food is Italian-American, and two restaurants that specialises in signature balls. Meatballs that is. But I didn’t get in any of the full menu action, instead I was looking for a place to brunch, on a sunny Saturday morning. Tiny Robot is situated along Westbourne Grove, and it sits on the ground floor, on top of a members only Starland Social Club in the basement, which is owned by The Rushmore Group. Let me just start by saying that I really like the decor. The space is actually quite small, with diner-style motifs, such as the green leather seats, washed out green tiled walls, aged wooden floors, and retro patterned enamel table tops. It’s great, it’s really comfortable inside. Bring on the coffee. Rum & Vanilla milkshake, Filter coffee. Woah, the rum was pretty stiff! Nice. I initially asked for a cappuccino, but changed it out to just a brew,
And so the legend came to pass, that Otto would become the very first pizzeria in London to crust with cornmeal. Purists (and Italians) will balk at the mention of this heretical abomination, even though the cornmeal base (polenta) is more Chicagoland than Neopolitan. There is no oily, tear resistance, wood-fired sponge in this pizza, rather, one will find that the base takes on a buttery crumble, having more in common with a tart or a quiche than a bona fide DOP. I like the little corner restaurant, the interior is resourceful, down to their choice of decorative photographs, mere 4x6s rather than eye popping 12x18s. Painted green. It is off the noisier end of Notting Hill Gate, and on the convenient bus route – 328 and 31 – that runs from Kilburn/Camden to High St Ken. Tom and Rich, the owners, are two ex-city types who decided to swap suits for aprons, becoming inspired after visits to Dove Vivi, a cornmeal pizzeria in Portland, so the story goes. Eventually, they would return to good ol Columbia to learn how to make them, and before long, they were back in London, taking over a closing cafe, install an oven, whip on a fresh lick of paint and call Otto their own. The better half and yours truly had spent the entire Sunday afternoon cleaning out my old flat in Gloucester
There are a a couple of meals from my recent trip to Taiwan which I have decided to upload separately from my Taiwanese cuisine post. This post is on Sonoma Grill, a steakhousei in Taipei. I saw value in discussing about the quality of beef in a location other than London. By quality I mean Prime USDA and Oz Wagyus. The light was good, so I took lots of pictures. If you are into the lunchtime food pornography thing then click on through soldier
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
The man is almost too beautiful to be a chef. As we ended the meal, I told our waiter to give our...
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… I write to you as I lie on the blackened brown beach in Brunei. It overlooks the oil rigs...
This is the only time you’ll see the food menu, because these three items are quite literally...
At last, José Pizarro’s diptych is finally complete, and you know what, it’s mighty...
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Who comes up with all this fiction just for a restaurant? This is the persuasive language...
