I remember the early days when Byron was the new kid on the block, did sliders and was firmly a West London thing. I didn’t think much of them back then, but all that’s change. I am a little amazed that some of my friends still haven’t tried a Byron yet. There are now ten locations spread across the most densely populated parts of town, while they maintain a reticent philosophy to burgers and life, each branch has its own individual character.

I’m not going to pontificate about burgers – I know very little about them to be quite honest (I remain un-shacked) – but I do visit a Byron at least once every month (actually, I now use it as an incentive to go running) and I just love them to bits. The charred beefiness… ohh… I am a gruyère, medium rare with skinny chips. My local is Gloucester Road, but I like the new Old Brompton branch, a little further away from me, which opened last month. However, my favourite is the Intrepid Fox in Soho. Just ambiance I mean, burgers are consistent across the board, it’s a franchise afterall.

Let’s see now, I have been to the High Street Ken one, Westfield, Gloucester Road, Old Brompton Road, Intrepid Fox, Covent Garden…. but have never been to the Canary Wharf, Islington, Kings Road or Kingston ones.

As an aside, this is the first of a new category of blog posts I intend to create weekly (in addition to the usual long form reviews). As much as I am a firm believer of never cropping my images, I have recently become obsessed with grid systems and am exploring ways of applying it to photography. The actual inspiration, however, came when I saw the dynamically generated photo montages in flipboard, really impressive stuff, and has to been seen if you have an iPad near you. I also have swish new software in Lightroom 3, which has a much better imaging engine, that allows me to recycle my old images and make them look brand new. It is just another reason for me to work on my food photography.

These panels are inspired by comic book panels, you got to get Surrogates, especially the hardcover Owner’s Manual, it’s brilliant.

About the only thing better than a Byron… is the Byron Big D. It was a special item that ran for a few months earlier this year (or was it 09?). The patty is made with using O’Shea’s excellent Irish beef…. oh man, now that was a burger…. and it is still available to buy at O’Sheas, the butchers in Knightsbridge. So if you are planning one last barbecue, I highly recommend getting a couple of patties from Darragh.

Accessible, affordable and simply delicious, as hamburgers should be.

Thegistofit Byron Hamburgers, £7.25, all over.

What the Burgerrati say about Byron: Will Eat for Money ; Food by Mark ; Cheese and Biscuits ; Young and Foodish ; The Epicurean.

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All text and photography on this blogpost is copyright and belongs to Kang Leong, LondonEater.com. If you repost this without my permission, bad things will happen. So please don’t do it.

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

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I have been living in and around the Kensington area for little over seven years and I’m glad to say that there are lots of sweet offerings in the vicinity. Since it’s friday, I’d like to keep this one short and sweet. Three spots to hit the next time you are feeling sweet. Your choice of frozen yogurt, freshly baked cookies or the best fairy cakes in town.

You might like to start your journey into the West with a sit down and a cuppa at the Hummingbird bakery. The low ceiling, wooden interiors are furnished with dinky tables and red velvet sofas. I have never seen so many women packed into such a confined area before this cafe. Hummingbird is best known for their dense cakes with ultra sweet and super rich frosting. The sweet offerings come in two varieties, the cupcake or a large slice. I’d suggest you try the red velvet, the sponge bits are a deep red colour with a rich vanilla frosting, myself I’d go with the pictured vanilla cake – the flavour of the egg is just fantastic. Next to it, is the bling bling cupcake which is an obvious chocolate flavour. With so many females in the cafe, it can only mean that the cakes are well and truly sinful.

About 10 steps outside the station is Ben’s Cookies , which are freshly baked in the shop everyday. These little babies are best had warm and the highlight is the large chunk of chocolates they are baked with. The cookie dough is sticky and moist, coupled with melting chocolate makes it oh so great. They come in a variety of flavours too with ginger & white chocolate, rum & raisin , cranberries & white choco being some of the more interesting ones. They sell them by weight and each cookie is pretty large and generally costs about 110p each (I think). Here’s a money shot of the insides….

Seriously, these cookies are pretty good and they are the real deal. I love the white chocolate. The one pictured is the triple chocolate chunk, but the melting white chocolate is 7th heaven as far as I’m concerned. Speaking of the shop, it’s take away only so no sit downs, I think you get a buy 5 get 2 free deal, a tip for when you get home: bung it in the microwave for about 5 seconds, you will appreciate the heat and the melt. Oh, they also do these ice creams too – avoid at all costs, I cant remember the ice cream brand they are selling in conjunction with the cookies, but whatever it is, they’re not really good. You are better off getting your favourite brand (haagen daz me).

Finally, there is a quiet new player in town and they call themselves SNOG. No, they dont sell kisses, instead they sell you healthy frozen yogurt either in classic plain , or green tea. Yes, you read that right, green tea frozen yogurt. These pioneers of frozen goodies plan to dominate the sweet tooth world – and make you healthy too. The small pot ( which is pretty big in itself ) is only 78 cals, that’s what it says on the label. To make the yogurt even more palatable, they offer a smattering of toppings which include potent fresh fruits in blueberry, strawberry, kiwi, mango, all colourful & juicy. They also have nuts and naughtier stuff like mini oreos. Myself, I went for the blueberries and mochi ( japanese rice cake, which are not quite distinguishable from the yogurt , but it’s there ) . Each topping is about 65p and the mini pot is about £ 2.15. Cheap, cheerful, lots of females hanging out there too and folks, I’d just had my first snog.

Thank you for taking part in this sweet trip to South Kensington, if you’re ever in West London, hop on the tube (underground) and head westward either on the District (green) , Circle ( yellow) or Piccadilly (blue) line, and make sure you knock on my door too and come say hello. Time for abit of snogging of me own now. Have a lovely weekend peeps.

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