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£1.50 Old Street Station Breakfast

The Cafe in Old Street Tube
Old Street Tube Station
London, EC1

Date of Last Visit: Many

The Victim: Me and my co-workers. Females, mostly.

The Damage: £1.50, numerous times over.

The Background: After all the controversy the other day, how about something simple? Something cheap. Healthy. Tasty. Yes: Today I bring you Old Street Station's £1.50 yogurt, fruit and nut cup.

Here's how it started...A few weeks ago, all the girls in my office were talking about the "amazing" fruit and yogurt cup at the weird take-away in Old Street tube. For £1.50, they told me, you get a whole lotta yogurt. And a whole lotta fruit. And nuts! Some nuts too. Less money than a Pret Pot, and about three times the size.

I had to experience this yogurt cup of magnificence for myself. So I dropped into Old Street tube one morning before work the other week.

And there they were, lined up across the countertop. The unrefrigerated countertop, but presumably they hadn't been sitting out that long. I paid my £1.50 and off to work I went.

The Verdict: I thought the yogurt was okay. A tad warm, as I expected. It wasn't bad yogurt, but I think I like Pret's better. It was the fruit that got me. This was A LOT of fruit. And good fruit. Not just the cheap stuff. There were mangoes in here. And strawberries and grapes and blueberries and God knows what else. Sometimes it was hard to tell, given how globbed up it all was with yogurt. The nuts were peanuts. Added a nice crunch.

But the value? Can't beat it. Really, £1.50. Next time you're hanging out at Old Street tube in the early hours, get yourself one.

Morgan M, Plus Some Thoughts on Freebies

Morgan M
489 Liverpool Road
N7 8NS

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, June 3rd

The Victims: Sarah, Gaby

The Damage: Gaby paid.

The Background: If you haven't noticed, I do like to eat.

But I like exploring more. Some of my favorite posts--the posts I really enjoy writing---are not the ones that are all about a dinner out.

I like the adventure posts. The getting-on-a-bus-and-going-somewhere posts. The something different posts. I enjoy a good day out, with multiple stops, some with food. Some without.

When I first started my blog, I borrowed a post from business writer Seth Godin about creating a blog disclosure statement and posted my own on my About page. My Disclosure Statement has gone through various iterations over the years. For a long time, it said something like "I will go out of my way NOT to write about things that other people want me to write about, except when there's a lot of champagne involved." And for somewhat of a shorter time, I removed my Disclosure Statement completely because I felt like I was violating it so utterly and completely.

Case in point. My friend Sarah runs a site for new moms in London. A month or two ago, she went to an event about women in business and met Gaby, who just happens to do PR for restaurants. Sarah says, "You must meet my friend Krista." Gaby knows my work and says something like, "Krista from Londonelicious? I'd love to." And we all arrange to meet up for lunch at Morgan M in Highbury, a place I've always wanted to go to. And a place that Gaby does PR for.

I like Gaby instantly. I want to help her understand bloggers and blogging and Twitter and all those good things. I like Morgan M instantly as well. It's peaceful and relaxing and a great "Ladies who Lunch" sort of place, and you know that I not-so-secretly wish that I were a lady who lunches. Instead, I'm a lady with a full-time job, an addiction to restaurants, and a train that leaves for Paris at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday.

The Entrance: I like how I'm met at the door of Morgan M. and how they take all my belongings away; I've come straight from work with a lot of stuff that I need to run home with after lunch and throw in a suitcase and turn around again and head back to Kings X with. (Are you still with me?)

I like the plates at Morgan M. They're pretty. And I like how while I'm waiting for Gaby and Sarah to arrive, the staff offer me my choice of good magazines. Not bad magazines. Good magazines. (I choose a travel magazine.)

I feel a little pressured to order the tasting menu, which is what Sarah and Gaby opt for. I am on a bit of a diet these days, and really I am not that hungry. Plus I'm heading to Paris and I know I have a multi-course dinner to look forward to. So with some negotiation, I manage to secure just two courses (plus an amuse-bouche) to Sarah and Gaby's five courses (plus amuse-bouche). (Generally, Morgan M prefers that the entire table opt for the tasting menu, but I think I must have looked panic-stricken at the thought of a full menu, so they relaxed their restriction for me.)

The Conversation: After we order, we go back to talking about bloggers and London food and restaurant bloggers in particular. Gaby says that she's counted, and there's something like 70 of us these days. I note that she should start looking at the wine bloggers too because for a restaurant like Morgan M with such a nice wine list, I think she's got an additional market.

We talk about the real critics and I learn that although the big ones have budgets and pay-their-own-way, the smaller ones get everything comped. This makes me angry because here I am, paying my way for everything (or, well, nearly everything), and some of the pros actually get all their meals for free? But then, I get angry at myself; if I just went around London accepting freebies all the time, I'd kinda feel like somebody's mistress. All the nice things, but no respect in the morning... 

Jose Luis, Madrid

Jose Luis
C/Serrano 89-91
Madrid, Spain

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, June 7th and then again on Monday, June 8th, 2009

The Victims: Myself the first time. Fernando, Guillermo and William the second time.

The Damage: About 25 euros the first time, and unknown the second time because Fernando paid.

The Background: I had all these grand plans of having a big day out in Madrid on Sunday.

Until I figured out that getting to Spain takes a long time. A really long time.

Not sure how I missed that.

My flight was at 9:30 a.m. from Heathrow and we took off on time. I landed in Madrid around 1 p.m. and then my luggage came out around 1:40 p.m. By the time I bought my metro tickets and figured out where I was going, it was after 2 p.m. And by the time I checked into my hotel, it was nearly 3 p.m. So by the time I was ready to go anywhere, it was 5 p.m. (I squeezed in a quick workout at the hotel gym.)

So--worst possible time to eat in Madrid?

5 p.m.

Lunch is over and dinner won't start til 9:30 p.m. (10, really.) But it was 5 p.m. and I was STARVING. And so the hotel directed me to Jose Luis. And it was okay. Just okay. (I had the squid--a different squid than what I talk about below.)

And Even More Background: Now fast-forward to the next evening. My colleagues suggest taking me out to dinner. I say sure. And we start walking. And we're walking some more. And eventually I say, "Are we going to Jose Luis?"

And we are.

Really, what are the chances?

The Entrance: My waiter from the previous evening doesn't recognize me. I think this is a bit of a bummer. Even after we had this whole discussion where he said everything in Spanish and I said everything in English and we totally understood each other.

The Food: I put myself in the hands of my Spanish colleagues. (I don't mind someone else ordering for me when I've asked them to order for me.) And so the parade begins. The first dish of the night is the best dish, and it leave me with high hopes for Jose Luis. It's squid and the batter is great. Super great. And then there's some jamon serrano, roughly cut. It's pretty darn good too. And the manchego cheese. I have no complaints. We've started this meal on a high note.

But then the pulpo arrives. And it looks great, with great big chunks of octopus. But it's not so good. It's tough and chewy. Poor reviews from around the table...my Spanish colleagues apologize to me for it.

 

The Pimientos de Padron arrive, and they look like they've been through a lot, just to get here. They're okay. But they seem slightly overcooked. And I like them with a bit of rock salt.

In between, there's some forgettable calamari (for which my colleagues, again, apologize) and then we have fun with Google Translate trying to figure out what this next dish is. It's cuttlefish. And it's chewy. But the garlicky mayonnaise is good.

The Verdict: There are lots of people who probably love this restaurant and give it rave reviews. I thought it was just okay. But the squid (the second time) was great.

Check out Taste of London Today...

No plans for today? Then get yourself to Taste of London. It goes until 5 p.m. this afternoon, Sunday, June 21st 2009.

Thanks to  The Guardian Word of Mouth Blog, myself and a few other London bloggers and tweeters were able to get a behind the scenes look at the festival and taste a number of amazing dishes. What impressed me most was the seasonality of so many of the offerings. I found myself saying over and over again, "This is a really summery dish." Second most impressive thing was the number of Chefs in attendance. That's Giorgio Locatelli himself at the Refettorio stand above. We also saw Gary Rhodes over at Rhodes 24, Tristan Welch at Launceston Place, and Shane Osborn at Pied a Terre. (Pied a Terre gave us a great overview of the type of fish they use and how to prepare it.)

I'm going to try to pick some of my favorite dishes--please rest assured that I didn't actually eat ALL of these--but I did share quite a few dishes with fellow London restaurant reviewers Chris from Cheese & Biscuits and Oliver from Thring for Your Supper. And I shared the rest with Jen, Leigh, Justine, and Leigh's parents.

#5. Cupcakes at Beas of Bloomsbury. We had a chocolate one with raspberry icing. Gorgeous chocolate cake. Really just gorgeous. And the raspberry icing managed to be more like a soft, light, foam. Again, summery.

#4. Arroz negro at Fino. Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. Chris or Oliver probably have better shots. This wasn't short on seafood--it was jam packed with it--and just had a lovely texture and aroma. This was also the absolute first thing I tried, so there's that...

#3. Fassone beef carpaccio with rocket salad from Ristorante Semplice. Earlier, I said that a lot of the dishes made me think summer, and this was really one of them. I'm not much of a beef eater, but the coolness and lightness of this dish had me converted. It also rocketed Semplice to the top of my to-do list. Manager Giovanni Baldino himself walked us through all of the dishes we tried, which was great. (We also sampled the Tagliatelli with Caporicci's summer truffle and broad beans, as well as the dessert of liquorice foam with bitter almond gelatine and salted almonds--which was really one of the most interesting dishes I've tried as of late, although maybe not entirely to my taste. Or at least, not to my taste when I'm standing around in a park. Might have been better at a table!)

Giovanni also took us behind the scenes at Semplice where I was able to snap these photos. (Honestly, I didn't really ask them to pose. They just did!) We were impressed by how spacious the prep area and cooking areas were.

#2. Roast aberdeen Angus beef fillet, tarragon mousse at Launceston Place. So I've already told you I'm not much of a beef eater, but here I am eating beef twice in one day. This was some of the best beef I've ever had. Really flavorful and rich, but sliced so perfectly and cooked to just about medium rare as to make it a very light dish, particularly when paired with the tarragon mousse. Leigh got to have a nice long chat with Tristan Welch here, while Jen, Justine and I stole some ice cream from Chicago-born sommelier Mickey.

 #1. Tiger prawns with a spicy mayonnaise alongside little cubes of mango and Thai basil at Kai. Kai is one of those restaurants that wasn't anywhere on my radar, but now it's a "must visit." I thought this was one of the more inventive dishes I tried at Taste of London. Awesome textures--crunchy prawn, soft mango, sharp basil. And again, super summery and light. (Photo came out quite nicely, didn't it? This is the only photo I didn't take with my phone.)

I have to send a huge thanks to Chris from Cheese & Biscuits who passed The Guardian's Word of Mouth invite on to me. And to Suse, the editor of Word of Mouth, for organizing everything. My only regret was not getting there sooner so I could meet everyone--by the time I got to the park, it was 3 p.m. (I had a brunch to go to in Blackheath beforehadn.) And I was also a bit sad that I didn't have an iPhone because it was really difficult, if not imposible, to follow the #tastefringe hash tag throughout the day, so I missed out on some of the communal fun.

In short, if you're around today, get yourself to Taste of London, and follow #tastefringe on Twitter.

God I Love Spain

Depintxos
Calle Castello 115
28006 Madrid

Date of Last Visit: Monday, June 8, 2009

The Victims: Many

The Damage: No idea. My colleagues paid.

The Verdict: This is just a little chain. It's nothing special, really. But why do places like this exist in Madrid but not London? (I can't vouch for the food. We just had drinks and lovely roasted peanuts.) I'd go back here for after-work drinks and snacks again.

Saki

Saki
4 West Smithfield
EC1A 9JX

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, June 6th, 2009

The Victims: Stacey, Feathers

The Damage: £50ish each

The Background: Stacey and Canadia Boy had a baby last month (yey!) and tonight is Stacey's first night out alone. She feels like sushi--I didn't ask, but I'm guessing it's because she didn't each much raw fish during her pregnancy--and we want to stay in the general neighborhood, so Saki it is.

The Entrance: The ground floor of Saki houses a little shop. That's their sake and beer collection there. I liked this. The restaurant is downstairs, and I didn't like it so much: it's a bit worn around the edges. Maybe that's just because I was eating in a basement. I'm not a big fan of basements. I need to go back and re-review and look more closely.

The Starters: We order the three-course chef's menu. The menu's not online so I can't tell you all the choices, but I went with the pork katsu to start. It was nice, but we couldn't figure out what the pork was rolled around. Our server told us it was celery, but it seemed a lot more gelatinous than that. Maybe they did something weird to it? Not sure. I thought this dish was nice.

The Tempura: This was good tempura. But maybe I just don't know tempura dipping sauces enough because again, I thought it was pretty bland. I expected a bit more saltiness. The batter was good though. Crisp.

 

The Sushi: It looks lovely, doesn't it? It was lovely. But still not as good as what I had at Chisou. Must go back to Chisou and see if I was imagining things.

Dessert: Green tea tiramisu. I thought this tasted pre-prepared and it was overly cold. It didn't do much for me.

The Loos: The Xcelerator! (The other Dyson Airblade.)

The Verdict: I thought this was good. Not great. Just good.

L'Ardoise, Paris

L'Ardoise
28 rue du Mont-Thabor
75001 PARIS

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Victims: Too many to mention.

The Damage: Unknown! Our CFO paid.

The Background: I was excited, of course, to go to Paris for work. But the fact that Craig and his wife Leann would be there at the same time made me look forward to the trip even more. I know I can always count on them for organizing a great evening.

Craig told me about a little restaurant he had been to the night before and how much he and Leann had liked it. So based on his rave reviews, we booked a return trip--this time, for nine people.

The Entrance: We enter and are shown our own private dining room. How great is this? (The only bad part is that our private dining room is on the way to the toilets.) We make ourselves comfortable and proceed to rearrange all the tables.

Ummm...Only to find out that this is not our table. We don't have a private dining room. We've got a table upstairs in the corner. Whoops. Luckily not our fault.

The Ordering: I steer clear of my co-worker from yesterday's lunch at Georgette this time around. Luckily, there are no paper menus, just a large blackboard. There are also no little toothpicks around, so I can't poke anybody's eyes out.

I do agree to share the cuissot de chevreau roti with the same co-worker, however. (And although I don't know what cuissot means--my French colleagues tell me "shin"; Google Translate says "leg"--I do know that chevreau means goat.) I also take our server's suggestion of the prawn starter, which isn't  even listed on the blackboard.

The Starters: We're brought a couple of boards of saucison. Great stuff. And then my prawns arrive, and I haven't stopped thinking about them since. They're served individually, each prawn in its own little pot of red wine, with a great buttery garlicky crouton on top. It was all I could do NOT to drink the remaining red wine in all the pots. Oh to be dining alone! (I did, however, help myself to some bread to sop it all up.)



The Mains: After a while, my colleagues insisted that I stop calling my main "baby goat." But the problem is, that's how my French colleagues first described to me. As I reviewed the menu, I said, "Well, that says goat" and they said, "Well, it more like baby goat. And what's that part of the leg? The lower part? Shin! Shin, yes. It's "baby goat shin." (Kinda like "baby fish mouth"? If you know what I'm talking about.) Well, the goat, baby or not, was delicious.

The Dessert: I'm not normally a huge crème brûlée fan, but again, I went with our server's recommendation. This was billed as a raspberry crème brûlée, which I figured was because of the raspberry sorbet on top. How wrong I was! This was full of plump raspberries. Fantastic.

The Verdict: This was a very happy meal. I left very happy. I would gladly go back here, and I would gladly recommend L'Ardoise to friends. And strangers.

P.S. Should I warn you that you're going to have to put up with a few non-London restaurant reviews in the coming days? Paris first, Madrid next! But I will try to mix up the reviews in between.

Georgette, Paris

Georgette
29, rue Saint-Georges
Paris, France 75009

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Victim: Colleague from Paris office

The Damage: Unknown, he paid.

The Background: Every so often, I learn something new about myself. In hindsight, many of these new things are maybe not surprising. But for me, at the time, they're revelations.

So it was when my co-worker took me out to lunch in Paris. He took me to the little cafe, Georgette, in the 9th. He had heard good things from his co-workers. And I'd generally agree with those good things. But...

The Entrance: Georgette is sunny and open and colorful. It seems to be run by women and a quick look at Zagats confirms that. We grab a seat and a server promptly arrives at our table. She speaks to both of us, but as I can only ask for the check in French, I have no idea what she's saying.

My colleague looks at me and looks at the menu (he's holding two: mine, his) and then he looks back at me. He says, "Do you like prawns?" I say "Well, yes, prawns are okay." (Knowing in the back of my mind that this is France and they will be prawns served still in their shells, which I just am not good with.)

He hands the menus back to the server and it's done.

It's done.

He's ordered my food for me. I haven't even had a chance to look at the menu. (And while I can't speak French, I know enough food nouns to be dangerous.) And really, he hasn't looked at the menu either!

I am seething.

Seething! I don't even know what I'm having. I have no idea what just transpired. How did this happen?

I ask my colleague if the prawns are going to be served in their shells, and he says, "Maybe. Probably." And I watch plate after plate come out of the kitchen and indeed, the prawns are served in their shells.

I wouldn't describe myself as a person who gets angry--tense, yes, angry no. But the wave of anger I felt rushing over me as I thought of all the delicious things on that menu that I would never get to try...arrggghhh. I wanted to poke somebody's eyes out with the toothpicks that came with our tiny little olives.

The Food: "It" arrives. And it's fine. The shells on the prawns have already been prepared so they can be removed easily. It's a fresh summery dish. But honestly, I can't concentrate on it because I seriously WANT TO SEE THE MENU.

The Verdict: Georgette was nice. But warning: unless it's Chinese or tapas, don't order my food for me. Or I'll poke your eyes out.

P.S. I know this is a terrible "restaurant review." I also know that I am a terrible person. Sorry.