londonelicious: a london restaurant blog

London Restaurant Week: Booking Opens Today!

I should seriously get paid for this...Book your table for London Restaurant Week on LastMinute.com starting today! (Actually, I'm just giving this post one last go-over Sunday evening, and London Restaurant Week booking is open now.)

There will be 150 restaurants participating.
10+ Michelin starred venues.
2 course lunches for £15
3 course dinners for £25
Restaurant week runs April 14th through the 28th.
This article about London Restaurant Week reports that Lindsay House, Babylon at the Roof Gardens, Almeida, Tamarind and Quilon are on the list of bookable restaurants.

Random Note: Today is the fourth anniversary of my arrival into the UK. Time flies...

Fox & Anchor

Fox & Anchor
115 Charterhouse St
EC1M 6AA
020 7250 1300

Date of Last Visit: A Wednesday or Thursday night in February.

The Victims: Geoff, Bevin, Karen, Chris

The Damage: Unknown. Bevin paid.

The Background: I've been wanting to try the Fox & Anchor for ages and having some American colleagues in town seemed like the perfect excuse. American colleagues are often in search of Fish & Chips in London. I thought the F&A might deliver on that aspect. No one got the Fish & Chips, but that is not my fault.

The Entrance: It's PACKED. This is not a relaxing place to have a meal on a busy night. Lots of traffic back and forth. Make sure you get a bench seat facing the bar...if you don't, you'll have people bumping into you all night.

Tap Water Test: Jug provided. Frequently refilled.

The Food: Steak and oyster pie. Pie was full of steak. That was good. But there didn't seem to be anything else in there? It was just steak. Is that weird? This was my first steak and oyster pie ever. Are they all like this? Why? I'm very confused. Was I ripped off? But the oysters were delicious and the side of spinach was nice.

Service: You know, it's interesting. After four years of blogging around town, I guess I must have low expectations of London servers. As long as they are cheerful and friendly and helpful, I can forgive most things. Because at the end of the day, cheerful and friendly and helpful is more than you get at most restaurants. So I thought our server was pretty good because she was cheerful and friendly and helpful. But as Geoff pointed out, she didn't seem to know a whole lot about anything on the menu.

The Verdict: Hmmm. The burgers looked great. And I liked the atmosphere. If I had friends in town from the U.S., I'd take them here for some upscale pub grub if they put in a specific request for pub food. But I wouldn't get the steak and oyster pie again.

Spore Boys

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, March 8th

The Victim: Me, Myself, and I

The Damage: £5

The Background: I was wandering around Taste East when I spotted Spore Boys, who I hadn't seen before. They are all about mushrooms. I persuaded one of the stall's employees to get off her phone and get me some risotto. (Really people...are you running a business here or WHAT?)

And you know what? Mobile phone aside, the risotto was pretty darn good. Filling. Not monotonous. I am going to track these guys down again some day.

So it got me thinking...I love finding things like this in London. And I love telling people about them on my blog. Maybe I can help small food and restaurant businesses in London somehow...

Coffee@ Whitecross Street Opens

Firstly, there were the rumors that Coffee@ was moving in. Those had to have started about a year ago. Secondly, there was all the painstaking work to remove the awful red paint from those beautiful tiles. (Why people paint tile and woodwork, I will never understand.) Thirdly, it was the sign that went up saying that Coffee@ was opening, and then a puzzling "Canceled" stamped across it. But fourthly, London's latest Coffee@ is now open! As of Tuesday morning. (Saturday soft launch, but I think I walked by Saturday a.m. and there wasn't much going on?)

It was my first real Twitter ever. If you're on Twitter, now you can follow all the exciting mundacity of my life when I'm not working on my London restaurant blog.

French: Fouronine

Fouronine
409 Clapham Road
SW9 9BT
020 7737 0722

Date of Last Visit: Friday, 29 February 2008

Victims: Bryan, Stacey

Damage: £10 and two Hot Chip tickets. I'm serious.

The Background: We have tickets for Hot Chip at the Brixton Academy. And the show doesn't start until 11:30! Are they crazy? Apparently so. But it doesn't bother us because it's an excuse for a leisurely dinner somewhere. I do some Google map searches for restaurants that are relatively in the vicinity and/or easy to get to, and I come across Fouronine, a quick tube jaunt away. (With a change at Stockwell, but an easy change.)

The Entrance: I've never been to Clapham before. I know. What type of person am I? Remember I never told you I wasn't lazy. I imagine Clapham to be a cheerful and friendly, where everyone pushes a pram and has a cockerspaniel. There are no prams to be seen. And I'm a little weirded out by all the police warning signs around about burglars and car thieves. This is not the Clapham of my imagination. (Fouronine is at Clapham North tube. Maybe Clapham North is dodgier? You tell me.)

Anyhow, to enter Fouronine (conveniently located right across from the tube), you ring a bell and head up a dark and cold and wet staircase. Very speak-easy-ish. I'm liking it already. We're greeted at the door, our coats are taken, and we're shown to our table in the modern and slightly Scandinavian dining room. 

Tap Water Test: Passed. Arrived instantaneously, as soon as we mentioned tap water. They had it ready there on the counter. And it was a whole big jug.

Non-alcoholic beverages: Passed. With flying colors. Didn't bat an eye when I asked for a recommendation. A mojito made with apple juice was so amazingly good. I kept adding water to the glass to make it last and I wouldn't let them take the dregs away from me.

Starters: Smoked haddock salad with new potatoes. Lovely. Very fresh and light. Beets, which I'm eating more of these days because they are, after all, good for you. Even though I still think they're sorta gross.

Bread: Lovely, and lots of it.

Main: Crisp fillet of sea bass with olive oil mash, grilled courgette and gremol. Amazing. Really. I wanted a second serving.

Pudding: Hot chocolate and walnut brownie with vanilla ice-cream. Basic, but just right.

Toilets: Co-ed! Now that's exciting. I think I scared some poor gentleman out of his wits.

Service: Really great at first. One noticed that Bryan still had more foie gras left but no toast. She brought him more bread. That was observant and good. But we felt a little deserted after our mains arrived.

Bummers: Mains were pricey. £17. Seems like a lot for a restaurant that's surrounded by signs warning burglars and car thieves that they're being watched.

The Verdict: Very, very very good. Could be even better if they could do something about the pesky thievery signs and if they can keep their service attentive all night long. Oh, and I think they're getting away with bloody murder by charging what they're charging. In Clapham.

Peeps, Blogging, Fame, and Fat

I love The New York Times. I read it faithfully every morning before I go to work and every evening when I come home. No offense to the Brits, but I haven't found a paper here that comes anywhere near as close to The Times for its quality of content. (Fighting words, I know!) The Washington Post is my second favorite, and I'm not even from D.C. So while I'm getting ready to do absolutely nothing this weekend (this isn't entirely true, but I'm not going anywhere), let me leave you with two articles.

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?
What successful bloggers with successful nonblogging careers say are the ways to get into the business of blogging. Points out what it took me four years to learn with my little london restaurant blog and guide...your chances of making money blogging are very very slim. Unless you can attract 5000 impressions a day, plus some. (I'm hovering around 220 these days.)

The Fat Pack Wonders if The Party is Over
Members of the "Foodie Community" talk about weight gain, weight loss, and eating healthy when you can't live without restaurants, pork belly and foie gras. Makes me glad I went to the doctor yesterday. (She wasn't concerned about my blood pressure, but I am...it's not the 110 over something ridiculously low that I used to have!)

I'll be back on Tuesday!

K
P.S. Still to come...The Fox & Anchor, Risotto at Taste East...I am sure I'm forgetting something...ah, of course, The Ledbury! How could I forget?
P.S. Photo credits to Sam Foster on Flickr. For those of you not in the know, these are Peeps, a popular and disgusting-yet-wildly-addictive American Easter treat. 

British: Market

Market
43 Parkway
NW1 7PN
Tel: 020 7267 9700

Date of Last Visit: A Saturday night recently.

Victims: Al & Louise

Damage: £35ish for starter, main, dessert and lots of tap water.

The Background: We have been planning for ages to have an international dinner club, where we go all over London in search of interesting ethnic restaurants. Unfortunately for us, just like the French server I mentioned the other day, we too seem to be suffering from a bit of ennui. Outside of one sparsely attended Ethiopian meal, we've yet to make this a regular occurance.

Our tentative plans to head to New Malden for Korean fall through. So I suggest Market in Camden, which Dos Hermanos liked.

I read online that there's a small step into the restaurant, and to watch out for it because a lot of people fall INTO the restaurant. "A lot of people" is right. As our meal progresses, I lose track of the number of people who fall into Market. Someone is going to hit their head soon--if they haven't already. These guys need a ramp. Or a sign. Or both. I see stiches in Market's future. Maybe even a law suit!

Starter: Goat cheese tart. Too gooey. I am jealous of Lou's pig's head terrine.

Main: Pork belly. Side of dull knife. Crispy crackling. This was a bit of a challenge until I procured a sharper implement.

Service: Forgot to tell us about the specials. Wouldn't let Louise order her steak well-done. (Never ask well-done of a French server.) Other server was much better.

Wine List: VERY affordable.

The Verdict: Everyone seems to like this place. By everyone, I mean my boyfriend, famous London restaurant critic Giles Coren. I love Giles*. But I don't love Market.

*Giles isn't really my boyfriend. Except when I close my eyes.

The Coffee Guys on Whitecross Street

I love these guys. Monday through Friday, you'll find them serving up some pretty excellent coffee on Whitecross Street. It's really good stuff. On Sundays, you'll find them off of Columbia Road. (They're in the courtyard on the street that runs sort of parallel to Columbia Road.)

I keep trying to give up caffeine, but I can't. And these guys make it even harder.

Paging Bitter, Party of One...Maybe...

Over the past few days, I've noticed that a couple of the blogs I read have noted that they've been picked up by Alltop, Guy Kawasaki's new venture. Guy, in case you didn't know, is a venture capitalist and former Apple employee. I am totally a dork, if you  haven't guessed that already; you can catch Guy interviewing Steve Ballmer at Mix08. (It's pretty funny.)

So I checked out Alltop, and I don't get it. It's like reading someone else's Google Reader. TechCrunch (see--I am a DORK) calls it a big pile of nothing and I kinda can see why they'd say that. If you don't want to click through to the full article, let me tell you the headline: Guy Kawasaki Formally Launches Alltop. Wow, It’s Bad.

For those of you who have been picked up by Alltop, of course I'm jealous! (And I'm dying to know what the volume of inbound traffic is.) As I asked a few weeks ago, what's a gal gotta do around here to get noticed? But as a heavy user of RSS feeds myself (89 feeds and counting), I'm not sure I can find a place for Alltop in my life...

Interestingly, five separate blogs from Chow are listed. Who knew they had so many! But some new blogs I discovered from Alltop include...
Foodie NYC
Nothing Could be Finer than Being in Your Diner
Expatriate's Kitchen
Chez Megane (Who hasn't posted since January 5, 2008! I am so much more dependable...)
And one blog that hasn't been updated since May of 2006!!!! Alltop is supposed to be a round-up of all the best food blogs??? Again, I don't get it.

***Update: Why I Should Really Listen to My Mother***
My mother always told me, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all." I go through phases about this...most times, I am nothing but nice. Too nice, many would say. So then I decide to not be nice. And of course, what happens? I totally get in trouble. Like this time. Like millionaire Guy Kawasaki himself posting a comment on my blog. Boy do I feel like an idiot.

So I've written Guy an apology...specifically, I wrote...

"Hi Guy...WOW. Thank you for visiting my blog. I ***loved*** your Ballmer interview...it was really lively and fun, but still pretty informative. You have a rare skill. You're fantastic and I, as I noted, am just bitter for not being invited to the Alltop party. You have my apologies if you think that I thought Alltop is "crap." As I noted, I did discover some new sites, which is always a good thing. I just didn't understand why you'd have blogs on there that hadn't been updated in ages." (I continued on for a bit, praising Silverbrow and Cheese & Biscuits and thanking him for just dropping by Londonelicious.)

Then, I walked home from work and obsessed about Guy Kawasaki, millionaire and start-up guru, commenting on my blog. So I sent him another e-mail. Here's what I wrote...

Hi again, Guy

So on my walk home this evening, I was thinking of ways I could make it up to you! So firstly, if you are ever in London, please let me know and I will be your personal tour guide to the London food scene.(Which is NOT an oxymoronic statement, I promise.) It will probably come as no surprise that I am nowhere near as exciting as Ballmer, however.

Secondly, if you are going to take down those older links, I have some suggestions for your Food section...below, I've listed some great blogs with compelling prose and captivating photographs. In comparison, my blog probably reads like the drunk girl at the party...but I would of course be deliriously pleased should you decide to add it to Alltop.

Enjoy and a have a great rest of your day,

Krista

http://www.foodbeam.com
This is written by a girl in the south of France...predominantly pastries...beautiful photographs. Great copy. You can really tell she's passionate about her subject.

http://www.deliciousdays.com/
A gorgeous blog written from Munich. More beautiful photos. Food news and recipes.

http://www.latartinegourmande.com/
Very prettily done. Dessert oriented. Author is a food stylist, photographer, and writer and you can tell.

http://chubbyhubby.net/blog/
Blog from Singapore about Asian food, recipes, travel.

http://blue_moon.typepad.com/blue_lotus/
When I was nominated for Best City Blog last year, Blue Lotus was one of my competitors. She's Canadian and lives in the suburbs of Tokyo. Fantastic photos of Japanese food.

http://nymag.com/daily/food/
NY Mag's food blog. Disclaimer in that Josh Ozersky (the editor) and I attended the same university and we used to work together at the college paper. Really entertaining take on the NY food scene. Great headlines with just the right bit of irony now and then.

The End.
:)

Japanese Food on Brick Lane

 My new favorite thing to do on Sundays is to wander over to Brick Lane for some Japanese food. Yes, you've read that correctly. Japanese food on Brick Lane.

Along with the okonomiyaki stand, there's at least one sushi stand, one teriyaki/curry stand, and one stand offering octopus balls. It's fantastic.

The first two photos are from the two really nice ladies who offer teriyaki and curry on Brick Lane proper. The last photo is from the Octopus stand, which is located on the western side of the Sunday Up Market.

I've checked with both and they are only there on Sundays--although the Octopus guys say that they have a stall in Camden that is open during the week. So make your plans!