Patty & Bun, London

Despite having been to Patty & Bun twice - once in April last year and once at the end of November, I have never got round to blogging about it...so here goes!

Back in April, Patty & Bun was my and Clare's first restaurant adventure together; we had both seen The Londoner's post saying it was the best burger in London, so how could we not try it after that recommendation?! I then took James in November as I wanted his opinion as well on how it compared to the likes of Meat Liquor! Even though we arrived ten minutes before opening time there were people waiting outside, and this was the queue when we left...

 Each time we had to start with some of the chicken wings as basically everyone was singing their praises, and with good reason.

The picture probably doesn't do them justice, but they are literally amazing. I don't even like chicken wings usually (too much effort for not enough meat) and I would have gone back for a second helping, so that's saying something. The BBQ sauce is smokey, the coating is crispy and the meat just falls off the bone - no effort for quite a lot of meat, top marks!

They're messy but 100% worth it! We also had chips with rosemary salt

They're good chips. Pretty similar to Honest, but I'd say Patty & Bun probably triumphs purely because there were less chip shells and more soft chips!

Then the burgers...they come wrapped in wax paper with P&B stickers on them which I think is a nice touch. The first time I went I had the Ari Gold (cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickled onion, ketchup and smokey P&B mayo) but with carmelised onions instead of pickle, and Clare had the straight Ari Gold.

The next time I went for the normal Ari Gold (as the caramelised onions made the burger too sweet, so I wanted the sharpness of the pickled onions this time!) and James had the Smokey Robinson (cheese, tomato, lettuce, caramelised onions, bacon, ketchup and smokey P&B mayo)

There is no denying that the burgers here are really good. They're juicy, well cooked so they're nice and pink in the middle, they have good quality toppings in appropriate portions and the brioche is soft, sweet and provides a good patty to bun ratio!

However...there was nothing about it which sent me into raptures, hence the reason why I wanted James' second opinion, in case I was missing something - he agreed though! It was a really nice, juicy and tender burger, but when I compare it to somewhere like Meat Liquor which I am absolutely obsessed with, it would definitely come second every time (actually, probably fourth after Honest and the Admiral Codrington). I think it's partly due to my obsession with the chilli cheese fries at Meat Liquor, but also the burger here just isn't "close your eyes in wonder" good, whereas the other three are I think!

I'd still recommend people to go and make their own minds up, because it still is probably one of the best burgers in London, but there are just other places I would go to first.

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Blanchette, London

On Tuesday I went to London to meet James after work for what we hope will become a monthly eating out tradition. It seems as though when I want to go to London for food I lead a charmed life, as despite the floods and the consequential effects on the train service, my train even arrived 5 minutes early into Paddington!

This month we decided to visit Blanchette in Soho (go on the website, it has really cool French music in the background). I'd discovered it by looking at a comprehensive list of new restaurant openings in London over the past few months, and as I was going through an "I miss Toulouse and my year abroad" phase, I thought some French food might be the ideal antidote!

We couldn't get a proper table as it was already fully booked (a good sign!), but the bar is a really nice area with a lovely tiled wall, so it was perfectly fine to be seated there.

It felt pleasantly relaxed, and almost as if you were just sitting in a friend's kitchen (a friend with a very large wine collection). The lighting was dim and the jaunty French music added to the atmosphere and gave me the challenge of trying to see if I could understand much of it! I also noticed there were three French men sitting at the bar eating - this boded well for the food!

The menu at Blanchette is made up of small dishes which are designed to share, so they recommend two or three per person. There were lots of really interesting sounding plates, along with meats and cheeses, so the decision wasn't straightforward, even when you get to pick several things!

Once you've ordered, they bring out dishes as they're ready, but they do stick to the general order of the menu, so our "snacks" came first, followed by the meat and vegetable dishes.

We started with crusty bread (served in a brown paper bag!) with beautifully salty butter.

Is it weird to say that this was one of my favourite parts of the meal?!

We also had duck rillettes with crostini

It was very meaty and the duck was tasty but I felt like it could have been seasoned a little better, as it didn't have a great depth of flavour.

We also had goujonettes with gribiche sauce (kind of like tartare sauce but with hard boiled egg in it!)

These were really fresh tasting with a lovely crispy breadcrumb, and the sauce was tangy with a nice crunch.

Next up were the cheese beignets with onion confit.

These were filled with oozy cheese and complemented well by the sweet and tangy confit.

Then we came onto the meat dishes. We had chosen the ox cheeks bourguignon with ventreche (pretty much like bacon), and James really pushed for the black pudding and chargrilled pork belly with spiced quince and parsnip purée, despite my uncertainty!

Very nice presentation with the rustic wooden boards and the tiny casserole dish (I can't wait til I move into my own house and can buy myself Le Creuset mini casseroles!). The meat in the bourguignon was so tender it just melted in your mouth, and the gravy was thick and rich. There were also tiny little carrots and sweet shallots which added to the textures and flavours. The bread to dip in the sauce was a nice touch as it's criminal to let nice sauce go to waste! Although I was unsure about the black pudding originally, it was actually my favourite dish of the night! Well done James! The "pork belly" was actually more like bacon than pork belly I've been used to having, but it was smoky and salty, and the combination of all the elements of the dish tasted like a delicious roast dinner! The parnsip purée was smooth and earthy tasting, and the quince cut through the meaty flavours and added a lovely sweetness to the dish.

The vegetable dishes we chose were the frites and béarnaise sauce, and the Jerusalem artichoke and potato gratin with reblochon.

The gratin was really delicious - soft potato and sweet artichokes combined with the strong, nutty reblochon, it was rich and indulgent! To be honest though, the less said about the frites, the better. They tasted as if they could have just been heated up from frozen; there was literally nothing special about them at all. Compared to some of the amazing chips I have had in France (see my Café a la Une blog here for the best chips ever!) they could have just been McDonald's...and actually, I probably would prefer McDonald's chips!

It was a shame I didn't like the chips as overall I felt like all the savoury dishes we tried struck a balance between classic and inventive French food, with twists on typical dishes executed well. The portion sizes were also good - not too big or too small, so we still had room for pudding without feeling completely stuffed!

We shared the hazelnut and chocolate dacquoise, and a plum financier with cinnamon crème anglaise.

The dacquoise was nutty and rich with a creamy chocolate ganache. The different textures of the pudding made it really interesting to eat - I especially liked the crunchy praline! The financier was light, moist and spongey and soaked up the crème anglaise to make a nice comforting pudding! The only disappointment was that I couldn't taste the cinnamon too much!

I can't decide whether Blanchette helped me get over my Toulouse neediness or just made it worse by reminding me how good French food can be, but either way it was a really enjoyable evening with delicious and interesting food, a lively atmosphere (largely contributed to by the music!) and friendly service. Allez-y!

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Honest, London

On Wednesday I braved both horrendous weather AND crippling tube strikes for a burger. But not just any burger - an Honest burger!

I first discovered Honest completely by accident about a year and a half ago. My friend Bekah and I had met up in London and were wandering around looking for somewhere to eat in Soho when we stumbled upon it; I wasn't as obsessed with burgers back then but absolutely loved it! Since my burger obsession has grown I have been wanting to go back to see if it was as good as I thought, and I finally got the opportunity the other day - my friend Felicity and I went to their newest branch at King's Cross (ease of tube access having everything to do with location choice - good old Hammersmith and City!).

The King's Cross restaurant is far bigger than the tiny Soho one; there are two floors, downstairs playing host to the kitchen and a wall of cool wooden booths, with more tables and the bar upstairs. Since I last went the menu has expanded slightly - onion rings were now on the menu and they also had a new burger, plus a special. You can see their website and menu here but the online menu hasn't yet been updated to reflect the changes.

Drinks wise I had the homemade lemonade, served in a jam jar style glass with a cool old fashioned stripy paper straw

Tangy and refreshing!

Food wise I decided to opt for the Tribute burger which was the one which wasn't on the menu last time I went. It's a beef burger with bacon, American cheese, burger sauce, French's mustard, pickles, onions and lettuce, and it comes served with their rosemary salted chips. Felicity went for the cheeseburger (with mature cheddar); Honest is really good in that it offers gluten free burger buns, so Felicity can enjoy the full burger experience - I did have to remind her she needed the gluten free version though!

The Tribute

The cheeseburger

For these burgers Honest definitely rockets into my top 5 burgers I have ever eaten. They were beautifully cooked - still pink in the middle, just the way I like them - so they were tender and juicy, and the meat was so well seasoned and tasty. The toppings on mine were delicious - the bacon was lovely and salty and the pickles and the mustard added a nice tang. There wasn't too much sauce either so the bun could hold its own against all the toppings, and incidentally, the bun was shiny, squidgy and soaked up all the lovely burger juices. It was a brilliant burger!
I often wonder what I would do if I was gluten intolerant (no pizza, no toast etc, what a killer..), but apparently the answer is go to Honest, as Felicity said that it was the best gluten free bread she had ever eaten! So she absolutely loved the burger too; we've been texting since and she said she's been telling everyone how good it was, and we are both craving another!

Yummy pink centres!

The chips with the rosemary salt are also very nice, although towards the bottom of the pile I did encounter a few too many chip shells for my personal liking, but the rosemary salt does add interesting depth of flavour, and considering the chips are included in the (relatively low) burger price you get a really generous portion.
I also had a side of onion rings

They were huge thick rings of red onion in a really soft and springy batter which sounds as if it might not be pleasant, but it actually made a nice change to really crispy batter, and they were more filling and stodgy this way! It wasn't until after I left that I found out that the onion rings are gluten free as well, which is probably what made the batter texture different to usual - I just felt bad because if I'd have known Felicity could have shared them! I think these are also among the best onion rings I've ever had, so Honest is definitely onto some winners. The one flaw is that they don't do pudding! To be honest though I'd probably just be tempted to get a second burger in the place of dessert next time...! If you're a burger fan Honest is definitely a must visit.

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Dinner by Heston, London

This week Dinner by Heston has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons - on Sunday it was decided that it would be closed for an entire week due to several staff members and customers contracting the dreaded norovirus. However, I was lucky enough to a) eat there literally the evening before it shut and b) not get sick; although as I said to all those gleefully informing me of the closure, I'd have risked norovirus for that food anyway!!

Dinner has two Michelin stars and was named as the 7th best restaurant in the world in 2013, which definitely makes it the most renowned restaurant I have ever eaten at! All the food is based on old English recipes; Heston has obviously given it all his own twist, but the food isn't as crazily inventive as in the Fat Duck, for example. Also, the portion sizes are reassuringly big and not disappointing taster menu size - always an important consideration.

Saturday was the second time I had been to Dinner - I went last year at the same time for my and James' two year anniversary and can safely say it was one of the best meals I ever had, so we decided to return this year for our three year anniversary!

As I mentioned in my post about The Delaunay, I had only ever been to one other restaurant which had a doorman, and Dinner was it; Dinner by Heston is located in Knightsbridge in the Mandarin Oriental hotel and is definitely one of the poshest places I have ever been. The doormen all wear beefeater style red jackets and as you go in there are people waiting to greet you at every step. To be honest I felt a bit out of place and definitely as if I wasn't rich enough to be there, but that feeling soon evaporated due to the friendlyness of all the staff, particularly the waiting staff in Dinner.

This time we had a table right by the kitchen - there are glass windows so you can look through and see all the chefs at work, which I really liked. They didn't seem to be shouting and getting as angry ("YES CHEF!") as you see on Masterchef but I guess they have to be better behaved if they're on display!!

You aren't allowed to use flash photography in Dinner (the number of people who would want to take photos of their food would probably mean it always seemed like a lightning storm in there!) so apologies if my photos are a bit blurry.

Like I said before, my trepidation about not being posh enough to eat here was immediately allayed by the waiting staff; our waiter was so friendly and chatty and explained any dishes we had questions about without being patronising. They have a really extensive knowledge of all the dishes - they're lucky enough to get to try every single one, and be told how all the ingredients work together and what kind of flavours there are, and they even get a day in the kitchen helping to cook and assemble the dishes as part of their training!

We got a very nice bread board while we were deciding; sourdough with the crunchiest crust ever, and butter with salt crystals...delicious! They keep offering more bread, but last time I made the mistake of having about 5 pieces so got full really quickly, so this time I played it safe with just three!

I was having real difficulty deciding because I wasn't sure whether to play it safe and have the same as last time or try something new and risk feeling like I had wasted my money if I didn't like it as much as last year! In the end I compromised (with myself...) and went for the same starter as last year but changed the main after helpful suggestions and information from the waiter.

The starter I had is basically the stock google image result if you search for Dinner by Heston - the legendary Meat Fruit. It is a chicken liver and foie gras parfait, encased in a mandarin jelly and served with grilled bread.

 You almost can't believe that it isn't a real mandarin because it looks so perfect! But then you cut it open....

..to reveal the smoothest, creamiest parfait ever! It is very rich without going over the edge into sickly, and the mandarin jelly is tangy and complements it perfectly. The bread was toasted in oil and was thick and crispy and again, they offer you more even before you've finished your first piece! I had two pieces spread generously with the parfait and I probably could have carried on eating it for my main and pudding as well. It's a definite must if you go there!

James chose the buttered crab loaf with crab salad, cucumber, pickled lemon, golden trout roe and stone crop

I was very pleased he did that as it meant I could try something else! He also got to share my Meat Fruit as I was feeling kind. I thought the dish was absolutely delicious; the crab tasted so fresh, and the whole dish was light and delicate with a subtle citrus tang...again, I could have eaten that all evening.

For main, I went for the Cod in Cider with chard, onions and artichokes

and a side of the creamiest mash known to man

I think my main course was probably less remarkable than my starter, but it was still very tasty indeed. The fish was perfectly cooked so fell apart into lovely meaty chunks when I cut it, and the artichokes were tender and sweet. The sauce was buttery and light with a subtle cider hint coming through. The mash was basically like heaven in a bowl; creamy, smooth and comforting...there's not much more I can add to that, it was perfect!

James went for the Fillet of Aberdeen Angus with mushroom ketchup and triple cooked chips

Look how nice and pink it is! If only we'd had more bread he could have lived the French dream of mopping up the juices with the bread...my favourite! The steak had some crispy onions and bone marrow on the top of it, which added depth of flavour, and the meat just melted in the mouth. It was fantastic. The chips were crispy with fluffy insides and James really liked the mushroom ketchup; sadly I didn't try it so can't comment.

For pudding we both had the same of last time - the pudding which seems to be becoming almost as famous as the Meat Fruit...Tipsy Cake. I'm not usually the biggest pudding person but this one is literally amazing - the first waiter we had described it as "life changing" and I have to agree! It takes 40 minutes to cook so has to be ordered when you choose your starters and mains so the pressure is on decision wise, but I don't think I could order anything else now I know how good this is.

Served in a cast iron pot on a little wooden board, with spit roast pineapple on the side, it will be almost impossible to do this pudding justice. To compare it to bread and butter pudding seems sacrilegious, but that's the closest thing I can think of. It's basically melt in the mouth brioche, with melt in the mouth sugar crystals on top (melt in the mouth is a Heston theme it seems!) and the most amazing brandy infused caramel-y custard underneath...it is sweet, indulgent and just unbelievably delicious! The spit roast pineapple is nice but potentially a bit superfluous - the Tipsy Cake could definitely stand alone in my opinion.

At the end of the meal, James ordered some tea (rubbish photo but such a cool teapot)....

....and they also brought us out a specially decorated petit four!

We were very touched by this and it made the already excellent service reach 10/10 heights! The biscuit was flavoured with caraway seeds, and the smooth and creamy chocolate ganache infused with orange blossom and earl grey; an interesting pairing which was the perfect end to our Heston adventure! Next stop (after lots of saving and the lengthy waiting list) the Fat Duck?!

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Shake Shack, London

After all the hype when both Five Guys and Shake Shack first landed in London (I heard rumours of 1.5 hour long queues!), I finally got round to trying Shake Shack on Saturday! Amazingly enough, the second Five Guys in England opened in Reading (we got somewhere cool for once!) so I have already been a couple of times, and despite what everyone else seems to think, I really enjoyed it, so was eager to see how Shake Shack would stack up!

Shake Shack is located in the Covent Garden Piazza, and has mainly outdoor seating (with heaters so you can still get your burger fix in winter!), plus a small indoor area for those less hardy burger fans. You queue on one side to place your order (they have a theme park style queue barrier - that's when you know a place is popular!), get handed a buzzer, then when it goes off you go and get your order at the collection window.

I decided to go for the double ShackBurger (cheese, tomato, lettuce and Shack sauce) as I wanted to try the Shack sauce - I also went for cheese fries and a vanilla concrete with chocolate hazelnut brownie and hot fudge sauce. Concretes are a Shake Shack special and are basically frozen custard mixed up with loads of delicious toppings! James chose the double SmokeShack - cheese, smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper and Shack sauce - normal fries, and a single sticky toffee concrete, which had vanilla custard, chocolate toffee, chocolate chunks, salted caramel sauce and malt powder.

The double Shackburger

Cheese fries

The full tray!

A lot of my friends thought I might not like the chips here as they might be too crispy for my taste, but I thought they were great! They were crispy on the outside but with a fluffy inside so they avoided the ultimate crime of being chip shells. The cheese sauce was thick and rich; the only other time I have had cheese sauce over actual cheese on chips was at Ed's Diner and I hated it, but that merely speaks volumes about Ed's Diner rather than me not liking cheese sauce, as these were excellent! Also the chips somehow didn't get soggy!

The burger was also really, really good. To start with, the bun - it was soft and squidgy and exactly the right size so you didn't get sauce all over your hands. The burger was also really juicy, pink in the middle and had an almost barbecued taste (not burnt BBQ from a bad summer fete, a really good BBQ!) and the lettuce was fresh and added a nice crunch. I ate my tomatoes separately but they were plump and juicy!  The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the Shack Sauce - it was a bit of an unappealing shade of pink, and it was too mayonnaisey for my liking. Next time I'd just use the mustard and ketchup which are helpfully already decanted into plastic dipping pots for you to take!

The double SmokeShack

I think James' burger looks possibly even more appealing than mine - maybe to do with the lack of vegetation and purely cheese and meat here?! He thought the same as me and really enjoyed his burger; the only thing we differed on was that he thought it beat Five Guys hands down, and while I agreed it probably was a better burger here, I don't think it outstrips Five Guys by as much as everyone else says!

Finally, onto the concretes. I was really excited to try these!

Silly James didn't take a picture of his as he was too impatient to start eating, but you can kind of see it in this one! Next time I will impose much more stringent photography rules on him.

The sad thing for me was that James' concrete was about a million times nicer than mine! It was amazingly smooth and sweet, but the salt in the caramel meant it wasn't overpoweringly so. There was lots of chocolate topping in his too, which was what mine sadly lacked - there were only about 3 bits of brownie! So my verdict on Concretes is that they can be absolutely delicious, but choose wisely!

My overall opinion is that Shake Shack is a must visit. It's pretty expensive for fast food, but equally it's good quality, fun, and really really tasty! See their Covent Garden website and menu here.

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