Hawksmoor, London

Apart from a big juicy burger, there is not much I love more than a big juicy steak, so James and I decided to try the place often touted as serving the best steak in London - Hawksmoor. They have four branches and we went to the Spitalfields one purely because we'd heard it was the best of the best!

I went intending to not have a starter as I wanted to dedicate all my hunger to the steak, but obviously ended up giving in - they all just sounded so nice! We shared potted smoked mackerel and roasted scallops with white port and garlic.

The scallops were presented absolutely beautifully and tasted even better - the sauce was rich and flavoursome yet light, the scallops were cooked perfectly and the breadcrumbs added a nice texture. The potted mackerel was meaty and smokey; there was lots of it to pile onto the toast, but it was so good I also just ate it straight out of the jar on its own!

The waitress was very knowledgeable and helpful with the steaks; they have their usual ones on the menu, but then on a blackboard they have other cuts and sizes, which they cross off as they're sold!

She asked us how we usually liked our steaks cooked (medium rare/rare for both of us) and advised us accordingly; we both eventually went for the rib eye medium rare - I love rib eyes because I like the fat in them! Also it's a rib eye steak that I used to get at my favourite place in Toulouse (Café à la Une) so it brings back good memories! I went for béarnaise sauce and James for stilton hollandaise.

We also completely over ordered on sides but it had to be done - I wanted to try it all! We had mash and gravy

Triple cooked chips

Macaroni cheese

And bread and butter which I didn't bother taking a picture of! As you can see, the steak was amazingly cooked - nice and pink in the middle, it basically melted in the mouth and was still so juicy. The béarnaise was delicious too - very rich and buttery and not only tasted great with the steak, but was better than mayo and ketchup with the chips! The chips were crunchy and fluffy and the bread was a nice soft sourdough with a chewy crust. The macaroni cheese had a crispy top but sadly was a bit disappointing underneath as the sauce should have been much more abundant and more creamy, but never mind - I guess their macaroni cheese isn't what they boast about! And saving the best side til last....the mash was absolutely amazing! So smooth and velvety with a rich meaty gravy on top - I could have eaten about 10 dishes of the stuff.

My new favourite phrase seems to be "in for a penny, in for a pound" and it was definitely that I was thinking of as I ordered pudding - a sticky toffee sundae!

Lovely sticky pieces of toffee sponge mixed with ice cream and caramel sauce - how can you go wrong?!

This was a pretty expensive meal (only about £25 less than I spent at Dinner by Heston) but overall we thought it was worth it - the steak really was delicious, and that's what you come for. If you just came for mains and didn't order too many sides (avoid the mac n cheese but get the mash!!) then it wouldn't be nearly so expensive, and you'd still be getting the best bits of the meal - the others are just fun extra frills. James thought the steak was better than his one at Dinner by Heston too - quite a compliment! I'd have to broaden my London steak eating horizons before I could say it's the best in London, but it's definitely the best I have had in the UK - so save up and go and gorge yourself on steak!

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Atomic Burger, Oxford

On Saturday I went to visit my school friend Omnya in Oxford; not content with exploring only the London burger scene, we decided to visit the famous Atomic Burger to see what they had to offer. Despite Omnya studying here, she had never been before (something she admits herself is "shameful for a Oxford student") so it was new discoveries all round.

Everything in the restaurant is cartoon/film/famous character themed, from the menu (which you can see here) to the décor - there is even Barbie wallpaper in the ladies' toilet!

I like the little Tardis hanging from the ceiling! We decided to skip starters (shock horror) and go straight into burgers, as even I was worried I might get a bit full if I attempted all three courses, particularly as I was ordering a double burger, The McLovin. Omnya is now vegetarian so went for the veggie "Frito Bandito" which has cheddar cheese, nachos, salsa, sour cream and guacamole. I ordered "dirty fries" with mine (topped with chilli, aged cheddar sauce and jalapeños) and Omnya had normal fries (what a let down!!).

The mighty McLovin'

The McLovin is basically a giant, better quality Big Mac - the sauce is similarly delicious and tangy, and you have plenty of vinegary pickles and plasticky (in a good way!) American cheese! It was absolutely huge so after making a few attempts to eat it with my hands I had to go through the knife and fork shame....(see my post on The Bird for a good summary on how I usually feel about people who use cutlery for burgers)...my mouth just isn't that big though! I need to be like one of those snakes who can dislocate their jaw to eat their prey.....!!

A beautiful tower of juicy meat. It was well constructed so it didn't fall apart as you attempted to deconstruct it. My one issue with it was that I asked for it medium rare, and to me it definitely wasn't pink enough to be medium rare, but ah well - it was still juicy and tasty so it wasn't the end of the world! I also thought I might not like the bun as much as it wasn't brioche, so I was worried it would be dry, but it was soft and squidgy - that'll teach me not to make food snobby assumptions!

The fries were really good too - as I've said before, I normally prefer actual melted cheddar to a sauce, but this one was nicely strong and didn't make the chips soggy, so it's all good! There wasn't quite as much chilli as I'd have liked, but the jalapeños and hot sauce added a lovely kick! I could definitely eat another bowlful of them now, I'm starving...

Omnya really enjoyed the Frito Bandito - she thought the veggie burger was the best she'd ever had! Crunchy on the outside and smooth on the inside, without rogue unblended peas or sweetcorn which can sometimes add a lumpy texture! The nachos added a nice crunch too.

After debating long and hard over pudding (a milkshake? Or an actual pudding?) I went for the "Wookie Cookie sundae" with vanilla ice cream, oreo cookies, chocolate and butterscotch sauce, marshmallow fluff, cream and a cherry on top! Omnya was too full but I kindly allowed the waiter to bring two spoons so she could try a bit!!

Flashback to a year 8 trip to TGIs where we put the Toffee Popcorn brownie sundae meant for four between the two of us and tried to stop anyone else from sharing it...!

The sundae was so good! We both said we normally only like sundaes with brownie in, but this one was absolutely packed with oreo cookies which added an excellent crunchy texture (it's the different textures that plain ice cream sundaes lack, hence why we both usually only get ones with brownies in!). The fluff was sticky and sweet; the whole thing was just really indulgent. By the end it was almost too much...but obviously I did still finish it.

After the meal we definitely needed to walk it off, so we headed out into a lovely sunny day and wandered around Oxford.

Magdelene College

We also saw these really cool street performers by HSBC - Mr Woodnote, Lil Rhys and Eva Lazarus. You can see some videos etc of their stuff here - it was so good, definitely worth giving it a listen.

A lovely day in Oxford with brilliant food - Atomic Burger were tweeting a while back about opening in Reading, and I really hope they do now!! I'll be at the front of the queue!

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Sweeney & Todd, Reading

Sweeney & Todd is something of a Reading institution - my parents used to go there while they were students (it's even the same lady who makes and serves the pies now as it was then!) - and seems to be the place to get a pie in Reading. I had been meaning to go for years, but reading a not-so-positive review of it in another blog I enjoy (Edible Reading) spurred me into going, as I really wanted to see who I agreed with!

It's located opposite Evissa, on the edge of the town centre; at first when you go in, it appears to just be a pie shop with a bar and a few tables, but it's actually deceptively large - downstairs there are a few different sized dining rooms, as well as small nooks and crannies with booths and tables tucked into them. We sat at one of the booths which was really nice as it felt more private and was a bit quieter - until a group of raucous wannabe lads (including an old teacher of mine!) sat in the next room, that is! But still, it was quite amusing listening in on their "funny" anecdotes and stories!

There's no menu online so as always I took pictures!

The waitress comes and lists off every pie they have available, which was most of the ones on the menu list, plus a few extras. I went for the Five Nations pie (steak, Guinness, garlic, mustard and leeks) and my mum had the chicken, chilli, and chorizo, and we ordered bread and butter, ratatouille and cauliflower cheese to share.

The ratatouille was tasty with big chunks of courgette, and the cauliflower cheese had lovely crispy cheddar on top, even if the cauliflower was slightly on the soggy side. I thought the pastry on the pies was great - buttery, crisp and flaky, and the fillings were equally as good. The meat in mine was mostly tender (apart from a few odd pieces!),I really liked the flavour of the leeks and garlic, and the gravy was nice and thick. My mum's had a gentle heat from the chillis without the spice being too overpowering, and the chorizo added a lovely smokey flavour. I've read a couple of claims that they microwave the pies here...who really cares?! If they've made the pastry from scratch beforehand and microwaving them is the easiest way to heat them up, I really don't mind at all, especially because I thought the pastry was crisp anyway so definitely hadn't been spoilt if it had been microwaved! A couple of small grumbles are that the side salad is pointless (although I do love raw onion) and I wish more than anything they did mash, but at least it got me to try different sides!

Our little booth!

Sweeney & Todd do quite a wide variety of classic British puddings (definitely puddings, not desserts!); I went for bread and butter pudding with custard and my mum had treacle tart with custard (she'd been going on about it since her last visit!)

My bread and butter pudding was really good - it was made with French bread which I loved as you got a different, more chewy texture from the crust to contrast with the sponginess of the actual bread, and the custard was nice and vanilla-y. The treacle tart would have been too sweet for me to eat a whole piece, but for those with a sweet tooth it would be excellent - sticky and sugary with thick, buttery pastry.

Without wanting this to be construed in a negative way (as I really enjoyed it!), "school dinner food" is probably the best way I can think of to describe the meal - it's basic and unpretentious but comforting, filling and surprisingly tasty. It has the few little mistakes/short cuts that you might expect from school dinners (eg tinned tomatoes in the ratatouille, little lumps in the custard) but the thing about Sweeney & Todd is that isn't haute cuisine, and nor is it pretending to be; the little mistakes and quirks are partly what gives this place its character, and there is definitely no denying they make a really good pie - the amount of years it's been open and stood up against all the chains in Reading is a pretty good indicator of that too! It's perfect hangover/post work food, so with all ideas of food snobbery set aside, go and enjoy some stodgy British classics!

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Bar Boulud, London

As I hadn't had a burger in SO long (!) I decided it was high time I tried another of the restaurants which frequently appears in top burgers in London lists - Bar Boulud. Located in the Mandarin Oriental, the same hotels where you'd find Dinner by Heston, it's very smart and sophisticated - slightly incongruous with big juicy burgers perhaps, but very nice surroundings all the same! It's a fairly big restaurant and when we arrived it was already pretty much full which I hoped gave an indication of the quality of food which was to follow!

Rubbish photo but very cool open plan kitchen - you can see all the pâtés and meats etc!

They brought over bread and as soon as we sat down, and replenished it a total of three times throughout the meal - one time it was still warm! Yet again I filled myself up massively from it, but bread and butter is just SO GOOD.

Drinks wise I had a delicious non alcoholic cocktail - The Batida, with fresh pineapple, lemon juice, passion fruit, sugar syrup and coconut dust. As well as being beautifully presented and refreshing, it tasted like summer holidays in the sun!

Just like in Dinner, the service was so friendly and helpful - again, they have the luck of being able to try everything on the menu so that they can talk knowledgeably about it. Our waiter (Tommaso!) was so enthusiastic and gave us some really helpful recommendations which helped us pick our starters and made us choose something really out of the ordinary rather than playing it safe. We shared two starters; stone bass tartare, and the terrine de canard.

The stone bass was probably one of the most interesting starters I have ever tried - I hadn't even heard of stone bass before then! Delicate chunks of meaty fish on an earthy tasting mushroom ketchup type sauce, all of which had a light citrus tang, apparently added by something called Buddha Hand, which, again, I had never heard of. To complete my woeful ignorance of this starter, there were fried rings of something which may forever remain a mystery to me topping the fish, and these added a really nice salty crunch. So, although I have next to no knowledge of the components of the dish, I now know that they worked amazingly together to create a light and well balanced starter.
The terrine was very good too, but I suppose slightly less special and out of the ordinary, although I did like the chunks of carrot in it; also they brought over the bread for it in a little napkin pouch which I thought was sweet!

For main courses it obviously had to be burgers. I went for the "Frenchie" which is a beef patty with confit pork belly, rocket, dijon, tomato compote, morbier cheese and a peppered bun, and Anne Marie had the "Piggie" - a beef patty with BBQ pulled pork, green chilli mayonnaise, bibb lettuce, red cabbage slaw and a cheddar bun. We both asked for them to be medium rare. Our food arrived quite promptly, but Anne Marie's burger arrived without BBQ pulled pork! She sent it back, but they were really apologetic about it and even made me a completely new burger as well so mine didn't go cold while waiting! So, second time round, here are the pictures!

The Frenchie

The Piggie

The best thing about these burgers was how well they had been cooked - look how lovely and pink they are!

This made them an absolute joy to eat - the Frenchie is probably the juiciest burger I have ever had. The nutty morbier cheese was thick and oozy complemented well by the compote, and pork belly was thick and salty. I also really liked the slight heat from the mustard - basically it was amazing. The fries cost an extra £5 which I actually wish I hadn't paid, as they were too thin and crispy for me and I didn't end up eating most of them as I wanted to concentrate on the burger - next time I'd genuinely be tempted to share three burgers between two, but not have chips!

For pudding we both had mango soufflé with mango and coconut sorbet.

It was HUGE, but very light with a lovely fluffy inside, and the sweet taste of mango the whole way through. The sorbet was really refreshing and would even have been a satisfactory pudding on its own - that's not to say I didn't love the soufflé, because I did, but if you're slightly less greedy and want something smaller, then it would be perfect.

It's definitely not cheap here, and the Frenchie is one of the most expensive burgers I've had, but I would say it's 100% worth it; the burgers are fantastic, and the rest of the menu is really varied and interesting if that's not what you fancy. I'm already dreaming of the next time I can go...!

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