Mowgli
Mowgli is situated on Charlotte Street, not far from Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street. A section of this street is dedicated to restaurants. You can find anything there. Mowgli is a new addition, replacing Côte, which has gone from this location and many others.
Mowgli is part of a chain, that specialises in Indian Street Food. When we arrived, was a good buzz in the restaurant, with half of the tables full. Unlike last week, we were not the youngest.
We didn't fancy wine, and instead enjoyed a cocktail. My wife had a delicious Smoked Cardamom Old Fashioned, and I chose the Masala Espresso Martini.
Their menu is extensive, but almost overwhelmed with choice. As this was our first visit, we took the lazy option and went for the Street Food Sharer, in the “meat” variety (vegan and vegetarian options are also available). Our starters included a trio of dishes: an Indian take on Patatas Bravas, fried cubes of potato in a sticky turmeric masala, with some raw onion and chilli sprinkled over it; gunpowder chicken, lightly battered and fried; and the most delightful yoghurt chat bombs that were crisp and filled with chickpeas, a yoghurt, and spices. The latter was the star of the show, and as they were liquid inside, not possible to share. Which was a problem, as we were given five for the two of us.
The main consisted of three curries (chosen by the chef), rice, and Roti breads. All three curries (Butter Chicken, Temple Dahl, and Agra Ginger Chicken) were excellent, although I still find my own butter chicken much better than anything you find in a restaurant.
The desert was a scoop of ice cream. My wife enjoyed a scoop of mango sorbet, and I had a scoop of salted caramel to finish our meal.
It was a great and tasty meal out, in a modern, but not loud setting. It's an excellent place to come for a meal after a busy day of shopping (or not), and we expect to return to try more of that menu (and especially the yoghurt bombs).
Soutine
We booked Soutine a little later than normal, but there was no problem for us to get a table on a warm and sunny Friday evening in St John’s Wood. When we arrived and were shown to our table, I immediately thought that it had a resemblance of Brasserie Zedel, near Piccadilly Circus. Which ended up making sense as it has the same owner.
The interior consists of mostly wooden panelling, and loads of mirrors, giving the inside an airy, but cosy atmosphere.
We started with the smoked salmon crumpet for me, and a single oyster for my husband. We ordered a carafe of Chardonnay to share. For the main I had the rather calorific souffle suisse, which was delicious, but perhaps not something to have too often! As a consolation, it did come with a salad.My husband had the roast lamb, which was very tender, and was served with a mushroom flower and some rocket. With that, he had a separate class of Côte du Rhone.
We were originally expecting to be able to order off the set menu which according to the website should have been available, but alas was not offered.
The food and ambience was nice, but we couldn't quite shake off that we were by far the youngest in the restaurant!
Don't Tell Dad
Lonsdale Road has many restaurants. They come and go, and we've been to plenty of them in the last few years. But Don't Tell Dad is pretty new.
During the day it's a bakery, but during the evening it turns into a restaurant. It's hip, so booking is a must.
The interior is modern, and full of wood. It wasn't noisy, and it was easy to chat. As our starter, we shared a couple of truffle and cheddar beignets — cheesy balls with shavings of more cheese — and a couple of oxtail crumpets. These were well braised pieces of meat in gravy, upon soft crumpets with some fried crumbs for texture.
We did not fancy ordering a bottle of wine, but instead chose to have a cider with our starter, and a glass of wine each with our main. Unfortunately, the cider only showed up after we finished our starters.
My wife picked monkfish as her main. This was served on the bone with artichoke and a dill béarnaise. I selected the roast lamb, which was served with courgette, chickpeas, and a salsa verde. Both dishes were delicious. However, to be critical whilst the food and wines were lovely, they didn't turn up at the same time. Our wine turned up so far in advance of our main, that we’d nearly finished the glasses of wine when it arrived
Still feeling a little peckish, we also had dessert. Madeleines for my wife, and an olive oil and chocolate mousse for me. Both desserts could easily have been shared between the two of us, and we probably should have. We opted to go for the matching dessert wines, and again there was a significant delay in between the wine and the desserts appearing.
Once they finally arrived, the madeleines were soft, but not so crunchy on the outside. The chocolate mousse was covered in nicely bitter chocolate flakes, and juicy blood orange.
The food at Don't Tell Dad was very nice, as was the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the service was very slow with long waits between the courses. In addition to that, the drinks were served at odd times, and not with the food which they were ordered to go with.
Ida
This was our second trip to Ida. We first visited in summer 2023, and although we wrote a review, we never posted it. Ida has achieved something of a reputation in the last couple of years, but remains at its heart a local neighbourhood restaurant.
When you walk past Ida during the day, you wouldn't pay it any notice. It sits on a busy road at the edge of a residential neighbourhood, with a convenience store across the road. It's an unlikely spot for a restaurant, situated pretty close to both Salusbury Road in Queens Park, and the restaurants on Chamberlayne Road close to Kensal Rise. In the daytime it looks slightly unwelcoming, which is probably why it took us so long to visit the first time.
In the evening however, the place livens up. We arrived at Ida at a quarter past six, and we were nearly the first ones in. By the time we were ready to order fifteen minutes later it was full. When we were here last time, on a lovely warm summer evening, there were also a few tables outside. With one set of doors open, even our inside table felt part of the streetscape.
To start, we ordered a crostone to share. The sourdough toast was covered in flavourful (and aromatic) melted taleggio cheese, with grapes and a little syrupy honey.
As his main meal, Derick ordered the wild funghi papperdelle, and as hers, Morag ordered the little ears — orecchiette — which was served with a creamy velouté of cauliflower, and more of the tasty taleggio cheese.
The home-made pasta was nicely al dente, and the sauces thick, slightly sticky, and delicious. We only got (and needed) a fork as utensils, which made the meal more authentic.
With our meal, we also enjoyed their house white wine, which was, fresh with a good flavour that worked well with all our dishes.
After our pasta we were still a bit peckish, and fancied a tiramisu to finish our evening. This was light and fluffy, and we debated whether this was as good as the tiramisu offered by another local restaurant. We think the jury is out on that one though.
The Mayfair Chippy
When we arrived, there was a long queue outside waiting to get in. Luckily, my wife had booked, so we got to skip the queue. Inside, we were seated in a backroom, with space for about a dozen people.
The menu isn't extensive, which makes sense, as it's a chippy. We both therefore had Fish and Chips, but not quite the same ones. My wife had the cod, while I had the haddock. There wasn't really much between them though. Both of them came in beautifully light batter. For those who don’t like fish, or who are vegetarian, they also offer a battered rare breed sausage, or a battered halloumi as alternatives.
A reasonable amount of reasonable chips were served with the fish. They were the classic style of chips you get with a fish and chip supper, a little chewy, and quite far away from the triple cooked Belgian fries that are so very good (but not traditional for fish and chips). There were also three accompaniments: tartare sauce, with crunchy gherkins, mushy peas to cover the vegetable section, and a nice and spicy curry sauce. My wife being a traditionalist also went in for the malt vinegar and salt.
With our meal, we shared a bottle of a white Vinho Verde, from Portugal. It's not something you often find in a chippy, but it was date night after all.
We didn't have any dessert, as the Fish and Chips were quite filling. It's a good chippy, but I believe it was quite pricey for what it was. You don't typically pay £25 per person for food at a chippy. Maybe we should try out our local chippy…
We did come home with a paper party bag of fruit salad sweets and black jacks though!
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