Volta do Mar
We had been to Volta do Mar before, before they moved from their old location in Covent Garden, to their new location in Chelsea.
The restaurant specialises in Portuguese food, including cuisines from countries along Portuguese trade routes.
While we were reading the menus to select our dishes, we enjoyed a cheeky cocktail. I had a take on a Caipirinha, spruced up with blueberries. And my partner had a Martini with added spiced pear.
After making our choices, we found out that beyond the dishes on the menu, they also have a short set of specials. This also meant that their Iberico Pork Bafassa was replaced with an Iberico Pork burger, with added foie gras. As we don't really want to eat that, it meant that my partner had to change to a different main.
In the end, we choose to share a Sardine Pâte and Sourdough snack, and Ham Hock and Chorizo Croquettes. The pâte was smooth and flavourful, and spread excellently on the sourdough. The croquettes full of porky goodness. The other starters on the menu also sounded appetizing.
For our main, we picked their Piri Piri Chicken, served with chips. The chicken was delicious, moist and well spiced and the pot of sauce that came with it was ideal to dip the chicken and chips into.
We had a glass each of their house wine with our main, I had red, but my partner had the white, both wines were lovely and worked nicely with the food.
We enjoyed our meal at Volta do Mar. The food was great and the atmosphere relaxing, and the staff attentive. It certainly was no Nando's!
Burn's Night at Browns
At the end of January, more shops start stocking haggis again. Haggis is a traditional food of Scotland and the main event of a Burns supper, where the life of the poet Robert Burns is celebrated. It is often paired with neeps and tatties (mashed swede and potatoes).
With my partner having Scottish ancestry, we usually prepared our own. In the earlier years with friends and family, in the form of "drink some of Derick's whisky". In later years just for the two of us. This year, we chose to not prepare our own, and instead enjoy somebody else cooking it for us.
We have been to Browns in Covent Garden a few times before — we even had our engagement party there. We know it as a reliable place with good food, and tasty cocktails. For Burns Night they were offering a short set menu, with a whisky pairing that sounded to our liking.
As a starter we both had the seared scallops. They were sweet and bouncy, and just cooked right. There were herbs sprinkled over them, and they were served with Parmesan crisps and a creamy sauce. It was paired with a 12-year-old Glenfiddich, which paired perfectly.
After waiting for a while — too long really — the main event showed up. Three thick slices of haggis, slightly crisped up on the outside, and served on a bed of the aforementioned neeps and tatties. Served with a sweetened gravy, of which more could have been served. I thought that the crisped up edges added a little extra texture to the otherwise well spiced and prepared haggis. This was paired with a 15-year-old Glenfiddich, which is a little spicier itself.
For our desert, the two of us picked something different. My partner had the traditional Scottish Cranachan, where I chose the crumble. I can't resist a good crumble, and this one was certainly one.
In the end, I thought it was a good meal, and certainly filling. The service was a little slow, and some confusion did ensue while we were waiting for our whisky to be paired with the haggis main course. I also thought it was a little on the pricier side of what it is.
I think next year we'll cook our own again, even though means we'll have to do the dishes too!
East Street by Tampopo
The idea behind going for a different restaurant every Friday is to try out a wide variety of places, but also of cuisines. We are lucky that in London, we have access to pretty much any sort of dishes we fancy.
Sometimes, you can even find a wide variety of different culture's food in one place, and East Street is such an establishment. It is situated just North of Oxford Street, close to Tottenham Court Road station. It specialised in what can only be described as pan-Asian.
Their menu is extensive, from Szechuan dishes via Japan and Korea to Indonesian and Malay. We started with two of their small plates, the Malaysian Satay Chicken and Korean Popcorn Chicken. They were both delicious, very flavourful and moorish. Good Satay Chicken I remember from my parent's Indonesian friends, and this was just like it. With our starters, we enjoyed a lovely Hokkaido Negroni as we didn't think a bottle of wine would fit with this menu.
Choosing the small plates was hard, as there are so many nice sounding ones. Instead of ordering them all, we also picked a large plate each. I ordered a Rendang Beef Curry, again, with memories of the Indonesian Restaurants you find in the Netherlands. It was accompanied by rice, peanuts, boiled eggs, and some pickled cucumber. My companion ordered a Tamarind Chicken, slices of well cooked moist chicken in a delicious sticky tamarind sauce. It came served with rice, broccoli and crispy onions, this was one of the non-spicy options on the menu, but despite the lack of chillies still had a bit of a kick. Again, not wanting wine, we picked a bog-standard Tiger beer to wash all the delicious flavours down, which paired pretty well.
Although we were pretty full, we could not quite resist the churros, and shared three with a tasty caramel sauce. I don't quite understand how they fit in an Asian kitchen, but they were delightful regardless.
If we were to return, which seems likely, we would probably have a meal made up of more of the smaller dishes (all of which sounded delicious) instead of going for the traditional starter plus main course approach.
The place was pretty full, and when we left I remarked that we were probably amongst the oldest of the clientele, but we didn't feel out of place. Which I think is a good sign.
Empire Empire
We visited Empire Empire on a chilly January evening. The restaurant was fairly quiet but even at 18.30 there were some tables seated and enjoying their food.
The restaurant features an old fashioned jukebox type vinyl record player close to the entrance and has a photobooth for some fun snaps should you be so inclined.
We had a beer each from 40ft Brewery in Hackney, which was lovely. It's great to see an Indian restaurant branching out from the usual cobra and kingfisher options. We started with poppadoms and dips, and then I had a well spiced biryani with incredibly tender lamb falling off the shank and a pastry lid. My companion really enjoyed her Empire Butter Chicken and a naan bread. This was not as rich as some butter chicken curries, but was incredibly flavourful with a nice level of spicing and kick. Unfortunately we were both too full to move onto try what sounded like tasty desserts from the menu.
Service at Empire Empire was very welcoming and attentive (and quick, but not rushed) we were out and heading home on the bus about an hour after sitting down.
Lokkanta
As first restaurant of the year, we wanted something low-key. Not far from Paddington station, on Westbourne Grove, there is a whole row of such places. We settled on Lokkanta, a place that specialises in Turkish food.
We started off with Turkish sausage slices with halloumi, while we were waiting for our main course. At the same time, we started enjoying our delicious red wine from Turkey.
The front section of the restaurant features a well ventilated charcoal grill upon which most of the meats were roasted. In my case, a well cooked and flavoured lamb shish. My partner picked a Yogurtly Adana, minced grilled lamb with bread and basted in a tomato sauce and yoghurt.
The service was speedy, and we did not have to wait long. Perhaps that was mostly because when we arrived at 18:30, there was only other table enjoying dinner, so we were almost the only customers. When we left, there were a few more people enjoying their dinner. However, with the restaurant being quite empty, it perhaps lacked a bit of ambience and the tiled interior made it feel a little clinical, I think it would be quite different if it was busy with plenty of hustle and bustle.
In short, the food and wine was good, but the atmosphere was unfortunately missing.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
All Rights Reserved