The Barbary
A hip place in Covent Garden. We were a little early, and while waiting had a good overview of the place: A big kitchen area in the middle, with a coal fire, and around that a horseshoe of bar stools.
We started our meal with a naan, made right in front of us in a tandoori from a bundle of though. It was fluffy and crispy, and the cod's roe with spring onions was an excellent dip.
After this followed the starters, a trio of croquettes, with a dip. It's a weird number for a sharing-style restaurant catering for mostly couples.
For our mains, we shared a mushroom kebab, coffee rubbed chicken, and a poached and grilled trout. The Mushroom kebab was underwhelming, and the portion size was small. The trout was still very moist, and the crisply skin added flavour; some pickled meaty tomatoes and onion slices accompanied it. Our favourite was the coffee rub chicken. Moist, juicy, and with a proper splash of heat from the topping and tasty pickled courgette.
We enjoyed the atmosphere was good, even though it was fairly noisy. But it wasn't so bad so we could not near each other. The flames from the grill made it on the warmer side — we were seated less than 3 metres from it. The extraction was excellent and hence it wasn't smokey — not even when one of the chefs refilled the fuel.
The downside of the Barbary were the cramped seating arrangements with fixed backless bar stools by the counter. Long legs made it necessary to man-spread, which isn't great for the unknown customers sitting next to you having to do the same. The restaurant is also not accessible, but this is made clear on their website when you use their booking tool. There is a terrace across/around the corner which would be better for seating, but it was too cold for that to be pleasant.
Kolae
We've been exploring the restaurants near Borough Market for a while now, and this time our eye fell on Kolae, a Thai Grill restaurant. The ground floor consists of a bar area, with a few tables sprinkled around. Our table was on the second floor, with about a dozen tables in an L-shaped room, with rough brick walls.
The menu is extensive, and as we didn't quite know what to pick, we went for the easy option, and chose the set menu. We had the non-vegetarian set menu, but we see the website has a vegetarian set menu too. Both were dairy free, if that is a consideration.
The meal started with Biryani Rice Crackers with Pickled Ginger and Green Nahm Jim. A stack of crispy and tangy crackers showed up, with hints of spice and sour. For our starters, we were served Kolae Grilled Tiger Prawns. These had a lovely sauce covered, and were served with some kind of fruit, with the flavours of grape and citrus to squeeze on top. The Green Mango salad was also spicy, but at the same time sweet, with dried shrimp adding some crunch. The Soy-Braised Pork Belly showed up a while later — the kitchen had mixed something up. The wait was well worth it, as this was in our opinion the best dish on the menu. The sauce was sticky and rich, and the pork succulent and tender. The sauce was so good. A spoon was deployed to not leave any of the sauce behind. Due to the wait, we were also served a Chicken Bamboo Skewer, which was also awesome, this is an optional extra on the set menu.
As our main course, the menu provided us with Stir Fried Farm Greens, with some garlic and soybeans. At first, this looked really spicy due to the big chilly on top, but it turned out fairly mild. It fit well together with the Stonebass Curry, and the Hom Mali Rice.
We did not have space for dessert after this. It was a great meal, with interesting flavours. The restaurant is in a good location, very close to the Borough High Street exit of the London Bridge tube station. We would definitely recommend it, with the only critique that it can be a bit noisy upstairs if there is a loud group nearby.
Little Red Pepper
The Little Red Pepper is the name of the second incarnation of a restaurant at the same place. Before the extensive and lovely refurbishment it was called "The Red Pepper", but we were pleased on our first visit back to see that it's the same team with mostly the same menu. We have been many times over the last decade, either after drinks at Real Drinks a few doors down, or after showing my nephews around London. We had never had a Friday Night Dinner here, and with its new name in place, it seemed a good opportunity to do so.
From the menu, we picked the courgette fries as our starter. They've been a favourite for a while. And they did not disappoint.
For her main, my wife had the Linguine al Gamberi. Juicy prawns with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and a hint of chilli. I had the Ravioli, with Ricotta and fresh spinach — finished with a butter and sage sauce, and topped with some Parmesan. They were well filled, and the sauce nicely brought it together.
We didn't fancy dessert, but instead enjoyed a digestif. Again an enjoyable meal, and we'll very likely be back.
Paris Bonheur
We visited on a wet Thursday evening, and even though we ran from the metro station around the square, we were still fairly damp by the time we arrived. Inside, we were warmly welcome and seated in the window.
We started our meal with a glass of cremant, because why not. After selecting our starters and mains, we asked the waiter for wine recommendations. We each had different starters and mains, which called for something that suited each dish.
While we were waiting for our starters, we were presented with a stack of home-made pretzels, and a cucumber gazpacho. I'm usually not a fan of the original tomato version, but this variation with cucumber and tzatziki was outstanding. The fresh cucumber with the yoghurt worked well, and little cubes of perfectly even cucumber added a bit of crunch. One of the best dishes we enjoyed this year.
For our starters, my wife had the fried squid and mussel salad, served with some sweet grilled vine tomatoes. I enjoyed the pan-fried girolle mushrooms and snails, finished with a vin jaune sauce. The sauce was rich and bound the dish together. Some crunchy croutons added some texture.
For her main, my wife ordered the steak, and this is where Paris Bonheur let us down a little. Although it was a good cut, it was sadly a little tough. The fries were really good, and came freshly cooked and in a generous portion — if only they had arrived with the steak as intended, rather than being served to an adjacent table. This error was very quickly noticed and rectified. I chose the smoked duckling with red fruits and beetroot as my main dish. The duck was well cooked, although in my opinion the skin should have been crispy. The red fruits added acidity, and the beetroot some welcome earthiness.
We did not have a dessert, as we were too full! Overall we'd thoroughly recommend this spot.
The Holland
It's a pub, not far from the Design Museum in Kensington, just off the main road which forms High Street Kensington. The Holland is on a busy-ish road, but inside it is a calm and relaxing spot. There are some tables outside too. When we visited, it wasn't especially busy, with a couple of groups inside and standing outside having some drinks in the warm weather. The staff were very friendly and attentive, and before we knew it, we had our menus to pick our dishes.
For her starter, my wife had the potted crab on toast. The portion size was excellent, the crab tasty, and also nicely presented. I enjoyed the steak tartare, which was mixed with tomato and a little horseradish. It was served heaped with Parmesan cheese, and a potato cake (thin layers of potato, fried).
For my main, I had the "Fish of the Day" with a Vierge sauce and some spinach. Today's fish was Pollock. It had a lovely crispy skin, and the sauce was punchy with tomato, basil, and a large squeeze of lemon — maybe a little too much though, which made it a touch too sour to my liking. My wife chose the sweetcorn risotto. It was slightly sweet from the corn, with a touch of spice and well cooked rice. The usual sprinkling of cheese added a bit of balance.
With our meal, we enjoyed a crisp Grüner Veltliner, by the bottle.
We did book this through "The Fork", which gave us £20 off as we had enough "yums", which was nice! The Fork is one of the booking platforms we use to find restaurants.
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