Dinings

When people ask me what my favourite Japanese restaurant is - my reaction is always Dinings. This answer is always met with the same response - "Where? What about Zuma? Or Nobu? Or Umu?" Nope, as much as I love all three, there is something nice about the utilitarian approach of Dinings, where one gets the impression, that this place is serious about their food. There is little in the way of atmosphere, and the decor is bland, although service is perfectly acceptable. 

Da Mario- a neighbourhood find

Good neighbourhood restaurants aren't easy to find at the best of times. In Central London, its a bloody nightmare. In Covent Garden I assumed it wouldn't be possible. Surprisingly, I found one.  Da Mario is an unassuming little place, from the outside and from the inside, but with an almost perfect Urbanspoon rating, it seemed to be worth a shot. 

St Moritz - Where a fondue is a fondue

Last Tuesday, The Boyfriend and I, attempted to go to MeatLiquor, only to find out they had run out of hamburgers. How this happens in a restaurant dedicated to burgers, I'm not sure. Disappointed, freezing and starving, we headed to Soho, hoping to head to one of the many great reservation-less restaurants. Instead of heading to our usual haunts (Princi, Barrafina, Polpetto etc.) we ended up at St. Moritz, a place I'd wandered past at least a dozen or so times and always been intrigued by . It turned out to be the solution to all our problems that night. For just over an hour we left London and ended up in Switzerland, in a kitsch, rustic chalet. Everything, seemed authentically swiss including the music, but thankfully not the wine.

Barrafina

Whoever said you can't change a person, was wrong. When I first met The Boyfriend,  he knew a grand total of two restaurants,  neither of which took reservations or served food that was unhealthy - Sophie's and Barrafina. The Boyfriend, pre-boyfriend title, was unable to make plans more than three hours in advance, or eat food other than cottage cheese, smoked salmon and blueberries, unless it was only slightly less nutritious. In other words, he was the world's best dinner date. Luckily for our relationship - Barrafina was such a great location for our first dinner date that I didn't mind that no carbs were involved in the whole meal and that he hadn't had to put in any effort. Almost two years later it still serves as "oh-bugger-we-don't-have-a-reservation-for-any-decent-restaurant" - which happens a lot less frequently than 18 months ago. Now of course, he not only knows more than two restaurants, many of which have phone lines, but he primarily eats unhealthy foods.

Providores - Brunch

The Brunch Buddy and I were on a hunt for the best breakfast in London, and over a two month period we visited a significant number of places. We started the experience with Providores. Having visited Kopapa a couple of months earlier and having loved it, I assumed the original Peter Gordon restaurant was to be just as satisfying. In terms of food it was. Providores is situated on Marylebone high street, and divided, as is so fashionable these days, into two parts - the downstairs being more casual and accepting no bookings and the upstairs being a slightly more formal dining room. The Brunch Buddy and I sat upstairs being too lazy and lacking the mental capacity too queue.

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club has been on my “to-eat” list forever - they have four branches, the Soho one not too far away, but always I’ve been put off by the lack of reservations and the threat of the queue. Okay temperature, sunshine, and only a slight hangover made it a feasible option for The Brunch Buddy and I. When we arrived at 11am, the queue outside was already snaking up the street, and we waited about 15 minutes before grabbing a table outside next to the ever growing queue. 

Nizuni

22 Charlotte Street is  an unfortunate address for a sushi restaurant, opposite Roka, the constantly packed and incredibly scene Japanese restaurant. It's a bit like being a normal person forced to stand next to a supermodel in a group picture. In this case the normal person was actually rather good-looking. 

Vapiano - Italian food organized by Germans

It is a dream combination. Italian food, created in an incredibly efficient way. This is what Vapiano is all about. There is no messing about wasting time trying to work out who pays what, as every person is given a card, that they then "charge" food and drinks to at a selection of various stations. Your food is made to order at one of each station whilst you watch (pasta, antipasti), or just collect them (dessert or drinks), or order and get a buzzer (Pizza). It works out perfectly. Each person gets what they want, charged to them and can edit their dish to their particular liking - no basil, no issue, no garlic, no problem. Even better, you can get it to go (their pasta makes a very good breakfast), and their takeaway boxes are perfectly lunch sized Tupperware. In fact, this is possibly one of my favourite casual places to go. It is great place to meet up with old friends, as the lack of service means no-one really cares if you sit there for four hours, as I did last Tuesday.

Christopher's - The Search for Brunch Continues...

Still on the search for the "Best Breakfast in London", and killing time until Wolseley V. 2, Delaunay, shows up in the neighbourhood, The Boyfriend, The Sibling and I checked out Christopher's - an American style grill, that has a mouthwatering brunch menu. Its a fairly upmarket place, occupying two floors of a large building in Covent Garden, with a large dining room. Sadly, no newspapers were offered, and this is not the kind of place that its acceptable to look obviously hungover. Service was unmemorable, everything showed up on time, in the correct place, but nothing special. 

Corner Room

I really didn't want to like the Corner Room. Why? Because the Corner Room is really far away from Covent Garden, and I mean River Cafe far away. A £20 and 30 minute long cab ride each way and this place becomes expensive and time consuming. To be perfectly honest, had The Boyfriend and I not been heading to the East End anyway we probably never would have gone. This would have been a mistake because the Pork with Portugese Bread and Butter Pudding was so worth the journey. 

Nordic Bakery

Soho, cinnamon buns, coffee, cakes and a whole host of other wonderful things.

Vinoteca

I had high hopes for Vinoteca. Its near to my new place of work and I had hoped this would be my "Dear God, I need a drink and some fattening food" place.  Sadly, I don't think this is it. It wasn't that it was bad, it wasn't by any stretch of the imagination, it was just very familiar.

Princi - The Happiest Place on Earth

There is one over riding factor that puts me off visiting a restaurant - a lack of information. Apparently, this is cool at the moment  and seems to be a common  theme with new restaurants, I blame Nuno Mendes and Russel Norman. As a control freak, I hate this. A normal trip to a restaurant is incrediby well researched - I tend to know everything about the place before I show up - I know what I am going to eat, what the place looks like, and roughly how much the experience will cost me.

Meatballs - A Reason to Roll to Farringdon

Okay, so I'm either prophetic, a trendsetter, or just damn lucky. About 2 months ago, following my trip to Istanbul, I wrote a post/ song of praise/ love poem/ letter to God/ alcohol fuellled rant extolling the many virtues of the meatballs as a vehicle for serving meat that can be read here.

La Cave a Fromage

La Cave a Fromage may not seem like the obvious choice for breakfast,  given it is essentially a glorified cheese shop that serves wine, but what a wonderful brunch I had there last week. Most people can't handle wine and cheese first thing in the morning and by first thing I mean noon, luckily my new brunch buddy could. 

Istanbul (2) - Sultanahmet Koftecisi

Our second day in Istanbul involved a trip to the Grand Bazaar. After two hours of wandering around in circles looking at thousands of almost identical scarves, bags, bowls and packets of Turkish tea, The Boyfriend was close to abandoning me alone in the middle of the thing. The final straw came after a ten minute discussion with a store owner about two very similar bracelets, The Boyfriend let out a howl of frustration and it was time to leave. Walking quickly we left the Bazaar, and headed down the main street in Sultanahmet. This was a probably a good thing - my arms were starting to strain under the weight of new purchases as I knew my suitcase would in three days, but hey, at least my wallet was lighter.

 We were headed for Sultanahmet Koftecisi - a 90 year old restaurant specializing in Turkish meatballs. Despite its location in the heat of tourist Istanbul, proximate to the Blue mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Cisterna, this was by no means a tourist trap. Reassuringly, there were mainly locals, and a distinct lack of catering for English speakers.

da Polpo

The Boyfriend's move to Covent Garden three months ago was easily the best decision ever. Not only do we have Opera Tavern, my new favourite place, Machiavelli and Laduree but now we have da Polpo, yet another Russell Norman restaurant. 

La Fromagerie

I've been dying to go to La Fromagerie for ages. My normal cheese place " La Cave a Fromage", in South Ken, has been seemingly getting further and further away -  a product of my increasing laziness and lack of desire to leave the Holborn/Covent Garden/Mayfair/Marylebone area.  So one day my cheese and wine buddy - The Bestie and I decided to try it out.

Laduree

When I heard Laduree was opening in Covent Garden I almost jumped up and down. It was proof that God does listen to me when I ask for things.  So a Saturday or two after it opened, The Boyfriend and I rolled in to check it out.

Machiavelli

Machiavelli just changed my life. No, I didn't just read the Prince and created a plan to take over the world. Rather I just visited for the second time the new Italian/Deli/Takeaway/Store-Selling-Random-Italian-Things-Like-Mugs-and-Cheese place thats moved into Covent Garden called Machiavelli.