City Eating

Now Open: TOZI, Bird of Smithfield, Stories, The Pearson Room & More

TOZI – We’ve heard great things about this new Italian eatery in Victoria – even Fay Maschler was impressed. Head chef Maurilio Molteni (ex-Shoreditch House) and his all-Italian kitchen team are serving impressive Venetian-inspired sharing plates, pizzettas, and imported Italian cheeses and salumi (pictured above). There’s Prosecco on tap (so hot right now), Italian wines and liqueurs, and cocktails priced at £8. We like the sound of the ‘Vatican Secrets’ – a punchy mix of Cazadores Blanco Tequila, agave nectar, lime juice, mint and chilli. Insider tip: If you book a table between 5 and 7pm and quote ‘Pre Theatre’, you can enjoy a Bellini on the house.

Bird of Smithfield – After fifteen years as head chef at The Ivy, chef Alan Bird has opened his own restaurant on the former site of 26 Smithfield. It’s spread over five floors with a ground floor lounge bar, first floor dining room serving British dishes ‘with a twist’, and a private dining space with an open kitchen above that. Drinkers can sip cocktails created by the team from Purl in the basement Birdcage bar or, if the weather’s nice, head for the rooftop terrace which overlooks Smithfield Market. Don't miss the crispy monkfish cheeks on the bar snacks menu.

Stories – The Mothership Group (the brains behind the Queen of Hoxton and The Book Club) have opened a new bar on Broadway Market. It’s a light and airy laid-back space which will give local creatives and freelance-types somewhere to meet, eat and work. Open from 10am to midnight, the bar serves brunch throughout the day and then bar snacks like arancini and piri piri squid and prawns from 5pm until midnight. There’s a decent list of draught and bottled beers, wallet-friendly wines, and a list of interesting cocktails which are good value at under £8 each.

The Pearson Room – If you live or work in the Wharf, you’ve probably noticed this slick new all-day eatery on Canada Square. There’s a good-looking breakfast menu, a wine list put together by Trishna sommelier Sunaina Sethi, and cocktails created by Victor Matos (ex-Soho House) in collaboration with the team from Purl. The main menu includes dishes like diver scallops with n’duja and gremolata, lamb cutlets with caponata, Pearson mac ‘n’ cheese with pig cheeks, and a lobster club sandwich. As a soft opening bonus, they’re offering 25% off your bill until May 11th.

Also open: Egyptian takeaway concept Koshari and Homeslice Pizza in Covent Garden; Oblix at The Shard; Daisy Green organic café in Marylebone;  The Crown & Shuttle pub in Shoreditch; swanky seafood joint, Kaspar’s, at The Savoy; and American bistro Red House. Find out more by keeping an eye on our New Openings and Coming Soon lists.

Top Chefs Go Head To Head At The Gun’s Slider Decider

On May 16th, some of the UK’s finest chefs will gather at The Gun in Docklands to take part in a slider cook-off. They will be pitting their skills against The Gun’s head chef, Quinton Bennett, and battling to be named ‘Slider Decider Champion 2013’. The competitors will fight it out in front of the judges from 6.30pm in The Gun’s recently revamped outside space overlooking the Thames.

Here are just a handful of the finalists and the sliders they are submitting:

 Capish, a fantastic newcomer to the street food scene, have submitted their meatball marinara slider with Provolone cheese and Italian pickled peppers in a polenta-crusted roll.
 Opera Tavern have entered their now legendary Iberico pork and foie gras mini-burger, with a new offal twist.
 Duck & Waffle are dishing up a harissa spiced mutton slider with charred tomato jam and lime crème fraiche.
 The Ship in Wandsworth are keeping it simple with a 100% beef slider with cheese and pickled cucumber (pictured).
 Tsuru have put forward their new chicken karaage burger.
 Sushinho City have gone all out with a decadent Wagyu beef slider with Comte cheese and onions in a wasabi bun.
 Original Fry-Up Material will be serving a Brunchfast slider - free-range sausages, quail’s egg, English muffin, American cheese and ‘Full English’ sauce.
 The team behind the Check On pop-ups have created The Captain Blackbeard – confit chicken wing, butter-poached langoustine tails and tarragon mayo in a bamboo charcoal bun.

You can check out the full list of competitors and their creations here.

Tickets cost £10 and include a bottle of beer and two sliders (one cheeseburger, one pulled pork with jalapeno relish), as well as the chance to try some of the contestants’ signature slider creations. Booking ahead is essential so secure your tickets today by calling 020 7515 5222 or emailing vanessa@thegundocklands.com.

Five Ways To Eat Well In April

 New Openings – April is a busy month! Beagle is already up and running in Hoxton and Kimchee have just launched their new takeaway concept on the Strand. Jason Atherton will open his third London restaurant, Social Eating House, this month and Alan Bird (ex-The Ivy) will open a five-storey venue (complete with basement bar and roof terrace) in Smithfield on the 29th. If all goes well, London will have a British brasserie in King’s Cross, a small plates joint in Canary Wharf, great pizza in Covent Garden, and Brazilian street food in Soho before the end of the month.

From April 16th-28th The Jam Tree’s Chelsea and Clapham restaurants are bringing the spirit of New Orleans to London with a Jambalaya pop-up. Executive Chef James Browne has travelled throughout New Orleans and will be recreating classics like blackened Creole hanger steak, deep-fried catfish tails with slaw and hot sauce, Louisiana crab cakes, Southern fried chicken, and – of course – jambalaya. With cocktails, live Dixieland jazz and NOLA funk DJs to look forward to, The Jam Tree should definitely be on your radar this month.

Roti Chai Chaat Shack & Bar – After a successful four-day pop-up last year, Roti Chai are bringing their shack back to Southbank for a month. You can find them in the ‘Festival Village’ space under Queen Elizabeth Hall until April 26th. Drop by for Indian street food buns filled with smoked tandoori chicken, smashed Punjabi pea and potato samosa, or Keralan spiced pulled pork. In the evening, the shack will serve Kingfisher beer and some of Roti Chai’s unique cocktails.

Each weekend in April, The Hideaway in Tufnell Park is hosting an indoor Picnic pop-up to get locals in the mood for summer. Swing by on a Saturday night for some British tapas or cure your hangover with their Sunday brunch menu which includes pancakes, smoothies and a Full English. On Sunday evenings, you can tuck into homemade burgers, roast chicken and chorizo Scotch eggs while the DJs spin laid-back weekend tunes. Places are limited, so book now!

The Peko Peko Kitchen team have moved into the kitchen at The Pipeline near Liverpool Street so that locals can enjoy their street food indoors with a drink or two.  At lunchtime, you can pick up a katsu curry, bowl of yakisoba or chicken rice bowl for about a fiver, while in the evening the menu expands to include things like gyoza, tempura fish and chips, and a teriyaki burger. Check out the full menus and info on their Facebook page.

Still hungry? Check out this great list of April pop-ups on the ilovecakeandtea blog.

Coming Soon: Little Social, Koya, Kimchee To Go And Lots More

Restaurants opening in March:

 Little Social – Jason Atherton will open a small neighbourhood bistro opposite Pollen Street Social in Mayfair on March 18th. The interior is inspired by the bistros of Franch with oxblood banquettes, Parisian tables and vintage frames. The simple French menu will include dishes like slow-cooked egg with parmesan and squash soup, roast mushrooms and croutons; pork chop with butternut squash puree, pine nut, pecorino and endive; and goat’s milk rice pudding.
 TOZI - Due to open in Victoria in the next few weeks, TOZI boasts a 15-strong all-Italian kitchen team led by Maurilio Molteni (ex-Shoreditch House) and Daniele Pampagnin (ex-Cecconi’s). There will be Prosecco on tap, barrel-aged Negronis, and a menu of Venetian cicchetti, charcuterie and cheese platters, and dishes from their wood burning oven.
 3 Cromwell Road – The venue formerly known as Dorsia will reopen on March 22nd with a new ground floor cocktail bar and a basement club. The first floor restaurant, The Drawing Room, will serve one dish – steak frites with a choice of three salads and dressings.
 The Chabrot Bistrot team are rumoured to be opening a restaurant on Long Lane in late March. It’s believed that Chabrot Smithfield will take over the former Le Saint Julien site.
 Simply Fish will open a new restaurant at the Shoreditch Boxpark on March 20th.
 Street food heroes Homeslice Pizza will open a 50-seater restaurant in Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden, in late March. It will open every day from noon and will serve five types of pizza (a classic Margherita and four daily changing options). Takeaways will be available by the slice or whole pie.

Coming Soon:

Koya’s owner, John Devitt, has confirmed that they are opening a second noodle bar in Soho in mid-May. The new restaurant is right next door to Koya on the former site of Mooli’s, which closed recently but will apparently reopen somewhere in the City later this year. The new sister site will have room for just 25 diners but could be a useful overflow space for the ever-busy udon bar.

Following the success of their Holborn restaurant, the Kimchee team are launching a Korean takeaway concept in London this April. The first site will open on the Strand on April 8th, followed by a second store on New Oxford Street on April 22nd. Kimchee To Go will offer traditional Korean rice porridge (juk), a range of mix-your-own bibimbaps, Korean ‘sushi’ kimbap rolls, bento-style dosirak boxes, salads and noodle soups.

Silvena Rowe has parted ways with her first restaurant, Quince at the May Fair Hotel, and plans to launch a high street chain serving Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean food this autumn. Rowe told Caterer that the Ottoman Café chain will be ‘the Wagamama of Middle Eastern food’ and that she is currently looking at two sites – one in Soho and one in Knightsbridge.

Can’t wait? Check out our list of recently opened restaurants or give us a shout on twitter if you need some new London hot spots to try.

Chicken Five Ways For February

Roost Residency – From February 4th, the Roost street food truck will settle into Soho for a two month residency at The Sun & 13 Cantons. The Roost restaurant will open for lunch (Mon-Fri 12-3pm) and dinner (Mon-Sat 6-10pm). If you’ve tried their buttermilk fried chicken and chicken and chorizo burgers at Real Food Fest and Red Market, you can now enjoy it indoors with sides like fried potatoes in chicken gravy, pickled slaw and mushroom croquettes. The menu will also include new dishes like a chicken Caesar burger, a grilled chicken salad with butternut squash, livers with rye toast, and wings with chipotle ketchup. You can call ahead for a takeaway on 020 7734 0934.

Kimchi Cult – Following the success of the Mother Flipper residency, The Black Heart in Camden have persuaded another London food truck to come in from the cold. Kimchi Cult will be serving their unique Korean-inspired street food on Wednesday and Thursday evenings (5-10pm) and from noon until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. They're in-house until February 16th. Their kick-ass kimchi burger is on the menu but it was the dalk galbi chicken version that impressed The Picky Glutton and Thrillist recently. It's a £6 bargain so you can splash out on sides like Korean fried chicken wings or bulgogi fries topped with steak, sesame seeds and spring onions.

Thank Cluck - The Thank Cluck team are a relatively new addition to the London street food scene but they've already impressed chicken lovers at Camden Brewery, Netil Market and The White Horse in Hoxton. They're taking over the kitchen at The Dalston Victoria every Monday in February and serving proper fried chicken, spicy Korean wings and chicken buns. Locals can look forward to weekly specials like buttermilk biscuits with honey butter, mini chicken kievs, tornado potatoes and the occasional offal offering.

Tsuru’s Kara-age Burger - Tsuru’s London restaurants are well known for serving excellent sushi and London’s best katsu curry, but did you know they also do chicken kara-age? (Japan’s answer to fried chicken). This month, they will be launching a brand new kara-age burger (pictured below) and giving away the first 50 for free to Tsuru Loyalty Card holders. Keep an eye on their twitter feed and in store for details of when you can get your hands on one.

Gizzi At The Disco - Gizzi Erskine and Carl Clarke are hooking up for a night of deep-fried debauchery at Disco Bistro on Saturday 9th February. The menu is a junk food adventure, starting with 'snax' of chicken fried popcorn, fried chicken skin and chicken salt. The main event is Gizzi's buttermilk fried chicken wings (sticky, Korean and BBQ) and a fried chicken thigh roll with avocado, latkes, pickled onions and chipotle. It might be tempting to fill up on extras like chicken fat fries and head and trotter beans, but it's worth saving room for Carl's custard doughnuts with rhubarb curd and sherbet. Tickets are £35 per head (sittings at 6.30 and 9pm, includes 3 courses and a welcome cocktail) and can only be booked over the phone (07850 630 129).

Still hungry for chicken? Try one of London’s fowl-focused restaurants. If you like things simple and tasty, try the fuss-free but flavour-packed rotisserie chicken at Chicken Shop in Kentish Town or Clockjack Oven in Soho. For something a little different, head south to Brixton Market and try out the feisty double-fried Korean wings and tangy Thai thighs at Wishbone. Their classic fried chicken and sides like the Hot Mess are worth a try too.

If you're heading east, don't forget that Spit & Roast are still serving all kinds of chicken-based delights at The Princess Alice on Commercial Street. They're in the kitchen on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings (6-11pm) and Sunday lunchtimes.

News Bites: Forza Win, Red Market, The Malt House & More

Their fabulous fonduta evenings have sadly come to an end but the Forza Win team will be back this summer with more rooftop pizza events. If you’re tired of your usual haunts, an evening spent sipping cocktails, eating proper pizza and watching the sun set over the City comes highly recommended. The team are also working on a top secret project that will be announced soon, so keep an eye on their twitter feed  and sign up to their mailing list for details. If you’ve never been to one of their pop-ups, check out the Forza Win(ter) video below to see what you’re missing out on.

Forza Winter - The Final Chapter from Forza Win on Vimeo.

Chef Claude Bosi (Hibiscus) and his brother Cedric have opened their second London gastropub. Following the success of The Fox & Grapes in Wimbledon, their new venture – The Malt House – is situated close to Fulham Broadway. Marcus McGuiness (former head chef at Hibiscus) has put together a menu of modern British dishes like rib of beef cooked in hay, Devonshire crab gratin and a mutton and apricot hot pot. The pub also offers a great value set lunch menu of two courses for £17.50 or three for £19.50 and a childrens' menu for local foodies-in-training.

Red Market is back with a bang in Shoreditch this month. Under the care of Burger Bear Tom, the street food hub will be open Wednesday to Friday from 11 to 5pm, with more dates being added as the summer approaches. With help from social marketing app HitMeUp, Tom and Red Gallery are hoping to transform the urban wasteland into a community space where locals can indulge in some of London’s finest street food, surrounded by cutting edge art installations and graffiti. In February, the resident Burger Bear will be joined by street food heroes like Fleisch Mob, Pasta e Basta and The Bell & Brisket and there are rumours that The Rib Man, Mother Flipper, Dosa Deli and The Flying Squid will join him later in the year.

Chef Ravinder Bhogal (author of Cook in Boots) is hosting Saturday night supperclubs at the South Place Hotel throughout February. The ‘Fork Me Spoon Me’ suppers will be priced at £65 per person (wine pairings available as an added extra) and you can book by calling 020 3215 1270. The menu will change every week but guests can look forward to dishes like caramel quail with buckwheat noodle and banana blossom salad, braised venison with saffron risotto and salami crumbs, and Turkish delight semifreddo.

From Feb 1st, East London’s first pop-up rum cocktail bar will settle into the basement of Off Broadway. With help from Appleton Estate Rum, PortSide Parlour will serve classic rum-based drinks and hot sharing cocktails in a candlelit ‘captain’s quarters’ inspired lounge. The bar will also offer a Davy Jones’ locker system which will allow guests to buy their favourite bottle of rum and keep it in a locker with a vintage name tag around the neck. Each time you visit, you will be served from your own bottle at no extra charge.

Monday Supper Clubs At Roti Chai

To celebrate their first birthday, Roti Chai is hosting a series of Monday evening supper clubs in their downstairs dining room. Owner Rohit Chugh and his team have trialled hundreds of dishes and put together menus that showcase some of India’s finest seasonal and regional specialties.

Tonight’s menu (19th November) is inspired by the home-style dishes cooked by Indian mothers all over the world. Guests can look forward to dishes like Keralan fish curry, pork vinha d’alhos (a Goan dish of slow-cooked pork belly with a hot and tangy sauce), and ‘Masala Mac’ – Indian-style spiced mac ‘n’ cheese, one of Rohit's childhood favourites.

In December, the menus will be inspired by festive dishes from the Christian regions of India, such as Keralan duck roast with 'Kappu Puzhukku' (spiced cassava mash). A real winter warmer!

Priced at £19 for 2 courses and £22 for 3, the supper club evenings are a wallet-friendly treat in the run up to Christmas. The restaurant is tucked away behind Selfridges on Oxford Street, so it’s perfect for a post-shopping pit stop. Call Roti Chai for details or to book your table. Don’t miss out!

Yalla Yalla Launches Shoreditch Pop-Up

Following the success of their Southbank shack this summer, Lebanese street food specialists Yalla Yalla are launching a six-month pop-up in Shoreditch from late November.

The pop-up is alfresco, although diners will be safe from the elements underneath a canopy with heaters and cushioned seating. There will be Lebanese lounge music and shisha, as well as belly dancers and DJs at the weekend.

The menu will offer some of Yalla Yalla’s popular mezze dishes like man’ouche lahme (oven-baked flatbreads topped with spiced minced lamb), samboussek jibne (pastry filled with feta, halloumi and mint), and falafel with garlic yoghurt sauce. Diners can also look forward to wraps with fillings like chicken shawarma and soujoc (charcoal grilled Lebanese sausages) and a selection of dips, sides, salads and pastries to eat on-site or takeaway.

A short list of Lebanese wines and beers will be available, alongside fresh juices and signature cocktails like the Cherry Chilli Caipirinha and Beirut Sangria.

The pop-up will be at 186 Shoreditch High Street and will be open seven days a week from 11am until late. Stay tuned for the official launch date. In the meanwhile, you can visit Yalla Yalla’s restaurants in Soho and Winsley Street and their kiosk in King’s Cross station.

London Cocktail Week 2012 - Plan Your Bar Crawls With Our Map

From Monday 8th to Sunday 14th October,  London Cocktail Week returns to the capital for seven days of drink-fuelled debauchery. This year the LCW hub will be based in the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden but there will be tastings, masterclasses, parties and more at bars all over London. You can pop into the Ketel One hub at 15 Shorts Gardens to pick up your wristband, get drink-making tips from the experts, and plan your cocktail adventures with the LCW team.

The £4 wristband entitles you to exclusive £4 cocktails at some of London’s finest bars, including newcomers like Dabbous, Dach & Sons, and The Lucky Pig. On our handy Google map, we’ve plotted each bar with their address and the spirit they will be using in their LCW cocktail. If you need restaurant recs along the way, you can ask us on twitter (@londoneating).

View London Cocktail Week 2012 in a larger map

The LCW events are guaranteed to sell out so sign up fast. Here are a handful of our ‘top picks’:

• The Bourbon Empire – A pop up bar on Tavistock Street hosted by Buffalo Trace. Free entry to bourbon tastings and masterclasses plus £4 cocktails for wristband-wearers.
• Mini Ginstitute – Create your own bespoke gin with gin instructor Jake F Burger. (£45)
• Old Fashioned Night  - Bar Nightjar have teamed up with Woodford Reserve to bring a taste of the Deep South to Old Street. Old Fashioned cocktails will be sold at reduced prices all night and from around 9.30pm there will be a  4-piece bluegrass band. (Free)
• Smatt’s Rum & Ice-Cream Shack – A pop-up rum and ice-cream cocktail bar on Monmouth Street. Free rum tastings, masterclasses and live blues throughout the week.
• Talisker, Stout & Oyster pairing at Worship Street Whistling Shop. (£12)

Don’t forget, wristband-wearers can jump aboard the London Cocktail Week Routemaster for free rides to Shoreditch and Notting Hill and back again. The bus leaves Centre Point at 7pm and 9pm each day and there will be Lovoka vodka liqueur cocktails available on board.

Find out more on the London Cocktail Week website and on twitter @LDNCocktailWeek.

Coming Soon: House Of Wolf, Bibigo, Caravan King's Cross & More

Caravan King’s Cross – Following the success of the Exmouth Market original, Caravan King’s Cross will open in the Grade II-listed Granary Building on August 13th. An on-site coffee roastery will supply the restaurant and coffee bar with seasonally changing espresso blends and a ‘retail wall’ will sell their various beans and blends. The restaurant itself will feature an open kitchen and seating for 80 inside and 40 out on the terrace. Like the original, it will serve a menu of ‘food well-travelled’, from breakfast and weekend brunch through to lunch and dinner.

Draft House Charlotte – On August 14th, the latest addition to Draft House family will open at 43 Goodge Street, on the corner of Charlotte Street. The new venue is the fifth Draft House to open in London and the first in the West End. Like its siblings, it will serve an impressive range of cask and keg beers and a menu of hearty pub grub. The lunch and dinner menu will include Draft House classics like foot-long scratchings, the Meat Bomb, and the hamburger specials – The Yolk, The Smoke and The Poke. Fitzrovia locals can also swing by for breakfast dishes like avocado, chilli and lime on toast or Cumberland sausage baps.

Bibigo – Korean restaurant chain, Bibigo, will open its first European restaurant in Soho on September 1st. The menu, created by Masterchef Korea judge Leo Kang, promises fresh, healthy and authentic Korean food with a focus on the country’s national dish – bibimbap. The rice-based dishes are topped with meat, egg, vegetables and chilli paste and will be assembled to order by the Bibigo team. The restaurant will also offer grilled dishes like beef bulgogi and a selection of Korean snacks and sauces that diners can buy to use at home. (Bibigo is currently soft open with 20% off food until August 4th and then 10% off until it opens fully in September.)

Naamyaa Café – Restaurateur Alan Yau will open a modern Bangkok style café at the Angel Building in Islington this October. Naamyaa will be open all day and the menu will offer a mix of ‘Siam heritage classics, Bangkok street food and Western café staples’. The name refers to a sauce that is cooked in traditional terracotta pots and eaten with fresh rice noodles. These dishes will feature heavily on the menu. The restaurant’s interior, designed by David Archer, will feature rustic Thai bricks, Siamese decorative tiles and modern Perspex and LED lighting.

House of Wolf – In October, the team behind Madame Geisha in Brighton will open a three- storey Victorian drinking den on Upper Street. Cocktail lovers can get their fix in the Apothecary Bar which will serve ‘experimental elixirs’ inspired by Victorian recipes and made using cutting edge mixology techniques. The ground floor Music Hall will host a mix of vaudeville cabaret, performance theatre, literary salons and dance parties. House of Wolf will also host monthly pop-up chef residencies, showcasing some of the UK’s most exciting culinary talents. Guests can dine in the opulent Attic Room or the Parlour – an elegant dining room decked out with vintage chandeliers and bespoke hand-printed fabrics.