City Eating

News: Hix Selfridges, La Dolce Vita & Hawksmoor's Brunch

Hix at Selfridges - Having conquered Clerkenwell and Soho, Mark Hix has transformed the former Gallery Restaurant at Selfridges into a smart restaurant and Champagne bar. The dining room is decorated with art from Tim Webster and Tracey Emin, while the menu features British and European dishes like steak Bearnaise, fish and chips, and farmhouse chicken salad. The restaurant and seafood bar are open for breakfast from 9:30am (Mon-Sat) and the Champagne bar serves fine wine, fizz and small plates like grilled chorizo with Romesco sauce and scrumpy-fried Dublin Bay prawns.

La Dolce Vita - From 11th-14th March, the annual Italian lifestyle event returns to Islington’s Business Design Centre for its sixth year. Whether you’re looking for new holiday destinations, a second home in the sun, or just some great food and wine, you’re in luck here. For food fans, there are celeb chef demos and tastings from some of Italy’s top artisan producers, as well as authentic pizzas from Made in Italy, Giovanni Rana pasta and signature dishes from Theo Randall. Book your tickets online now.

Hawksmoor’s Brunch - You love their steaks. You crave their burgers. Now, try their breakfast. From March 13th, the Hawksmoor will be open from 11am (with last orders for lunch at 4pm) serving seriously meaty weekend treats. Go for steak and eggs, a full roast dinner, or their secret weapon – the Sausage & Egg HkMuffin, which is a flat sausage (made from pork, beef and mutton) topped with cheese and two fried eggs inside a toasted muffin. The Full English is big enough for two to share and includes a bone-in bacon chop, short rib bubble & squeak, trotter baked beans, Bury black pudding, dripping on toast and more. Wash it all down with a Bloody Mary or a whisky-laced hot chocolate. Check out these sneak preview photos from Eat Like A Girl and Will Eat For Money.

Mad Hatter’s Tea - To celebrate the release of Alice in Wonderland, the Sanderson Hotel will be serving a cute and quirky afternoon tea in their beautiful Courtyard Garden until the end of March. Priced at £20 per person (or £26 with Champagne), it includes whimsical treats like multicoloured sandwiches, exploding mint choc chip ice-cream lollipops, and Queen of Hearts teacakes. If you don’t fancy the chocolate crackle cupcake surprise, there are traditional scones with lashings of jam and cream on offer too.

The Chocolate Festival - From 26th-28th March, the Southbank Centre will be transformed into a chocoholic’s paradise with plenty to see, taste and buy. The much-loved Choc Star van will be in attendance, as well as top chocolatiers like William Curley, Rococo, Artisan du Chocolat, and many more. Hungry? Tuck into churros, pancakes, pretzels, and chocolate cocktails.

New To London-Eating - The Orchard (British bistro in Brockley); Mamuska! (Polish canteen in Elephant & Castle); Golden Day (Hunanese on Shaftesbury Avenue); and Polo Bar (a 24-hour greasy spoon in the City).

Don’t forget Mother’s Day on March 14th and keep an eye on our New Openings list as we’re expecting Cielo, Petrus and others to open this month.

January News Bites: Burns Night, Burgers & Michelin Stars

Feeling out of the loop after all that festive feasting? Here are some tasty morsels of restaurants news to get you back on track, including the latest openings and some must-try places for your To Do list.

Burns Night– While restaurants like St Pancras Grand and Albannach will be keeping things traditionally Scottish, Min Jiang will be celebrating with an Oriental twist on January 25th. Their ‘Chinese Burns Night’ menu (£55 per head) includes a whisky cocktail, their signature Beijing duck and a haggis dim sum platter.`

Burgers – Byron is set to launch a new 8oz premium burger developed with one of London’s finest butchers, Jack O’Shea. It will be available from Thursday 14th Janaury at their Soho, Chelsea, Kensington and Gloucester Road restaurants.

Michelin Stars – The Michelin guide will award its UK restaurant stars on January 19th and Bloomberg has published predictions from chefs like Jason Atherton, Pierre Koffman and Marcus Wareing. Of the 29 chefs interviewed, 11 tipped The Ledbury for a second star, with L’Anima and Texture also proving popular.

New Openings – Seventeen has brought smart Chinese food (from an ex-Ba Shan chef) to Notting Hill Gate and Chinatown’s Keelung has been rebranded as the Empress of Sichuan. Circus – an ‘entertainment-led’ restaurant – is now serving pan-American food in Covent Garden and Greg Wallace’s café come produce store opens on Thursday (14th Jan) in Putney.

Reopenings – With refurbishment work completed following a fire last year, Benares will reopen on January 18th. The dining room feels warmer and the restaurant now boasts a walk-in wine theatre and chef’s table overlooking the kitchen. Also on the 18th, Avenue will reopen under the leadership of new head chef Mikko Kataja (ex-Launceston Place and Orrery). The menu has been revamped to include modern British dishes like poached brill with leeks and stilton and spiced pear tart.

Hot Venues – The critics have fallen head-over-heels for the retro Brit dishes at Dean Street Townhouse, while Galvin La Chapelle and Kitchen W8 continue to impress our reviewers. Cheap eats are big business this month with Mooli’s winning over the Soho lunch crowd and the new Franco Manca settling comfortably into Chiswick. Tables are still hard to come by at end-of-2009 favourites like Hix, Polpo and Pizza East.

You can plan your culinary adventures for the year ahead with our regularly updated ‘Coming Soon’ list, which now includes Atul Kochhar’s Colony, Petrus, Pollen Street and Chipotle.

Bake & Buy: Celebrating National Cupcake Week

We’re easily influenced when it comes to food holidays. When we heard it was National Chip Week in March, we spent our lunchtimes doing taste tests at our locals – the Fox & Anchor and The Old Red Cow. (The massive crunchy chips at the Fox were the overall winner). We feasted on tender spears during Asparagus Month; went meat-free for National Vegetarian Week; and wisely ignored Caesar Salad Day. What’s next? British Cheese Week, National Chocolate Week, Homemade Bread Day – where will it end?!

But where do these national foodie holidays come from? Who starts them? National Cupcake Week (14th-19th September) seems to be one of the few with a definite origin – in this case, British Baker magazine. On their website, they explain that it’s the first of its kind and it was organised to celebrate the growing popularity of cupcakes in the UK. Well, fair enough – we didn’t really need an excuse to eat cupcakes but we’re happy to join in.

If your baking skills aren’t up to scratch, you can get your cupcake fix at the Primrose Bakery in Covent Garden; Hummingbird Bakery; and the ever-fabulous Bea’s of Bloomsbury. Bea’s goodies – including her blondies, brownies and marshmallows – are now available at Selfridges so you can stock up on calories and couture in one place.

Luckily for us, the city-eating baking goddess took home Jamie’s America this week and made enough red velvet cupcakes to feed an army. Don’t they look great? The unusual addition of bicarb and white wine vinegar made the deep red sponge deliciously light and airy, while the lemon and cream cheese icing was good enough to eat by the spoonful. We’ll be trying out some of Saint Jamie’s savoury recipes over the weekend so stay tuned for a full review.

Bea’s Of Bloomsbury Fights Malaria With Cupcakes

From today until Sunday (30th Aug), one of London’s loveliest cafes is offering a yummy way to help stamp out malaria in Africa.

For every box of six cupcakes purchased this week, Bea’s of Bloomsbury will donate money to Baraka Community Partnerships to buy one mosquito net for a household in Zambia. It’s estimated that a child dies every second from malaria in Africa and with nets costing just a few quid, there is no reason so many families have to worry about this deadly disease.

Bea’s home-made cupcakes are incredibly popular amongst London’s foodies so head for Theobald’s Road and help make Zambia a safer, healthier place. Why not treat your kids or colleagues? If you need more inspiration, you can check out the daily-changing menu of sweet and savoury snacks on the Bea’s of Bloomsbury website.

Chain Reaction: New Branches For Old Favourites

Even London’s adventurous eaters like a bit of familiarity. (Have you ever seen an empty Starbucks or Pizza Express?) Maybe that’s why new branches of popular chains have been popping up across the City. Some are more inspiring than others, but each has its place and most are likely to outlive some of the more unusual openings we’ve seen this year. If you want to stick to what you know this weekend, here are some new branches of old favourites for you to try:

Tike - Turkish restaurant chain Tike have opened their first restaurant, bar and grill in London. They have 18 restaurants across Turkey and 5 in Europe but despite the expansion their food and service standards have remained high. The London branch is located next to Fenchurch Street station and will be offering charcoal grilled dishes and traditional Turkish fare.

Napket (Piccadilly) – The fourth and largest branch of Napket recently opened in Piccadilly Circus and is the first location to offer table service for breakfast, dinner and afternoon tea. At lunchtime, it’s a self-service eat-in or take-out affair and, despite the sleek décor and glam website, it’s essentially a posh Pret-a-Manger offering quality soups, salads and sandwiches. You can order wine in the evening, though, so it might be worth a try as a post-shopping hang-out.

Natural Kitchen (City) – Another new kitchen, this time in the New Street Square development between High Holborn and Fleet Street. Like the original in Marylebone, it’s part food-store, part feel-good café with an emphasis on free-range, organic...you know the rest. On the menu, the tapas dishes seem a bit pricey at £4.95 each but we like the look of the buttermilk pancakes and NK eggs for brunch!

Villandry Kitchen – Following the success of the original Villandry on Great Portland Street, the team have now opened a slick all-day eatery in Holborn. Comprising bar, bistrot and charcuterie counter; Villandry Kitchen serves breakfast, Provencale-style pizzas (really?), and French classics like steak frites and Croque Monsieur. It’s most likely to appeal to the business lunch crowd but we’re not sure it will draw foodies away from Holborn’s more interesting ethnic eateries.

Masala Zone (Bayswater) – Ok, it’s not the most authentic Indian food you’ll ever eat in London but it’s cheap, it’s fast and it’s pretty reliable. The new site in Bayswater used to be a bank but is now a bright and airy curry canteen promising to feed diners for under £15 a head.

Coming Soon: Look out for The Orange – a new Pimlico eatery from the people behind The Thomas Cubitt and The Pantechnicon; more healthy Pod sites, another Grand Union venue in Kilburn, and the Covent Garden izakaya branch of Hi Sushi Salsa. More about that last one later…

city-eating Food News Round-Up

It's been a busy month in the city-eating office so we thought we'd share the fruits of our labour with you. Here's a bit of light reading to keep you entertained this weekend.

Restaurants we’ve added recently:

- Keelung – Geoffrey Leong’s new Taiwanese tapas joint in Chinatown
- The Palm – American-style steakhouse with hefty prices in Belgravia
- Gallery Mess – Chic new café at the Saatchi Gallery
- Noto Kikuya – Formerly Singapura, now a Japanese restaurant on Leadenhall Street
- National Geographic Café – Small plates and mini Wagyu burgers on Regent Street
- Eastside Inn – Bjorn van der Horst’s new bistro and restaurant on St John Street
- Others: Viva Zapata, Turkuaz, Chais Nous, The Compass, Coast Dining.

Have we missed somewhere new? Let us know!

What we’ve been reading:

- Hardens scoop on the new location of Petrus – just down the road from Marcus Wareing!
- Gourmet Chick’s foodie adventures in Iceland
- News of Alan Yau’s Miami branch of Hakkasan
- Douglas Blyde’s interview with Francesco Mazzei (L’Anima)
- London Eater’s experience of good oysters and shockingly bad service at Bentley’s
- Hsa*ba – A delicious Burmese food blog. (We’re definitely ordering the book!)
- Qype’s guide to London’s weirdest restaurants
- World Foodie Guide’s recipe for Sichuan wontons – yum!

What we’ve been eating:

In May, we ate lots of Japanese skewered goodies at Tosa; feasted on Malaysian food at Rasa Sayang and Sedap; and got our daily coffee and brownie fix at dose. In the last few weeks, we’ve had excellent meals at The Pembroke in Earls Court, Ba Shan in Soho and Keelung – the hot new Taiwanese street food restaurant in Chinatown. Check out our photos here.

Our restaurant ‘To Do’ list is growing by the day and we’re hoping to visit Caponata (the new Sicilian restaurant in Camden) and No. 20 for afternoon tea this month. We’d love some more recommendations, though, so if there’s a hidden gem or a must-try restaurant in your area, please let us know. Just leave a comment or email us here.

Quo Vadis’ First Birthday & New Al Fresco Tables

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since Sam and Eddie Hart relaunched Soho stalwart Quo Vadis. It’s had rave reviews from diners, bloggers and critics alike, with Michael Winner declaring it ‘the new Ivy’ and the notoriously harsh AA Gill awarding it 4/5 in his review.

The restaurant unveiled its new al fresco dining area last week, offering Soho’s dining elite the chance to enjoy fine food and people watching in the sunshine. Open from midday until 10:30pm, guests can enjoy classic dishes like crab mayonnaise and octopus and chorizo salad. Bar snacks like scotch eggs, pork pies or crisp pig's skin will also be on offer, alongside a new cocktail list created by bar manager Paul Mant and his team. We love the Nettle Fizz – a summery blend of Bombay Sapphire gin, lemon juice, QV English Nettle cordial and an egg white, shaken, strained and topped with soda and Crème de Mure.

If you can’t bag a table this week, why not try one of the Hart brothers’ tapas restaurants – Fino or Barrafina?

Celeb Masterchef Winner Serves Up Free Lunch In The City

Next Tuesday (April 21st), Celebrity Masterchef winner and soon-to-be solo star Liz McClarnon will be providing London’s city slickers with a well-deserved credit crunch lunch.

At 11:45am, Broadgate Circle in the heart of the City will be transformed into a fine dining restaurant – complete with string quartet, personal waiter service and traditional British food prepared by Liz and her team of experienced chefs. The menu will include some of the nation’s best loved dishes, including cottage pie and sausage and mash.

There’s no need to book and there’s no catch – it’s totally free! However, if you enjoyed your lunch and are feeling a little generous, remember to tip your waiter. All proceeds raised will go to the housing and homelessness charity, Shelter, who are supporting the event.

The nearest station to Broadgate Circle is Liverpool Street and here’s a link to a map of the area. Don't be late!

Fed Up Of Fake Pizzas? Try The Real Deal At Rossopomodoro

The managing director of the Rossopomodoro pizza chain is so fed up with Londoners eating unauthentic pizzas that he has launched a ‘pizza amnesty’ at his restaurants in Chelsea, Notting Hill and Covent Garden.

Simone Falco said, “Let’s face it, the quality of most pizzas in the UK is abysmal, they are nothing like real Italian pizza and companies should stop claiming that they are. It's pulling the wool over the eyes of the UK consumer."

The amnesty will allow customers to trade their supermarket ‘fakes’ for an authentic Neapolitan pizza at any of the Rosspomodoro restaurants. All of the ingredients used in their pizzas are imported from Naples, including the water for the dough, and they are made by chefs who are specially trained in the art of traditional Neapolitan pizza making.

The pizza amnesty will run until Wednesday 6th May (Monday-Wednesday only) in exchange for any pizza on the main menu. We recommend the Vesuvio, topped with buffalo ricotta, mozzarella, Neapolitan salami and their homemade tomato sauce. Delicious!

Dine In Devon: Enjoy A Taste Of Sicily At Loyton Lodge

This Spring, the beautiful countryside retreat, Loyton Lodge, is embracing the warmth of the Mediterranean with a ‘Taste of Sicily’ weekend devoted to the food, wine and flavours of this historic Italian region. From Friday 24th to Sunday 26th April, Fabrizia Lanza (owner of the renowned Anna Tasca Lanza Sicilian cookery school) will join Julian Chamberlen of Goedhuis & Co vintners at the stunning 300 acre Devonshire estate to treat guests to a memorable introduction to the best of Sicilian food and wine.

The weekend will include cookery classes and demonstrations; wine tastings and master classes; informal discussions on the terroir, culture and history of Sicily; and relaxed lunches and dinners featuring the produce and wines guests will learn about throughout the weekend. Traditional Loyton Lodge activities including clay pigeon shooting are also included for those wishing to incorporate country pursuits in their weekend’s itinerary.

Fabrizia will teach guests how to make pasta, foccacia bread and robust Sicilian sauces, as well as techniques like candying and preserving. She will also be offering tastings of the produce of the region including ricotta, pecorino, pistachios and almonds. Guests will create Sicilian treats to take home with them and be treated to Fabrizia’s famous Cassata Siciliana (a popular sweet from the Palermo area). Julian will share his expert knowledge of Italian and Sicilian wines. He will introduce guests to Sicily’s complex and earthy wines and distinctive Marsalas, including those from Fabrizia’s own family wine estate, Regaleali.

Isobel Barnes, director of Loyton Lodge, said: “My love affair with Sicily began when I travelled to the region many years ago. Our first Taste of Sicily weekend brings together two of the most knowledgeable wine and food experts of the region. Guests can get as involved as they wish in the weekend’s activities, whether it’s foraging for the season’s first wild garlic with Fabrizia or simply booking a massage and putting their feet up to take a well earned siesta after lunch.”

A delicious four-course dinner on Saturday night promises to be the highlight of the weekend. The four course menu prepared by Fabrizia will have Sicilian wines chosen by Julian to accompany each course, with a brief introduction to each one. The dinner is open by invitation to outside guests. 

The price of A Taste of Sicily weekend is £585 per person or £1015 per couple sharing a double room. The price includes accommodation, food, wine, tuition and clay pigeon shooting. A percentage of the profits generated from the weekend will be donated to the victims of the L'Aquila earthquake disaster.

If you can’t get out of the city this month, why not try some of London’s popular Sicilian restaurants? We recommend Sardo (off Tottenham Court Road); Adesso in Richmond; Vigata in Islington; and Il Siciliano (Soho).