City Eating

Festive Foodie Dates For Your Diary

Forza Win(ter) – Following the success of their pizza pop-ups this summer, the Forza Win team are back with a rooftop fonduta supperclub for the winter months. With the help of huge sharing tables, vintage rugs and fairy lights, they’ve turned an East London roof space into the perfect cosy setting for an evening of Northern Italian style fondue. Alongside the pots of bubbling cheese, they’ll be serving Ginger Pig meats, seasonal British veg, fantastic bread from the E5 Bakehouse, and Gelupo dessert pots. Tickets are £30 and include your three-course meal, a hot drink on arrival, and some great entertainment. Tickets are selling extremely quickly, with some dates already sold out and rumours they may have to extend into January, so get in quick!

FEAST – 6-9th December – After a sold-out summer event in SE1, FEAST is back for the festive season with a new (covered and heated!) location in Islington Square. The fantastic line-up includes a live sensory experiment from Bompas & Parr, a Ceviche DJ set, pizza making with the Pizza Pilgrims, and plenty of live music. On the food front, there will be tasty treats from street food heroes like Rainbo, Yum Bun, Anna Mae’s, Big Apple Hot Dogs, Lucky Chip, and Bocaface, as well as top restaurants like Tonkotsu, Delhi Grill, Elliot’s, Mishkin’s, Naamyaa Café and lots more. Tickets are on sale now.

Real Food Christmas Market – 14-16th and 20-23rd December – The Real Food Christmas Market is the perfect place to pick up seasonal gifts and foodie treats like sparkling wine, artisan cheese and chocolate. You can pick up a proper Italian panettone and mince pies from The Flour Station or collect a free-range bronze turkey or goose from the Thoroughly Wild Meat Co and Label Anglais. The Southbank Christmas Market is also running until December 23rd, so look out for the German-style huts lining the river.

Chocolate Festival – 7-9th December – Also on the Southbank in December, the Chocolate Festival is a must-visit for London’s chocaholics. Sample the delights of some of the world’s finest chocolatiers like William Curley, Damian Allsop, Marc Demarquette and Paul A Young.  Grab a proper hot chocolate and pop into the Cookery Theatre for demos and tastings from The Dessert Deli, Valrhona, Rococo and Outsider Tart. The festival is free to attend so you’ll have more money to spend on stocking fillers!

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.

Roti Chai's Chaat Shack & Bar

From Thursday 27th until Sunday 30th September, Roti Chai Indian Street Kitchen will be popping up on Southbank as part of the Darbar Indian Classical Music Festival.

Outside the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, their chaat shack will be serving traditional Indian street snacks like aloo papri chaat, tandoori chicken chaat and crispy-tangy bhel puri. If you fancy something hot, there will be aloo gobi sabzi (potato and cauliflower curry) and dhaba chicken, both served with rice. Inside, their chilled out bar will be serving Keralan banana chips, kulfi and signature cocktails like the Pushkar Pimms and the vodka-spiked Lychee Teapot Martini.

Roti Chai’s Chaat Shack & Bar will be open from midday until 10.30pm from Thursday to Sunday. If you can’t make it to Southbank, you can pop into their West End Street Kitchen or book a table in their downstairs Dining Room. (Don’t miss the fiery Chicken 65!)

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.

Byron Launches Limited Edition Californian Burger

In August, London’s best-loved burger chain will be adding a limited edition Californian hamburger to their menu. Priced at £8.75, the 6oz burger is served in a glazed bun with guacamole, pickled red onion and dry cured bacon. Add fries and one of their diner-style shakes and you've got a London burger bargain at around £15 a head.

Byron’s founder, Tom Byng, visited the Sunshine State earlier this summer and spent his time sipping craft beer and trying out the local burgers – all in the name of research, of course. California produces over 90% of American’s avocados so they often pop up as a burger topping and pickled red onions – widely used in Mexican cuisine – are used in place of a standard gherkin. On returning home to the typically British summer rain, Tom decided to introduce a few rays of sunshine to Byron’s menu with this classic Cali burger.

The Californian burger will be available from 1st-27th August at all Byron restaurants.

Forza Win – Pizza Pilgrims To Host Rooftop Supperclub

Street food heroes the Pizza Pilgrims have teamed up with Bash Redford and Pulse Films to host a rooftop supper club in Shoreditch this summer. On top of a building near Brick Lane, the team have hand-built a traditional brick pizza oven and rustic seating for 30 people.

As the sun sets over the City of London, guests will be served a three-course meal of pasta, an array of their excellent Neapolitan pizzas, and granita provided by Gelupo in Soho. To drink, there’s the fantastic new British craft lager, Saint, alongside a simple selection of wines and plenty of Aperol Spritz. On top of the food and drink, each night will have an individual entertainment offering ranging from bands, to pizza and beer matching with expert tasters.

The guys are asking for a £25 contribution per head, which includes your three-course meal, your first drink, and the entertainment. (Bargain!) Booking info is on their website.

   

Forza Win will run every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until Saturday 29th September. Book your place fast - it's guaranteed to be popular and we wouldn't want you to miss out on a lazy summer evening of sun, spritz and near-perfect pizza.

Celebrate National Vegetarian Week With Feng Sushi’s Spring Salad

This week is National Vegetarian Week – a seven-day awareness campaign promoting the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle. There are great events and special menus on offer at restaurants all over London so get involved and go veggie, even if it’s just for one week. Why not kick off the week with this simple but delicious salad recipe from Feng Sushi? It’s easy enough to throw together after work and packed full of nutritious goodies to boost your body for summer. With the addition of some crispy tofu, you won’t miss the meat!

Feng Sushi’s Japanese Spring Salad with Crispy Tofu

Ingredients: 100g baby spinach; 400g tofu; 100g fine polenta; 1 small egg; 300ml sunflower oil; 100g sugar snaps; 100g green beans; 100g edamame beans; 1 large ripe avocado; 30g watercress. For the miso dressing: 1 small shallot, finely chopped; 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped; 3 tblsp white miso paste; 1 tsp wholegrain mustard; 2 tsp sesame oil; ½ tsp honey ; 70ml sunflower oil; 30ml olive oil.

1) Bring a saucepan of salty water to the boil. Rinse sugar snaps, trim green beans and cut in half. Blanch the edamame beans, sugar snaps and green beans for 2 minutes and thereafter drain and plunge into ice cold water. Rinse baby spinach and leave to rest in a colander. Cut avocado in half, remove stone and skin, dice into chunky squares.

2) Make the dressing: add shallots, garlic, miso paste, whole grain mustard, sesame oil and honey to a food processor, start the machine and mix olive and sunflower oil together and gradually add to the mixture until the dressing is smooth.

3) Dab the tofu dry, cut into 1cm thick slices and cut slices in half. Whisk one egg in a shallow bowl and add polenta to another shallow bowl, first dip tofu in egg mixture and then in polenta. Pour 300ml sunflower oil into a wok and heat to 180 degrees C. Fry tofu for 2-3 minutes until golden and crisp and let it rest for a few minutes on kitchen towel.

4) Mix all the ingredients together and drizzle with miso dressing and serve.

You can try more meat-free dishes at Feng Sushi’s restaurants or check out our list of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in London.

Coming Soon: Donostia, Beard To Tail, Tonkotsu Ramen & More

Donostia – On June 6^th, Donostia will open on Seymour Place, bringing a taste of the Basque Country to Marylebone. The head chef will be Tomasz Baranski who previously worked at Barrafina and Urepel in San Sebastian, where he learnt to cook traditional Basque dishes. Diners can expect top notch charcuterie, ‘pintxo’ appetisers like crispy prawns with ham, stuffed piquillo peppers and mini Kobe beef burgers, and Spanish classics like tortilla and croquetas. The tapas menu will offer traditional Basque dishes like crispy Tolosa-style beef tongue, lamb chops a la plancha, and cod cheeks in pil-pil sauce. The owners have made use of their wine import business to put together an impressive wine list which includes Txakoli – a dry, slightly sparkling white wine which is a perfect match for tapas.

Beard to Tail – The team behind cocktail institution Callooh Callay will run a four-day pop-up restaurant from June 12^th-15^th at the former Marie Lloyd pub in Shoreditch. The pop-up will give diners a sneak preview of the Beard to Tail restaurant which will open in September. (The location has yet to be announced). In addition to some suitably creative cocktails, the restaurant will serve dishes like the ‘Rumpie-Pumpie for 2’ – slow-roasted Old Spot pork rump with a sage and wild garlic crust and homemade apple sauce. Stay tuned to their twitter feed, @BeardtoTail, for news.

Tonkotsu – In early July, Emma Reynolds and Ken Yamada (the team behind Tsuru Sushi) will open a ramen bar on Soho’s Dean Street. Tonkotsu’s concise menu will offer authentic ramen noodle dishes made with flavourful stocks simmered for hours in-house, as well as homemade gyoza dumplings and crab korokke. Drinks will include Japanese beers and whiskies, sake and top quality juices.

Pizza East – The Soho House group are opening a branch of their Pizza East mini-chain in Kentish Town in August. The huge ex-Grand Union site on Highgate Road will also house their newest project, Chicken Shop. (Possibly an ironic take on your classic high street chicken chain.)

Check out our Coming Soon list for more info about restaurants opening in London this summer. May is proving particularly busy with HIX at The Tramshed, The Gaslight Grill, Sonny’s Kitchen, and Shrimpy’s (a ‘Calexican’ eatery in King’s Cross) all opening before the end of the month.