Tag: london

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Back to Wahaca

I was travelling back from London and rather than catch a busy peak train, I decided I would have some dinner and catch a later train. The other option was to catch a busy train, probably stand or be cramped, and then cook when I got home. So dinner it was, and I had already made up my mind to visit Wahaca.  I had heard about the branch at Wahaca at Paddington when it opened, but I hadn’t had the chance, or the opportunity to make a visit until this week.

It’s just outside the station and upon entering the restaurant you climb a set of stairs to get to the tables. Even though it was early the place was buzzing and quite busy. I was initially offered a seat at the bar, but as I wanted food and not a drink, I asked for a table.

I sat down and looked over the menu. I had a voucher for a free portion of tacos, so that was the first area of the menu I went through. I was tempted by the buttermilk chicken tacos, but went with the Ancho Mushroom Tacos, with jalapeño mayo, beetroot crisps and dressed slaw, in two soft corn tortillas

I had really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos when I had them a few years ago. So that was next on my list of choices. I went for the veggie version, as I didn’t think the addition of the chorizo really added that much to the dish, and the veggie dish was cheaper as well.

My final choice was the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, with chickpeas, borlotti beans and organic peas with fresh tomato salsa. I had hoped they would have the crab tostadas they use to have on the menu, but they didn’t.

The nachos arrived first and I was a little surprised by the size of the dish. Either the dish was smaller when I had it a few years ago, having made my own version of this plate, I was expecting something smaller, or more than likely I had just plain forgotten how large the dish was. 

There was plenty of crunchy tortilla chips, a large helping of guacamole, black beans, crema, pink pickled onions, cheese sauce, fresh tomato salsa and jalapeño. I left the jalapeño, but the rest of the dish was delicious.

I really enjoyed the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, full of flavour and contrasting textures of crunchy tostadas and soft beans.

The Ancho Mushroom Tacos were really tasty, I liked the mushrooms and the intensity of flavours across the two tacos.

I really enjoyed all three dishes and the experience reminded me how much I enjoy the food at Wahaca. Service was excellent, warm, friendly and efficient. It’s a real pity that the branch in Bristol closed, as it would be nice to have somewhere local to visit.

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Time for Tapas from Reinata

Dickens Yard reflection

Across Ealing there are various places to go out and eat. As well as chains, there are a range of independent places to eat. One of the nice things is that as a result there are lots of choices when you’re hungry. I often choose the independent places and one such place was in the (relatively) new Dickens Yard complex. I first went to Reinata back in June 2023 where I had a nice meal. However it wasn’t really a place to go out and eat on your own, as the tapas portions are quite substantial. Having said that and feeling quite hungry I headed over to Reinata for dinner. I went with two tapas dishes and some bread. These were large “small” plates of food.

I had the Octopus, Galician style, potatoes, paprika. 

I had this dish before, but this was different to the dish I had back then.  The last time I had this dish at Reinata it looked like this. This was a very different dish to one I had this time.

This time the dish was sliced potatoes cooked in the oven and on top was slices of grilled octopus. The octopus was tender and full of flavour.

The other dish I has was the  Andalusian Fritters, sherry marinated white fish and squid. 

This was breaded fish and squid. It was nice and fresh. I think it needed something more than lime though.

Both were large dishes and would be ideal to share, on my own it felt a little greedy. I do feel that the quality and presentation of the food was not as good as it was on my previous visit.

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Lamb Chops from Tony’s Pita

Over the years I have been visiting Ealing, I have been meaning to visit Tony’s Pita. I quite like a kebab now and then. On a recent visit I took the time to eat there. I did think about the kebab, but in the end I went with the lamb chops. These were cooked on the chargrill to order. They were served with chipped potatoes, flat bread, and salad.

These were, I think, shoulder chops, so were not the best quality lamb chops you can get. However it was a tasty plate of food and I enjoyed it. I think I would go back and try one of the other dishes on the menu.

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Roast Duck and Rice

The Hare and Tortoise is a chain of Japanese restaurants across London. I was at the Ealing branch and went for their lunch deal. I had the roast duck and rice dish; I have had this dish before at their Kensington branch.

It is slices of roast duck, served on steamed rice with a homemade sauce mixed with cinnamon, aniseed powder and ginger, garnished with Chinese greens and spring onions.

roast duck and rice

The duck is nice and crispy, though I think the homemade sauce needed a little more oomph. However, as a quick lunch time meal, it is rather good. The lunch deal also included some gyoza and a drink.

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French Eating in Ealing

I kind of have a love hate relationship with the Côte chain of restaurants. I really like French style cooking and the Côte menu has an extensive choice of French inspired dishes. The service at the Ealing branch of Côte has always been excellent. Welcoming, warm and friendly. The food arrives in ample time, and I have never felt rushed. The waiting staff are attentive, but not intrusive. What’s not to like? However, though the food is good, it isn’t excellent, and so I always have to temper my expectations. I like the food, but I wouldn’t say I love the food. I am not entirely sure what they could do to make things better, but I am confident that they could. However as a chain, I suspect they are constrained by the system cooking processes they use to ensure consistency across the different restaurants across the country. So the dish you order in Ealing is identical to the same dish if it was ordered in Bristol. I always think if they had a local chef, they could improve and enhance the food. Having said that, finding myself in Ealing on a somewhat warm evening, the cool air-conditioned branch of Côte was quite appealing. The fixed price menu looking tempting as well.

I was given a lovely warm welcome and I was allowed to choose where to sit, which was nice, as I was able to choose a slightly bigger table even though I was eating alone. I may have eaten outside, but it was still rather warm outside, and to be honest the pavement is rather busy and there is a constant stream of traffic running by.

Looking over the menu, I was tempted by quite a few things, but in the end, for my starter I chose the Salade au Bacon, bacon lardons tossed in a creamy anchovy dressing with endive and gem lettuce salad, cherry tomatoes, panisse chickpea croutons and crispy capers, topped with a poached egg.

The combination of tastes and textures worked. The runny yolk of the poached egg added to the richness of the salad. I was intrigued by the panisse chickpea croutons, they were crunchy, different, I think normal croutons would have worked just as well.  This was a lovely rustic looking salad, and despite my earlier thoughts on dishes, I did think this looked great. It was also delicious. This is the kind of dish that I hope they serve at Côte and this time they delivered. I thought it was fantastic. 

For my main course I went with the Steak Frites, and upgraded to the sirloin steak, which was described as topped with garlic butter and served with herbs and frites.

After a fantastic starter, this was a little disappointing. I think they forgot the garlic butter, and not having the menu to hand, I didn’t think to check with the waiting staff. The plate was a simple affair, I don’t know it looked rather plain. I am not sure what they could do though to make it better. I had asked for the steak to be cooked medium-rare, and it was. It was tender, but lacked seasoning. I generally avoid adding extra salt to my food, but this time the steak needed it. The frites were good, nice and crispy. I don’t think the herbs added anything. I would have maybe added a small rocket salad, or even some green beans instead. I think that would have improved both the look of the dish, and the overall eating experience. 

Generally, I only order a starter and a main course, and avoid having a pudding. However, this time the fixed price menu had a cheese plate on offer, a selection of three French cheeses with a fig chutney & sourdough baguette. You could choose from the following cheeses, Comté, Pont l’Évêque, Roquefort, Délice de Bourgogne, Chèvre Buchette.

Now I am a sucker for a cheese course, so of course I said yes. I chose the Comté, Pont l’Évêque, and the Délice de Bourgogne. 

I liked the fact that the cheese plate came with bread, however this was toasted sourdough baguette, which though nice, wasn’t quite what I wanted with my cheese. I do remember visiting Côte many years ago and the bread was a “proper” French baguette, none of this fashionable sourdough business, it was proper French bread. I miss that.

The cheeses though were excellent. I have had Comté and Pont l’Évêque before, so enjoyed those. I haven’t had Délice de Bourgogne, before, but this was nice and tasty.

Overall I did enjoy my food at Côte, the service was excellent, and I had a lovely dining experience. It wasn’t perfect, but it was nice, and with the fixed price menu, I thought it was value for money.

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Time for some Tapas

Went out for Tapas at La Rueda Spanish Tapas Bar in Ealing. We were there in the early evening, so it wasn’t busy, and we could sit in the (open) window area looking out onto the street. With the hot weather, we weren’t that hungry, so we had only a few dishes.

We had the Patatas Bravas, triple fried potatoes, spicy brava and infamous Spanish aioli garlic mayonnaise sauce. Not sure if the triple frying helped, as the potatoes weren’t that crispy. However they were nice, I liked the spicy brava, and the mayonnaise was an interesting addition. 

Another of our dishes was the Pollo a la Plancha, described as grilled spicy boneless chicken thighs served with Spanish alioli garlic mayonnaise sauce. Now the photograph in the online menu shows whole chicken thighs, so I was a little surprised when we were served with chicken skewers. They were served on a flat bread, well more of a wrap than a flat bread. The chicken was moist, tender and full of flavour. 

Alongside the chicken we had the Pinchos Morunos, grilled spiced lamb skewers, chimichurri served with humus. These were tender chunks of lamb with peppers and onions. Like the chicken cooked well and full of flavour, as well as being served on a flat wrap. It came with a small portion of hummus, I probably would have liked more hummus, but then I probably needed to order hummus off the menu.

Out final dish was the Calamares, fried squid rings in batter. Lovely crispy batter and tender squid. Delicious.

Completely forgot to take photographs of the dishes, which is unlike me.

The service was excellent, I liked how they served ice with their tap water, I also had an alcohol free beer. If I wasn’t driving I would probably have had a red wine.

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Seafood Bibimbap

I was in the mood for something more than just a sandwich for lunch. I was working around Ealing to see what was on offer. Yori was a Korean place on The Green which has a lunchtime deal of a main dish, a side dish, and accompaniments.

I went with the seafood bibimbap. This was hot rice, vegetables, seafood, with an egg yolk on top.

 It was a tasty bowl of food, though the contrast between hot and cold ingredients was surprising at times. Seafood was a little disappointing, but only a little disappointing.

Alongside was some cold accompaniments and some chicken gyoza dumplings.

These were tasty.

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Gail’s Flat White

flat white coffee

I had arrived earlier than planned in London and headed to Ealing. I went for a short walk and then went for coffee. I was going to go to Artisan, I had enjoyed a coffee there on a previous visit. It was though very busy, and it was also very warm (what with the hot summer weather and all).

However, in the end, I went to Gail’s Bakery and had a flat white. 

The service was friendly and warm. The coffee looked nice and I took a seat. Only downside was the cup had no handle and I had no tray, so I had to carefully carry the hot beverage to my chosen table.

Coffee was delicious.

Did like the cakes and snacks they had available, the bread also looked delicious.

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It wasn’t the same

breakfast

I have written about the excellent breakfast experience at the Fuller’s hotel, Drayton Court. I have had similar experiences at other Fuller’s hotels, such as the Queen’s Head in Kingston and the Fox and Goose on Hangar Lane. I recently booked the Hand & Flower in Hammersmith.

Well, I had expectations that the breakfast would be of a similar quality. I was one of the first in for breakfast, as I had an early start that day. The breakfast arrived quite quickly, but then again I was the only person eating breakfast at that point.

It certainly looked like the other breakfasts I have had at Fuller’s hotels, however though it looked the same, it wasn’t the same. Sadly it was a similar experience the following day.

Essentially it tasted like yesterday’s breakfast heated up. The bacon was certainly not freshly cooked. On one day the sausage was still cold in the middle. The mushroom was good though.

It wasn’t awful, but it certainly wasn’t good and nowhere near the standard of similar breakfasts at Drayton Court and The Fox and Goose. I know I could have complained, but I am not sure what I would be complaining about. Hey, your breakfast could be better…

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Master Bao Buns

When I am at Westfield and having lunch, I usually make the decision to go to Master Bao for a couple of bao buns. They are cooked to order and are always delicious.

This time I went with the Shiitake Mushroom Bao, which was teriyaki Shiitake mushrooms, pickled onions, and miso.

A little big and messy to eat with your hands, but the bun was soft and fluffy, and the filling was intense and delicious.

I also had the Mr Bao, this was slow braised pork, house pickles, and roasted peanut.

Same fluffy bun, and some tasty pork with the added crunch of peanuts.

Really nice food which I enjoyed.