london Archives - Page 18 of 23

September 6, 2021

Grilled Lamb Salad (okay it was a kebab)

Feeling hungry and not really sure about what I wanted I headed out from the office in London to see what was around and what tickled my fancy for lunch.

I did initially think another salad from Birley Sandwiches as I had really enjoyed the one I had last week. There was quite a queue (which isn’t too surprising), so I thought I would venture up to the Leather Lane Street Food Market and have both a bit of a walk and just to see if there was anything else I might want to eat. There were quite a few familiar stalls which I have frequented on my recent visits to London, and I did think, did I want to return to any of them. There were some I was quite tempted to try as well.

As I walked down the road I noticed the Mediterranean Grill on the side (a permanent physical place, not just a temporary street food stall) and the display of salad and curry looked very tempting.

I initially wasn’t sure, but after another short walk, I turned around and headed back.

I went with the large lamb salad box, but it came on a plate as I was eating in. I was asked to take a seat and they prepared the salad. I had the choice of rice or chips, I went with rice. They lamb was not cooked to order, but taken from the hot plate. The dish came with some chilli sauce, hummus and yoghurt.

It looked great.

The lamb was flavourful and tender. The salads were nice and fresh and well seasoned. I personally would have liked more yoghurt, but apart from that it was very tasty.

Yes it was lamb and salad, but it was basically a kebab without the pitta bread. Even so it was fresh and delicious. I then paid my bill and left feeling happy about what I had eaten. I think I will go again.

September 3, 2021September 8, 2021

Time for a tasty salad

Popped out for some lunch, it was late, so most of the street food stalls in Leather Lane were closing up. In the end I went to Birley Sandwiches and had a salad made up. Nice idea of choosing different ingredients.

It was a very tasty salad. I had a base of fusilli pasta with rocket, with crayfish, grilled Mediterranean vegetables, tomatoes, croutons and dressed with a Caesar salad dressing. There was a wide choice of things you could have.

September 1, 2021November 7, 2021

Great Coffee

So nice to see Coco di Mama (near out London office) reopen for business. I obviously went in and had a great flat white.

Yes there was the little square of dark chocolate as well.

I also treated myself to a cross between a brownie and and a panettone. Rather rich and tasty pastry concoction.

Nice to sit in and relax with some great coffee.

August 31, 2021

Korean Fried Crispy, okay Crunchy Chicken

Went out for lunch, and had some nice Korean Crispy Chicken from the Leather Lane Street Food Market.

I really do enjoy visiting street food markets. It’s something I have missed during the pandemic and lockdown. I have been virtually working from home every day since lockdown in March 2020 and therefore haven’t needed to go out and grab some lunch. I’ve gone out, just not for lunch.

I really went to the market to have a look round. I have had some really good food there and some not so good. I like to try new places and I wasn’t sure about revisiting what I had before. I then saw the Korean Fried Crispy Chicken stand and they had some interesting choices. I did though quite fancy some chicken wings and crispy chicken wings sounded tasty.

I went with the Korean Fried Crispy Chicken wings which I had with the Honey Butter. The dish came with some fries. It was served in what I can only describe as takeaway fried chicken boxes, not the type I would usually have with street food.

The chicken coating was very crunchy, not so much cripsy, but crunchy. Nice, but not what I was expecting. There wasn’t a huge amount of flavour, but I did quite like the honey butter. The fries were okay.

I do think this would be a much better dish, if the chicken was more crispy than crunchy, more flavour, more sauce. Serve it with rice and salad or even some stir fried vegetables.

Would I get it again, probably not.

August 16, 2021

Wall of Flame

With some in-person meetings and really an opportunity for a change in scenery and routine I spent part of last week up in London, only the second time in London since March 2020.

It was a nice and sunny Monday so I headed out for a lunchtime walk and get some lunch from the Leather Lane street food market. I had enjoyed the Samba Box from the market a few weeks back, so I went to see what was available. I was tempted to visit the Samba stall again, but I decided I would try something new and different.

My first choice was the Yum Bowl, however the queue was quite long. I had queued for a while for a crispy pork bowl, but it felt that I might be there a long time. So changed my mind and went to the Wall of Flame for chicken.

It was a portion of coleslaw, chicken and fries. Well though I was looking forward to it, it was a little disappointing.

The chicken was a little overcooked and dry. It had been cooked on a rotisserie and had been “marinated for at least 24 hours” in their special sauce. Though the skin was tasty, the rest of the chicken was dry. The coleslaw lacked dressing. I was looking forward to some crispy fries, but these were soft and lacked flavour.

Overall a real disappointment. I should have queued.

August 11, 2021August 15, 2021

Watch out, nice coffee again

Having enjoyed my coffee from the WatchHouse the other day, I decided to visit the place again and have another flat white, but this time I made the decision to drink in.

I had always meant to visit the place on previous visits to London. Prior to the pandemic it was always rather busy, so I would go somewhere else. It wasn’t busy when I went in and I ordered my flat white. I did think about a cake, but I wasn’t that hungry, so just the coffee.

My order was taken and I took a seat. The coffee was brought to my table, complete with tasting notes.

This was beautifully made, smooth, velvety and a great coffee taste.

Great service, excellent coffee and a nice environment.

August 10, 2021August 10, 2021

Time for some French food

I do quite like French food, probably an echo of eating out on French holidays back in the 1970s and 1980s. Over the years I have had some really nice meals, some excellent meals, and some not so good.

I was in London for a few days working. One evening, for dinner, I decided to head out to Ealing. I parked in the shopping centre and had a look around. I saw the Amazon Fresh shop, the one where you walk in pick things up and walk out and everything is charged to your Amazon account. I didn’t go in.

I had a look around for somewhere to eat. I did consider getting some cheese and bread from M&S. I saw they did a smaller version of the French cheese platter I have had in Weston. However there was no bread left. I did think about Wagamama, but it looked very busy. In the end after some procrastination and a bit more exploring and walking around, I went to Côte Brasserie, a chain of French style restaurants.

They had some tables free and I was given a choice of where I could sit, so I had a nice small table by the window. It was a decent environment, comfortable, inviting.

I had checked out the menu earlier online, so was pretty much convinced about what I was going to have. I went with the fixed price menu.

There was a nice choice of starters, but I decided that I would go for the Tomates ‘Breton’. Brittany heritage tomatoes topped with pistou on toasted pain de campagne.

It looked amazing, I was really impressed with the presentation of the dish.

I wasn’t sure what pistou was so checked up on Wikipedia later.

Pistou, or pistou sauce, is a Provençal cold sauce made from cloves of garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil. It is somewhat similar to the Ligurian sauce pesto, although it lacks pine nuts.

It was a lovely plate of food, the bread was nice, the tomatoes were well seasoned and the pistou added a nice touch.

For my main course I had the steak frites – chargrilled steak with frites and garlic butter. I upgraded to the ribeye.

The dish came with some additional watercress, which was a nice touch.

The steak wasn’t fantastic, it lacked seasoning and wasn’t as tender as I thought it was going to be. Upon reflection I probably shouldn’t have upgraded.

Alongside I had a Meteor beer, which was fresh and smooth.

The service was excellent, warm, friendly and efficient.

This was my first experience of Côte Brasserie and I enjoyed the experience and the food.

August 9, 2021August 15, 2021

Watch out, nice coffee

When working in our offices, I do like to take a break and pop out for a (real) coffee, rather than face the instant stuff we have in our kitchens. We moved our London offices back in July 2018 and there are plenty of places around the area for coffee and food. I have only recently returned visiting the office following lockdown. Today I went to WatchHouse, a modern sophisticated coffee place to pick up a flat white.

I had always meant to visit the place on previous visits to London. Prior to the pandemic it was always rather busy, so I would go somewhere else. So this morning it was not busy, so I ventured in, before hitting the office. I ordered a flat white, which I took back to the office.

This was beautifully made, smooth, velvety and a great coffee taste.

I will go back.

July 28, 2021May 15, 2023

Time for a Samba Box

I have visited our offices in Bristol now and then, but have only had a couple of meals from the street food markets, some great paella and a delicious bento box.

With some in-person meetings and really an opportunity for a change in scenery and routine I spent part of the week up in London, the first time I had been working in London since March 2020.

It was a nice if a little grey day, so I headed out for a lunchtime walk and see what there was around.

In the part of London where our office was, it felt quiet and empty, again compared to Bristol which is much busier and more crowded. The streets were deserted and there was very little traffic. I was not surprised to see many of my coffee haunts and places I would go for lunch were either shut or had closed down. However there were still some places operating, but a lot less busy than eighteen months ago.

As I walked around I did wonder if the Leather Lane street food market was up and running and I was pleased to see it was. There wasn’t as many stalls as there has been on previous visits. It also didn’t help that I was having a late lunch, so many of the stalls were either shutting up or had run out of food.

After browsing the stalls I took the decision to have a Brazilian Samba Box. I had to queue, and then it started raining, but I stuck with it and stayed in the queue.

I chose the chargrilled chicken thighs which were served with Rio rice, black beans, coleslaw and lettuce.

It looked great and was very tasty.

The chicken was still tender and moist, I thought it might be a bit dry (as it was a last minute thing) but it wasn’t. The chicken was full of flavour. I liked the salad and the rice was nice as well.

I had mine served with chimichurri which was a nice accompaniment.

I really enjoyed the whole box and it was so nice to have something different, fresh and tasty.

December 10, 2020

So on this day two years ago….

On this day two years ago I was in London for various meetings. Over lunch I went for a walk around Covent Garden and enjoyed looking at the Christmas decorations. Since 2015 when I started working at my current organisation I would go to London quite frequently and in December it is really nice to see the different ways in which they decorate Covent Garden and other places around London.

Of course since the Covid-19 lockdown I’ve not been to work or meetings in London since March.

However back to 2018, so I headed towards Kimchee on the Strand to get some lunch. Since my previous visit a few months earlier they have changed dramatically how they sell and serve food. Before you would pick things up from the hot and cold units and then either (as I usually did) take it back to the office or there were tables you could eat at. However now there was a big kitchen area, you would place your order, get a buzzer thingy and wait until the food was cooked to order. I quite like getting freshly cooked food, so was happy to wait.

I ordered the Deopbap Chicken Bulgogi and the Pa Jeon. I then had to wait for my order. Deopbap Chicken Bulgogi was Korean BBQ Chicken in a rice bowl.

The grilled chicken marinated in a blend of ginger, dark soy and garlic, was coated in a sauce and served on a bed of rice and salad. It was quite tasty, but not really barbecued chicken. It was just okay and nothing special and at nearly nine pounds I thought it was overpriced and wasn’t value for money.

I really liked the sound of the Seafood Pa Jeon, a Korean savoury pancake. Pajeon is a variety of jeon with scallion as its prominent ingredient, as pa means scallion. It is a Korean dish made from a batter of eggs, wheat flour, rice flour, scallions, and often other ingredients depending on the variety.

However the end result was a greasy stodgy undercooked pancake with no real flavour. I couldn’t actually finish it. I certainly won’t be going again.

On a later visit to London in 2019 I found that the branch of Kimchee had closed down. I wasn’t too surprised as the essence of what they had which worked was lost, as well as the downturn in the quality of the food as well as more expensive dishes. It also took longer to get served and I am sure that had an impact on those wanting to pick something up quickly and head back to their workplace.