Tamarind, London

 For our last day, we wanted somewhere a bit different especially for a Sunday meal. Having heard good things about Tamarind, I checked out the website for menus and prices, I originally looked at the pre-theatre menu, 3 courses for £25 but then I noticed an offers page and found the Sunday Lunch menu offer running through August and September, buy one Sunday Lunch at £32 and get the second one free. A Michelin Star meal for £16 each, too good to be true surely but we went ahead and booked it.


The Restaurant
Tamarind is located in Mayfair, it is a one Michelin Star Indian restaurant. The kitchen is run by Alfred Pasad, the youngest Indian chef to receive a Michelin Star. The dining room is located underground but is wide and very spacious. decorated in cream, burnished copper and gold. We were a little late, again because of those damned underground cancellations, but the friendly receptionist was assured us it wasn't a problem. We were shown to our seats and given the menus to browse.

The Menu
having already decided to go for the lunch menu we picked our options and looked at the drinks list. I ordered a glass of red and pretty much regretted it throughout the meal, not because of the quality of the wine, it was very good, but because it's an Indian meal and in my opinion red wine and Indian food is not a good combination but ah well. The Other Half had more sense and ordered one of their non alcoholic cocktails, which was very refreshing.
The waiter came over to take our orders and we told him we were ordering from the Lunch menu, this caused a slight bit of confusion as he began to take the menus away without us telling him our orders, he then told us it was a tasting menu and all we had to do was sit back and eat. We started to a get a little nervous at this point considering the last time we went to an Indian restaurant we couldn't walk for a good month due to the shear amount of food eaten and a Michelin star tasting menu for £16 hmm.

Sunday Lunch Menu
Starter
Spiced Chickpeas and crispy potato with sweetened yogurt, tamarind chutney and pomegranate.
Crispy Fried Fish with gram flour, chili, curry leaves and lime.
Tandoor grilled ground lamb kebab with saffron, mint, chili, cheese and red onion on mint chutney.

Main
Diced lamb with baby potato in browned onion, tomato and spices.
Chicken with fenugreek leaves in onion tomato, cumin, garlic and red chili.
Served with
Cup mushroom and peas in a sauce of onion, tomato chili and cashew nut.
Cauliflower and peppers tossed with tomato cumin and spices.
Yellow lentils with mustard, turmeric, tamarind and curry leaves.
Basmati rice
Naan

Dessert
Warm vermicelli pudding.
Honey and saffron ice cream.

My reservations about the quality of the food were wiped out with the arrival of the starter, crispy battered fish, flaky and perfectly cooked, the lamb was juicy and beautifully flavoured, balanced out with the mint chutney, the chickpeas were very soothing, cleansing the palate ready for the main.
Shortly afterward the main arrived, well the buffet arrived. Dish after dish was arranged on our table wafting cloud after cloud of fragrances over us. Each dish had clean well balanced flavours that were easily recognisable and not over powered by another flavour. The rice was perfectly cooked, fluffy and light and the warm golden naans were delicious, from our viewpoint we could see into the kitchen where a chef was making them. My only complaint was the lamb was a touch dry but the fragrant tomato sauce made up for this.
The dessert was a good end to the meal sweet, creamy vermicelli pudding with a delicious honey ice cream (the lack of picture is because I ate it then remembered I needed a picture).

Passionfruit cocktail

Starters

Mains

Service
Service was good, having stated above about arriving late, the waiting staff were friendly and helpful, the sommelier was a bit over enthusiastic but nothing too drastic.

Overall
Some of the best Indian food you will eat and an absolute bargain of a Sunday lunch offer.

Tamarind Restaurant
20 Queen Street,
Mayfair
London,
W1J 5PR
020 7629 3561

Nearest Underground Station: Green Park

Petrus, London

Having visited a couple of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants previously, we debated about whether or not to visit his latest opening but having checked out the reasonably priced lunch menu we decided to give it a try. This Petrus is the second version, The original was located at the Berkeley Hotel which is now Marcus Wareing's restaurant. This one is also located in Knightsbridge just a short walk away from the Berkeley.

The Restaurant
The restaurant is very open, styled with claret, silver and cream colours. sofas form a small waiting area at the front of the restaurant. In the centre of the restaurant is the wine celler/storage, a huge glass tube containing all the wines of the restaurant. visually impressive. Contained in this cellar is the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever come across on a wine list, a magnum (1.5 litres) of 1961 Petrus, at the wallet melting price of £49.500, we ordered a bottle each to get us started (if only). This is quite an epic mark up considering if you were to buy this bottle off a wine supplier it would set you back at around £15-16,000. The service charge for the bottle alone is around £6.000. For those of you are not Bill Gates there are glasses of wine at around £5+.

Menu
We went for the lunch menu of £25 per person. I ordered pressed foie gras and confit duck with carrot chutney and salad to start. For my main I ordered hanger steak with green beans, shallots and red wine jus. for my dessert I opted for roast fennel creme brulee with mango. First impressions of the food were that they were larger portions than what I was expecting. The starter was exceptionally rich but very very tasty, it was served with Melba toast and was a good combination of textures and flavours with the crunch of the carrot and toast with the buttery smoothness of duck and foie gras. The 'hanger' cut of steak is a recent discovery of mine and was quite happy to see it on the menu as I had been wanting to try this particular cut of beef. the hanger steak is taken from the diapraghm of the cow and located near the kidneys, it is usually known as the butchers steak as they would keep it for themselves instead of selling it. The steak was very deeply flavoured, much more 'beefy', for want of a better word, than cuts such as the fillet or sirloin, it was also a little more chewy than a fillet cut. The main overall was like a posh Sunday roast which was a nice change, a bit of relief from the intricately designed food of the previous restaurants. The dessert was a nice end to the meal, a light creme brulee with hints of fennel running through it served with refreshing mango sauce, prior to the dessert we each received a little brandy snap cone filled with lemon marscapone, very tasty. Our meal was finished off with coffee, mini bars of dark chocolate and chocolate covered almonds, the remainder were boxed up for us to take away.

Duck and Foie Gras

Hanger Steak

Creme Brulee

Service
The service was excellent, due to several underground lines being closed, it took over an hour to get across London, making us 20 minutes late, the staff were accommodating and told us not to worry as we stumbled in slightly sweaty. The restaurant manager for those of you who watch Hells Kitchen USA is Jean-Philippe Susilovic who was very friendly, charming and informative.

Overall
Good food, good service. If you want to try a Ramsay restaurant or two I would recommend trying this one first due to the good value lunch menu before trying his flagship restaurant at Royal Hospital Road or his restaurant at Claridges.

Petrus Restaurant
1 Kinnerton Street
Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 8EA
020 7592 1609

Nearest Underground Station : Hyde Park Corner

Hibiscus, London

 Hibiscus is a French 2 Michelin Star restaurant located on Maddox Street,London. run by Chef Claude Bosi, the restaurant relocated from Ludlow, Shropshire to its current London location.

The Restaurant
The restaurant is located down a little street near Hamley's Toy Store, it is quite unobtrusive and if you were not paying attention you could easily walk right past it without noticing. The atmosphere is very informal and rather loud compared with the more formal serenity of Marcus Wareing's restaurant. The restaurant is decorated in a very minimalist way, simple beige colours with various art pieces around the restaurant.
Menu
We were shown to our seat and given the menus to browse, a small ceramic dish was brought over containing olives to nibble on whilst reading the menu. The Other Half finished these off as I cant stand them. We went for the lunch offer of 3 courses, a glass of wine and after dinner chocolates for £38 per person. I opted for a starter of lobster and salmon on leeks with a pea puree, a main of chicken with foie gras and dessert of raspberry sorbet on a white peach salad with pistachio ice cream. The lobster dish was delicately flavoured with the salmon and lobster complimenting each other with neither flavour overpowering. The main was three large pieces of chicken rolled with foie gras, a very very rich dish with an interesting complimenting texture of the beans. The dessert was very refreshing with perfectly ripe juicy white peaches with sharpness of the raspberry sorbet. The pistachio ice cream seemed to be an after thought served on a dish alongside, it was however very good. My personal highlight of the meal was the amuse bouche, a small goblet was brought over containing a watermelon and pineapple cocktail, we were informed to take a few sips and then shot the rest. We did as instructed and experienced an amazing flavour sensation. the pineapple juice was contained in little capsules, I presume made from a technique using calcium chloride and sodium aliginate to form a sturdy bubble of liquid. each bubble exploded releasing little flashes of pineapple combined with the watermelon, amazing.

Lobster

Chicken

Raspberry Sorbet

Service
The service was very good, the sommelier was very knowledgeable considering he looked very young and the waiting staff were very well informed of each dish to answer any questions.

Overall
Excellent french food with a slightly modern touch and quite a good lunch offer for a 2 Michelin starred restaurant.

Hibiscus Restaurant
29 Maddox Street,
London,
W1S 2PA
020 7629 2999
Nearest Underground Station: Oxford Circus

Carthage ,Covent Garden, London

On the hunt for somewhere cheap but decent on our first night, we headed for Covent Garden to have a wander around. After doing a lap of the main area we ventured down a street just off the piazza. We spotted a little Mediterranean restaurant  with a starter and main offer for £10, the place seemed reasonably busy so taking this as a good sign we went in. 

The place was small and decorated in a middle eastern Arabian nights theme and had only one waiter who was doing everything from serving, clearing away and taking orders. I ordered a Sicilian sausage with tomato dip for my starter followed by lamb tagine, the Other Half ordered falafal and lamb moussaka.
The starters arrived quickly, arriving in a little lift from the kitchen, as you can see from the picture it was a bowl of delicately flavoured tomato sauce with chopped pieces of Sicilian sausage, it was very tasty and I could have quite happily finished another few bowls. The main arrived shortly afterwards, a large tagine consisting of lamb, vegetables, chickpeas and sauce. The vegetables were nothing special and seemed to be there just to bulk the dish up, the lamb however was beautifully cooked, still pink in the middle and falling apart, swimming, or more like drowning considering the amount, in a tasty meaty sauce which I had to request a spoon to finish off as it seemed a shame to waste.

Starter

Main

The final bill (including a couple of drinks) came to £31, quite a bargain for the quality and the amount of food and in the centre of London.

Carthage Restaurant
Covent Garden
9 King Street
London
WC2N 8HN

Nearest Underground: Covent Garden

Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, London

The Berkeley Hotel

Me and the Other Half travel to London, once a year usually, to try out one of the cities highly regarded restaurants. We had saved up for awhile and this time decided to instead of visiting just one restaurant for dinner, we decided to do a couple for lunch. Michelin Star on a budget if you like. Michelin Star lunch menus are usually about a third of the price of dinner making it quite a good deal as you get to sample incredible food for a snip at the usual price.
Our first restaurant was Marcus Wareing's Restaurant at the Berkeley hotel a 2 Michelin Starred Restaurant in Knightsbridge. The restaurant is located at Gordon Ramsay's old Petrus site, after a falling out he kept the name whilst Marcus Wareing remained at the hotel renaming it Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley.

The Restaurant
The restaurant is very well decorated, velvet walls and chairs contrasting with white table settings and flower arrangements. Due to it being in the Berkeley it had quite formal atmosphere and I wonder if this would be different if the location was. Part way though our meal, the 'bonbon' trolley was brought out, a stunning golden trolley/carriage with buckets of mouth-watering truffles with a centre piece of chocolate covered peanut brittle. Me and several other tables were just staring in amazement for several minutes.

The Meal
We quickly chose the Lunch menu at £38 a head for 3 courses before losing our heads and ordering the £95 prestige menu. I ordered chargrilled rabbit with sweetcorn, lime and coriander, Ribble Valley duck breast with pain perdu, beetroot, cherries and horseradish and Custard Tart with plum, crumble ice cream and little meringues with a raspberry filling.
As is the trend with restaurants of this standard, pre course samples were brought out to try; they were crispy fried chicken with mango sauce, an amuse bouche of mushroom soup with truffle foam, (rich, creamy and very morish)  and a pre dessert of mint and rum sorbet, (tangy and very refreshing).
The food was visually stunning as you can see from the pictures, I didn't take a picture of the starter as I was still trying to get the courage to get my phone out to snap away. The main was a confit of rabbit leg, crispy and juicy flesh complemented by the contrasting sweetness of the sweetcorn and the kick of the lime and coriander. The main course was equally as good with delicious hunk of duck breast oozing juices and perfectly cooked. The highlight however was the dessert. since looking at this restaurant's menus while booking, I have wanted to try this dessert. Watchers of the Great British Menu will have seen Marcus cook this custard tart for the Queen herself and she is a very lucky person because of this. it was quite simply out of this world, buttery crispy pastry with wobbling rich creamy custard which literally disintegrated into a wave of custardy wonderness as soon as my mouth was closed, utterly amazing. The meal was finished with the arrival of the aforementioned trolley. My personal favourite from the ones I chose was the rosemary and orange truffle which i can only describe like this; a combination of two strong flavours kicking and screaming for attention before coming together in a big friendly flavoursome hug, delicious.

The Duck (slightly eaten)

Custard Tart *drools*

Service
The service as you would expect was very very good, friendly but not overbearing and very informative about the menu when requested. The service was topped off when I requested, if possible, a signed menu from Marcus. The Maitre'd not only attended to this personally but organised a tour round the kitchen for us as we waited for the menu. My only regret was not asking to see Marcus himself.

Overall
Superb food, superb service, go if only to sample the Custard Tart.

Marcus Wareing Website
Wilton Place
Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 7RL
020 7235 1200

Nearest Underground Station: Hyde Park Corner

Harrods Food Hall, London

Most people who visit London usually have a visit to Harrods on their agenda. Located in Knightsbridge, Harrods is a 5 acre department store with over 330 departments and sells pretty much everything from pets to jewellery it also has 32 restaurants serving everything including champagne and oysters to doughnuts.
The main draw however (well for me anyway) is the food hall. Harrods Food Hall is as high end as you are ever going to get in terms of food. Spread out over several huge rooms it consists of; Butchers, Fishmongers, Patisserie, Tea and Coffee, Bakery, Greengrocers, Deli, Fromage and Sweets, I've probably forgot something but you get the picture. To give you some example of pricing of products, a single pomegranate costs £9. In the Fishmonger there are tiny tins of cavier (25g) that sell for several hundred pounds depending on the type. Needless to say we didn't buy much although the Other Half couldn't resist buying some rather strong smelling cheese from the Fromage. I would recommend a visit just to marvel at the amazing displays of food, it can however get very busy so beware.

*I was unable to take pictures due to the vast amount of people, have a look on google images for pictures.

Harrods
87-135 Brompton Road
London SW1X 7XL
020 8479 5100
Harrods Website

Camden Lock Market, London

 When you arrive in Camden (by underground I'm assuming) there will be a market on your right hand side called 'The Camden Market' keep walking this is not the place you are wanting. We nearly made this mistake and almost got back on the Underground after 5 minutes.
Walk up Camden high street and keep an eye out for the decorative shop fronts, its worth a walk just to check these out. After awhile you will see a bridge with Camden Lock in big green and yellow letters, congratulations you have arrived in a small slice of food heaven. Turn left towards the canal locks for the main food area.
Camden Lock market is amazing, dozens of food stalls selling everything from tapped coconuts, pina colada filled pineapples, some of the tastiest Chinese food you will try, specialist coffee and tea's, fish and chips, Argentine steak burgers, various Indian creations, milkshakes, freshly made pizza, Turkish wraps, flafal and many many more, chances are if you have a favourite food its probably here. Most stalls, faced with all the competition, offer free samples usually by shouting over to tell you and I reckon you could easily get fed by just wandering around a few times but do buy a few things and keep this market going.
If you take a right turn at the bridge, you will end up in a small foodie section consisting of mainly Chinese stalls although there was one stall that caught my eye that sold huge calzones which looked lovely, in this area there is also a line of vespa scooter seats overlooking the canal to enjoy the many foodie delights available. Further on into this area and you will encounter more shopping stalls selling products including t-shirts and handmade jewellrey.
So if you have a few hours to spare and are very hungry head to Camden and have a wander around.

*I didnt take any decent pictures for some reason (im blaming temporary insanity) so check out the website below or try Google, or visit yourself!

Market Website
Open from 10am daily

Nearest Underground Station: Camden Town

The Horniman at Hays, London

The Horniman is located on the bank of the Thames next to Hays Galleria.
The pub itself is nothing special or unique and styled in typical 'Nicholsons' decor with vast amounts of dark wood beams and panels. It serves around 10 real ales from around the country including Cumbrian and Yorkshire beers. (keep an eye out for a current cask ale loyalty card that the Nicholson chain is running, buy four pints and get the fifth free.) What makes this pub worth a visit is it location. It is located directly on the bank of the Thames next to the HMS Belfast and in between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and the London Gherkin are in eyesight. If you can get a seat in the beer garden (this pub gets exceptionally busy) then it is a perfect place to drink away a summery night in London, just ignore the strange name of the place.

The Horniman at Hays,
Tooley street
Southwark
London
SE1 2HU

Nearest Underground Station: London Bridge

Claridges Bar, London

Last Christmas on a visit to London we wandered into the bar at Claridges for an after dinner drink. Located in the right hand corner of the hotel's lobby.
Being a huge Bond fan I had wanted to try a Vesper Martini since watching Casino Royale but in my quest to find a place that made this drink had proved fruitless. After finding a table a friendly waitress came over to take our drink orders so I thought I would try my luck and asked if they knew how to make a Vesper, the waitress responded with 'yes our bar staff know how to make all the classic cocktails' Result! upon telling my friend this he got very jealous so we made arrangements to all go next time we were in London.

Claridges bar as you would expect is very upmarket, a round for 4 people will set you back a small bank loan with normal cocktails costing £12.50 and champagne cocktails £15, what you get for this however is a superbly made drink by highly trained bar staff, table service, a constant supply of superb bar snacks including savory popcorn with paprika and sesame and cheese bread sticks and a chance to experience one of London's most stylish and sophisticated bars that the city has to offer.
The atmosphere is cosy and friendly but if you are not in a shirt you may feel a bit under dressed.
If you are feeling a bit cash happy, having a celebration or just want to live it up for a bit then head here, just make sure your finances are stable beforehand.

Vesper Martini
3 measures of Gin, Tanqueray Import Strength 47.3% is a good choice
1 measure of Vodka, use a good quality vodka at 50%
1/2 measure of Lillet

Shake over ice and serve in a Martini Glass with a twist of lemon peel.


Claridges
Brook Street,
Mayfair,
London,
W1K 4HR
http://www.claridges.co.uk/

Nearest Underground Station - Bond Street

Dirty Martini, London

Dirty Martini is a cocktail bar located at Covent Garden beneath Tuttons Brasserie. Monday to Thursday the bar does a very good happy hour from 5 to 8pm, with martinis for only £4 and half prices glasses of champagne amongst other offers. we popped in to take advantage of this at around 7pm on a Wednesday and found the place was rammed, we decided to battle our way to the bar anyway and after a bit of a wait we managed to order a drink. The Other Half went for a Passion fruit Martini made with Gin, Passoa and fresh passion fruit, i went for a Japanese martini made with Saki, fresh watermelon, apple juice and lychee liqueur. I ordered this expecting a green cocktail, for some reason I didn't engage my brain enough to remember that watermelon is not green or yellow and as such received a very pink cocktail, very manly! They were however very nice cocktails and mine came served with a lemongrass straw which I thought was a nice touch. I would recommend a visit but go at a different time than us.

Dirty Martini
11-12 Russell Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2B 5HZ
Dirty Martini Website

London Foodie Trip

The next few posts are about my foodie trip to london, there is quite a few and consist of drinking places, food markets and restaurants. hope you enjoy and normal Yorkshire service will resume at some point.

Gary