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