Piccadilly Arcade - SW1

Somewhat over-shadowed by the flashier Burlington Arcade across the road, I prefer the Piccadilly Arcade, running south from Piccadilly towards Jermyn Street.  As well as some very grand outfitters (this is the perfect arcade to go to if you are looking for hunting gear or a silk dressing gown...as you do) there are some wonderful little shops here - my favourites are Iconastas - specialising in Russian art, from the ancient icons that give the shop its name to more contemporary Soviet era pieces; and St James Art Books - which despite its name is not a book shop, but instead a rather lovely shop selling original artworks that are pricey but fascinating (and we can all dream right?).  Weirdly there's a bit of a focus on Soviet painters of the 50s and 60s - not sure why this rather grand St James Arcade has a recurring Russian theme, maybe there's a story behind it.  Anyway - if like me, you are fond of an old fashioned arcade (which I think stems from my Melbourne heritage - we do a mighty fine arcade there) then make sure to visit this one, perhaps after stopping off for a browse at Fortnums or buying some books at the lovely Hatchards.

Riding House Cafe - W1

I have a new favourite place - the Riding House Cafe on the corner of Great Titchfield Street (home to my faves Kaffeine and Scandi Kitchen) and surprise, surprise Riding House Street.  It's a big old place (the photo doesn't do it justice) and I seem to remember it being some sort of run of the mill cafe/restaurant before - but perhaps not the whole space.  I went there once for a work lunch for a job I had briefly many years ago at a really crappy TV company.  Anyway I digress - whatever was there before, the entire block is now the wonderful Riding House Cafe and you just have to go!  The decor is brilliant - I do love a Frenchy, New Yorky, quirky brasserie feel and this place has it down pat - great wooden panelling, really cool lighting (including some fantastic wall lights that incorporate stuffed squirrels), a fantastic bar that just begs to be sat at for long cocktail-soaked evenings and wonderful leather banquette seating.  And the food - well my friends, prepare to be delighted - the other half and I shared a selection of small dishes that were all delicious, try this on for size - beetroot carpaccio with sheep's ricotta and a merlot vinaigrette; chicory with pear, radish and gorgonzola; goats curd, figs and honey; veal & pork sausage with lentils, mustard & sage; sea bass ceviche with lime & chili; and a lovely fresh chopped salad with avocado and palm hearts.  And it all tasted as good as it sounds.  Plus we finished off with a really top notch flat white.  This is the latest opening from the team behind Village East and The Garrison in wonderful Bermondsey so they know what they're doing.  I can't wait to get back here and have breakfast (I'm thinking I will make it a weekly thing given how close this is to my office), eat many more lunches and dinners, settle in for evening cocktail sessions and hang out at the aforementioned bar and just generally make this place my local.  Hip hip hooray for the Riding House Cafe.

St Ali EC1

So finally the long awaited London opening of Melbourne's much loved St Ali has happened.  I went along to their opening party at 27 Clerkenwell Road and whilst my friends Gen and Rosie guzzled the free champas I was determined to sample their coffee - the pictured flattie was perfect and I will definitely be back for more.  It is a huge space (check out the always excellent photos on Gourmet Chick's blog), with their own roastery plus upstairs eating space which apparently will also be a late night venue so lots to check out here - which dear readers, I will endeavour to do on your behalf!

J P Guivier - Mortimer St W1

I don't play the violin or in fact any stringed instrument but I have a fascination and a fondness for England's oldest violin dealer - J P Guivier on Mortimer Street.  I love the jaunty window display, the sense of calm that seems to reside inside and just the fact that here in busy central London there is a shop wholly dedicated to selling violins, violas and cellos.  Anyone who has read Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question (and if you haven't you should - it's great) will recognise Guivier's as the location of the main character's mugging.  But don't let that put you off - I have stood and stared into this wonderful shop many a time without being assaulted (at least to date).  It seems as though shops like this are increasingly rare in central London - perhaps driven out by high rents or the demand for a new Pret or Starbucks so I feel particularly protective of them.  So if you are in the market for a violin, please buy it here!  Otherwise, give yourself a moment of calm in your busy west end day and spend some time, just like Finkler, staring in at one of central London's loveliest shops.

Scandinavian Kitchen W1 - revisited

I have already written about the wonderful Scandinavian Kitchen but after attending their bloggers' night a few weeks ago I decided that they were worthy of another shout-out.  Why?  Let me count the ways - (1) The food is delicious - if you haven't tried Scandi open sandwiches (known as smorgasbord) then you need to rectify that situation and fast.  Plus these guys have amazing cakes and all sorts of other goodies.  (2) I love love love the Scandi groceries they sell - I am a sucker for foreign supermarkets and products so this sort of shop was always going to appeal to me but beyond the funky packaging and snigger-inducing names (try asking for Plopp or Spunk with a straight face) there are some delicious Scandi goodies for sale - my new favourite breakfast is dark crispbread with delicious Danish cheese and organic raspberry and blueberry jam, all bought from the Scandi Kitchen. (3) These guys are just really lovely people - Jonas and Bronte put so much love into this place and that was evident at their bloggers' night.  They are passionate about their region's food and keen to pass on that passion to the people of London.  It was so refreshing to see their approach - it was actually a marked contrast to another event I went to the following week (which shall remain nameless...) where it felt super corporate and you really got a sense of the money men behind the scenes.  Long live the Scandi Kitchen way of doing things.  Anyway - this is a super cool place with great food in a really cool part of London - Great Titchfield Street in Fitzrovia has become a real food/coffee destination with Scandi Kitchen, Kaffeine and now the Riding House Cafe all in close proximity.  Have I convinced you yet?  Get down there!

Spuntino - Rupert St W1

Last night I checked out Spuntino, Soho restaurant du-jour and latest offering from Russell Norman of Polpo and Polpetto fame. I was dining with one of my favourite bloggers, Gourmet Chick and we also got a visit from the equally fab Greedy Diva. To cap off the London blogger presence, the LondonFoodie was also in attendance! So there I was, surrounded by the cream of London food bloggers, in the super funky surroundings of a buzzy, totally "of the moment" eatery, being served delicious morsels (more on that shortly) - I felt very content and very "London". I couldn't remember what had been in this space before Spuntino but apparently it was a Tandoori restaurant, with the associated decor - but underneath the false walls was amazing tile-work and mosaics, possibly from a butcher's shop (Gourmet Chick and I had speculated either that or a public toilet, but in a good way...). Anyway it looks amazing, particularly in combination with the pressed metal ceiling and low lighting. There is a no bookings policy and that, along with the buzz on this place made for quite a crowded and somewhat chaotic environment, with most people seated around a U-shaped bar and I did spend a large part of the night with an elbow shoved in my kidneys (I shall not name and shame you here semi-famous female journo, but you know who you are...). But in a way that all added to the fun of Spuntino - not somewhere for a quiet  dinner or even somewhere you can really manage with more than 2 or 3 people, but definitely somewhere to come with a fun drinking and eating buddy (thanks GC you filled both roles admirably) when you're in the mood for a rock 'n roll nosh-up. So - the food. This was posh comfort food, all done well and all with an element of fun and irreverence. We started with the complimentary paprika popcorn and moved swiftly through egg and soldiers (tasty) ground beef & marrow and lamb & pickled cucumber sliders - otherwise known as mini burgers (delicious) and a salad of beets, salted ricotta and pistachio (our attempt to introduce something vaguely healthy, this was nice but unremarkable). Having washed all this down with a carafe of rose and then two of red wine (hic), we prepared ourselves for the richest of our dishes - truffled egg toast. Man this was good, but seriously unhealthy! It's kinda hard to describe and I almost feel like it was slightly narcotic, because when I try to focus on what it looked like or tasted like, a voice in my head just starts saying "mmmm cheese" over and over again, so that probably tells you something...  Determined to also try the much lauded mac 'n cheese, we loosened our belts and managed to make it two thirds of the way through a creamy, savoury bowl of macaroni goodness, with some eggplant chips and fennel yogurt thrown in for good measure. And yes, we did have dessert - who could resist a Nutella pizzetta? Not us! It was sensational.  We had a lovely waiter called Ahmed (you can check him out on Gourmet Chick's review) - which is always a plus.  So my advice - get there early and I mean early people (we got there at 6.20pm and had to wait around 20 minutes for a seat) and definitely try the super trippy truffled egg toast.  (P.S. Thanks GC for the use of the photo!)

Hanway Street - W1

I feel the need to blog about Hanway St because I have a fear that it is changing, particularly as there is some worrying demolition work at the Tottenham Court Rd end, which I understand is to do with Primark moving into the old Virgin Megastore site (read about it here).  Some may say Hanway St needs sprucing up, others may question why I feel a fondness for an often smelly "less a street, more an alley" that runs between TCR and Oxford St.  These days I like it most as a shortcut between our two offices (avoiding possibly the most horrible stretch of Oxford St) but I also love it for it's time-warp record shops, in particular On The Beat (pictured) that blares out (mostly) 60s pop and 70s funk and makes me smile every time I walk by.  Anyone who has been drunk late at night in Soho and wanted to keep the party going is bound to have visited some of the late night Spanish bars along Hanway St, or perhaps the intriguing "Troy 22" (which I first thought was a sex club - hey, that's the way my mind works).  In 2001, Hakkasan opened in Hanway Place, an even smaller alleyway that runs off Hanway St.  The very incongruity of walking down a dark alleyway smelling of piss, going through a door, down some stairs and emerging into a super glam, over the top eatery was part of the appeal and I have to admit, I loved it.  There was definitely a bit of a wank-factor and I do remember some friends Mark & Jaine who were departing London around that time to head home to Melbourne, desperately wanted to go to Hakkasan before they left - they rang to try and get a reservation weeks in advance and were told they could have a "midnight sitting".  Needless to say they politely declined.  But that was Hakkasan in the early Millennium, people were so desperate to go there that they would wait until midnight for a table (although given we waited 2 hours for a burger and chips at #Meateasy, perhaps not much has changed).  Anyway I digress - back to Hanway St.  It's the mixture of late-night drinking haunts, retro vinyl stores, DJ equipment shops and random eateries, all squeezed along this ancient laneway dating from the 1600s (although largely rebuilt in the 1800s - read about it here) that is a winning combination.  Long live Hanway St and it's seedy glamour - boo to High St chains and blandification. 

Wahaca - Wardour St W1

I think I was one of the few people in London that hadn't been to Wahaca - either the original Covent Garden branch or the snazzy new Wardour St incarnation. But now I have. In fact my friend Don and I were going to go to the temporary Modern Pantry (at Meza in Wardour St also) for lunch but after walking in there and finding it empty and being looked at kinda funny we realised it was only open in the evening...awkward. Anyway Don was singing the praises of a particular pork sandwich at Wahaca so in we went. The place is really big and bright and fun looking and I actually felt really happy sitting down - amazing how decor can totally influence your mood. I let Don do the ordering as he is a Wahaca veteran. The aforementioned sandwich, actually called a Pork Torta was AMAZING - seriously I could have eaten 3 of them. Pork pibil (slow roasted pork), guacamole, refried beans and lettuce in a really delicious bun, oh man - I want one right now! We also had tasty frijoles (black beans and cheese), excellent guacamole and some pretty decent spicy slaw. This was all really good food - I had heard some mixed reviews of Wahaca but my experience could not have been better. The advice from Don was to avoid the typical, standard Mexican dishes and go for things like the pork torta - this was where Wahaca excelled. I am considering emulating the excellent Young & Foodish and doing a review of my top London sandwiches and the Wahaca pork torta will definitely be included.

Fleet St Dragon - EC4/WC2

I do love a good London dragon (look around people, they're everywhere!) and after the weather vane on St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, the  handsome specimen on a plinth in the middle of Fleet St is a favourite.  It stands at Temple Bar, the point where the City of London becomes the City of Westminster (hence the two postcodes) and also marks where Fleet St morphs into The Strand.  Handily it is also really close to Coffee by the Clock coffee cart so you can sip a primo flat white whilst gazing at this fine statue. 

#Meateasy - New Cross SE14

I had never visited the Meatwagon, Yianni Papoutsis' hugely popular travelling burger van but became aware of it once it got stolen and Yianni ingeniously decided to strike a deal with Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross Road to take over the upstairs room and turn it into a burger joint.  The blogs have been humming with praise and as lovers of a fine burger, the other half and I made the trek to New Cross last night.  I am a bit of a SE London novice, we have some friends in East Dulwich, I've been to Greenwich and have driven through New Cross on my way to the O2 but I have never hung out there, as much as in my head I am sometimes a groovy Goldmsiths' art student, writing beat poetry and smoking reefer while looking grubbily handsome...anyway....back to #Meateasy (hash-tagged because of the use Yianni makes of Twitter to update his many fans).  We were guided by scrawled messages on the outside of the pub to a side door and up some grungy stairs, hearing what sounded like a really wild party going on up above.  Entering the room, it was a bit like a party - super crowded, good music playing, lots of booze and the funky waitresses/hostesses occasionally banging on a tin bucket when someone had deposited a tip.  We were told that the wait for food (we arrived at 8.30pm) was around an hour and despite being starving we decided the burgers being carried past us looked worth the wait.  We consoled ourselves at the bar with excellent New York Sours (as pictured - I know it's weird to not have a picture of the burgers but the one I took is really just of a bun and doesn't do it justice so you get the drink picture instead).  The woman working behind the bar was obviously an expert mixologist 'cause these babies were sensational.  The one hour turned into almost two and we were getting delirious with hunger, also a little squiffy after two sours and a beer but the upside was that the place had started to empty slightly (it certainly couldn't have got any fuller) and we managed to nab a table.  I almost wept with relief when they called our number and shortly afterwards we had the main event put in front of us.  I had a cheese burger, the other half had a chilli burger and we shared the famous onion rings and some chilli cheese fries.  So was it worth the wait?  Oh yes people.  If you are a fan of burgers this is the nuts - soft, lustrous, savoury, meaty, perfectly seasoned goodness - I had to stop myself from wolfing it all down in one go.  The onion rings were also fantastic and the chilli cheese fries took me back to the end of big nights out in my younger days in Australia - there is nothing like fries covered in some sort of sauce and cheese, simple but delicious!  This place is a real experience and I loved the huge mix of people that were there - from the aforementioned Goldmsiths' students to ageing hipsters, businessmen and food geeks (whilst I may be a lithe art student in my head, in reality I like to think I am a combo of the last two categories).  But be quick people, this "residency" only lasts until April 16th - and my advice, get there as close to the 6pm opening as possible and definitely try out the New York Sours.

St Ali - opening in EC1

I am excited that Melbourne coffee gurus St Ali are poised to open a London outpost.  Word on the street is that it will be in Clerkenwell Road, just back from the corner of St John St, which is a really cool area.  Right across the road is The Zetter and also the Modern Pantry.  For those of you who wondered, could Clerkenwell get any better?  The answer my friends is yes.

Les Deux Salons - William IV St WC2

I am a massive fan of Arbutus and also loved Wild Honey (the one time I visited) so I was really excited about checking out Will Smith and Anthony Demetre's latest venture Les Deux Salons (I say "latest" but LDS has been open for around 6 months I think). I was a bit concerned after reading Greedy Diva's blog post but luckily we seem to have had a better experience. Overall I really liked this place - it definitely has some way to go before the absolute excellence of Arbutus but there is lots to love. First impressions were good - it is styled as a Parisian bistro but to me it was more Prohibition era American, a bit "Boardwalk Empire" if you will. I love that vibe - Dean St Townhouse, Hawksmoor all have an element of this as well and something in it really appeals to me.  Basically I am a sucker for art deco lighting, banquettes and a slightly louche, cocktail-ish feel. Anyway - on to the food. The other half and I decided to share everything so we could both sample more dishes and we were steered resolutely by the waiter to the specials (I am always slightly suspicious of this but tend to be persuaded anyway...sucker) - in this case a salad of Sicilian tomatoes and olive oil and the Thursday special, cassoulet of duck confit, Toulouse sausage and white beans. The cassoulet was delicious, meaty, earthy and comforting. The tomato salad was OK but not amazing - the tomatoes could have been a bit riper think. The standout dish for me was a classic country terrine with fruit relish. Oh man it was so good - I could have happily munched away on another serving (as it was I definitely had more than my half share). We also had an oriechette pasta with artichokes, pecorino and pine nuts which was my least favourite dish of the night. Poor old vegetarians, often left with the least interesting dish on the menu and I think this was probably it. After two hits, one OK and one disappointment, we struck a winner with dessert - glazed lemon tart with creme Chantilly. Just the right mix of tartness, sweetness and crumbly pastry, this was a perfect way to finish the meal. Service was good if a little fraught (and this seems to be a theme) - our neighbours had an issue with a cold cassoulet and some corked wine so there was lots of attention to their table for a while to the detriment of us trying to order dessert, which took some time. Putting that aside, this is a great place and a welcome addition to the London dining scene - a beautiful building, well fitted out, some flashes of brilliance in the cooking and somewhere you could easily imagine whiling away an evening. I will most definitely be back - and look forward to when the kinks are well and truly ironed out because then this place will be outstanding.