Jamie's Italian, London, Covent Garden

At the end of the London Fashion Weekend it seemed quite appropriate to get some food. To tell you the truth, my friend and I were heading for Dishoom in Covent Garden. But on seeing Jamie's Italy next door, we both thought that the prospect of some of Jamie's Italian cuisine sounded very exciting.

Charcuterie

I like Jamie Oliver. I like his cookbooks, I like his TV shows, I even like his magasine. So it follows that I would like his restaurant. Moreso, we all know he loves Italian food. So do I!

The first thing that I observed was how loud it was. Lots of children of course but still not a very relaxing atmosphere. The decor is a rustic one with lots boxes of 'produce' and charcuterie seeming quite tempting with an even more ingenious bread board. Quite a large and busy place but we were quickly led to an outside table as we requested. It looks like Jamie is trying to create the rustic Italian look complete with olive trees. I just don't know the last time they were watered, they seemed to be withering slightly. Anyway, how can a place be rustic when the address starts with Unit 33? Sitting down, despite the best efforts no doubt, it felt like part of a chain. Looking at the website, I realise there are so many branches that a chain is exactly what it is. Not a good sign in my book.

The menu is extensive. Lots of choice of bread and antipasti boards and plates. An interesting selection of both pasta dishes, which you can either have as a starter or a main and mains. I had the scallop and squid ink spaghetti and my friend had the bucatini carbonara-both as main courses.

My friend had asked our very pleasant waitress of the carbonara was served with alot of sauce and she was assured that's it was quite dry. It wasn't, I too thought that there was slightly too much cream.



Scallop and squid ink spaghetti



There was probably one scallop in the ink spaghetti, cut up in slices. The squid was small and there were also capers in the dish which I found did not go well with the pasta or the scallop. The delicate nature of the (few) slices of scallops seemed to be overwhelmed by the natural intensity of the capers. I also wasn't overjoyed by the combination of the scallop and squid. At £13.90, I think this was overpriced and certainly not what I would expect to pay at a place like this, which to me resembled Italian chain restaurants in London.

If I was to rate it, I would give it one star (out of five that is). The only positive comment I have to say, is about the service, the waitress was very friendly and polite and couldn't apologise enough when we said we hadn't enjoyed our meal.

To conclude, I still like Jamie Oliver and I'll still buy his books. But I don't like his restaurants. I can assure you, I won't be going back and I suggest you don't either.

We paid £33.55 for our meal and two glasses of wine. Service is not included in the bill

Jamie's Italian, Unit 33 10-12 Upper St Martin's Lane WC2H 9FB http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/covent-garden

Made in Brasil, Camden Town, London NW1

Recently I haven't been a particularly good blogger with few new posts. I have a few recipes I would like to share, more reviews and so on. For a number of reasons I just haven't got round to it. To be fair to myself, work, and more importantly my boss (boss, if you are reading, take note), have kept me so busy that I have little energy left for anything else. On another note, I haven't been anywhere which has been notable enough, for whatever reason-which includes not being good, that I immediately want to inform my followers- yes all twelve if you- about.

Yesterday, after an extremely long and exhausting day, I was lucky enough that my friend agreed to a drink. It was a beatifelly warm day so we went to Camden Town. I obviously don't go there enough. The sheer number of people is quite overwhelming but very refreshing to see such a different crowd of people. It's true what they say, the world is a different place south of the river, so crossing that divide is always interesting.

First, I declared my wish for a drink and within moments, my desire for food. We sat at one of the numerous bars overlooking the Canal just by Camden Lock for a beer, in what was left of the rest of the sunny(ish) afternoon. I remembered of the Brazilian place I happened to go a few times for drinks so I suggested we try the food there.

We made the short walk to Inverness Street and walked past the numerous bars/restaurants, which, by the way, all look equally interesting and walked into Made in Brasil.  The salsa music in the background, which together with the promise of food perked me up in what was for me a tiring Saturday otherwise.The decor is funkier than the outside would suggest with some low tables for drinks at the front, a bar which whose look promises wonderful cocktail and tables at the back. The courteous waitress led us to a table, by the window as we requested. It was quite early, 6pm, so we were two of only a handful of people there.

The drinks menu is extensive and has all sorts of lovely cocktails. It took longer to decide on drinks than on food. Almost always, I have wine with meals. This time I opted for a pineapple caipirinha. I've had a fair few cocktails in my life and only was this good, at £6.50 it is excellent value.



Pineapple Caipirinha


The menu consists of authentic Brazilian dishes. To be honest, I am not familiar with Brazilian cuisine so if anyone knows better you can verify this. However, I do know that halloumi is certainly not Brazilian which was one of the starters! But there was a good selections of both meat and fish dishes and a few vegetarian choices also.

To start, we settled on Lula 'a dore'- bread crumbed baby squid and the coxinha- chicken pastries. Both were straightforward dishes, the baby squid was a nicer version of calamari and the chicken pastries were what I would recognise as chicken croquettes. Although we happily ate them, I wouldn't say that these were out of the ordinary and quality that you would expect at the least.

Lula 'a dore'



Coxinha

I had the feijoada to continue. This is slow cooked mixed pork and black beans stew served with rice. The stew comes in a separate bowl which you add over the rice. As previously mentioned, I can't comment on how authentic the dishes are, or how true the flavours are to local brazilian cuisine, however I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. The portions were substantial and the stew was lovely with perfectly cooked pork.



Feijoado



My friend has the Virado a paulista: pork cutlet with poached egg and brown beans served with rice which was an equally substantial dish, and as tasty.

Over the course of our meal it started getting much busier, with people who seemed to know their brazilian food better than us. I have once been there after dinner when the music gets going and everyone is there not for the food but the cocktails. Whatever your 'usual' kind of place may be, you will enjoy this, with a mixed crowd and interesting people watching. The fashion sense is certainly different to that in south west London.

We ended our meal with alcoholic coffees which I recommend. The service is in fact very good which for some reason surprised me. I know I may be unfair here, but I was expecting typical run-down bar kind of service. Far from it. Although I wouldn't suggest you make a trip to Camden Town just to go here, if you are in Camden Town, then it's certainly on my list of recommendations. This place does get packed so if you want to sit down, get there early.

We paid £31pp incl service for two courses, a cocktail each and an alcoholic coffee each

Made in Brazil, 12 Inverness Street, Camden Town, London NW1 7HJ Tel: 020 7482 0777
http://made-in-brasil-bar.co.uk/

 

Le Relais de Venise, London, Marylebone W1

Last night I found myself in an extremely wet central London. After a drink my friend and I thought, as per usual, food. Where to? We were on Marylebone High Street and after walking for about 10 minutes in the rain, I remembered of this place that I went to about three years ago. All they serve is steak frites. Agreed, we headed to Le Relais de Venise.

Let me explain. All that is served here is a salad, a basic lettuce salad and then steak frites. Yes, that's it! We found it and already there was a long queue which went all the way round the corner. There were another 15 minutes to the evening opening- Sunday dinner starts at 6.30pm and people were waiting outside in the rain, just for steak frites. Did I mention? They don't take reservations so there are always long queues.

So. You would think that for people to be waiting in the rain for the place to open then it must be good. Very good.. Right? Sorry but I'll be frank and you can stop reading here if you want, here's the conclusion: wrong! Very wrong.

I guess there is a certain novelty to the fact that all that is served is salad and steak. Surely there must also be a novelty in queuing? I don't think so. Come on, we are no longer 18 waiting to get into a west end club.

In we went, convinced that this would be an excellent dining experience. The diners seemed to me to be in the vast majority tourists, certainly no locals from what I could gather. The decor that of a typical french bistrot where nothing has changed in the last 30 years. The waitresses dressed the part in a black uniform with the white aprons. We were presented with the menu and almost instantly the waitress came back for our order. We asked for two minutes and when she came back, she briefly explained the concept and asked how we would like our steak. My friend was promptly interrupted when he requested medium rare. No such choice, it's either medium or rare. Orders done together with a bottle of wine, our salad arrived. Lots of lettuce-my tortoise would have loved that- with some dressing and walnuts. Ok salad done. Our steak arrived.

Waitresses serving up



Steak frites (note: emphasis on the frites)



House red

To be fair it's very efficient. The waitresses serve up the slices of steak and sauce and more frites than I have ever seen before on a plate. If it was alive, the frites would have drowned the steak. Poor steak.. Steak was average. They do come back and serve you seconds, because apparently they keep it warm for you- I think we got another three (small) slices. And lots more frites, to drown the second round of steak-just in case. We debated on the sauce as we detected hints of curry. We asked the waitress and were advised that it's a 'secret' sauce. It's a sauce, not the invention of the century! Anyway, what can one say.

After all the frites we had we didn't need dessert, although there was a satisfactory selection. The bill arrived. The 'set' menu is £21 pp and our wine (house red) was £15. Including service we paid £32 each. Quite overpriced if you ask me. So if you are in the area and are tempted-don't. You're better off going to the fish and chip place accross the road.

Le Relais de Venise, 120 Marylebone Lane, London, W1U 2QG Tel: 020 7486 0878 http://www.relaisdevenise.com/

Dishoom, London, Covent Garden

Every so often you come across a place which is quite unique. Dishoom is one of those places. It's not unique for the food. Although the food is worth trying. It's unique because this is a Bombay cafe. Open all day, I have been back for brunch on two occasions. This is not local to me so my returning there says something. It's welcoming and relaxing. You could in fact spend hours reading the papers, drinking chai and having brunch, lunch or whatever meal you may choose during the day. For London I would say this is a refreshing take on Indian cuisine, not so much for the originality of the food but more for the refreshing aspect of the Indian dining experience. 

A great deal has been said and written about this place, So I'll keep this one short.

If you go for breakfast, I recommend the Bombay breakfast bake. Two eggs, baked on a lentil bhaji mash. I don't know if this may seem like a strange combination, but I can assure you it's  perfect start to a weekend.

The chicken roll, was nice but nothing spectacular, although the dessert of pineapple and black pepper crumble was more exciting.




Chicken roll

 

Pineapple and black pepper crumble

Although the service could have been more attentive; at times it seemed that the waitors were too busy entertaining each other, Dishoom is authentic in it's uniqueness. I don't know of any place quite like this in London. Then again, there are less than 30 left in Bombay.

Expect to pay around £15pp inlc chai

Dishoom, 12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9FB Tel: 020 7420 9320 http://www.dishoom.com/