BRASSERIE ZEDEL

Some people celebrate Christmas by having dinner with their friends before Christmas day with the full assortment of traditional festive dishes such as pigs in blankets, turkey with cranberry sauce and christmas pudding. This year we avoided the traditional with my boyfriend and indulged ourselves in a French meal at the Corbin & King's restaurant Brasserie Zedel.

It was exactly as I remembered, a long corridor full of art deco posters and a huge, magnificient dining room with marble column with French style red velvet banquet seats.
I really love the atmosphere in this restaurant as it makes you feel on the other side of the Channel and it has a romantic ambiance for dinner. It is exactly what I needed as I am usually nostalgic at that time of the year and look forward to being back in my hometown for Christmas.

We kicked off our meal with a Crémant de Loire, and enjoyed it with their beautiful homemade bread. I wish all the breads in London's bakery could be as good as the one they make.

As a starter my boyfriend had a steak tartare. It was totally spot on and made with perfectly tender beef. There was some mustard and Worcester sauce available on the side to add a bit more spice to the tartare. I opted of the onion soup and it was really nice even if I had expected to have a bit more melted cheese over the top like they usually do in France, but the flavour was right.

For the main, my boyfriend was so predictable and ordered the confit duck. Since he tried it with me three years ago, it has become his favourite French dish. it was served with Puy lentils. He was a bit disappointed as the confit duck was a bit dry. He is used to the confit duck of Chez Elles which is more moist and juicy.
I had the beef bourguignon. I remembered the first time I tried it at Brasserie Zedel, the vegetables were flavourless, but this time it was nice. The sauce was rich and the beef melted in the mouth.

Before the dessert, we went the French way and ordered two slices of cheese: goat's cheese and brie.

The next and final step was the dessert and we shared a crème brûlée and an ile flottante. The ile flottante took me back to my childhood. The crème brûlée failed the spoon test unfortunately and was grainy.

The restaurant was absolutely packed but the service was quick and really efficient. Despite some little cooking issues with the confit duck and the dessert, we spent a really enjoyable evening.
Brasserie Zedel is a trustful restaurant were you can be sure to enjoy French classics at a very affordable price.

8/10

 Onion soup 

 Bread & butter

 Steak tartare

 Beef bourguignon

 Confit duck & Puy lentils 

 Goat's cheese, brie and grapes 

 Crème Brûlée

 Ile flottante 

Brasserie Zedel

20 Sherwood street

W1F 7ED London

Twitter: @BrasserieZedel

CEVICHE OLD STREET

I recently dined at the former Alexandra Trust Dining Rooms that were taken over nearly a year ago by Martin Morales and became his second Ceviche restaurant in London.

We were offered a table at the back of the restaurant which offered a direct view on the kitchen and the impressive rotisserie, where a few chickens were being slowly roasted.
We started our meal with a first round of cocktails, my boyfriend went for a classic Margarita, while I opted for a sweeter version and had their Rail passion cocktail made with Pisco impostor mezcal, limo chilli and vanilla-infused pisco, saffron-agave syrup, passion fruit, olive oil & oak smoke.
I was not entirely sure why it came with a marshmallow on top as it didn't really bring anything extra or match with the cocktail in terms of flavour.

As a starter I ordered a tiradito de conchas. It consisted of thinly sliced fresh scallops, blood orange and rocoto tiger's milk, yoghurt and black tobiko caviar. The sauce was well balanced, sharp, sweet and sour at the same time. However I thought the dish was slightly overpriced (£13) as there was not many scallops and they were extremely thin.
My boyfriend had a Don Ceviche made with fresh pieces of seabass, amarillo chilli tiger's milk, sweet potato, red onion and limo chilli.

For main, I had the seco de pato, a confit duck cooked with dark beer and coriander. It was delicious, but this was nothing compared to the lomo salted my boyfriend ordered.
The beef was cooked to perfection and comes with red onion, tomato, saltado sauce and chips. Lomo saltado is my boyfriend's favourite dish, according to him the restaurant's version tasted like the one in had when he lived in Peru.
I really enjoyed this dish, apart from the chips which I think let the dish down.

To end our meal we shared the dulce de higos. I really liked the different texture that the chef combined in this dish, some delicious soft caramelised black figs, with pine nuts biscuit and fresco cheese mousse.

Overall I had a nice dinner at Ceviche. The atmosphere and the service were good but nothing really special. The star of the meal was the lomo saltado, it was a very great value and probably the reason why we will come back to Ceviche.

7/10

Rail passion cocktail

Tiradito de conchas 

Don Ceviche 

 Lomo saltado

 Seco de pato

Dulce de higos 

Ceviche Old Street

2 Baldwin Street

EC1V 9NU London

Twitterr: @CevicheUk 

BONE DADDIES - OLD STREET

Bone Daddies has recently opened a new branch in Old Street. 
I went for dinner with my boyfriend as we are both huge fans of their ramen. We went during their soft opening where the food was 50% (this offer ends on the 30th of June, so you rather be quick!)

This new addition in the Bone Daddies' family includes some exclusive new dishes such as the crispy duck aburamen and 7 differents kushikatsu.
I was not very familiar with the kushikatsu, but I found out that it is a Japanese dish which consist of deep-fried skewered meat, seafood and vegetables. 
Nothing to do with a fatty fish & chips deep-fried batter...the kushiskatsu are made with egg, flour and panko.

They are usually served with a sauce pot which is shared among customers...in Old Street there was no sauce pot sharing, you got your own and there is a selection of different sauces.

My boyfriend and I shared three different kushikatsu, the Iberico & roast onion and the Scallop, sweet potato & shiso which will really enjoyed. However the Padrons, bacon and cheddar were a bit disappointing as they contained a lot of bacon fat and were very chewy. ( I will recommend you to avoid this last one if you go to Bone Daddies on a date as you won't look very glamorous trying to eat it!)

The ramen were perfect as usual. I went out of my confident zone for once and ordered the Curry ramen instead of the Tonkotsu and added an extra egg. My boyfriend went for the sure comfort food value: the Tonkotsu. Both broths were perfectly executed and rich in flavour. 

Bone Daddies has nothing to improve! (apart maybe there locations...Brixton, Oval next? ) 
Their ramen completely rocks and are sure trustful value which justify the travel across London. Will I travel to East London for more kushikatsu?...Yes for sure! 

8/10

Three prizes cocktail & Frozen Yuzu Margarita

Patrons, bacon & cheddar kushikatsu

Kushikatsu: Iberico & roast onion - Scallops, sweet potato & shiso 

Curry ramen, fried chicken, padrons peppers, cabbage and chicken bone broth with an extra egg

Tonkotsu ramen, chashu pork, spring onion, 20 hour pork bone broth

Bone Daddies - Old street

Unit C- 211 Old St

London EC1V 9NV

Twitter: @BoneDaddies

JOE'S PIZZA

A few weeks ago I went in New York for the first time. I spent 5 amazing days there and ended up walking 72km around Manhattan, Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Before my trip I made a list of some places and restaurants I wanted to try. Joe’s Pizza was one of them.

Opened in 1975, Joe’s Pizza became an institution in Greenwich village by specialising in authentic New York style pizza and now has three different branches across New York. It's also featured in some movies and counts some celebrities as their loyal customers. 

While we were walking down Bleecker street, we tried to go to their Carmine Street’s branch which is their ‘flagship' but it was too busy so instead we went on a different day to Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. 

The service was pretty efficient, when you get to the counter you only need to tell them which slice you want and they call your name when your slice is ready.

My boyfriend and I tried a lot of different slices, we ordered the white, the fresh mozzarella, the pepperoni and the any topping’s special.

We both added some extra grated parmesan and oregano on each of our slices. My boyfriend’s favourite was the any topping’s special, mine was the white slice.

What I liked about Joe’s pizza slice was the quality of the crust. It was stretchy and chewy at the same time, which made it easy to fold without being to floppy. The tomato sauce was great and each slice had the right amount of cheese. 

It was a really good value meal. The slices at Joe’s Pizza are priced from $2.75 to $3.50 (equivalent to £1.88 to 2.39). It is a huge bargain if you consider the fact in London, places like Voodoo’s Ray, NY Fold or Paradise slice sell NY Style pizza at twice the price (between £3.50 to £4 for a slice).  

I won’t say Joe’s Pizza is the best pizzeria in New York because I tried only one other pizzeria in the lower East side when I was there so I can’t really judge. However if you love pizza, Joe’s pizza should be on your to do list if you are in New York, and it tasted better than the ones I had so far in London. 

10/10

 'Any topping' slice

 The White slice

 Pepperoni slice

 The white slice & The Fresh mozzarella slice

Joe's Pizza

216 Bedford Avenue

Brooklyn NY 11249

Twitter: @joespizzanyc

LE BUN UK

Recently I went to the new residency in Leicester House of Le Bun UK with some friends.

Le Bun team turned Leicester House into a temporary diner for a few weeks until the 22nd of May. Le Bun offers a selection of American burgers based on some French classic recipes and ingredients. Everything on the menu sounded great and tasty: "pigeon & foie gras", "truffle Mayo", "Bourguignon glaze"... I'm stopping the list as I am starting to drool right now !

Two of us ordered the truffle cheeseburger, one of us had the duck bun and the last one challenged himself with the truffle double double with extra "bacon salt".
When the food arrived we were told they had sold out of bacon salt so my friend had a huge slice of bacon in the burger instead which made the whole burger look gigantic.
On the side we had two fries with signature truffle Mayo and a few cocktails.

The cocktail's names and what seemed to be their origin were quite interesting. My New Yorker friend and I went for the Super Skinny Bitch cocktail which she never heard of before despite the fact it mentioned New York next to it. Our other friends had a few lagers and a Drive Thru Bubblegum Daiquiri. The Cocktails were all great and not too pricey.

Back to the food, the truffle cheeseburger was just amazingly faultless. The juicy meat was perfectly cooked with a generous slice of melted cheese and huge amount of truffle Mayo. My friend and I regretted we didn't order the truffle double double like our friend because to be honest even if it was surely full of fatty meat, cheese and bun, it was actually light in taste and very easy to eat...maybe to quick to eat too!
The fries were simple but good but the portion was a bit small. Again what made the difference was the succulent truffle mayonnaise, we did requested some extra for the table.

The duck bun was in my opinion great too with a slightly juicy pulled confit duck. My boyfriend who ordered it thought it was less good than a Frenchie's confit duck burger.

We ended our meal with their delicious tarte satin.

Their residency ends this weekend on the 22nd of May so I would highly recommend you go and try their delicious burger otherwise you will have to wait for their next pop up.

8/10 

Le Truffle cheeseburger (New York) - aged rare breed patty, truffle mayo, American cheese, brioche 

French fries 

Le Truffle double double (California) - Double patty, Double cheese, Double Truffle, two aged rarebreed patties, truffled veal jam, truffle mayo, American cheese, brioche 

 Le Duck frite bun (Les Landes) - Pulled confit duck, straw frites, Bearnaise, Champagne slaw, brioche

 Super Skinny Bitch cocktails (New York)

Drive Thru Bubblegum Daiquiri (Lafayette)

Apple tart tatin

Le Bun UK

1 Leicester Street 

WC2H 7BL London 

Twitter: @LeBunUK