Elliott's Cafe, Borough Market

Happy National Burger Day

What better way to celebrate National Burger Day then to head to Elliott's Cafe in Borough Market for a cheese burger. I've read many reviews raving about the cheeseburger at Elliott's so I had to give it a try. 

The cheeseburger came with fried maris piper potatoes which were like roast potatoes really, really crisp but still light and fluffy on the inside. I tried picking the burger up with my hands and eating it but after just one bite all of the burgers juices escaped and made me look like a messy beast!! Their napkins were pristine white linen so I succumbed to the fork and knife instead. The burger was served pink and was great; big, fat and juicy. On top of the burger was onion and melted cheese. The onions tasted like the onions you get with your Sunday roast gravy; sweet onion, deep and beef-like tasting which were delicious. Spread on each bun was I can only presume olive oil with a bit of dill mixed in, to bring the whole burger together. 

The menu just states this as Cheeseburger with fried maris piper, so you have no idea what you are expecting, could it be just a simple, plain burger? Nope. The burger comes looking simple but tastes delicious, all of the flavours complimenting each other, so understated. 

The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the ketchup, which tasted as though it was made from honey, slightly too florally for me. Regular, plain Heinz ketchup would have made this a perfect dish for me. 

It was a little bit big for lunch so I didn't have enough room for dessert, never mind there's always next time. 

Morelli's Gelato, Harrods

 Morelli's used to be on the ground floor of Harrods in the foodhall before they redecorated and moved it upstairs. They've given it a more adult look calling it an Ice Cream Palour and Milk Bar. However on the day of visit, maybe they ran out of milk as Milkshakes were not available. No worries though as I came purely for an ice cream sundae. There are very few places in London that is an ice cream palour, serving fancy and decorative ice cream sundaes, so when I come here I feel like a kid again. The queue to the ice cream palour gives you a chance to eye up the gelatos on offer and also eye up anyone eating an ice cream sundae giving you ideas on what to order. I went for the Nocciolini, an ice cream sundae of vanilla, hazelnut and Nutella ice cream, served with a Reese's peanut buttercup, chocolate sauce, hazelnuts and whipped cream. I had asked for no hazelnuts, I don't have a nut allergy, I love Reese's peanut buttercups but I just don't like the texture of nuts, however my sundae came with nuts (even though when the bill came it also stated no nuts). Still that didn't put me off from the sundae. It was delicious, gelato smooth and creamy. I love ice cream so this was amazing to me, and pretty as a picture. I didn't get it on my sundae but they serve sauces for other sundaes in small chocolate pots so its a double treat delicious ice cream sauce like caramel in an edible chocolate cup. For me it's just a shame they only operate out of Harrods in London, I would love to see them have another outlet in London in an old fashioned ice cream parlour decor.

C & R Restaurant, Bayswater

C & R Restaurant, is a Malaysian restaurant located in Bayswater. They also have a little cafe version in China Town. Me, D & M have been to C & R before, this is our local Malaysian food spot. Their food is spicy so be warned.

We ordered Singapore Laksa, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Nasi Lemak. For those who are unfamiliar with Malaysian food, nasi lemak is a good classic to go for. Nasi lemak is a rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves. At C & R they serve their nasi lemak with sambal chilli, anchovies, archar, chicken curry, half a boiled egg and peanuts. The sambal chilli is onion and chilli based, almost like a chutney, slightly sweet, spicy and thick. Archar is a pickle, which is sweet and sour, C & R's archar has pineapple giving it sweetness and sesame seeds giving it a nuttiness. The dish as a whole is good, with a wide variety of tastes and textures.

Singapore laksa is a spicy noodle soup dish served in a massive bowl. This was delicious. Very spicy with intense flavour. It comes with fish cake, fish ball, prawns and fried tofu. The fried tofu soaks up the spicy soup so when you bite into it, it bursts full of spicy soupy goodness.

Hainanese chicken rice is boiled chicken, which has been boiled in chicken stock ensuring the chicken is not over cooked and tender and soaks in as much chicken flavour as possible. The rice served in Hainese chicken rice is also cooked in chicken stock. It has a slight sheen from the natural chicken oil and an intense chicken taste. The sambal served with the chicken rice is for me the star of the show bringing everything together. The sambal (not the same as the one served with nasi lemak) is spicy from the chilli but also fresh and zesty from the addition of lime juice. This brings together the mellow chicken and rice to life.    

The food at C&R will be spicy for some but there are other things on the menu on offer. However don't go here for the roti canai (Malaysian flatbread) as this comes out of a packet and there are other places in London serving freshly made roti canai. The decor of the restaurant is a little dated and could definitely do with livening up!!

Mitsukoshi Piccadilly

Mitsukoshi, the Japanese department store has been in Piccadilly for 34 years. In September, the store will be closed. It is unknown whether they will relocate to a different location or whether it will be it for the department store in the UK.

The restaurant is located in the basement of the department store, granted, it could do with updating the decor. The food has never failed to disappoint me.

For lunch I tried the Mitsukoshi Bento; sashimi, simmered chicken and vegetables, tempura and fruit, served with miso soup, rice and pickles. The food here is clean tasting with the sashimi in particular tasting fresh. The tempura wasn't the crispiest or lightest tempura I've ever eaten but it was ok. I do love the Japanese style of serving food in Bento boxes. Not only is it pretty as a picture, but also gives a variety of tastes, textures and a complete meal.

It's sad to see Mitsukoshi close after the numerous years in Piccadilly. The Mitsukoshi closed in Hong Kong many many years ago, they mentioned they were hoping to find another location to open, however this never happened and it has not been opened again in Hong Kong. I have been to the Mitsukoshi in Ginza, it had the luxurious feel like Liberty department store, however the store in Piccadilly doesn't quite live up to the same standard as its Japanese counterpart. It is a shame to see it go. I just hope they don't replace the department store with another shop selling tourist tat, like others around Piccadilly.

Taqueria, Westbourne Grove

I visited Taqueria following its recent review in The Telegraph. I had been here many many years ago, however have forgotten what it was like, since I don't remember it I guess it wasn't much to write about?

My visit to Taqueria was with D & M. It may appear, given the photos that we over ordered, but since each dish was small, it was all about the sharing and picking at each one. It was also Taco Happy Hour (Monday - Thursday 5pm-7pm) so you've got to go Taco crazy. Since we ordered quite a lot of dishes here are my highlights and lowlights from it all (I'll try to be brief).

Highlights: Chorizo quesadilla melted cheese and chorizo is a perfect combo. Tinga taco good spicy kick with depth of flavour. Fried plantain, that was on top of the rice, just because I love fried plantain. Camarones al mojo de ajo; garlicky prawn taco, this was the best taco of the night, the prawns were cooked perfectly, altogether it was slightly spicy, rich, garlicky, naturally sweet of prawn, if you only try one taco here, make sure it's this one!! Lastly Churros con cajeta; churros with toffee sauce. The churros were crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. The toffee sauce is amazing! I even tried to eat the remaining sauce out of the pot **embarrassed blush**. That toffee sauce on top of ice cream would be divine!!  

Lowlights: Specials of prawn ceviche; there was too much lime juice (as you can see in the pic) almost soupy. This was too tangy amd limey and overpowers the taste of prawns, the totopos, like tortilla chips were great, you could really taste the corn. Pollo tostada tasted a little like chicken mayo sandwich filling on top of a crispy tortilla. Arroz a la Mexicana y platano frito; Mexican rice topped with fried plantain; the rice was a little too al dente for my liking.  

The best thing of the night was the prawn taco. If you only eat one thing here it has to be this!!!

M&S Tarte au citron slices

Just a cheeky little treat from M&S; tarte au citron slices. It's tangy and slightly sweet lemon, with short crust pastry. No soggy bottoms here! There pastry remained crisp. All in all another great dessert as usual from M&S

Carluccio's Notting Hill

 I felt particularly beastly and went a little overboard with the food ordering. I've been to Carluccio's many times before and have probably tried nearly everything on the menu, this time I stuck with some of my favourites.

The Antipasto Supremo; a great mix of little things to pick at. My favourite part is the balsamic onions and the chargrilled aubergine. The balsamic onions are the sweet but with a slight tang from the pickling balsamic vinegar and the chargrilled aubergine has deep smokiness from the chargrilling, but is naturally sweet from the aubergine and is slightly fruity from the olive oil. The pancetta wrapped prawns are a little too salty for me. The hams are good but were slightly raggedy from the cutting.

In my beastly state I also ordered their fixed price menu which they offer all the time, which I think is good value. Bruschetta and penne alla luganica. The tomatoes on the bruschetta are amazing, they're wonderfully sweet and juicy. I could happily eat a plate of the bruschetta topping!! Penne alla luganica is penne served with a spicy sausage creamy sauce. The sausage has been broken up so is like mince, gives a background kick against the rich creamy tomato-ey sauce. This is definitely my favourite pasta dish at Carluccio's.

I'm glad Carluccio's permanently offer the fixed price menu, as the penne dish might be just enough for lunch, but for dinner not enough and you would need to get a dessert or starter.

Tenshi, Islington

 Tenshi is a Japanese restaurant located in Islington. It offers authentic Japanese food.

They offer Takoyaki, at the time there, they were being made fresh outside which tempted me, D and M in. I've been to other Japanese restaurants before that offer Takoyaki, but were frozen and just fried to reheat, they only reason I know, because they were cold inside. I've seen these in Japan Centre to buy also. Had to get these here as I saw they were freshly made. It was crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, really tasty.  

They also offer Okonomiyaki, normally vegetarian, but you can add extra chicken, pork, salmon, cheese, or prawns. We went for chicken and cheese. The first place I tried okonomiyaki was in Abeno Too, near Leicester Square which specialises in okonomiyaki. I later tried okonomiyaki in Tokyo, not the birthplace of okonomiyaki but was amazing. The okonomiyaki at Tenshi had thicker cut cabbage than what I've had in the past, I prefer the cabbage to be cut finer as it brings the okonomiyaki together more and you get less of the batter taste. The edges were more crispy than Abeno Too, I think the okonomiyaki at Tenshi has been made in a pan to get the edges crisp. But the okonomiyaki was delicious!!

Tenshi also offer a Bento lunch time menu, so I had to try the sushi bento. The bento look so pretty and colourful, the fish was fresh and had a slight sweetness from fresh fish. The addition of edamane beans and the vegetable gyoza made the bento box complete, it was all delicious.

Gu Hot chocolate souffle pots

Gu Hot chocolate souffle pots are delicious!! You can get them from supermarkets then just pop them into the oven. Once out of the oven, the top has a slight crust, revealing underneath rich, gooey chocolatey amaziness. I could easily eat two in one sitting.

These are pretty expensive normally but every so often are on offer in the supermarkets.

Tesco's mini vanilla cupcakes

I thought these looked so cute in Tesco's so had to give them a try. Tesco's getting on the cupcake bandwagon.

The cake itself is light, and overall does have a vanilla taste, you can pop the whole thing in your mouth in one go. For me it was a little sweet, but so cute for a tea party or entertaining.

Oreo ice cream cone

I LOVE OREOS!!! For some strange reason I think the mini oreos taste better than the normal size. I know they're exactly the same but to me the mini ones taste better, maybe it's the fact that it's so small and that you can eat more than one without feeling guilty.

When I saw Oreo ice cream and ice cream cones in the supermarket I was happy. The Oreo ice cream doesn't taste as nice as Haagen Dazs' cookie and cream ice cream as it doesn't compare to the creaminess of Haagen Dazs. But Haagen Dazs doesn't sell cookie and cream ice cream cones. It does have a bar version but is never sold in the supermarkets, so Oreo's ice cream cone is great. The cone is also made from the same base as the Oreo biscuit. Yummy

Casa Brindisa, South Kensington

Brindisa has many restaurants across London; London Bridge, Soho, Shoreditch and South Kensington, each slightly different, but all offering Tapas, as well as a retail outlet so you can try to recreate dishes at home.

I visited Casa Brindisa in South Kensington with D & M  for lunch.

From the picoteo; picking plates we had the marinated olives and vegetarian bomba. I'm not a fan of olives so I can't say how they tasted, however I told they were ok, nothing special to write home about. The vegetarian bomba had a deep smoky taste, the croquette was crisp on the outside. The sauce was very sharp and tangy. It tasted as though there was salad cream on the bottom.It was pleasant.

Of course an item from the charcuterie had to be chosen. As you walk through the door you're greeted with hanging legs of ham. We couldn't decide so opted for the Charcuteria selection, this gave a great selection; spiciness of the chorizo, pepperiness of the salchichon, the lomo and Teruel ham both were salty with a slight sweetness. These were all cut to a decent size, not wafer thin, which was great. My favourite was the Teruel ham as it had a intense depth of flavour and the chorizo due to its spice. This plate was served with bread and a fantastic fruity olive oil.

The table had to be cleared before we could proceed with; lamb cutlets, chorizo tortilla and a fish selection. 

The lamb cutlets were chargrilled, you could taste the grill marks, but it came with a sweet, fruity delicious sauce made from the reduction of Joven de Silos wine. The chorizo tortilla came with aioli, this was lukewarm and salty, it was ok. The fish selection was my least favourite dish here, I really disliked this dish. 

The fish selection's fish all tasted as though they were all preserved in some form. The texture and taste of the mackerel tasted as though the mackerel was slightly off, instead of being a firm texture it was soft. The mackerel looked and tasted as though this is what mackerel sashimi would have been like in the 16th century before fridges and fermenting was the technique used for sushi. The small sardines were babies, it seemed like such a waste to eat them as they were so small, it would have been better if they had been left to grow into actual small sardines, these came as though they had been preserved in oil. The mojama; air cured tuna loin was salty and had an incredible intense fishy taste, and the baby squid, my least favourite item on the dish, tasted as though they were off, incredibly fishy with a slightly crumbly texture instead of squid having a slight elastic texture as you chew. I would say I am a fish person. I enjoy eating most types of fish; cooked or raw, but perhaps I'm not a fishy person enough to eat this dish. 

After the fish selection I couldn't stomach anything else, which was a shame as I was still slightly hungry. I think we should of stopped at the charcuterie selection. Service was relaxed, some may call it slow, but it suits the restaurant.  

I think tapas works great if it was at a bar as a snack whilst drinking as it was designed for, or as a light lunch option I think it works, but as we were sitting there I thought if this was dinner I would be ravenous and would of had to order twice as much.

Claridge's Afternoon Tea

Get those little pinkies in the air ready for Afternoon Tea at Claridge's!!

Set in the Foyer and Reading Room, the centerpiece of the room was vases and vases of flowers, adding to the art deco look.

Me and M, went for the Afternoon Tea. We have been to the Ritz before for Afternoon Tea, what's different here is that the Afternoon Tea is served in courses; savoury (sandwiches) then sweet (cakes).

We had the White silver tip tea, which was light and refreshing. This tea can only be picked at certain times of the year so supply is limited so made this a fitting tea for this occasion. A special tea for a special Afternoon Tea.

The sandwiches: mini savoury scones topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon, caviar and pea shoot; ham and tomato relish, cream cheese and cucumber, chicken, duck egg mayonnaise and salmon. I'm not a huge fan or smoked salmon, the taste and smell reminds me of uncooked bacon, however my favourite item on the savoury dish was the mini scones. The scones were light and buttery, matching the creaminess of the cream cheese underneath the smoky salmon. It was delicious. I was disappointed in the chicken sandwich as the chicken was a bit dry, it definitely needed the tomato relish to moisten and liven up the sandwich.  

For the sweet course: plain and apple and sultana scones served with of course clotted cream and Marco Polo strawberry jelly. (Ok I got a little excited before I remembered to take a picture). I have no idea what Marco Polo jelly is but this was perfumey and very sweet. I think I would have preferred regular strawberry jam. M said she much preferred the scones they sell in Harrods or Waitrose as these scones tasted as though they were made with bicarbonate of soda. These scones were nice.  

The patisseries: fruit cake, a cherry topped crumble, chocolate with a layer of creme anglais and a profiterole filled with banana and topped with a thin disc of banana flavoured chocolate. Of all of the cakes I think my favourite was the banana puff. It had a crumble topping with a light creamy filling which reminded me of Beard Papa. This creation was like Beard Papa meets banoffee pie.

There was live music playing making it a relaxing and pleasant experience. The service was attentive, maybe a little too attentive, with nearly every waiter coming over to see whether everything was ok. There was a little wait between the "savoury" and "sweet" courses, as they changed your cutlery.

Upon leaving they give you each this cutest little box of chocolates to "remember them by". They also let you take home any of the cakes if you haven't eaten them all. They also had a trolley of different sweet jars which felt like a mini visit to the sweet shop as I filled up this paper bag.

I can see why many people go to Claridge's for Afternoon Tea, they do offer an unique experience. A mini getaway from the hustle and bustle outside from the nearby Oxford Street. I did enjoy the experience, but I can see why there are those out there whom see Afternoon Tea as a bit pointless, as you would have to eat a lot of sandwiches and cakes to make up for the £45 per person cost (plus 12.5% service charge), considering a sandwich, cake and a cup of tea at Pret for less than £10.