| AskLydia
Find your food inspiration
APPETIZERSSearch the Diaries
SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL
Kaspar’s @ The Savoy, London with their signature dish - the lobster club sandwich.
When in Soho - Mooli’s Rotis
Fresh and healthy Indian street food in the form of roti wraps (meat or veggie versions) made fresh in a little cafe in the heart of London’s Soho (on Frith St).
You may also be interested in:
Hakkasan - in my Top 5 London restaurants for 2010
…the others being Moro (Moorish delights in Exmouth Market), St John (“Nose to Tail” eating in Smithfield), Ottolenghi (who knew vegetables could be so interesting?) and Saf (a vegan wonder).
What to order at Hakkasan for a perfect meal for two:
You may also be interested in:
ALBION >
Enjoy the last of the sunset cocktails at the Boundary rooftop - such as the lovely Belle Vue Cocktail (vodka, plum jam, cinnamon syrup, lemon juice) which was created especially for this year’s London Cocktail Week. Be quick though. By the end of this week the rooftop bar will close until next Spring…..
You may also be interested in:
Fika - the Swedish cafe with a secluded rooftop bar
You’ll find Fika, the Swedish cafe and grill, at the top end of Brick Lane in London - wedged between the two bagel shops (the ones with the queues out the door). Give the wood-panelled sauna-like interior space a miss and head straight to the set of stairs at the back which leads you up to a bijou summer terrace - complete with views over the City skyline, and a west-facing sun trap, sheltered from the rain and wind (though not from the smells of the bagels and salt beef next door which will have your stomach grumbling!). Settle back with a Swedish pear cider or cocktail and indulge in a little fika (Swedish for a “little break” for conversation, drink and food).
You may also be interested in:
Ti Punch @ Callooh Callay
Ti Punch (pronounced Tee Paunsssh) is a traditional French-Caribbean cocktail made of rum, cane sugar and lime. It is distinctive for having no ice in it whatsoever, which makes for a very strong concoction indeed. This is a drink to be sipped slowly; a lovely choice for a later summer evening.
Although perennially popular in the hipster bars of Paris I have never come across it until now - at the Alice in Wonderland-inspired Shoreditch cocktail bar Callooh Callay.
Make sure you pay a visit sooner rather than later however - before their supply of limited edition La Mauny 55 rum (from the AOC-regulated Martinique) runs out.
You may also be interested in:
Poilâne is a long-standing bakery in Paris (and more recently London) which specialises in a type of sourdough bread made from stone-ground “grey” flour in wood-burning ovens. It is particularly delicious when toasted and topped with grilled Crottin de Chavignol goat’s cheese. The bread is now shipped all around the world - and in London is available at many Waitrose branches outside of their Elizabeth St store.
Probably one of my top 5 favourite pastries (ever) is their apple tart (made from a twist of puff pastry base with large chunks of lightly caramelised apples) - which is more than worth the detour if either in Paris or London. Probably a good thing it is a trek away….
Oh, and how does a pastry qualify for top 5 status? If at your first bite you have a strong sense that something had been missing in your life but until just that moment you had no idea what - then you’ve hit the top 5 jackpot.
You may also be interested in:
Authentic Roman pizza slices comes to Smithfields
Though from a distance I wasn’t really convinced by the pizza slices at new lunchtime joint Pixxa on the move (and at just under £5, slightly pricey) I was more than pleasantly surprised by the dense chewy flavours in the pizza base and the richness of the toppings (in this case roasted aubergine, italian cheeses and chopped truffles in olive oil).
Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area (and they deliver locally too).
You may also be interested in:
Moorish culinary adventures in Exmouth Market
Moro restaurant in Exmouth Market London is still amongst my top-rated, most highly recommended restaurants - ever. It’s now been around for quite a few years, yet still seems as new and exciting today as it did when it first opened its doors to huge acclaim.
Between the complex mix of North African and Andalucian flavours, the freshness of the ingredients (they make a beautiful vegetarian mezze plate) and their incredible use of the wood-burning oven (fabulously dense and chewy bread, smoky roast lamb, etc.) - there is certainly something for everyone.
Oh, and do try and give them a call ahead of time rather than rocking up at the door - this place is constantly heaving (even on a Monday when half the city has disappeared on school holidays).
You may also be interested in:
OTTOLENGHI >
ALBION >
The summer menu at Saf Restaurant - the raw/vegan food supremos with a taste for botanically inspired cocktails.
You may also be interested in:
Scoop Soho, London
I am constantly on the look-out for candidates for Best Ice Cream Parlour in the World (not surprisingly most of them are situated in Italy - Turin, Florence, Milan). However, London has recently gone up in the stakes by presenting several new candidates (more on these in future posts no doubt).
In the meantime, I recently dropped by the second branch of Scoop (the first is in Covent Garden) tucked away behind Piccadilly Circus on Brewer St.
Scoop is traditionally Italian, so cream/milk/sugar form the basis of the ice creams and sorbets. No artificial colours are used (hence my mint ice cream on the left side of the photo is pure white), and really fine ingredients are used throughout (my pistachio ice cream on the right sources its pistachios from Bronte, a tiny Sicilian village whose volcanic soil give them a unique and slightly toasted flavour).
For the moment Scoop certainly tops the London leg of the competition.
You may also be interested in:
.
Le Pain Quotidien - Grilled vegetables and goat’s cheese tartine
An international restaurant chain started 20 years ago by a Belgium man passionate about bread and the idea of people eating together at large communal tables, Le Pain Quotidien has become a bit of an international phenomenon.
Still, some of his outposts remain relatively relaxed places to lounge over coffee with tartines with butter and jam, and then moving onto more savoury options with a glass of wine. When in London check out the Soho branch, which is a stone’s throw from the hell which is Oxford Circus, yet remains calm and serene, overlooking the Tudor-styled Liberty of London and with the Photographer’s Gallery just around the corner.
This particular tartine should be relatively easy to assemble: grill an assortment of summer vegetables (aubergine, courgette, red peppers, sweet onions), toast some hearty pain au levain slices (or other type of sourdough or rye bread), lay the vegetables on top of the bread, scatter with some fresh goat’s cheese, drizzle with pesto and then some fine olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper, and serve.
You may also be interested in:
69 Colebrooke Row - a speakeasy bar where the nibbles shine
This is a stylish little speakeasy bar, safely tucked away off the high street in Angel Islington. The bartenders are cool, geeky lab assistants, the drinks menu original and surprising (liquorice whiskey sour or Kigo with almond and rice milk with sandalwood), and there is a fab little nibbles menu which features this wonderful little taster’s platter:
You may also be interested in:
HIX BAR >
