Made in Camden

Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8EH

 
This year, as part of an annual festive Christmas dinner with friends we decided to go for Made in Camden which serves modern European/mediterranean cuisine. The ambience of the restaurant was pretty nice - warm, modern, candle lit and a buskling atmosphere.

 As a group we went for set menu B, £24 per person (including drinks/service approximately £32 per person). The set menu consists of 5 small savoury dishes to share between two, and a dessert each (of which there was a choice of 2).

The fennel/feta/pistachio was tasty and perfectly seasoned. The pistachio was probably the most dominant flavour in this dish.

Pan-fried fennel, feta, pistachio, dill, salted caramel

The broccoli dish looked very simple. But actually the taste and texture of the dish was in fact surprisingly nice. The onions and broccoli were perfectly cooked, not too hard not too soft. The broccoli had a fresh taste to it and the tomato sauce complimented it very well. The onions themselves were perfectly sweet. Overall this dish was definately palatable.

Grilled purple sprouting broccoli, chilli jam, flaked almond, radiccio, anchovy

The pan fried seabass was cooked very well. The skin was crisp and well seasoned. The flesh of the fish itself was slightly bland and possibly slightly over-cooked, but the sumac labneh (the cream/youghurt) was divine and complimented the fish well. Alternatively, there is an exceptionally delicous tomato on the side of the dish that also goes brillantly with the fish. The tomato was like eating a fresh sundried tomato - I've never raved enough about a tomato before! it was sooo yummy!

Crisp sea bass, Jerusalem artichoke puree, slow-roasted tomatoes, sumac labneh

My dad makes an exceptional belly pork, and is now my gold standard. This belly pork was comparable, very nice, not too fatty and the crackling was yummy (crispy and well seasoned). Instead of the usual combination of pork and apples, this dish had a poached pear (quince) instead. The quince itself was ok, I liked the idea. The red cabbage/maple puree was nice and went well with the pork.

Slow-roast pork belly, garlic and maple puree, braised red cabbage, poached quince

The beef skirt (or 'onglet') was exceptional. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked (medium) and the steak itself was tender. The tomato and onion compot was a match made in heaven with the beef steak! The dauphinoise potatoes were delicous!! I'm not entirely sure what the side greens were, but complimented every aspect of this dish. This was probably my favourite dish of the night.

Grilled onglet steak, tomato and onion compote, gorgonzola dauphinoise

The mains/tapas were nice so far. However, the desserts were a bit of a disappointment. The
walnut and pear tiramisu was, in essence, a cup of mascarpone cheese containing walnuts and pears, sprinkled with a bit too much coco powder (enough to make my friends have a coughing fit every time they took a bite). There was no trace of coffee, liquor or sponge. This dessert was okay, but I felt needed more dimension.

Walnut & caramelised pears tiramisu

The hotcakes were nicer than the tiramisu. However, it was slightly floury. The sorbet was ok, nice, although the sweetness of the hotcake was overpowering so you couldn't really taste the coconut flavour of the sorbet or the blackberry sauce.

Dulce de leche hotcake, blackberry sauce, coconut sorbet

Hotcake open

Overall, I would say that I had a very good time here. The food itself was delicious. The only let downs were the desserts and it would have been much more satisfying if they were more generous with the portion sizes of the mains. The waiter was very nice, the food arrived promtly and the price wasn't too bad.


Food = 8.5/10
Service = 7/10
Atmosphere = 7/10
Recommend? yes

Belgo

50 Earlham Street, Convent Garden, London WC2H 9LJ

Belgo is a Belgium restaurant famous for its mussels, chips and vast array of Belgium fruit beer. My friend decided to have his celebratory Birthday lunch here on a Saturday afternoon. Everyday Belgo's does an 'express lunch menu' which includes a main with chips and a drink, all for £7.95. This is what most of us ordered. Unfortunately, the drinks in this express lunch menu doesn't include the Belgium fruit beer (but it does include an original Belgium beer).

My friends ordered the traditional bowl of mussels from the lunch menu. As I had previously been here before, I wanted to try something other than the mussels. The mussels were nice with a hint of garlic. The mussels themselves weren't large but not small either. So can't really complain for £8.

Bowl of traditionalle mussels

Fries or 'frites'

Instead of mussels I decided to go for the chilli split roasted chicken. It sounds more exotic than it actually is, but it was filling (I mean, half a chicken.. with chips on the side!). The chicken wasn't actually spicy, at all! Which was the most disappointing part. The sauce reminded me somewhat of a chinese sweet chilli sauce.The chicken itself was roasted well, the meat was easy to tear off. The sauce wasn't exactly as I expected, as I'm not particularly keen on sweet sauces all over my savoury food, so overall I was disappointed but overall it was ok.

Split roasted chicken with chilli and ginger sauce

The restaurant was quite busy, and the service was quite quick. This is quite a good place to go for large groups as they have long interconnected tables (kinda like Wagamama's). I wouldn't say this restaurant is particularly special, but its satisfactory. They have a large collection of fruit beers which is something to look forward to.

Food: 6/10
Atmosphere: 6.5/10
Service: 7/10
Recommend? yep, I suppose why not, if you've never been

Hi Sushi

628 Finchley Road, Golders Green, London NW11

We first arrived in High Sushi, Golders Green, just after 6pm on a Friday night and we were surprised to note that we were the first guests to arrive for dinner. Because it was just the two of us, they said that we were only allowed to have the sushi buffet, £15 per person, rather than order from a la carte. To be honest, it would have been nice to have a choice of the a la carte menu! There were a few things I would have liked to try that wasn't on the buffet.. but none the less we didn't decline.. (not that you can't order from the menu.. just that its not worth the value to pay for the buffet and not eat entirely from the buffet).

For the buffet menu and (unlimited) green tea, would cost just under £20 per person (including 10% service charge), which isn't too bad, particularly if you can eat a lot of food in 1.5 hours time.

The restaurant decor itself is not bad. Its bright and I like that you essentially sit on the floor without having to cross your legs! But this can be inconvenient if you're with someone thats more elderly.

Inside: Hi Sushi

For the sushi buffet, there were two mini menus, one of which you can only order once (max 7 items and includes dishes such as: miso soup, tempura, teriyaki, spring rolls, rice, tofu steak, curry, salad) and the other menu is one which you can order as much as you like (up to the time limit, and is the sushi menu which includes salmon sashami, clam sashami, salmon/avocado roll, california roll, spicy tuna roll and a few others).

We ordered the clam (x4) and salmon (x4) sashami , the one off soft-shell crab roll (x4), salmon/avocardo roll (x6) and salmon skin roll (x6). Everything was nice, just what I expected from most sushi places. The salmon was creamy, the clam was fresh, the salmon skin was crispy, the soft shell crab was yummy (too bad you can only order once!), and the salmon/avocardo the usual - nice.

From left: clam sashami, salmon sashami, soft-shell crab roll, salmon skin roll and salmon and avocardo roll.

From the limited menu, we ordered miso soup. To be honest, I have tried better miso soup. It tasted slightly* on the diluted side, otherwise ok.

Miso soup containing seaweed and tofu

We mainly ordered tempura from the limited hot food menu: prawn (x4), tofu (x4), shitake mushroom (x4 whole mushrooms), fish (x6, a white fish, possibly seabass??). I loved the sauce on the fried tofu - slight sweet and was v.yummy. I've never had shitake tempura before, it was quite nice and its nice to have something different to the usual. The fish tempura, was not bad. The prawn tempura, was well, OK - I have tried better - I prefer when the prawns are fresh enough so you can eat them very slightly raw on the inside. I think the let down was the tempura dipping sauce - I don't know it didn't particularly have that much taste or enough of a kick to bring the tempura itself to life. The sauce didn't even have grated radish inside it which is also something I quite like.

Tempura (anticlockwise): tofu tempura, prawn tempura, fish tempura and shitake tempura

Overall, the service was quite good (although, it wasn't too busy at the time). They topped our teas up without asking and the food arrived promptly. I like that the tea is unlimited. The food itself was not bad, but nothing 'stood out'. I would say that this is a nice place, the atmopshere is friendly in general. Most of the tables, it seemed, were mainly suited for groups of 2-4, with possibly one table for maybe 8? but then again I didn't particularly observe.

Food = 6.5/10
Atmosphere = 6.5/10
Service = 7/10
Recommend? yep for a nice informal evening with friends

Kumo

11 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1NQ

Overall I would say that Kumo is a trendy cocktail bar that serves sushi. When you first walk down the stairs into the restaurant (its in the basement) the first thing that strikes you is red. Red everywhere. I can bearly see where I'm going in the dimly lit red and black room. At the waiting area, you see a nice looking cocktail bar.

Kumo: inside. The picture is actually decieving - it's actually
 much darker in real life.

We had a deal from groupon, £20 for a sushi platter and dessert for two. We thought wow, what a great deal. But  note that there is a 15% service charge and alcoholic cocktails cost ~£11 each and virgins £6.50. With the deal, we ordered two virgin cocktails. Together the service charge and the drinks- cost £20 on its own! So on average, the minimum price per person is £20 and thats if you have a small appetite!

We were sat in a nice little corner, so the both of us (me and the boyfriend) could both sit on the relatively comfy black sofa. In front of us was a very small black metal table. You pretty much had to bend down to eat your food - not ideal ergonomics.

We ordered two virgin cocktails (pretty much because we thought the alcoholic cocktails were a rip off! and we were not willing to pay double the price of a regular cocktail).

The Coco Yoko was nice. I loved the coconut cream - but it was just a tad too sweet for my liking.

Coko Yoko: fresh blackberries, coconut cream, pineapple juice, vanilla syrup

Initally we wanted to order Special Green (pineapple juice, kiwi syrup, lemonade) but they didn't have all the ingredients to make it. So we ordered the Roxy Moon, which looked fab. But it tasted pretty much like standard juice. Nothing particularly special about it.

Roxy Moon: Strawberry puree, tangy orange, pineapple juice tempered
with cooling lemonade.

Next the sushi platter. The most dissappointing sushi platter ever. We both couldn't believe how basic this was. Everything tasted regular - nice but again nothing special. You can go to the sushi shop in China Town and get something similar for half the price or something more substantial! If we didn't get the groupon deal, this platter would have cost an equivalent of £40! I don't see how it could really have been valued to £40 to be honest!

Sushi platter: tempura prawn sushi (x6), california roll (x6), asparagus sushi (x6), edamame beans and chicken yakitori (thought we were meant to have 6.. but we only had 3, maybe misheard...)

Next thankgoodness there was dessert after, our tummies were still rumbling! When the dessert arrived, it was chocolate cake with a blackberry sauce. The cake was ok, nothing to shout home about. Infact without the icing on the top of the cake, the actual cake itself was dry. The blackberry sauce just did not compliment the cake - it would have been nicer itself, without the sauce.. maybe they themselves also thought the cake was dry! So needed a sauce with it... not good choice of sauce...

Dessert: chocolate cake with a blackberry sauce

 We were ALMOST finished with the dessert and the waitress came up to us and asked if we would like the bill and speedly gave us the reciept. We had bearly digested the cake.

Overall. I would say it was rather a disappointment. The sushi was standard, with hiked up prices for I suppose being located in Knightsbridge. The drinks were overpriced. The service, standard. I guess we were expecting this to be a nice place for good food. If you're earning a good wage and looking to have a chat in a cocktail bar, this is the place to go - if you also like sushi as a snack, but then again there are better posher cocktail bars in London with better service with classier decor.

Food = 4.5/10
Atmopshere = 5.5/10
Service = 6/10
Recommend? nope (well definitely not with the groupon deal)

Bodeans

10 Poland Street, W1F 8PZ

Bodeans is an American restaurant specialising in BBQ and good old southern food. When you arrive, you can opt for the diner upstairs where you order your food at the counter and collect it when your number is called or you can go for the waited service downstairs. We went downstairs where the restaurant is styled in an American sports bar style with the low lighting, wooden interior,green leather lined booths, fully stocked bar and a large TV exclusively showing sports.

Both my friend and I decided to go for a ginger beer and the combo of pulled pork and baby back ribs. It came with fries and coleslaw and I ordered some extra BBQ beans for good measure. The pulled pork was lovely, good texture and flavour. It was a little dry but nothing an extra dousing of sauce couldn't help! Luckily as, besides the usual condiments, Bodeans also gives you the option of putting extra BBQ sauce on your food - Smoked hickory or hot chipotle. Both are nice. The ribs were tender and it was easy to pull the meat from the bones. The fries were nice too, especially with the yummy BBQ sauce but I found the coleslaw a bit hard for my liking. The BBQ beans had bits of meat in it which was a nice touch.

Pulled pork and baby back ribs combo

Bodeans BBQ sauce

For dessert I decided to have Eli's original cheesecake. It was nice and creamy but extremely rich. The type of cheesecake that really sticks to the roof of your mouth! It came with a mixed berry compote and its sharpness contrasted the cheesecake well.

Eli's original cheesecake

My friend decided to have the dessert special which on that day was a double layered chocolate fudge cheesecake. This also tasted good.

Double layered chocolate fudge cheesecake

Overall, the meal came to about £40 for two people including drinks and service. I liked the atmosphere of Bodeans and getting my hands dirty (they expect this, with a roll of kitchen paper on each table). The food was good and I wouldn't mind coming back to try the rest of the menu. The portions are generous but I actually expected them to be even bigger (thus not ordering a starter)!! Or maybe I was feeling particularly hungry that day. Either way, I would happily have another plateful.

Atmosphere: 6.5/10
Service: 6.5/10
Food: 7/10
Recommend?  Probably

Del Aziz

Westfield Shopping Centre, Upper Southern Terrace, W12 7GB 

Del Aziz serves middle eastern and mediterranean style cusine and has several branches around London. We decided to check out the one in Westfield (White City) as part of a family meal. The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating, with seating outside on the terrace mainly reserved for those who want to smoke shisha. As the evening was relatively warm when we went, the glass doors seperating the two areas were opened.

Restaurant exterior

Inside, the restaurant is decorated with pink hues and earthy browns to compliment the middle eastern theme. The tables are all wooden with large benches running down the centre of the room for larger parties. At the back of the restaurant is an impressive display of the wines they offer which, according to their wine list, encompasses around 90 different varieties from a range of regions.

Restaurant interior

Restaurant interior: Wine display

Once we were seated, we were given complimentary appetisers to nibble on as we mulled over what to order. Included were black and green olives, pickled turnip, jalapenos and preserved lemon.

Appetiser: Olives, pickled turnip, jalapenos and preserved lemon

For drinks we has a classic Caipirinha, a Morohito (one of their classic cocktails and two non-alcoholic cocktails, a Virgin Morrocan Mint and a Berry Island. The Morohito was meant to be a twist on a mojito with lychee juice and purple basil and although it was nice, I couldn't really tell the difference if it was a classic mojito. Overall, the drinks were nice but nothing special.

For starters we decided to share a mezze platter between the 4 of us and opted for the mixed version which included hummus (chickpea based dip), tabouleh (cucumber and yoghurt with herbs), lamb boreck (lamb wrapped in pastry), keftas (cinnamon lamb meatballs in tomato sauce), merguez sausages (spiced lamb sausages) and tzatziki (parsley, mint and tomato salad). A waitress also served us with a selection of breads but didn't seem bothered to explain what types were on offer and when asked, mumbled and seemed unsure herself. In the end, we took some sun dried tomato bread and cracked pepper (?) bread. Overall, the starter was a let down. None of the flavours in the bread came through and tasted like a standard white loaf and the mezze did not have much taste or depth of flavour. Very disappointed.

Mixed mezze platter: Hummus, tabouleh, lamb boreck, keftas, merguez sausages and tzatziki

After the underwhelming starter, we were hopeful the mains would be better. They were not. One of the dishes were ordered was the Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemon & Green Olives, a firm favourite whenever we go to middle eastern/morrocan restaurants. The dish was very disappointing with very little lemon flavour and tasted more like a casserole that needed extra seasoning than the delicious dish we were expecting.

Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemon & Green Olives

The Tagine Of Duck and Apricots was also distinctly bland. Similarly, the Tagine of Lamb with Prunes and Almonds lacked the strong flavours and spices expected and instead of melting in mouth, the lamb was tough and there was no almond taste whatsoever. All the tagines were served with a side of couscous.

Tagine Of Duck and Apricots

Tagine of Lamb with Prunes and Almonds

The last dish we ordered was the catch of the day which was pan fried seabass on a bed of rice and broad beans. Again, it lacked much flavour.

Pan fried sea bass

 Needless to say, we did not finish our meal and left not feeling hungry but not feeling satisfied either. What was most disappointing was the lack of the flavour and spices. Everything just tasted the same, of nothing much really. Whilst the restaurant looked lovely and it was nice to have live entertainment in the form of a bellydancer, it was let down by the authenticity of the food. Having been to other restaurants serving this type of cusine, we were really looking forward to trying Del Aziz. If we were blindfolded we wouldn't be able to tell it was middle eastern food. Indeed, we wouldn't think otherwise if we were told this was served in an english pub. A bad english pub. Extremely disappointed.

Atmosphere: 6/10
Service: 5/10
Food: 4/10
Recommend?  No

Victoria Sponge Cake

The humble Victora Sponge cake. A great british classic.

Victoria Sponge cake by Toastkey

Recipe

1. Beat 220g butter (room temp) until creamy. Beat in 220g caster sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Beat 4 eggs and slowly incorporate into the sugar/butter mixture. Then incorporate 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix.

3. Along with two teasooons of baking powder sift 220g of self raising flour into a bowl.

4. Using a metal spoon fold in the sifted flour into the egg/butter mixture until all the flour has been incorporated.

5. Divide the mixture into two 9-inch baking tins lined with grease proof paper.

6. Bake for 30 min in a pre-heated oven (gas 5)

7. Allow cake to cool on a wire rack.

8. When ready, spread raspberry jam on one cake. Whip some cream and layer ontop of jam. Add some fresh raspberries on top of the cream (optional) and sandwich with the second cake layer. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Yummy! <3

Enjoy :)

Chlopskie Jadlo

świętej Agnieszki 1, Kraków, Poland

Chlopskie Jadlo (apparently) means 'countryside cuisine'. This is a chain (well turned into a chain due to its popularity). There are approximately 6 restaurants within Krakow. This restaurant serves traditional polish cuisine. This restaurant isn't that cheap (according to Polish standards) but is reasonably priced (compared to London!) and cost ~ 50 PLN (£11) for a two course meal.

When you first enter the restaurant, what stuns you is the wonderful wooden decor. Some chairs/tables (or sledges!) have layers of sheepskin, and the restaurant overall presents with a very rustic feel. The waitress was very nice, although not very informative (possibly her English was not great). There was a lot of choice to choose from on the menu - which is exciting - except we ended up ordering too much, but we took a doggy bag and had it for lunch the next day :) so no complaints.

Cosy

Buffet salad

Condiments

To drink, I decided to be slightly adventurous and order water with homemade jam - which turned out to be cherry jam topped with mineral water. It taste a bit like diluted squash - with minimal taste. But when you eat/slurp the actual cherries with the water (using the spoon provided) it actually taste quite good - slightly sweet - but not overly. Other interesting drinks on the menu included a bread drink or a sour milk with sprin onion drink - although I wasn't adventurous enough to pick those (anyone who is, please let me know how it taste!).

Water with homemade jam

Water with jam (mixed)

Complimentary bread is served if a main is ordered. The bread came with two spreads: cottage cheese with chives or ..lard with onions. The lard was actually quite nice - so worth a try.

Bread: with lard & onions or cottage cheese & chives

For starter I ordered a soup taster - which consisted of 4 x 100 ml soups: rye flour, mushroom, tomato & noodle, and red beetroot soup. The rye flour soup and mushroom soup were delicious. The rye flour soup had a sausage taste to it - very yummy!! The mushroom soup - was similar to the the rye flour soup, but instead of the sausage meat taste, mushroom was the predominat flavour. The beetroot soup was slightly sweet - it didn't taste bad, although I don't think I can drink more than 100 ml. My friend also ordered a red beetroot soup, but with cream and poatoes - the bowl was huge*, too much in fact. The tomato noodle soup was dissappointing - tasted just like Heinz spaghetti letters - slightly thick with a tomato tang - not good.

4 soups: (from the left clockwise) rye flour soup, mushroom soup, beetroot soup and tomato soup with noodles

Beetroot soup with cream and potatoes

A lot of Polish food is based on pork - so not ideal if you can't eat this meat. Now onto the mains...

We ordered the stuffed cabbage leaves. This was OK, but I probably won't order this again if I had the choice, the pork inside the wrap was a bit too porky or 'piggy' and the tomato sauce was just too tangy (maybe the mushroom sauce would have been better..).

Cabbage leaves stuffed with rice/meat, in a tomato sauce

Stuffed cabbage leaves (opened)

Next was the potato pancakes in a 'spicey' sauce. The sauce for one thing is not spicey. I envisiged something quite hot somehow. To me paparika is not hot.  This dish was in essence, a hash brown topped with a goulash sauce. This dish was hugeeee and would be enough for two people to share or for someone with a big appetite. It was very yummy. The gerkins complimented the dish very well.

Potato pancakes with a spicey stew: with pork, gerkins, carrots and cream cheese

Potato pancakes with a spicey stew

A friend of mine ordered the pork casserole. She described it as 'bacon fried with potato'.

Pork casserole

Pierogi topped with onions. I didn't try this as I had one too many dumplings during my trip in Krakow, but my friend said it was yummy.

Perogi topped with pork fat fried onions

For sides we had boiled beetroot and sour cabbage. Polish sour cabbage is soooo nice! Not too sour/tangy - just right. The beetroot was nice, but I had quite enough of beetroot after all the soup.

Boiled beetroot

Fried sour cabbage

I really wanted to try the Polish dessert pancakes, but we were so stuffed, we just couldn't do it to ourselves to eat more :(

Overall, I would say I had a fantastic time. The food was cheap (compared to UK standards) and the portion sizes are reasonable/large. The staff were nice and attentive.

Service = 7/10
Atmosphere = 8.5/10
Food = 7/10
Recommend? Yes