Bellanger - A French-Alsatian Restaurant in Islington by Corbyn & King

Words and Photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara

Name: Bellanger

Where: 9 Islington Green, London N1 2XH, http://www.bellanger.co.uk

Cost: Average spend per person is £35 (not including drinks). Bellanger has a comprehensive all-day a la carte menu including Tarte Flamblées (£4.95 - £8.85), Oysters (£12.75 - £16.50 for a half-dozen), Salads and Sandwiches (£5.50 - £11.50), “Les Pots” or Hot Stews (£14 - £18 for one person) Fish and Meats (£12.50 - £24.75), and Desserts (£4.75 - £7.75). The restaurant also has a breakfast menu while brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays.

About: Bellanger is the latest addition to restaurateurs Corbin & King portfolio of popular London eateries, many of these inspired by the grand Parisian brasseries of the early 20th century. The Wolseley and The Delaunay, at the higher end within the group, are established institutions in London, while Colbert in Chelsea, The Colony Grill at the Beaumond Hotel, and Fischer's in Marylebone attract a faithful following that includes among its regulars various London chefs and food critics. At the other end of the scale, Brasserie Zédel offers classic French cuisine as an affordable experience.

The newcomer Bellanger, whose name is inspired (as in the other Corbin and King restaurants) by a piece of automotive history - the Société des Automobiles Bellanger Frères which manufactured French cars from 1912 to 1925 - brings to Islington a menu with all the old French classics but with a focus on hearty Alsatian cuisine.

The interior was designed by Shayne Brady, who previously created several of Bellanger’s sister restaurants under David Collins. The spacious restaurant is divided into a buzzy and more luminous front area with a gorgeous bar, perfect for solo diners; while quieter, cosier booths, small tables and larger group areas can be found towards the back. The Parisian cafe ambience is brought to life with use of glossy dark woods, antiqued mirrors, brass fittings and a fine attention to detail, such as the typical Alsatian green stemmed wine goblets on every table.

What We Ate: We decided to focus on the typically Alsatian dishes for which Bellanger is quickly gaining a reputation. For starters, we chose two of their Tarte Flambées - a crispy and paper-thin oval-shaped baked pastry, smeared with a faint layer of crème fraîche and finished with a choice of toppings. Larger than we had expected, our first Tarte Flambée was goat’s cheese, honey and thyme (£5.50), a deliciously light and satisfying combination that due to its thin nature was promptly consumed.

As our second Tarte Flambée we chose champignons and fine herbs (£7.00): a fine example of buttery and fragrant chanterelles and girolles mixed with fresh herbs, at the same time light and fresh but containing a mouth-watering depth of flavour. Even those who do not particularly like mushrooms should give this a try, no other nation can cook mushrooms like the French!

Moving on to the main course, I could not resist the Choucroute a l’Alsacienne (£16.00).

Brought to the table in a richly decorated ceramic pot, the lid was lifted to reveal an authentic porky feast: a mix of flavourful frankfurter, two choices of garlic sausages with meltingly tender pork belly and ham hock that fell apart into soft chunks at the touch of the fork, all sitting on top of sauerkraut which had a good balance of sharpness and saltiness. Altogether, the dish was very well accomplished and perfect on a very cold winter evening.

A second identical ceramic pot also reached our table but this time containing Coq au Riesling (£14.00). Tender pieces of chicken mixed with more mushrooms, fresh herbs, Riesling wine and cream created a delightful and much more enjoyable white version to Coq au Vin. A recipe I would certainly like to recreate at home.

By now we were already feeling quite full but could not finish the meal without giving some of the desserts a try. We started with a feather-light textured Baba cake, served with passion fruit purée and whipped cream (£7.00). The Baba was then soaked with a generous dose of rum at the table. The mix of textures and flavours worked really well but I thought it was a little too heavy on the alcohol.

Our second dessert was the Caramelised Banana with Melted Chocolate Tarte Flambée (£4.75). It too proved to be a highly indulgent choice with bananas that were perfectly caramelised but maintained a pleasantly firm texture, on top of which milk chocolate was melted with abandonment with a further flourish of double cream.

What We Drank: Bellanger has an extensive wine list which includes a good range of choices by the glass (£6.75 - £14.75), a few half bottles (£24.00-£59.00) and full bottles from £22.50 to £295.00.

Sticking to the Alsace region, and after tasting a couple of different options, we settled on a bottle of Pinot Blanc, La Cabane, 2014, Domaine Leon Boesch (£41.00). A biodynamic wine created from 70% Pinox Auxerrois and 30% Pinot Blanc, it sported a zesty, clear cut, with notes of lemon and spice which stood up well to the meaty Choucroute and the flavourful buttery character of our meal.

Likes: The Tarte Flambées were some good I found them almost addictive. The thought of returning to Bellanger to try out the other flavours is indeed very tempting. Altogether the menu is competently executed with reasonably priced dishes. The stylish retro decor is warm and welcoming.

Dislikes: On a week night with the restaurant a third full, we were given the worst possible table at the back of the restaurant in a totally empty room, I just wonder why? They promptly moved us to another table as I requested. The wine list has been expertly put together but few bottles come below the £35 tag.

Verdict: Bellanger with its Tarte Flambées is a good addition to the Islington restaurant scene, with a restaurant that brings affordable high-quality French cooking that can appeal equally to solo diners, couples or family meals. Recommended.

Celebrating Mooncake Festival at Royal China Queensway

Words and Photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara

Name: Royal China Queensway

Where: 13 Queensway, London W2 4QJ, http://www.rcguk.co.uk

Cost: The à la carte menu at Royal China Queensway contains a comprehensive variety of appetizers priced £5.50 - £9.20 while most main courses range from £10 - £26.50, with vegetables, noodles and rice dishes varying between £3 - £11. However, a few signature and seafood dishes can climb up to £45. The dim sum menu, which is served daily up to 5pm, features an excellent choice of dumplings, cheung fun, rice and noodle dishes ranging from £3.30 to £10.20.

Royal China Queensway also serves a good selection of cocktails, Chinese teas and soft drinks. The wine list is very reasonably priced with a 175ml glass ranging from £5.80 to £6.95 and most bottles priced  £19 - £45. 

About: Founded in 1996, Royal China Queensway was the first of what is now a very successful group of 6 restaurants in and around London. Widely regarded for its traditional dim sum creations and great Cantonese cooking and with branches in Baker Street (Royal China Club reviewed here and Royal China Baker Street reviewed here), Canary Wharf, Fulham and Harrow, the Queensway site remains the flagship of the group (reviewed here), always buzzing with members of the Chinese community, locals and food enthusiasts from further afield.

The restaurant has a spacious, elegant interior decorated in black and gold which during the month of September is further embellished with lanterns hanging from the ceiling to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival also known as Moon (or Mooncake) Festival, this year celebrated on the 27th September 2015.

What We Ate: Over the years, I have been to Royal China Queensway on countless occasions to savour their afternoon dim sum which I consider one of the best in London, but my latest visit was on a weekday evening when the à la carte menu is available. We started our meal with the deep fried soft shell crab with spicy salt (£8.50 for a portion of two). The fleshy soft shell crab was coated in a crisp thin layer of batter and topped with salty flakes of garlic, chilli, ginger and spring onion which provided a delicious contrast of textures.

To follow, we tried the deep fried baby squid with spicy salt (£6.80). Prepared in the same fashion as the crab (we were in the mood for some deep-frying that night), it was perfectly cooked and equally delicious.

Moving on to the main courses, I could not help ordering one of my favourite Royal China specialities, the baked seafood rice with creamy Portuguese sauce (£12.00). The exact ingredients are carefully guarded by the chef but this is a delightful dish of egg-fried rice with generous pieces of fish, scallops and whole tiger prawns topped with a creamy béchamel-like coconut and evaporated milk sauce, delicately flavoured with what might be a light curry or even semolina. This is a dish only available at Queensway and it is sadly not included in their printed menu so if you would like to try it, please ask your waiter for it.

From the Chef’s specials we opted for the pan-fried stuffed aubergine with minced shrimp paste and black bean sauce (£11.20). A traditional Cantonese dish sometimes served with stuffed tofu and peppers, these were wonderfully soft aubergine pockets filled with a generous layer of shrimp paste, another excellent dish.

In order to add a bit of spice to our meal we ordered the sautéed prawns with red chilli sauce “Szechuan Style” (£13.50). This dish was however disappointing - the fleshy prawns were let down by a gloopy and sweet sauce that lacked any heat or depth of flavour usually the trademarks of Szechuanese cooking.

Our last meat-based dish was the chicken with chilli in “Chiu Chow style or Teochew Style” (£10.80). These were stir-fried strips of chicken breast with red and yellow peppers, chillies and sesame seeds. Chiuchow or Teochew cuisine, from Guangdong Province is well known for its seafood dishes, braised pickles and light flavouring and freshness of ingredients.

To accompany our main dishes we had stir-fried choi sum with garlic (£9.80). The crunchy green stems were delicious and added some lightness and freshness to our meal.

To wrap up, we shared some seasonal mooncakes, a delicacy gifted between family and friends to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese holiday dedicated to viewing the moon at its fullest and brightest at this time of the year. Royal China Queensway will be serving these beautiful treats decorated with symbols of prosperity and friendship during the whole of September. Our first mooncake was made of a thin layer of reddish-brown pastry encasing a deliciously sweet and dense lotus seed paste filling. A whole salted egg yolk is placed in its centre to symbolise the moon. The cake is rich and you will only need a small wedge to savour with tea (£4.00 for 2 types of cakes).

Our second mooncake was a smaller version made with a white crumbly pastry filled with egg yolk custard. If we weren’t so full already we could have eaten a few of these!

What We Drank: Our choice was a bottle of Domaine Rene Monnier, Bourgogne Chardonnay, 2013 (£26.00) which was a rich and rounded wine with a lovely hint of vanilla and a touch of acidity on the finish – a fine chardonnay at its price.

Likes: The delectable soft-shell crab with salty and spicy flakes was a dish I would happily order again, as well as the baked seafood rice with Portuguese sauce which is an perennial favourite and worthwhile asking for despite it not being on the menu. The mooncakes were rich but a perfect afternoon treat or dessert with a lighter meal. Good wine selection and very well priced. Excellent dim sum.

Dislikes: The service at Royal China Queensway is efficient but can be less than friendly at times, which is a pity for a restaurant of this quality. The prawns with red chilli sauce were sweet, lacking in heat and not representative of Szechuan cuisine.

Verdict: The Royal China has been one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in London since its opening in 1996, and continues to be so nearly 20 years later. London restaurants come and go, but over the years, Royal China has been consistently reliable in what they offer – great dim sum and Cantonese fare. Recommended.

The Fabulous Ling Ling Menu at Hakkasan

Words and Photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara

Name: Ling Ling at Hakkasan

Where: 8 Hanway Place, London W1T 1HD, http://www.hakkasan.com

Cost: The Limited Edition Ling Ling Menu is available throughout the summer at £35 per person and includes a welcome Ling Ling Collins cocktail, 3 dishes, Jasmine rice and macarons. There is a choice of 3 menus that cater for different dietary requirements and can be ordered by the same table providing a great opportunity to savour an exciting range of dishes. The Ling Ling menu is also excellent value when compared to the a la carte menu where starters average £13.90 and equivalent main courses range from £19.90 to £39.90.

Hakkasan serves a comprehensive and imaginative selection of drinks. Most cocktails at the strikingly long bar average £12.50 while wines can be ordered by the glass, with 175ml ranging from £7.10 - £33.70 and 250ml from £10.20 - £19.60. Bottles of wine are £29 - £80 and above. 

About: Opened in 2001, Hakkasan quickly built its reputation as one of the top Cantonese fine dining destinations in London. Its innovative menu is accompanied by an award-winning interior decor, designed by Christian Liaigre, immersing diners into a darkly mysterious dining room enclosed by dark wood screens and surrounded by the subtle blue glow emanating from the cocktail bar on one side, wine cellar, and a translucent wall concealing the kitchen on the other. 

The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2003 and has successfully maintained its achievement since then, going on to open other restaurants in locations across the globe, from San Francisco and New York, to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai, as well as a second restaurant here in London, in Mayfair.

Without a doubt, this is one of my all-time favourite restaurants in London and one of very few I return to regularly (reviewed here and here).

What We Ate: On this latest visit, we tried the limited edition Ling Ling Summer menu which celebrates the group’s latest opening this summer, Ling Ling in Mykonos– a new concept where a list of innovative cocktails and an izakaya-inspired menu of smaller Cantonese dishes take diners on an evening of drinking, dining and dancing. In keeping with that idea, the London restaurant is offering a signature cocktail and 3 choices of menu, “Fish and Seafood”, “Meat and Seafood” or “Vegetarian”.

The Fish and Seafood Menu

We started with a trio dim-sum platter that showed some of the kitchen’s classics - the har gau was a perfect combination of the freshest rice pastry packed full with plump prawns. The Chinese chive dumpling was equally delectable with its open chive-coloured rice pastry, fresh prawns and garnished with a single goji berry, while the scallop shumai offered a tender scallop encased by an egg-based wonton ribbed cup, topped with tobiko caviar – the simple combination of textures and prime ingredients was spot on.

We were then presented with our next dish, a crispy aubergine and shiitake salad. Pramesh, who was helping us on the night, explained was a vegetarian version of their signature crispy duck salad. We loved this dish - crispy battered strips of aubergine and shiitake mushrooms served with a mix of lily bulb and four types of cress: affilla, sakura, rock chive and tahoon, topped with pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, a deliciously sweet vegetarian hoisin sauce. It was so enjoyable that it should definitely be incorporated into their a la carte menu!

Moving on to the main course, a finely textured grilled Chilean seabass with a honey glaze was served on a bamboo leaf and garnished with deep-fried battered strips of mushrooms. The sweet glaze gave the fish an attractive presentation that complemented the buttery fish. Steamed jasmine rice was served as an accompaniment to all three menus.

The Meat and Seafood Menu

Like the fish and seafood menu, the first starter of the Meat and Seafood option was the trio of dim sum described above. So let me skip straight to our second plate, the jasmine tea smoked organic pork ribs coated in a delectable barbecue sauce and garnished with an edible flower. The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender and had a delicious smokey character from the Jasmine tea. It was absolutely moreish.

One of my favourite Hakkasan dishes followed – a magnificent curry of spicy prawns with lily bulb and almond – this was an utterly delicious plate of large butterfly prawns, fresh lily bulbs, spring onions and flaked almonds all immersed in a creamy sauce topped with curry leaves. The sauce oozed freshness, aromatics, spiciness, and a good amount of heat. Simply put, Eastern-Asian curries do not get any better than this!

The Vegetarian Menu

For me, the vegetarian menu was the greatest revelation of the evening and one I would thoroughly recommend ordering. The salt and pepper homemade pumpkin tofu had a crunchy peppery coating with a silky smooth centre flavoured with pumpkin, and was topped with savoury fluffy soybean flakes that were an extraordinarily successful vegetarian version of Chinese pork floss. The flakes melted on the tongue and were mixed with crispy finely sliced seaweed, chopped chillies and sesame seeds, imparting texture and heat to the dish.

The main course was equally intriguing. Stir-fry black pepper vegetarian chicken cubes made of yellow soy beans (tofu) had not only the appearance but also the texture of real chicken and were served with fresh sugar snap peas and red pepper. We loved this.

The main course was accompanied by steamed jasmine rice and stir-fried baby broccoli and preserved olives with crispy seaweed and pine nuts.

The meal came to an end with a stunning selection of macarons. The shells had a perfectly crumbly skin with a chewy centre and were generously filled. The crunchy sesame seed and milk chocolate macaron was superb, while the tangy yuzu macaron offered a sharper contrast to its chocolate centre. The rose and raspberry macaron was fragrant, delicate and accomplished.

What We Drank: As part of the Ling Ling menu, we started the evening with a Ling Ling Collins cocktail made of Beefeater gin, cranberry and grapefruit juices, Chartreuse Green liqueur and garnished with a Shiso leaf. This was a refreshing drink with contrasting fruit and herbal notes.

To accompany our main courses, we decided to order white wine by the glass. Hakkasan’s head sommelier, Tobias Brauweiler, whose previous experience includes working at the Ritz and the boutique wine shop Hedonism, has put together a comprehensive wine list which includes some unusual varieties. Luckily, the choice offered by glass spans a good spectrum so we were curious to try the 2014 Avesso “Cazas Novas”, Quinta de Guimaraes, 13% vinho verde, made from 100% avesso grapes from Portugal (£11.90 for 250ml). Dry with a round limey acidity, but without the spritz found in vinho verde, this wine also had lovely notes of apricot and peaches and a flavoursome weight that stood up to the fish.

Our second choice to match the spicy prawns was a 2013 Chablis 1er Cru “Les Fourneaux”, Alain Gautheron, 13% Burgundy, 100% Chardonnay grapes from France (£19.60 for 250ml). Dry with fruity hints of apple and citrus and a creamy roundedness, we also found this wine matched well with the spiciness of our dish.

Likes: We thoroughly enjoyed the spicy prawns, a dish so fresh and fragrant that its memory lingered for days. Equally memorable were the vegetarian versions of well-known dishes such as the crispy aubergine and shiitake salad, pumpkin tofu with vegetarian floss and stir-fry vegetarian chicken. They were a revelation and proof that vegetarian choices can be just as satisfying as their meaty counterparts.

Dislikes: None

Verdict: At £35 per person the Ling Ling summer menu offers excellent value and is a great opportunity to try old Hakkasan favourites and exciting new dishes created specially for this menu that will blow you away. Highly recommended.