Steak Heaven at May Fair Kitchen - a Return Visit

Name: May Fair Kitchen

Where: The May Fair Hotel, Stratton Street, Mayfair, London, W1J 8LT,  http://www.mayfairkitchen.co.uk/

Cost: Starters range from £7 to £16, main dishes from the grill range from £19 to £55, sides from £3 to £11.  There is a small but well considered selection of wines by the glass mostly priced at £11, and by the bottle white wines start at £34 for an Albariño from Rias Baixas, Spain, and reds at £34 for Napa Valley Merlot. 

About: The May Fair Kitchen is based on the ground floor of the swanky May Fair Hotel, on Stratton Street, between Piccadilly and Berkeley Square. The restaurant is simply but stylishly furnished with dark wood floors and panelling, grey fabrics and white linen tablecloths. 

The concept of the May Fair Kitchen is to serve the best quality meat and fish, simply grilled and served with a choice of sauces made to order. All the meat comes from Aldens Butchers, a family butcher with over 200 years of experience in sourcing the best quality produce from across the UK and Europe.  The fish and shellfish comes from James Knight of Mayfair. The vegetables all come from Watts farm, a family-run business with farms across Kent, Essex and Bedfordshire. A few months ago, I spent a couple of days behind the scenes at the May Fair Kitchen, as well as visiting Aldens and Watts farm to see the quality of the produce first hand - more about that here.

Having just heard of a change of menus at May Fair Kitchen, I decided to pay them a return visit to find out more.

What We Ate: We kicked off with half a dozen oysters (£18), served expertly shucked and cleaned (with none of the irritating fragments of shell that are so often left after opening - a minor pet hate of mine!), and with a classic red wine vinegar and shallot dressing. The oysters were terribly fresh, a very good start to our meal.

For starters, we had the steak tartare (£11) - hand chopped and served with a generous grating of Parmesan and a lovely beaten raw quail egg yolk served in the shell. It was very well seasoned, with a great texture from the hand chopping, and knowing it was from Aldens gave me confidence in its quality and safety.

Dr G had a serving of hand-dived scallops with smoked British ham and bean emulsion with fine herbs (£13).  This was well made and tasted great, but at that price tag, we had hoped for more than one and a half scallops.

My main course was grass-fed, 28-day aged, single rib steak, 20oz (£35), with a Bernaise sauce (£3), real chips (£3) and a Niçoise salad (£4.50).

These were magnificent, with superbly tender and well-flavoured beef from Aldens, this was as good as it gets!

The Bernaise was also well made and with just the right acidity. The triple fried chips were also excellent - chunky and crisp.

Dr G opted for the turbot (£38) with a sauce vierge (£3), samphire and ginger (£4.50). The fish was wonderfully textured, and the sauce vierge beautifully flavoured with chervil, but the side serving of watercress was completely undressed, un-seasoned and slightly on the yellow side of green.

For dessert we had a selection of cheeses from the cheese trolley (£12). The choices of cheeses were somewhat limited and a tad uninspiring.

This is such a pity as some restaurants' cheese trolleys in London have legendary status - think Chez Bruce. The cheese course, if offered, should be one of the most exciting courses of the entire meal.

Lovely grapes, but where is the cheese?

We also had the warm flourless clementine and chocolate cake (£8), served with Cornish clotted cream and winter brittle. We wanted to love this, but again, the dish did not quite deliver as a whole.

What We Drank: While we were deciding on our  menu, we enjoyed a glass of very well balanced Moet et Chandon 2006 (£15). We opted for a glass of Albarino (£11), with the fish dishes, with some lovely elderflower notes. For the meat dishes, we shared a bottle of La Serra Negre 2012, a carignan - garnacha blend from Herencia Altes, Spain (£50). A concentrated, purple-tinged wine with plenty of blackberry fruit and cedar notes, this lovely wine was balanced by plenty of tannin, and had great length and complexity.

Likes: The meats were superb - well sourced, richly flavoured and expertly cooked.

Dislikes: Service was friendly and attentive, but on the busy evening we were there, was a little forgetful at times - for example not offering bread or butter when we wanted it, then taking it away prematurely.

Verdict: May Fair Kitchen offers some of the best grilled steaks, fish and seafood in London. A perfect meal here starts with a platter of freshly shucked oysters, followed by the Iberian spiced chorizo and garlic tiger prawn skewers, finishing with their 20oz, grass-fed, 28-day aged, all singing, all dancing, single rib steak, heaven! Recommended.

Goode & Wright or Bad and Wrong - Find Out Here.

Name: Goode & Wright

Where: 271 Portobello Road, London W11 1LR, http://www.goodeandwright.co.uk/

Cost: Small plates start at £6.50, and main courses are priced from £14.50, with side dishes at £3. White wines start at £20.50 for a Chardonnay Vin de Pays d'Oc, and reds at £22.50 for a George Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages. There is a vintage Champagne at £45. 

About: Goode & Wright is an intimate restaurant of around 30 covers on Portobello Road, opened in 2011, this is the brain child of chef Findley Logan and Alex Herb (an former chef himself, formerly of the Ealing Tavern) being now the front of house man. The restaurant has an olde-worlde feel about it, but in a very tasteful way, with wood panels on the walls and beautifully tiled black and white floor.

The menu changes daily, and is based around 12 small plates, and 6 main courses. The name of the restaurant comes from Goode & Wright tailors, who ran their business on the premises pre-WW2, and whose name plate is still visible outside the restaurant.

Deserted when we arrived at 7.20pm on a Friday evening, the place was heaving by 8.30pm, with a young and well-heeled clientele. Goode and Wright is open for lunch and dinner for six days a week, but in 2015 they plan to open 7 days a week. It is evidently the place to enjoy lunch on Saturday when Portobello Market is in full swing, but be sure to reserve a table in advance.

What We Ate: We started with Devon crab with chicharron and avocado (£9). Chicharron is pork skin, deep-fried until crispy. The crab was flavoured with fresh dill and a fragrant dill oil, and served with a mayonnaise of brown crab meat. We loved the flavours in this dish and felt it was very well conceived and executed.

Next came beef tartare, with capers, truffle and watercress (£9.50). The restaurant's meat is supplied by Devon Rose butchers, and it tasted fresh and of great quality. With hand chopped tender beef, flavoured with tarragon mustard, capers and a generous serving of fresh truffle shavings, this was delicious and incredibly well priced in our opinion. The presentation though looked a tad busy and the ingredients squashed into the small plate didn’t show the dish in its best light.

I loved eating bone-marrow, so the bone-marrow toasties on the menu had to be ordered. Nothing I’d had before though prepared me for what came next - two massive bones were brought to the table served with toasted sourdough bread and tarragon mustard (£7). They were huge! Served with dinky metal skewers with tiny spoons at the end to scoop the deliciously flavoured marrow-fat onto the toast, Dr G and I enjoyed our bones thoroughly and got our cravings for bone-marrow appeased for at least another year! They were great.

The duck egg in a basket, with chorizo (£9.50) was served with a truffle honey glaze.  It consisted of a baked egg with a still slightly runny yolk, in the middle of a substantial slab of fried bread, topped with slices of fried chorizo.

I think I would have probably loved this dish, had I not eaten copious amounts of bread in my other two starters. The flavours were great - I loved the combination of runny egg yolk, chorizo and fried bread and would love to try this again with a green salad, and not much else.

Next up was the blackened octopus with pickled radish and pomegranate (£9.50). This was an excellent dish and beautifully presented - the octopus was very tender and the flavours were well balanced (the pickled radish added a refreshing acidity), the flavours were punchy with a lovely chargrilled flavour from the octopus.

By this stage, we were quite full, but managed to squeeze in a Bergamot posset, with strawberry Eton mess (£5.50). This was light and delicious, and a perfect end to our meal.

What We Drank: We shared a bottle of Le Petit Xavier, from the Languedoc (£31). Purple-tinged, this had good red berry fruit flavours, but was a little thin and acidic on the finish. At this price level, I would have expected a wine with a little more va-va-voom (structure).

Likes: Goode & Wright has a vibrant feel, and is well located for those in or visiting Notting Hill. I loved their selection of small eats - honest food, well cooked and packed with flavour.

Dislikes: Avoid eating every bit of bread you are served is my recommendation.

Verdict: Goode & Wright offers a great selection of small eats that change daily. The food is fresh, expertly cooked and has tons of flavour. But most importantly, it will not break the bank. I loved it and will return. Highly recommended.

Le Coq – Islington’s New Neighbourhood Rotisserie

Words & Photography by Matthew Brown and Luiz Hara

Name: Le Coq 

Where: 292-294 St Paul’s Road, Islington, London, N1 2LH 
http://www.le-coq.co.uk/

Cost: Le Coq offers a brief and affordable menu - 2 or 3 courses for £17 or £22 (Mon-Sat) with a choice of three starters and three desserts, and a single main course, using chicken from the rotisserie (a vegetarian alternative is available if requested). On Sundays, a greater choice of mains is available, and the meals are priced higher at £21 for 2-, and £26 for 3 courses. 

Drinks are also very reasonably priced. All cocktails are £5, the draught beer, 1936, is £4, and wine begins at £13 for a ½ litre carafe.

About: Le Coq is a “neighbourhood rotisserie restaurant” on St Paul’s Road, close to Highbury & Islington Station. As its name suggests, chicken is at the heart of this restaurant’s offering. The flaming rotisserie is the first thing you see on entering, and the familiar smell of roasting chicken fills the small dining room.

Though the menu is short, Le Coq emphasises that its ingredients are carefully sourced. The free-range chicken is supplied by the highly acclaimed Sutton Hoo farm in Suffolk. Living up to the restaurant’s market atmosphere, many of the other ingredients are sourced from local businesses. The noticeably fresh bread comes from the Better Health Bakery in Haggerston, a social enterprise that helps to train people recovering from poor mental health. The charcuterie comes from Islington’s Cobble Lane Cured, and the cheese from the long-established La Fromagerie.

What We Ate: We started with two of the three starters on the menu: roast chicory with smoked ricotta and honey, and salmon gravlax with cucumber. The chicory salad brought the smokiness of the ricotta and the tartness of the chicory together with sweet walnuts and honey. This enjoyable combination could have been improved by a little more honey and ricotta, to avoid the lingering bitterness of the chicory, however.

The salmon gravlax was simpler and better executed. The salmon was soft, and the salad of cucumber and rocket brought out the sharpness of the simple lemon dressing, making it a great prelude to the rotisserie chicken.

That rotisserie chicken is the restaurant’s star attraction. It is served as part of a different main course each week, and on this occasion was served with hispi cabbage, bacon and hazelnuts. A small jug of roasting juices and a pot of tarragon mayonnaise were also served alongside it, and we ordered a further two sides of roast potatoes (£3.75), a simple side salad of dressed green leaves (£2.75) and a small serving of harissa yoghurt (£1.75).

The flavoursome Sutton Hoo chicken is undeniably well-sourced and tastes excellently of itself. Its flavour is also appreciated in the roast potatoes, which are roasted in the chicken fat, and seasoned with lemon, olive oil and thyme. The addition of the chicken fat gives them a thicker casing that resounds with the flavours of the rotisserie. No trip to Le Coq would be complete without a portion!

One of the downsides of serving rotisserie chicken is that it is difficult to achieve a really crispy chicken skin. Le Coq compensates for this, however, by supplying texture throughout the rest of the course. The sizeable chunk of hispi cabbage was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and never mushy. Extra crunch came from the hazelnuts and bacon, and of course the roast potatoes, which were so delicious they made it onto every forkful!

Texture was better catered to than seasoning. Whilst the roasting juices provided a flavoursome gravy that kept the dish from having the heaviness of a roast dinner, the tarragon mayonnaise was tangy rather than rich in flavour, and jarred with the rest of the course. The harissa yoghurt was a better accompaniment, but the absence of salt and pepper on the table meant that it was difficult to make smaller adjustments to the taste. 

For dessert, we shared the Le Coq Mince Pie and an ice cream made with dark chocolate, PX and raisin. The eponymous mince pie was served with clotted cream and a squirrel-shaped biscuit, and the mincemeat itself tasted strongly of cloves, giving a festive aroma and warm flavour that reflected the homeliness of Le Coq’s cooking.

The dark chocolate gave a similarly strong flavour to the ice cream. With Moro’s famous Malaga raisin ice cream with PX available down the road at Exmouth Market, Le Coq’s faces strict competition. The dark chocolate makes this a very different dessert, and though it smothers the raisins, it stands up to the PX to make a very rich ice cream. 

What We Drank: Le Coq’s dedication to careful sourcing extends to the beer, the Swiss 1936. At a reasonable £4 for a Pilsner glass, it is a great opportunity to try this uncommon beer from draught. Made with Swiss mountain water and organic hops, and with notes of lemon and grass, it is both a refreshing aperitif, and a good accompaniment to the restaurant’s chicken.

Cocktails are only £5, and the negroni we tried was strong and well made, making it fantastic value and almost certainly the cheapest negroni around Upper Street.

Wine is similarly good value, and the decision to offer house wines in carafes of 500ml and 1 litre will undoubtedly help to maintain the neighbourhood atmosphere. We went for a bottle of the Wiengut Von Winning 2012 Riesling from Pfalz in Germany. That year, this wine was awarded ‘Best New Comer’ by the Gault&Millau Wine Guide, and with its refreshingly acidity and dryness, it tasted like a worthy winner.

Likes: The quality of the chicken and the brilliance of the roast potatoes mean that Le Coq definitely excels in what they offer. In addition, the choice of £5 cocktails and litre carafes are an added bonus.

Dislikes: Whilst the more permanent fixtures of the menu are strong, some of the dishes we had lacked consistency - the imbalance of the chicory salad, and the lack of salt in the main course, were a little disappointing. 

Verdict: “Neighbourhood rotisserie” Le Coq truly is an asset to the local community. With well-sourced ingredients and a reliable roasting technique alongside a constantly changing menu, it could make a regular haunt or a friendly haven from nearby Upper Street. 

Tredwell's - Casual Dining by Marcus Wareing

Name: Tredwell's

Where: 4a Upper St Martin's Lane, London, WC2H 9NY, http://www.tredwells.com/

Cost: Starters range from £5 to £8, mains from £9 to £26, and sides from £3 to £5. Wines range from £24 to £89.

About: The latest venture from Marcus Wareing, Tredwell’s, over the road from Stringfellows and Dishoom on Upper St Martin’s Lane, has an uncomplicated yet tempting menu with a strong focus on British produce and a few options for snacks, starters, mains and sides.

Over 3 floors, the main dining area is upstairs, where there are long distressed leather banquets, equally distressed mirrors reaching all the way up to the high ceilings, and matt black wooden tables. Possibly the most casual and relaxed of Wareing’s eateries, the music and chatter were quite lively on the evening we were there.

What We Ate: With our aperitifs, we chose a couple of snacks - the chorizo jam with charred bread (£4) was a favourite – reminiscent of Calabrian nduja, this was sweet, spicy and smoky.

The courgette fritters with pine nut butter (£5) were also good, but I was half-expecting them to be courgette fries (despite fritters being clearly displayed on the menu).

For starters, we had the prawns with white polenta, roast garlic and chicken broth (£8.50). I loved the clean yet intense flavours in this dish - the prawns were lightly poached and were very tender and sweet, combining really well with the soft white polenta – a great combination of flavours and textures.

Our second starter, although completely different in concept, was equally delicious - braised lamb belly with aubergine and tomato curry (£6) was soft, unctuous and well flavoured, although the aubergine and tomato tasted more like an Italian caponata than a curry.

For our main course, we opted for the smoked, braised beef short rib to share (£29). This was a truly sensational dish - the beef being meltingly tender, succulent, and richly flavoured with a light smoky finish.

To accompany, we had a portion of chargrilled tenderstem broccoli with almond butter and anchovies (£5) which had a nice crunch.

We also had a portion of polenta fries, with smoked tomato dip (£4) – they were nicely crispy on the outside and creamy inside. I was pleased to see polenta chips on the menu, this is a favourite of mine but hardly found in British restaurants.

For dessert, we had the Pain Perdu (£6) – I have seen Pain Perdu in a few London restaurants recently which is a good thing – literally translated as “lost bread”, the name refers to reclaiming stale bread by soaking them in a mixture of egg custard, sometimes flavoured with cinnamon which are then fried in butter. Once fried, pain perdu is generally served with jam or syrup, but I enjoyed Wareing’s accompaniment of maple cream and crispy bacon – both sweet and savoury, this was a well thought out combination in my opinion. In the Basque country, they have a similar dessert  called Torrijas.

We also had the salted caramel soft serve (£5) – this was also good although I felt it was a tad too salty for my taste. It had crunchy honeycomb in the mix to provide a contrast of textures.

What We Drank: We started with an apertif - the New Fashioned cocktail (£9) combined rye whisky, marmalade and bitters, and a slice of freeze dried orange – this was very well made and strong as I was hoping it would be. We also had a glass of Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2009, West Sussex (£12). This vintage English sparkly was superb, with an elegant structure, apple flavours and very fine bubbles.

For the meal, we shared a bottle of Pinot Noir from Olivier Wartel, Bourgogne Epineuil 2013 (£61). A young wine, light in colour and weight, this still carried plenty of raspberry fruit flavours, and just a hint of black pepper on the finish.

Likes: The menu is short, well thought-out and sensibly priced. Our waiter (Davide) was friendly, professional and well informed, a real joy to find good service in London.

Dislikes: The venue looks uninviting from the street. Once inside, the loud music is a tad intrusive. The restaurant feels somehow cold to me and more like a bar that serves food than a proper restaurant.

Verdict: Our food at Tredwell’s was beautifully executed and very reasonably priced. The slow-braised beef short ribs and the polenta fries were sensational and warrant a visit on their own right. Recommended.

Young British Foodies Taking Over The Tate Modern Restaurant This November

Words & Photography by Felicity Spector and Luiz Hara

The setting is stunning: the view, a vista of London framed by the Thames and the dome of St Paul's. High up on the sixth floor of London's Tate Modern, this year's Young British Foodie Award winners have staged a restaurant takeover, with a set three course menu every Friday and Saturday night throughout November.

We were invited to a lunchtime preview, along with YBF winning chef Tomos Parry, who devised three of the dishes himself and consulted with the Tate's chefs on the rest of the menu. The idea was to incorporate as many YBF champion products as possible, from Argan oil to Mexican cheese - and one of the desserts comes courtesy of Baking category winner Noisette Bakehouse.

We started with some dangerously delicious E5 Bakehouse Hackney Wild sourdough, trying hard to avoid filling up on the huge chunks of moist, tangy bread before the rest of the meal arrived. I wish I'd saved some for my excellent starter - grilled leeks thyme browned butter with goats curd: it would have been ideal to mop up the soft mounds of cheese.

Other starters included a salad of smoked duck from the Artisan Smokehouse, decorated with some crispy fried quails eggs, and a large platter of charcuterie.

I ordered the vegetarian main: a vast bowl of creamy risotto, with plenty of beautifully cooked wild mushrooms and some slightly unneccessary slices of rye toast with more melted cheese. Hearty and substantial: it really didn't need the extra bread.

I could see others enjoying a plate of cod adventurously paired with chorizo and a mango and black mustard seed confit, and another of Tomos's dishes - confit and grilled Welsh lamb belly with quinoa, yoghurt and barbecued chunks of cucumber. All part of his bid to showcase the best of his native Welsh produce.

Beef Fillet, Scottish Girolle Mushrooms, Potato Fondant

By this point I was pretty full, but the desserts were on their way: I shared a plate of baked cheesecake made with blueberries and Gringa Dairy's queso fresco - the first time it's been used in a dessert - and the Noisette Bakehouse frangipane tart with plums and shortbread crumb. I had been expecting a toasted cornmeal cake with peach curd, but the slice of tart - with some whipped cream - was moister than it looked, and the slices of poached plum on the side were an autumnal treat.

Tate head chef Tony Martin came out for a quick chat - telling me he'd been really inspired by the new ingredients and planned to use several of them again on his regular menu, especially the Argan oil and some of the cheeses. A fitting endorsement of the quality of the young producers discovered by the YBF team.

At £47.50 for three courses, with a 'Stellacello' cocktail on arrival, this certainly isn't cheap: reflecting the prices on the regular Tate Modern menu, and the admittedly unrivalled setting. 

For another £14 you can get matching wines or beers curated by award winning sommelier Hamish Anderson. Bookings are by telephone or email, see details below - and if you can't make it, then you can always try Tomos Parry's new project - Mayfair grill Kitty Fisher's, which opens next month.

The YBFs Tate Modern Restaurant Take-Over launched on Friday 7th November and will run every Friday and Saturday night until 7th December. A three course set menu including an arrival cocktail, bread and coffee is priced at £47.50.  For more information and to make a booking call 020 7887 8888 or email tate.modernrestaurant@tate.org.uk