Steaks Galore, Parmesan Chips and Ice Cream at Boyds Grill & Wine Bar

Name: Boyds Grill & Wine Bar

Where: 8 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5BY, http://www.boydsgrillandwinebar.co.uk/

Cost: Hot and cold small eats are all priced at £5. Charcuterie and cheese platters for sharing between two cost £19.95. Grilled meat or fish main courses range from £14 to £50, with most being around the £15 to £20 mark. Side dishes are £4.

The wine list is comprehensive, with a focus on classic French regions, but with a good representation of wines from England, the rest of Europe and the New World. There is a good selection of wines by the glass. By the bottle, the entry-level white is a Solano Blanco 2014 from Galicia, Spain at £21.50. The red, at the same price point, is a Tarabilla Tinto 2014 also from Galicia. Prices ascend as far as the Cos d'Estournel 'Les Pagodes de Cos' 2009 at £192.50. 

About: Situated on the ground floor of the The Grand Hotel, Trafalgar Square, Boyds Grill & Wine Bar is set in a sumptuous room, dating back to the origins of the hotel, with black and white marble walls and floors, and a glamorous copper-topped bar in the centre of the dining area.

The menu, designed by Executive British chef Nate Brewster, features an extensive range of grilled meats, all cooked on a high heat, eco-friendly Synergy Grill, which claims to retain the natural juices of the meat and give it an authentic barbecue charred flavour.

Signature dishes include a Tomahawk rib steak, served with two sides and two sauces (1.2kg, £70 to share), and braised short rib sandwich with caramelised onion, rocket and jus (£10.95).

There is a range of British meats to choose for the grill, including British Wagyu beef, Scottish Black Gold beef, Welsh lamb, Suffolk pork and Norfolk black chicken.  For those with fish and seafood in mind, there is a selection of small plates and fish dishes.

If you get to visit Boyds Grill & Wine Bar, the Dessert Bar experience is not be missed – for £11.95 per person, the pastry chef will prepare (and demonstrate) up to 11 different types of ice cream and sorbet using liquid nitrogen, but more on that later.

What We Had: We started with a selection of small eats (£5 each) and a glass of fine Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2010 (£10 per glass). The salmon tartare with avocado, mango and chilli was zingy, well seasoned and beautifully presented.

Equally good were the Mac n Cheese croquettes (with Wookey Hole cheddar), served with Boyds own bbq sauce. Crunchy on the outside but cheesy and delicious inside, I love Mac n’ Cheese in any shape or form, and these were no exception.

The duck liver parfait with crispy brioche, fig and mandarin meringue was also good – I particularly liked the citrusy, sweet meringue combined with the creamy liver parfait, a revelation.

I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek fish and shellfish goujons deep-fried in beer batter and served with a curried hollandaise much like a posh chippy's curry sauce.

We were very impressed by the eclectic and surprisingly well priced wine list, we went a bit overboard on our choices. Accompanying our starters, we ordered 3 different whites: the Austrian Gruner Veltliner, Lossterrassen Weingut 2014 (£8.25 per glass) was a good example of its kind, with apricot and gooseberry flavours. The Croatian Primus Reisling, Bolfan 2012 (£7 per glass) was rich and off-dry, with green apple and mineral aromas. Best of all was the Puilly Fuisse 'Vieilles Vignes' 2014, from Domain Patriarche, Burgundy (£10.25 per glass) - made from 100% chardonnay, this was rich and concentrated with subtle tropical fruit aromas. 

The starters were followed by a scrumptious meat platter (all Boyds meat comes from British farms), including pork chop (£17), Black Gold rib eye, lamb hogget (£18), and Wagyu minute steak. Lamb is a sheep aged up to 1 year, while the hogget is aged between 1 and 2 years (over 2 years it becomes mutton). The hogget had a great depth of flavour while still retaining the tenderness of lamb.

Boyds gets its Wagyu from Sussex, where native cows have been crossed with Red Wagyu from Australia and the USA. The final product is a 28 day dry-aged, beautifully marbled and tender cut of beef.

Sides (£4 each) were assorted seasonal vegetables, Parmesan fries and triple cooked sweet potato wedges, served with lemon, thyme and Port jus, and a Béarnaise sauce (£1.95 each). The Parmesan fries were among the finest chips I have ever had the pleasure of eating - light, fluffy, crisp and cheesy all at the same time.

With the meats, we had an outstanding glass of Gevrey Chambertin 'Vieilles Vignes' 2011 from Domain Gerard Seguin (£67 per bottle). Refined and elegant, this had delicate redcurrant fruit and a surprisingly long finish.   

The Chateauneuf du Pape 'Le Calice de St-Pierre' 2014 (£47 per bottle) was altogether more robust as would be expected from this hot climate area, and more than a match for the richer meats, with black berry fruit and a good grip of tannin. 
  
One of my favourite red wines is Chateau Musar 2007, from the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (£61 per bottle). This was an excellent vintage, with brambles, plums, leather, tobacco and just a hint of mushroom. 

After dinner, there is an option for diners to have the Dessert Bar Experience (£11.95 per person), where some amazing ice creams are rustled up to order.

The Dessert Bar experience includes up to 11 different ice creams and sorbets, from a mind-boggling array of fruit creams and purées, where guests are invited to select their favourite flavours. They are then mixed with liquid nitrogen at -190 degrees centigrade, to create an amazingly light and airy ice cream. The Dessert Bar Experience can also be enjoyed on its own, without any requirement to eat dinner at the restaurant.

We started with “Dragon's Breath” – a selection of flavoured, superchilled meringues that literally froze the breath, followed by the ice creams.

Some highlights were intensely flavoured and creamy blackberry and raspberry ice creams. The Jack Daniels ice cream came on a classic vanilla base, while the lemon sorbet made with Limoncello was mouthwateringly refreshing.

We went on to have some increasingly unusual flavours - why go for vanilla when you can have smoked strawberry, smoky bacon, English breakfast tea, canned pork and picallilli, dill and cream cheese, and even smoked salmon and wasabi!

With dessert, we had a chilled and creamy cocktail of Baileys, Sambuca and Espresso that went down a treat. 

Likes: Trafalgar Square location, elegant dining room, fantastic chips, a great selection of grilled beef, Wagyu and other meats. The small eats are well made and very reasonably priced. Loved the Dessert Bar Experience!

Dislikes: None

Verdict: A perfect meal for me at Boyds Grill and Wine Bar starts with their Black Gold rib eye accompanied by the scrumptious Parmesan chips and a large glass of 2007 Chateau Musar. The Dessert Bar is an experience not to be missed, and is worth a trip to the restaurant in its own right. I cannot wait to return. Highly recommended.

Plum + Spilt Milk - British Classics by Mark Sargeant

Name: Plum + Spilt Milk

Where: Great Northern Hotel, Pancras Road, London N1C 4TB, http://plumandspiltmilk.com/

Cost: The average cost per person is in the region of £40 per person for a three-course meal not including drinks. The à la carte menu for dinner has starters ranging from £8 to £12.00, fish, meat or vegetarian mains from £9.50 to £32, puddings at £8.50, and a British cheese platter at £9.50. 

About: Opened in 2014, Plum + Spilt Milk is the restaurant on the first floor of the recently restored Great Northern Hotel in King’s Cross, with Chef Director Mark Sargeant, formerly head chef at Gordon Ramsay's Michelin-starred restaurant at Claridges.



Chef Sargeant also owns Rocksalt Restaurant and The Smokehouse upmarket fish and chippie in Folkestone.

The restaurant occupies a prime corner spot on the first floor of the Great Northern Hotel. With smart new solid wood parquet flooring, wood panelling, a high ceiling and banquettes of white leather and wood curving around the tables, the restaurant has a traditional British atmosphere, with tall windows overlooking travellers rushing through the restored Victorian facade at King's Cross Station.

Plum + Spilt Milk’s unusual name comes from the purple and cream liveries of the trains that used to run out of King's Cross Station, and today the restaurant markets itself as serving 'simple classics, beautifully cooked'.

What We Ate: The menu is short but well thought out, as is the wine list. For starters, we had roasted corn-fed chicken oysters (£9.50). I can't recall ever seeing chicken oysters on a menu - delicate and tender, they are my favourite part of the bird. Here, they were well-seasoned, flavoursome, and served with grilled leeks, shallots and capers.

Orkney scallops (£16 as a starter), on a bed of rich cauliflower purée, came with roasted cauliflower, samphire and sherry vinegar caramel. The scallops were sweet and tender, with crunchy cauliflower florets and a deliciously rich caramel.

For our main course, we spotted a Beef Wellington for two (£80) on the menu which we could not resist. The beef comes from Scotland’s North Highlands, and is 28-day aged.

The Wellington itself was very well made, with tender beef fillet having a great depth of flavour, and cooked medium-rare as requested. There was a tarragon-infused pancake (crêpe Cellestine) around the fillet, then a thin outer layer of puff pastry.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Wellington, my only minor regret being the lack of a duxelle of mushrooms between the beef and the pastry, which would have added an extra layer of flavour and texture.

The Beef Wellington was served with roast new potatoes and honey-roast baby parsnips with a hazelnut crumb, and buttered winter greens. The accompanying red wine jus was amazing - rich, velvety, glossy and packed with marrow flavour.

The desserts at Plum + Spilt Milk were excellent. The plum and spilt milk (£8.50) was a delicious concoction of baked brioche topped with caramelised plum, and a milk ice cream - magnificent.

The iced peanut and salted caramel mousse (£8.75) was also truly impressive. An upmarket version of Snickers (which I still think of as a Marathon bar), this had a smooth peanut parfait with just enough unctuous salted caramel to offset the sweetness. I felt a pang of sympathy for my peanut-allergic friends and family!

What We Drank: We shared a bottle of Avaton 2012 from Domain Gerovassiliou in Macedonia, Greece (£39). With a rich aroma of cherries and cedar, and gentle tannins, this was robust enough for the beef but not so powerful as to overwhelm the chicken oysters. In fact, it was one of those rare red wines that was a pleasure to drink on its own, but revealed unexpected depths of flavour and complexity in combination with the rare beef. Restaurants often focus on wines made from familiar French grapes, no matter which country in the world they come from, so I am always on the lookout for wines that buck that trend.  For me, this blend of three indigenous Greek varietals (Limnio, Mavrotragano and Mavroudi) was a winner, and at a very reasonable price for this quality.

Likes: The cooking was consistently good. I particularly enjoyed the Beef Wellington and the desserts. The wine list is varied and has some unusual and good value options. Good service.

Dislikes: Nothing to do with the food, but to my mind, the walls were crying out for some artwork. 

Verdict: For those who say there is no such thing as British cuisine, Plum + Spilt Milk is the answer. For excellent produce from the British Isles, cooked with love and skill, there are not many places I would prefer to eat. Recommended. 

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.