The Hub, Liverpool

My friend Talisha and I were planning on a lovely leisurely midweek luncheon, and on her recommendation, we ended up at The Hub. The Hub's lunchtime menu features both a scotch egg and a pork pie, so I had high hopes for the food. (Scotch eggs and pork pies of course being two of the most delicious snacks known to man. See also - sausage rolls, pork scratchings, etc.)

Here is what we ate:

Pie!

Pork pie with Blue Bishop Stilton and red onion marmalade. Yeah, this was really good. I wish  had another one of these right now.

Sandwich!

Smoked salmon sandwich with horseradish cream. Good points - the sandwich itself. Absolutely bloody loads of smoked salmon in there. Nice, punchy horseradish. Bad points - the 'Hub slaw' - rubbish name, rubbish gunky coleslaw held together with way more mayo than required. Also - served with crisps. I am not a fan of being served sandwiches with some crisps on the side. Either give me chips or leave me the hell alone.

Salad!

Talisha thought the chicken caesar salad was good. I think it could have done with a few more anchovies. Although to be fair, I think most things in life could do with a few more anchovies. Mmmm. Anchovies.

Panna cotta!

Passion fruit and mango panna cotta with raspberry coulis. Was alright, nowt special. 

More pie!

T seemed pretty happy with the pecan pie. I had a bit of food envy on this one. Lesson learnt - if one of the options is pie, always go for the pie. Not going for pie will cause you to covet your neighbour's pie. Or something.

All in all it was pretty decent. I would go back. 

The Hub Alehouse and Kitchen,

Casartelli Building,

16 Hanover Street,

Liverpool,

L1 4AA

http://www.thehub-liverpool.com

Samphire, Whitstable, Kent.

A table with my name on it - what a lovely touch.

Samphire is a lovely little restaurant in the lovely little seaside town of Whitstable, down on the Kent coast. The food is a touch on the pricey side - and I did feel a little cheated when asked to pay in excess of £15 for a dish of pork belly, which although delicious is after all a fairly cheap cut - but overall I think it's worth it.

Everything we ate was good; some of it, outstanding. The service was excellent. In this respect I think Samphire has it just right. Service is friendly but not over-familiar. A server is there quickly should you require, but they don't hover around you as you're eating. 

Anyway, on to what we ate...

Potted ham hock with piccalilli and toast.

Yum. Just....yum.

This was awesome, just awesome. The best version of this dish I think I have ever tried. The home-made piccalilli blew my mind. 

Pork belly with sweet potato.

Salad leaves in gravy? Hmmm...

This was probably the low point of the night. It was okay, but overall the dish was far too sweet. The rocket with gravy thing was a bit weird too - perhaps this would have worked better with vegetables rather than salad.

Duck breast, cabbage with bacon, mashed potato and pumpkin marmalade.

Quack.

This was very good. The cabbage contained bacon, but was liberally vinigared, so it still managed to cut through the richness of the duck. I wasn't too fussed about the pumpkin marmalade.


If you're in Whitstable I would recommend checking Samphire out.

Samphire
4 High Street
Whitstable
CT5 1BQ
01227 770 075
www.samphirerestaurant.co.uk

The Two Sawyers, Canterbury.



Yeah, my photos are rubbish.


First, a disclaimer - the proprietor of this lovely little pub, Dougie, is a very good friend of mine. So good in fact, that a couple of summers ago, I spent the best part of 2 months in Canterbury helping him get the Two Sawyers up and running. I think it is only fair that I mention this before I write a review of the truly awesome burger I ate there.

With that caveat soundly in place, I can now tell you, honestly, that the Sawyers burger is up there with some of the best burgers I’ve had the pleasure to eat. It really is. And because I know the man responsible for its creation, I can tell you – a lot of work went into creating this burger.

First, the burger itself – made with lovely lean steak mince and lightly seasoned. Pure and simple, the way it should be.

Salad-y bits are kept to a respectful minimum. Finely shredded iceberg lettuce and fried onions. This is, in my humble opinion a very good thing as there is nothing more annoying than bits of extraneous cucumber squidging out of your bun as you sink your teeth in. If I wanted salad, I would have ordered salad. But I ordered a burger. So you know what I was after? Yup, that’s right – beef.

The cheese used- that luminous yellow burger cheese you get in little plastic wrappers - could be controversial. Now, personally I like fake-burger-cheese on a burger. I *cannot abide* cheddar on a burger, I just don’t think it works. Cheddar melted on toast – ace. Melted on a burger – blergh. It’s the wrong texture, too greasy, just...somehow not right. Having said that, I have been known to smother a burger with a combo of blue cheese and guacamole and happily dig in, so I am fully aware that my concept of yum / yuck may differ to that of most people. The Bear, for instance, will eat fake-burger-cheese on a burger (there aren’t many things he won’t eat to be honest) but would be much happier with a slab of mature cheddar on top. I guess this is a matter of personal taste.

The bun used is wholemeal. This makes me very happy, as it means I can legitimately categorise having a burger for dinner as ‘healthy.’ In fact, if you had the burger with extra salad instead of chips, that’s a positively virtuous supper right there. On the other hand, chips are mega-tasty so you should definitely have them with your burger. The bun is lightly toasted which gives the whole thing a pleasing crispness, and also helps keep the dreaded soggy-burger syndrome at bay.

And so, the final element...the fifth element if you will...the highly-guarded top-secret-recipe utterly-delicious SECRET BURGER SAUCE! I love this sauce. Most of the ingredients you could probably guess, but there is one slightly unusual ingredient. I know the secret ingredient, and it certainly surprised me when I found out (don’t worry it’s nothing dodgy, just something you wouldn’t necessarily think of as a natural pairing with beef).

Half-munched burger...I was hungry and forgot to take a photo before I started eating...oops.

So that’s it – the Sawyers burger. The rest of the menu is all good, honest pub grub, done well and cooked with love. And on top of that, it really is a charming little pub. If you’re in the area I would urge you to give it a go.

Roka, Canary Wharf, London.

(From left to right) Sweet potato with soy, chicken and spring onion skewers,  rice hot pot,  brocolli with miso.

I had a lovely meal at Roka with friends from work. If you find yourself in the Wharf, and are looking for some tasty Japanese food that goes beyond just sushi, I would recommend it as the food is delish.

However, one slight word of warning - Roka is one of those restaurants with a 'concept.' A 'concept' that they feel obliged to explain to you before you order. If you're like me, you are likely to get slightly annoyed by this. The 'concept', as it was, turned out to be nothing more than 'everyone shares what they order.' Which is fine, y'know, because I like trying as many things as possible and so normally end up sharing with friends. However, it vexes me slightly when I am told, in an *ever-so-slightly-condescending* manner how I am to eat the food that I have paid for. Anyway, as I said, this is a minor beef really, as the food is so good. Rant over.

We ate:

tori no kameshi  - rice hot pot with soy chicken and shitake mushrooms

 koika no kara age - fried baby squid with shichimi and lime

kihada maguro no tataki - tuna tataki with apple mustard dressing

yakitori negima  - chicken and spring onion skewers

We also had a couple of side dishes – sweet potato with soy and broccoli with miso.

My favourite bit was definitely the tuna tataki, which was truly spectacular.  It was almost worth the guilt. I KNOW it’s endangered, we really shouldn’t be eating it, I GET IT, I do. It’s just…well, it really is very tasty isn’t it? The Bear was suitable peeved at me when he heard that I’d ordered tuna (he studies marine ecosystems and stuff, so knows about this shiz). I promise to be better from now on guys, honest. Mackerel all the way!

Hawksmoor Spitalfields, East London.

Ribeye steak, trotter baked beans and jersey royals.

                       

Gather round children, and I will tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a cow. A very tasty cow, with beautiful creamy marbled fat running through all its dark, succulent muscles.

Every night the cow dreamed his beefy dreams. “When I grow up, I want to be a steak. Well, not just one steak I suppose, but many steaks: ribeyes, and rumps, and sirloins and fillets...huge porterhouses, prime ribs and chateaubriands...oh how I wish to be a myriad of steaks!

When I grow up, I would like to be eaten in a place where cocktails and red wine flowed freely. Where potatoes were embraced whatever their size: the small, new potatoes being drowned in butter and herbs, and the large being sliced into chips to be sizzled in dripping, or else thrice-fried. Where beans come baked with a pigs trotter to become pools of porky unctuousness. Oh how I wish!

When I grow up, I would like the people who eat me to be amazed at my delicious beefiness. Where all steaks taste so umami that if they were an umami equation, they would be 'marmite x worcestershire sauce x parmesan x anchovies x soy sauce = the steaks'.

I wish for my flesh to be sauced with a gravy of my own bone marrow. And perhaps, just perhaps, to be followed by an ice cream sundae containing breakfast cereal. I don’t even know why on earth I wish that last bit, but Oh! How I wish!”

And you know what kids? Well that little cow, well...his wish came true.

Welcome to Hawksmoor.

Fillet steak, lettuce and herb salad and bone marrow gravy.

Last week I visited Hawksmoor’s Spitalfields branch with my friend Julia from work. This was the first time I had been to the Spitalfields branch, but I had been to the Seven Dials branch once before with the Bear, on our 3 year anniversary. It was the best anniversary ever. They let us share a burger instead of starters, we drank numerous cocktails and lots of very good pinot noir, we had a porterhouse steak BIGGER THAN MY HEAD, chips which had been cooked in beef dripping (causing outbursts which went a little something like “Oh. My. God. WHYAREN’TALLCHIPSLIKETHISNOMNOMNOMSOGOOOOODNOMNOMNEEDMOOORRREE....”) and our waiter even gave us a couple of glasses of champagne on the house when he heard it was our anniversary. In short, it was perfect.

On this visit, things were a tad more restrained, but still resulted in us both clutching at our bellies moaning “so full...so full of steak...need to sleep.” Having had the forsight to remember how full I was on my last visit, I eschewed carbs to make more room for beef in my belly (The aforementioned beef dripping chips are only offered at the Seven Dials branch so I was not missing out. If these had been on the menu I no doubt would have ordered them). This plan worked well and I finished my 400g ribeye. Julia, who had ordered some buttery new potatoes, had to leave some of her fillet, despite it being a mere 300g.



My dinner - note the lack of potatoes.


The menu is pretty much the same in both branches, except:

1)       No beef dripping chips in Spitalfields (boo!)

2)      BUT the bonus of trotter baked beans in Spitalfields (yay!)

Quite frankly I think the two just about cancel each other out.



You pay us now, yes?

Go. For the love of all that is good and beefalicious, go now.

Hawksmoor,
157 Commercial Street,
City of London,
E1 6BJ

Galvin La Chappelle, Central London

Well, I played a blinder last night. Five course meal, matched wine with each course, plus a couple of glasses of champagne to start...and no hangover. None. Zero. Zilch. I feel positively fresh. It is a minor miracle.

Last night I had a work dinner at La Chappelle, which is about a 5 minute walk from Liverpool Street Tube Station. I must admit I hadn’t heard of the restaurant before, but have to say I was pretty impressed.

Here’s what we ate:

Menu

Broad bean soup with smoked duck

2009 Saumur Blanc, “Les Bessières”, Les Vignerons de Saumur

***

Grilled fillets of mackerel, Spring vegetable Barigoule

2008 Peyroli, Mas la Chevaliere, Domaine Laroche

***

Roast breast of corn-fed Goosnargh duck,caramelised endive tatin, apple & frisee salad

2009 Brouilly, Château de Pierreux 

***

Selection of French farmhouse Cheeses

***

Apple Tart Tatin, Crème fraîche

NV    Ambré Rivesaltes, “Solera”, Domaine des Demoiselles 75cl    

Very nice it was too. My favourite course had to be the duck, which was served deliciously pink, and went perfectly with the apple and frisee salad. The only bit I was a tad unsure of was the dessert wine, which tasted like a super-sweet brandy (bizarre). That being said, I’ve never been too keen on dessert wines – give me something crisp and dry any day – so maybe this is just a reflection of my uneducated palate more than anything!

Galvin La Chappelle

35 Spital Square,

London,

E1 6DY