The Top Floor Flat

On my way back from Fulham Palace, I happened to notice a tiny cafe tucked away on North End Road. It wouldn’t have caught my eye except for the sign which promised authentic Ethiopian food. I had tried Ethiopian food once before, at a restaurant by Kings Cross, but it had been almost two years and I was excited to give it another go.

I coerced Top Floor Flatmate, Ann, into coming along with me, warning her that the possibility was high that this would be a disastrous meal. For starters, the cafe itself looked more like a greasy spoon than a location for a fine meal out, and that was just the outside. Upon walking in we were greeted by some aluminum-topped tables, a rather dingy interior and, fittingly, a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony which included a circle of low wicker stools, a central heating unit and a lot of incense.

Odd decor aside, we were warmly welcomed by an incredibly friendly woman who seemed to be in charge - she certainly took charge, waving away the staff’s apparent surprise at our desire to dine there, sitting us down and proceeding to talk us through the menu and, when we showed some hesitation, ordering for us.

A traditional Ethiopian meal is typically a spicy and flavourful meat or veggie dish served on a large flat round of bitter bread called injera. There are no utensils and the porous bread is used to scoop up, sop up and otherwise consume the meat or veggies, which are a stew-like consistency.  While the bread isn’t too appealing alone, with the intense flavours of the meat and spices of the sauce, it’s a perfect balance and the Ethiopian style of food was just as delicious as I remembered. I had a lamb dish while Ann went with the vegetarian option but we both agreed it was a) amazingly tasty and b) way more than we could comfortably eat (though not for lack of trying).

The Ghion Cafe was certainly not a looker - and if you want ambiance, this is not your best bet. But don’t be put off by the simple surroundings. The food was authentic, rich and delicious; the service uncharacteristically friendly for London and the food arrived almost instantaneously (although we ended up having to ask twice for the bill before getting up to pay at the counter - a long, drawn out and well-enjoyed meal seemed to be encouraged) and it was an excellent opportunity to further discover food of another culture. Plus at under £10 per person for an incredibly filling meal and drink, it’s an unbeatable price. The perfect combination.

Ghion Cafe
248 North End Road
Fulham, London, SW6 7RS
020 7385 1287

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Finding a place for a quiet drink after work was proving to be a bit more difficult than I had imagined - the issue was the friendly between England and Egypt which meant that any pub with a screen would be packed with punters eagerly awaiting the first of England’s efforts as we move towards the summer World Cup.  This meant that I had to find a place off the beaten path, without a television and with easy transport access. Where else to look than Notting Hill in West London?

After a few false starts (both of the original pub choices had TV screens and, in an indication of how noisy it would be, numerous England flags already hung in anticipation of the match) we decided on the gastropub/wine bar The Mall Tavern which, while only a few metres from the Notting Hill Gate tube station, felt quite removed from the busy high street.

As far as a gastopub goes, The Mall Tavern was much what you’d expect, comfortable tables, dimly lit, nice wine - my friend was at first impressed at their range of imported beers on tap, then less so when it turned out they were out of nearly all of them. It would have been a fairly average pub-going experience had it not been for one thing: the free scotch eggs and pork pies.

For whatever, reason, the kitchen decided that this was the day they would provide all punters with some of these traditional British delicacies. Having never had either a pork pie or a scotch egg before, this was an opportunity to expand my British horizons. A scotch egg is a rather hideous creation of a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage, wrapped in bread crumbs. With an off the charts calorie, fat and salt count, it’s probably not something you’d want to eat more than once a year but having heard so much about them, I figured I might as well give them a try (that and my friend was in shock I’d never had one before).

While I can’t say I’ll be ordering a scotch egg again any time soon (for health reasons much moreso than taste) nor was it, according to my friend, the best example of a scotch egg that Britain might provide, I will certainly be returning to The Mall Tavern. It’s quiet, friendly, provides decent drinks and, best of all, bribed us to return with free food. Works for me!

The Mall Tavern
71 Palace Gardens Terrace
London W8 4RU
020 7727 3805‎

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Before heading back to California, Alex, Henry and I had an end of the year dinner at a Notting Hill diner with, what I was promised were, the best hamburgers and milkshakes in London. With that tall order, and hearing the two of them gush about various dishes on the menu the entire way to the restaurant (California burger with avocado and mozzarella; onion rings; chocolate milk shakes… uh oh, I’m getting hungry again!) I was really looking forward to our meal.

We arrived at the diner which, true to its word, felt like a 50’s burger joint, complete with red booths and a silver bar from which fountain drinks, fries and burgers appeared with impressive speed. We settled down to business with milk shakes and placed our orders for various burgers - and low and behold, Lucky 7 Diner has managed to create an American tasting and looking burger in the heart of Notting Hill. Delicious :-).

Lucky Seven Diner

127 Westbourne Park Road
London, W2 5QL, United Kingdom
020 7727 6771

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While I do a lot of baking at The Top Floor Flat, every so often it’s nice to indulge in someone else’s confectionery goods - especially if that someone else is winning French pastry shop Maison Bertaux. My flatmate Ann had been singing the praises of the shop for some time and finally we found a spare few hours, sandwiched between Christmas shopping, for us both to visit the impressive display of cakes, pastries and gloriously over-the-top desserts.

Instead of trying to describe the food, here are a few pictures:

For the incredible quality, the prices are very reasonable - but bring someone to share the food with you; one slice of cake proved too much for even me to handle (but that didn’t stop me from making a valiant effort.)

Maison Bertaux

28 Greek Street
Soho, London
W1D 5DD
Tel: 020 7437 6007

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Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Courvoisier Punch Bowl Experience (and what an experience it was!). But after sailing across a bowl of alcohol on a wooden orange slice, I had worked up an appetite and my friend Alice and I found ourselves in Soho, surrounded by some of London’s best restaurants, and not a clue where to eat. Half an hour of wandering later we had decided we were ravenous, desperately wanted sushi and didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg to satisfy both cravings. This seemed like an impossible challenge to overcome as we passed half a dozen overpriced sushi restaurants on the various side streets around Piccadilly Circus when we came across a little shop called Ten Ten Tei.

While the menu held fairly standard Japanese fare, what caught our eye were the preset meals, which looked fantastic and featured soup, salad, sushi, tempura, teriyaki, fried tofu and dessert. Expecting a reasonably sized sample plate of each of the offered items, we were delighted when generous plates of each were presented one after the other, with a large patter of sushi each topping off the meal.

For less than £20, we had an incredible meal. The ambiance in the restaurant itself was limited, although we were seated in the slightly cramped upper level on the ground floor alongside the sushi bar - it wasn’t until later I realised that lower level seating looked a bit nicer. Regardless of the space, however, it was a delicious meal and one I am very much looking forward to repeating.

Ten Ten Tei

56 Brewer Street,
London, W1F 9TJ
020 7287 1738

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A quick photo update and hopefully a bit more of a recap in the next few days for London Restaurant Week of which I caught the tail end this past weekend. Here’s a look at some of the delicious things I saw at open air markets around the city:

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Although I’ve never lived in New York, I often imagine there are a number of similarities between London and NYC. In particular, in a city of this size and diversity, it’s generally assumed that you can get anything – anything at all – as long as you know where to look.

I have been looking for decent Tex-Mex style food in London and I must not be looking in the right places. Wahaca, a London-based traditional Mexican style restaurant, definitely has the spices and flavours covered and is the closest I’ve tasted but in an effort to find something a bit more in line with just north-of-the-border food, I rounded up my friend Kate and new acquaintance Adam to try the overly themed Navajo Joe’s restaurant in Covent Garden.

Ostensibly a Native American themed Mexican restaurant (right, we’re already off to a good start), they suggest on their website “don’t let our name fool you. Although our history is traditionally rooted in south-western cuisine, we’ve evolved over time into offering some of the most forward thinking, refreshingly accessible food in Covent Garden.”

Unsure what that meant but in the mood for polenta, buffalo wings, quesadillas, and a hell of a lot of chipotle we took our seats in front of perhaps the most schizophrenic menu since The Cheesecake Factory opened. There were our BBQ chicken wings and nachos under the starters menu – accompanied by asparagus tempura with truffle hollandaise, seared steak teriyaki and crispy duck with hoi sin sauce. Those were some worldly Native Americans putting together this menu.

Their main plates looked equally ridiculous under the bull’s skull on the wall and southwestern themed décor. Blackened duck with bak choi, ginger salmon, char-grilled peri peri chicken… even the southwestern favourites section featured an asparagus and oyster mushroom enchilada with sugar snap peas and goat’s cheese.

While we were debating what percent of the American south west would know what an oyster mushroom was, our drinks arrived and a couple of potent margaritas later we were feeling a bit more kindly towards the menu (or at least very hungry and quite ready for something off said menu to arrive). We started with mini platters of four cheese nachos, stuffed tempura jalepenos, coxina chicken with lime dressing and plates of the BBQ chicken wings and mozzarella and sundried tomato quesadillas with pesto dressing. It was a good spread and although that sounds like quite a bit of food, portion-wise it was a good starter mix for the three of us. Surprisingly, it was the quesidillas that proved table favourite with the jalapenos coming second. The wings, sticky and sweet, still felt more like something they’d run in from Chinatown, a couple of blocks away, than the searing hot buffalo wings we were craving.

For the mains, we had all ordered the fajitas and a rather uninspiring stone plate of mostly onions and a bit of meat arrive about 30 minutes after our starters had been cleared. These guys were not scoring points for presentation with a couple of tin cups of toppings (cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa) accompanying our bare serving plates and onion-laden meals. The food was good, and chipotle heavy as desired but we were soon left with, between us, about three to four marinated onions on a plate – this is after making an effort to eat a lot of them with our meal. This is definitely not a meal for a date and frankly a pretty lousy way to make the plate look more full. We were offered a dessert menu but, in search of a real American flavour, we opted for the Ben and Jerry’s down the road.

Navajo Joe’s restaurant was a pretty depressing display of the most minimal effort in menu and maximum in cheesy decorating for an attempt at a Mexican restaurant in one of the most tourist-laden parts of London. I’m sure it does quite well. I had a fantastic night out with my friends, got a pretty tasty dinner in the process but if I ever decide that I want another Tex-Mex meal here in London, I’m just going to have to keep looking.

Navajo Joe’s
www.navajojoe.co.uk

34 King Street
London, WC2
020 72404008

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At the Top Floor Flat, we’re pretty good about cooking everything for ourselves. However there has always been a nearly irresistable temptation to visit a nearby restaurant called The Priory. The Priory has the most alluring outside tables, the most sparkling icicle fairy lights, the most tempting aromas - but only when we’re not there. In fact, the three times we’ve made a decided efforrt to go to the Priory for a meal, it was closed. It seems to be closed every Sunday, every Monday and, as we discovered last weekend, on Saturday lunches.

Having already left the flat, we decided to wander around in search of another local eatery where we could get some lunch and discuss the business model of The Priory (it would seem that more open hours would contribute to more, or at least, our, business). We were quite ready to forgive the Priory, however, when we stumbled upon Betty Blythe, a specialty food store turned cafe with the most pleasing decor imaginable (it looked a bit like a Laura Ashley store collided with a sweet sixteen birthday party).

Ann and I indulged in sandwiches, lattes and decadent carrot cake served on delicate china plates before we had to usher each other out - avoiding any misguided purchases such as dozens of cupcakes, bottles of fancy sodas or loaves of homemade bread.

Betty Blythe isn’t a full restaurant, the menu is limited and the sandwiches premade (although that works in your favour if you’re hungry).  But it’s ambiance, quality homemade food and friendly staff made it the perfect place for a mid-day bite. Take that Priory.

Betty Blythe Tea Shop

73 Blythe Road
West Kensington, London, W14 0HP
020 7602 1177

Sandwiches, coffee and cake for two >£20

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It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to indulge in some of London’s fine dining but Wednesday night saw me out on the town for dinner with a friend, the two of us eating al fresco style at Yard Restaurant and Bar in the heart of trendy London Shoreditch.

Yard is known for its famously yard-long pizzas which come in a variety of unique flavours.  The house special seems to be the crispy duck pizza with Hoi Sin sauce, cucumber, spring onion and mozzarella.  Although their specialty was tempting, I was won over by the Hot Americana and it’s promise of sliced chilies while my mealmate opted for the goats cheese.

Fortunately for our figures, the restaurant offers individual, double and four-person portion pizzas, only the largest pizza measuring the full yard in length. The personal pizzas still proved a challenge to finish despite their reasonable price tag.

Our meal at Yard was simple, fresh, tasty and cheap, the perfect pick-me-up halfway through the week.  The fact that the weather cooperated enough to allow outdoor seating on their patio (which admittedly wasn’t the most picturesque of settings, only metres away from the busy Old Street roundabout but perfectly comfortable if you’re not looking for the perfect ambiance) simply improved the evening.

Yard Restaurant and Bar

140 Tabernacle Street
Shoreditch
London, EC2A 4SD

Meal for two with drinks <£30

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