M1lk - Bobo Social - Society Club

Sunday 31st August - After many a fine brunch in the States this summer, I decided to up my game in London starting with highly-rated M1lk in Balham, located on work-in-progress Hildreth Street.

The "no reservations" queue was in full flow by the time I arrived at 11.20, but their superb Workshop coffee was available and the sun was shining - so far, so Williamsburg.  The atmosphere was buzzing, and with good reason judging by the look of the food being brought out.  Before too long we had a table for five indoors and were eyeing up the menu and the striking décor.

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3/4 pint of Lois smoothie & pot of tea

Brunch isn't a meal for messing around sharing everything on the menu.  It's about getting a massive portion of something delicious (potentially with hangover cure benefits if necessary) and keeping it all to yourself. This led to three of us ordering the same wonderfully named Convict muffin (did I mention M1lk is run by Australians?).  It was a criminally good choice - English muffin, drycure bacon, m.moens sausage, burford brown egg, poacher hash, hangover sauce - £7.90. I don't know what hangover sauce is, but I want it every Sunday.

The Convict - English muffin, drycure bacon, m.moens sausage, burford brown egg, poacher hash, hangover sauce

Non-convicts went for Billy The Kid (Red Clover Honeycomb, Goat's Cheese, Sourdough, Flowers - £6.90) and Young Betty (Poached Eggs on Woodfired Sourdough, Drycure Bacon, Burnt Butter Hollandaise, with Young Spinach & Chinese Chive - £7.80 + supplement), both of which looked smashing.  Next time...

Billy The Kid - Red Clover Honeycomb, Goat's Cheese, Sourdough, Flowers

Many treats on display at M1lk

And brunch is as simple as that. No starters. No menu explanations. No small plates. Isn't it great? I should write about it more often, it's a lot less time consuming.  M1lk stands up to the best that New York & co. have to offer, and I expect I will be back again very soon, not least because there is a brand new beer & homebrew store round the corner called We Brought Beer.

One place that might soon compete with M1lk for my affections is Fields Café, their sister joint which is currently taking shape in the building next to the skate park on Clapham Common.  Get a load of these potential dishes:

- Coal-grilled sausage bao, kewpie, pickled shallot & iceberg

- Peat-smoked mutton & beans, garden herb butter & sourdough

- Smashed peas, hay-smoked goat’s curd, garden herbs & sourdough

- Sticky rice pudding, apple, soured cream ice-cream & sake

- Banana bread, Nesquik mascarpone and salted panela

Exciting.  Keep track of their progress on Twitter.

N.B. M1lk is open 8am-5pm Monday – Saturday, and 9am-5pm Sunday - so brunch isn't limited to the weekend! No reservations.

Tuesday 2nd July - Just over the road from upmarket hot dog establishment Bubbledogs, Bobo Social is setting out to do something similar with burgers, envisaging more of a 3 course affair with patties in the middle where they belong.

Ushered downstairs, we settled in with a bottle of Buxton SPA and a Guava & Rosemary Margarita.  The cocktail list didn't excite me hugely, but good on them for keeping prices under £10 in Fitzrovia.  Black Basil Cosmopolitan and Café Old Fashioned would have come next but I moved on to beer for the remainder of the meal.  Décor is nice enough, a bit of a mishmash of hipster lighting (a bit orange for any budding Instagrammers) but a room without natural light is hard to pull off.

Impressionist Bobo Social 

First came a couple of small plates - Salt & Pepper Crispy Squid with Pickled Cucumber, Rocket, Sweet Chilli & Lime Jam (£6.50) and Sea Bass Ceviche with Pomegranate, Rocket, Chilli, Chive & Lemon Dressing (£7.50).  Salt & Pepper Squid never fails to delight, and chilli & lime jam was a clever accompaniment. The greens weren't an afterthought either  The ceviche was less impressive, lacking the acidic kick that we were craving.

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Salt & Pepper Squid with Sweet Chili & Lime Jam

On to the main event, burgers cooked in their Kopa Charcoal Oven with silver birch (they rotate which wood they use to enhance the flavour).  Felix's Peanut Butter burger (£11) made use of Dexter beef, though this is also changed regularly. 

"No, we didn't kill a cow called Dexter", replied the waiter to Felix's witty enquiry.

Dexter was swiftly devoured and given the thumbs up.  Pink, juicy, and a sensible size given the expectation for ordering more courses.  The B branded buns are a nice touch.

6oz rare-breed beef, peanut butter, Monterey Jack, and maple drizzled cured bacon served in a buttermilk bun with lettuce, tomatoes, charcoal roasted onions and Bobo sauce

I knew what I was ordering before I walked through the door. Debauchery.

£20 worth of Wagyu beef, Ogleshield cheese, confit shitaki mushrooms, bacon mayo, truffle & onion compote, shaved truffles, described by Fay Maschler as "sort of a breakthrough burger".

I enjoyed it thoroughly but most of London's best burgers can be bought for under £10 and this wasn't in a world of its own.  Wagyu beef is a treat worth paying for every now and then though, and who doesn't love bacon mayo? Quiet veggies.

Wagyu beef, Ogleshield cheese, confit shitaki mushrooms, bacon mayo, truffle & onion compote, shaved truffles

Sides of Sweet Potato Chips with Truffle Salt and Apple Slaw with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds hit the spot. Skin-on, Beef Dripping Chips and Deep Fried Pickles with Spicy Buttermilk Dip wait in the wings for next time.

Sweet Potato Chips with Truffle Salt

We finished with two small but rich dessert pots, fresh from the fridge rather than the kitchen.  Dark & Milk Chocolate Mousse with Salted Caramel was the better of the two, though a lot denser than we imagined (I've been waiting to use "over-egged the pudding" but I don't really know what I'm talking about).  White Chocolate Cheesecake with Lemon & Ginger was fine but uninspiring.  A bit more innovation or presentation might be needed for the desserts to leave an impression.

Dark & Milk Chocolate Mousse with Salted Caramel

I do like the sound of their Experimental Burger Society nights, held every Monday.  It's £25 per person to create a brand new burger with the Head Chef, making use of Alligator, Ostrich, Kangaroo and Venison if you so wish.  The best burger goes on the menu for the week.  The price also includes a welcome drink, and you get to eat your creation of course.

Felix and I both agreed, there was plenty of enjoyable food, served with a smile, but the burger section leaves the rest of the menu without a real focus, leaving you with a quite random selection of dishes to choose from.  The prices are reasonable and the Debauchery burger is bound to be talked about, but in my opinion, Bobo Social needs something else to tie it all together, and perhaps a stronger drink offering too.



We left very full and in need of a good walk, marching off in the direction of Soho with no real destination in mind.  We walked past Soho Grind (on my to-do list), but it's currently only open late on Fridays and Saturdays.  Look out for Holborn Grind opening soon too.  Instead we wandered down to the other end of Beak Street to find The Society Club.

The Society Club was recommended to me some time ago by a reliable source as one of Soho's best kept secrets.  It's a tiny independent bookstore, gallery & café by day, and relaxed cocktail bar and Soho refuge by night, with regular book launches, poetry readings (not poker evenings as I first heard), talks and workshops.  By the looks of the piano and guitar (extra points instantly) there is live music occasionally too. It's also very much dog friendly.

However, I should have gone a lot sooner as I fear it is just about to switch to a members only system in the evenings which would be a shame.  Annual membership is £175 (effectively a pledge to buy books) which will grant you access to their Bohemian sitting room bar after 6pm.  

We stuck to two classics, a Negroni and an Old Fashioned, both well executed, and soaked up the atmosphere as regulars wandered in and out, always warmly greeted.  It captures that drinks after a dinner party vibe perfectly, with jazz playing softly in the background and classy characters chatting away in cosy corners.  If  The Nudge / Barchick decided to send out an email alerting everyone to a bookstore / gallery / café / cocktail bar in  the heart of Soho, the place would be awash with hipsters in no time.  Maybe it's for the best that it doesn't remain open to everyone.  Does anybody want to lend me £175?

Negroni & Old Fashioned at Society Club

Shake Shack - Five Guys - MEATmarket

Just as the Shake Shack & Five Guys burgerbuzz was starting to die down, some numpty wrote an article in The Sunday Times on 2013 food trends, thanking the two American chains for bringing great burgers to London.  I never got round to writing up my trips as I was pretty underwhelmed, but now seems the right time to put it up.

One can only assume this "expert" was living under a rock for most of the year, and somehow failed to notice the pre-existing London front-runners (Patty&Bun, BBQ Whiskey Beer, MEATliquor, Tommi's Burger Joint, Dirty Burger, Honest Burgers, BOOM Burger, Disco Bistro and more).  I appreciate that the average person may not have heard of many of them, but the average person isn't writing a foodie article for a national newspaper.  Surely Byron (who continue to do great things) and GBK deserve most of the credit for pushing burgers forward here a few years ago?  It was a lazy, ill-informed piece of journalism that hopefully won't influence too many Londoners looking to get on board the burger train in 2014. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

Wednesday 17th July -  Back in July, Team List needed to see what all the fuss was about, though not at the expense of 90 minutes of my life on the opening weekend when Murray was powering through his Wimbledon semi-final.  We went along a week or two later, and bravely decided to go to both burger joints in the same lunch time.

Photo from Barchick

First up was Shake Shack in Covent Garden Piazza.  Will and I were ushered into the fast moving queue and given some menus to peruse.  We discussed our eating tactic for the day ahead, and were joined by Taro just as we made it to the front (15 minutes queue at lunch time).  Shake Shack is a well oiled machine, and we were soon handed our food collection buzzers before going off in search of a table.

The collection system works fine until you order alcohol, which they have to serve to the table themselves.  I therefore had a fairly awkward walk to my seat carrying my burger on a tray whilst a waitress brought my pint of Shackmeister Ale, a tasty draught lager brewed for them by Brooklyn Brewery.  There are other interesting bottled beer options too.

The SmokeShack burger (cheese & bacon) was pretty tasty and disappeared within a few seconds. The meat was nicely cooked, the buns were pleasingly squishy and the mysterious ShackSauce held its own. The simpler Shackburger (cheeseburger) also got a thumbs up.  The Shack Stack sounds interesting with both a cheeseburger and a crisp-fried portobello mushroom stuffed with cheese inside. The burgers are fairly good value (£4.75-£9) though they are on the small side.  They also have a range of hot dogs, all under £5.  The crinkle cut fries are disappointing, but don't spoil the meal.

On the dessert front Shake Shack put in more effort than most, serving up a wide range of ice creams ("Frozen Custard") in milkshake and "concrete" formats with some tempting varieties such as the Union Jack - chocolate custard, St.John Bakery chocolate brownie, fudge sauce, Paul.A.Young chocolate chunks and sea salt.  We happily shared a large double (£6.50) between three.  Bizarrely, they also sell dog treats!

Shake Shack Concrete

We moved swiftly on to Five Guys, just round the corner near Leicester Square tube, where we were joined by a hungry Rosie who was sad to miss the first round.  They clearly have their eyes on world domination and have already planned to open a load more stores in the UK next year.  A second branch opened recently in Islington.

Their calling card is free toppings.  Once you have decided between regular, cheese, cheese and bacon etc, the rest (pickles, mushrooms, onions, peppers etc) is on the house.  Naturally, we ordered everything.

Sadly, it was hugely disappointing.  The bun was dry and overly crunchy, the meat was overcooked, and the toppings were average at best.  I can't for the life of me understand what all the fuss is about, there is nothing special going on here at all.  I'd like to see their burgers chucked into some blind taste testing against British fast food chains.  They certainly shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Patty & Bun or even Shake Shack.

There are a few positives.  The chips are great, they have Brewdog beers, and there's also a fun soda machine, but they don't begin to make up for an average burger.

Why not instead go just round the corner to MEATmarket in Covent Garden?  Despite being the least impressive of this forward thinking British chain's sites (MEATliquor and MEATmission are both great fun), MEATmarket is still far more stylish than Shake Shack and Five Guys, and their signature burger, Dead Hippie, wipes the floor with them.

Overall then, we enjoyed our time at Shake Shack, and it probably gets both overhyped and overcriticised - it's fine.  Five Guys on the other hand is just not very good - save your money, and go to one of the many fantastic alternatives listed at the top of this post.

One of my favourite burgers in 2013 was from Jamaican-inspired Boom Burger who are finally getting a permanent restaurant on Portobello Road early in 2014.  Not only are their burgers awesome, they also serve up delicious chicken wings with spicy jerk mayo, and incredibly moreish plantain fries. 

What was your favourite burger of 2013?

Grillshack - Lab Bar - Dirty Burger - Dip & Flip

Wednesday 4th September - Team List popped along to the public opening of Grillshack, a new "all day grill" with a quirky technological edge.  As well as ordering at the counter, you can place your orders using touchscreens around the room, or by using an app on a smartphone.  I was sent some attractive Grillshack Coins in the post in advance, worth a free drink or dessert, so I downloaded the app and turned up with Taro and List Leader Natalie for some cheap eats.

As there were three of us, we decided to try out all three ordering methods.  Taro went up to the counter to order a pitcher of Grillshack Craft Lager (made by Brewers & Union) which unsurprisingly arrived no problem.  We were very impressed with this refreshing beer, though it is pretty expensive at £11 for a 2 pint jug compared to everything else on the menu.  The wine is particularly cheap at £3.25 for a 175ml glass. You can also have one free refill at the Soda Fountain for £1.95.  Let me know if you try the Green Juice -made with spinach, avocado, watercress, celery, cucumber and apple.

Natalie went for the touchscreen approach, and was rewarded a few minutes later when her food arrived impressively quickly.  That just left me, struggling away with the app on my Android phone.  A manager was very quick to notice my hungry expression, and came over to talk through the app teething problems.  I first needed to download an update for the app (which had appeared after I entered the restaurant!), before also joining the Grillshack Wi-Fi network to guarantee a good connection to the tills.  She demonstrated how simple it was after that by generously ordering us some sides on the house.  I put in my Bacon Cheeseburger order (only £6.45) and had finished it 10 minutes later!  The burgers and Taro's Halloumi Salad went down extremely well.  Next time, I might have to go for the £9.95 Rump Steak and Shoestring Fries - bargain! The Grilled Corn side with Chipotle Butter and Cheese also sounds tasty.

The app allows you to do a couple of fun things.  You can order a drink (or food!) over to another table if you want to get someone's attention! Also, you can order ahead if you are on your way and you know which table your friends are sitting at.  They have an online waiting list which will text you when a table is ready, so that you can stay in the pub as long as possible before heading over!  They also do takeout, although I'm not sure if you can currently order through the app for this, perhaps because they aren't quite sure how they would deal if loads of orders came in at once whilst the diner itself was busy.  

We moved on to dessert, which were all free thanks to our Grillshack coins.  Taro and I went for a delicious Triple Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich, whilst Natalie had the Carrot and Walnut Layer Cake.  The Ice Cream Sandwich was mysteriously presented in a bag, perhaps because of how it is stored in the freezer, or so that you can take it home with you. Who knows?  Anyway, we had a great time at Grillshack and the staff were all extremely helpful.  If I find myself in Soho at 8.00 am on a weekday, I might pop in to sample their enticing breakfast menu which includes Buttermilk Apple Pancakes and Cinnamon French Toast amongst other delights.  It is served from 8-11.30 Mon-Sat, and 10-11.30 on Sundays. 

Taro understood what I meant when I asked him to look more Japanese

The Grillshack team of Mark Askew, Hannah Bass and Richard Caring have already planned their next venture, Jackson & Rye.  It will open in December on Wardour Street, and will have the same all day diner style, with an East Coast slant.

We decided to squeeze in a drink at LAB Bar before heading our separate ways.  Pre 1999, LAB Bar was just LAB - the London Academy of Bartenders.  They continue to develop and showcase talented bartenders, testing their skills with a massive cocktail menu full of LAB Bar originals.

I am normally put off by such a large menu, but every drink had lots care put into it.  The garnishes were eye catching and the cocktails were spot on.  We were incredibly well looked after - there was a tiny mixup whereby I was brought the wrong drink.  The names of the two were pretty similar so it was an easy mistake to make, and I wasn't bothered, but they instantly took my drink off the bill!  We also joked with our waitress about how one of our orange peel garnishes looked slightly like a squid.  A few minutes later she returned with a new sea creature garnish that one of the bartenders had made for us!  All this place is missing is a proper happy hour (unless there is one I don't know about?) to help you get through more of the drinks. Most of them are around £8 which is reasonable, but when there are so many on offer it would really help if you could get two every time!  Points go to Taro and Natalie for Grillshack and LAB Bar adventures.

Wednesday 11th September - Dirty Burger was on my to do list for a long time.  I kept hearing wonderful things, but Kentish Town is pretty far away, so I was delighted when they announced that they were opening their second site in Vauxhall, where I work.  Hopefully, this will mark the start of a Vauxhall food & drink revolution, if anyone can find any good spaces to set up shop.  There are a few fun places around already (Bonnington Café, Estrela Bar, Brunswick House Café) but everything is randomly dotted around.

Dirty Burger is more of a fast food joint than a restaurant, and wouldn't look out of place in a scrap yard.  I mean this in the nicest way possible, as the tiny shack is made of random pieces of metal, some with locks and bolts still attached.  Your main choice has already been made - you are having a cheeseburger (£5.50). Then you can choose onion fries or crinkle cut chips (or both, each is £3), and pick a soft drink, milkshake or even a Brewdog beer.  If you want Sausage & Egg, or Bacon & Egg (with bottomless tea/coffee) then go along for breakfast before 11am - it opens as early as 7am on weekdays.

So it all sounds pretty simple, and it is.  What matters is that everything tastes fantastic.  The cheeseburger is streets ahead of your regular fast food fare (including the over hyped Shake Shack and Five Guys in my opinion) and good value.  The onion fries are the pick of the two sides but you won't be disappointed either way.  Cheap, quick and reliable - it is the perfect pit stop before braving the tube or the train after work, or after a night out. It is open til 2am on Fridays and Saturdays which should draw an interesting crowd in Vauxhall!  Thanks to locals Mary & Joe for having everything on the menu with me.

Saturday 14th September - One more place with burgers (I know, Mum) to mention.  Dip & Flip has recently opened on Battersea Rise near Clapham Junction.  If you don't like gravy, this is not the place for you. Nearly everything on the menu either comes soaked in gravy, or has a pot on the side for dipping. Never has a place been more suited to List Leader Natalie, who hails from the Yorkshire "Moo-ers" and is constantly bemoaning the lack of gravy based food in London.

We went for a Lamb Sub (with gravy soaked meat and mint sauce) and the Dip and Flip Burger, a cheeseburger with extra slices of roast beef that have already been dipped in gravy.  Both of these also come with a pot of extra gravy on the side.  We also ordered some Poutine which hails from Quebec - chips topped with gravy and cheese curds.  In Canada, you would find it on a regular McDonalds / Burger King menu.  It is a fairly messy meal as you might expect.  The Dip & Flip Burger is almost impossible to dip, but it doesn't need it anyway - the beef and the patty are both high quality, and it is pretty soggy already!  The Lamb Sub was a better shape for dipping, and was delicious.  The lovely mint sauce came through despite lashings of gravy.  The poutine was also a great success, and didn't last long at all.  The chips were seasoned with chicken salt, which was noticeable but not overpowering. 

On the drinks front, we both went for the Sambrooke's Pale Ale (who are just up the road, and opening their Brewery tap this Friday - 4th October).  It is a rare, carbonated version of the Pumphouse Pale Ale which you can only get in a few places around London at the moment - well worth looking out for.  It was a perfect match for our food.  There were a couple of bottled beer options, including Samuel Adams, but they are intending to get some more interesting ones in soon.

Dessert is supplied by local pudding expert, Laura Amos, who runs The Dessert Deli.  Her Mini Dessert Shots were on offer, as well as a Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart.  We went for the Banoffee Cheesecake and Honeycomb Chocolate Mousse shots, which came with teeny little spoons which we were very taken with. They are obviously quite small, and not especially cheap, but they are excellent.  After a load of fast food covered in gravy, I wouldn't normally go for a sweet course, so they have made a smart choice bringing in these quirky little desserts with the added bonus of supporting a small Battersea business at the same time. Look out for Laura's Dessert Deli stall on Northcote Road on Saturdays.

 

We were in constant contact with the manager who was very friendly and chatty.  His hope is to get a local, hungry crowd in regularly, but never just for drinks.  It will serve food right up to midnight Thursday-Saturday to pick up punters from the many bars on Battersea Rise and Northcote Road.  I will no doubt find myself there again soon, and I am sure that it will be a lot busier when I return!