Barnyard - When Mac Met Cheese - Gin Sin

Tuesday March 25th - Is anyone else disappointed that Ollie Dabbous didn't choose the United Arab Emirates for his second site and call it Abu Dabbous? No? Just me then.

Instead, Ollie has followed up his Michelin-starred restaurant on Whitfield Street with Barnyard, a totally different kettle of fish (or barn of meat?) on Charlotte Street round the corner.  He's not cooking there himself, but he's heavily involved as is master mixologist Oskar Kinberg who run's Oskar's Bar beneath Dabbous.  

You supposedly can't get a table for months at Dabbous, but Barnyard has a no reservations policy, so I went along when it opened at midday for lunch with my Dad (who wrote about Dabbous on The List a while ago).  There was no queue, though I don't expect it to be this way for long.  Hopefully everyone will continue to be distracted by Bubbledogs round the corner.  

The décor at Barnyard is fun - white picket fences, indoor trees, oil drum chairs and more kept my eyes wandering throughout the meal.

I'll start with the booze, because that's exactly what I did when I went.  Alongside some interesting bottled beers (available as boilermakers), there are tasty shakes (£4 straight or £6 with bourbon/rum) and bargain £6 "shandies" (cocktails with beer/cider in).  It was a tough choice on the shakes front with the likes of Tahitian Vanilla, Popcorn & Blueberry Pancake on the menu, but I took the bartender's advice and happily ended up with a delicious Malt Shake, cutely served in a milk bottle.

The shandies list is also impressive, with the likes of Barnyard Iced Tea (English Tea, Pink Grapefruit, Lemon, Agave, Scotch Whisky, Mica Beer) and Dandy Shandy (Almond, Cinnamon, Orange, Lemon, Mandarin Liqueur, Wyld Wood Cyder).  At £6 each, it won't bankrupt you to work your way through all of them in an evening.  Apparently, Oskar likes to head off in to the forests of Sweden to drink beers with mates and invent these turbo-charged shandies.

The low prices continue on the food menu.  The superb Cripsy Chicken Wings with Smoked Paprika, Garlic & Lemon for £4 and Broken Eggs with Mushrooms, Garlic & Parsley for £6 are just two of the many bargains to be had. We also enjoyed Barbecued Grain-fed Short Rib with Homemade Dill Pickle, Mustard & Black Treacle and Roast Beef on Toast with Watercress Salad and Warm Horseradish Buttermilk (though we personally would have liked a bigger horseradish kick), but the standout for me was the Bubble & Squeak with Black Pudding, Apple Chutney & a Fried Egg.  Make sure that you get a bag of Warm Cornbread for the table too.

Crispy Chicken Wings with Smoked Paprika, and Bubble & Squeak in the background

Barbecued Grain-fed Short Rib with a bag of Warm Cornbread on the side

Roast beef on toast, watercress salad, warm horseradish buttermilk

Rooting around for the last few pieces of cornbread

Four equally tempting £4 desserts round off the menu, and we opted for Apple & Cloudberry Crumble with Clotted Cream and Popcorn Ice Cream with Smoked Fudge Sauce.  The crumble was enjoyable, although my Mum's version still holds the crown and the cloudberry wasn't very noticeable.  The smoked fudge sauce on the popcorn ice cream was pretty special - I can imagine it will catch a few people off guard whose eyes lock straight on to the word fudge and nothing else.  Next time I'm in, I'll have to go for Lemon posset with marjoram and Warm Acorn Flour Waffle with Chocolate & Malt.

Lovely cooking, friendly staff, great drinks, funky design and ridiculously good value - I'll be back at Barnyard soon.

Saturday 22nd March - Most Saturdays I trek to the far East to tick off a few things that have been building up on my list, but for once a pop up decided to turn up somewhere slightly more convenient.  When Mac Met Cheese (aka Sammy Shon, one of my favourite street food vendors) has temporarily set up shop in between Bayswater & Royal Oak, and helpfully opened up for the first time on the same day that I was working only a few roads away.

He has only got the place for 3 months (before hopefully moving more central), but hasn't held back on design with some very cool art from Benjamin Murphy adorning the walls, and massive film set lights propped up in the corners.

The menu is simple and short, a perfect excuse to eat everything.  We started with some oh-so-healthy Macancinis, glorious deep fried mac and cheese balls with a spicy jalapeno kick to them.  You will want at least two each.

Next up, choose your Mac&Cheese (currently three options though I expect some more will be added) and add a topping of bacon lardons or mini pork & veal meatballs if you so wish.  Did I mention that all of this is being cooked up by the ex-sous chef from The Ivy? Slight overkill perhaps, but I'm happy to take my Mac&Cheese seriously.  Did anyone notice when we stopped saying Macaroni Cheese by the way? I'm frequently getting into arguments about this, which says a lot about my life as a food & drink blogger. 

Anyway, I digress.  Mum's Classic was pretty darn good, and the Cheesy Green Afro with vintage stilton, mozzarella & broccoli was a hit, but the winner for me was Carlos the Cactus (who turned up in the Macancinis) with cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes and rocket. Awesome.  We washed all of these down with some reliable Kernel beers as it seemed a bit early for cocktails, though a Cucumber & Mint Martini probably would have slipped down.

So far, so good. But wait, what's that at the bottom of the menu?

DEEP FRIED OREOS.

They were everything I had hoped. Gooey, sugary, delicious and just 2 (hundred) calories! 4 for £3 is also great value, as is everything else at When Mac Met Cheese.

Sammy mentioned that more things may be turning up on the menu soon, but the 3 month clock is already ticking so get over there soon before it's too late!  Please note that opening times are quite specific - it is shut Mon & Tue, and open Wed-Thu 6.30pm-10pm, Fri 6.30pm-12am, Sat 12pm-12am & Sun 12pm-5pm.

And now for something completely different. On Sunday 16th March, at Megaro Bar in King's Cross, Maverick Drinks assembled 5 of London's best bartenders for a cocktail competition involving barrel-aged gin, and they called it Gin Sin & 5 Soaking Barrels.

Each bartender was given a different bottle in advance to come up with something special.  Here's the line-up:

Matt Whiley, Talented Mr. Fox - Professor Cornelius Ampleforth Cask Aged Bathtub Gin

Nico Piazza, Megaro Bar - New York Distilling Chief Gowanus New-Netherland Gin

Jim Wrigley, Made in the Shade - Few Barrel Aged Gin

Matt Fairhurst, Callooh Callay - Smooth Ambler Stillhouse Collection Barrel Aged Gin

Gareth Evans, Blind Pig - Filliers Barrel Aged Dry Gin 28

I've written out the cocktail ingredients & measurements at the end, thanks to Difford's Guide and Master of Malt for the details!

Matt Whiley kicked off proceedings with his bonkers Bublé Bath - Cask Aged Bathtub Gin and Sweet Vermouth (made with a Horlicks & dark chocolate distillate), with a Marshmallow & Chamomile bubble bath & candles on the side. Then he whipped out a full sized Michael Bublé cardboard cut out (which was a big hit with the judges) and pumped Feeling Good out of the speakers.  We were off to a good start.

Matt Whiley's Bublé Bath

Bublé with the "judges"

Next up was Megaro's own Nico Piazza who mixed Stout Bitters, Benedictine & Contratto Vermouth Rosso with his NY Distilling Chief Gowanus New-Netherland Gin to create his tasty cocktail, A Cluster of Hops, Hopped in the Glass.

Then there was Jim Wrigley.  I met Jim a couple of weeks before at the launch of his new bar, Made in the Shade, and it was apparent then that he was entertaining, but I didn't expect the nutty theatrics of his "Nuclear Few-Gin" presentation.  

After emerging in a fez and rambling about time travel and Quantum Mixology, he added some live soul guitar from Made in the Shade colleague Jezza Thompson as he poured from his barrel of Few Barrel-Aged Gin, Ginger Liqueur, grapefruit juice, lemon juice & bergamot syrup into some funky boxes.  He also sprayed some cinchona bark / quinine tincture if I remember rightly, and most importantly zapped them all with his "sonic screwdriver" to create Schrödinger's Punch.  A hard act to follow.

Nuclear Advanced Flux Fewsion & Jezza on guitar in the background

Nuclear Few-Gin

Precarious pouring

Matt Fairhurst sensibly decided that trash-talking Jim Wrigley was the way to go to win some fans in the rowdy judges section.  That and some fireworks of course.  I'm amazed Bublé survived the experience.

Matt added Campari, Fino Sherry and Baked Orange & Beetroot Shrub to his Smooth Ambler Barrel Aged Gin, and also paired his Mack Daddy Beets concoction with some beetroot, orange & mackerel paté. And fireworks.

Beetroot, orange & mackerel paté next to indoor fireworks

Bublé feeling the heat - has he been gagged?

The traditional fire pour method

Last but not least was Gareth Evans who decided to go down the Belgian route having been given Fillier's Barrel Aged Gin.  This meant showing numerous pictures of Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits, before pouring in some mysterious JCVD Power Elixir ("Stella-aged" chartreuse), Power Protein (egg), brussels sprout syrup, and some lemon juice (never forget the lemon juice).  The "Muscles from Brussels" was garnished with a picture of JCVD kicking the Eiffel Tower in the face.

Photos of the versatile JCVD doing the splits in various places

Geoff from Maverick Spirits wondering what he had unleashed

JCVD Power Elixir - Stella aged chartreuse

After all that nonsense, the judges quickly and simply voted for their favourite, and comedian Jim Wrigley walked away with the big prize - the opportunity to create his own barrel-aged gin with his name and face (and fez?) on with Maverick Spirits.

Maverick are ones to watch at the moment, bringing some of the finest small batch craft spirits to the UK.  It is pretty impressive that they already have 6 barrel-aged gins in the portfolio, alongside a whole host of other wonderful spirits including several brands that weren't on show at Gin Sin.  Big thanks to Geoff & co at Maverick, and Ben & Nico at Megaro for hosting such a ridiculous event on a Sunday night.

The facts:

Matt Whiley - Bublé Bath

35ml Bathtub Gin 

35ml Sweet Vermouth - Cocchi do Torino with a Horlicks and dark chocolate distillate.

Nico Piazza - A Cluster of Hops, Hopped in the Glass

25 ml Chief Gowanus 

25 ml Contratto Rosso Vermouth 

15 ml Benedictine 

4 dashes stout bitter.

Jim Wrigley - Schrödinger's Punch

50ml Few Barrel Aged gin 

12.5ml Domaine de Canton Ginger liqueur 

37.5ml Fresh grapefruit juice 

12.5ml Fresh lemon juice 

10ml Bergamot syrup

Matt Fairhurst - Mack Daddy Beets

50ml Smooth Amber Barrel Aged gin 

15ml Fino sherry

15ml Baked orange and beetroot shrub 

5ml Campari

Gareth Evans - Muscles from Brussels

40ml Filliers Dry Barrel Aged gin 

10ml Jean-Claude Van Damme power elixir

10ml Brussels sprout syrup 

20ml squeezed lemon juice 

15ml Power protein (egg)

Drake's - Hand and Flowers

List Dad Guest Post – For the third of these very occasional blogs, I am following the example of Giles Coren and taking a look at two of the best restaurants I have visited outside London. As readers may know, Coren’s crime in the eyes of others was to publish a list of his 50 favourite restaurants, 35 of which happened to be in London. Giles not unreasonably pointed out that he was a Londoner and therefore tended to eat in London.

He went on to say that the most recent statistics suggest that more than 80 per cent of all new restaurants that open in the UK open in London, and that it is reported that 92% of the total national restaurant spend is in the capital. So, by rights there should be no more than six or seven restaurants from outside London on his list, whereas there are in fact 15. Twice as many as there ought to be. His list is ludicrously skewed away from London and towards the provinces, giving the non-London restaurant scene fully twice the coverage it merits on the basis of performance, at the expense of a thriving capital that has been woefully underrepresented with only 35 of the 50 places, a meagre 70%.

Another matter for debate was raised recently by the Sunday Times who announced the death of fine dining (pronounced as fayn daynin). According to Joe Warwick, the editor of Where Chefs Eat, Chefs hate the words ‘fine dining’. It sounds like something from the 1950s. When chefs eat out, they want fun and informality. Apart from observing that Joe surely can’t have been around in the 1950s and that I’m definitely not a chef (ask Matt), I’m certainly all for informality. As for fun, the main requirement for me is that the food is packed with interesting flavour combinations, and that the puddings are spectacular!

Cheese and pineapple on a stick anyone? - 1970s dining

Drake's restaurant is in Ripley, Surrey – not far from the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley. Like Dabbous it has one Michelin star, but the similarities don’t end there. Steve Drake, as with Ollie Dabbous, uses fresh ingredients, cooked to perfection. I have lunched there three times and, apart from some of the amuse-bouches, the menu has been completely different each time.

Steve Drake

The most recent visit started with an ‘extra’ – sweetcorn cream with grated mushroom and charcoal oil. The starter was roast scallop with truffled pearl barley, sorrel and apple. I am a huge fan of scallops and nearly always choose them when they are on a menu. These were probably the best I have tasted.

The main course was equally stunning. Poached and roasted guinea fowl with buckwheat and onion, runner beans and mustard frills.

There followed a huge plate of delicious and interesting British artisan cheeses to share between the five of us. And, yes – the dessert was spectacular. Raspberries and peach, with passion fruit sorbet, lemon verbena and cardamom ice cream. All this, plus more amuse-bouches, some in the form of ice lollies.

The Hand & Flowers at Marlow, Buckinghamshire has had greater national coverage than Drake’s, not least because it was voted No.1 UK restaurant in the 2013 National Restaurant Awards (for the record, Dabbous was number 11, Drake’s was 81 and Kitchen Table didn’t figure, possibly because it is so small). It also boasts a ‘celebrity’ chef in Tom Kerridge, plus one more Michelin star than Dabbous or Drake’s. It is a greater distance from London than Drake’s but is within easy reach for lunch. It doesn’t offer a tasting menu, so my regular dining friend Chris and I opted for the A la Carte rather than the set lunch menu since the latter consists of two or three courses with no alternative dishes.

Tom Kerridge

The ambience is that of a country pub so this would probably not be considered 1950s style fine dining, but the cooking plus the ingenuity of its menu have rightly won it much praise. I didn’t feel it was as outstanding as Drake’s, though Chris (older but not necessarily wiser than me) strongly disagreed. We did agree on the excellence of the pudding, however, which was a sweet malted gateau with malted ice cream, a yeast tuile (certainly a ‘first’) and a brandy snap filled with crème fraîche. We debated having seconds or trying the chocolate and ale cake with salted caramel and muscovado ice cream – we have previous on this, including at the quaintly named Ametsa with Arzak Instruction at the Halkin Hotel in Belgravia where we couldn’t resist a second helping of their amazing piquillo pepper ice cream. On this occasion, we felt we needed to hit the road back to London.

Back at the Hand & Flowers, we both had the starter of crispy pig’s head with rhubarb, pancetta and chickweed. The rhubarb had an intense flavour which blended wonderfully well with the other ingredients. The pig’s head was presented looking rather like a fat fish finger, so it was with some relief that I cut into it and found that the resemblance stopped at that point.

Chris had three starters instead of a main course, and pronounced the blowtorched Scottish scallop with beef and mead bouillon (broth), trompettes, nasturtium and apple as the best he had tasted – I may never know whether it was better than the scallop at Drake’s. His third choice was the ‘interesting’ potato “risotto” with baked potato stock, artichoke, pickled girolles and puntarella (chicory).

My main course was Tom Kerridge’s signature dish (winner of the main course on the BBC’s Great British Menu series of 2010) – slow cooked duck breast with savoury cabbage, duck fat chips and gravy. It was beautifully tender and fully lived up to its billing.

For outstanding cooking, Steve Drake and Tom Kerridge’s establishments are two out of town restaurants worthy of very serious consideration.

Two points in passing. I haven’t quoted prices in these articles as they can change – please check the restaurant websites via the links provided. Second, I’m not qualified to comment on wines as I am virtually teetotal. One criticism I have is that very few top restaurants provide a list of imaginative non-alcoholic drinks. Many times have I watched a waiter filling a wine glass with cranberry juice from a carton!

More List Dad Guest Posts: Dabbous - Kitchen Table