Pescatori - WC Wine & Charcuterie - Drakes Tabanco

Following on from my June catchup post, here is a round-up of some great outings from the beginning of July, before America, Canada and Scotland got in the way.

Thursday 10th July - First up, a lovely lunch at Pescatori, a classy Italian seafood restaurant which holds court in both Fitzrovia and Mayfair.  Mary and I popped in to the Charlotte Street branch to fill up on fish.

Slightly better weather would have allowed us to sit outside on their attractive new terrace space (which even has its own menu Mon-Fri 3.00-5.30pm), but the restaurant is no less impressive.  It's a much larger site than I first realised, and several local suits in the know were already halfway through their mains when we sat down.

The A La Carte menu is fairly extensive which must keep the chefs on their toes.  We started with a very fresh & generous portion of Bruschetta di granchio (handpicked Dorset crab, with avocado on toasted bread - £10.50) along with a classic plate of Prosciutto with parmesan shavings (£9.95) - can't go wrong.

Bruschetta di granchio - fresh handpicked Dorset crab with avocado

Freshly sliced Parma ham with parmesan shavings

We tested the chefs (and waiting staff) a little more with our mains, opting for Spaghettini all'aragosta, their signature pasta dish with native lobster, San Marzano tomatoes, garlic & chilli, and a special salt baked seabass with samphire, which was skilfully prepared in record time at the table.

The spaghetti (£22.50) was large enough for two, and a delight to eat.  Simple flavours, done very well. Meanwhile, the seabass was a beautifully cooked, melt in your mouth fish feast.  Our planned three courses was starting to look a little unnecessary.

Spaghettini all'aragosta - Native lobster, San Marzano tomatoes, garlic & chilli

Salt baked seabass with samphire

The epic proportions of the excellent main dishes nearly defeated us, but we roused ourselves to share a dessert. It didn't let us down.

Gnocchi di latte - sweet baked dumplings with glazed dark rum.  I'm a big fan of almost every word in that description.  

It was possibly the best pudding I've had all year, and I've had my fair share.  Easy on the eye, not so on the arteries, it easily stretched to two people and was a steal at £6.50.  

Gnocchi di latte - sweet baked dumplings with dark glazed rum

A fantastic way to round off a luxury lunch.  Prices are fairly steep, though not for the area, and as I mentioned above, one massive main course would definitely do you for the day, though don't you dare leave without eating some of those dumplings first. 

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Later that day, I was out and about again, this time for the launch of WC Wine & Charcuterie.  You've guessed it, it's a wine and charcuterie bar inside a refurbished 100 year old public toilet, right next to Clapham Common tube station.  I like to think that they went through a few options in the pub first before deciding what to specialise in - "Wedding Cakes? Walkers Crisps? Wychwood Cider? Wensleydale Cheese? I've got it, WINE AND CHARCUTERIE"

WC follows The Attendant and Bermondsey Arts Club down the London bog route, though planning apparently started a few years ago and just took a long time to sort out.  It was worth the wait as they have totally transformed the space into a beautiful, cosy wine bar, extending old cubicle walls & doors to create booths, and using old wine crates in a variety of ways.  There is also a rather pleasant garden up at street level, enclosed by white picket fences

They apparently unearthed a number of gems when they were refurbishing, including some rather raunchy letters that are on show for all to see in the men's bathroom (which uses original urinals). You can also find some entertaining old school graffiti scratched in to the wooden booths if you explore closely with a light on your phone.

I guess I should talk about Wine & Charcuterie now?  Well, the thing is, I'm no wine expert, and we were drinking bubbles when we went, but I have no doubt that they have a very strong wine list.  More my scene is the Brixton beer on tap.  

As for food, you have several options.  

Small plates including - Chadwick’s Black pudding Scotch egg & pickles £4, Iberico Leg w/ gherkins  - £8, and a special - Foie gras parfait for 2 with Pedro Ximinez jelly, cornichons bread - £10.

Charcuterie board at £15 - Coppa, Hungarian paprika & chilli, WC Ham hock terrine, Wild Boar Salami, Bresaola, Smoked duck breast (£2 supplement)

Cheese board at £15 - Brie de Meaux (cow, France), Cantal, (cow, France), Drunken Burt, (cow, Cheshire), Golden Cross, (goat, Sussex), Fourme d’Ambert, (cow, France)

Superior Cheese & Charcuterie at £25 - Smoked duck breast, Jesus De Lyon, Truffle Salami, Pork Rillette, Brie De Meaux with wild honey, Fourme d’Ambert, Piccalilli, Mixed Olives, Sourdough & oils

There's also a mezze platter, a ploughman's board, oysters and salads - plenty to keep you happy.

All in all, we were very impressed, though a return visit is required to fully explore the food and drink.  WC is not a gimmicky bar in a toilet It's an atmospheric, classy wine bar, perfect for dates, or pre dinner / cinema drinks, and a great addition to Clapham Common.  

Friday 11th July - I'll quickly mention another pleasant meal in Fitzrovia, even though I wasn't really on blogger duty (friend's birthday meal, no camera at the ready).  Drakes Tabanco is a charming little sherry & tapas joint, "named after Sir Francis Drake, who accidentally kick-started Britain’s sherry industry after returning from his raid on Cadiz with 3000 butts of sherry contraband."

Shamelessly lifting more directly from their excellent website:

"Unfortunately the Brits were never fully exposed to the real stuff, hidden away for years in the great cellars of Jerez. Think dry, long-aged and full-bodied, like many fine wines, served chilled in a wine glass. The real gems are carefully nurtured over many years and released without being processed (en rama), meaning they retain their fullest character. It’s with these treasures that Drakes Tabanco hopes to excite a new generation – but this time without the cannons!

Tabancos are unique because they serve straight from the barrel, and for good reason – it tastes better. Drakes Tabanco is no exception, housing some of the finest wines Jerez has to offer.

They’re terrific on their own of course, but are simply mind-blowing when partnered with the right food. So with this in mind, we’ve created an Andalucian-inspired menu to bring out the best in both. But don’t be surprised to see a few wildcards thrown in from time to time, such as goose rillettes paired with a chilled glass of fino en rama. Why…because they’re just great together."

Out of character for me, I ignored the Spanish Rosita craft beers (yet to try) and went for a Fino "en rama" Especial sherry from Fernando de Castilla, £4.60 for 75ml.  Bone dry, it split the table, but was right up my street.  More wine and sherry flowed throughout the meal, some poured straight from the barrel.

As we booked as large group, Drakes chose the food and brought out an endless supply of tapas plates for a set price (£20/head ish if I remember rightly? Don't quote me on that).

I'm pretty sure it included the following and much more besides, but I could be wrong as it all happened so fast!

Smoked Pork Sausage £4

Cured Iberico Pork Tongue £3.50

Salchichon (salami-style) £5.50

Cecina (cured beef), Celeriac Remoulade       £9.50

Salt Cod Stuffed Piquillo Peppers, Flaked Almonds £5

Salmon Gravadlax, Beetroot, Horseradish Cream     £6.50

Deep Fried Baby Squid £6.00

Grilled Octopus, Chickpea & Chorizo £9/£18

Goose Rillettes, Toast, Gherkins, Caperberries £6.50

Pork & Oxtail Meatballs      £4.5

Braised Pig Cheeks, Hazelnuts, Potato Purée £7.5/ £15

At any rate, excellent value for money, and consistently delicious.   Superb charcuterie gave way to showstopping grilled octopus and braised pig cheeks via moreish salt cod stuffed peppers and salmon gravadlax.  I'd happily let Drakes choose my food every day of the week.  Desserts weren't quite as exciting though perhaps we were all a little too full by that point.  

In summary, it was a wonderful sociable meal,  with classy booze - highly recommended.

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Matt The Tumblr latest from Scotland:

- Inveraray landscapes & Samphire seafood restaurant

- Isle of Islay Whisky Distilleries - Set 1 / Set 2 / Set 3

Map The List Update:

We came across an excellent iOS app for using Map The List on mobiles - MapsEngine Viewer. It works very smoothly online (worth the $2.99), and you can cache it all to use offline too. We used it all around America offline to great effect. Sadly there's no Android version yet so you will need to make do with Maps Engine Lite app (free) for the moment. 

Map The List versions of Chicago, New York, Minneapolis and Toronto are available upon request. Feel free to email me at matthew1hickman [at] gmail [dot] com for maps and tips.

Map The List : London

Map The List : New York (left) and Chicago (right)

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