Happy New Year one and all! Around about this time last year, I put up a mega
2014 Highlights post. Hopefully a 2015 edition will emerge at some point, but until then, it's business as usual. Food, drink, travel, photography, and a huge backlog.
That said, there are couple of new things to report before we get to some Christmas leftovers. First up, I'm happy to report that
Map The List : London is now a lot easier to use on Google Maps (if you have a Google account of some sort).
You can now overlay saved maps on Google Maps which means that you can access them quickly (minimal loading time) on your smartphone or your browser. All you have to do is click on the little star next to the Map The List : London title on the map below. Map The List : London should then appear in your Google Maps, under either "Your Places" or "My Maps". Let me know if you have any problems with this.
P.S. If you are planning trips to Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, New York, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, LA, San Francisco, Portland (OR), or Seattle, I have maps for all of them too! You can find travel snaps on Instagram by looking for the #MattTheTrips hashtag.
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Robin Gill and co. are responsible for three of London's finest restaurants -
The Dairy,
The Manor, and
Paradise Garage. The original outpost, The Dairy in Clapham Common, is well known for its use of fresh ingredients, many of which are grown on the rooftop; so it wasn't a big surprise when they opened up
The Delicatessen next door.
From Tuesday-Friday, you can drop in from 8am (for next level bacon rolls) right through to 7pm (for whatever's left, plus a couple of craft beers). On a recent lunch visit, we demolished one of their generous £6 Salt Beef Sandwiches (
#londoncheapeats alert!) plus a portion of Chef de Partie Laoise's comforting Lamb Hotpot. Every day, there's a different hot lunch special that comes in around the £6 mark. They are open at the weekend too, but I'll get to that...
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| Salt Beef, Smoked Bone Marrow Butter, Pickles, Mustard, Fresh Sourdough |
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| Roast Brassica Salad with Cauliflower, Romanesco & Spinach |
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| Laoise's Lamb Hotpot |
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| Laoise's Lamb Hotpot |
If you are lucky, you might grab one of the al fresco tables (in the soon to be heated front garden), but everything is designed to be taken away. Before you leave, you should stock up on rooftop honey, and I strongly urge you to get a fresh sourdough roll with some of their smoked aubergine dip - hard to beat.
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| Starship Enterprise bread? |
Now, at the weekend, The Delicatessen is still open, but in an exciting development, they are now running a brunch next door at The Dairy, for walk-ins only, from 10am to 12.45pm. With
Fields and
Brickwood round the corner too, locals have never had it so good!
Ella and I went along for the first brunch service in December last year and briefly had the whole room to ourselves - an unfamiliar situation as The Dairy books up weeks in advance for dinner.
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| The Dairy in the morning |
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| The Delicatessen Brunch at The Dairy |
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| The Dairy |
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| Janine's Ketchup - available to buy in The Delicatessen |
You can keep it simple with The Deli's smashed avocado, or homemade jam on Guinness soda bread, but one dish should always be prescribed - a comforting, moreish bowl of spiced butterbeans and chorizo, with Tilly's Farm soft egg, hollandaise sauce, and sourdough crumb. No chewing required. Wash down with Mimosas and a coffee. The homemade hazelnut granola with poached quince and yoghurt is also rather delicious. Grab a friend or two and go and see for yourself!
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| Spiced Butterbeans & Chorizo, Tilly's Farm Soft Egg, Hollandaise Sauce, Sourdough Crumb |
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| Snap |
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If you don't make it out of the house in time for Sunday brunch, a massive roast is a pretty strong backup plan. They don't come much bigger (or better) than the offering at
Blacklock in Soho.
As with the regular menu, your best bet is to go "all in" for £20 a head (minimum 2 people). On Sundays (from 12pm-5pm I believe), this entitles you to an absurd amount of beef, lamb and pork, roasted over English oak, plus a tonne of outstanding duck-fat roasted potatoes (almost as good as your Mum's), a mammoth Yorkshire pud, heritage carrots, sprouting broccoli, and your own personal jug of bone marrow gravy.
Oh yeah, and two sides. Because all of those other things are trimmings, not sides. We chucked in a rich cauliflower cheese, and some roots and gremolata. That is obviously enough food for two, but there are also tempting starters of grilled bone marrow with horseradish, and wood roasted scallops with black pudding, if you fancy yourself as a competitive eater. Good luck to you.
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| Grilled Bone Marrow with Grated Horseradish with |
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| Cauliflower Cheese |
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| All the meat |
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| All the meat and all the trimmings |
£5 Negronis, smartly chosen beers, and affordable wines all add to the fun, pushing the spend per head north of £30, but you won't need to eat again for a couple of days, and it is Sunday after all. The only thing that's missing is Mum The List's rhubarb and apple crumble.
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| Almost... |
Sundays from 12pm-5pm
The Basement, 24 Great Windmill St, Soho, W1D 7LG
