GNH Bar - Grain Store - Megaro Bar - Speck Mobile

Tuesday 21st January - Throughout December, the ever generous Barchick gave away a ludicrous amount of prizes in their daily Advent Calendar competition.  I dutifully entered every single one and was eventually rewarded with a seafood platter for two with champagne at the GNH Bar in the refurbished Great Northern Hotel in King's Cross Station.  

A quick look at the website revealed that the GNH Bar is known for its seafood menu from Michelin starred chef Mark Sergeant (more available at Plum & Spilt Milk upstairs), and the platter came in at a whopping £75.  Thankyou Barchick.  I went along in January with Su-Lin to devour it.

At 6.30pm on a Tuesday, the GNH bar was buzzing with commuters having a drink before catching a connection elsewhere.  Dark curtains and upbeat music made it difficult to tell the time of day, which is what most want from a station bar.  If it doesn't take your fancy, there's always Booking Office Bar in St.Pancras, the surprisingly wonderful Parcel Yard Fullers pub (go upstairs!) in King's Cross, and the superb Gilbert Scott round the corner.

Our impressive seafood platter soon arrived, piled high with lobster, crab, oysters, whelk, prawns and more.  I'm not sure I would splash out the £75 myself, but it was a fantastic spread and a must for seafood lovers.

After a glass of champagne, we ordered a couple of house cocktails from their tempting menu.  My Kumquat Negroni hit the spot, but I might go back for an 1854 (Smoked pineapple syrup with cardamom, Woodford Reserve & Noilly Prat).  Prices range from £8-£12 - go along every Saturday 2-7pm for their Afternoon Jaunt party with 2-for-1 cocktails.

We decided to tick off a couple more places in the rapidly improving King's Cross area, starting with dessert and a drink at Bruno Loubet's Grain Store on Granary Square.  Drinks come from master mixologist Tony Corigliano (69 Colebrooke Row) who has collaborated with Bruno before at Zetter Townhouse.

Granary Square is a London hidden gem with Regent's Canal nearby, dancing fountains, stunning trees and plenty of space for al-fresco dining in Summer.  Grain Store has boxes of blankets at the ready if you want to brave the great outdoors.  

Photo Credit : Amy Murell

Photo Credit : Amy Murell

A central bar separates diners from drinkers in Grain Store - you get great views over to the busy kitchen and attractive dining room if you grab a seat at the bar on the drinks side.  Perfect for people watching and having the bartender's full attention.

Photo Credit : Amy Murell

Photo Credit : Amy Murell

Photo Credit : Amy Murell

Photo Credit : Amy Murell

Tony has created a truly original cocktail menu to match the food including a Savoury section (e.g. Green Tomato Margarita, Pumpkin & Maple Syrup Bellini) and "Tony's Greco Roman Wines" which are all smoked or herb infused in some way and stored in funky glass containers on the bar.  Su-Lin was very happy with a glass of Rose Vinus Lupus - dried rose petals, clover honey & verjus stirred down with gewurztraminer.  My subtle but delicious Butter & Hay champagne (with toasted butter & hay liquor) also impressed.  If you just want a beer, get yourself a growler of a Camden Town Brewery beer or a bottle of Laverstock Farm Lager.

We also got ourselves a couple of desserts, resisting the urge to have a second dinner from Grain Store's mouth-watering food menu.  Apple, blackberry & elderberry crumble with fig leaves & olive oil ice cream for me, and goji berries & carrot cake with chamomile ice cream for Su-Lin - both outstanding.  I'll be back for more...

The "Campari Piano" is brought to life at Sunday Brunch

Our last stop was for a nightcap at Megaro Bar, a stunning little hotel bar tucked away beneath Karpo restaurant in King's Cross.  The bar is styled as a photography darkroom, and they rotate installations every few months.  At the moment, photographer Henry Thomas has put his stamp on proceedings. His photo collage in the Picture Room (where noir films are occasionally screened) is particularly striking.

The Picture Room at Megaro Bar

Bar manager Ben Clark and bartender Nico Piazza looked after us well, mixing up two fantastic quirky cocktails - Birch and Bruks (Mackmyra Bruks Whisky, Birch Sap Reduction) and The Lost Steps (Ocho Blanco, Cardamom Sweet Tea, Chartreuse Elixir).  See more of the house cocktail concoctions below.  We loved the presentation of the menu in clunky old photo slides, but they are expensive to replace so may not be around for long!

The house cocktails are presented in a simple but classy way to allow the mixology to take centre stage.  Nico clearly knows what he is doing and I would happily drink my way through the whole menu.  They run a brilliant blog (see here) where they discuss the cocktails in great depth - well worth a read if you want to know where they got the idea for using Birch Syrup from, or what Glory Box is named after.

Chef's plates from upstairs are also available if you need feeding, including Smoked (cods roe, compressed cucumber, fennel salad), Cured (Earl Grey salmon, vanilla, root beer jelly) and Sweet (dark chocolate cremosa, sea salt, chocolate soil).

Cured, Smoked and Sweet - Chef's Plates at Megaro Bar

So there you have it, 3 more top bars tucked away in King's Cross, to add to the likes of Gilbert Scott, VOC and Drink, Shop & Do.  Time to change your mind about the area if you haven't already!

Thursday 6th February - Whilst I'm on a King's Cross spree, I'll just quickly mention that Speck Mobile, the popular Austrian street food boys, are currently cooking up a storm at The Star of Kings pub - they won't be here for that much longer though so head over there sooner rather than later.

I popped in with Caroline, Natalie & Lauren to their opening party for some Schnitzel sliders and Stiegl beers.  They have impressively extended their normal street menu to include dishes such as Potato & Pumpkin Rosti, Goulash Soup, and Grilled Cheese Dumplings, but you really should go for the signature dish - Speck Dumplings and Nuernberger sausages with Sauerkraut.  We've eaten it many times out on the streets, and it didn't disappoint here.  The only thing missing for me is Käsespätzle - I still dream about the Heisser Hobel plate at Street Food Europe last year.  If you have any space left, there is Sachertorte (£3.50) and Apfelstrudel (£3.90) for pudding.  Mahlzeit!

Opium - Real Street Food Festival - In the Hidden City

Three very different experiences to report on today from various outings over the last week.  Let's start with a hidden opium den in Chinatown:

Wednesday 27th March - The main event of the evening was a trip to see The Book of Mormon (Hasa Diga Ebowai!) in Leicester Square - a ridiculous musical from the creators of South Park that is booked up for the next few months already (well done Natalie for securing tickets). Before the show we planned to visit the Tanqueray gin popup in Floral Street only to find that it was reserved for posh people and namedroppers (can you sense the bitterness?).  With an hour to kill, Natalie and I decided to pop into Opium Cocktail and Dim Sum Parlour - look for the "hidden" jade door that is guarded by a bouncer!  It is situated at 15-16 Gerrard Street.  They are open from 17.00 most days (12.00 on Sunday) and stay open very late (3am on Fridays and Saturdays!).

We went upstairs to the Apothecary Bar where we were well looked after by Nick, a young bartender who has worked his way up the bartending chain very quickly and is in the process of writing a book - follow his exploits here.  Nick entertained us with his knowledge of spirits and gave us some tasters of Sipsmiths Gin and Chartreuse.  I went for the Opium Cocktail No.2 that is served bubbling away on dry ice, with a ginseng capsule chaser and guava jam. These strange concoctions with extra bits on the side don't always work, often going more for novelty value than actual enjoyment, but they have got this one right. The ginseng capsule gives a bitter taste that you wash down with the sweet cocktail and follow up with the jam that matches the guava puree in the drink. Unusually too, the cocktail itself is rather large (which helped me swallow the hefty £14 price tag).  Natalie went for the Flying Firecracker with which she was given firecrackers instead of the advertised sparkler for health and safety reasons - Nick probably spotted she was from the North and played it safe.

Opium Cocktail No.2
on dry ice with ginseng and jam

They have several rooms to keep you busy, the most exciting of which is the Bartender's Table where you can sit as they prepare food and drinks in front of you, and even have a go at making your own cocktails with their help.  They run Cocktail Academy sessions for groups here on Saturdays.  There is also tasty looking dim sum on offer which we didn't sample this time around.  I also spotted in their archives that they occasionally set up a Chinese Photo Booth in The Den which looks fun! I highly recommend a visit - pricey but unique.

Saturday 30th March - For four days over the Easter weekend, the Real Street Food Festival set up shop on the Southbank near the London Eye.  Team List (Lauren, Natalie and myself) descended on the riverfront at 12.30, having starved ourselves in preparation. We started at Pizza Pilgrims, who make yummy Neapolitan style pizzas. Look out for their Piaggio van with a wood fire oven in the back - you can find them in Berwick Street Market.  They will also be opening a restaurant in Soho soon so follow them on twitter to stay up to date. Update: They have opened their Pizzeria in Soho - read about it here.

We moved on to Soul Food for a very large portion of Jerk Chicken with rice and coleslaw which was delicious.  I'm not quite sure where you can find them normally! Then we had some excellent Speck Dumplings with Sausages and Sauerkraut from the Speck Mobile - Austrian food served by Austrians, Franz and Marco.  We also went back later for some Strudel.  These guys are part of the exciting Kerb collective of street food traders.  Another group doing a fantastic job of promoting street food are Kitchenette.  Check them both out if you have caught the street food bug like I have!

Speck Mobile dumplings

We decided to have a rest in the Craft Beer Rising area to warm up under their heater and to shelter from the snow.  They were a friendly bunch handing out lots of tasters from their impressive range of beers, and their presence made us stay at the festival for a lot longer.  Here we also met Jack Hobday of the Anspach and Hobday Brewery.  Jack was giving away samples of three beers that he and his housemate Paul have been creating in their kitchen - the pale ale and porter were both very nice, but their "Smoaked" beer was rather special! Compared to many smoked beers that are over the top and end up tasting like salmon, this brew had a much subtler flavour.  Click on the link above to go to their Kickstarter donation page to help them get their brewery out of their kitchen.  They have already passed their initial target but they could still do with more.  They cunningly offer different rewards depending on how much you offer them.  There are rumours that they might be popping up at the Euston Tap this Sunday 7th March from 3pm.

Anspach and Hobday artwork
from inhouse artist Amie Dearlove

We forced ourselves back out into the snow for some more food, cramming in some lovely Salt Beef from Bell and Brisket.  We went for the no bread option as we were in no mood to waste valuable meat space, but they do also serve their beef in bagels or rye bread. We then got an enormous box of paella from Jamon Jamon that was great comfort food, especially in this weather.  Both of these traders are part of Kerb too, and well worth a try!  Due to the cold, we soon found ourselves back in the Craft Beer Rising area again, ready for dessert.

We went for some Speck Mobile strudel plus some cakes from the Ion Patisserie that can normally be found in Borough market on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - there were lots of enticing options but we decided on a big old brownie and a slice of toffee and pecan cheesecake.  To fight the cold, I also got a cappuccino from the Bean About Town coffee van, and I was really impressed with it.  Surprise, surprise  - they are also part of Kerb. Now if only Kerb would bother setting up shop in South West London...

It was a really good day out, if a little cold, and it was held together well by Craft Beer Rising in the middle! The food portions were on the whole extremely generous and good value, so it is perfect for going with a group of friends to try as much as you can. Make sure you head down to the next one from 24-27th May on Southbank.

Monday 1st April - I ignored all the Easter Egg hunts and trails on offer because I normally do one with my family, but after this fell through (everyone was distracted by a new baby and it was too cold outside) I had a look on the Timeout website and decided to book the In the Hidden City Easter trail for the next day.  I assembled a last minute Team Speak Easy Find Hard with Natalie and Libby, and we met at the start point in The Wellcome Collection in Euston at 1pm.  The whole trail works via a text message system whereby you follow their clues to places around London, send them the answer, and get sent your next clue in return.  A team of 3 was actually ideal as it allowed us to move around very quickly, and reduced the chance of disagreements!  The trail sent us round the exhibition at The Wellcome Collection, before moving into Regent's Park, up Primrose Hill and ending in The Engineer pub nearby.  It is a great way to get you to walk around bits of London that you might not know too well, and is a nice non-alcoholic alternative to all the other things I have been doing! There was also a Divine Easter Egg waiting at the end for all successful teams.  We are currently lying in 8th place out of 392 teams which I am pretty happy with!

I will definitely check out some more of their events that sound fun such as The Cryptic Covent Caper or Hidden Places, Open Spaces, and I advise you all to do the same!  You pay one fee for the whole team, and all you need is a phone and a map.  They can also be found outside of London in Manchester, York, Brighton and Newcastle.

Thanks to Lady of the List Natalie for scoring an impressive hat trick, to Lauren for an all day effort at the food festival, and to Libby for her expert clue solving abilities in our quest for the pub.