Brunch & Lunch at The Delicatessen x The Dairy - Sunday Roasts at Blacklock - Photos

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.

Secondly, for the last few months, I've been quietly working with a small group of foodie friends on a new website called London Cheap Eats - LondonCheapEats.com - headed up by the wonderful Leyla Kazim. It's an insider guide to eating out in London for £8 or less, and the website goes live TODAY (January 11th)! All will become clear once it has launched, but you can get involved by following us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and by signing up for the newsletter on the website!

-------------------------------------------------------

 

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...

Salt Beef, Smoked Bone Marrow Butter, Pickles, Mustard, Fresh Sourdough

Roast Brassica Salad with Cauliflower, Romanesco & Spinach

Laoise's Lamb Hotpot

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.

Starship Enterprise bread?

Balcony Bread from The Delicatessen

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.

The Dairy in the morning

The Delicatessen Brunch at The Dairy

The Dairy

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!

Spiced Butterbeans & Chorizo, Tilly's Farm Soft Egg, Hollandaise Sauce, Sourdough Crumb

Snap

The Delicatessen & The Dairy - www.the-delicatessen.co.uk

5-16 The Pavement, Clapham Old Town, SW4 0HY

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

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.

Grilled Bone Marrow with Grated Horseradish with 

Cauliflower Cheese

All the meat

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.

Almost...

Sundays from 12pm-5pm

Blacklock Sundays - theblacklock.com

The Basement, 24 Great Windmill St, Soho, W1D 7LG

---------------------------------------------------------
 

To finish, here's a photography round-up of the last month from Matt The Tumblr and Instagram. Click on each photo to see the original post.

A Maida Vale cocktail from Peg + Patriot's new menu

A visit to Peg + Patriot to check out their new cocktail menu

Redchurch Brewery taproom in Bethnal Green

Breddos Tacos at Street Feast x Foodism party

World of Zing's Travel Cocktail Pack

Poached Pears with Ricotta and Hazelnuts from Park Road Kitchen

Lock, Stock... at Lucky Liquor Co. in Edinburgh

Cocktails at Devil's Advocate in Edinburgh

Mirror selfies at Brewdog Edinburgh

Pact Coffee on Balcony Brews

Agile Rabbit in Brixton Village

Smoking cocktails at Three Six Six in Battersea

Canon vs Canon with Ella at Three Six Six

Epic £4 Falafel Wrap from Goulston Street Market

The Understudy on London's Southbank

Soft Launch at Le Bab in Soho

Mum The List Dessert #1

Mum The List Dessert #2

Decking Drinks at Christmas - The Grosvenor

Sourdough pizzas at Flour to the People in Battersea

Balcony Booze goes to the dark side

Bokeh at South Pole Saloon

South Pole Saloon in Brixton

Craft Beer Co. Brixton

Four to Eight - Soho Grind - Lima

On the blog today, a new Italian restaurant in Covent Garden, coffee & cocktails in Soho, and a new boozy Sunday lunch deal at Michelin-starred Lima.

Friday 26th September - Seven of us piled in to Four To Eight on their opening night for some classy Italian food.  We were ushered past the attractive ground floor bar and restaurant to a table downstairs next to the open kitchen.  

Italian food is known for its simplicity, traditionally using between four and eight ingredients, which explains the name.  I'd imagine many will hear it and think it's an address (see Three Eight Four), but they'll work it out eventually. 

"Small plates" (encouraged as bar food upstairs) arrived first, including my impressive helping of Calamari & Crayfish with parsley and almond salad (£10). Su-Lin steered clear as crayfish apparently turns her orange.  With a pharmacist on my left holding a bag full of antidotes, I felt it was worth the risk... Maybe next time.  Pigeon with honey beets, grapes & treviso (£9) and Zucchini Carpaccio with truffle honey dressing & pecorino cheese (£6) were also well received.

Top left clockwise : Pigeon, Crayfish & Calamari, Open Kitchen & Zucchini Carpaccio

Moving on to pastas and salads, the portion sizes didn't quite do the price tags justice.  Only the Scallop Linguine with (watch out Su-Lin) crayfish & tomato passata (£16) felt big enough.  Double Duck salad (breast & egg) with chard & fontina cheese (£12) and Duck Ravioli with savoy cabbage, fennel & parsnip (£15) barely scratched the surface of hunger - a shame since the cooking was superb, but an easy thing to fix if others agree.  The Lobster Fregola needs to pop over to Burger & Lobster to see how far £20 can go.

Double Duck Salad - breast & egg, chard, fontina cheese

Scallop Linguine, Crayfish, Tomato Passata

Duck Ravioli, Savoy Cabbage, Fennel, Parsnip

Last but not least was a range of desserts from French in-house pastry chef Annabelle Delrieux (previously chef patissiere at Anna Chocolat in Bordeaux).  We were never going to turn down the "Full House" - a sample of everything on the menu for £17 to share.  It's always tricky to get a real sense from such miniature portions, but the Profiteroles, Tiramisu and Chocolate Aero Biscuit made a great first impression, and the presentation was delightful across the board.

Elsewhere on the table, larger portions of the much-talked about Tiramisu (with white velvet and kahlua jelly - £7) and Chocolate Aero Biscuit (with rosemary & chocolate mousse, lemon & basil gel - £6) received the thumbs up.

Tiramisu with white velvet and kahlua jelly

Chocolate Aero Biscuit with rosemary & chocolate mousse, and lemon & basil gel

There's plenty of potential at Four To Eight.  The design, the staff and the food all deserve plaudits but I'd like to see some more competitive prices brought in - perhaps lunch & theatre menus will be the way to go if they are introduced.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natalie, Chris and I walked off dinner through some of London's most unbearable tourist hotspots, before arriving at Soho Grind in Beak Street for a nightcap - one of several new sites from the Shoreditch Grind "Grind & Co" coffee bar team (see also Piccadilly Grind & brand new Holborn Grind).  They have just reopened their evening basement bar after sorting out some permanent licensing, something I'm all too aware of after two failed attempts to visit before!

It was worth the wait - a classic Soho bar / refuge akin to the Flat Iron basement bar and Society Club down the road.  Tiny, relaxed, fun, arty, and good-looking - the only slight downside is having to order food to be allowed to drink, but a plate of cured meats slipped down easily enough.  Bartenders and customers were in good spirits, enjoying the eclectic soundtrack whilst trying not to stare at the erotica on the walls.

Cocktails are well priced as they are at Shoreditch Grind.  Chris couldn't resist the Flat White Russian - not our waitress, but a boozy coffee cocktail served hot with Soho Grind Espresso, Chase Vodka, Coffee Liqueur and Milk.  Meanwhile I had my eyes on a Short Mexican (stop it) with El Jimador Reposado, Cayenne, and Cracked Coffee Beans which was interesting but didn't quite come together. Natalie unsurprisingly went for Gin-Out The Jams - a very drinkable concoction of Gin, Vermouth, Sugar, and Rhubarb & Ginger Jam.  

Of course, most won't look past the Soho Grind Espresso Martini, and who can blame them?

Flat White Russian

Flat White Russian, Gin-Out The Jams, Short Mexican

It's another hit for the fast expanding Grind & Co. group.  Upstairs is a funky-looking daytime coffee hangout, but you'll find me downstairs with the Mexicans and the Russians.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday 28th September - It seemed fitting that three days after the new Michelin stars were handed out, we made our way over to one of last year's surprise winners, Lima.  

They have been busy in 2014, launching Lima Floral (Covent Garden) in July, but the promise of an epic long lunch with unlimited booze attracted me, Tim, Mary and Angharad to the original Fitzrovia outpost on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Sundays. 12pm-3.30pm. £35 per head. Tonnes of food. Neverending Prosecco and Pisco Punch.

There must be a catch...

Round 1:

- Mixed Ceviche with Yuyo, Sweet Potato & Canchita Corn

- Salmon Tiradito with Rocoto Pepper, Avocado & Celery Cress

- Tuna Causa with Blue (Purple - I'm not that colour blind) Potato and Asparagus Uchucuta

The Mixed Ceviche was unsurprisingly a highlight, and I could have happily eaten it all afternoon. The Salmon Tiradito also impressed, and friendly waiters kindly corrected our attempts to identify unknown ingredients - something that apparently wasn't dragonfruit remains a mystery.

Mixed Ceviche

Salmon Tiradito

Tuna Causa with Blue (?) Potato

Round 2 (already stuffed):

Mains:

- Braised Lamb Shoulder, Coriander & Aji Panca Juice

- Suckling Pig, Crackling Ocopa Sauce - uses Huacatay and peanuts

- Oven Roasted Cornfed Chicken, Pachamanca Sauce

To go with:

- Vegetable Cazuela & Huacatay Sauce - Huacatay is Andean herb - "Peruvian Black Mint"

- Huancaina Potatoes - What Kinda Potatoes? One kinda potatoes? Huancaina potatoes!

- Roasted Quinoa - How do you pronounce it?! Key-noir? Kwi-noah?

- Carapulcra - Peruvian stew with more sneaky peanuts, caught Tim out every time

- Chaufa Rice - Chinese influenced fried rice - FUN FACTS: a chaufa expert is called a "chaufero", and Peruvian vs Chinese cuisine is served in "chifas" - there are 9,000 in Lima alone.

The side dishes outshone the mains, not least the Huancaina potatoes with their stellar presentation. A big plate of lamb, pig and chicken was not lacking flavour altogether, but it just wasn't as exciting as descriptions suggested, and ceviche had raised the bar very high already.

What kinda potatoes? Huancaina Potatoes.

All the meat

Round 3 (Prosecco Round...8?):

- Lucuma Ice Cream - unusual subtropical fruit sometimes called "egg fruit"

- Kiwicha with Purple Corn Jelly - still not dragonfruit.

- Alfajores with Dulce de Leche - round cookies with sweet filling

A quirky bunch - the alfajores were the winner by a long way for me, but it's hard not to love cookies with dulce de leche.

Unsettling - Purple Corn Jelly with Kiwicha

Three hours passed, along with 15 or so courses, and countless glasses of punch & prosecco (three varieties on our visit).

There's no catch.

Get over there before they realise how ridiculous it is!



Craving more Peruvian food? 

Senor Ceviche (Kingly Court) is opening very soon and Pachamama (Marylebone) is starting their 50% soft launch today.

Ignoring sober October in style? 

House of Ho have just launched Bobby's Rock and Roll Brunch - £29 / £36 for bottomless drinks and unlimited food plus live music in Soho - too good to be true?  

OH YEAH. AND IT'S LONDON COCKTAIL WEEK.  Here's what we got up to last year...

-----------------------------------------------------------

P.S. From Michelin stars to Bib Gourmands (the Michelin category for good food at moderate prices), we popped in to Barnyard for a drink after Lima.  Update: the staff are still great, the drinks list deserves a proper bar, and the popcorn ice cream with smoked fudge sauce hasn't gone anywhere.

Mini Popcorn Ice Cream with Smoked Fudge Sauce at Barnyard

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt The Tumblr latest - Photos from Oktoberfest at Anspach & Hobday / Bullfinch Brewery