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Blog Reviews from We Love Food, It
(menu)We are a newly married couple, we love to eat, drink, travel and write about it
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The Table | At last – brunch at The Table Cafe | 83 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0HX
It has been approximately five years that I have been waiting to have brunch at The Table Cafe. Really. This inconspicuous restaurant across the road from work has become special to me. Lunch and dinner has always been incredible (click here for our review), but the thought of coming up to London and doing my work commute on a Saturday was just all wrong...
Gail's Kitchen | Mouthwatering simple dishes, Gail’s Kitchen – a taster | Gail’s Kitchen, 11-13 Bayley Street, London WC1B 3HD
Tucked away behind the hustle of Tottenham Court Road lies not one, not two, but three gems. Gail’s Bakery and Gail’s Kitchen with Myhotel Bloomsbury appropriately sandwiched between the two. Gail’s Kitchen - a recent offshoot of the bakery with ex River Cafe chef James Adams fronting the kitchen. A daily changing menu of small plates from £7 upwards, many based around bread and cooked in the bread oven...
The Refinery | Roll up! Roll up! All the fun of the fair – New summer menu and fairground cocktails at The Refinery | 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0TF
Over the last four years or so The Refinery has been the venue for many a birthday, sneaky lunchtime drink or, more recently, leaving dos! But this time we’re here to try their new spring/summer menu and, more excitedly, the incredible looking fairground themed cocktails…
The Ship | All aboard The Ship… The Ship, 41 Jews Row, Wandsworth, London SW18 1TB
The pub has been on this site since 1786 but the new decor and interior design strikes the perfect balance between a modern airy feel and cosy rustic comfort. We managed to get a little teaser of the new menu and the bite sized offering of their famed burgers and award-winning scotch eggs, this place even has an annual scotch egg challenge!...
Rita's Bar and Dining at Birthdays | Rita’s Bar & Dining at Birthdays, 33-35 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 8BJ
Rita’s is no-frills, a short menu with a sprinkling of specials, short menus are always welcome when we’re dining with others and busy chatting. The dining area was unfortunately next to the open door, creating a chill that meant I had to eat with my coat on. I desperately wanted to ask if they could close the door but would have felt so old that I couldn’t bear to hear myself utter the words...
Blue Boar Smokehouse | Blue Boar Smokehouse & Bar, 37-45 Tothill Street, Westminster, London SW1H 9LQ
Housed in the Westminster InterContinental hotel near St James’ Park, the Blue Boar is an elegant dining room with the most beautiful dessert table we have ever seen. A singer strumming away on his guitar to some of our favourite songs, bottomless Bloody Marys and Bucks Fizz, now THIS is the way to spend a Sunday afternoon...
Cinnamon Soho | Cinnamon Soho Easter menu, 5 Kingly Street, London W1B 5PF
You’ve heard the phase ‘Christmas has come early’. For us it was Easter that came early… We were invited back to Cinnamon Soho to sample Vivek Singh’s Easter egg-inspired menu and inspired it was too...
Flat Iron | Flat Iron, 17 Beak Street, London W1F 9RW
Flat Iron has restored our faith that you can get a decent meal with a ‘cheap eat’ price tag. Add to this the fact that it’s a steak restaurant, and you can understand why there is always a queue. Named after the cut of beef (the shoulder or chunk) not after the iconic New York building close to where I proposed to the other half of We Love Food...
Cucina Asellina at ME London Hotel | Cucina Asellina, 336 – 337 Strand, Aldwych, Covent Garden, London. WC2R 1HA
When it came to celebrating my little sister’s engagement recently, I knew Cucina Asellina at the ME London hotel would be right up her street. The latest in restaurant launches from the One Group, and rather aptly, the sister restaurant of Asselina in New York. After recently visiting the group’s other restaurants, Heliot at the Hippodrome and STK, also at ME, I knew we’d be onto a good thing, and more importantly, her kind of thing...
Brasserie Zédel | Brasserie Zédel, 20 Sherwood St, London W1F 7ED
Brasserie Zédel appears to be London’s favourite cheap eat of the moment. A touch of luxury at silly prices (as in silly cheap) by restauranteurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King of The Wolseley and The Delaunay. We were intrigued by this promise of a high-end restaurant at low-cost prices, ones I’ve not seen since the budget priced, but lovely Le Mercury in Angel and Pierre Victoire of Soho...
The Long Bar at the Sanderson | COCKTAILS AT THE SANDERSON AND ST MARTIN’S LANE HOTELS
Our first stop was the Long Bar at the Sanderson, on Berners Street, to try their new Winter Warmers menu featuring cocktails made from Rémy Martin VSOP Mature Cask Finish Cognac. These six cocktails, all £12.50, are served warm and combine flavours that aren’t usually found in their cold relatives… Port, red wine and cognac infused with walnut. Not your average cocktail ingredients, but in these warm versions they work. My favourite was the Apple Crumble, Rémy Martin, warm apple purée and a fluffy cream topping...
STK at ME London Hotel | STK London, 336-337 The Strand, London WC2R 1HA
On paper STK was everything we dislike in a restaurant. Starting with the name. There must be a few dodgy keyboards out there in the restaurant world at the moment that are missing their vowels. STK is an American import, with restaurants in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas and Miami. But the main thing that put us off (but also intrigued us at the same time) is the whole ‘female-friendly’ ethos that was in their Twitter bio (this has since changed). On the website they have the tag-line ‘Not your Daddy’s steakhouse!’ I am female, although I think my brain is actually about 60% male, and the last thing I want to hear when I go to a restaurant is that it’s female- friendly. Plus there is a DJ. In a restaurant. This I really wasn’t sure about either.
Bitter Sweet | Bitter Sweet, 4 Kingly Court, London, W1B 5PW
Bitter Sweet is tucked away in Kingly Court just off Carnaby Street, specialising in bespoke cocktails concentrating on bitter and sweet flavours. Using various bitters, created from a blend of herbs, fruits and spices, just the slightest dash of these will bring out all the flavours together and take Bitter Sweet‘s cocktails to another level. Located where The Kingly Club (known as the ‘haunt of the rich and infamous’) used to be. And before that, in the swinging sixties, it was known as The Pinstripe Club, attracting stars such as Oliver Reed, Steve McQueen, George Best, Richard Harris, Audrey Hepburn, and even Marilyn Monroe. The Pinstripe Club was closed down as a result of the 1963 Profumo scandal, where secretary of state for War John Porfumo was forced to resign over allegations he covered up an affair with Christine Keeler, the mistress of a Russian spy at the height of the Cold War...
Bob Bob Ricard | Bob Bob Ricard, 1 Upper James Street, Soho, London W1F 9DF
After Hawksmoor, Bob Bob Ricard was a restaurant I had been wanting to visit for such a long time. And I mean really long, like two years long. Having been a regular in Bobby’s Bar for pre or post-dinner drinks at other establishments, I’d eye up the Russian/English combo menu and sigh. Bobby’s Bar became one of my favourite places in London, scratch that, anywhere. A place that I would bring loved ones and continually recommend to others. The most stunning space, think opulent Orient Express with a slight American diner feel. Dripping in brass, with marble and wood panelling, a red theme for downstairs and blue for up. The ‘press for champagne’ button at each restaurant booth sums the place up, it is like nowhere else in London, truly special. My most adored part is the downstairs area in the bar, dark and glistening with black cab style pull down seats. Just imagine if owners Leonid Shutov and Richard Howarth did hotels too…
MASH London | MASH, 77 Brewer Street, London W1F 9ZN
When we first reserved a table at MASH we had visions of a whole section on the menu specialising in mashed spud. Wrong! MASH actually stands for Modern American Steak House, although steakhouse is one word. We assume that MAS didn’t sound as good so they applied a bit of artistic licence. And that’s not the only misleading fact about its name. The restaurant isn’t an American import, it is from Denmark. They’ve brought over their style of steak and even some extremely friendly and efficient front of house staff. Situated on the corner of Brewer Street and Lower James Street, on the lower ground floors of the former Regent Palace Hotel (where the Titanic restaurant once was). The entrance of this beautiful newly renovated building is very understated compared to what follows...
Bubbledogs | Bubbledogs, 70 Charlotte Street, London W1T 4QG
OK, let me just come out and say it. We didn’t like Bubbledogs. We booked a table weeks and weeks ago, and had been excitedly anticipating the day of the booking. We didn’t fancy queuing for hours in the freezing cold, so as the minimum amount of people you need to book a table is six, we did just that. Selecting a few random fellow Bubbledog virgins to join us, a mixed bunch. There was a food PR, fellow blogger, a film director and man with the best job in the world, a Google employee, we didn’t really get what his job entailed but we were jealous regardless...
Cinnamon Soho | Cinnamon Soho, 5 Kingly Street, London W1B 5PF
Cinnamon Soho was not what we expected. I guess after visiting sister restaurant Cinnamon Kitchen near Liverpool Street, we thought the latest offering from the group would be quite glitzy and special. It is touted as ‘the younger, cheekier sibling to the Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen‘. This is a very understated restaurant, situated on the site of the old Red bar in Kingly Street. It didn’t look hugely different to when it was a bar, we didn’t like it then...
Vapiano | Vapiano London 2, 90b Southwark Street, London SE1 0FD
We first discovered Vapiano on one of our visits to Sweden, when our budget was low and we couldn’t afford to spend a fortune on a meal, which is pretty unavoidable in Stockholm. Vapiano is a German chain serving up fresh cooked to order Italian fare. With locations worldwide, from NYC, Brasil, South Korea… Each diner is handed a chip card, which you swipe at the various ordering points, totting up what you’re spending and then pay at the till as you leave, swiping a handful of the complimentary Gummi bear sweets at the same time...
Duke's Brew & Que | Dukes Brew & Que, 33 Downham Road De Beauvoir Town Hackney London N1 5AA
Hackney is not a place we venture to often, but since discovering Dukes Brew & Que, that may change that. In fact, we have already returned once. A bookable, yes, you heard us right, bookable BBQ restaurant. Home to the Beavertown Brewery, so a great range of beer, and some of the best cocktails we’ve had in a long time. Dukes have taken over what was previously an old pub, refurbished it and is now serving up ribs, sliders, burgers… You get the gist, with smoking equipment imported from Oklahoma...
The Fat of the Land | The Fat of the Land, 35 New Cavendish Street, London, W1G 9TR
When a visit to a restaurant involves walking past both MEATliquor and Tommi’s Burger Joint, we knew we’d just spend the night hankering after a dirty burger, washed down with a cocktail. However, The Fat of the Land was our destination, a newly opened Spanish gastropub-come-restaurant hidden behind the bustling streets of Marylebone. Run by Michael Kittos and Tony Wolfe, the duo responsible for The Queen’s Head & Artichoke in Regent’s Park and The Norfolk Arms in Bloomsbury. We had high hopes for this place and were really looking forward to some Spanish cuisine, having not had any since our trip to Madrid in September...
Dishoom Shoreditch | Dishoom Shoreditch, 7 Boundary Street, London E2 7JE
To be honest, when I heard Dishoom were opening a new restaurant in Shoreditch I wasn’t as excited as I hoped to be. Basically Shoreditch is not my kind of place, a bit too young, noisy and trendy for me. I was hoping they’d open somewhere else, Spitalfields or Smithfield perhaps, anywhere else that begins with an S. However from the moment we walked through those huge gates on Boundary Street and up through the outside terrace we were smitten. This isn’t the Shoreditch that makes me want to flee to the comfort and sanctuary of my own home, this is actually quite calm, buzzy but not too much. Plus this is Dishoom, the place where we can always be guaranteed a good meal. One of the only place that we have both adored every single morsel of food that has gone into our mouths...
Volupte | Volupté, 7-9 Norwich Street, London EC4A 1EJ
Normally on a Friday night we’re worn out and slumped in front of the telly watching True Blood with a takeaway. Last week we decided on a break from the norm and went…
Heliot at The Hippodrome | Heliot restaurant at the Hippodrome Casino, Leicester Square, 42-43 Cranbourn Street, London, WC2H 7AN
If we were to tell you that we had a great night out at the Hippodrome, you’d probably think we were a little crazy and/or drunk! To be honest if this review was done a few years back we would have to agree with you. I last had the displeasure of staggering out of the Hippodrome after a work’s awards night and was left with the memories of a dark somehow claustrophobic nightclub with damp, sticky carpets and overpriced drinks… Not good! But all that has changed and the recently opened Hippodrome Casino is now a spacious, welcoming and reasonably priced venue in the heart of the West End that’s open 24/7...
Roast | Roast restaurant, The Floral Hall, Borough Market, Stoney Street, London SE1 1TL
Ever since we started working on the South Bank, we have always wanted to visit Roast. It’s been on our restaurant bucket list for so long, finally we went. Roast is perched above the lovely Borough Market, with views of not just the bustling market and Market Porter pub, but also of the Shard and St Paul’s. Serving up British food with produce from the handily located market below. It’s owned by restaurateur Iqbal Wahhab, who founded the Cinnamon Club and who also recently took over the Indian street food restaurant Mooli’s...
Champagne + Fromage by French Bubbles | Champagne + Fromage 22 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7DD
To be honest I’m a little down at the moment… I’m just back from a wonderful break at Huntstile Organic Farm and had caught The Paralympic feel-good fever. So as the last firework of the closing ceremony faded, I was left feeling rather flat… So I thought, what’s a better way to get back some fizz than with a champagne pairing evening courtesy of French Bubbles?...
Dalla Terra | Dalla Terra, 25 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard, London WC2E 9AB
Our initial gut feeling about Dalla Terra, a newish little Italian wine bar/restaurant on St Martin’s Courtyard was pretty bad. The reason being one of the waiters made us feel a little intimidated and very unwelcome, I think if we hadn’t been reviewing we would have just walked out. Questions regarding how many small plates we should order were met with sarcasm. Staggeringly when we asked which wine the waiter recommended he shrugged his shoulders, wine is what this place is all about! We were after some Puglian wine but they were all out apparently. We were also snootily asked what price range we fell into, as if judging us by our appearance, I think he felt we didn’t fit in with the suited clientele and have suitable spending power...
Las Iguanas Spitalfields | Las Iguanas Cocktail Deck, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 6EW
I have discovered a place in London that does happy hour ALL day and night! Well, all day Sunday to Wednesday. Las Iguanas in Old Spitalfields Market is amongst an array of other chains, but this branch boasts a little cocktail deck overlooking the market. Multi coloured lanterns adorned the balcony, the only thing missing was a little bit of background music...
The Thatched House | The Thatched House pub, 15 Dalling Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 0ET
We are so very jealous of the residents of Hammersmith, their new neighbourhood pub is one that we could only dream of. The Thatched House near Ravenscourt Park tube has recently opened under the watchful eye of publican extraordinaire Oisin Rogers, alongside Phil White. You are more likely to have heard of Oisin’s super successful other pub, The Ship in Wandsworth, which has just been voted 4th in the UK’s 10 Best Gastro Pubs...
The Table | The Table Cafe revisited, 83 Southwark Street, London SE1 0HX
We had the chance to visit Dabbous. We turned it down. Are we mad? Possibly, yes, but it was for a very good cause. The Table restaurant on Southwark Street, where our blog began, was having a press night to showcase their new head chef, Cinzia Ghighoni, and we wanted to lend our support. Cinzia, previously of Duck Soup and nearby Zucca has taken over the Head Chef reigns from Shaun Alpine-Crabtree, and slotted in perfectly, giving a new lease of life to the menu (not that we think it needed it of course)...
Tommi's Burger Joint | Tommi’s Burger Joint, 58 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2NX
If the queue outside MEATLiquor seems a little shorter at the moment then that might be due to a new player in town… The Icelandic King of burgers. Literally around the corner, Tommi’s Burger Joint is adding fuel to the fire that is the capital’s insatiable appetite for a decent slab of beef in a bun. As soon as we walked into this tiny 25 cover American style burger diner, we immediately felt at home. Of course it had the obligatory London restaurant industrial feel but with a slight little twist, the menu short and the air was thick with the smell of grilled course ground beef steak...
Boisdale of Canary Wharf | Boisdale of Canary Wharf, Cabot Place, London. E14 4QT
We have only eaten in Canary Wharf a couple of times and on both occasions we’ve been left feeling a little flat and disappointed. It seems to us that the restaurants here don’t have to try too hard to keep up standards, due to the fact that they have a captive (and very monied) audience. These establishments don’t even have to be competitively priced or follow the food trends sweeping the rest of London. When we were invited along to the Boisdale of Canary Wharf we were hoping that all the above comments would be proved wrong, but sadly not...