Pizza East Shoreditch

Pizza East is a small chain of three restaurants located in Portobello, Kentish Town and Shoreditch. It describes itself as a place where you can get "honest food with rustic simplicity" but how does it really fare?

Walking into the Shoreditch branch, I found a relatively large and bustling restaurant - so clearly a popular place.

Bethnal Pale Ale action.

Naturally I ordered a pizza and found it had a good crispy base and crust - just how I like it. The toppings were a bit sparse though - see below.  Nonetheless overall it was a good decent-sized pizza that filled me up.

Anchovies, tomato, mozarella, capers, olives.

As a restaurant with the word 'pizza' in its title, you'd expect there to be a good choice of different pizzas and you're not wrong; there are 11 different pizzas overall ranging from £8 to £14:

Pizza menu at Pizza East, source. 

But despite the name, there are also non-pizza dishes on the menu.  My colleague ordered the mac 'n' cheese.  I can't say I tasted any of it, so I'll have to reserve judgement on its taste, but it certainly looked tasty.

Mac 'n' cheese.

Overall I had a good time at Pizza East and I wouldn't mind giving a few of the other dishes a go.  Maybe that man 'n' cheese...

Dozo Soho - Japanese restaurant

Dozo Sushi is a Japanese restaurant in Soho, London.  While its name strongly suggests that it specialises in sushi, its main menu actually features many other items including grilled dishes, bento boxes and noodle soups.  So there's definitely something for most people, should you not fancy sushi.

The girlfriend opted for a donburi dish - specifically a sushi don.  Essentially a sushi don is a large bowl of sushi rice with salmon sashimi on top, served alongside a miso soup.  If you like salmon sashimi but want something a bit more filling, this is a good choice; it is a simple yet great tasting and filling dish.  

Sushi don.

I do like a good noodle soup, so I opted for the Spicy Ramen.  This consisted of ramen noodles (obviously), stir fry beef, fish cake, nitamago egg and vegetables.  There were lots of different ingredients and flavours here - I quite enjoyed it and was glad I ordered it.

Spicy ramen.

As we paid the bill, the waiter gave us 10 per cent discount for paying by cash - worth knowing if you're planning a visit and fancy a bit of a discount.

Closest Tube: Leicester Square

Sukhothai: excellent Thai restaurant in Hornchurch

Sukhothai is an excellent Thai restaurant in Hornchurch, Essex.  The food is great, the staff are friendly, the restaurant is busy (always a good sign) and the interior has a clean feel. 

Tom Yum soup.  Sorry for the shadow >_< 

There's a good selection of food on the menu.  There are soups, curries, salads, rice, noodles - the usual you'd expect from a Thai restaurant.  But the great thing about +Sukhothai Restaurant is that - from two separate visits - every dish I've tried is excellent.

Moo Ping - grilled pork skewers.

Tiger Cry - grilled beef sirloin (medium) with mint and coriander. 

Thai curries are always popular and a visit to Sukhothai wouldn't be right without trying one.  There are various meat curries available - beef, chicken, duck, pork, prawn - with different degrees of spiciness; this means there's a good chance you'll find the right dish for you.

I believe the restaurant is family-run and I had the same waitress on both of my visits that were five months apart.  Either way, the staff are really friendly and are knowledgeable about their menu and were keen to advise on what to order.  I'll definitely be heading back to Sukhothai next time I'm in the Hornchurch area.

Nearest Tube: Upminster Bridge or Hornchurch

The Magic Mushroom

The Magic Mushroom is a restaurant that serves contemporary European food in Billericay, Essex. 

From what I had heard, it has a reputation for providing decent food at reasonable prices and several of my family members had been several times before. So naturally I was eager to try it out for myself for the first time. 

Soft shell crab.

If soft shell crab is on the menu, then I am almost certain to order it - and this is exactly what I did. Presented with a wedge of lemon, mixed salad leaves and tartare sauce, this was the perfect start to a meal. The crab was crispy yet soft and moist - and I wouldn't have minded having another.

Steak.

I opted for a rare steak for my mains. I had no complaints about the steak - it certainly was rare when I cut into it and the meat was soft and tender enough.

I was really looking forward to my dessert - the bavarois, or 'Bavarian cream'. This was because - quite frankly - I had no idea what it was and I quite like trying new foods. It's a like a thickened cream - much thicker than meets the eye.  Served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, strawberries and sauce, it was a fresh yet very filling dessert. I definitely didn't need more food afterwards.

Bavarois - standard edition.

And best of all, the kind +Magic Mushroom Restaurant staff made a special birthday edition for our table, as we were out celebrating a birthday that night. It came complete with edible chocolate balloons and writing - lovely!

Bavarois - birthday edition.

I had a decent evening at Magic Mushroom and would go back again. The restaurant was packed even on a week night (always a good sign) so it is probably a good idea to call ahead if you decide to go.

Birds Eye's brilliant pay-by-picture pop-up restaurant

Birds Eye has created a unique and rather brilliant online campaign to promote its Inspirations food range.

Over the past couple of days, Birds Eye has set up a 'Picture House' pop-up restaurant along Grape Street, London.  The unusual thing is that diners pay for their meals not with cash or credit but with pictures of their food posted on social media with the hashtag #BirdsEyeInspirations.  Diners gets a free meal, while Birds Eye get real-time and user-generated promotion and feedback - a win-win situation.  I was lucky enough to get on the guest list and visited the pop-up for lunch today.

With each diner presented with an iPad, I had a choice of three dishes:

1. 'Chicken Inspirations' - with garlic and herb sauce, crushed peas, olive oil poached asparagus and romano pepper gremolata.
2. 'Fish Chargrills' - with sunblushed tomato, basil and oregano, roasted potatoes, wilted spinach and buttered brown shrimp. 
3. 'Rice Fusions' - with smoked aubergine, goats cheese and soft herb fritters.

Fish Chargrills.

Being a seafood lover, I naturally opted for the Fish Chargrills, prepared in the open kitchen.  Flaky, moist, well-seasoned and neatly presented, the dish could fit well on the menu of a more well-established restaurant.

Side shot of Fish Chargrills.

Open kitchen.

To my delight, dessert was available too.  Vanilla ice cream, crumble, strawberries and passion fruit - there was literally nothing not to like with this and it rounded off a fantastic midweek lunch.  

Sadly, the pop-up restaurant will now be moving away from London and will be setting up in Manchester and Leeds in June.  If they're set up as well as the London one, then I'm sure diners will have a great time.  Let's hope more food companies promote their products this way in the future!

Inside the restaurant.

Bibimbap (Charlotte St): Why this is the place to go if you're after a tasty, quick and good value meal in London

Bibimbap restaurant in Charlotte Street, London, is a fantastic little Korean eatery specialising in - you guessed it - bibimbap.

What is bibimbap?

It means 'mixed rice' in Korean and is a popular dish in the Asian country.  It's best to visualise this, so this is how my fillet beef bibimbap (with optional egg) at +Bibimbap Charlotte St looked like:

Fillet beef bibimbap with rice and vegetables inside a hot stone bowl, plus an optional egg.  

Their menu features a decent choice of different bibimbaps (10 in total), each one full of delicious rice and toppings inside a very hot stone bowl.  Vegetarian bibimbaps are available, as well as ones with chicken and pork.  Other Korean side dishes are on the menu too, including favourites such as seafood pancake and kimchi.

To eat it is simple: as soon as it arrives, begin mixing all the ingredients together inside the hot bowl.  The trick is to regularly mix everything, otherwise the rice can become dry and overcooked at the bottom.  (And in case you're wondering,  only the fillet beef bibimbap has raw meat, the others are pre-cooked).

How my bibimbap looked after I gave it a good stir.

Bibimbap is wonderfully tasty, quick, healthy and affordable - most dishes are under £10.  If that floats your boat - and it should - give the Bibimbap chain a go - there's one in Soho too ( +Bibimbap Soho ).

The interior in Bibimbap is relaxed, informal and cosy.  Korean popular culture is very apparent with many posters from films and musicians on the walls.  

Where to dine near Bassenthwaite Lake (Lake District): The Pheasant

During a recent trip to the Lake District, the owner of our guest house suggested that the girlfriend and I try The Pheasant - a hotel and restaurant near Bassenthwaite Lake.

The restaurant is actually made up of two separate rooms - The Fell Restaurant and The Bistro.  Both share the same menu, but the former includes a 'cover charge' of £2.50 for 'relaxed ambiance', views and home-made bread.  We opted for The Bistro.

The scotch eggs were a great start, with a lovely soft yolk and a crispy outside.  The ketchup was home-made and had a bit of mustard in it to give it a bit of a kick - something a bit different.

Scotch egg.

My chicken and vegetable pie was piping hot.  The pastry top was crisp, while the filling was full of moist chicken.  However the accompanying vegetables - green beans and broccoli - were quite bland and unseasoned.  The mashed potatoes were fine though.

Chicken and vegetable pie.

The girlfriend's lamb was soft, juicy and had a nice pink colour.  The gravy worked well with the lamb, while the mint sauce had both mint and onion flavours in abundance - perhaps too much.

Medium-rare lamb.

While there were a few things we would have preferred differently, we nonetheless had a positive experience at The Pheasant.  Its modern feel (despite it being in a very old building), attentive and friendly staff, and proximity to Bassenthwaite Lake will appeal to the many visitors around there.

Dimple glass.

Five reasons why you should try Vital Ingredient

I recently won* a tasty lunch from the lovely people at Vital Ingredient - the fast food chain known for its healthy 'eat your way' salads.  It was an enjoyable lunch and, having had positive experiences there several times before, I decided to give you five reasons (in no particular order) why you should try Vital Ingredient.

Egg pasta, tuna, vine tomatoes, boiled egg, potatoes, edamame beans, ranch dressing.

1 The choice is great.

This is typically how ordering a salad works at Vital Ingredient: pick one of five bases for your salad, choose one of 10 items from the deli counter, four of 34 items from the veg counter and then one of 10 dressings.  A full list can be found here.  

While this might sound a bit complicated at first, all it means is that you're spoilt for choice and there's little excuse for not finding a combination you like.

And if you don't fancy a salad, their full menu have all sorts of hot foods, desserts, drinks and breakfast.

2 It's healthy.

Any seemingly healthy food can be turned unhealthy if you add too much of this and too much of that.  Thankfully the folks at Vital Ingredient have created a really easy-to-use Nutritional Calculator, helpful for those on strict health regimes and diets - or if you're just plain curious.  

Nutritional value of my salad.

3 It's filling.

Some salads can leave you hungry and wanting more?  Luckily, Vital Ingredient has plenty of filling ingredients to keep you going throughout the day.  Rice, pasta and potatoes are all available, for example.

4 They deliver.

Vital Ingredient is a pretty common sight in the City of London, where there are loads of office workers.  If however you and your team are a bit too busy to go out at lunch for whatever reason, they also deliver a range of platters - check out their delivery menu for more details.  

I'm yet to try this out yet - but they do look good!

5 It's tasty

Last but not least, the combination of fresh ingredients and great choice lead to a tasty meal!

In the past, I was always a bit unsure about a 'salad place' for lunch, but I decided to give it a try one day and I actually quite like it now.  Give it a go!

* If you're curious, this is how I won the caption competition...

Source

Disclaimer: although I won a free lunch, Vital Ingredient did not know I would write a blog entry and therefore did not influence the content.

JRC Global Buffet (Ilford) is some sort of food theme park and here's why

JRC Global Buffet in Ilford is bonkers - it's like a food theme park in there.

The place is big - very big - and possibly one of the largest restaurants I've been to.  It's no wonder why; there are food stations from 12 different different countries.  Like Asian food?  There's Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese (including live teppanyaki grill).  You can also get Spanish food, Italian pizza, pasta, salads and a variety of tasty-looking desserts.

As far as buffets go, this one is pretty good.  It's obviously not fine dining, but choice is good, food tasted fresh on my visit and the owners have made an effort at presentation, the latter of which you can't normally say for other buffets.

Check out some of the pics I took below.  (Sorry I wasn't able to get more snaps of the food stations; the restaurant was pretty full and it was not easy to take that many photos!)

Part of the dessert station.  There was a LOT more on offer!

Meats and seafood for the teppanyaki grill.  Pick a maximum of two items per visit.

Grilled scallops were good - and big!

Dim sum station.

Various meatballs, seafood balls and crab.

So if you live nearby and are pretty hungry, then consider JRC.  At £15.99 per person on Sunday, it's not bad value if you have an appetite.

And don't forget to print your discount voucher from their website!

  
Nearest station: Ilford

The Noodle House comes to London: a good start for the Asian food chain from Dubai

The Noodle House is a restaurant chain owned by Jumeirah Restaurants from Dubai, which today (Thursday 17 April 2014) opens its first UK branch in Soho, London.

I was lucky enough to go to one of its 'soft opening' nights yesterday, effectively an opportunity for staff and management to practice running the restaurant ahead of the real opening - definitely a smart move.

But a soft opening doesn't mean it was quiet - in fact far from it. It was full of diners (apparently made up mainly of friends and family of staff) and had a lively atmosphere, so it very much looked the part in one of the busiest parts of London.

The girlfriend and I tried a selection of dishes. First came the 'Asian Salad'. Despite the generic name, it had a delicious and tangy citrus sesame dressing with a fried wonton skin on top - very refreshing. There were lots of ingredients in this (see caption), which meant there were lots of interesting textures and flavours; it was definitely not a boring salad.

'Asian Salad': mixed greens, mangetout, red onions, spring onions, coriander, baby corn, cashews and sesame seeds tossed in citrus sesame dressing, served with a crispy wonton.

The (seven) butter prawns were excellent. Served with the head separated (but still on the plate), the sauce was perhaps the real star. Cooked in a 'chilli curry butter', the dish didn't taste like any one particular ingredient, but rather a nice blend of many ingredients coming together. The char-grilled nature of the dish definitely added a slightly smoky flavour.

Butter Prawns: char-grilled garlic marinated king prawns tossed in a chilli curry butter, topped with fried curry leaves and black vinegar.

The bakmi goreng was another solid effort. The sauce had a subtle spicy kick after every mouthful. It's not too spicy though, so most people will be able to handle it. If you like stir-fried noodles, this would be a good choice.

Bakmi Goreng: udon noodles with chicken, prawns, bean sprouts, cabbage, pak choi, eggs and a sweet chilli ginger sauce, garnished with spring onions and fried banana shallots.

The vegetable fried rice was not bad and was generally a nice accompaniment for the rest of the meal. Fried rice is a pretty easy thing to make so it's difficult to get wrong.

Vegetable Fried Rice: wok-fried jasmine rice with peas, sweetcorn, carrots and mangetout. 

Moving onto dessert, the girlfriend and I shared a lime and ginger cheesecake. Sometimes cheesecakes can be quite heavy but this one was of the lighter variety - not too rich. The lime and ginger flavour was quite subtle and I personally would have preferred it slightly stronger, though the girlfriend thought it was fine - so all down to personal preference I guess.

Lime and Ginger Cheesecake. 

As expected with a soft opening, there were a couple of very minor hiccups along the way. The two-person cocktail we initially ordered was not available, and we received two portions of the butter prawns (not that we're complaining!) - but this is to be expected from a new group of people working together, so I'm not going to criticise them for that.

More importantly, the staff I interacted with were friendly and seemed positive and excited about the restaurant. Plus, underpinning all of it is that the food is pretty good - not a bad effort at all.

The Noodle House also serves cocktails.

Closest Tube: Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square



Disclaimer: I won a competition to attend the soft opening, which included a free meal (but not drinks). However at no point was I asked to write a positive review in return.