Big Apple Hotdogs (not quite a restaurant review)

Over the last couple of years, the street food scene has totally exploded in London and some stands proved to be so popular that they now have restaurants (step up MeatLIQUOR and Pitt Cue Company to name a few).

BigApple Hotdogs is a permanent stand next door to the Roadhouse bar on Old street, but also appearing at KERB food market at Kings Cross and now The Gherkin in the heart of the City and a mere 5 minute walk from my office.

It does exactly what it says on the tin - hotdogs just as you would expect to find in the Big Apple. Big and sloppy and totally delicious!

TBH (The Better Half) had been boasting about these for quite some time as he works near Old Street and when we visited a new, "all the rage" hotdog restaurant, he was even more insistent that nothing could beat the hotdogs from Big Apple Hotdogs. And so the #dogoff on Twitter began.

The Big Apple Hotdogs are made up of between 94-98% meat (pork and beef) and the casings are all natural. So none of that rubbish you would expect to find in the more commercial versions, and you can tell. There are four different hotdogs on the menu, all with hilarious names, we opted for the 'Big Dog' (£4.00). According to the website - a coarsely ground blend of pork and beef sausage, seasoned with marjoram, garlic and black pepper before being double-smoked over German beech wood. The buns they come in are locally made and as soft as a pillow. To the side there are your usual tomato sauce and different mustards, fried onions and homemade pickles. I loved that I was able to sauce my 'dog myself!  There was a distinct snap when you bit through the casing and then juicy meat. I could taste all the different elements, especially the garlic. In a nutshell, it was divine! This is what a hotdog should taste like.

 

 

I could go on and on about it, but all I will say is get yourself down to Old street or to one of the KERB locations and try one for yourself.

Abiye, the guy behind Big Apple Hotdogs, is fantastic and really takes the time to talk to all his punters. It sounds like he has some big ideas for his little stand...so watch this space!

 

 

Until we eat again!

 

 

Big Apple Hotdogs

www.bigapplehotdogs.com

 Old Street Cart
239 Old Street, London EC1V 9EY
(Tuesday - Friday 12 - 6pm)

 

Simpsons-in-the-Strand

The end of last week saw another 'end of project' celebratory lunch. I'm not normally this lucky to have two business lunches in one week, but it’s been a long hard slog, so more than deserved I think!

Simpsons-in-the-Strand is a British institution. It was opened in 1828 as a chess club and coffeehouse - what Wimbledon is to tennis, Simpson’s is to chess - and only opened its doors to women as recently as 1984. The restaurant was the first to wheel large joints of beef and lamb in on a trolley to the table and carve it there to avoid disturbing the chess players. A tradition they still carry out today. It is a glorious room, all wood panelling, oil paintings and plush carpets. The waiters are all dressed in dickie bows and it’s all very old school.

So onto the food - for my starter I ordered the Smooth duck liver pâté with grape chutney and brioche (£10). As it was described, the pâté was super smooth and very decadent. The portion was really big though and I didn't think there was enough of the grape chutney to cut through the richness of the pâté.

I ordered the Roast rib of beef (28 days aged) with all the trimmings (£27.50). It is their speciality and what they are most well known for, so when in Rome....

Almost as soon as our starter plates were cleared, the trolley came round with the biggest piece of beef I have ever seen. It was quite a spectacle watching the chefs carve up the meat. (Incidentally, Simpson's offers a meat carving course at £155 per person) I would've preferred to wait a little longer for our main course though and I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I would've had my starter had more time to settle.  Not only that, but all the food lacked seasoning and I had to reach for the salt shaker more than once. As roasts go, this was distinctly average. Considering this is what they are known for, it was pretty disappointing. Even the picture looks a bit brown and ordinary, doesn't it? The potatoes were a little too hard on the outside, but reasonably fluffy inside. The Savoy cabbage was bland but the creamed leeks were pretty tasty. I'm not a fan of Yorkshire puddings, so I didn't try it. They were huge though and looked good, if slightly too dark in colour.

 

 

 

The dessert choices were all the classic British desserts and after the huge starter and main portions, I really didn't feel like anything stodgy. As we did earlier in the week, the table ordered the Simpson's pudding sampler (£27.50 for 4 people). The platter included a treacle sponge with Madagascan vanilla, coconut pannecotta, and a raspberry sorbet. For me, the pannecotta was the tastiest. Creamy and just the right amount of wobble.

 

 

My overall experience was pretty mixed. The place is steeped in history and tradition and the service was outstanding throughout, but the food really lets it down. I think I could probably get a better roast at the local pub for a fraction of the price.

  

Until we eat again!

 

Simpsons-in-the-Strand

http://www.simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk/

100 Strand, London WC2R 0EW

 

Bread Street Kitchen

Gordon Ramsay restaurants have been like buses for me. I don't go to any for ages and then it's two in one week! I'm not a huge Ramsay fan, mainly because I doubt he's ever in the kitchen much any more. But I do love all the chefs that have come out of his kitchens - Jason Atherton, Angela Hartnett, Mark Sargent and the man overseeing Bread Street Kitchen, Stuart Gillies.

I was taken to BSK this week as an 'end of project' work celebration. The restaurant is situated in the One New Change shopping precinct, the first shopping centre to be built in the City for over 150 years! The restaurant is cavernous and very loud and every table was full when we arrived on a Monday lunch time, which speaks volumes about the quality of cooking coming out of the kitchen. The restaurant has been designed to look like a warehouse, all exposed brick and duct work, but with some fabulous Art Deco touches.

The menu is vast with a raw bar, salads, hot kitchen and wood stone section. I found this a little contradictory to the advice that Gordon Ramsay gives those that appear on his TV shows. Choosing was made a little difficult for some in the party and it didn't help that everything that came out of the kitchen looked so damn good!

We decided to forego a starter and for my main dish I chose the Braised mutton shoulder hotpot with potatoes and garlic brioche crumbs (£22) from the wood stone section. The weather has turned distinctly cooler and this was a perfect choice for a cold day. It was absolutely delicious and I have not stopped thinking about it all week. I'm trying to recreate it in my head, but I think I will just have to go back to BSK with my husband to have it again! It was rich with red wine and the potato on top mashed to a silky smoothness. Others at the table had the steak, pork belly with apple sauce (which looked good, but I am told that the crackling was tooth-breaking’ly crunchy) and the roast cod with artichokes and a caper sauce. The cod would've been my choice had I not gone for the mutton and it looked as delicious as it sounded. The table shared sides of coleslaw and glazed carrots. Both were very tasty.

 My main dish was a mammoth portion so I wasn't all that keen on a dessert, that and the fact that I am not really a sweet-tooth. The waiter could tell our indecision and suggested the table has a dessert platter to share. What a great idea! The platter had small versions of all the desserts on the menu which included bread and butter pudding, chocolate fondant, cherry bakewell tart and chocolate tart amongst others. I had a small taste of everything and must say that the chocolate tart was my favourite. It was rich, but not overly sweet and the chocolate almost shone, really very good.

 

 The service was relaxed and friendly. We had a trainee working on her first day along side our waiter. Watching the waiter, he was really patient and thorough with her - a good testament to him and the rest of the staff at Bread Street Kitchen. Throughout our meal we never felt intruded upon and it is not only a great place for a business lunch in the City, but also a great place to relax after some serious retail therapy at One New Change. As I was on a business lunch, I didn’t see the bill. But looking at the menu prices, it is priced very reasonably. All in all it was really enjoyable meal, I will definitely be back!

 

Until we eat again!

 

Ps: Thanks to David Martin at Bread Street Kitchen for sending me the pics. As I was on a business lunch, I didn't think it appropriate to whip out my camera to photograph my food.



Bread Street Kitchen
http://www.breadstreetkitchen.com/home
10 Bread Street, London EC4M 7AJ

Maze Grill

It was a very special friend's birthday last week. She loves Gordon Ramsay and as it was a momentous day for her, she decided to book The Butcher's Block at Maze Grill for 10 of her closest friends to help her celebrate.

I've been to Maze Grill a couple of times before, when Jason Atherton was still there....and before Hawksmoor (To me, the best steak in London) I remember loving Maze Grill though. It amazes me how quickly places fall out of fashion because I must admit to not giving it a second thought once the new breed of steakhouses opened up over recent years!

 

Maze Grill is located in the Marriott hotel in Grosvenor Square. It is a light and airy room that is designed to look like a modern townhouse and takes inspiration from a New York grill kitchen. The Butchers Block is a long table made of English oak located at the back of the restaurant overlooking the kitchen, with glass sliding doors to give your party a bit of privacy, but without losing any of the buzz from the restaurant.

 

 

 With the Butchers Block comes a set menu with quite a lot of variety, but also quite a hefty price tag of £80 per head. The birthday girl thought it better value to go with the a la carte menu and that is what we did.

 

It all started off very well. We had a warm welcome from our waiter; he talked us through the concept and introduced us to the chefs. There was quite a bit of friendly 'sparring' at this point about sport and national pride with the head chef being Australian and our party being mostly South African.

 

 

 While we made our choices, a couple of chopping boards arrived laden with sliders. (American for mini-burger) And this is where it all fell down.  The sliders were part of the set menu, which we decided not to go with ten minutes earlier.  Having let the waiter know of the mistake, he explained that the kitchen had already started cooking them before we changed our minds. Saying all of that, the sliders were good. Full of flavour, they had a smokiness to them that made them more interesting than an ordinary beef patty.

 

 

Being a grill restaurant, the whole party decided to go for the steak for our main course. There are four different types of beef on the menu - a 28 day aged Aberdeen Angus, 31 day aged Dedham Vale, USDA prime and Wagyu.  I chose the Dedham Vale sirloin steak cooked medium rare with a side order of chips.

 

 

The steak arrived exactly how I ordered it. It was perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. The chips were fat and crunchy. Why had it been so long since I'd been back here again? Some side orders of grilled Portobello mushrooms and spinach also came for the table, but the creamy mash that one of the party ordered never arrived. When we asked after it, the waiter said that as most of the party ordered the other sides they decided not to serve the mash! Um, I thought we were the customers? Not really their decision to make, or at least consult the person who placed the order. I'm sure she wouldn't have minded.

 

After our main courses were served I felt as though we were forgotten about, which is quite amazing considering where the table is placed - right by the kitchen. It took some time to have our plates cleared and the dessert order taken. We had pre- arranged for the kitchen to bring out a birthday plate for the special girl, but we had to prompt them to bring it out.  It was quite a difference from my birthday dinner at Theo Randall a few weeks before. Although it was a nice touch that a group of waiters came over and sang happy birthday. None of us ordered dessert because we were stuffed from the substantially sized slider and the 10oz steaks.

 

Happy birthday dear Petro!

Time for the bill. The birthday girl had generously said that she would pay for all the drinks prior to our meal and asked for this to be separate from the food bill. As came to be expected, this did not happen. So it was another ten minutes of trying to get the bill right. Frustrating at the end of the night, when you're ready to go home. Eventually we paid £65 per head between 10 people, but I suspect this would've been much more had we paid for the booze.

 

The new head chef at Maze Grill is doing an excellent job. Everything that came out of the kitchen was well cooked and flavoursome, but the service lets it down in a big way. Gordon Ramsay always places such huge importance on well organised front of house staff in his TV shows, but it would seem the cameras weren't rolling in his restaurant on this particular evening! They just need to get a bit more organised, I think it would improve the whole experience tremendously. For the kind of money we paid, I'm not sure I will hurry back!

 

 

Until we eat again!

 

 

Maze Grill

http://www.gordonramsay.com/mazegrill/

10 - 13 Grosvernor Square, W1K 6JP

020 7592 1373