Gaucho Sloane Restaurant Review

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

The Gaucho has a reputation that precedes it. Quite a few people were jealous that I was reviewing it, more so than any other restaurant I have reviewed. It was all apparent why when we arrived. To begin with, the decor is stunning. The chairs are comfortable: high-backed with a black and white animal print. The entire place is just stylish. The atmosphere is not stuffy and there are a few families here with (well-behaved) toddlers.

Our waiter, Ewan, is incredibly knowledgable. He knows everything about the food and the wine. His recommendations are also excellent.

Our meal is started off with some bread and Chimichurri sauce, a staple in Argentina. It is made from parsley, garlic, fresh pepper, olive oil, red pepper and red wine vinegar. The bread comes in a good variety: there is some corn bread and some cheesy bread to go with the ordinary bread. All tastes great and fresh.

For our starter I have the pan-fried scallops with watercress purée, smoked pancetta and confit red peppers and my colleague has the crab caustic with egg, lime and avocado. The scallops are perfectly cooked and the sauce is wonderful, the smoked pancetta on top really works too. The crab is delicious and unique. It is presented on top of mashed potato. The avocado is perfect and the hint of egg is unusual but works well. It is complex and creative. The potato is smooth and well seasoned. It holds everything together.

For my main I have to have a steak, the Gaucho is famous for them after all. I have the churrasco de lomo: spiral cut, marinated for 48 hours in garlic, parsley and olive oil. It is 400g of pure heaven. Even more impressive because I cannot have it medium rare as I am pregnant but the chef manages to make it taste amazing, even though it has to be well done. This is the best steak I have ever had in my life. High praise indeed as I have eaten a lot of steak. It is just perfect and you can tell that a lot of time and effort went into it. Our waiter, Edwan, brought out the steak in advance to show us. The cows are grass fed and roam around an area of Argentina three times the size of the UK. I have a garlic hollandaise sauce on the side which is simply divine. However, the steak is so marinated and delicious it could be eaten on its own.

My colleague has pork belly with pumpkin purée, glazed button onions and buttered cabbage. He says it is a triumph: perfectly cooked pork with sweet caramelised onions and cabbage. It has a fantastic, sweet, sticky sauce that is not heavy and is divine with the pork.

For our sided we have baked and grilled sweet potato, brushed with butter. It is perfect. We also have some perfectly cooked buttery curly kale.

To drink we have mocktails. I have a virgin mojito that tastes just like the real thing and my colleague has a fruit punch. Both are excellent. I could drink a virgin mojito everyday.

For dessert I have a chocolate and raspberry alfajores: milk chocolate and raspberry parfait cake with italian meringue and crushed raspberries and my colleague has dulce de leche cheesecake, a salted dulce de leche. Both desserts are delicious.

Gaucho also have an extensive and wonderful list of Argentinean wine. Make sure you have some. There is also the Bar Galante next door. It is a beautiful bar, very stylish and perfect for sipping a cocktail or two.

I can highly recommend Gaucho. It is right at the top of my list of the best restaurants in London. Just superb.

Gaucho – Sloane
89 Sloane Avenue
London
SW3 3DX
Phone: 0207.584.9901
Fax: 0207.584.0045

Carluccio’s Metquarter Liverpool Restaurant Review By Dawn L Foster

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Frostie

Carluccio’s is one of the more up market Italian Restaurants in Liverpool City Centre and it shows. I went for a meal with a friend on Friday evening. As well as having the restaurant they also have a shop.

I am a wheelchair user and found the entrance door a bit heavy to open so it was good I had my friend with me.

Restaurant Review - Carluccio's Metquarter Liverpool

The staff were very attentive and gave us both time to decide what we wanted to eat. My friend needs to eat Gluten free food and was very pleasantly surprised to see that the restaurant have a full menu of Gluten free food.

For our starters my friend had Ham with Mozzarella and I had Calamari which was very close to being the nicest Calamari I’ve ever eaten. For our main meal Hayley had Rib Eye Steak and a side of Potatoes Gratin, my main meal was Chicken & Lemon Risotto which again was lovely and I really enjoyed it, my side was Garlic Bread. For our sweets Hayley ate Chocolate Pudding and I had Ice Cream with a Carluccio’s wafer, the wafer actually had the name of the restaurant on which I thought was a great touch.

For drinks Hayley had Peach Juice and I had a glass of wine.

We both had a great night and would definitely recommend Carluccio’s to anyone.

By Dawn L Foster

Foxcroft and Ginger

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Foxcroft and Ginger was opened 4 years ago, Foxcroft & Ginger takes its name from its owners. Quentin’s family name is Foxcroft and his wife Georgina who is a very proud redhead. With their combined passion for food and relaxation and seeing as there was nowhere that offered a totally chilled out place to just sit, eat and enjoy the finer things in life, they set about brining a little place to relax, eat fabulous food, sip tremendous coffee and indulge in a spot of wine. They found a missing niche and they have certainly done a grand job of filling it.

We where invited to sample the menu and see for ourselves that this place has ready got what it takes to make any hungry Londoner satisfied in more ways than one.

The decor is modern and industrial with exposed brick walls, wooden tables and benches that have comfy cushions. Very welcoming when you want to while away a few hours enjoying fine coffee, fresh orange juice and delectable food.

We where seated upstairs near the window, perfect for food photography. If you know me by now you will know I’m rather partial to a good foodie shot. Fashion and food are my favourite things in life and when you find a fashionable place to eat that makes the heart race a little faster.

We ordered our coffees, Ian went for the long black and I had the Aeropress, Mine was like nectar, no sugar or milk was needed although they did give me a nice little jug of steamed soya milk on the side. By all accounts Ian’s coffee was rather good too.

We indulged in a drop of freshly squeezed orange juice that was sublime and complemented or brunch so well. Served in mini bottles they looked just perfect nestled on the little wooden table.

Now for the main event….the food. I have never seen eggs Benedict served with pulled pork before so this is what I opted for. Ian had the hash brown, sausage, egg breakfast with Bloody Mary sauce.

My perfect eggs on perfect soft, lean pulled pork that melted into the sourdough bread so tenderly. This is what Sundays where meant for. Ian’s dish was accompanied by lots of nodding in my direction so I feel he felt the same.

We then paused for a while chatting about our weekend and how great the place was. Trying to pick fault but alas all we could come up with was that we actually live a little too far away and it meant we couldn’t make it our regular Sunday haunt!!

Never one to pass up on pudding even brunch has to have a sweet! Ian decided to go for a pot proper tea and a freshly made scone with jam. Keen not to pile on too many pounds I could only muster a herbal tea! Letting the side down I know, but did you see the size of my meal?!

Now we have to point out here that yes this is rather a picture packed review but seeing is believing and we needed to do this place justice, and you know me…photography and Personal styling are my main things, along with of course writing for Frost and my own fashion magazine!

All the food served at Foxcroft and Ginger is all made on the premises including the jam, scones, cakes and even the bread. Most of the cakes and bread are sold to other local establishments and they only purchase local produce for around the area.

If you haven’t paid them a visit you really should, if you are lucky enough to live near by we are very jealous and wish we could sample the entire menu! Saying that we defiantly will be back as it’s top of our list as everything we saw served looked utterly beautiful.

Top marks for presentation, satisfaction, attention to detail and the staff where delightful and attentive.

We give it 5 stars here at Frost Magazine as all go this delicious food came in under £25!!!

Next week head over to SLBStyle.com and you can see the rest of our day filled with all the fashion and the London sights!

Follow them on Twitter @Foxcroftanginger.

Find them

3 Berwick Street, Soho
London W1F 0DR
.
69-79 Mile End Road
Whitechapel E1 4TT

For more photography info checkout www.sarahbacchus.com. For styling head over to www.slbstyle.com and follow me on twitter @sarahbacchus

Bobby’s Rock ‘n Roll Bruch, House of Ho | Restaurant Review

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Matthew Radway

Soho’s House of Ho (try saying that after you’ve had a few of their cocktails) is a Vietnamese restaurant serving up an unlimited brunch every Sunday called Bobby’s Rock ‘n Roll Brunch. The words ‘unlimited’ and ‘brunch’ are favourites of mine so I went down to check it out.

The restaurant itself has a light and airy industrial feel with touches of Eastern charm. It blends modernity and traditionalism seamlessly and this approach is reflected in the menu.

We began our brunch with sweet and refreshing lychee cocktails and some unfortunately bland edamame. Until this point I genuinely didn’t think it was possible to get edamame wrong – it’s just beans.

Luckily, that was pretty much the only criticism I have of the entire experience. And when your main issue is bland edamame then you know you’re doing something right.

Duck Pho Cuon

As part of the ‘unlimited’ brunch you are allowed to choose from a selection of small plates to start with. The highlights of these were the duck pho cuon and the 7 spice marinated squid. The duck came in soft rolls with a coating of crispy onions which was a great texture combination and was served with a spicy sauce that added just the right amount of kick. There was also a mushroom version of this dish that was perfectly fine but a little underwhelming in comparison. Both my colleague and I agreed that the fried squid was the best that we had ever tasted; it was marinated in the perfect combination and amount of spices.

Other dishes worth trying include the chili glazed chicken wings which came in a smoky, spicy, sticky sauce (another one to try saying after a few drinks) and the chicken pomelo salad which was a light and refreshing dish that helped combat the sheer amount of meat and carbs in the others (that’s not a complaint – they are excellent food groups).

Apple-Smoked Pork Belly

For our main courses we had the apple-smoked pork belly and the ‘shakin’ beef. Wow. Just wow. The pork is cooked for 36 hours and you could cut through the fat on top of it like butter. I don’t even like pork and I enjoyed this dish immensely. The beef is cooked for 30 seconds at 400 degrees and was beautifully tender. I honestly can’t choose between the two dishes – if possible, try them both.

The meal ended with an expertly cooked crème brulee but by this point I think I was too stuffed to fully appreciate it. I was also very drunk. Because that’s the really good thing about this meal – the alcohol is unlimited too. We were knocking back Proseccos and cocktails like nobody’s business. If that doesn’t convince you that this brunch is excellent value then I don’t know what will.

So get yourself down to House of Ho this Sunday. It won’t kill your wallet but it will break your belt.

Bubba Gump Comes To London

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

We where invited to the first UK’s first Bubba Gump restaurant last night and we have to say it was oh so very good! The staff where totally brilliant, very helpful and extremely attentive.

The American novelty fast food chain is best known for taking its inspiration from Forrest Gump and has over 30 restaurants around the world. They have a memorabilia shop on the ground floor for all the kids among us! Get ready for a rather picture packed article as we really needed to do this place justice. Here we go….Are you guys ready for possibly the best new dining experience to hit London in a very long time.

This quirky themed restaurant has shrimp as the main part of the menu with over 20 different styles to be precise. They do offer fish, steak, chicken, ribs, salads as alternatives for those of you that don’t really like a good old prawn. We indulged in so many different dishes and all had perfect and delectable flavours.

The menu consists of Coconut Shrimp, I’m not normally a huge fan of coconut but by golly was it good. They do Lobster Linguine, Dixie Style Baby Back Ribs. The most mouthwatering chicken that you will ever have. You will never want any other chicken dish anywhere else! No really it’s seriously so good and knocks spots off anywhere we have been in a long time.

We spent the entire evening indulging in shrimp, chicken, chips and dips. I can’t tell you how utterly impressed we where with this amazing place. You need to get ya running shoes on Forest style and head there very soon.

When we were served the huge portion of creamed mash 2 breasts of the best breaded chicken and an entire corn on the cob with perfect chicken gravy I nearly died and went to heaven. I kid you not when I say I have woken up this morning dreaming of my next visit!!

There was also appetisers like Mama Gump’s Garlic Bread Basket. Crab Stuffed Mushrooms and the Shrimper’s Net Catch!! We didn’t see any ‘Peas n Carrots’ sadly but expect they could well rustle some up for you if you had the whim!!

Oh did I mention the puddings…..

With plenty of Forrest Gump references all over the restaurant! It’s a fun foodies place to try out. Pictures, posters, quotes and memorabilia adorn every scrap of space. It’s a sight the behold and such a great night out you will long to watch the film and remember how wonderful life is. Well it’s like a box of chocolates isn’t it but here at Bubba Gump you know what your gona get… Darn amazing food and wicked cocktails that will have you coming back time and time again!!

It seats 400 over two floors, open seven days a week, 11.30am until late.

Bubba Gump in London is situated on 13 Coventry St, Piccadilly Circus, London W1D 7DH. Strictly walk-ins only. Now you can call an hour ahead but be warned this place is set to rock London so best get your Forest trainers at the ready as you might be standing around for a few blocks!! To get on the queue list and possibly save you some time, call 020 3763 5288. They can’t guarantee it will be really fast but you can be sure that the food is out of this world once yup get in there!!

That’s all I have to say about that!!

Apart from Follow them on Twitter @bubbagumpuk1

Follow me on twitter @sarahbacchus

www.slbstyle.com

www.sarahbacchus.com

Hakkasan Golden Week Restaurant Review

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

Hakkasan is one of the most happening places in London. This was abundantly obvious when we went to review it. It was packed out on a Tuesday night, filled with the great and good of London. When I went to the bathroom, I washed my hands next to three supermodels. The decor is stunning and everything about Hakkasan is glamourous and exciting.

We went to review the Golden Week, which celebrates the annual Chinese holiday Golden Week which is between the 29th September and 12th October. To mark Golden Week, the Michelin-starred restaurants feature limited edition authentic à la carte and set menus. In addition, guests who dine on the specialty menu will receive an exclusive gift in celebration of the holiday.

Golden Week is considered to be China’s biggest annual national holiday, spanning seven days in October where all workers are given three days of paid time off. Consequently it is a popular period of time when the Chinese travel significantly around the world to experience luxury offerings. Traditionally Golden Week takes place between 1st and 7th October, however Hakkasan will be offering the dedicated menus for a longer period of time to accommodate all travellers.

Executive Chef Tong of Hakkasan has created menus to cater specifically to traditional Chinese tastes. The set menu is £88.88 per person – celebrating the traditionally auspicious number 8 – and includes Peking duck with caviar; Dim sum platter; Spicy Szechuan rib-eye beef with enoki mushroom; Hakka stew pork belly; fried rice with diced abalone, and to finish, deep-fried sesame balls with green tea and peach. Golden Week à la carte menu includes equally authentic Chinese fare, such as Double boiled ginseng and Chinese herb soup with sea whelk; Braised claypot-cooked seabass and Fried tofu with spinach and seafood. A box containing hand-made golden Champagne and popping candy macarons are given at the end of the meal for each guest to take home as a gift.

To ensure the experience in the restaurants is enjoyable and efficient, Hakkasan has Mandarin-speaking staff on-site and in reservations, and accepts China Union Pay, the Chinese credit card of choice. Menus and websites will be Mandarin translated and staff will be fully trained in Chinese etiquette.

In addition to London, several Hakkasan restaurants around the world including Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and Shanghai will also be celebrating Golden Week with exclusive menus in order to provide the experience to Chinese nationals who are travelling elsewhere. Each location’s menu will vary and offer a slightly different twist tailored to each location.

We started off by ordering mocktails. I have a Coco Passion and my colleague has a Kowloon Cooler. Both are delicious. Our starters come and we are very impressed. Presentation is amazing, service is excellent and we are already impressed before even trying anything.

The food is amazing, as you would expect. Peking duck with caviar and a Dim sum platter. It is also unique. The duck is very special, not served like your usual duck, it is very neat and the pancake and duck is all together, sauce on the side with caviar on top. It is amazing. The dum sum platter is truly wonderful. These are the best dim sum we have ever had. Just exceptional.

When our mains arrive it really is something. The table really is not big enough: Huge Shrimp which is perfectly cooked, delicious Pak Choi, perfect Spicy Szechuan rib-eye beef with enoki mushroom; an amazing Roasted crispy chicken with wild mushroom in oyster sauce: Braised whole sea bass in clay pot which is perfectly cooked, the sauce is amazing and the fish is tender; Hakka stew pork belly which is just right; fried rice with diced abalone which is a particular favourite: creamy and in a delicious sauce. It is a feast and a rather superb one. The food is outstanding.

To finish we have deep-fried sesame balls with green tea and peach. These are small and delicious. Perfect to end the meal. The waitress tells me Hakkasan has a lot of regular customers and they really love it when something like Golden Week happens as they get to try something different.

As we are leaving we are handed a beautiful gift bag which has some delicious macaroons inside. We have them the next day as we are so full. Hakkasan is an amazing restaurant, one of the best in London. We will definitely be back.

Hakkasan Mayfair
Address: 17 Bruton St, London W1J 6QB
Phone:020 7907 1888
Hours: Open today · 12:00 pm – 12:30 am

http://hakkasan.com

Annie’s Restaurant, Manchester Review

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Keeley Watts

Surprisingly for a food blogger I hadn’t heard a lot of feedback about Annie’s Restaurant. I knew it was owned by Jennie McAlpine (also known as Fizz from Coronation Street) but that was pretty much it. Luckily for me a friend was invited to dine so I joined.

The interior was a surprise. Upstairs houses lots of comfy sofas and then downstairs you have the main restaurant with more seating. We were asked if we would like a drink prior to dining but we were both hungry so chose to go straight into the dining area.

I was shocked by how quiet it was, for a Sunday evening I was expecting it to be really busy with the Sunday lunch trade but there were only two other tables occupied, one with people we happened to know!

Having already looked at the menu my friend was incredibly disappointed that the cheese and onion pie was off at the time. She was intrigued to see what made a pie, chips and beans cost £12.95. The high pricing seemed to be a theme with a burger and chips costing £13.95 and bottles of wine on the wine list at an eye watering £150 per bottle. And that’s for a bottle of red, not a more celebratory bottle of champagne. Interestingly the cocktails are reasonably priced at £6.95 each. Something seems amiss here.

Anyway, onto the food. I ordered the potted mackerel to start with my friend going for the scallop and black pudding dish. The scallops were slightly overdone so a little chewy but not too bad. The black pudding was quite dry and chewy unfortunately so a little unpleasant. The potted mackerel wasn’t as described on the menu. Potted mackerel should be exactly that, flakes of mackerel potted with lemon juice and topped with butter, or that’s what I was expecting. What arrived as flakes of mackerel bound in mayonnaise with melba toast. The mackerel had been nicely seasoned and wasn’t a bad dish at all, it just wasn’t potted mackerel therefore not what I was expecting.

For main I went for the sea bass with my friend choosing the traditional Sunday lunch. The sea bass had been filleted and pan fried before being served atop a bed of pickled cucumber, mange tout and peas. A healthy option it was a good dish with the fish seasoned well, the pickled cucumber a nice touch and the mange tout still crisp. The peas were slightly overdone which, doesn’t really bother me, what bothered me was that the menu described the dish as being on a bed of spring greens. Whilst the vegetables on my plate were green and apt for the Spring season, they certainly weren’t spring greens. My friend wasn’t as lucky with her roast and this possibly explained why the restaurant was so quiet on a Sunday evening. The beef had been rested too long, the Yorkshire pudding hard, the vegetables far too soft and the potatoes mushy on the inside rather than being fluffy. Such a disappointment.

Things picked up with dessert. I had the cheese board which came with a nicely spiced fruit chutney. The menu didn’t state what the cheeses were or where they had come from as they do in other restaurants and the crackers were Jacobs rather than something more locally sourced but it hit the spot. My friend chose the jam roly poly which was slightly stodgy, as it should be, with a good jam running through it. It wasn’t amazing but it certainly hit the spot after her disappointing main course.

As we left we were bid farewell by the staff (who are great by the way. Really attentive, eager to please and chatty when encouraged) with packages of ginger crunch biscuits and jam. I have noticed that Annie’s now has an online teashop which is where these goodies can be purchased. And goodies they are. The biscuits, crunchy on the outside and slightly gooey in the centre had huge pieces of stem ginger running through them. I’d have been happy with these topped in custard as a dessert! The jam a similar story, good chunks of fruit that aren’t overly sweet and a lovely slightly runny consistency. Once again they are quite pricey with biscuits costing £3.95 and a jar of jam costing £3.85 but of good quality and something I would consider buying friends or family as a gift.

I am not sure what group of people Annie’s are trying to hit with their food and pricing but I won’t be rushing back. I know other restaurants in Manchester charging a lot less for larger portions of better quality.

Kingham Plough Review

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Jane Cable

Anyone who watched The Great British Menu couldn’t have failed to notice that fish course winner Emily Watkins kept apologising. For everything, really. So when the lights in the restaurant of The Kingham Plough dipped and danced a little it should have been no surprise to see Emily appear and apologise; they were new – the bulbs were too bright – she wanted to get them right.

When you own a pub restaurant, wanting everything to be perfect is no bad thing.

The Kingham Plough is a part of a Cotswold stone terrace about 15 minutes’ drive from Stow on the Wold and it’s probably only a little fanciful to say that the warmth of the sun on the stone extends inside the building as well. The young staff are friendly and helpful, and while interior designers have clearly been at work the look and feel of a village pub has been retained. The walls are decorated with local art (for sale) and the carefully mismatched furniture oozes rural chic. Not to mention comfort.

We ate in the restaurant although a full range of bar snacks (including deliciously retro pints of prawns and just plain delicious homemade pork pies) are available. Much has been made in other reviews of the sous vide cooking technique Watkins prefers, but to be honest, if we hadn’t been told, we wouldn’t have noticed. And anyway, I’m a great believer in letting the food speak for itself.

My starter was a rabbit sausage, resting on an oblong of pea puree and sharing the plate with a most attractive salad which tasted crisp, fresh and as good as it looked. My husband opted for the sea trout tartare which was served in a tower topped with an egg yolk. Before breaking the yolk he burrowed out a little from the bottom of the stack for me and that was lovely too.

We had wanted a wine which would take us through all three courses and here the young staff did let the Kingham Plough down slightly by recommending a bottle which really wasn’t appropriate, simply because it was popular. So we fell back on our own knowledge (time to fess up that my husband has certificates in this sort of thing and does spend some of his business life in the wine trade) and chose a more than acceptable bottle of Beaune which didn’t break the bank.

Although I am not a vegetarian (clearly, given the way I devoured the rabbit sausage) I decided on a beetroot soufflé with local goat cheese for my main course. I love beetroot and I love goat cheese and I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the soft and fluffy soufflé which perfectly combined them. Meanwhile my better half went for the pork wellington; a tender nugget of meat encased in homemade ‘hodge podge’ aka black pudding and the thinnest of thin sheets of pastry. I am told it was fantastic. But I didn’t get to try.

As ever, we were lured by the cheese; a selection from nine local cheeses – or all of them to share for £19. This really was a no-brainer and they came spread out along a wooden board with generous piles of homemade oatcakes, hazelnut fruit bread, celery and apple jelly. There was a modicum of confusion over which cheese was which – the blushing waitress told us Emily had prepared the board and they were always in the right order – she just wasn’t sure what the order was. But it didn’t matter. They were all quirky and original and it was the highlight of our meal taking our time over them and finishing off the Beaune.

The highlight of the meal; but not the highlight of our stay. We had booked a room for the night (clean, cosy, quiet and comfortable) which meant we were having breakfast. I am not a huge fan of the full English – give me a skinny latte and something chocolaty any day – but this time I was tempted. And besides, I hadn’t got my hands on any of the hodge podge pudding the night before.

As it happened, for me the black pudding was not the star of the show. Mainly because it had a great deal of competition. Homemade baked beans, for a start – made with real tomatoes, wonderfully seasoned. Thick, crispy bacon and mushrooms which tasted as though they had been picked from the fields just hours before. Proper leaf tea. And, best of all, a little skillet of drop scones (scotch pancakes, if you prefer), warm from the grill, just begging to be drizzled with honey.

Whether it was in revenge for the pork wellington, or just pure gluttony, I scoffed the lot.

Find out more about The Kingham Plough at www.thekinghamplough.co.uk

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