Carl was after dim sum, and I thought I'd drag him away from the usual Royal China which he favours and introduce him to Yauatcha on Broadwick Street. It is one of my favourite dim sum places in London, although it is completely untraditional, and the charging per pot of tea (at around £6 per pot) does drive me nuts.
We completely stuffed ourselves. For the traditionalists, we had prawn dumpling (蝦餃), scallop siu mai (燒賣), siao long bao (小籠包), char siu bao (叉燒包) and fried pork buns (生煎包). For the little less traditional (which I'm not going to try and translate into Chinese), we had prawn and beancurd cheung fun, venison 'char siu' puffs, salt and pepper quail, and duck and shiitake roll.
Verdict on the food: still a cut above the rest of the dim sum places in London, but some things not as good as it used to be. The siu long bao in particular had very tough skin, and there was quite a long wait between some of the dishes (despite the restaurant being half empty). The prices also seem to have been inflated since I was last here - even the most basic dishes are now at least £4/£4.50. Given that I am in theory unemployed, I was very glad when Carl offered to pick up the bill, but at £40 a head, it was pretty steep (even taking into account we overstuffed ourselves).
In other news, Jess was in town visiting from Australia this week, so I obviously had to show her the best of this great culinary city. Latium on Berners Street has been a little secret amongst my foodie friends for a long time now, and time and time again it has delivered the most tremendous value for money, amazing Italian food. The menu boasts a 3 course meal for under £30, and I am still amazed it has not exceeded this yet - please don't go to this restaurant and make it really popular so that prices go up.
Standards remained high on my latest visit - in the past (particularly with large groups), service has been a bit ropey, but we had the most charming waiter who flirted a little too much with our table. Jess loved their signature dish of fish ravioli:
I loved my starter of mozzarella with grilled vegetables (oh my god the mozzarella was good):
Martin (Jess' better half) had a very pretty ravioli with taleggio and walnuts:
Star of the show for me though was my main course. To be honest, I've never really been that wowed by Latium's main courses, the highlight is always the antipasti or the pasta for me. But this roast monkfish with pumpkin sauce and wild mushrooms was just perfect - lovely and light, full of flavour:
I was told during the meal that Latium now have a chef's table for £50 a head for 5 courses - that's my birthday dinner for next year sorted then :p
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