Dean Street Townhouse

It was the mention that they do scotch eggs that made me want to go to Dean Street Townhouse. And when I got there, I literally wanted to eat everything on the menu, every starter, every main, every dessert, and even the stuff they have for high tea. There is no pretending that it is to appeal to those of us who went to school in this country, everything is nursery comfort food, and I am not at all ashamed to say that I am already pestering my friends to join me for a return visit.

It was pretty quite on the Sunday evening I went, which gave me time to assess the mad interior. The dining room is very cosy (to the point where I think it would be quite oppressive if you were staying at the hotel and coming down for breakfast, no windows at all!), and strangely decorated with some very random art. Over our table was a quote by Lindsay Lohan. I'm also still making up my mind over whether I liked the toilets. Very cosy again, and I liked that there is a sink in each cubicle, but the mirrors were very self-consciously aged, paired with some comedy looking Cowshed toiletries. Obviously this kind of Soho irony is completely lost on me.

But back to the food. As I said, everything is what you would find on a school dinner menu or Little Chef actually, including fish & chips with 'fat marrow peas'(Dave very hopefully thought it came with bone marrow, hahaha!), 'mince and potatoes', and even a mixed grill. And it was all a lot cheaper than I had anticipated. I had read somewhere that their scotch egg was £7.95, completely ridiculous yes, but most mains came in at around £12-15, not bad for that part of town. You can also order from the high tea menu which had things like scotch eggs and chicken livers on toast, all of which were around £4-5 each.

Dave teased me relentlessly for ordering prawn cocktail for my starter. I don't care how old fashioned it is, I really fancied it! And it was a very good one too, only complaint was that the portion is a big too big:

Dave went for a more adventurous grilled octopus with chickpeas, and managed to take a very arty photo of it. It was a bit meh on taste, however, the chickpeas seeming cooked in a tin of tomatoes:

I had been hankering for roast chicken ever since Canteen decided not to cook any for lunch earlier on in the day, so I was most excited to see it on the menu. It is only for 2, and at £32 for 2 I thought it was quite bargainous, given that you get a chicken supreme and a whole leg each! Definitely way too much food, but this might be the best roast chicken I've ever eaten (granted I don't eat roast chicken that often)!!! The roast tatties were a bit rubbish though, even I make better ones :p

I was thoroughly, thoroughly stuffed after eating literally half a chicken, but I couldn't quite resist the pudding menu (and it is definitely a pudding menu, not a dessert menu). Rice pudding with raspberry jam was so right and so yummy, with an individual bit of skin on top. I also need to go back to try their sherry trifle for two:

Oh, and another thing I liked was that there was a long wine by the carafe list, useful as Dave had overdone it (again) the night before and was feeling a bit fragile. That didn't stop us having a glass of port each to finish though. I have gained a real fondness of a little glass of port recently, I asked for one in a pub the other day and they did laugh at me. Oh well, hurrah for Dean Street Townhouse, exactly the sort of place to enjoy a warming glass of port on a winter's evening.

Quick round up of wonderful places

Quickly before my laptop battery dies, some other lovely places I want to shout to the world about!

First, I probably don't need to tell you about The Eagle, heralded as London's first real gastropub, but I only went there for the first time a few weeks ago, and it does trump even its sisters Great Queen Street and Anchor and Hope. I guess it's because at the two sisters, both of them are deep dark rooms where you feel ever so slightly stressed out from the raucous for a table, whereas The Eagle has gorgeous big windows on two sides, and even on Saturday lunch felt chilled out.

Somehow I managed to restrain myself and ordered only a soup (ok, I did have a pastis de nata afterwards, but you should have seen the menu on offer!). It was probably one of the best soups I've ever eaten in a restaurant, let alone a pub, and so nice to see cheap ingredients turned into something of real glory. Here is their mussel and pollack chowder:

Fil quite uncharacteristically (I thought) went for a pork chop, which came with lentils rather than the advertised black beans, as well as a huge layer of yummy fat along the edge:

Plus, sitting by the window meant I took decent food photos for once :)

Another place I was seriously impressed with recently is Da Mario on Endell Street. When Lindsay told me we were going to an Italian place in Covent Garden for our big girlie night out, I was definitely more than dubious, so what a pleasant surprise to now crave one of the dishes I ate there. It's obviously run by a big Italian family, whose father openly flirts anything female that works through the door, so we us 9 girls were treated to some fabulous Italian hospitality.

Their menu is very very long, which again made me feel dubious, but not one complaint was heard on our table. I started with their stuffed baby octopus on chickpeas: not a combination I would think of, but it definitely worked:

But the thing I was seriously impressed with was their homemade pasta (not sure what the name was, but big fat flat tubes) with a sausage and broccoli sauce. Sounds anonymous enough, but oh my god so so so so so satisfying. The sauce was sparing but very unctuous at the same time, if that makes any sense, the balance of the whole dish was just perfect for me:

Gah, I only ate dinner (a very fat Chinese New Year dinner at that) about an hour ago and I'm salivating again!! Need to go back...

Salad

Salad has entered my life is rather a big and intrusive way recently, which also partly explains my inability to blog for the last month or so. I do think it is mightily strange for a grown man to be so fond of raw vegetables, but I have learnt to love it. Here's one of Fil's magnificent salad creations (and yes, readers, this is a side salad for 2!):


One of the good things about all this, of course, is that I am rediscovering how I love weird and wonderful combinations of salads, as showcased by our trip to Ottolenghi's. I've read Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes in the Guardian for many months now, and generally they are the sort of recipes that sound so good that I will cut it out, put in a folder, and never revisit again. I particularly like that there is a strong Middle Eastern vibe in his food, and everything sounds very zingy.

The Islington branch we went to was rammed on the Saturday night we visited. We got there super early at 6pm and managed to grab one of the last spaces at the bar in an otherwise fully booked dining room, and all night long the maitre d' was laughing at the hopefuls walking in who then promptly walked out again. I can sneer all I like about Islington-ites, but even I have to admit I have very similar taste buds to them.

Potentially my favourite thing was a very simple salad of pumpkin with manouri cheese, a Greek cheese which I've never had before. I was expecting something quite sharp like feta, but its smoothness and slight citrusiness was totally delicious with the pumpkin:

Less successful was their version of tuna tataki, which came with a soggy breadcrumb and a bit too inoffensive wasabi sauce:

Their pigeon (or was it quail?) was a little unmemorable:

But we loved the chicken livers and mushrooms on brioche toast. I like the fact that they can do the funky taste combinations as well as do classic dishes very well:

So it has inspired me to be a little more creative with my salads, but repeat visits will be quite harsh on the wallet. Each little plate (they recommend you order 4 each) costs around £10-12, which I felt was all a bit expensive for something pitched to be casual (the salads are all sat in big bowls in an entrance, for example). I also saw that they do takeaway salad boxes at a slightly laughable £9.95 each. Obviously I'm not rich enough to qualify to be a trendy yummy mummy type yet, phew!