Category: Eating out

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Blackfriars

On our September trip to Edinburgh we went to this fantastic little place to eat called Blackfriars. On our trip to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago we heard that the restaurant bit of Blackfriars is currently closed. It’s a real shame. The news reminded me of the great meal we had, which I didn’t blog at the time. So here it is now for you to read. The bar is still open, so go. It’s a great wee place!
What I loved about this place was the mix of great bar, serving interesting beers and small plates of food with a small restaurant next door serving a set menu.  We opted to eat in the restaurant and really enjoyed the feel of the place. Casual, intimate, but exciting!  

Although it was a set menu there was an element of choice in the main course and I loved the informality of the little dishes we started with:
Paprika almonds with grilled corn from the Blackfriars BBQ followed by smoked trout and smoked tomato from their cold smoker and homemade black pudding with chorizo and some onion purée. Every week the kitchen get whole trouts and cure them to use in the restaurant. I particularly loved the philosophy of this place, how they use their ingredients and present them simply so that the flavours speak for themselves.

    
Our second course was pan fried brill with poached langoustine tail, courgettes and sea aster. Another beautiful and simple dish.

  
The choice in main course was between lamb and partridge so as predicted Mr Frivolitea chose the lamb and I chose the partridge. Both came with salt baked beetroot, black cabbage and chanterelles. They were both wonderful but I think the lamb had the edge. 

    
We finished off with pudding of apple tart ( made with homemade puff pastry) damson ice cream and damson sauce. There was also some rosehip syrup on the tart which was delicious.

  
So there it is. I’m hoping the restaurant side of the business reopens and they produce wonderful food like this again.  The Edinburgh food scene will be richer for it.

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The Coach, Marlow 

Having visited The Hand and Flowers last year, we were intrigued to see what Tom Kerridge would do with a walk in only pub on the High Street. The Coach is pretty small but has a great feel with bespoke furniture and fit out that shouts quality but it doesn’t have the stiff service you can often get in a high end restaurant. This still has the feel of a pub with great service and friendly staff. 

The concept of the menu is different and really interesting.  All the dishes are starter size and the reccomendation is that you choose two or three dishes per person.  I particularly liked this approach. We often like to try a few things off a menu and this menu design made that possible.  It doesn’t lend itself to a cheap lunch out but it is certainly worth every penny. 

The dishes we chose were: Rotisserie beetroot, feta, Apple, horseradish and hazelnuts 

Smoked ox tongue, crispy cheek, and sauce gribiche

  

Chicken Kiev with cauliflower cheese

  

Rotisserie celeriac with honey and mustard seed glaze

  

Chips with bearnaise sauce 

  
The beetroot and celeriac dishes were particular favourites of mine though everything was of a really high quality.  

We finished off with a dessert each. I had lemon tart with raspberry sorbet which was perfectly zingy and the pastry  buttery and really short. 

  

Mr Frivolitea had warm chocolate tart with hazelnut icecream. A sort of chocolate fondant in a tart with wonderful candied hazelnuts to accompany. 

  

This is somewhere I would love to go back to, not least because there are several other dishes on the menu I’d like to try. Mr Frivolitea was eying up the small but perfectly formed burger so I think that will be on his list. 

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LoveCrumbs

You can never have too much cake….and at LoveCrumbs they have so much cake on offer you just need to keep going back to make sure you don’t miss out on something.  I’ve never come across anywhere quite like LoveCrumbs. Not only do they just serve cake and drinks but the cake menu is always really interesting. 

  

This time I had passionfruit meringue tart and Mr Frivolitea had cherry Bakewell tart. 

  

The other thing I love about LoveCrumbs is that even the drinks menu is exciting. Mr Frivolitea opted this time for lemongrass and marigold tea.  Everything is served on vintage China and the open teabags come with a flask of hot water which is a great touch.

If you ever go to Edinburgh, make sure this is on your list!

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Smith and Gertrude

I’ve been following Smith and Gertrude for a while on Twitter and after our visit to Pairings in York in January I was excited to try somewhere else that paired wine and cheese.  We were not disappointed! I love the feel of Smith and Gertrude, communal tables and music on vinyl, it’s a great place to spend an evening.

  
We both decided to go for a ‘native’ flight of wine paired with cheese.  Mr Frivolitea chose red and I chose white.  A flight consists of three 75ml glasses of wine chosen for you and paired with three cheeses.  The great thing about this option is that you try wine you would never have thought to choose if you were just going for a by the glass option. 

My white wine flight consisted of Godello from Galicia in Spain paired with bonnet a Scottish goats cheese followed by a really interesting Hungarian wine called Mad, a dry furmint from Tokaji that was paired with Comte and finally Lugana from Lombardia, Italy paired with Ubriaco, a cheese soaked in red wine. 

  
Mr Frivolitea’s red wine flight started with Bobal de Altas Tierras from Utiel-Requena in Spain paired with Manchego, this was followed by an Armenian wine Areni Noir paired with a mature Gouda and finishing with Barbera Superiore from Piedmont, Italy paired with Taleggio.  Mr Frivolitea particularly enjoyed the Barbera and ordered another glass.

  
We complimented our wine flights with a charcuterie board that consisted of Milano salami, Prosciutto, Scottish salami with fennel, Coppa and Tuscan salami.

  
We also had the most delicious Marcona almonds, rich and buttery tasting.

  
 I finished off the evening with the most fantastic glass of wine on reccomendation. It was called ‘Wild’ Sauvignon a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc but unlike any Marlborough I’ve had before. It was incredible! The only way I can think to describe it is that it had the familiarity of a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc but with a wonderful extra quality that felt almost Nordic or foraged. Almost impossible to describe but truly wonderful.

  
Smith and Gertrude is a fantastic place to spend an evening. Their passion for great wine shines through. We will certainly visit again next time we are in Edinburgh.

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The Haven cafe, Edinburgh

On our latest trip to Edinburgh we decided to find somewhere for breakfast near where we were staying in Leith. A quick ask of Twitter and Brew and Brownie had found The Haven Cafe for us.   It’s a great little place, full of quirky vintage items and lots of locals. Always a good sign.

  
Mr Frivolitea had the full breakfast and I had sausage, tattie scone ( which is very similar to potato bread back home) and mushrooms. 

  
This is a really friendly local cafe that does simple food really well. 

I very much had food envy when Mr Frivolitea’s breakfast arrived. He gratiously let me try some of the haggis and wow! It was wonderful! 

I’d definitely recommend this place, particularly if you are staying at the Premier Inn at Leith as it is only round the corner. We didn’t try the cakes but they looked fabulous.

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Brew and Brownie

I love this place. Everything about it. Right down to the hipster lighting ( light bulbs in jam jars )

You should go. Really you should. You might have to queue but that’s ok, it’s worth it.

We went for breakfast today and boy was it good.

I had the pancake stack with fruit compote, yoghurt and honey. Other options include salted caramel and banana. The pancakes are light and fluffy, the compote thick and not too sweet and the honey they use is beautiful.


Mr Frivolitea had the black pudding and smoked bacon stack with fried egg and the most wonderful vinaigrette.

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It came with a side of haxby baker toast and butter. How can you go wrong with that!

 Rounded off with a really good flat white ( ok, ok we had two )

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I don’t need to persuade you any more do I.

 

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The Palomar

You know the way I’ve mentioned before what Mr Frivolitea says about pink neon signs…….

    
Well this was, yet again, a sign of really really good things. I mean, I knew it was going to be good, Our friend JB has been telling us for months that we need to go and it has just won the people’s choice in the Observer Food Monthly awards. However it exceeded my expectations.  I loved everything about it.  It’s elegant, it’s vibrant.  We were given a seat at a table in the back corner. It was away from the heart of the restaurant which at first I thought might mean I was disappointed but actually our little corner was great.  The Palomar is all about sharing dishes, something I particularly love, and it’s my kind of food. Described by the restaurant as the food of modern day Jerusalem, the only problem with the menu is that it makes it really difficult to choose! At least the great thing about a menu of lots of sharing dishes is that you can try more things.

We started with Kubaneh.  A Yemeni pot baked bread served with tahini and velvet tomatoes.  The bread had a rich brioche quality  about it and the tahini, well, I’d buy it by the litre. It was rich and intense and absolutely delicious. 

  
We choose to have beetroot carpaccio from the raw bar.  The beetroot came with burnt goats cheese, hazelnut brittle, lentil tuille and pomegranate molasses vinaigrette. My favourite dish of the night I think. A dish that looked simple but was packed full of  little bursts of flavour and texture. 

  
We chose a Mackerel fricassee from the specials menu. It was served with a Tunisian fried bun, potato, cured lemon, capers and quails egg. I liked this dish but it was my least favourite of the night. I didn’t feel it had the same excitement of flavour and texture that the other dishes had. 

  
 We chose 2 dishes from the josper menu.  Cauliflower steak ‘josperized’ with cured lemon butter, homemade labneh and toasted almonds. This dish came close to the beetroot dish for me as favourite of the night. I love cauliflower and this dish was a revelation. The flames of the oven really intensified the cauliflower flavour and the accompaniments, particularly the chopped tomato, made for a really interesting dish. 

  
Finally Shakshukit ( deconstructed kebab with minced meat, yoghurt, tahini and pita). You can’t really go wrong with minced lamb can you? No, good, we agree. 

  
After a bit of a breather, and another glass of prosecco…. The prosecco glasses were so beautiful, we just had to….. We shared a dessert. Jerusalem mess – Labneh mousse, almond crumble, strawberries, lemon cream, elderflower and apple jelly and fresh sorrel.  This was my kind of dessert. The sharpness of the lemon cream and the intense bursts of flavour in the elderflower and apple jelly cubes were a delight.  It was a perfect end to the evening. 

  
I want to visit The Palomar again. There is so much on the menu that intrigues me and that I want to eat.  Next time I’m going to book to sit at the bar. I can’t think of anything better than the buzz of eating food that has been prepared right in front of me.  

  

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Blanchette, Soho

I really wanted to try somewhere new on this visit to London and so decided to ask Twitter where we should try. Well Twitter came up trumps, thanks to our friend Tom’s contacts.

What a great place! Tucked away in Soho, a small place with big personality.

We sat at the bar enjoyed a glass of wine and a selection of small plates of fantastic French food.

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I loved the relaxed, yet vibrant feel of this place. The food was in many ways simple but packed a punch. Classic flavours in smaller dishes enabling us to try more. We will certainly be back. I mean who can resist a glass of wine with frites and bearnaise sauce!

Our dishes: 

Pork, duck and fig terrine 
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Sautéed tiger prawns with glazed shallots, parsley, garlic and Pernod. Warm marinated rare breed beef with charred peppers and aioli. Frites with bearnaise sauce.

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Poached pear with blackcurrant, champagne mousse

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Pairings

Some might think that in early January, not long after Christmas excess, we might have had enough cheese and cured meats and we’d avoid them for a while…..what foolish people.  You can NEVER have enough cheese and cured meats and when you see that Pairings have a January offer of a bottle of wine and a platter for two for £25 how could you refuse? Exactly. 

This was our first trip to Pairings and it’s a great way to spend an evening if you don’t want a full meal.  I was really impressed with the quality of the platter and the choice available in meats and cheeses. The platter came with bread, honey, chutney, pickles and pork pie as well as our chosen meats and cheeses and it was great to see British cheese and cured meats in the selection. 

  
 We also ordered some harissa almonds, make sure you get some harissa almonds. 

  
This is a great addition to the York food scene, an independent venture that’s well worth supporting.

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Coppi

I’ve been wanting to try out Coppi for a while. We have been to Bartali, its little sister on the North Coast, and I spend most days jealous of the executive chef Jonny Phillips’ Instagram feed!  I am pleased to say that Coppi did not disappoint.  
What I love about Coppi (and Bartali for that matter) is the flexibility of the menu. If you want a big meal, 3 courses, then you can have them, but the cichetti and pizzetta allow for flexible eating and an opportunity to try lots of things. That’s important when you are indecisive like me.
We chose the crispy artichokes and chilli Mayo from the cichetti specials and five other cichetti dishes: Sicilian lamb and pistachio polpettina, feta fritters with truffle honey, goats cheese and smoked tomato pesto arrancini, crispy pork belly and pickled radicchio and duck ravioli fritti and truffled porcini aioli.  

  
We also couldn’t resist the portavogie prawns, lemon and garlic butter, grilled focaccia and rocket from the starters section and the duck, hazelnut and truffled honey Pizzetta.  

    
Everything had bags of flavour, simple yet brilliantly executed and the portavogie prawns were so delicious that I to restrain Mr Frivolitea from licking the plate! My only comment is that all our cichetti were deep fried and that wasn’t clear from the description. That isn’t a criticism as it tasted fantastic and it certainly wasn’t greasy or oily but I might have chosen differently to ensure variety had I realised. 

We rounded the meal off with a perfectly boozy and light tiramisu and I had a glass of prosecco. The bill – £40 for two people. You can’t go wrong with that. We will certainly return and Bartali is definitely on the list for a revisit in the summer!