Darbaar in The City - The Thrill of the Grill Menu Reviewed

Name: Darbaar 

Where: 1 Snowden Street, Broadgate West, London, EC2A 2DQ, http://www.darbaarrestaurants.com/

Cost: Average cost for a 3 course meal is around £35 per person (not including drinks or service). Light bites cost from £5 to £8.50, main courses range from £8 to £28. There are set menus at £40, £55 and £65.  

About: Opened in November 2015, and run by Chef Abdul Yaseen from Jaipur, formerly Head Chef of the Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen, the restaurant is set in a modern commercial building behind Liverpool Street station. Darbaar aims to offer a menu inspired by the banquets of the Indian Royal Court, with signature dishes like hunter-style guineafowl, and spiced kid goat biriyani. 

The restaurant has a sleek design with grey slate flooring, bare wood tables and chairs, a large open-plan kitchen along the length of the dining room, and eye-catching golden lamps. 

But despite the lavish decor and the chef's pedigree, Darbaar's tricky location does not make it a restaurant diners would simply stumble upon. On the mid-week evening we dined there, the place was less than half full apart from two large and rowdy tables of City folk having an office night out. 

What We Ate: We opted for the "Thrill of the Grill' set menu, with 6 courses at £65 per person. The appetiser was a famous street snack from northern India - Tawa Hari Tikki Chat - a deep-fried green pea and apricot cake (£7), served on a chickpea curry bed with tamarind and yoghurt, pomegranate seeds and micro-coriander. It was crunchy and had a lovely zingyness from the tamarind and yoghurt. 

The first starter was a large royal Madagascar prawn with griddled king scallop and a fried wild mushroom, coconut cream, tomato salsa.  With a delicious charred flavour from the tandoori grill, and top quality seafood - this was a great dish. 

Next was Murgh Malai - a kebab of chicken in a yoghurt marinade, served with Punjabi lamb chops and coriander curry, served in a dinky copper and steel serving dish. The chicken was excellent - succulent and well flavoured, and the lamb was tender, richly flavoured and gently spiced. 

The middle course was Tawa Macchli -  sea bream in banana leaf, served with a tomato and coconut chutney, yoghurt and rice. I wanted to love this dish, but for me, the fish was overcooked, and the marinade (coriander root, coconut and curry leaves) under seasoned. The yoghurt rice was at room temperature and had a very odd texture in my opinion. 

Better though was the main course - Raan-e-Mussalam, a double-roasted leg of lamb, with potatoes. Slow braised, then roasted for a crispy skin, the lamb was served on the bone. The meat was superbly soft and well flavoured with tomato and Indian spices - coriander seeds, cumin, curry leaf as well as onions and malt vinegar. This was the highlight of our dinner.

The accompanying side dishes were a naan bread basket, a creamy daal of black lentils in tomato sauce, and cumin saag (potatoes in spinach purée, chickpea flower, garlic and whole mustard grains).

Dessert was Shahi Kulfi (Indian ice cream) with pistacchio and saffron, served with an array of lightly crushed fruits of the forest. Flavoured with cardamon, the kulfi was well made, and prettily presented with ripe fruit and a scattering of pistacchio.  

What We Drank: We shared a bottle of Alsatian Riesling from Arthur Metz 2015 (£40). With aromas of orange, mandarin and mineral, this was good but seemed a little steeply priced given its quality level. 

Likes: The Murgh Malai (chicken and lamb kebab) and the Raan-e-Mussalam double-roasted leg of lamb were superb. 

Dislikes: The Tawa Macchli sea bream in banana leaf needed a bit more development from my perspective. Tucked away behind Liverpool Street Station, Darbaar is a little tricky to find. It is a large restaurant, and when it is not full there is a knock-on effect on the atmosphere.  

Verdict: If you work in the City of London, and fancy some good quality Indian cooking, Darbaar ticks most boxes. Recommended.

Duck & Champagne Menu at Michelin-Starred HKK - The Rolls Royce of Peking Duck Experiences at Unbeatable Value

Name: HKK - Duck & Champagne Saturday Lunch Menu

Where: 88 Worship Street, London EC2A 2BE, http://hkklondon.com/#home

Cost: The Duck & Champagne menu is available for Saturday lunchtimes only, at a cost of £49 per person. The menu is for two to share and includes a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne (which alone costs £79 on the a la carte menu) as well as a 4-course meal including a whole cherry wood roasted Peking duck (valued at £88 on the a la carte menu).

The Duck & Champagne menu cost £98 plus service for 2; if the Peking duck and bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne were to be ordered together from the a la carte menu, they would cost £167.

About: Tucked away in the City, a 5 minute walk from Liverpool Station, the 1-Michelin starred HKK is part of the renowned Hakkasan Group of restaurants. I was intrigued to learn of HKK’s new Duck & Champagne menu, launched in October 2015, and so hurried along to give it a try.

The menu features a whole HKK’s signature cherry wood roasted Peking duck, which takes 48 hours to create, using myriad cooking techniques - each 1.8kg, 65-day old duck from Southern Ireland is marinated in a glaze of Chinese five spice, lemon grass, sugar, and garlic, then showered with boiling water, vinegar and lemon juice. It is then hung to dry for a minimum of twenty-four hours at 3°C a procedure that ensures that the flesh separates from its skin so that it can be made so divinely crisp during cooking. After this drying process, the duck is placed in a custom-made glass-windowed firestone oven for one and a half hours over a cherry wood fire until the meat is succulent and the skin glossy and crisp.

What We Ate: We went of the Duck & Champagne menu which includes a Blue Crab salad, a whole cherry wood roasted Peking duck served three ways, egg-fried rice in a duck & abalone supreme stock and dessert. 

The Blue crab salad, dramatically served on dry ice, featured a pani puri shell filled with dragon fruit, pineapple and melon. On top sat a chicory leaf, and a piece of meaty blue crab, served with a dressing of vinegar, coconut, chilli and peanut. Pop the whole thing in the mouth for an explosion of crunchy texture, tropical fruit and sweet crab - sublime.

The main event was the cherry wood roasted Peking duck. The chef brought the whole duck to our table on a trolley (I loved this element of theatre when dining at HKK), and cut three choice delicacies for us to start with.

Crispy skin from the duck’s shoulder which we ate with organic brown sugar; breast served with a cress salad in sesame and vinegar & a streak of oyster sauce; and finally a manto bun filled with duck leg, leek, cucumber and hoisin sauce, with imperial caviar from Osetra.

While enjoying these delicacies, the rest of the duck was taken back to the kitchen to be carved. It returned expertly sliced and boned, served with slivers of cucumber and spring onion, plum sauce and freshly made sesame pancakes.

HKK’s Peking duck is in a league of its own – the crispy duck skin cracked in my mouth like thin caramel, the meat so utterly succulent, flavoursome and sweet. I've eaten Peking duck with pancakes hundreds of times, but never had anything approaching this level of sophistication and flavour.

To accompany, we were each served a little sphere of egg-fried rice stuffed with Palma ham, topped with dried XO scallop, and a deliciously rich duck and abalone supreme stock.

The dessert was a Nashi pear and Champagne mousse - a base of white chocolate mousse with pear puree, topped with a Champagne sorbet, and finished with cocktail candy and 24 carat gold leaf, bathed in a Chinese honey and Champagne consommé. This was a stunningly beautiful, refreshing dessert, served in a solid stone bowl - a reminder (as if it were needed) that these guys can cook.

What We Drank: We started with a couple of cocktails, both priced at £12.50. The pomegranate margarita blended tequila and plum sake with pomegranate and grapefruit juice, agave syrup and Absinthe. This had rich plum and pomegranate aromas, and a crust of Himalayan salt and grapefruit gave it a stimulating grip.

The Boulevardier was a reinterpretation of the Negroni, blending bourbon, cocchi di torino and Campari. I rarely drink a whisky-based Negroni, and this was an interesting and appetite-stimulating variation on a much-loved (by me, at any rate) theme.  

With the lunch menu, we shared a lovely bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne - elegance in a glass.

Likes: The Peking duck is sensational - a truly extraordinary elision of taste and texture, and probably the finest duck dish I have ever eaten. For a very reasonable price, the menu also includes imperial caviar, XO scallop, blue crab and a fine bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne. Elegant dining room, excellent service. 

Dislikes: None

Verdict: For the Rolls Royce, crème de la crème of Peking duck experiences, I can't think of anywhere else but HKK. For melt-in-the-mouth duck skin that crackles like caramel, meat that is sweet and tender as ambrosia, and a bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne thrown in at under £100 per couple, HKK’s Duck & Champagne menu is the place to be. It is excellent value for money too. Very highly recommended.

Moshi Moshi - Twenty Years On & Still Going Strong

Name: Moshi Moshi

Where: Liverpool Street, Unit 24, Liverpool Street Station, London, EC2M 7QH (above platform 1, behind M&S), http://www.moshimoshi.co.uk/index.htm

Cost: Sushi from the conveyor belt is priced according to the colour of the plate - from £1.90 to £5. Sushi sets made to order vary from £10 to £15, while the mixed Omakaze (chef’s choice) sashimi and sushi platters cost from £25 to £45 or £30 to £50 respectively. A ‘meaty platter’ of gyoza, pork tonkatsu and chicken yakitori is £12.50, and a tempura platter is £14. There is a selection of hot seasonal dishes ranging from £10 to £14. There is a seasonal platter available for £27. This comprises seven dishes including appetisers, a main dish, soup and dessert. Desserts are all £8.50.

About: Moshi Moshi was opened in August 1994 by Caroline Bennett, at a time when Japanese restaurants in London were rare and frighteningly expensive eateries in and around Piccadilly. It is situated in the heart of Liverpool Street Station over one of the train lines.

The design is eye-catching, with tables resembling pods because of the curved wooden surrounds, giving an intimate feel to the dining area. The counter facing the conveyor belt is also perfect for the single diner.

Moshi Moshi is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2014. It was the UK's first conveyor-belt sushi restaurant.  One of the trademarks of this City institution is its ethos of using sustainable produce of known provenance.

The restaurant serves fish and seafood entirely from sustainable sources, including diver-caught scallops from Isle of Mull. The eggs and meat are free range, the latter coming from a family farm in Essex. Caroline is prominent in campaigns to protect fish stocks, and has been given an RSPCA Award for Animal Welfare. She sits on the board of Slow Food UK.  The restaurant was one of the first in the UK to achieve Marine Stewardship Council accreditation.

Twenty years on, during the busy Friday evening we visited, Caroline was there to greet and wait on us and all her other customers, with a hands-on attitude which I can’t help but feel is part of Moshi Moshi’s success.

What We Ate: We were served two black lacquered boxes, containing a selection of three different zensai (appetisers) each (£7.50 per box), including vegetable tempura, mackerel and cucumber salad, tofu with shredded daikon radish and ponzu, prawn head crispies, as well as ankimo (monkfish liver), and bacon and asparagus. I particularly enjoyed the ankimo, which I serve often at my Japanese supperclub, but had never eaten it outside of Japan. The prawn heads were also a welcome surprise, and deliciously crunchy.

We then shared a couple of hot seasonal dishes – the first of these was a 21-day hung Suffolk grass-fed rib eye steak in teriyaki sauce with matchsticks of crispy carrot and potatoes (£14). This well made with tender and flavoursome meat.

Our second dish was my favourite of the two – a lovely vegetarian option of aubergine, broccoli and deep fried mochi (rice cake) in tempura batter served in a rich vegetarian dashi broth (£10). The aubergine had been coated in potato flour, then deep fried, it was soft and full of earthy flavour and went well with the mochi.

Omakase is the traditional way to order in Japanese food, leaving it for the chef to present the best options of the day.  So we trusted him to conjure up his recommended sushi platter (£30) which included spider crab, inside out rolls of shiso leaf, cucumber and umeboshi (sour cherry) paste, Loch Duart Salmon, Isle of Mull scallop, and tempura prawn. These were expertly done – perfectly cooked sushi rice topped with ultra-fresh fish and seafood that melted in the mouth.

For dessert, we shared a couple of scoops of refreshing green tea and yuzu ice creams.

Any Train Spotters Out There? Moshi Moshi Has The Table For You!

What We Drank: There is a selection of beers, sake, and wines starting from £20.50 (white) and £21.50 (red), with Laurent Perrier Champagne available for a reasonable £49.

We started with a couple of glasses of Prosecco Brut, Terra di Sant'Alberto (£6.80).  With our meal, we had a glass of Le Chaz, Beniot Chazallon (vermentino, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc) for £5.70, and a Croix des Champs Sauvignon de Touraine 2011, for £5.90. Both had green fruit character well matching the weight of the sushi.

Likes: Delicious sushi and sashimi, a good selection of set menus, reasonably priced food options, wines and Champagnes. The setting is quirky, overlooking the train tracks, is intimate yet allows a variety of options for people dining alone, in couples or in larger groups.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Moshi Moshi is a London dining institution, as well as being the pioneer of kaisen (conveyor belt) sushi eating in the Capital. It offers some of the best quality and value sushi and sashimi in London, from sustainably sourced fish. Highly recommended.

London Restaurant Festival 2011 - My Round-Up of this Year's Highlights

The London Restaurant Festival ran from 3rd to 17th October this year. The third year it has run, in my opinion, it was also the best Festival we had to date. It has grown from previous years and is now a real celebration of what British restaurants have to offer.

Along with the 'main menu' events involving well-known and established restaurants, the 'side dishes'  were an opportunity for new and less well-known restaurants to introduce themselves to a wider audience.  In the latter category, there were some great finds and bargains to be had.  In addition to this, it was an excellent opportunity to experience the cooking of top Michelin-starred chefs from different parts of the UK in London at affordable prices, including Sat Bains and Nathan Outlaw to name just a couple who cooked at Fortnum & Mason's.

If you missed the Festival this year, I urge you to keep your eyes peeled for the 2012 event.  Below is a round-up of some of my favourite events this year. 

Eat Film at The Covent Garden Hotel

Sponsored by San Pellegrino, this was an intimate screening of the film 'Waitress' at the Covent Garden Hotel (part of the The FirmdaleGroup of Hotels also including Soho Hotel and Charlotte Street Hotel). The film was chosen by special guest and industry insider Laura Santtini, who introduced the film.  The evening, priced at £55 per person, started with a Laurent Perrier Champagne reception, the film viewing itself, followed by a delicious three-course meal in the hotel’s restaurant, Brasserie Max.

The film was entertaining, cute, mainly centred around food, and the trials and tribulations of three waitresses working in a pie cafe in the USA. The food that followed in Brasserie Max, was delicious, and the full menu which was inspired by the film, is shown below.

Shaved fennel, endive, pink grapefruit and apple salad, mint

Cinnamon, allspice and brown sugar rubbed “chauvinistic” pig slow roasted with sweet potato gratin and watercress

Wishing on a chocolate moon pie

I thoroughly enjoyed this night out, and discovered then that Covent Garden Hotel hosts a regular weekly Saturday night film club, to which I will return. This includes either afternoon tea or a two course dinner with a glass of premium wine and the movie for £35 per person, with films starting at 8pm.  Movies vary from classics to latest releases.  Forthcoming films include Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris' on 26th November, 'It's a Wonderful Life' on 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th December, 'The Help' on 14th January, to name just a few.  For a full listing and booking details, click here.

Andaz Catch - Seafood Workshop

Led by Martin Scholz, Head Chef of Andaz Hotel's renowned seafood restaurant Catch (which I have previously reviewed here), this was a daytime event starting at 7am in the hotel's lobby.  From there, we were taken by coach to Billingsgate Fish Market for a guided tour, where Martin introduced us to seafood suppliers and taught us how to select seafood.  

After the tour, we were taken back to the hotel, where together with Martin and his sous-chef, we cooked a three-course lunch.  This was a hands-on cookery class, in a state of the art cookery demonstration and events suite which the hotel has recently built, and which looks stunning.

The menu was delicious, and recipes were also provided.  Below, you can see what we cooked on the day.

Bouillabaisse

Risotto with Chorizo, pan-fried Cod and baby squid filled with tapenade with Moroccan black olives

Crème Brulée

Andaz Hotel's Sommelier served a magnificent array of wines to match our meal, starting with Champagne, and moving on to a selection of white wines such as a '10 Chilean Sauvignon Blanc from Rapel Valley, an '09 Riesling from Mosel, and an '80 Bual Madeira Wine.  We also had an '08 St Aubin, an '05 Chateau Haura Graves with the fish.  To accompany dessert, we enjoyed an '83 Chateau Climens 1er Cru Sauternes-Barsac and a Chateau Yquem '98 Sauternes (legendary wine, reputedly the most expensive in the world).  We finished a magnificent lunch with coffee and Cognac.

The workshop ran from 7.45am to 2.00pm and cost in my opinion a bargain price of £70 per person. Judging by my experience, should Andaz Hotel run this workshop again, I could not recommend it highly enough.  

For more information about Andaz Hotel's latest events, visit their website here.

Brit-Dish at The Corner Room

In association with American Express, the official sponsors of London Restaurant Festival, Brit-Dish was one of the festival's main events, at which renowned chefs reinterpreted some of the most-loved British national dishes.

I am a great supporter of Nuno Mendes' cooking, which I have reviewed at The Loft Project in 2009 (here) and at Viajante in 2010 (here).  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take part in the Brit-Dish event with my friend Carly of Greedy Diva, at Nuno's new venture, The Corner Room.

Nuno's cooking divides opinions - you may love or hate it, but you will never be indifferent to it.  Luckily in my case, I can't get enough of it.  His food is inspiring in its creativity, and thought-provoking.  His use of ingredients and flavour combinations is highly sophisticated, as his re-interpretation of humble British dishes in the menu below demonstrated.

Prawn Cocktail

Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding

Apple Crumble

A man who can make prawn cocktail, roast beef and apple crumble taste and look as exquisite as this clearly deserves to be taken notice of.  His new restaurant, The Corner Room, is housed in a luxury hotel occupying the former Bethnal Green Town Hall, where Viajante is also situated. It is a single room furnished simply but stylishly with high white-tiled walls, stripped wood flooring and panelling, vintage lighting and plain wooden tables.  The menu changes daily, and prices are very reasonable.  No bookings are taken. Very highly recommended.

Modern Market Menu at One Aldwych

Tony Fleming put together a special menu for London Restaurant Festival, called the Modern Market Menu. This involved dining around the hotel, each course served in a different location within One Aldwych Hotel, the independent, award-winning luxury 5-star hotel in the heart of London's Covent Garden.

Starting at the Lobby Bar, the evening kicked off with a glass of Ridgeview's Bloomsbury Cuvée Merret and a tasting of oysters prepared in four different ways - natural with shallot vinegar and tabasco, jellied with watercress, deep fried with tartar sauce and chips, and angels on horseback. I enjoyed the buzzing atmosphere at the bar, with guests and non-guests mingling over cocktails and delectable bar-snacks.

We then moved down to the hotel's main Axis Restaurant for roast haunch of venison and caramelised root vegetable purée with chestnut jus. This was impeccable, and moreover was served with a magnificent individual shepherd's pie. The restaurant was very elegant, and the food and service excellent.  I would definitely like to return.

For dessert, we headed up to the mezzanine Indigo Restaurant for a blackberry, elderberry and sloe gin jelly, clotted cream ice cream and blackberry mousse. This was outstandingly good - not only were the flavours of the mousse, jelly and ice cream delicious, but there was an excellent contrast of textures imparted by a crisp caramel coating for the blackberries, and a peanut brittle between the jelly and mousse.

The Festival was a great eye-opener for me, showing me that not only are there some great restaurants at One Aldwych, but also that the hotel offers a range of interesting foodie experiences.  The Tasting Club includes a variety of activities, such as cookery classes, Axis Seasonal Dishes - a 12-month calendar of seasonal dishes by head chef Tony Fleming's 'Food Hero' suppliers, and "Moet Movies"  each weekend, with a glass of champagne, a movie, popcorn and a three course dinner all for £42.50 per head. There is also a regular 'Ten after Ten' option of a late night or post-theatre sweet fix at Indigo, after 10pm, for a choice of dessert with a glass of dessert wine for £10 per person.

I thoroughly enjoyed the food in all the restaurants in One Aldwych, and thought the lobby bar was a great place for a cocktail or glass of wine before or after dinner.  The Moet Movies beckon.  I cannot wait to return.

For more information on Tony Fleming's seasonal dishes, click here .

For a full listing of Moet Movies, click here.

Nathan Outlaw at Fortnum and Mason

As part of the festival celebrations, Fortnum & Mason hosted a Culinary Carnival where guests had the opportunity to sample dishes by some of the UK’s best loved chefs, some Michelin-starred, in The Gallery Restaurant. Menus were created by the guest chefs reflecting their signature style, featuring the pick of the season’s crop and regional produce from the British Isles.

On the evening of my visit, Nathan Outlaw was the guest chef.  Head-chef of The St Enodoc Hotel, Rock, Cornwall, Outlaw was awarded 2 Michelin Stars in 2011, and his eponymous restaurant has also been named this year as the Best Seafood Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide.

At this event at Fortnum & Mason, the two-course lunch was priced at £27.00, or £33.00 for 3 courses, with a three course dinner at £53.00.  The tasting menu at his restaurant, in contrast, is priced at £75 per person, so this represented, on the face of it, good value without a many hours' slog down to Cornwall.

The dishes we sampled on our visit are shown below.

Crispy Porthilly Oyster, Oyster Mayonnaise, Pickled Cucumber Salad

Beetroot Cured Salmon, Horseradish Cream and Treacle Bread

Roast Scallop, Herb Emulsion, Bacon and Onion Bread

Brill, English Mustard Dressing, Char grilled Leeks and Brown Shrimps

Gurnard, Squid, Fennel Salami and Orange Salad

Lemon Meringue Trifle

Espresso Custard Tart, Pistachio Ice Cream

Selection of Cornish Cheeses with Pickled Celery, Fig and Apple Chutney, Sesame and Poppy Seed Crackers

The food was exceptionally good, particularly the scallops, gurnard and lemon meringue.  I believe this represented exceptionally good value, considering the quality of fish and seafood, in a four-course dinner cooked by a multi award-winning chef.