Seymour Place - Restaurant Hopping at London's New Foodie Destination

Words & photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara

Situated in trendy Marylebone, Seymour Place is home to a small collection of shops, cafes and restaurants, between Seymour Street and Upper Berkeley Street, that have transformed the area into an attractive destination for foodies. I was thrilled to be invited and join a group of food writers on a food safari at Seymour Place, and here I present some of the highlights of that evening.

At the very start of Seymour Place, at the elegant Italian restaurant Bernardi’s, we kicked off proceedings (62 Seymour Street, www.bernardis.co.uk) with a selection of antipasti. Created by brothers Gabriel and Marcello Bernardi, from Melbourne, the restaurant has an outdoor terrace, a casual dining room on the ground floor and a stylish cocktail and cicchetti bar in the basement. Focusing on prime produce from Italy and the UK, head chef Sabrina Gidda presented a fine spread to illustrate some of the specialities of her kitchen.

We enjoyed two well-made pizzettas (£8.00-£9.50), the first topped with prosciutto de Parma and rocket; the second, an unusual but successful combination of Taleggio cheese, sweet confit leek and crunchy celery. The pizzetta base was feather-light with pillowy edges.

Another highlight was the creamy Burratina with finely chopped sweet Marinda tomatoes and tasty Taggiasche black olives – this was a simple and delectable dish with high quality ingredients that could not be faulted (£9.50).

Equally good was the squid served in a flavourful sauce of chunky pieces of tomato, garlic, parsley and a good measure of pepperoncino (chilli), altogether vibrant in flavour and heat (£12.50).

However, the star antipasti was the suppli all' Amatriciana (£4.50 for 2 pieces). A speciality from Rome, and smaller than Sicilian arancini (small fried rice balls), the suppli were made with creamy rice grains, filled with four cheeses and had a delicious thin crisp skin - they were truly moreish - a must at Bernardi's!

Moving on to our second stop, we were introduced to Sandy's, a small and cozy Corsican pizzeria and restaurant where we sampled a board of Corsican charcuterie, bread sticks and flavoursome house-made fig jam (£10.50).

Sandy's uses French T45 flour for their pizza dough and Gruyère cheese for all their toppings. Their pizza base was thin and crisp, but without the raised and charred edges of their Italian Neapolitan counterparts. I enjoyed the French-inspired “Pizza Oignon” with tomato, Gruyère and caramelised onions (£10.25) and the flavourful Pizza Ajaccio with tomato, Gruyère, red onions, oregano and chicken (£12.75).

Across the street, we next entered the elegant, minimalist interior of Basque cuisine restaurant Lurra. With its white walls, pale woodwork and brass fittings, the cool decor contrasted with the open kitchen right at the centre of the restaurant which specialises in charcoal and wood grills - known as "Erretegia" in the Basque Country.

We were served a glass of refreshing Agerre Txakoli 2015, Getaria (£6), a lightly sparkling, dry white wine which was, in the traditional Basque manner, theatrically poured from a height into our glasses to produce extra bubbles.

We also tried two types of croquettas - the cheese variety were made with Basque Ossau-Iraty and Idiazabal cheeses, black onion seeds and béchamel sauce, and were exceptionally creamy in the centre with a very light and crisp golden exterior. Similarly good were the jamon croquettas but for the addition of tiny specks of ham.

Our main course was the house specialty: 14-year Rubia Gallega "Gallician Blond" Txuleta (£65.00 for 2 people). This was a generous serving of 800 grams of beef aged 25 to 45 days. Lurra's owners, Nemanja Borjanovik and Melody Adams import the Galician Blond beef to supply not only their restaurants (they also own Donostia at 10 Seymour Place) but other top spots in the London too. 

The beef comes from rare breed Basque cattle, slaughtered not at the usual age of under 3, but at a minimum of 14 years old and up to 18 years old.  During their lengthy growth, the cattle produces meat finely speckled with droplets of fat. At Lurra, the Txuleta is grilled on the charcoals and sprinkled with rock salt to emphasize the full flavour of the meat. Served rare and with an intensely rich and complex flavour, this was exceptional and worth every penny of its price tag. For me, this dish was the highlight of the whole evening of Seymour Place.

Our final stop was the third and newest branch of The Gate. Following the success of its Notting Hill and Islington restaurants, Adrian and Michael Daniel took over the site previously occupied by The Lockhart and converted it into a modern and beautiful restaurant with white walls, dark wood flooring, black-painted metalwork and wood tables and chairs, paired with mustard-green banquettes. The basement has also gained a stylish bar and a wine cellar. 

Our by now somewhat jaded palates were lifted by a Jalapeno Margarita (£9.00) made with jalapeno-infused tequila, Cointreau and lime. Extremely refreshing, citric and very spicy, this was the perfect way to revive the senses. 

The Gate is a vegetarian restaurant influenced by the Indo-Iraqi Jewish background of its owners and therefore, the cuisine fuses Middle-Eastern, Western Asian and European ingredients and techniques. We completed our evening of tastings with The Gate's take on potato dauphinoise: a generous butternut rotolo (£15) was shaped with thyme-infused thin slices of potatoes wrapped around a filling of butternut squash, celery, sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts, sitting on a bed of maple parsnip purée, and topped with a cep sauce and thin strips of pumpkin fries. This was a carbohydrate-loaded feast, warm and comforting on a wintry evening.

Verdict: Only a few minutes from Marble Arch tube station, Seymour Place is a hidden gem in the London gastronomic map. Both Bernardi's and The Gate have stylish cocktail bars that are worth a visit in their own right. Bernardi's impressed with simple but masterful execution of Italian classics, while The Gate will appeal to vegetarians seeking dishes that go past the current trend for quinoa salad or avocado on toast. However, the star of the evening for me was Lurra with its outstanding 14 year Rubia Galegga Txuleta, for me arguably some of the best beef in London right now, which I highly recommend.

Find out more:

Bernardi's
62 Seymour Street, W1H 5BN
tel 020 3826 7940
www.bernardis.co.uk

Sandy's
14 Seymour Place, W1H 7NF
tel 020 7723 8833
www.sandys.uk.com

Lurra
9 Seymour Place, W1H 5BA
tel 020 7724 4545
www.lurra.co.uk

The Gate
22-24 Seymour Place, W1H 7NL
tel. 020 7724 6656
www.thegaterestaurants.com

SixtyOne - Reinventing the Classics with One of the Best Value Tasting Menus in London

Words & Photography by Greg Klerkx and Luiz Hara

Name: SixtyOne Restaurant

Where: 61 Upper Berkeley Street, London, W1H 7PP, http://sixtyonerestaurant.co.uk

Cost: The six-course Tasting Menu costs £45, or £75 with five glasses of wine. A three-course meal from the à la carte menu would cost about £30 to £45 per person, excluding wine.

About: On a cold winter’s evening – beset by wind, rain and a Tube strike – we fairly stumbled into Sixtyone Restaurantand Bar. It felt like a triumph just arriving, as Sixtyone isn’t the easiest restaurant to find: it is set along a quiet, largely residential street just behind the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street. But the trek was well worth it: Sixtyone offered one of the finest meals of the new year, and it was wonderful value to boot.

Sixtyone is part of the Searcys fine dining universe, which includes restaurants at Royal Opera House and the much-lauded private dining room at The Gherkin. Sixtyone’s Chef Patron, Arnaud Stevens, has led both of these operations and Killian Lynch, Sixtyone’s Head Chef, was most recently Head Chef at The Gherkin. This pedigree shows proudly at Sixtyone through modern European cooking that is inventive yet precise, with invariably beautiful presentation.

What We Ate: Though Sixtyone offers a carefully curated à la carte menu, we chose the six-course tasting menu. A surprising amuse bouche was home-made dashi decanted through a paper filter filled with herbs, cinnamon sticks, orange peel and star anise, and served in teacups along with a pot of tempura rice noodles and soya mayonnaise.

Unlike  the whisperingly delicate and almost floral dashi we know of, this was deliciously savoury, and a fine preview for delights to come.

A basket of French bread, including some from Boulangerie de Paris a fantastic supplier I use for my own French Supper Clubs, was similarly full of surprises, most particularly a generous wedge of chewy, almost chocolaty Marmite loaf, which might win many a convert from the ‘hate it’ side of the Marmite argument.

The minimalist descriptions on Sixtyone’s menu hardly do justice to the joyfully creative work at hand. The dashi and bread, for instance, were followed with something called simply Snacks, conjuring visions of a bowlful of pistachios or a packet of crisps. Happily, the reality was far more subtle: we were presented with what looked like a large, antiquarian book that opened to reveal gorgeously presented pan-fried Dorset oysters and chicken caillettes, the latter being lightly breaded croquettes of chicken, red pepper, chard and almond. Both the oysters and cailletes were appropriately crisp yet succulent.

The Octopus carpaccio, red pepper confit and sesame starter was gorgeous to look at, but the octopus was sliced so thinly as to be overwhelmed by the pepper and pine nuts. A rare misjudgement in our opinion.

Arguably the highlight of the meal was not on the tasting menu, nor indeed on the à la carte menu. It should be: the Rabbit Bolognese, salsify and almond starter was perfectly judged, the small portion of Bolognese exploding with savoury meatiness. The salsify was cooked and presented to mimic a nest of pasta, yet it was a far lighter companion to the relatively mild rabbit. I’m not sure where the almond came in, but it hardly mattered. This was a fabulous dish that alone was worth the visit.

There was another rabbit starter – Rabbit, juniper, prune & Armagnac – which we had as well, being as it was the starter on the actual tasting menu. It was a decent example of this classic dish, though slightly anticlimactic after the undeniable wow of the Bolognese.

Fortunately, the two mains recovered the pace. An artful square of roasted cod, served skin-on, was tender and delicate and married well with a rich dashi broth, Alsace bacon lardons and a hint of truffle.

The final main was, on paper, the scariest: duck a l’orange, so classic and yet so easy to get wrong in the balance of its signature ingredients. No worries here: a very pink (perhaps too pink for some) duck breast with a rich reduction, cauliflower puree and a crispy filo packet filled with succulent confit duck leg. As with so much else on the menu, this was both beautifully presented and very delicious.

We rounded out the meal with lemon meringue pie, but in keeping with Sixtyone’s inventive flair this was far from the wobbly wedge of cloying sweetness one might envision. The lemon was zingy but light, the meringue light yet substantial, and the whole was dished into a half-pipe of flaky pastry and accompanied by blackberry purée and a refreshing lemon sorbet.

What We Drank: The wine selections for our meal were enjoyable and quirky, beginning with a Petaluma Riesling (2011, Coonawara, Australia; 175ml @ £10.50, 250ml @ £14.75) that served as a light, fresh and not-too-sweet accompaniment to our Snack. A Chianti Classico from Villa la Pagliaia (2010, Tuscany; 175ml @ £7.25, 250ml @ £10) was a smoky, peppery match for both rabbit dishes.

A bottle of Camden Gentleman’s Wit – a Belgian-style wheat beer infused with lemon zest and bergamot – went surprisingly well with the lemon meringue pie.

Likes: Inventive, beautifully executed renditions of French classics, a focus on local and regional sources, well-priced menu (particularly the Tasting Menu), warm and knowledgeable service in a relaxed yet elegant atmosphere.

Dislikes: the octopus carpaccio was our least favourite dish on the tasting menu.

Verdict: Excellent restaurant just off the beating heart of Oxford Street serving elegant food with modern flair. Creative and delicious, very reasonably priced cooking of a very high standard. Very highly recommended.

London Restaurant Reviews - Salt Bar

Burns Night @ Salt Bar

I was one of the lucky Qypers and food bloggers to have been invited to the Salt Bar on Edgware Road for a Pre-Burns Night with plenty of Talisker’s whisky, Scottish food and poetry readings.

Organized by TikiChris, the event included a tasting of three different Talisker whiskies run by Colin Dunn of Diageo, and a Burns poetry reading brilliantly executed by Clark McGinn,  The Burns Supper Specialist.

After a delicious glass of “Skye Manhattan” cocktail (10yr Talisker whisky, vermouth, bitters and orange), we started our tasting with Talisker’s 10 year old single malt whisky. I enjoyed the sweet, smoky peatiness of this single malt which was the perfect accompaniment to the fatty smoked salmon it was served with.

This led to our second whisky, the Talisker Distillers Edition which was matured for 10 years in oak barrels and with an additional 2 years in muscatel barrels. This was, in my opinion, more approachable, and a little more refined, with a slight fruity finish from the years in muscatel. The Talisker Distillers Edition was partnered with haggis, neeps and tatties and went surprisingly well with the saltiness of the meat.

To accompany the third and final whisky, The Talisker 57˚North (named after the distiller’s latitude), we were served a scrumptious bitter chocolate mousse. It paired surprisingly well with the rather strong 57% whisky, helping to assuage some of the alcoholic burn.

As the evening came to a close, some of us stayed behind catching up and chatting. We were served a couple of other cocktails – “Hebrideas’ Old Fashioned” (Talisker 10 year old, ginger, bitters, honey and orange) and “Cool Walker” (Talisker 10 year old, Drambuie, lime juice, and ginger ale). These were both excellent and perfectly mixed by the very friendly bar staff.

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening at the elegant Salt Bar. This was my first experience of a “whisky bar” and was surprised by the friendly and casual atmosphere and the sleek contemporary decor. A big thanks goes to TikiChris for organising such a great event and for allowing me to take part in it.

Verdict – Salt Bar is an elegant, centrally located whisky bar, boasting some of the best whiskies on the market, with highly knowledgeable bar staff. Great cocktails. Recommended.