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Welcome to The London Foodie
Reviews of London's Restaurants, Supper Clubs and Hotels, Wine Tastings, Travel Writing, and Home to the Japanese and French Supper Clubs in Islington
For the latest food events, restaurant openings, product launches and other food and drink related news, visit the sister site The London Foodie News
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
Name: Radio Alice
Where: 16 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NT, http://radioalicepizzeria.co.uk
Cost: Starters range from £3 for olives and almonds, burrata, black pepper and oregano (£5.50), and speck and apricots, or mortadella and pistachio (£6). Pizze are priced from £5.90 to £13.
Wines are served by the glass, carafe, or bottle, and are from Italy, with the house red and whites both from Sicily, Libera Terra (£19). In Italy, pizza is enjoyed with beer rather than wine, and at Radio Alice there are two beers on tap (Kernel, Table Beer at £3.90 per pint, and London Beer Factory, Beyond the Pale at £4 per pint), as well as a few options in bottle or can. The cocktail menu is short but excellent value, including a Negroni at just £7.
About: Radio Alice might seem an odd name for a pizzeria, but it derives from a pirate radio station that broadcast in the 1970s in Bologna, where brothers and owners Matteo and Salvatore Aloe were born. The brothers already have five pizzeria in Italy, and this London branch, opened in December 2016, is the result of a collaboration with Emma King, co-founder of Gail's Bakery.
The pizzeria aims to use seasonal, organic and slow food producers from Italy and the UK, so the menu varies each month - think capers from Salina, tomatoes from Brindisi, and fiordilatte from Puglia.
Only ingredients that are improved by cooking are placed in the oven with the base - the base is cut into 8 after cooking, and the toppings are added after cooking, so that they do not overcook and retain their texture and freshness.
The dough is made from Tipo 1 stoneground flour with wild rather than commercial yeast, and fermented for 24 hours. This long proofing makes for a light and easy to digest dough. They also make limited batches of pizze from guest grains, like spelt or durum wheat.
The restaurant has been beautifully renovated, with large windows, high ceilings, wood parquet flooring and white marble work tops. One of the brothers trained as an architect, which might explain the clean and stylish design.
What We Ate: The test of a Neapolitan-style pizzeria has got to be its Margherita pizza. The simplest on the menu but the hardest to get right, this pizza is all about the ingredients and the skills of chef. Radio Alice's version had the classic combination of fiordilatte, tomato and basil (£7), set over an airy, well-textured base.
From the Pizze Bianche menu, we chose the Proscuitto di Parma, burrata, with orange-infused oil and fiordilatte (£13). The combination of burrata and orange may seem strange, but it is a classic in Campania, where these are two of their top products. Both the Parma ham and the burrata were added after the pizza was cooked, which brought out the freshness and flavour of the ingredients, and gave the pizza another layer of texture.
Next up was another Pizza Biancha, but this time with wilted cavolo nero (Italian black cabbage), provolone cheese and French mustard (£9.50). I loved all the pizze at Radio Alice, but this was my favourite - I admired the ingenuity of the chefs in putting these ingredients together, they are not what I expect on a pizza but the combination worked brilliantly.
We were rather sated by this stage, but we had to try the desserts. Another classic Italian dish I was pleased to see on the menu was the chocolate gelato with liquorice brioche (£5.50). A lovely buttery brioche and chocolate ice cream sandwich, this was light and refreshing.
Equally good was the Bourbon vanilla gelato, with anise biscuit (£5.50), another light and refreshing dessert with crisp and aromatic biscuits.
What We Drank: For pizza cognoscenti, forgive me but we did not opt for beer on this occasion. Rather, we shared a bottle of Olmo, a blend of Sangiovesi and Montepulciano from Marche (£30). This was very good, with sweet cherry flavours, and a good weight of berry fruit to balance the acidity of Sangiovesi.
Likes: Well-made, 24 hour proved pizza dough, creative and seasonal toppings, very reasonable prices in a beautifully designed venue. It's really refreshing to see a pizzeria offering proper beer as opposed to watery (dare I say Peroni?) lager. Super-knowlegeable and friendly staff, a rarity in achingly trendy Hoxton. There is so much to like about Radio Alice.
Dislikes: None
Verdict: Radio Alice has a refreshing approach to proper pizza in London. You don't need to go all the way to Naples for your slice of pizza heaven - Hoxton Square is much closer! I loved it. Very highly recommended.
Name: Coppa Club
Where: 9-10 Market Place, London,W1W 8AQ, www.coppaclub.co.uk
Cost: Nibbles cost £2.95, small plates are priced from £4.95 to £9.95, mains are £10.95 to £18.95, with pizze at £7.45 to £9.45, and pasta dishes from £9.95 to £13.45. Filtered water, both still and sparkling, is refreshingly free. Cocktails are priced at a reasonable £6.25. The house white is a Pinot Bianco/Garganega blend from Veneto, while the red is a Sicilian Syrah, both priced at £16.35.
About: Market Place, tucked away just a couple of blocks northeast of Oxford Circus, is home to a number of restaurant groups including the lovely Honest Burger (I bow down before their rosemary salted chips), as well as Italian (Carluccio), French (Cote) and Mexican (Tortilla) options. On the Friday summer’s evening we were there, the area was packed with people enjoying an after work drink or meal, as well as shoppers and tourists settling down with their bags after day of bargain hunting.
Coppa Club is an bar and eatery with a great value cocktail list and a compact menu of bistro-style dishes with an Italian-inspired flavour, with an emphasis on pizza, pasta, small plates, steak and fries. Outside, there is a covered terrace with heaters and lighting for year-round use.
The bar and open plan kitchen are prominent in the ground floor restaurant, while the basement has a cosy cocktail bar.
What We Ate: We kicked off with a platter of fried truffled gnocchi (£2.95). These were a revelation – a crisp exterior with a velvety centre, deliciously perfumed with truffle and scattered with soft Parmesan cheese.
The crab bruschetta (£6.95) combined toasted bread with fresh crab, yoghurt, mint, chilli and lemon. With a fragrant scattering of lemon zest, this was simple but satisfying.
The fillet steak crudo on toasted sourdough (£6.95) combined chopped raw beef with tuna mayonnaise, lemon and paprika. Vitello tonato is a classic Italian dish with the unusual combination of beef and tuna, and this variation on the theme was delectable.
The crispy fried squid (£5.95) was also delicious, accompanied by a little bowl of spicy sriracha (Thai hot chilli sauce) mayonnaise, lemon and paprika.
For mains, we had the Coppa Club hot pizza (£9.45). With a good thin crust base layered with spicy salami, nduja (Calabrian pork spread), chilli, tomato and mozzarella, this was a well made pizza.
To accompany it, we ordered also a house salad (£3.45) with lettuce, avocado and toasted seeds which was only let down by the 'jarred' taste of the dressing.
Better was the 8oz British ribeye steak (£18.95), served with grilled field mushrooms and watercress, and side orders of truffle cream (£2.50) and skinny fries (£2.95). Steak and chips is about as simple as it gets in restaurants, but Coppa Club’s version was just right for me – marbled, richly flavoured and served medium rare, served with crisp and salty chips.
For dessert, we had the rhubarb panna cotta (£5.45) - served with a scattering of orange zest, toasted oats and nuts, this had a good combination of textures and flavours, although the rhubarb was a little tough.
We also shared the mini butterscotch pot (£2.95) with salted caramel sauce and whipped crème fraiche was, for me, misconceived and oddly cheesy.
What We Drank: We started with a couple of cocktails (£6.25 each) – classic Negroni and Aperol Spritz, both well made and refreshing.
With our main course, we had Salice Salentino Riserva, from Francesco Candido, Puglia (£29.15 per bottle or £9.95 per 250ml glass). One of my very favourite Italian red wines, this Riserva was very well made, with a complex nose of black cherries, mushroom and cedar, a lovely weight of fruit on the palate, and a long, satisfying finish.
Likes: Friendly staff, central location in a quiet little enclave by Oxford Circus, great value cocktails and a tempting wine list. For me, the best dishes were the truffle gnocchi, the fillet steak crudo with tuna, and the steak and chips. It’s also open for breakfast and lunch.
Dislikes: A few of the dishes, for me, didn’t quite work – principally the salad and the butterscotch pot.
Verdict: Coppa Club Oxford Street is a great place for meeting, drinking and relaxing in the heart of the West End, with probably the best value cocktails in the area. Open seven days a week, it’s a place I hope to revisit soon for a few Negronis and more fried truffled gnocchi! Recommended.
Words & Photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara
Name: Flour Power Masterclass at Pizzicotto
Where: 267, Kensington High Street, W8 6NA, www.pizzicotto.co.uk
Cost: Flour Power Masterclass costs £50 per person, and will run from 28th June 2016 from 18:30 for 1½ hours.
About: The Flour Power Masterclass at Pizzocotto is a fun introduction to the more unusual types of flour including activated charcoal, chestnut and buckwheat flour, used to prepare a range of dishes and pizze, which participants will cook and eat at the end of the class. This feature describes a Flour Power Masterclass I attended recently and the dishes we prepared.
Pizzicotto is the second restaurant by the Chiavarini family who have run the popular Il Portico only a few doors away for 50 years on Kensington High Street. Like its sister restaurant, Pizzicotto is a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant drawing on the family heritage of Emilia Romagna and a small network of regional Slow Food and artisanal producers who supply the restaurant exclusively.
For the first half of our class we were introduced to the basics of pizza making by Pizzicotto's head pizzaiolo, Andrea. We learned that the wood-burning oven’s domed shape helped to evenly distribute the heat (425C), while the mixture of beech and larger burning logs adds a touch of moisture into the oven preventing the pizza from becoming too dry.
We were shown how to stretch the soft dough (made with a mix of semolina, rice and corn flours) into pizze, topping them with tomato and mozzarella for a Margherita pizza. The white dough had been proved for a staggering 72 hours (it is usually 24 hours in a good pizza restaurant). The result was an extremely light base, with a blistered crust and an airy texture when cut.
Using the same white dough, we later also savoured the Spacca Napoli Pizza, topped with anchovies, mozzarella, olives and capers, which was deliciously salty and with a hint of chilli and garlic.
A variation on a theme was the introduction of creamed asparagus to the plain white dough, to create a green, slightly softer textured pizza base. Topped with tomatoes, rocket and mozzarella, this was my favourite pizza dough, the delicate but distinctive flavour of asparagus adding a delicious touch to the faintly green crust.
Our last dough used activated charcoal flour, a striking black powder which had been added to the blended white dough and left to prove for 48 hours. Pizzicotto is championing the use of vegetable charcoal, an extremely porous ingredient which has the ability to draw toxins from the body in a process named adsorption. Being insoluble, activated charcoal is then eliminated from the body, flushing those toxins away. Activated charcoal is supposed to aid digestion, lower cholesterol, improve skin and has even been claimed to be a cure for hangover, though that has not as yet been scientifically proven. Its main medicinal use is to prevent the absorption of medicines taken in accidental overdoses, from the stomach and intestines into the blood stream.
Our charcoal pizzas were topped with mozzarella, spicy sausage, rocket and tomatoes. Despite their dark coloured bases, the addition of charcoal was not noticeable in taste. Having been proved for 48 hours, the dough had a finer texture but was extremely light, definitely worth trying for its potential health benefits without any compromise on taste.
The second half of our Flour Masterclass was taught by Pizzicotto's head chef, Marianna Giglio, and focused on pasta. Starting off with 00 flour, an Italian stone ground flour where the bran and germ are extracted after milling to produce a finer, whiter flour, which is also richer in nutrients than its English counterpart.
The dough was rolled into a thin sheet and cut into irregular shaped ribbons (known in Italian as maltagliati). The handmade pasta was later served with a delicious beef ragu, a simple but wonderful dish due to the sheer high quality of ingredients and the freshness of the handmade pasta. This was my favourite dish of the evening.
We moved on to use chestnut flour, an expensive autumnal speciality from Piedmont. We kneaded the chestnut flour with a touch of 00 flour, Parmesan and ricotta to make gnocchi.
The gnocchi were served with butternut squash, mushrooms, Parmesan and a reduced red wine jus. This was a hearty autumnal dish, and while I enjoyed the delicate flavour of the chestnut flour gnocci, I felt they were rather overwhelmed by the squash and mushrooms, and would be better appreciated on their own with a little butter and Parmesan.
The practical side of the masterclass ended with the use of gluten-free buckwheat flour to produce a dough that was again rolled into a thin sheet and cut into triangles. The pasta had a distinctive texture and was served with a delectable mixture of spring vegetables. This was a good option on the menu for gluten-free diners.
After the masterclass, we finally sat down to enjoy our creations. Our evening came to an end with a dessert pizza with a Nutella-stuffed crust, topped with custard cream, more Nutella, thin ribbons of green apple, grapes and raspberries.
Likes: I enjoyed learning how to cook with new flours at Pizzicotto, particularly the striking activated charcoal flour, the mixture of flours used in their white dough, and the 72 hour proofing.
Dislikes: While I thoroughly enjoyed the class, I wish the black charcoal flour pizza as well as the other dishes we learned were available on the restaurant menu. Unfortunately these are only available for participants in the flour masterclass.
Verdict: This is a great opportunity to learn about different Italian flours, and to increase the repertoire of ingredients in your Italian cooking. Recommended.
