Chino Latino - The Cure for the New Year’s Eve Set Menu Blues

Words & Photography by Greg Klerkx and Luiz Hara

Name: Chino Latino 

Where: Park Plaza Riverbank London, 18 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TJ, http://www.chinolatino.eu/london

Cost: £79 per person for 10 courses (service and drinks not included). 

About: A preview of Chino Latino's New Year's Eve 

Dining out on New Year’s Eve can be a dicey affair: too often, one is stuck with an overhyped prix fixe that invariably underwhelms, not the greatest beginning to anyone’s new year. If you’ve had this disheartening experience, this New Year’s Eve take your festive self to Chino Latino at the Park Plaza Riverbank London for a wonderful exception to this dismal rule: a marvellous NYE menu that is astounding value in terms of price and quality.

As its name implies, Chino Latino specialises in Pan-Asian food with hints of Latin verve. There are multiple locations in the UK and elsewhere, many ensconced in modern hotels like the Park Plaza Riverbank, which is located on the Albert Embankment near Vauxhall Station and within eyeshot of the Houses of Parliament and nearby landmarks. Inside the hotel, Chino Latino inhabits a sleek, gently lit space adjacent to the lively main lounge.

To celebrate 10 years of Chino Latino, Head Chef Werner Seebach has created a 10-course NYE tasting menu (£79 per person) offering a retrospective of the restaurant’s favourite dishes and new plates inspired by Peruvian, Mexican and Japanese cuisine. The menu, served sharing-style, is arranged in four themes: Small Dishes, Next Course, Main Dishes, and Dessert.

The New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu is available for booking between 5:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Once you’ve enjoyed the food, you can slip over to the mod-chic lounge for a DJ-driven celebration that promises to last until well into the wee hours of New Year’s Day.

What We Ate: We began with the Small Dishes, two-thirds of which were delightful. A trio of mouthful-sized beetroot stacks with yuzu cream cheese and a port reduction were light, refreshing and immaculately presented.

The Tenkasu roll – tuna, salmon, sea bass and avocado – was sublime, elevated by the addition of crunchy tempura crumbs and just the right amount of spicy miso chilli dressing. 

Alas, the Kampachi sashimi, though beautifully served on a translucent Himalayan salt block with sprigs of samphire and crispy discs of garlic, fell victim to a bit too much ‘Latino’. Kampachi, harvested from deep off the coast of Hawaii, has a very delicate, almost floral flavour but here it was quite swamped by the muscular red pepper rocoto dressing. Individually, the sashimi and dressing were lovely examples of their respective forms; they just didn’t quite work when put together.

The trio of Next Course dishes began with marinated blowtorched salmon, which was smoky and smooth, and the next two dishes were even better.

Grilled scallops were perfectly cooked, the natural sweetness of the scallop heightened by a sprinkling of crushed wasabi peas and a dollop of yuzu aioli (yuzu is an Asian citrus fruit, like a slightly sour mandarin orange: it’s a key ingredient in yuzu-pon).

The Wagyu beef taquitos brought a smile to our faces even before we’d tasted them: the taquitos were presented in a kind of filigreed trellis and served like so many tiny ice cream cones. They tasted as good as they looked: each cone was a savoury blast of succulent beef, jalapeno, red onion and aji panca, a smokey and almost fruity Peruvian pepper.

The Main Dishes continued the wonderful form. This was our first taste of chipotle miso – chipotle with white miso, mirin, sake, and sugar – and it was a revelation, particularly as paired here with a gorgeous, moist filet of Chilean sea bass.

A plateful of succulent lamb cutlets, marinated in Korean hot pepper paste and served with wasabi cream, disappeared in moments.

As we polished off the final morsels of lamb cutlet we were distracted by a wonderful aroma, emanating from a dish served several tables away. This turned out to be English sirloin steak on hot rocks, soya, mirin, garlic, 180g/300g £18.00/£29.00. Though not on the NYE menu, a plate was ordered and proved to be a real highlight: thinly sliced sirloin cooked teppanyaki style but on hot rocks, both clever and creative, not to mention absolutely delicious.

What We Drank: Chino Latino New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu does not have suggested wine pairings but the restaurant’s modest but effective wine list provided plenty of choice. With the Small Dishes and Next Courses, we stayed happily with the Sancerre La Fuzelle, Adrien Marechal (£35 bottle/£8.50 glass), lively with citrus and gooseberry and very sympathetic to both Asian and Latin American flavours. Just ahead of the beef taquitos we moved to a Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon (USA, £29.50 bottle/£8.00 glass), smooth, rich with dark berries and chewy liquorice. This stood us in good stead until the cutlets and sirloin, at which point we switched to the earthier Luis Felipe Edwards Lot 37 Pinot Noir (Chile, £24.50 bottle/£8.00 glass).

Likes: On the NYE menu, the scallops and seabass were divine; but come another time for the hot-rock English sirloin from the main menu (or order it on NYE if you’re ferociously hungry)

Dislikes: The desserts on the tasting menu – passion fruit cheesecake and moshi ice cream – were a bit misjudged, and a disappointment after what was otherwise a fabulous meal.

Verdict: The 10-course New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu is marvellous value for money; lovely food in a relaxed atmosphere, with attentive and knowledgeable service. Highly recommended.

London Life December 2013: Food by Luiz Hara

This month, some of my recommendations for Heathrow Express' readers include dim sum at the gorgeous Hutong on the 33rd floor of the Shard, as well as other regional Chinese cuisines at Soho's Ba Shan for Hunanese or Chilli Cool in Kings Cross for some of the best and most affordable Sichuanese cooking in London. Discover my favourite local French restaurant Assiette Anglaise and also the fantastic tasting menu available at Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social.

To find out more, visit the Heathrow Express site here.

Assiette Anglaise - A French Neighbourhood Gem!

Words & Photography by Felicity Spector and Luiz Hara

**THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED DOWN**

Name: Assiette Anglaise

Where: 489 Liverpool Road, London N7 8NS, 020 7609 0300, http://assietteanglaise.co.uk

Cost: Surprisingly affordable with starters at £7 on average, main courses between £12 and £17.50 and desserts at £6.

About: Assiette Anglaise is a lovely neighbourhood restaurant, in the slightly hidden away site, which used to house Morgan M (now based in Smithfields reviewed here). Its head chef, Matt Tarantini, who took over in October 2013, has a great pedigree - formerly cooking at Elliot’s, Hibiscus, and Odettes. It serves dinner from 6-10pm Tues to Sat, and brunch from 9am-4pm at weekends.

What We Ate: We knew we were in safe hands as soon as the bread arrived, a beautifully flavoured baguette made from sourdough and buckwheat, from the specialist French supplier La Boite au Pain. Alongside, a spiky dish of tapenade and some fresh, vibrant olive oil. A great start.

There was a huge choice of charcuterie and terrines: this is clearly a place that knows its meat. Luiz bravely chose the crispy pigs head terrine (£6), and the steak tartare (£8). Both were exemplary: the crispy fried cubes of terrine were surprisingly light, the meat inside was rich without being too fatty, balanced by a piquant sauce gribiche on the side.

The huge portion of tartare, astonishingly well priced at £8, came with an egg yolk in the shell, and toasted baguette - it was silky, moist and very well seasoned.

Fantastic steak tartare at Assiette Anglaise

For the main course I chose the ricotta gnudi with pumpkin, chestnut and sage (£12): all my favourite ingredients on one plate. The gnudi - basically a sort of potato-free gnocchi - were delicious: plump little cylinders, the sweetness of the pumpkin and chestnut offset cleverly by the sage sauce. One of the most satisfying vegetarian dishes I’ve had in a while - and all praise to the kitchen for not resorting to the usual mushroom risotto.

Luiz had the bouilabaisse with crab rouille (£17.50), which arrived with plenty of seafood in a tomato-rich sauce: a generous pile of creamy crab on some toasted baguette balanced on top. It was hearty and warming, well spiced and perfectly cooked. We shared some garlicky kale and soft, sweet roasted parsnips on the side - both a very reasonable £3.

From a short selection of desserts we chose the rather spectacular mille feuille with almond cream, toasted nuts and caraway plums, (£6) and a slightly disappointing chocolate tart (£5), the only dud note of the evening - the water based ganache was beautifully smooth but not nearly sweet enough, while the pastry could have been crisper. The accompanying star anise custard, however, was a triumph, particularly with some of the plums stolen from my companion’s plate.

What We Drank: We began with a French Martini (£6) - a refreshing vodka based concoction with just a hint of bitterness, made from Chambord liqueur and pineapple juice that got the evening to a very good start.

Champagnes start at a very reasonable £45 per bottle of Philipponnat Champagne, or £32 for a bottle of Vouvray La Dilettante from Domaine Champalou, NV which is a Cremant (French sparkling wine from other areas of France beyond Champagne). These are very reasonable prices for a restaurant of this caliber.

With my steak tartare, I had a glass of 2010 Galets Rouges from Château Mourgues Du Gres in Rhone. This is an organic wine from old Syrah grapes, it was full bodied, and well structured and again very well priced at £25 per bottle.

To accompany the bouillabaisse, I opted for a glass of 2011 Réserve De Gassac from the Languedoc (£25 per bottle), this was a lovely blend of Viogner and Chardonnay which worked really well with the fish and seafood main.

Likes: The décor was light and bright, with tables on either side of a long central bar, which worked well in the narrow space: the staff were really friendly, and everything we ate was expertly cooked. There was a wide range of dishes on the menu, all very well priced - and unlike many French restaurants, vegetarians won’t go away disappointed. The wines are mostly available by the glass as well as the bottle - offering plenty of choice.

Dislikes: I’d have preferred a slightly sweeter, more indulgent chocolate tart.

Verdict: Assiette Anglaise is a great neighbourhood restaurant that’s also worth crossing town for. They really care about the quality of their produce, as well as the cooking: in short, Assiette Anglaise is the kind of place that everyone would love to have at the end of their street. Highly recommended.

The London Foodie Goes to Thailand - Bangkok & a Perfect 16-Hour Stop-Over

Bangkok is one of the major travel hubs in Asia, and whenever I travel to the southeast of that continent, it is more than likely that I will stop over for a day or two there. This is the first of two stop-overs in Bangkok I made on this latest trip to Asia. The second was for 3 days, and will be posted later.

Many things can be said about Bangkok, and few will leave it feeling indifferent. I can think of few places further removed from my everyday life at home in north London. I love Bangkok for her frenetic pace and brash nature, the unrelenting heat and humidity, her crazy characters, but above all Bangkok is the home of the best (and most affordable) Thai food in the country.

Bangkok skyline from my room at The Metropolitan Bangkok

And so, having had a relaxing couple of weeks in Laos and Cambodia, I was looking forward to my 16-hour stopover in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok en route to Phuket.

Dinner at Nahm was for me a no-brainer, so to get the most out of my 16 hours I decided to stay at TheMetropolitan Bangkok Hotel (where the restaurant is based), have a spa treatment at COMO Shambhala followed by cocktails at the Met Bar, hit the bars and shopping district of Silom, and then collapse into bed before my flight to Phuket the next morning.

Where to Stay

The Metropolitan Bangkok Hotel

I am a great fan of COMO hotels, having stayed at Uma by COMO hotel in Ubud, Bali reviewed here. The Metropolitan Bangkok, created by Singapore interiors architect Kathryn Kng, has 171 rooms and suites.

The design in the public areas of the hotel, as in our room, was of clean open spaces filled with plenty of natural light, and a tasteful blend of Asian antiques with furniture by contemporary designers.

Our room followed this theme – with dark wood flooring and whites, it was simple but well furnished, clean, airy and comfortable. The bathroom was in limestone, and was elegant and spacious. The room had great views of the city, and given the location and my plans for the evening, I could not think of better place to rest my head for the night.

The hotel has a well-equipped gym and a 20 metre outdoor swimming pool that looked very tempting (the pool, not the gym mind you), but with so little time and anticipating a week in Phuket, I had to give it a miss.

Breakfast was taken at the Glow restaurant, and was one of the best I had in Thailand. The cooking was light, healthy and fresh, and follows the healthy eating concept of other Glow restaurants in its sister hotels I tried in Ubud. The buffet was varied and generous, with a good selection of juices and yoghurts, fresh cut fruit and granola, pastries, cold meats and cheeses.

I particularly enjoyed their ricotta and avocado salad, and the smoked salmon, courgette and dill salad, both fresh and delicious. Most importantly, the coffee was good and strong.

I also got to enjoy one of their cooked dishes – stir-fried rice with prawns and an egg sunny side up, with chilli and lime, which was really delicious and kept me going until dinner time.

The hotel is well located on the South Sathorn Road in the business district of the city, a pleasant 10 minute walk from Rama IV Road in the Silom area, the busiest shopping district of the city with thousands of shops and bars, as well as the saucy Patong night-market area. In all, it’s a great location to stay in Bangkok.

What to Do

Massage at COMO Shambhala

Having checked in, with a couple of hours before dinner at Nahm, I decided to book myself a 75-minute deep tissue massage at COMO Shambhala (3,000 Baht or £60), the hotel’s luxury spa. This was a restorative treatment that got me walking on clouds. The masseur was very professional, and the setting opulent. Compared to spas in London, this was good value for the quality of treatment and setting, and made a great start to the evening.

Where to Eat

Nahm

Listed by San Pellegrino’s 50 Best Restaurants of the World at number 32, and at number 3 for Asia, my meal at Nahm was the main purpose of this stopover. I was lucky enough to try the menu in Nahm’s previous location at The Halkin Hotel in London (reviewed here), so I hoped I was in for a treat.

The restaurant had subdued lighting, dark stone floors and displays of lush tropical greenery and orchids. It had a coolly elegant feel about it, and on the night we were there it was full.

The set menu was a very reasonable 1,800 baht (around £35 per person) for canapés and 5 main dishes including salad, soup, relish, curry and a stir-fry, steamed or grilled dish. These were all presented at the same time, as is customary in Thailand. We also had a bottle of 2011 Australian Yarra Valley Chardonnay - Little Yering (£35), which was a good partner for the food we chose.

We kicked off with a selection of 4 delicious canapés – with fresh and vibrant flavours to stimulate the taste buds, and contrasting crunchy textures, they were ideal appetisers that heralded good things to come.

Smoked fish, peanut and tapioca dumplings:

Salted thread fin perch with ginger, chilli and green mango on betel leaves:

Blue swimmer crab, peanuts and pickled garlic on rice cakes:

Prawn and coconut wafers with pickled ginger:

Following the canapés we had two of the clear soups on the menu – one made of minced pork and prawns with pak warn and squid, and the other of roast duck with Thai basil and young coconut. The clear broths of both soups were intensely flavoured but also refreshing from the myriad herbs and vegetables, like tomato and young coconut. I enjoyed having the soup as a cooling accompaniment to some of the hotter dishes.

I love the combination of crustacea and pork, and the salad of fresh water crayfish with pork and Asian pennywort was no exception –zingy, sour, sweet and nicely balanced.

The relish was a delicious dish of minced prawn and pork simmered in coconut cream with young chillies, red shallots and coriander, fresh vegetables and deep fried cured carp.

The coconut and turmeric curry was also outstanding – it had blue swimmer crab meat and a refreshing tang from the calamansi limes cutting through the richness of the coconut-based sauce.

The stir-fried soft shell crab was spiked with chilli, salt and coriander, very crisp, and light as a feather, it was one of the highlights of our meal.

We also had a couple of desserts – the pistachio pudding and golden tear drops with perfumed mung beans, and another of pandanus noodles with black sticky rice, water chestnuts, tapioca and coconut cream.

These were authentic Thai desserts and very different from what we expect of puddings in the West – they were packed with a variety of different flavours and textures and rounded off our meal very nicely.

Drinks at the Met Bar

One of the hippest bars in town and conveniently located in The Metropolitan Bangkok, The Met Bar draws in a crowd of locals and expats who know how to party. After the fantastic meal at Nahm, we headed there for a couple of cocktails and for some serious people watching. We didn’t hang out long as we had an early flight to catch to Phuket, but the evening was going strong as we left around midnight.

Bar staff getting ready for the evening

Travel Essentials

The Metropolitan Bangkok

COMO Shambhala Spa

Nahm Restaurant

The Met Bar

27 South Sathorn Road

Tungmahamek Sathorn

Bangkok 10120

Thailand

T +66 (0)2 625 3333

F +66 (0)2 625 3300

W comohotels.com/metropolitanbangkok

COMO Daily Rates start from THB4,500 (£90) for a City Room (exclusive of tax and service, room only)