Cha Cha Moon

Food

Like wagamama, Cha Cha is based on the concept of a dai pa don. There is a good but small mixture of soup noodles, lao mian and wok dishes, as well as a scattering of sides and drinks. Each dish is prized at £3.50 and verges on the small side, but that’s the great thing about it. You can eat here and finish your dish without feeling overly bloated, and if you are still hungry, you can always order two!!

Out of several visits (2 of which occurred on the same day…hey, at £3.50, you can actually afford to eat here twice!!), we tried:

• Roast Duck Noodles - roast duck, wolfberry, pak choi,wonton noodle - the soup tasted fresh and a bit medicinal, and the roast duck was of top quality, very flavoursome, and the noodles still have bite.
• Singapore Char Kway Teow - Chinese salami, fish cake, clam, Chinese chive, beansprout, egg, hor fun - lovely and beautiful wok breath, with the light balance of soy in the sauce. the noodles were silky smooth, with shallots rounding out the dish.
• Penang Prawn Noodle - prawn, egg, beansprout, lomian - the most disappointing dish, possibly let down by the sub-quality prawn here. They were quite generous with 4 big pieces of prawn. Unfortunately, the meat was mushy and the broth was too light in flavour. You also only get half an egg and not enough chilli kick.
• Zhajiang Mian - pork, fermented soya bean, cucumber, red chilli, mian - now this has the right amount of chilli kick, and extra whole chilli if you don’t have enough. Definitely better than previous versions of this I’ve had, as this is much less oily (don’t get me wrong, it’s still oily, but just less). The sauce was fiery and this was presented with big slices of cucumbers instead of the matchsticks, which I quite enjoyed.
• - I didn’t personally try this but I heard it was great.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

You can’t see the restaurant from the outside, it’s just a small discrete entrance. The restaurant is in a vast open space, with an open kitchen on one side and a bar at one end. Tables are arranged a la Wagamama, with 5 long tables each seating about 20 filling the space. Inside it’s completely dark, with the lights coming from the open kitchen and the sliding doors to the outside courtyard seating area. Dark purple is the dominating colour, with the waiters all donning purple t-shirts reflecting “the moon”. Very cool yet functional, just don’t expect the sun.

Rating - 2

Service

Varied. When we got there for lunch, it wasn’t that busy, so service was swift and our food delivered quickly. It also meant that the waiters weren’t busy so that one of them actually had time to tell me I wasn’t allowed to take photos, for reasons he did not explain. Needless to say, I ignored him and kept snapping away.

For dinner it was a different ball game, the place was full. We were told to wait in the queue, only to find another couple got shown to a table right after us. Of course I was not pleased, but they rectified the situation straight away. Like Wagamama, the dishes are delivered in whatever order the kitchen decides to cook them. Which of course never works well if you have multiple people dining, but ensures that the food is reasonably fresh, but sometimes mean you just sit there and watch other people eat. Luckily, we had an extremely alert waiter, who managed to follow up on all my orders which were very very slow indeed. I admired his multi-tasking skill, his ability to remember and do many things and still be positive.

Rating - 3.5

C-factor

For the quality, £3.50 is a very good price. How long the prices will stay that low, who knows. Just make sure you get there ASAP.

Rating - 2

Brownie Points - 15

Info

15 - 21 Ganton Street
London
W1F 9BN
Phone +44 (0) 20 7297 9800

Browns Bar & Brasserie West India Quay

The setting for our ladies night, yet another pub/bar at Canary Wharf. Browns is yet another chain, and I heard mixed reviews about the place, so I approached with apprehension.

Food

We started off with two Antipasti Plates, served with a bowl of fresh breads. The Italian Meat (£10.50) had the usual sliced meat, with olives, chargrilled vegetables and cheese making up the rest of the plate. I didn’t try much, but what I tried tasted like any standard antipasti plate. You can’t really muck it up. The Seafood (£11) was more unusual, in that you don’t see it very often. The plate consisted of some smoke fish (which I didn’t get to try), a vinegared fish – very nicely balanced with firm flesh, fish salad (plain), and some skewers of prawns (terrible, as prawns go). The walnut and raisin bread that came with it was excellent though. My favourite entrée was actually the Flatbreads, thin and crisp, topped with Garlic, Rocket and Parmesan (£4.85), which was crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle, with fresh rocket and not too much Parmesan to overpower it.

I didn’t drink (alcohol) since I was not feeling too well, but the organic Farm Pressed Juice - Apple & Crushed Ginger 250ml (£2.00) was a treat. I love ginger in drinks and this, paired with the cloudy apple juice, was refreshing. My Swordfish Salad (£13) - chargrilled line-caught swordfish steak with baby spinach, tomato and puy lentils was pretty simple, nothing that hasn’t been done before, but I liked it that way, a simply grilled fish that was thankfully not overcooked (in fact, they seem to undercook all the food here as the people who ordered steak can attest). The salad was fresh, otherwise not overtly special.

I was too full for dessert after that, but the cold did make it order a Cappuccino (£3), which was huge, but tasted like all the other bad cappuccinos I’ve had.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

We decided to take advantage of the sun (or more likely, non rain) and sit outside. Actually, the decision was probably because the smokers wanted to be able to enjoy themselves a little more than usual. There were lots of people there, co-workers, friends, family, hens night, they all seemed to be there. As a result, the atmosphere was great, with everyone enjoying the great outdoors.

Besides the fierce wind and the fact that a pigeon knocked the coffee out of my hand, it was great.

Rating - 2

Service

A little slow, but is understandable because they were so busy. What is not acceptable though, is them forgetting one of our dessert order and getting the wine order wrong, and delivering dirty glassware to our table!!

Fortunately our waiter was apologetic and didn’t make the bad points worst.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

Fortunately, we only paid for our part. For a “pub” meal, it is very expensive. But for Canary Wharf, it’s quite acceptable, as the portions are quite generous and at least the taste is not bad. Much better than Ta Tasca next door.

Rating - 0.5

Brownie Points - 11.5

Info

Hertsmere Road
London
E14 8JJ
Phone +44 (0) 20 7987 9777
Website

Atma Restaurant

I chose this for a quick stop before a movie at Finchley Road instead of the offerings in the food court. The food was great, but they certainly weren’t quick. Would I come for a quick fix before a movie? No, but I will come for a pleasant meal with friendly service.

Food

I still think a good judge of a good restaurant is in their lassi. As usual, we opted for mango and sweet, both of which were lovely and thick, balanced by some complementary spicing.

We booked with lastminute.com, which had a 2 for 1 deal. There was limited choices on dishes in the deal, but as it was the first time we’ve visited, that was ok by us. We had:

• Pappadams with Assorted Chutneys - two little dishes, nothing exciting, but gets us going while we wait for quite awhile for our other dishes.
• Tandoori Chicken Salad - Tandoori Grilled Chicken in Mint and Tamarind dressing with Fresh Salad Leaves, Pomegranates, Coconut and Cashew nuts - I love this, especially the addition of the pomegranates. The chicken was moist and beautifully flavoured, and the coconut and cashew added a welcomed crunch. The dressing was not too oily, but quite heavy.
• Tandoori Salmon - Fresh Salmon lightly marinated in Mustard, Ginger-Garlic and smoked with Cloves and Cardamom - juicy salmon, the flavours worked quite well with the marinade.
• Lamb chops - two generous chunks, very flavoursome, with nothing else to mess it around
• Salmon with raita - a bit plain, but at least the fish was moist.
• Vegetable Stir Fry - Green Baby Beans, Mange Tout, Broccoli and Cashew nuts tempered with fresh Coconut and Curry Leaves - this was very much like a Chinese stir-fry, except the flavouring is Indian. A little hot, very crunchy and nutty, this was really great.
• Takka Dahl - definitely not as good as Café Spice’s version, this nevertheless was pleasant.
• Naan - quite disappointing. Not oily, but dry and not hot or anything.
• Cucumber Raita - Yoghurt with chopped Cucumber, Onion, Tomato and toasted Cumin - quite refreshing, but then again, it’s not that hard to make raita right?
• Fig & Ginger Ice cream £4.50 - unfortunate that we had to stuff this down, as it was very nice indeed. I was just going to have a bite and then leave it, but I couldn’t help myself and finished off the whole thing.

We supplemented our deal with this from their a la carte menu, Duck Masala (£13.95) - Oven roasted Duck brushed with Black Pepper & Sea Salt served with crispy Okra and Black Lentil Sauce. The presentation was very Western, with the vegetables at the bottom, the duck stacked on top, and the sauce poured over the whole thing. The duck was moist, a little sweet. The vegetables were a bit dry and didn’t really work that well.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

Atma has tried hard to make their restaurant “modern”, and they succeed to some extend, with timber furnishing, flowers and nice prints. It still retains some of its ethnicity though.

We dined quite early but the restaurant seemed to be filling up with regulars, but was not even half full when we left.

Rating - 1.5

Service

Slow but very accommodating. We needed to leave to catch a movie, so I informed them of that when we arrived. They said not a problem, but we couldn’t finish our meals and had to leave while trying to stuff that last bit of ice-cream into our mouths, not a good thing. However, the waiters were very nice, and followed up the kitchen each time we asked, and they were very meticulous in everything, how they place our cutlery, the way the straws face, the exact position of the dishes. Still, it’s not a good feeling to be anxious.

Rating - 3.5

C-factor

£22.95 p.p which was for the two for one deal. I guess then it works out to be about the same price at other Indians, but the ingredients are better and the portions are definitely generous.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 12.5

Info

106c Finchley Road
London
NW3 5JJ
Phone +44 (0) 20 7431 9487
Website

Taste Festival London 2008 and a Few Add-Ons

Our first weekend in London since February, so I made sure I use it to my full advantage. The showpiece was of course the Taste Festival, but more on that later.

The first festival we hit was the Docklands Festival, which reminds me of the Sydney Festival. Indeed, one of the performance comes from Melbourne. There are multiple mini-events, usually dance and visual related, around Canary Wharf and Greenwich. I found the experience hit and miss, with some very good shows and some very boring ones.

We let the rain die down before venturing out to West End Live, a showcase of all the West End musicals. Unfortunately, all the good shows were on in the morning, but we did manage to catch Avenue Q and High School Musical among others. We also got given loads of freebie showbags. They must be very desperate to hand them out so they can go home afterwards. This one is good enough for me to go back to the next year.

And so we go with our hands full of goodies to the Taste Festival. I had been warned of the popularity of this festival, much like the Food & Wine Fair, except you have to pay a lot of money to get in, and the money doesn’t go to charity.

So, what do you actually get for your money? A few of London’s top restaurants, with a big smattering of Michelin stars, and others to round out the list, special events such as cooking classes and wine workshop, producers and alcohol sellers. We decided to hit the biggies (Le Gavroche and L’Atelier du Robuchon) first, then have a wonder around, maybe attend a few workshops. Well, we didn’t expect it was going to be so difficult and take so long, as the number of people was just staggering!! Here is what we spent our crowns on:

Restaurant	Item	Crowns	Comment
L'Atelier du Robuchon	Baby Burger au foie gras et aux poivrons verjutés - Beef and foie gras burger with lightly caramelised bell peppers	8	definitely worth the scrum and the wait. It’s all about balance here, the right amount of beef, the smidgen of sauce and a taste of foie gras combined to make this one tasty burger. We are going to try out the beef and foie gras pairings ourselves
L'Atelier du Robuchon	Chocolate sensation au chocolat Araguani, sorbet au cacao amer et biscuit Oreo - Creamy Araguani chocolate, bitter chocolate sorbet and Oreo cookie crumbs	6	Heavenly. A generous pot of molten dark chocolate with little raspberry squirts, with little crunchy bits. So good I can’t even describe it, except to say I really wanted to lick the cup.
Launceston Place	Roast middle white pork risotto, cracking, apple sauce	6	I have to admit, we only got this one because it was discounted from 10 crowns to 6, but I was kinda intrigued by that cream foam. I think the sweetness worked quite well with the pork pairing, but was disappointed that the risotto was quite hard.
Le Gavroche	Bisque de homard parfumee a l'Armagnac (Classic lobster creamed soup flavoured with brandy)	6	Wow, I even managed to get a very small piece of lobster in the soup. Very strongly flavoured with brandy, but it retained its intensity.
Le Gavroche	Daube de boeuf a l'ancienne et gratin dauphinois (Braised beef in red wine and creamed potatoes)	10	I was disappointed with the size of this, as you only get a £1 coin worth of beef. I remembered the meat being so heavenly at Le Gavroche before, but this didn’t live up to expectation. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but just not out of this world good, which was what I was expecting.
Nahm	Pla tort nahm sahm rot – crispy fish with three flavoured sauce	8	Not as spicy as I had hoped, nevertheless, the sauce definitely had a kick to it.
Saltyard	Confit of Gloucester old spot pork belly with cannelini beans	6	Got this one ‘cos it was cheap. I was pretty full by this time. The pork was cooked beautifully, with a nice crunchy crackling, and the fat was just melt in the mouth. The cannelini beans have of course soaked up all the juices and was full of flavour, and a little bit mushy, jus the way I like it.
Tamarind	Meen Kozhambu: Cubes of kingfish simmered in a sauce of tomato, tamarind and coconut milk, flavoured with curry leaves, mustard and fenugreek seeds; served with steamed rice and haricot beans	8	The sauce was very pleasant, the kingfish being firm, takes to the sauce quite well. I wish they were a bit more generous with the beans though.
Tom's Kitchen	Seven Hour Braised Lamb Shoulder with Balsamic Onions and Mash	10	Definitely melt in the mouth soft, with a complex sauce and heavenly mash.
Zilli Fish	Cotolette d'Agnello e Gamberi ai Ferri: Surf & turf, chargrilled marinated lamb chops & spicy tiger prawns	10	They had a very orderly line, and was quite generous with their servings, 2 cutlets and 2 prawns, so we lined up. The flavour though, was excellent, with a spicy tomato salsa and very soft, fine lamb chops.
	Fair-trade coffee	2	The place where Slokky got conned into getting a cup by the lady in the stall. The most offending thing was that it wasn’t even made in an espresso machine. The taste was at bad as it sounded.

I also managed to pick up some delectable dried fruit from Urban Fresh Fruit. and puy lentils. We also managed to stay there long enough to get into the Bertinet Kitchen "cooking" school, where we “made” Somerset strawberry croustillant with pastry from Dorset. This involved about 1 minute of rolling pastry and then putting cream and strawberries on top after it has been baked for us. All in all, a good day out.

Info

L'Atelier du Robuchon
13-15 West Street
London
WC2H 9NE
Phone+44 (0) 20 7010 8600
Website

Launceston Place
1A Launceston Place
London
W8 5RL
Phone+44 (0) 20 7937 6912
Website

Le Gavroche
43 Upper Brook Street
London
W1K 7QR
Phone+44 (0) 20 7499 1826
Website

Nahm
Halkin Street
London
SW1X 7DJ
Phone+44 (0) 20 7333 1234
Website

Saltyard
54 Goodge Street,
London
W1T 4NA
Phone+44 (0) 20 7637 0657
Website

Tamarind
20 Queen Street
London
W1J 5PR
Phone+44 (0) 20 7629 3561
Website

Tom's Kitchen
27 Cale Street
London
SW3 3QP
Phone+44 (0) 20 7349 0202
Website

Zilli Fish
36-40 Brewer Street
London
W1F 9TA
Phone+44 (0) 20 7734 8649
Website

Brodies

Another work drinks, another bar at Canary. Brodies is situated by the riverside. This though, has to be the most generic looking bar I have ever been to. Apart from the floor to ceiling glass panes which allow everyone to see the action inside, you can’t really distinguish Brodies from everyone else. The space is actually quite small compared to where we usually go, but the service seems to be faster – probably because they are catering to less punters. We had a few plates of nibblies to go with our drinks. While there was quite a bit of variety going around, the food itself taste bland, but I guess that’s not important for a bar that caters to Thursday work drinks, as long as they keep them keen, which Broides seem to do very well.

Info

43 Fishermans Walk
Canary Wharf
London,
E14 5HD
Phone+44 (0) 20 7719 0202
Website

Real Food Festival 2008

Yet another food festival in London, but this time with a difference. No, not the product mind you, but the fact that we were going to get in for free because we volunteered to help out at the event. This festival is about small producers, so most of the show is filled with the usual London farmer market stall, including the usual culprits from Borough Markets. What I really liked was being able to meet the producers from other parts of the UK, especially Scotland, Jersey and Wales.

So what did we actually do as volunteers? Well, we started off by donning the lovely white oversized t-shirts and yellow wrist bands. Once decked out, we manned the booth at Peelham Farm Produce, and besides eating their scrumptious sausage samples, tried to tell a few people about the farm. Then it was off to hand out pamphlets about the event to all the stallholders, and trying out their products at the same time.

Highlights were:

• The scrumptious flavours at Fairfields Farm Crisps
• The really delicious Callestick Farm Cornish Dairy Ice Cream. Unfortunately they didn’t have any for sale, otherwise I would’ve lapped it up.
• The usual high standard and free tasting at the Duchy Originals booth.
• The gorgeous, but not yet available in London Pyman Pates, so we decided to buy 4 for £10.
• Lovely Scottish Connage Organic cheese, 3 for £10 with oatcakes and a cooler bag

Cool stuff:

• The chatty and very nice lady at Clippy's Apple Preserves .
• The really nice tea lady who gave me a juice when I was very thirsty.
• Rabbit skinning demonstration and hands on activity, although I didn’t stay around for the actual skinning part.

Free stuff:

• The generous people at good natured juice handing out 2 L of juice
• Gails giving away the end of day stock in a free for all.
• The nice man from Paterson-arran giving me a Flaming Choc Giant Cookie for free because I was a volunteer

Info

Website

zebrano bar

I know, in London for 5 months and only been to one bar. After my experience today, I don’t think I will be going back to another one for a long time. I prefer my bars where I can sit comfortably, drink fabulous cocktails and hang out and catch up with my friends. Zebrano bar did manage to offer one of the three. My mojito (£4) was fabulous. They certainly didn’t skim. I think I had a whole lime tree in my drink, as well as enough mint to erase any trace of foulness (I guess they cater well for the smokers, druggies, garlic lovers who frequent). The sour and sweetness was perfectly balanced. And that was the best thing about Zebrano…

Things looked ok enough once you get past the security guard. There were various “cool” people hanging around upstairs, but downstairs is where all the “action” is. By action I mean really drunk but skimpily dressed people dancing around and making a fool of themselves in a dark space. The huge space was full of people so there was really nowhere to sit, although one of those corner spaces might’ve been nice. In any case, you can’t talk anyway since they play really really really loud, ear piercing music, and not just because I am old loud, but so loud your eardrums actually hurt. We left when our throats got hoarse from all the shouting.

Info

14 - 16 Ganton Street
London
W1F 7BT
Phone+44 (0) 20 7287 5267
Website

Islington Market

This market is the most homely of the lot. I like it for the fact that there are quite a few different stores here that are not at the other markets, and the fact that there are lots of fruit and vegetable and meat producers. We picked up some beautiful (and huge!!) Portebello Cup mushrooms (£6.90/kg) and 3 bags of apples and pears. They have lots of cakes and bread too but I refrained on this occasion. The only problem is, we can’t get our milk at this market.

Info

Every Sunday 10am – 2pm
William Tyndale School (behind the Town Hall)
Upper Street
Islington
N1
Website

Marylebone Market

We are well on our way of working through all of London’s Farmers Market. Marylebone Market is held every Sunday, and our main reason we were going was to pick up unpasteurised milk from Lincolnshire Poachers , who apparently have the best. And they probably do too, as we got there 1 hour after the market opened, and they had sold out. Fortunately they told us that we could pre-order next time. There was no milk at the Alham Wood cheese store either, but I did pick up some lovely and creamy buffalo cheese.

The stalls are very similar to Notthing Hill, there are your vegetables, meat, cheese, bread and cakes, as well as some jams and pickles. There are also seafood and a French catering stall to add to the mix.

There was nothing particularly appealing, so picked up some good looking pork belly and vegetables only. We left though, with a potato pie (£1.20) from the bakery.

Info

Every Sunday 10am – 2pm
Cramer Street Car park corner Moxton St
Just off Marylebone High Street
London
W1
Website

A Day @ Notting Hill

After having gone to Borough Market a couple of times, I was looking for an alternative, and Notting Hill Farmers Market fit the bill. Don’t get it confused with the nearby Portobello Rd Market. This is a small market with everything you need and not too much to distract you with. There’s that community feel, and best of all, prices are quite reasonable. Same as the supermarket, so why wouldn’t you buy straight from the farmers? We picked up:

• Milk (£1.49 for 2 pints)
• St George Goats Cheese (£21.99/kg)
• Apples and pears (£1.80/kg)
• Brown California sourdough (£2.70)
• 6 mince pies (£1)
• Pain au chocolate (£1.45)
• Leg of mutton (£10)
• cabbage (£.50)
• 2 English spinach for £1

We will definitely be back.

Since we were so closed, we decided we should check out Portobello Road Market, so we joined the hordes and hordes of tourists heading the same way. The police handing out beware of pickpockets at the entrance to the markets was a bad sign, but the market was quite charming. Lots of antiques (not sure if they were real antiques or jus for show), lots of colour and noise. If it wasn’t for the huge crowd, this would actually be a lovely day out.

To get away from the crowd, we actually got some decent coffee from Coffeeplant. The cappuccino (£1.60) was most definitely more than passable. We were tempted by the street stall seller shouting out “6 tiramisu for £1”, but as expected, the tiramisus were really bad. We also picked up some King Edwards (£0.25/kg) before heading home.

Info

Notting Hill
Every Saturday 9am – 1pm
Car park behind Waterstones, access via Kensington Place
junction of Kensington Church Street
W8
Website

Portobello Road Market
Every Saturday
Portobello Road
London
W11 1LU
Website

London Chinese New Year Festival 2008

We tried to go and see the parade, but unfortunately there were people lined up tenfolds on the streets already, I couldn’t even see anything. So we tried to go to Trafalgar Square to see the festivities there. People were everywhere too. There was no food stalls so I was disappointed, and I was dismayed that there were several Chinese taking advantage of the situation and selling so-called Chinese memorabilia to the unsuspecting. I thought this was going to be good, but the celebrations in Oz are much much better.

Info

Website

1802

I really can’t tell the difference between this space and any other pub in Canary Wharf. The only difference I can see is that, being a former warehouse, the ceilings are higher. This was actually a good thing, so that when the space gets crowded, you at least feel like you can breath. It doesn’t help with the drinks though, having to wait around 10 mins average for one. The barmen are very slow in their preparations, maybe because they were being careful, because my vodka tonics were among the best I’ve had. Not enough table for putting our drinks on, I guess it’s good for large group events where you don’t want people to stay too long (i.e. office drinks). So I would say, fit for purpose, but if you want to hang out with friends, look elsewhere.

Info

Museum in Docklands No. 1 Warehouse
West India Quay
London
E14 4AL
Phone+44 (0) 20 7403 8403

Raining Weekend in London

This was a packed weekend. Things started well with the book signing at Villandry. We were provided with a basket consisting of

• pure butter croissant (£1.25) - flaky and buttery, really good.
• Almond croissant (£1.50) - heavenly, pure joy
• Pain au chocolate (£1.35) - great quality chocolate
• sticky fruit Danish (£1.50) -the most ordinary.
• orange juice - freshly squeezed, if a bit bitter

The service was excellent, the chef was really entertaining, and we got a copy of the book for him to sign.

Onto our next event, which was the Dawali Festival of Light. There was food, lights , lots of colour, even more people. There were supposedly performances on stage, but I couldn’t see the stage to verify that.

Sunday was a bit quieter, but even more food was involved. First to celebrate A’s birthday at Four Seasons, then off to Selfridges for dessert. Morelli s Gelato fig and banana gelato in waffle cone. I was really keen on the banana, and have to report that it’s one of the best banana gelato I’ve had, besides my favourite shop in San Gimilano of course. Slokky had the Hazelnut gelato in espresso coffee which was also glorious.

Info

Villandry
170 Great Portland Street
London
W1W 5QB
Phone+44 (0) 20 7631 3131
Website
Dawali Festival
Website
Selfridges
Phone+44 (0) 20 7403 8403
Website