Sushi Tetsu: No Place I'd Rather Be

Many things have to come together to make a meal truly memorable. Environment, attitude, company, perception, taste, timing, skill, even prior experience. Only a few of these are in the full control of a chef and the staff and even if the parts that can be, are, sometimes the smallest things that ruin a meal. Be it a diner talking that bit too crassly and inevitably loudly, a baby crying in a restaurant just not meant for babies, or where the service simply leaves you cold. Consultants go to great lengths, and charge far too much, to make restaurants as unoffensive to as wide an audience as possible. Slickly dressed servers, non-imaginative interior design, techno-ordering systems - too many places now fit into neat buckets that pre-describe the clientele before anyone has even walked inside. Funny then that every great restauranteur already knows the actual answer - genuine friendliness, passion and an unashamed lack of compromise is what makes great atmosphere. Sushi Tetsu knows this too.

Akami - Perfection

A Little Slice of History: Ben Spalding @ John Salt

A lost post of 2012, a wonderful evening at John Salt with Ben Spalding at the helm. This is probably the most pointless post of the, still young, year. Why post about a restaurant, whose head chef was usually mentioned in the sentence before his employer's, when he there anymore? Well, two reasons. Firstly, for preservation: to carbonite the evening in space. To 'Han Solo' Ben's cooking if you will. The main reason however is to show people a glimpse of what Ben's cooking is about and that like his Stripped Back street food joint proved, a chef doesn't actually have to have some fancy digs to be a great cook. As I write, this Ben is publicising the first of a series of events on EventBrite.

As was announed late last year, Ben and John Salt parted ways pre-maturely, leaving those with bookings a bit miffed I'd imagine (although provided with a very reasonable 50% discount). That being said, Neil Rankin who best known for wearing the gloves at Pitt Cue, has taken up the rather large mantle and by the look of my twitter feed doing a damn fine job. I'll be going along as soon as I can and I'm as excited as I was the first time around. This post wont go into the reasons why Ben left and frankly, I do not care. That's only half true. I don't care why he left, he is talented enough to pop-up somewhere else soon enough. I do care that I have to wait for that. See, beneath all the crowing and beard-stroking about his techniques, passion, skill and obscene work ethic (he produced his own salt for gods sake), Ben does indeed understand why things should be on a plate. Sure there are some air-balls - kiwi scallops and caramel covered bricks were duds. But there are also some wonderful little gems in things as ridiculous to see on a menu as 'rotten mango juice'. His is a talent that could no more be ignored than that guy who insists on trying to continue the conversation inside a lift.

Weekday 9 Course Menu

Battle of the Giants: Steak Wars

Prost - Senna, Ali - Frazier, Borg - McEnroe, Hendry - O'Sullivan. Since the first person to kick a rock into a cave opening, past an outstretched monkey, man has competed. And competition breeds rivalry. More enthralling than the rivalries and the heights they push themselves to be the best, are the spectators' intense love or hatred for one of the two. Great rivalries: the ones that last, are those where the two competitors are polar opposites. One cool, laid back and usually Nordic. The other an angry, brass young upstart, usually American. You can tell a lot about a person's character by whom they pick out of Ovett or Coe.

Sport and its competitive nature is a metaphor for many things in life. One of those mentioned less often is the rivalry within the food world. There are great examples: the American v Lafayette Coney hotdog war in Detroit, North Carolina v Kansas City for BBQ and the most famous the race-to-the-bottom: McDonalds v Burger King, to make the least edible burger (congratulations McDonalds, you just sneaked it with the McRib)

The reason I live (Note: Not a McRib)

Chisou: Exceptional sushi, for London

Despite the recent burger revolution in london, sushi is something that people immediately conjure in their heads when you say you are a food-lover. Japanese food has been, and continues to be, something that is fawned and obsessed over by food-porn addicts across the world. The superlatively clean flavours, the expert use of salt, sour and umami that transcends anything traditional Western cooking Larousse or Bocuse could ever concoct. The gap has been narrowed in the recent years with the Spanish and pioneering British chefs transforming the food landscape and challenging long-held beliefs. The Japanese however have been plating up food like this for hundreds of years and modern day sushi is the embodiment of their search for perfection through simplicity. 

With nigiri there is no where to hide. It is just the delicately seasoned rice and the fish put in front of a customer and it is this unapologetically transparent 'cooking' that has always spoken to me.

Chisou is a favourite of my mother's, who lived in Tokyo for several years before me and my siblings were born. Truly authentic sushi is almost impossible to come by in London and although Chisou does not fulfill that brief in the strictest sense; what is does deliver is exceptional quality and so far, incredibly reliable. It is owned by a husband and wife team, one half of which is Japanese. They used to found front of house but have been absent in recent years. Their replacement is an Indian gentlemen that has the staff on a such a tight lease that the atmosphere has suffered. Japanese places always have exceptional service but I always like when there are glimpses of personality that shine through. Chisou unfortunately lacks this individual touch and is too mechanic.

Fried baby octopuses

Alyn Williams at The Westbury

The Westbury is one of the fairly grand hotels of London tucked away in side streets just off Regent Street. I am not usually a fan of hotel joints as they seem a little stifled in their creativity and act merely as bolt-on of the hotel itself like an attraction. As high quality hotel restaurants go, The Westbury is fairly standard. Dark shiny wooden panelling, beige cushioned couches, soft lighting, black hole-like atmosphere and old men dining with impossibly beautiful young women. These places serve a specific clientele and something that I enjoy in strict moderation. The venues lack individuality and become a blur of floor to ceiling wine racks and oak cheese trolleys.

That being said, Alyn Williams is another Marcus Wearing protege (see James Knappet at Bubbledogs), which immediately excites as Mr Wearing is known for his impossibly high standards. The cooking is an array of techniques, colour, and clean precise flavours. However, it lacks the joy and passion that Knappet clearly displays over at KT. The tasting menu we had started great but faltered as the evening wore on. Still, it was a great display of Alyn's skills.

While enjoying a £12 gin and tonic we were brought blue cheese pastry puffs that were rather heavenly and if I'm honest, I may have had about 6. The house bread was hit and miss, the soda bread was great but the aniseed bread with caraway butter was far too overpowering and unsuited with its flavours and felt a little odd to begin a meal with.

Cheese puffs.

The Cube by Electrolux: Lisa Allen

What do you do when your boyfriend AllThingsMeaty wins tickets to an exclusive lunch cooked by Lisa Allen but can't go? Answer: Go yourself and take a friend.

The Cube by Electrolux has been around for a couple of months now and is a pretty special sort of pop-up. It is an example of 'experience-dining' formed both through the location and briefness of the invited star chefs. It is something that has created a 'I have to try this before it finishes' buzz, similar to when the French Laundry opened at Harrods. These projects often fail to ignite the sought-after spark, but after seeing what it is all about, I was really pleased to read they are extending the project until December.

The location, above the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the South Bank and Houses of Parliament, is arguably the best dining spot in London. The views far surpass that of the National Portrait Gallery restaurant. To get to the Cube itself, one must “take the singing lift to the 6^th floor" accompanied by an ascending C major when a host leads you up the stairs to the roof (at which point I imagine myself in some sort of spy movie). Left on the rooftop to mingle with the views, we were served champagne and canapés of Morecambe shrimps on toast and pork scratchings. Simple and delicious and gets the taste buds moving. Inside, we were welcomed by chef Lisa Allen, told to relax and even inviting us to help out in the kitchen.

The Cube.