Alongside some great dishes from London, July saw us travelling a fair bit, dining out in Spain, Ireland, Sussex and just outside Winchester. And even in London we roamed the globe, trying out Basque, Mexican, Japanese, French and Thai dishes. Here's our pick of the bunch.
Ibai (Smithfield) - Croque Ibai: carabinero, boudin noir and Tomme de Brebis
This new Basque grill in Smithfield is already creating quite the buzz. And while the steaks are, as you would imagine, amazing it’s this toastie that really made us swoon. Stuffed with prawns, black pudding and cheese it’s then grilled before being finished off with with a drizzle of Miel Rayon d’Or raw honey from the Eastern Pyrenees.
La Zambra (Mijas, Spain) - Cecina and roasted bone marrow croquetas
This now feels to us like the ultimate way to eat croquetas. The cheesy morsels are served on a roasted bone marrow and the idea is to have a spoon of the marrow together with each croquette. It's an amazing combination and we'd like someone to do something similar in London, please.
Lainston House (Winchester) - Beef brisket skewer
This comes from The Wellhouse, one of two restaurants at this country house. It's used as a cookery school during the day and becomes a restaurant in the evening where there's a big focus on wood-fired cooking and smoking. These deeply smokey chunks of brisket, practically falling off the skewer exemplify this.
Los Mochis (City of London) - Toasted Corn Old Fashioned
The cocktail list at this Mexican/Japanese fusion restaurant understandably places a lot of focus on the margarita, but we picked this instead and were so glad we did. It’s made with The Macallan Double Cask 12-year-old whisky, Michter’s Bourbon, Nixta Corn Licor - yes, that’s made with actual sweetcorn - along with toasted coconut and sesame. It’s a fabulous drink to enjoy out on their terrace this summer.
Wykeham Arms (Winchester) - Beef shortrib crumpet
This gorgeous-looking gastropub in the historic heart of Winchester has long been a favourite of ours, so a recent trip back to the area necessitated a return visit. We kicked off a great lunch there with this Grassroots Farming beef short rib crumpet, glazed with marmite and served with pickles and crispy onion.
The Marylebone (Marylebone) - Christmas turkey roll
Christmas in July events used to be a big thing in the calendar when magazines were still a big force in media and were being created months in advance of publication. Now that everything’s online they don’t happen that often, which made us particularly delighted to be invited to The Doyle Collection’s Christmas showcase previewing what their hotels had planned for the festive period. It was 25C outside but this turkey roll tasted fantastic.
Henri (Covent Garden) - Grilled snails, green garlic and veal rice
The seaweed canelés might be the most-shared pic on Insta from Jackson Boxer’s Henri but our heart was smitted by this dish of grilled snails, green garlic and veal rice. Boxer has taken inspiration from the best meals he’s had in Paris for his new Covent Garden restaurant and from an incredibly strong dinner there, this stood out as the best.
Koyn Thai (Mayfair) - Grilled jumbo tiger prawn ‘choo-chee’ with panang curry, kaffir lime leaves
The revamp of Koyn's basement into a new Thai restaurant has proved to be a winning idea. We thought the new menu was winning in pretty much every area, and loved the intermittent over-the-top flambeeing in the restaurant. This was definitely the top dish - a huge prawn covered in the most perfectly seasoned sauce.
Lobster & chips (Connemara, Ireland) - Dooncastle Oyster Truck
The oysters from this wonderful farm out on the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland regularly turned up on the menu at Darby’s in Vauxhall. So the news that they’d opened a trailer serving seafood by the sea drew us out to Connemara on a recent trip to Galway. Obviously, we had the oysters, both grilled and natural, but it was this amazing lobster and chips served within metres from the sea that we can’t stop thinking about.
Chalk (Sussex) - Stracciatella, estate courgettes, smoked aubergine, rocket & chilli
Before we had lunch at Chalk, the restaurant on the Wiston estate down in Sussex we’d had the privilege of being shown around the kitchen garden that supplies the vineyard’s restaurant. Barely an hour after seeing the gardeners harvesting a whole load of courgette varieties we were sat down enjoying a selection of them served raw and grilled with some amazing
Palacio Gran Via (Granada) - Tear peas and red shrimp pil-pil
Set in a former bank, this new boutique hotel in the heart of Granada has a fabulous courtyard restaurant, Patio. Head chef Mara Sánchez was born and bred here and her menu takes inspiration from traditional Andalusian food but gives it a very modern interpretation. This seafood dish tasted as good as it looks.
Petra (Granada) - Dressed tomatoes
Nothing beats tomatoes grown in the sunshine and sometimes it’s the simplest things that work best, like this plate of fugly Spanish tomatoes cut up and just adorned with Melgarejo picual olive oil and salt. This dish from Petra wine bar in Granada was so good we ended up ordering it twice.
Ukiyo (Covent Garden) - King crab California rolls
This new sushi spot in Covent Garden’s The Yards focuses on hand rolls but the dish to draw us back again was their amazing King crab California rolls. Watching the chefs crack open the crab legs and then make the maki in front of us was a treat and the sweetness of that crab was unparalleled.
Holy Carrot (Notting Hill) - Koji flatbread
This new Notting Hill addition really cements the area as where some of London's most interesting restaurants are opening right now. Former Acme Fire Cult chef Daniel Watkins delivers a menu that does truly wonderful things with plants and this amazing flatbread is not to be missed.
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