After a weekend of caviar, champagne and vodka . . . .

 . . . . in St Petersburg, it was back to earth with a bump and a burger in gbk or Gourmet Burger Kitchen to the uninitiated http://www.gbk.co.uk/ on Frith Street East.  I chose a small (or junior as it was described on the bill) chicken burger.  Unfortunately I accepted the fries which at £3 were huge and far too many for one (unless it's Monday, you're hungry and it's miserable outside).  Along with a glass of house, my bill was £10.70.  What I cannot understand is that you walk in, you sit, they give you a menu and cutlery and then tell you you have to order at the counter.  Your drink and food are served to you and your table cleared.  So why can't they go the extra mile and take your order at the table?  Would I go again?  The burger was actually delicious, the chips large (in volume and size) and the wine reasonable.  So I guess my answer is yes!

An award winning restaurant last week

but unfortunately not a Michellin star.  Koya on Frith Street East http://www.koya.co.uk/ has just been named in the Time Out Eating and Drinking Awards 2010 as runner up in the best new cheap eats section.  For lunch last Thursday I chose Atsu Atsu which translates as hot noodles in hot broth, unlike Hiya Atsu which is cold noodles in hot broth. Lots of varieties to chose from but I went for pork miso.  The large bowl of juicy fat worms, sorry noodles, was served instantly and swam in a delicious broth with the minced pork on top.  At £8.50, it's not the cheapest lunch (despite the award) but it came with a complementary bottle of still water (take note Zilli Bar).

PS: for those of you who don't speak fluent Italian, Ugo's review of Zilli Green was 'In my opinion the food was good, in fact very good.  Not very spicy but with a special taste.  It seemed to be the food of the gods'.  I recommend that you eat here'.  Whilst Annie said 'Had a fantastic flavour.  Very light and tasted good. The bread from Sardinia was crisp, the food seemed like a tower with the vegetables underneath.  In short, excellent.' 

After the success of Zilli Green . . .

 . . . . the following day, I popped next door for lunch at Zilli Bar http://www.zillirestaurants.co.uk/bar (Dean Street West in case you haven't been keeping up!).  The greeting and service was exceptionally friendly and as it was Friday, I thought I deserved a treat and so ordered the spicy salami pizza for £7.50. (I could have ordered the dish I'd had the night before but thought better of it!). I asked for sparkling water and was presented with a huge bottle (£3.50).  I was looking in my bag at the time, otherwise I'd have asked for something smaller.  The pizza was excellent and it was a great way to kick off the weekend.  

Aldo's vegetarian feast!

The night started with pre-dinner drinks in an old favourite LVPO where, between 5pm and 8pm, a bottle of house white is an incredible £7.25. We then moved on to Zilli Green (Dean Street East), an Italian fusion vegetarian restaurant, specially selected for vegetarian friends, Annie and Ugo. It was also appropriate as they’ve spent a lot of time in Italy and strangely prefer Sicily to Southgate! They’re returning to there to live permanently, so it was an ideal choice for a farewell meal. Our table was brilliant: right at the back of the restaurant in a quiet alcove so perfect for chatting as the restaurant was really busy. The Meze ‘a selection of delights for two’ was huge, beautifully displayed and more than enough for four to share.

Ugo who had a Mexican Chiminchanga filled with sweet potato, spiced pinto beans, Monterey Jack cheese and red peppers with all the trimmings said ‘Secondo me questo cibo era buono anzi era buonissimo non era molto piccante avevra un sapore molto particolare. Vi parebbe che fosse un cibo del dio. Mi raccamando che tutti maggiano qui.’

Annie’s ‘tofu cake thing’, more accurately described on the menu as lightly smoked tofu cake with tarragon, skin on new potatoes, mixed green and Sardinian bread was a work on art. She reported ‘Aveva una sapore fantastica. Molto leggera buon guista. Il pane di sardegna era croccante ma non molto. Il pasto sembrava un torre con i verduri a basso. In somma, buonissimo’.

RM, who had tofu sausage, mash and mushy peas simply said ‘fabulous’. Italian types always use a lot of words when one will do!

My sundried tomato, goats cheese and mushroom ravioli with tomato and basil sauce was excellent although I did feel rather boring as it was something that I could have had in many Italian restaurants.

It was an excellent evening and with two bottles of wine, £50 per couple. If you have a vegetarian friend, you must take them to Zilli Green and don’t forget to ask for the table at the back!

Lunch is very different to dinner

Firstly there are two pieces of good news: (1) a new follower has just appeared, thank you Mr C (my telephony advisor), and (2) Soho Bar on Greek Street East has closed down so that's one less to do.

Now on to the main events: today I discovered what a Bento Box was in Hi Sushi on Frith Street West. The window promised quite an extensive menu along with lunchtime specials of various Box types for £4.50. The restaurant at street level is fairly small and simple with four high tables and stools designed for two, and another dozen high stools around a semi circular counter. My Box arrived and divided into five sections: (1) sticky rice, (2) an English salad with various lettuce leaves, sweetcorn, tomato and grated carrot lathered liberally with what I can only describe as an un-Japanese creamy dressing, (3) four semi circular slices, the size of a 10p piece, which could have been pickled ginger without the taste of ginger, (4) a small salad of more grated carrot with thinly sliced cucumber in a sweet chilli sauce with four postage stamp squares of something unidentifiable and not particularly pleasant (maybe tofu) and (5) the main event of chicken teriyaki which was a sliced chicken breast with its skin on and deep fried. All I could think about was the calories. It was accompanied by a side order of a bowl containing a cloudy, watery liquid. On the basis that I only had chopsticks, I wasn’t sure whether to drink it or wash my fingers in it. However on stirring it, I discovered some ‘bits’ including seaweed, so assumed I should eat/drink it, but I’m now sure how. A rather expensive bottle of sparkling water at £2.40 bumped the bill up to £6.90. Now I don’t want you to get the impression it was bad, it’s just that my knowledge of Japanese cuisine is very limited and so it’s difficult to judge how good/authentic it was but all I can say is it wasn’t exactly my favourite lunch to date. It does appear to have a larger restaurant downstairs as my table contained a list of ‘rules’ for the all you can eat buffet (rule number two: you can only stay an hour and a half)!

That evening we tried Zilli Green on Dean Street http://www.zillirestaurants.co.uk/ but you will have to wait for my review.

Helen Jackson could be unwell!

To round off Friday evening and bring back memories of our recent trip to Barcelona, we decided to try Barrafina on Frith Street West http://www.barrafina.co.uk/. As there is a no booking policy, and only a few outside tables, I thought an early start appropriate only to find its evening session didn’t begin until 5pm. As I’d planned on meeting RM there, I hopped over the road to Bertorelli www.bertorelli.co.uk/frith-street.asp, where a very pleasant young girl said I’d be more than welcome to have just a drink at their outdoor tables for two. Whilst RM was battling the tourists on Oxford Street, I plumped for an Italian Pinot Grigio Cuvée Rosé Brut (£25) which suitably refreshed a rather hot RM on arrival. Being across the road from Barrafina, it was the perfect place to keep an eye on what was happening. It started filling quickly at 5pm and when there was one outside table left, RM skipped across the road, leaving me to pick up the bill, only to be beaten by a younger model! However, his next choice, of stools inside and at the end of the bar were perfect: we could see what was happening outside; we had no one to one side or brushing past us on their way to their loo; and as the evening wore on, no one standing in a queue behind us waiting for one of the 23 precious stools. A bottle of Sauvignon Blanc was ordered and then the tapas rolled: we started with ham croquetas which were absolutely exquisite, crunchy on the outside with soft, with silky potato with lots of chopped ham in the centre. We moved through toast with Al-i-oli, two types of jamon, an individual tortilla which oozed eggy juices from the middle and finished with grilled chorizo with watercress and potato which was a fitting end, as it was the spiciest of the meats. Our bottle of chilled tap water was constantly refreshed and our waiter attentive and knowledgeable (for example he told us you should never eat tortilla in Spain after 3pm - unfortunately I can't remember why!). Our bill was £68 with service, but I suspect if you’d been tempted by the fresh fish daily specials, it would have bumped up the bill considerably. On the basis that I work nearby and it was such a fabulous experience, I said to RM that I could easily become a regular customer to which he responded, book a stool and become ‘Helen Jackson is unwell’. Jeffrey would approve!

Back with a vengeance!

I bet regular readers thought I'd given up!  No, it's just that I've been on holiday to Espania (so Barrafina has got to feature soon); have been tempted by fish and chips (and mushy peas!) in nearby Berwick Street (so not on my blog) by the ever troublesome GB and have just generally been slightly lethargic or busy advising others.  However, I'm now back on track!

My planned lunch on Tuesday with a colleague was blown out by delayed northern trains, so I settled for a solitary lunch from Nam on Dean Street West which specialises in Vietnamese street food. At 12.15pm it was very quiet but a menu on the counter explained what was available  I settled for a summer roll with sesame pork to take away.  I had absolutely no idea what to expect which is half the fun.  At my desk I found two large spring rolls but wrapped in a soft translucent casing and cling filmed on a polystyrene tray.  It came with a fairly spicy dipping sauce served in an espresso like cup.  I'd waited about five minutes so on the basis it was quiet, I had confidence that it was freshly prepared.  There were a number of simple wooden benches and plastic stools so had an option to eat in with refrigerated soft drinks. The rolls were rather tasty and filling (pork, rice, shredded carrot, spring onions etc) for £2.90 and left me with a lovely tasty feeling in my mouth.  Would definitely try it again but would eat in next time.

For some reason I was famished on Thursday and so decided to try the second Subway on my list in Dean Street East (not that I was expecting it to be any different to the first). I ordered a six inch, spicy salami sub in Italian Cheese and Herb Bread which was lightly toasted before being heaped with salad including jalapenos. I decided to hot it up even further with a chilli dressing. It was pretty poky and just what I needed. It was £3.49 but I was offered a 'meal deal' of the sub, a packet of crisps and a cold drink for £1 extra - a saving of 39p. Bearing how much I've been spending on this challenge, I politely declined for the sake of my waistline!


I decided on a Friday lunchtime treat of pizza at Adagio (www.adagio-pizza.com) on Greek Street East. The counter is full of huge rectangular slabs of pizza with a variety of toppings. You chose which you want and then using pizza scissors they cut the size of slice you want. It's sold by weight (priced per 100g) and they were very helpful in showing me what 100g looked like. I decided it was a bit too tiny and asked for around 150g but was secretly pleased when it weighed in at 180g. The prices vary per topping, but on average 100g costs £1.75 (mine came to £3.15). I decided to eat in and perched myself on one of the bright red, plastic high stools up against the mirrored bar that ran down one side of the room. Needless to say, I had a perfect view of pizza reflections


You will now have to wait for my second and third visits on Friday: as I said, I am back with a vengeance!