Bordeaux (Gourmet Chick in France)

Everyone knows about wine in Bordeaux but what about the food? As in most wine regions in the world, it is pretty good. We didn't eat at any Michelin style places but instead stuck to tiny village restaurants dishing up hearty serves of cheese, duck, steak and crusty bread. We also managed to time our visit there for the Bordeaux Fete Le Vin which I will post more on at a later stage as it was so brilliant that it really deserves its own mention.

The chateau we stayed at, seriously ridiculous

L'Auberge d'Village

It is best not to be in a hurry when you eat at L'Auberge d'Village. This tiny, open air restaurant attached to a winery just outside of Saint Émilion in Bordeaux operates at a rather relaxed pace. Despite the fact that Jo, Johanna, Ash and I were the only diners for lunch I had the feeling the waitress was out the back picking the lettuce to go in our salads. Perhaps she was as the salads were garden fresh and very generous in size, particularly given we had ordered the standard sized salads rather than the large which our waitress promised us were impossible to finish. The goats cheese salad featured discs of melted cheese on crispy croutons mixed in with walnuts, lettuce and tomatoes and drizzled with a honey dressing (€6). The "Norwegian" salad (€8) gained that label from the addition of some smoked trout and prawns in place of the cheese. I'm not sure what Norwegians would think of it but it was the perfect fare to accompany a bottle of rosé from the vineyard. We ordered the house wine which is usually great in France, but on this occasion I think it would have been worth investing slightly more than the €3 a bottle this cost and paying a little more for one of the other wines on offer.

Goats cheese salad

Details: "Thillet", St Christoph des Bardes, Bordeaux, France (Ph 0557 74 4639)

Damage: Such a bargain my mother would approve

6/10

Matthieu Moulierac

Saint Émilion is the home of the macaron. The famous confections were first made here in 1620 by a community of nuns who lived in the village. The original macarons are still made by hand to a similar recipe in the village today. Don't expect them to look like the pastel hued, double decker creations that we call macarons today. The macrons are a light honey colour and quite flat rather than towering and fluffy. A box of 24 is €7.

Making macarons at Matthieu Moulierac

Details: Tertre de la Tente, Rue de la Cadene - rue Guadet, Saint Émilion, Bordeaux, France (Ph 05 57 74 41 84)

Le Premayac

Le Premayac is hidden away in an alleyway in the small town of Blaye which is in the coastal region of Bordeaux. The unglamorous location and the complete lack of English spoken by the waiting staff only heightened by expectation. There was a €23 and €30 euro "menu" which contained some rather unusual dishes such as an entree of poached eggs topped with ham and a rich gravy (which seemed more like a breakfast dish than a dinner entree). The wine list was very regional, focusing on the particular part of Bordeaux in which Blaye is located, and was reasonably priced.

Breakfast, I mean entree of a poached egg and ham

Of the meals we ordered, the real show stopper was the steak (€18), sealed on an open charcoal fire in the restaurant. This was everything you could hope for in a steak - tender, blush pink flesh with a slightly crusty, charred exterior and the size of house. Make sure you order sides as well, as in characteristically French style the main meals are basically meat and nothing else. Eat here for unrefined but charming French bistro food.

Goats cheese parcels wrapped in filo pastry

Details: 27 Rue Premayac, Blaye, Bordeaux, France (Ph 05 574 21957)

Damage: Reasonable

7/10

Gourmet Travel Tips

If you go to Bordeaux you must stay at Chateau Bellevue which is set amongst the vines in the little village of Plasac. It is out of the city of Bordeaux and a good half an hour from the airport but the extra travel time is worth it to stay in such an amazing property. From the contemporary art on the walls, to the perfectly restored sandstone exterior to the swimming pool overlooking the vines this is the sort of bed and breakfast you dream about when you leave. The owner, Petra, was also very helpful with tips for wine tasting, restaurants and markets. I cannot recommend staying here enough. Prices from €130 a room per night, including breakfast.

Details 4 Lu Vit Bellevue, F33390 Plassac, Bordeaux, France (Ph +33 642 75 94 95)

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in some other posts from France such as this review of Le Chateaubriand, one of the best restaurants in Paris, or this post on the Champagne region of France.

Bar Boulud

You don't go to Bar Boulud for the only occasionally in residence star chef Daniel Boulud, and you don't go purely for the burgers either, despite what you may read. No you go to Bar Boulud for the wine and the eccentric but delightful sommelier, David Vareille. From the moment you walk into the restaurant in the basement of the Mandarin Oriental it is clear that wine is a major focus. Cellared wine behind glass lines one of the walls, the Rorschach ink blot like art is meant to be wine stains and even the lampshades are "inspired" by wine barrels.

The bar overlooking the kitchen - great for solo diners

I was invited to review Bar Boulud along with Krista, Heather, Laissez Faire, Eva and Anthony. The advantage of being invited to a restaurant with a group is that you get to really explore the menu. The six of us worked our way through a lot of what was on offer. From our experience, here's what I'd order and here's what I'd skip.

Charcuterie platter

You must order the astounding charcuterie platter, but make sure you go for the large board (£28) to experience the full range of piggy products. Ours included creamy grand mere paté made from chicken liver and grand pere paté which features foie gras, thick folds of ham, a wedge of duck carnard, slices of salami and for the adventurous, head cheese.

You must order one of the famous burgers. I tried the French burger (£13.50) and the Piggy burger (£13.50 ) both featured densely packed quality meat but for me it was the additions on the Piggy burger which stole the show, namely the slow cooked to a point of sweetness pulled pork that topped the beef patty. Great, crispy accompanying fries as well.

Cross section of the Frenchie burger

Continuing on the meat fest theme, you also shouldn't miss out on the sausages. The porky and super spicy Thai sausage (£8) was a firm winner at our table but if you want a total cardiac arrest on a plate try the rich and creamy truffled boudin blanc that comes on a bed of even creamier mash (£11). This is baby food for grown ups but it's good stuff.

Grilled sea bass

For a little balance, order a chop chop salad (£6) which is a meal in itself with lettuce, mushrooms and even cashews in the mix along with lashings of creamy dressy and some lobster on top if you are feeling flush (£15). Don't miss the grilled sea bass (£19 ) either. Lightly pan fried fillets of fish have just the right amount of a tang of lemon and come on a bed of crushed new potatoes. From the desserts on offer the best of the bunch was the chocolate tart (£8) which was a dense, chocolatey wedge of tart with a scoop of about-to-melt caramel ice-cream.

In the kitchen

Here's what I'd skip. I'd pass on the alioli platter (£18) as while I do love the concept of a whole platter based on seafood and garlicky mayonnaise goodness, it just didn't compare to the charcuterie. Don't bother with the asparagus salad (£11), as while it was delightful in simplicity (just white and green asparagus with a soft boiled egg) it was a little small and so didn't offer as good value for money as the other salads. The only truly horrible thing I ate was the coupe peppermint (£8). This should be avoided at all costs even if you are a fan of the peppermint/chocolate flavour combination like me. It looked spectacular but tasted like mouth wash.

Chocolate tart

Each of these dishes, whether a hit or a miss in my books, was perfectly matched with wine by the sommelier, David. The wine list is pricey but prodigious in its breadth with a focus on the French regions of the Rhone valley and Burgandy. On our visit we skipped our way through what David described as a "powerful but feminine" Domain Sylvian Loichet chardonnay (£15.50 a glass) to the ice cider (£15 a glass) as a dessert wine made from 23 varieties of frozen apples. Each wine I tried was a new and welcome discovery.

So go now, order the sausages and burgers, spot the celebrities (Margaret Thatcher and Jon Bon Jovi were both there on our visit, although obviously not together), chat to David and whatever you do, don't order a beer.

Essentials

Details: Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 86 Knightsbridge, Knightsbridge SW1X7LA (Ph 020 7201 3899) Tube: Knightsbridge

Damage: Pricey but complimentary on this occasion

8/10

Gourmet Chick was a guest of Bar Boulud.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my reviews of nearby Zuma or Jak's.

Bistro Bruno Loubet

I'm not going to pretend I had heard of Bruno Loubet before he opened his restaurant in London and I am Australian where he has been hiding out for the last eight years. I'm also pretty sure that lots of the reviews referring to the "famous chef Bruno Loubet" can't remember him cooking in London either. Anyway, Bruno is back along with his particular style of French bistro style cooking. I decided to go and check what the fuss was about with Krista and Alice.

Bistro Bruno Loubet opened at the start of this year in what was a fairly soulless and lacklustre hotel dining room attached to the Zetter. All of a sudden, with the inclusion of some comfortable looking sofas in a corner, a few vintage looking lamps and a jumble of wooden bistro tables and chairs, the place feels warm and buzzy.

Bread is baked in flower pots, a bit of an affectation but good bread

We got off to a bad start with the restaurant informing us when we confirmed the booking that our 7pm table had to be vacated by 9pm, something that there was no mention of when the original booking was made. I do hate being table turned. Other than this hitch, service was amiable and proficient, our waitress in particular was friendly and helpful with our menu queries.

"Revised" Lyonnaise salad

The menu features lots of French bistro classics with a twist, like the "revised" Lyonnaise salad (£7) which included deep fried pressed pigs ears and trotters alongside the standard fricasse lettuce leaves, crispy bacon bits and soft boiled egg. It was a meal in itself really and I was delighted with the added piggy products. Boudin blanc (£7) was a fat, generous sausage made with guinea fowl and sitting on a leek sauce. The sausage was almost fluffy in texture and incredibly rich. For me, it was just too rich and the texture was all a little too much blancmange but Alice loved it. Pea soup (£6.50) was vibrant and a perfect spring dish.

Boudin blanc

From the mains, the wood pigeon (£15.50) was a stonking dish. Two almost rare pigeon breasts sat on a bead of quinoa and thinly sliced cauliflower. The delicately flavoured accompaniments let the earthiness of the pigeon shine and this was one of the best dishes I have had all year. Not so impressive was the lamb shoulder (£16) which bizarrely came served as a huge, round ball of lamb. There was far too much lamb there and it also suffered from being too dry.

Pigeon

The rich, French food left us all too full for dessert which must be some sort of record, instead we had our dessert in liquid form with a glass of dessert wine to finish off which had a lovely honey flavour. This followed on from a bottle of the Bandol rosé (£37) over dinner which was crisp and not too cloying.

We didn't have a seamless experience at Bistro Bruno Loubet with our rocky start and a few hits and misses on the food front. That said, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant and some of the dishes were real stunners. The reasonable pricing was also a welcome surprise. Welcome back Bruno, even though I hadn't realised you were gone in the first place.

Essentials

Details: 86 -88 Clerkenwell road, Clerkenwell EC1M 5RJ (Ph 020 7324 4455) Tube: Farringdon

Damage: Reasonable

8/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my reviews of some other great French restaurants in london - try Cafe du Marche or Galvin Bistrot De Luxe.

How to make walnut bread

I'm not really a low fat, low calorie type of girl. Give me rich, creamy butter and crunchy crystals of sugar any day. So it was with some trepidation that I went to a cooking class organised by Candarel, the artificial sweetener. I tried not to let my preconceptions get in the way and decided not to turn up my nose if I felt the low calorie version tasted the same as the unadulterated original. Of the recipes we tried, sadly the brownies suffered from the lack of actual sugar and real butter. They just didn't have the dense, gooey texture that you only get when baking with the real deal. But, the walnut bread fared better. The sweetener gave it a light and fluffy feel in the mouth that was really good. Although, old habits die hard and while I would use sweetener if I made the recipe again, I think I would also use real butter instead of margarine.

Ingredients

8 tbsp granular Canderel (can substitute with sugar)

225g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

Pinch salt

50g half fat margarine (can substitute with butter)

1 egg

Grated zest from 1 orange

150ml fresh orange juice

100g roughly chopped walnuts

4 tbsp skimmed milk

Beating the butter, egg and orange zest

1. Prehat oven to 180c.

2. Grease a loaf tin and line with non stick baking paper.

3. Put the canderel, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and stir together.

4. Beat the butter and egg with orange zest until creamy (the mixture looks curdled at this stage, but this is fine).

5. Add the orange juice and stir well then add the milk and mix.

Mixing in the walnuts and dry ingredients

6. Add the dry ingredients and walnuts then mix until combined.

6. Spoon into the tin and bake for 40 -45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in some other bread recipes - here's one for banana bread and another for olive and rosemary focaccia.

Gourmet Chick was a guest of Canderel.

Paolina Thai Cafe

You don't go to Paolina Thai Cafe for its good looks. Wedged on a busy King's Cross road the front of the restaurant is grotty with a garish yellow sign and inside it is all tacky timber panelling and faded pictures of the Thai royal family. What they haven't spent on decor though they have passed onto the customers in the food prices. This place is seriously cheap. Most of the dishes on the menu hover around the £4 mark which is incredibly good value for London. What's more it is BYO as well which makes the whole experience of eating there even more affordable.

Fish cakes

Provisioned with the most expensive bottle of wine at the nearby off licence (they were actually selling two bottles for £5 - which I studiously avoided) I squeezed into the small basement dining room with my friends Jo, Alice, Simon and Sully. Service was friendly, if brisk with our waitress asking for our orders almost as soon as we sat down. Spring rolls (£3.60) were crunchy, deep fried cigars filled with shredded vegetables. Fish cakes (£3.90) were small little brown nuggets that had been deep fried but still managed to maintain some moisture inside and were perked up by some accompanying heat seeking sauce.

Spring rolls

Green curry (£4.50) was thick and rich displaying some of the complexitites of Thai cooking and fairly roared with spice. Pad phed talay (£5.50)was a plate of lightly stir fried seafood filled with lots of goodies like calamari and prawns sweetened with some Thai basil. The least successful dish was probably the chicken pad thai (£4.50) which was noodle heavy and chicken light. I imagine that cutting back on the protein part of the meal is the way that Paolina keeps its prices so low.

Pad phed talay

If you want your Thai cheap and cheerful and don't mind to much about the scruffy surroundings then Paolina Thai cafe is the place for you. If you have travelled in Thailand the interior does bring back memories of lots of the restaurants there - all they need in addition were some plastic chairs and a few shrines. If you do go, keep in mind that payment is cash only which isn't really a problem with the prices so low you could pay in coins.

Essentials

Details: 181 Kings Cross Road, Kings Cross WC1X 9BZ (Ph 020 7278 8176) Tube: Kings Cross

Damage: Such a bargain even my mother would approve

7/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my ongoing search for good Thai in London detailed in this review of Market Thai and Thai Rice.

How to make courgette fritters with yoghurt and mint sauce

You've probably heard those scientific facts about the percentage of your body (55 per cent in adult women) and just about everything on earth that is made from water. Sometimes its hard to imagine, but this recipe for courgette fritters really shows you how much water is in a courgette (or zucchini for Australian readers). They are full of the stuff. As you will discover when you make these brilliant courgette fritters and get to the part of the recipe where you wrap grated courgette in a tea towel and squeeze. It truly is amazing.

What's even more amazing though is how easy to make these fritters are and how lovely and moreish they are to snack on. I learnt to make them in a cooking class with Sami Tamimi from Ottolenghi. They have become a firm favourite ever since. It is worth the extra effort to make the sauce as well as it adds some moisture to the fritters and a little tang to perk the dish up perfectly.

Mixing the sauce

Ingredients

1 courgette

1 shallot, diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

50g self raising flour

1 egg, beaten

50g goats cheese, diced

4 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Mixing the fritter ingredients

Sauce

200g Greek yoghurt

1/2 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp chopped mint

1 tbsp dried mint

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp slive oil

Salt and pepper

Cooking the fritters

1. Grate the courgette into a large mixing bowl, place in a colander to drain and sprinkle with salt. Leave for 5 mins.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by whisking all the ingredients together including salt and pepper to season and then put in the fridge to chill for one hour.

3. Lift the courgette out the colander and place it on a clean tea towel, wrap the tea towel around the courgette and squeeze to remove as much of the liquid as possible. Put the drained courgette in a clean and dry mixing bowl.

4. Add the shallot, garlic, flour, egg and some black pepper to the courgette and mix well before adding the goats cheese.

5. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and pour 2 heaped tbsps of the batter into the oil for each fritter and press down gently with the back of the spoon to get a thickness of about 1cm.

6. Cook fritters for 3-4 mins on each side or until deep golden and cooked through. Serve with the sauce on the side.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in this recipe for courgette carbonara or this one for roasted vegetable tart.

Makes six fritters. Serves two as a light lunch or use as a starter.

Otto

Don't go to Otto expecting to make your regular pizza order. There's no Margherita, no Hawaiian, there's not even any thin, crisp wood fired bases or deep dish pizza. Otto is a specialised pizza joint - the pizza here is all cornmeal crust and the toppings feature whacky combinations such as brie and grape. Apparently the owners got the idea from a road trip across America where they discovered cornmeal pizza at Dove Vivi in Portland, Oregon.

Pesto and ricotta pizza

The restaurant has only been open just over a week and so has a bright, shiny, new feel to it but is still unassuming. Right on a corner of Chepstow road in Bayswater it has big windows that let in so much light that I was wishing I had my sunglasses with me. The tables and chairs look like they has been rescued from a local primary school and along with the shiny metal pizza oven sitting in one corner that is the extent of the decor.

The menu is similarly straightforward. It offers three choices of salad (priced between £2.50 and £6 for a salad to share) and six pizzas. That's it. I loved the lack of choice as it helped combat my frightful indecision. There's no pasta, no garlic bread, none of the other peripheral things that we have come to associate with pizza places. All you get is a one page menu, a few other pizza toppings scrawled on a blackboard and a choice of three flavours of gelati for dessert. Whatever topping you choose the pizza costs £3.50 a slice, £10 a half or £18 for a whole pizza which encourages trying out different flavours and ordering by the slice.

Broccoli salad

The broccoli salad to share (£6) was a huge jumble of lettuce leaves, broccoli florets and black beans smothered in a tangy Dijon vinaigrette. It was pretty unrefined and rustic and a little light on the actual broccoli but tasty enough. Then onto the main event, the pizza, which came served in a deep metal pan. The base was made from cornmeal which was very dense and almost crumbly. It had a strong flavour and the texture was interesting but I think that the smoky flavour of a traditional wood fired dough base is hard to beat. The pesto and ricotta topping featured three different types of cheese: mozzarella, fontina, and ricotta. The cheese was laced with a chunky house made spinach pesto and topped with fresh tomato and basil leaves. While the quality of the ingredients was good, the taste was on the monotonous side.

A better option was the fennel sausage topping from the specials board. Crumbled sausage was teamed with fresh corn and caramelised onions in a great flavour combination. The toppings were generous, which was one of the benefits of the sturdy cornmeal crust which can hold a lot. The pizza itself was also incredibly filling to the extent that my friend Morto and I could only eat two slices each (the whole pizza is six slices). Usually I can easily demolish half a pizza without a second thought and so I instantly worried that perhaps I was coming down with something. Luckily there's actually a scientific reason for my seeming lack of appetite, cornmeal crust is really high in fibre and so naturally filling.

Half/half pesto and ricotta and sausage pizza

There were a few small touches at Otto that I really appreciated and which deserve special mention. The carafe of water that was brought unasked to our table when we sat down, the exclusion of a compulsory/"optional" service charge from the bill and the willingness to wrap up our leftover pizza for us to take home. Much as I wanted to love Otto I don't think I'm a convert to the cornmeal crust. I prefer my pizza dough light, smoky and a bit more pliant.

Essentials

Details: 6 Chepstow road, Bayswater W2 5BH (Ph 0207 792 4088) Tube: Bayswater. Only open in the evenings from 5pm (no lunch service) and not open Sundays.

Damage: Reasonable

6/10

Links

For great pizza in London try Donna Margherita in Lavender Hill or Pizza East in Shoreditch.

Gourmet Giveaway

The winners of the BBC Summer Good Food Show tickets are Dylan, KohSamui, The Student Gourmet, Glenn and Cheryl. The winners have been contacted and hopefully their tickets are winging their way towards them now.

Polpo

Am I the last person in London to go to Polpo? It feels that way. When it first opened I waited a little for the hype to go down before visiting. Just under a year later and it still hasn't so I bit the bullet and joined the queues to get a table. We waited for an hour on a Friday night, but aided by a small carafe of wine (Polpo's wines are cleverly served in a quarter or half carafe as well as bottles) it wasn't hard to pass the time standing up near the bar. For the record we drank the Poeta chardonnay which was fairly dry and understated and so good that we ended up ordering a succession of the small carafes. Luckily the pricing does not penalise you for such indecision and a quarter of a carafe is priced as a quarter of a bottle (£6 in our case) and so on.

Broad bean bruschetta

Polpo is supposed to be a Venetian bacaro or wine bar, although I feel that the Italians would not be quite as orderly or as patient in waiting for tables as the British. To be honest, I can't really remember anywhere quite like Polpo in Venice. Still, I'm not complaining as authentic or not, Polpo is fantastic. It looks like it has been tucked away in Soho, or even Venice for years with water lapping at the pavement and pigeons pestering the pedestrians. There is a worn mosaic floor by the bar, weathered brick walls, beaten metal on the ceiling and low hanging light bulbs dangling by strings. Bistro tables and chairs are packed in closely in the small dining room to try to accommodate Londoners seemingly unceasing appetite for some Polpo action.

Fritto Misto

There's a reason for the crowds, the place has atmosphere in spades with a slightly frenetic but relaxed feel, service is personable once you get a seat, the prices are affordable and most importantly the food is fantastic. The menu is your place mat. It is divided into chicheti, the small portions of food served in bars in Venice, then more prosaically bread, meat, fish, cheese, vegetables and dessert. Asparagus spears (£5.50) with flakes of Parmesan and a light brown coating of anchovy butter was spring fresh.

Asparagus

Fried and seafood have to be two of my favourite things so I couldn't got past the fritto misto (£7). Light and grease free, Polpo's version did the classic Italian dish proud. The cuttlefish and ink risotto (£6.50) was a brilliant midnight black but the flavour was somewhat muddied. More refreshing was a salad of soft white swirls of fennel contrasted with crunchy leaves of curly endive and flaked almonds (£4).

Making a strong argument for being dish of the night was the broad bean bruschetta (£4). Slices of bright green bean were the perfect complement to creamy ricotta and a hit of mint. Almost as good was the pork belly (£5.50) paired with wilted, bitter radicchio and crunchy hazelnuts, an inspired combination.

Pork belly and radacchio

I really enjoyed Polpo, it reminded me a lot of nearby Bocca di Lupo (where apparently the chef used to cook), although a more casual and inexpensive version. It's just a shame it's so popular. Sadly, Polpo's buzz, cooking and prices means I don't think there is any chance of it being any easier to get a table any time in the near future.

Essentials

Details: 41 Beak St, Soho W1F 9sB (Ph 020 7734 4479) Tube: Oxford Circus

Damage: Reasonable

9/10

Links

If you liked this you might be interested in my review of Bocca di Lupo or if you feel like cooking Italian at home, try this recipe for Osso Bucco.

Fox & Anchor

The Fox & Anchor takes its pub status seriously so it has a range of ales and lagers on offer. After all this is a pub that opens at 8am every morning in order to serve the meat workers from the nearby Smithfield meat market. Sampling a pint from the selection is the best way to start off any meal there. Despite working around the corner for a few years I have to admit, that I had never noticed this little pub before, tucked away next to the Malmaison hotel. The Fox & Anchor shares suppliers with Malmaison (although not, as rumoured, a giant underground kitchen) so the pub's manager Scott claims the food on offer is a cut above the average gastro pub.

Roasted cashews and pork scratchings

The pub itself is small and quaint with a long zinc topped bar running down one side and tables snug against the wooden panelled walls. Things don't seem to have changed much since Victorian times which is nice to see. I went for dinner there with three other foodie friends:Krista, Chris and Regina. Krista had been invited to try out the Fox & Anchor's burger and had kindly organised for the rest of us to come along as well.

The menu offers hearty staples along with some gastro touches such as Maldon oysters and steak tartares. We started with a traditional pub snack of pork scratchings. However, the scratchings were flaccid and would have been more aptly named pork soggys rather than scratchings. The roasted cashews were a better option with a strong smoky flavour.

The pub offers five different home made pies. I went for the rabbit, cider and bacon pie (£13.95) was similar in shape and size to a rugby ball. It was of a size best devoured after a heavy day butchering carcasses at the meat market and I was worried that I could not do such a huge pie justice. The pastry was golden and crispy and the rabbit itself was tender but the pie was on the wet side with more sauce than meat inside. Chris pronounced his BBQ ribs (£10.95) as sticky but good. The ribs were coated in a sweet and sour style sauce and served with a cobb of corn and some salad.

The rabbit, bacon and cider pie

Fox & Anchor's burger (£12.50) which was what had brought us in the first place, was a monster of a burger with a huge patty of meat. The manager told us the Fox & Anchor's meat is supplied by Marrow meats or that they source it from the Smithfield market. Londonelicious declared the burger to be almost perfect, her only complaint was that it was a little soggy. This seemed to have been caused by the juices from the meat wetting the bottom patty which could only be avoided by serving the burger as soon as it is cooked. Gastrogeek's fish and chips (£12.50) were served in an individual deep fryer basket which added a quirky touch. The stars of the night though were probably the duck fat chips (£3) which were thick cut and perfectly crisp on the outside while fluffy inside.

Fish and chips

Given the size of the meals we couldn't even look at the dessert menu which was a strange sensation for all of us. While none of the meals blew me away, the Fox & Anchor is a good choice for gutsy, simple food. I left thinking that this would be a great pub to take visitors to London if they wanted to experience a traditional English pub and some old fashioned English cooking. Just avoid the pork scratchings.

Essentials

Details: 115 Charterhouse Street, Smithfield EC1M 6AA (Ph 020 7250 1300) Tube: Barbican

Damage: Reasonable

6/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested my review of nearby Cafe du Marche. If you are looking for a good gastro-pub try The Pantechnicon in Knightsbridge.

Gourmet Chick received a discounted meal thanks to Krista.

Gourmet Giveaway and Gourmet Chick Sponsors

This week's gourmet giveaway is from Gourmet Chick sponsors the BBC Summer Good Food Show. They are giving away five pairs of tickets to the BBC Summer Good Food Show which is on next week (16-20 June) at the NEC in Birmingham. I went last year and you can read about my adventures there here (I had to cook on stage - scary!).

This years show features:

• Celebrity chefs cooking live in the summer kitchen including James Martin, Rachel Allen and the Hairy Bikers;
• The Master Chef experience centre where you can do the invention test and be judged by John Torode and Greg Wallace or do a master class with current and former stars of the show like Thomasina Miers and Monica Galetti;
• A grow your own area where you can learn from experts about growing your own ingredients;
• Tasting Beers Live where you can sample the world's best beers; and
• Your ticket also gives you entry to BBC Gardeners World Live which is on at the same time.

Tickets are available by clicking here or by calling 0844 581 1341.

Or you can win one of five pairs of tickets just by leaving a comment below.

A few things...

• Competition closes at 5pm London time on Monday 14 June;
• If you don't have a blog please include some contact details in your comment so I can let you know if you have won or email me your email address to missgourmetchick[at]gmail[dot]com;
• The competition is open to all ages and people world-wide but obviously there is not much point in entering if you can't make it to the show;
• The winners will be drawn randomly using random.org;
• The winners will be announced on Gourmet Chick after 5pm on Monday 14 June.

Good luck!

COMPETITION CLOSED

The Cadogan Arms

Gastro pubs so often disappoint being neither good gastronomically speaking or good from a pub point of view. I was slightly hesitant about dinner at The Cadogan Arms in Chelsea after reading some bad to mediocre reviews but thankfully the recently renovated boozer came through with the goods for my visit. It's no surprise given that Tom and Ed Martin are behind The Cadogan Arms, the two brothers having already pumped out a good few of London's top gastro pubs.

Inside, the pub has a clubby spirit with wooden floor boards, lots of dead animals heads and antlers on the walls and a big bar for people clinging onto the pub part of the gastro pub. The menu reads well with lots of classic British dishes like chicken livers and deep fried duck egg or bubble along with crowd pleasers like Caesar salad and a burger.

After fresh brown bread and a pat of creamy butter we start with a dozen of the Colchester rock oysters (£22) which taste of high tide and the sun. Sure, The Cadogan's Arms role was limited to good shopping and oyster shucking but still these are top quality oysters.

Colchester oysters

The fish and chips (£14.50) features fish coated with a light and pungent batter made from ale and comes complete with crunchy chips and mushy peas. A side of peas and pearl barley (£3.50) is enlivened in the best possible way with slithers of bacon. The best dish though is from the specials board, the whole roasted baby chicken (£14.50) is tender and juicy. Nestled on fluffy roast potatoes it is smothered in a rich reduction flavoured with thyme. It's nigh on perfect and encapsulates why this rebooted gastro pub hits the jugular.

Roast baby chicken

This is a pub so there is a wide selection of beers on tap and by the bottle, including a monthly seasonal ale. The wine list is fairly extensive and is helpfully divided by varieties.

Essentials

Details: 298 King's Road, Chelsea SW3 5UGT

Damage: Reasonable

7/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my review of the nearby brasserie Bluebird or The Botanist which is also run by Tom and Ed Martin.