Review: The Delaunay

The London to-do list, part 1 of n

Based on what I've tried, the Delaunay is possibly the best
confectioners in London

So it seems that my time in London is coming to an end. My job brought me here two years ago and now it's moving me away again. I'm sure I'll be back - London isn't one those cities that people never come back to. I've actually kind of slacked off on reviewing London restaurants. This is partly because my schedule has meant I've spent a lot of time eating in random places that have been quite good, but not good enough to motivate an immediate review. However, over the last few months I've been trying to rectify this by trying out places that have either come to me highly recommended or are special to me in some way. As with any to-do list, it's been growing ever since its inception and I'm not sure when it's going to end, but expect this to be the theme for the next few posts.

The interior: vast, with dark wooden furniture and panelling,
white table cloth and smart service.

I found the Delaunay online while looking for a place to brunch. Central London is a bit far from Richmond though and I'd never made the trip until recently when I popped in for cake after dinner at Koya with a friend. The cakes, I have to say, were the best I've had in London and will be heavily influencing the food score for this review. The Delaunay is a great place to keep in mind for something sweet and a coffee late at night. I vowed to come back for a fuller meal, and so made plans for brunch with two other friends I'd have had to come to Central London to meet anyway. I'd made a reservation online and upon coming in we were shown straight to our table. The main interior of the restaurant, past the bar and it's few tables, is a rather grand room of gleaming wood and white table cloth bustling with people. A bit noisy, which I suppose can be a good or bad thing depending on what kind of vibe you're in the mood for. 

Review: Dishoom

Upper Limits

"Thumbs Up do not do diets" 

I wish I meant upper limits in terms of food and experience. I don't. I mean upper limits in terms of patience. Don't get me wrong, my meal at Dishoom in Covent Garden was by no means a negative experience - kudos to the staff who handled an amusing hiccup in our meal very well - but I cannot recommend this place without adding a few words of warning. The first warning is about the queues. One Friday night, the hostess told me a table for two had an hour and fifteen minute wait. I laughed and left. This is a restaurant that does not take reservations for groups smaller than 6 - a seemingly effective marketing tactic that sees queues snaking all along the pavement outside. I've never understood why people put up with this. Plan ahead and book. If for some reason you haven't or couldn't, there are plenty of nice restaurants around that won't make you stand outside as advertisement. If you really do want to try the food, come back during a quieter period. As both friends in real life and bloggers online had recommended this place, this is what I did and dropped by for lunch on a weekday.

Top left, rose and cardamom lassi. Top right, water in steel
glasses! Bottom, Tamarind dip, didn't recognise the others.

Even then, the place was pretty full and we were shown to a table downstairs. I don't know what an Irani cafe should look like, but Dishoom gave me contemporary London vibes. A friend from Mumbai confirmed this - the interior was the closest imitation he's seen to an Irani cafe but it's not quite there. Initially there seemed to be a lot of pressure to order: we picked out drinks very quickly and were then asked about food orders twice in rapid succession. After turning our wait staff away for the second time things seemed to calm down. My rose lassi arrived, and I'm happy to report that it's the best I've had in England, dethroning Pushkar of Birmingham from the top spot. 

Secret Ingredients

শাশলিক 

Chicken Shashlik

Chicken shashlik at a family dinner, courtesy of mom

Have you ever tasted a really great dish somewhere, perhaps when you've been over for dinner at a friend's? Have you then gone on to ask for the recipe, only to fail at recreating the dish again exactly? Apparently this happens because people withhold key steps in the method, or fail to mention certain secret ingredients. 

Thankfully getting recipes from (mostly) family has meant that I haven't had to face this! But hearing my mom say she uses mustard powder and oyster sauce for her Bangladeshi style chicken shashlik reminded me of those stories. They're not the most obvious ingredients I would think of if I was trying to create a shashlik recipe myself. Not that I can claim these are secret ingredients anymore, but hey, to me food is all about sharing. These are the chicken shashlik I've grown up with, now up online for anyone else to try and recreate. I recently made this for a party at mine, and ingredient amounts are now updated accordingly. 

Review: Sora Lucia

The Underdog in Rome

Apart from booking ourselves into Imago, I hadn't actually done much research on where to eat in Rome. This was partly because I was operating in zombie mode for Ramadan, but also because I was trying to be spontaneous (!!). However, with the proliferation of WiFi everywhere I couldn't help but quickly Google restaurants before we left for lunch one day, and I found out about Sora Lucia through Katie Poller's guide to Rome in the Guardian. As Poller says in the article, Sora Lucia is a tiny tratorria run by the owner serving excellent homestyle food. From the picture above you get an idea of how cosy it is – a just few tables inside and three outside. Basic furniture, minimal decoration, but less than five minutes walk from Trevi fountain for great food. Sit outside if you can, the area is shaded during late lunch and you can watch the tourists go by. 

Ask for menus in English since they're available, but on our visit both the owner and the other staff member spoke little to no English. Thus we eschewed the specials of the day on the board as Poller recommends trying, due to our complicated combined dietary requirements (no pork for me, no fish and strange ingredients for him). If you're easier, by all means try the specials. However, we had no regrets with our choices from the standard menu – mixed vegetables and bruschetta with tomato and olive oil as starters, followed by pasta dishes for our main courses.