Restaurant review: THE PICKLED HEN (Marble Arch)

Such is my fondness for exploring London restaurants using deals I’ve pre-bought on the internet, that I bought a Sunday brunch for two deal from BuyAGift at The Pickled Hen of London Marriott Hotel Marble Arch. The deal entitled us to unlimited Presecco for two hours and a Sunday brunch for £39.

You definitely get bang for your buck with this deal. Apart from the main, where you order a la carte, everything else from the brunch was buffet-style. Normally, when I think of buffets, I'm reminded of copious amounts of food on display, all of questionable quality. That wasn’t the case here at all: there was choice, but it was all refined and prepared, like cute little quiches, a generous cheeseboard and cold cuts including small slices of salami.

Two photos of just some of the awesome foods you could have:

Restaurant review: LANTANA (Fitzrovia)

I’ve trialled lots of cuisines in my experience sampling London’s restaurants, but one country’s dishes which I haven’t had enough exposure to is Australian food, and I sought to rectify this by sampling the food of Lantana, which I had heard good things about.

I had the big bubble (Bubble ‘n’ squeak with cumberland sausage, poached egg, black pudding, muhammara and sautéed spinach), pictured below.

I absolutely loved it. The poached egg was one of the finest I’ve had, and the tomatoes had been roasted exquisitely. The tomatoes’ soft texture complemented the rest of the meal, which was quite solid.

I’ve historically found that sausages tend to be the weakest part of breakfast menus, because they tend to cost the most, and profit-driven cafes and restaurants would rather opt for the value brand instead of the Taste the Difference.

Restaurant review: BYRON (Covent Garden)

I’ve had mixed fortunes when it comes to burger joints in London. Places like Tommi’s Burger Joint and Prime Burger were so awful I wouldn’t recommend them to my worst enemy, and other venues which don’t specialise in burgers, seem to treat them as an afterthought (Maxwell’s Bar and Grill, be ashamed. Be very ashamed). Still, due to the sheer majesty of the burgers I’ve had such as Bird, I still haven’t up hope in the capital’s ability to produce delicious burgers just yet.

Byron definitely delivered on the burger front. I had the Smoky burger, with the meat cooked medium rare, and that, along with all the ingredients (mature cheddar, streaky bacon, crispy onions, shredded iceberg, pickles and smoked chilli) rendered this a verifiable feast for the taste buds. You know it was tasty because normally I would object to paying £10 for a burger and no sides, but in this case, I feel the money was well spent. The way all the ingredients complemented each other and bought out the succulence of the steak… heaven.

Cooking: a meatier adaptation of the full English breakfast.

The last time I reported on my attempts to make a full English were over three years ago! This time round, I decided to cut out the stuff I wasn't too keen on (for example, the mushrooms), and feast on the stuff I love (hash browns, potatoes). Furthermore, because I was cooking, rather than ordering at a cafe, where the bacon is cooked to a certain level, I like my bacon a lot crispier than average, and so cooked it thus.

Ta da! It was absolutely delicious, even if I do say so myself. The crispy bacon, cooked in a reservoir of oil, probably single-handedly doubled my cholesterol levels, but was heaven to taste.

Next time, however, I would recommend adding eggs. Runny egg adds a certain something to the English breakfast, that I thought this was missing.

The search for London's best breakfast: Bella Italia.

I'm gonna cut to the chase; Bella Italia's won't be winning. The sausage tasted extremely chewy and poor quality, the bacon was too hard, there weren't enough baked beans and the potatoes were flavourless. Think the photo shows the quality (or lack thereof) of all the ingredients pretty well.

Grade: E

Review: The Table Cafe (Southwark)

As with The Breakfast Club just a few streets down, The Table Cafe boasts a no-reservation policy and as such, has a queue of people waiting outside in the freezing cold. That, already, puts it in a realm with 10 Greek Street, which irritates me because it automatically signals that the restaurant cares more about their overall revenue than they do about the dining experience of the punters.

The food itself was OK, but nothing special. I had a coke float which was very sloppy indeed - by the time the waitress set it down on my table, half of it had spiked onto the table. Classy. To eat, I had the Borough Full English breakfast, which, whilst tasty, at £12.50, was just an overpriced, over-decorated version of English breakfasts I can get on my high street for £5.99. The menu boasts: 'two fried eggs, bacon, pork and leek sausages, slow-cooked Borough baked beans, grilled tomato, herb mushrooms and toast'. Well, firstly, I couldn't taste any 'leek' in the sausages (which were horrendously burnt), secondly, no-one's fooled by that lazy smearing of pesto over the tomatoes in an attempt to look fancy and the 'herb mushrooms'? Have a look at the picture, judge for yourself:

Furthermore, for twice the price I'm used to paying for my English breakfasts, this is roughly half the quantity! (super examples: un et deux et trois. All so much better).

Overall, The Table Cafe is definitely a case of style over substance. It’s very easy to buy into the hype of a place if there are people standing outside, but I’m disappointed to report that that was a misleading signal. We queued for 45 minutes. For that time and money, I could have had three times the time in most London cafes. When you're sat in a poncy restaurant and you're wishing you went to McDonald's, I have to tell you, it ain't great.

Grade: D

Breakfast watch: Luna Café (Chiswick)

The sausages were a little burnt, but the actual ingredients used for it was very high quality. Big fan of the crispy bacon and the oily hash brown. Decent amount of baked beans, and just look at that deliciously buttered toast! 

The only real downside was that for drink, you could only have coffee or tea. I wanted orange juice! That would have washed the meal down better. And I don't really like mushrooms, so I would have rather had more of the other ingredients rather than the mushroom.

Overall though, very solid.

Grade: A-

Sandwich watch: three in one, Waitrose.

£3.14, Waitrose.

BLT: 8/10 (the definitive BLT remains the Marks and Spencer one)

Prawn mayo: 7/10

Egg and cress: 7/10

Overall taste: 7.5/10

Value for money: 7/10