I expected some good eating in London. While they aren't really known for their national cuisine, London is an international city with fantastic restaurants. We didn't get to any pubs or Indian food while there, but we did find some great places.
The Archduke
First night we went to Waterloo where there's an abundance of restaurants along the River Thames. Each one of them looked super busy as the weather was gorgeous, it was a Friday night and we were in a fairly touristy location. About a block away from the river we found The Archduke. Wonderful decor with many different types of dining rooms; rooms for eating a full meal, rooms for drinks, rooms for drinks & small bites, and a beer garden. For an appetizer we had asparagus spears with shaved Parmesan and poached hen's egg. Big, fat, grilled asparagus spears with some lemon and pepper, long pieces of shaved Parmesan and a delicious egg. This was a fantastic appetizer; definitely one of the best prepared asparagus I've ever eaten. I don't see long, thick asparagus at the grocery store that much, so these were a real treat.
For our main dish we had lamb chops. Well seasoned, a little tough, but still good. They don't seem to ask how you'd like your meat prepared and I like my lamb medium rare but I still cleaned my plate. The lamb came with roasted peppers and steak fries with sea salt...bliss.
This place was such a find.
The Archduke
All Bar One
All Bar One is a chain in the UK. We had a drink at the one in Edinburgh and were so impressed by the menu, we had to go there for dinner for our last night in London. They serve small and large plates that are incredibly inventive. Dishes like duck tostadas and lime & lemongrass cheesecake grace the menu. It was certainly tough to pick but I settled on tiger prawn linguine with lime, ginger, saffron and creamed paprika sauce. Holy crap. The lime and ginger were so subtle but gave the dish an acidity you usually get with lemon. The creamed paprika sauce looked like tomato sauce but was a bit smokier. A fantastic twist on a classic dish. I loved it.
I was thrilled to see a successful (the place was packed on a Monday night in London and fairly full at three o'clock on a Monday in Edinburgh) chain that serves inventive dishes at affordable prices. I wanted to try everything on the menu. I'd love to see something like All Bar One in America. It's a fantastic place to eat, a good Happy Hour hot spot and seems to be a great place to go prowling; it has everything.
All Bar One
No comments:
Post a Comment