July 2018 – PB Eats, PB Travels

PB Eats… Galvin La Chapelle

Galvin La Chapelle was a restaurant I used to frequent regularly in my pescatarian and then vegetarian days, for some reason I stopped going when I turned vegan. Actually, I know why I stopped going – a French restaurant, having vegan options? Non. Fast forward to 2018 and that non has become a resounding qui. Whee for me! Not only did they confirm they can cater to my dietary needs, they also said they have a vegan menu with multiple options – both a la carte and gourmand. What we chose was the set menu offer – 3 courses and a glassy of bubbly for £38. The menu looked so tempting I wanted it all! I’m still getting used to having a variety of options to choose from! Orders placed, bubbles and bread swiftly arrived with butter for my omni friend and olive oil for me. Perfect start.

For starters, my choice was a no brainer – beetroot, raspberry, radish, gingerbread and hazelnuts all on one plate? Yes please! Now this restaurant has always been big on presentation and that hasn’t changed over the years. I mean, look at this dish – jewelled discs of yellow beetroot, complementing the pink of the raspberries and pink beetroot. I love dishes like this – each bite tasting different to the one before, each being a complete revelation, a bit of this and that, crispy greens, crunchy gingerbread wafers, zingy greens. WOW. Hats off to the chef for this ingenious combination.

Next up – risotto with mushrooms and truffles. My friend ordered the same dish but the omni version and it was really interesting to see how they differed. She tried both and delivered the verdict that hers was creamy and cheesy, while mine was more oily and lemony. For me, it was rich, and I thought it was creamy enough as the rice had been cooked perfectly. The mushrooms were cooked perfectly and were exactly what was needed to cut through the rice. Only complaint – there was truffle on the plate, I could see it, but I could barely taste it… more please! As part of a set menu, no issues. But if I was paying £34.50 for this on the a la carte, I wouldn’t be a happy bunny.

Onward to dessert. Sorbet, a fruity number or banana and chocolate? Which one to go for! How to decide! I asked our lovely waitress (service was top notch, as usual) who strongly recommended the latter. Now I love chocolate but I’m not the biggest fan of banana in desserts, but she was so passionate about it, I ordered it. Thank you lovely lady!

Now chocolate sorbet in this case is a very misleading label. This should have been described as full bodied, intense chocolate ice cream – I just don’t know how they made this. Dense, flavourful and smooth. The fact that the banana was bruleed completely changed the flavour profile. Crunchy nuts, honeycomb and greens – super excellent. They should never take this off the menu!! Omni dessert – chocolate fondant with blood orange sorbet, which went down just as well as my dessert. Happy diners 🙂

I ended my meal as I normally do – a nice pot of fresh mint tea, which arrived with a rock of honeycomb and a caramelised walnut. Perfect!

I know it sometimes sounds like I like everything I eat (I choose my restaurants wisely ;), but when it comes to this place – I did. The whole combo of service, food, ambience and now variety of options will keep this a firm favourite for a while.

PB Eats… Strut and Cluck

Living in London is a blessing – with so many cuisines and restaurants around, I am spoilt for choice. I am also a creature of habit eating at the same restaurants and fast food places. But then I come across a place I’ve never been to before and it’s added on to the favourites list. Enter Strut and Cluck – a cute restaurant near Spitalfields Market.

Initially, my first question was erm, ok, what options do I have in a place like this, with a name like that? A few tasty options, that’s what! The food menu reads beautifully, and lots of options in the ‘Earth’ section can be made vegan. The cocktails menu was just as uplifting to read, with combinations of drinks and mixers that I’ve never come across before. My tipple of choice to kick off the evening was the aptly named “Jaffa I’ve Mist You” with rum, elderflower and orange in a variety of guises – bitter, candied syrup and even some orange mist. No pic but take it from me – lush!

My omni friend both chose a couple of dishes to have. She had been here before and wanted to reorder the turkey lettuce cups she tried the previous time, along with some roasted mushrooms topped with harissa, cashews and breadcrumbs, both which she thoroughly enjoyed – the lettuce cups in particular.

I chose a couple of salads – roasted butternut squash with beans, radicchio, pumpkin seeds with a citrusy dressing. First time round – came with the goats cheese instead of without (pic has the cheese, forgot to take one without it, but you get the idea). They were very obliging and replaced it without any drama or hoo haa. Second salad was a mountain of veggies – avocado, broccoli, gem lettuce, chickpeas and quinoa. Now this is a salad. The charred lettuce was wonderful – and in my opinion so underrated! The roasted chickpeas were little crunchy flavour bombs that complemented the soft quinoa and peppers. I polished it off!

We also got some pitta and dips to share – soft, hot pillowy pitta halves with 2 dips. One was like a baba ghanoush – smokey and moreish. The other a tahini dip with a dash of zhoug (could have had a stronger chilli hit) – velvety and smooth. A must order!

Other than sorbet, there weren’t any other vegan or desserts that could be veganised, so my meal ended on a savoury note – no complaints. There are some excellent Turkish, Greek, Cypriot – Eastern Mediterranean – restaurants in London, but I just feel that this place does things slightly differently that make it stand out in a good way. I will be back.

PB Eats… Texture

5 months since my last post. Shocking. Same excuse – life has come in the way… and I was very distracted with work (complete change, not in a good way) and health (am now on medical leave recovering from a major op). So what better therapy than to revisit my blog baby and fill you in on the highlights of the past few months of eating and travelling! But first, a restaurant review. My ever intrepid socially aware friend and restaurant expert M found yet another interesting restaurant to visit that had a decent number of vegan options. Hello Texture, a Michelin starred European/Scandi restaurant in Mayfair.

We met for a drink in the bar first – a space that is very true to its roots – all rustic (a mini twig tree in the middle of the room)and textured (animal fur cushions 😦 ). There was a decent drinks list, and I decided to go for my current favourite – a Negroni. Oh my wordy… I could taste the love and attention that went into making this drink. Perfectly bitter and zesty, exactly how I like them. And along with the drinks – snacks on the house! They brought some vegan snacks specifically for me 🙂 Popcorn, crispbread and crispy things. As hungry as I was, I didn’t want to fill up on these yummy nuggets…

The decor from the bar carried through to the dining area and and it really came out in the crockery and cutlery. The perfect balance between rustic and chic, full of character and absolutely beautiful. Having taken our seats, we were presented with menus – champagne menu, normal menus, a vegan a la carte and tasting menu too. The plan was to go for the vegan a la carte, which had only 4 savoury options and no sight of a dessert (spoiler alert – I left the restaurant happy, so all was well in the end).

Once our orders were placed, this cute little bread set up arrived. Beautifully presented, the bread was warm with an impressive crust, accompanied with a jug of grassy olive oil and a little dish of volcanic black salt. Can’t say there were explosions (ehehehe) but the combination of all three was pretty damn good. I was so tempted to nick the spoon but I resisted.

Then this appetiser showed up – 50 shades of green and then some. I can’t remember how they described it, but it tasted righteous and noble – I could feel the healthometer rising while I was eating it. It was an intriguing dish of cold, chlorophyll rich green soup (juice?), topped with slivers of kale, basil granita and oil. As a lover of all things green, I enjoyed it and thought the dish (both the actual plate and the food) lived up to the restaurant’s name. Bring on the main course!

So any concerns regarding the restaurant’s generosity and portion size had clearly flown out the window – I was looking forward to the black rice main course I had ordered. Would it be substantial? Would it be tasty? Would it be packed with flavour? Would it be full of texture? (sorry, can’t get away from this pun). YES on all counts. The coconut flavoured broth was packed with galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf – essentially a tom kha. Top that with nutty black rice and a few more al dente veggies, and what I ate was a filling and nourishing meal which left me feeling very very content. M chose the cod – which she enjoyed too.

Completely satisfied and not even looking for dessert, I ordered a pot of fresh mint tea. M wanted dessert and appropriately chose the Icelandic Skyr, which came adorned with ice cream, fruit and crispy bits – looked quite lovely I must say. Not wanting to be left out, they brought me a little bowl of blood orange sorbet – more like a palate cleanser, zingy, fresh and oh so perfect. I think it was part of the vegan dessert on the tasting menu – I couldn’t have had the whole thing so this amount was ideal. But no, it didn’t end there – they also brought out some petit fours. Oh my. Coconut ice coated with chocolate coated with coconut shreds – another winning combination which went down very well.

It was also the last thing that went down – I was too stuffed to eat another bite. Service I will say slowed down towards the end of the evening, but all in all, an excellent meal and I am coming back to try the vegan tasting menu. Yum.