The Providores and tapa room (27th March 2010)

There is no better way to kick-start a fab and chilled spring weekend in London with a quality brunch. Having had the Traditional English fry-up for countless times in my life, I was looking for something “different”. Don’t get me wrong, I still love that old greasy English breakfast but being in London, it would be a waste not to explore for a bit. The Providores and tapa room on Marylebone high street provides just that! However, as with all top quality places in London, grabbing a seat on a sunny Saturday brunch time can be a real task – it took us around 15 to be seated, and I was told that it’s considered to be fast.

The place is actually a wine bar in the evenings and can be a bit of a squeeze. The menu boasts a wide range of choices from some light greek yoghurt and scones to heavyweights such as grille sardines with salads. I went with two other friends and ordered “French toast stuffed with banana and pecans with grilled smoked streaky bacon and vanilla verjus syrup” (8/10), “Hot-smoked salmon, two poached eggs and spinach on walnut toast with yuzu hollandaise” (5/10) and “Grilled chorizo on creamy root vegetable gratin with a soft boiled egg, dukkah, green olive, guindilla chilli and oregano salsa” (8/10).

The food was simply heavenly! The combination of the sweet French toast stuffed with banana and pecans together with bacon and syrup sounded like a weird combo at the start, but the combination was delicious. I only had a little taste of it since it wasn’t my dish, but I wanted to finish the rest of the plate off. The chorizo I ordered was cooked to perfection and the whole dish worked very well in flavour and texture. The salmon with poached egg and spinach on toast was good, but I thought the dish was too mixed… seemed to me like a dish created to suit someone who couldn’t make up their mind between egg royale and egg Florentine. The restaurant/café also serves a hell of a good berry milkshake and fresh juice.

This place has since become my favourite brunch place in London and in another of my recent visit (on a weekend, much quieter), my girlfriend and I had the “Grilled sardines on roasted tomato bruschetta” (6/10) which was good and “Turkish eggs from changa restaurant in Istanbul - two poached eggs with whipped yoghurt and hot chilli butter” (8/10) which was FAB! Though the place tops my list for weekend brunch, quality food in a posh area does not come cheap… though given brunch is in theory two meals, I guess I would still starve a little and miss breakfast and come to this quality little place for its brunch. But be prepared to wait on a sunny weekend!

Goodman (27th March 2010)

When asked about a decent steakhouse in London, people usually would say – “Gauchos”. Nevertheless, I haven’t really had a good experience with Gauchos as my previous visit to their Chancery Lane branch ended up in disappointment despite many of my friends’ high regard (some say the Piccadilly branch is the one that you should try). Anyway, I came across ‘Goodman’ which is located on Maddox Street near Oxford Circus after hearing its popularity from some friends and also how difficult a task it is to book the place on weekends (I managed to book for 4 at 6pm on Saturday).

The restaurant itself was pleasant and cosy, and feels just like upper-end steakhouses in America (not a criticism). Apart from the menu itself, there was a big blackboard on the wall indicating what is still available on the day – cuts, sizes etc.

The waiter kindly brought and explained to us the different cuts available on a large board. In order to sample the different cuts, the 4 of us all went for different choices – Porterhouse, ribeye on the bone, ribeye, and fillet; all were cooked to medium-rare. (I ordered the ribeye). Upon first inspection, the steak was finely char-grilled with hashes engraved on the surface. The delicious meaty smell was so delicious that I could have fed purely on the smell. If I was not in a proper restaurant, I would probably just stab it with a fork and consume it like a Barbarian.

Upon cutting it up in a civilised manner, I found my steak to be a bit more overdone than I would have liked – to be honest, I should I asked for rare given I like my steak juicy and the core of my steak still bloody. Having said that, the steak itself was very good, pink in the middle and tasted lovely (though not crispy enough on the outside). The other steaks that we’ve ordered were all cooked to the same quality, though the porterhouse was in my opinion the tastiest of the four. However, it is still far from the perfect steak that I am looking for in London. Having sampled so many steaks in restaurants being a meat lover myself, I tend to prefer my steak pan fried rather than grilled. Lastly, one thing to mention is that they do serve a cracking dessert – ‘Frozen caramel parfait with Maldon sea salt and milk chocolate’ (9/10), just the right balance in terms of sweetness, texture. Lovely.

Overall, I would rate the steak I had 6.5/10. Sadly, given that it cost almost £30 for a 400g ribeye, I would probably contemplate on the next visit – though if I had ordered rare, I might have a different conclusion.