It has been an age since we last wrote a proper food review for anything other than a long Instagram caption. But now, with the launch of my monthly newsletter, The Writer’s Monocle, I’ve decided to chuck my hand back in the game. And this is timely, as it coincided with a food-filled weekend away in London in February. One where we ran the gamut across sit-down dining, street food and a selection from a Filipino bakery…

1. Noodle Inn, Chinatown

Memories of Expensive Tastes never really went away, and people still give me recommendations and send me Reels. In terms of where to eat in Chinatown, one that people consistently recommend is Noodle Bar. That was my first port of call.

Its reputation precedes it, as the queue out the door went out at least two neighbouring properties, 10 minutes or more before opening time. But once they’re open, they get you in efficiently. Some diners, myself included, have the extra privilege of sitting at a counter looking directly onto the busy kitchen, where you can see all the action, from the hand-cutting of the noodles to the ladling of hot oil onto meat just before service.

One thing to note: the main audience for this restaurant is spice-lovers; the milder dishes are a little on the uninspired side. I’m not a huge spice fan, but I took a chance on their Biang Biang Noodles with beef shank, costing £16.80 in total. If you’re more of a spice fiend, you can go for the braised beef brisket instead (see pictured); maybe with some deep-fried prawns and wasabi mayo on the side?

In London, for the portion I got, which comprised plenty of wide-cut noodles, melt-in-the-mouth beef pieces, pak choi and bean sprouts, that’s good value. From the spice side, the dish was coated in chilli. However, this was easy to rectify. A slug of soy sauce was all it took to bring it down to the level I could stomach. From there, bon appetit!

2. The Black Pig, Borough Market

I don’t find noodles all that filling, even when they’re inundated with beef and everything else. So the next stop was the bustling and busy Borough Market. For food lovers, it’s heaven, and for claustrophobes, it’s closer to hell. There are too many temptations as you make your way around, but I had one recommendation on my mind, in the form of The Black Pig. Purveyors of fine slow roast pork ciabatta sandwiches.

Of course, I had to go for what they call The Best One, consisting of the pork with a honey truffle parmesan mayo, fennel and apple slaw, pepperoncini sott’olio, salsa verde and a generous layer of grated parmesan cheese. You can probably imagine how messy a dining experience this was. But good grief, it was worth it. One of those will set you back £13, but it will keep you full until breakfast the next day.

3. Panadera, Soho

Ever since my first visit to Mamasons in Chinatown, I’ve developed a taste for Filipino sweets, such as ube ice cream and the Bilog doughnut. But I’d never thought to go looking for anything on a larger scale. Enter Panadera, yet another recommendation that came by way of Instagram, which dishes out the sweets and savouries of the Philippines in the dozens.

It’s something of a hidden gem to those who are unfamiliar with Soho – Google took me in a few circles before I found it. But to those who know it and love it, they’re prepared to queue, and they’re prepared to take their food on the road when there’s nowhere to sit inside. It isn’t a hugely spacious venue, so to get seating is a matter of luck and timing. I had both on my visit, which allowed me to assemble a rather delicious windowsill of food. The savouries: a corned beef hash sandwich and a chicken adobo pocket; the sweets: an ube doughnut and a Calamansi blueberry Danish.

Wow! Where to start? Similar to the sandwich from The Black Pig, the corned beef hash sandwich was full of well-married flavours. It’s difficult to know what size mouthful to take. Do you savour it to make it last, or do you need as much of that deliciousness all at once? The chicken adobo pocket was a bit more subtle in terms of flavour. Unlike the traditional dish itself, you don’t have any sauce keeping the saltiness going. But it was by no means any less nice. Far superior to anything you’re getting in a Greggs or a Cornish Bakehouse, that’s for sure.

Onto the sweets, the ube doughnut was exactly what you’d expect. Like all vanilla-esque things, ube goes very well in a custard. But that is all it is, otherwise. A purple custard doughnut. Far eclipsed by the Calamansi blueberry Danish. Huge in size and packed to the brim with blueberry and lime. Danishes aren’t in my top five when it comes to pastries, but this one has left me re-evaluating that…

For Expensive Tastes, a trip to London never disappoints. That’s three more we’ve ticked off our extremely long list. And hopefully we’ll have you coming back for more reviews!

The second meal to come out of our recent trip to Yorkshire sees us visiting Harrogate for a delicious seafood feast. All courtesy of The Drum & Monkey…

One of the top priorities of my trip to Yorkshire earlier this month was to visit Brontaè’s Bar & Restaurant in Horsforth. The other was to have an afternoon tea in the famed Betty’s Café Tea Rooms in Harrogate, the elegance of which I marvelled at when it was featured on an episode of Remarkable Places to Eat with Fred Sirieix and Nadiya Hussain. It was impossible to book, being just the one of me. And so I had to chance it. With my luck, it wasn’t a surprise to see a queue around the side of the building. Absolutely no hope of getting in quickly. Having made the journey from Leeds to Harrogate (a modest half-hour), I went off in search of an alternative. An alternative that I eventually found in The Drum & Monkey seafood restaurant.

Harrogate reminds me a lot of Brighton in its Lanes-like series of little streets and walkways. With all manner of delights on every corner, and plenty in between. It was through this otherwise aimless exploration that I found The Drum & Monkey. The dining area is quite small; seats 20 covers at most, I’d say. Perfect for the solo diner to stay out of the way.

STARTER: BOUILLABAISSE

The last time I had bouillabaisse, it was a waste of time. I was deathly ill with tonsillitis at the time, and so I barely tasted a thing. There was me thinking a hot fish stew would be just the thing to soothe a pained throat and give me a load of goodness. I was very wrong. So when I saw it on the menu of The Drum & Monkey, I couldn’t turn it down. And the second time was truly the charm.

You might be looking at that picture and thinking the bowl is quite small. I will tell you now that, while that may be the case, it was jam-packed full of fishy goodies. The stew itself was sumptuous and rich, the salt of the seafood perfectly balanced with sweet-umami tomato flavours. And I have to give a huge shout-out to the croûtons. None of your tiny, rock-hard bread nuggets here. These were two proper pieces of bread, deep-baked and (I believe, anyway) infused with garlic. A match made in Heaven if ever I tasted it.

MAIN COURSE: FILLET OF HAKE

Why not follow one rich sauce with another? I felt the fish in this dish (as is so often the case in seafood pieces) played second fiddle to its accompaniments. Which included among them braised leek, pancetta, and a Pedro Ximénez sauce. The latter, a sherry wine, is believed by some to be the sweetest wine in the world. And when combined with all those other flavours – the onion notes from the leeks and the salt from the pancetta – the end result, somewhat magically is a rich, almost brandy-caramel kind of taste.

As I say, I really feel this dominated the hake, which ended up being little more than a vehicle, albeit a very succulent one, for that sauce. Don’t mistake that as me regretting my choice. Overall, I was very pleased.

DESSERT: LAYERED CHOCOLATE BOMBE

Like my trip to Brontaè’s, I had to seriously consider whether or not I could manage a dessert. In my earlier restaurant critiquing days, I don’t think I would have thought twice. We talked ourselves around, don’t worry. And while I was a bit underwhelmed when the Layered Chocolate Bombe I ordered first arrived, in truth it was just the ticket. Neither too big nor too rich; something relatively light to draw a line under the meal.

I pictured something more like a sphere, whereas this was more of a mound, as you’ll see from the image. A very hard outer chocolatey shell, concealing some delicious cherry filling deeper down. We all know chocolate and cherry are a happy marriage, so there were no complaints coming from that combination. The pistachios adding a bit of greenery to the otherwise dark dish did pretty little else, I won’t lie. In retrospect, I wonder if the chef was aiming for a forest floor kind of presentation?

THE DRUM & MONKEY – THE FINAL VERDICT

Of my two meals out in Yorkshire this trip, The Drum & Monkey has to take second place, sadly. While all three dishes were commendable in terms of flavour and presentation, I felt there was a lot to be desired in terms of atmosphere. I also felt the service was only as attentive as it needed to be; there seemed to be no real effort to go above and beyond. All the same, if you’re in Harrogate and fancy a seafood dinner, definitely give it a go.

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