THE HOLY BIRDS, SPITALFIELDS

I feel like a lot of my eating out in London recently has revolved around specific types of meat. A few weeks ago I was at The Holy Birds, who specialise in poultry and game birds, and last week I went to SMITHS of Smithfield, in Cannon Street for a night of steak options. Both of which were actually pretty good, despite my initial doubts about eating out in The City.

The Holy Birds is a super retro restaurant in between Liverpool Street Station and Brick Lane, just south of Spitalfields market. We headed there from TT Liquor (blog on that to follow) and settled down with some delicious cocktails - a rum punch for him and an excellent whisky sour for me. The cocktail list at The Holy Birds is long, all encompassing and really good value - £9.50 for the very punchy punch, and the same for my whisky fizz.

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A DOG'S DINNER with GRUB CLUB

Food and dogs are two of the things in life that can put an instant smile on my face. Combine the two and I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, especially when it's with the lovely Grub Club team who invited me to Patio in the Park to do just that a couple of weekends ago. One of Grub Club's top chefs, Michelin trained Pratap of That Hungry Chef, had teamed up with dog walking company Tailster to put on a feast for both two and four legged guests. It was such a fun afternoon, and not nearly as chaotic as 20 humans plus 12 dogs who'd never met each other might've been! 

We started with bubbles for humans and dog beer (yup, that's a thing) for the dogs outside the venue, while we heard a few dog handling tips from a dog training expert. The dogs then had their starter of bone broth with vegetables before we all moved inside (humans and dogs) so us two leggeds could get stuck in to the delicious menu Pratap had prepared.

Our food kicked off with steamed wild mushroom and fermented rice cake, curried celeriac puree, hen's egg and toasted coconut. A wonderful start to the meal, and perfect for Sunday lunch as it was like a dreamy brunchy egg dish that I would happily eat every Sunday morning. Chat round the table turned to all things furry and waggy and it was so cute having the very well behaved dogs chilling in the venue with us. 

From a perfect brunch dish, to a perfect Sunday lunch dish for mains, Pratap's venison braised with rum, chocolate and spices, turmeric and thyme mash and savoy cabbage was divine. Soft, slow cooked meat full of rich flavours on a bed of punchy mash and one of my favourite green veggies. 

After our mains it was outside so the dogs could have theirs - a canine venison kebab shaped into a bone, they wolfed it down. 

We headed back inside for our final course of spiced pumpkin and honey cake with vanilla cream, pecans and maple and sage dressing, which was pudding, so therefore not for me, but mine was the only not clean plate, so a huge success by the looks of things!

I'm not sure if/when Grub Club are doing another doggy pop up but they've always got plenty of fun and unique dining experiences of their site across London, so do check them out. 

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COCKTAILS with CHRISTABEL'S

If you want to perfect your cocktail making skills over an evening full of fun and glitter I've got just the place for you to go. Christabel started off running pop up restaurants and soon realised that drinks were where the real fun was so now runs, among other things, bespoke cocktail making evenings at her beautiful flat.

Before Christmas I spent at Christabel's trying my hand at a few cocktails. It was a brilliant evening - we laughed, ate canapes, shook our shakers and drank delicious drinks. 

There are a few cocktail workshops coming up soon - one on Valentine's Day evening (what a GREAT idea for a Valentine's date!) where you can make the Flirt and Zinger cocktails, which you'll then pimp up with glitter, sequins, rose petals, super special ice cubes and stirrers, while nibbling on canapes. Then Christabel is teaming up with one of my favourite vodka brands, Black Cow - who make their vodka from milk, to do some Mad Hatter Mar-tea-ni masterclasses. 

Christabel's workshops sell out really fast so book now to avoid missing out - you really don't want to miss these. 

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CHINESE NEW YEAR AT HKK

Chinese New Year may've been yesterday, but you can carry on the celebrations, as the Chinese do, all week and beyond, thanks to HKK's fantastic specially crafted Chinese New Year menu that they're serving at their Michelin star restaurant, near Liverpool Street, until the 20th February.

I've reviewed the tasting menu at HKK before, and was expecting the same menu with little tweaks to add a CNY vibe, but their CNY menu is completely different (bar the duck course) and actually better than the menu I'd had before, in my opinion. To start with, the menu itself is beautiful. Not only does it give you the history of each course, but you're allowed to take it away with you as a memento of the meal you've had there (which is helpful when there are that many courses!)

Having just got back from a sake tour of Japan, I was interested to see that the first drink matched with the menu is a sparkling sake. In fact, the drinks paired throughout the meal are from all around the world - from Japan, to Venezuela, to France - and they all worked fantastically with each course. The cost of the CNY menu is £88 per person for food, plus £48 for the drinks, and I think if you're going to go for it, then definitely get the drinks too. I know it's not cheap, but as a special treat it's definitely worth it.

Course number one of nine (!) is the prosperity platter - a fresh and tasty salad of jellyfish, mouli, seaweed, ginger, leeks, roasted peanuts and crispy salmon skin - that's tossed high in the air for good luck and happiness. This is served with grilled spiced and salted Welsh pork with mustard and a goji berry foam, and a dried oyster sauce and iberico ham dumpling with black moss. All of which get the meal off to the perfect start.

 

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PIZZA UNION

Who doesn't love a pizza?! It's probably the go-to "naughty" food that I eat the most, because crispy base and melty cheese = heaven! So I popped into Pizza Union near Liverpool Street last week to give their offerings a try. And they're so good that I have to tell you about them!

Pizza Union is tucked between Bishopsgate and Commercial Street near Shoreditch in East London. It's a huge space with a massive pizza oven where they promise superfast 12" pizzas, ready in 3 minutes! And that's exactly what they do. You order and pay at the counter, take a buzzer with you and within 3 minutes the buzzer starts flashing and your pizza is ready to collect. I went with Hugo; I ordered the Formaggi (tomato sauce, mozzarella, mascarpone, gorgonzola and parmesan) with extra artichokes and pepperoni, and Hugo had the Carne (tomato sauce, mozzarella, beef, chicken, pepperoni and onions). The bases are super thin, and crunchy at the edges, and the toppings plentiful and delicious. It was up there with some of the best pizzas I've tried. And they're super cheap too - they were £6.50 each!

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STREET FEAST / SMOKESTAK

On Friday night, after a long post-holiday/festival/wedding week back at work we headed over to Street Feast to check out their newest tenant, Smokestak. I hadn't been to Street Feast since last year and it was great to see how it's grown and developed since then.

We got to Dalston just before 7pm, which was a good time to arrive as there weren't too many queues to get into the venue, or at the food and drink stalls.

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FAT CHEEKS LOVE BITES - FRIDAY 15th FEB

Ultimate pop up dining group, Fat Cheeks, return for their final London date, this Friday 15th February with a spectacular Valentine's line up of food and music.

FAT CHEEKS LOVE BITES takes place in a hidden away photographic studio in the heart of Shoreditch. Dinner will be served on a giant infinity screen under a high curved ceiling, in one of the most stunning spaces that FAT CHEEKS has been able to hijack so far!

The night's menu goes as follows:

- Grey Goose Love Fizz cocktails on arrival.
- Oyster & Champagne Soup and Crab Cocktail with Cucumber Jelly and Avocado.
- Herb Crusted Fillet of Hebridean Salmon with Crushed Olives, Capers & Potatoes and Tomato Vinaigrette.
- White Chocolate & Lime Cheesecake and Raspberry Compote.

Music will take diners from food heaven to dancefloor bliss, with Mr Blue Fontaine (aka DJ DIE) and Mr Gus Pirelli armed with a bagful of red hot Laminate boogie guaranteed to rock the house with funk, hip hop and soul and rare grooves, taking you through to 2am.

Tickets are priced as follow, so why not gather your mates and make it a Valentines worth sharing?

LOVE BITES GROUPIE – 6 Diners (& afterparty) – £35 each
LOVE BITES COUPLED UP – 4 Diners (& afterparty)  £40 each
LOVE BITES DINNER AND DANCE – Single Diner (& afterparty)  £45 each
LOVE DANCE afterparty bar from 10pm – £10 each

To get your ticket (I've already got mine) go to http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/327190

See you there!!

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