Herman Ze German

The Top 10 dishes quest continues.

We went to Herman Ze German to try out the 10th best dish in London as voted by Timeout. 

The branch we visited is located on Villiers Street and if I had walked past it before I read about it, I would have assumed this is just another fast food place. But hot dogs ARE fast food, so you can't expect a fancy restaurant with tables...

I am glad to have stopped by, I really enjoyed their hot dog! The main one we went to try was the Bockwurst, a nicely smoked pork sausage. I also found the bun in the form of a freshly baked French bread to go perfectly with it.

I think the picture we ended up taking before devouring the hot dog is of 'Ze Wilde Bock': the Bockwurst sausage with currysauce and crispy onions. 

Perfect filling bite when you're on the move.

Bonus points in the shop as well due to the fact you can buy the sausages to take home and cook yourself. I shall definitely keep this in mind.

Cost per person < £10 for a hot dog and drink

Balthazar, London

Balthazar serves brasserie style food. This one is the London branch, with the original being located in New York.

I had previously stopped by for coffee and dessert (which is just fine if that's all you have time for, they have a lovely range) and I kept meaning to go back to try out the full menu. 

The venue is large with ample space. They even have a great looking seafood counter.

Lobster anyone?

So what's on the menu at this brasserie? Some solid classic choices to start with such as onion soup gratinée, foie gras mousse, steak tartare, escargots... For mains, you imagine it and they probably have it: moules frites, lobster, crab (and a variety of shellfish from the fish counter), fish (haddock, sole, monkfish, salmon, seabass), meat (chicken, duck, lamb, steak, grills such as côte de boeuf, rib eye) and even a couple of token dishes to please vegetarians like macaroni cheese and a nice sounding artichoke main.

We wanted to guarantee room for dessert and decided to share a starter: pumpkin agnolotti. This was a lovely tortellini-like pasta and a good way to start the dinner: sage, butter, pasta, shavings of parmesan cheese and pumpkin to make yourself feel okay since you are having one of your five a day: what's not to like? We were also given a basket of freshly baked bread. Reading up on this afterwards, I gather that Balthazar has a lovely bakery next door-  definitely a good choice for fresh bread if ever in the area.

No one was ordering steak as a main and therefore I knew there was no chance of having meat envy. Despite this, I had a small mental struggle of meat fish meat fish meat fish? I went for the fish. This is a New Year after all and I need to branch out.

Seabass en papillotte: with Jerusalem artichoke, mussels, fennel and tarragon. There was no flavour necessarily taking over, it all blended well together. I didn't know what to expect: if I would get a full artichoke with it or how the mussels would come into play. It was nicely presented though you need to ensure to order some sides with it as the wrapping means you only get as much as they can fit into the fish before wrapping it up. 

With our mains we ordered gratin dauphinois and sautéed spinach to share between three of us. The top of the potato dish was extremely crispy and overall this was a really nice side! It helped bulk up my main as the fish was not overly filling (for some reason fish never really is to me, which is not a bad thing as it means I can be greedy with sides and dessert). 

Lastly the desserts...let's just say that if it had chocolate in it, we ordered it.

The Hot Chocolate Sphere with Earl Grey tea mousse and fresh raspberries.

This dish had a very cool factor to it as they bring a chocolate sphere to your table and then pour the hot chocolate on top. You watch the sphere slowly disintegrate while saying your oohs and ahhs and desperately try to get an action shot (best being the slightly crooked photo below).

Beyond that, I probably would not pick the dessert again as most of it really just melted on the plate and it did not feel like it has enough substance afterwards. I can't actually remember the raspberries either, I assume they must have been inside.

The profiteroles were lovely. Freshly made with big scoops of ice cream inside each one. Definitely a winner. This dish may be better shared unless you still have a good appetite after dinner. 

My personal favourite: the chocolate fondant. I am a big fan of warm chocolate desserts so it's impossible for me not to love this.

All in all it was around £48 per person including service for a shared starter, main, shared sides, dessert and wine.

Balthazar is definitely worth going back to: whether it is for coffee and dessert, for checking out their bakery, or trying out more of their menu and seafood counter. Having such an extensive menu, I find it hard to believe that it all can be equally good. At first try however, it is looking promising. 

Tierra Peru

The first time we went to Tierra Peru, we had made other plans and could only spend 40mins there for brunch. We decided to go anyway given it had come highly recommended. We loved it and decided we needed to go back and give it our full undivided un-rushed attention.

Lucky for us, their Facebook offer was back: Peruvian all you can eat buffet for £16 instead of £21 (price excludes dessert and drinks)

It is difficult to put together a good all you can eat buffet without compromising quality. The only other place that has managed to do this is one of our favourite Mexican restaurants ('Mestizo'- and yes you should go there). Tierra Peru succeeded in providing a beautifully done brunch. The way it works is that they have a section with items that have already been cooked, but they advise that other things on the menu like anticuchos (meat skewers), ceviches (three types available), etc are also available upon request.

Hot section on the left

Cold section on the right of the table including causas on the bottom right. These are made with different types of potatoes and in this case with tuna and avocado topping. I absolutely love the range of colours. 

In this occasion we were not in a rush and expected to devour the table set out. However we found the food was pleasantly filling so could not manage more than 2-3 visits as we ensured we tried a bit of everything. The plates you are given are not huge. This encourages multiple visits and the restaurant kindly asks you not to waste any food- never a problem for us!

The food was freshly made and had a great homemade meal feel to it.

In my first visit to the table I tried the causa, aji de gallina (creamy chicken cooked with walnuts and yellow chilli), the quinotto (quinoa cooked with yellow chilli, mushroom and halloumi) along with some of the side salads, cassava balls and of course plantain crisps. I was also happy to find toasted corn kernels that go well sprinkled on most Peruvian dishes: cool for presentation purposes but also tasty on the dish and as a snack!

Amongst other dishes tried there was lamb stew, seafood stew, quinoa salad, rice with vegetables...

Everything worth trying and there was some variety in the dishes on display from the last visit so be prepared to come with a good appetite and a willingness to try everything. Beware though: By the time you have tried a bit of everything and find your favourite to have more of, you may be full!

We ordered a couple of the ceviches- the ceviche al olivo below which we were told was also made with a particular purple Peruvian olive and their original ceviche with chilli and lime. Both ceviches were fresh and tasty with the zingy lime- a bit more chilli was added this time around from what we recall on our prior visit. It was a therefore a bit spicier from what we are used to but it didn't stop us from finishing both.

Ceviche al olivo

Ceviche original 

We found tequeños in the menu which are nothing like Venezuelan tequeños if you have ever tried them. These were okay: cheese parcels with what we believe to be olive inside as well. Tasty enough but disappointing if you have tried Venezuelan tequeños, which makes me think I may have liked them more if they had a different name. The comparison did not work in the dish's favour.

Warning: the picture below is missing a piece as I was too slow to take the photo! The last item from the menu we tried was an anticucho of beef heart. There were three decent sized pieces grilled perfectly, quite rich in taste and worth a try for those willing!

We didn't have room for dessert but checked out the menu anyway for inspiration:

There was definitely an interesting selection so we thought we would at least try one between four of us. We ordered the sweet rocoto chilli pepper ice cream served wrapped in a crepe encrusted with Japanese breadcrumbs. You could definitely feel the heat from the chilli on the back of your throat. It was quite interesting. I can't say it is something I would definitely crave to have again but glad to have tried it.

In short, we had a lovely brunch and I would certainly go back. The staff are friendly, the food is tasty and freshly made. The place is quaint and they offer a good variety of dishes.

With the number of Peruvian restaurants that are now in London, you have different ones for various occasions. On the higher end of the scale, you will find the excellent Coya and Lima restaurants. At a more affordable level and more casual places for Peruvian style tapas you have Ceviche and Señor Ceviche. 

For the quaint, quieter homemade feel, you can head here to Tierra Peru. 

Tito's near London Bridge is the closest comparison I can think of for this restaurant, though I am not aware if they offer a brunch option as well. I will try to visit Tito's in the near future so I can have a better comparison across the two. I have also heard of another Peruvian called Pachamama so the Peruvian cuisine tasting will continue this year for sure...

Tierra Peru

164 Essex Road

Brunch around £22 with the Facebook offer that expires at the end of February. (Price per head including drinks, shared dessert and service)

The Grain Store, London

We read an article on Timeout last month listing London's top 10 dishes. Having been following top restaurant lists globally, we enjoyed the concept of top ten dishes rather than top ten places. 

We are not sure what ratings were used to classify these dishes as better than others. London has such a variety of restaurants that I would find it extremely difficult to narrow down top dishes. However, we love people who try to do this and we love a good challenge. 

We have already started a seemingly never ending quest for London's top ten burgers heavily aided by Young and Foodish's list which is kept fairly up to date and makes us very happy. We have been unable to go down the full list when it has been static but have been lucky to try a fantastic range over the past couple of years. The result: I am a burger snob. And I'm not ashamed to say so! I am physically unable to order a burger from just anywhere. The bun...I'm partial to a brioche bun and will avoid supermarket buns offered at friend's barbecues. It may be extreme but when you've had some of these burgers you will realise you can't go back to a pub burger where they can only serve it 'well done.'

Now that I've come clean, and hope anyone reading this won't judge me, I will continue writing about our latest challenge: London's top 10 dishes in 2014 as per timeout. Why? As I said, we don't need much convincing to embark on these mini challenges. And if this anything like our burger challenge I am sure we will never truly decide which is our favourite.

Tonight we went to the Grain Store located in Granary Square at King's Cross. The venue was an old Victorian warehouse. High ceilings and ample space. Even our table for 4 had room for sharing dishes in the middle with our respective plates with no overcrowding whatsoever. I've never complained about small tables or restaurants where we spend most of our time visiting but I have to say it was rather refreshing to enjoy the space the restaurant had to offer.

The dish in question: Toasted fermented corn brioche with burnt leeks and slow poached duck egg.

We used our phones for the photo and judging by how often we will carry a camera with us, I can imagine this is the sort of photo quality we will get on posts in future...we will do the best with what we have.

The dish was very well done given the simplicity of the ingredients. The egg yolk was runny but in a gel-like manner which was so smooth. We have been reading up on sous vid cooking and wondered if this was how the egg was cooked tonight? (Side note: we invested in a kickstarter project for Anova Sous Vid so we hope to experiment with this type of cooking in the near future!)

Leeks is a vegetable that I don't use often enough and I must remember it can work very well with dishes! In short, although we had this as a dinner starter, I can imagine us trying to replicate this dish for brunch one weekend. We may find it difficult to get our hands on a toasted fermented corn brioche, but I am sure we can find nice bread at the Old Post Office bakery in Clapham North to serve this on. Nicely done dish and I can see why it is someone's favourite.

The rest of the menu was very interesting. We had read up on the restaurant beforehand and were informed that chef Bruno Lounet focuses on vegetables in his menu. Being the meat eaters that we are, reading this would normally deter me from visiting the restaurant. However we have learned to be open minded and we will eat anything and are always up for trying new cuisines. So why not?

We made the right choice.

I wanted to try all the menu. Really interesting combinations. They have a flag for vegetarian and vegan dishes (which upsets me out of principle but I guess these people exist). It was confusing to read a main that was a butternut squash ravioli with mustard apricots, rocket and pumpkin seed that was not marked as vegetarian or vegan. We asked about this and the waitress said that it was because it had cheese. Since when did vegetarians stop eating cheese? I think there was some confusion there...

The specials were scallops with shaved fennel as a starter and a venison cooked in a josper oven (cool factor). I was unable to take a picture of all the dishes ordered particularly because I was not planning on writing about this later so I will share the rest pictures we did take:

Mushroom croquettes. So extremely moreish. (as in you want more and more and more)

Steamed seaweed sushi, braised cabbage, black garlic purée, hake in vanilla butter. The hake was cooked beautifully and was my favourite part of the dish. Black garlic purée was spread over the plate and allowed to set in swirls. Cool for presentation but being a garlic fan, I would have wanted a small pile of this on the plate as well. The rest of the sides did not necessarily have a wow factor but still worked overall well with the dish.

Roast potatoes, garlic confit, pumpkin purée, squid steak au poivre. Yes yes yes yes.

First time having a squid steak and on the back of my mind I expected it to be chewy. It was beautifully cooked and very fresh: not chewy at all. The sides were a perfect complement to the dish and though I am used to seeing pepper sauce on a beef steak, it worked wonders with the squid steak. Not sure I could replicate this dish at home, but here's to hoping..

The other dishes ordered without their respective pictures were the scallops with shaved fennel, the onion and cider soup, the butternut squash ravioli, and the venison. All executed very well, and very tasty. The soup was wholesome and filling so it was nice to have the option to order the starter size of the ravioli. The scallops: these are always hard to fault and I am biased as I am a huge fan of scallops. The venison cooked on the josper grill: so tender. 

For dessert, again only one picture:

The description read: baked apple, rosemary crumble, creme fraiche, and salted caramel sauce.

I expected an apple crumble and was pleasantly amused to see it was indeed a baked apple with crumble on top. Perhaps not enough rosemary on the crumble but very tasty nonetheless and potential dinner party idea to replicate. The restaurant also recommends dessert wine pairings with each dish. Follow their recommendation, it works very well.

The desserts also eaten with no picture were the chocolate and red bean cake with soya yoghurt and balsamic mousse (takes an extra 15mins to cook, served hot and essentially a great take on a hot chocolate pudding), and lastly the coconut & kafir lime green tapioca, sweet pineapple and banana wafer. This was light, fun and tasty. We were told the tapioca is cooked in coconut milk. The result is a dessert like no other I have tried before (the closest thing I could think of was a light rice pudding but incidentally rice pudding is another desert offered...) I was impressed by this. I like classic desserts with a twist like the chocolate pudding or the crumble, but every now and then when I come across a fun new dessert I can't compare with anything else, this is really exciting.

Would I go back? Absolutely. 

With the London restaurant scene being so diverse we tend not to repeat many restaurants. We don't have a 'local' and we have been kept busy discovering new venues over the past few years. It is worth noting though that with such a diverse menu, the Grain Store is on the repeat list.

Price for 4 people for a three course meal with drinks and service £174.

The Grain Store

Granary Square, King's Cross

Ps I absolutely loved the glass they used to serve the ginger liquor and will be on the lookout for a set!