Tag / london
This is the last food entry for our London Trip, and more importantly, the only place that I was recommended to go by my colleague William who went to the same city just weeks before Haze and myself made the trip that was sponsored by Malaysia Airlines – the restaurant chain is, of course, Burger and Lobster.
Burger and Lobster, London
While most food in London (in our experience) was rather expensive in comparison with what we get in Malaysia, Burger and Lobster somehow manage to provide a sweet deal that is in a way, cheaper than back home.
As the name suggest, this place only offers Burger and Lobsters. After we sat down, we were presented with a drinks menu and no food menu. You would either choose burger, or lobster (baked or steamed), with each dish priced at £20.
As Asian, it was no surprise that we opted for the crustaceans.
baked or steamed lobster with chips, pick one
The lobster dish is very straightforward and simple, you get salad & chips as sides, and butter sauce to go with the seafood. And sometimes simplicity is best when it comes to good quality seafood, the lobster was fresh, succulent, and full of that seafood sweetness. The salad was superb as well, though the chips were again, tastes like deep fried potato cut into thin strips with salt sprinkled on them.
We found that portion was just right as well. If you’re one of the bigger eaters, they do have some bigger sized lobsters instead of the standard 1.5 pounder.
Haze & KY at Burger & Lobster, we certainly enjoyed it
While we went to the branch at Knightsbridge, there are actually quite a number of Burger and Lobster branches in London and a few other cities. If I go back to London again, I will most likely revisit this fantastic chain.
P/S: Pince & Pints is doing something similar in Malaysia, I have yet to give it a try.
Address:
Burger & Lobster
Fifth Floor Harvey Nicols
Knights Bridge,
London SW1X 7RJ
GPS: 51.501666, -0.159802
Tel: +44 2072018676
URL: www.burgerandlobster.com
To continue on sharing our trip to London, we now talk about one of the more famous names in the food industry – Jamie Oliver. If you don’t know who he is, you either don’t have a TV, or don’t have any friends who has a TV. In either case, google is your friend.
So, since our hotel, Dorsett Sheperd’s Bush, is so near to Westfield London, we thought of giving Jamie’s Italian a try, one of the celebrity chef’s many restaurants in UK.
Jamie’s Italian at Westfield London
The restaurant has a small alfresco dining area, but the bulk of the seats is actually indoor, it is beautifully decorated with a mixture of rustic & classy feel to it. I thought it exudes class above the price point of this establishment.
The menu is fairly straight forward, you have bread & antipasti, a selection of mains & sides, pasta, desserts, and drinks. There’s also kid’s menu as well.
Gennaro’s Famous Porchetta, Haze
We only sampled two different dishes here at Jamie’s Italian. Haze had the Gennaro’s Famous Porchetta (£13.95), slow cooked pork belly filled wih garlic, chilli & herbs, served with roasted root vegetable, spiced apple sauce, and salsa verde. It tasted healthy and the pork meat portion was pretty good, but ultimately the skin was far too chewy to be edible, I think the Europeans still need to learn from the Chinese on how to roast perfect pork skin.
Stone bass, and I just realized we had an extra item on our bill…
I initially ordered the Venetian Fish Stew, but eventually had to change to one of their specials of the day – Baked Stone Bass (£16.95) due to the unavailability of my initial choice.
The baked bass was beautifully done and sat on a bed of (I assume) mashed potato & radish with cubes of avocado. It was quite balanced and tasted rather good with a bit of extra salt & pepper. I quite liked it.
From the small sample size, I thought Jamie’s Italian was pretty decent for it’s price point. The experience would have been better if I didn’t find out as I write this that the Venetian Fish Stew was actually still in my bill (accidental I think)…… Oh well.
P/S: there’s a branch in Singapore.
Address:
Jamie’s Italian
Unit 1078
Westfield London,
London W12 7GB, United Kingdom
GPS: 51.506733, -0.222849
Tel: +44 20 8090 9070
Note: This UK – Malaysia Influencer Exchange programme was organised by Malaysia Airlines.
However, opinions are of my own. Malaysia Airlines flies between London and Kuala Lumpur
twice a day on the A380. There are 8 seats in the First Class, 66 in Business Class and 420
in Economy. Make your flight reservations today on www.malaysiaairlines.com.
I’m one of those tourists who love to go free & easy and almost never took up any sort of tour packages. Guided tours = wake up way too early in the morning, going to too many places, spending too much time in buses, and ended up buying things in overpriced places that give kick backs to the tour guide, or so I thought.
Then there’s short guided tours, which I was more open to but never really took the initiative to partake in one, until we were signed up for the East London Food Tour by the good people who organized our London trip. It proved to be one of the most enjoyable part of the trip.
Harry, our tour guide for the East London Food Tour
We met up at Old Spitalfields Market, just a short walk from Bill’s at Clink Street, the place where we had breakfast (which was a mistake, note to self – don’t have breakfast, or anything, before a food tour.)
Our guide was a young half-hipster/artist gentlemen by the name of Harry, who was very entertaining and carries a wealth of knowledge about the local food & art scene in which he was very eager to share. Over the course of 3.5 hours, we walked around East London sampling some of the best foods and learned about local history.
Our group had American, Swiss, Malaysian, Norwegian, and even Londoners, and since it was only about a dozen of us, we manage to carry a good flow, which was great.
Here are the 8 places we went, and while you can try them individually if you happen to be at East London, I do recommend joining the food tour to sample them all at once, plus, it’s always nice to not have to be in queue.
bacon sandwich at St John Bread & Wine
Our first stop, bacon sandwich at St. John Bread & Wine. The back bacon was juicy and we really enjoyed the special apple infused home made ketchup that they have. Quarter sandwich for everyone to get us started, and while I usually prefer streaky bacon, this back bacon was juicy and together with the home made ketchup and fresh bread, made for a pretty good opening act.
Address:
St. John Bread & Wine
94-96 Commercial Street, London E1 6LZ
GPS: 51.519758, -0.074289
Tel: +44 20 7251 0848
bread and butter pudding at the English Restaurant
Our next stop was the restaurant that has the least interesting name in the whole of England – the English Restaurant. In this 17th century building we sampled one of the original “poor people”s food – the bread and butter pudding. Truth be told, this was the best bread and butter pudding I’ve ever had, it was rich, creamy, and absolutely delicious. I guess having them made in small batches makes a huge difference to the standard hotel buffet fair.
Address:
English Restaurant
50/52 Brushfied St, Spitalfields, London E1 6AG
GPS: 51.519731, -0.074310
Tel: +44 20 7251 0848
we tasted a cheddar and blue cheese at Androuet
At Androuet, we had a short briefing about the few types of cheese made locally, and got to sample their cheddar and blue cheese on location. A glass of wine would certainly made this stop even better. Androuet carries a variety of European and English cheese.
Address:
Androuet
Old Spitalfields Market, 107b Commercial St, London E1 6BG
GPS: 51.519663, -0.075484
Tel: +44 020 7375 3168
fish and chips at Poppies, listed as Time Out’s top 100 foods in London
Next stop was the inevitable fish & chips, and we had this at Poppies, rated one of the best fish & chip outlets in all of London. The fish used was cod (a luxury in Malaysia), with a light and crispy batter while keeping the fish moist & just-cooked, it was actually rather good. The chips did not illicit any additional revelation, it was okay.
Interestingly, the fish & chip is now served in a food safe paper with newspaper print instead of actual newspaper.
Address:
Poppies Fish & Chips
6-8 Hanbury Street, London E1 6QR
GPS: 51.520236, -0.073956
Tel: +44 20 7247 0892
Pride Of Spitalfields – a local pub for some beer
Pride of Spitalfields was next on the agenda, we got a taste of the life at local pub for a bit, sampling a couple ales and even got to pet Lenny, the pub cat, who was fat, lazy, and seemed rather used to being around strangers.
Address:
Pride of Spitafields
3 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ
GPS: 51.518942, -0.071205
Tel: +44 20 7247 8933
Aladin at Brick Lane for UK’s national dish – curry!
After a short stay at the pub, we moved to the national dish of England – curry!
With the heavy influence of South Asian in the region, East London, and especially Brick Lane, has a whole slew of curry houses, with each of them having an intimidating looking Indian guy trying to convince you to get into their restaurants that are often decorated not entirely unlike a strip club.
That being said, the dishes we had at Aladin was excellent, I remember the chicken tikka masala to stand out and went really well with garlic naan. It wasn’t very different from the North Indian cuisine we got back home, but this was certainly among the better versions.
Address:
Aladin
132 Brick Lane, London E1 6RU
GPS: 51.520504, -0.071795
Tel: +44 20 7247 8210
Beigal Bake, Jewish bakery with the best bagel with salt beef
Our penultimate stop was my favorite – bagel with salt beef at the Jewish bakery, Beigal Bake. The 24-hour bakery had quite a long line extended to the sidewalk when we were there, and it was easy to see why, while the bagel was fresh and had a balanced taste, the salt beef was super succulent, juicy, and just perfect. The combination was irresistible.
If there’s a must-have in this list of 8, it is this.
Address:
Beigal Bake
159 Brick Lane, London E1 6SB
GPS: 51.524496, -0.071743
Tel: +44 20 7729 0616
salted caramel tart with some English tea at Pizza East to conclude the tour
Finally, after some 3.5 hours, we concluded the tour at Pizza East sampling their famous salted caramel tart, and of course, a glass of English tea to go with. The tart was rich and those salted caramel really brought out the flavour of the chocolate. Tea was, well, tea.
Address:
Pizza East
56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ
GPS: 51.523665, -0.076442
Tel: +44 20 7729 1888
I want to thank Harry for the excellent tour and Micaela & gang for organizing it. It was an excellent few hours and certainly very entertaining and provided much food for thoughts and for my stomach. Still wished we didn’t have breakfast prior to this though.
Note: This UK – Malaysia Influencer Exchange programme was organised by Malaysia Airlines.
However, opinions are of my own. Malaysia Airlines flies between London and Kuala Lumpur
twice a day on the A380. There are 8 seats in the First Class, 66 in Business Class and 420
in Economy. Make your flight reservations today on www.malaysiaairlines.com.
On the first morning at London, I was brought to one of the more charming little restaurants in town at Bill’s on Clink Street for some good old fashion English breakfast.
Bill’s at Clink Street, inconspicuous exterior, beautiful ambiance within
The restaurant looks pretty inconspicuous on the outside, but the interior was quite something else. It was beautifully decorated with plenty of old school charm, like something out of a classy old movie. You’d easily be mistaken Bill’s as a quaint family run operation instead of one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in UK.
had a glass of latte to start the day
I started out with a cup of latte, and ordered a glass of tomato juice to accompany my breakfast. The coffee was as good as any, and the bottled tomato juice served here was one of the spiciest I’ve tried, it was quite interesting, now I want to put pepper in those v8 tomato juice I have at home.
vegetarian breakfast, and Bill’s big breakfast
The breakfast menu consists of your usual English selections – bread basket, big breakfast, pancakes, scrambled eggs, egg benedict/royale/florentine and so forth. Micaela, my host for the day, ordered the vegetarian breakfast (£7.95) while I went with Bill’s breakfast (£7.95).
The vegetarian option comes with free range eggs, tomato, hummus, mushroom, guacamole, sweet chilli sauce, basil and toast, while my big breakfast had cumberland sausage, fried free range eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, smoked streaky bacon, and toast as well. Both dishes were beautifully plated and did not disappoint in the taste department. The bacon was crispy and savory, and while I don’t care much about eggs being free range or not, my taste buds were happy with them. It was definitely a good way to start the day.
Borough market at Clink Street
We then had a brisk walk by the famous Borough market nearby before heading to the meeting point for the East London Food Tour (next post on that), a thriving old fashion outdoor market with plenty fresh produce and street food on offer. You can find dozens of different cheese, olives, fresh vegetables, flowers, fresh seafood, and more, all for the taking. I almost wished we had a kitchen so I could buy some stuff to cook at night!
Address:
Bill’s Restaurant
Victor Wharf, Clink St,
London SE1 9DW, United Kingdom
GPS: 51.506964, -0.091507
Tel: +44 20 7234 0000
Note: This UK – Malaysia Influencer Exchange programme was organised by Malaysia Airlines.
However, opinions are of my own. Malaysia Airlines flies between London and Kuala Lumpur
twice a day on the A380. There are 8 seats in the First Class, 66 in Business Class and 420
in Economy. Make your flight reservations today on www.malaysiaairlines.com.
On our first night to London, after checking into Dorsett at Sheperd’s Bush, we walked to the nearby Westfield London in search for dinner, and was greeted by Five Guys Burgers & Fries right at the entrance that we took.
I’ve heard about this burger chain on some forums before, so naturally we thought we’d gave it a try, after all, it is one of the most crowded restaurants in the mall (which turned out to be the largest mall in London).
£22.5 for 2 burgers, a milkshake, a soft drink, and 1 serving of fries
Five Guys currently operates only in North America and in UK (since 2013), and is focus on burger, fries, milkshakes, and everything with bacon.
Ordering is a pretty straight forward affair – line up, order, pay, pick up your food, and get your drinks. Not very different from most fast food restaurants. They also have an open kitchen and prepare everything right in front of your eyes, it was super hectic, and I think most of us won’t last half an hour in there.
ermm.. cheeseburger, and bacon infused milk shake
The menu is actually pretty simple. There’s burger, cheeseburger, bacon burger, bacon cheeseburger, and the “little” size of those variations. You then choose from over a dozen toppings & sauces to add to your burger
Additionally, there’s also sandwiches and hotdogs, but we’re not interested in those anyway.
We ended up ordering a little cheeseburger, a little bacon burger, a milk shake with bacon bits, a medium fries, and a soft drinks. All of which adds up to £22.50, London is certainly not a cheap place for food, even if it was fast food.
Haze & KY at Five Guys, Westfield London
The burger was certainly juicy & wholesome, even though we opted for the “little” version, they still fill up the stomach pretty easily. The milk shake with bacon bits though, was excellent, and I wished it came with those “bubble tea” type of straws instead, sucking the bits via those tiny straw was a bit of a struggle.
It was overall a pretty satisfying meal. I think Five Guys sits somewhere in between the usual fast food chains and gourmet burger outlets, but those milkshakes though, that’s something else. Would not hesitate to try again.
Address:
Five Guys
Westfield London,
London W12 7SL, United Kingdom
GPS: 51.506733, -0.222849
Tel: +44 20 8740 7290
Note: This UK – Malaysia Influencer Exchange programme was organised by Malaysia Airlines.
However, opinions are of my own. Malaysia Airlines flies between London and Kuala Lumpur
twice a day on the A380. There are 8 seats in the First Class, 66 in Business Class and 420
in Economy. Make your flight reservations today on www.malaysiaairlines.com.
