Homa - Stoke Newington

We both had Friday off work so we went for a great breakfast at Homa. I've been wanting to go for a while as it's always full and the menu looks fantastic. The restaurant itself has been beautifully done up, the huge windows let in plenty of light and the simple decor makes the most of the building. It has the perfect relaxing atmosphere for a lazy brunch. 

The breakfast menu is amazing, I'd happily eat everything on there. I was really tempted by french toast with poached pears and vanilla syrup or saute potatoes with chorizo and poached eggs, but opted for smoked salmon & wilted spinach on a toasted muffin topped with poached eggs and hollandaise, which is my favourite breakfast. Chris had toasted sourdough topped with Italian ham & cheese with poached eggs, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Both dishes were absolutely delicious. The eggs were perfectly cooked with a runny yolk and they were very generous with the salmon, really great. The coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice were also excellent. They use good quality ingredients, which are well cooked and presented beautifully, I'll definitely be back to try something else from the excellent menu.

The only area that let them down was the service. It started off well, but tailed off towards the end as the staff stood around chatting. Our plates weren't cleared until after we paid the bill, even though we'd been finished for around 20 minutes. After unsuccessfully trying to catch the waitress's eye I went up to the counter to ask for the bill, when it didn't materialise I had to ask again. There were only 4 tables and 2 members of staff so I would've liked them to be a little more attentive, especially when they added a 12.5% service charge to the bill at breakfast. It's a shame as every other aspect of the meal was perfect, but as the food was so great this won't stop me going back again soon. It says a lot about a restaurant if the breakfast is so good it makes you want to go back for dinner!

Salmon & poached eggs:

Fancy ham & eggs:

Creed tucking into his brekkie:

Chilango - Islington

On Wednesday we popped to Chilango's for a quick bite before heading down to Brixton to watch Bombay Bicycle Club. Deserving winners of Harden's 'Best London Buritto' and a whole host of other awards, Chilango's serve a small range of gourmet burritos, tacos and salads made fresh to order. The decor is bright and fun, you can get your food to take away or head upstairs where there is plenty of seating. It's always full of customers happily munching and chatting away, but at peak hours you'll probably have to queue.  

When queueing at the counter I always debate going for the tacos or salad, but they could never taste as awesome as a burrito. Once you've decided on your base, you just have to choose your fillings; chicken, steak, braised pork or vegetables. They then add your choice of beans, salsa, salad, sour cream and cheese, you can also opt for guacamole for an extra £1. They are ludicrously big, so make sure you've got your eating hat on. I went for steak with black beans and guacamole. The meat was juicy and rare, and the chunky guac was the perfect antidote to the spicy salsa. It's seriously dirty food, but oh so good. There's no dainty way of eating a burrito, so you just have to pick up lots of napkins and try not to be embarrassed if you end up with sour cream all over your face. 

I've been to Chilango's a few times and never had any cause for complaint, but on Wednesday the very excitable girl who wrapped our burritos did a pretty poor job, they still tasted great so it's hardly a complaint. They get top marks for selling frozen margaritas which are just AMAZING! They remind me of the disgusting slush puppies we used to drink at school, but obviously a much nicer and alcoholic version. They're super limey and just another of the awesome things about Chilango's.

Chilango's:

Giant burrito & frozen margarita:

Very messy burrito:

Caroline's Chocolate Cheesecake

Well really it's the Hummingbird Bakeries cheesecake, but Caroline was the lovely lady to introduce me to this amazing recipe. Aside from the 1,000,000 calories per slice and the fact that you'll feel like some sort of tragic Bridget Jones character when you buy the ingredients (two big bars of chocolate, biscuits, cream cheese and butter), it really is worth making.

My main recommendation for this recipe is to use a good quality spring form tin. Mine cost a fiver from Argos and was pretty useless as the base didn't fit properly, resulting in butter leaking out all over the fridge. There is now a gross ring of congealed butter on one of the shelves which will stay there until I have the time and the inclination to clean it. Bleugh.

You can find the recipe here

Buttery biscuit base:

200g melted Green and Blacks - yum!

One baked cheesecake:

The finished article:

Public House - Islington

Last night I went for dinner with Fran at Public House, a gastropub off Upper St. They serve a £19.50 menu, which gets you 2 courses and a glass of Prosecco. Everything on the a la carte menu is included, even the steak which is a rarity.

To start we both ordered pigeon breast with smoked duck and parsnip puree. The pigeon was lovely, although slightly marred by the fact that the pellet it had been shot with was still embedded in the meat, which I only realised once it was in my mouth. The parsnip puree was pretty bland and overly creamy, but the smoked duck was delicious. A mixed dish!

For my main course I had confit of guineafowl leg and butternut squash. The confit was very good, but was served with a warm, course terrine, which was far too rich. The butternut squash was slightly undercooked, although the thyme it had been roasted with was a nice addition. Fran went for a steak which was awful, to be fair she asked for it to be cooked well done, so it's little wonder it wasn't very nice. However, it was ridiculously chewy and had been cooked on a smokey grill, the taste of which was far too overpowering.

As I didn't eat my starter, I had a dessert as part of the 2 course deal. Fran and I shared a crumble, which was really nice but didn't have nearly enough custard. We also got a cheese board, which was really great; good sized chunks of cheddar, Bree, goats cheese and Stilton served with chutney. My only complaint was that they served it with bread rather than crackers, which just isn't as nice.

The service was very quick, although when we arrived we were the only people eating, but I was a little disappointed an apology wasn't forthcoming when I nearly cracked my tooth on the pellet in my food. The decor is lovely, the huge leather sofas and candlelight make for a very cosy setting, although it is a little bit dark (hence the flash on the photos). The menu is impressive, but the food really wasn't very good. I'd happily go back for a drink, but I wouldn't eat there again, however tempting the menu looks.

Pigeon & duck:

Guineafowl confit:

Steak:

Cheese!

Wahaca - Westfield, Stratford

On Sunday afternoon we visited the brand new church of capitalism that is Westfield, as the boy was in need of a new suit. Despite being the biggest urban shopping centre in Europe, it was ludicrously busy and full of the kind of people who like to stop dead in their tracks causing a human pile up. I'm not a fan of shopping centres, as they're normally so soulless, however, it must be said that Westfield is very nice and shiny and a vastly more pleasant experience than Oxford Street.

Ceviche tostadas

We had a meander around the different restaurants, but nothing really took our fancy. Jamie's Italian had a queue outside and I wasn't in the mood to wait. We also had a look at Bumpkin, the menu looks good, but after reading some pretty scathing reviews online, we decided to opt for Wahaca as we know the food is good. Often when small chains begin to expand, they lose the quality somewhere along the way, but I'm happy to say that it's every bit as good as the original.

Pork pibil

To start our meal off we had guacamole with tortilla chips, which were delicious as always; nice and chunky and packed with flavour. For our main we ordered pork pibil from the classics section, slow cooked pork served with a salad and black beans. The meat was out of this world, incredibly tender with a delicious smoky marinade. It was lovely with the black beans, but could have done with something carby. Having re-read the menu I've realised it was meant to come with green rice, which must have been missed off - oops! We also ordered a couple of dishes from the street food menu, the summer vegetable tacos and ceviche tostadas. The taco's were topped with spicy vegetables and feta cheese, a nice side to the rich pork. The tostadas were my favourite, tasty shrimps and scallops topped with a fresh tomato salsa and plenty of lime.

Summer vegetable tacos

As we didn't order a huge amount for the main course it meant we had space for dessert, hurrah! We shared churros and vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and pumpkin seeds. Churros are deep fried Mexican doughnuts, topped with cinnamon sugar and served with a rich, dark chocolate sauce, they taste even better than they sound! The ice cream was good, the crunch of the pumpkin seeds was great against the smooth vanilla, but they were a little stingy when it came to the caramel sauce.

AMAZING churros

Overall, it was a great meal. The service was very friendly and incredibly speedy - 5 minutes between ordering and the food being on our table. If you have to go to Westfield and you're looking for somewhere speedy to eat, this is the place!

Meat N16 - Stoke Newington

Here in London, we had some pretty amazing weather over the weekend, so we decided to have a BBQ on Saturday night. We went to the new butchers in Stokey, Meat N16, to pick up some meat. It's a really nice little shop with very friendly and helpful staff. They obviously sell lots of meat but also have a good selection of cheeses, pies and sauces and most importantly (to me anyway!) it's not ridiculously overpriced.

We opted for free range chicken legs which had been marinated in Indian seasoning and a peppered beef skewer, which came to less than a fiver. Both were absolutely delicious, I'd forgotten how much better meat tastes when cooked on a BBQ. The weather was so lovely that I completely forgot that it's actually October and the sun sets before 7pm, so we ended up cooking in the dark. We ate in the garden with the aid of some huge candles, so it felt like we were on holiday, nice : )

Fancy paper bags:

BBQing in the dark:

Amazing beef skewer:

Bombay chicken:

Trattoria Da Luigi - Stoke Newington

A few weeks ago, after a Friday evening pint in the newly refurbished (and very nice) Daniel Defoe we headed to Trattoria Da Luigi on Church Street for some dinner. It's a tiny Sicilian restaurant, serving a wide range of pizza, pasta and meat from the grill. The walls are covered in posters and photographs of family and customers, which gives it a local feel you rarely get in London.

I made a bit of a mistake by ordering venison ragu ravioli, which I really wasn't a fan of, but to be honest I think it's more a case of personal taste than bad food. In my mind I was imagining a rich, tomatoey, meat sauce, whereas what I got was more like a course pate with a cream sauce. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Ravioli

Chris ordered a pizza with spicy Sicilian sausage, buffalo mozzarello and jalapenos which was every bit as delicious as it sounds. The base was thin and crispy around the edges, but lovely and light in the middle and the toppings were very generous resulting in some serious food envy. The moral of the story is, when in doubt, order pizza.

Pizza

The food is of a similar standard to Il Bacio, but I prefer the relaxed atmosphere in Trattoria Da Luigi and the fact that it's not quite so busy. I'd definately go back next time I'm in the mood for pizza, but I don't think I'd go for pasta again as so rarely are pasta dishes in the UK any better than what you can cook at home. Best of all they serve San Pellegrino Limonata, which is the best lemonade in the world, fact.

19 Numara Bos Cirrik II - Stoke Newington

Last week we went for dinner at one of the many Turkish restaurants on Stoke Newington High St. I'm a huge fan of Turkish food having spent many summer holidays in Northern Cyprus, so it's great living somewhere with such a wealth of Turkish restaurants. There's something about food that can be eaten by hand that I find hugely satisfying, mopping up the juices from a delicious lamb kebab with some freshly made flat bread can't be beaten!

Hummus

We opted for four mezze and one main course to share, which turned out to be a ridiculous amount of food, as they also provided us with three complementary salads and flat bread. We started with hummus, falafel, lahmacun and vegetable moussaka. The falafel were super crispy and topped with plenty of delicious hummus. Lahmacun is a sort of middle eastern pizza, topped with minced lamb and is delicious rolled up with salad and hummus. At only £2 it was not only a steal, but pretty tasty too! The moussaka was a little bland, but maybe the meaty version is a bit tastier.

Tasty tasty lahmacun

The three complementary salads they provided were great, but only if you like onion (which luckily I do). One consisted of chargrilled onion chunks, cooked on the grill with herbs and a sort of sweet but smokey sauce. Another had thin slices of onion marinated in spices with parsley, which was perfect with the meat. The third was a simple garden salad with lots of onion. Along with the flat bread, the salads really bulked out the meal making it feel like a real feast.

One of the many onion salads

For our main we shared a lamb kebab with yogurt and a tomato sauce. The huge grills used in Turkish restaurants make everything taste fantastic, but nothing more so than lamb, which is why it's always my first choice. The meat was delicious, juicy and still pink in the middle, perfect. The sauce and yogurt weren't that exciting, but were perfect for bread dipping purposes. I think we could have made a better choice on the main course, I'd like to try their kofte next time I go as the added spices make for a more exciting dish.

Questionable looking but actually nice lamb

The bill came to £30, we could easily have eaten for £10 a head if we'd ordered more sensibly. Overall the food was very good, although probably not as good as the legendary Mangal down the road. The service was quick and friendly, despite the restaurant being busy. It's a great option if you're looking for something quick, cheap and easy or if like me you just love Turkish food!