Maze Grill

This was far from my first visit to Maze grill, indeed this has turned into my favourite set lunch reccomendation for anyone in Mayfair on a weekday. Stray onto the a la carte and the prices leap upwards but for £21 you can enjoy 3 excellent courses in a well drilled Ramsey restaurant. The dining room enjoys views over Grosvenor Square and though the decor is a little bland, the staff are well drilled and the only inconvenience is the extended trek to the toilets it shares with a Marriot hotel.

A well cooked chicken chausseur married well with a bottle of Château Bauduc as endrosed by Ramsey, Stein and Oz and May (TV wine royalty by today's standards I suppose!). The wine is a straightfoward but well made and rapidly improving Bordeaux AC from Gavin Quinney who has made the dream of every wine fan a reality by buying and improving a chateau in the Bordeaux Appelation, cut out the middleman by offering direct sales to the UK and even finds time to write an informative blog.

No doubt the better value offerings will eventually fade away as the economy improves so for now, take advantage of one of the few upsides of the failing economic environment and pay a visit.

Marques de Riscal

Marques de Riscal is Riojan Royalty. One of the first great houses founded in 1858, it is a major brand, runs an award winning hotel at it's winery in Elciego and is unique in the area for having the right to grow Cabernet Sauvignon (a grape that is not permitted under Rioja regulations) since the planting pre dates the DO rules.

It's range encompasses the full spectrum from everyday to premium so we took the opportunity to visit for a tour and tasting whilst on holiday nearby. Their grapes for their white wine are grown in Rueda, the balance in Rioja Alavesa. Maturation of their Rioja DO is in American oak, traditional for the area and a tour encompasses all of their onsite wineries, though one is not allowed into the hotel. One of the most interesting points of the visit was a walk through their oldest cellar in which they keep a full catalogue of every single vintage for the last 150 years. Jancis Robinson attended a tasting there a couple of years ago and tasted vintages back to 1900 which were apparently still going strong.



The reserva was a classic Rioja, red fruits, sweet oak and a decent amount of tannin with good balance. Their Rueda 2009 is unoaked, aromatic and herbaceous. Both are excellent and due to the size of the winery the range often feature in the major wine chains and supermarkets in special offers.

Bodegas Baigorri

Our annual Spanish trip allowed us the chance to visit a newcomer to the world of Rioja. The bodega, constructed in 2002, is an exercise in clean functional design using gravity fed systems for fruit handling. French oak is used throughout along with quality hallmarks of green harvesting and careful selection at the sorting table to produce US friendly fruit forward wines with a hint of Cali Cabernet about them.



The winery is built underground, the top floor, a striking vacant glass cube just outside the traditional Riojan town of Elciego. As with many bodegas, they buy in the majority of their grapes and select from Rioja Alavesa and Alta.

They also serve a fine lunch if requested. We enjoyed Pate, a Tuna Salad, Chorizo and bean stew, Shin of Beef and an Ice Cream Cake. Happily we had the opportunity to taste the full range of wines with the lunch.

They produce a barrel fermented white, Rose and Crianza but the stars of the show were their 2005 Reserva and 2006 El Garaje.

The former benefits from an excellent vintage, offers leather and cigar box oak on the nose with a whack of deep cherry whilst the palate follows through with good structure and balance that makes it a modern but excellent match to the traditional hearty Riojan cuisine.

The latter is a premium cuvee which does not fall into the Crianza/Reserva/Gran Reserva classification. It offers smoky, overripe sweet cherry fruit, soft tannins and plenty of complexity and length. Both are well made excellent wines though my personal taste is for the reserva over the top wine in which I find the fruit a little confected. Whilst it is not sweet, perhaps this is why they recommend it as both a savoury and dessert wine.

Giaconda Dining Rooms

Now here's a restaurant you would walk straight past without a moments thought. In fact, unless you happened to be out guitar shopping in Soho, you probably wouldn't even see it, tucked away as it is in Denmark Street.

Paul Merrony, the chef, is not the first talented artist to have been here. This room was once the Giaconda cafe which offered tea and fry ups to Bowie and the Clash amongst others.

The menu is a Mediterranean mixture of French and Italian Bistro with a few plates of St John style nose to tail eating thrown in. The dining room is both a little noisy and cramped but the service is polite and friendly and the wine list offers some thoughtful suggestions.

The bread and olives were well above average. Crab Bisque had depth of flavour whilst the Lyonnais classic, Cervelle de Canut was well seasoned and creamy. We matched it with a 2008 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Gianni Masciarelli which was a refreshing, medium bodied, appley citric wine that extracted far more than the average from it's workhorse grape.

We tried a Cotes du Roussillon “Segna de Cors” Roc des Anges 2007, a Grenache, Carignan and Syrah blend which offered an explosion of purple fruit with soft tannins and good structure to match the Ribeye and Sirloin Steak which came as ordered with decent chips.

A rich Creme Brulee had been dosed with orange zest making it an almost perfect match to a half bottle of Monbazillac Domaine Ancienne Cure, a Sauternes clone without the syrupy undertones but with a hint of the marmalade tang of noble rot creeping through.

The kitchen is so small, it's a wonder the chef can extract more than a Pannini from it but the quality of ingredients and robust flavour filled cooking is a pleasure at a price point that one rarely sees this close to the West End. This is not a venue for a quiet romantic evening and the Michelin starry eyed will feel robbed of the formality that they so often assume to be part of a fine dining experience. Make no mistake however, if you enjoy real food, this is far more than fine.

Tayabs

Wild rumours had been circulating. I had heard with astonishment that Tayyabs, the Punjabi cafe had finally instituted a booking system. Though it had always been possible to make a booking, groups of anything less than 10 who had made the effort were usually met with a mixture of bemused stares or simply ignored whilst being waved to the back of the gargantuan snake like queue.

This, along with a complete lack of organisation in this stalwart of Whitechapel curry houses has always left me as stressed on the way out as I was hungry on the way in and in the past we have retreated to the slightly less overcrowded Lahore Kebab House round the corner on more than one occasion. The size of the queues are though, clearly signal the quality of the food.

This time however, the table booking was acknowledged. Yes, they had given our table to someone else but we were seated in 15 minutes rather than the usual 40, the queue seemed better managed and the waiters were reasonably polite. The only thing that hadn't changed was the food. Mixed grill was a gently spiced meaty delight and included the famous tandoori lamb. The sag aloo provided the two veg for our meat and the Nan breads were little pillows of yeasty goodness, a touch charred from the Tandooor oven. Marsala Fish was excellent, the turmuric and chili powder marinade having worked their overnight magic.

All this was washed down with a round of sweet Mango Lhassi though you can of course BYOB. For those who have not had the pleasure, one visit will ensure you never return to Brick Lane for your spice fix and you can now book safe in the knowledge that your reservation will (probably) get you a table.

Hadley House

Hadley House must have been in Wanstead for over a decade and was the first of a slew of restaurants that sprung up as the area evolved into a young professionals commuter base for London, as a result of which, it has inevitably acquired the suffix "Village".

It was always a solid local with a pleasant room from which to watch the high street action but the food somehow lost its way and a strange meal liberally strewn with sun dried tomatoes several years ago left us strangers. This no doubt led to the arrival of the new chef-owners, Jon Simister and Terence Hau and what a difference they make.

The menu is now threefold. A grill and specials menu during the week and an a la carte throughout. The inclusion of mutton and mackerel on the evening we visited offer excellent value for money and demonstrate a close understanding of ingredients and margins which ensures that they will make a fair return for their effort. We attacked steak from the grill with relish, that being a description of our pleasure rather than an accompaniment to the dish.

Desserts stood out. An Ice Cream Sandwich offered an artful combination of ice cream, wafers baked on the premises, cocoa jelly and tiny chocolate truffles whilst an Apricot and Almond Tart was pleasantly fragrant. This restaurant now leads the pack in this stylish suburb and comes warmly recommended.

Nice Cream

So I've finally plucked up the courage to make use of the Ice Cream Machine I bought myself Last Christmas. A patisserie course last year was the inspiration as the ice cream was the simplest dessert we made in the entire two days that I sweated through the intricacies of sugar work, tartes au fruits and royal icing.

After a long cold winter, the sun finally came out and I knew it was time. Some research on the web suggested that I should have bought a Ben and Jerry's cookbook but the wonder of the web is that as long as you don't lose your connection you have access to more culinary advice than you will ever need.

Inevitably, the internet connection disappeared into the digital ether like a feather light sorbet and I was left with the flimsy leaflet of suggestions that came with the machine.

I kept it simple and decided to try a plain vanilla ice cream with a custard base. Whisk egg yolks and sugar, add warmed milk with vanilla essence and gently heat until it thickens. Let it cool, pop it into the machine and drop into a hypnotic state as you watch the paddles turn.

15 minutes later, a thick rich, chilled, creamy nirvana emerged and I was inspired. This is easy, you know exactly what goes in, the ingredients cost half that of a premium ice cream and you can make your own as easily as you make a pot of fresh custard. The only hard part is getting it to the freezer before it's gone.