Bavette Steak @ The Buxton
This new pub at the bottom of Brick Lane owes its name to Sir Thomas Buxton, a nineteenth century MP and anti-slavery campaigner who lived and worked in the area. It is brought to us by the team behind The Culpeper, which is just around the corner and also not a million miles away in style, but you know what the newbie has to trump its predecessor? Rooms. Fifteen of them. And at £100 a pop (no matter when you go or book), they are almost suspiciously good value for both the location and the quality of this charming establishment (especially when you consider what one pays for a Travelodge these days). Once you’ve eaten yourself into a stupor downstairs, the prospect of merely dragging yourself up to bed will be vastly tempting.
The Buxton is the kind of place you see as you walk past and just have to stop at, such are the contented people standing all around this corner building with their drinks. If you sit down, you can fill your table with coarse pate and chunky bread and cured meats and pickles and chips with aioli. Depending on what they've got on that day, move on to buttery langoustines and wild garlic pesto gnocchi rich with parmesan. And they do a bloody good (and plain bloody) bavette steak, served with a refreshing salsa verde and new potatoes instead of the ubiquitous fries.
A large marble bar is accentuated by lots of deeply coloured wood and gently hued velvet bar stools. There isn’t really anywhere to lounge, as such, but the atmosphere is buzzier than that. There is lots of food to try if you’re eating, lots of drinks to sample if not, plus a roof terrace with 360-degree views, so watch out for future happenings up there.
42 Osborn Street, London, E1 6TD; thebuxton.co.uk
All The Crab @ London Seafood Festival
Until Sunday, Battersea Power Station is hosting the London Seafood Festival, so make the most of our brief respite from the rain to remind yourself that, yes, it’s June! Up your summer vibes with this riverside festival, where you can find chefs such as José Pizarro, Francesco Mazzei, Calum Franklin, Anna Hansen and Neil Rankin taking part. There’ll be demos, music, a pop-up Crab Shack by seafood heavyweights Wright Brothers and even a resident mermaid. (We’re not entirely sure either).
There are still a couple of tickets up for grabs to tonight’s Seafood Spectacular, hosted by the dream team of celebrity chef Vivek Singh and Darjeeling Express founder Asma Khan. A screening of Asma’s star turn as a recent subject of Netflix’s Chef’s Table series will begin at 6pm, followed by a Q&A with the chefs, who will serve a family-style meal afterwards. Energetic folks can sign up to Sunday’s ‘Ramen and Ride’ (a morning spin class with Boom Cycle and then a Tonkotsu brunch as a reward) and we’ll most certainly be stopping by the Bob’s Lobster stall for those famous lobster rolls. Check online for the full line-up.
Circus West Village, Nine Elms, London, SW11 8AH; londonseafoodfestival.com
Poached Eggs & Za’atar Flatbread @ Rovi
Culinary wizard Yotam Ottolenghi strikes again, by offering you a breakfast menu that is genuinely interesting, genuinely different and will – genuinely – have you umm-ing and ah-ing like a moron. Don’t get us wrong, we love breakfast. We even like avocados. And we can just about cope if they’re smashed. But let’s not pretend it's reinventing the wheel. Sometimes, you just wish a chef would put some scrambled eggs on toast, call it that, and be done. And at other times, you learn that there are some irrationally delicious things out there which fit the morning-time bill. Such is the case at Ottolenghi’s Fitzrovia restaurant, Rovi.
Top of the list are the poached eggs, planted atop a splodge of butternut hummus and spicy tomato salsa. You get a great piece of za’atar flatbread on the side, to mop everything up with and the flavours, whilst none too punchy for your first meal of the day, are lively and full. A close second is the sweet and savoury jalapeño cornbread, served with those trusty scrambled eggs and that feared avocado stuff, plus tomato relish and yoghurt. You could also plump for Iranian fritters, smoked haddock rarebit, or green shakshuka with focaccia, and we approve of anyone who puts a beef and rosemary sausage wheel on the list of extras, like that cheeky extra rasher of bacon.
59 Wells Street, London, W1A 3AE; ottolenghi.co.uk/rovi
Black Truffle & Ogleshield Pizza @ Homeslice
To celebrate their sixth birthday, Homeslice aren’t just doing one special pizza topping. No, no. They’re doing six – not just one for every year, but one for every branch, each of which is offering a different type. So if you want to try all of them, then you’ve got a fairly epic pizza-crawl on your hands. You’ll find air-dried wagyu with cipollini onions and salsa verde in Marylebone, clam chowder with Alsace bacon and jersey royals in White City, lobster bisque in Fitzrovia, burrata and asparagus in Neal’s Yard, ham hock and pea purée in Shoreditch and, our personal favourite, black truffle with Gubbeen and Ogleshield cheeses and watercress in the City. If you do manage to try all six, you’ll be given a voucher that gets you your favourite for free. We’re taking this challenge really rather seriously.
Various locations; homeslicepizza.co.uk
Enter The Ballot: Bastille Day @ Brasserie Zedel
The Bastille Day celebrations on 14th July are best enjoyed at Brasserie Zedel, firstly because of the soul-warming French brasserie food but also because any diner sporting a Breton top and beret on that day will get their meal for free (three courses, with wine). But so popular has this deal become (can’t think why…) that tables book out practically the minute phone lines open. Not this year: if you are keen for a complimentary meal and a bucket-load of Gallic cheer, then your chances are markedly improved by the implication of a ballot system – sign up between 9.30am on 18th and 11.59pm on 21st June, and your name will be put into the hat for a table, fair and square, of up to six people. The offer runs from 11.30am until 11pm on the 14th, with the atmospheric sounds of an accordionist and French gypsy band Boom La Tete to really get the party started. Mustn’t forget that costume, mind.
20 Sherwood Street, London, W1F 7ED; brasseriezedel.com
Book Ahead: The Colony Grill
Any baseball fans out there? You may be aware that the game is coming to London for the very first time, with a double meeting of the Yankees and the Red Sox in a couple of weeks’ time, at London Stadium. And, of course, American brasserie The Beaumont is celebrating the fact, with a special menu that will be available for the duration of said weekend. So even if you haven’t nabbed any tickets, you can still get into the swing of things, but you need to book in now before everybody else does. Though be warned: the hotel’s owner*, Jimmy Beaumont has rather a leaning towards the Boston team and has thus enlisted the help of award-winning New York Times food writer Larry Olmsted to collaborate on a menu of dishes most keenly associated with that city, including New England clam chowder, soft shell steamers, lobster rolls, fried clams, Parker House Scrod (that’s white fish, to you and me), Boston baked beans and, of course, Boston cream pie to finish.
*(potentially fictional)
The Beaumont, 8 Balderton Street, Brown Hart Gardens, London, W1K 6TF; thebeaumont.com/
