Love Bites Restaurant Review: Sushisamba London

Sushisamba is one of those exclusive restaurant chains that only feature in the hottest, hippest and in some of the highest locations of cities in the world, those the likes of New York, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas... and their first international location - London.

I fell in love with Sushisamba in London at first sight. I loved the atmosphere, the colour scheme, the cocktails and could not get enough of the food, let alone the orange tree outside on the terrace! I am lucky enough to have dined at Sushisamba in London a good handful of times. Dining at Sushisamba usually needs to involve a lot of patience due to the fact you need to literally book months in advance. In every experience I have been impressed by the food, cocktails and of course the skyline views of London. Being located in the Heron Tower near Liverpool Street Station and on the 38th floor invites some pretty spectacular sights over London city. With floor to ceiling glass windows, roof terraces on both sides of the building and a glass lift that takes you to the 38th floor in what feels like under 60 seconds. Even before you've sat down to dine you've already had an incredible experience and are in for a real treat.

 The food itself at Sushisamba is an exciting mix of cuisines which create an electric combination in every dish. Peruvian, Japanese and Brazilian flavours are entwined throughout the menu boasting an abundance of colours and flavours. The menu is designed for sharing with a mixture of small and large plates and to finish on sushi and sashimi. I love this style of dining as you get to taste a variety of dishes, my particular favourites being the kuromitsu glazed pork belly wraps (check out the recipe here), the shrimp tempura and the wagyu gyoza's. Everything is so fresh on the menu, the pork bite sized and oozing tenderness, with a crisp crunch of lettuce and scattered crackling, to the shrimp's golden batter combined with the julienned sugar snaps and fresh garden peas, each dish is a mixture of hot and cold ingredients with particular attention to the sauces and colour. Sushisamba really makes for an exciting meal.

Wagu Beef Gyoza

Shrimp Tempura

Kuromitsu Pork Belly Wraps

In my latest experience I devoured the black cod skewers with Peruvian corn, these literally melted in your mouth leaving me drooling for more. The teriyaki chicken was so good that we even ordered another round. That is another thing I love about the experience of Sushisamba, if you are a large group they will add more pieces to each of the sharing plates so everyone gets to have a taste. This comes at an additional cost but there is nothing worse than sharing dishes that you can't technically share with everyone - so Sushisamba really hits the nail on the head with this one.

Black Cod Skewers

A Selection of Seviches

Chicken Teriyaki

A Selection of Sushi to Finish off the Meal

The one negative thing I have to say is that I have found that the service at Sushisamba in London is not always consistent. In the past I have been waited on with unfriendly staff with stiff upper lips giving the impression you are not wanted there. However I can say that my most recent experiences this seems to have changed and the staff have been fantastic. Their knowledge of the menu, the ease at which they design a sushi platter for the final stage of the meal, and the friendly banter has really come a long way.

Between the food, the views and the cocktails and the atmosphere, Sushisamba is really something special - Get booking!!!

I will leave you with a mixture of photos from my Sushisamba experiences - enjoy...

Love Bites at Noma: Part One

Love Bites recently had a very exciting thing happen; I was invited to take a reservation at Noma, one of the most talked about, curiously fascinating restaurants of the last few years.  Noma is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and has been the number one restaurant in the world for three years running (2010-2012) out of eight years of being on 'The List' (http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/noma/). It is currently ranked number 2 in 2013 on this list to restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, Spain (meeh never heard of it!). 

When booking my trip to Copenhagen in November 2013 as a gift to my good friend Katie for her 30th birthday I decided to see if there were any reservations left for Noma for the weekend in January we were going. Of course there wasn't but there was an option to put ones name down on the waiting list. 'What have I got to lose?' I thought, so name and contact number went down and was soon to be forgotten.  On Tuesday 7th January the week that we were going to Copenhagen, I received a phone call from a strange number. I do not know what posessed me to answer it as I am not one to usually answer random calls or blocked numbers, so the fact that I was at work, getting a call from a strange number and deciding to answer it was against all my normal proceedings in such situations.  I answered and heard a foreign voice unveiling that they were calling from Noma.... and my eyes grew to the size of oranges! The lady on the end of the line advised a table had become availabe and as I was on the waiting list she wanted to know if I wanted to take the booking. Oh my days!!!! Was this actually  happening?!! This was totally unexpected and I started freaking out... I didn't know how much the restaurant would be, both Katie and I were feeling very poor after the festive season, and I needed to check with Adam and Katie if they were keen before I  volunteer us for a foodie adventure but also potentially a bankrupt situation. I frantically asked the caller a few questions, found out the cost of the meal (1,600 Danish Krone each for 20 courses) - not bad I thought however having no idea what the Danish Krone was to the Pound she quickly advised about £180 there or about. Not wanting to lose the reservation I asked her to send me the confirmation but that I needed to check with my other diners to see if they would be available. I immediately ran down to Katie's desk and proceeded to tell her the tale of the recent event, I was so excited I was shaking. My whole body felt giddy with excitement and my nerve endings were tingly. This was for real. Katie was keen, Adam was keen and due to a bit of financial shuffling the reservation was officially confirmed. Love Bites was going to Noma!

We discussed items of food we were not inclined to eat during the taxi ride on the way to the restaurant, my items being insects, and fish heads, Katie's being liver, and Adam was down for whatever. After seeing a documentary last year of Noma creating its first pop-up restaurant at Claridges Hotel over the Olympic period in London, I had some idea of what to expect from the restaurant itself. I had an inkling insects would be involved (eeek!), and lots of fresh earthy type dishes, not my usual choice of food but hey this was a once in a lifetime experience so I was going to be eating what ever was on my plate or 20 plates! 

We were driven through the city centre and across one of the bridges to Christenholm, where Noma is located on the wharf in a warehouse type building, far away from prying eyes and providing the ideal base for creating foodie masterpieces.

After getting the obligatory photo for Love Bites outside the restaurant we were welcomed at the front door not just by the Maitre'd but also by a handful of chefs which was rather exciting. They were full of smiles with hands behind their backs as our layers were taken and we were guided to our table. On entering the restaurant I was intriuged by the environment. The decor had a very earthy, rustic feel to it with its grey wooden beams,  light grey wooden panelled floors, concrete walls and black wooden tables and chairs. Some chairs were draped with an animal fur throw and simple candles and foliage in plain white vases decorated the tables. The decor was simple, but inviting and to some extent warming, the colour scheme neutral and calming creating an intriguingly suave atmosphere.

There felt like there was a hive of activity between the diners, and the chefs / waiters. I say this as the chefs themselves would bring out each dish and present it to you with a nice air of enthusiasm and intrigue to what they were serving you. The kitchen was situated at the entrance to the restaurant in between the actual restaurant and the wine bar in the following room. You could watch the chefs prepare the final step of the meals to be served which made quite a fascinating but fun experience and a  more informal atmosphere which is nice. We were informed by the Maitre'd that there is also another kitchen above the visable restaurant in which a whole other dozen of chefs are doing the pre-preparing of the food (moreso the bits they don't think we need to see!) which was equally fascinating.

Back at our table, after engulfing the surroundings and buzz, the Maitre'd began by informing us on how the evening would play out; we would be dining on 20 courses throughout the evening, a selection of dishes for appetisers would be served at quite a fast pace and at a more slower speed the  main events would be unveiled. With that our Noma experience began....

Stay tuned for Part Two of Love Bites Noma experience with a gallery of pictures in the following post.

Decor images thanks to http://spacecph.dk/project/noma/

Polpo

On a crisp winters Tuesday night in December, Adam and I ventured out for dinner in Soho when we stumbled across 'Polpo' a restaurant I had been wanting to try for quite some time. Polpo had been recommended to me by numerous friends and work colleagues, serving Italian-style tapas it was right up my alley. After dining there and reading more about the restaurant it is in fact a bàcaro which is a Venetian word to describe a humble restaurant serving simple food and good, young local wines (www.polpo.co.uk).

 I had heard it was very hard to get into (another 'no reservations' culprit) but as we were there for a quick, early bite to eat before a movie we entered and were seated at the bar within a couple of minutes, which suited our agenda just fine.

After being served with menus from the helpful bar staff we decided on a MGM (an elderflower, ginger beer and lemon concoction) and a Birra Moretti beer. As we were seated at the bar our drinks came out reasonably fast which gave us a good few minutes before we were served again to peruse the menu and order our food.

We settled on the arancini, potato and Parmesan crocchetta (croquettes) and chicken liver crostini to start, however we ordered all the food in one go, which also added to our palate; lamb and pistachio meatballs, pork belly with radicchio and hazelnuts, and roast potatoes with rosemary. These all came out within very reasonable timing and we just had enough space on the bar to accommodate all the plates. The arancini, crostini and crocchetta cicheti (small plates) were gone within moments.  For those of you who don't know how right up my alley arancini is, they are crumbed, deep-fried risotto balls... total indulgence in one mouthful, and these in particular did not disappoint.  The croquettes were pretty standard and to be honest if we were ordering again I think these would miss the cut, as five dishes were probably enough to feed us both comfortably. 

 

Being lovers of pate, the crostini was a favourite however it was the lamb and pistachio meatballs in a thick tomato sauce that really hit the home run. We only wished we had a couple more of these to gobble down (they have even inspired me to create my own recipe - watch this space on LoveBites). The pork belly, (crackling and all) was a delight, its succulent flavour oozing with tenderness really complimented the hazelnuts and runny gravy, although I did find the bitterness of the radicchio a bit much. The roast potatoes were the perfect accompaniment to the pork and meant that we were still attempting to get our 5+ a day and lets face it, as roast potatoes are in my top five foods, they really can't go wrong in my book.

The meal came to under £40.00 for food and drink (service not included), we were fed and hydrated within an hour and were more than satisfied with our spread. I would highly recommend visiting any of the Polpo restaurants sprinkled around London and I myself will definitely be calling in again, that sliced flank steak with portobello mushrooms and cured pork shoulder with pickled pepper pizzette looked too good not to go back and try. I also look forward to visiting the other sister restaurants owned by the Polpo crew, Spuntino and Mishkins, if they are as good as Polpo I can't wait to devour the treats they have installed.

Meat Liquor

http://www.meatliquor.com/

 I have been meaning to try Meat Liquor for quite some time now. I have read mixed reviews, some saying they dislike the lack of plates, some find it too dark and dingy, whilst others are excited by the grunge atmosphere, and greasy American style food.

Now Meat Liquor is one of those 'cool' places that don't take reservations.  There seems to be quite a few of these restaurants and food outlets popping up all over London recently, a bit of a chain-gang going on, not great when you want to plan an evening out I must say.

However despite being in a group of 6 we decided to test our luck for lunch about a couple of weeks ago. I actually almost walked past the whole building, I was about to get out my Google Maps to try and locate the restaurant as none of us saw the sign. I was expecting a door with a stairwell leading down in to the 'basement like surroundings' as I had read in reviews. However after being pointed in the right direction by one of our group members who is an avid fan we proceeded to enter into the dark and shifty diner environment and were surprisingly seated straight away, much to our joy with our work lunch time constraints! 

 

I have to say I was very intrigued by the whole experience. I found Meat Liquor was like being at high school loitering around with the punks and rebels in their invite-only hangout. I loved the bogan atmosphere and the old school rock music, mixed with the smell of grease, ketchup and mustard. The walls appeared to be slashed with graffiti with lots of red, black and off-white. Skulls and bones, sadistic animals and neon lights entertained the walls and we ate with an intriguing image of two entwined female nudes opposite us, tempting to put some off their food...

The menu was straight to the point, about 7 different types of burgers with a mix of American diner style sides and a chilli dog thrown in there for a bit of variety. I had been advised to try the deep-fried pickles, to those of you who aren't used to the lingo these are gherkins. I decided on the Cheeseburger, whilst most went for the Bacon Cheeseburger. We also decided to share the pickles, fries and buffalo wings with blue cheese sauce.

The service wasn't great, the staff walked around like they were non-fussed students who didn't give a shit. However when you did get their attention they did seem to spark back to life. The food came out in good timing, and was served on a 70's style tray, covered in a layer of grease-proof paper, each of our burgers had to be pointed out to us as there was no way we were going to work out whose was whose as they all looked the same! The kitchen roll was definitely needed not only as a napkin but also as your plate. We were all rather grateful that we had the whole roll as more than one piece was definitely required! The burgers oozed with greasy goodness, the soft steamed burger buns allowed you to really squish the insides together and get the whole thing into your mouth for a bite. The flavour tastes just like how it looks as the perfection of an American-style classic burger. Processed cheese, mustard, onions and pickles, some leaves and a big layer of ketchup - sweet.

The the buffalo wings and blue cheese sauce blew my mind!  These also came as a highly recommended side and they did not fail to impress. I was tempted to take all the sauce home as they came serves in little plastic containers. I could eat that just like yoghurt! The pickles didn't really hit the spot, they were small slices of gherkins smothered in batter, which really ruined the tangy flavour of the pickle. They lost their burst of sourness and I think the appeal for these is really the deep fried batter, one of my group actually didn't eat the pickles and just devoured the batter - so probably wouldn't get these again.  The chips were standard shoe-strings (I'm more of a hand cut chunky kinda gal myself) but definitely a necessity with the burger, come-on they go hand in hand.

Meat Liquor was tops; good value for money, fast turnaround and good mix of classic American greasy grub. To top it off I left with yellow mustard all over my face, always a great sign of a great feed.