California Three-Star Experience, My Top 10 Ever, Eating "The Bear," Critics & More
Jimi Famurewa returns and reviews Britaly. Charlotte Ivers on J Sheeky. Giles Coren loves Josephine Bouchon.
Hi, everyone. Happy Monday. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Summer seems to have finally arrived in London — although it may be brief — so I hope you have found a pleasant outdoor spot and great bottle of rosé. I did. On Friday. At Seabird in the Hoxton Southbank. More on that below.
I also had an epic lunch last week, which plays a central role in the first Conversation Over Lunch, a new feature which will launch on Wednesday. I’m pretty excited about it, and I hope you will enjoy it.
How are you? What are you getting up to? And where have you eaten lately that was a pleasant surprise? Hit reply and let me know.
Wow. Single Thread.
During our recent trip to California, we managed to score a booking at Single Thread in Healdsburg in the Sonoma Valley.
It was simply the best meal I’ve had in the last decade, and only topped by the first meal I had with the French Laundry many years ago.
Chef Kyle Connaughton worked in some of the best Japanese places in L.A., then lived in Japan for a while, before leading R&D for the Fat Duck.
Single Thread has been recognised with three stars from Michelin as well as a green star for its environmental sensitivities. They run their own farm operation a few miles north of the restaurant in the Dry Creek Valley which provides most of their produce.
The meal was a California-influenced take on the traditional Japanese Kaiseki menu — set courses, each designed to highlight a particular tradition or aspect of the season. (If you don’t know about Kaiseki, it’s a wonderful way to experience Japanese cuisine, and there are a couple of great places in London to try it. Michelin has a great overview of how it works. My favourite so far has been Roketsu in Mayfair.)
The dinner opened with Sakizuke — snacks — which were waiting when we sat down, freshly prepared as we walked into the restaurant. Warm snacks were added to the immense assortment after we took our seats. If that had been the whole meal, I would have left very happy.
Two courses later, we arrived at Suimono — “clear soup” — the most perfect local Dungeness crab served in a crystal clear dashi broth made from the shells. That was followed by summer squash from the farm, a dish focused on cucumber, and the most fantastic local duck. Finally (for the savouries), there was a traditional rice course, adorned with fresh vegetables from the farm and made with stock from the duck.
Desserts were carefully balanced. Not decadent, but clever bites of sweetness at the end of a carefully choreographed ballet of food and drink.
Reflecting on it days later, I am still struck by the whole experience. It managed to be perfectly elegant and still accessible. For example, no one mentioned Kaiseki to us. We worked that out. Knowing the tradition made the experience more complete, but you didn’t lose anything from not knowing. I’ll let you judge my state of mind at the end of the meal:
My Best Ever
Well, since I brought it up, and you didn’t ask, here are my top ten meals of all time:
The French Laundry (first visit): Yountville, CA, USA
Single Thread: Healdsburg, CA, USA
Noma (second visit): Copenhagen, DK
Piazza Duomo: Alba, IT
Kadeau: Copenhagen, DK
Arpege (second visit): Paris, FR
Core by Clare Smyth (second visit): London, UK
WD-50: New York, NY, USA
Da Terra: London, UK
Peg Leg Pete’s: Pensacola Beach, FL, USA
I would love to know your top ten or top five best ever meals. Hit reply and let me know or drop it in the comments.
You’ve watched “The Bear”
Now you can eat it, too.
The Bear has become a big deal on Disney+, and fans are eagerly awaiting the new season. Now you can try the food as well. The Standard and LOTI have the details. Says LOTI:
This summer, a food truck serving dishes inspired by the hit TV show The Bear will be rocking up to various spots across London. The menu has been developed by online recipe platform Mob Kitchen, whose chefs will be cooking in the truck.
Sounds like fun. The initial schedule around as follows:
Boxpark Shoreditch | Tues 25th June 2024
Pub in the Park | Fri 28th June 2024
Soho House Festival | Thurs 4th July 2024
BST Hyde Park | Sat 29th June to Sun 14th July 2024
Wilderness | Thurs 1st to Sun 4th August 2024
The tour then continues across the UK.
Critics Wrap-Up
✍🏻 indicates a review that you should read for the writing.
🍽️ indicates a place that sounds excellent and is probably worth a try.
✍🏻 🍽️ Jimi Famurewa (Standard) is back. I’m really pleased to have been wrong last week in assuming that he might be moving on from the restaurant beat. And he is taking us straight back to Peckham to try the controversial Britaly. “Though it may present as an unsubtle and silly play for virality, Café Britaly is in fact a sensitively rendered, keenly priced, modern rewiring of the neighbourhood bistro and a perfect showcase for the bravura intensity of Purdie’s cooking. The hordes of repeat visitors crowding in for porchetta Sunday roasts and rice pudding arancini show it has struck a chord locally. No, it is not your nonna’s restaurant. And it is all the better for it.”
Finger Finger Sandwich at Cafe Britaly in Peckham. Photo by Cafe Britaly via Instagram. Lily Subbotin (Independent) and Christina (LOTI) also visited Britaly. Christina explains the controversy: “The kitchen is mashing up British and Italian dishes, so prepare for food that isn’t traditional but is a lot of fun.” She concludes, that it is “playful without being gimmicky, nostalgic yet modern, and relaxed but still thoughtful.” Lily reaches a similar verdict: “It’d probably upset a lot of Italians, but then again, the concept of this entire cafe would – and that’s not the point. It’s delicate yet rich and is a nice alternative to those fancying something a little less greasy-spoon-esque.”
🍽️ Giles Coren (Times) is the latest critic to try Josephine Bouchon in Chelsea. And Giles is excited. “Joséphine Bouchon is a seriously wonderful neighbourhood restaurant which lacks, to be perfect, only a neighbourhood.”
🍽️ Gavin Hanly (Hot Dinners) tries Kioku by Endo in the OWO in Whitehall. “It's already clear that Kioku by Endo is a big hit… It's a beautifully designed affair with fantastic views, excellent food throughout and it's complimented by a wonderful bar downstairs. It's, deservedly, the hit that The OWO needed.”
✍🏻 Jay Rayner (Observer) visits Chungdam, a Korean barbecue joint in SoHo, and approves. Built around a lovely homage to change and moving on, it’s one his best reviews in a long time.
Catherine Hanly (Hot Dinners) checks out The Counter is SoHo following a bad review in the Standard a couple of weeks ago. “We thought it was a buzzy, cheerful place with plenty on the menu to warrant a visit.”
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) goes to Saba in Kensington. “Here, in this metal-clad, neon-lit space, Korean convenience shop meets DIY instant ramen noodles.”
Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) visits J Sheeky after realising she’s only allergic to molluscs and not shellfish. Needless to say, she enjoyed herself.
Tim Hayward (FT) was in Cambridge. William Sitwell (Telegraph) was in Oakham, which I had to look up on a map. Grace Dent (Guardian) had awful pizza in Glasgow. Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) takes us on a food tour of Istanbul.
Hits & Misses
Mini-reviews of places that were either (a) good, but not quite good enough to do a full review and add to the Guide or (b) Had a flaw or two.
Hit: Seabird at the Hoxton Southbank
Seabird was made for days like this. It’s Friday. We’ve spent the morning in a face to face meeting with a client. The sun is shining. It’s warm (for London). And it’s time for lunch.
Seabird is a fish-focused place on the rooftop of the Hoxton Hotel Southbank with stunning views of the London skyline.
As a group of seven, Seabird offered us a set menu: a bunch of nibbles to share followed by several whole fish, chunky chips, veg and salad. Snacks were excellent, with particularly good charcuterie. The highlight was octopus, served in the manner of American hotdogs, in brioche buns, with a homemade spicy ketchup. Serious yum.
The whole fish were the star of the show. Perfectly cooked, moist, and delicious. Great for outdoor dining. The chips were addictive.
My only niggle was the wine service. Anything that isn’t obvious is stored in the hotel’s basement, which requires someone to go down and fetch it, and the hotel’s lifts are dreadfully slow. So any mildly thoughtful wine order takes forever. Still, our rosé arrived eventually, and it was virtuously cold and pink.
But I am happy to recommend Seabird for a Professional Lunch. It’s pleasant without being too showy and not outrageously expensive given the quality of the food, view, wine, and experience.
That’s it for this week’s update. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the sunny, warm week. See you Wednesday for a new feature. In the meantime, please subscribe if you haven’t already and share Professional Lunch with your friends and colleagues.