What We're Eating This Week: Cheese & Marmite Pastries, Scarlet Prawns & Carpaccio Pizzas
Cheese & Marmite Pastries @ Arcade Food Theatre
Efficient as they may be for suiting all tastes, it can be hard to get excited about food halls. But the opening of Europe’s largest, Arcade, changes that: seven restaurants have taken residency in the 12,500 square feet of the first two floors of Centre Point on Tottenham Court Road and every single one of them will have you salivating. They each have smart little kitchens dotted around the ground floor, along with two bars serving wine, beer and cocktails. Up on the first floor is The Loft bar, which has comfy seating and a view out onto the beautifully designed space by Macaulay Sinclair (who are responsible for making Hawksmoor, Dishoom and others look so slick). The striking Grade II-listed building is light, bright, and incredibly elegant despite the hive of activity. It officially opens on Monday but is on a soft launch from today, meaning 50% off food from now and for the rest of the weekend. And what a lot to choose from…
There is Pophams Bakery, serving delectable pastries from breakfast onwards (the raspberry and coconut Danish is light as a feather and they do a moreish cheesy one with Marmite and spring onion); Lina Stores are doing their glorious pasta dishes including the joyfully plump pici with porcini mushrooms and Umbrian sausage; the El Pastor team are serving their tacos under the alias ‘Pastorcito,’ including their sumptuous signature of 24-hour marinated pork shoulder with guacamole, cheese and caramelised pineapple; TāTā Eatery morphs into ‘Tōu,’ doing their famous Katsu Iberian pork sandwich; there is also steak from Flat Iron, sushi from the Chotto Matte team, Portuguese charcoal grilled chicken at Casita do Frango, and an almost obscenely good cheese and butter pide at Oklava, topped with black garlic, za’atar and a molten egg yolk prime for dipping. Overeating is inevitable.
103 – 105 New Oxford Street, London, WC1A 1DB; arcade-london.com
Scarlet Prawns @ Flor*
Perhaps the most anticipated London opening of the summer must also have a claim on being the best new restaurant in Britain. Flor, which occupies a beautiful little nineteenth century building on the edge of foodie Mecca Borough Market, in SE1, is the new bakery, wine bar and exquisite dining room from the team behind the justly acclaimed Lyle’s, in Shoreditch. Arranged over two floors (or flors) connected by a tight, cast iron spiral staircase, with high ceilings, exposed brick walls and floor to ceiling windows, when Esquire visited on a balmy Wednesday night it was busy, with an appreciative crowd thronging the ground floor bar and diners upstairs feasting on chef James Lowe’s distinctive, imaginative, surprising sharing plates.
We had thinly sliced, gorgeously spiced wild boar ventricia; zingy oysters with tiny chopped jalapeno; scarlet prawns with juzu kosho (Japanese chilli paste); hake brandade — like a mini fish pie — with peppers; standout razor clam flatbread, zhuzhed with garlic; and — our absolute favourite — lamb rib with yoghurt, black lime and pistachios. To finish, Lowe’s fiendishly clever take on Neapolitan ice cream. The wine list is as smartly constructed as the dishes, the prices are reasonable and the service is exemplary, and it’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you’re in London this summer, it’s a must.
1 Bedale Street, London, SE1 9AL; florlondon.com
Carpaccio Pizza @ Circolo Popolare
When the Big Mamma group arrived in London earlier this year, it’s fair to say that Londoners weren’t quite sure what to make of Gloria, Hackney’s new pasta emporium, where vast portions meet vastly over-the-top décor and carbonara is twizzled around a giant pecorino wheel in front of your slowly blurring eyes. But we’ve all got used to this French-owned Italianate experience and are ready to welcome the second site to Fitzrovia with open arms (and an empty stomach, if you have any sense).
Similarly sizeable (it has 280 covers and a terrace for 60), there aren’t many sights like the one that greets you when you walk into this high-ceilinged restaurant, which feels like a garlanded terrace you’ve stumbled upon on holiday – even inside. Rest assured that the booze bottles lining the walls are real – all 20,000 of them. The menu is, arguably, a bit large, making decisions tricky, especially since there is only a finite amount of pizza and pasta one can eat. And that’s before you’ve thought about burrata bursting with pesto, or deep-fried courgette flowers, or empanadas like pillowy imaginings of lasagne filled with pork and fennel. The carpaccio pizza is a must-try – a crispy base slathered in pink meat and hulks of parmesan (not for the faintly carnivorous, mind) – but you’ll always be safe with that mammoth carbonara, served for two to share in said pecorino – it is proper, it is wickedly tasty and, yes, it is vast.
40-41 Rathbone Place, London, W1T1HX; bigmammagroup.com
Coffee & Brownies @ Ralph’s Coffee
If you need a quick caffeine hit whilst out shopping this weekend, swing by the Ralph Lauren store on New Bond Street, where a wonderfully smart coffee bar will greet you right as you walk through the doors. The organic Ralph’s Roast is delicious – nutty and rich whilst not blowing your head off – and really rather good alongside the house chocolate brownies. Should the weather perk up, there are also cold-press juices and a selection of lemonades.
You can grab and go, or nab a corner seat to enjoy the relaxing vibe created by the old Hollywood-style soundtrack and peerlessly-dressed staff. This pop-up is in addition to Ralph’s Coffee & Bar up on Regent Street, as a tester for a potential new permanent site, so you’ll still be able to hunt down those brownies once it closes, on Sunday. But in the meantime, it makes for one stylish stop-off.
Until 21stJuly
1 New Bond Street, London, W1S 3LU; ralphlauren.co.uk
Pork Paté @ The Cleveland Arms
Weeknight suppers cry out for cosy pubs where dogs are welcome, the wood is dark and the curtains are made of heavy velvet. The Cleveland Arms offers just that, and is a hidden gem in Paddington (yes, Paddington!) that was refurbished in 2014 and has just welcomed a new chef in the form of Elisabeth Passédat, who some might recognise from Masterchef: The Professionals.
Staying true to the nineteenth century charm of the petite panelled dining room in the back, Passédat’s menu is simple, concise and satisfying but done with a light enough touch for summer appetites. Current starters include British asparagus doused in silken poached egg yolk, and a comforting pork pâté with toast and cornichons, leading to mains like juicy lamb rump with new potatoes and salty Umami De Mar. Or bavette steak. Or simply fried fish with sauce vierge. Settle in for an evening or, indeed, drop by for a cheeky weekday lunch: daily specials cost just £12 with a glass of wine or beer thrown in.
28 Chilworth Street, London, W2 6DT; theclevelandarms.com
*Flor words by Alex Bilmes
You Might Also Like
