The Five Fields

High five

Located near Sloane Square station and just opposite the infamous Saatchi Gallery, The Five Fields serves modern British cuisine and has wowed diners with its cutting edge and playful British flavours and which no less had got itself ranked as the top restaurant in London on Trip Adviser recently. It had been on my to do list for a while but due to its small dinning room along with all the positive reviews, I had to book months in advance to get a table.

apperitzers

Byron

The B Rex special

Byron knows how to make a proper hamburger and that is nothing new, the fine quality meat it uses as well as the simple and fresh garnish results in some of the finest burgers you can get in London. What I really love is they always come up with some amazing monthly special to keep the burger fans interested, the Triple Cheesemas special I had back in late 2013 was pure heaven and can easily stand toe to toe with my favourite burger joint, honest burger.

This time around I went to my local Byron and ordered the B Rex special as well as trying their courgette fries for the first time. Just like the name suggested, the B Rex was a real beast and perhaps one of the tallest burgers I have encountered. It had a giant onion ring, good number of slice, wonderfully smoked crispy bacon with some fine American cheese. Not much of a fan of Jalapeños peppers normally, but when its served with BBQ sauce and mayonnaise, it reduced the intensive spices level and worked really well with the beef patty. The courgette fries was also surprisingly pleasant, sweet and fresh with a golden crispy clothing, as good as any vegetable tempura you would find in a decent Japanese restaurant in London. Yet another solid burger time at Byron, can't wait to see what they have got in store next for their next special.

Food 5.5
Service 5
Ambience 5
Value 7

£18 per head with a beer

various locations

http://www.byronhamburgers.com

Salvation in Noodles

Vietnamese noodles joint

Salvation in Noodles aka SIN is a newly opened restaurant serving Vietnamese noodles and street food located in Dalston, north London. Unlike other Vietnamese restaurants such as Cay Tre, SIN has a rather small menu and is focusing on the regional noodle dishes that is still a pretty new territory in the London dining scene. As a keen foodie that always enjoy exploring, I headed off to SIN on a fine Friday evening to seek some classic Vietnamese noodles.

Salvation in Noodles

Jubo

KFC and Ssam

Jubo is a little interesting canteen, located inside the Bedroom Bar on the trendy Rivington Street, it serves simple US style Korean fast food, as well as a Korean classic ssam, which you need to order in advance. I noticed Korean fried chicken has created a bit of a buzz lately, Jubo has a reputation of providing some quality KFC but I also loved the idea of the ssam after looking at the menu, the solution was: Have them both!

Jubo

Honest Burger Portobello

Brew burger time

After a good number of burger adventures for two years across London, with a few extra pounds added on my weight, Honest Burger is still the best and the undisputed champion in London when its comes into great British burgers. So what can they do to take it to the next level? Well well well, they came up with the idea with an independent craft brewer, Brew Dog to create a burger called "brew burger". Using craft beer in the cooking process and this just sounded too good not to try!

brew time baby!

Morito

Tapas fun in the city

Morito, a Michelin Bid Gourmand rated tapas bar in the city has somewhat become one of the most popular eat out places for workers nearby. It has been on my to do list for a while but I never got around to visit due to the no booking policy in the evening, but when I discovered they take lunch time bookings even on the weekends, it was finally time for an overdue visit and I was keen to compare it to other highly regarded tapas bars in London such as Jose and Barrafina.

Morito

open kitchen

On The Bab

Korean Street food in Shoreditch

Korean cuisine offers some of the most exciting tastes in the world, the diversity of spices, freshness and simplicity are somewhat unique, it is hard to beat when it's prepared with quality ingredients and great care. So when On The Bab, a Korean kitchen opened on Old Street by the same people behind the ever popular Korean restaurant Koba, I was very keen to try it as it has been a while since I had a decent Korean meal and great Korean food is a rarity in London. 

On the Bab

Dirty Bones

Posh dog in Kensington

Dirty Bones, a new underground restaurant near High Street Kensington is somewhat a fun concept of serving hot dogs, meat on bones and cocktails in what is known to be one of the poshest addresses in London. Operated by ex-Fat Duck chef Ross Clark, I was curious to see his take on a street food classic and wonder if he could turn it into something exciting like what Honest burger have done with burgers and Chicken Shop with rotisserie chicken.

burger dog

8 Hoxton Square

Hoxton's new gem

I love 10 Greek Street in Soho, when I visited last year for a nice relaxing dinner, the food was simply wonderful with lovely bold flavours that really got my taste bud buzzing. The only problem is that as it is a no booking restaurant, I just couldn't visit often as it is hugely popular and unless you arrive early, you can end up waiting for hours for a table. So as soon as I found out the same team behind 10 Greek Street opened a new restaurant in trendy Hoxton serving a similar style of food but with booking allowance, it was a no brainer for me to pay a visit.

8 Hoxton Square

Brackenbury

Neighbourhood restaurant in Hammersmith

There aren't that many decent restaurants around in Hammersmith apart from the legendary River Cafe, but River Cafe is simply one of those restaurants I just have to give a miss to, due to its ridiculous pricing in a cafe setting, and judging from the menu, it doesn't seem that inspiring. But when Brackenbury, a neighbourhood restaurant re-opened at the Brackenbury village just behind Hammersmith, with ex-management and ex-chefs from the River Cafe at the helm, I decided to visit without any hesitation, just to wonder if I would get any closer to the standard of River Cafe at a much "friendlier" price.

Brackenbury

Chocolate Masterclass with Paul A Young

The art of chocolate making

I don't know much about chocolate but one things for sure is that just like a glass of fine wine or a well aged spirit, in order to achieve exceptional quality, every step needs to have a high focus of detail, from the coco beans sourcing, all the way to the hand crafting process. So when I heard that the beautiful boutique hotel, St James Hotel and Club was offering a chocolate masterclass with one of the hottest chocolatiers in the name of Paul A. Young. I signed myself up and hoped to learn a few things about the art of chocolate making and drinks pairing.

St James Hotel and Club

Paul A. Young masterclass

Canvas by Michael Riemenschneider

Artwork on a canvas

When Canvas by Michael Riemenschneider opened in Marylebone in January 2014, I had it in my must try list due to the fact that the concept of his restaurant sounded so appealing. One of the biggest challenges when it comes to a tasting menu is that all the courses are fixed and you are left without any choices. So Canvas's idea of creating your own tasting menu based on a list of choices, eliminated that limitation and with a CV of working with the likes of Pierre Gagnaire, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay, I was very confident he had something special to offer in his intimate 20 seats restaurant. 

Canvas by Michael Riemenschneider

dining room

Honey & Co

Homely Middle East food

Honey & Co in Fitzrovia has become one of the most popular restaurants in 2013, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand as well as winner of the Observer's OFM best new comer. Honey and Co is a tiny restaurant and it looks more like a local cafe with about only 20 seats inside, Run by the husband and wife team, Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, together with bags of experience behind them such as Orrery and Yotam Ottolenghi. Honey & Co label themselves as food from the Middle Eat, showcasing the food they love and grew up with.

Honey and Co

Otto e Mezzo Bombana

Underwhelming

Brainchild of Umberto Bombana, 8 1/2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana is the only 3 star Michelin Italian restaurant outside Italy and ranked no 6 in the Asia's 50 Best Restaurant award 2013 edition, with such achievements, it is safe to assume that chef patron Umberto Bombana's restaurant is one of the best in Hong Kong and worth a special trip to visit even if you are on the other side of the world. But sadly, my visit proved not to be the case.

 8 1/2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana

Lung King Heen

Totally overrated

Who is familiar with the phase: "With great power comes great responsibility"? If that term is to apply to restaurants, surely it would be something along the line: "With great awards comes great food"? Sadly my lunch experience at Lung King Heen proved otherwise. Located inside the Four Seasons Hotel, Lung King Heen is currently the only traditional Chinese restaurant in the world to hold 3 Michelin stars, it has countless awards and recommendations from the media across the world and is regarded as one of the best restaurants in Asia.

Views from our table