Bao

Feels like home

Bao London

After a few years gaining a cult following with its delightful Taiwanese soft buns in Netil Market, the trio behind Bao (Shing Tat Chung, Erchen Chang and Wai Ting) managed to secured backing from the Sethi family to open their first permanent store in Soho, the Sethi family now have an impressive collection of restaurants including Bubblesdogs and Gymkhana. It would be interesting to see if the group would ever reach similar status like Nigel Platts-Martin's restaurant empire, with no less than 7 Michelin stars across London (Eg. The Ledbury, The Square). 

Smokehouse Islington

Smoking hot

Smokehouse Islington

Having eaten at Smokehouse Chiswick not long ago, I headed back to the original Smokehouse in Islington, wondering if the quality would be the same after Neil Rankin is now no longer in the kitchen. I still remember when I first visited Smokehouse about a year ago, I had some of the best meat dishes and the signature dish shortrib bourguignon was just one of those wonderful dishes that I will never forget. As far as gastropub level wise, Smokehouse is one of the very best in London without a doubt.

Sticky Wings

Sticky fun

Sticky Wings, photo from management

Good Buffalo wings are not easy to come by in London, when well executed, it can be such an addictable item that you just can't stop eating one after another. The best Buffalo wing I have encountered in London was the bingo wings from Meat Liquor, I have yet to discover a wing specialist restaurant in London so when I heard there is actually a Buffalo Wings joint in Brick Lane called Sticky Wings that has been receiving some excellent customer feedback, I wasted little to time to check out the place.

Smokehouse Chiswick

Smoking ace

Smokehouse Chiswick

I am a big fan of the first Smokehouse (part of Noble Inns group) at Islington, Neil Rankin has re-formulated BBQ to something refined, edgy and most importantly, smokingly good. I guess BBQ 'premiumisation' would be the right word if I think in marketing terms. On the back of his Smokehouse success, Neil Rankin has been promoted to be the group's Executive chef and is expanding his Smokehouse concept.  As soon as I discovered Smokehouse was launching a new branch in Chiswick, I wasted no time in booking a table for its soft launch.

Hibiscus

Forward thinking

Hibiscus, photo from management

The double Michelin starred Hibiscus in Oxford Circus is renown for its creative and forward thinking approach in its French cooking. Chef patron Claude Bosi has a unique style in his cooking, thinking outside the box, using unexpected ingredients combination to challenge the mindset of diners and unlock what we normally would consider strange food paring, all that is all done in a refined and elegant way without being a gimmick. For my sixth visit, I returned to Hibiscus to experience the menu du marche, a 8 course tasting menu.

Fera Claridge's

No tasting no fun

canapes

Almost one year on, with the launch buzz and all the hype dying down, Fera is no longer the hottest restaurant in London. While the restaurant still fills up pretty nicely, you can easily secure a table in less than a week in advance. The menu has since changed quite a bit, with the tasting menu heavily reduced to just 6 courses. I always choose the tasting menu when I go to a Simon Rogan restaurant but for the first time I went for its set lunch menu.

Launceston Place

Modern gastronomy

canapes

This is my 8th visit to the Michelin starred Launceston Place, this is my favourite London restaurant for fine dining, a place I would always suggest first if someone asked me to recommend a high quality gastronomic experience without needing to borrow a loan. I returned for the first time in 2015, knowing I would be getting something quite different from my last visit just before Christmas. Head chef Tim Allen is known for his progressive modern creative European cuisine and every time I dine out at Launceston Place, I always find something very special that delights my taste buds with joy and that is largely the reason why I keep returning to this charming neighbourhood restaurant.

Kitchen W8

Good to be back

Kitchen W8, photo from management

Co-owned by the legendary chef Philip Howard from The Square, Kitchen W8 is a rather low profile restaurant with a Michelin star that is located in a quite neighbourhood off High Street Kensington. I ate at The Square not long ago but it would be silly to compare as both style of cuisine and price point are massively different. This is actually my second visit to Kitchen W8, having eaten there about three years ago before I started blogging. The restaurant is known for its excellent priced set lunch and that is what I went for as I was on my way to an exhibition so I couldn't stay long. 

Red Dog Saloon

Hot wings challenge

deadly hot wings

Red Dog Saloon is famous for its American BBQ food but even more for its two food challenge, the hot wings and the devastator challenge. The hot wings challenge is all about can you handle the heat, six wings cooked in naga viper chilli, it is one of the hottest chillies in the world and the success rate of the challenge is only 5% with countless of Youtube videos of showing contestants suffering badly from the overwhelming heat. But I have a friend who just loves completing in food challenges and he was so keen that he started practising eating all kinds of spicy food days in advance to the build up.

Koya

Japanese goodness in Soho

grilled chicken thigh

I am a big fan of Koya, in some way Koya has revolutionised the Japanese dining scene in London, breaking out from the traditional Japanese mood and injecting some clever and modern elements that have delighted diners for many years. To keep it fresh and exciting, Koya does a good number of daily specials everyday and some of the dishes you can find on its blackboard are some of the most interesting dishes in London.