Archives for February 2019

Farzi Cafe, Haymarket – Luvly Jubly !

It is a bit of a further journey from India to the West End than from Peckham to the West End, but for the next twelve weeks Farzi Cafe and Only Fools and Horses the Musical will be unlikely neighbours in Haymarket – Cushty ! Farzi Cafe is the first UK outpost of Indian restauranter and Masterchef India Judge Mr. Zorowar Kalra.

Having spotted the restaurant next door to the Theatre and due to see a performance on the Friday night, it seemed the perfect opportunity to try something new and explore the rumoured £4Million that Mr. Kalra had invested in the spot.

Farzi apparently means “Fake” in Urdu, and Zorowar explains that this word is used to explain its post molecular and post modern techniques applied to the dishes, resulting in food that looks like one thing but is in fact something entirely different.

First impressions are important and here the welcome is friendly with two well dressed receptionists taking coats and guiding us to the table. The restaurant is sleek looking with lots of gold in evidence, and incorporating boothes for four/five people down one side of the dining space facing a long impressive bar showing off every type of whiskey you can imagine – and more. Eating so early at 5.30 Pre – Theatre can be a lonely and quiet affair but the restaurant is already quite busy with lots of families in evidence (small children too) and it is very much a multi cultural environment.

The Menu. It is long. It contains many odditities, and a few more familiar plates. Some dishes sound recognisable, but the addition in small print accompanying the dishes lead you onto an unchartered path of flavours. There are several headings – Nano Plates ( presumably smaller than Small Plates, Small Plates ( presumably larger than Nano plates), Pao and Sliders, Roasts and Grills, Farzified English Classics, Mains,Biryanis and Sides. It all appears reasonably priced on the face of it, with most Small Plates coming in at between £6 and £10 ( one exception being the Lamb Chops at £14) , and mains ranging from £8 to the most expensive at £22 being a Lobster and Mussel Moilee.

We decide to steer clear of the fusion style British Classics – which includes a Halibut Fish and Chips with Chukki Pea Mash ( wouldn’t be seen dead in Peckham) , or a Masala Wagyu Cottage Pie with Purple Potato Mash, and leave these for another (potential) visit.

We are being served by Mark from Poland who I doubt has ever set foot in India but is being charming and efficient and recommending a way to navigate through the menu. From the Nano Plates we opt for Flamed Padron Peppers aloo chokha and they arrive quickly, plump, salty and indeed charred with radishes, pea shoots and an unknown sauce, which we assume is the Chokha. There are 8 for £5 and taste good if not revelatory.

A Tuna Ceviche arrives with a scattering of pink peppers and three little mounds of puffed rice and other wierd and wonderful stuff, but all actually rather good. The Tuna being zingy and fresh, with the rice giving texture and crunch. Our favourite Small Plate is the Pan Tossed Shrooms with Black truffle haze. We did not know how this would appear and whilst Mark did his best to respond to our enquiries, his explanation really just repeated our best guess as to what we would be delivered. What arrived was a generously filled bowl of creamy coconut orange (almost soup like) concoction filled with various Mushroom varieties and tasted really rather fabulous – Pas De Calais !

The final Small Plate involved three large Madras Pepper Prawns curling in on themselves and served with aerated thayir sadam- whoever and whatever that is. What we understood were some Yoghurt like Cream blobs to accompany each prawn which cooled down each forkful in a pleasant enough manner.

As a note here we had asked Mark for a portion of Naga Pork and he actually countered against it as it represented their spiciest starter. We choose to forego it and we’re rather glad as the Small Plates were not so small, and we had a lot more to follow. Beware of the portion sizes here !

So far all meals had arrived in quick succession and there was an appropriate, but not too long a gap, before the Mains arrived.

Wagyu Seekh Kebab with a Kachumber Salad was succulent and also generous for £15 ( whether or not it was using Wagyu was difficult to tell ) but it was well spiced and moorish. Presentation not as impressive as what had come before, but what can you do with a kebab ?

Tandoori Goat Shoulder with Kamiri Kulcha had been sliced up, and had just the right amount of fat clinging to it to make it the best part of the overall meal. Tender, Smokey and just the right amount of burnt edges to render it perfect and be voted by all three of us as the outstanding dish. Chateau Neuf De Pape – Impressive !

The final Main was a Grainy Mustard Salmon Tikka – light and bouncy, not too spicey, accompanied by a mint cream, all hidden under an edible net of something or other.

The sides were ok. One portion of steamed rice – again a large portion to easily feed three, a Dhal which was sloppy and not as good as Dishooms. A Warer Chesnut and Bell Pepper Raita which was not to my liking. However all excellent value at £3 each bearing in mind you are in Piccadilly.

We had no time for desserts this time round, but already my two dining mates C and D are planning a return trip during the forthcoming week so they may be able to road test them next time round. D also made the remark her Mother would love it at Farzi Cafe, and there is the attraction. Good Value, High Quality ( even if you do not know what you are letting yourself in for dish by dish), and excellent efficient service. In this particular area of the West End there are many competing restaurants, but so many are over priced for what they are offering. The likes of Gymkhana or Indian Accent may provide more of a Fine Dining Indian experience, but for something more in the style of a fancy Indian Bistro with a twist, Farzi Cafe was a hit – in Trotter parlance “Creme De la Menthe”!

Farzi Cafe – Food Very Hot Pan 4/5

Service. Blazingly Hot Pot 5/5 ( Thanks Mark)

8 Haymarket, London. SW1Y 4BP – 020 3981 0090

Farzilondon.com

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Cora Pearl – Ham and Cheese Toastie + Chips to go please !

Cora Pearl and Kitty Fisher sound like the names of young ladies that Prince, in his heyday, ( god rest his soul) , would have invited into another of his all girl backing line ups, and they would have played like demons and looked like goddesses. In reality they both have a fascinating and debauched back story, but sadly their history goes back well before we were all partying like it was 1999.

Cora was a Courtesan in the nineteenth century who started her career as a prostitute in Covent Garden and ended up Queen of Parisien nightlife by 1860. Kitty was infamous in Shepherds Market plying her trade one hundred years before Cora, and was said to be one of the first celebrities famous for being famous. How she would feel at home in today’s Instagram fuelled artificial social network of a world we now live in.

Cora came after Kitty, and it is the same order and location that we now see Chef George Barson overseeing the groups second restaurant located in Henrietta Street – a stones throw away from the heart of London’s Theatreland.

The space itself is small and relatively cramped ( not unlike Kitty’s), with polished wood tables and floor, an uneven set up to tables and chairs, and little velvet like cushions covering the rickety wooden chairs to add a little comfort. We are welcomed within one step of entering by a more senior gentleman then you would have come to usually expect in restaurants of late ( no visible tattoos) but reassuringly friendly and at ease. It is early on a Friday – Five thirty on 15th of February – as I have defiantly, and deliberately, reserved a table the day after Valentines to avoid the cliched, forced atmosphere, and awful meal of a romantic dinner date. We are Pre theatre, and it appears that many other diners are simarlarly positioned as the restaurant fills up to almost capacity within fifteen minutes of arriving.

Service is, however, brisk. When advising our friendly Gentleman that we have decided on our food, he replies that he will immediately get someone over to take our order – returning in 10 seconds with the riposte “ That someone appears to be me”. The menu is in my mind, perfect in length. Eight starters to choose from, followed by five main courses, three sides, four desserts and a cheese. If what you are offering is so on point this number of dishes is more than enough – how I hate being presented with a menu – or indeed multiple menus – that appear to cover dishes from across the globe in anticipation that their kitchen can rustle up any one of thirty or so dishes to an adequate and edible quality. Impossible. Don’t do it.

Within minutes of ordering the first two dishes are in front of us. Two little bricks of Brown Shrimps “Ranhofer” – a kind of prawn cocktail on toast dusted with cayenne pepper. ( On enquiring As to who or what is a Ranhofer, he was apparently some kind of Chef too, but will need to google that later). To eat with hands or with cutlery ? I go for the more primitive option recalling that I have read on more than one occasion that eating without utensils increases the enjoyment. They are reminiscent of the sea, but also earthy and salty and unfortunately gone in two messy bites.

The other sharing dish is one of a silky white globe of Burrata smothered in a vibrant green “pesto” like sauce but walnut based, wearing a straw hat of – I think – delicately fried Roscoffe onions. It is a Burrata that has everything you want and expect from it, and livened up with the nutty pesto and crunch of the onions. Mrs. W expresses big satisfaction with the start of the meal. I had insisted that we also order the ham and cheese toasties, aware that they have already become a stable of this menu. We are rewarded with three fingers of the lightest, buttery, crustless pillows of bread,cheese and ham that you can ever imagine. Of course this is not your average cheddar and processed ham breville concoction. It is Montgomery Cheese and Pig Jowl, accompanied by a little side jug of Mr. Barsons own take on Branston pickle ( if I am not mistaken also containing walnuts?) . I also greedily and messily eat these with my hands – this could catch on ! Who would have thought to put such a common everyday dish on the menu of a restaurant like this ?

Moving away from the sharing concept the two main dishes ordered are the Fish Stew and the Veal. Fish Stew is as unlike my own home version as is possible. Whereas mine is as busy as Oxford Street during the last week of Xmas shopping, Cora’s Stew is the Tate Modern early on a Monday morning during a hot Summers day – rather glorious, but also rather empty.

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This is not meant as a criticism – it is a glossy, all the rage in the 70’s, bright tangerine pond, wherein there are lightly charred tranches of different fish sitting alongside a few bulbous mussels all looking almost too good to disturb. On a separate plate you have two generous, should I say, giant croutons of grated cheeese ready for a bath with friends. Mrs W comments it has a incredible fishy depth of flavour and is deceptively filing.

For my part I am tucking into a Fillet of Veal cut into three glossy, perfectly cooked, pink chunks. There is Celeriac Purée on the side, and a separate jug of historical- meaning it should go down in history – bordelaise sauce containing, to my absolute delight, several blobs of Marrow to smoother the Veal in.

On the side we have one healthy option and one, presumably, not so. A fantastically charred and blackened half head of broccoli ( Hispi is so passé these days) covered in a buttery almond sauce. Note to self – must attempt to barbecue Broccoli this summer and see how it comes out !

Now a drum roll please Ladies and Gentleman ………. Chips ! So much has been said about a product that almost every restaurant serves on their menu that it is difficult to add comment. Indeed Giles Coren called Cora’s Chips “Dish of the Century” and Cora are using his quote on their website homepage to advertise their star quality. Micheal Deacon from the Telegraph commented that “ you should be able to order a whole bath of them”. So what can I add ? I will say just go there and try them, and if you don’t want a dessert you could attempt to just take your table and order the Ham and Cheese Toastie with Chips. It would set you back only £12.50 and you would be having one of the best meals of your life. I don’t know how the restaurant will react to hordes of Diners taking up this recommendation, so I apologise in advance if this suggestion becomes a “THING”. Sorry George.

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For those of you actually interested in the science of the Chips, apparently they are prepared by slicing down raw potatoes, as if making a dauphinois, put into a dish with thyme, butter and salt , pressed overnight in the fridge, then cut into chips and deep fried. Majestic.

Desserts could only be of passing interest after the dishes that had gone before, and as in many restaurants the descriptors on the menu of the dishes provide little clue as to how they are prepared. We plump for milk and cookies and are delightfully surprised with what we end up with. An enormous globe dusted in chocolate and tasting of milk infused frothy egg whites, sitting atop broken up cookie biscuits surrounded by a chocolate purée and all enveloping a centre of milk ice cream. Very moorish and enticing me to try out other sweet things on a revisit. Blood Orange and Earl Grey Ice Cream Dodger anybody ?

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Cora Pearl served up an outstanding meal without being over complicated, and entertained us without foams and fermentation’s and other on trend preparations that seem to be pervading so many Dining Rooms at present. This is proper cooking, just as the original Chef of Kitty Fishers – Thomas Parry – is producing now at Brat in Shoreditch.

Apparently Cora Pearl used to present herself at Dinner Parties on a huge silver platter with Parsley covering her modesty – I don’t know if Chef Barson would ever wish to go down this route himself should times get hard, but I cannot see that his cooking will ever disappoint to the level of employing this gimmick to attract Diners to his restaurant !

Cora Pearl – Food – Blazingly Hot Pan 5/5

Service – 5/5

Cora Pearl, 30 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 8NA.

corapearl.co.uk