St Leonards: very cool, very Shoreditch

One of the problems about being a food writer - though I’m not expecting much sympathy from you - is that you’re always chasing the latest new opening. Which means that restaurants you make the effect to go back you feel pretty special about.

So far this year Brat and Sabor (which I reviewed here) have fallen into this category. The latest is St Leonards which I visited for the second time last week.

I had high hopes of it because it’s owned by the highly regarded team of Andrew Clarke and Jackson Boxer who also run Brunswick House - a place friends have raved about but which I’ve never managed to get to.

St Leonards, which is in the up and coming area just off Old Street roundabout, home also to Leroy and Oklava, is rather more convenient.

Compared to many new restaurants it has a pared back, slightly utilitarian feel with a horseshoe-shaped bar as you come in and a large dining area that looks a bit like the staff canteen of a smart advertising agency. But the presence of a raw bar (the oysters are sensational) and an open hearth manned by the heavily tattooed and bearded Clarke, put a firm 2018 stamp on it.

You should definitely start with the oysters which are sparklingly fresh and beautifully dressed - this last time with pickles. The clam with sichuan oil and coriander is good too but at an eyewaterinw £9 a pop, likely to make you feel short-changed.

I would also not miss the nicely rare Dexter bavette which arrives under a snowy blanket of grated cured bone marrow and the unusually interesting sides - the fig leaf baked potatoes, infused with the fruity flavour of the leaves, are insanely delicious. I can’t imagine how I failed to order the hispi cabbage with pork fat twice - maybe subconsciously to have an excuse to go back yet again. And with all that macho cooking it was a surprise to find the prettiest imaginable summer dessert of sichuan pepper pannacotta, strawberries and sweet cicely ice cream.

There are various small plates you’ll probably want to take in along the way. including a spectacular charred leek with almond cream which indicates the restaurant treats vegetarians with respect. Actually it may even be vegan.

Not everything works. A deep-fried red mullet with sauce gribiche made with kelp has none of the rich flavour generally associated of that fish - it’s a treatment that works in a Thai restaurant because of the pungency of the dipping sauces but not here. I liked the wild bass crudo with lardo and burnt kohlrabi but can imagine some might regard it as too austere. Most of the dishes though are ones you crave to eat again. i haven’t checked out the mortadella dog and the white clam pie on the bar menu but they both sound like they need to be sampled.

Winewise you’ll find a largely natural list (of course - this is Shoreditch) presided over by the amiable Donald Edwards with some interesting gems such as vin jaune by the glass. Expect that to expand as Boxer is, rare for a chef, genuinely interested in wine. I drank a glass of grower's champagne with my onglet which was unusual but absolutely spot on.

I suspect Boxer and Clarke have created in St Leonards, the sort of place they want to eat in themselves. So, absolutely, do I. I need to find time to go back.

St Leonards is at 70 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QX. Tel: +44 (0)20 7739 1291

CoVino, Venice - a modern enoteca

One of the strange things about the restaurant scene in Venice is that the big players are pretty well exactly the same as they were when I last went 10 years ago (yes, way too long!) Only the prices have changed - unfortunately in an upward direction, aggravated by our lamentable exchange rate.

So I was particularly taken by the offer of a 40€ set price menu at a new(ish*) wine bar called CoVino even though it turned out to be an offshoot of one of the big names, Al Covo. (You might be thinking 40 euros isn’t cheap for a 3 course meal but I assure you it is for Venice.)

Anyway we managed to book - online which spared my cringemakingly bad Italian - for an early slot. They do two sittings which is understandable given they only have 16 seats.

Food is turned out of a tiny kitchen with seemingly only one chef at the stove. Given there were about six choices for each course that was seriously impressive even more so as we fancied practically everything on the menu. The food is frequently described as traditional Venetian with a twist such as my bright crunchy vegetables in soar - the classic sweet-sour marinade that’s normally applied to fish.

As we couldn’t make up our minds they obligingly slipped in an extra course to share of an excellent, inky black cuttlefish which they adorned with some extra vegetables. In fact veg feature largely on the menu - sourced, they explain, from Luciano Saltin of the Rialto and L’Orto delle Vignole of Guia. I like the way they name check their suppliers. It’s all very Slow Food.

Lightly dressed raw vegetables are placed on the table at the beginning of the meal. A hummus-like dip of chickpeas came with raw prawns and fine slices of lightly pickled beetroot. Octopus is served with lava beans and tomatoes. It’s a good place for pescatarians and vegetarians.

The best dish was an incredibly tender and flavourful leg of guineafowl served with a carrot purée, artichokes and tarragon, a cleverly conceived combination that made us all wish we’d ordered it. I was slightly less keen on my main course of pork and beans where the pork was sliced thinly rather than served in juicy chunks and the rather dry leaden pasta with ragu ‘di mamma Liviana’ my friend ordered. Probably put on for less adventurous diners so not the best choice.

Desserts, especially a really boldly flavoured tiramisu with a good slug of Huehuetenango coffee, were good though but even better, and I’d recommend ordering it if you’ve still got wine to drink, was a really excellent cheese course with - that day - Robiola, Caciocavello and Monteveronese Stravecchio, all accompanied by carefully chosen condiments.

The wine list, as is very much the way these days, is natural and biodynamic and stimulatingly diverse with bottles not only from Italy but elsewhere in Europe. A small glass of their own cloudy and delicious prosecco was poured, unasked, from a magnum as soon as we sat down (at 3€ a head we later discovered though that's hardly more than a cover charge).

We ordered a couple of glasses (a crisp Slovenian white called zelen and an intriguing orange Greco Bianco from L’Archetipo) and, I seem to recall, though I failed to take a note, a bottle of 2007 Nerello Mascalese at a no means unreasonable €38 yet still found ourselves with a standard Venetian bill of over €200 for 3. We’d pushed the boat out a bit on the food by having an extra course and a fair bit of wine - you could spend less but still reckon on around €55-60 a head. Again not excessive for Venice.

The other downside - although arguably part of its charm - is that it’s quite cramped which leaves you cheek by jowl with your fellow diners so it’s not the ideal place for a quiet romantic dinner. The service, particularly the wine service, is also a touch perfunctory - our server only warmed up when we ordered a bottle despite the fact they have an excellent by the glass list. but given that Venice has 30m tourists a year most of whom, like us, don’t speak the language I guess it's understandable.

The upshot, I guess, is that I appreciated what CoVino had to offer - a modern, imaginative well-sourced menu, off the beaten track and with an excellent wine list - without totally loving it. But Venice restaurants are tricky if you’re not a local or a regular and it’s undoubtedly better value than most. And it’s definitely a good place if you’re into wine. Add it to your bucket list.

Out of curiosity I'd love to know what your favourite Venice restaurant is if you've visited the city recently.

CoVino is at Calle del Pestrin, Castello, 3829a-3829. Tel: +39 041 2412705. Book online at covinovenezia.com. Note it's closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays

*for Venice. It opened in 2013

Scully: intrepid eating in St James’s

Sometimes it pays not to look at the menu of a restaurant you’re thinking of going to. I was nearly discouraged from visiting Scully by the vast list of unfamiliar dishes and ingredients. Did I really want to eat puffed beef tendons or Welsh mutton with black barley and bisbas? I wasn’t sure I did.

The location too isn’t one of my favourites. St James’s Market is a bleak corporate restaurant development, a curiously deserted space to have within metres of the heaving crowds and lurid tat of Leicester Square though I guess one should be grateful for that. And it is at least an conveniently central place to meet a friend from practically any part of London rather than having to schlep over to Hackney for once.

As it was a mere 5 minutes from a nearby wine tasting and open (hooray!) on a Monday lunchtime it seemed perverse not to give it a try, particularly given the chef Ramael Scully’s pedigree. (Born in Malaysia and brought up in Sydney he has a fascinating multi-cultural background and used to be head chef at Ottolenghi’s Nopi.)

The Hackneyscenti among you will relieved to know there are pickles - a lot of them - including a highly instagrammable display as you walk through the front door. They turn up too in the slightly scary first dish we order of vegetable acha (an African grain, doncha know) which is maybe a bit hard core for anyone other than pickle aficionados.

But then things start to hot up. The arepa, eggplant sambal and bergamot labneh might sound weird but is actually quite wonderful. A light puffy warm maize bread (from Columbia and Venezuela I discover from Wikipedia) dusted with grated lime and served with a blissfully sweet, spicy heap of aubergine and dreamy, creamy labneh. The bread was too good to share - we had to have two.

I’d hesitated about ordering the early season tomato and coconut salad with green strawberries - it seemed too early for both at the unseasonably cold end of March - but it was as bright and fresh as it was beautiful. A salad of Italian spring greens red miso and sunflower seeds dusted with gherkin powder (yes, really) was probably slightly better suited to being served as a side - it was quite a lot of greens to chomp through on their own but it was our choice to go veggie, wanting to eat relatively lightly at lunch. And forbidden (black) rice with vegetable XO was deep and delicious, the sort of comforting dish you want to be able to make yourself on a wet Tuesday night.

Desserts, I feel, need a bit of finessing. They really are quite austere and I say this as someone who doesn’t have a particularly sweet tooth. The coconut and parsnip sorbet was 'nice' - maybe that's damning it with faint praise - parsnip works surprisingly well in desserts but the matcha ice cream with malt cookie and miso while striking to look at was really quite unappetisingly grainy.

Other reasons to go - there’s an interesting wine list with a good selection by the glass. We drank a refreshingly light white Hungarian field blend (a wine made from different varieties of grapes which are grown and vinified together) from a producer called Tizenhat - and shared a glass of Beaujolais and a really lovely German Lemberger (red) from Weingut Roterfaden. As off-piste as the ingredients, I admit, but spot on with the food.

I would recommend sitting the bar to get a birds eye view of the kitchen although we were told it’s going to be used as a chefs’ table which is a bit of a pain. Sometimes you just want to go and eat without having to wade through/think about/pay for multiple courses. Maybe it will be available for walk-ins like us at lunchtime.

All this must sound a bit equivocal I realise. Yet Scully is serving genuinely innovative food of the kind - pickles aside - that isn’t being done anywhere else in London that I’m aware of. If some dishes were challenging the best were sublime and for small plates, the portions were unusually generous.

In a nutshell I’d say it’s not the sort of place to take your conservative Daily Mail-reading mother-in-law whereas it’s perfect for fellow foodies, adventurous veggies and regular visitors to London who want to try somewhere new. As for me I've got to get back for that arepa.

Scully is at 4 St. James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH. Tel: (0)20 3911 6840

We paid about £35 each including 2 glasses of wine. They treated us to a couple of other glasses, a salad and a dessert. Didn’t ask them to. Didn’t explain who we were. Just a gesture during the opening period I suspect. Expect to pay about £40-50 + wine if you have main courses.

Why Sabor is one of the hottest tickets in town

“Eagerly awaited” is a well worn cliché but but aptly describes the opening of Nieves Barragan Mohacho and Jose Etura’s Sabor. Originally scheduled to launch last autumn it took a further 6 months to finally open its doors a year after they left their previous jobs.

Why the interest? Well. Barragan Mohacho was the much feted chef at Fino and then the Barrafina group of restaurants where Etura was general manager. The fact that the two get equal billing at Sabor, which is backed by the all-powerful Sethi family who also own Bubbledogs, Gymkhana and Lyles underlines their conviction that hospitality is as important as food when it comes to the long term success of a restaurant. (They’re right, of course)

They’ve got the location spot on too. It’s a prime site in a tiny alleyway off Regent Street called Heddon Street but once through the door you immediately feel you’re in Spain.

At the heart of the restaurant is the kitchen, surrounded by a long circular bar - on the other side a more modest bar which functions as a holding area but which has good food on offer too. DO NOT ON ANY ACCOUNT MISS the camarones (shrimp fritos and fried egg - a ridiculously good Spanish take on egg and chips.)

Barragan Mohacho, a small neat figure works swiftly and skilfully the other side of the counter putting the final touches to plates and occasionally venturing out to warmly greet a friend or previous regular.

It’s tough to decide what to order. I go for the queso fresco (fresh cheese) and black truffle brioche which has already become a bit of an icon dish despite the fact that no-one can make it look any good on instagram. It comes out showered with a cascade of grated truffles which seems absurdly lavish for £9.50. Frit Marinar is not, as I expect, a Spanish-style fritto misto but a hearty dish of seared cuttlefish with peppers, aubergines and other Mediterranean vegetables which would make a meal in itself.

On a second visit (fairly rapidly after the first) we demolish lardo, anchovies and picos (not quite as good as the anchovies at nearby Rambla to be honest but it’s the only fault I can find with the place), skate tempura - again an exemplary example of the frier’s art and the very last portion of the empanada de pulpo - a sensationally good octopus pie. Oh, and the croquetas, the acid test of a tapas bar, are just perfect. Light and airy on the inside with a perfect crisp shell. The prawn seems to be a permanent fixture with a regularly changing variation, piquillo peppers on the day we were there.

On neither occasion did I get round to the desserts though there’s high praise for the crema catalana and bomba de tres chocolates

The lightning speed of service means you’re better to order 2-3 dishes at a time or you’ll be in and out in 45 minutes flat - when you’d happily spend the whole afternoon or evening there which is not, of course, what they want. Anyway it makes it the perfect place for a pre- or post-theatre dinner - if you can get in. Expect queues as they take no reservations

The wine list which is naturally all Spanish is relatively short but thoughtfully chosen though it’s actually quite tempting to have a beer. They have Estrella’s 1906 Reserva Especial which is basically a posh lager though it comes in rather stylish Sabor-branded beer glasses. Obviously I’m not the only one to fancy that.

If you want to go with a party you’d be better off to book at the Asador upstairs although even this is relatively casual with big shared tables. I haven’t made it there yet but early reports are all positive. It has a wood fired oven and specialises in suckling pig and octopus so it’s maybe not the ideal place to go if you’re a veggie. But then where in Spain is?

In truth Sabor is the perfect place to eat on your own because it’s all about the bar and the theatre in the kitchen behind it. You should, in theory, be able to get away with a bill of under £40 if you don’t go mad but given you’ll probably feel bound to order what’s on your neighbour’s plate don’t count on that. (That fate befell me on my first visit with the chargrilled baby potatoes and sobrasada, a dish you should definitely order if you’re a fellow potato addict)

There are many good Spanish restaurants in London these days but none that feels quite so authentically Spanish. Weather excepted, of course ....

Sabor is at 35-37 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BR. Closed Sunday evenings after 6pm and all day Monday.