Two London restaurants you’re going to love

It’s rare to find a restaurant that excites almost universal approval but then, like buses, two come along at once. Just before Christmas everyone was raving about the new outpost of Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen at the ICA. This month there’s a general love-in for Parsons in Covent Garden

What do these have in common? They’re central which certainly helps - it’s nice not to have to trek over to Hackney for once, both have a good atmosphere and friendly service but above all they serve the kind of food we all - well, maybe I’m speaking for myself - want to eat.

Parsons

First of all, Parsons, which is freshest in my mind as I ate there this week. It’s been opened by the team behind 10 cases bistrot a vin opposite (also congenial) and occupies a small white tiled room that looks as if it could have been a fishmonger in a former life. In fact, I’m told, it was once a restaurant called Diana’s Diner) The slight downside to the size is that the tables are decidedly cramped which adds extra impetus to pacing yourself and ordering two dishes at a time..

The menu is based on fish - some of which are changing daily specials though I’m thankful that the potted shrimp croquettes (is this the best incarnation yet of croquetas?) and sea trout tartare with Bloody Mary jelly (equally clever) are both on the regular menu as is the lobster mash though that had proved so popular the night we were there that it had sold out.

Other highlights were the impressively tender octopus with pork fat potatoes (basically roasties. What’s not to like?) and some fat juicy grilled prawns off the specials board. The fish pie was sound if not stellar - maybe we were just feeling miffed about the mash.

The only dish that didn’t quite work, as Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard points out, was the crab pissaladière but I liked the idea so much I felt I had to give it a go. I agree it's not quite right. The base, while authentic, is a bit heavy, it's not crabby or oniony enough and there are some weird very un-Parsons like blobs of what tasted a bit like tarragon mayo all over it. Have a second portion of the croquettes instead.

As you’d expect from its parentage the wine list is impressive, particularly for such a small place though we in fact drank quite modestly (a carafe of Xarel-lo - the grape that’s used to make Cava). And then had to have two more glasses. We should have ordered a bottle.

As is the way with small plates you can run up quite a bill (in our case £108.56 for two) but you don’t have to eat as much as we did - though I warn you you probably will.

Rochelle Canteen at the ICA

At Rochelle Canteen’s it’s the pies that have attracted the attention - the rabbit and bacon pie in particular .Why is it so good? The nostalgia of the concept, the smoky flavour of the bacon which tastes as if it’s been hacked from a flitch that’s been hanging in an outhouse for weeks, the crisp, crunchy texture of the suet crust pastry and just the right proportion of filling to lid. It’s a madly generous portion for one

Margot Henderson cooks the sort of big-flavoured food I yearn for (her Turkish coffee cake from her wonderful cookery book You’re all Invited is one of my dessert staples).

We also tucked into a perfect plate of fresh radishes with smoked cods roe, fluffy salted hake croquettes with a punchy saffron mayonnaise, a simply marvellous Jerusalem artichoke, salsify and watercress salad (the perfect winter salad) and braised fennel sausages and polenta. No surprise then that we didn’t have room for a pud though we were sorely tempted by both the quince, meringue and cream and the pear and almond tart.

The white-painted room verges on the austere - very reminiscent of St John (same design team I wonder?). A lovely light for instagramming I confess I immediately thought (shame on me) followed swiftly by how perfectly it fits into the ICA.

The wine list oddly isn’t anything to write home about - or wasn’t when I went in November. Quite short, not much choice by the glass, just the house wine. They could expand that a bit given a lot of people will be lunching there midweek and might not want to sink a whole bottle. On the other hand you might. Go anyway …

I ate at Rochelle Canteen as a guest of the restaurant but guessing food would be about £30-35 a head if you weren't too greedy

Duddell's, London - is it as good as Hong Kong?

Unless you’re a seasoned jet-setter it’s not often you have the opportunity to compare a restaurant in London with its counterpart in the far east. But having been to the original Duddell's a year ago in Hong Kong I was intrigued to see how they would translate the experience to London

The surroundings are different for a start, Duddell's Hong Kong like most smart HK restaurants is in what appears to be an office block - quite casual by HK standards, all very smooth and beige. We were struck, given the prices, by the age of most of the diners (mainly millenials) - it was obviously the hot place to be.

Duddell's London occupies a very different building - a converted church (St Thomas's) which while imaginatively repurposed seems slightly at odds with its new occupant. There’s a rather bleak gallery round the top of the room into which I imagine you may be consigned if it's busy - that doesn’t look a lot of fun.

The menu is similar though not identical. As you'd expect dim sum is the feature at lunchtime. Much has been made of the Cantonese dim sum ‘symphony’ and gold fish-shaped prawn dumpling but we were pretty pleased with our à la carte choice - Har gau, poached chicken dumpling and crispy char siu bun - the cheung fun were mysteriously all off.

The high spot was the Peking duck which was carved with great ceremony at the tableside. The deeply bronzed shards of skin are served with fennel sugar, the breast with homemade pancakes, finely sliced onion, pineapple and pomelo and a trio of sauces - mandarin, sesame and hoisin (I think) (The combination of mandarin, pineapple and duck is just sensational)

The big disappointment was the crispy salted chicken for which we waited some considerable time and then tasted nothing like the memorable dish we'd had in Hong Kong with its juicy meat and fabulously crisp skin. Nor did the accompanying dish of asparagus and mushrooms have much in the way of the advertised truffle. Again they were out of pak choi which seems an odd thing to run short of.

We also extravagantly ordered some Cantonese soya noodles which were utterly delicious and would make a good quick lunch on their own. The lobster noodles are apparently even better - as indeed they should be for £48.

There's good (if expensive) wine list - the sommelier Konrad Lassota was touchingly pleased when we ordered a glass of orange wine, Maturano from Lazio, of which he was obviously a big fan. It was was remarkably good with the umami-rich food. (Maturano is a little known grape variety, it turns out. You can buy it here from Billings & Briggs) There's also a good tea list.

It will be interesting to see how well Duddell's fares once the opening fuss dies down. It’s not cheap, it's got strong competition on its doorstep in the form of Hutong and the much fêted Andrew Wong is moving to the City next year. There are certainly glitzier, buzzier restaurants if you want to show off - and ones with smoother running service. Still that duck is definitely a winner. I’ll give it another try.

Duddell's is at 9A St. Thomas Street, London, SE1 9RY and is open 7 days a week.

I ate at Duddells as a guest of the restaurant.

Magpie: smart bar food for wine lovers

With dozens of restaurants opening every week in London what do you do to stand out from the crowd? The answer, it seems from James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy's recently opened Magpie in Heddon Street, is to pretend you’re a Chinese restaurant and wheel around the menu on a trolley.

It’s a logical extension of the small plates formula with the advantage that you can see what’s on offer. The downside (although obviously not a problem for them) being that you want to order everything.

The flurry of trays and trolleys combined with a natural British reluctance to say no to anything in case it might seem rude may well result in your having more plates than you can reasonably eat. I found I’d ordered £30 of food within half an hour then tried to slow the pace with the result that they stopped bringing me anything and I had to call over the waitress and order off the menu like you would anywhere else.

Still, all restaurants have teething problems with delivery, especially in an establishment this innovative. The food, however, is smart and clever - Magpie is from the same stable as the Michelin starred Pidgin in Hackney. I loved their take on a caesar salad (below) with Japanese style eel instead of anchovy, the crisp element of croutons replaced by nori fried in tempura. Trout with grapes and quinoa almost converted me to that over-hyped grain. Oysters were boldly partnered with chicharron (crispy pork skin) and apple, a combination so good you wonder why it hasn't been done more often.

There’s an occasional WTF? dish like the fried chicken ‘coq au vin’ and the strange electric blue curaçao granita topping an otherwise appealing Jamaican pepper polenta cake with raspberries and yoghurt which I see has now disappeared from the menu, but in general there are many more hits than misses. You might possibly want to order the steak tartare that other reviewers have been raving about, a bargain at £7.

Great value wines

The other strong suit is a short but extremely well curated and well priced wine list. The three wines I tried (OK drank) by the glass - a dry German riesling, a cinsault rosé and a refosco (light Italian red from Friuli) were all exemplary - the latter two at just £4.50 a glass. They appeared to have been thoughtfully chosen for the food rather than to pander to label spotters. The riesling - a Schloss Marienlay from Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt was an inspired choice for the oysters as I noted in my match of the week a fortnight ago.

Like most restaurants it pays to know how and when to use them. Given its location just off Regent Street Magpie would be a perfect place to go to after an early evening event in the West End when you don’t really want a full meal but fancy a couple of light dishes and a decent glass or two of wine. Or for a light lunch when you’ve got a 5 course dinner in the evening.

You just need to overcome your British reserve and steel yourself say no to the persuasive pushers of those trollies. Well, you would in a Chinese, wouldn’t you?

Magpie is at 10 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BX. Tel 020 3903 9096. They are apparently now open for breakfast too.

I should perhaps reveal that I know James well but I didn’t call him first and paid my own way. (£69.75 for 5 dishes and 3 glasses which was probably a little indulgent for one!)

Root, Wapping Wharf, Bristol

Veg is the new chicken - or so it seems from the overnight reincarnation of Bristol chef Josh Eggleton’s fried chicken shack Chicken Shed into a largely vegetarian restaurant called Root.

Yesterday when I heard the news and called to book the phone was answered Chicken Shed. By the time I arrived that evening the restaurant had been totally rebranded.

Never a slouch at picking up on trends Eggleton already owns three other restaurants in Bristol - Yurt Bistro which has a menu based on offal and other ingredients that might otherwise be discarded in the average kitchen, Salt & Malt a fish and chip shop which uses a gluten-free batter and the Kensington Arms gastropub as well as the Michelin-starred Pony & Trap in Chew Magna. He says he abandoned Chicken Shed because he wanted to based it on ethically reared birds which ironically are ill-suited to deep-frying (something to note if fried chicken is your thing). It’s probably hard to make the requisite margin on a chicken shack too.

Although he’s behind the stove himself this week the kitchen is and will be in the capable hands of his former head chef at the Pony & Trap Rob Howell.

So what’s it like? Well judging by day 1 it’s certainly hit the ground running. Cheap and really good. There’s a short(ish) menu of vegetarian dishes that will regularly change according to Howell with - clever idea - sides of meat rather than more veg. We were actually so excited by the veggie options that we forgot to order one but could have had lamb belly or barbecued ox heart if we'd felt meat-deprived.

Stars of the show were a deliciously charred cauliflower steak with shavings of crunchy raw cauliflower and a cashew dressing and some lovely light gnocchi with parmesan and emerald green courgettes

Putting beetroot and blackberries together is a stroke of genius - better still with roasted hazelnuts. Molten gruyere cheese and onion croquettes and crisp, flaky flatbread are insidiously moreish. The food is super pretty but not pretentious and with most courses around £5-6 incredibly well priced. There’s a decent wine list all available by the glass - organic and biodynamic options are apparently to follow - and a nice short selection of vermouths (‘course there is).

If they can keep up the standard and the prices it will be fierce competition for the other restaurants on Wapping Wharf especially Box E (did they have to set up something so similar *right* next door?) and Tare but that’s the way Bristol rolls right now.

Hopefully Bristolians won’t lose their appetite for eating out but with food this good why bother to cook?

Root is on the first floor of Cargo by the Gaol Ferry Steps BS1 6WP Tel 0117 930 0260. Open Wednesday-Saturday lunch and dinner and Sunday lunch.