Picture, London

Picture is a low key restaurant in Fitzrovia, a short stroll from the manic Oxford Circus. The interior is quite basic with wooden tables and chairs which remind me of being back in school canteens. The main focus here is clearly the food and the most popular attraction is the tasting menu with aperitif for a very reasonable price of £35. I don’t think any other tables ordered off the a la carte from what I saw which runs alongside the 6 course tasting menu.

The dishes as expected were of a tasting portion and the first course of baked onion and cauliflower soup set the tone for the rest of the meal.  A good start which packed bags of flavour.

Roast new season carrots, spring onion, goat's curd and lemon was next and showcased the careful sourcing of ingredients.

Pork cheek, apricot, turnips and radish – the pork cheek and apricot worked well with the remaining garnish appearing to complete the picture on the plate.

Pollock brandade, Provencal vegetables, smoked olives, sourdough – I enjoyed the classic salted brandade with the olives. A clever dish to introduce a cost effective fish within the budget of the menu price.

28 day aged beef, white onion, young beetroot and greens – the dish with the most appeal from the menu was slightly overcooked but enjoyable none the less.

Chocolate mousse, Williams pear, honeycomb - a safe and light end to the meal. 

Blanchette, London

We planned a last minute New Years trip to the capital and after a frantic search for somewhere  to dine that wasn’t charging an arm and a leg for a ‘special’ menu, we finally settled on Blanchette in Soho. A cosy bistro serving French small plates and not a set menu in sight which was welcome, at short notice we managed to bag ourselves a table for four for an early dinner before heading off to find a good location to see the fireworks. 

Typical of most Soho restaurants where space is at a premium, the dining room is long and narrow with bar seats offered along the bar area. Blanchette was established by three brothers, Maxime, Yannis and Malik Alary and also draw on consultancy from another small plate London favourite, the Salt Yard Group who run Opera Tavern and Ember Yard amongst others.

The small plate concept encourages dishes to be shared, which in our opinion is more interactive along with the added benefit of being able to try more dishes! The menu is split between snacks, starters, charcuterie, fish, meat and veg. Dishes range from £5 - £10 and are worth it for the quality. We ordered a whole host of dishes to share including:

Crispy frog legs with bois boudran sauce

From the charcuterie section we tried truffle saucisson from Rhone

Octopus with burnt clementine, fennel and pistachio

Hot smoked salmon with beetroot, quail eggs, potato crêpe and truffle butter

Daube of pig cheeks with dauphinoise croquette

Braised lamb shoulder with anchovy, rosemary and soubise sauce

Confit duck leg with butternut squash purée, hazelnuts, chilli and star anise

Tournedo Rossini with foie gras en croute, shaved truffle and madeira sauce (a NYE special)

Roasted beetroot with pickled girolles, fleur de marquis and tarragon dressing

Brillat-Savarin salad with pear, red endive, honey and poppyseed

Hot chocolate fondant with salted caramel ice cream

Passion fruit vacherin

The favourite dishes of the night were the frogs legs, pigs cheek, salmon and salad dish, the desserts also hit the spot as well with the passion fruit vacherin being perfect foil for the sweet gooey chocolate fondant. 

The Palomar, London

The Palomar is a small compact restaurant on Rupert Street right in the heart of Theatreland and Soho which opened in June. The restaurant serves the food of modern day Jerusalem with a contemporary approach, the menu influenced by the surrounding cultures of Southern Spain, North Africa and the Levant as described on their website.

The open kitchen is at the front of the venue with theatrical bar seats only available for walk-ins. A small dining room with dark oak panelled walls and banquette seating in blue leather is found at the back with tables available for reservations. The menu is split between nishnushim (snacks), raw bar and bigger dishes from the stove, josper and plancha.

We started with Moroccan oysters with coriander, lemon zest and Arisa oil. These were slight bitter with the lemon zest. The Daily 6 is an assortment of daily mezzes served in small dinky saucepans. The standout mezze for us were the aubergine and lentils. We ordered kubaneh, a wonderful pot baked bread to mop up the mezzes. Our last dish from the raw section was Kubenia, chopped beef fillet with bulgar, tahini, herbs and pine nuts, a well-seasoned tartare.

From the bigger plates section we started with Shakshukit, a deconstructed kebab with minced meat, yoghurt, tahini and pita croutons. The flavours married well, it’s been a long time since I had any sort of kebab. Polenta Jerusalem style was served in a jar with asparagus, mushroom ragout and truffle oil. A powerful scent of truffle escaped from the jar when opened, a wonderfully rich dish that had us scraping the last bits from the jar.

Seared scallops with cured lemon beurre blanc, swiss chard, Jerusalem artichoke and hazelnut tuille. The scallops were cooked enough to give them a bit of bite without being chewy. Our eyes were bigger than our bellies and we ordered pork belly tagine to finish when we saw it paraded on other tables. It come served with dried apricots and Isreali couscous, the pork was slightly dry but was fine with the sauce. Probably the next heaviest dish behind the polenta and one we should have left until next time as we struggled to finish it. 

Service was swift and on point, aided by the compact nature of the restaurant. Next time we will probably try for the kitchen bar seats for a couple of dishes, ideal for pre or post theatre.

Moretti Gran Tour, Manchester

We were invited to the Manchester leg of the Moretti Gran Tour held by Birra Moretti featuring some of the top Italian street food vendors from London in conjunction with beer from the hosts. Held at the old Granada Studios the event was mainly indoors with a few stalls outside. Although I’m not a keen drinker of beer, Mr Nom was happily gulping down bottles of Birra Moretti in the hot weather.

Instead I was more interested in the street food on offer which included arancini balls by Arancini Brothers The porcini and taleggio was our favourite of the two on offer, the other containing tomato, saffron and mozzarella.

Pasta e Basta served up two variations of gnocchi, a beetroot version for the veggies and one with slow braised pork shoulder. I enjoyed the beetroot gnocchi more out of the two especially because of the creamy gorgonzola sauce.

Our favourite stall had to be Gurmetti who served up torta frittas. Extremely light puffed dough topped with thinly sliced pork cheek and served with parmesan cheese on the side. This was the only stall where we had seconds and we will be sure to visit them on Leather Lane next time we are down in London. 

The Cheeky Italian were serving panzerotti fritti. Deep fried calzone to order with pork & beef meatballs, tomato sauce and fontina cheese, the casing looked really heavy but it was lighter than expected. 

Outside Pizza Pilgrims were whipping up margarita pizzas. Although amazingly we witnessed that some people felt the two minute wait for the pizza to cook in the wood fired oven was too long and joined other queues which were even longer!  We weren’t complaining however as it meant we got our pizza fix quicker. The most popular stall of the night was probably Forza Win serving up porchetta sandwiches, the glistening and charred meat looked good on the spit roast but we were too full to try it.

Onto dessert which was provided by the popular Gelupo, which has to be some of the best gelato I’ve had in the UK. I was craving this the minute I saw the stall but I knew I had to try the savoury food first. I was a bit greedy and ordered three flavours during the first visit. All the flavours were too tempting so I requested smaller scoops of melon, which was so pure and my favourite, mint stracciatella and pistachio. I made Mr Nom go back for seconds. However to my surprise he came back with full sized scoops of ricotta & sour cherry and blood orange which were ideal to cool off in the sun.

What a great event it was, it gave us a little taste of Italy and if this is what we can expect to find in Italy then it will be high on our next holiday list. 

Little Italy, Liverpool

Little Italy is the latest venture by the guys behind Tribeca and Neon Jamon. It is situated in the former function room of Tribeca on Smithdown Road. Hot on the heels of Salt House Bacaro in the city centre comes this Italian small plates eatery. Bright and airy a tree dominates the centre of the room with chipboard wall decor. Things began with a nod to its Spanish big brother in the form of Estrella on draught, although I would of preferred to see an Italian beer on offer.

Baccala & langoustine ravioli with sage butter. The ravioli was filled with salt cod and langoustine however the pasta was a little thick and could of been lighter as the texture masked the delicate filling.

Beef shin pappardelle, slow cooked Tuscan beef shin pasta and pecorino cheese. This was the star dish for me. The pasta was firm and dreamy and worked wonderfully with the beef shin. To be ultra picky it was doused in a little too much oil.

We made a schoolboy error and ordered two similar dishes. Pigeon & hedgerow salad with blackberries, blood orange, hazelnuts & watercress and swordfish carpaccio with orange, fennel and rosemary dressing. Both dishes were buried under a mound of watercress which was unnecessary. The pigeon was seared well and the swordfish paired nicely with the dressing.

Pork & veal meatball sliders, brioche buns with Napoli sauce, buffalo mozzarella & basil. These were a treat, the pork and veal meatballs were a delight, the sauce and mozzerella simply combined flawlessly. I wish I could order a full burger size!

Chicken liver & rosemary skewers with a radish vinaigrette. This dish failed to live up to its billing, the grilled liver didn't pick up the rosemary or radish flavours.

Overall, I think I prefer Spanish tapas to Italian small plates which just do not have the same impact. With Italian larger portions seem to work better especially for pasta. However its good to have variety in South Liverpool and this new venture is sure to become a neighbourhood favourite just like Neon Jamon.