William IV, Shoreditch

A good Sunday roast is an easy thing for any establishment to say they deliver, but often in reality can be a disappointment and leave a diner unsatisfied!! So a little while back we tried out lunch at the William IV pub in hipster Shoreditch – our friends said it did a fine one and I was eager to find out if it lived up to the hype. 

The William IV’s a nicely laid out pub, benefiting from a position on the corner of two roads, lots of windows keep the space bright and welcoming. A round of punchy Bloody Mary’s started lunch for some of us – birthday celebrations the day before being the cheeky culprit!

Bloody Mary

Sunday lunch offerings are short, but sweet – a couple of starters, roasts that cover all the main bases, a few sharing options and desserts to get your teeth into.

Whilst most of us eyed up the roasts, the other half was diverted off course and went for two sharing boards!! Oh, don’t worry this isn’t so much of a surprise to me, there are plenty of tales which have become folklore amongst our uni mates, where he’d order everything for himself because he couldn’t decide – the chip shop story has become stuff of legend, even finding a way into our mates wedding speech. 

Charcuterie board and cheese board

New season asparagus w/ poached eggs and hollandaise sauce

After a bit of a mess up with the order – my original choice being the sirloin of beef, I was brought chicken, however after clocking my eyes on the bird I was pleasantly surprised. Normally I’d get a bit irritated with a messed up order, but he was very apologetic and looked a little mortified at giving me it, saying he would happily bring out the beef. 

My verdict on the roast – it’s a cracking one on all counts; my plate had a generous amount of moist and juicy roast chicken, coming with crispy skin and lots of herbs. The greens still had bite, it’s iron-packed goodness still intact, and the all-important Yorkshire was crisp, light and a good size. The essentials like decent roast potatoes and veg were treated simply and cooked well, then finally to complete the plate a gravy boat full of the good stuff finishing the roasts off perfectly. 

Lemon and herb roast chicken

Roasts aside, the asparagus and sharing plates can be commended too – eggs poached to perfection, meat and cheese boards meeting the needs of the other half who worked his way steadily through both very satisfactorily! 

Whether it’s the best Sunday roast in Shoreditch is yet to be seen, but what I can say is it’s  a damn tasty one! William IV is a lovely neighbourhood pub and I can see why my friends love it there!!

William IV

7 Shepherdess Walk

London

N1 7QE

http://www.thewilliam.co.uk

Pachamama, London

Peruvian food has definitely become ‘a thing’ in recent years, especially in London. Establishments such as Ceviche, Lima and Andina opening their doors to the public and  winning the hearts of many with their fusion food and Pisco sours. Some of which have garnered high praise and acclaim, in particular Lima being awarded a Michelin star. 

A table booked at Pachamama for 6pm sounded reasonable, right? In hindsight we probably shouldn’t have booked a table for 6pm, but had completely misjudged ourselves with how much we’d eat beforehand! You’ll see from my two posts on Opera Tavern and On the Bab! 

Off the main drag, you’ll see a big ‘A’ in neon, I was a little confused at first, perhaps it relates to Andean cuisine? The front door immediately leads to a staircase taking customers below street level, resulting in a dark atmosphere to the room lit up with neon and the odd lamp/candle. The menu’s broken down into snack, sea, land, soil and desserts and lend themselves to sharing, you guessed it – small plates! We obliged by ordering something from each, apart from desserts – not wanting to risk bursting as we’d probably be full to the brim after all the eating we’d already done.

El Capitan

Mama’s Pisco

Pisco Sour

The dishes were beautifully executed, amalgamating good presentation with interesting ingredients and tastes. There wasn’t much to fault, apart from ourselves for possibly spooling our appetites before we’d even got to the restaurant, but that’s completely our (ahem my) greedy mistake. Highlights were many – the lamb belly, Iberico pork, fried chicken and chicharonnes! All on the money, some of the best fried chicken I’ve eaten and kicks the one from On The Bab into submission (hey, I know it’s not the same but whatever!). The lamb, you may know I’m not the greatest lover of lamb, but I could’ve been converted after that dish – well cooked, so tender and moist, with flavours which just sung. If I enjoyed the lamb, I loved the Iberico pork which was super succulent, the maize puffs reminded me of corn maize puff snacks which I love, and a huacatay sauce that provided its own unique herbiness to the plate.

Pork belly chicharonnes

Sea bream ceviche w/ kumquat, grape ponzu

Smoked cheddar tequenos

Peruvian fried chicken

Iberico pork ‘Pluma’ w/maiz and huacatay

Crispy lamb belly

Charred broccoli, mustard seeds, cancha

Both food and cocktails being equally awesome, the staff are welcoming and its popularity didn’t seem to affect the speed of service. This aside, it’s certainly not cheap and despite how much we enjoyed it, Pachamama is definitely a place for a special treat, rather than somewhere you fancy going just because you can’t be bothered to cook tea!

Pachamama 

18 Thayer St

London

W1U 3JY

http://pachamamalondon.com

On The Bab, Covent Garden

On The Bab, Korean street food purveyors are found in Covent Garden Opera Tavern. Their food I’d seen on Instagram and basically just wanted to get my hands on their fried chicken, take a look for yourselves and you’ll see what I mean. Our lunch stint at the Opera Tavern had filled me satisfactorily, but when seeing this place on the way out I couldn’t help going in, I’m hoping you’ll forgive the lack of willpower?!

On entering, tables fill a fairly narrow space and work their way around the counter where all the action in the kitchen and bar happens. With just a few spare bar seats unoccupied, we took up the remaining counter spots after a little struggle to get there. The place is a little short on space and diners may find themselves squeezed within close proximity of neighbouring diners on three out of four sides. However, that brings along with it a lively atmosphere.  

For such a busy time of day, they seemed a tad short staffed out front and the waiter seemed completely rushed off his feet, bezzing around as best as he could. Now who was I kidding when I said I only wanted to try the fried chicken, if only I had the willpower to resist ordering more. Even though I’d only just finished lunch!! Their buns on the menu sounded great, so my resistance wained without much effort and alongside the fried chicken were a couple of buns, one filled with spicy pork, the other with crispy chicken. 

The best bit – the fried chicken which were crispy, coated in a sauce that did as advertised (sweet and spicy) and topped with crushed peanuts to add texture. The chicken itself was like popcorn chicken, wolfed down within a minute and could’ve done with being chunkier pieces resulting in juicier meat. The buns could’ve been hotter, one wasn’t very hot at all, verging on the side of just warm. The better of the two fillings was the pork – sweet, spicy, sticky and sloppy. Whilst the crispy chicken was a tad anaemic and could’ve done with a bit longer in the fryer to crispen it up more. The other half’s spicy pork on rice didn’t do his gluten intolerance any favours, but was a tasty filling bowl. 

Sojito and Sojito breeze

Yangyum chicken

 

Crispy chicken bun

 

Spicy pork bun

Spicy pork on rice 

On reflection I’d say On the Bab does decent grub overall – it’s definitely not perfect, but turns out tasty food and is reasonably priced for the location. Don’t be going there for a leisurely long lunch or intimate dinner, it’s not kind of place at all I think, to me it’s more of a quick pit stop. They need to brush up on their service, more people out front would help no end. 

On the Bab

36 Wellington Street

Covent Garden

London

WC2E 7BD

http://onthebab.co.uk/coventgarden/index.html#4thPage

Opera Tavern, Covent Garden

There are times when I find myself over faced with food, greediness takes over and before I know it, I’ve eaten far too much and kicking myself! You ever been in the same situation? Well early last month we’d hopped on the train into London to go for dinner, it’ll all been booked but having arrived around lunchtime which is basically 12pm in our house we couldn’t let it slip us by and started wandering around Covent Garden with more purpose. Around Covent Garden there’s so much choice it’s difficult to single one place out so we stepped off the track a touch, into the Opera Tavern. I knew the name rang a bell and it soon came clear it was a sister restaurant of Salt Yard, a place we’d enjoyed a birthday dinner last December. 

With a similar menu to their Salt Yard counterparts they offer up their small plates/tapas  which is fantastic for grazing, however, also too easy to over face yourself without realising and ending up with a hefty bill at the end of the meal. Trying to pace ourselves we ordered a selection from the charcuterie, bar snacks and tapas sections of the menu. During the lunchtime service it started to get busier with tables filling up, the pace of service fluctuated and the odd dish was forgotten about and staff needed reminding. As far as the food goes, there were lots of positives – a benchmark is always the charcuterie and the Iberico ham was soft, delicate in its savoury acorn nuttiness. I’ve had it carved thinner, but on taste and texture it was bang on.  The ox cheek was melt in the mouth, like it should be and the accompanying liquor and puree did all the right things to cut through the richness of the gelatinous flesh. Padron peppers had a good balance between charring, tenderness, heat and saltiness, then the crispy pigs ears were the perfect snack to nibble on, lasting a matter of a few minutes.

The only fault I could really find were in the scallops, even though they were cooked to perfection – on the fence to whether they were translucent or not, there was a bit of grit, argh! What a shame because it really spoilt them. 

Crispy Iberico pigs ears

Padron Peppers

Jamon Iberico de Bellota

Patatas fritas with alioli and bravas sauce

Braised ox cheeks with PX, carrots puree, agretti and anchovy dressing

Scallops with parsnip, saffron puree, muscatel butter and jamon migas

Pinchos Morunos – Iberico pork with paprika and cumin

Yes, there were a couple of mishaps, however both were handled well by the staff, rectified and wouldn’t stop me from going again in the future. 

Opera Tavern

23 Catherine St

London

Greater London

WC2B 5JS

http://www.operatavern.co.uk

 

Sunday Lunch @ The Eagle, Hoxton

Sunday morning after an all day session the day before found us sprightly and raring for Sunday lunch somewhere. None of us could really be bothered wandering too far, so The Eagle pub at the end of the road was put forward as an option. Well known in the local area, the Victorian boozer can boast having its name in the Pop Goes The Weasel nursery rhyme, and brings with it old school charm and a rough around the edges feel. 

It wasn’t busy, pretty empty in fact considering it was prime time Sunday lunch, making me think from the off that we may’ve been better going elsewhere. I found their menu a tad confusing; there were Sunday roasts, boards of charcuterie, salads and then a mix of small plates ranging from Poutine, sprats and padron peppers. This initial confusion stopped me in my tracks for a few minutes, and for a while I’d contemplated getting a selection of small plates, but thought better of it and went for a classic fish and chips. 

The aforementioned fish and chips were good; fish came with a light crisp, golden batter, and regardless of my view that chippy chips are the best, these did the job. Even the mushy peas which were more akin to crushed peas were decent, and I don’t even like them normally. Poutine was good – made with compulsory rich and creamy curds, furthermore, they hadn’t drowned the chips in a sea of gravy; always a plus in my book. The roasts themselves looked just ok, but that’s about it really. Whilst the other half heartily tucked into the meat, he gifted me the Yorkshire which I found disappointingly dry and should’ve been a lot better. The veg was just above average, the parsnips in particular looked anaemic, underdone and were hard to cut, the roast potatoes were better and slightly, just slightly made up for them. 

Overall, the place has a homely feel and I was happy with parts of the meal – the poutine and fish and chips were great, but if you’re after a Sunday roast I’m sure there are better places locally. 

The Eagle

2 Shepherdess Walk

London

Greater London

N1 7LB

https://www.theeaglehoxton.co.uk