The Shed Restaurant

Every now and then it seems like nothing nice has happened to you for ages. Then it does. It doesn't have to be anything huge but you have to enjoy it while you can and it's impossible not to enjoy yourself at The Shed Restaurant in Notting Hill. Not only is the food delicious (we'll get to that later) but the atmosphere is fun, the layout unusual and the whole experience is pretty special - writing this over a week later and I'm still wishing I was there.

The restaurant is run by two brothers who grew up on a farm in Sussex, eating the produce of the farm and foraging. A third (youngest) brother remains in Sussex farming and supplies a lot of the food that you will eat there - these boys really care about where the food comes from and this care translates through to the menu and the cooking.

I was taken by my oldest friend who thought I needed a treat and we nearly couldn't go - the earliest table we could book (admittedly it was on the day) was 9.30 but she deemed it worth the wait and she was absolutely right. The food was so good that we overate and both had indigestion in the middle of the night but as I fell asleep propped upright on my pillows I thought it was worth every single Gaviscon.

The restaurant itself is pretty small - this isn't a problem, in fact it is one of the reasons it's so nice, but it does mean that, unless you are a smoker, it may be better to pop to the pub down the road for a drink if you are early. If you are a smoker there is a lovely little smoking area out at the front with tractor seats (comfy) to sit on and blankets and heating lights to keep you warm. I have given up but was with two smokers and we sat out there happily for an hour after supper pretty snug.

Now I'm not going to pretend to be a wine connoisseur. We had the Shed Red (the House wine) and it was lovely - lovely enough for two bottles to disappear without us noticing. The drinks list is impressive in itself and I have it on good authority that their Gin and Tonic's are the best in London.

Now to the food. I think the food was really special and they've been incredibly clever with the menu. There really is something for everyone and because it's basically English tapas you can order what you fancy and it doesn't matter if someone at your table orders something not quite to your taste and it doesn't matter because everything is incredibly reasonably priced so you can try a lot of different things - yes you can't resist ordering a lot but I don't know anywhere else where you pay £2 for a lovely basket of sourdough.

Instead of starters there are 'mouthfuls' - literally that but what mouthfuls and only £1.50. We had a Nutbourne pork scratching with apple sauce each and then I had Mushroom Marmite Confit Duck Yolk (unbelievably delicious - worth trying) and my friend had Endive, Goats Cheese and Pear Jam (which she deemed unexciting but it's her own fault I mean endive... honestly). Without doubt the best bit of pig fat I have ever eaten and I would probably request it as my last meal - the pork scratching was that good.

Next up was Chorizo, Laneh (a sort of cheese made from strained yoghurt) Crisp Bread and Kale which was quite spicy but not to much and what they had done to the Kale I do not know but if you are not a fan it would convert you. With it we had Pheasant Rillette and a bread basket - this looked like the oh-so-fashionable pulled pork that's everywhere at the moment very tasty and not too gamey
at all and strangely went very well mixing and matching with the chorizo.

Lamb Chips - strange sounding but sort of like large lamb croquets, again so well cooked. Pan Fried Goats Cheese with Hazelnuts, Honey and Thyme was our nod to the vegetarian - beautifully cooked goats cheese not overdosed with honey and thyme I think we could have eaten two of these. Beef Cigars with Mustard Mayo was my choice - almost like duck wraps but crunchy with perfectly cooked beef.

Apart from the incredibly relaxed, fun atmosphere the thing that really struck me about The Shed was the quality of the food. It would be very easy to have got carried away with the fantastic ideas on this menu and then in practise not be able to deliver the standard necessary for a restaurant. But every single thing we ate was delicious and so cleverly prepared and cooked properly. Nothing was over or under seasoned - you could taste the herbs and flavours as they were meant to be but they didn't overshadow whatever it was that they were with. It's clever cooking by people who have really thought about this menu.

As soon as I have the funds (or the excuse) I will be back there. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a restaurant so much!

E & O

This time last year I was just out the other side of morning sickness but still in the stage where I was awake for five minutes at a time and only then to eat. So for our anniversary we got sushi delivered I had a glass of champagne, felt drunk and nodded off in front of the tele. As Joe said last night he was 'quite dissatisfied as you insisted we watched things saved on the Sky box, not even a movie'. I was perfectly happy but maybe it wasn't the most romantic of anniversaries... I've always loathed the number three anyway.

This year though was four and everybody likes four. I got peonies, my mum babysat and we resisted the urge to go to the trusty gastro pub round the corner and instead went to E & O on Ladbroke Grove - a restaurant I have wanted to go to for the last couple of years due to a colleagues constant ravings and the fact he never ever goes anywhere else.

Now it did have a bit of a head start in that I have barely been out to dinner with my husband in the last year let alone to a properly nice restaurant and I was amazed by the beautiful people having actual fun and drinking cocktails and looking glamerous so the food could have been a bit below par and I probably wouldn't have minded. But the food was absolutely fantastic - the best I can remember having anywhere.

The menu is a mix of dim sum, sashimi, tempura and things from the grill, the portion sizes are just right and everything we had was cooked to perfection and clearly well sourced. I know I'm not an expert but I eat a lot of sushi and I can tell when sashimi is good or not and this was absolutely spot on fresh and delicious.

We had prawn and chive dumplings, chili salt squid and crispy pork belly with black vinegar to start with. The dumplings were the least exciting but still delicious and perfectly cooked, the squid was absolutely perfect, served in a little wrap of newspaper just enough so you felt you got enough but not too much to spoil your appetite for everything else - this and the pork belly were my favourites. The pork was melt-in-the-mouth cooked with beautifully crispy fat and the black vinegar an ideal match.

Next up was the mixed sashimi - incredibly fresh and simple salmon, tuna and mackerel and wild pink shrimp tempura.

I had to stop there - my nil-by-mouth diet has successfully shrunk my stomach and I couldn't fit anything else in but Joe persevered with sesame and soy po choi and chili chicken with pickled cucumber also delicious apparently.

If I had anything to complain about (I always like to find something) the service was slightly slow but ever so slightly and very polite, no one asked me how my food was when I'd had one mouthful and was mid-conversation (I hate that) and the place was heaving so I really can't blame them for being a little on the slow side. All those people can't be wrong - this place is amazing and well worth going to. It's not cheap (the pink shrimp tempura was £18.50) but for a special occasion or if you don't need to worry about such things, it is worth every penny.

 

Yi-Ban

This is not only heaven for fans of Chinese food but it is in the most unusual setting of nearly any restaurant I've been to I think. I am too lazy to bother going to East London very often but I will traipse out on the DLR to Royal Albert any day of the week and any time of day to go to Yi Ban.

At first you wonder why you've bothered. There's nothing else to see from the station except a big road and the canal. Then you notice London City Airport on the other side of the water and, as you wonder down the canal it becomes apparent that there is an interesting building looming that has its second floor window floor to ceiling. This is the mighty Yi-Ban where you can eat fantastically while watching planes take off and land just over the water. OK so I should have said it is a spectacular setting if you find watching planes exciting - I'm no plane spotter but I'm afraid of flying so watching them in action, whilst smugly stuffing my face on dry land flicks my switch.

Lunchtime is a primarily Dim-Sum menu with everything from the usual dumplings to chicken claws in black bean sauce and spicy jelly fish with duck tongue. I really recommend Barbecued roast pork buns. crystal prawn dumplings, seaweed king prawn rolls and their crispy seaweed is to die for. The service is charming, attentive and quick and the majority of the patrons are Asian - which I take to be a good sign. The worst Chinese food I've eaten came from a restaurant heaving with trendy white Londoners (heaving being the operative word - I got food poisoning).

In the evening the menu becomes more what you would expect from any Chinese restaurant but the food is again way beyond anything I've had before. Incredible crispy duck and pancakes, tasty salt and chili squid and again the seaweed were particular highlights. A wonderful array of vegetable dishes, garlic asparagus, pak choi, crispy tofu and Chinese mushrooms, are really worth trying even if you tend towards being a bit carnivorous. Crispy shredded beef and Cantonese roasted belly pork are my particular recommendations for main courses.

A real wow for a first date, not cheap (about £40 per head including drinks), but worth every penny.

Kua 'aina

I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to burgers. I know the difference between a good burger and a bad one but I'm such a carnivore and constantly trying to be good so I don't become grossly overweight that when I decide to have a burger I have the whole thing and it's a real treat. So I was excited about Kua 'aina but not expecting much - we were there for my friends leaving do. She is Hawaiian and although hasn't lived there for a long time I think she's starting to be ever so slightly nostalgic about it so it seemed to be the perfect place for us to turn up and stuff our faces and say farewell.

I was actually quite pleased as were supposed to be going to a vegetarian restaurant which everyone says is excellent but I know would give me no-meat panic as soon as I look at the menu. Joe and I arrived late and everyone had just ordered, Joe in fact was even later than me so by the time he arrived people were tucking into their food. This was no bad thing as it gave us a chance to see what everyone else was having and make our decision. The menu has burgers, sandwiches and salads with a good selection of side dishes from proper fries and coleslaw to dill pickles and sweet potato. And the service is so quick that we got our food not long after everyone else so they didn't have to sit there and watch us eat.

We had bacon and cheese burgers and shared fries and dill pickles. We finished every last scrap. The burgers were cooked quite rare and served in little baskets - there was no dainty way to eat them but that's not part of the deal with Kua 'aina. Little wooden tables, tea lights, old surfing photos everywhere and a relaxed atmosphere, incredibly fast service and great prices this is a fantastic place to go - especially in these money crunching times. I've never been to Hawaii but I really think the atmosphere lives up to the name and the reputation.

Most of us had burgers (avocado and pineapple were other variations - not together though) and a selection of sides - the lady herself had Mahi Mahi sandwich and another veggie had a halloumi sandwich. These were just as big as the burgers and went down really well. We were all full and happy afterwards - except for one guy who ordered a cheese and bacon burger and just got bacon. But as he refused to just ask the waiter for a bit of cheese to be shoved in quickly which I'm sure they would have done happily I can't really count this as a bad thing. There were ten of us drinking beer and being noisy so I think one slight omission is completely acceptable. I've had worse from places where its £40+ a head.

Kua 'aina is proof that you can still go out, eat well and have fun with your friends and not spend loads of money. Highly recommended.

Minato

Hammersmith is not the first place that springs to mind when you think of great food - there's Indian Zing which is pretty good and you could always walk to Chiswick where there are some lovely places but in fact Hammersmith does a great line in delicious sushi ranging from the affordable lunch in Wasabi to special birthday supper in Minato via fun date night in Yoshi Sushi.

What I love about Minato is that we're usually the only non-Japanese people in there and even though this restaurant is not the cheapest (it's about £25-£40 per person depending on what you have) it is the real deal. Atmospheric with a wide-ranging menu and thoughtful food presentation I can't think of anything I don't love about this restaurant.

We went last night for my mother's 'special' birthday and it didn't disappoint. It's always quite hard to order for six people and include everything that everyone wants so we decided to have three deluxe sushi and sushimi platters and then just add any starters that we personally wanted. These included tasty but unadventurous squid tempura (the batter was slightly heavier than I expect tempura to be but I'm not an expert), salmon and avocado maki, pork dumplings, salmon roe maki, soft shell crab and most excitingly kimchi (a Korean fermented vegetable dish) - which we got brownie points for ordering.

The deluxe platters were just amazing - they arrive on fan shape boards and one was the perfect amount to share between two sushi lovers. Mackerel, salmon, tuna, squid and other sashimi and the most amazing array of sushi I've ever seen some of which I have no idea what they were. Beautifully made, perfectly sized I'm day dreaming about having this for lunch and I only went last night.

The service was charming, helpful and friendly - when we requested a plate of Japanese pickles and were told that they are hard to get since the earthquake in Japan we were bought all the pickles they had left and complimentary miso soup with incredibly tasty seaweed salad to make up for it. We weren't constantly being asked how the food was and I think the only place I've had similar great service is at the River cafe. Highly recommended not only for sushi fans but those who prefer curry, tempura or noodles but especially those West Londoners who feel they are missing out on anywhere good to find it.

The Duke of Sussex

I'm always slightly suspicious of pubs that do food other than pub food. I've accepted the gastro pub and since the smoking ban I actually prefer them... they seem to smell less like innards than pub pubs... well in London anyway. So although I love tapas and it looks like it should be nice I've always been a little suspicious of the Duke of Sussex in Chiswick which famously does a mainly Spanish menu. However, Joe decided I needed to be taken out for a Friday date night there when on Wednesday morning I announced that I felt like I was having a mental meltdown. I was actually pretty impressed with this idea as even though every time we drive past it I say 'I wonder what it's like... it looks nice...' I have been married long enough to know that 99% of these kinds of musings are completely ignored.

On arrival it was as I expected from a swanky Chiswick pub - floor boards, wooden tables, chalk board menus and waiting staff in black shirts (not noticeably referring to political preferences) but there is something compelling about the restaurant area. It is still floor boarded and wooden tabled but there are genuinely old, distressed mirrors around one corner of the wall and the height of the ceiling is accentuated by curved arches, art deco chandeliers and old fashioned sky lights surrounded by painted cherubs. We could have eaten in the large but attractive garden but I whinged about it being cold (and it did in fact rain half way through dinner so there) and the restaurant did feel special and separate from the pub area even though we were right next to it.

Time Out hate this restaurant - they didn't like the food or the slow service - but Time Out users all seem to have much better experiences and give it 5 out of 5. Knowing all this and dining with an ex-restaurant review I was prepared to be open minded bordering on ruthless but I have to say I came out definitely more in the 5 star camp than the other way. We were seated promptly, given menus to look at and the wine list to peruse.

The menu is a really well thought out mix of tapas and larger main courses so you can either have a mix of both or go all out on the tapas. I thought we were doing the latter but Joe had his eye on the seafood paella and as I'm not allowed to eat prawns until November I decided to have marinated skirt steak and chips - not very Spanish but with yummy alioili. So we chose three tapas dishes to share as our starters - chiporones, pinchos morunos and chorizo con huevos.

Chiporones are basically calamari but not rings of squid they are just bits of the small squid fried. These were yummy and although I like mine as battery as possible these were done just enough to be tasty without making you feel like a heart attack was imminent - less naughty than I'm used too but very appropriate to start off a big supper. I was against getting the pinchos morunos, marinated beef skewers, as I was having steak for my main course - traditionally these are made with marinated pork but this beef version was absolutely delicious and I would definitely have again even with a whole steak coming later. Chorizo con huevos - chorizo sausage with eggs - was probably the weakest of the tapas that we tried but still delicious, it's just that I've had better, but that was in Spain so that's probably not really fair!

Joe's seafood paella looked and smelled delicious and contained enough prawns, clams and mussels to justify it's title. Maybe I'm a cynic or I've been living in London too long but I am no longer surprised when dishes like this arrive with barely a smattering of the good stuff - I frequently get Greek salad with one small cube of tasteless feta. But this really did looked and tasted like the real deal. My skirt steak was beautifully marinated and cooked medium rare automatically. As much as I like the courtesy of being asked how I like my steak cooked (rare... very rare) I really respect chef's who know how they want their food to be eaten. Risky but worth it in my mind.

We were too full for pudding so we sat happily sipping the rest of our wine - very nice Spanish red that I can't remember the name of. One thing I would say is the service - although mostly prompt we were left waiting to order a drink for quite a long time and when we were being served the staff seemed stressed and as if we were slightly taking up their time. Never were they impolite but I slightly felt that perhaps the Duchess of Cambridge was sneakily sitting at another table they had been sent into a flustery tail spin. Our food was all on time - we arrived just before 8 and were ready to leave at 9.30 having taken lots of time over our food and wine - there was just something about the staff that made me feel slightly like their lives would have been easier if we weren't there. Sort of understandable (but never acceptable) in a massively busy, London restaurant but we were one of three tables when we arrived at the Duke of Sussex so a little surprising there.

A definite contender for future birthdays - I think this would be a great place to meet for dinner and then drinks afterwards - you'd feel well fed and relaxed and could move into the lovely pub area for drinks after. I really enjoyed it, will definitely be going back and what was so lovely about this pub was the lovely atmosphere and having a menu where I could immidiately see a whole dinners-worth of other things I wanted to try out.

The Bell, Alresford

I've lived near Alresford for all of my 27 (ugh nearly 28) years and I have never once set foot in The Bell. That is because I have set foot in the Horse and Groom (aptly known to the youth of the the area as the Doom and Gloom) which has one of those red patterned carpets and you can still smell the hundreds of pre-smoking ban fags (most of which were smoked by me) and although I love it for it's familiar atmosphere it's not anywhere I would go for a nice supper. And there's a Pizza Express next door. I can't resist pizza.

Then there's The Globe - which is very nice in a way and the restaurant bit was lovely when I went there but for me there's something missing. Maybe its my complete frustration with the parking or the near-death experience of parking up the street and then going round the bend outside on foot. Or maybe it's because I've never managed to go there when the suns been out so I've always been confined to the crammed inside.

Anyway, The Bell has just been a step too far for me on the Alresford pub circuit. I see now this has been massive mistake. My brother-in-law announced that he was going to take us out to a 'nice gastropub' for supper last night as we'd all rather spent the last week since my father's death staring at the wall and listening to me overuse the word 'soothing' when describing anything (but mostly food). I think none of us wanted to go (except him and my husband who are massive foodies and week of pasta was getting to them rather I think). The thing is we only wanted to stare at the wall and drink gin (in my case vodka - my taste buds are just not grown up enough for gin yet). I for one was also worried that he'd take us to the wonderful Bush at Ovington which was a big favourite of my dad's and I think we'd have started crying as soon as we set foot in the door.

But he went to the trouble of booking us a taxi (sounds easy if you are a city dweller as he is... in the middle of nowhere it's a bit of a nightmare) so we schlepped along after him, me with my belief that The Bell was not going to be quite what he was expecting. Wrong - The Bell was not quite what I was expecting. The atmosphere is just fantastic - it was a Friday night and it was heaving but in such a friendly way that it didn't matter. One of the few places that does nice rose, our table was slightly late so we sat sipping in the garden and looking at the menu. The staff were really nice and polite - which I'm sadly just not used to anymore.

The menu was just fantastic - we're going to have to go back just because there were so many things that we would have liked to have had each! I shared a baked Camembert with Sam and it was without a doubt the best baked Camembert I've ever had. I don't know how they'd done it (we thought possibly with egg and Parmesan brushed on the top) but it was just fantastic - served with parma ham, chorizo, balsamic onions, sun dried tomatoes and olives I would happily have it again every day for a very long time if not for the rest of my life. I'm worried every baked Camembert from now on is going to be a massive let down. Joe and my mother had a very traditional looking prawn cocktail (declared 'soothing' by my mother which made me happy - I like her to be soothed) and my sister had a fantastic looking twice baked watercress and spinach souffle with Parmesan sauce which she declared was delicious but disappeared so quickly that none of us got a look in.

She and I both had the honey glazed pork belly with mashed potatoes and crackling - perfect smooth, creamy mash and proper, crackling. Sam, always the most adventurous had calves liver with bacon, Joe the lamb shank and my mother the soothing halibut. All declared delicious and tried by all and clean plates all round. I felt slightly like I was going to explode by the end - we've all been struggling to eat a small plate of pasta let alone two fantastic courses. I was too full even to have the Hampshire cheese board which, as a Hampshire girl, I'd decided I was duty bound to have.

Delicious rose and house red to go with the food and coffee with those yummy crispy Bendicts mint chocolate to finish - a really perfect supper. Check out the website - the pictures just don't do this delightful pub justice. You can also stay there so if you have a wedding in Winchester or anywhere around there and need somewhere to stay look no further.

Les Deux Salons

Oh my god. I hate to start a 'review' like that but they are the first three words that spring to mind when I think about the supper we had last night. Now, due to various job incidents and my inability to not spend all my money immediately I can't really remember the last time I went to a really swanky restaurant so when my father requested Les Deux Salons as his birthday treat I was pretty over excited. I'd read good reviews and been on a diet for weeks so I was more than ready - and I wasn't disappointed.

Les Deux Salons is the real deal - distressed mirrors, tiled flooring and dark furniture it is like being thrown into a Paris restaurant. The staff were delightful if a little frantic - incredibly solicitous and friendly, bringing my father out a delicious ice cream pud with a candle in. The selection of food was varied and interesting - I sat opposite my brother-in-law which is always exciting as he's definitely in the running for the world most adventurous eater award. If I worry that I choose old favourites he's guaranteed to go for the slightly odder things on the menu and last night was no exception - he went for Herefordshire Snail and Bacon Pie followed by the special of the day which was Ox cheeks with spring greens and marrow (both of which he said were really good).

I had Bayonne Ham to start which was delicious and perfectly sliced, served with poached pears. I was worried about my choice of main course, Scottish Beef cheeseburger with fries, was a bit ordinary but it was actually anything but. It was without a doubt the best burger I have ever had the fries were delicious and definitely in my top five fries (no 1 being the Riverside Studios shoestring fries which are AMAZING) but the burger was cooked to perfection and so tasty. I think I may never be able to eat a burger again for fear of sullying it's memory. Other main courses around the table were slow roast pork belly (notably without any crackling) and duck confit. The puddings were iced peanut butter parfait with roast banana and wild strawberries with thick cream - proper wild strawberries which were delicious.

To conclude the service was on occasion slow (in fact we cancelled our side order of puree potato because there was still no sign of it by the time we'd nearly finished our main courses) but incredibly charming and in fact the slowness sort of added to the frenchness of it all. The wine was delicious, the atmosphere was lovely. I highly recommend it.

Accidental Date - Tod's Bistro

Due to my husband quitting his job last November and entering the dangerous world of freelance we haven't been on a date since I don't know when. In fact I do know - we went to the The Anglesea Arms for our anniversary and my parents paid for that so I'm not sure it counts. So on Saturday night we were off to a house party in Kings Cross via drinks in Highbury and somewhere around Holland Park I realised we hadn't eaten. Booze on an empty stomach usually means one of us behaves incredibly badly so we thought we'd get a sandwich from somewhere on the way to Public House where the first drinks were held. I drew the line at a Budgens sandwich however and no other places immediately offered themselves so we decided to go into Tods Grill and Bistro... just to see what the menu was like obviously. And then we accidentally had a date.


Now my husband says it's not a date if I pay but we drank booze, shared food and there was a candle present, we even had my parents babysitting the puppy. Sounds like a date to me. It wasn't the cheap evening I had planned (one of the reason I love retro house parties is because you can turn up with your own booze and then drink it all and not spend any more money than that) but the food was gorgeous, the service impeccable and the surprisingness of it all, rather lovely. The restaurant had a great atmosphere - there were old show and movie posters all over the walls which I loved and it was packed which I find can make your experience all the more private. I thought I just wanted something light and the starters looked so good we decided to share some... by some of course I mean 5. Baked goats cheese with apple salad, chorizo bruscetta, calamari, homemade chicken liver pate and homemade gravad lax with toast.

When I met my husband he was a restaurant reviewer who only drew the line at tripe and I was one of the fussiest eaters known to man. This made us pretty incompatible when it came to sharing food. He remained a restaurant reviewer long enough for me to become 2 stone heavier and develop the ability to eat a lot of food long after I'm full - we are perfect restaurant companions. Now there are only four things I'm really fussy about - aubergine, courgette, fruit and offal and the latter has meant that even though it is something that I should love (based on my love of pickles, smoked things and cheese) I can't stand pate.

I have to say I've clung to this as my final attempt to revert to fussy eating and the waist I had when I was 20 but on Saturday night I think my favourite dish was the home made chicken liver pate. It was smooth and tasty without being too livery and we had just the right amount that left you wanting more. I was so particularly surprised by this new love affair as we'd also ordered calamari which I would quite leave my husband for if it wasn't a bit weird to run off with a food stuff. But I think the pate won the evening.

Our accidental date meant we were late for drinks and even later for our house party (at which I'd promised early arrival for moral support) but were beaming on both arrivals and not responsible for the vomit on the 390 to Notting Hill at 3 o'clock that morning so I think I will be advocating more accidental dating in the future.

UPDATE: sadly this Bistro has closed (2017)