New Street Grill

Blink and you'll miss it. New Street Grill is tucked down an alley, a stone's throw away from Liverpool Street station, but far enough off the beaten track that you'd never know it was there. I hadn't heard of it until J invited me out for L's birthday; I found them all sitting outside in the very summery Old Bengal Bar garden. You see, the Old Bengal Warehouse - apparently London's oldest surviving spice and tobacco warehouse in the City - houses not one but three bar/restaurants and a wine shop. The guys at D&D have been busy.

We moved next door into the New Street Grill and while waiting for G, ordered the first of our three bottles of red (which helpfully I now can't remember the name of, other than it was a Cote du Rhone). The restaurant's dark and seductive - lots of leather and low lighting for getting lost in - and divided up into booths and tables, all flanked by a floor to ceiling wall-length wine fridge that houses some of the 350 bottles on offer. The menu is leather bound too and brought with the wine and warm bread, making decisions hard as drinking and eating take over. 

With a nod to its name, there is indeed a selection of dishes from the grill - from cuts of Angus and wagyu beef to lobster - but also a 'crustacea' section offering oysters and a shellfish platter, and partridge and grouse for the gamier tastes. Alongside the a la carte, they also offer a Saturday set menu (three courses and an after dinner cocktail for £24.50) which was far too tempting to pass up. 

I started with the venison carpaccio - the expertly thin slices of sweet were perfectly sweet, coupled with the tangy parmesan and rocket, and a nice alternative to the standard beef. From there I was tempted by the braised daube of beef with creamed potatoes and red wine jus (which looked amazing) but went for the slightly more predictable pan fried seabass, celeriac puree and braised leeks. I just like seabass, okay?! Perfectly crispy skin, smooth puree and buttery leeks - I just wish there had been more of it. Very small sides of buttery new potatoes and baby carrots were nice accompaniments but the lobster macaroni was (unsuccessfully) calling my name.

Dessert was a mixed bunch - I went for the iced brownie parfait which was a real disappointment. Sizeable chunks of brownie but the accompanying ice cream was practically tasteless and left me hankering for the Colston Basset stilton and spiced pear chutney that the others had chosen. 

We'd drank the place out of the Cotes du Rhone at this point so decided to settle up and head next door for our complimentary cocktail. A more industrial but still dark sliver of space, the Old Bengal Bar promised to get busy later but never really delivered. Nonetheless, the cocktail was pretty good - Mount Gay Black Barrel rum, Maraschino liquor, grapefruit juice with lime and sugar syrup. A bit of a knock out after all.

New Street Grill has its pros and cons - it promises to be a 'destination' and could be a real star in an area of the city that is pretty underserved in smarter restaurants, and the service is very friendly and attentive, but the food is just a touch underwhelming and the Bengal Bar a little 'Deliverance' in style. Three and a half out of five.

Bones

House hunting is hungry work. Whilst we're almost over the final hurdle (you wouldn't believe how stressful - and expensive - this past week has been), last Thursday saw the end of solo viewing as A was back from holidays. Off we traipsed to Clapton to view a place that inevitably wasn't quite right so we declared ourselves done for the day and headed off to meet a friend for uni and to commiserate.

We ended up at Bones - a newish opening on Kingsland Road. Its name suggests a whole manner of predictable Americana with ribs aplenty but the menu pleasingly describes itself as 'Modern European' instead. I'm all for a dirty burger (many forays into MeatMission and BRGR.Co have been well documented) but I'm a little over the underwhelming shouting of meat everything.

So we rocked up and were seated at one of the crazily tight booths above that even the most familiar of friends like us found a bit of a squeeze. Nevertheless, we pored over the menu and ordered the sourdough bread to sate our hunger whilst I was on her way. We also decided what we were all going to have during this wait - you snooze, you lose after all.

Rather than opting for a main each (of which there are six such as a whole roast chicken for two, or seabass for one) we went for the small plates to dig in and share starting with the breaded crab claws with chipotle mayo. As a recent convert to crab, I was a little nervous but the meat was juicy and tasty and slipped off the bone.

Plates came out as and when, as is the oh-so-easy on the kitchen trend at the moment, so picking was definitely the order of the day. The burrata with garlic pesto on sourdough was always going to be a must-order and was nice enough, the baby gnocchi with courgette spaghetti and chorizo was tasty but could have done with a bit of an extra kick of heat from both chilli and the oven, and the aubergine with feta and pomegranate would have been divine if the aubergine wasn't cold and soggy - instead a quick flash under the grill would have kept a nice bit of bite. I'm going through a mac and cheese moment so naturally had to order their version with leeks (nice and cheesy but not as tasty as The Advisory's version with blue cheese folded in), accompanied by fries and crispy kale.

Everything was great on paper and I really wanted to love everything but the finesse wasn't quite there on the dishes. Don't get me wrong, we polished everything off and left pleasantly full but it wasn't as fulfilling as Licky Chops, say. We did, however, stay until they were almost throwing us out because you just can't leave when I's telling you a story about how she hiked up Mount Bator in leather shorts with a clutch bag, can you?

Three and a half out of five for Bones.

Ceviche

Not your normal Christmas lunch, we decided to hit up Peruvian Pisco place, Ceviche, for the work end of year party. Sitting pretty opposite world famous Ronnie Scott's and above one of the best tattoo parlours in England, Ceviche's a little Latino haven just bursting with energy.

We kicked off with cocktails. All made with pisco (a grape brandy that tastes similar to cachaca), there's a selection of over ten to choose from. I started with the Pisco Fever - ginger-infused pisco, Fever Tree ginger ale, lime and bitters - which was a bit of a twist on the classic Moscow Mule before switching to Sarita's Miracle - cocoa-infused pisco, cranberry-infused pisco, condensed milk and malted milk biscuit - and sticking with that. The boys went for Pisco Sours which proved pretty popular, and the cerveza. We nibbled on cancha (a bit like popcorn), chifles (crisp plantain chips) and olives whilst browsing the menu.

Dishes are small and great to share, with a recommended three to four per person. We started with marinated octopus and chorizo skewers which were out of this world divine, chicken wings in panca chilli, a pear and sheep's cheese salad, flame cooked beef fillet with chips (had to be done) and two of the classic ceviche dishes. 'Ceviche' itself is fresh raw fish, marinated in citrus juices and then spiced (known as tiger's milk). Perhaps not one for those who are a little funny about these kinds of things but we went for the Don Ceviche (fresh seabass ceviche in amarillo chilli tiger's milk, limo chilli, sweet potato and red onions) and the Drunken Scallops (thinly sliced king scallops, pisco, pomegranate and limo chilli). It was all about the flavours - the zingy citrus masks the delicate seabass in the first but leaves you feeling fresh, whilst the scallop dish was a lot more basic and distinctly fishy. We weren't completely sold on the ceviche so moved on to the second round of food.

We ordered practically everything on the menu - the cheese and chard tequenos were particularly good, the boys loved the confit duck with coriander and dark beer rice, and the corn cake was an interesting spongelike bread made savoury with raw tomato and onion.

Whilst we weren't completely convinced by the cuisine, the service was good and quick, for the most part despite it being completely rammed. The decor's very colourful and fresh with washes of blues and the 'being a little bit different' added an extra component. We agreed we probably wouldn't go back but it was a great place to try. Go for something new and stay for the pulpo y chorizo - that won't disappoint you one bit.

Photo by The Guardian