JACK EATS Clos Maggiore 33 King Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 8JD The restaurant voted London’s most romantic certainly lives up to it’s majority vote. Clos Maggiore is easily missed in the theatre land area of Soho but maybe that’s a good thing as it means there is hope of getting a table (if you book at least a week in advance). With a walk way full of topiary and a glistening bar and the back end of the restaurant complete with roaring fire and twinkling fairy lights covering the walls and the ceiling hanging off delicate bunched branches anyone can see how it got it’s votes. The food is exquisite and made even more so by the surprising affordability of the prices. A perfectly festive English tinged menu offers starters such as Celeriac and Truffle soup and Smoked Eel and Leek salad with mains including Pan roasted whole maine lobster and an oven roasted corn feed chicken breast with Israeli couscous and garden herb risotto. Mains come in between £17 and £30 (see massively reasonable) and starters between £6-13 This is without doubt a hidden gem for anyone that has not already had the pleasure. I think it is going straight to the top of my favorite restaurants list. www.closmaggiore.com
Tiny Robot 78 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, Notting Hill, London, W2 5RT Yo Sushi Southbank Centre Belvedere Rd, City of London, Greater London SE1 8XT Yo Sushi has taken over the capital some time in the raw fish, miso soup stakes. But we thought that now some competitors are on the rise it may be worth going back, just to be sure they are still on top. Seated at the trademark conveyor belt we are instantly excited to grab fresh fish and freshly cut rolls off the sushi carousel for our own. All perfectly fresh and all perfectly as they should be, rolls, tampura, miso, some potato cheesy cake things we couldn’t get enough of and of course the brilliant sashimi. Yo can never be doubted as an educated decision when it comes to where to go for raw fish. The added bonus of the chains is that you always know what quality to expect and you always know that even if you drag along an unwilling friend there will be enough of a selection on that conveyor to satisfy any sushi unsure stomach. Yo Sushi, we salute you with our full bellies and content dining experience! www.yosushi.com
The diner-esque interior of Tiny Robot, little brother of Giant Robot, is inviting. I say Diner-esque because although it is showing of red leather seats and a bar down the left hand side along with a canteen feel it is lacking the bright lights, annoying music and fries 10 different ways. They have a wide selection of cocktails, something, it seems that every restaurant in London should now have and a slightly strange menu. We got a bit confused over the two offerings of meat balls that seemed exactly the same and how we were meant to order, it’s not laid out in the most clear sense. However after having a discussion about what was what we plumped for meatballs and a burger. The burger was to be expected but the meatballs were worth travelling to Westbourne Grove for (if you don’t live there). Not sufficiently stuffed after all this meat we went for a slice of chocolate torta that was very good. The great food was only slightly marred by relatively slow service but on the whole Tiny Robot is a tiny restaurant that has utilized space well and is bringing great food out of what must be an equally tiny kitchen. Great for quick meals with friends or a late Sunday brunch www.tnyrbt.com
JACK DRINKS The Nightjar 129-131 City Road, Hoxton and Shoreditch, EC1 1JB The Nightjar opened last month bringing a slice of 20th Century European glamour to City Road and offers cocktails, champagne and live performance including a lot of jazz and gypsy music, something rarely done well at the moment and we are happy to see the Nightjar already gaining a reputation for showcasing it at its best. Situated in a secret basement bar with the only suggestions of it’s existence an under construction website, The Nightjar offers a pretty impressive cocktail list which was created in association with Shaker UK, one of the UK’s leading bar schools and offers a welcome change from your
run-of-the-mill cosmopolitans and margaritas, in fact we haven’t even heard of most of the cocktails on the list, pretty unusual for that to happen! If you like your cocktails and don’t know what Shaker UK is log onto whosjack.org and Jack TV to win the Shake UK beginners cocktails course being offered up on our 12 days of Christmas series.