You can ascertain everything about a restaurant just by glancing at their wine list. That’s my ballsy opinion on wine. Everything. If I can’t carry you with me on this “everything” journey, then let’s just say everything you need to know about the aspirations of the kitchen, the aura of the place, attitude of the owners, ambitions of the restaurant – it’s a magical worm hole that drives right to the heart of the whole shebang, a crucial indicator, a window into the soul of the gig.

One moment distilled my extreme knee-jerk restaurant analysis, a realisation that I had seen one of the bravest lists ever. Looking at the Noma list online in February 2010, two months before being named the world’s best by the San Pellegrino “World’s 50 Best”, I was delighted and shocked to see their almost fascist focus. It was almost exclusively grower Champagne, Burgundy, Germany, Piemonte, Austria, bit of Northern Rhône – that was it. No Bordeaux, no New World. These more fragrant, delicate wines were deemed to be a finer foil for their food. I knew it would be my kind of restaurant. The driving force and confidence of the sommelier Pontus Eloffson showed a swagger I liked.

Luke Wilson and Cameron Emirali have brought their modest looking operation to Soho, where fifty restaurants seem to be opening every day. Or something like that. Luke is ex-wine trade, having sold wine to restaurants for a fair few years for Liberty Wines, a merchant of considerable note with a big presence in London restuarants. I’ve known Luke for some time, one of the politest wine reps you could come across. He knows his shit too. Cameron’s longest recent stint was at the brilliant Wapping Project, having grown up in Australia. This double-act is starting from a good place.

The wine list at 10 Greek Street starts sparking with gems from the kick-off, real treats, utter value from the first moment. Pieropan Soave “La Rocca” £31? Try £56 at the River Café. Same vintage. Mount Difficulty “Roaring Meg” Pinot Gris £18.50? Yours for £30 at The Providores.  Plantagenet “Omrah” Pinot Noir for £22? Enjoy it at The Wapping Project for £32. Luke slaps a few rotating three bottle specials on too, most recently Clos du Marquis 1985 for a mere £50 – we love this kind of silliness.

This is a wine list that will engender genuine loyalty from diners and a knowing wine trade. It bitch slaps anything else in Soho.

Oh the food? Yeah, well that happens to be bloody good too. Cameron serves up the kind of food you want to eat every day. There are pies and grills, terrines and rillettes, fondants and apple pudding:

Char-grilled Brecon Leg of Lamb – Cooked to medium-rare pink perfection, this rosy hued piece of meat is accompanied by a piquant puck of anchovy mayonnaise. Sunday Roast evocative. Duck Fat potatoes alongside, so good they deserve their own entry below.

Duck Fat Potatoes – Side dish that needs special mention. Macho sized halves of Désirée potato, roasted then finished off in the pan for extra crunch. I’d eat these on their own as a bar snack and be pretty happy about it.

Skate & New Potato Terrine – Subtle and pretty looking dish, a neat slab of gleaming white, maybe lacking a grind of salt. No matter, there’s some salt on the table for DIY seasoning, from Murray River, Australia.

Langoustines & Saffron Aïoli – Perky fresh langoustines, dense and proper saffron aïoli for dipping. Those potatoes would enjoy a dip in that aïoli too.

Wild Mushroom Risotto – Perfectly cooked risotto, with the funk of white truffle oil running through it. Job done.

Chocolate Fondant & Pistachio Ice-Cream – Oozing in all the right places, the fondant pulls it off. That’s all that matters, right?

The space looks unremarkable until you get to the open kitchen, which is where all the action happens. White tiled throughout with more than a whiff of St John-esque monochrome, the fit-out is no nonsense.  Nifty swivelling bar stools, the blast of heat from the kitchen, and Cameron engaging with diners as he cooks, all mean this is the place to sit. Take six friends and you’ve practically got your own private chef’s table, as there’ll be no room for anyone else. Sweet.

Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard was dining on one of our visits. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Expect her review this week.

This is the kind of place worth bowling into for the wine list alone. With Cameron pulling the strings in the kitchen, it becomes a three times a week kinda thing. It’s a great addition for Soho.

One look at that wine list told me that we were singing from the same page. Quality, value, chosen with care, love. It told me everything I needed to know.

10 Greek Street, W1D 4DH

Jeremy. Dear Jeremy. Darling Jeremy. The biggest transfer of the season is that of Jeremy Lee from Blueprint Café to Quo Vadis, the dining equivalent of a big money Premier League switch. He has pedigree, caché, and is a game changer of the highest order. Sam and Eddie Hart have pulled off a massive coup, convincing him to cross the water and leave his beloved Thameside view behind, luring him with a stake in the business as well as transforming the kitchen. He brings his own infectious brand of bonhomie and joie de vivre to what was already a handsome stage of a dining room, if missing  a certain “something” – Enter stage left, Jeremy Lee.

A loyal servant to behemoth London restaurant group D&D for sixteen years at Blueprint, it always felt like he deserved a more accessible, central location where his confident yet modest brand of unwaveringly British cooking could be enjoyed by a new audience. Welcoming him to Soho feels so right, his flamboyance fitting right in with echoes of Soho’s most Bohemian excesses. It’s as if it was always meant to be.

The food has been transformed instantly by Jeremy’s arrival, and a cutely constructed menu takes you by the hand and leads you box by box, to a free-styling world of possibilities, traditional menu format jettisoned. There’s a sense of playfulness and freedom. Ooh look the smoked eel sandwich, oh wait there’s a pie option in the left hand box, hang on there are small bites up in the top left. Choose what looks good, set your own pace, chill out – the implicit message.

With this ethos in mind, dining alone and not having a main course feels absolutely normal while sitting in the main restaurant, something that would have jarred previously. I was also here mainly for that eel sandwich:

Smoked Eel & Horseradish Sandwich – A star from Jeremy’s Blueprint days since time immemorial, this beauty gets a dedicated box all to itself on the menu, and rightly so. Grilled sourdough encasing dense, deeply smoky, meaty chunks of eel. There’s a holy marriage within of creamed horseradish, dijon mustard and a smear of butter. Visceral and utterly satisfying. A quick hour pickle of red onions on the side cuts through that eel and cleanses between mouthfuls. Two, three a week? This would never bore.

Baked Salsify & Parmesan –  A dish I first had cooked for me at Italo Deli by a certain Tom Adams of Pitt Cue Co., learnt from Jeremy when he put in a stint at Blueprint. Delicate batons of salsify wrapped and baked in a delicate filo-esque, Feuille de Brick pastry, two cigar like creations dusted with parmesan. A slight crunch, a cheesy hit, then earthy salsify – a great first few mouthfuls with a glass of wine, perfect if ordered at the bar.

Squid, Fennel, Puntarella – Delicate dish, playing a subtle balance between sweet curls of grilled squid, bitter green kick of puntarella, and the anise of fennel. Squeeze of lemon juice and olive oil. Simplicity artfully arranged, a great palate wakener.

Campari, Blood Orange & Pomegranate Sorbet – Yeah, so if  a Negroni wanted to be a dessert, it would probably want to be this one. No gin, but all the other flavours are pressing the same buttons. Thrillingly cleansing, bitterness of Campari having a great time with the sweetness of Pomegranate (delusions of vermouth), and the unmistakeable zing of blood orange. Frozen shot of gin to pour over and you’d be sorted.

Glancing at the rest of the menu we see Leg of Middlewhite Pork, Beans & Green Sauce, another dish encountered at Blueprint Café some time ago – it was quite brilliant then, and will be so here. There is plenty there to tempt for another visit, Salt Mallard, Pickled Prunes & Watercress clamouring for attention, a daily pie today being Pheasant, Duck & Mallard - he loves a good pie, does Jeremy.

The wine list has been dragged up by its bootstraps, offering far more value than previously, and looking far less intimidating for the inexperienced. Sam Hart mentioned they have reduced their margins on the list ever so slightly, an important psychological shift for some bottles, making the funky Spanish blend of Treixadura and Albariño £28 rather than £32 a bottle – the £30 mental barrier popped. By the glass at £4.90 it made for good lunchtime drinking, perky acidity with no shortage of texture. They’ve kept the admirable two English glasses of fizz too, Gusbourne and Jenkyn Place.

Jeremy’s coruscating enthusiasm for the sheer joy of good food, good wine, good company, makes him exactly the right character to have landed in this iconic restaurant. Quo Vadis is playing in the Big Dogs league again, inspirational and totally relevant.

Soho now echos to the gentle cooings of “dahhhling” this and “dahhhling” that, coming from the kitchen on Dean Street. Jeremy, we’re so glad you’ve joined us in W1, darling…

Quo Vadis, Dean Street, W1

www.quovadissoho.co.uk

From the ashes of a metal trailer on the blustery Southbank beside The Thames, Pitt Cue will emerge to send smoke signals from a bricks ‘n’ mortar building in Soho.

Four frenzied months of serving pulled pork, beef brisket, wings and Pickle Backs garnered plenty of praise over the summer of 2011 (I was helping out, it was a blast), and now Tom Adams and Jamie Berger have joined forces with Richard “Hawksmoor” Turner and Simon Anderson to make a temporary gig permanent, a whisker away from Carnaby Street W1.

What to expect? Pitt Cue ratcheted up a gear. A proper kitchen gives Tom Adams the chance to hone techniques he learnt over the summer while attending the American Royal BBQ competition in Kansas, the biggest BBQ competition in the USA. Pulled pork, beef brisket, and ribs as before, and this time we have the oft requested pulled pork buns, made with the pillowy buns of Miller’s bakery in Hoxton.

Pickles play a bigger role, of note some wicked Crispy Pickled Shiitake, alongside fennel, kohlrabi, daikon and red onion – this  is pickling with a lot of love thrown at it.

Mac, Oxtail ‘n’ Cheese is a decadent new addition, to go alongside slaw, beans, and the odd smoked ham hock here and there.

The basement space is teeny, tiny, yet perfectly formed. Take-away buns will be in operation from 12-6pm, and a whole cascade of Bourbon and Rye cocktails –  Big Mac ‘n’ Rye, Whiskey Sours, Bourbon Hot Toddy, Manhattans, will be made with care in the upstairs space.

Pitt Cue are back – we’ve missed you…

1 Newburgh St, Soho W1

**Opening mid-January**

www.pittcue.co.uk

***Check out the in-depth interview with Tom Adams on the Hot Dinners site.***

There ain’t no end to the current slew of London restaurant openings, no respite from wave after wave of big new arrivals. Recent arrivals have seen the Big Dogs of The Wolseley, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, launch their latest grand project The Delaunay, all powerful Grand Master Richard Caring bringing steak restaurant 34 to the Caprice Holdings stable, and Russian oligarch Arkady Novikov opening a behemoth of a restaurant (two in one space) in Flash Harry Mayfair – London has never seen action like it.

I was asked recently to list five of my favourite restaurants of the last year for the Top Table website. On the day they asked, these were the ones floating my boat…

KOYA - www.koya.co.uk - Lip slurping excellence in the heart of Soho. Udon soup like we’ve never seen before in London, with noodles made on site, chefs Junya and Shuko deliver bowl after bowl of Udon joy. The simple Kake  is a shimmering, cleansing broth of startling clarity, a smoky dashi to pull you back from the brink – henceforth known as the “Udon Cleanse”. Daily specials board always tempts, and you may find deep fried prawn heads, fried tofu with mustard green sauce, or crispy fried lemon sole. Quietly brilliant, always rammed.

DUCK SOUP – www.ducksoupsoho.co.uk - The latest BYO to hit London, yet here you’re invited to Bring Your Own vinyl for the record player in the corner. Head Chef Julian Biggs keeps things simple, pumping out wonderful Fritto Misto with huge chunks of grey mullet, squid, scallop, and the most devilishly silky and seductive saffron mayonnaise. Lamb cutlets are shockingly simple, in the best possible way – no accoutrements needed. Excellently sourced cheese such as Tête de Moine (monks head) is shaved off in addictive curls, to accompany a shape-shifting wine list driven by the “natural” and “biodynamic” craze sweeping the capital right now. Open throughout the day, this is a great casual option in Soho with a heart.

TSURU SUSHI – www.tsuru-sushi.co.uk - Sushi on the hoof has taken  great leaps in the City at this tightly run small group of restaurants, headed by the tireless Emma Reynolds in her quest to bring decent sushi and Katsu curry to London. Breaded cutlet of chicken thigh or pork is a favourite Katsu for us, and chicken Kara-age is perhaps the best fried chicken in town. Oh, the sushi is pristine too. Japanese style scotch egg has been an inspired addition. Decent wines and proper sake and beers complete the excellent team line-up. Tsuru Ramen will launch next year, where we’ll be treated to noodles and a wobbling broth inspired by pig’s trotters.

MANSON – www.mansonrestaurant.co.uk - In a Fulham backwater, chef Alan Stewart is on a mission to shake up the Sloanes and give ‘em Rock Star cooking for a relative pittance. Still fizzing from his time at Michelin bedecked Launceston Place, he has an unnerving and almost fanatical eye for sourcing produce within a stone’s throw, growing much of his produce on his own allotments. Venison Tartare is one of the dishes of the year, served with pickled girolles, celeriac and cobnuts. His vision and focus is almost scary.

THE LAWN BISTRO – www.thelawnbistro.co.uk - Chicken liver and foie gras parfait. Worth trekking to Wimbledon for this dish alone. Sordid texture, like silk and lace, an exercise in decadence. Head Chef and owner Ollie Couillaud shames all the chain restaurants in the area (painfully plentiful in Wimbledon Village) by delivering a bustling, breezy brasserie that is happy for you to come in for Croque Monsieur and Big Chips for lunch, or blow the bloody doors off with a Côte de Boeuf and perfect béarnaise. Braised Ox Cheeks “à la Bourguignonne”, rendered fork tender by eight hours carousing with red wine, transports the soul to Burundy. He’s an impish, cheeky chappy too.

This list appears on the Top Table website:

That Dog in the picture? Just a friendly resident of a restaurant in East London: Half Dog, half Wolf…

Big Dog.  Stalwart. Old School. Maverick. Guru. Ground-breaker. David Eyre merits all of these tags and maybe a few more. He’s been grooving to his own tune for so long, at the top of his game, that it’s almost as if we’ve forgotten about what it means to be a “stayer” in the restaurant game. Caught up in the thrill of the new, the hot, the zeitgeist and the breathless pace of London restaurant openings, we could perhaps do ourselves a favour by taking a moment to survey the scene. Who has stayed the course? Who is still consistently brilliant? Who do we still want to visit after ten years of their opening? There are a handful. Moro in Exmouth Market, Sam and Sam Clark quietly going about their business after fourteen years. Jeremy Lee at Blueprint Café still delights twenty years later. The Square is set to celebrate twenty years this month, and still inspires a little joyous skip as you walk inside. Then there is the The Eagle pub in Farringdon – which David just happened to have opened himself in 1991 with Michael Belben, and is noted for leading the charge of the “Gastropub”, the first pub in the land offering food of restaurant quality in a pub environment.

We were invited to preview a celebration of the ten year anniversary of Eyre Brothers, which David opened with his brother Robert. For one month the menu will feature the Greatest Hits of the menu over the last decade. We cracked straight into it, after a rather good glass of Cava:

Almeijoas á Bulhão Pato – Clams, garlic, lemon, fresh coriander. Delicate first course kicks things off. Sweet little clams, with the real joy being the resulting garlicky, lemony, clam infused broth at the bottom. Mopping up territory, and freshly made bread does the job admirably. WINE: Quinta de Azevedo, Vinho Verde, 2010, Portugal – Zippy, spritzy, lemon scented Portuguese white with exhilarating acidity. Like a squeeze of lemon juice over the clams, a perfect foil.

Alentejo style Fat Pork and Lean Beef – Homely, comforting, an enveloping arm round the shoulder of a dish. Slowly braised with garlic, bay, pimentão and white wine, this is beautiful peasant food of the highest order, packing flavour in spades.  Melting nuggets of pork, tender beef, and another dish yielding a wicked liquor that required more warm bread. A “lick the plate clean” dish. WINE: Monte da Peceguina, Alentejo, 2010, Portugal – A plump, juicy little number, characteristic of the fleshy wines of Alentejo. Much warmer than the Douro, the tannins are softer and sweeter than the sturdy reds further north. Strawberry scented and utterly charming.

Salt Cod Brandada & Roast Pimentos de Piquillo -  A white puck of meaty cod, a dazzling pure white, singing with the zip of fresh garlic. No sight of the promised egg, but the sweet roasted Pimentos pepper and cherry tomatoes are balanced well against salty capers and black olives. Simple, subtle, classic. WINE: Naia, Verdejo, 2010, Rueda, Spain – Lusher than many Verdejo, this doesn’t posess the shrill acidity and vegetal twang of some, instead carrying things off with a stone fruit core, a touch of apricot, great texture.

Caldeirada Portuguese Seafood Stew –  Brimming with prawns, clams, mussels, gilthead bream and monkfish, a festival of fish. A groaning bowl of seafood, juicy nuggets to hook out at every turn. Another dish yielding juices at the bottom of the bowl begging to be mopped up. WINE: Luis Pato, Vinhas Velhas, Beiras, 2010, Portugal – Luis Pato makes very fine whites in Bairrada, and this blend of the Bical, Cerceal and Sercialhino grapes is a proper wine. A whisper of good French oak marks this out as classy winemaking, stylistically having more in common with Burgundy than many Portuguese whites. Subtle smoky aromas, roasted nuts, fabulous weight and texture. We liked this one a lot.

Grilled Loin Chop of Acorn-fed Ibèrico Pork – A quivering pork chop of succulent beauty, rosy pink within, slight char, this is a Champions League pork chop. Sitting atop a flattering backdrop of subtly seasoned white planchada beans with just enough rosemary running through. Ibèrico chop centre stage and running away with the plaudits. The memory of this dish reverberates still. WINE: Decenio Reserva, Rioja, 1999, Spain – Old vine Tempranillo here from family winery Bodegas Las Orcas in the Alavesa region of Rioja, this is classic Rioja with a cheeky bit of age on it. Earthy and savoury, touch of sweet spice, delicate structure. The Ibèrico chop had fun with this wine.

Tarta de Santiago – Galician almond and orange tart, made with zero flour. Another simple dish done well. Almond flour soaked in the juice of oranges. Get me a slice for breakfast while you’re at it. WINE: Moscatel, Bodega de Sarria, Navarra, 2010, Spain – Liquid apricots and peaches, what’s not to like?

David sat and chatted to the table towards the end of the meal, straight from the kitchen, eyes blazing, enthusing about what he loves most about food and cooking. The Pintxo bars of San Sebastián in Spain feature highly on his list of destinations. The nerveless simplicity in his dishes is summed up by a line he utters early on when talking about ingredients: “The detail is in the shopping.”

As David talked I was struck by the thought that he looked like the actor Richard Burton. Not a bad look. Think tousled hair, piercing blue eyes, a restless energy.

There’s a bar you can sit at and indulge in just a few tapas dishes and a couple of beers if you like. Staff are sweet and know their stuff.

A restaurant so off the radar, so little talked about, is a refreshing antidote to a climate in London that sees new joints chewed up and spat out within weeks of opening, the restless pack trampling over one another to reach the next new opening.

Slip down a few gears, turn off into a quiet street off Old Street, sit down at the bar. You’ll feel like you’ve stumbled across the hottest new opening nobody told you about.

Eyre Brothers 10th Anniversary Menu is available throughout November, £38 per person, £60 with matching wines.

Eyre Brothers

70 Leonard St

EC2A 4QX

If you’re really clever, really rich, or really talented in any field, you don’t need to shout about it. You do your thing quietly, confidently, and don’t need to impress your brilliance on everyone you meet – excellence will reap its own reward. Cigalon is just such a restaurant.

Taking its name from the French for “cricket”, the chirping insect found in warmer climes, this particular little grasshopper wannabe finds itself on Chancery Lane, plum in the middle of the land of law courts and lawyers – you’ll see a bewigged chap now and then scurrying down an alleyway to a building where he’ll say things like “M’lud”. Or something like that.

The Gascon family of restaurants is the pedigree here, which includes Club Gascon, Comptoir Gascon and Le Cercle, and Head Chef Julien Carlon and the rest of the staff have all been through the ranks there.

Soothing pastels and the most gorgeous central island of booths that wrap themselves around each other, each one offering an enclave of seclusion, create a stunning first impression. Chuck in a couple of olive trees and you’re seduced into feeling that yes, you really are in a Provençal idyll. The addition of indoor trees could easily come across as gauche and a bit naff, but the effect is measured and subtle.

The exceptional black olive tapenade that is presented as the first morsel, sets the tone. A depth charge of flavour, the distilled essence of black olive, kicking off eager anticipation, salivatory switches flicked to “go”. Excellent, bouncy bread, a cute touch of being toasted on one side, completes a joyful first few mouthfuls.

We crack on:

Niçoise Salad – ordered to test the kitchen, the simplicity of the dish offering no hiding place for a slack brigade. What we receive is a supermodel of a Niçoise. Glorious oozing egg, flashes of red from sweet roasted cherry tomatoes, intense salted anchovy, and the finest tinned pale tuna. Or is it? We’re told that the tuna is a confit in olive oil, prepared in-house – beyond the call of duty and an utterly brilliant touch. £6.50 of Niçoise perfection.

King Scallops and Poutargue Risotto - Scallops that have had just a whisper of heat from the pan, the dense sweetness requiring little more. Poutargue is the French Bottarga, dried mullet roe shavings, and injects soothing risotto and scallop with a salty slap of the sea.

Line caught Salt Cod in Vegetable Broth - reads like an anodyne bore-draw football fixture, but what arrives is an exercise in balance and precision. Pearly white flakes of fish, nestling in a broth of delicacy, the joyful addition of a seriously garlicky aïoli adding spark. Looked so simple, yet over delivered at every step.

Fillet of Hake on Camargue Black Rice – Another deft piece of cooking, meaty fish with crisp skin sitting on dense jet-black rice, the plate given a shock of colour with a shellfish bisque and two prawns. The sweetness and depth of flavour of the prawns was a palate juddering surprise, the bisque carrying a kick from the anise of Pernot.

Bagna Cauda with Crudités - More often seen in its home of Piemonte, Italy, but also found in Nice, the Bagna Cauda is dense and pungent, a hot blend of anchovy, garlic and butter, ready to receive crunchy vegetables for dipping.

Bay leaf Creme Brûlée – A delicate twist on a classic, crunchy in the right places, creamy in all the others, completing a seamless afternoon.

Downstairs the Baranis bar reveals a gravel lined Petanque alley, where you can throw a few balls around, drink Pastis, and explore a wine list led by Provençal and Corsican bottles, overseen by enthusiastic bar manager Yohann Bodier.

There is a measured poise to everything going on here, from the genuinely warm and unaffected welcome from manager Yann Osouf, ex-Wolseley, to the controlled pace of the dishes coming from the kitchen. The comforting sense is that these guys have been doing things too well, for too long, to screw things up. Two visits here saw expectations exceeded on our return.

The Set Menu at £19.50 for two, and £24.50 for three courses is as fine a set menu option as you’ll find in London, and has all the panache, quality and attention to detail of the A la carte.

Cigalon is very clever, very talented and very slick – it just doesn’t need to shout about it.

**A version of this review appeared in the October issue of Flavour London magazine. Bitten & Written appears with a regular restaurant news page on p45 of the current issue.

Apple risotto. It’s a bold, swaggering, confident chef that has the temerity to think of putting it on his menu. Dishes like this are almost an unspoken challenge, a gauntlet thrown down, a “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough” slapped in front of the diner. So the gloves came off.

Josh Katz is impressing his own distinctive culinary style in a venue famed for its own creative snap and crackle, Camden’s Roundhouse, a charity venue that helps to realise the potential of young people in the Arts – live music, theatre, new media, even a bit of circus thrown in too. His CV parades Ottolenghi as a big influence.

The space feels like the best and funkiest school cafe you never had – urban, gritty, pared back, splash of colour, calling to mind a Brooklyn hipster hang out in Williamsburg, or one of the modern joints that pops up in The Mission, San Francisco. Designer Michael Sodeau grew up around the corner, as did Katz, and together they’ve created a room and a menu that fizzes with energy and a sense of enthusiasm.

To install a chef who has the palette and the bright brush strokes to keep pace with such an energetic venue makes total sense, and if they pull it off, blissful synergy will have been achieved. The risks are of the “crash and burn” variety.

The menu sprawls breathlessly around the world, taking in the punchy Thai dressing Nam Jim in a dish of pork belly, Israeli cous cous flirting with a lemongrass relish beside pan-fried Hake, miso purée playing games with a piece of crisp fried chicken. I refuse to mention the “F” word, but for sure the menu brings to mind happy memories of the thrilling flavour combinations of Anna Hansen at The Modern Pantry, and fellow Kiwi Peter Gordon, who is now grooving to his own tune at Kopapa in Covent Garden.

Sweet Potato & Potato Gnocchi - Well made, silken sweet potato and ricotta gnocchi of the cutesy size, sit on top of roasted aubergine that has a suitably sordid consistency, echoes of babaganoush. None of the promised crunch of Pangrattato, and those pucks of potato are a touch too buttery after their final flourish in the pan, but it’s a lovely, soothing dish.

Brown Crab and Cassava Croquettes - Another cocky dish, the potential for a nightmare flavour collision immense, but these are skilfuly prepared, decent whack of crab flavour, just a hint of sweet cassava, crisply fried. Proper smoked chilli sambal, good hit of shrimp paste, clearly freshly made, a sweetcorn aïoli completing the dance. This has brunch menu written all over it, ready to chase lingering hangovers back whence they came.

Sticky Pork Belly - Haunted by a back note of star anise, sitting on top of a perky salad of green papaya, mango and cashew, enlivened by a dressing of Nam Jim, freshness of lime juice cutting through fatty belly.

Apple Risotto - Here’s that risotto. Apple, goat cheese, walnut, chives. Fears diminish as perfectly cooked risotto is delivered, with shape, texture, just enough bite, and seasoned impeccably. Freshness of apple, pungent goat cheese with skin left on, crunch of walnut. The rice pudding catastrophe potential is averted. Many lesser Italian restaurants will plate up risotto way below the standard here.

Wine list from neighbours Bibendum does its thing without making the heart flutter, but there are a comendable ten wines by the glass and a decent English sparkler, Chapel Down from Kent. Coffee is exceptional, and upon asking I’m told Caravan coffee – another Kiwi collective roasting their own excellent beans. Smart beer list filled with craft producers, Camden Town Brewery on draught. Lots of the right noises are coming from all parts of this well thought out restaurant.

No room for dessert, but apple risotto is practically pudding right? No, it was far, far better than that.

**A version of this review appeared in the August issue of Flavour London magazine. Bitten & Written is on page 15 of the current issue. Our Top Five Cocktail Bars in London also appear in this issue on page 63**

Iberico cheeks. The sordid thrill of seeing those two words on a menu saw a casual read of the menu turn into a frantic grabbing of the last two stools.

This sherry and tapas bar from old hand Abel Lusa of Cambio de Tercio, personifies the flourish of the matador’s cape (capote), and the dazzling colours of the flamenco dancer, the space a garish blend of pink, red and yellow. Influence of the bull (toros) is all around this tiny venue, and on the art hung on the bright walls. A clattery atmosphere jangles the nerves, but adds a welcome note of bonhomie and Andalucian style.

The quality and execution of the dishes belies the lowly “sherry and tapas bar” moniker. This is serious quality food of real panache and confidence, a nod to the other venues which are part of the group. The experience of an established restaurant group is gold dust in this frenzied atmosphere of relentless London openings – and it shows.

Iberico Cheeks “Al Oloroso Dulce” – Silken Iberico cheeks steeped in Oloroso sherry, nestling on indecently textured potato, invigorated by a backnote of peppery olive oil, is a show stopper. Even more joyful at £6.50 for two glorious nuggets.

Carpaccio of Codfish –  Served at perfect room temperature, studded with zesty orange pieces and black olives, pretty and lovingly presented. Classy stuff.

Iberico Charcuterie – Top grade “Cinco Jotas” is expertly carved, a groaning plate of selected cuts of Iberico with lomo, chorizo, and jamón is stupid value at £12.

Galician Octopus, Sweet Paprika – A refined, plated version of the familiar Pulpo a la Gallega, often served on a wooden board, but all the elements are there, smoked paprika, potato, punctuated with shards of sea salt. Anchovies marinated in Palo Cortado vinaigrette are a palate enlivening perfect appetiser, making salivatory instincts kick into overdrive. Pass me that Manzanilla.

Then there is the sherry list. Sherry is now firmly back in the groove on the London dining scene – this list trumps them all.

Wine is relegated to the back of the list and plays second fiddle, the sherries covering all bases with a commendable Palo Cortado offering.

Wines are infuriatingly presented, amongst slap dash label images, confusing presentation, and is painful to navigate. No matter, sherry is the star here. We hoover up a couple of bottles of La Goya Manzanilla at £13 for a half-bottle, and are happy simply with this.

The night we visit there are chinks in service, the result of inexperience and mild panic – we forgive all for the sweet smiles and genuine enthusiasm.

On the air-kissing, Prada wearing, Maserati driving, stretch of Old Brompton Road, this is a welcome blast of Spain from the shores of Jerez.

The memory of those silken Iberico cheeks remains….

**A version of this review appeared in the July issue of Flavour London magazine. Bitten & Written is on page 22 of the current issue.**

Du Pain. Du Vin. Du Boursin.

François Boursin lucked out. Wrongly reported in the French press as being on the verge of launching Boursin with garlic in 1961, early publicity for this cheese maker in Normandy sent him scurrying away to his cheese Bat Cave. Two years later Boursin “Ail et Fine Herbes” was launched.

The first cheese featured in a TV ad campaign in 1968, its presence filtered through to the UK and for many (my parents included) this cutesy little creamy cheese from Gournay, shot through with garlic, chives and parsley, was the height (and limit) of French culinary exploration.

Now, the refrain of hypnotic ads from the 1990’s is embedded within my mind with a searing laser quality. It’s for this reason that the Hotel Du Vin group, with their excellent and beautifully appointed hotels in some of the prettiest buildings in their various cities, had me reciting advert refrains in my head every time I walked through their doors. Being their wine rep for a few years didn’t shake the novelty of that snappy advertising land genius, so for me, Du Vin will always have me parroting back the other two musketeers, Du Pain and Du Boursin. No room for D’Artagnan.

So Bistro Du Vin is now being rolled out across London with rapidity, the Farringdon outpost already in place, Soho following quickly, Chiswick, Shoreditch and others waiting in line.

A pewter bar sweeps you from the entrance into the main room, thirteen bar stools announcing another easy drop-in venue for Soho inspired Bacchanalia.  Decor is plush enough to make you want to linger, mahogany banquettes, cream wood panelling, moody lighting in the right spots, a separate cosy area wrapping its arm around you with plump seats and bookcases. You could almost jump into a stool from one across the road at Dean Street Townhouse, or down the road at Quo Vadis, a three gear Soho bar crawl. This is now the posh stretch of Soho, dontcha know?

Menu flirts and goes to bed with all the French bistro classics, from Oysters to Lobster Bisque, Moule Frites to Onglet Steak and Frites.

Belted Galloway Bone-in Sirloin - Seductive char on the flesh speaks of heat from the Hellfire of Josper grill. Silken meat, perfectly medium-rare as requested, nuggets of wobbly fat, whack of beefy flavour throughout. Galloway and Josper triumphant. Zealously salty Béarnaise sauce the only off-note.

Hot Roasted Shells - Joyous, rustling bowl of razor clams, Queen scallops, mussels, crab, topped off with half a lobster. Buttery, garlicky liquor at the bottom a sinful dunking sauce. Fun.

Steak Tartare - Boldly laced with a spicy snap of horseradish, good quality tender meat, finely diced. Proper tiny capers. Quivering egg yolk nestled on top. Not as much fun as the rougher hewn meat of the best, but hits the right tartare buttons.

Lamb Sweetbreads - Satisfying pucks of the most fiendishly, deviously named offal on the planet. We don’t wanna be reminded, right? Lightly crumbed, velvet within, close your eyes and pretend they’re the finest chicken nuggets ever. Spiked with salty bits of charcuterie, a welcome counterpoint. Thymus gland? No dear, they’re sweetbreads ‘innit.

Crème Brûlée – Caramelised top you could skate across. Vanilla flecked and luscious beneath. Rich enough, not overblown. Bloody big for £6.50.

The wine list deserves serious mention. The man pulling the strings at the top as Director of Wines and Spirits is Ronan Sayburn, Master Sommelier with a devastating CV that includes time at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, Pied à Terre, and the Gordon Ramsay group as Executive Head Sommelier for eight years – this is big boys league, Grand Cru, stellar wine pedigree. Head Sommelier at Soho is the talented Romain Audrerie who was at The Savoy with Marcus Wareing before helping launch Hotel du Vin Edinburgh.

The relatively short list (160 wines) is a joy, and sends most restaurant wine lists in London cowering to the back of the class for extra homework.

Intent is shown with sixteen wines in the “By the Glass” preservation system, with Californian stalwart Ramey Chardonnay by the glass, alongside iconic names Domaine Leflaive and Sassicaia for fine wine addicts. The confidence shown putting maverick California producer Sean Thackrey’s Pleiades by the glass (a bonkers blend of many varietals), and a German Riesling Kabinett from JJ Prüm, shows they mean business and have the staff that can talk about and sell them. Any wine list having a section entitled “Just Pinot Noir” has already claimed my soul.

Chug along with £5.40 a glass, or go bananas with Château Margaux 1999 at £85.

Cheese fetishes are served by the cute La Cave au Fromage, a glassed cheese room in the corner housing artisan cheeses and charcuterie, headed up by charismatic Eric Charriaux. He unravels a creamy white cheese in the chill blasted room. What’s this he speaks of? A bespoke “Du Vin” cheese, a semi-soft cow’s milk? I’m panicked. Du Pain?  Du Vin? The Holy Trinity here in Soho? It is in fact a cheese washed with Austrian dessert wine twice a week for five weeks, with not a hint of garlic, parsley or chive in sight. Creamy, like a Wensleydale he says.

Bistro du Vin has slipped pretty smoothly onto the Soho scene, emboldened by a lavish opening night launch, where lobster and Champagne were plentiful, and cricketers and rugby stars were seen moving amongst the Martinis and the moules. Bohemia has been courted, flirted with, seduced perhaps.

Natty bit of styling of the Du Vin brand too. Soho. Red Light District? Nah mate.

Welcome to the Red Wine District. Du What? You heard.

Not a morsel of Boursin in sight…

Bistro Du Vin Soho

36 Dean Street

W1D 4PS

£££  Steak Tartare £7.50, Bone-in Sirloin £32, Lamb Sweetbreads £7.95, Hot Roasted Shells £35, Crème Brûlée £6.50

The espresso shot is downed in an instant, and Ben Spalding, the twenty-four year old Head Chef at Simon Rogan’s Roganic in Marylebone, recounts getting his fingers burnt with a restaurant which very nearly opened with him at the helm.

Three days before his restaurant was due to open in Folkestone, he was seeing everything unravel before him. He was told bluntly by his business partner that the money simply wasn’t there to open for business. A tangled web of failed loan applications brought the vision to a shuddering halt.

“Even worse it was two days before my first wages from him, he had included it in the loan! I couldn’t believe it.”

Stunned by the news, the reality of the situation revealed itself.

“He had applied for several loans from various money sources with a complete business plan over several months, had been getting knocked back by them and decided not to tell me. He pretended everything was fine. I hit the roof.”

With a family and young child to support, life took on a darker hue as he realised he would have to look towards London for work.

“I had created a restaurant in Folkestone that had everything, forty covers, right on the sea, making our own salt and butter, I poured six months of my life, heart and soul into it…”

Having been in the kitchen at L’Autre Pied in Marylebone, and at Rhodes W1, Ben was swiftly involved in a damage limitation exercise.

“After I cooled down I contacted various contacts in london who we then met with to find funding. It was too short notice, it was clear it wasn’t going to happen – I was gutted. The effects were devastating, to the point now where I live in London five days a week to work because of our flat contract commitments. I’ve had to sacrifice my family because of incompetence. I listened to many people close to me who told me to cut my ties with this guy and I decided to look for a new project – which ended up being Roganic.”

His time spent working with Simon at L’Enclume in Cartmel has been ideal preparation for the working partnership they now have.

“Ultimately it’s Simon’s business but my kitchen. He expects me to run it properly and consistently. Simon is giving me an incredible amount of trust, responsibility and respect. We write the menus together, I must keep his ethos and style but I have free will to create, which I thrive on.”

Forty dishes have been created for the opening, which will come on the Roganic menu over the coming months, with some making way for new dishes throughout the year, coming back refined and stronger. One of his favourites will be the Seawater cured Kentish Mackerel, sea beet, onions and honey.

At twenty-four years old, there is precocious talent here, with a period at Per Se in New York under Thomas Keller to his name, and time spent in Melbourne.

“Thomas Keller is an incredible chef, Per Se is without doubt the best place and best meal I have ever eaten anywhere. Utterly inspirational.”

Now he’s back in London, I ask him if he feels both New York and Melbourne are still leading the culinary dance in many ways.

“Yes I would, just about.  I lived and worked there in 2006 so times have changed and London is now very close behind with underground movements like The Loft Project and The Young Turks. Then you have places like Polpo and Terroirs providing accessible and affordable dining.”

He loves his music.

“If I wasn’t cooking I’d be striving to be a great DJ.”

There is a palpable energy emanating from him as he speaks, a crackle of excitement – he’s almost feverish. He answers in an instant when asked how he lets off steam.

“Clubbing at Fabric for some hedonism!”

**A version of this interview will appear in the July issue of Flavour London magazine. Bitten & Written is on page 22 of the current issue.

Roganic opens on 25th June 2011.

19 Blandford Street
London, W1U 3DH

MENU PREVIEW:

*Broad bean and hyssop, fresh curds and beetroot

*Roasted brill, chicken salt, cockles and ruby chard

*Shredded Ox tongue, cucumber pickles and sourdough

*Flaky crab and mallow cream, young squid and cucumber

*Warm spiced bread, salted almonds, buckthorn curd, smoked clotted cream