Rekorderlig Midsummer House and The Lauriston

When I booked tickets to the Rekorderlig Midummser House in Victoria Park about a month ago I had visions of cider sipping in the sunshine... Instead last night I got rain. And wind. And cold rainy wind. I wasn't impressed to say the least. Hannah and myself pottered down to Vicky Park, brollies out bitterly moaning about the British Unsummer. 

The £10 gets you entry to the event, a Rekordelig of choice and a snack. We started with the new passionfruit flavour with a slice of lime. 

In the garden a few individuals were braving the cold on the sheltered decking. We took refuge with our ciders on the chairs. These chairs were amazing. If I had a massive garden I would definitely be getting some. Sadly not even my yellow bag could brighten the weather and eventually the chill won and we peeled ourselves off the chairs with difficulty and a lack of dignity (celeb experts at not flashing pants we are not). 

Next we decided it was time to try one of the cocktails - a cider cocktail! I hear you cry... Well the Rekorderlini with pear cider, champers and chocolate syrup was a winner. Plus who doesn't like a retro glace cherry?

I wrongly assumed that the ticket included a cider and a hotdog. In was in fact a 'snack' which was a sample of 3 of their mini hotdog wrap type things. Disappointingly small but the snacks were pretty tasty and had it not been so bloody cold I would have gone back and just paid the £5 to get a full one afterwards. However it was cold. And raining. And after another cider it was decided that there is only so much sweet cider in the cold/ rain one can cope with and we left in the direction of Victoria Park Village in search of shelter and more food. 

After a skip, hop and jump through the park we decided to take refuge in The Lauriston, which had been on my to try list. The pub itself is all kinds of miss matched furniture, but with a projector showing Wimbledon - what a treat. They do pizzas here and bloody good ones. Prices range from about £7.95 and £10.95 depending on the toppings. 

We went for the smoky pancetta, mushroom and chilli pizza and it was just how a pizza should be. They are freshly prepared at the front with a pizza oven so you know they are going to be good. I am definitely going to be coming back and making my way through the menu pizza by pizza!

All in all the Rekorderlig Midsummer experience was let down by the weather. Had it been a glorious sunny evening (one can dream) then the £10 entry would have seemed fine as you would have stayed all night. However it wasn't that busy as people had obviously thought better of facing the rain and as a result the atmosphere wasn't great. A bit of music probably would have helped at this point... Maybe next year?

Rekorderlig Midsummer House

Until Friday 5th of July

Victoria Park

London

The Lauriston

162 Victoria Park Road

E9 7JN

0208 985 5404

Coppa

Update: Since this post was published Coppa have made some changes to the menu. Antipasti is now £8 per head and all the skewers and arancini are now served in pairs. 

When reading any of my blog posts, my mother and sister both accuse me of being too nice. I can honestly say that this is the first time either of them have accused me of this. I do however explain that a lot of the places I’ve been visiting have simply just been good.

The sister emailed me whilst I was away a few weeks ago, asking if I wanted to go the soft opening of Coppa – the new roof terrace pop up on London Fields run by the people behind Lardo’s – one of our favourite restaurants in Hackney. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get into the soft opening but reserved a table for the following Friday.

I am straight away going to acknowledge that Coppa did not have an easy opening night. Having torrential rain and winter temperatures on your first night at the end of May was not exactly predictable nor ideal. The staff tried to be as chirpy as possible and even thanked us for still coming and braving the weather.

Coppa is a pop up this summer on a roof on London Fields near the Pub on the Park. They have put up some little wooden cabanas in bright colours which will look great on a sunny day. We were however ushered into a little glass room they have which was sheltered much to our relief. The only downside was, the 3 of us were put on a small table right by the door when the rest of the place was empty, meaning that everytime the staff went in and out to get food we were still freezing. Also below was not quite the rooftop view I was expecting! 

The gist of the menu is that each person had the general antipasti for £10 per head and then a few hot and grilled dishes can be ordered as extras. Now I thought £10 was a bit steep for some anti-pasti. We were given some olives, salted almonds, slightly bizarre dried peppers, caponato and chickpea salad. All of these things were perfectly pleasant – my favourite part was probably the caponato as it was the only warm element and we were bloody cold. On the other hand though for £10 a head I think they could have provided some hams or salamis, particular as Lardo’s is known for curing their own meats - Also the name Coppa (a type of salami) seemed slightly misleading... 

Now we ordered one each of the 3 different skewers which costs from around £3.5—4.50 each and then the other 2 had a mini calzone each for around £4.50 and I had arancini for £2.50. One rice ball arriving with a wedge of lemon which is roughly the same size did not really impress me. It was tasty, don’t get me wrong – but just looked lonely. It would have made more sense to charge more like £3 or 3.50 and have 2 or 3. But this was nothing compare to paying £4.50 for one skewered prawn. One prawn. One of the other skewers was some sort of fried bread skewer which had such a strong soapy taste to it due to one of the herbs.

The majority of the food was perfectly nice. The calzones were tasty and the only items which I would say were actually good value for money. The staff were also incredibly friendly and obviously trying to make the best of a pretty crappy rainy situation. But I think we all agreed that generally speaking it was pretty expensive for what it was in particular the antipasti and one prawn. The bill came to roughly £85 - £30 of this accounted for by our mixed veggie antipasti.

I’m going to come back to Coppa on a sunny weekend afternoon – but this time probably for a drink and if I get peckish maybe a calzone or 2. Hopefully the view will look a bit brighter than this! 

Coppa
Hothouse Rooftop
Access via Mortello Street
London
E8 3QW

Rita's Bar and Dining

Well call me late off the mark but on Tuesday night I visited Rita’s Bar and Dining who are doing a current residency at Birthdays on Stoke Newington Road. OK, I will be honest – I was actually driven there by a sense of panic after seeing that they plan to move location in April so I dashed to try it out whilst they are still on my doorstep. Apologies in advance for the photos - the place is pretty dark/ not iphone photo friendly! 

I took with me my old school friend Vanessa (a Dalston virgin). Rita’s opens at 7 so we arrived at 7.15. Thank god we weren't any later as by 7.30 all the tables were full with a nice mixed east end crowd who were all there for one reason – fried food. Whilst sipping on a pretty darn good Margarita – nicely named ‘Rita’s, we tackled the menu. 

The menu is pretty small, a good thing because as it was I wanted everything. We went for the Sichuan Sticky Squid to start. I then decided to try the Friend Chicken Roll as I had read rave reviews and V opted for the Pulled Pork Sandwich special. We also decided that we obviously needed some Mac’ and Cheese to wash it down.

The squid was a big bowl full of sweet sticky squid strips, and after a few seconds I felt the familiar mouth numbing tingling brought on by Sichuan pepper. Then the pulled pork arrived… the sandwich was a full on 12 inch sub type number. I tried some and the pork was melt in the mouth good – this has been my second pulled pork experience in less than a week after StreetKitchen’s pulled pork burger last Thursday and I think it’s safe to say I’m a pulled pork fan (I’m not quite sure how many more times I can write pulled pork in this sentence). 

The Mac’ and Cheese was just what you would want it to be – cheesy and addictive. To be honest though, if you put guacamole and jalapenos on anything, I’m happy. Then my Chicken Roll arrived in a paper brown bag with the Rita’s logo – a nice original touch though possibly a bit of a waste of paper if I’m going to be picky. The fried chicken was the crunchiest I've had and the garlic mayo added a nice kick. My only complaint was that it fell apart a bit and let’s just says I was quickly a mayonnaise monster face (but it was worth it). 

The meal came to £38 (without service) for cocktails and the food and we were both stuffed - pretty good value if you ask me! As I said, Rita’s have recently announced that they are leaving Birthday’s in Dalston soon and have yet to announce their next location (the waiter pretended not to know despite my pretty desperate questioning). I hope they stay East but wherever they go, I will be close behind begging for more. 

Rita's Bar and Dining
Birthdays, 33-35 Stoke Newington Road, 
London N16 8BJ