Ivy's Mess Hall

I've been to Ivy's Mess Hall a few times over the past few months. The first time I stumbled upon it was at the end of September when there was a weirdly warm Friday evening and me and some friends perched on the outside tables to have a few gin and tonics before wandering down to Ridley Road Market Bar. 

The second time was for a few drinks with my sister pre my first Floyds visit on Shacklewell lane. But I like it there. They serve decent cocktails and the inside is comfortable and trendy without being painfully so. This visit was for a quick drink/ bite to eat before we went to see The Wolf of Wall Street at the Rio. If I was sitting through a 3 hour film I was going to need some food and had always been called in by the chalk board outside Ivy's declaring they had one of my favourite things ever - Burrata. 

We sat at our table with the super cute mismatched crockery, ordered an Aperol Spritz and looked through the menu of small plates. They have olives, bruschettas and sliders - oh my! In the end we ordered some bread, olives, burrata, plate of charcuterie and some sliders - (did I mention it was going to be a 3 hour film?). 

Sadly then the most upsetting thing happened - they had run out of burrata. Whilst I nursed my Aperol Spritz with tears in my eyes the daily special of spiced dhal. I got over it slightly when the food started to arrive. Everything is nicely presented and tasty.

The sliders were pulled pork and very cute. Probably they could have done with a bit of a flavour kick in the form of chilli or something but apart from that they hit the spot. The surprise star dish of the night was the daal which we were in too much of a rush for me to take a picture. It was served in a little earthenware pot and was deliciously spiced. 

My only problem with the charcuterie plate was despite being very pretty... there was fruit on it. Now I'm all for creativity but in no situation do I want to see strawberries and blueberries next to my salami! 

Ivy's is a perfect place if you want to have a drink with friends with a few nibbles as oppose to a big old meal. Definitely going to be a regular. 

Ivy's Mess Hall
129 Kingsland High Street
E8 2PB

Casa Negra

On Saturday night, my uni friend Katherine and I needed a catch up so we went for dinner at Casa Negra in Shoreditch. Their older sister's place in Soho - La Bodega Negra is known for its neon sex shop sign on the door, which I'm ashamed to say that I've never ventured through.

When I booked the table earlier in the week, I was told that they could fit us sitting on the kitchen bar. I was assured by the chatty hostess that this is a good seat 'as long as you're not on a date... are you on a date?'. After assuring the girl that sadly it was nowhere near a date the table was all booked. Anyway we went in at 8 o'clock and had a drink in the bar which is dark and moody and would be perfect for a few drinks with either friends or dates. Then margarita in hand, we were taken into the main room which is actually pretty small and intimite with an open kitchen which we perched on the side of. 

We started with a massive bowl of tacos and guacamole whilst we perused the menu. They had a selection of small plates and starters and then a few mains at the 13-18 pound mark. We decided to order just a couple of the smaller plates to try and share. First up was the 4 cheese quesadilla (£10) which was like a tasty chilli cheese pizza. 

As well as that we went for 2 types of tacos - prawn and steak. Both were tasty enough and I loved the little stand in which they were served. The prawn was was my favourite with a refreshing mango salsa on it. 

All in all although it might not be the most groundbreaking Mexican food I have ever tasted - but everything I tried was nice and the staff were all lovely. The room itself had a great atmosphere - the table behind were having a birthday so that helped. Also sitting at the kitchen/ bar was great as it allowed us to watch the chefs buzzing away and plating everything up! 

If you need somewhere to have dinner round Shoreditch and a great margarita or 3, I would definitely recommend Casa Negra. And since we only had one drink each and a few dishes the bill was only £50 including service - well you can't argue with that.

Casa Negra
54-56 Great Eastern Street
London
EC2A 3QR
0207 033 7360

When Mac Met Cheese Pop-up at The Russet

I'm afraid December's madness is to blame for this late post. In December every single night seems to be filled with some kind of Christmas festivities and then I have a pre-Christmas birthday just to top it off. The whole month is just a daze of eating, drinking, eating, drinking, and so on.

Anyway January is upon us and most people have quietened down due to either lack of funds or fear of liver failure. I am never as extreme as to go for a total dry january... just a damp one. I am trying to limit the amount I go out to eat and drink at the moment but couldn't resist when I saw this little number on Twitter.

Well seeing as I live within a ridiculous close distance to The Russet, a lovely cafe/ restaurant/ bar in Hackney Down Studios - how could I resist? The January diet was dumped and off we went on Friday night to eat some Mac and Cheese. I had already tried When Mac Met Cheese at the last Feast so new I was going to get a good feeding. 

The Russet was busier than ever and after a slight confusion as to whether we had to queue up to the bar to be seated or not, we sat down and perused the choice of cheese goodness. I went for the Carlos The Cactus as I always go for the spicy option and was advised to add bacon lardons. My friend went for Mum's classic with added pulled pork. 

When the boxes of cheesy goodness arrived, we were ready and hungry. My one, with the jalepeno's adding a kick and the bacon lardons adding an extra salty savoury treat was delicious.. The sauce is so cheesy it should be impossible. They also make every mac and cheese to order so its all freshly cooked meaning its less stodgy. Perfect winter comfort food which was easily washed down with a glass of white wine or two...

Is it rich? Yes. Did I feel slightly sick towards the end? Possibly.. Would I do it all over again? Most definitely. When Mac Met Cheese are at the Russet every night until this Friday. If you're in the neighbourhood and haven't been - get yourself there immediately! It's basically towards the end of January anyway, you might as well call the diets off!  

When Mac Met Cheese @ The Russet

17 Amhurst Terrace

London

E8 2BT

Luke Jacob

When you have curly hair the idea of going to the hairdresser’s is a lot more dramatic than for those straight haired women. There is the fear of a hairdresser screaming with terror at the prospect of having to try to tame your mane, the risk of coming out looking like or the sound of the sheep shearers coming out (this actually happened to me as a child).

As a result I will have to admit I didn’t actually get a professional haircut for near on 10 years, instead just letting my friends chop off the odd inch with a glass of vino in hand. This summer though I decided it was time to face my fear and seeing on Twitter that there was a new hairdressers round Spitalfields was a perfect opportunity.

Luke Jacob is opened in Feruary of this year on Commercial street just a few doors down from The Ten Bells. I went along in June, slightly worried about the fate of my locks. The place is nice and cosy and who doesn’t love that wallpaper?! After being given a glass of wine to settle my nerves, Deane spent the next hour washing, brushing, shaking, cutting and generally taming my hair. I was really pleased with the end result. Not too short, no shearers in sight. At £45 a cut for women, the prices are really reasonable, particularly considering the Spitalfields location. 

A sign of a good hairdressers is if you go back and back I went at the beginning of the month, and back I will go for my hair cuts whilst they are still there. Tea, wine, good reading material and great friendly staff... no reason not to really. 


Luke Jacob
80 Commercial Street
London
E1 6LY
0207 247 0087

Monkey Shoulder Popcorn Flip

Last week I was invited to go along to Monkey Shoulder’s For One Night Only event. Having had a blast at the last one, I happily grabbed a whisky drinking friend and arrived at the Shoreditch Studios ready for what was to be thrown at us. In this case this was literally popcorn. The event was called Popcorn Flip and we had been promised popcorn. Lots of popcorn... a few tonnes of popcorn in fact.

We arrived to be handed an overall to put over our clothes – at this point I was slightly confused and regretting having put any thought into my outfit that morning but we pulled on the thin overalls and made our way into the room. It was like being faced with Charlie and the Popcorn Factory. On one side was a bouncy castle with a popcorn cannon pointed straight at it. On the other side was a giant popcorn holder with some beanbags to sit on. The next room gave us a popcorn pit to sit in. Popcorn popcorn popcorn. It was time to head to the bar to help me mentally process the whole room.

As I have said before when writing up the last Monkey Shoulder event, I’m not a whisky lover. Monkey Shoulder Whisky cocktails on the other hand... quite a different story. I sampled 2 – the Rusty Nail and the Boulevardier No3. The latter is a twist on the oh so trendy Negroni but I actually surprisingly preferred the Rusty Nail which was just a bit sweeter/easier to drink.

Our first cocktail consumed, we decided it was time to brave the popcorn filled bouncy castle. Shoes off and on we went. Having not been on one for about 15 years, this was bloody hilarious. Grown adults falling over in piles of popcorn had an undeniable element of comedy about it and I couldn’t stop laughing (apart from one hairy moment where I thought I was being buried alive by popcorn – luckily I lived to tell the tale/ write this post). 

After jumping in the popcorn it was time to sample the amazing varieties of gourmet popcorn they had to offer which included chilli caramel, blue cheese, paprika and cheddar... and about 10 others. They were all completely yummy – my favourite being the chilli caramel.. very addictive stuff. 

We ended the night with a sit down in the popcorn pit. When has anyone ever sat in a giant vat of popcorn?? Surprisingly comfortable in case you're wondering! 

 

Monkey Shoulder put on yet another brilliant event full of surprises. I had to explain to my new flatmate who I invited along that this was not the type of thing I do every Thursday night. Her text the following day pretty much summed it up ‘I never want to go to another bar unless there’s a bouncy castle’.

They’ve said it’s their last For One Night Only event. I’m hoping this isn’t actually the case. In the meantime whilst I wait to hear about the next fun whisky fueled night, I’m still finding popcorn in my handbag and room.

Lardo

One of the things I have been criticised for the most by my harshest critic (my mother) is that fact that I’m too nice when writing reviews... bearing in mind this is the only situation in which she has ever accused me of being ‘too nice’, I realised she might be right... I should probably learn to give a bit more criticism along with the gushing praise.

Earlier in the week I popped along to an old favourite standby – Lardo on Richmond Road. This was probably my 5^th visit to Lardo over the past few years since they opened and to be honest they’ve never disappointed. Their mix of Italian small plates and big old pizzas has always been a winner. I blood love Lardo, however unfortunately on this visit I had a couple of grumbles.

I had booked for a table of 3 about well in advance for my Tuesday dinner and was slightly annoyed that we were put on a small table obviously meant for two right by the door. This meant that when ordering a few starters to share along with the drinks it was a real struggle to fit things on the table.  

Initial grumble aside, the starters themselves were as usual complete hits. When burrata is on the menu I never refuse, and this one was lovely in a pool of good quality extra virgin olive oil. We also had clams with white polenta which was a combination I’ve never had– one of my dinner companions is a self declared polenta hater – but I think she was converted to a polenta lover... or at least liker. Lastly we had the pigs ears. Now I’m open to trying most things and was very glad I did! These were like bits of delicious crunchy crackling in a perfectly dressed salad. All in all the starters impressed as always. 

The mains we went for were 2 pizzas and a pasta. The two pizzas were one with lardy loin, spinach and egg, and the second with smoked ricotto, roasted garlic and chicory. The pasta choice was a wild boar ragu on homemade tagliatelle. 

Once all the plates were squished onto our little table, they looked absolutely great and we dove straight in. Mine was the smoked ricotta and chicory pizza. After the first bite I was pretty overpowered by the bitter flavour but knowing this is what chicory is like I kept going.. by slice number 2 I decided to let the others try it to see if it was just my taste buds which were screaming ‘burnt!’ to me. The feeling that the flavour on the pizza wasn’t right and quite frankly unpleasant was unanimous and it was mentioned to the waitress.

Now this was just an absolute prime example of bloody great customer service. She was completely apologetic, said she would ask the chefs to try it and straight away offered to get me something else. Having had the starters and some of the other mains I declined. The chef came over to apologise and said it was a new pizza on the menu that day and once again offered to get me something else. The other pizza was an absolute delight so I do think this was just an unlucky choice!

When the bill arrived I noticed that the pizza had been removed from the bill without them even saying anything to us. Perhaps the slightly disappointing pizza was a good thing as it allowed them to demonstrate what can only be described as the best way to possibly handle a customer who isn’t completely happy with a dish. 

The meal was rounded off with a tiramisu split between the three of us who were soon spoon fighting over the last bit and more red wine. Perfect ending. 

Lardo remains one of my favourite restaurants in the Dalston/ Hackney area. I’ve never had a bad meal there, excluding this one pizza, and even then the rest of the meal and the service more than made up for it. As usual I will be back soon...

Lardo
205 Richmond Road
Hackney
London 
E8 3NJ
0208 985 2683