Sunday 19 September 2010

Wild about Wild Honey...

So last weekend found us in London again. We usually prefer to eat out at lunchtime when we're there...often better value, easier to find a good table and it leaves the evening free for other things...like sipping a world class margarita outside The Providores and watching the world go by, for instance!!



Wild Honey is one of our favourite lunch spots....




it's on the site of the former Drones club, and the panelling makes it look a little 'clubby' still...but it's a polished, beautiful space with a wonderful bar...which is where we always prefer to sit. Paul and I are both people watchers...a polite label for 'nosey'...and always fight about who gets to sit looking at the wall over the other person's shoulder in restaurants and who gets to look out at the room! So sitting side by side, able to see who's coming in & out, who's sitting down and being able to look out of the window at the same time as eating fantastic food is our idea of heaven!
The set price lunch menu (2 choices) at £19 is incredible value for this standard of cooking. Anthony Demetre and his team have perfected the art of simple presentation mixed with incredibly intense flavours and beautiful combinations. On this occasion I had a bowl of white bean soup...I can taste it now! The light broth was so deep and perfectly seasoned that I feel as though I could eat it for every meal a the moment. All I really needed...but I also had a salad of hazelnuts, sheep's curd, syrupy figs and bitter leaves which left me feeling light and virtuous but replete at the same time. Wines are served by the 250ml carafe, so you can choose a different one with each course if you want to...I chose a Gruner Veltliner, sparky & flinty and difficult to find a good one outside Austria. I always jump on it in a restaurant that knows wine well...and Wild Honey is one of those. The staff are always extremely efficient yet friendly, which is my ideal combination. It's somewhere we'll always go back to. A lot is made of their sister restaurant, in Soho, Arbutus. It seems to attract most of the accolades. We've been and it was fine. But for me, it's Wild Honey every time.

Afterwards, wandering around Soho...which is a favourite Saturday afternoon pastime...we visited the much-talked about new bakery Cox Cookies & Cake in Brewer Street. Opened by the designer Patrick Cox, it's on the site of a former sex shop...now a dark ,hot (they hadn't had air conditioning installed yet!) glittery box of a space...handsome young men in studded leather aprons serve amazingly decorated cupcakes from a perspex topped counter. At a price. A HUGE price (to me, also a professional baker as you know...) A selection of 4 regular sized cupcakes (no prices on display) came to £14.50! But they were a present (I imagine that is what most of them will be, I can't see people buying them to take home themselves..) and therefore it really didn't matter too much!

Good luck to them I say! But I'm not sure that I'll be back....soon, anyway!

Enjoy your week xox

6 comments:

  1. Thank you Rachel for the little peak into your weekend. Honey sounds ike a lovely place for a bite to eat and love seeing the pictures of the buildings. You describe such a delicious meal.Love name of your blog and picturing Mozart eating a brownie!

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  2. seems like such a lovely place. You make me want to visit London. I need to make peace with this city one day, Wild Honey might be a good start for this.

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  3. Hello Rachel!

    Enjoyed reading about your lunch date at Wild Honey. Sounds like a very nice place to eat! Love to find a good restaurant that never disappoints! New bakery sounds interesting...cupcakes were definitely a splurge, but since they were a gift, I guess was okay. Soho sounds like a wonderful place to walk around & browse! Hoping one day I can visit Soho too. Sending love...really enjoyed reading! xo

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  4. I love to read your travels in incomparable London. It always just transports me there instantly. The overpriced cupcakes are hilarious! Would love to share a bowl of white bean soup one day... xxxx

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  5. Rachel,the hazelnuts, sheep's curd and figs salad makes my mouth water! I'd love to taste it with you, watching people talking, moving, walking (that's what me and my boyfriend always do: sit on a chair or on a bench, watching people pass by and making up stories).

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  6. Love your blog Rachel and your new cranberry friend...I would drool over it like huge big ranges...

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I love to read what you write! Thanks for visiting! xo