A Trip to London and Cambridge

Just at the tail end of the Edinburgh Festivals, I headed out of town and travelled down to London for another in our continuing series of lengthy charity walks, with Cambridge the destination, this time. Of course, this presented a good opportunity to check out some dining spots in both cities.

Upon arrival in London at an ungodly hour, my first stop was a little coffee bar in Victoria called Coffee Geek & Friends. It was serving some very familiar Allpress, so this was a really lovely way to start the morning.

Next up was the Regency Cafe on Regency Street. Oh my word, what a place. Established in 1946, the walls were bedecked with celebrity signatures from Al Pacino to Spurs legend Ledley King. It was soon easy to see why.

I arrived a little after 7.20am. A few minutes later the place was queued out of the door. Offering dishes including a full set breakfast including toast and tea for £5.50, the menu extends to steak pie, a curry special one day each week and homemade fish cakes.

I was in breakfast mood so opted for their cracking set deal, which comprised grilled tomatoes, link sausage, two rashers of delicious bacon, a brightly yolked fried egg as well as hot buttered toast and builders’ tea. I added a portion of bubble and squek for 90p. It was well worth it.

It’s one of the best greasy spoon breakfasts I’ve been served, so I was absolutely delighted to stumble upon this much-loved gem.

I then went on one of my usual aimless rambles which in London can amount to several thousand steps. I ended up at Borough Market, near Southwark Cathedral.

Now I’m aware it’s a heresy to say so but it really didn’t float my boat. Maybe I caught it on a down day, but the street food stalls in particular felt a bit tired and ordinary. It had nothing of the impact of recent visits to the markets in Leeds and Rome, for example.

I wandered on alighting upon a very smart coffee shop called Wild & Wood. With an interior filled with church pews, they were serving really accomplished Monmouth espresso. I loved the place.

It then occurred to me that I wasn’t a million miles away from Martin Morales’ restaurant Ceviche, just off Old Street, so I resolved to check that out.

It served me one of the best lunches of the year, so far, with expectional seabass ceviche, wonderful acevichado croquetas and confit pork belly and watermelon filled steamed buns.

What’s more, both their cocktails (a pisco sour) and espresso were first rate, too. I would love to see a branch of Ceviche in Edinburgh, soon.

For the afternoon, I popped to a place called the Coffice, which activiely cultivates a crowd of laptop-tapping coffee addicts. I enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon recharging and catching up.

In the evening, I met my friend Hannah for a pre-walk grub-up. We headed to The Horatia on Holloway Road where Texas Joe’s BBQ look after the food.
The bar is on the quirky side, with a bunch of “interesting” taxidermy about the place. I’d be happy for it to be my local.

Hannah opted for the burger and sweet potato fries, while I chose the “holy trinity” sandwich and a side of mac n cheese.

Now, I’ll get my holy trinity gripes out of the way, then we can move on. My understanding of the Texas holy trinity is hot link sausage, brisket and beef ribs. Pulled pork is neither father, son, nor holy ghost.

Anyhoo, the sausage was quickly removed and eaten separately as it rendered the sandwich impractical for faceward shoving. It was excellent sausage, with a lovely smoke ring. The sandwich was incredibly tasty.

The mac n cheese was very good, too, and with a double thumbs up from Hannah on her dishes, it was a resounding victory for Texas Joe.

The agony of the ensuing walk was punctuated by one notable fuel fest, where I managed to eat fusilli, cous cous, dauphinoise potatoes, feta salad, BBQ chicken and garlic bread all on one plate. I finished without dying, so I have to declare much gratitiude to Extreme Catering for this dazzling array.

With tattered feet and battered limbs, Cambridge started with banana bread from the hand of my friend Kathryn. She crafted us a rather nice Old Fashioned, too. For dinner, Hannah and I wouldn’t have made desirable restaurant patrons, so takeout was the order of the day. Kathryn went exploring and soon alighted upon Smokeworks, a barbecue place. From there she ordered the motherload of grub and returned with a fine bottle of Champagne to toast our walking victories.

The dishes comprised beef ribs, half a chicken, wings, corn, chips, sweet potato chips, beans, slaw and pickles.

It was really good quality stuff, analogous to Reekie’s Smokehouse in its overall impact. We couldn’t have required it more, so it’s one of those meals that will linger long in the memory.

Next day saw a banana bread breakfast and an additional bout of snoozing before we headed out in the rain to explore what for me was a completely new place.

As you might expect from such a high-profile university town, dining options seemed profuse and diverse although the dominance of chains, albeit some of the better ones, was a little disappointing to see.

We had aspirations of trying the Pint Shop, but instead ended up at a Mexican place called Nanna Mexico. Now, frequent readers will know that I have a complete blindspot for Mexican food, a fact that was probably compounded by my trip to Ceviche where I saw how the Peruvian intepretation on quite familiar ideas could bring real joy where I usually find real mediocrity.

However, I’d been overly snippy about Mexican food with a real devotee the other day, following on from which I’d promised to approach things with a more open mind. Nanna Mexico was my first chance to put this to the test.

Between the three of us we ordered four dishes, which was a little too much as portions were very generous, but I was ravenous so dealt with the majority of the excess. Our order was barbacoa lamb burrito, tinga chicken nachos, beef enchilladas and carnitas tacos. We added beers making the total bill around £40.

While it didn’t kick down my wall of indifference, it did offer the prospect of loosening some of the mortar, and I could easily recognise it as a feast featuring some really tasty elements. Top of the tree was the barbacoa lamb in what was a generally very good burrito. The enchilladas were a disappointment, but the tacos were good and the chicken on the nachos really pleasing.

They had a really good drinks selection, with four different Mexican lager and a good range of soft drinks. If you’re a fan of Mexican, this is definitely a stop worth making in Cambridge.

I thought Italian might be the way to go for the evening, so booked a table at Don Pasquale, a restaurant of long standing and very favourable location.

There was a lot to like about the place, not least the attentive service. I’d caught them on a quiet night – a rainy holiday Monday – so virtually the whole staff came to say hello at some point in the evening.

I opened with a bowl of courgette and spinach soup, then followed with an interesting sounding “due parti” calzone, which featured a cheesy spinachy half and a cheese-less peppery meaty half. I gave their house white and red a try and both were fine.

The soup was very good, as was the accompanying bread. The main course was in some ways the perfect MJ and BKR dish, with MJ’s preference for cheeseless pizzas covered in one half and my love for all the cheeses covered in the other. MJ would have loved the toasty basement venue, too.

I needed to give the cocktail bars a little whirl after this, so headed for The Vaults. It didn’t quite hit the mark drinks wise, although I was being a terrible customer ordering off-menu drinks left, right and centre. I loved the basement venue, though, so would definitely point you in their direction for an evening of uncomplicated cocktail fun.

Next morning, I headed to the Michaelhouse Cafe. It sounded like the best place for a morning feed and Michaelhouse couldn’t have been a more impressive setting. They’ve blended in the cafe beautifully with the original features of the 14th century church.

I tried their scrambled eggs on brown toast (bread baked on the premises) with bacon and sausages from local Tudge farm, and delicious field mushrooms (£7.95). This was as good a breakfast as you’re likely to find with flavour in abundance and cooking spot on.

I then popped for coffee at local roastery, Hot Numbers which has two shops in the city. They look to be doing things the right way with a lot of passion, but I wasn’t taken with what I tried. Their espresso was bright to the point of acidic and lacked a strong finish. I tried their flat white too and was left similarly underwhelmed.

For lunch, Twitter steered me towards a Chinese called North China Dumplings, which was cheap, communal and very cheerful. Clearly a popular local spot, it was rammed on a Tuesday lunchtime.

I opted for a dozen beef and paprika dumplings (£5.50) with accompanying chicken soup (£2) and jasmine tea (£2).

This was the type of cooking to which Edinburgh’s Chop Chop has long aspired and never quite achieved. Not only were the dumplings excellent but the soup was first rate, too. This was a great value lunch.

I spent the afternoon at a smart cocktail and sharing dish bar called Novi. Their drinks menu had excellent balance. I had a tasty Thornbridge Jaipur before giving their “botanical cocktail” selection a go. I had the Seventy Seven, which brought together gin, elderflower, sparkly wine, rosemary and lemon. It was the type of aromatic and fresh drink that worked very well for a light afternoon tipple.

The evening took me to the Pint Shop, finally, to give their meaty menu a try. This proved an excellent choice.

They do a very good value lunch and early dinner menu that offered two courses for £10 and three for £13. In typically contrarian fashion I ordered starter (crispy lamb ends) and cheese from the set menu, then a spider steak from the a la carte. This was first rate stuff with the steak of very pleasing quality.

The Pint Shop came through strongly on the beer front, too, with a lovely contemporary bar with 16 lines of good stuff. I had a cracking Track Mazama IPA, and there were strong offerings from Kernel, Alechemy, Lagunitas and Dark Star.

On my final day, I breakfasted at Stickybeaks, a quirky little spot on Hobson Street. They were busy baking an excellent array of lunchables while I’ll spooned some tasty granola mouthward. Their coffee was fairly decent, too.

I then headed back to Novi as I’d liked the look of their menu when I’d visited the previous day. Their strapline – thoughtful food & drink – sums things up quite accurately. Everything seems well thought out, carefully considered and delivered with verve and style. Flavour combinations were intriguing throughout and the whole placed smelled of lemon sherbert.

I dined on one of their daily changing special sandwiches, which today was red pepper, sage and apricot falafel with brie and salad. I added a portion of courgette fritters.

I’ve eaten a lot of courgette fritters in my time as they’re a bit of a Turkish staple. These were a good rendition and the accompanying aioli was nicely restrained.

The sandwich was absolutely outstanding and a great high note on which to end my time in Cambridge. The apricot brought such lovely sweet freshness and worked beautifully with the brie. The bread, baked on the premises, was first rate, too.

Upon my return to the metrop, I had a coffee stop at a place called Maison D’Etre at Highbury Corner, which served good quality Squaremile.

I then ran into my friends Mel and Helen. Mel has recently been recovering from an ankle break so daughter Helen picked a spot that wasn’t too far away from our Highbury tube station rendezvous point.

This was a charming French place called La Petite Auberge. Serving a comprehensive menu of rustic French fare, we dined handsomely for a very reasonable pricetag.

I opened with half a dozen snails then followed with a grilled beef entrecote with Roquefort and St Emilion sauce. Mel and Helen shared a charcuterie platter to start then both chose the maple-glazed duck breast special.

These were simple and elegant dishes delivered to an impressive standard. The place had a lovely atmosphere which was ideal for our evening of catching up over good grub.

So overall, I had a great time in London and Cambridge. I obviously barely scratched the surface of London, but I got a good sense of Cambridge’s food and drink scene which held some impressive places. Novi was my favourite, so that would be my top tip if you happen to be in the environs. I’m not sure when I’ll be back in Cambridge, but I’m certainly glad to have taken the opportunity to explore it when I had the chance.