This month's selection features two fantastic pasta dishes, one of the best roast beefs in London, lamb from Ireland like no other and a stick of butter that just happens to be an ice cream bar...
Kerrygold/ Chin Chin (Murphia party) - Kerrygold honey butter ice cream with caramelised honey toast and strawberry jam
This collab between Chin Chin and Kerrygold was part of our annual Murphia List celebration and was a definite showstopper. Created to look exactly like a stick of Kerrygold butter, wrap and all, it was actually a really good ice cream bar. Anyone wandering in as they were served would have thought everyone was biting into huge slabs of butter, which made the whole thing even better.
Simpson's in The Strand - Roast Rib of Devonshire beef
Undeniably, this is the signature dish in Jeremy King's revival of Simpson's, where there are always two trolleys of beef roaming the room, serving off slices to tables. Of course, it really helps that the roast beef dish in question is easily among the best in the city (with top roast potatoes too).
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High (City of London) - Sladestown Farm duck with morel, grape and pine nut XO
Gordon Ramsay's show on Netflix was partly a very impressive advert for his restaurants at 22 Bishopsgate, and we took it as a sign to pay it a visit. It's a very impressive (and now Michelin-starred) endeavour with one of the most spectacular views from any London restaurant. And it really helps that the food is very good, with this perfectly cooked duck being the high point of the meal (pun intended).
Rotunda (King's Cross) - Sugar-pit chop, champ cake, savoy cabbage, glazed carrot
Every year, Rotunda in King's Cross throws a blowout St Patrick's Day lunch for charity. This year was our first opportunity to go, and it certainly lived up to its hype (raising more than £80k for good causes in the process). It's a hugely entertaining event backed up by a really great dinner made even more impressive because of just how many people they're feeding at once. This massive sugar pit chop (from butcher Peter Hannan) won the meal for us.
Berenjak (Mayfair) - Wagyu ox cheek stew, aubergine, yellow split peas and dried lime
The new Berenjak in Mayfair is an absolutely beautiful affair throughout, including the hidden downstairs room and kitchen with a great little two-seater booth. From there, we ate a LOT of the menu, and while the kebabs are still as fantastic as ever, we really loved this new stew. It's a different take on one they've served before, but that wagyu ox cheek really elevates it. Make sure to also work your way through the great new snacks list.
Burro (Covent Garden) - Fettuccine with duck and porcini ragu
Conor Gadd's new solo restaurant in Covent Garden is a hugely accomplished affair, and shows that London's current love affair with Italian restaurants is delivering some real gems. The best of a great menu for us was this pasta dish, an evolution of the trullo signature beef shin ragu that is better than the original, we think. Also make sure to have the tiramisu doughnuts, a close second for us.
Taq (Notting Hill) - The Dove taco
What was Taqueria has now been rebranded to Taq with the help of Jackson Boxer and new chef Eduardo Yishima. The pinnacle of the menu here is a collab with Jackson's own Notting Hill restaurant, Dove, and it's a taco version of his off-menu cheeseburger, using the very same beef, along with Red Leicester, grilled onion and pickled jalapeno. It could be the best cheeseburger taco you will ever have.
Cometa (Fitzrovia) - Tempura pumpkin with guacasalsa and jalapeno
The clever transformation of what was Carousel's wine bar into a new-wave Mexican restaurant has proved to be a triumph. Cometa's menu may be seafood-slanted, but one of our favourite courses from a strong list was this vegetarian offering. Thin discs of pumpkin were coated in a wafer-thin tempura batter and served with an avocado salsa and their own homemade furikake.
Sale e Pepe Mare (Marylebone) - Penne con ragu di vitello
As with Cometa above, the main thrust of the menu at this new hotel Italian restaurant is the seafood. But we found ourselves absolutely demolishing this pasta dish served with a white veal ragu. There's a lot of tableside theatre going on here, so if you do fancy pasta and a bit of showmanship, then their Bucatini Cacio e Pepe would be the dish to go for instead.
Side Hustle (Covent Garden) - Pink Elephant
Side Hustle remains one of the best bars in London and one we often return to if we're in the Covent Garden area. Their margarita list is second to none, with this version featuring Herradura Blanco, Cherry Heering, Aperol, orgeat, pineapple, passion fruit and Thai Bird chilli.
The Universal (Galway, Ireland) - Kinvara roast lamb with petit pois, chervil, wild garlic, cepe and lamb jus.
A weekend trip back home to the west coast of Ireland saw us finally getting around to visiting this highly-rated gastropub. It was very much worth the wait, from the amazing Magpie Bakery bread and fresh crab through to this dish of local lamb served with seasonal vegetables. It was the sweetest, tenderest lamb we've had in ages and was memorably good.
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