Yalla Yalla’s Chicken Shawarma

Chicken shawarma wrap at Yalla Yalla

On first glance it seems my food photography has hit a new low.  Yes, this is a filled tortilla on a sheet of paper with nothing but the faintest print on the opposite side to identify it.  Although the title of this blog post claims it to be a chicken shawarma from Yalla Yalla, it could, in fact be anything.

There is a very good reason for this terrible photo.

Since discovering the takeaway counter at the Fitzrovia branch of Yalla Yalla, I have made frequent lunchtime visits.  They have a number of wraps on their menu including shawarma, kofte and Lebanese sausage, and vegetarian options of falafel and halloumi.  Each wrap is served with a pot of sour cream and one of a medium-hot tomato-chilli sauce.  All of them cost less than £5, which is a bargain for this part of London.

The wraps are all delicious, but they are not photogenic.  Every time I have attempted to photograph a cross-section it looks so mangled that it is almost impossible to decipher the individual components.  This is common of other wraps too – you should see some of the shocking burrito pictures I have saved in my phone.  Sadly they look completely unappetising, hence why I have photographed this wrap untouched.

This particular wrap is a chicken shawarma, which I usually only eat in the small hours of the morning from a small takeaway on Lordship Lane.  I have convinced myself that the more genteel surroundings of a central London restaurant makes it a viable option for lunch as well as late-night booze fodder, which is just as well as the shawarma from Yalla Yalla is so good.  Smoky pieces of tender chicken with some tomato, pickles and a pinch of sumac, toasted until the flatbread goes crispy.  There is no lack of flavour, and the ingredients work well, especially when the pots of chilli and sour cream are added, but I do have one small bugbear:  the wraps are pre-prepared.  I understand the pressures of a lunch service means that assembling individual kebabs is not the most practical approach, however I do feel a bit sad seeing all of the pre-made wraps stacked up behind the glass display.

Despite this, the wraps always taste fresh and I keep going back for more.  The lamb shawarma is also very good.

Yalla Yalla, 12 Winsley Street, London W1W 8HQ.

Honest Burgers’ Tribute

Tribute at Honest Burgers

I find it hard to imagine a day when I will be bored with burgers.  I confess that when the number of burger joints in the city was reaching saturation point, I briefly foresaw that I would tire of them and start obsessing about something else instead, but that never happened.  Instead, it has invigorated my need to get out and try as many as possible of London’s diverse offerings.  Scotch egg burger?  On my list.  Ramen burger?  Making plans to go as we speak.  See… not bored yet.

Honest Burgers has been on my list for longer than I care to admit.  Considering their original site in Brixton is close to where I live, I really should have been by now.  Blame the long queues, the allure of Franco Manca or the unbearable number 37 bus, the only form of transport between Peckham and Brixton, if you like, either way, I feel as though I’ve been missing out.  It’s been a long time since I read a list of the best burgers in London that did not have Honest Burgers on it.

A new site in Oxford Circus finally gave me the push I needed to go, for it is a mere five-minute walk from my office.  My initial plans for a late breakfast were scuppered when my colleagues protested against a pre-midday burger, so we arrived instead at 12.15pm and got a table right away.  Like many other restaurants of its ilk, it operates a no-reservations policy and has only about 30-40 covers, hence the queuing.  That being said, even when full it did not feel too cramped, and its minimalist decor left it feeling light and airy.

Honest Burgers have a permanent menu of one chicken burger, one veggie burger and three beef burgers, including their eponymous offering with mature cheddar, smoked bacon and onion relish.  As well as this, there are usually a couple of monthly specials.  Their aim is to do simple burgers with excellent local produce, and use dry-aged beef from the excellent Ginger Pig butcher for their patties.  The salads are seasonal and the drinks local – including gins from London and Sussex and an English wine.

I ordered a Tribute burger, one of their monthly specials.  I usually make a point of ordering the most simple burger on my first visit somewhere but could not resist the perfect combination of cheese, bacon, American mustard and pickles – the exact kind of burger I have a weakness for.  Once it arrived, I could see why it was so popular: the patty was cooked perfectly medium rare (I would even say that it was verging on rare) and had an excellent beefy flavour with just the right amount of seasoning.  It was coated in a thick layer of delicious American cheese, my favourite kind, and topped with crisp bacon.  They were generous with the pickles, and I was lucky enough to be dining with a colleague who removed hers, so I quickly swiped them and added them to my own burger.  The brioche held it all together well.  My only gripe is that I wish the red onion had been pickled instead of raw, but that was it.  Honestly (sorry!) a very, very good burger.

Honest Burgers, 4 Market Place, London W1W 8AD.

Wahaca’s Pork Pibil Tacos: National Taco Day

Pork Pibil Tacos at Wahaca, Fitzrovia

I never had a taco until I went to Los Angeles in my early twenties, until then I didn’t really know what a taco was; it was just something that was mentioned on American sitcoms from time to time.  The first one I had was from Taco Bell, and it was pretty disappointing.  Since then I have learned that there are far, far better examples out there – including ones that you can make yourself.

Today is National Taco Day, which is one of those invented American food holidays I love so much.  For what is better than having an excuse to indulge in something that you love?

My search for lunchtime tacos led me to the Charlotte Street branch of Wahaca, where they have a takeaway.  Wahaca, started by Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers, has helped to up the ante of Mexican food in London, which was previously characterised by terrible fajitas and lurid green margaritas in wooden clad, saloon-style ‘Tex-Mex’ restaurants.  The cuisine in the city has thankfully moved on and Wahaca has only grown in popularity as a result.  There are now 13 branches in the London area, as well as several ‘street kitchens’ and a new branch in Cardiff.  There are rumours of expansion into other parts of the country too.

The Wahaca takeaway offers a pared-down version of their normal menu: tortas, tacos, burritos and salads – all things that are easily transportable back to the office.

The tacos are served up in a portion of two: each wrapped in two warmed mini-tortilla wraps.  As the wraps worked their way along the taco production line, I could see them being filled with shredded lettuce, black beans, pork pibil (other options include chicken, steak and vegetables), a little cheese, a sprinkle of coriander and some bright pink pickled red onions.  The salsa options were mild, medium and hot, and guacamole could be added for an extra 50p.

The popularity of Wahaca is not down to its convenience alone, they make an incredibly good taco.  The pork pibil is moist and well-cooked and has a strong, smoky flavour with a slight acidity behind it that was amped up by the addition of the beautiful little pickled red onions.  The plentiful fillings means that two tacos is a substantial lunch.  On my next visit, I fully intend to graduate from the medium salsa to the hot as it didn’t quite have enough punch for me.  My companion, however, found it had the perfect level of heat.

Wahaca Takeaway, 19-23 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RL.

The Ship’s Galley Burger

Burger from The Ship’s Galley, Fitzrovia

I don’t know if you’ve ever entered ‘best London’ into a Google search to see what the next word will be.  Of course, it is ‘restaurants’. Duh.

I know that it’s a huge cliché, but one of the things I love about this city is that there are always new places to eat.  I have spoken already about my love for the survival of London’s old establishments, but I cannot dismiss the excitement of the new.  In our social media-led age, it is not difficult to find out about new openings; they pay people to use every platform available to make us aware of them.  The hungrier we become for a certain food trend, the bigger the maelstrom of publicity that surrounds a new restaurant, and the more impatient we become to get down there, Instagram everything in sight and tweet about just how great it is.

In contrast to this, some new places open so quietly that it is only when you literally stumble across them that you become aware of their existence.  This happened to me yesterday.  With the back to work blues following my holiday, I took to the streets of Fitzrovia to seek solace in some lunch.  Turning off Foley Street to answer my phone, I almost walked straight into a couple of guys cooking on a hot plate outside of a cafe.  I was intrigued.

The cafe in question is The Ship’s Galley on Hanson Street, a tiny little coffee shop that has been in the owner’s family for 23 years.  Having recently been taken over by the two young sons of the family, they have branched out into a kind of outdoor BBQ, hoping to attract hungry office workers.  This new venture operates three days a week: burgers on Wednesdays, burritos on Thursdays and steak sandwiches on Fridays.  All priced at around the £5 mark.

I was a little sad to see the patty cooked well-done, as I am a fan of a pink middle, but was cheered up when they split the patty through the middle and filled it with cheese and the red onions that had been cooking on the hot plate next to the burger.  The bun was a standard seeded bun, but was fresh and held together well.  I was offered a choice of various toppings but opted only for pickles, lettuce, mustard and ketchup – which prompted a debate about tomatoes in burgers (my bete noire).  The thing about this burger is that it breaks the rules of what we think to be a good burger at the moment: no brioche bun, no medium rare, no ‘dirty’ sauce or ‘filthy’ sauce, but it tastes good.  The bread is fresh, the patty moist, despite being cooked right through, and well seasoned, and the toppings basic but right for the job.  It is a good honest burger which, with some of the gargantuan offerings about at the moment, is quite refreshing.

The Ship’s Galley, 1 Hanson Street, London W1W 6TA.

Kin Cafe’s Roasted Vegetables with Feta Sandwich

Roasted vegetables with feta sandwich from Kin, Fitzrovia

I really should rename this blog ‘half a square mile’ as a lot of my sandwich hunting seems to be concentrated to the little patch of Fitzrovia around Great Portland Street and Great Titchfield Street.  I really need to start branching out a bit further.  This post is not the beginning of this new-found sandwich wanderlust, in fact, it is almost as close to my office as you can get.

Kin Cafe was a treasure I found at a particularly low ebb, unusually on a Friday.  I had been up late the night before, partly due to having a disagreement with a friend, partly due to the disagreement that Scottish voters were having with one another.  Once the referendum results were in, I sloped off for a very short and disturbed sleep.  The next day, understandably, was difficult.  By the time lunchtime rolled around, I was craving not comfort food, which is the way I usually go when tired, but the restorative power of vegetables.  I went for a stroll along Foley Street and found this sign:

It made me laugh so I popped in for a look.  Almost as soon as I was in the door I was invited to play ‘Guess the Bride’.  All of the staff were dressed up as you might on a hen night: all plastic tiaras, veils and glitter.  Only one of them was getting married.  I managed to guess right.  It was so fun in there it cheered me up immediately.

Kin Cafe has been open since June and seems to be thriving despite the huge concentration of cafes in this area vying for the money of local office workers.  It has the classic Fitzrovia set-up of good coffee, home-baked treats, bright salads and a couple of sandwiches, enough space to sit in and quick enough to take out.  There were two sandwiches on offer that day, thankfully one that was heavy on the vegetables – a combination of aubergine, red peppers and spinach with a little feta.  They quickly whipped it into a panini press before I took it back to my desk.

The trouble with roasted vegetables is that they can lack flavour if not properly seasoned – not the case here.  The aubergine had a little smokiness, like it had been cooked over a flame, and the red peppers were sweet.  The salty creaminess of the feta brought everything together well and the bread was good and robust.  If I had one small complaint, it was that it was on the small side, but that might just be an example of my greediness.  £5 – obvs (Fitzrovia).

Kin Cafe, 22 Foley Street, London W1W 6DT.

H T Harris’ Double Salami

The double salami from H T Harris, Fitzrovia

 In this ever-changing world of post-recession London, it is sometimes difficult to see too far into the past.  The constant churning of businesses opening and closing in the city means that streets can become unrecognisable from one year to the next.  Several times have I been to visit a cafe I used to love years ago, only to find that it has been turned into a Caffe Nero.  It’s quite a depressing thought.  Places that have been there for generations are becoming much fewer.

H T Harris on Great Titchfield Street has managed to survive the waves of chain eateries, new restaurants and ‘craft’ coffee shops that have moved into the area in recent years, and has become something of a Fitzrovia institution.  This little Italian cafe-deli has been serving up cappucinos and sandwiches to the local office workers for just shy of fifty years and has queues forming outside almost every lunchtime.  The approach is simple and probably unchanged for many years:  good Italian sandwiches, coffee and the usual deli items of pasta, amaretti biscuits, cheeses and cured meats.  The first time I went in, I asked for a sandwich menu.  The gentleman behind the counter replied:  “Anything you see here, we can do.”  He also gestured to the sandwiches piled up on three trays in the window, “Or we have double salami, some parma ham or a vegetarian one.”

I love this straightforward approach, he has probably been making the same sandwiches for years.  There’s no menu, no description of what the sandwiches are, or what is in them.  You just have to trust that they are good.  A double salami sandwich, in a piece of focaccia the size of a house brick was swiftly placed in the panini press for a few minutes and then was mine for a fiver (Fitzrovia, right?)

What I actually got was an enormous sandwich, generously filled with wafer thin Italian salami, some very good mozzarella, six or seven sundried tomatoes – sweet and almost black in colour, a layer of basil and rocket and more than just a hint of chilli (he did warn me that it would be spicy).  The focaccia was crisped and warm on the outside but still oily and moist enough that it was necessary to wipe your fingers before touching anything so not to leave greasy fingerprints.  A perfect example of how the best sandwiches are made with the best quality ingredients.  It’s easy to see how those piles in the window sell out every day.

H T Harris, 41 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7PG.

Attendant’s Royal Chicken Sandwich

Royal chicken sandwich from Attendant, Fitzrovia

This is not the first time I have been to Attendant.  In fact, I have been going there for coffee at least twice a week since I started working in Fitzrovia a year ago.  I had my appraisal there and frequently meet colleagues there for meetings.  Initially it was the novelty of meeting in a converted public toilet that spurred me on, but I very quickly realised that they do very, very good coffee.

Let’s get the obvious characteristics out of the way first.  It is, indeed, an old public toilet.  With above-ground property prices soaring out of control, business owners are coming around to the idea of these subterranean spaces.  There are a few new ex-toilet openings in London, I am told, another one being WC in Clapham, but apparently this one was the best-preserved and least vandalised of them all.  So much so, that they have managed to keep the porcelain fittings intact and make a feature from them.  I was fortunate enough to be in there whilst the owner was recounting the history of the space. Fascinating.

Despite being in Attendant for coffee and cake so frequently, I had yet to try any of their lunch options.  Now that I am often out looking for lunch in Fitzrovia (or ‘sandwich-hunting’ as my colleagues call it), it seemed like a good time to start.  Attendant usually has three or four sandwiches on offer at lunchtime, as well as some rather delicious-looking avocado on toast that I have yet to try.  Once selected, they will gladly heat it up for you in a sandwich press before you either take a seat at one of the ‘urinals’ or head back to your office.

My sandwich of choice was the Royal Chicken, nothing, I was informed, to do with the recent royal baby announcement, rather that it was a take on the old coronation chicken.  The chicken was breast meat and (I think) roasted.  Along with this was a curried sauce, a little mayo, some sultanas and a herb salad.  The bread was good quality wholemeal bread, that lent itself well to being lightly toasted so the sauce sunk in and softened the inside.  I’m always partial to a good coronation chicken, but this is a great, slightly pared-down alternative that does not have the excess creaminess or overwhelming flavour of curry powder that many of them do, rather it is subtle and given a freshness by the addition of herbs.

It is £5 (isn’t every sandwich in Fitzrovia right now?) But is substantial enough to be your main meal of the day.  If you’re really keen to splash out, get yourself an americano and a lamington too.

Attendant, 27a Foley Street, London W1W 6DY (it’s underground!)

Chi’s Char Siu Pork Banh Mi

Char siu pork banh mi from Chi, Fitzrovia

Ever since I made a trip to Vietnam five years ago I have been on the hunt for a good banh mi.    Whilst staying in a hotel in Saigon that overlooked the main road, we would be woken up every morning by the sound of a woman shouting “Banh Mi! Banh Mi!”  We would then wander, hungry and bleary eyed, down to the street for our breakfast.  Her set up was incredibly simple:  a hot plate built over a motorbike, a couple of knives, a few tupperwares containing the rest of her ingredients, and a basket of rice flour baguettes.  A baguette filled with pickled carrot and daikon, a lot of chilli, a slick of pate and a fried egg was enough to shake off any hangover from the night before.

The banh mi is a product of the French colonisation of Vietnam.  Baguettes and coffee are as ubiquitous here as noodles, and can be found all over the country in various forms.  Such a European-inspired element of Vietnamese food was easily transferable to the culture-hungry diners of London.  Fortunately my return to London coincided with both the explosion of street food in London, so I never had to look too hard for a banh mi.  In more recent years, these have been so popular as to move off the street and into permanent cafes.

It was a tube strike that brought me into contact with Chi through a morning walk from Kings Cross to Oxford Circus on a previously unknown street.  I made a mental note of its location and went back at lunchtime.  It is a small cafe, sparsely decorated in the same way as the Vietnamese restaurants you would find on the Kingsland Road.  By the window is a small bench and there is one two-seat table.  Each time I have since been in there, there has been a few people eating in and a bit of a queue – mostly office workers.  They have a small menu, mostly of banh mi, but of a few noodle dishes as well.  There are a number of different banh mi on available, priced at £3.50 for a regular sized baguette, or £4.50 for a large.

The char siu pork baguette contains a few slices of the sweet roasted pork, warmed up as needed, topped with a generous amount of pickled daikon and carrot, some chopped parsley and coriander, and a scarlet slick of Sriracha.  The flavours from this banh mi are actually very good, the vegetables are nicely pickled and the flavour of the pork comes through well against them.  For me, it could use a lot more chilli.  I know that the western palate is not always amenable to heat, but this had barely any.  Even a second helping of Sriracha did not do the job that a handful of finely chopped red chillies would do.  Having this as an option would improve the banh mi immeasurably.  I’m not even going to get into the whole issue of rice flour baguettes as I have never come across anywhere that uses them.  Apparently there are hardly any wholesalers in London.  Somebody has definitely missed a trick there.

Chi, 168 New Cavendish Street, London W1W 6YX.

Kaffeine’s Ham, Cheese and Grilled Peach Baguette

The ham, cheese and grilled peach baguette from Kaffeine, Fitzrovia

You know when your hangover from Saturday night’s drinking lasts through until Monday it was a good weekend.  After dragging my sorry self into the office with a slight headache and the tail-end of the drunk dreads, the only thing that would remedy the situation was to get on to the streets of Fitzrovia and look for a good sandwich.

I only got as far as Kaffeine when I realised that a good coffee was exactly what I needed to shake me out of my current mood.  This little black-fronted coffee shop has taken a lot of flack since it opened a few years ago, however a slightly negative TimeOut review and some snipes about ‘hipster coffee’ hasn’t damaged its reputation.  Getting a seat outside the front window is near impossible and the inside too is always busy.  It almost always features on the list of best coffee in the capital and I, for one, am in agreement.  They use the excellent Square Mile Coffee and are really particular about how they make it.  Whilst not a coffee expert, I am always happy to receive a nice strong cup with a slick of crema.  Definitely not style over substance.

They have a range of sandwiches that are listed online in their weekly menu alongside a range of cakes, biscuits and pastries.  There are usually three sandwich options, with at least one vegetarian, which are usually seasonal and use a range of different breads.  Some have said that the £5 they charge for a takeaway sandwich (£5.30 to eat in) is a little steep, but this seems to be the going rate in Fitzrovia coffee shops these days, and is only really £1 more than the offerings of the chains, Pret, Eat etc.

I opted for a the ham and cheese baguette, which seems a bit of an underwhelming description for what I was served, which was an absolute delight.  Roasted Italian ham, mature cheddar cheese, grilled peaches, aioli and spinach.  Both the ham and cheese were deep in flavour and good quality, but it was the other accompaniments that made the sandwich.  A ham and cheese always needs a bit of mayo to loosen it up, but the substitution for aoili just gave it a little extra flavour element – a hum of garlic, but nothing too overpowering.  The grilled peaches added the sweetness and did the job that a chutney or relish would usually do.  It got me thinking that adding cooked fruit to a sandwich could actually be a more appealing option than chutney, as many of the ready-made versions are often too heavy in spice and vinegar and overpower the rest.  What else is there to say? Kaffeine make a damn good coffee and a damn good sandwich too.

Kaffeine, 66 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7QJ

Gitane’s Chicken with Yoghurt and Parsley Sauce Roll

Chicken with yoghurt and parsley sauce roll at Gitane, Fitzrovia

I first came across Gitane during my first week of working in Fitzrovia.  I popped out to get some lunch and found that Kaffeine and the Scandinavian Kitchen had queues snaking out of the door.  Not wanting to throw in the towel and go running back to Pret, I pushed on a little further and found this little cafe just a few paces along.

Despite having little presence online beyond a very simple website, Gitane is almost always packed.  When I have gone online to seek out new recommendations in the local area, it is always named with great enthusiasm.  Once you venture past the doors it is easy to see why.  It is a small, but very bright and airy space, with a counter on one side selling vibrant and colourful middle eastern foods:  homely looking tarts, bright salads filled with vegetables and grains, and tiny little cakes of rosewater and pistachio.  In the winter there are always spicy soups to warm you through and fresh breads, and they almost always have a hot option – their harissa salmon is a big favourite.  Last week, however, was the first time I had been in for a sandwich.

There were a number on offer, but it was the slabs of bright yellow chicken wedged into seeded buns on the counter that caught my eye.  £5 later, one was packed into a box and accompanying me back to my desk.

The filling for the sandwich is rather impressive.  At first I thought it was merely a huge chunk of breast meat, but I was delighted to find some equally large pieces of thigh meat nestled underneath.  Both the white meat and the dark meat were incredibly moist and flavoursome and coated in a delicious saffron, yoghurt and parsley sauce.  Accompanying the meat was a large slice of tomato, a couple of pickles, more parsley and a further dollop of yoghurt.  The bread was a glazed, seeded bun.  At first it looked a little on the small side, especially given the amount of chicken nestled within it, but it did its job of holding everything together well.

A sandwich of this kind is not a traditionally middle eastern dish, however they manage to get it just right with the combination of ingredients.  £5 is perhaps a little steep for a take-away sandwich, but the quality and quantity of the chicken makes it well worth it.  I will be back at Gitane time and again.

Gitane, 60 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7QF.