London restaurants

Hai Cenato, London Victoria

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MsB and I visited Jason Atherton’s latest venture, Hai Cenato (Italian for ‘have you had dinner’), in Victoria’s brand-new Nova food district for lunch today, and we loved the food. The theme is New York Italian, even though we found it neither particular New York nor particular Italian (apart from the general upmarket U.S. diner theme and the fact they include pizza and pasta on their menu). We love food, but somehow had so far completely missed out on Atherton’s large number of restaurants worldwide, which include Pollen Street Social, who managed to win a Michelin star in their opening year. Prior to that the chef and restaurateur was executive chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin starred Maze. I went for the set three-course lunch for £19.50, which according to the menu included Pink Lady apple, hazelnuts & parmesan creme fraiche, lovage, crispy kale for starters. I only spotted one of […]

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Art and Culture, London, Music

Pink Floyd Exhibition: Mortal Remains review

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Let me state at the beginning: I’m not a Pink Floyd fan. If you are, then by all means go now and you’ll have a brilliant time. Should you go if you are not a fan? I guess, go ahead, if you think it might be for you and if you don’t mind the excessive admission price. The slogan of the exhibition is “Experience a spectacular and unparalleled audio-visual journey through Pink Floyd’s unique and extraordinary worlds, chronicling the music, design and staging of the band, from their debut in the 1960s through to the present day.” I’m not convinced that there is anything spectacular or unparalleled about the audio-visual journey. The exhibition uses more multi-media and innovative presentation methods than your average exhibition of – say – Rembrandt paintings, but in terms of innovation I wouldn’t give it more than 5 out of 10. Nearly everything that is cool […]

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London restaurants

Review: Bar Douro

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Having spent a whole week in Porto earlier this year got me hooked on Portuguese cuisine, so when I came across Bar Douro, I couldn’t hold myself back. The atmosphere of this tiny bar (most of the seating is outside) that is squeezed into one of the railway arches half way between London Bridge and Southwark, is pleasant, even though maybe a tiny bit too busy. Blue and white tiling provides authentic flavour. I ordered pork ‘Altentejana’ with clams for £9 and octopus with mashed sweet potato for £11, and found both rather disappointing. I love pork (I’m from Bavaria, where we eat a lot of pork, such as pork roast), clams (I cook with clams), and octopus (another restaurant review involving octopus here), but not these here. Not sure if their chef had gone AWOL for the day and a kitchen hand had to jump in (other reviewers had […]

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London restaurants

Review: Rail House Cafe, Victoria

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We had previously visited the Rail House Café’s much talked-about sister Riding House Café in Fitzrovia and had not been overly impressed (our review here). Visiting the newly opened Rail House Café in London Victoria seemed like a chore at first, but turned out to be an absolutely brilliant week-day brunch experience (consider our Update at the end of this article though). I ordered their signature Burgerdict (burger Benedict) and steak tartare. Both dishes were prepared to perfection. The Burger with egg Benedict on top was among the tastiest burgers I have had in years. The steak tartare was incredibly delicious too, with the wasabi paste that came with it. Like all the best steak tartares it wasn’t made of minced meat, but of little short strips of raw beef, that had just the right texture.    Not least of all, the service was very quick, professional, and friendly, and […]

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Art and Culture, London, Plays

Jack Thorne’s Woyzeck, Old Vic

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In Germany, where I grew up, we love Büchner. Our Booker Prize equivalent is called Georg Büchner Prize, and seen as a clear early indicator of the next German speaker who will win the Nobel Prize in literature. This young playwright, novelist, poet, physician, revolutionary, founder of a secret society, university lecturer, and natural scientist died at the age of 23 of typhoid fever in 1837, before being able to finish Woyzeck. His last and most famous work merely exists in fragments, was published only 40 years later and first performed in 1913, just to become the most influential and most performed play in the German language. All photos (c) Manuel Harlan, except Old Vic building front and actors bowing to audience. Heavily influenced by Shakespeare, Büchner was decades ahead of his time with his writing style using short sentences and simple, at times colloquial language, and with Woyzeck being […]

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