Nopi Restaurant - London

Sorry, didnt take a picture of any of the food so here's an image from Google

This place has had mixed reviews but all the people who I know have been, have thoroughly enjoyed themselves. However, this was my second visit to the restaurant having been turned away last time because of a cock up with the reservation. Normally I wouldnt bother going back but friends and colleages suggested I make a special effort and get down there. My visit was with my wife, business partner and his wife and after double checking they had my reservation this time, I was looking forward to it.

Nopi is situated just North of Picadiliy, hence the name 'Nopi'....yeah, great! The first thing that hits you about this place as you walk through the door is the smell, it smells amazing! To the left of the entrance they also have what I can only describe as a 'salad bar'...sounds crap I know but it's not. It's an array of salads and things on the menu that dont require cooking and it all looks delicious. That coupled with the smell leaves you desperate to get on with dinner.

After being led to our table, we cast our eye over the menu. The whole affair is like a middle eastern tapas type thing, you choose maybe three dishes each and share away, experiencing difference flavours as you go. It's broken down into Veg, Fish, Meat and Sweets so we ordered around eight dishes between the four of us to start with...couple of veg and the rest split between meat and fish...

The vegetarian dishes were awesome and made you realise what really can be done with vegetables. The French beans, smoked wheat and tahini dressing was lovely, as was the Vadeon cheescake. I could have turned vegetarian had it not been for the arrival of the other courses.

Highlights for me were the seared scallops. pig's ears, black bean and ginger sauce - it was absolutely spot on. The twice cooked baby chicken, lemon myrtle salt and chilli sauce was immense too along with the lamb sadle with pickled aubergine, preserved lemons and ginger sauce. Reading all this back, seems nuts, so many flavours, so much going on but trust me the whole things works a treat.

We tried a few other dishes, too many to mention and they were all really good. I dont think I can fault any of them, each and everyone left you thinking 'WOW' even the deserts.

We'd scoffed a whole load of food, drank far too much vino but had a great evening. Great atomosphere, good service and spectacular food. It's very informal, buzzy, fun and a great way to eat. We absolutely loved it and would recommend it highly.

Marks out of ten? I'd have to give this one a 9/10.

It's one of the best places I've been to in a long time.

Arbutus - London

The 'nice' squid & mackerel 'burger' with parsley, cockles and sea purslane

I visited Arbutus in London whilst looking for a quick bite to eat. There I was in Frith Street and thought why not?! As you might imagine they were pretty busy but managed to find room for my business partner and I at their bar. This all sounded great and we were offered a drink by the barman who enquired as to what we might be ordering - very nice Irish chap, very friendly and also very helpful when it came to the menu too. He suggested we try a couple of glassed of a portugese red which we were more than happy to do and it was lovely. I ordered the squid & mackerel 'burger' to start followed by the Saddle of rabbit with a shoulder cottage pie and enjoyed some more wine and a nibble on some very nice bread while we waited for our grub.

Along came the starters within good time. I'm not sure what I was expecting but basically the burger was a fishcake. A nice fishcake but a fishcake. The flavours were good, the food well cooked and all in all I quite enjoyed it. I liked the herbs on the side, not sure where the sea purslane was or indeed what is was but the dish was a goodun that's for sure. So, for the main course, I'd gone for the rabbit which was ok, dont get me wrong there was nothing wrong with it but it didnt blow me away. The cottage pie that accompanied the dish was good, lots of flavour but for some reason it felt like I had two dishes.

We supped a bit more wine, chatted to an Israeli chap who was sitting at the bar next to us and had a very good evening. Would I go back? Probably not, not by choice anyway as there are tons of similar restaurants all over the place. I'd much rather go back to Wild Honey, depsite the smelly waiter. The food was much more impressive and left me wanting more.

Marks out of ten? I'd have to give Arbutus a 6/10