Monday 1st August

Spuntino, Soho

This was our second visit to Spuntino.  It's a small bar and food joint on Rupert Street in Soho.  It's not long opened - about 4 months I think - and is decorated as if they rediscovered the original decor when they were stripping the place back (which I think may be what actually happened although I'm not sure).  Butcher's style tiles, metal panelling on the roof and old style appliances etc.  It looks really good.  The staff are very nice, and there seems to be a requirement of having many tattoos and a slight rockabilly look in order to work there. 

Everyone sits on high bar stools around the bar and the menus are on the tables as your place setting.  The moment you walk in you're offered a big bottle of tap water as you decide what to have, and a tin cup of chili popcorn.  The last time we were here we couldn't get enough of this stuff, but it was disappointing on our return, being both cold and overly oily.  A shame and we were worried that everything was going to be different.  We needn't have worried, it was all lovely.  I had the Mac & Cheese and the boy had the Soft shell crab.  My mac & cheese was  huge, really enough for two and you're probably supposed to share, but I ended up eating most of it (I tried to get the boy to eat more of it but he said I was being a feeder).  It was really nice.  The cheese sauce could have been cheesier and the pasta was a little over cooked but very satisfying none the less.  I particularly loved the breadcrumb top.  The soft shell crab was really nice, says the  boy and came with a Tabasco aioli and shaved fennel salad.  We shared the egg-plant chips which were as nice as last time.  I'm not sure how they do these, as the aubergine really keeps the shape of a chip but is really soft inside.  They come with a fennel yogurt.  Gorgeous, get these if you go! 

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich, plus our 2 cocktails, the amazing 'Dark & Stormy' and the light and floral 'Clover Club'.

Mac & Cheese

We finished off with a cocktail each, I had the 'Dark & Stormy' a rum and ginger ale drink which is really moreish and reminded me of those cola bottle sweets I used to love as a kid.  The boy had the Clover Club which he was disappointed with, as it was bright pink, in a small glass and quite girly (see pic above).  It was quite nice, but mine was definitely the winner.  We shared the peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dessert, which we also ordered last time (along with the strawberry and coconut mess which was excellent).  It was just as good.  It's two slices of peanut butter parfait with a raspberry jam/coulis in the middle and some beautiful crunch pieces of what seem to be crushed caramel, although reminds me of popping candy a bit.  This dessert's a winner.  I'd love to try the cheese cake on the menu next time.

It's cheap enough, but the half pints of Meantime pale ale is quite expensive at £2.50 a pop.  So in total the bill came to £50.62 including service charge for the two of us, so not too bad at all!

http://spuntino.co.uk/

Sunday 31st July

Frank's Cafe & Campari Bar, Peckham

The boy and I decided to pop in here for a quick drink after our meal in Wuli Wuli on Friday night.  We had only discovered it by accident the previous week when we were trying to get to a mate's house via a short cut.  It's been on the go for three summers and is a real gem of a place.  They do drinks - especially lots of campari cocktails as the name suggests and they have an interesting menu.  We had a negroni each (very heavy on the alcohol, hard to drink, but nice) and checked out the amazing view.  It's better then from the viewing points at Hampstead Heath and Greenwich as you seem to be a lot closer.  Amazing views all the way from Westminister, Elephant & Castle past the Shard and Gherkin all the way over to Canary Wharf and the Dome. 

One of the fabulous pieces of sculpture one level down for the bar.  I love this, at night time, with the spot light trained on it, it looks like something from Star Wars.  It's only on closer inspection that you notice that's its the handle bar of a Lidl trolley.

The installation from a distance

A glimpse of the amazing view of London

More light and digger sculptures

Canary Wharf





A light sculpture

The covered bar.  It was so packed, so it too ages to get served.

It's a bit like walking up to a squat party when going up there in the dark. There's a young Hoxton style crowd mainly but quite a mixed bunch in the day.  I really like all the sculpture and installation happening, although the two inflatable rats scared me a bit in the dark!  The even have Del boy's motor on the roof, really good, so we wanted to come back in the day time to try out the food.  On Sunday, some friends poped round so we all hobbled over there to get a bite and a drink.  Actually hobbling because the boy and one of our friends both have dodgy knees at the moment, so getting to level 10 of the car park took a while.  We all - apart from the boy - had a really nice French Cidre to drink and he had a bicyclette - a white wine and Campari drink.  For food, our friends share the baked beans on toast which I had also.  These were home baked hariot beans, they were baked in a dense, smoky tomato sauce, and then had a fried egg on top.  I'm not a fan of eggs that haven't been mixed together so I gave mine away.  I also got some Patatas a la Pobre, which we all shared.  These didn't look too appealing, but were lovely.  Served cold, they were boiled and dressed in lovely olive oil and mushed around a bit.  Unfortunately no pics of the food we had asI didn't bring the camera.  The boy had the chicken wings, coated in chilli and lemon, which he said were amazing and finger lickin' good - high praise indeed!

After one or two more drinks we watched the sun slowly go down over the amazing skyline.

http://www.frankscafe.org.uk/