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Another soho opening, this time from the team of Cameron Emirali, formerly at the restaurant of The Wapping Project, and Luke Wilson formerly of The Ambassador. Housed on Greek Street in Soho it maybe appear from the outside to one more in a string of similar looking places but is soon revealed to have a very strong identity of its own and more of a cozy feel to it than something out of the Soho-chic interior decoration manual.

The all black facade opens up on a wood dominated interior with tightly packed tables that still give ample space for dining. Two big blackboards on opposite walls announce the menu and another for the desserts. Overall very inviting and more so by the friendly and helpful staff.

Starters are all £5 – £7 with some available as a main for around £14, and most mains between £15 – £18.

There are some truly excellent dishes to be had at 10 Greek Street like:

- Potato Gnocchi, Wild Mushrooms, Parmesan & Truffle Oil (£7) – a fantastic, soft, chewy gnocchi cooked to perfection mixed with wild mushrooms and then covered in parmesan and truffle oil.

- Gloucester Old Spot Pork Loin, Mustard Mash and Savoy Cabbage (£16) – a fair sized main presented with a quenelle of the mash on a side and a stack of pork towering above it, balanced on the cabbage.

- Haunch Of Venison, Red Cabbage, New Potatoes & Quince (£16) – a true highlight with the richness of the gamey venision against the slight sweetness and crunch of the red cabbage and the sweet quince.

All dishes were for me, impeccably seasoned, never anything overshadowing anything else and, in my opinion, not a grain of salt needed to be added.

I have enjoyed 10 Greek Street immensely both my visits and could easily see myself frequenting it.

It’s hard to express in words my excitement when first hearing about this place. I like burgers. I like lobster. Imagine a place that is a combination of both of these wonderful things and it’s by the people behind Goodman, people who really know about burgers. As it happens I was ill on the opening day and had to wait to indulge myself. Luckily with the Monday off from work I set out in the downpour, not letting anything stand in my way of stuffing that lobster down my throat.

A short walk from Green Park station the sign is quite low key and could possibly be missed if you were casually passing by. Inside the first thing you see is the lack of the 600 litre tank, the largest lobster tank in Europe apparently. If you’re really curious then ask the staff and they will show you the vats which are a lot less impressive than you would imagine and btw, no, you can’t point out which lobster you want for your meal.

On to the menu. There are two things you can have, burger or lobster. Yes, that’s it. But that’s plenty. The options are all £20 each and now you might be wondering why a burger here is more than a burger at any of the Goodman branches? The answer is that it is bigger. Then there is the lobster, which comes as a whole lobster – grilled or steamed – or as a roll. Having heard good things about the roll and convincing myself that no matter how much I wanted there was no way I could fit both burger and lobster that day I went with the roll. When it arrived I initially regretted my choice. Instead of a massive burger or a whole lobster there was this tiny little roll in front of me – the looks were deceiving though, I was pretty full afterwards. My first bite into the roll made me wish I could have more than one roll. It was incredibly tasty. The lobster married perfectly with that pillowy, sweet brioche bun.

In short, £20 for lobster is a great deal and Burger&Lobster really know how to cook them. Go now before they raise their price.

What did Hackney Wick ever do for us? Well, there’s Counter Cafe.
Situated in the middle of a studio area (formerly an industrial area) is the two storey building holding the cafe, situated right next to the canal. Both floor are nice top sit down in, upstairs seems slightly less busy though.
I had the Mumbai eggs – mildly spiced eggs with toasted bread and bacon – which was a good sized dish, and a cappuccino which was quite well made.
Overall a nice place but really a spring/summer kind of place in my view.

Russell Norman’s touch is usually said to turn all it comes in contact with to pure gold. There is a very good reason for people to be saying this and Mishkin’s is another reason for that. He has done it again after a string of highly successful places like Polpo and Spuntino. Even before entering Mishkin’s you can see traces of these other places, if you have been to one of the others then you will feel at home.

Outside a big sign proclaims “E. Mishkin’s” to the world in big, bold characters. The name is referring to Ezra Mishkin and his desire of making it to London and realising his dream of opening a restaurant. Whether that is a true story or not, here is the restaurant, another entry to the Norman empire in the form of a Jewish deli-like establishment that serves non-kosher food.

The interior is all wood, all very homely and as described by Russell himself ‘East London “caff”’. First thing coming in through the door is the cocktail bar. The bar is walk in seating, no need to book in advance to grab a seat if you don’t mind sitting around the bar and I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t as it looks great.

The menu is divided into sections like “Sandwiches”, “Meatballs” and “All Day Brunch”. Unfortunately I was too stuffed to try out the sandwich section which is a shame since the Reuben sandwich with its pastrami, sauerkraut and cheese on rye and the steamed beef patty in a burger bun both sounded great.

The meatballs section will be familiar to those who have been to da Polpo or one of the other Norman restaurants. For those who haven’t it’s something that you really should try when going there. The chickpea, spinach and ricotta meatballs are enormous (they really are), soft and packed with flavour and come in a fantastic tomato sauce that makes me salivate slightly thinking about.

The highlight of the meal was definitely the meatloaf. A portion sized chunk of meat that when cut reveals its hidden treasure inside, an egg that’s cooked to a still slightly runny yolk kind of perfection. It’s is succulent, rich, almost decadent. Some people might find it a tiny bit salty but for me it was just right.

It is so easy for chefs to completely overdo any sort of batter or cook it badly resulting in a heavy, oily, soggy lump. This is why it was a joy to try out the cod cheek popcorn. Little nuggets the size of a 50 p coin cooked just right, embedded inside light and (very importantly) still crisp batter. Accompanied by green chilli and a slice of lime to squeeze on top the flavours were clean and straight forward. Good tasting, unassuming food continuously taunting you to put just one more in your mouth.

Side dishes were plenty on the menu. A brief scanning through option resulted in an order of onion rings and fried green tomatoes with a baby gem lettuce and walnut salad to have something green with the meal. The salad was exactly as described and no more. It was good to have something green but I don’t think I would order it again. The onion rings had the thinnest batter imaginable, something that helped them from not feeling too heavy at all. I did think that they were a bit undercooked with the almost raw flavour of the onions that initially helped to counteract the deep fried batter but soon became a bit overwhelming. The fried green tomatoes seemed like a nice dish but not really my thing.

It was a great meal and I do think that I will be back soon again.

Slightly hidden away at the end of a small passage close to Beak Street lies the newly opened The Society Club. An interesting mix of tea + coffee place and shop of lots of interesting things. Vintage items, books, typewriters, dog food, etc. It is quite nice to sit down and have your coffee/tea while letting your eyes wander around all things wondrous and odd.

Unfortunately the coffee was made from a pod coffee maker which lowered my impression of the place a bit. I am a coffee drinker though, not a tea one, so having tea there might be very different. Nevertheless, an enjoyable place to sit down and just relax.

London is quite blessed these days with good coffee places, but that is something you can never have too many of. Especially in a place like central London. Speakeasy opened silently about 5 weeks ago just off Carnaby street, a welcome additional sanctuary away from the tourist central that is Oxford Circus.

Fairly spacious inside, light wood surfaces abound, it feels quite open. Still not swamped with people from Carnaby shopping yet, it’s not too hard to grab a seat on the weekend.

Coffee is good but for me it lacks depth. Maybe I’ve become spoiled by some of the other excellent coffee places in the area.

Not really the kind of place I would expect to find good coffee in, especially with the pub-y look the The Old Shoreditch Station exudes. The ice latte is definitely one to try, one of the best in London.