Old Tree Bakery - Taiwanese style cafe

After 5 + City Pig’s Summary

Summary

Snapshot
Cuisine:	Taiwanese cafe/bakery
Price:	£18 per person – main meal, a drink, cake and service
Healthy:	No.
Tasty:	2.5/5
Address:	105 Golders Green, London NW11 8HR
Opening times	Monday to Saturday 8:30am -10:30pm; Sunday 8:30am-10pm
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in and take-away
Recommended dishes & drinks	Cakes and Bakery dishes
Vegetarian dishes	Yes
Loyalty card	No
Website	http://www.oldtree.foodkingdom.com/SupplierWebSite/Template/CuisineList.aspx?supplierMenuCategoryId=137

After 5 + City Pig’s analysis

Old Tree aims to bring Taiwanese - Chinese bakery, drinks, cakes and quick meals to Golders Green. When I found out that there was a new Chinese bakery outside of Chinatown I was delighted!

I had been waiting a long time for someone to open up locally. The Old Tree bakery can be a place to have a catch up with friends over Chinese style drinks and cakes/ buns or a place for a main meal. However, the main attraction and attention is placed on the bun selections, pretty cakes and bubble tea. I was in the area to catch up with a friend living very nearby for lunch.

I ordered the beef noodle soup while my friend ordered the eel bento box - more a Japanese dish than a true Taiwanese dish. On presentation, it didn't look as appetising as one would expect. The flavour of the soup stock lacked depth but the beef was tender. The dish is not executed as well as it could be but was fairly average. Similarly, the eel was too soft in the bento box.

Supposedly the bubble tea should be good but was disappointed in the lack of tea taste. At £3.60 a glass this is not worth it. The hazelnut mousse cake was better as it was smooth and light in texture as what you would find in Taipei. My friend tucked into the green tea cake and this also was delicious. I think the bakery and cakes are clearly worth trying but I won't be going back for the main meals and drinks.

Shrimpy's American

After 5 + City Pig’s Summary

Snapshot
Cuisine:	American (Quirky style)
Price:	Average price: £30 per person including main meal, service and drinks
Healthy:	2.5/5
Tasty:	3/5
Address:	The King’s Cross Filling Station Goods Way, N1C 4UR
Opening times	Sunday to Thursday 11am-10:30pm; Friday to Saturday
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in
Recommended dishes	No particular dish
Vegetarian dishes	Yes
Loyalty card	No
Website	http://www.shrimpys.co.uk/

Shrimpy’s is located at the old petrol station at King’s Cross St Pancras station. I almost got lost finding it as it was definitely not the most obvious.

A quirky modern style diner with waiters and waitresses dressed in white lab coats serving customers as I walked in. The walls are white with drawings but everything else was simplistic. The pineapple sign is Shrimpy’s logo and can be seen all over the restaurant.

It’s a rather small restaurant that almost felt like one of those pop up restaurants as it had a feeling of being in an oversized caravan.

Not that it put me off, it just gave off a very quirky feeling.

I decided to go for the soft shell crab burger as that caught my attention as being rather unusual here in London.

While CityPig’s pal opted for the lighter and healthier option - a monkfish dish.

The Soft shell crab was crispy but surprisingly it did not leave a greasy taste. Every bite was filled with succulent crab meat and a lovely mayonnaise style sauce. The fries were also non greasy and was very tasty.

The Monkfish was cooked very well as the moistness in the fish was maintained and a light citrus sauce with the radish complemented the dish very well.

Shrimpy’s meals in opinion are quite highly priced but I don’t think they are having problems attracting customers as a booking here is advised to secure a table. This is the place to come here you are looking for something slightly quirky.

There were a few problems in settling the bill as it was incorrectly calculated and took 3 times till the correct bill could arrive. However, overall the service was good and the meal was pleasant but I don’t think I will be a regular here.

Tonkotsu - Japanese ramen noodles

After 5 + City Pig’s Summary

Summary

Snapshot
Cuisine:	Japanese
Price:	£18 average price of one bowl of noodle, sharing portion of side dish, tea and service charge.
Healthy:	Yes. (Ramen noodle soup is comforting and healthier than fried noodles.)
Tasty:	3/5
Address:	63 Dean Street, W1D 4QG
Opening times	Mon-Sun 12pm-10:30pm
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in
Recommended dishes & drinks	Tonkotsu ramen noodles and the gyoza dumplings. A very limited menu.
Vegetarian dishes	Yes - Limited
Loyalty card	No
Website	http://www.tonkotsu.co.uk/

After 5 + City Pig’s analysis

Tonkotsu is the latest Japanese restaurant specialising in ramen noodles. Actually a welcoming newcomer into the London restaurant scene and much needed as I cannot think of many good Japanese ramen noodle restaurants.

The menu is rather limited in choice of ramens available but the focus is the “tonkotsu” ramen soup noodles. This is basically pork bones being boiled for several hours to produce a flavoursome pork stock.

So does this live up to expectations? It’s not bad and is probably one of the better ramen restaurants in London but at the same time it wasn’t that exciting. The stock is pure and the ramen noodles quite thin and has some firmness to it as the noodles are handmade.

The menu is very limited, customers can only choose between 3 types of soup noodles and the rest are side dishes being gyozas and fried chicken.

The stock is definitely MSG free and all very natural taste is left each bite and slurp. However, the pork in the noodles were quite plain in taste and there wasn’t that much spring onions thrown in.

I understand currently in the London restaurant scene, having limited and specific dishes are what is hot right now but surely, there could have been more soup stock choices for a ramen noodle bar.

The gyozas are made very well, thin flour casing and lightly grilled. Having selected the pork and prawn gyoza, it was quite plain in taste at first but with a dab of the chilli oil condiment on the table it was delicious. It is much healthier than a lot of other places.

At £11 a noodle soup and £5 for gyozas that have 5 pieces a portion are premium prices for what it is. It is a quick eat and the décor of this small noodle joint is small which is no surprise as traditionally in Tokyo it could be smaller.

I was surprised that the only tea served was green tea (sencha) and there were no other options. In fact, a lot of Korean, Japanese and Chinese restaurants have a poor tea menu that only has one or two options. I often enjoy drinking ho-ji cha , a more darker brew with a smoky taste which a lot of Japane restaurants do not serve despite these are readily available even in Sainsbury’s!

I like the concept of bringing tonkotsu ramen noodles to London but could it be done better in terms of taste - yes. It still lacks the creamy and intense pork bone taste that I am used to from the Far East. However, I am not convinced that such limited choice is the way forward and more different ramen soup bases would have been more exciting.

Summary of Citypig’s meal with pal:

o   Prawn Gyoza                          £5

o   Tonkotsu noodle X2             £22

o   Sencha Green Tea x2          £4.60

o   Service charge at 10%         £3.16

    Total                                       £34.76

Yalla yalla - Lebanese & Middle Eastern cuisine (street food style)

After 5 + City Pig’s Summary

Snapshot
Cuisine:	Lebanese and Middle Eastern
Price:	£18 per person
Healthy:	Yes. Small dishes to share and if you stick to the grilled dishes.
Tasty:	3/5
Address:	WINSLEY STREET BRANCH 12 Winsley Street London W1W 8HQ T: 020 7637 4748 E: winsley@yalla-yalla.co.uk
Opening times	MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10am – 11.30pm SATURDAY 11am – 11pm
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in
Recommended dishes & drinks	Lahem Shawarma; Apple mint & ginger lemonade
Vegetarian dishes	Yes
Loyalty card	No
Website	http://www.yalla-yalla.co.uk/

After 5 + City Pig’s analysis

Yalla Yalla is a contemporary quick eat style restaurant. Here you will find small plates and mains of Lebanese food to choose from. A friend and I were here on a weekday after work and this place was already busy at 6pm. Since it is located at the back of Oxford circus , it attracts the usual social types/ media workers nearby. Immediately, as you walk in, you already sense that Yalla Yalla has a vibrant buzz with after workers tucking into small plates and sipping wine.

We ordered the hommos, tabboule salad, lamb Shawarma wrap and chicken wings. For drinks we opted for apple, mint and ginger lemonade and elderflower and fresh orange lemonade to wash it all down. I was impressed with the drink as it was refreshing and tasty and really complemented the meal. The hommos was disappointing as it was really runny and did not have much chickpea taste. I found that the bread served with it to be an extremely small portion and it was cold and hard. Most places now serve warm bread and for a Lebanese/ Middle Eastern restaurant the bread is usually soft and delicious not hard. As the portion of free complimentary bread was so small, most diners are expected to re-order another portion which will be charged.

Moving on to the lamb Shawarma, this was much tastier than the hommos and the lamb as this was crispy but not too dry. The taste was delicate but aromatic at the same time. The portion for this was relatively large. The chicken wings were also marinated well in chilli sauce that was fairly mild and with pomegranate pieces to give it a juicy sweet taste. The tabboule was average and it appeared to me the meat dishes were the main highlight for me.

This is definitely a refreshing and hip place to meet friends for a light bite. Recently there have been a lot of interest and noise on restaurants serving small plates whatever the style of cuisine. Certainly it may make diners feel good that they appear to be eating less but they are being smarter in that they get to try more variety in this style of eating. They must call this the new balanced diet. Just remember those small plates add up.

Summary of Citypig’s meal with pal:

o    Elderflower & fresh orange lemonade £2.50

o    Apple mint & ginger lemonade £2.50

o    Hommos £4.00

o    Jawaneh Meshoue (chicken wings) £4.25

o    Fatayer Spinach £4.50

o    Lahem Shawarma £11.50

Yalla Yalla is certainly very affordable. The above cost per person is £18 approximately including service.