Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Lucky Chip @ Slider Bar, Soho (Burger)

Total food bill £22.50 (including £2.50 service charge)

2eat4under20 rating: 2.0 out of 3 stars
Mr Frenchy's rating: 2.5 out of 3 stars

What we ate:
2eat4under2o Two lucky sliders: Royale wit cheese and El Chappo, & French Fries
Mr Frenchy Two lucky sliders: Kevin Bacon and Royale wit cheese, & French Fries

What we drank:
A Sharing punch called the 'Fabulous gay wedding' - full of bombay sapphire gin with lime, honey, strawberries, raspberries and cucumber, topped with pink champagne. Perfection in a glass! (£16)

Well, what can I say. Mr Frenchy is a big B.L - BURGER LOVER. He can't walk past a picture of a burger on the street without doing a double take (be it Mc's, BK, GBK, pubs etc.) and often resorts to threatening/bribing me with the offer of a big fat rock(!) in return for a burger lunch or dinner. I guess that's a fair trade ;)

So after doing a little research on the best burgers in London, I spotted Lucky Chip @ Slider Bar. Lucky Chip burgers seem to have made the Top 10 in many people’s list of best London burgers, so we decided to find out what all the fuss was about. We had actually tried to find this place once before, and got hideously lost in the rain and ended up going elsewhere. So this time we made sure we got the Google map out to prevent any navigational issues.

Slider Bar was fairly spacious in the basement of a members only club 'The Player', with retro-cool style decor and a candle-lit atmosphere. We arrived around 7pm and It was already quite busy with post-work drinkers and other B.L.s tucking into their burgers which looked yummy. We didn’t have a reservation but found some empty tables so sat down and ordered ourselves a sharing punch called the “Fabulous Gay Wedding” – which was definitely fabulous and deliciously refreshing.
 

The menu was nice and simple - various delicious sounding burgers (beef, fish and veggie options but no chicken - a small disappointment for me as I do love a good chicken burger!), and sides/starters including Mac-n-chees with truffle or BBQ wings. Mr Frenchy and I decided to skip starters (very unlike us!) as we didn’t want it to spoil our appetite for the burgers, and went straight to make our choices of ‘Lucky Sliders’ which are basically mini-sized burgers - you can order two sliders of your choice which are served with a side of French fries.
 
Our Lucky Sliders arrived at our table very promptly after our order, and we were presented with two very beautiful looking little burgers each. Each slider was perfectly constructed and looked absolutely mouth-watering. But Mr Frenchy seemed to be slightly disappointed with the size… “I will NOT be full after that… I will probably need two more!”. Nevertheless, we both tucked into our sliders and were pleasantly surprised to find that the little baby burgers were delightful! My ‘El Chappo’ was filled with a juicy beef patty which was perfectly cooked (medium rare) and the jalapenos were perfectly balanced with the blue cheese and garlic aioli sauce. The ‘Royale wit Cheese’ got the thumbs up from both Mr Frenchy and I as the best slider though, with applewood smoked bacon, mustard and special sauce accompanying the delicious beef patty like a dream.

The two little sliders were probably enough for normal people’s appetite, but was probably just short of full-belly satisfaction for us (we like yummy food and LOTS of it!). Having said that, the little burgers were soooooo tasty that we felt very content with our small-but-perfectly-made dinner for the evening.

Just as we were finishing up our last few french fries, a waiter came to the table to ask if we had booked the table (which we hadn’t) then advised us that it had actually be reserved for somebody else who was running late. He was very polite and told us that we could stay and finish our meal and move to another table for more drinks, but we decided to ask for the bill and make our next train home.

Overall, we enjoyed our very tasty Lucky Sliders and are happy to agree with the majority of reviewers that Lucky Chip burgers are indeed one of the best in London. We will definitely have to try the full size burgers at Netil Market soon though… Just to make sure! :)

Good: if you are a true B.L. and are on a quest to find the next best burger in London.

Bad: if you have a big appetite and love big portions – you will probably need to order a couple more sliders to make you happy!

Things to remember: book a table before going especially if there are more than 6 people (as it turns out all the tables were booked even though we stole one!)


Lucky Chip @ Slider Bar
8 Broadwick Street,
Soho,
London W1F 8HN
020 7065 6841

Slider Bar on Urbanspoon

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Marie's cafe, Waterloo (Thai)

Total bill £21.80 (including £2 corkage)

2eat4under20 rating: 2.5 out of 3 stars
Mr. Frenchy's rating: 2 out of 3 stars

What we ate:
Starters Steamed dim sum dumplings with sweet soy dressing (x2)
Mains Chicken with cashew nuts, Chili basil chicken with rice noodles, Steamed rice

What we drank:
Jacobs creek Semillon Chardonnay Vintage 2012 (BYO)

Only a short walk away from the Waterloo road exit of Waterloo train station, this little café caught my attention with some great reviews and cheap prices. So I met up with my lovely Mr. Frenchy at the station after work and decided to head over.

We arrived at Marie's around 8:15pm and the place was buzzing with people. We were lucky to spot two spare seats next to a couple of young students with a bag full of their BYO beer. This made us both rather thirsty for our own bottle of wine bought from the Sainsbury's local down the road, so we quickly sat down and asked for some glasses and menus.

The menu was quite extensive; good selection of starters, all around £4, and mains with chicken, beef, prawns or veggies for c.£5 including stir-fries, curries and noodles. We decided to go against our usual rule of 'no same dishes ordered' and ordered two portions of steamed dim sum dumplings for starters and poured ourselves a well-deserved tumbler of wine each, after our long day at work.

The starters arrived and were 'steaming' hot, which was perfect. Nothing worse than luke-warm dim sum dumplings that go cold before you finish the plate. They were nicely presented with soy dressing and salad, and tasted very delicious too. Mr. Frenchy enjoyed his too, but pointed out that the soy dressing may have been slightly over sweetened. Mr. Frenchy is fast becoming a connoisseur of asian condiments whilst dining with me :)

Our mains arrived just as we were finishing our last dumplings, and again they were piping hot and served straight from the wok. We both dived straight in, and were delighted to find both dishes fresh, tasty and with the right amount of kick (I love my spices but Mr. Frenchy is still learning to get used to them!). The portions weren't too small or too big, and we finished both our plates clean, feeling full and pretty happy.

Overall, the service was pretty efficient and within our expectations. We got our table, menus, food and the bill, all as soon as we asked for them. But if you are looking for a waiter that will spend 5 mins at your table, making recommendations on the house specials, then you won't get that here.

Good: for quick bite near Waterloo station, tasty and cheap thai dishes, BYO wine and beer

Bad: if you want to eat your dinner in privacy and don't want to share a table with your neighbour (we didn't mind as it added to the authentic thai feel)

Things to remember: you can take your own wine and beer, and they only accept cash

Marie's Cafe
90 Lower Marsh, City of London, London, Greater London SE1 7AB
020 7928 1050

Marie's Thai Cafe on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

About me :)

I am a "twenty-something" yr old young professional working in London city and living in Surrey countryside.

I love good food and plenty of wine but I hate expensive bills.

:) I also love puppies.