Food
SOLIS
Named after Juan Díaz de Solis, a 16th-century explorer believed to be the first European to land in Uruguay, Solis is an Iberian-South American grill restaurant from Ana Gonçalves and Zijun Meng at Arcade Food Hall Battersea. It’s a homage to the traditional parrillas of Montevideo, with hardwood furniture, blue & white checked tablecloths and antiques filling the space, and South American music coming out of the speakers. The team has tried hard to establish an aesthetic and create a vibe in what is a large unit inside an even larger shopping centre. If you avoid looking at the entrance, and the retailers beyond it, you can start to buy into the idea, and once things start arriving at the table, like a potent Tinto de Verano sangria, succulent spatchcock chicken with aji-aji oil, well-cooked steak, aggressively seasoned fries and a spectacular torta de queso, you start to believe it. Solis is designed to do food at volume but it’s proving that it can also be exciting too.
BISTRO FREDDIE
We were very sad to see Oklava shut up shop in Shoreditch but the space’s new resident, Bisto Freddie, from the Crispin team, is a worthy replacement. The space has been cosied up, with dark wood panelling around the open kitchen, white tablecloths and pillar candles on the tables. It’s romantic, it’s warm and it would be just as at home on a Parisian street as it does on its little East London corner. There’s a comforting, classical menu from head chef Anna Søgaard (ex-Erst) that nods to French bistro staples but with a definite British stamp on it. The house sausage with homemade brown sauce, the dressed crab, the snail flatbread, the bavette with peppercorn sauce and the fried plaice with curry sauce are all excellent – as are the chips – and if there’s a group of you, you have to get the pie. With a sharp, defined and unpretentious bistro menu; a great French wine list from Alexandra Price, who also oversees the wine selection at Crispin and Bar Crispin; and generous, old school hospitality, Bistro Freddie knows precisely what it is and what it’s trying to do, and it nails it.
You might not find murder or burgers at the island restaurant Vuurtoreneiland but you will find a dining experience just like The Menu. Scoring a booking is harder than getting your hands on a Glasto ticket but if you managed to bag a table, just make sure you choose your dining partner wisely… The island, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is reachable only by boat ride from the east of Amsterdam, outside the new Hoxton Lloyd hotel. On arrival you’re treated to a tour of the tiny island, including the old military bunkers which were abandoned in the 1930s. These bunkers are where dinner is served during winter (note there’s no phone signal there) but if you visit in summer you’ll enjoy dinner in the Greenhouse. The Greenhouse looks out to sea and to the lighthouse, which is still operational to this day. Dinner consists of a six-course seasonal menu, featuring the likes of fresh bread with goat butter, a delicious tomato salad, opperdoezer potatoes with lardo, and a lamb sausage with lamb tartare, fennel and bell pepper. And then, all being well, it’s back on the boat for more drinks, arriving back to the mainland around 11pm. A totally unique experience that’s well worth making the effort for.
Only opened in June 2023, Cafe R. de Rosa has already become a hit in the Jordaan ‘hood – and that’s no surprise when you learn that a consortium of local residents actually took over the lease to create the kind of place they’d like to hang out in. It’s a beautiful corner site, offering great wines on tap and simple dishes made with local produce. There’s a great atmosphere and we especially love the outdoor tables in the summer months. It’s the kind of place everyone wishes they had at the end of the street.
Oficina is a daily canteen that’s attached to a food design studio founded by Zana Josipovic and Naiara Sabandar. It’s a small, smart, minimalist space serving pastries and coffee in the morning and a daily changing menu for lunch up until 5pm. On the menu you’ll find dishes like Creamy mushrooms and smoked aubergine on toast with a pickled kohlrabi salad; Bibimbap with Dutch grains, sweet corn, braised cabbage, daikon pickles, kale furikake, fried egg; and Almond frangipane tart with persimmon and fingerlime.
It’s hard not to love FC Hyena, a boutique cinema in an old industrial building on the water’s edge in Noord. There’s two small screens showing new releases as well as classics, but even if you’re not watching a film, it’s worth coming over on a summer’s night just to eat and drink on the outside terrace. There’s big benches right by the water looking back to Amsterdam, good natural wines and ciders, and a menu of dishes cooked in the wood-fired grill, such as roasted aubergine with feta and za’atar and tahini.
A brewery and taproom in an old windmill? Only in Amsterdam. This brewery has been going since 1985 and although it’s now a bit of a tourist draw, it’s still worth stopping by for a beer or two – how often do you get to sink a pint in an old wooden windmill eh. The beers are brewed right on site so they’ll be fresh as anything and they’re mostly Belgian in style, so expect wheat, dubbel, and tripel beers and ales on offer – and the accompanying punchy alcohol content. There’s lots of seasonal specials and limited editions too.
One of the best restaurant settings in the centre of Amsterdam, De Willem is located in an old 19th century Neo Classical city gate. It provides a great backdrop to the seats on the outdoor waterside terrace and also beautiful interiors to the main restaurant and cafe spaces inside the old building. The restaurant serves a seasonal set menu for lunch and dinner, while the cafe has a more casual set up, with an a la carte menu of dishes like artichoke with ajo blanco, and gnocchi with fresh peas. Even if you’re not eating, it’s worth just popping in for a glass of wine at the beautiful circular marble-topped bar.
No prizes for guessing what this smart spot in the centre of Amsterdam specialises in; but what perhaps is a surprise, is how modern and relaxed Bar du Champagne is. There’s of course a huge selection of champagnes on offer (around 750 labels since you ask), including several by the glass, and a pitch perfect selection of small plates coming from the open kitchen. We loved the sardines on brioche, tomato salad, and ouef mayonaisse topped with caviar – all perfect accompaniments to a glass of fizz or two.
Some seriously good pastries are the reward for venturing out to Fort Negen, one of Amsterdam’s best bakeries. There’s freshly baked breads, cheese-stuffed croissants, regular special sweets, and excellent coffee – plus the totally OTT soft serve ice cream piled high into croissant cones. It may not be good for your waistline, but it’s definitely good for the ‘gram.
In a huge warehouse building in Noord, you’ll find Chateau Amsterdam, the first and only urban winery in the Netherlands. Half the building is given over to industrial winemaking facilities, plus a small shop selling bottles to take away, and the other half is a lively restaurant and bar, where you can try the line up of wines with a few snacks, or settle in for the night for a full on dinner. There’s a surprisingly large selection of the winery’s own label bottles, including a pet nat, reds, and plenty of whites, all made on site from grapes sourced from around Europe. Well worth a visit.
BOTTLESHOP
One of our favourite Amsterdam wine bars, Bottleshop is situated in a pretty funky looking zebra-striped modern building on a busy street. There’s a handful of tables outside in summer and inside it’s all sleek minimal Scandi vibes. There’s a truly excellent line up of wines, including several bottles that are quite hard to find, and service is very welcoming and friendly. On the food menu, you’ll find dishes like duck rilletes, smoked eel, lamb sausage and turbot fillet
JACKSON BOXER AT THE CORNER
Rather than parachute in big name international chefs and brands a la Harrods and its refurbed food hall, Selfridges has looked a little closer to home, showcasing London’s own Jackson Boxer amongst the rails of high fashion. Jackson Boxer at The Corner is tucked away on the second floor, in a bright corner room overlooking Oxford Street or Orchard Street, depending on which side you’re sat on. The star of the menu is the fried chicken sandwich but the smoked eel, beetroot and pickled shiitake mushroom skewer; the potato cake with whipped cod’s roe and kosho; the peppers, egg, and anchovies; and the XL diver scallop, with Jerusalem artichoke and autumn truffle, are not to be missed either.
STORY CELLAR
Once the dreary choice on Sunday roast menus everywhere, chicken is now back in a big way, becoming the star of the show in many new restaurants across town. Tom Sellers’ new Story Cellar offers superlative rotisserie chicken on its regular evening menu and it’s also the centrepiece to one of the best Sunday roasts we’ve had in ages. Take a seat up a the kitchen counter to see the chickens slowly rotating in the rotisserie and kick off with some house made charcuterie, pickles and a glass of Gusbourne English fizz to start. Then it’s the main event, a juicy succulent chicken with golden skin, served with some truly excellent crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, buttered greens, and smashed swede – a perfect substitute for Northerners who like (demand) mashed potatoes with any roast. Beef, pork, and beetroot wellington is all on offer too, but really you’d be mad not to get that chicken. Top marks.
KOLAE
Seven years after Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver duo opened som saa in Spitalfields, they’ve opened their newest spot, Kolae, in a three floor site (including a courtyard) in Borough Market. The focus is on grilled dishes and kolae (also known as Golae, Galae and Gaw Lae), a cooking technique found in the south of Thailand where ingredients are soaked in a curry-like coconut marinade before hitting the grill. Highlights from the menu include fried prawn heads with turmeric & garlic; kolae mussel skewer with calamansi lime; kolae chicken bamboo skewer; sour mango salad with dried shrimp & roasted coconut; southern gati curry of seasonal whole fish; and pandan sticky rice, young coconut sorbet & jackfruit. As for drinks, there’s concise menu of imaginative cocktails made using Thai ingredients – hello pickled green mango dirty martini – around 15-20 wines from Modal and a handful of beers and ciders.
FORZA WINE AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE
Forza Wine has branched out from SE15 to SE1, taking up a spot on the northwest terrace (including al fresco space) at the National Theatre as part of its shake up of its food and drink programme. Like the Peckham original, this Forza Wine’s menu changes often and is also centred around ‘sort of Italian’ snacks, with dishes like cauliflower fritti & aioli, sprouting broccoli with brown shrimp butter, burrata with beetroot & hazelnut pangrattato; and of course, the two signatures, soft serve and custardos. Forza Wine is a perfect pre-theatre option – the drinks list is interesting (lots of natural wines and cocktails like cherry negronis and frozen picantes) the food is easy and comforting, and you can eat well in a rush if you’ve got seats to take – but it’s very much worth being the sole focus of your evening. If you’re in a four there’s an option on the menu to have the lot and we think that’s a fine way to spend a night on the Southbank.
KORAT THAI CAFE
Korat Thai Cafe in Newington Green is s one of the best Thai spots we’ve discovered in London. It’s got a big menu but we wade through the more crowd-pleasing dishes to find some gems like the Yam Khao Tod, a crispy rice salad with fresh herbs and leaves, peanuts, chillies and kaffir lime; the Larb Gai, a minced chicken salad with herbs, rice powder, chillies, and fish sauce; the Som Tum, a classic papaya salad (though this could have been a bit spicier); the Sai Krok Isan, the fermented sausage from northern Thailand, made with glass noodles, chillies and pork; and Khao Soi (curry chicken noodle soup), which might just be the best one we’ve had outside Thailand. We’re very impressed with Korat, it’s proper Thai cooking the likes of which you don’t find all too often in London and the £2 corkage just seals the deal. A friendly team too, so we highly recommend it on every level.
On the ground floor of the brand new Hoxton, Lloyd hotel is the beautiful Breman Brasserie, a glamorous yet relaxed spot that takes inspiration from turn-of-the-century European and South American cuisine. For breakfast, there’s the likes of potato and onion latkes with fried eggs and a green goddess sauce, and croque madame with pastrami and reuben sauce, while for lunch and dinner there’s fish pie topped with fries, creme fraiche and Dutch caviar, plus fresh local seafood from the seven-seater raw bar. Before or after dinner, stop for a drink at the hotel’s Barbue, which has a menu of superb South American-inspired cocktails created by Tato Giovannoni, the founder of the world-renowned Floreria Atlantico in Buenos Aires.