Great food but pity about the service - The Albion

Nothing beats a Saturday night out in a London pub when Summer has finally arrived and the sun sets late.  Unfortunately, given the UK’s current approach to the season, we’ve had to settle for moments of joy between dodging rain, puddles and (yes, I am not kidding) hail.

However, we still wandered off to The Albion in Islington on a not so balmy Summers evening for dinner.    As a pub goes, it is very Islington – trendy but traditional with cosy nooks and a lovely beer garden.   

We booked a table for eight and apparently this means you get the paired down menu which is a little sparse if you don’t like fish and want something more evolved than a burger or sausages and mash.  However, when we asked, they did reveal that as we were on the cusp, they would serve us from the main board – glory be.

And what a menu that is – it focused on meat and I shared a 1kg of rump with my mates boyfriend.  She is vegetarian so he is always keen to have me along for dinner – obv. for my sparkling personality and sense of humour.  With our rump, we were allowed to choose two sides and got red cabbage and twice cooked chips which were excellent. 

They carefully source all their meat so the rump really was excellent and cooked to perfection.  They also do other meat sharing platters and given 72hrs notice can produce a roast suckling pig for £350 for groups of 10-15 people. 

Other members of the party had fish and chips which looked good, the steak which was pricy but obviously nice and I believe I saw a burger at the end of the table.  All in all the food was excellent and the atmosphere good.

The one complaint I do have is about the service but not the serving staff.  Apparently, the waitress hands in the chit with the order to the bar and then the bar person is expected to deliver the drinks.  We were kept waiting 15 minutes for our first drink as unsurprisingly the bar was manic on a bank holiday Saturday. How annoying!  I would imagine that it also cost them money as every time we wanted drinks we had to catch someone’s eye and they had perfected the art of avoidance.

So while the food is excellent, The Albion does rather let itself down when it comes to service.

Come on raise the standard pls

Lx

Follow me on twitter @alittleofwhatyou

La Dolce Vita in Islington

Despite being a celiac I love Italian food!   Pasta smothered with rich ragu, platters of charcuterie and thin crispy pizzas fresh from the oven with stringy mozzarella.  Hell, I worked in an Italian restaurant for a Sicilian for 4 years so I do know just a little about the cuisine.

And while modern Italian is lovely, sometimes I just hunger for ‘dirty traditional mom and pop’ style food – nothing fancy but plenty of it.  So following a heavy-ish day of drinking in the sun, visiting La Divina in Islington was on the cards.

This restaurant is an institution – with tables packed together and the walls covered with signs from excellent old Italian brands and film posters. Even the toilets pay homage to their Italian heritage and it is Sophia Loren who guards the gate way to the ladies.

With kind thanks to La Divina

My friend and I were accommodated on a busy Saturday night with easy and as we slumped gratefully into the soft comfy chairs (look out for the tables with the armchairs), we grasped the menu and dived in.

If you are looking for anything drizzled with foam and picked by Andalucía Italian immigrants who have dedicated their lives to finding the perfect mushroom, you will be very disappointed.  I - on the other hand - was entranced, excited and ordering.

We started with La Divina Bread Board which sees various types of bread topped with cheese and other pizza toppings.  This was just what we needed to soak up the pinot grigio which we orders to aid our contemplation.

With kind thanks to La Divina

I finally settled on the Linguine with Clams in a white wine sauce with just a hint of garlic – admittedly I asked for a little chilli which I am sure would have gotten me shot in Liguria but I like to live dangerously.  My friend chose the Linguine with a cream sauce and spinach.

Both dishes were tasty, traditional and to be thoroughly recommended.  After these large helpings of pasta, we both realized that time had come for bed and as we wobbled off towards the tube, we both congratulated ourselves on being able to find one of the great family Italian restaurants in London.

L xx

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @alittlefowhatyou

Beer and Chocolate Cake - A match made in heaven

I recently started a new role in a larger company which is a huge challenge which I am loving.  It is also a great opportunity to try out a few new recipees and my willing guinea pigs have tried this simple Chocolate and Beer Cake.   A resounding thumbs up was given so I thought I would share it.

Chocolate and Beer Cake

125g salted butter

125 ml larger (i used a robust polish variety)

125g self-raising flour

40g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp of bicorbonate of soda

125g caster sugar

75ml of milk

1 egg,beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g dark chocolate broken into pieces (I used a little more to avoid waste)

20g dried cranberrys

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line a 1kg cake tin with greaseproof paper.  I used a square tin as it meant slices were thinner but they went further.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarb into a mixing bowl.  Pop a pan on the stove and add the butter, lager and chocolate - melt together on a low heat.   
   
   
   

   

   With kind thanks to beergonaut.com

   
   
3. Add the sugar, milk, egg, vanilla and melted mixture to the dry ingrediants in the bowl. Mix gently together.
4. Spoon into the baking tin and sprinkle with cranberries.
5. Pop into the preheated oven and bak for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

I served it like a cake but it can be served warm with icecream or hot chocolate sauce.

Yum

L xx

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @alittleofwhatyou