Stepney City Farm, Stepney Way, London, E1 3DG

Stepney City farm is a working farm covering 4 acres of land in Stepney Green in the London borough of Tower Hamlets.  4 acres may seem small for a farm but in a city like London, where prices of land and buildings are frankly ridiculously high to the point of not being long-term sustainable, local people  are lucky to have a farm of this size they can visit.

 

Many people in London literally never go outside London and the M25 so Stepney City Farm, and the handful of other city farms in London help children and indeed adults who ought to know better, see and understand that lamb chops come from real living animals.  They are not created pre-wrapped and ready for the supermarket shelves!

 

Pigs, ducks, goats, sheep and other animals are reared on the farm.  Salad crops and other vegetables are also grown but for the purposes of this blog, the main focus is the shop and café.

 

The café is open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday  between 09.30 and 14.30 and on Saturday and Sunday between   10:00  and 16:00

 

This café sells food that is either produced on the farm or produced locally in London and the surrounding area.  Generally the salad and vegetables are grown on the farm with meat brought in from the Ginger Pig which is a well-known butcher and supplier of top quality meat in London.

 

I’ve had a lot of food at the farm over the last 18 months or so as it is only a 10 minute walk from where I live.  Among my favourites are the home-cured bacon sandwich which includes thick bacon and homemade door-stop bread with homemade tomato  chutney.  If I remember correctly, it costs around £4.50 but it’s a big sandwich and the bacon is far thicker than that which you buy in a shop.  I also highly recommend the home made cakes.  There’s usually flapjacks, brownies and a really nice vegan  banana bread which comes with Almond butter.

 

Sunday is brunch day and the bacon is home cured, and the black pudding and sausages are home made.  The breakfast also comes with homemade baked beans, potato roti, egg, mushrooms and homemade bread with tomato jam.  It costs £7.50 but it’s a good big plate full.

 

Tea and coffee are also available.  My only criticism here is that the cups are rather small.  This is understandable as space in the café is quite limited and the cups do stack easily if required.  In an ideal world though, I’d like to have the choice of a mug.

 

In general this is a really nice café and it’s well worth combining a visit to the café with a look round the farm.  Sometimes popular dishes do run out quickly so what’s on offer can be slightly unpredictable.  Given the space available though, and the need to conserve   rather than waste food I think the chef and other staff do a good job and I would highly recommend a visit.  Being a city farm, there are lots of activities for children.  This is probably not the place for you if having any crying child within 10 metres of you makes your hairs stand up on end and causes you to start screaming!

 

On Saturday there is a farmers market between 10 and 4.  There are stalls selling vegetables, meat, bread and cakes.  Often there is also a stall selling precooked food also and the café generally does food too.

 

It’s hard to mark the food here as it is very good but visitor numbers are unpredictable so you may have to wait a while when it’s very busy.  Due to size the range is quite small so if you are a very fussy eater, check to see what is available.

 

Over all I would give the café 8.5 out of 10 and I think most people will find a visit to be quite enjoyable.

 

For more information visit

http://stepneycityfarm.org

or telephone 020 7790 8204

 

Ink restaurant, Suttons Wharf South, Palmers Road, London E2 0TA

I visited this restaurant last night with my friend tabor who bought a voucher which gave us champagne,  canapés and 3 courses for £20.

 

The food tasted lovely with some really interesting and indeed unusual flavours  but this is easily the smallest meal I’ve ever had in a restaurant.

 

I realise of course that presentation of food is important.  Many people eat with their eyes so taking time to consider how food should be laid out and what it should be presented in is of some importance.  However, it is the food itself that should take centre stage and one important function of a meal out is that it should replace a meal you might have at home or somewhere else.  As you are eating out, you might well try something different but when all is said and done you are going out to eat so the food should at least provide the average eater with a decent meal.  I’d be surprised if we got more than 150 grammes of food for the whole meal at this restaurant.  It was a pitiful portion of food served in a pretentious way.  The restaurant was visually I am told pleasing but minimalist. 

 

When we first got to this restaurant, we were the only ones in but by the time we left there were 2 other tables.  At this stage service was still friendly but somewhat slow.  This was not helped, particularly for my friend, by the inadequate heating.  There was only a portable oil heater.

 

Below is a section taken from the About part of the website.  Feel the bullshit!  There’s nothing here about being full or satisfied or any such thing.

 

Here at Ink we’ve stripped everything back, focusing on simplicity and pure aesthetics.

We combine the beauty of nature, with distinct flavours and rich textures, sourcing fresh produce locally within the East End of London.

Headed by Chef Martyn Meid, Ink was established in April 2014.

Originating from a small port town, Martyn  has mastered the craft of  Nordic cuisine, having a unique approach to curing, pickling and smoking meat and

fish.­­­­

The menu is developed along with the season, Martyn’s uses of ingredients create exceptional dishes both in taste and presentation.

Celebrating the  true beauty of ingredients Martyn manipulates them to create enticing dishes found on the menu, including 148h salted cod topped with

tomato textures, in which he dehydrates and smokes the tomatoes, served alongside confit potatoes drizzled with lemon oil.

The true concept of Ink lies in the definition, each dish has an artistic element to it,  Martyns philosophy in his approach to each dish is to connect

people with space, plate and emotion. 

 

After leaving this restaurant I went for a full 2 course Thai meal and I told the staff at Ink that despite some really interesting food, the portions were insultingly small.

 

There are some audioboos (or audio booms as they are now called).  To hear them visit http://www.audioboom.co.uk/mcbird

 

First then the canapés.  We got a tasting spoon  with 1 piece of what they called leek ash which is leek burned to a crisp with some salt added (or that is what it tasted like).  I’d rather call burnt leek something other than leek ash if possible.  It was about half a centimetre square.

 

The one mushroom was one of those with a long stem and a tiny head.  I don’t know what they are called but just having one is pathetic.    This was such a small amount of food that bringing it out at all felt like an insult, a bit like forcing a prisoner to take food by licking up the crumbs off the table mat of a prison officer!

 

Next came the starter.  I opted for the cured venison described on the menu as Cured Venison with Beetroot textures and Cranberries.  There were 3 tiny strips of dried cured venison which was tasty and salty.  Beetroot of various kinds was served including pickled and shredded and there were 3 cranberries. Again, this was tasty but tiny.  The price for this on the menu was £10.  I only hope you get a little more for the  starter at that price.

 

 

Next came the main which was little bigger than a decent sized starter.  I’d guess there was a couple of ounces of salted cod with various vegetables.  The menu description is:

148h Salted Cod With Tomato Textures, Confit Potatoes, Tomato Oil and Leak Ash 

 

This tomato textures seems to mean smoked tomato, dehydrated tomato and oil from the tomato.  The confit potatoes were  mixed with herbs such as thyme and cooked in butter but they were just whole baby potatoes and there were only 2 of them.  I can again only hope that if you go for the a la carte menu you get more food.  This main dish actually cost £16.50.

 

The pudding, Salted Chocolate, was the most interesting of the lot.  It was very thick and slightly rough textured chocolate mousse with salt and bits of  pork crackling ground up in it. This sounds wrong but I assure you it actually worked.  There were only about 2 teaspoons of this pudding.  My friend thought this was enough as it was certainly very rich and chocolaty, but I’d have liked a much bigger portion.

 

 

Drinks are very expensive but not absolutely stratospheric, though nearly so!.  House wine costs£18 a bottle. Beer is £3.50 for 330 ml bottle and jack Daniels is £8 a shot.  It doesn’t say whether this is a 25 mil glass or a 50 mill glass.

 

In conclusion, food tasted lovely but the portions were insultingly small and I only hope that those on a la cart get bigger portions.  Despite offering some interesting food, this restaurant is very pretentious.  I’d stay well away unless you have plenty of money and you feel you need to be seen eating something but don’t really want to eat.  Despite reasonable service, I can’t give this restaurant more than 2 out of 5.  It’s expensive, but with decent sized portions I’d give the restaurant a 6 for trying something different though some of the language is vague and as I say, pretentious!!!

 

 

Cristina's Steak 8-10 north street, barking, IG11 8AW

This restaurant is tucked quietly down a side street not far from Barking Market.  Arguably it’s a little off the beaten track, but the food is generally of high quality and it’s only a 10 minute slow stroll from the station.

 

At the time of writing, I have only been to this restaurant for the Christmas menu in recent times.  I have written a trip advisor review about this and I will post a link to it once the review has been published.  For now, I will briefly discuss the Christmas dinner.

 

Firstly, this is in general a fairly traditional Christmas dinner though carrots are glazed, the peas are cooked with parcel and a little mint and the sprouts are cooked with walnuts.

 

roast potatoes are soft on the inside and really crispy outside.  The beef I had was tender and I am told by friends who were with me that the turkey is also excellent.  For my starter I had sticky  apple and raisin winter salad  which was a little sweet but plentiful in size.

 

The main course was huge.  There was plenty of tender slow cooked beef and mountains of roast potatoes and vegetables.  The pigs in blankets were clearly homemade and the sausages used were of very high quality.  All of us were full to bursting and I can think of very little that I would change though I do have a few suggestions.

 

Firstly, before the starters, we were given pretzels    and nuts in their shells.  Unfortunately, the nut crackers were not up to the job so we largely ignored the nuts though my friend Andy was able to crack them with his hands.

 

Secondly, there is no fish option for the main course.   This does not affect me but many people I know eat fish and vegetables but do not eat meat.  There is a Vegetable Wellington available as a main course but I don’t know anyone who has tried this yet.

Graham Page

 

Mobile: 07753 607980

Fax:  0870 706 2773

 

Email: gpage@useit.plus.com

 

Skype: gabriel_mcbird

 

Twitter: gabrielmcbird