Tempting Tapas at El Patio

 Recently I had the pleasure of dining at El Patio in Clapham Junction.

There are tonnes of Tapas places out there now, but this really does live up to its OpenTable reputation of "awesome".

They offer Pimientos de Padron (Roasted Padron peppers and Himalayan salt), some spicy, some not, a treat not available at every Tapas place.

Their Octopus dish, Pulpo a la galega Galician style marinated slices octopus with paprika served with potatoes, is also great for the adventurous fish lovers out there.

They do a wide selection of Tapas choices for vegetarians and meat eaters alike and also offer substantial meal plates, though I can not vouch for those.

The atmosphere is lively and a little kooky at the moment with the building works next door.

The staff are friendly and helpful, in a beautiful rustic restaurant.

Go! Now!

The Tapas Room

Open for just 17 days The Tapas Room in Brixton makes a nice addition to the covered market.

The restaurant has inside and outside seating and offers a select range of tapas.

Portion sizes are small, so to fill yourself up you will need around three dishes per person.

The salt cod croquettes are especially good, they just melt in the mouth.

They offer an array of cured meats and cheese, which are reasonably priced.

With wine the meal came in at a little over £30 a head, but unfortunately that included some olives that didn’t arrive, check what you pay for.

The atmosphere is friendly and the staff attentive, they give you plenty of time to eat your meal.

A great new addition to the market.

Rat bar

The rat bar has just entered the fray for London’s hippest night spot.

Sporting the Banksy rat as one of a collection of graffiti art the cavernous enclosure boasts pizza and drinks just off the graffiti laden Leake Street in Waterloo.

The drinks all range around the £5 mark apart from the odd cocktail and you can get merry on an espresso infused Black Death or a sambuca laced Rat Tat Tat.

If you haven’t had enough with the rat inspired cocktails there are the stylised rat masterpieces on the walls designed by Wu Tang Clan artwork designer Gary Alford.

The pizzas are reasonable and so you can have a full evening out with mates and drinks in a hideaway drinking den on Leake Street and pretend the real world doesn’t exist for a bit.

It’s a pop up, so get there while you can.

Feeling uninspired

Saturday saw no sugar or honey consumption.

Though I did eat some coconut cakes, which I do not class as refined sugar.

I ate them in a rush to sustain me through a Beethoven concert, which was quite lovely.

Ended the day craving KFC, which filled a hole but felt like I could taste the water and salt injection.

Quiet days

Sunday had a much better day all round.

No sugar, honey, chocolate or even coconut cakes.

Quite moody by the middle of the day though.

Pasta perfect Pasticcio

I have discovered a new pasta restaurant, Pasticcio.

 It was a delight to find such a warm and inviting restaurant in such an unlikely setting.

 There was enough garlic in the air that you could taste it on your tongue.

And the thermostat was so high that all the winter blues were firmly banished.

The food was generous and tasty, and the service was quick and polite.

The restaurant itself was quirky with all manner of odd items hanging from the walls, including a very traditional looking bicycle.

Generous, but still cheap

 Living in a city that forever seems to be upping its price tag it was refreshing that the price of a meal ranged between £7 and £10.

 It was also a relief that in the cold weather it was only stumbling distance from the tube station.

And my fussy tastes were delighted by the Lasagne, it was generous, tasty and accompanied by a great salad and dressing.

Yum, yum and double yum.

Don't walk there, run.
 

Posh food pithy prices

In these 'times of austerity' I find I'm rooting through toptable again in search of reasonably priced gastronomic explosions.

There are a dizzing array of eateries offering offers, but somehow I'm not inspired.

Maybe it's the cold limiting my food choice to 'somewhere near by', or maybe it's the fact I haven't gone out for a posh meal in so long that I've forgotten what to look for.

Toptable is amazing, I really rate it as a site and a concept, but it does have it's pitfalls.

You can't literally click on a street and say: "there, tell me about the food options just there".

But then maybe this is the problem with the internet world, we've become so used to options on a mouse click that if it isn't spelt out for us in big red letters within the first 10 seconds we lose interest and give up.

We no longer walk the streets with our eyes and ears open looking for what new things the world has to offer, instead we stare at computer screens, get irrate and go nowhere.

Well I'm going somewhere, because the house gets dull, y'know.

I'm off to The Three Stags, where it's warm, friendly and tasty.

Viva la local!