[REVIEW] 5oz Hamburger with Cheese / Spuntino / Soho, London
But the fiddling is worth it. The patty is intriguing.
We’ve been wanting to go here for ages. Like, since forever.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve bowled past Spuntino and had a look in, only to see the standard half an hour queue of eager diners-to-be standing behind, and wistfully peering over the shoulders of those who are being fed. It must be in the dozens. It always looks loud, dark and obviously, a bit of a tight squeeze.
Ambling past at 3.15pm on a breezy Tuesday afternoon, I peer in and see it empty. I subdue my Christmas morning face and sit down immediately. Clearly a different vibe during the day; it was bright, with chuggy folk rock bouncing round the room.
It’s immediately perfect; I’m up at the bar, diner-style filter coffee in hand, happy before I’ve eaten anything.
Once a secret menu item, but not now clearly, I ordered the burger with cheese. Everyone around me chose the oft-lauded sliders. If I’d had a bigger appetite, I’d have done the same.
Served similarly to the Joe Allen burger, it’s sauceless with red onion slices and pickle spears on the side. The construction, a chunky round patty that needs skewering to keep in place, makes it a troublesome bugger to add the desired ingredients to and condiment up.
But the fiddling is worth it. The patty is intriguing. With a really deep meatiness, it might actually be a hamburger: I swear I got a hint of chorizo spiciness in the mix of flavours, and on closer inspection there’s some kind of dark red meaty stripe through the middle. This could be wildly incorrect though.
The impeccably melted cheese is slathered all over, its gummy, elastic greatness, giving just the right amount of cheesy-goo-chew. And the bun wraps it all in a substantial, squishy, chew. It was great.
There is loads of great looking stuff on the menu that I want to try, so more late lunches here will be on the cards. I’m just hoping that late lunches don’t become a thing with everyone, because I think quiet, thoughtful Spuntino time is brilliant.
- Rob.
[REVIEW] Eggy Bread with Honey Roast Ham, Cheese & Béchamel & Honey Mustard Dressing (AKA The Monte Cristo) / Foxcroft and Ginger / London
Sandwiches rule.
Bang all kinds of shit between two slabs of cooked dough and then eat it. Simple.
Everyone’s got a favourite but, in this guy’s humble opinion, the greatest sandwich of all time is the Monte Cristo - usually a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich dipped in egg and grilled like French Toast, sprinkled with sugar, drizzled with maple syrup and served with a side of blueberry jam.
Yeah, sounds ridic doesn’t it? Done right, I fucking love this sandwich.
Regretfully, I’ve only found one place that sells a Monte Cristo in London town, the Diner, and it was piss poor.
Foxcroft & Ginger’s effort, to all intents and purposes, is a low-key, anglicised bastard child of the Monte Cristo, but it’s close enough. It’s all rather petite, polite and user friendly, much like the establishment producing it.
A Monte Cristo lite, if you will. And it’s rather pleasant.
While it had soaked in the sweet, slightly nutmeggy egg mixture, the bread was still light and fluffy, the way good French Toast should be. The melty cheese mixture over the ham was mild and a touch nutty, and the honey and mustard drizzled over the top, whilst tear-jerkingly sparse, added a spicy sweetness to it all. And it was cheap as! No blueberry dip, but then again, it’s not a Monte Cristo, is it?
If you’re up for a coffee and fancy a bit of a snack as well, you won’t go far wrong with a visit to F&G. Just don’t confuse them with the deceptively similar Fernandez & Wells. No Monte Cristo there.
- Rob.
★[REVIEW] Burger & Meatball Calzone / Fornata / Soho, London
In essence, this is a calzone. Albeit a tiny calzone with a big meaty center. And pickles.
We do enjoy a bit of novelty from time to time. So bring on Fornata, a new Italian tapas slash small plates slash Soho backstreet bandwagon-jumper. Yes, those are floorboards stuck to the walls.
The extensive menu suggests sharing a few dishes off the menu, three to four per head, but we came for their take on the burger, coincidentally the most expensive item on it at just under a tenner.
Predictably served on a wooden chopping board, with a few sprigs of lightly dressed lettuce, the burger arrived simultaneously with a baby meatball calzone, which we ordered as a comparison to the burger. Delicate baby Italian pizza pies, if you will.
Cracking it open revealed the steaming patty, cooked medium.. On first taste the meat suffered a touch from underseasoning, but was corrected in part by the saltiness of the drippy mozzarella. In fact, the sun-dried tomato mixed in with the meat almost puts it in meatball class anyway. It added pleasing colour and sweetness, but the pickles brought nothing other than
The sun-ripened tomato spread added both colour and a sweetness to it, but the pickles although present were largely undetectable (Rob picked one out, hot pickles taste weird). Novelty pickle, basically.
The considerable amount of juice from the meat and cheese had metamorphosed the dough on the underside to the consistency of a huge gyoza. It was a nice contrast to the classic Italian pizza crust texture of the top.
In essence, this is a calzone. Albeit a tiny calzone with a big meaty center. And pickles. Although diminutive in stature (placing it on a tapas style menu allows Fornata to get away with this, kind of) and exorbitantly pricey as a result, it’s a nice, inoffensively mild pizza-with-a-hint-of-burger.
So on to the proper meatball calzone, which was ever so slightly smaller (presumably because it had a meatball instead of a burger in it). It was far superior. The addition of a rich creamy tomato sauce gave it the extra kick. A much better dish.
We might go back to Fornata. It’s totally unoffensive, really. A competent backup option for when those other nearby small plates Italian places are too full but not somewhere to seek out.
But we are yearning for something a bit more substantial. Someone open a large plate Italian restaurant please. Italian food looks so doleful on such tiny plates for this price.
- Simon.
- Rob (I think it would be a good place for a date).
