Lunch Unit

** LONDON **

Man's gotta eat, right? Over the months, I've featured a few of my favourite Soho lunch-spots, but let's be honest, if you're like me then you pretty much need to eat lunch every day if you're going to stay alive. Granted, it is possibly less important than breakfast. And dinner. But still, a day without lunch pretty much sucks.

And you can't be spending £10 on a delicious meal at Taro's all the time. Or dropping a 5-bomb at Mooli's on each and every working day. Sometime's lunch is just a thing that needs to get done. Its not always fancy.

You could be all 'DUDES! I am going to Tesco and buying a cheap pot of pasta because this month has 5 weeks and I am saving up for a new hip-flask.' You are a robot and you are ingesting 1x of fuel. You are this guy:


Soho has you covered, as it so often does, with relatively new joint Soho Joe. I am almost sure that the point of this place is to launder money, or its a tax write-off of some kind, because they will sell you a pretty delicious sandwich, which is made right in front of your eyes, for £2. Mental.



SOHO JOE
22-25 Dean Street, W1D 3RY

A fresh mini-baguette, with a simple filling such as red peppers and houmous, or chorizo, tomato and basil. £2 of your hard-earned samolians. HOWEVER. Because I am a classy dude, I bought the significantly more expensive brie and cranberry sandwich. £3.


Fuel rod, prior to loading.

There is nothing wrong with this. There's nothing super super RIGHT about it either, but if the goal is 'eat lunch', I would rather chew one of these than a supermarket sandwich, which will very likely be more expensive, and less delicious.

Their pizza is pretty passable too, £6 for a comically over-sized 12-incher. They also have a nice selection of cakes and salad fillings for the fruitier (and vegetablier) patrons.



My final word on Soho Joe is that the pizza-oven is a delicious Confectioner's pink. Like a giant marshmallow, hidden away in the back.

SCOOP's Upside Your Head

**LONDON**

I really enjoyed this post from Anti-mega on Soho's 'Gelato Triangle', and as this summer seems to be sticking around, I've found many opportunities to indulge. I wonder how well they'll cope in a normal London perennial winter, but still... A good opportunity to compare the ices in the big smoke with Boho Gelato's slightly Blumenthal-ish flavour mechanics.

We took in Gelupo first and something in this place just feels a bit off. Archer Street is ritzy on one side (The side with Bocca Di Lupo) and seedy on the other (The back of the Apollo Theatre and a sex shop), and Gelupo is situated on the seedy side. A distinct lack of any solid or simple flavours, there are instead overly picky options such as Pine Nut with Fennel Seed. Having said that, the flavours do change, so maybe we just picked the wrong day.

But this post is to recommend Scoop, which, although it does have an air of poshness about it, is definitely more relaxed and welcoming than Gelupo.



SCOOP
40 Short's Gardens
WC2H 9AB
scoopgelato.com

In all honesty, we just stumbled upon Scoop because it had the biggest crowd outside, out of anywhere in the street, although, since this is an ice-cream parlour with limited seatin, that's not a huge surprise.
The first thing I saw were the CONES. Gelupo doesn't have swish chocolate-dipped cones, but once I had sampled one at Boho Gelato in Brighton, there was really no going back. Scoop's cones also add nuts which obviously gives a pleasant crunch to go along with the sweetness of the chocolate and the wafer.



A big part of any gelato place is the display, and you can see from the picture below, the gelato is sitting in these weird waves, almost unnatural looking, but hell of inviting. Gelato on the right and sorbet on the left. You can see that a lot of the trays are almost empty, which makes sense as the place was absolutely rammer-jammer with folks.





The scoops are pretty small, which means that the value for money isn't exactly exceptional. Its about right for Soho though. I opted for the large chocolate and nut cone, with 4 flavours. £4.50. You're probably not going to want to pay this unless you're A. - Rich, or B. - have had some drinks. I went ahead and checked option B.



Apologies for the blurry pics but it was dark. This wasn't massively gelato-y, in that it made me think more of ice-cream as it wasn't as runny as I expected, but it was insanely delicious. I think if you're going to go with the cone instead of a tub, it has to be a good one. These ones are good. That is all.

OH WAIT. Bonus point for the giant tub of Nutella next to the waffle section!

Bi Bim Bap

***LONDON***

Bi Bim Bap
11 Greek Street
W1D 4DJ

Pretty sure this was my first ever official taste of Korean food - I wasn't sure what to expect. This place is literally 2 doors from my office in Soho, so personal bonus points for location, but not nearly as good as the next street over (Frith Street) for eateries. Competing with age-old institutions like L'Escargot and Gay Hussar is no mean feat, but Bi Bim Bap is definitely aimed to the cheaper/faster end of the market, which is what a working man on his lunch break is all about.


Happy people, not Michelin stars

The menu is fairly diverse, but you are definitely steered towards the straight up Bi Bim Bap itself. We sampled the Chilli Chicken and Beef varieties. Word of warning from the off; I was railroaded into getting a fried egg on top of my dish (its in the logo, so I figured I'd go with it), but didn't realise this is an extra £. It WAS fried exceptionally well, but £1 for an egg is kind of a stinger.


The contentious egg. The yolk stood up to a good prodding though :)


All mixed up, as instructed

Small detail though, as this quick dish is kind of insane-delicious. It is brought in a crazy hot stone bowl, and you are instructed to mix up the ingredients (rice, your meat choice and an assortment of little vegetable bits incl. cucumber, mushroom and pickles) before eating. The benefit (or downside depending on your POV) is that your food stays hot forever, BUT it kind of does keep cooking the rice though, so once you get to the bottom you have some slightly overcooked rice...

Considering that its all a big mish-mash of ingredients, the flavours actually separate pretty well, I was pleased with the beef choice, although the chicken variant was a little over-powered by the chili sauce.


Blurry, saucy Chili Chicken

As ever, a trip to any restaurant of South East Asian origin must include a visit to DUMPLING CITY. These bad boys were weird, less salty but more flavour-some than the Japanese gyoza, the dough was more crisp. If I had to choose, I still crave the saucy PUNCH of gyoza, but the dumplings at Bi Bim Bap definitely do the job. A little expensive for a side (at £5-something) but sometimes you just gotta, you know?



I washed this down with a lovely root tea, check out the heavy-duty teacup below. Lots of attention paid to the interior here. Due to its location on the street, it doesn't get much natural light, but the inside is really fun. I'm a big fan of the chairs and crockery, and the mind-bending amount of polaroids of happy diners adorning the walls!





Overall, I'm fairly sure that the prices have dropped, a Bi Bim Bap can be had for under £6.50-ish which is not bad for Soho, and let me tell you, those bowls are PACKED full of chow. Eating at tea-time is probably unnecessary if you eat here for lunch.

Worth a go.

Mooli's

After reading DJKneedriver's posts about the excellent value for money eats to be had in the Big Apple, I'm sort of ashamed to report that the Big Smoke cannot really compete. I'm happy to be proved wrong on this, but to my knowledge, essential eating cannot be reliably had for teh cheap.

BUT - we can get close. If you're like me, you definitely crave spicy indian food that is also easy to hold. The solution? Go to Mooli's.

Mooli's

50 Frith Street
London W1D 4SQ
020 7494 9075

http://www.moolis.com
@moolis

For this visit, I had a (spicy) World Cup special Lamb Bobotie Mini Mooli (£3.50), delicious lamb and egg tightly wrapped in hot roti. The 'classic' flavours are chicken, beef, pork, asparagus, paneer and the super-top #1 knockout, GOAT. These are accompanied by a wide variety of other fillings, such as potato, salsas and chutney's and just the right amount of crunchy salad leaves. A mooli is available in 2 sizes (mini mooli is pictured in this post), or in a nice cardboard salad box with the roti substituted for extra salad ingredients and seperate dressings.


Bobotie Mooli as a salad.

The Mooli

As it arrives it is like a beautiful gift waiting to be unwrapped, and unwrap it you must. You will not be able to stop yourself. As you tear off a strip of the foil, you're greeted with a heartily packed wrap, bursting with colour. The first bites are an explosion of flavour, every ingredient punches you right on the tongue - POW. If you're hungry this thing won't last long, but it is TASTE, TASTE, TASTE all the way down. When the world cup mooli goes back to the holding-pen, I can totally recommend the Goat mooli, packed with soft potato and chutney. Goat meat is kind of a rarity in the UK, and in the mooli it comes out beautifully tender, reminiscent of Moroccan tagine cooking.

There is only 1 downside:

Inevitable heartbreak: A finished Mooli.

Part of the charm of Mooli's is the unique stamp that everything in sight has; From the decor, fun colouring and weird posters, to the staff in the bright bright bright 'Mooli Madly Deeply' T's. This definitely extends to the food. Right there on the counter, ready to be served up, is a giant cooker of Dal (£1.50 a bowl, take THAT NEW YORK), deliciously crisp roasted pappadoms with a hot salsa, and crazy, mini-milk style, kulfi iced-creams. There are fun, bespoke, drinks on offer too - refreshing mango lassi (kind of like a light milk-shake), hot masala chai tea or a mind-bending Havana Club-injected mojito with either Guava, Lychee or Pomegranate with chilli's.

Mooli's is a really great place to sit and eat and drink for half an hour, and due to the care in which everything is presented, from boxes to wrappings, their food is also eminently transportable. A lovely treat to enjoy in the sunshine of soho. There are also weekly drinks offers for twitter followers, so follow them @moolis!

Just take it easy on those mojitos!

Taro (no es caro)

LONDON

Alright people, no foolin'. If you're hustling around London's Soho and you decide you need some yourself some sushi, there's no shortage of options. The usual suspects are all representing - YO!, Satsuma, ITSU etc. Although their food is on the whole super tasty, I find its not often worth the premium $$$. All the conveyor belts and fancy packaging are not enough to sway me.

But as is so often the case, when delicious and reasonably priced eats are the order of the day, Soho got you covered.

There Are Two Taro's

Taro 1, the OG joint on Brewer Street was where I had my first taste, but its Taro 2, a few minutes away on Old Compton Street, that gets the most of my coin.

The location's not as hot, but the lovely mezzanine interior and full length window make the clean wooden lines of the eating area light, airy and welcoming. Service is hell of fast, and the food is priced low making this a go-to spot for when you're done pounding beers in the west end. The other big plus is the awesome life-size bust of Taro-san which greets you at the door.

Those that know Soho also know that it is a generally awesome part of London for the eats; I usually have one favourite dish in each place I frequent, so when I consult my tum for what is needed, I know exactly where to head. Taro was the place where this personal menu system was born, and the dish that did it is this:

Chicken Teriyaki Don @ Taro

Holy holy holy. The first question I ask myself is: "Am I hungry?" If the answer is a resounding Hell Yes then Chicken Teriyaki Don jumps up the list pretty damn fast. For £5.90 you get succulent strips of chicken with the skin crisped up in teriyaki sauce, all sitting pretty on a bed of delicious sticky rice mixed with the usual fare, beansprouts, peppers etc...

It will not break

A key word for this dish is SUBSTANTIAL. Just look at how it holds its shape in the fun plastic box in which it is served. A great base if the rest of the night will involve beer, I like to get started with an Asahi on the side (they serve both the original 'dry' and the syrupy treat that is Asahi Black). The mix is simple, allowing the bold flavour of the ingredients to shine like a light into your grinning, hungry face.

Gyoza on the side

Today, we rounded this dish off with some simple gyoza. I usually make a point of trying the gyoza in any restaurant that will serve it to me, and Taro's doesn't disappoint. The pastry is not as crisp as some places, but since its all about the filling, this is not a downside in any way. The slightly liquid texture is quite satisfying and allows for more soy sauce take-up than you might usually get.

You can get in and out in under 20 minutes if you wish, and for under £10 you can easily pack enough food in to leave you bursting, if that is your style. Taro also excels at the standard sushi (rolls and sashimi), bento boxes and curries that you would expect, and they are very accommodating if you have any requests for authentic Japanese food not featured on the already varied menu. There is no point booking as the table turnover is really fast, although you will never feel rushed. Just roll up and get your roll on.

Taro 2

10 Old Compton Street

LONDON W1

020-7439-2275

There are literally not enough stars in the sky to even bother giving this place a score. Imagine the whole entire planet as giant smiley face and have done with it.