Kojawan

Kojawan is a bar and restaurant serving drinks and fusion Asian food in a space-age atmosphere. It is located on the 23rd floor of Hilton Metropole hotel, which is two minutes walk from Edgware tube station. The hotel doesn’t have the best of look from the outside but when you are inside it is like maze.

It was surprising how impressive the view from this hotel and from Edgware Road. You could see in the distant many London iconic skyscrapers including The Shard, Gherkin and London Eye.

The deco of the restaurant make is interesting to want to visit Kojawan. The attention that has gone in to every part of the restaurant from when you first arrive, to walking up the stairs and sitting at the table.

I love the logo which appeared around different items in the restaurant. It reminded me of the cartoon Transformers.

The menu is in a ring binder which also show off the Transformers looking logo. There is a large range of wine, spirits and cocktails served at Kojawan. This probably make up most of the menu.

The cocktails includes some of Kojawan’s own creation. Unfortunately many of them were not available during the soft launch.

Alien Cowboy (£15) – Maker’s Mark Bourbon, Sweetcorn, Spiced Chocolate and Crickets.

Plum Crazy (£15) – Plum Sake, Yuzu, Sparkling Sake

From the classic cocktails we ordered the Cosmopolitan – Grey Goose LeCitron Vodka, Cointreau, Lime and Cranberry

If you are not in to alcohol, there are non-alcohol cocktails as well as a range of teas, juice and soft drinks.

The food menu is split in to Booze Food, Raw, Deep-Fried, Charcoal Oven, Fire Stove,  X-tras and Sweet.

Raw:

Seared Black Kingfish with radish and citrus soy (£13)

Suffolk Wagyu Medium Raw with white radish and wakamole (£15) – I found this dish bland in flavour even when I combined the wakamole, white radish and sauce with the beef.

Deep-Fried:

Hot Crickets Bombs with citrus butter sauce (£9) – This was every thing about crickets in different form to make up the bombs. You will find hidden in the creamy filling mini crispy crickets, which freak me out. I was not that keen on the flavour of the bomb which was tasted of maize. Instead I prefered the crispy fried cricket that was layered at the bottom of the dish.

Charcoal Oven:

BBQ beef cheek with chilli, ginger and sesame (£18) – This was beautiful tender meat in a sauce that went well with the flavour of the beef cheek. Squeeze some of the lime juice will give it another flavour and balance out the strong flavour of the sauce.

Sticky pork belly with jalapeno ponzu (£16) – The pork belly was beautiful cooked until tender in a nice sweet tangy sauce. Each slices was a good portion side of fat and lean meat.

Octopus with lemon and smoked red pepper oil (£18) – The octopus was not chewy but nicely soft and tender. This reminded me the octopus you would get on Spanish tapas menu.

Fire Stove:

Crab-turnip “egg cake” with shellfish lemon cream and fish flakes (£14) – The was Kojawan take of Okonomiyaki which is a Japanese savoury pancake. It tasted similar to the traditional Okonomiyaki but thought the presentation was lacking some beauty.

Braised short rib of beef with chilli and green leaves, mushrooms and peanuts (£21) – The beef was really tender and went well with the rich Asian flavour from the sauce. I thought this went well with the sticky rice (£5) that is found on the X-tras section of the menu.

Flat noodles with clams, sake, parmesan and fish flakes (£15) – This dish to me was East meet west. The flat noodles are what I would refer to us udon and it doesn’t have much flavour. So it went well with the sauce which brought the dish to live with the clams.

Whole lobster with morels, seaweed and shellfish tea (£31)

X-tras:

Sweet potato noodles – stir fried taste (£6) – This was Kojawan version of Korean stir-fried glass noodle, but instead being stir fried dry it was in a broth sauce.

Leafy greens with garlic and sesame (£6) – This was a nice side dish to balance out the strong flavours in the other dishes.

We could had given the dessert a miss as I felt it was nothing special. It did not hit my dessert taste buds. Although some of the dessert had a sense of Asian fusion in to it, I thought it was too westernise.

Fish waffles (£9)  – This is Kojawan version of Japanese fish waffle that is stuffed with red bean. It is served with blueberries, black sesame and honey whiskey cream. I thought that Kojawan waffle was not as fluffy as the tradition versions and had this glaze look to it.

PanTako (£9) is pancake served with white chocolate and berries. I found this dessert was too sweet for me. It was a filling dessert which I would recommend to share.

Seoul-Kyo Mess (£9) is described on the menu made up of lychee, green tea, cream and sake. I am not sure which part was green tea as the whole dessert was white and nor could I taste any green tea. The dessert was made up of layers of cream, mini meringue and lychee with a hint of sake.

Overall I thought the dishes were interesting in using a mixture of ingredients and flavours. The two chefs (Bjorn Van Der Horst and Omar Romero) who are behind Kojawan are bold with the flavours of their dishes. I did felt that the starters and mains were better than the dessert.

Kojawan is an expensive place to dine and the cocktails do not come cheap here as well. Although we had 50% off food during the soft launch it costed us £40 each (including three cocktails and two tea). Just imagine at full price it would had costed £80 per person. Eeek!

(Not sponsored. Menu and prices correct at the time of dining)

Kojawan
Level 23, Hilton Metropole,
225 Edgware Road,
London,
W2 1JU,
UK

www.kojawan.uk

Shuang Shuang

London first conveyor belt hotpot Shuang Shuang has landed in Soho. The restaurant has been brought by the same group of people behind a range of popular restaurants around the world, including Boon Tong Kee which is one of Singapore famous restaurant for their Hainanese chicken.

How does it all work?

• Step 1, you will pick a broth (£7 each) from one of the three selection (Mala 麻辣, Black Bird 烏雞, Lamb Tonic 小肥羊, Fish Pond 魚泉, Temple Brew 蝦頭海鮮草本)

The selection of broths will cater for a large variety of people. If you want a sense of fiery and numbing then Mala is the spicy broth option. However, if you want a non-spicy option then there should be one of the other options to suit you.

If you are not a big fan with the flavour of lamb, then I do not recommend the Lamb Tonic broth. I tried the broth and found the lamb meat flavour too strong, even for some one who does eat lamb.

My favourite out of the broth I tried would have to be the Temple Brew which is Shaung Shuang’s vegan broth. According to the menu this broth is made with soy milk (豆奶), shitake mushrooms (香菇), White Turnip (白蘿蔔) and Dried Liquorice Root (甘草根). I did not see any shitake mushroom or turnip in the broth. But to my surprise it was a broth full of flavour.

Alternatively the black bird broth we could see some of the ingredients it had used which included Jujubes (黑棗) and Chinese Wolfberries (枸杞).

• Step 2, Mix your dipping sauce ready to use, for your cooked ingredients.

Hotpot is never with out a range of sauces and this is where you can be creative to mix a sauce of your choice. We were automacticlly served three different sauces with our broth. 

• Step 3, Choose your ingredients from the conveyor belt and add them to your broth to cook. 

Each plates are colour coded to reference the different prices which range from £1 to £4.30. You can use the menu booklet to obtain the exact prices of each ingredients that are available.

The ingredients included a selection of beef, chicken, lamb, pork, fish and shellfish, vegetables, tofu and noodles.

Each raw ingredients on the conveyor belt are covered with a lid and will have a label to try to tell you if it contains seafood, pork, chicken, beef or a combination. But it was not always easy to know the exact ingredients when providing with just a general category.

The label will specify at least how long you need to cook from boiling the broth. This is a guidance and I always recommend that ingredients such as meat need to be cook throughly before consuming.

Two of the ingredients that I found worth picking or ordering (if you can’t see it on the conveyor belt) is Shuang Shuang’s house prawn balls (£2.90) and house prawn & pork balls (£2.30).

They come in a cool looking bamboo looking tube with a matching spatula. You would use the spatula to scrape a ball of paste in to the broth to create your own funny looking prawn ball or prawn & pork ball.

You will find a lot of the typical ingredients for hotpot such as sliced meat, sliced fish, fish balls, chopped vegetables and lots more. There were some that I would not commonly would had used for hotpot such as Chinese dough (油條), which surprisingly work with the broth. But you will have to make sure you do not leave it in too long or it will become too soggy. 

The bow beancurd (豆皮結) was the complete opposite where you can leave it in as long you want, as they will take a while to become soften. So you do not worry about over cooking them too long.

Although upstairs there are sharing broth, most of the seats you will get your own individual broth. Although traditionally hotpot is one pot shared between the table it can be great to have your own broth. You know what ingredients you have put in the broth and to suit your own dietary requirement.

You can add different ingrediants to your chosen broth and make it to your own, such as using fragance shitake mushroom. Here is how my Temple broth started and then looked like after adding a few raw ingredients.

To complete your hotpot meal you can order one of Shuang Shuang’s dessert. We were unable to try the Brandy-infused Persimmon (£4) so instread tried their Soy milk ice cream served with Candied Ginger (£4.50).

The ice cream was creamy in texture and light ion flavour. The candied ginger went well with the soy milk ice cream and gave it another level of flavour to the dessert.

Shuang Shuang also offers a range of Chinese tea including the beautiful flower tea. Not all tea you will be able to top with water to and will only be for one round.

The cost of having hotpot at Shuang Shuang can add up. Just as you do at a conveyor belt sushi, the plates can get taller which means the cost also goes up. We had 25% off during the soft launch and manage to eat £30 per head.

Dining out for hotpot is generally expensive and there are now fewer places in London offering buffet hotpot. But in the Asian community, hotpot is regarded some thing you would have at home as a family or for hosting a big group because it is easy to do.

Shuang Shuang is probably a place to consider if you were dining alone. It is especially great for the colder season as you can warm up with a steaming broth and watch the ingredients go round and round on the conveyor belt, keeping you eyes open for some thing delicious to add to your very own broth. But just beware of your money bank as you could easily find yourself paying for a fine dining bill.

(Prices and menu correct at the time of dining)

Shuang Shuang
64 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London,
W1D 6LU

http://www.shuangshuang.co.uk

Little Penang

London Chinatown has changed over the many years since I was a child. I remember those childhood days when we would travel in to London Chinatown once a week to have dim sum for a family lunch. Now a day you have considerately more choices around London that you can easily get a decent Chinese food with out going in to Chinatown.

Chinatown has and still changing due to the trend, rent and the increase in competition around other local areas. It is no longer just an area that offers cantonese cusinese, it has extended to other part of region in Asia.

This year we saw a new addition, Little Penang in London Chinatown. The restaurant aim is to concetrates on serving Malaysian cuisines. 

Satay skewers (£6.80)

Asam Seabass (£19.80) felt like the fish did not connect with the rest of the ingredients on the plate. The fish seem to be cooked separately from the sauce with the vegetable, then pour over the the sauce. The fish was missing the infusion of the flavour from the sauce.

Kam Heong Crab (£15.80) was better than the fish with stronger flavour.

Instead of Hainan chicken rice, Little Penang serves their version of a Malacca Chicken Rice (£9.80). It is smiliar to Hainan chicken rice but the Malacca version is serve with rice ball.

If you are looking for freshly made roti than this is not the place for them.

The dish was okay but comparing to what I have had at other places in London, than it does not compare. 

There are various drinks to stick to the Malaysian theme such as the Soya milk with grass jelly, which was not as nice as the one I had at Bugis street.(https://chechemui.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/bugis-street-brasserie/)

If you make comparison with other place in London serving smiliar cusines than Little Penang would not come out on top. Although not all dishes was the best the food is okay, but there are some I wouldn’t order again.

Little Penang 
18 Gerrard Street,
London,
W1D 6JF,
UK

Cocoon (CLOSED)

It was a friend leaving do on Thursday and it was decided that she wanted to celebrate it at Cocoon, which is on one of the side road off Regent Street called Air Street. It is both a restaurant and a late lounge, which has been on my list to go for ages. Finally I have the chance to try it!

When you enter the doors of the restaurant you need to walk up the stairs to go to the reception which is where the restaurant is actual located. It was buzzing with people at around 8:30pm and many of the men and women there were very nicely dressed. But with the atmosphere and setting of the restaurant how could you not.

Throughout the restaurant it was dim lighted and it got darker around 10-ish which made it a great late lounge setting. I love the tables, because they were embedded with red and pink rose petals and set well with the whole atmosphere. I would say it was kinda romantic but not if you include the music which was very more on the club dance side.  The music playing throughout the restaurant was quite loud which conversations with others across the table difficult. But I think if you out there to chill then it is great.

It categorise its cuisines as Pan-Asian and from the menu you will find a mix of Japanese and Chinese food. There is a variety of choice of sushi, which also includes sashimi.

They also did some selection of tempura which was a mix between Japanese and Chinese cuisines. We ordered the Salt & seven pepper squid with Thai sweet chilli and the Soft shell crab with jalapeño mayonnaise. They were nice and is recommended.

They also had a section of dim sum, which is a fusion combination as well. We choice Beef fillet & foie gras gyoza with honey infused teriyaki. This was different to the normal gyoza you would ususally have due to the filling with these.

Then for main (well there are no distinction between starters and main, because the waiter said everything we ordered were to come together or any time they was ready I suppose she meant) we went for the fish choice on that was on the menu – the Seabass with Chinese veg and shitakes and also the Baked black cod fillet with kinome miso & mirin glaze. I prefer the Seabass over the baked cod fillet as I felt the sauce spotted on the plate tasted a bit too weird for me.

After it was on to my favourite part of the course because it was dessert time! Instead of choosing individual desserts we decided to go for the Chef’s dessert selection which cost us £23.00. But this dessert was enough to share and offers a great taster of the dessert on offer. The selection included a bowl of variety of chopped fruits on ice, pistachio crème brulee, chocolate fondant, yogurt cake, coffee ice cream, mango sorbet and two unidentified desserts. One I think is pineapple that had some alcoholic mix to it and then a lychee kind of dessert.

All the food was nicely presented and the food was OK. Although only disappointing thing was we ordered Jasmine rice to go with our main and it was on the dry side. The service was not the best but maybe it could be the waiter who was serving us was not that friendly.

It did not come cheap eating at Cocoon, for two people we spent around £50 per a head which include drinks. But this really depend what you ordered as others in our group spent much less then that. However,  I have seen offers they do at lunchtime and they were suppose to have a 3 course set menu for £25. But it was not on any of the menus we were given. The only set menu that we saw was the £50 but the waiter said everyone on the table had to get it for us to get it.

I did not get the chance to try the cocktails but they have list of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails which are beautifully presented. So maybe another time.

Cocoon
65 Regent Street,
London,
W1B 4EA,
UK

http://www.cocoon-restaurants.com/