{"id":1022,"date":"2014-01-29T15:48:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T15:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leilappetit.com\/blog\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2015-07-07T09:41:42","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T09:41:42","slug":"review-of-blackfriars-for-bite-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/?p=1022","title":{"rendered":"Review of Blackfriars for Bite Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-471\" src=\"http:\/\/www.leilappetit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/bite2.jpg\" alt=\"bite\" width=\"151\" height=\"66\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7401\/12066522246_1875cecb7a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8230;I asked again. \u2018No but seriously, when\u2019s the last time we ate out and I didn\u2019t have a single negative comment to make?\u2019 The Silver Fox is sitting opposite me at a candlelit corner table in Blackfriars\u2019 neatly unfussy dining room. He admits to drawing a blank on the question at hand. Our dinner, it turns out, was a case of love at first and last bite.\u00a0\u00a0In this specific case, to start, a chunk of warm treacle soda bread covered in butter, and home-made madeleines to finish.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The menu offers a succinct selection of four starters, mains and puds and each night there are a couple of specials too. To start, I chose the cosy-sounding baked eggs (\u00a36) which were indulgently creamy, with pleasing sweet and saltiness from the Italian guanciale ham, and a little colour and texture contrast with a chiffonade of winter greens. Fox opted for the clean lines of cured mackerel, a delicate dish of Scandic simplicity with sliced green apple, black radish and watercress.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5471\/12066022074_e11e2da721.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3760\/12066015874_cba9335eae.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A rib-eye steak special (\u00a323), which our friendly host told us would be charcoal-grilled on their \u2018big green egg\u2019 BBQ, held true the equation that quality meat + high heat = huge flavour. The well-seasoned steak was succulent as you like, and the house-chipped chips and tangy b\u00e9arnaise put this at the highest end of bistro classic. To contrast, Mr\u2019s choice of roasted roe deer (\u00a322) revealed a nod to the chef\u2019s fine-dining pedigree, an elegant winter dish of tender pink loin with a pumpkin pur\u00e9e, red cabbage and jerusalem artichokes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5493\/12066496386_55b71161db.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Given that dessert choice is where I occasionally (sometimes, literally) \u2018nod off\u2019 when it comes to selection time, there was considerable delight when the first item listed (all priced \u00a36.50) sparked a pang in my \u2018pudding tummy\u2019. The individual not-too sugary crisp pastry tart with pear and quince frangipane, a dollop of clotted cream and a scoop of perfumed honey granita cemented this dining experience as impeccable. Over the table, Mr was equally delighted with his pick of chocolate cake, a light but rich sponge with a smooth malted ice cream and hazelnut praline.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2855\/12065596355_d50513ea76.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Throughout our meal, the simplicity and quality of ingredients shone through each dish. No faffy garnishes, just great seasonal ingredients, and true flavours. The future\u2019s definitely bright for Blackfriars.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"border: none; width: 200px; height: 146px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urbanspoon.com\/b\/link\/1746500\/biglink.gif\" alt=\"Blackfriars on Urbanspoon\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>&#8230;I asked again. \u2018No but seriously, when\u2019s the last time we ate out and I didn\u2019t have a single negative comment to make?\u2019 The Silver <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/?p=1022\" title=\"Review of Blackfriars for Bite Magazine\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}