Fette Sau: the BBQ benchmark

Fette Sau, 354 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, New York

Meal for three starving people (excluding drinks): $75 or £46

It feels like it's all about BBQ here in London this summer. Not the burnt sausage, crappy burger kind but the sort of cooking one associates with the Southern States of the USA: all pulled pork, sticky beans and shots of bourbon by the pit. Within the space of a few weeks, we've had a new restaurant open up in Hoxton and a van pull up under Hungerford bridge (review on its way), both dedicated to the fine art of cooking with fire and smoke. However, whilst both make an admirable attempt at recreating that American stalwart, neither of them have quite got it and they fall short of smoky perfection. Even with our new-found love of the BBQ pit, we still have to leave our beloved city for the good stuff. Having put off writing up my recent (ish) visit to New York, BBQ disappointment has finally given me the impetus to blog about the opposite: BBQ heaven. For as I discovered on my last visit, our urbanite cousins in New York can hook themselves up with fantastic BBQ at the drop of an artfully distressed hat. Mind you, they do have to leave Manhattan which is perhaps just as traumatic for some. Fette Sau is the sort of place I would love to see transplanted to London. In fact, I would even sell a fairly vital organ in order to make this happen. 

da Polpo: it's not you, it's me

da Polpo, 6 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7NA

Meal for two (with 50% off food): £50

For many, da Polpo is all about family. It's the youngest child trying to live up to the awesome foodie legacy of its older siblings. It's not the original (Polpo) nor is it the most iconic (Polpetto). It isn't even the slightly edgy one that your aunt suspects is on drugs (Spuntino). It's the Conrad Hughes Hilton of the Polpo Family. Poor da Polpo,  it must hope for a visit from one of the few people in London who haven't already fallen in love with its sisters. Someone, perhaps, like me. 

It's not that I wasn't keen to go and eat at this infamous family of restaurants before. I just never got round to it. This may have something to do with the queues. I made it up the stairs to Polpetto once but couldn't face the two hour wait. So da Polpo was to be my first encounter with The Family. I was so keen to see what every other right-minded foodie was on about, I even made it there before its official opening.

Rock Lobsta: pop up and pay

This week's latest pop up is a temporary lobster shack in deepest Shoreditch. Here for one weekend only, it's worth a look if you like the idea of a posh pop culture picnic and you don't mind paying for it.

An Idiot Abroad: Mr. Fork in Los Angeles, Vol. II

In-N-Out Burger, 7009 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, Los Angeles

Combo Meal for one with iced tea and a promotional t-shirt: $16.98 (about £10.35)

Confession time: I was forced, totally against my will, to do some actual work during my recent trip to Los Angeles. As such, my ambitions of rigorously blogging every morsel to pass my lips went sadly unfulfilled. It’s not that I didn’t go to any bars or restaurants (quite the opposite) but I’m not sure there’s much interest in me reviewing the various “networking” events I attended. Plus, I seem to have mysteriously failed to photograph any of the identikit canapés that formed the majority of my food intake (if not my main source of calories) for the week of the show. Finally, I suspect that the buffet breakfast from my 2-star hotel in an insalubrious part of downtown is not of interest to anyone, let alone the kind of person who likes food enough to read a blog about it.

Red Dog Saloon: where's their smoke?

Red Dog Saloon, 37 Hoxton Square, N1 6NN
Meal for two (with 50% off food): £40

It doesn't take a genius to realise that North East London is changing. Where once there were only money lenders, Turkish supermarkets and secret warehouse raves, now the Kingsland Road sports those two well-known harbingers of gentrification: a Tesco and a Subway. The arch-hipsters, who remember when the area was the cutting edge of cool, have either moved to Clapton or are consoling themselves by producing ironic t-shirts and moaning about the changes in the Sunday Times Style magazine. Even Passing Clouds, once the sole preserve of the trendsetting elite who knew where to find its unadorned doorway, has started to advertise its presence with a sign. The restaurant business in this part of town is also changing to reflect its new market. The Turkish and Vietnamese places remain virtually unchanged but, in Hoxton and Shoreditch in particular, more and more recognisably mainstream places are opening, such as Busaba and Byron.

Even so, when I heard about a barbecue joint opening in Hoxton Square, my first thoughts were of the marvellous Fette Sau in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Those familiar with both New York and London will know that Williamsburg is the transatlantic ideal to which Shoreditch aspires. As such, I hoped that Red Dog Saloon would bring the same on-trend approach to BBQ that Fette Sau has successfully pioneered in New York. I expected rough wooden tables, artisan beer by the gallon and a selection of rare whiskies in mismatched glassware. Most of all, I had high hopes for the meat: I wanted meltingly tender slices of brisket, unctuous pulled pork and smoky slabs of ribs. Unfortunately, whilst Red Dog Saloon makes an admirable attempt at recreating these things in London, it doesn't quite hit the mark. 

The Corner Room: affordable genius

The Corner Room, Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, E2 9NF

Meal for two with much wine: £85

One of things I love about trying a restaurant for the first time is the sense of possibility. Whilst perusing the menu, enjoying a first glass of wine and in the moments before the food arrives, there is a chance that something wonderful is about to happen. The pleasure that comes with eating something brilliant is worth the risk of disappointment. Even more enticing is the possibility of eating something interesting and surprising, the sort of clever cooking that excites the mind as well as satisfying the flesh. Last week I paid a visit to the Corner Room, Nuno Mendes's new place in Bethnal Green's Town Hall Hotel, hoping for such an experience. I was in luck; rarely has a restaurant impressed me, and exceeded my pre-conceived ideas, as much as this one. Brilliant, beautiful and no need to book: the Corner Room is pure genius.

An Idiot Abroad: Mr. Fork in Los Angeles, Vol. I

KyoChon, 3833 West 6th Street, Los Angeles

Combo meal for one with Pepsi: $9.07 (around £5.50)

One of the perks of the “career” I’ve ended up in is the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles once per year for a “business conference”. In the past, this has boiled down to the daily cycle of meeting/boozing/sleeping/hangover that accompanies events of this kind. This cycle, combined with the fact that Thea is on the other side of the world and therefore incapable of cajoling me into eating offal, means that my diet for that week usually errs toward the immediate satisfaction of jet-lagged cravings for chilli burgers rather than embarking on foodie adventures.

Giant Robot: nostalgia and meatballs

Giant Robot, 45 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5RS

Brunch for two: £30

At any one time, there are several new food trends sweeping the capital. Of the current bunch, many seem to have their roots firmly embedded in the United States. Seoul may be the hottest foodie destination on the planet right now but back home, we are looking squarely west for our culinary inspiration. In amongst the promises of authentic, smoky BBQ and the proliferation of NY-inspired hangouts, one humble foodstuff is making a significant dent in the London restaurant scene all by itself: the meatball.  Six months ago, to my enduring shame, I didn't know what a slider was. Now it seems as if they are everywhere. The meatball has been quick and tenacious in its takeover - going from Campbell's tins to cutting edge dining in mere months. Arriving into Kings Cross in time for Sunday brunch, Mr F and I found ourselves cycling past Giant Robot, a fully paid up member of the meatball club, and couldn't pass up the chance to check it out.