Scoop, Covent Garden

Ice cream has always left me a little cold (so to speak). It’s perfectly fine as an accompaniment to something cake-y or pudding-y but not a thing I would usually crave in its solo state. Gelato on the other hand, proper Italian style gelato, is far more exciting. The differences between the two may be small but they're also huge, if you follow me. In gelato the fat content is slightly lower and the churning process is, I believe, slower making for an end product that is somehow smoother and lighter and altogether more melty.

Scoop in Covent Garden sell Italian style gelato in all the familiar Italian flavours – straciatella, bacio, zuppa inglese – and the quality of the ingredients is evident in each mouthful. The gelato is heaped high and drizzled with good things; look at those happy hills of gelato.

I’ve noticed in the past that they made a pine nut flavoured gelato and it was this I had in mind as I ambled up Neal Street – because pine nuts are obviously awesome in any capacity. But, sigh, no pine nut gelato was in evidence on this occasion so after a bit of um-ing and humming I went for my default pairing of hazelnut (nocciola) and coffee (caffe). A small tub costs £2.80 and holds two generous scoops, which was ample for a sunny London afternoon.

The coffee flavour wasn’t overly intense in its coffee-ness but it had nice bitter bite supplied by little dots of coffee bean; the hazelnut, on the other hand, was a step up, being subtle and fruity and tasting almost exactly as I remembered it tasting in Italy. The Guardian Word of Mouth blog recently carried a piece about how things eaten on holiday can rarely be exactly replicated when back home but this hazelnut gelato was transporting stuff and I was instantly connected with memories of munching on a hazelnut gelato brioche sandwich in Sicily while a thread of the sweet stuff ran down my wrist or attacking a cone in Verona in the shadow of the arena.

In short, it was very, very good indeed. But next time, pine nut gelato you will be mine…


Scoop, 40 Shorts Gardens
London WC2H 9AB 020 7240 7086

The Giaconda Dining Room, Covent Garden

Seemingly universally liked, The Giaconda Dining Room, a dinky restaurant on a Soho side-street otherwise devoted to guitars, is, as has been noted, a gem of place: cosy and welcoming, with an audible, beating heart.



The room is tiny and slightly suburban; the plain wooden tables are crammed closely together and wine bottles line the back wall on either side of the entrance to the kitchen. We were the first ones in - though the place quickly filled up – and, given a choice of where to sit, we chose to nestle in the corner by the coat hooks. A carafe of sparkling water, a small bowl of olives and a basket of average bread arrived at our table along with our menus.

There are a number of intriguing vegetarian dishes on the menu, though all are listed among the starters. There’s crevelle de canut - a Lyonnaise creamy, cheesy dippy thing – roast field mushrooms with garlic puree and baked eggs with spinach. The risotto of the day was broccoli and wild garlic. Though there was no fresh fish following the bank holiday weekend we were told that the chef, Paul Merrony, had made up a brandade of salt cod as the fishy dish of the day.



Amongst the list of specials I heard one of my favourite words. The asparagus it had to be. What arrived at the table was truly beautiful: a plate of glorious, gleaming green spears, perfectly cooked. This was served with a small bowl of sea salt and - the kicker – a silky scoop of red wine mayonnaise. This was an inspired pairing: the mayonnaise was smooth yet slightly tart and good enough to make this mayonnaise agnostic see the light.



Non vegetarian mother went, disappointingly not for the much written about crispy pig’s trotter, but for the beef carpaccio (£6.50). This pleased her considerably, though she thought it would have benefited from the kitchen being less giving with the parmesan.



To follow I chose the crumble of creamed shallots and wild mushrooms (£7). This was an intense and wintery dish, rich and sweet – that blob on top that looks a lot like chantilly cream was laced with horseradish. A more sensible person would have gone for some form of salad as an accompaniment, but I went for a side order of chips (£2.75). These came skin-on (which I like) and were, we were told, cooked in rapeseed oil; though they could’ve benefited from being a smidge crispier, they disappeared quickly, though it took an effort of will to finish the last few off – it was a generous (like everything here) portion.



Non vegetarian mother was in an offally mood and vacillated between the braised tripe with chorizo and butter beans and the sautéed veal kidneys with carrots, eventually opting for the latter (£11.75). These were incredibly good, she said, meltingly soft. The accompanying bowl of macaroni was declared unnecessary and shoved in my direction.



Dessert was perhaps overkill at this stage but we decided to share the chocolate mousse cake (£6). This looked to be, like all the best chocolate desserts, on the decadent side but a small puddle of orange caramel sauce helped counter the richness and it wasn’t nearly as heavy as it might have been. A smooth, superior cup of coffee rounded up what had been a superb meal.

Including a bottle of Cotes du Ventoux and a £1 per person cover charge we paid just over £70, not including service, which was friendly and helpful thoughout: brilliant value for what was one of the best meals I’ve had so far this year. This is the kind of place I could – and hopefully will – happily return to again and again. My mother is already talking about going for the pig’s trotter next time...



The Giaconda Dining Room, 9 Denmark Street, London WC2H 8LS 020 7240 3334

Wahaca, Covent Garden

My housemate does not like birthdays. Not one bit. They tend to pitch her into a big black pit of not-happy and, with another one imminent, it was clear that some kind of tequila-based rope ladder was required.

We had both been keen to visit Thomasina Miers’ Wahaca for a while so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a try. We arrived at the original Covent Garden branch around 7pm on a Wednesday to find the place fizzing. Reservations aren’t taken but a large buzzer was handed to us and we were told there would be a twenty minute wait for a table. Though there’s a bar area near the entrance, it was a real scrum and far too full to really relax with a drink, luckily at the 20 minute mark my buzzy thing duly buzzed and we were led into the innards of the restaurant, away from the din.





“Have you eaten here before?” our waiter asked ominously as we sat down, but fortunately this did not herald a long discourse on the concept and ethos of the place and we were quickly able to order cocktails.

Miers’ thing is Mexican ‘market food’ and Wahaca’s website says all the right things about locally and ethically sourced produce; she seems likeable and genuinely passionate about the cooking of this part of the world, but some of the reviews I’ve read have been a bit muted. The menu features a large array street food – tacos, tostadas and quesadillas, many available in vegetarian versions – but also includes more substantial dishes including a vegetable pipian. My housemate had her heart set on a pork burrito and I went for the intriguing fuerza salad (£7.10) with an order of the huitlacoche quesadillas (£3.95) on the side.




We began with a bowl of tortilla chips which came with a fresh tomato salsa with a nice zing of lime. A salsa verde and a chipotle dipping sauce were already on the table along with a neon orange bottle of hot sauce, which had a nice lingering heat rather than an aggressive burn. The chips weren’t overly exciting but they made a good accompaniment to our drinks: my housemate, true to form, went for the classic margarita, served in a salt-rimmed tumbler, while I went for the Wahaca Mule, which sadly lacked the kick of good ginger beer.




Now main course salads can often lead to disappointment, I speak from experience, but the combination of ingredients – including pickled hibiscus flower – piqued my interest. I usually prefer salads that feature a couple of clear flavours rather than the whole-heap-of-everything that I was presented with, but this was a nicely put together dish and I found that as I dug deeper different textures and flavours presented themselves to me. Beneath the top layer of salad leaves and crumbled feta, there were waiting chunks of roasted butternut squash, avocado and plump grains of spelt.




The quesadillas were also enjoyable, though the huitlacoche, a kind of corn fungus I believe, was quite subtle in flavour. We also shared a small pot of frijoles (£2.30), baked black beans topped with cheese; these were wonderfully earthy and dark. A second round of cocktails was soon required and this time I opted for the tamarind margarita which, with its subtle sour notes, was my favourite of all the cocktails we tried.




For dessert there was only one possible choice (well, there wasn't, but there was, if you know what I mean - it wasn't a sorbet kind of evening): it had to be the churros and chocolate (£3.50). We momentarily contemplated sharing a portion between the two of us but decided this path would only lead to squabbling and potential donut rage. Each plate came with three twists of fried dough and a cup of thick chocolate sauce in which to dunk them and while I suspect the churros could have been slightly lighter, they were hot and glistening and – gone. They were all gone. I’m glad we didn’t share. The sauce wasn’t overly sweet and it took real restraint not to dip my finger into the little that was left.

The atmosphere was bright and buzzy but not so loud we couldn’t conduct a conversation; once we escaped the chaotic knot of bodies by the door we had a really enjoyable night. My housemate, who’s eaten plenty of Mexican food in the US and had high expectations, was very happy indeed with her burrito and I’d certainly be keen to come back and explore the street food section of the menu in greater depth. Our bill came to £55 not including service which seemed reasonable considering we both hit the cocktails.

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Wahaca, 66 Chandos Place, London, U.K. - 020 7240 1883