Kerbisher and Malt

Before going to London, I did a lot of research into fish and chips. That was one thing we knew we wanted to get in England, and it seemed like everyone liked different spots for different reasons. One of the highly recommended spots online was Kerbisher and Malt, which we were especially attracted to since it was located in Hammersmith, only a short walking distance from our hotel room.

Kerbisher and Malt offered up fried fish in almost every form imaginable - plain, with chips, in butties and burgers, as fish fingers. (You could get it grilled too, but we don't remember seeing anyone do that.) One thing we really liked about them was that all the fish was from sustainable sources and cooked on the spot after ordering (and then delivered to your table). We also liked that they had some lunchtime specials which came with chips or a salad, ranging from £5-6. I got one of the specials, while A ordered off the regular menu and got fish and chips.

Since A was already getting chips with his fish, I opted for the salad as my side, thinking it would be healthier and we could also get some vegetables in. It was a small portion on the side of the plate, but at least it was more interesting than just some lettuce. The salad consisted of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, radicchio, and pomegranate seeds. It was lightly dressed with what tasted like olive oil and vinegar. The salad was fine, nothing extraordinary, but it was nice for lightening up the rest of our meal of fried food.

For the special itself, I got the fillet of fish "burger" which really just seemed like a fried fish sandwich. What arrived was a fried fillet of fish on bread with lemon mayo, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, and onions. We weren't sure which fish this was (they had several options you could choose from for the regular fried fish, but the sandwich didn't specify), but it was good. The vegetables on the bottom were very reminiscent of the salad ingredients (quite possibly were the same without the pomegranate), and the lemon mayo added some nice flavor. Unfortunately I was still feeling some of the effects of the stomach discomfort from the day before, so I didn't have as much of an appetite as I thought I would when we were ordering and couldn't finish the sandwich, but I wished I could have.

A ordered the fish and chips with haddock (the other options on the menu were cod, plaice, pollock, and coley). He also got a side of tartar sauce, but we had forgotten with the initial order that you had to order the sauces separately so we had to add it while we waited for the food to come. (The other sauces they had were mayo, lemon mayo, red curry, and sweet chilli.) The price wasn't too bad for the fish and chips with sauce (a little under £10), and for people with smaller appetites, they did have slightly less expensive "small" fish and chip specials.

As for the fish and chips themselves, we found the batter a little on the sweeter side, sort of like those Chinese fried milk things you get at banquets. The fish itself was a really large single piece of fried fish, and very flaky. It wasn't very seasoned or salty, which was good since it seemed like they were trying to let the flavor of the fish itself shine through. We thought similarly about the chips which were also not very salted so you could really taste the potato. I didn't love the batter and preferred the way the fish sandwich was prepared, but A liked it.

Kerbisher and Malt also offered numerous sides, many of which sounded good. We had to decide whether to get mushy peas, or a fennel and dill salad, or coleslaw, or pickled onion rings, or baked beans. I've made no secret of my love for onion rings, and we were really interested in trying the pickled onion rings because they sounded different (and looked good in all the Instagram pics we saw before going). Basically they take pickled onions and then batter them and fry them up. The flavor was definitely different from "regular" onion rings because of the pickled flavor, and they were definitely worth trying. Back then, we had no idea pickled onions were so popular and loved in England, but between these onion rings and the pickled onion snacks we brought home to eat, we feel like we didn't take advantage of this as much as we could have when we were there, and have definitely learned our lesson for next time.

It's hard for us to compare Kerbisher and Malt with other fish and chips places in London, since we didn't visit any others. But we did like what we got there. We probably would have enjoyed it more if our stomachs weren't so uneasy and uncomfortable from the days before (no fault of theirs, obviously), and we would return to try it again if we were in the mood for some fish and chips.

A Year of Nando's

The next post in our London recaps was supposed to be about our visit to Nando's Peri-Peri, our fourth visit to a Nando's in 2015 while on vacation. Unfortunately we haven't gotten around to recapping any of the other Nando's visits, so any comparisons we would make between the restaurants in London and the States would have no context whatsoever. Considering that, and also the fact that the next post in our Savannah recaps was also supposed to be about Nando's, we thought it was best to just put them all together in one post and take you through our year of Nando's.

Visit #1: Woodbridge, Virginia (Savannah road trip)

We had known about Nando's Peri-Peri for a long time before we ever tried it. Founded in South Africa, Nando's is a fast casual restaurant serving grilled chicken (and other stuff, but the draw for most people is the chicken) with peri-peri sauces, flavors that originated from Portugal and Mozambique. Nando's only recently expanded to the US, with locations in Virginia, DC, Maryland, and Chicago. Unfortunately they don't yet have one in New York, but that was why we definitely wanted to try some on our way to Savannah.

A got the half chicken, medium spiciness, with macho peas ("rugged pea mash with whole peas, parsley, mint and chilli" according to the menu). The chicken was very moist except for a few sections of the white meat which was a bit on the drier side. The sauce had a good amount of heat that didn't overpower his senses, and the peri peri seasoning added a nice floral hint. The macho peas were very tasty. They had a good bit of heat to them, and our guess was that they included the same chilli as their peri peri seasoning in them. The mint and parsley added a nice herbal freshness to the dish as well.

M got the sandwich called "Nandocas choice" which made her top 10 list that year. The sandwich was a chicken breast topped with cole slaw on buttery garlic bread. It was really, really good. She thought that the flavor of the chicken itself might have been a little bit better on A's regular flame grilled chicken, but all together, this combination was great. Can't really go wrong with a sandwich built on garlic bread.

Visit #2: Hanover, Maryland (Savannah road trip)

We liked Nando's so much on our first visit, just like we thought we would, that we also got lunch at one of the Maryland locations on our drive back home. The Hanover location was in the Arundel Mills mall not too far from our hotel, so it was our last real meal on the trip (if you don't count rest stop fries). We thought the Virginia location was a little better as far as organization and layout, but we really didn't care because we were eating delicious Nando's chicken.

The first time we got the chicken, we didn't add much seasoning or extra sauce to it, because we wanted to taste it right out of the kitchen with the flavors it was supposed to have. This visit, we experimented more with the sauces, especially the wild herb and garlic, which we liked even more mixed together. The garlic herb peri-peri sauce was our favorite on its own. We love garlic, and this had a really good garlicky flavor to it. The wild herb peri-peri sauce had a good flavor to it, but it just wasn't as good as the garlic herb. Together they formed a great, balanced sauce.

A wanted to kick things up a bit so he got the half chicken, hot spiciness, with corn. The chicken was similar, moist but with a few dry spots in the white meat, and the hot sauce was good and hot, but it was, for the most part, the same chicken he had on the way down. The corn was nice. He had seen a bunch of people ordering it on our first visit so he wanted to give it a try. It was really just a grilled ear of corn, but it was sweet, and the char on the corn gave it a nice smokiness. M isn't as big a fan of corn on the cob, but she thought it tasted good from the little bit she tried.

For her meal, M got a chicken breast (medium) sandwich with arugula, tomato, pickled onion, and peri-peri mayo, with sides of macho peas and fries. These were the same two sides that we had gotten in Virginia, and they were both good. As for the sandwich, it was fine, not as exciting as the Nandocas choice, but the chicken was really good. That said, M still thought A's chicken was better so she decided she would ditch the sandwiches and get regular chicken whenever we were lucky enough to go to Nando's again.

Visit #3: West Loop, Chicago (Great Lakes road trip)

The first Nando's in Chicago opened in spring of 2015 in the West Loop, and once we learned that, we knew where we absolutely had to go during our time in Chicago over the summer. This location was a little different from the other two we had been to, in that it wasn't located in a mall or shopping development, but just a regular neighborhood restaurant. We were really excited to see if anything was different about the Chicago locations, but they were mostly the same. The Chicago one did have better decor though.

A got a half chicken, hot spiciness, with peas and Portuguese rice. The flavor of this Nando's was just as good as before, but the chicken size was much smaller. The peas were tasty like last time, and the rice had really good flavor. We also used the garlic and herb sauce like last time and it was just as delicious.

M got a quarter chicken, medium spiciness, white meat, with coleslaw and garlic bread as sides. The garlic bread was delicious, even if garlic bread is the type of thing we could probably make it at home. The coleslaw was really, really good and better than M remembered from before. With the sides she picked, it was like she could make the Nandocas choice sandwich all over again if she really wanted to, selections which weren't intentional but perhaps subconscious.

Visit #4: Shepherd's Bush, London (2015 vacation)

Our stomachs weren't feeling particularly great after our pie and mash and jellied eels lunch, so we thought the best thing to do was to grab some Nando's for dinner. Grilled chicken sounded like it would be nice and calming. There were two Nando's locations not too far from our hotel, including one a little more conveniently located at the Westfield mall. (You might remember the mall from our first day visits to Square Pie and Pho.) The Nando's at the mall wasn't in the takeaway food court, but in a section with other restaurants. When we got there and saw the line, we were alarmed to see it stretching out of the restaurant and around a corner. The mall was packed, but it was a Tuesday night so we really weren't expecting it to be so crowded. (We kept forgetting it was half term.)

Since that wasn't going to work, we left the mall and walked over to the other Shepherd's Bush location, which had free tables and very little line. It was nice being in a place where there was more than one Nando's within walking distance.

M got a half chicken, medium spiciness, with garlic bread and coleslaw, pretty much the same thing she got in Chicago. She got a half so that A could eat some of the dark meat, since she was planning to eat mostly white meat. The chicken seemed to be very similar to the ones we got in the States, and it was nice to see that the quality was consistent. Both sides were good, but the garlic bread wasn't seasoned as much and didn't have the garlic spread to the edges, so it wasn't quite as good as the ones we had had previously. It was probably healthier that way, but M likes garlic bread with lots of butter and garlic on it. It was a nice, solid dinner that M really hoped would soothe her stomach and erase all memories of jellied eels.

A got the chicken livers which we both knew he was going to get as soon as we looked at the English menu. The chicken livers aren't on the American menu, and that's a real shame. The chicken livers came with a Portuguese roll and he got a side of fries. We couldn't pinpoint exactly what they used to cook the chicken livers, but they were so good. Looking at the Nando's recipes online before they were removed, it sounded like it was just butter and peri-peri sauce, but it tasted like something more than that. There was something familiar about it, but we just couldn't figure it out. We tried these on everything: plain, on the roll, on M's garlic bread, and even on the fries. It didn't matter how we ate them, they were just awesome. There was a little bit of a spiciness to the sauce as well as A ordered them with medium spiciness.

Dinner was really good. We were very glad that we had such a good, tasty dinner since lunch was not as good as we were expecting it to be.

After visiting Nando's four times in 2015, we haven't been to one since then, pretty much since they don't have one here in New York. When the day comes (hopefully) that they do open here, we will be so happy. It's the perfect fast casual type of spot - good flavorful food, no fuss, not too expensive. Nando's, please open in NYC, and if possible bring the chicken livers too!

Goddards at Greenwich

Taking a little bit of a break from our Greek honeymoon recaps to dream about London...

This is a post that I've been dreading writing ever since we ate here. I knew that M would ask me to write this, and I'll get into that a bit more later. Before arriving in London, we did our research on what to eat that was traditionally British, and one of the things we found was jellied eels. We figured that even though we'd never had them before, they'd probably be fine. We like eel in other preparations like sushi, so how different could these be?

The location we chose was Goddards at Greenwich. It had really good reviews, and everything we read about it said it was an institution as it had been around for a long time (1890 by the signage). The first thing that we found that was promising was that it seemed like a lot of locals seemed to be eating here. When we're on vacation, we try to find places that are packed with locals when we can.

We figured that getting just jellied eels wasn't a great idea (or enough for lunch) so we also each got a pie with some sides. M got the traditional mince pie with two scoops of mashed potatoes, peas, and eel liquor (the green-ish gravy). The choice of gravy was between brown gravy and "parsley" which was the liquid from the boiled eels thickened with herbs and spices mixed in. I got the steak and kidney pie with mashed potatoes and eel liquor and also the bowl of jellied eels. We opted to share the additional sides (peas and eels) so that we didn't each have to get them.

M's minced beef pie had a very rich and buttery crust, but it didn't have a great deal of flavor from the filling. It certainly wasn't as good as the pie we had the day before. Overall the pie was just okay. The gravy didn't impart much flavor, and the filling for the pie wasn't that special either. The mashed potatoes were just okay. The peas were also just okay though they might have been our favorite thing from this meal. Everything was just somewhat lackluster.

I got the steak and kidney pie. There was a lot more texture to the meat since it was larger chunks as opposed to being minced up. We couldn't tell what was the kidney, though, so for all we knew it was all kidney and no beef or vice versa. There were also onions mixed into the filling. M preferred her pie more, and I preferred the flavor of mine. The only issue for me was that the beef was a little too dry. Overall, both pies were nothing special. We really enjoyed the other pies we had in London far more than these.

Now for the part that I was dreading writing about the most - the traditionally British jellied eels. The options in these old-school pie shops were stewed versus jellied eels. The difference is that the stewed eels are warm and in liquid whereas the jellied eels are cold, and the liquid has solidified into jelly. We opted for the jellied as that's how we read was the way to eat them.

My first bite wasn't so bad. It was a little salty and squishy, but the texture was similar to other eel I have had in other preparations. The jelly also was pretty salty and had a rather heavy fishy flavor to it. It was so salty and fishy to the point that I started to get a little nauseated from eating it. I opted to ignore the jelly and focus on the eel itself. The eel was still okay to me so I made sure to just eat that. Each piece of eel had a small circular bone in the middle so we had to be careful to pick around that as well as the other little bones that were attached to it since there was a possibility of them getting stuck in our throats.

M had a much different experience with the eels. She hated them and would never eat them again even if it was the only thing left in the world to eat (and she hopes it never comes to that). They were slimy and salty, they were a ton of work with all the bones for not much benefit, the taste and texture of the jelly and the eel skin made her feel sick, and she just did not like them at all. She could barely get through more than one bite, which is why she thought I should write this post instead of her.

Overall, this was a very disappointing meal for us. The pies, mash, and peas were fine. There was nothing special about them, and they were generally bland. The eel liquor poured on top didn't add much either. The eels were a touch on the nasty side, but at least I could eat the eels themselves if not the jelly that came with them. M, on the other hand, would not touch them ever again. While we're glad we got to experience this very old, traditional meal, I doubt that we'd ever do this again.

Nopi

For our London trip, we planned on frequenting mostly casual spots, but we did set aside one night for a "nice" dinner at Nopi, a more formal Ottolenghi spot located in Soho. Visiting an Ottolenghi restaurant was a must for us, and when we looked at the menu for Nopi before our trip, we wanted to eat everything on it, so making a reservation was a no-brainer. Nopi has two floors, a more formal upstairs and a communal dining room downstairs. We made a reservation for downstairs, thinking it would be a little more casual, but when we got there, they offered us a choice and said we could be seated faster if we were okay with sitting upstairs. If they had no problem seating us upstairs, then that was fine with us!

We had a short wait before being seated at our table, and while we waited at the bar, they brought over a board with two small cups, one with marinated olives and one with roasted spiced nuts. We weren't sure if there was a charge for them since both were on the menu and at least £5 each, so we were hesitant to start eating them. When we got to our table, the server let us know they were complimentary because we had to wait. That was fantastic hospitality and very unexpected, especially since the wait wasn't long at all. The meal was off to a great start. A ate most of the olives, since M isn't a huge fan, but she did try a few. Like most olives, they were salty and sour, and in this case, also a little bit spicy. The cup of nuts seemed to have quite a variety in it. We spotted macadamia nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, peanuts, and cashews with lots of spices and seasonings that we couldn't quite identify. They were really good.

They brought out some bread and olive oil once our orders started to arrive. It was two pieces of something like country bread, and the olive oil was really, really good. We expected nothing less from the olive oil from an Ottolenghi spot considering their focus on quality and Mediterranean flavors.

The menu at Nopi was split up into nibbles, mains, and small plates to share, the last of which comprised the majority of the menu. We decided to order one item from the nibbles, but otherwise concentrated on the small plates so we could try as many things as possible. From the nibbles, we got the mixed seed lavash with burnt spring onion dip (£6.5, all prices as of a year ago). The lavash was very crispy and covered in a variety of seeds, including black and white sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and many some others that we couldn't identify. The burnt spring onion dip was a dark greenish-gray color, similar to a black bean dip, and garnished with some pieces of scallions and microgreens. Both the lavash and dip were really tasty, and we made sure to finish the entire thing, even wiping up the remainder of the dip with the aforementioned bread. We especially liked the dip, full of onion and scallion flavor, nice and smoky.

Outside of the nibbles, we had five other plates and they split them into two rounds of three dishes and two dishes. They tried to match up things that they thought would go well together, and we thought they made very good choices. One of the dishes in the first set was the "roast aubergine, black garlic, broad beans, basil" (£8.9). There was also yogurt and pine nuts but those weren't listed on the menu line. We loved this dish. The aubergines were soft and tender. The flavor of the basil was so incredibly vibrant, unlike a lot of the basil we buy in the grocery store which can sometimes be a little dull. The yogurt was creamy and a little tart. We liked the garlic chips, the pine nuts, and everything worked so well together. The whole dish just tasted really fresh, really light, really clean, and it was the type of thing that we have pretty much always thought would come out of an Ottolenghi kitchen.

The next thing we tried were the scallops with apple yuzu puree, endive and pork (£12.9). Although we saw these on the menu and they sounded good, they didn't immediately jump out at us as a "must order" dish. Then the dish arrived at the table next to us, and the dish smelled so amazing that we had to order it. The dish had three large scallops, perfectly cooked, little bits of pork, soft roasted endives, and both apple and yuzu purees, together on the plate but not blended together. We tried the purees on their own and they tasted strongly like apple, but when we ate them together with all the other parts of the dish, the apple wasn't anything more than an accent. The balance of all the ingredients was just perfect, and this was one of our favorite dishes of the night. The scallop dish was so good that it made M's top 10 list in 2015.

Fish was our final plate in the first round of dishes, seared hake with roast chicken cream and pickled girolles (£12.9). We weren't sure what girolles were, but looked them up online and found out they were chanterelles. There were also peas which were not listed on the menu. We liked the fish, but just not as much as the scallops which were on the table at the same time. We couldn't place the flavors or small seeds in the sauce that the fish was cooked with, but the chicken cream was like a really thick, rich chicken gravy. The peas and mushrooms helped to balance out the dish, providing some fresh and light vegetables alongside the chicken cream. Even with all the cream, the dish felt pretty light, even though it was filling. It also felt very seasonal for the fall.

The first dish in the second set was the courgette and manouri fritters with cardamom yoghurt (£11.5). This was the first thing M saw on the menu when researching the restaurant, and she was immediately sold on them. Each of the three fritters had grated zucchini that was mixed with chunks of manouri cheese, formed into a conical shape, and then fried. These were rich and creamy because of the cheese, but lightened up a little bit by the zucchini. The cardamom yoghurt was a little bit tart, but also had some warming spice to it. We liked this, but not as much as we thought we would. Maybe we were already getting full, maybe we were spoiled for everything else because of the amazing scallops, or maybe our expectations were too high, don't know. They were really good, but just not the star of the night we thought they would be.

The last savory dish was the twice-cooked baby chicken with lemon myrtle salt and chilli sauce (£10.9). This was also listed in the mains section at £21.9 where they gave you a whole chicken, but we went with the smaller portion. The chicken had both dark meat and white meat, and the flavor was smoky and sweet. The chilli sauce provided a little heat (but not too much) and also some sweetness. It was like a sweet chilli sauce you can buy in the store, but not as sweet. M recognized the name lemon myrtle from native Australian week of the cooking challenge, but we didn't really taste anything but salt from that ingredient. That said, on the whole, the chicken was so much better than we anticipated. We really liked the flavors.

Once the savory courses were done, we moved on to sweet. With our desserts, A got a flat white, which he liked.

We got two desserts. The first was strawberry mess, sumac, rose water (£8.5). M was immediately drawn to that one. She didn't know what a strawberry mess was, but didn't really care because the listing of strawberry, sumac, and rose water combined three flavors she really loved. It also seemed in line with the Mediterranean flavors that we had been enjoying all night. What came out of the kitchen looked like a scoop of strawberry sorbet, rose water meringue, whipped cream, sumac, and pomegranate seeds, topped with edible flower pieces. M's favorite part was the strawberry sorbet on top. It tasted like wild strawberries, and had such a pure strawberry flavor without extra sugar. The rose water meringue pieces were a little bit on the hard side. We tasted some sumac in the whipped cream, but not much. After doing some research, we realized that this was their take on the typical Eton mess, which Wikipedia describes as a "traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped heavy cream." Without even knowing it when we ordered it, we were trying out something traditionally English.

The second dessert was roast pineapple with macadamia nuts, lemongrass, coconut cream (£8.5). This was pretty good. The pineapple was roasted and a bit caramelized. The coconut cream was fine, it tasted like whipped cream hinted with coconut milk. M preferred the pineapple without it, but A liked it much better with the pineapple than M. The more interesting of the two desserts though was definitely the strawberry mess.

Overall this was an excellent meal. It didn't come cheap, but we didn't expect that it would. We were very glad that we were able to try all the dishes that we did at the restaurant, and we would highly recommend a visit. Whenever we get back to London, we may choose a different Ottolenghi spot just for some variety and to try new things, but if we had a lot of time, we would go back to Nopi. The food was excellent, the service was wonderful, and the entire experience was great.

Banana Coconut Milk

M asked me to write this review as she doesn't want to think about this product ever again. I've held off on this for so long because, honestly, I don't really want to remember this either. Anyway, on our third day in London, we got off the train on our way to lunch and passed a guy handing out free samples on the street. Mylk was some sort of coconut milk that was flavored with cacao and banana. I didn't think there was going to be much good about this even though the flavors should have worked together.

After we both tried it, we had both had the same thought: this was terrible. I don't really remember what it was about it, but as I thought, nothing about this drink worked. I'm typically someone who can find something good in almost anything I try to eat or drink, but I found nothing here. After I finished drinking the first box we went to throw it away. On top of the trash can were several full or nearly full boxes left by people who obviously liked this about as much as we did.

Later in the day, back in the hotel, we were resting, and on a whim I thought to try the non-refrigerated box of Mylk we had remaining. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. Maybe it's because I don't like wasting food. Oddly enough, it tasted better when it wasn't cold. M thought it tasted like a banana smoothie with a hint of coconut mixed in. She's not a fan of banana smoothies, but this one was tolerable when not cooled. I agree with that assessment, but it still wasn't that good. We would not ever buy this again, and we're glad we didn't pay for this to begin with. We saw this brand at Whole Foods back in the states, but thankfully it was not the banana flavor.

Battersea Pie

We had an eventful afternoon sightseeing in London after our stop at Nordic Bakery. I got bird crap in my hair near Piccadilly Circus, which didn't raise my opinion of the place, as it just seemed like a busy, touristy intersection these days. We stopped by Whole Foods and ate some free cheese and chocolate. We walked around central London and lucked into seeing the Horse Guards Parade with no advanced planning. We found ourselves near Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower around golden hour on a clear afternoon which made for some really beautiful views. We learned that the bathrooms in the Westminster train station (which you had to pay for) were atrocious. We got our first glimpse of the Thames while crossing Westminster Bridge. After all of that, we got really frustrated with inconsiderate hordes of tourists and just the oppressive crush of too many people on streets that were really not big enough to hold them, so we got on the Tube and went to Covent Garden for a snack.

Nordic Bakery was never meant to be our entire lunch, and we always intended to go somewhere else for another small meal, so perhaps I'm overstating our "escape" to Battersea Pie, but that's how it felt. We left behind the crowds near Westminster Bridge, got on the Tube, and then took a nice walk through a park on our way to Covent Garden. Once there, we descended into a little pie shop at the foot of the stairs where there was no line (because it was off hours), there were no annoying crowds, and there was good food. It felt like an escape to us.

Battersea Pie was probably the best pie we had during our entire time in London. We got the mince beef and onion pie, which was definitely large enough for us to share, along with a side of baked beans. It was so good. The flavors were rich, and the filling was like a delicious meat gravy. It had so much more flavor than the pie we had on our first day in London. The baked beans weren't that different from beans we'd had before, fairly standard, but just not as much sugar which was good. We wanted more pies, but we knew we had a nice dinner coming up that night, so we couldn't eat too much.

We were hoping to have some good pies in London, so we were really glad we found Battersea Pie. After our pie, we walked around the Covent Garden area for a little bit and then watched a fun street performer. It was a nice end to our afternoon before we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Whenever we get back to London, we would love to get another pie (or pies) from Battersea.

Nordic Bakery

On our third day in London, we finally started doing some sightseeing (that wasn't food-related). Our first stop was Piccadilly Circus, but before we got there, we stopped for a light lunch at Nordic Bakery's Golden Square location. I don't remember how we found out about the bakery, but I had written in my notes that they had, among other things, a Finnish pastry and we hadn't done anything yet for WorldEats for Finland, so we really wanted to go. The bakery was packed when we got there and it was hard to find a seat, although admittedly some people were just taking up tables without actually eating or drinking anything.

A started off with a pour-over coffee (£2.60, all prices from current online menu and similar to what we paid last year), which they called a filter coffee. He found it a little weak and watery with not much flavor. He didn't like many of the coffees in London, but that's a topic for another post. Besides the coffee, we got a few snacks to split. The first was a cinnamon bun (£2.90). According to the bakery, every Nordic country makes a unique cinnamon bun and theirs is a take on the Finnish style.

This cinnamon bun was really dense but had a nice sweet flavor to it without being overwhelmingly sweet. It was very sticky. We saw some review on Yelp before we went there that the bun was hard as a rock, but that was definitely not the case with ours or any of the other ones we saw while we were there. I don't know if that person was expecting Cinnabon, but this is a different style and frankly I liked it better. The sweetness also seemed much more natural.

The second thing we got was the karelian pie (£2), which was the Finnish snack we had come for in the first place. They describe this on their menu as a "rye crusted savoury snack with rice or potato mash filling, served with butter spread." We had never seen or heard of this pie before, but we've never been to a Finnish restaurant or close to Finland itself.

We got the rice version of the pie, and the rice filling on the inside had the consistency of rice pudding (which we like). It was a little sweet, but the butter spread on top helped make it into a savory pie. The crust was a lot thinner than we were expecting before we ordered it, so the entire pie was very soft. It was a really interesting snack, very tasty and worth trying, but not our favorite part of the meal. We haven't really had anything like it before or since, and would likely try it again if we had the chance.

To balance out all of the pies and pastries, we also got the leverpostej sandwich (£4.40), which was an open-faced sandwich with liver pate and pickled beetroot. This was our favorite part of our meal at the bakery. The pate had really nice flavor and wasn't too metallic, just very balanced. The beets were really fresh and went well with the pate. The ingredients on the sandwich were all good quality and the whole thing tasted very clean. We just found it a little expensive since it wasn't very large, as you can see since there is a fork in the picture with it.

We enjoyed the food we got at the Nordic Bakery, and if we happened to be passing by again, we would drop in again for another snack (but maybe not coffee). Now that we've tried the Finnish snacks that we wanted to, we probably wouldn't take a big detour or make a special trip just to visit, but we would definitely consider trying some more snacks if in the area.