The Loose Box restaurant has to be one of the most unfortunately named restaurants I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. When I mentioned to friends that I was going for a meal at this place, it brought sniggers all around. Oh well, at least it is memorable! As a treat for our parents, we took them both out a couple of days before our wedding to say thank you. Neither mine or Brad’s parents tend to go to fancy restaurants, so it was a chance for us to treat them to a nice meal and share a passion of ours with them. I know my parents certainly couldn’t afford it when we were kids, nor were we ever well behaved to take anywhere fancier than the local Chinese… 

On the day of the meal, things were not going well. I’d just heard that myself and most of the team I worked with were being made redundant on the way in the car and at that stage, it was looking like my sister-in-law to be wasn’t going to have a bridesmaid dress to wear. When we got there, the waitress (who I believe was head of the front-of-house team) fumbled whilst opened a bottle of wine and sprayed it in my eye and all over my dress. At this stage I promptly ran to the bathroom and burst into tears, with the waitress following quite closely behind. She felt terrible, thinking that it was all her doing and when I explained why I was actually upset, she burst into tears. It was quite a surreal moment. Without us even asking, they removed the bottle of wine from the bill. 

Thankfully it turned a corner after that and what followed was an absolutely lovely meal. I’d chosen Loose Box as they offered a vegetarian tasting menu for my Mother-in-Law, something not all restaurants do. It turns out that the chef’s daughter is vegetarian and you can see that a lot of thought has gone into making it as fulfilling as the meat version. Another thing I liked about the Loose Box is that they are relatively flexible about the degustation menu. They were happy to swap out dishes between the meat and vegetarian menus and offer alternatives on a number of courses. 

The chef’s pastry skills came in for high praise from everyone. From the choux pastry swans, exquisite petit fours, to the delicate little meringue birds with a pastry sign that said “Congratulations on your wedding” which I thought was a beautiful personal touch. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meal and I thought the prices — roughly $200 per person — were quite reasonable given the quality of the cooking and warm friendly service. Unfortunately my photos didn’t come out at all but you can have a look on Flickr to get the idea.

Loose Box
6825 Great Eastern Hwy
Mundaring 6073 Australia
Phone: +61(0)892951787
www.loosebox.com.au

I was lucky enough to go with some work colleagues to Pearl Restaurant in Holborn. We’d been looking for something nearby that was nice and that could fit eight of us in at short notice. I’d been researching earlier that week for a blog post when I came across Pearl on Timeout and noticed they had a special deal (3 courses for £30), sadly no longer available. Now I have to apologise up front for the quality of these photos. The section we were in had shocking lighting and I was armed with only my iPhone. 

We started off with not one but two amuse-bouche. Pretty amazing given we were dining on a set menu deal. The first was an assortment of dishes, there was enough for two each. I can’t quite remember what they were now but thanks to another food blog it turns out from the bottom they are a Mackerel and Vegetables Escabeche, a Chicken Liver Parfait with Toasts and Chutney, a Mushroom Risotto arancino and what I think was a Pastry Concoction filled with an unknown substance - unfortunately I didn’t get a taste either! The second amuse-bouche was the same for everyone. I was concerned it was a raw egg but it was actually a Butternut Squash Puree with Green Apple Jelly. The pumpkin puree came in for very high praise from my dining companions. 

We also had generous servings of fresh bread and I was beginning to wonder how I would get through the three courses. For starters, I opted for Roast Langoustines, Scallop Mousse with Black Spaghetti, Fennel Puree and Sea Purslane (IIRC) whilst for my main I went for Fish served with Herby Potato Cakes, Puree and Samphire. The starter was amazing. The langoustine was fresh and the black spaghetti was visually stunning. The green sauce was sweeter than I expected. Unfortunately I can’t remember the fish I had for my main (possibly monkfish). It was perhaps a little too generous a portion for me especially with the filling herby potato cakes. The puree, which I believe was parnsip, was rich and surprisingly enough, one of the highlights of the dish. 

We were expecting dessert but we ended up getting another bonus course, this time it was a Pre-Dessert in a shot glass - Vanilla Cream with Blackberry Compote. The creamy vanilla flavour worked really well with the tart berries. The desserts were possibly the most spectacular course of the evening. Both dessert options looked incredibly good and the presentation standard was very high. I can’t quite remember what I had but I know it was good, from what I can recall I think it was a Chocolate Parfait with White & Dark Chocolate Balls and Hazelnuts. I was stuffed by that point but still managed to finish off my dish. 

The other dessert looked equally impressive and you can see the Tiramisu with Amaretto Ice-cream in the photo below. Petit Fours followed, including marshmallows and sesame snaps. I managed a marshmallow but I was totally stuffed by that point. 

I felt that the service was a little clunky in parts and more visible than they should have been. On occasion, they interrupted conversation and clattered the plates as they laid them down or removed them but this is me nitpicking more than anything.

Although the food or the service weren’t perfect, I felt that the deal we got was pretty amazing. £30 bought us seven courses and it felt like they had really put effort in those courses, not skimped because we were eating on a special deal. If you can get a deal, I’d definitely recommend it but even if you can’t I’d still say it’s worth a visit. 

Pearl by Jun Tanaka
252 High Holborn
London WC1V 7EN
Phone: +44(0)2078297000
http://www.pearl-restaurant.com/ 

I was lucky enough to fly to San Francisco in April for almost two weeks for work. For the first time ever, I decided to stay in San Francisco proper and catch the shuttle to the office each day. It’s quite luxurious being able to catch an air-conditioned shuttle with WIFI to and from work, even if I was getting up at 5:30am each morning!

I decided to document all the places I went whilst I was out there. You can see a list of all the locations on this map here.

First off was Thai Thai Noodle. I ordered beef with peppers and rice. Prices were cheap, service was swift and the food was pretty decent. 

Just across the road from Thai Thai Noodle is a supermarket. I stocked up on a bunch of American sweets and treats for my colleagues and family. As you can see below, it was quite the haul and I went back for more!

By now it was Saturday, so I decided to have a lovely leisurely brunch at a little place down the road called Canteen. Service was rather surly but the food was to die for. It was in fact, the only place that I went to twice during the whole time I was in San Fran, although again, pity about the service. 

I didn’t take a snap of my second brunch which was pancakes with warm strawberries but I did snap a before and after pictures of the blueberry pancakes with cream cheese. If you are going for breakfast, you must order it. It is AMAZING.

On Saturday night, my lovely friends from London who now live in San Francisco, took me out for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant called Ristorante Parma

I ordered a Caeser Salad and my friends ordered Garlic Prawns on Spinach and Grilled Mushrooms with Radicchio. Whilst I couldn’t fault the dishes it didn’t really have me raving. With similar ingredients I could quite happily put together dishes like that myself.

We pressed on with our mains, with one of my fellow diners ordered Chicken Parmigiana. This was certainly the strongest of the mains with two rather generous servings of chicken. My other dinner ordered something very similar to me. Looking at the photos the only difference is the type of pasta used as both have a cream sauce with peas and ham.

I should also mention prior to dinner, we popped into the very impressive bar called Nectar Wine Lounge. Great place to check out some wines from the Napa Valley.

Another day beckoned and I thought I’d try that great American tradition, pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. Just up the road on Sutter Street, was the Golden Coffee Shop which is a lovely little family run diner. Despite it raising my food quality alarms for being so cheap, it was brilliant. Ideal if you fancy clogging your arteries first thing in the morning.

Another place nearby if you need your cup of ‘Joe’ as the Americans call it, is the The Morning Fix. I had a perfectly decent cup of coffee there, although I am not in any way shape or form a coffee snob. 

I finally had a chance to try a pretty little neighbourhood restaurant called Nob Hill Grille on the Sunday night. After clogging my arteries with pancakes and bacon, I followed it up with a burger and sweet potato fries. The burger was lovingly constructed from a brioche bun, salad leaves and good quality meat. The fries themselves came with a rather spicy dressing. Washed down with a lovely red from Napa Valley, I practically rolled out of the restaurant.

Probably one of my more disappointing meals was the burrito I had at La Mexicana Taqueria on Sutter Street. I was given a massive burrito but the ingredients were disappointing and things you would normally get automatically in the UK weren’t included. Who knew burritos could be this disappointing in San Fran? Perhaps because it wasn’t the mission but steer clear of this one. The only thing I really liked was the lovely Jarritos Lime drink.

The user experience team that I’m part of went for a lunch together one day near the office, and our boss chose Seto Japanese restaurant. We were lucky enough to be seated at a traditional Japanese booth of sorts. I opted for a Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box, since I love getting a bit of everything when I order food. No complaints on either the food or service but no wild raves either. I’ve been spoiled for Japanese food since our trip at the start of the year!

My final night was spent at a restaurant called Olea. I desperately wanted to like this place. They use local and organic ingredients, the service was friendly, the layout of the restaurant was cosy but still charming and I could see the chef hard at work whilst I waited for my meal. However, when my duck arrived, I found the dish a little bland. The duck was lovely, the asparagus was good but with the quinoa (IIRC) it was served on lacked flavour and it just didn’t sit well with me. The cake I had for dessert was also quite dry and rather stodgy. 

One thing they definitely did have right was the portion sizes. For the first time in my whole trip, I left feeling pleasantly full rather than bursting. Despite both dishes not being great, I’d still give Olea another try. Maybe next time I’m in San Francisco.