3 great reasons to leave our own backyard

In December we've left our beloved Islington to explore what foodie delights other parts of London have to offer. Enduring long tube trips and strange buses has been rewarded on each occasion.

Sheen Suppers
One such outing was in the first week of December when, on the recommendation of several other bloggers, we went to secret supper club Sheen Suppers. It's in Sheen. I'd never heard of Sheen, but to Sheen we went. I have to say, travelling there from North London was not as difficult as you'd think, so don't let the location turn you off.
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We arrived at the front door of a lovely looking terrace in a suburban street, not far back from a posh looking high street, and were warmly greeted by Iain and after a few nervous jokes about whether we'd turned up for the swingers night we were shown to our table. I am not going to go in to great detail about our night at Sheen Suppers - several others have taken great photos and written high praise, and I don't disagree with anything that's been said. To read more about Lara and Iain's supper club and to see some great photos, check out these blog posts: London Eater, Essex Eating, Food Urchin.
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It was Indian night when we were there and we enjoyed a starter of lamb Seekh Kebab, Aloo Ki Tikki, mango chutney and mint yoghurt, a main of chicken Chettinad, vegetable Biriyani, dahl Makhani and garlic naan (I was so impressed to discover that Lara had made the naan herself - it was so good she could have just brought out a plate of naan bread and I'd have been happy), a palette cleansing sweet chai sorbet with (Iain's creation) lime gimlet, and then what is now my favourite carrot dessert of all time (stiff competition for that title), carrot Halwa with nuts, cardamon and cream. All the food was exceptionally good, with special mentions going to the lamb sheek kebab, the dahl, chicken chettinad, the carrot halwa, and did I mention the naan?
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I loved this supper club. The atmosphere was great, Iain was an extremely generous sommelier and all round nice guy. Lara and Iain have decorated their lovely house in a really personal way which I thought fabulous. I was thrilled that Lara came around to all the tables for a chat, and I seethed with jealousy upon discovering her beautiful pink kitchen. I admire Lara for indulging her passion for food so fully and so successfully.
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Get yourself to Sheen - it's well worth the trip.
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Harwood Arms

My friends who live in Fulham are in Australia for a month and have asked me to check on their house and cars a couple of times. This is a 2 hour round trip on the tube for me, so I had to make it worth my while! Y's cousin Erenie suggested we meet at the Harwood Arms in Fulham for dinner. I vaguely recalled it being recommended and was happy that at least we'd get a decent pub meal in return for trekking to Fulham in the rain. During the day Erenie emailed to say she'd been able to secure an 8.30pm table, but only because someone had cancelled - can other people be going to this Harwood Arms place as well? Just before we ran out the door I tweeted my dinner destination and was met immediately with these two responses:

tehbus: SUPER SUPER JEALOUS (don't like using caps, but I think this tweet deserves it)

sulineats: Most excellent - can't wait for your report - it's on my to-eat list.
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Huh, perhaps I should take the camera? Maybe this might be worth mentioning on the blog? My excitement level increased somewhat and I was actually looking forward to the Fulham pilgrimage. (I did take iphone photos but it was rather dim and the photos not worthy)
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Y & I stumbled from the rain into an oasis of warmth and cosiness on a seemingly suburban Fulham street. We were greeted instantly by a smiling face, proffering a paper serviette for Y to remove the rain drops from her glasses! We had been going to meet an hour early for a drink, however our table was ready and we were shown straight to it. Pottery jugs of water and a little hessian sack of warm bread arrived at our table shortly after. Whilst we were waiting for Erenie the heavenly aroma of the bread was too much and we had to devour some. How do they get the bread to taste this good?! The dark rye bread in particular was astonishingly good. I was sold - I love this place!
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We perused the menu with excitement. Y had been on the website reading about how the deers are humanely hunted and explained the procedure to Erenie and I as we considered the merits of pheasant Kiev versus rainbow trout.
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As a starter the 3 of us shared the ham hock and crispy pigs ear on toast with bitter leaves and picalilli - um, delicious! The ham hock in particular was beautiful.
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Our mains arrived and I just enjoyed the amazing smell for a few seconds before tucking in. I had beef cheeks braised in ale with smoked bacon, clotted cream mash and roast carrots - the beef fell apart with the prod of a fork. The meat was beautiful with a hint of gelatinous goodness - seriously good stuff. Y had the special which was T-Bone of Linkenholt Estate fallow deer with black cabbage, crispy potatoes and wild mushrooms - perfectly cooked and another really impressive meal. As good as our meals were, Erenie may actually have trumped us with the slow braised shoulder of English mutton with purple sprouting broccoli, white onion and caper berries. Not a complaint from anyone.

We were rather satiated, but if a menu says "Bowl of warm Bramley apple donuts with whipped cream" and the waitress tells you they're so good she eats them for breakfast, you can't go back to Islington without trying them, can you? You don't need me to tell you they were good. But they were good.
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Lovely atmosphere, excellent and very friendly service, top quality food. Another destination worthy of the trip!
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Launceston Place
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I'm never a big fan of New Year's Eve and normally proceed on the basis that the more low key the more fun I have. Y & I therefore decided upon dinner and then off to dance the night away with her favourite DJ at Madame JoJo's. When we discovered one table left at the 6.30pm sitting at Launceston Place in Kensington we snapped it up. I was super excited - I'd read so much about the restaurant (see reviews here from fellow bloggers Gourmet Chick and A Forkful of Spaghetti - their photos are far better than mine so do take a look) and its head chef Tristan Welch (formerly of the 2 Michelin Starred Petrus, where I'd been to the chef's table shortly after the split between Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay) and of course professional Master Chef winner, Steve Groves. The restaurant has won many accolades of late - click here for more details.

What an incredible experience. A beautiful, warm, subdued setting with gorgeous charcoal walls, soft furnishings and cool art work. We were greeted warmly and the night only got better from there.

There was a considerable number of wait staff of different ranks, however, the contrast to the over the top pretentious service we experienced at La Gavroche could not be greater. Australian food writer Jill Dupleix says in one of her books "I love that mix of being serious about the food and casual about everything else". This to me sums up Launceston Place, because the food was exceptionally good, the staff extremely competent but relaxed, friendly, happy to engage - fancy that! What also struck me was the loyalty of the wait staff to Head Chef Tristan Welch. On more than one occasion he was referred to as "my chef" - "my chef made these himself", "this is a little something from my chef" - I got the feeling the waiters were proud to work there and to be serving such beautiful food - and why wouldn't they?

Upon arrival we were met with a gorgeous flute of pink champagne, parsnip crisps (wrapped in Launceston Place ribbon) and bread (not as good as the Hardwood Arms bread I have to say).

The New Years Eve menu was a set 4 courses. Firstly we were brought an amuse bouche of cold and hot leek soup in a small shot glass - the bottom layer pale hot soup, the top a cold verdant foam of soup. Off to a stellar start!

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Our first course was the largest scallops I've ever seen! West coast scallops roasted with aromatic herbs in their shell. A delight to eat!

Next up, possibly one of the most decadent, luscious things I've ever eaten. Presented in a duck shell in a silver egg cup, was black truffle and duck egg risotto. I imagine that life in heaven is simply lolling about eating this. Every waiter that walked past Y demanded "have you tried this?" - "YES" was the smug reply, accompanied by a knowing nod.

Our main was a choice between partridge cooked in whisky and heather, oats or salt marsh lamb, sea beets, crackling and salt baked potatoes. Just before leaving the house earlier that evening Gourmet Chick had tweeted "the salt marsh lamb was a winner" - I didn't even consult Y, I was having the lamb.

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I love lamb and have eaten delicious lamb before, but this was like a whole other species of lamb. Beautifully cooked to a perfect pale pink but not bloody at all. The crackling is best described as the texture of amazing pork belly combined with flavour of roast lamb. The salt baked potatoes came to the table in a little bag with salt and were cut open by the waiter. An incredible incredible dish.

Y's partridge was just as good. The plate had a line of crushed oats across it which provided an unusual but successful texture contrast. This dish was very pretty and, again, delicious.

What I liked about our main courses was that the dishes were not fussy. They simply relied on incredibly good ingredients, inspired ideas and skillful cooking.

Our amazing dessert was a scallop shell of warm dark chocolate truffle with a very salty almond sorbet. This was a genius combination. The chocolate almost sickeningly rich, but when paired with the sorbet (which could only be described as a cold splash of almondy sea water) this dessert just worked.

We enjoyed our double espressos but were too full to even taste the shards of dark chocolate with pistachios.

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As we left the people for the 9pm sitting were gathering. One lovely couple caught my eye and said excitedly "What's it like? What did you eat?", I of course gushed and started to tell them about the leek soup but stopped "I don't want to spoil it for you! Enjoy! Happy New Year!". There was definitely a vibe of excitement amongst the diners, which I loved.

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I can't wait to go back. This is a truly brilliant restaurant, with the perfect balance of competency and familiarity in the service and exquisite food.

As we left a little parcel was thrust into our hand "Tristan Welch has personally created these chocolates for your enjoyment". Aw bless.