- 12 hours ago
In the second instalment of The Standard's food and drink podcast called Big Misteak, David Ellis and Josh Barrie review Crisp pizza, argue over some Mayfair restaurants and vent their frustration over the 60/40 Guinness trend that is taking over the internet.
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00:00It is a diabolical restaurant.
00:01Fine if someone else is paying.
00:03No.
00:04I actually got called MC Pocket Square one day.
00:07I think that just the world is going to shit.
00:09So it's me being like, I can't breathe.
00:11I can't cope with this.
00:13This is just hell.
00:20Hello and welcome to episode two
00:22of The Standard's Big Mistake in which
00:23Josh Barry and David Ellis
00:26talk about everything that we've been up to
00:27in food and drink this week.
00:29So Josh, what have you been up to?
00:31Lots of stuff.
00:32There was the Bistro Freddy lunch.
00:34Second year anniversary on Friday.
00:36I missed this.
00:37What was it like?
00:37What were you eating?
00:38Who was there?
00:39Lots of people were there.
00:41Too many to name.
00:42But you weren't, unfortunately.
00:44No.
00:45Really missed.
00:46But we had some nice mussels on a flatbread,
00:50some delicious steak and lots of good wine.
00:53That sounds heavenly.
00:54I was probably on a plane.
00:56Maybe.
00:57What's been going on a food and drink this week?
00:59Well, the big news I would say is
01:01Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver
01:03stepping back from their roles at St.
01:06John, one of London's most famous restaurants by far.
01:08I think this is actually really significant news
01:10because Fergus has been on Wildfork for a long time now,
01:13but is the guy who defines British cuisine from the early 90s,
01:19the reinvention of it, also Nose to Tail, all of that.
01:23That's down to him and Trevor.
01:24Yeah.
01:25So to see him step away, it'll be interesting to see if the ethos remains,
01:28which I imagine it will.
01:29And yeah, you know, the impact they've had on dining out in London is huge.
01:34Do you think this will change, St. John, or do you think that they've got such a clear sort of,
01:40I mean, they hate to say that they have a formula, but they do.
01:43Do you think it's got such a clear ethos and idea that it won't matter?
01:47It's a big question, isn't it?
01:48I think they've built, clearly they've built a framework.
01:52It's been going for so many years.
01:57So probably, you'd like, I imagine it will kind of stay the same.
02:00The three head chefs are remaining and they've been trained.
02:04And so in that sense, I think it will remain.
02:07But it also raises the question, you know, will St. John, I mean, how long would it go?
02:14I think if they start painting the walls pink instead of white,
02:16then we're probably in a bit of trouble.
02:17Apart from that, you know, bone marrow on toast with a bit of parsley, everyone's happy.
02:22Have you seen anywhere else this week that you recommend?
02:25Well, the latest in the long line of New York style pizzerias is Vincenzo's,
02:31which is open in Shoreditch, opposite Dumbo's Mashed Burger,
02:34which is a trend that probably won't last, whereas I think New York.
02:38Do you think Mashed Burgers are dead?
02:40I don't think they're dead, but I think next year will mark the return
02:43of the thick gourmet proper beef burger, which is actually something else I had.
02:48It's not London, but just after the Bistro Freddy lunch,
02:51went over to the Suffolk in Aldborough, which is somewhere that I really love.
02:56And they've just put a burger on the menu and it's just a bit thicker, juicier.
03:01I feel like after a while with a smash burger, it's just,
03:04I don't care about tasting the burnt edges.
03:07Well, I like the original style of smash burger,
03:09like the meat liquor's been doing long before the trend.
03:13But these really super thin ones that started in New York,
03:18where it's kind of like just a disc hockey puck.
03:22It's not even a hockey puck, it's more like a critic puck.
03:24Yeah, no, you're right.
03:25It's all the bits that you normally scrape off the grill
03:27of suddenly being like clumped together.
03:30That to me for 11 quid is diabolical.
03:32I'll tell you where I ate this week, which was fantastic.
03:35I think you've probably been there quite a few times.
03:37It's Etta's Kitchen.
03:38Etta's Kitchen in Brixton?
03:39Yeah.
03:39She's a great woman.
03:40It was just amazing.
03:43I didn't know you went there.
03:44I went to a gig in Brixton before that.
03:47And it was just, you know, we had the ackee and saltfish,
03:51brilliant seafood soup.
03:55She's super cool, isn't she?
03:56Yeah, she's great.
03:57I mean, it's so nice to be in there because it's just sit wherever you like.
04:02It was very quiet, but the kitchen's toiling over.
04:04Everything's made fresh to order.
04:05Yeah.
04:05And I think it was probably with some wine, 18 quid a head.
04:10And we ate pretty well, maybe 20.
04:11And I thought, do you know, that's the best 20 quid I've spent
04:13in a long time that I can remember.
04:15Yeah, I'm getting all excited.
04:17And she gets all her produce from round, from Brixton Market,
04:21the fish, the vegetables.
04:23It's like, yeah, I just love that place.
04:25Yeah.
04:25And the other one I went to was Lutyens in The Net,
04:29a steak restaurant that used to be open to the public.
04:32Yeah.
04:32So I've never been.
04:33And then they just recently opened it up.
04:35The old bank manager's office is so beautiful.
04:38Yeah.
04:38Makes me want to be a bank manager in like the 1940s,
04:41which, you know, sort of a dream anyway.
04:42You could be.
04:44Did you see the Wellington in the Carmen trolley?
04:47Beautifully done.
04:47Could be the best Wellington in London.
04:49I think it's definitely a contender.
04:50And it's a contender for the best steak in London.
04:53Absolutely.
04:53Especially this time of year, it's somewhere to go.
04:56I mean, we didn't because I was working, sadly.
04:58But somewhere to go for martinis, white wine, then red wine,
05:01then stay afterwards.
05:02Everyone's having a good time.
05:03It's sort of an archetypal long lunch place.
05:06And those are my favourite.
05:07It's also a very beautiful room.
05:09Oh, yeah.
05:09Tucked away.
05:09So, yeah, that could be, I mean, yeah, we want loads of people to go there and make use of it, really.
05:14Absolutely.
05:15Well, that's enough of this.
05:16All right.
05:17Let's do second sittings, which is where we discuss what we've reviewed this week.
05:21You start.
05:22Where have you been?
05:23Laren in Brixton.
05:25We're in between Clapham and Brixton.
05:26Is this one of those, like, dive places that you absolutely love?
05:30It's a full-on dive bar in the same sense as, you know, Tirola.
05:35Well, Tirola is not a dive bar, but you know what I mean.
05:38Somewhere where you can make a mistake.
05:40Well, where you can drink too many shots and do a bit of karaoke.
05:47Yeah.
05:47There's neon lights.
05:48There's a fun crowd who don't really care about, you know, who else is there.
05:52It's not somewhere to be seen.
05:53It's just any old place.
05:56And, you know, like Sporting Club.
05:58Yep.
05:59In Westbourne Grove.
06:00Yep.
06:00Is it Westbourne Grove or Park?
06:02I can never remember.
06:02You're just coming up to Westbourne Grove.
06:04West London.
06:04Who cares?
06:05You have Google.
06:05You'll be fine.
06:06Yeah.
06:06And so it's sort of like South London's version of that, in a sense.
06:11Yeah.
06:12It's somewhere to just go and have a laugh.
06:14And it's also opposite, speaking of sort of Jamaican food in that part of town.
06:20It's opposite a place called True Flavours.
06:22Right.
06:22Which is a really good Caribbean takeaway.
06:25I went to Crisp Pizza, which is the...
06:28Yeah.
06:28I mean, it got so popular in sort of 22.
06:32That's when it really kicked off.
06:33Yeah.
06:34They've just moved to Mayfair.
06:35They've moved to a pub called The Marlborough, which is in North Waterley Street.
06:39They...
06:40Carl, who runs it, has been backed by Charlie Carroll and Osh Rogers from the Devonshire.
06:45So upstairs, it looks like the Dev.
06:46It's as busy.
06:47It's sort of chaotically busy upstairs.
06:50And then downstairs, they've made it look like a New York speakeasy.
06:53It's got steakhouse red leather.
06:56It's got, like, stills from The Godfather.
06:58They're going to put up some football posters.
07:00But it's really low light.
07:02Tiffany lamps.
07:03Completely beautiful.
07:05So busy, people are queuing five hours.
07:07Would you queue five hours for anything?
07:09No.
07:10Rupert Grint was in the queue, wasn't he?
07:12On the opening day.
07:13Yeah.
07:13Harry Potter star with his wife and child.
07:15You'd think he'd have better things to do.
07:17You would have thought so.
07:18But that demonstrates just how popular it is, I suppose.
07:21Don't get me wrong.
07:22The pizza's good.
07:24If...
07:24And pizza's personal, right?
07:25So I actually don't particularly love the crisp base and...
07:30But then also being childlike as Neapolitan, I just prefer a floppy pizza that you can roll up and...
07:34Like Neapolitan, yeah.
07:35Yeah, exactly.
07:36So I don't necessarily absolutely love Crisp's pizza.
07:40But the formula works and people do respond to it.
07:42And it looks great.
07:43But I just can't quite wrap my head around the idea of waiting that long for it.
07:48Because London is not short of options.
07:50I love pizza, as you know.
07:52Yeah.
07:52Crisp is one of my favourites in town.
07:54But I agree with you.
07:56Queuing five hours is absolutely mad.
07:58People don't even queue that long in New York for industry, which is probably the world's best pizza right now.
08:04So our producer overlords have asked us, what's our favourite karaoke bar and karaoke song of choice?
08:10Right.
08:12I really...
08:13Well, I mean, the Tirola Hut is a great place to sing after he's done his cowbells.
08:20And if I were to sing probably Torn by Natalie Imbruglia...
08:25Would you re-enact the video when you're on the floor?
08:27Absolutely, yeah.
08:28Yeah, that was sort of a formative moment of my childhood, that video, just very clearly.
08:32Okay.
08:34I actually don't know any karaoke bars.
08:37I mean, best that I don't.
08:38Terrible singer.
08:39I used to rap, which is something I really regret.
08:41Jesus Christ.
08:44Yeah, I know.
08:45Go on then.
08:45I actually got called MC Pocket Square one day, which was both a low and high point of my life.
08:52Um, I don't know how to respond to that.
08:56Yeah.
08:56Without...
08:57It's something that I've retired very wisely.
08:59What would you rap?
09:01Well, I met Run DMC and I rapped with DMC, which was actually very cool.
09:07Revelatory.
09:07And I also used to rap 99 Problems.
09:10By JNZ.
09:11Yeah.
09:11And also hypnotized by Viggy.
09:14I mean, these are low moments in my life, but it was a different time.
09:19It was a different time.
09:20Are you going to give us a couple of bars now?
09:22Absolutely not.
09:23I think you should really.
09:24Not going to happen.
09:25Okay.
09:26Well, there we are.
09:28Um...
09:28Right.
09:29I'm...
09:30You're genuinely in shock.
09:31I'm in shock.
09:33I can't cope with this.
09:35This is...
09:35Just...
09:37F***ing hell.
09:38Now we're playing Overrated Underraces.
09:40I think you can work out what that's about.
09:42Yeah.
09:42The subject this week is Mayfair Restaurants.
09:45Nobikov.
09:46Oh.
09:47I mean, fairly rated as Dreadful.
09:50It is a diabolical restaurant.
09:52Fine if someone else is paying.
09:53No.
09:54It's half...
09:55Right.
09:55What is it?
09:56It's...
09:56They've got an Italian bit, which is just truly offensive.
10:00It's just for, like, you know...
10:02Football arcs, innit?
10:04Well, I suppose it's just...
10:05Football is...
10:06It's not somewhere.
10:07Yeah, it's...
10:08Obviously...
10:08I mean, it's not...
10:10A restaurant is worth anything you're willing to pay, right?
10:12And they will...
10:13It's quite busy, isn't it?
10:14It's 1%.
10:15They'll...
10:16Overraced by the Premier League.
10:18Mm-hmm.
10:18Fairly raced by anyone who knows anything about restaurants.
10:21Hakkasan.
10:23Oh, I like Hakkasan.
10:24Yeah, I kind of got a soft spot for it.
10:25Yeah.
10:25I...
10:26I kind of like the original one, because it felt like you were going into, like,
10:29a 90s movie, and you just expected to see, like, Naomi Campbell on the table next to you.
10:33Yeah.
10:33Because it's dark, and people would just be drinking all day.
10:35It's not what it was, but it's fairly rated.
10:37Yeah.
10:38Sexy fish.
10:42I...
10:42Okay, controversially, I think sexy fish is underrated.
10:45But the reason I think that, in the food world, everyone just piles on it all the time.
10:51Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a decent restaurant, but I don't think it's
10:53the worst place in the world.
10:54And they have a very good value set lunch.
10:56And if you're in that part of town, and you just want a bit of middling sushi, and you
11:01don't mind paying for it, it's actually not terrible.
11:03I think I like it for one reason, and it's because they didn't let Jess Glynn in, because
11:08she was wearing a hoodie.
11:10Standards must be maintained.
11:12Yeah.
11:13Scots.
11:14Oh, right.
11:15Scots is legendary.
11:16We went not so long ago, didn't we?
11:18And it was good.
11:19Decent.
11:20Fine.
11:20My only thing is, is it slightly overrated, because people talk about it as being the
11:24best fish restaurant in town, and actually, I don't think that's true.
11:27Nowhere near, not even close.
11:28Yeah, so I think it's overrated on that.
11:30I agree.
11:31I think it's fine.
11:32I think, though, it's heyday of, like, celebrities all the time seems to have waned slightly.
11:37No, you still see them about.
11:39And be sure to, and also the history of it, you know, you've got to read Matey Boys, who
11:45wrote Jack Fleming, his food review of Scott, Ian Fleming, he wrote a food review
11:49of Scots, and it's just phenomenal.
11:52And just on the history, I quite like it, but it's not the best place to have a nice
11:56day over, so.
11:57It's good.
11:57It's not the best fish restaurant in London.
12:00The worst meal you've had in Mayfair?
12:02My worst meal in Mayfair was a place called Jerry, which still exists, and...
12:07Jerry?
12:08Jeru, as in Jerusalem.
12:10Okay.
12:11And I thought it was going to be interesting to review it, and the guy on door, he was
12:17like, you write about restaurants, don't you?
12:19And I was like, yep.
12:21Which makes it awkward from the off.
12:22And then he was like, right.
12:24And they sat me and my friend Kieran on this table, and we effectively had a bodyguard.
12:29There was this guy who just stood next to our table the entire meal, which is really off-putting.
12:33And then the food was diabolical.
12:35And then I just, it was, it had like club music playing.
12:41Everything was wrong with it.
12:43And it was really creepy, because I felt like at one point, if we said something wrong, then
12:47this guy was going to come over and flip the table.
12:50It was really an unpleasant dining experience with poor food, which there's nothing to say
12:55there's a positive about that.
12:58I've never been.
12:59Wildly overrated.
13:00They poisoned you, didn't they?
13:02It was pretty embarrassing for everyone concerned, because it was me being like, I can't breathe.
13:05And so I went in for a Chinese New Year celebration, and the glitz and glamour of
13:10f***ing bar is completely ridiculous, but I kind of used to enjoy that.
13:14And we get downstairs to the bar, and I asked the bartender what's in the drink, because
13:19there's no menu, it's just their specials.
13:21And it's like, starts listing ingredient, after ingredient, after ingredient, after ingredient.
13:27It was like, probably five minutes, because he's doing all the brands, and I was just like,
13:30right, right, right.
13:30Oh, just call her honestly.
13:32And so I took a sip, and I was like, is there kiwi in this?
13:35And he was like, oh yeah, didn't I say it's a kiwi-based drink?
13:37And suddenly, like, my blood sugar is dropping.
13:40And it was fine.
13:41And then they were like, oh, you left in a hurry?
13:43And I was like, yes, you poisoned me.
13:45So I don't really go back anymore.
13:48It's weird, that, isn't it?
13:49Yeah, probably, yeah.
13:50Now we play Bone to Pick, which is where we take a topic that we haven't seen before,
13:55and then we, I suppose, pick bones with it.
13:58Yeah, it's lovely.
14:0060-40 Guinness.
14:01Yeah.
14:02Shut up.
14:04Just shut up about this.
14:05Yeah.
14:05This happened last year, when it was called Semi-Skinned, where you mix...
14:09It's going to be skimmed.
14:11The thing is, with this 60-40 thing, is now Guinness is so popular that people will talk
14:17about anything to do with it.
14:19What I think is interesting is when Guinness released a low-alcohol version back in 2006,
14:24Guinness Mid-Strength 2.8, which is about the same as this mix is.
14:28Guinness was cheaper.
14:29It was the cheapest point to buy in a pub because it was so unpopular.
14:33And then, like, they had Obama pose for the pint, and sales still dropped.
14:37They were dropping year and year and year.
14:39And now, just like, if you want to drink less, I think good for you.
14:42I just don't think it's that worthy of conversation.
14:45No, it's not.
14:46It's also not new because it was...
14:48Because it was a big thing last year.
14:50Semi-skimmed or whatever.
14:52The internet's collective memory is shot.
14:54And then there was also zebra striping, where you have one Guinness zero, then a normal,
14:59then zero, then a normal.
15:00That's fine.
15:01Just why do people need to talk about it?
15:03If you want to just drink a bit less, that's great.
15:05But why is it a story?
15:06It's like all these...
15:08I put it in the same category as, like, self-diagnosis and, like, therapy confessionals.
15:14Shut up.
15:15Question.
15:16Do you think that this is just a really clever marketing party?
15:19Because, actually, if you want to sit there all afternoon and you're not ever really
15:24getting tipsy because it's only 1.7%...
15:26I don't know.
15:27Do you think they're just trying to rake in the cash?
15:29I think that just the world is going to shit.
15:32And it's Guinness's fault?
15:33No.
15:34It's the internet's fault.
15:35Diageo, please don't sue us.
15:37Basically, we think, fair play if you want to drink less.
15:39Of course.
15:39It doesn't need to overrule everything else.
15:42Just whatever.
15:43Like, I think part of the reason some people are reticent when sort of, like, they don't
15:47want to drink a bit less in the pub, which is absolutely, like, fair play.
15:50Yeah.
15:51Just, it doesn't need to be a thing.
15:52Just go in, have a nice time, be merry.
15:55It shouldn't...
15:55Alcohol should never dominate the conversation, you know?
15:57It's just secondary and secondary.
16:00So, that's all for this week on The Standard's Big Mistake.
16:03If you've got anything you want us to talk about next week, please drop a comment and
16:07also please subscribe and then you'll make us very happy indeed.
16:11And then Josh will finally tell you where he did get kicked out of.
16:14Wish I could remember, mate.
16:16Goodbye.
16:17Goodbye.
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