British love

Something I love about Britain is the pub culture. You have probably noticed this from my Chiswick pubs series reviewing The Old Packhorse,  The Bollo,  The Gunnersbury, The Pilot, The Lamb and Smokehouse. I, of course don’t just go to pubs in Chiswick.

One of my favourite pubs in London is The Black Lion on Kilburn high road.

The Black Lion
274 Kilburn High Road
London NW6 2BY
West Hampstead

The Black Lion pub is a beautiful old English pub steeped in history dating back to the Roman times. It has a friendly atmosphere and the service is really polite and upbeat, the people who work there seem like they really enjoy it. In the winter it even has open fires surrounded by couches where you can snuggle up with a winter warm drink.  I really love the atmospheric Victorian charm it has about it.

The food is delicious and what I would consider pretty reasonably priced. The quality and freshness of the food is second to none and I have never had anything I didn’t like.

I usually opt for the Tapas menu where you can get 4 plates for £14. This way I get to taste a lot of different flavours and its great way to share food with friends.

Looking over the Tapas menu now I realise I have tired most of the dishes on there!

Some of my favourites are

Italian style mixed olives

Fresh pitta break & homemade hummus

Toasted bruschetta with tomato, onions & cucumber

Deep fried calamari and hand cut triple cooked chips

Trio of sliders, chicken, pulled pork and beef

They also have great Sunday roast options. Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Pork belly and vegetarian Wellington. The biggest range of roasts I’ve seen in pub.

I have tried the Lamb

and the ½ corn feed chicken

Both were very good. The Yorkshire puddings were the best I think I have ever had. The veggies were so so but with the gravy were very tasty. The meat (both the lamb and chicken) was tender and full of flavour. Exactly how you want a Sunday roast to be. It is literally drenched in gravy though so if you aren’t a big fan make sure to request yours on the side.

I actually haven’t ever had the A La Carte menu but they seem to have a good range of starters, mains and desserts in a very traditional English pub style. I can’t see them not being as good as the tapas or Sunday roasts so I look forward to trying some of the dishes one day…especially the chocolate brownie!

The Black lion is also a lovely place to just go for a drink. They do some really great cocktails and of course they have lots of beers and wines.

There is nothing about the Black Lion I don't like so go check it out and let me know what you guys think.

My Berlin Food Journey – Part 1 Snacks and Drinks

In the middle of July I took a trip to Berlin. It was a really fantastic break away and has maybe even claimed the top spot as my favourite European city.

It was everything I expected the city to be and more! There were a lot of highlights including the East side gallery, chilling in Tiergarten, checking out the amazing street art and learning the history of the city on a walking tour. I also got to travel with a good friend and catch up with some friends who have moved over there, which was probably the best the highlight.

Coming a close second though has to be the food. From the traditional German cuisine, to the amazing Turkish food, the oddness of currywurst and of course some sweet treats. A definite journey for the taste buds.

I will be doing a series of post from my time in Berlin, hope you enjoy!

Part 1 Snacks and Drinks

I have to start with currywurst. What can I say about it, it was….a sausage *smiles*. Basically currywurst is a pork sausage that is steamed, fried, sliced, and then served with ketchup and curry powder. It is a favourite fast food option in Berlin and seemed to be everywhere.

 
As you can probably tell I wasn’t really a fan but it wasn’t horrible either.

I was travelling with a friend who was vegetarian and we were completely shocked to actually find a place that did a vegetarian (it was actually even vegan) form of the currywurst. The sausage is made of seitan, wheat protein, water and herbs. It probably doesn’t taste like the original Currywurst but it was really nice to be able to include her in this German tradition and it did of course have the famous Currywurst sauce. You can find it at the Original Berliner Currywurst.

We didn’t quite see it as the culinary treasure the Germans seemed to see it as, but when in Germany…

One thing we did really like was the street food markets and the amazing pastries they did. We had a Poaca for breakfast one morning which is actually a Turkish snack. It’s a pastry served cold with different fillings. We had spinach and feta in ours. It was really tasty.

I will delve more into the massive Turkish influence in food over in Berlin in a future post but boy do they have some good Turkish food.

Another breakfast favourite was the pretzel. Can’t got to Germany and not have pretzels. We saw a lot of the bike carts going around and selling the huge pretzels but to be honest I wasn’t game to get one from there. They didn’t look overly hygienic. We opted for a suggestion from our hosts and headed to The Brezel Company.

 
My friend got a plain one and I got a cheese one and they were soooo good. Really fresh and tasty. The service was quick but also really friendly and although we didn’t sit in, it looked like a nice place with a good laid back atmosphere.

 

We also got a chocolate covered one for later in the day. This wasn’t as good as the original or the cheese but again when in Germany…

 

We all know I am not a big drinker but you can’t go to Germany and not have beers.  When in Germany...
I think the first few beers I had weren’t even German actually *smiles* but they tasted good.

The best one though had to be the Augustiner Pils I had in the Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt restaurant. This one was German for sure. It was a dry, slightly bitter, slightly sour tasting beer and I really enjoyed it, especially with the rich heavy German meal we were eating (to be blogged about at a later date).

One drink I kind of got a little bit addicted to was the Fritz-limo and Fritz-Spritz. Thank goodness we can’t get them in the UK!

Fritz-Kola was started by two friends who wanted to create a new kola brand better than everything offered by the big soft drink companies at the time (2002). They got popular very quickly and the rest is history.

I tried the apple, sparkling grape, apple cherry elderberry and orangeade. Funnily enough I never ended up trying the original Kola.

 
They were really nice and refreshing, still tasting really fruity despite being a soft drink so probably fairly artificial. I really liked them and had a lot more than I should of but when in Germany... *smiles*

Well that is it for this addition of My Berlin Food Journey. Keep your eyes open for the next instalment, coming soon.