Yesterday was a busy day, recovering from a hangover from what was meant to be “a quick drink” with friends from work, funny how quick drinks end up being an entire evening of drinking cocktails by the pint. Had my back and neck cracked by my chiropractor, leaving me in a state of bliss, had a guitar lesson, and got a bit of shopping in as well.

By the time 8pm rolled around, we were looking for somewhere in town to have something to eat, and Soho was mostly off limits unless you wanted to be blasted by gay anthems from what was left of the London Gay Pride celebrations.

Gerrard Street seemed to be one of the only places not absolutely crowded in London, so we went from restaurant to restaurant admiring the almost identical and unappealing menus, until we stumbled onto Macclesfield Street and discovered Leong’s Legend, which had some really interesting food scattered over the tables and a queue to get in.

We spent about 15 minutes both in the queue and at the table scanning the menu and trying to work out what to get, and it wasn’t easy, there are a lot of really interesting sounding dishes, some of which I wasn’t feeling brave enough to try.

Eventually we settled on:

• Vegetarian Spicy Soup
• Chicken Hot & Sour Spicy Soup
• Leong’s Long Bao
• Taiwan Mini Pork Kebab
• Belly Pork
• Beef with Garlic Slices

I have to say, the food smells and tastes amazing, but if you’re one who judges food with your eyes then you might struggle, for example the belly pork came in a hot pot in a thick gravy, and was absolutely full of fat, but cooking it like that meant that the belly pork tasted absolutely amazing after a bit of manual spoonage and struggling to remove the fat.

The beef was a bit disappointing until we discovered that the random bowl of black stuff was actually the dressing, which was mirin and something else and made the beef absolutely sing… shame we hadn’t noticed the dressing earlier.

The soups were a thick broth and very tasty, but overall we found them a bit overwhelming, neither of us managed to get further than half way into our soups.

I’d never had Long Bao before, or even knew what they were, so probably didn’t eat them properly. Having had a sneaky peek on Google I’ve discovered that the are soup dumplings, so I shouldn’t have been quite so shocked at the liquid coming out of the dumplings! They were very tasty though, even if they did remind me of stuffing.

There is a lot more on the menu that I’d love to try, next time I think it’d probably be more sensible to go in a larger group so that a lot of dishes can be sampled without anything being left to waste.

I’ve been naughty and haven’t been keeping track of the restaurants that I’ve been trying, so here is my attempt to catch up since I’m awake bright and early on a Sunday morning (typically unheard of).

On Thursday of the week just gone my friend Chris was made redundant, and these hard times he’s probably one of the only people that wanted to go out to celebrate the news, his settlement is going to fund a three month safari around Africa.

I wasn’t being very useful at making decisions, so Chris demanded that we were to try Haozhan on Gerrard Street, in the hustle and bustle of China Town.

I’d spotted Haozhan in the past but wasn’t sure if it was just trying to sound like Hakkasan, the incredibly expensive and well reviewed restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Haozhan was actually opened by Chee Loong Cheong who was previously head chef at Hakkasan and even more pleasantly surprised that the prices were at least affordable!

The menu is somewhat of a fusion of different cultures, there seemed to be a lot of Chinese dishes, with a peppering of Schezuan (get it? doh), Malaysian, Thai and so on.

The staff are attentive and incredibly humble and polite, the interior was dark and modern, and most importantly on the sweaty Thursday evening, it was chilled!

We ordered a mix match of dishes from the menu to share:

• Prawn Won Ton Soup
• Haozhan Beef Rib Eye (red wine, black pepper, garlic, spring onion)
• Schezuan Duck (sliced and delicious)
• Haozhan Tofu (topped with spinach and a scallop)
• Black Sesame Ice Cream
• Custard Bun

The food was absolutely delicious and the presentation looked like it was a labour of love, the head chef clearly cares deeply about everything leaving the pass without a single flaw.

The Schezuan duck slices were probably my favorite because of the use of chilli to give a strong warm flavour without the urge to cough up or drain several glasses of water like you have to at some Schezuan restaurants.

The beef was tender as promised and packed with flavour, but I’d already had steak three times in the past week so it didn’t notch it’s way into the favorite spot.

The tofu was something else, and I’m still undecided if I liked it or not. The “supreme dressing” that is layered on top of the tofu above the spinach looks and tastes pretty much like lemon custard, and the tofu is very soft, which makes for an interesting experience at the very least!

Dessert followed on the trend of perfection, the black sesame ice cream was lovely even if it did leave a nice trail of black dots stuck in your teeth afterwards that you can give people crazed miles with. The custard buns were evil and naughty, smelling like fresh doughnuts, perfectly round with a crispy outer layer, coconut layer, and then slightly cooked custard so that it doesn’t gloop out.

Belly full, the waiter asked if we’d like to try some of their teas, which are apparently exquisite, and he looked so utterly disappointed when we declined.

Haozhan is definitely on the list of places to go after the next pay day, and this time I’ll have to try some of the tea as well otherwise I risk upsetting them

It’s been a hard time over the past couple of weeks at work, so I found myself taking a few cheeky short cuts and eating out where I could, which definitely helps plaster a smile back on a tired face when the food is tasty.

On Thursday evening I was walking back towards Liverpool Street station and most of the places that weren’t chain owned were closed (hint, less chains and more individually run restaurants please), but thankfully before getting on the tube home I remembered that there was a little hidden gem tucked away in the station itself.

I’m a fan of hidden gems, and Moshi Moshi is an absolute treat of one and should win an award just for the way they’ve crafted their seating areas to make use of absolutely all the space in their unit. Beautifully crafted curved arches rise up into the arched windows in the roof, creating little areas for small groups, seating for two around the sides, and an accommodating sushi bar with a conveyor whizzing past lots of goodies that the chefs had been preparing.

The week has been a bit of a blur so I can’t recall absolutely everything I ate, but I ended up signing on the dotted line for a Moshi Members card which entitled me to the months special offer, any dish off of the conveyor for £2.10.

I can guiltily admit that mine was the highest stack of little sushi plates around the sushi bar, and I’ll even confess that I also treated myself to some green tea ice cream, which if you haven’t tried, you really should!

So on the plus side, it’s a handy location, interesting interior, and pretty good value, but on the negative side it wasn’t the best sushi I’ve had in London, and though the chefs behind the sushi bar were pretty friendly, the rest of the staff were busy complaining about how long they’d been on their feet for to actually notice new customers or to serve them.

Might go again, but probably under similar circumstances, worn out and craving sushi.

It’s been a really long week, and nothing solves that like a bit of a venture of discovery to find somewhere new and exciting. Can’t say it was particularly forthcoming tonight, we scoured the usual streets in Soho looking for something Japanese or just rather nommy looking, most restaurants seemed packed but all the tables had no food on them so there was nothing to wet the appetite.

We were about to give up and venture into China Town, but thankfully we noticed a pair of Japanese restaurants on Romilly Street. Kyoto was the first to catch our eyes with the huge photos of delicious looking sushi outside and an impressive looking sushi bar with loads of fresh and tasty sushi waiting to be served.

The staff have to be some of the most friendly I’ve seen in a long time, especially after a certain incident of outstanding ignorance at Ping Pong Spitalfields earlier in the week. They let us choose our table, they kept us topped up with genmai cha throughout our meal, always had a smile, and were infinitely apologetic for being short on menus.

Before our food arrived, we had to sit and salivate as giant long plates of sushi were carried past us to a large group sat near us, plus the smells of some of the hot dishes coming from somewhere nearby as well.

We probably could have ordered more, but between us we ordered:

• Soft shell crab maki
• Sashimi platter (salmon, tuna,  sea bass)
• Salmon teriyaki
• Spicy pork bulgogi

I could have eaten the soft crab maki all night long, puts all the other sushi restaurants to shame with generous portions, freshness, crispiness and taste. Wish I’d taken a photo of the crab but frankly it disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived!

The sashimi platter followed on with really generous portions of salmon, tuna and delicious sea bass, they’re definitely dedicated to their sushi at Kyoto.

My spicy pork bulgogi was perfect, matching the quality that I’d gotten used to having eaten bulgogi a fair few times at Corean Chilli recently. Once again every last drop of sauce was mopped up with the rice, who needs to clean the plates when you’re customers are licking them clean for you hey?

Snatched a bit of Gary’s salmon teriyaki off of his plate as well, crispy skin, fell apart, bursting with teriyaki flavour… I can understand why it disappeared off of his plate to quickly!

If you’re searching for sushi in London, you really can’t go wrong with Kyoto.

It’s Friday, none of the usual lunch bunch at work were particularly hungry, but it was that time and we had no clue what we wanted to eat. Aimlessly stumbling through East London we walked towards Peticote Lane and stumbled across Cheeky Pete’s, which had a claim to fame on it’s menu outside of 8,000 different burger topping combinations.

You feel like you’re entering some sort of strip joint as you head down the stairs of the entrance, and it wouldn’t surprise me if maybe it does kick off in there after hours, but it was mostly filled with suits from the city to be honest.

There isn’t a menu as such, you’re given a small clipboard with a form to fill out to pick what you’d like in your burger (chicken, beef, falafel), which 5 toppings (or more for 50p extra per topping) you’d like from the toppings list, and which sauces you’d like. Then you can pick a drink, and if it’s a soft drink you get free refills.

Not being that hungry in the first place, we were pretty astonished when what arrived actually looked less like a burger and more like a man-made mountain, with a side of fries.

I ordered a 6oz beef burger, with bacon, cheese, tomato, gherkin, salad and red onion with horseradish mayo and tomato ketchup. I was utterly defeated by it; I seriously don’t even think that I can move from my desk at work now, and I’m really quite appreciative that the lift was working for once.

The burger itself was a bit over-seasoned (too much salt), but in general it was pretty decent, the fries were good, and despite being very cramped, the atmosphere is pretty good and the staff are friendly.

You’re not a number at Cheeky Pete’s, you actually give your name to be called by when your order is ready, kind of nice to be treated like a human being rather than another table to serve.

Definately intend to have a return visit, but maybe like, in a month or so when I’ve recovered.