In London for one night, we finally
got to stay in One Leicester Street
– I had wanted to stay in the hotel when it was Fergus Henderson’s St John
Hotel but it was always fully booked on the dates we were travelling.
Now renamed One Leicester Street, the hotel and Michelin starred restaurant of
the same name are part of the Unlisted Collection – a group I know well from my
travels to Singapore owned by “the man with the golden touch”, Dublin born,
University of Sheffield and LSE educated, Loh Lik Peng.
In Singapore we have stayed in his Wanderlust
and New Majestic Hotels and eaten at a few of the restaurants he has there –
most notably André with Andre Chiang (recently voted
37 on the World’s Top 50 Restaurants) and one of his many join ventures with
Jason Atherton, the excellent Esquina.
Sadly, our stay did not completely live
up to expectations. After some teething problems over being issued with the
wrong keys (cards) and a generally incompetent receptionist, we eventually made
it into the room.
My wife wasn’t too happy about the
bath and basin being so open and close to the bed – bad ‘feng shui’ she said. I
made a mental note to check this when booking rooms in the future. Aside from
this the room was good.
It was small but that is usual for
such a central London location without paying many hundreds per night. The towels,
toiletries, linen and mattress were all good quality and we had a great night’s
sleep. The mini bar had a small but good, quality selection.
After checking in we popped out for
a stroll. One Leicester Street is bang central for much of the usual touristy
things. Leicester Square is less than 100 yards away and Piccadilly Circus,
Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, SoHo, Regent Street, Carnaby Street and Oxford
Street are all just a few minutes walk away.
However, we made out way (via Gerry’s on Old Compton St to stock up on
miniatures) to Great Windmill Street and Sasuke
Japanese Ramen Bar.
Having only opened a month or so
before, Sasuke had been given the thumbs up by The Skinny Bib, which is good enough for me.
The place is much simpler, paired
down and less trendy than the nearby Bone Daddies and I quite liked it for that – you
don’t have to rely on funky décor if your product is good.
I tried the Miso Chashu, which was served piping hot with good springy noodles
- I opted for the ‘marutoku’ upgrade of egg and nori topping for £1, who
wouldn’t?
My main criticism was the abundance
of beansprouts that seemed to outnumber even the noodles! My pal Skinny Bib
(who knows much better than me) criticised their pork, citing the outside of
the pork as ‘unpleasantly gelatinous’ – personally, this is what I liked about
it but what do I know?
Another plus point was the serving
of house roasted sesame seeds with an authentic Japanese mortar and pestle style
bowl and grinding stick called ‘suribachi’ and ‘surikogi’ respectively – much more enjoyable than the more practical and common
plastic ‘gomasuri ki’. Interestingly, the phrase gomasuri is also used as a phrase to
describe what westerners would call a ‘suck up’ or a ‘brown noser’.
Sides of Edamame and Homemade gyōza
were good but not exceptional. A glass of Shochu
and a Calpico finished our order.
Later in the evening, approaching
11pm if I recall, we ended up at Spuntino
– another place just around the corner from the hotel. We initially popped in
for just a drink but their licence only allows them to serve alcohol to people
who are eating. No problem – we ordered a couple of dishes.
Due to the hour, the intention was
to avoid heavy carbs so we ordered Candied
bacon and a Steak tartare. Then
we spotted the Clams, linguine, pancetta
& wild garlic – all dishes were good enough to make us want to return
at a more reasonable hour. The staff were friendly too so Spuntino is definitely on the list for a proper visit next time we
are in town.
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