Food: Reds True Barbecue

Red's True BBQ
54-56 Great Eastern St,
Shoreditch,
London,
EC2A 3QR

After establishing a stronghold t'up north, boss's of BBQ have opened up in Shoreditch, London! I've wanted to try this place since they had a little pop up and opened up this super cool looking restaurant. Since my first visit a couple of weeks ago I've been back twice and it's been awesome every time! The decor is really cool, very rustic and warm. The downstairs bar area is set out like an old wood cabin with red drapes down the walls in the hallways.

Anyway onto the important stuff, BBQ! I have to admit I found the menu a little bit confusing to begin with, a bit long and I was scared I'd miss out on something amazing, although the super friendly and helpful staff immediately offered to explain it to me. We ended up going for the "Beef Long", which comes in a medium, large or extra large. We also opted for the burnt ends and hot wings. The Beef Long is perhaps the nicest bit of BBQ I've ever had, the flavour and tenderness of the meat was unmatched (I've had it every time so far). The burnt ends also lived up to the hype and had a much more smokey flavour than a lot of burnt ends you get at smokehouses that just taste a bit like roast beef!

Now let me tell you about the wings. When waiting staff usually ask if I'm sure I want the hot wings as they are really hot I always go for the hottest spice as it usually isn't THAT hot. I kind of regretted that at Reds. Who knows, perhaps I just got a particularly spicy batch, but daym those wings were hot! For pudding I had a peach, pecan and salted caramel cobbler with pecan ice cream. This was mouth watering and so tasty, I could maybe of eaten two.

As well as great food, It's almost worth the visit just for the great atmosphere and amazing service. The staff are truly lovely and very welcoming. We visited last night and the manager remembered us from our first visit, and one of the other members of staff remembered our friends from a time before which was lovely! He then took us to see the smokers (smelt ridiculously nice) and gave us a bunch of free meat marinates. 

Every time I've been the food, atmosphere and service has really been amazing. For somebody who works in the industry and can't help but judge every aspect of going out for food this takes a lot for me to say. If you're into your BBQ and meat you simply must check this place out

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Milk

Somewhere I've been meaning to visit for so long now is Milk in Balham! We've driven past this place so many times and even tried to visit once but it was rammo! It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing so I didn't have the camera on me so forgive me for the phone pictures, I'm going to do a full review another time as the decor was amazing and it's hard to appreciate from these photo's.

Inside the place looks amazing, everything looks so clean and rustic. We were offered a choice of where to sit and ended up grabbing a table right by the big glass window that runs adjacent to the street.

Although the menu doesn't actually show any steamed milk coffee's (It just says white/black/expresso) they made us latte's that we really enjoyed, milk was not too hot which is just how I like it. I chose "The Convict" which consisted of pretty much all of my favourite breakfast things; English muffin, streaky bacon, sausage, scrambled egg, hash brown and hangover sauce! The sauce was awesome and resembled a kind of rich barbecue like taste. This was topped with freshly grated parmesan, something I've never considered for breakfast but was god like in taste.

I could go on about how great the food was (I was really taken back by it), however the thing that I really loved was the kitchen. The kitchen is right in the middle of the restaurant and no bigger than your average bathroom, with one chef making the meals. You could just tell that everything was so fresh, and this reflected in the taste of everything. Georgia went for a simple scrambled eggs on toast and the eggs were so creamy and delicious.

So typically I wasn't totally finished there, I went and had a browse at their cake display that we walked past as we came in. The staff seemed super nice and friendly and helped me out with what to chose. They had a really cool range of cakes with very different ingredients. I ended up gong for a hazelnut cake that was so damn good and went down great with another coffee.

This was meant to be a short review because of the pants pictures but I was honestly so impressed by this place I can't wait to go back any day now, I'm literally making excuses for the need of breakfast,

Get down to Milk in Balham, it's really easy to get to if you have a tube station near  and you won't regret it I promise!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Urban Food Festival

Last night I was out partying for my little sisters 21st Birthday celebrations so today was very tender for me. So as a very hungover couple me and Georgia ventured out to Shoreditch to check out Urban Food Festival, a really funky little food market in set in a car park on Shoreditch high street. I really struggled to enjoy myself being so hungover which is a shame as it had a lovely atmosphere here, with live music and lots of really friendly staff, who gave us some bottle caps that gave us discount at the bar, which for obvious reasons I didn't take advantage of!

I didn't go so crazy this time. We grabbed a classic bruschetta from Bob Bruschetta that was lovely and fresh. Then after much deliberation I grabbed a monster of a burger from the Backstreet Diner that was a had a super fresh patty with pulled pork. Very messy but worth the sticky fingers. We then shared some really tasty jerk chicken from the Caribbean Smokehouse.

Although I struggled through today I would definitely head back there another day as there are so many other stalls I wanted to check out! Get down there

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Summer Tales/ Night Tales

Night Tales present Summer Tales fuelled one of my recent days off. I'd actually walked past this place a couple of times before and if you've walked through Shoreditch recently you probably have too. To be frank, it really didn't seem like much from outside. However as you go in you open up into a huge, awesome little jungle full of people, food, booze and music. I'm a total sucker for food markets (although I wouldn't call it that) and always end up trying most things there. It was a fiver to get in and had some awesome food and drink from around London.

After some instant food envy we started with a lovely little pizza from Pizza Pilgrims. I'd heard great things about this pizza and this was my first time. As big pizza lovers, it did not disappoint, especially as it took a matter of minutes to make. The staff were also super friendly and really chatty which was just great. I quickly moved onto a nice looking fish stall, Bonnie Gull. I had a spiced Cajun fish sandwich that really hit the spot and didn't bust my wallet.

So at this point I realised that sitting and drinking in the sun was going to lead to a lot more food. Next up was Nanny Bills. Their food was advertised with a big sign saying "croquettes" along side a menu of different sides. I was honestly confused by the menu and it wasn't until I ordered that I realised that I had gotten actual pulled pork croquettes. Something totally new to me and really blew my mind. Really gutted as Georgia took a video of me busting one of these juicy things open, which I stupidly deleted by accident. Take my word for it, they are AMAZING.

Lastly after a bit more food envy I went and checked out the Forza Win stand. The guys were super friendly and I loved the idea of an adults "happy meal" that came with a hard shake. This was some super simple, but serious chicken. Going to be hitting a store of theirs real soon.

If you can get down to Summer Tales, do! Really loved atmosphere especially with the amazing weather we are having at the moment. Don't forget to take cash as most stands don't take card!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Home cooks: Marathon training, a healthy w

So I may or may not have mentioned but I'm being sent to Tromso, Norway (the god-damn Arctic circle) today courtesy of my amazing workplace, The Breakfast Club, to run in the Tromso Midnight Sun Marathon. The run takes place as 9 in the evening this coming Saturday and as they have no darkness at this time of year  we are running through the night, in the daylight. Madness! TBC do so much for charity and as much as this is a huge personal challenge it is really about raising money for worthy charities. My dad sadly lost both of his parents to Cancer and I'm sure we all know someone effected by cancer, so I'm running in aid of Cancer Research UK.

I'm no runner. I've always been into sprinting, athletics and more fast past sports, so training for this marathon has been tough for me. As well as running I've been switching up the diet to shed a few pounds and become lighter on my feet so I thought I'd do a post of a few of the regular dinners we've been having to stay lean!

I won't bore with recipe's as they are pretty self explanatory but In short lots of greens, healthy carbs and fats alongside lean meats such as turkey and chicken breast. We use coconut oil to fry and bake everything, It's a super versatile and amazing product, I really recommend getting some!

I really can't wait to run alongside all my pals from work, it's going to be tough as hell but so rewarding running for a cause so close to the hear. If any kind souls fancied sponsoring me I'm going to keep the page going for a little while after I've (hopefully) finished the marathon!

Click me to sponsor me :)

Wish me luck!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Dalston Street Feast

Hartwell Street

Dalston

London

E8 3DU

So a friend from work suggested the Dalston Street Feast and I'm so glad we went, what a gem! Georgia, myself and the crew from work headed down there a few days ago and I nearly died with excitement after looking the place up on the train there. The place is only about every Fri/Sat 01/02 May - 25/26 Sep and had a huge queue when we arrived! It's £3 entry after 7pm and we queued for about 5-10 and boy was it worth the wait. The venue is an abandoned warehouse type place with an awesome refurb. As well as a bunch of awesome food places there are plenty of bars and places to relax, it was night time and the open fires made it super cosy. Unfortunately by the time we arrived and got in it was really dark and quite poorly lit so a lot of the photo's I took ended up being no good, I plan to go back in the day light! 

It was so hard to chose what to eat here, I really felt I could have eaten from every stall. Georgia and I started on the buffalo wings from The Orange Buffalo. Super fresh hot wings covered in a really good and quite buttery style buffalo sauce. Very messy, very tasty. A few of the gang grabbed a bunch of soft shell taco's, including fried fish and chicken. Although I didn't try these, they looked amazing and I am assured they were delicious. 

I spotted somebody with some epic  looking fried chicken that literally stopped me in my tracks, after doing some investigating we found the place, Mother Clucker.  The queue for this place was all over the place, and we ended up waiting a while for our food, however we worked out why. Every piece of chicken they sell is marinated, coated and fried to order. Easily some of the best fried chicken out there, it had such a deep smokey flavour and was steaming hot, served with some sort of chilli mayo. 

As I was being such a fat boy, I couldn't resist getting more, so I headed over to Bleecker St. Burgers. I got a double cheeseburger with bacon, feeling heavy at this point. Although I was a bit gutted the burgers were not served on brioche buns as I'm a huge fan, the burger certainly did not disappoint. The patty was juicy and bloody, just how I like it, and the bacon just topped it off. Epic burger, gutted It was too dark to get a decent snap. Now craving some sweet goodness we headed to You Doughnut! The queue was HUGE for this place, again, worth it. All of the dough was being made in front of you and every batch made to order, with each order customisable. We had vanilla sugar, salted caramel sauce, sprinkles and vanilla ice cream. HOT DAMN these doughnuts killed it. I scooped every bit of it out of the box.

I cannot urge you more to visit one of these street feasts. We went to the Dalston market however there are spots in Lewisham and Shoreditch. I'll post the website below, check out some of the food there and I promise you won't be disappointed. You may catch me at one, I can't wait to get back.

http://www.streetfeastlondon.com/where

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

food: flat iron, beak st.

FLAT IRON.
17 BEAK ST,
SOHO,
WIF 9RW


A little while ago, Georgia and I went on a date night to Flat Iron, Soho. Upon arrival we joined a kind of strange disjointed queue and eventually let the waitress on the door know we wanted a table. We were told that the wait would be approximately an hour and a half which was a bit disappointing but understandable as we could see that the restaurant was fairly small and very busy. We were offered to wait in their underground bar which we went for as it was cold and we didn't fancy waiting outside. The bar downstairs was super cool however pretty dark and dingy and also very hot. We grabbed a couple of drinks and I bought a hand filled apricot jam donut which was really fresh and tasty.

When we eventually were called upstairs, we sat on a joint table with some other customers which I had no problem with. The restaurant is really nicely set up and the table had awesome cutlery and complimentary beef dripping flavoured popcorn. This was very funky, felt like a heart attack but really good. The menu is very basic and have the one "Flat Iron steak" along side a few sauces, sides plus they have specials on every now and then. We opted for a steak each and a Flat Iron steak burger to share. The steak was perfectly cooked and really tender although not that hot (understandable as steak should be rested before eaten). The burger really stole the show for me, made from ground steak and served in a brioche bun with béarnaise sauce. Deep fried in beef dripping, the burger was packed with flavour but did feel very heavy, however there was no guilt whatsoever on my part!

In conclusion, I'd love to go back to Flat Iron but wouldn't be happy to wait for an hour and a half again. With that in mind, get there early and keep an eye out for their amazing specials, it's worth a visit as a one off for sure.

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

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coffee: timberyard, old street

Timberyard

61-67 Old Street

London 

EC1V 9HW

So to kick things off I'm going to tell you about my trip to Timberyard last week with my girlfriend Georgia and flatmate Olivia. You will find Timberyard on Old Street on the main road heading into Shoreditch next door to a cool little bike shop. The first thing you see and feel is the workplace vibe it has, with plug sockets, free wifi (standard coffee shop procedure these days) and iPads on their bars. Nevertheless the place looks awesome inside, as you go to the counter you are greeted by a mountain of mouth watering cakes but also plenty of fresh fruit and healthier snacks.

We managed to grab a table despite it being pretty busy inside and there is table service once inside. We ordered a yummy coconut and raspberry cake as well as a flat white, latte and a matcha latte (WTF!?). The coffee didn't come too quickly which I actually thought was a good sign of love going into our drinks. My flat white was lovely and required no sugar at all with nice creamy milk. Olivia went for a matcha latte which is new to me and was described as a green tea-ish latte, it's next on my things to try! I could smell nice food and so investigated. It seems most of their food is made daily and they were out of a lot of things by the time we got there (around 4). I ended up with an egg and cucumber toasted sarny, it was great considering it was all they had left.

Overall it's definitely somewhere to check out, especially if you're planning to chill and get on with work as they accommodate so well for this, they even have a meeting room downstairs! Nice chilled atmosphere and decent grub, would definitely recommend a visit if you're in the area.

Jim

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate