Hoxton Grill, Shoreditch
A recent Sunday saw me footloose and babyfree, so I headed East to meet the girls for what could possibly be one of my favourite Sunday activities: browsing Columbia Road flower market and then picking up some vintage bargains from Brick Lane. I got a Lara Bohinc clutch for a tenner - I almost felt bad taking it off him. After a busy day of retail therapy, and a small diversion into Dark Sugars for some unbelievable divine handmade chocolates - see below for a fancy mango in a pipette one - we were pretty peckish.
I'd had ideas of walking over to Raw Duck or Brawn, but the weather was revolting and Brawn only does a three courser on a Sunday, which we weren't in the market for. So, those two are still on the wishlist. We went and investigated the swanky new(ish) Ace Hotel, but weren't super struck by the menu, so ended up at the reliable old Hoxton Grill instead. We were lucky enough to bag a table in the lovely conservatory bit, so it was light, bright and pretty - perfect for sinking a couple of bottles of Sicilian white (£22):
There were three of us, and we weren't ravenous, so we ordered a few bits to share between us. The Soho House mac'n'cheese is always to die for, and with Hoxton Grill being part of the group, we were pretty confident that their's would be the same - it is in the Soho Kitchen and Bar, after all. We were right. It was an oozy, embarrassingly cheesy dish of naughty Sunday carbicide and one I do not regret in the slightest. And hey, we only had a third each:
To balance it out we opted for a plate of the beetroot cured salmon with horseradish, which was a very pretty plateful of slightly Scandi summery flavours:
We were intrigued by the shrimp burger, so ordered this too. A bit trickier to share between three, but a good choice nonetheless. It arrived with the standard brioche bun, and some kind of guac like sauce inside, and they even threw in some fries - you always seem to have to order these separately everywhere now.
Inside, the burger was bursting with near-whole fat juicy shrimps, fragrant coriander and tangy spring onion with none of that nasty claggy potato mush that so often pads out fishcake type dishes. It was a really nice surprise; I'd definitely order it again. Here's the inside for you to see:
We finished off with a Mississipi mud pie to share, which I failed to photograph and so did not technically happen, and chased it down with some cocktails. I'm a sucker for a pornstar martini (passionfruit, vanilla vodka, chaser of champagne), and I hear the Le Fizz was as good as ever too.
We tried to blag our way to half price Sundays (like at Soho & Shoreditch House) with our membership card, but the waiter was having none of it. Nor was he having any of the Cafe Boheme Neighbours card. He said they used to do a half price card for their 'Hoxton friends' but as they had amassed over 1,500 of these friends they had had to pull it. So, it set us back about £38 each, but a good, nay great, time was had by all. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.