Restaurant Review #1 - Duck Soup

Oooh, look, a shiny new feature, 3 weeks in! Aren't you a lucky bunch? Those who know me would be able to tell you that I am rather keen on food. In fact, if I weren't into eating out and buying clothes, I'd probably have a tidy little nest egg instead of being so constantly almost-impoverished. Anyway, London is a FABULOUS place for restaurants, so I thought I would make the most of being one of those awful people who takes pictures of their food and actually put those pictures to good use. Welcome to Dressing Up In London's first Restaurant Review!

A few weeks' ago, my charming Pa and I pootled over to Soho to a little place called Duck Soup, which I've been wanting to visit for a while for two reasons:

1. I saw it in the Observer Food Magazine in an interview with Stanley Tucci - who I love.
2. It is named after THIS FILM which is one of my favourite films of all time and if you don't know who the Marx Brothers - get on it. Seriously. What have you been doing with your life till now? 

Vegetable Fritters 

Like many places in Soho, Duck Soup treads a fine line between excellent and a little bit toooo hipster. It is saved by the obvious genuine love and understanding of food shared by the people who work here. It does what I've always thought all restaurants should do: cooks with the seasons, uses really good quality ingredients, and doesn't faff about with them too much. It also changes its menu VERY frequently - almost every day - with the chefs basically cooking whatever they feel like on the day.

Pork

Lamb

The restaurant itself is cosy and convivial - perhaps a bit crowded if you're claustrophobic. There's a high bar which you can sit at to try some of their unusual wines and excellent bar snacks or small tables and benches around the edges for everyone else. The interior is simple and unpretentious, and feels sort of like a small-town tavern you might stumble across while walking through the Spanish countryside, with a mildly-suspicious innkeeper whose wife tends to goats in the yard outside... Or nothing like that. I'll let y'all make your own minds up. 

Salt-baked Potatoes, mmm....

Braised Fennel

What We Ate (And Drank)

Starter: Summer vegetable fritters, Tahini yoghurt & curry leaves - £6

– Recommended by server, good choice, crispy but not too much batter, so they were still nice and fresh-tasting.

Mains: Slow-roast pork belly, rosemary, sage & lemon - £13

– Nice and lemony but a wee bit on the dry side and the fat on the inside had gone a bit chewy. Good crispy fat on the outside though.

Charred lamb leg, tropea onions & labneh - £14

– Tender and juicy and omnomnomnom.

Sides: Salt-baked potatoes & aioli - £6 

– Most delicious thing I’ve had in a while. Would quite like some now actually…

Braised fennel - £5 

– Bit bitter but nice when eaten with the meat.

Dessert: Burlat cherries & almond tart, clotted cream - £6

– Simple and tasty, not too heavy.

Wine : Volcanique, 2014 (Cotes du Forez, Rhone-Alpes) 125ml - £5.15/500ml – £19.60/750ml - £28.00 

Cherry and Almond Tart

ALL IN ALL

Food = ***/**** = It would get more if it weren't for the dry pork.

Atmosphere = *****

The atmosphere was great, really lively but also laid-back. No fussy décor or obnoxious music. Bon.

Service = *****

Top marks for service, all the people who waited on us were super-friendly and very knowledgeable about all the food and wines, made good recommendations.  Not oppressively present but there seemed always to be someone at hand when we needed something.  

Price = ££-£££

Some really good, out-of-the-ordinary wines which were a bit more expensive than your usual plonk, but I’d say the food was fairly standardly priced for London, if not a bit on the cheaper side. Either way, excellent value.

Closest Tube Stations = Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden

ducksoupsoho.co.uk

The Science Museum

Hi bloglets, hope you’ve all been having fabulous weekends. Mine has mostly been spent in my pyjamas (bet that would make an excellent blogpost. I’ll put it on the list) because I am a responsible adult person with a thriving social life. I have, in my defence, taken the time to write up this post, so perhaps I’m not a total lost cause. This shoot was actually done a few months ago but has taken me a while to write up. Hope y’all think it was worth the wait.

Presenting: the Science Museum! Found in super-posh South Kensington, lovingly nestled between the Victoria & Albert and the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum is the 6^th most-visited museum in all of the UK. Which would probably be more impressive if the UK wasn’t such a tiny place… Founded in 1857, the museum was originally composed of items from a number of collections, which were later split into the “Science Collection” and the “Art Collection” and when on to become the Science Museum and the V&A. The Science Museum got its own building in 1928 and now houses over 300 000 items, including Puffing Billy – the oldest surviving steam locomotive – Stephenson’s Rocket and a reconstruction of Watson and Crick’s model of DNA.

Although you have to pay to enter the museum’s IMAX 3D cinema or specialist exhibitions, most of the permanent exhibitions are free and fabulous. Currently, there are at least 20 free exhibitions, including gems such as “Cravings: Can your food control you” and “The Secret Life of the Home”. These exhibitions explore everything from early computers, to climate change, to the cosmos, to “the history of electronic music from the 1950s to today”. One of my personal favourite items is a model of the Analytical Engine, one of the very earliest computers, invented by Ada Lovelace – writer, mathematician, daughter of Byron, and all-round babe.

It is a perfect place for kids – especially hyper ones – with more interactive exhibits than you could shake a stick at (so don’t even bother bringing your shaking stick). With plenty of things to play with, loads of space to run around and – if you’re lucky – an odd girl dress inexplicably head-to-toe in silver, this is a fun day out for kids and big kids alike. I would suggest that the first thing to do is lay hands on a museum map, however, as my sister (photographer for the day) and I did spend a fair while wandering around looking for particular exhibits.

This shoot’s look was Go-go-gadget chic (and essentially an excuse to wear foil). All silver errthing, plus this excellent circuit-board necklace my sister made, and Out Of This World druzy ring from Eclectic Eccentricity which – totally accidentally – went rather well with this globe.

Also, turns out silver stilettos are not considered your traditional “Day at the Museum” footwear… and got quite a few looks which I chose to interpret as “admiring” but were probably “disapproving”. ANYWAY – that’s it for this week, tune in for a rather-less contemporary – but no less fantastic - theme next week and enjoy the rest of Sunday.

Science Museum  details

Opening times = 10am-6pm

Admission = Free!

Exhibitions = £3-8

Closest Tube station = South Kensington 

T-shirt - Adidas
Skirt - ASOS
Shoes - New Look
Necklace - Made by sister
Ring - Eclectic Eccentricity

Portobello Market

Hello all, apologies that post number 2 has taken so long. Turns out my life as a London-dwelling young professional is more busy and exciting than I originally thought… This week we are swinging by the world’s largest antiques market on Notting Hill’s Portobello Road.

One of London’s most iconic locations, Portobello Market is about 2 miles long and hosts over 1000 dealers from all over the world, selling fruit and veg, second-hand goods, vintage clothing, and antiques. If you ever want a prime example of “gentrification”, look no further than Portobello Road. From a winding country path called Green Lane and a smallholding known as Porto Bello Farm, it became a “massive slum”, full of cramped terraces built for domestic servants and labourers in the late 18^th century, and later a shopping hub for wealthy folks living in Chelsea or Paddington. Nowadays, it attracts a crowd my parents might describe as “hip” and lively pubs and restaurants (and not a few expensive shops) have sprung up to accommodate them.

Saturday is market day. While you may find other vendors open during the week, the hardcore antique hawkers for which the market is famous are strictly Saturday people. It normally gets going around 9am and winds up towards 5pm, but most people suggest you head over early. And they are right… Safe to say we didn’t quite plan this as we could have – we definitely headed over too late in the day (around 4:30) when everything was closing. This certainly helped avoid some of the embarrassing incidents which were present in last week’s post…but not all of them. Case in point, this photo with an enthusiastic gentleman tourist.

Seriously though, learn from our example and go early on in the day. Unless you would like a quieter background for your blog photoshoot, in which case – that was definitely my idea first, copycat… We decided to trundle around some of Notting Hill’s residential streets after the market wound down, covetously studying the terraced houses. Flatographer (that’s “Flatmate/Photographer” for the uninitiated) Number 2 has decided she must marry rich in order to live in such a dream. (No progress was made on this particular occasion, but we’re working on it. Will publish all successes in HowtoFindAndDateaRichManinLondon@blogspot.co.uk. You’ll be gobsmacked to know that’s not a thing yet…)

Due to Portobello Road’s fame as an antiques’ market, and its burgeoning fame as a hotspot for vintage clothing, I went for a very specific theme for this week’s outfit: things you might find in your grandmother’s attic. (Everyone’s granny has an attic full of jewels, right?) I thought this was a fairly standard outfit, actually, but the appraising/disapproving glances I drew on the Tube would seem to suggest otherwise. What’s wrong London? Never seen a person wear colour before?!

In any case, I went well with the pastel houses and that’s all that matters to me and my sparkly, coordinated life. If you have been to Portobello Market – or are planning to – let me know! What are your favourite stalls? What gems are you hoping to find? Do you have a public toilet of preference? Get in touch, and I will see the rest of you next week!

Portobello Market details

Opening times = Saturdays 9am-5pm

Admission = Free!

Closest Tube stations = Notting Hill Gate or Ladbroke Grove

Skirt - ASOS
Top - ASOS
Cardigan - Monsoon
Shoes - Nine West from Shoeaholics (Get them HERE!)
Necklace - H&M
Earrings - New Look
Sunglasses - Marks & Spencer