As it was a week of ongoing celebrations, this meant that there were a fair amount of meals out! On this particular evening, we decided to stay local and opted for The Sitara.

The Sitara describes itself as “The Indian Jazz Restaurant”! We were intrigued and not quite sure what to expect. Entering the restaurant, we were welcomed by the friendly staff. Framed pictures lined the red walls, tables lit by candlelight and jazz music softly playing in the background all contributed to the mood of The Sitara.

Our round table had the turntable in the centre, which made it a lot easier for us to share the dishes throughout our meal. As the menus were black, we had a little bit of trouble reading them as the restaurant was dimly lit. The kitchen was at the back of the restaurant and it was nice that we could see the food being prepared from the dining area.

For the starters, we had the meat samosas, pakoras and special mixed grill. The meat samosas came as a portion of two and were filled with minced meat and onions. The pakoras were deep fried onion bhajees and were fairly spicy.

The favourite was the special mixed grill. A sizzling plate of tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, sheekh kebab and lamb tikka. All of the meat was cooked perfectly and it had a wonderful delicious thick sauce. The sauce of onions, tomatoes, fenugreek and capsicum completed this special mixed grill.

Originally, we chose a few main dishes to share as we were not sure how big they were going to be. The main curries came in small silver bowls and after they were brought to the table, we decided that an extra one was needed. A selection of meat, chicken, lamb, vegetables and fish made up the main meal.

The karahi chicken was a tomato based dish with tender chicken cubes. The tasty sauce was made with garlic, spices and capsicum. The saag gosht had a fair amount of spinach in it and the taste slightly overpowered the lamb. Saying that though, it was still nice enough.

The dish that we added at the later stage was the fish masala. There was a good amount of cod pieces coated in the masala sauce. The fish was not overcooked and remained flaky.

For the vegetarian option, the matar panir was chosen. You can’t go wrong with the cooked cubes of cheese, together with peas in a spiced tomato sauce. We were also tempted by the classic dal tarka but this will have to wait for another visit.

To accompany the curries, rice, plain naans and garlic naans were chosen. The naans were piping hot and were freshly made. The rice was served on oval silver dishes.

The staff made sure that everything was the way we wanted throughout the meal. Even though the food was freshly made, we didn’t have to wait too long for our meal.

The Sitara is a gem of a restaurant! It’s great that all the food at The Sitara is made fresh to order and not prepared beforehand. The Sitara will definitely be our local Indian restaurant of choice!

The Sitara, 784 Holloway Road, Archway, London, N19 3JH

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For Chinese New Year this year, we were lucky to have our family member from overseas in town for it! To make it an extra special celebration, we went to Alan Yau’s Michelin-starred Yauatcha restaurant in Soho. This finally fulfilled yet another one of my dreams and that was to go and dine at a Michelin-starred restaurant!

Yauatcha has a blue theme with a wonderful fish tank along one wall of the restaurant. Just inside the entrance is the counter fridge displaying the many eye catching desserts. The soft lighting sets the mood of the restaurant.  There is some cushioned seating and also some round white tables and dark leather chairs.

Two floors make up the dining area with the lower level having a livelier vibe. There are little alcoves decorated with tea lights and a panelled low level beige and dark wood ceiling.

The waitress was really friendly and so welcoming. She made our time at Yauatcha feel very personal and special. We were instantly put at ease and made to feel comfortable. All throughout the meal, she made sure that everything was okay. The menu was explained thoroughly and we learnt a lot about the many different teas that Yauatcha serves, from the normal black teas right through to the blue teas!

About the teas, the big dark tea caddies lined the shelves along the back wall of the restaurant. The tea was served by the pot.

Instead of the tea this time though, I was taken by the Hakkasan Virgin cocktail. This is a speciality of Hakkasan restaurants, which Yauatcha is a part of. This sweet cocktail was truly amazing! It was a combination of lychee, passion fruit and coconut. If you like Pina Colada, then the Hakkasan Virgin cocktail could be your new favourite drink! It has the right amount of coconut so that it is not a heavy drink.

Yauatcha does food of a high quality and all of the dishes were presented beautifully. The portion sizes were big, which took us by surprise, as we were expecting them to be quite small. After we had finished our starters, we were given clean fresh plates for us to have our main meal. All through the meal, the staff cleared up the crumbs from the table and made sure that our table remained clean and clutter free.

So, now onto the food. We had a pretty fantastic selection of starters and mains and made sure that we had some room left for the desserts.

Two lotus leaf parcels were filled with sticky rice, tasty chicken and dried shrimp. The prawn toast were three round balls packed full of juicy prawn and coated with sesame seeds.

The char sui cheung fun had a delicious barbecued pork filling. The outer white coating was not too thin or too sticky. The chilli squid was coated with oatmeal and curry leaf. This sounded like an odd combination, especially with the crumbly oatmeal, but the flavours definitely worked. The squid was really soft and moist.

As for the meat dishes, none of them disappointed. The classic crispy aromatic duck was a plate of tender shredded duck. The meat was not at all fatty and it had a great crispy skin. Small thin warm pancakes, together with cucumber matchsticks, strips of spring onion and finally the plum sauce were perfect for the duck wraps.

Another great meat choice was the sweet and sour Berkshire pork. These ribs were coated in a sweetish sauce and again the meat was cooked so well, that it just fell off the bone.

That all made up our first round of food! An interesting main dish was the Mongolian style venison. This was in a butter and black pepper sauce. This was the first time that I had ever had venison. I was expecting it to be a really heavy dense chewy meat, but this definitely wasn’t the case. The chunks of venison were melt in the mouth and it was beautifully cooked. It reminded me a bit of lamb.

The venison dish also had big slices of peppers and onions. There was a vegetable in this dish that we really could not tell what it was. It was slightly spongy like aubergine but also was a bit like courgette. As we couldn’t identify it, we asked our waitress what it was. She solved our mystery by telling us that it was the trumpet mushroom and also gave us some information on it!

The traditional style fried sea bass were two fillets of fish. These were with an osmanthus sauce. The fish had a light delicate flavour.

Our vegetable dish of spicy aubergine, sato bean, okra and french bean was wonderful. The skinless aubergine chunks still had some firmness to them. The vegetables were not at all over cooked.

Lastly, we had a stir fried udon noodle dish. The noodles were coated in a black pepper sauce and had strips of vegetables running through it.

We were surprised that we didn’t need any rice to go with our main meal! This was a good choice as it meant that we truly got to appreciate all the flavours and textures of the cuisine.

The desserts all looked so tempting and we were spoilt for choice. Luckily, there were a few of us dining, so we got to have a selection and sample the different delights.

As it was another special occasion, a slightly late birthday celebration, one of the desserts was presented differently for the birthday girl! The rose flower shaped raspberry delice was presented on a slate, with a scoop of ice cream, fresh raspberries and wafer thin chocolate. The raspberry delice had a soft chocolate centre, raspberry sauce, biscuit and had a red powder like coating.

Three big sesame seed balls were served warm. They had a crispy outer and the inner had an oozing black sesame seed centre. It was actually quite a nice dessert!

A dark plate contained the colourful macaroons. The selection that we had were cherry, coconut and strawberry. They had the crunchy outer and a chewy softer inside, just like they should be!

Saving the best till last, was my favourite of coconut charlotte! This was a combination of white chocolate, coconut, mint and basil. There was a thin layer of mango puree running through this dessert.

Yauatcha definitely gets my vote! It is an amazing place and the food was absolutely wonderful! Dining at Yauatcha, we got to sample new tastes and items. All of which impressed me thoroughly!

Yauatcha, 15-17 Broadwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 0DL

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Entering through the grand entrance of Bouga makes you feel like you’ve been taken into a whole new world! There are the colourful lanterns hanging from the ceiling, welcoming sofas and chairs with scattered cushions and little alcoves displaying various ornaments!

On this occasion, we were seated on the ground level, near the bar. Bouga also has an upper level with an equal amount of wooden and cosy seating!

A lovely start to our meal was some fresh mint tea! Bouga did have variations on the mint tea such as mint and roasted almond tea, but we had the plain one this time! A tall silver teapot contained the tea and we were served the tea in small painted glasses!

For the starters, the classic falafel were great! These falafel were made from chickpeas and broad beans. They were lovely and moist with a crispy outer!

Another starter was the vegetarian kibbeth. This was the first time that I had tried these and they had to be my favourite! The oval shaped kibbeth were similar to the falafel but were made from cracked wheat and pumpkin. They were filled with spiced spinach and onion.

The halloumi meshoue were grilled slices of halloumi on salad leaves, tomatoes and olives. We were also given a big bowl of salad to accompany our meal. The warm flat bread was light, fresh and hot, straight from the oven!

First we were accidentally given the kibbe lamhe which was the lamb version of the kibbeth. As soon as we cut into it and realised that it was meat, we let the staff know. The staff were really professional and apologised about the mix up and swiftly brought us our vegetarian kibbeth.

The wonderful, tasty, melt in the mouth, chunks of tender aubergine, tomatoes and onion made up my main dish of moussaka. It was delicately spiced and went well with the side of saffron rice. I was glad that this moussaka was more like a vegetable stew compared to a cheesy topped baked aubergine dish. This portion could have easily served two people!

Surprisingly, even though the pumpkin tagine contained apricots and figs, it was not overly sweet. There were plenty of soft cubes of steamed pumpkin and it was a hearty dish. The tagine was served with couscous and was brought to the table in the traditional tagine cooking vessel.

One of my friends had the mixed grill. This was a selection of lamb chops, lamb fillet, chicken cubes with a dome of saffron rice in the middle. It did not disappoint and would be perfect for any person fancying some barbecued meat!

The staff were really nice and friendly and it felt like they valued our custom. They made sure that everything was ok with our meal.

Bouga provides great food, great service in a lovely atmospheric environment!

Bouga, 1 Park Road, Crouch End, London, N8 8TE

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