summer in london

and dining at the iconic river cafe

i took a brief hiatus from writing these past few weeks. mainly because i was on vacation, and truly tried to switch off. but also because getting back from vacation has been so busy, it’s been hard to not feel slightly overwhelmed.

but i am back!

i appreciate everyone's patience when i take these short breaks, i can assure you it was much needed. but now i am back, and have lot’s of lovely things to tell you about.

this week will be a double substack week! because i truly have so much to cover. so lets start in London today, and we can end in worcester in my next substack, later on in the week.

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a little back ground for context. for those of you that have been here for a little while, i have talked about having quite a struggled relationship with the uk. especially my hometown of worcester— but for those that a newer here, i have a lot of trauma attached to my howntown to be honest. and perhaps that is why i got the hell out of there when i was just 18. and truthfully, moved as far away as i could.

knowing this part of the trip was burgeoning led to a lot of pre-trip anxiety. i’m not going to lie, i wasn’t looking forward to the first part of our trip much.

despite my feelings on worcester and growing up there, from the outside—it is a beautiful, charming old city with a very rich history. all the buildings are actually from the tudor period, and many of the streets are cobbled and full of character. but a small town is a small town.

and that's all i will say on that for now.

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our trip began in london, and what a wet arrival it was! i must say, I was pretty bewildered to arrive to pouring, torrential rain in July. it wasn’t the start to our summer vacation i had been anticipating, but alas, we had arrived.

we were stopping right in the middle of soho, at kettners. kettner is part of soho house (my husband is a member), and it is always so nice when we travel to be able to utilize his every house membership. going to any soho house hotel always feels like a warm hug, and like we are returning home. so despite the torrential rain, we were excited to be in london and happy to be returning to one of our favorite hotels.

we rested for a few hours but then soon headed out dinner. to a place that is usually my first stop whenever i touch down in london. ducksoup. we walked the short distance to dinner and passed some old, iconic haunts on the way.

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ducksoup, soho—london

ducksoup is a tiny little place smack bang in the middle of soho. it serves hyper-seasonal dishes, natural wine, and cocktails. a trip back to london is never complete without a trip to ducksoup. it has been open for a number of years now and was at the forefront of the natural wine movement before many other places in london.

as soon as you walk in, you are greeted by the homely and scrumptious smells from the kitchen. those smells are best described as gilled meat and roast potatoes, brothy beans, and crispy sage.

first, we ordered a couple of white mezcal negronis which were divine! we sat at the bar (our favorite place to sit, not just a ducksoup—any bar will do) and with all of the food, unless otherwise stated—we shared everything. it’s just how we like to eat.

next up were the borlotti beans with a melted sardine sauce topped with pangrattato (garlic breadcrumbs) and oregano, and let me tell you—our minds were blown. how could something as simple a beans and sardines have so much flavor? well, this was oozing with flavor—quite literally.

we have not stopped talking about how amazing this dish was ever since, and i need to try re-creating it asap. a true masterpiece in simple but exquisite cooking.

next we shared a brown crab and pea risotto, which again—blew our minds. packed with flavor, we couldn’t believe how incredible something so seemingly simple could be. wow!

finally, we shared the lamb chops with apricots and umbrian lentils. another show stopper! the apricots were slightly pickled and worked so incredibly well with the fattiness of the lamb. this might have been my favorite dish of the entire meal. everything was so well-balanced, and the lamb was cooked to perfection. pink but tender. we cleared our plates and quite literally sucked the bones clean.

we had a few glasses of a french wine from the loire with dinner, and a little amaro to finish. no dessert tonight; we were too full and extremely tired!

we were content but so ready for bed—luckily our hotel was only a 5 minute walk from the restaurant. the rain had paused, and soho was pumping (even on a tuesday evening). so we took in london in all it’s glory, on our short walk back to the hotel.

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we both slept really well, and woke up feeling well rested. the sun was peaking from behind the clouds—which made us excited for the day. we took a stroll to get coffee first thing (matcha for me) then took the tube and headed over to east london to perhaps my favorite cafe of all time, towpath.

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towpath cafe, hackney—east london

towpath is a religion to some. perhaps me included. when i lived in london i would frequent it almost once a week. i lived in stoke newingtion, worked in dalston, but always met a lot of friends for drinks after work in shoreditch. towpath is smack bang in the middle of all these places, so i found myself there a lot.

situated on the hackney canal, it is a cafe like no other. it is so perfectly east london and such a neighbourhood staple. everytime i am back, i get a warm sense of home wash over me.

first order of the day was a builders brew. a cup of tea that has been brewed for quite some time, but then quite milky. we sat watching the long boats pass, whilst sipping on our builders brew and chatted about how happy we were to be back in london. was this heaven? it certainly felt like it!

my husband ordered a classic britsh sausage sandwich with hp brown sauce, and i ordered the iconic fried egg on sourdough with crispy fried sage.

we sat at towath for an hour or so, taking in the views and all the passing people of the morning. we saw a school trip walk by and even a mother duck and her ducklings. it was all very cute and idyllic. we settled up and said goodbye to the sweetest cafe there ever was. until next time.

we carried on walking down the canal and waited for the next round of predicted rain. london at it’s finest!

our strolls continued into shoreditch, we grabbed coffee at jolene redchurch street, popped into toast and then found ourselves at the pub.

last stop of the day before heading back to the hotel was the iconic borough market.

borough market is a wholesale and retail market hall in southwark, london, england. it is one of the largest and oldest food markets in london, with a market on the site dating back to at least the 12th century.

we picked up some wine to take back to worcester, as we knew we wouldn't be able to find any natural wine there. we wandered through the market, taking in all of the smells and sampling things to taste as we passed by all the different stalls.

after the market we headed back to the hotel for a nap, before our very special dinner that evening.

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the river cafe, fulham—west london

the river cafe is one of those once-in-a-lifetime restaurants, so the fact that i was going back for the second time—felt even more special, somehow. this however, was my husbands first time. so i had so much excitement bubbling over in me, just at the thought of him experiencing everything for the first time.

the river cafe is an iconic, british italian restaurant that opened in 1987 under the impeccable helm of two incredible women— ruthie rogers and rose grey. rose unfortunately passed away in 2010, but ruthie is still there running the show today. to say that she is one of my icons is an understatement. the river cafes paired back, simple food is sometimes talked about as overrated and overpriced, but i could not disagree more. i think that those people judging, simply do not get it.

regional italian food should be paired back and simple. and the fact that they are executing that style and way of cooking so perfectly, still—after all these years, says it all.

not to mention all of the incredible chefs it has bore—clare de boer, jess shadbolt, jamie oliver, anna tobias and april bloomfield to name but a few.

it really holds such a special place in my heart, and as you will see—it is such a source of inspiration for my cooking and simple flavors.

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the decor is as iconic as the place itself. it feels incredibly 90’s but perfectly modern at the same time. which is hard to explain, unless you have been.

we started with some foccacia which was perfect! followed by two gin gimlets, which felt apt as it was finally a tiny bit sunny, and still light out when we went.

next, we ordered the langoustines with wild oregano and marjoram. simple, beautiful and perfect. they were roasted over wood and so had a slight smokey flavor to them. sublime.

more gimlets were ordered, as well as a the lobster risotto with peas, chilli and prosecco. we ate the risotto in perhaps 2 minutes flat, it was so delicious and truly unctuous.

our last course, we chose separate dishes. it just felt right, as we wanted to try a few different things. i chose the pan-fried river trout with anchovy sauce, fresh cannellini beans and grilled roman zucchini. this dish felt like the epitome of river cafe cooking, and how simple flavors and fantastic produce can create the most amazing of dishes. this was so beautiful, it made me emotional.

we even got a sighting of ruthie herself, which was a thrill to say the least. she was so charismatic and saying hello to all the tables. and in prada platforms, no less. truly, truly and iconic moment. i texted my friend emily immediately because she was the only one that i knew would appreciate this moment just as much as me.

a ruthie sighting, followed by some vin santo and cantucci for dessert—i could not have asked for anything more. what a perfect evening at the river cafe.

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and with all of the excitement, it was time to say ciao, for now, london. what a fun few days we had in our old city.

we picked up the hire car early the next morning, and made our way back to worcester. i will admit, i felt the strong pangs of anxiety that i usually do, but also hope that this time going back to worcester might be diffrent.

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talk soon

xo