Apologies for the absence. It has been an extremely busy end to the year with one too many projects and international travel adventures including a surprise visit back to Melbourne for another project launch. Another year of international adventures guaranteed. On the radar this year- Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Turkey and maybe New York. The new Food Designer site will be launching soon so stay tuned or subscribe to get all the latest news & happenings.

So to start the year afresh, here are my predictions of what you can expect to see in Melbourne.

1 | COFFEE CULT LOYALTY

Ultra snazzy pimped baristas and monstrous coffee machines may not be all that will keep Melbourne cafes afloat. Every corner is now laden with bean-coffee vanguards, imitators and replicators. So who survives? The key word here is ‘authenticity’; in product, in process and in people. Cafe gossip is rife and without doubt, time will reveal reputable cafes over the cons.

2 | SPARKLING FILTERS

London is now being swamped by sparkling water & distilled filter taps for major restaurants and cafes. Saving packaging, time and cost are the biggest factors that have turned owners against bottled water. Ladro one of the first to install these sparkling bubble filters taps.

3 | SLATE SLATE SLATE

Slate boards have shown their mark as uber environmental and uber stylish. Now, companies are expanding their designs and producing slick elegant cuts.

4 | AQUA MARINE GREEN

2011 was the year of yellow&black as key interior design colours. Aquamarine green the new 2012 colour design prediction that is already popping up around town.

5 | RESTAURANT & POP UP GARDENS

It ain’t just the burbs that are embracing additional edible greenery in their gardens. Rooftop gardens, courtyard shrubbery all the rage in and around Melbourne CBD. Rooftop Honey bees prove that anything is doable.

6 | MICRO-GREENARY

For those that have already started cultivating their own backyards, a few international companies have just made growing shrubs, herbs and pulses all the more visually stimulating; micro-green DIY kits.

7 | ECOTARIAN LIVING

Vegetarian cookbooks are set to be the biggest seller this year. Mounting food prices and varying diets have amalgamated one point of view; veggies are best. The new vague of consumption is 90% veg 10% good quality meat equating to ecotarian living.

8 | ICED LATTE’S & ICE POUROVERS

Iced lattes in, ice coffees out. Glass of ice, shot of sublime espresso and refreshingly cold milk splashed on top. All too easy to drink, Iced lattes are popping up and around Melbourne cafes like firecrackers (literally). These ones featured by Liar Liar, The Borough & Monsieur Truffe. Pourovers have lost their pizzazz but over expect to see more and more baristas serving them over ice to make them a little more summer-enticing

9 | CHOCARONS

The diamonds of pastry, macarons were accidently thrown into melted chocolate in Paris and nicknamed ‘chocorons’ by Sadaharu Aoki. Australia’s Adriano Zumbo is leading the way with his new collection of hand-dipped macarons here in Oz.

10 | DE-MYSTEFYING MUSHROOMS

Given the recent unfortunate wild mushroom poisonings, it seems that more and more chefs are taking notice of the risk involved in picking wild produce. Rene Redzepi (Noma) & Ben Shewry (Attica) are world class chefs not only for their ability to plate phenomenal food but their ability to forage. Melbourne is set for even more varieties of wild mushrooms this year with native porcinis, burch boletes and fairy rings popping up along with the usual array of pine and slippery jack mushrooms. Leave picking to the experts and hunt them down at your local markets.

11 | INKER PORCELAIN

Differentiation is what every café owner seeks. This year will see an influx of colour injected porcelain by Inker. Sensory’s onto it and so are a handful of others. baby blue, jet black and pine green my colours of choice.

12 | FINE DINING LIQUIDATION

Restaurants are set for another major battle with consumers showing no remorse for average fine dining restaurants. Gordon Ramsey was prime example in 2011 after leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of Maze suppliers, declaring bankruptcy and leaving Crown yet another vacant space to fill.
The lesson goes to any future restaraunteur; pick your market wisely, look at viability and overheads and given the uncertain times ahead, start small then grow.

13 | FROZEN YOGHURT

We all love Blake Lively from Gosspi Girl whom, as a Season 1 school girl, spent afternoons with B at Pinkberry indulging in fat-free frozen yoghurt. So what’s so special about it? Aside from the calorie-less indulgence, Companies like SNOG in London have whipped together a selection of delicious flavours with fruity, chocolatey toppings. Funky, retro and chic, Port Melbourne, Chadstone, Hawthorn & Malvern are the first franchise store spottings around.

The dictionary defines ‘pop’ as a sudden, sharp and explosive action. Put that in front of the word ‘restaurant’ and you have the most popular dining concept since gastro-pubs. Yet, in all of its spontaneous short-lived nature, London saw one of the most extraordinary and ambitious pop-ups come alive last month; The French Laundry at Harrods. Imagine recreating an entire Michelin-starred dining experience and exporting it across the Atlantic ocean into the world’s most recognized department store, Harrods.

The pop-up nestled into the pre-existing Georgian restaurant with a Moet & Chandon grassed champagne bar leading guests into the infamous French Laundry blue door and through to the linen-clad dining room. No expense spared, the identical interior housed 70 covers and replicated even the more generalist features including Keller’s designer dinnerware range and FL pegs.

Thomas Keller’s ebullience put simply, was infectious to his dedicated Kitchen & FOH team of staff during the 10 days. His overall philosophy beyond finesse and refinement is to “acknowledge there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it”. However, when acknowledged, “the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear; TO MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY”.

And so they did, to the lucky few who managed to score a prized table and indulge in the degustation that combined both French Laundry classics with symbolic dishes that encapsulated both English and American cuisine. The degustation itself;

Cornette of salmon tartare, red onion crème fraiche in a black sesame tuile accompanied by warm Gruyere cheese goujons.

Canapes were imaginative in their simplicity; BLT bacon lettuce and truffle. Sous vide pork belly, rugola puree and Perigord truffle shaving. Tea & Biscuits an inviting English culinary parody of earl grey jelly and fois gras mousse, crab beignet with a dollop of American ranch dressing and finally a freeze-dried FL cherry tomato served with basil snow and olive oil jam. Now for the actual 9 courses;

 

Nestled off trendy Marylebone High St, Roganic restamps trendy pop-up restaurants as here to stay… at least for another 2 years. It is the creative concept of ex-L’Enclume chef Simon Rogan, head cheffed by Ben Spalding.

The conservative interior of ordinary brown panel chairs and cream walls bipolars the food served at the highest degree. To start with a colourful bang to the degustation, Squidink crisps with an avocado mousseline, linseed & flower petals are served along with the most mouth-watering bread basket ever eaten ( Noma, Louis XV & Quay don’t even come close).

Perhaps, I will be bold enough and say, the breadbasket was THE highlight of the lunch. Not because the other dishes weren’t impressive, but because such a simple and humble side accompaniment was executed to utter over-perfection. The selection included a steaming hot plain  white role, pumpernickel, Scottish soda-bread sweetened with treacle and a rye crisp. Our table rock acted not only as our centre-piece but donned a generous whip of churned butter. Sublime.

Moving on from the ‘simple pleasures’, the first course of wild roasted pom-pom was an eye-opening dish that somewhat shared similarities with offal believe-it-or not. Its meatiness was cut through elegantly with a raspberry vinaigrette.

Next up was wild Balmore Estate deer with Congo 70% chocolate shavings, parsnip puree, crisps & goujons along with silverbeet and mustard cress leaves for a complimentary digestive dish addition.

Unfortunately, dessert was consumed before snapping. The spiced brioche bread was served with smoked clotted cream, salted almonds and orange buckthorn berry curd. Douglas Fur Pine milkshake followed suite and served as an eye-opening transitory palate cleanser triggering nostalgic Christmas sensory memories. Finally, miniature rosehip Victoria sponges dressed with popping candy rosehip cream were an eloquently English way of ending the degustation with a ‘pop’.

POP-FACTOR   8/10

WOW FACTOR  +40 native leaves featured on the menu

FEATURES bold contemporary and originally presented dishes

FOH AWARD  Sandia Chang presenting our first course of pompom and a Pop-Up restaurant French Laundry Expat

IN 3 WORDS  Organically Fresh English

THE CRITICS SAID

The Telegraph

Roganic 

www.roganic.co.uk

19 Blandford Street, London W1U 3DH

Contact: 020 7486 0380

It takes two to tango n’est ce pas? A brilliant restaurant nor a memorable dining experience is ever complete without excellent service. The question that any blogger or food critic needs to dabble with, is what defines ‘excellent’ service and what is the benchmark of hospitable love required to be the very best restaurant in the world?

Simon King, Operations Manager from The Fat Duck & Dinner by Heston Blumenthal can answer that:

Hospitality Experience The Ritz, Gordon Ramsey London

Evolving Service Over the last 2 years, FOH has intensified dramatically. The depth of knowledge, level of detail and higher service intensity have evolved at The Fat Duck

Exemplarily Service One that is non-intrusive served by captains with a generally relaxed attitude. It is all about tailoring service to meet customer needs and not only matching but exceeding expectations

FOH Rules Consistency, absolutely crucial. That and also to be passionate and have fun in being apart of delivering once-in-a lifetime dining experience

FOH Memorable Moments Given the intensity and experiential dining experience at The Fat Duck, we have had at least half a dozen guests cry over dishes like ‘Sound of The Sea’.

The moving experiences for guests result in an overall intrinsic satisfaction.

Differential Service At The Fat Duck, we not only serve food and deliver on standard Michelin service, but we also are very much active in the guests dining experience and creation of dishes.

FOH Training The very least training is over a 3-month period whereby new staff experience all areas of the restaurant from BOH to kitchen and reception work.

FOH Highlights For me, seeing young kids at the restaurant eating an entire degustation and being knowledgeable in many of the ingredients is overwhelming. Also, seeing many of the newly created dishes evolve from first draft to final refinement.

Future of Dinner & The Fat Duck Service will always evolve. I will endeavor to maintain a quality service benchmark and continue to lead all FOH staff to maximizing their full potential.

www.thefatduck.co.uk Try your gastronomical luck at getting a reservation

www.dinnerbyheston.com Or visit sister restaurant ‘Dinner’ at The Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge

The Annual UK National Restaurant Awards Ceremony 2011 was hosted last month by UK Restaurant Magazine at the glitzy Connaught Rooms. Put sweetly, la crème de la crème of the hospitality industry were all there. A few worthy mentions; Marcus Wareing, Claude Bosi, US Modernist Cuisine Cookbook Head Chef  Maxime Bilet, UK San Pellegrino Director & Bloomberg Food Critic Richard Vines.

The UK Slow Food Alliance kicked off the soiree with an educational mission to help re-educate UK chefs about the ‘44 native forgotten food list’. The night was accompanied by a humble 3-course dinner matched with Estrella Damm beer, crafted by none other than Ferran Adria himself.

The Top 100 countdown commenced and ran through some well-known London food landmarks including Scotts, The Ivy, L’Atelier, Koya & Nobu. The Full List can be found here. I knuckled down the list to the few must visits if ever in London. Here they are:

25 Polpo, Soho (consider it your authentic Italian staple, well priced)

20 Arbutus, London

18 Hawksmoor Steaks ( Will Beckett shows diners the meaning of excellent steak)

16 Roganic, ( the 2 year pop-up with a focus on native ingredients )

15 Chez Bruce  ( simple classic French executed to perfection)

13 St John London (Nose to tail eating an absolute piggish must)

12 Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons (Hotel Restaurant of the Year)

10 Bar Boulud

9 Sat Bains (2 Michelin focusing on 3 T’s: Taste, Temp. & Texture )

8 L’Enclume (Simon Rogan, Chef of the Year serving boundary-pushing dishes )

7 The Square

6 Hibiscus (Claude Bosi continuing to pave his own individualist culinary style)

5 The Sportsman  (Gastro Pub of the Year that churn their own butter & bake egg loaf)

4 The Fat Duck (Gastronomical creativity at its finest)

3 Dinner by Heston (must visit for icecream trolley alone)

2 Pollen St Social (Buzzing central London den of exemplarily contemporary dishes)

1 The Ledbury (Aussie Brett Graham shows London who’ number #1 for yet another year)

For more info about the awards, visit

National Restaurant Awards

This is more of a memorable post of some golden rules from restauranteur & hospitality investor Peter Coronica on how to run a successful restaurant. A few years ago, The rules were presented by Peter, most noteable for his success at Richmond HIll Cafe & Larder, at an Innovation forum at The University of Melbourne. I only found them scribbled in a personal diary last week. So here they are with my notes in brackets!

1. Work Backwards (End goal in mind)

2. Define your market (+45 most lucrative)

3. Be objective (do what your market wants)

4. Exceed expectations (over deliver on service & food)

5. Consistency (McDonalds Golden Rule)

6. Uniqueness in concept (don’t imitate, innovate)

7. Knowledge (in setting up & acquisition)

8. People (90% is labour)

9. Longevity (train & retain)

   Please do share your thoughts on other golden rules that spring to mind!

I made the visitor mistake of strolling down to the Borough Markets on a Saturday. In a nutshell, it was a pesticide manifestation of tourists. The queue for Monmouth coffee ran 80 metres around the corner and the stalls themselves were impossible to maneuver through given the sheer density of happy-snappy bus-loads.

This is one reason why I treasure and value the proximity and the authenticity of the Marylebone Sunday Farmers Market. Locals are there to buy the freshest of the freshest produce and finish shopping with a coffee along Marylebone High St.

From organic vegetables to wild game, you can find everything here. I am an absolute fan of the Windrush Valley Goats Cheese Stall where you can pick up a slice of arm goats cheese cake that is a combination of fresh organic eggs, goats curd, zest and a handful of other fresh ingredients. The goats milk fresh from milking the goats the same day, you cannot beat the quality and taste. No goats milk or yoghurt compares. Other stalls sell pre-made

Sunday lunch treats including quiches, baguettes, soups and french confit beef and potatoes. If you’re in London on a Sunday, it is well worth the stroll outside of central London.

Every Sunday, 10am-2pm

Cramer Street Car Park, Marylebone, London W1U 4EW

www.sketch.uk.com

9 Conduit St, London  W1S 2XG

When I was an adolescent teen-bopper on holidays with my dear mother in London, I had escaped out of the hotel one night and found myself in a club with some elitist French poodles chasing Paris Hilton down. NO clue where I was but I remember vividly the interior of the club. It was intoxicatingly beautiful, each room with its own charm and modern design.

I was astounded to stumble into the club yet again only a couple weeks ago, this time minus the poodles and not in pursuit of Paris Hilton. The name of the enchanting bar, restaurant, hotel, lounge & members bar is SKETCH. To say that it has become a favourite hangout is an understatement.

Not only can you lavish yourself with cocktails and apres drinnks, but dine and treat yourself to afternoon tea here. The hot chocolate made from Belgium chocolate, an extensive selection of cakes, tarts and macarons for any 3pm sweet tooth and the classic finger sandwiches and scones are all notable classics to sample. The banana & lime macaron (£1,50), chestnut mousse gateau (£5,50) with poached quince and coconut baba (£5,50) my favourites.

The Gallery Room, The Lecture Room &Library are both restaurants under the culinary direction of Pierre Gagnaire. For the Michelin starred restaurant, roast duck Foie Gras with walnuts with quince marmalade, confit shoulder of deer with chestnuts or roasted scallops with Arbois wine poached morels are two standout dishes this winter.  Expect to pay £4o-£5o a main, however the 3-course Express Lunch is a bargain for those on the tighter dining budget.

So whether it is to dine out with the gorgeous boyfriend, gossip over champagne and afternoon treats with the girlfriends or sit and blog away whilst London pours, Sketch is the place to be.

One of London’s rising food photographers, Chelsea Bloxsome is a prodigy in her ability to capture beautiful, contemporary and innovative creations.

Some of her works in unison with a variety of food stylists and designers are exemplary in their composition, lighting and detail. Finesse is required for macro-photography and below, you can judge why only a handful of photographers venture into snapping up shots such as these.

Michelin stars aren’t just about the extravagant settings and extensive degustations. Front of house is equally important in delivering a unique dining experience not just food on a plate. The man that understands it all and campaigns for excellence in all FOH service is Fred Sirieix. Serious in all of his ambitions to continue to drive change in the industry, he is a key ambassador for one of London’s most popular destination restaurants, Galvin at Windows.

In October 2011 Fred was awarded the “Personality of the year 2011” at the National Restaurant Awards for his relentless promotion of his profession. With over 20 years of experience within the food industry, consider him a maestro of the fine dining world. Most recently, Fred’s celebrity status has gone on to achieve new heights as he has starred alongside Michel Roux, a former mentor, in BBC 2’s reality show ‘Roux’s Service’ that aimed to encourage young people to consider hospitality as a serious career. With his ‘Art of Service’ board game, London’s hospitality recruitment industry is seeing the positive correlation between well educated staff with dining experience.

Favourite Michelin Restaurant

Le Gavroche

FOH Service

It is easy to get fine dining service right, but people need to be educated more about the importance of it

Changes in Michelin Service

Michelin starred restaurants used to represent a pretentious and pompous style of service, an act so to speak. Now it is about developing a unique experience and focusing more on the customer through meeting their expectations.

Biggest FOH Faux-Pas

When servers interrupt you at inappropriate times throughout your meal. That and fag breath.

Most Memorable Experience

Training a selected set of staff to work with The French Laundry management team from the US for the French Laundry at Harrods 10-day Pop-Up in October.

Visit www.galvinatwindows.com

Find out more about Fred’s board game: www.theartofservice.co.uk

Read Fred’s blog: http://www.caterersearch.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=398&tag=Fred%20Sirieix&limit=20

Fred on twitter: @fredsirieix1

The Annual London Restaurant Show produced yet another years’ worth of culinary gadgets, wondrous produce and unique innovations. Below are a few of the highlights along with some interesting exhibits.

Summarized, London restaurants are now switching bottled water to filtered sparkling and still taps to minimize impact on the environment and cut costs simultaneously (Ladro Melbourne first onto the filter tap trend).

Slate has been popping up in more and more restaurants but this year, its not just a piece of rectangular slate. Polished smooth and shaped for various eating courses, it is catering to a much wider audience other than just restaurants.

Produce itself is still the same but with emphasis on understanding micro herbs to greater extent (Full post on +30 micro herbs and their distinct differences to come). To summarize a few favourite exhibitors:

Icecream Union

Countless icecream stands, I ate a litres’ worth and hope that my calcium count is now at an adequate level. In between the cheap nasty Italian cons and respected conglomerates (Movenpick), Icecream Union produced the most delicious and unique flavours sampled; Dulce de Leche, Root Ginger, Mascarpone and Honey are just some of their signature standouts. Reasonably priced at around £4 p/L, consider them both sublime on quality and taste as one of London’s best wholesale icecream manufacturers.

http://www.icecreamunion.com/

Mrs Tees Wild Mushrooms

Say hello to the lady that introduced the UK to wild mushrooms. Foraging for over 35 years, Brigitte supplies an outstanding list of Michelin starred establishments including Le Gavroche, Henri Brosi at the Dorchester as well as Fortnum &Mason to name a few. Varieties picked cover your stock standard chanterelles, girolles, black trumpets and venture to the rarer varieties synonymous for their absurd names; shaggy ink cap, chicken of the wood, cauliflower mushroom, little miller, giant puffball, honey fungus, amethyst deceiver and beef steak. (Pictured). Its mushroom season now in the UK and if you feel like discovering a new world of fungus, hit up Mrs. Tee for a forage and perhaps after a little too much mushroom risotto and riesling, stay the night at her B&B for a perfect weekend getaway.

www.wildmushrooms.co.uk

The Deli Station

Artisanal Italian cheese, olive oils and a variety of other meditereean staples were aplenty at the Restaurant Show. However, upon sampling the produce at Deli Station and salivating over their cheeses, I’d recommend Deli Station as a mandatory wholesale supplier. White truffle pecorino cheese, rabbit speck, lavender goats cheese and Barolo Carpaccio, pecorino matured in sangiovese wine pulp and outstanding legs of prosciutto.

http://www.thedelistation.com

Boiron

Boiron known for their fruit purees covering exotics to downright precious morello and cassis flavours have now launched vegetable purees. Potent concoctions of cucumber, tomato and pepper puree are the latest additions to the already extensive product list.

www.lesvergersboiron.com 

Hildon

Hildon Natural Mineral Water states in one of their brochures “Britain’s tap water should be monitored for powerful medicines after traces of cancer and psychiatric drugs were detected in samples” quoted from The Telegraph 13^th January, 2008. That is enough to get me to drink bottled water whilst here in London. The sparkles are natural not carbonated and if it’s good enough for the queen, it’s good enough for me.

http://www.hildon.com

Okay, it’s 1 am and most likely, there will be not one but numerous spelling mistakes in this blog post. I’m feeling the pressure and intensity of work; 120 hours in 10 days non-stop. Hospitality is one of those industries where you either live to eat another day or die to dine but never serve. I don’t know if that made sense but i will keep writing… Basically, you either have enough passion to survive years of hard work, long hours and endure pure dirty ‘on your hands and knees’ grit.

Throw in the phrase ‘MasterChef’ and there are some that will automatically think ‘airy fairy TV’. Yet to be a real Master Chef, you need to throw in hours of your life, sacrifice your saturday nights and expect nothing in return other than intrinsic satisfaction from your profession and maybe a leftover glass of red.

This is a post where I acknowledge and commend people like Dhruv Baker, Winner of MasterChef UK 2010, with 2 little munchkins at home, whilst simultaneously striving to uphold the relentless pursuit of hard work and dedication required in the cheffing world. It is hard enough sustaining the attention of your twitter followers with insightful and entertaining tweets, but Dhruv does it in style. MOst likely, he is up now at 1.15 am tweeting away and back on the tweeting clock at 6 ready for another day’s slog in the kitchen.

I had the privilege of spending Saturday night with Dhruv along with his close colleague Andrew, cooking a 5 course degustation for 10 guests (successful bidders of a charity auction). A whole days worth of prep and planning along with the +3 hr service could leave any chef asking for a pay raise, but all in the spirit of giving and charity, Dhruv managed to pull together what I would consider nothing less than a 2-michelin degustation.

Amuse bouche of squash veloute accompanied with truffled toast, duck & pistachio terrine, Butter-poached lobsters, seared eye fillet with an exemplary presentation of ‘meat and 2 veg’ along with chocolate truffles, poached pears and spiced chai icecream, seriously, what else would you expect? Executed to the uttermost perfection, it makes me proud to be apart of such experiences with such extraordinary people. Dhruv, this post is for you. No doubt, you’re still up at 2am with your bubs and prepping for another days’ work.

And with that, I bid you all farewell as it is way past bedtime and time to prep for the biggest challenge of my life. Will be back in 2 wks with a few secrets TB revealed.

Adieu and bon nuit Xx Fooddesigner

The Borough Barista

60 Seymour St, Marble Arch London

www.theboroughbarista.com

Irrespective of the 50% vegemite markups, you buy home-grown, Aussie-made items because they are the sole rescue remedy to home sickness.  That and iconic Aussie bar, Walkabout smack bang in the heart of Aussie refuge-burb, Shepherds Bush to cure any nostalgia. But home sweet home is not replicated without a decent local café.

With a streak of luck, The Borough Barista opened up by Perth-boy turned Melbourne habitant then US-TV presenter, Tim Bloxsome, it is quintessentially Aus-British.

The interior and décor replicating Melbourne’s casual cool minimalism whilst giving it a unique ‘British Milk-Bar’ feel. The British cloud blue school lamps making it London’s  ‘Retro Milk Bar’.Aside from the decent Union hand roasted coffee beans, the morning baked delights are enticing; buttery almond croissants, vegetable quiches and delicate fruit and chocolate tarts. Yet another brilliant must-visit on the London café trail.

Today marks exactly 2 months since the impulse purchase of a 1-way ticket to London with an instilled ‘no looking back now’ mentality. Yet, in all of the carefree adventures and whirlwind escapades, home will always be home.

Yet, when you’re a Melbournian, you don’t just seek a pint of Fosters Beer to cure the sudden onset of homesickness, you long for a sublime coffee, nothing more. London is laden with boiling hot milk and OTT cappuccinos that pay homage to Mt Everest in foam form. Even the relatively popular and posh parameters of W1 central London are laden with booby trap cafes.

London and coffee connoisseurs now have Sensory Lab to rejoice about. Coffee purists are now scrambling in to sample some of the finer single origin blends roasted in sister-café St Ali in Clerkenwell. Director of Operations Tim Styles maintaining nothing but the highest standards of coffee creation and education.

Expect to pay around  £3-4.5 for a decent brew; Origins include Guatemala, El Salvador and Brasil. Nevertheless it will take some time to educate Londoners about the true art of making good coffee, but for the time being, a daily dose of caffeine in the heart of London’s Marylebone district will suffice any passer by. Not to mention a bonus glass of filtered sparkling mineral water, cutting out the chalky residue found in London tap water.

Give it a little time, I expect to see Sensory synonymous for housing London’s best lattes in the not to distant future.

www.sensory-lab.co.uk

75 Wigmore St, London

Weekdays 7am-7pm

Weekends 10am-5pm