A London Lunch: Leon

I'm currently residing in Bankside at Southwark and so lunchtime options are quite plentiful. However during this current 1200 calorie per day healthy eating regime it can be slightly more challenging.

Leon has become a bit of a friend in recent weeks and two of their lunchtime offerings in particular offer lunchtime solace in not-meagre portions of delicious, fresh and healthy food.

The first is the classic Original Superfood Salad. This is a lean and green concoction that includes broccoli, feta, peas, quinoa, avocado, mint and parsley and some toasted seeds plus a small helping of vinaigrette and is absolutely delicious. Fresh and well-seasoned, the Original Superfood Salad is 515 calories and is a firm favourite. 

Leon Original Superfood Salad

The other Leon contender is a fairly new one, the Brazilian Black Bean Box which includes a stew of mildy spiced black beans with carrot and onions with a smattering of fragrant coriander sitting on a bed of brown rice. This is perfect when the freezing cold weather demands a hot lunch. The Brazilian Black Bean Box is 408 calories which is well worth it for the warming, hearty flavour hit it provides.

Leon Brazilian Black Bean Box

Leon offers an array of other salads, rice boxes and ‘super pots’ with things like hummus, chicken and meatballs so if looking for freshly prepared,

A London Lunch: The Refinery

Borough Market Flatbread, The Refinery

Recently I've moved into the Bankside buildings on Southwark Street for a 2-month freelance stint and have once again become acquainted with The Refinery that is just next door.

Part of the Drake & Morgan publican and restaurant group, I always find the food at The Refinery to be of a decent standard given the price and location. I have before now enjoyed the likes of fish and chips, burgers and the sandwiches and have never been disappointed.

Last week I met my friend Larni for a quick lunch and enjoyed the utterly delicious and filling Borough Market Flatbread, topped with rocket, cherry and sundried tomatoes, chorizo in two forms, sweet roasted peppers and a mustard vinaigrette. It was a fabulous lunch, especially given the inexpensive cost of £9.95. I was heading to hot yoga that evening at 1-2-1 Urban Hot Yoga, Hornchurch, that evening so this was a perfect filling lunch to last me until a late evening smoothie.

If you are in the area The Refinery is definitely one to try - aside from great tasting and reasonably priced pub grub, you'll find yourself in bright, airy and modern surroundings and the atmosphere is generally good too - a great place for Thursday or Friday lunch to ease your way into the weekend.

A London Lunch No. 4: Baltic

Having worked in the Southwark area for some months, I’ve passed the front of the Eastern-European Baltic restaurant and bar many times and paid it no attention at all - it looks incredibly unassuming. However, once inside there is a different story to tell, with high, bright ceilings, crisp white décor and chic interior décor, combined with the smartly attired waiting staff, there is no getting away from it, the place is chic.

I have tried a few items off of the menu but for a lunch recommendation for two or three people I would suggest the meat ‘zakuski’ which is a sharing platter filled with incredibly tempting and delicious things. 

The zakuski includes both chicken and beef ‘shashlick’, or in other words marinated pieces of meat, with a similar spice mix as those familiar in Turkish and other Middle-Eastern cookery – flavourful and really lovely and tender meat. Lamb koftas also feature. I don’t generally eat lamb as I’m not a fan of it, however I have been with two separate groups and had the zakuski and both sets have told me these koftas are excellent.

A little salad and three bright dips also go alongside this with the final part – the most moreish little fried potato dumplings. Not dissimilar to gnocchi, these little lovelies are soft and fluffy with a salty taste in the inside with a slight crunch on the outside where they’ve been fried  - they go particularly well with the sour cream based dip.

This is a great platter and with a bottle of crisp white wine, this makes for a very satisfying end of the working week lunch. 

If, like myself, you are greedy, which I suspect if you are reading this you may well be, then a dish to top this up would be some of the spectacularly good ‘pierogi’ – a Polish dumpling filled with cheese, potato and spring onion. I’ll be honest and say I haven’t tried these dumplings elsewhere before so have no yardstick to compare them to, however believe me they are to die for. Again a little crisp on the outside but filled with a soft, unctuous cheesy centre – these are certainly naughty, but very, very nice.

The platter costs £8.50 per person and one for 2 is enough for three people if you have the dumplings too. Recently when I visited, my friend and I selected the Porter Mill Station, 2012 Chenin Blanc Swartland and this worked well for us. We had change from £45 and went back to our Friday afternoon feeling full, content and ready for the weekend.

I’m not too familiar with Eastern European cooking so if any readers have any recommendations in London then please swing them my way as I am very keen to try more of those dumplings.