Errant Ramblings No.11
November 2025
Welcome, beloved paid subscribers, to Errant Ramblings.
This month we have our usual heads up on interesting places and things to do near the month’s featured restaurants, a look at more foodie adventures I had in November, and remember the late restaurateur Russell Norman.
Errant Ramblings is usually only available to paid subscribers but I’m making this issue free for everyone. I’m planning on spending Twixmas finishing off the cheese in the fridge and looking at what I can add to both free and paid posts, so please do comment below on what you would like to see. I’m currently thinking about adding:
An audio version
A map for premium subscribers that is updated every month
One-paragraph cookbook reviews including recipes I have tested
A ‘top 5 to try’ list (e.g. noodles, negronis or set lunches), with premium subscribers able to request topics and get personalised recommendations
Chatty insider interviews with chefs, restaurateurs, bartenders and our favourite front of house staff.
Enjoy, and please do get involved with the comments section; I’m looking forward to our chats.
More on This Month’s Featured Restaurants
We’ve covered coffee and drinks in the main post, but here are some ideas if you’re making a day, or evening, of it. Less than five minutes away from Brutto is The Museum of the Order of St John, a gorgeous building with free entry to some museum galleries and a serene cloister garden. It’s worth paying for the guided tour; partly for access to the crypt, church and some rooms upstairs but also because they are funded completely separately from the St John Ambulance charity and so rely on tours to keep the museum open.
You’ve also got The Charterhouse where again the small museum and chapel are free to visit or you can take a more extensive guided tour, and Dickens fans will enjoy the free self-guided walk of the area and its links to Oliver Twist. Smithfield market is currently being redeveloped as the home of the new London Museum, and I think that the gorgeous medieval church of St Bartholomew the Great still has Damien Hirst’s fabulous Exquisite Pain on display. If that’s not your thing, you could always dance off those cuddles at Fabric.
If you’re in the area during the day, don’t miss a brisk stroll to Clerkenwell Green. Apart from being one of London’s many restorative open green spaces, it is home to the wonderful Embassy Electrical Supplies. If you’re wondering, as well you might, why I am waxing lyrical about a hardware shop, you need to know that the owner sells his own olive oil from his family groves in Cyprus and it’s a real foodie IYKYK treat.
Read my interview with Mehmet Murat in Palate Magazine.
There’s not much point in listing things to do near FKABAM as it is closing at the end of next month, so we’ll move swiftly and tearfully on to . . .
My Month in Food
Some of the things I ate recently:
Spicy popcorn chicken with burnt chilli sauce and crispy pork belly bites served in a betel leaf at Farang. Part of Sera’s ‘If I had . . .’ dining series, this was a fabulous Thai version of a Sunday roast from Sebby Holmes at Farang (and these were just the starters). We also picked up some of his freshly-made Paysts and sauces to take home.
Mussels, cider and garlic at Angela’s, Margate. Both Angela’s and sister restaurant Dory’s are outstanding seafood restaurants. These gorgeously plump, beautifully-cooked mussels were from the set lunch menu, paired with an excellent Albariño by the glass.
At this most recent visit I bumped into the lovely José Pizarro and his husband Peter Meades, who arrived as we were leaving. I spent many, many hours in his fabulous tapas bar as a Bermondsey Street resident and have already featured his prawn fritters in an earlier EAT THIS NOW! - is it too much to hope that a Margate outpost of Pizarro is on the cards?
Mushroom tart with maitake, Parmesan and hen’s egg at 74 Charlotte Street by Ben Murphy. This was from the opening night of the new restaurant from ex-Launceston Place chef Ben Murphy, one of the most talented young chefs in London. The set menu in particular is absurdly good value for this level of cooking; highly recommended. (I’m sworn to secrecy at the moment, but you might like to take a peek at Palate magazine tomorrow #justsaying.)
Celeriac shawarma, bkeile and fermented tomato at Rovi. Ottolenghi’s site is giving east London vibes with a plant-forward menu, focus on fermentation and open fire cooking. This celeriac shawarma was a highlight but honestly there wasn’t a bad, or even mediocre, dish on the menu. I’m already planning my next visit.
Thoughts This Month: The late, great Russell Norman
It was two years ago this month that the world of hospitality lost one of its most charming, urbane and influential restaurateurs. I didn’t know Russell Norman at all well, but our passing acquaintance left me with an unexpectedly vivid scrapbook of memories. I suspect this ability was one of his many gifts.
It is hard to overstate the influence that Russell Norman had on the London restaurant scene. A no-reservations policy and a sharing menu of small plates are both standard now, but when Russell and business partner Richard Beatty opened Polpo in 2009 it was revolutionary. Filament light bulbs hanging against a bare brick wall? Yep, that was him too.
From a personal point of view, he was the first industry insider to recognise my fledgling blog London Girl About Town (hence my Instagram name) when I wrote about Polpo in 2012, sending me a gracious message. Subsequently, there would be occasional comments and brief exchanges on social media or during restaurant visits over the years: the meditative morning ritual of freshly-brewed coffee; the vital importance of lighting in a restaurant (or anywhere); praise for the butter ratio in my home-made version of Brutto’s anchovies and cold butter dish, inspired (along with the light shades) by All’Arco; running the Venice marathon ankle-deep in aqua alta (him, not me); the correct placement of a toilet roll (beards, not mullets); Purple Rain; the characteristics of a perfect negroni.
Russell was incredibly generous with recommendations for my first trip to Venice in 2021, including the wonderful Alle Testiere above, which was characteristic of him. One of the things that made him such a hospitality natural was the way he always seemed to have time for everyone, despite being at the helm of a busy restaurant: time to chat, to personally bring over a drink or to discuss a dish. He was famously a champion of solo diners and would always manage to squeeze you in somewhere, along with a complimentary spritz; he felt that the two seats at the bar in Brutto facing the door were some of the best seats in the house.
His cookbooks are marvellous. My favourite is Venice; I have happy memories of an afternoon in the kitchen with my son, rolling malfatti in wine glasses. I also still have what I call my ‘nonna knives’, bought on his recommendation; small, with a serrated edge, plastic handles and sold in a pack of two, they were ridiculously cheap but are indispensable, particularly for slicing tomatoes.
I had pre-ordered a signed copy of his final cookbook, Brutto, with the intention of getting it personalised at my next visit. I thought I had forever. My thoughts are with his family, friends and the remarkable Brutto family, particularly Monique, who has taken the torch with such strength, integrity and grace.
Cin cin, Russell. Thank you for everything.
So that’s it from this month’s Errant Ramblings. Thank you again to all my subscribers for supporting me on my journey down the endless foodie rabbit holes of this amazing city; I appreciate it more than you know.
Happy December,
Amanda x