A while back I used to do round ups of the places I ate, things I baked and recipes that I cooked each month. This was, in part, to keep a kind of diary and to show the places that I get recipes from for my day to day baking and cooking which don’t necessarily make the blog. The posts, while a fun summary, were too long and took far too much time to put together for what they were. I have decided to revive them in a slightly different manner however. I’m taking out the bits around everything I’ve baked & cooked and I won’t be listing every single meal I’ve had out that month. What I am going to do is concentrate on a small handful of the best (or worst) places I’ve eaten across the previous month. So without further ado, here’s some eating out highlights from October.

The month started with a trip to Leeds where I ate at Bundobust, because that’s basically where I eat every time I head up. It’s my favourite place in Leeds and I’ve talked about it at length before. The rest of the month was London based and it was also one of my 3 veggie months for 2016. The highlights are as follows:

Dominique Ansel Bakery – London, Victoria

The creator of the Cronut finally bought his famous NYC bakery (and it’s just as famous queue) with him to London. After visiting them in NYC I wanted to go and check out the London digs. If you’re interested for some more about NYC, then go here. Being fortunate enough to have a Monday off we dragged ourselves out of bed early to get there just after it had opened. We managed to avoid a queue (possibly because it was a Monday), and they still had Cronuts left. The Cronuts for October included Salted Butterscotch and Cacoa Nibs (this month it’s some form of cherry thing, which isn’t for me). The cronuts were completely sold out by 9.30am. We also stocked up on a few other bits and pieces like the London exclusive Welsh Rarebit Croissant (great warmth from the mustard and a strong tang of cheese accompanying buttery flakey pastry) and the Salted Honey Tart (slightly more disappointing, some of the flavours didn’t really come through as hoped). I’m intending to go back so I can try a few of the other bits on the menu, like the cookie shots, so you’ll probably see more about them in a future round up.

Dishoom – London, Multiple (and by multiple I mean I went to 3 different Dishoom last month, oops)

After I moved to London I didn’t go to Dishoom for about a year. Since the first time I went it’s become so regular that I think I should probably get worried about how much I’ve spent there. The Bombay cafe is one I’ve talked about before and their Black Dhal, earthy and heavily spiced, is possibly my favourite dish in London. Everything on the menu is great value, the dhal for instance comes in at under £6, and this stretches down to their breakfast menu too, where you can get bottomless chai and an egg nan roll for around £7. This month involved both dinner (top veg picks: black dhal, paneer tikka, chole bhatura and okra fries) and breakfast (top veg picks: egg naan, kejriwal and akuri).

Yeah! Burger @ Star of Kings – London, Kings Cross

Every year, Yeah! Burger make a Halloween special. I talked about it last year too. They always put an effort into their specials that a lot of other brands don’t. For one thing, they actually put the effort in for the veggie specials. The Halloween one is a panko breadcrumb pumpkin patty. This year’s patty sat between two buns with blood red cheese and salad. The patty was slightly thicker, making it a little stodgy. I must say, I preferred last year’s burger, but this was still a great Halloween special and I’m looking forward to their Christmas ones.

Other things I enjoyed this month, powered by instagram:
SoDo Pizza (Walthamstow)
The Nordic Bakery (those cinnamon buns are always good)
Chin Chin Labs (I went off menu and had a Burnt Butter Caramel S’more-wich)