Urban Pantry

15 Devonshire Road
W4 2EU

020 8994 1444


Urban Pantry is an "Aussie and Kiwi inspired café" in Devonshire Road. Open 8-5 weekdays (opens at 9 at weekends) it specialises in breakfast and brunch, coffee and cakes. 

It opened in the middle of December last year where the Classic Image Gallery used to be. Kate Frobisher trained at Leith's before travelling around Australia and New Zealand, where she picked up ideas for her own café, she told ChiswickW4.com.

Three of us stopped off on the way back from another dog walk. The place was packed, and we had to perch at the bench by the window as we waited for a table. 

We shared some hazelnut and raisin sourdough toast (£2.80) and toasted banana bread (£2.85) with our coffees.

The menu has a variety of eggs, fritters and burgers and their sausage rolls are already dubbed "award winning" which is good going for a place that's only been open 6 weeks. Their meat is sourced from The Ginger Pig (unlike The Italian Job next door, which prefers  Wyndham House).

Food (for 3): £5.65
Drink: £7.70
Total: £15

The Italian Job

13 Devonshire Road
W4 2EU

020 8994 2852


"Aspettate un attimo, ragazzi; ho una grande idea."

'Hang on a minute, lads; I've got a great idea.' Michael Caine's last line in the iconic 1969 film may well have been Giuseppe Verdoni's first line when he shared his vision to open the UK's first Italian craft beer pub just 1,000 yards from Fuller's Griffin Brewery.

The Italian Job opened in February 2015 on the site of Pickwicks wine bar in Devonshire Road. According to chiswickw4.com, Pickwicks was a "favourite spot for locals" - its main claims to fame being (1) that it served as the backdrop for an episode of 'Miranda' and (2) Chris de Burgh once popped in for a drink and ended up "entertaining" customers. That may well be the reason we never went.

The new pub is the London flagship for Birrificio del Ducato, Italy's most awarded craft beer brewery, founded near Parma in 2007 by Giovanni Campari and Manuel Piccoli. [If you'd like to meet Giovanni, he'll be at the pub on Sunday 31 January at 5pm]



The Italian Job offers "a choice of 12 rotating beers" (I think it's the choice that rotates, rather than the beers themselves) on draught (10 taps and 2 hand-pumps) and a diverse bottled beer selection.

My brother was visiting from the US, and as he's a craft beer aficionado it seemed the obvious place to take him. I started with the Freeride West Coast IPA (Italian Pale Ale?), a delicious citrussy-hoppy brew (5%) from the Ducato micro-brewery; followed it up with a Tipo Pils (5.2%), an unfiltered Pilsner from Birificio Italiano; and finished with a Violent Femme (4.2%), a hoppy saison from Ducato brewed with green and pink peppercorns. My brother was more adventurous: tasting both the Gatta Nera Black IPA  and Santa Giulia American Brown Ale, both from Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino and both 6% ABV and therefore not served in anything bigger than 2/3 pint servings. We steered clear of La Luna Rossa, which at 8% must be strong enough to blow the bloody doors off.

While the beer is the main attraction, the food is worth the trip by itself, spanning Italian street-food to hamburgers. I had the Culurgiones, Sardinian ravioli filled with potatoes, pecorino, mint, tomato and basil (£13.50). My brother chose the Hop & Pork from the burger menu - served with bacon and an IPA reduction on the side (£10.50). To start we shared the daily special arancini - sausage, peas, cheddar and saffron (an unlikely but outstanding combination) and finished with their signature Birramisu (do you see what they did there?) made with Verdi Imperial Stout.

Food (for 1): £20.50
Drink: £14.35
Total: £38.60

Blue Plate @ Outsider Tart

83-85 Chiswick High Road
W4 2EF

020 7096 1609


Outsider Tart was set up by a couple of New Yorkers who moved to London only to find that we don't, or at least didn't, bake like they bake Stateside.  They certainly have an enticing array of home-baked goodies but now they've acquired the space next door - named Blue Plate - they've expanded into 'soul food' American style. It has oodles of style - I love the interior, with chairs made of recycled Coke bottles and Barn Star lights shipped directly from an Amish community.  

We stopped by for brunch and were greeted by a friendly waiter who told me not to tie the dog up outside - she would be welcome in the restaurant and what's more she could expect treats and a drink.  We were after treats and a drink too.  I had the regular stack of Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes - as good as any I've had in the US.  My husband had the BEC - which was a sandwich with egg, bacon and some cheese.  Burritos were big on this brunch menu, as was chilli (veg or meat).  It's not a menu for the faint hearted or diet conscious, but we are talking America here.  

We bumped into some good friends and neighbours who had the foresight to book and given the restaurant was full when we left it might be a good idea if there's a few of you. Her egg and black bean chilli tortilla was delicious and his chilli eggs one of the best ever breakfasts - praise indeed from a man with exceptionally high standards (particularly in neighbours). I'd say that booking for the evenings Outsider Tart are planning would be a good bet and we would be there too, but bearing in mind we still have another 90 odd places to visit on our 2016 tour it might be next year. 

Food (for 2): £19.00

Drink: £3.75

Total: £24.75

TAMP

1 Devonshire Road

London W4 2EU

Another weekend walk, another coffee stop.  This time it's TAMP. No. 1 Devonshire Road, W4, though you'd be forgiven for thinking that No.1 is an odd address for a site a quarter way up the street.  What number Devonshire Road are the shops preceeding TAMP I wonder?  A minor detail but a perplexing one nonetheless.  

TAMP does the interesting mix of coffee and empanadas.  As it was mid morning we decided to take the empanadas away for lunch and very good they were too.  All were packed with filling with a thin pastry which in my humble opinion is how it should be.  A yummy kale and squash mix, spinach and a chicken and pepper were those we chose, though beef available too.  Avocado on toast with serrano ham was another option, as were doughnuts, which would seem to be a better fit with coffee were it not for January and all things sugary being off the menu. 

My husband was less impressed with the coffee than he was at our stop at The Coffee Traveller last week.  I'm not much of an aficionado but was very happy (again) that Bonsoy was the soya milk option.  For the non-dairy amongst you almond milk was an option too. They do take their coffee seriously though.  The meaning of TAMP is to 'gently compress coffee into basket before extracting cafe crema'.  They run courses in the making of coffee at home and the art of espresso and milk.

Food: £14 (half a dozen empanadas)

Drinks: £5.90

Total: £19.90

Restaurant Michael Nadra

6-8 Elliott Road
W4 1PE

020 8742 0766


Restaurant Michael Nadra is tucked away a few metres from the High Road just past Jimmy's barber shop in Elliott Road. It really doesn't look much from the outside, but it's ranked in Chiswick's top 5 restaurants by Michelin, Zagat, Harden's and SquareMeal.

There used to be a South African fish restaurant on the site called Fish Hoek. In 2006 Michael Nadra took it over and took the radical step of changing the name to Fish Hook. Nadra had previously worked at Gordon Ramsay's Petrus, Chez Bruce and nearby Trompette. In 2010 he went all Ramsay-esque and put his own name above the door.

We went on Friday night and it was a warm and welcome respite from the cold outside. There is a tasting menu, but we chose from the Prix Fixe menu (£32 for 2 courses at dinner, £38 for 3). To start: ceviche of salmon with soft shell crab tempura, pickled cucumber & sweet potato and a salad of winter purslane with walnuts & garlic yoghurt, pomegranate & crispy quinoa. For main course: suckling pork belly with january (appropriately) king cabbage, heritage carrots, roscoff onion, alsace bacon, dulse seaweed & apple broth (that was just one dish) and grilled sea bass with prawn & chive dumplings, bok choy, carrot & ginger puree & lemongrass crab bisque (Michael loves his &s). To finish we shared a selection of cheeses from La Fromagerie.

We can't remember ever having visited the restaurant in its current incarnation but we'll definitely be back (though not this year, obviously).

Food (for 2): £80.00
Drink: £39.00
Total: £133.88

The Coffee Traveller

58 Thames Road
W4 3RE

07712 542341


Just 8609km from Brazil and 12489km from Indonesia, The Coffee Traveller has quickly become a big favourite in Strand-on-the-Green. After 15 years in the coffee industry Neil Vanstone and his wife Becks opened on Thames Road in August 2015.

That same month it was voted the best café or coffee shop in Chiswick in the Time Out Love London Awards. (One reviewer said "they will even make you your own coffee :-)" which I must admit is a minimum requirement for me in a coffee shop). Chiswick Mum is a fan and it's ranked 10th out of 745 coffee & tea places in London on Trip Advisor.



We visited on a sunny Sunday morning and sat outside at the retro old school desks. The coffee isn't cheap but it's worth the journey. We had an Americano and a Soya Capuccino (made with Bonsoy, a must for soya milk aficionados) and a decently dense oat and seed bar.



For the health conscious, the range of smoothies (£3.60) includes Heartbeet, Kale Kick and Broccoli & The Beast.

If you don't live locally the Coffee Traveller van can be found at Brentford Market on Sundays - and they're on the lookout for a second site.


Food: £2.50
Drink: £6.10
Total: £8.60

Foubert's

2 Turnham Green Terrace
W4 1QP

020 8994 5202


Where else to start but Foubert's? It's where we used to stop for lunch when house-hunting in 1991. Back then it was situated around the corner, on the site now occupied by High Road House.

Luciano and Maria opened the first Foubert's in Foubert's Place off Carnaby Street in 1973 (according to TwentySomethingLondon) before moving to Chiswick in 1978. Ten years ago Ant and Dec took Soho House founder Nick Jones to the old Cellar Bar and he persuaded them to sell up, so they took their booths and furniture to the present site on Turnham Green Terrace.

Maria has watched thousands of Chiswick children grow up over the past 30 years, including our own. The menu has probably not changed in that time. Pasta dishes (starting at £6.50) are always a reliable option.

But it's the ice-cream that Foubert's is best known for. While a queue outside Macken's merely tells you that it's open, a queue outside Foubert's is the first sign of summer. There are more than 20 flavours, ranging from the traditional choc/van/straw to the unfeasibly blue 'blue banana' (which our youngest daughter invariably combines with mint choc chip).

Food (for 4): £30.65
Drink: £6.10
Total: £40