Duke's Brew and Cue brunch

I love the food trend for Americana. Hell, I just love Americana generally. In fact I've just booked myself a West Coast roadtrip for September, with the aim being to squeeze as much American, Mexican and whatever-else-they've-got food into me in two and a half weeks. And see some amazing cities and stunning scenery, obviously.

So after delicious ribs from Ribman and delicious ribs at Pitt Cue Co, I was delighted to hear that Duke's Brew and Cue had moved into my erstwhile neighbourhood of De Beauvoir Town on the Hackney/Islington periphery. And better yet, it's home to a micro-brewery: Beavertown, the old Cockney name for De Beauvoir Town.

I've been a couple of times - one for dinner, another for brunch - and I highly recommend it for both.

For dinner we shared Duke's Greatest Hits BBQ platter, encompassing pulled pork, pork rib, beef rib, homemade slaw, onion rings and barbecue sauce. We added some mac and cheese to round it off.



The meat was incredible - deeply flavoured , succulent, smoky, plentiful. It was tender to eat and tough to share. But we managed, and we were full up on the platter.

Booking is pretty much essential in the evening - we were lucky to get a table right at the beginning of service, but had to be done in just under an hour.

When we tried Duke's for brunch it was fine just to rock up at about 11.30 and get a table. It was steady while we were there, but nobody waited long for a table.

The menu encompasses a range of classic brunch dishes with an American twist (home-fried potatoes often), and some all-American outriders. I had a BBQ omelette - stuffed with pulled pork, salsa style salad and Monterrey Jack cheese. The filling was fairly generous, and the pulled pork a real treat in the morning. It could have done with some more BBQ sauce inside, and maybe some more cheese. It came with tasty home fries.



Pete had Mister Frenchie's Ravioli: french toast sandwiches, filled (literally brimming) with cream cheese and bacon, and doused in syrup. Sounds bizarre, but really very incredible sweet-meets-savoury indulgent brunch at its best. A true heart attack on a plate, but utterly delicious.



Next time I'll be having a whole plate of that to myself. And I'll be back again for more ribs and smoky slow cooked meat too. Mostly, I'm just pleased to have such tasty American food so close to home, and with tasty craft beer to boot.

Who can you trust? Vietnamese restaurants in Hackney

What do you make of 'Trip Advisor' style reviews of restaurants? Have you ever been tempted to go somewhere but put off by patchy customer reviews?

I have. I eat out a fair bit (obvs) and when researching my options I'll find myself trawling comments on Time Out, google reviews or London Eating to reassure myself that somewhere is worth going to. So few places get all out good reviews - and I started to notice patterns of negativity. If it's a hyped, trendy place most of the reviews will be moaning about the waiting time, disappointment that their gourmet fried chicken wasn't more WOW (hello...it's fried chicken, there's only so much you can do to jazz it up). If it's a cheap ethnic eat, commentators will moan about the decor and the slow or chaotic service. If people are in a big group, they'll moan about getting treated like a leper colony and sat separately with an edited menu.

There's a fair number of people whose expectations are way off, who are particularly fussy, or who think the world owes their group of 20 diners a full a la carte menu all served at EXACTLY THE SAME TIME. And it turns out they are all much more likely to write moany reviews on comment sites.

My point? Researching is perfectly sensible, but find a reviewer, blogger or friend whose opinion you trust and go with a good recommendation. Ignore the haters.

***

The Huong-Viet canteen on Englefield Road (De Beavouir Town/Dalston) is a place I'd been encouraged to go to by trusted friends, but discouraged by anonymous reviewers. I finally visited last night and it confirmed my thesis - my trusted friend was totally right, it kicked the arses of the Vietnamese canteens further down Kingsland Road.

Huong Viet is set back from the road in a scruffy looking former bathhouse. If you walked past during the day you wouldn't notice it. Inside it's cosily lit for a canteen-y restaurant and a more intimate buzz than its cousins down in Shoreditch. There's a localish vibe, but a nice cross-section of families, older couples, young professionals, as well as the ubiquitous bearded hipsters.

We shared a selection of starters. Dim-sum like steamed vegetable rolls...they came topped with crispy garlic and a fresh leaf salad. They were tastier than your standard veg rolls and a nice halfway house between  summer (raw) and fried. The fish cakes had a wonderful chewy texture and slightly smoky taste. I hadn't had Vietnamese versions before, but they are more interesting than most of the Thai versions I've had before.

The highlight of the starters was their fried squid. It came lightly battered, and the squid pieces were really fresh, chunky and properly meaty. They didn't taste previously frozen - and if they were, it was far better than the chewy, plasticky type you often get.They were topped with crispy chillies and lemon grass, that was perfectly salty and moreish. There was barely a crumb left on the plate.

For mains I had roasted pork and aubergine in a light sauce - it was really good, with decent portions of both ingredients. The sauce was interesting too - quite a lot of dill, which was a surprise, but it's a great herb and went well. Lots of fresh ginger making it really zesty and zingy. My friends shared a sea bass fillet and some vegetables, which came in a really nice nutty sauce.

One of the main complaints by citizen reviewers was the service, but we found it to be relaxed, friendly and efficient. There was one minor slip up - the vegetables came instead of a tofu dish, but it was so delicious (and not too far off) that my friends didn't mind in the slightest. With a drink each, it came to just over £16 with service - very good value in my books. If you were thinking of going - GO! If not - still go. It's a great restaurant and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.