German Gymnasium, London

When in London, go get ... German food?

Uh, yeah.

This was mostly a meal out of convenience, when we tried to go to Dishoom for an easy meal because it was close by, and the wait was substantial (don't worry, I went another time, see my review).  It was cold, raining, and we just didn't have it in us to venture far.

I had read good reviews of German Gymnasium, a fairly new establishment in Kings Cross, just a block away.  It is open for breakfast (and weekend brunch), lunch, and dinner daily.  Our visit was for dinner, 6pm, no reservation.

My Feast.

I had a light meal, shared with my companion, but we did get a nice sampling of a salad, a hot dog (of course), dessert, and a cocktail.

It was all actually decent, and service was quick and efficient.  I wouldn't seek it out, but, if I needed a convenient bite near the office, I'd go back.

Setting

The German Gymnasium is huge, located inside, well, a converted gymnasium (built in 1865 for the German gymnastics, and even hosted the Olympics in 1866!).  Really, a fascinating space.

The establishment is made up of multiple spaces: a higher end restaurant on the first floor (not ground floor!), a more casual all day Grand Café on the ground floor, two bars, and an outdoor terrace.  The menus (and price points!) are dramatically different between the spaces.

Main Floor Bar & Seating.

We wanted quick and easy, so opting for the casual ground floor restaurant, the Grande Cafe.

This area had a bar, and seating all around.

I could see the fancier restaurant on the floor above, but didn't venture up there to see more (which I don't think would have been welcome anyway).

Food and Drinks

Red Del Fashioned. £10.50.

 "Nomad whisky, sherry liqueur and bitters stirred. Topped with orange and cinnamon foam and grated orange."

My cocktail selection came from the "Short & Seductive" category.  It took longer to arrive than my food, which was a bit disappointing, as I wanted to sip on it before my meal, and with it.

It was good though.  It said "topped with ... foam" but I never expected such generous foam!  Look at that gap!  I really liked the froth, but didn't quite taste the orange and cinnamon that were supposed to be there.  Nor did I find grated orange.

Still, a nice cocktail, and I enjoyed it.

Menu.

The dinner menu at Grande Cafe has ... well, everything.  It was overwhelming, actually.  A full page, tiny print, many sections.

The menu options ranged from oysters & caviar, to crowd pleasing burgers, hot dogs, and steaks, to lighter seafood dishes, and of course, more traditional dishes like sausages and schnitzels.

There was also an entire section devoted to autumn specials, which caught my eye, lots of fun ingredients.  I tried to order the roast chestnuts from this section, but was told the chef pulled them from the menu because they were small and bitter.  I appreciated the quality control, but, alas, I wanted chestnuts!

Narrowing down our order was really rough, but in the end, we went for a autumn salad, a hot dog, and a dessert.  There were many other items I would have happily ordered however.

 Autumn Special: Chestnut & beetroot salad £8,50 (starter size).

"Apple, walnut, goat cheese, red wine vinegar dressing."

Last minute, we went for chestnut salad instead, still being offered as the chestnuts had been roasted already.  I would have *never* ordered this if I had read the ingredients, as it had goat cheese and beets.  I dislike beets and a loath goat cheese.  And it had apple, which I don’t really care for.  But … I ordered it when the server mentioned that the salad had chestnuts as a last minute replacement for my roasted chestnuts.  And I liked it.

Well, mostly.

The greens were great, a mix of bitter greens like radicchio, and common “mixed greens” like baby spinach and the like.  Everything seemed quite fresh.  The apple was thin strips and added a welcome juiciness and crisp bites.  As did the similarly thin slices of what I think was raw beets (it might have been fancy radish though).

I avoided the large chunks of roasted beets.  The walnuts seemed lightly toasted, added more crunch, and I somehow liked those too.

The chestnuts, the ingredient I was after were … fine.  Kinda hard, not very flavorful.  The weakest ingredient.  I avoided the goat cheese, but it somehow didn’t ruin everything.  I was pretty surprised how much I liked the salad, and ended up taking more and more of it.  It was lightly dressed, fresh, full of good textures and flavors, and, well, I guess my body was craving this.

This was available as a starter or main, and we got the starter, which was more than enough for two to share.

GG Hot Dog. £9,80.

"Marjoram spiced pork sausage, coleslaw, house sauce, crisp onions, brioche roll."

For a main ... we went for the hot dog.  Yup, the hot dog.  The menu had this "GG" hot dog and a curry dog, in addition to more traditional german sausages (currywurst, weistwrust, etc).

But I'm a hot dog girl, and couldn't really get past "hot dog", particularly when it came with coleslaw and crispy onions, and was served in a brioche roll.  All things I quite like.

Now ... it was a sight for sure.  Not what we know as hot dog. It didn’t really fit in the bun, rather, came perched on top, a bit hard to eat, overflowing with garnishes.

The hotdog was very juicy. I didn’t care for the house sauce, and found myself really wanting ketchup. Who was I? I love creamy house sauces!

I did like the slaw, and the crispy onions, as expected.   The brioche bun was soft and fine.

My dining companion really liked it, I think I just wasn’t quite in the mood for it, and was strangely just too excited by the salad.

Mont blanc. £7,00.

"Blackberry vanilla mousse, blackberry compote, chestnut cream."

For dessert we again had many, many options.  I was tempted by some of the actual German offerings, like warm apple strudel with vanilla sauce, and I did want a warm dessert so the fruit crumble (apricot) was also appealing, but, the mont blanc called me in.

Why?  Because I kinda got hooked on mont blanc in Tokyo.  Also: more chestnut!

The Moun Blanc was … meh.

The hard tart shell was chocolate, and it came dusted in cocoa powder, which I wasn’t expecting, as I avoid caffeine at night.  I'm not sure I would have ordered it if I knew there would be chocolate components.

I liked the sweet white chocolate decoration on top, smooth, sweet, creamy.

Mont blanc: Inside.

Here you can see the cross section, with the many layers inside.

The layer above the tart shell was some kind of blackberry compote, with tons of seeds.  I hate seedy berries.  Oops.  The menu did warn me about the blackberry, I just somehow missed it.

So, two big strikes right away: I don't like tart shells, I don’t like seedy berries.

Above that layer was a cream dome, with a berry cream in the center, and then chestnut paste along the outside.  The cream was fluffy but pretty boring.  The center was blackberry vanilla mousse, or so the menu said, but it too wasn't very flavorful.

Since this was a play on mont blanc, there was no chestnut in the center, which is really what I wanted!  It did have the iconic chestnut paste wrapping though, thick and more flavorful than the other components, but still fairly lackluster.

But overall?  Meh to this, the only item I wasn't really satisfied with.

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Russian food from Pushkin

Russian cuisine.  Not one I am all that familiar with.  But I do always like to try new things, so when I had the chance to try food from Pushkin, I gladly did.

Pushkin is in San Francisco, a small retail storefront in the International Food Court, open for lunch only, Mon-Fri.  They also do catering, which is how I experienced the food.

PIROJKI

Pirojki were new to me, large, yeasted baked stuffed buns.  Pushkin makes these in 4 varieties year round (beef, sausage, mushroom, and apple), the last of which is sweet plus additional, more exciting sounding, seasonal varieties.

I was able try two kinds.

Mushroom. $4 each.

"Button mushroom, onion."

First up was the savory bun, filled with mushroom and onions.  The buns all had a lovely golden sheen.

I really liked the bun dough itself, soft, slightly sweet, really enjoyable.

Mushroom: Inside.

But I did not like the filling.

I like mushrooms, I like onions, but this ... truly did not do it for me.  The mushrooms were chopped up into reasonable size chunks, the onions were smaller, the ratios were right.  But ... I just can't pinpoint it, I didn't like it.  It was basically just slimy mushroom stuff inside?  It didn't seem particularly seasoned.

I ate the entire bun, but, um, discarded the interior.

Apple. $4.

"Apple, raisin, cinnamon, poppy seeds."

Next up, the sweet one, apple.

I *loved* it.

The dough was again soft and fluffy, slightly sweet.  It was almost like what I always want Asian style buns to be.  Excellent base for the product.

Apple: Inside.

Inside was cubes of well spiced apple, perfectly cooked slightly al dente, which be sound weird describing apples, but, I actually really liked, as they had some bite to them this way.  Unlike American style apple pie filling, there was no additional goo really, just, the chunks of spiced apple.  Small chunks, which made a mess as they fell out, but really didn't bother me.

Also in the mix were a few raisins, not too many, and they were rather plump and juicy, so not a deterrent for me in the way that they are when hard bits in granola or scones.

I found this strangely satisfying, as a snack, just as is, but it was even better warm with honey cinnamon whipped cream, turned into more of a dessert.  I could imagine it also perhaps appropriate for breakfast?

Dumplings

A huge part of the menu is assorted dumplings, all varieties, again, offered in 4 staples, plus a slew of additional seasonal ones.  They come by the cup normally, but we had a full pan for catering.

Potato Mushroom Vareniki. $48/tray.

"Potato, mushroom, fried onion / pan fried."

I was very excited for these, as they are fairly familiar to me, I went through a pierogi discovery phase in college, and ate them regularly.

I found the dumplings fairly unremarkable.  Sure, the dough was better than frozen grocery store ones that is fairly lifeless, but they didn't taste particularly good, and the filling was kinda just a mass of potato.  Others did enjoy them quite a bit though.

That said, the caramelized onion bits served with them were delicious, so flavorful, droolworthy.  I gladly ate just the onions!

Salads

Salads are not part of Pushkin's regular offerings, but are available through catering, several styles, including a basic "fresh" salad, a traditional Olivier potato salad and a herring salad, and a beet salad, which is what I had.

Vinegret (Russian Style Beet Salad). $60/tray.

"Beet, potato, peas, pickled cabbage and cucumber, dressing: vegetable oil."

This was ... fine.  Not really my thing, as I don't care for cooked beets, or really potato cubes, peas, cucumbers .... really, just not my thing at all.

It was far more bland than I expected.

Mains

Pushkin only has one main dish, and it is only available via catering.  And only in mass quantity, with the smallest order being 3 trays of the main itself, and a tray of the side it comes with.

Plov (Uzbek plov). $150.

"Rice, beef, carrot, onion, garbanzo beans."

This is not a dish I had any interest in.  I don't like rice (unless in dessert), and I hate garbanzo beans.   The bits of beef were chopped small, and looked dry.  Just totally not a Julie-style item.

But I was quite interested in one thing in these trays: the garlic.  The *entire* bulbs of garlic.  Several of them per tray.  Just, entire cloves.

The garlic, um, I liked?  Roasted garlic is just so delicious, the flavor mellowed out, and I enjoyed eating it just by the spoonful, although it was also fantastic warmed back up and spread on croutons (I didn't have any fresh bread!)

Salad that comes with Plov.

"Fresh tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, shallot onion."

I did not try this, as it really looked like just some mushy tomatoes, yellow onion, and jalapenos.

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