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Flour and grape pork shoulder tortelloni

Flour And Grape – Bermondsey, SE1

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After a bit of a quiet period, I’m back! I’ve been away on a pretty big holiday, for which food updates will be coming very soon… But in the meantime, I thought I’d do a little review of one of the lovely restaurants I’ve been to recently in London. It’ll come as no surprise to you that my partner for this meal was the Ros (as in @rosontour). We spotted Flour & Grape on Tik Tok recently. We’ve been stacking up a list of Tik Tok finds to make our way through, and this was the first we ticked off! I definitely think we picked a good place to start.

Neither of us had really explored Bermondsey before, so we spent the hour before F&G opened just wandering around the streets & into all the cute little shops we found. Can confirm this is a lovely way to spend a Sunday. As F&G is a no-booking situation (you queue through the Walk Up app), we stationed ourselves at a cafe with a view of the F&G front door to make sure we were among the first people to get inside. That is true pasta dedication. We both had an iced chai and stared at the door (I’m not joking). The iced chai was actualy a lovely surprise – one of the best we’d both ever had! As soon as the restaurant opened we were up, I think we were the third table to be seated.

After looking at the menu we strategised – do we do starters and a couple of pastas, do we do all pasta, do we do smaller starters, pasta and a dessert? We were both on the same page – let’s get all pasta, and let’s get 4 pastas (everyone needs a friend like Ros). We got 2 rounds of 2 pastas, to make it feel like a proper meal and less like we’d just ordered 4 mains between 2…

First up we got the pork shoulder tortelloni and the fennel sausage ragu with gigli. I am not being dramatic when I say these were absolute perfection – and I’m not just saying because I was wildly hungover and starving. The tortelloni (spoiler alert) ended up being our favourite of the night – the filling was purely slow roasted pork, it was so tender and so meaty in flavour. Tossed in a simple sage butter – this was absolutely incredible. Don’t get me wrong though, that ragu was also insanely special. Again, very meaty and buttery, but with the addition of the freshness from some greens.

Flour and grape pork shoulder tortelloni
Pork shoulder tortelloni with sage butter
Flour and Grape fennel sausage ragu gigli
Fennel sausage ragu with gigli

We polished up both plates and got our next pasta course – the carbonara and the preserved truffle taglierini. Again, both were fabulous! The carbonara came with an extra egg yolk on top to mix in which made it even more decadent, with the salty, meaty, crunchy little pieces of guanciale. A perfect example of a carbonara. We found the truffle pasta really interesting and quite subtly different to your standard creamy truffle pasta. The preserved truffle gave it a little more of a tang which cut through the richness. Of course, we polished off these 2 plates too (apart from 1 mouthful I could not stomach…).

flour and grape carbonara
Spaghetti carbonara with an egg yolk and crispy guanciale
flour and grape preserved truffle taglierini
Preserved truffle taglierini

All in all, this was a really fantastic meal and it has definitely cemented itself as one of our pasta favourites. Every dish was fantastic – nothing disappointed! But for educational purposes, so you know what to get when you visit, we’ve kindly ranked the dishes from our favourite to least favourite.

Meg’s Rankings

  1. Pork shoulder tortelloni
  2. Carbonara
  3. Sausage ragu
  4. Truffle taglierini

Ros’ Rankings

  1. Pork shoulder tortelloni
  2. Carbonara
  3. Truffle taglierini
  4. Sausage ragu

We both definitely recommend a trip to Flour & Grape, absolutely worth a queue! If you do take a trip, let me know what you think in the comments!

Find them at 214 Bermondsey St, SE1 3TQ

Pear, thyme caramel and whipped cream pancakes (where the pancakes are)

Where The Pancakes Are – Southwark, SE1

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We visited this pancake house as part of my best foodie friend Ros’s birthday celebrations. You should all be very familiar with her by now so you’ll understand why this is a perfect celebration for Ros. Made even better by the fact that it was preceded by puppy yoga. So our Saturday went from being swarmed by tiny puppies to pancakes – I can confirm there is no better way to spend a Saturday. Where the pancakes are is in Southwark. The restaurant has loads of outdoor seating making it a great summer brunch spot, and the indoor area also feels very light and airy.

Before the food, I ordered a Spanish latte which is quickly becoming my favourite way to have coffee – a latte but sweetened with condensed milk (I would happily drink a tin of condensed milk). As usual, Ros & I couldn’t possibly just have 1 dish each – there was so much good stuff on the menu and we wanted to to try as much as possible. So we went for 2 dishes and shared – one sweet and one savoury.

First up savoury. We got the pulled beef pastrami – this dish consisted of 2 fluffy American pancakes, pulled beef, cheddar, sauerkraut, 1000 island sauce, kale slaw and pickles. This was absolutely insane, I’ve never had pancakes like this. Firstly, the pancakes themselves were incredible – so light and fluffy. The pancakes were the perfect vessel for the toppings – a little lighter than bread, but with more richness. Secondly, all the toppings were absolutely perfect – salty pastrami, rich cheddar, creamy sauce cut through by the pickles and sauerkraut. I never would’ve expected a pancake restaurant to make such amazing and tender pastrami – my only criticism would be that I wanted more pastrami! Ros & I are both savoury lovers, so we absolutely demolished this dish.

Pastrami cheddar and sauerkraut pancakes (where the pancakes are)

Next up for our sweet dish we got 2 American pancakes topped with poached pears, thyme caramel and whipped cream. I think this may have been taken off the menu as I can’t see it on their site which is such a shame because this dish was fantastic! It used the same pancakes as the pastrami one – so very light and fluffy American pancakes. As I said, Ros & I are definitely more savoury than sweet people but both absolutely loved this dish. It wasn’t too sweet at all, the caramel was thick and almost bitter rather than being overly sweet. Thee thyme added a herbal note to the dish. The sweet sharp pears worked perfectly and stopped this dish feeling too rich and sweet. All of that topped with some super light, fluffy whipped cream and toasted almonds – the perfect bite. This one we didn’t quite finish, but that had nothing to do with the dish and more to do with the fact that we were so full from the first dish.

Pear, thyme caramel and whipped cream pancakes (where the pancakes are)

Ros & I were both so impressed with everything we ate. The pancakes were perfect, but also so were the toppings. The flavours & textures were really well balanced and thought out. I’d love to go back and try more of the menu, including the dutch baby pancakes! I really recommend this place as a weekend brunch spot, there’s such a huge variety on the menu for a place that just serves pancakes. Let me know in the comments what you think if you go!