The Nosh Bar

Six Feet Under

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I came here because I followed The Epicurean. Thanks Gastro 1.
I’ve always had a soft spot for simple and uncomplicated foods. By that I mean that it shouldn’t be bland tasting and it will always be pleasing to the heart, bit like what ‘Mama would knock up at home and you feel safe thereafter’. Jewish cuisine satisfies the two criteria perfectly.
Despite The Nosh Bar resurfacing only a fortnight ago, it is by and large*** an institution. I’m not going to bore you with the usual as it has its own Wiki entry here and I’ve also copied their brief history from their promotional flier. Back in the 80s my mate Jake* would drag me to Blooms in Whitechapel as his family thought The Nosh Bar then was barge pole material. So you could say this year is effectively a silver jubilee with respect to my first ever Salt Beef sandwich experience.
I came here for a late lunch today and only ¾s recovered from a dreaded lurgy. Yesterday I felt like death, a warm day I was told, but I had the heater on. This part of Soho (still seedy for the sake of the tourists and reeking of all sorts of evidences left by the intoxicated lot the night before) has thankfully been made ‘up’ a bit by Bocca di Lupo around the corner. The interiors live up to its name, it’s indeed done up like a deli bar with highish stools, unintimidated lighting and the chequered floor will ensure this place weather well over time. There was only one other diner when I came in and I strongly believe she was snapping away at her Salt Beef sandwich, must be another foodie blogger methinks; well hello blog buddy!

Do you know how we all hate social smokers, you know the type who's able to scrounge a fag off you and at the same time accompany you on a sneaky smoke. After that they can go on without a puff for months or years...arrgh! Well the same can be said for my once a month coke, no diet crap please. Coke's the best tipple for deli food, fact.

The old wives’ (in this case Jewish) tales that include the consumption of Chicken Soup is perfect for preventing the onslaught of a cold. If and when I’m about to catch a cold, I head straight to Harry Morgan for my flu ‘jab’. Served with some of the most wonderful rye bread I’ve tasted, the soup looks good. Oodles of the following- chicken meat (I wish restaurants are brave enough to serve chicken on the bone, but unlikely, as some careless fonebone would probably choke on a drumstick and perform the necessary in this crazy litigious generation of ours!), carrots and lovely noodles.
It tasted very good indeed and but it wasn’t as intense as HM’s. This observation is interesting as I’m prepared to state that the soup from HM comes from some central pre-prep kitchen**. The next time I come here I’m vying for the Bean & Barley.

By this time Cass has joined me. No food for Cass as a usual lunch of some seeds had already taken place an hour ago. Cass' lemon tea.

Here we go, Salt Beef on Rye. (to my Danish friend Hans Henrik, this salt beef is what they call corned beef in the States, and to confuse you even more, our corned beef is of the tinned variety which I personally call sodium nitrite beef)
Very good meat indeed, this is as good as the Selfridges’ but at nearly half the price! For central London, this is a major bargain. If you come here during the day, it’ll be likely that you’ll meet a lovely young lady by the name of Carly, she’s one of the partners here.
I told Carly they were too generous with that humongous piece of gherkin, especially so with people like me that don’t regard pickles as part of their last meal. Do let the guys know if you’re not partial to gherkins, I hate seeing food going to waste. All in, a near perfect sandwich.

What a comeback for The Nosh Bar, I hope for everybody's sake it succeeds well and stick around for many more years to come. Highly recommended, see you there soon.

*Jake, this place isn’t supervised! Sorry I can’t venture into Reubens because they give me funny stares and the impression I apparently give of touting illicit DVDs doesn’t help either.

**A well-informed link about central kitchens.

For the best value Salt Beef, you'll need to travel and it's here.




39 Great Windmill Street
London W1D 7LX