london restaurants

Like I need an excuse to go buy onglet at my butcher for £8.50/kilo.

i think i am addicted to that banh mi place on old st. omg it's so good...

As a result of this thread I have visited (and loved) Pitt Cue Co, Big Apple Hot Dogs and Keu over the last couple of weeks.

So thanks very much for those recommendations.

I'd love to know people's thoughts on London's best pizza spots.

I've still never made it to Franco Manca as I find the opening hours fairly prohibitive.

I enjoyed Pizza East but wouldn't rush back.

Any feedback on this Time Out piece?
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/9863/London-s_best_pizza.html

If I'm in town and want pizza I'll go to Malletti's 'cos it's generally pretty good. That said, I long ago stopped eating pizza out in this country because it's generally utter crap, so I tend not to try anywhere ever. This has led me down the path of folly, as two of the single-most digusting meals I have ever had were as a result of trying to avoid pizza - a carbonara in a Pizza Express, and a risotto Milanese (yeah right) in a Carluccio's.

Ordering pasta in Pizza Express is never going to end well. Mediocre pizza > some shit microwaved ready meal.

I learnt the hard way. I could still taste it a few days later, it was extraordinarily unpleasant, and yes, you're quite right, the thermonuclear temperature at which it was served showed it was fresh from the microwave. I mean how the fuck is that cooking?

went for pizza at santore, exmouth market, clerkenwell last night. it was fucking delicious. easily the best pizza i've had in london and not too pricey!

― Crackle Box, Wednesday, May 25, 2011 3:51 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I enjoyed the pizza I had there and the missus' mixed antipasto was also great, liberally doused in the best black pepper I've eaten in years

The only pizza we regularly eat is at The Gowlett (it's in the South section if that article) - I feel lucky it's so close to us.

good pizza doesn't seem that hard to find, really. i've always thought it was a pose to get snobbish about it. i went to Franco Manca in Brixton recently and it was fine but not that much better than a decent standard pizza in a restaurant.

liberally doused in the best black pepper I've eaten in years

did you really mean best black pepper for years(!?) or was that a typo?

Ronan is that banh mi you are talking about on old street the sit down place with the black and white wallpaper or another place? i really like that place.

hmm yeah you can't really go wrong with pizza (apart from disgusting pineapple toppings, think I'll rant about what an abomination that is till my dying days) - I know what people mean about crappy plasticky pizza @ express but its still pizza and I'd go if I wanted one and it was the only place I could get it.

*I'll get me coat*

barnaby, hardly if you want to try franco manca you could go to the one in chiswick which has more normal hours iirc

lg which is the best sandwich to get at keu

good pizza doesn't seem that hard to find, really. i've always thought it was a pose to get snobbish about it.

I hope I didn't come across as precious. I like good pizza and am completely indifferent to indifferent pizza, which is what seems to be prevalent generally in England. So just tend to avoid it. Although 'pose'? Why would you 'pose' about it? Are there these people? Certainly it's not intended as a THIS COUNTRY rant in the slightest.

cultural pizzamism

Ronan is that banh mi you are talking about on old street the sit down place with the black and white wallpaper or another place? i really like that place.

It is opposite. Run by the same people I read somewhere maybe? But it is a sandwich shop, not a restaurant.

i've had the "classic" twice at keu, it's pork belly, pate and ham terrine, really good, but i maybe liked the one that's just called pork belly even more. the bread is so fresh and the seasoning of the veg and stuff is crazy, all three times i've eaten there i've been impressed enough to want to turn to the person beside me and just go "this is so good..." it's near the dole office so it's a ritual now...shame i got a job starting soon.

pizzas i don't eat regularly cos i try to avoid cheese but places like pizza express aren't nice at all imo, there are loads of good pizzas in london, you don't need to go far to find a place with a stone oven. not been to franco yet but would like to...

did you like pitt cue co barnaby?

We flipped at how good their mackerel banh mi is, also.

i must try the mack actually...it looks and smells great. the bigger dishes look good too but i can't bring myself not to have a sandwich when i'm there.

too bad this Keu place didn't exist when i still worked 5 mins from it

Think Malletti's a bit overrated actually, lovely crisp base but way too salty.

Looking forward to trying The Gowlett as it's not far from me now, and I will of course continue to rep for the pizzas at Zerodegrees in Blackheath.

heading to gourmet san tonight...woop!

how was it? i think that when i've gone i've ordered the wrong dishes

I went to Gourmet San once, and I too think I ordered the wrong things. I would like to go back with a big group of people so we could order a stack of dishes and have a few delicious morsels of each - when there are two of you it's pretty hard to base your whole meal around a big plate of 20 chicken claws in sauce (or whatevs).

We went to Hibiscus on Saturday night, which was very, very good and very, very expensive. Did the latter justify the former? Probably, for a special occasion. Our wedding anniversary is precisely that kind of special occasion.

hmm yeah, it was really busy and extremely unpleasant to sit in, very hot and cramped and the service is appalling. i prob wasn't adventurous enough but had crab with spring onion and ginger, it was really good, we also got some szechuan ribs, the portions are gigantic but it wasn't ultra cheap. i'd be more inclined to order takeaway again than actually sit down in there, the service was truly awful, a waitress came over and without saying anything proceeded to move our table so someone else could be squeezed in beside us, while we were eating. the staff are mega rude too. i know you don't expect great service in a place like this but i'd expect even bare bones politeness when you're paying over 20 quid each by the time the bill comes...

the menu is intimidatingly large and my friend i was with wasn't keen to experiment much, i think if you were with a large group who were willing to order lots of things and go a bit wild it might be better, also my timing was poor, i was massively hungover and starving, hence the usually appealing thought of eating pig guts in eyewatering chilli didn't quite grab me.

x-post yep agree with Tim completely...you can't order lots of dishes with two people cos eg the ribs was this huge mountain of food.

i went to Franco Manca in Brixton recently and it was fine but not that much better than a decent standard pizza in a restaurant.

this is insane.

1 - they make their own sourdough crust in brick ovens. it is god-like! they also make fresh bread daily, which you can buy off them.

2 - they only offer like 5 different pizzas at any given time. none of them involve prawns and rocket. they all cost like £5.

3 - the only other things you can order are like, a salad, a fresh lemonade, and some dessert. so they can focus on just making great pizza.

that said, the queues on the weekends are so horrendous that it's sort of turned me against them :(

There's nothing wrong with rocket on pizza! The first time I ever had rocket on pizza was in Italy, it's fine. It also had horse on it, which I fear is sadly not availably in London.

you can get horse on pizzas in london, it's called "pepperoni"

"meat feast"

Donkey more like. I want my horse as close to thoroughbred as possible.

does anyone ever order pizza that isn't fucking horrendous and overpriced? i only eat cheese once every 2/3 months due to health but obv the usual suspects are all fucking horrible.

part of whats amazing abt franco manca is how cheap it is

To my knowledge there is no really good pizza delivery in London.

domino's

NO

the pizzas aren't all that but the delivery is spot on.

plus they give you a tub of sauce to dip your pizzas into.

xp Not when they don't come into your estate because of non-existent fears about getting mugged. And then call your female flatmate "sir" to her face when she comes out to get them.

and the option of cold wedges or chicken wings/chicken pieces x-post

last delivery i got was papa john's, there was a promotion and my friend and i both got a pizza. it was nothing more than okay at best. oven pizza probably nicer.

xp Oh no! The last time I went to Gourmet San the service was... normal? Meaning, not rude but leaning towards the 'shy' side and certainly not invasively bossy like you've described. You should have been rocking the green beans, lamb skewers and dan-dan noodles; the green beans in particular are a good gateway item for fussy/chiliphobic dining companions and all of these things are actually Szechuan. FWIW it gives me The Rage when I agree on a restaurant with a friend only to find they can't or won't eat what's served there, but only remark on same after five minutes of staring at a menu.

If you're not prepared to go back to Gourmet San on a less busy night (you can approximate that experience by turning up there at 7pm instead of any later), the service is always better at Chilli Cool in Bloomsbury and two people can eat for about £30-£40 if dinner is a shared fish hotpot, green beans, ribs/lambsticks and DUMPLINGS!/noodles. The Chinese people eating there seem to be grad students enrolled locally and the decor is much nicer.

Having said that, yesterday I went to Golden Day with a friend who isn't allowing herself to eat any pork. BAD IDEA: 1) you really need a group of four to take advantage of the Szechuan/Hunan family-size portions 2) lunch specials good value but otherwise not up to much.

The last time I went to Gourmet San the service was... normal? Meaning, not rude but leaning towards the 'shy' side and certainly not invasively bossy like you've described.

same here. green beans love also otm.

If Porchetta delivered pizzas I would be happy because I can't face the 100m walk to pick up from a restaurant that's inevitably filled with braying idiot post-work douchebags.

the food at sichuan-folk in spitalfields looked lovely, i cannot comment on taste as we were doing their hot-pot (steamboat) at the time.

haven't tried the chilli cool steamboat yet but then yeah, with a £18 for a fish "hotpot" (not steamboat) that is the size of the entire table why would you eat anything else?

and the service was great at that sichuan folk place btw, if you can get the guy who speaks english.

had some seriously disappointing pizza delivery from il bacio in stoke newington last night, which i'd previously repped for. dough which was practically stale and almost no sauce at all.

matt it's not rocket i object to (well, it is; "authenticity" be damned) it's the prospect of prawns AND rocket. well, prawns and anything, really.

do you dislike prawns? or you just want them unadulterated and on their own?

I am allergic to prawns so I consider their presence anywhere to be disgusting savagery of the highest order.

Prawn haters, just hand them over to me but not on my pizza. Sometimes there's nothing more satisfying than a supermarket prawn cocktail sandwich, but I don't know why.

I have to admit that I don't order much pizza in because I'm really lucky with finding high-end Waitrose ones priced to clear. I'll also tart them up once I get them home.

love prawns and can tolerate them on a pizza, i like the seafood pizza but partly because it's often served with no cheese, stretching the limits of what a pizza is but meaning i can eat it without having to worry about the consequences.

i actually tarted up my il bacio delivery with some feta. 100% improvement!

prawns are the shitty album tracks of the food world.

! prawns are delicious