london restaurants

went to Arbutus in Soho and had the pre-theatre menu, £18, excellent meal. Tempted to go a la carte next time.

Went to Wild Honey on Saint George St (off Hanover Square) yesterday. Very nice.

Nice room - we had a booth, that was spacious for four, and private without being blocked off. I had a very good smoked eel starter, with a big chunk of roast pork (with a couple of bits of belly pork, with excellent crisp skin) and curly kale and beans, and a panna cotta with blackberries to fnish. Good service. Lovely meal. Not cheap, but I wasn't paying.

i went to the albion again last night and loved it again. i don't really get how most mains being like £9-10 can be overpriced as r|t|c intimates, (unless you just don't like the food i guess). i had the kedgeree which was very nice - i would have made it hotter but i have learned to accept that non-asian british restaurants just underspice everything

Ate in the jolly butcher on Saturday, stick to the ale, would be my verdict.

St John (the bar) on Friday tho, had never been, it was amazing.

can't really recall the specifics of my visit to albion now - it was definitely for breakfast/brunch so i can't comment on the rest of the menu - but far as i remember the fry-up was of a five/six quid standard. rather than one specific meal however the whole experience in general reeked of self-flattery to deceive; i've probably forgiven worse food in shoddier gaffs but you know when you just feel royally fleeced sometimes.

unfortunately i've been eating at hipster gastros again, so all i have to report is that the food at the spurstowe was really honestly shockingly impressive. instantly rate it above the prince arthur and the duke of welly.

will not defend the establishment on any other grounds obv - nowhere worse to be on a weekend evening if you're not in the v particular mood.

can't really recall the specifics of my visit to albion now - it was definitely for breakfast/brunch so i can't comment on the rest of the menu - but far as i remember the fry-up was of a five/six quid standard. rather than one specific meal however the whole experience in general reeked of self-flattery to deceive; i've probably forgiven worse food in shoddier gaffs but you know when you just feel royally fleeced sometimes.

― r|t|c, Monday, 12 September 2011 13:58 (8 minutes ago)

idk the establishment u refer to but i still liked reading this post reading 'albion' in the olde/poetic sense of the word

St John (the bar) on Friday tho, had never been, it was amazing.

― LocalGarda, Monday, 12 September 2011 12:45 (23 minutes ago)

^ one of the most enjoyable things you can do in london really

xp heh, no wonder at my trademark slide into sub-libertines cockney then

Anyone been to Larder in Farringdon? Any good?

thought this revive was gonna be about this astonishing review http://www.quintessentially.com/insider/2011/02/03/mayfairs-new-prodigy/

dostoevsky! i ask you

"Dostoevsky, Hemingway, Kierkegaard and Poe" ??

He cites east, west, north and south as the direction he is currently heading.

xp yes saw that on Twitter, truly staggering. "Did I mention I went to... Cambridge University?"

tbf, restaurant reviews in the style of any of those four would be excellent:

"It was the eating of his hideous beef wellington" <-- poe

Table-stalking as I always am, I noticed a Sorority-type girl lean across the table and give her man – a gentle man, I should say, and one of great elegance and remarkable seriousness – a considered kiss. The kiss simmers, and the lights dim and I hear the high notes of Tchaikovsky move in from the Champagne bar (a worthy destination in its own right).

think he is probably going for constance garnett

IIRC none of the cited authors wrote about trying to cop off with Sloane Rangers in expensive Mayfair restaurants.

"The Brothers Carrot Sorbet"

The Souffle also Rises

Lime and Punishment

"For Whom The Bell Peppers?"

"The Fall of the House of Pancakes"

The Old Man and the Celeriac

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by waitressés whose foot-falls pattered on the tufted matting.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy chef hath lent thee - and these menus he has sent me
Respite - respite and nepenthe from this avocado gratin
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this vile spaghetti!'
Quoth the raven, 'Liver pate"

bah s/b waiter not raven :|

:D

and of course the telltale heart one should have been: "it was the eating of his hideous tart" X(

idk guys the true lol ott restaurant review has a subtler bouquet than that loud foghorn effort

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/restaurants/review-23984842-cut-w1---review.do

deeply loved maschler the other week unable to resist mentioning not once but twice fyi how sizzling hott she is

"to get back to me for a minute"

Agree the spurstowe is a hell hole to drink in at weekends. Perfect storm of massive crowds (who seem to be v rich yuppie hipsters), horrendously designed bar, and even worse than usual bar staff.

Was in Merkato last night. A+ would go back.

ya the spurstowe is bizarrely west londony

altho west london places don't have the same pretence (ok or rather they do, but they're comparatively innocuous ones)

only three more days to wait til made in chelsea series 2 btw you guys, who's stoked like me

the spurstowe is just crazy. had no idea, hadnt been there for a long time, but man

i used to live literally next door to the spurstowe. only went in once that i remember though, it wasn't especially memorable either way. but that was 4 years ago. back when the george was the place to go!

West londony is exactly how I described it before, but yeah weird sort of hipsters with inheritances vibe there. I know people bandy about "rich hipsters" etc but in this instance that's how it feels. I like the area tho, friend lives on Wilton Way and it's a lovely street.

yeah ive lived across from the town hall for a few years + i still like the area, thats why it surprised me going into the spurstowe on a saturday night.

The Ginger Pig's Marylebone shop is offering free hot pork sandwiches today.

The Victoria Park shop had a big pork sale yesterday (which I took advantage of).. guess they had a few too many hawgs

Damn I should swing by my local franchise.

for those of us who live in hackney, maybe a closer alternative to the meatwagon? http://eatlikeagirl.com/2011/09/26/lucky-chip-bang-on-burgers-and-great-chilli-cheese-fries/

Huh!

Tracer did you ever write up that place which is SO FRENCH they don't serve butter? You and Emma and I et there after seeing "Man on Wire"

Hahaha no I can't remember the name of it now

It's true about the French butter thing; I have butter on bread like it's going out of style and Emma will sit there, and her mom too, looking at me like I'm a crazy person (as they guzzle great jugs of pork drippings, etc)

my brother says the same about his gf's family: he cooked for them over christmas and they could not deal with how he used butter-- as they gaily chomped their way through their body weight in cheese and rillettes and etc.

haha really? i had no idea.

Of course they do put butter on sandwiches, the savages

This is kind of surprising given how buttery e.g. croissants are (or maybe that is just the way Britishers make them), or French biscuits (by which I mean e.g. those Breton galette things and I guess Breton != French, and maybe they're only for the tourists anyway)

Well exactly - but consistency in these matters would not really be the French way