london restaurants

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

xpost lol and well everything you eat at a french restaurant

That lucky chip place sounds good, think I walked by it at the weekend. Must give it a try.

yeah i might go there for dinner one night this week if the weather improves

Anyone been to Kerbisher and Malt, fish and chips in Brook Green? Looks great and read a lot about it. I work 5 mins up the road but fish and chips for lunch seems a ticket to afternoon food coma.

i havent been there but localgarda if you work in that hood you need to go to 101 thai kitchen and get the laotian fish salad. it is one of the best things to eat in london imo

(also there will be no food coma)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4295846613_c87a2869d2.jpg

outside seating, good beer, not formal, cheap but good food around liverpool st/shoreditch

plz

kinda conflicted by the above question, crackle box, only saw it for a spare 5 mins on my phone in work when you posted it.

went to kerbisher and malt this week, was out with old job last night so had waited for a night where i needed to eat after work. about 6 quid for calamari and chips (didn't feel like trad fish and chips) but it was amazing. fantastic chips, really light home-made batter on the calamari, true sweet chilli sauce and tartare on the side, fairly close to perfect.

then to run the full gauntlet went to london fields having few drinks with pals tonight, lucky chip was the natural choice after. really fucking great burger. loved the outside vibe, reminded me of getting chips on the way home from the pub in dublin or something. v friendly staff too. i got the classic burger and it was seriously great. best i've had in ldn, tho i've not been to meatwagon.

must try thai 101 btw...is it a restaurant or do they do takeway or informal solitary sitdown?

man thats good news abt lucky chip! i think we'll give it a try tonight after work w/ a beer.

tahi 101 is super informal, you can get takeaway but i'd recommend sitting in

The chips are great too btw friend got chilli fries and they looked really good.

man this was really fucking good! i cant really compare to meatwagon because my memory of that place is pretty hazy but this burger was damn tasty, just great quality meat, cooked really well. hackney ppl need to get down there while the weathers still good

Went to Latium, which was consistently poor in all sorts of ways, not least the food. Stick to Meatwagon and Lucky Chip as if anyone needed convincing.

any of you guys been to the draft house on tower bridge road? was at a pal's houseboat (!) near there today. i passed it on the way to meet two other friends after walking up from southbank, and i walked in to reward myself with a swift half pint of meantime american brown ale (which i've never tried) only for my friends to catch me in the act, had to explain i was truly only planning a half. they saw me sizing up the menu and everything as they were behind me.

anyway we couldnt wait there then for some reason but i made fucking 100 per cent sure to go with a mate on the way home...ate a great burger (not as good as lucky chip but v enjoyable) and excellent fries, and had a bottle of hopdevil as they were out of the meantime us brown ale.

they have one of the best selections of beers i've seen, not a lot on tap but amazing bottles. some crazy shit like the el bulli guy's beer for about 16 quid a bottle, didn't try it though.

Had a massively indulgent weekend...

Lunch on Fri was Big Apple Hot Dogs, dinner was my first trip to The Meat Wagon.

Vietnamese coffee and the 6 pork Banh Mi from Ca Phe VN on Broadway Market on Sat AM, then dinner at Tayyabs on Saturday evening.

I hadn't planned it that way (Tayyabs was the only thing in the diary) and I'm feeling like I need to hit the gym tomorrow, but what a great few days of food.

the banh mi on bway market are amazing...better than keu in old st by a long way imo.

I think I went to the lesser of the two Banh Mi stalls... As I was eating one from Ca Phe VN I passed http://www.banhmi11.com which looked way more interesting.

The paneer tikka from Tayyabs was amazing, as were the lamb chops and saag aloo.

I had a green chilli cheeseburger from The Meat Wagon and it definitely lived up to the hype. Excellent onion rings also. I just wish it wasn't based in Peckham. I'll have to keep an eye on when it travels north.

Went to Latium, which was consistently poor in all sorts of ways, not least the food. Stick to Meatwagon and Lucky Chip as if anyone needed convincing.

Oh really? Must have gone rapidly downhill in the last couple of years if that's the case.

Ok so I tried Lucky Chip. It was was pretty good but 1) i become unreasonably infuriated by paying over the odds for something incredibly easy to make at home and 2) literally waited 20 minutes before even placing my order for "a burger and chips", despite no one in the queue!! Entirely due to the two guys scratching their heads and looking about worriedly and misplacing plates and utensils, looking for them, checking and rechecking order tickets. I mean, maybe they're sort of new but this isn't rocket science, in fact it's not even long division, it is flipping a farking burger. "Cheese burger and fries, got it," he says. No, i just want a burger. He looks at me incredulously, annoyed. "Our regular burger is a cheeseburger. A burger with no cheese would be..... abnormal for us." HE ACTUALLY SAID THIS. Keep in mind that i am still VERY SERIOUSLY HUNG OVER and have eaten nothing all day. Luckily my rage is contained by my inability to speak words that have more than two syllables.

Ultimately the burger is good because 1) there is a lot of it 2) the meat is from the Ginger Pig 3) it's not overdone and 4) the bun is quite good. But no way I am getting another one (he says)

xpost yeah banhmi11 is the one to go to

Also has anyone been to Zucca in Bermondsey yet? Going there in a few weeks' time. It's website makes a VERY bold claim about it being voted in the top three Italian restaurants in the world, a claim I suspect is bollocks.

Actually, further to the Lucky Chip convo, our own Local Garda makes a far superior burger..

tracer it does sound like you had a weird experience there but regarding the food i dont really know what you expected? you ordered a plain burger and then you complain it was too easy to make?

i would like to hear local garda's burger tips

I've been to Zucca, and I would like to go back, it's very very good indeed, and quite reasonably priced. "Voted top 3 Italian restaurants in the world"? Um, no. I mean, possibly, in an extensive poll of the proprietors and their families, maybe. But even then probably not.

It's excluding Italy, but they ain't lying
http://www.theworlds50best.com/italianseries/?utm_source=50best&utm_medium=italianseries&utm_campaign=homepage

well that says its for europe (excluding italy) but still that seems crazy

yeah, they say europe on their website too

why would you not want a cheeseburger, tracer? i think if i were working in that van i would have rolled my eyes at you too.

Because I saw the cheese they were using, packaged singles, and IME when you melt that onto a burger it adds less than nothing. You can't taste it. And I (erroneously) thought I would get 50p off.

you ordered a plain burger and then you complain it was too easy to make?

Ha ha no, I know. It was actually perfect at that moment because I was incapable of doing anything for myself.

(When I make a cheeseburger I like to use a v thick slice of v sharp cheddar and only have it melt about halfway)

Weird, I just went to Lucky Chip and Ca Phe VN on Saturday too. Chips took twice as long as they suggested but were worth it, was too full from excellent mushroom banh mi to try a burger as well.

The chips were good. Sort of fries-ish.

Oh really? Must have gone rapidly downhill in the last couple of years if that's the case.

Yes, very disappointing. Poor aperitivi, with cold tasteless fish on limp bread (and the drinks were not so good as well - the aperol spritz was very un-fun). Damp, chill and tasteless crab and cucumber salad. The tortellini in brodo weren't bad, but I've had much better. The broth was clear but subtle to the point of invisibility. Pork belly is impossible to fuck up, and was ok, although the fat wasn't at all crispy. Scallops on pearly barley was a rather weird dish - they didn't go, and the combo was somewhat nauseating. Pudding was probably the best of the bunch (as sometimes seems the case in middling restaurants) but nothing amazing. Great selection of wines.

Repeatedly had to ask them to turn the air conditioning off (what the hell was it on for in the first place?) but it kept coming back - felt a cold coming on soon after I left, which I've yet to shake. Staff were slightly functional, a luke-warm pleasant. Ambience was a little anodyne and it felt very much a place for expense account eaters.

I'd certainly go Trullo or Bocca di Lupo over Latium any day. What can have happened?

Will post my probably not better in any way than lucky chip burger recipe later when I'm not on a phone.

The cheese actually fairly tasty on the burger I had.

I see that 40 Maltby Street got a great review in Time Out this week - went a couple of months back but forgot to mention it - it's really good if you want to go and drink delicious and unusual wines, and choose from a very restricted menu. Feels pleasingly home-made. They basically have one main meal on per night - when we went it was a dirty great serving of roast pork with some excellent white beans. We arrived too early to eat so went and ate some tapas and drank some fino at that ace-but-probably-too-expensive tapas place on Bermondsey Street. We ended the evening stuffed, drunk and delighted.

We're not going anywhere just now, we're dieting instead.

Btw did anyone go to franks for the last weekend? I hadn't been so I went on Friday. It was pretty awful I have to say, about ten deep at the bar, aggressive psycho berating me on arrival for using wrong stairwell (of dark car park), full of 18 year olds, food gone quickly etc. A v stressful experience. Didn't think much of peckham either.

Did you look around Peckham much?

Last time I went to Franks it wasn't much fun either, too busy and nowhere near relaxed enough. If they do it next year I hope they rethink it a bit.

We are off to Cambio de Tercio for my birthday treat soon - I hear it's fab, has anyone here been? (NB if you hate it, please be gentle: it's my birthday coming-off-diet treat and I am looking forward to it...)

That's pretty much my experience of Franks as well, and why I didn't go back this year. It's not really a restaurant anyway, I'd never considering going for the food, and there are better places to drink in Peckham.