london restaurants

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.

It's pretty good for a drink or two and a look at the views, assuming it's not too busy. That aside, you're spot on.

We found a nice pub on one of the more suburban streets behind the train station, gastro type place with decent beer, across the road from s pizzeria. Forget the name.

You'll have been in the Victoria, I think.

RIP the wishing well.

But tbh I prefer its newer incarnation as well.

xxpost As with a lot places in London, maybe it's the timing of when you went?

I went to Franks earlier in the summer, but we made it up there around 4/5 in the afternoon and didn't have to wait too long to grab one of the benches outside (e.g. to the side of the bar). The queues that afternoon weren't too bad. We managed to stay for a few hours until the queues got crazy.

went to Market in Camden on Friday for the £10 set lunch. their battered whiting was one of the most perfectly cooked pieces of fish i've ever had. could have done with a little more vegetable matter, though.

(it's where the camden branch of the New Culture Revolution used to be - as a child that was my favourite restaurant, the place I would beg my parents to take me on my birthday. really strange to be in a new-to-me restaurant with such a familiarly shaped space)

Anything especially good on Leather Lane (I think) (just off Holborn)? Currently working there.

First Fri and I tried a Thai food stall which was a sorta oily mess tbh (but hey ho you can't complain too much about Duck) - want to try the obscured Japanese restaurant there.

The burritos from daddy donkey are really good. Also pretty much coffee heaven round there nowadays if that floats your boat!

I'll look out for that, and yeah need a lot of coffee.

Also tried the 'genuine Italian Pizza' place there, too. That was a gd start.

Prufrock's coffee is pretty fantastic, and dept of coffee pretty good too. Also wonderful nearby (though possibly not worth the schlep if you're on leather lane) is the wee stall in the grounds of the church on fleet street just by the corner of fetter lane. EC4 is coffee mecca!

If you fancy a couple of minute's walk on to theobalds rd, people often have good things to say about Malletti's pizza, and there's also a good banh mi place.

God I need to head out for lunch more..!

I like the home-style Korean place on Farringdon Street (?) across from the top of Leather Lane.

Cambio de Tercio was spectacular.

Decent Groupon deal for Cay Tre Soho... http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/west-london/cay-tre-soho/1094726

Expires today btw.

Thanks to Tim for the Korean recommend - that was really good. Know that's no review but hey ho ilx ws down.

Tomorrow I think i'll visit Tajima for some Japanese, and get some strong coffee - really in need of that at the mo.

Any recommendations round King's X? Parent friendly - basically no noisy bars.

Fancy? Unfancy?

Tending towards the unfancy end of things.

That Szechuan place (Chili Cool?) is v well thought-of apparently, I think we ordered badly when we went. I am a big fan of some of the places on Drummond Street, Diwana is my place. The Vietnamese on Kings Cross Road is surprisingly good. Ummmm.... not much else is springing to mind. There's supposed to be an OK tapas-y place near the bottom of Caley Rd or York Way...