london restaurants

guys
TONKOTSU RAMEN
apparently in soft open for the next few days, i.e. 50% off: http://londontheinsideswag.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/50-off-food_16.html
― ䷡ (c sharp major), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 15:38 (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did you go? i went to their trials thing a while ago at the tsuru place but thought it was not so special, but half price would have been a nice bargain.

i am v keen to try that place.

was at frank's last night, really nice atmosphere, not too busy.

v interested in this: http://www.hot-dinners.com/Gastroblog/Latest-news/ritas-dining-evolved-chicken-and-waffles-place-opens-in-dalston

and this: http://tuck-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ben-spalding-stripped-back.html

i've been to tonkotsu twice: it is good but it doesn't deserve quite the weight of hype it's getting. People seem to be raving about the karaage but the time I had it it was fatty in the wrong way. The tonkotsu broth could be more flavourful imo; though it's a less interesting flavour, the 'tokyo spicy' broth is better made. Mind you, the shiitake gyoza are super delicious.

I would go back - it's definitely the best ramen i've had in the uk - but it's not a saviour of anything, yknow.

otoh i just heard that the udon at Koya are really good, am interested in trying that

Went to The Tramshed the other day. Absolutely amazing chips. Steak was good, but still steak. Room is very echoey - hard to converse in a large group. And service was fucking terrible. Two courses took us two and a half hours.

Chai Roti last week. The upper street food - gaaaaaah - room. Had chapattis and lamb curry, and a saffron rice pudding. Oh and a coconut arrack and something cocktail that was very nice. It was all very good in fact, and yet, I'm not sure in the end that I wdn't just prefer a dosai at Ragam in Fitzrovia. Something to do with the expense to portion size ratio maybe.

I'm no kind of expert in udon but I certainly adore the udon at Koya.

burnt enz gets better each week. food there is amazing. beef tartare with sriracha the last two weeks, incredibly good. and great barbecued fish plus steak at 30 per kilo which i've seen friends have, and by all accounts is amazing, and dirt cheap at the price.

that plus great disco/house music till midnight and loads of good beers. it's my favourite place at the moment.

What is the best Japanese in London? My new office mate just moved from Tokyo and is keen to find some familiar food...

I love Koya, as just mentioned upthread, which specialises in home-made udon but also does "small plates" which I don' tthink I've ever seen anyone eating.

For sushi, I can't recommend Sushi of Shiori highly enough - it's tiny (like 6 covers tiny) and the way to eat there is to tell them how much you want to spend (£30 - £60 per head before drinks is the limit, I heard from a valued former ILXor that £50 was maybe the sweet spot...?) and they generate an amazingly delicious set menu for you. It's on Drummond Street.

Hmm..thinking of a 'how much do you usually spend per head in restaurants?' poll.

£50 before drinks seems ridiculous to me, given that London has such a good range of cheaper restaurants and you can eat well on half that figure. But if good food is a high interest I can see how you might do that once in a while.

Kansai rather than Tokyo but Abeno (near Russell Square) does excellent okonomiyaki, cooked on the table in front of you.

Asakusa in mornington crescent always gets the authenticity recommendations, too. (and is great, though i haven't been for like five years)

there is a new place in camden called Shimogamo that's really quite good (kyoto rather than tokyo, standard modern washoku) - haven't been for the evening menu yet.

So where does Tokyo Diner stand in the list of authenticity? Obv it's near the cheap n cheerful end but it usually works for me.

Yeah Bob the £50 per head was a birthday treat. Though, in the interests of full disclosure and not-pretenting-to-be-streetier-than-I-really-am, we do (very rarely) eat in places substantially more expensive than £50ph. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not so much.

is burnt enz open every day? thinking abt maybe going this eve

just sat and sun, and i think reservations only on thursdays. a mate is having his birthday there today so i'm going along, at the risk of overkill.

thanks for the Japanese recommendations, I'll pass them on

that steak at burnt enz sounds like an incredibly good deal - i mean 30/kg is p much what it costs at the butcher

yeah had it yesterday, it's incredibly good.

i am still looking for an excuse to go to sushi of shiori.. everyone who's been has talked about it v positively. is it hard to get a reservation (since they only have like.. 6 seats)?

had a nice meal at tokyo diner but cannot vouch for authenticity as I wouldn't know! Seems like it though. The "no tips" policy (as I recall.. it was a while ago) would suggest it's not run by Chinese folks, for a start.

We booked a couple of weeks in advance, Ken. Dunno how it usually is.

In less fancy news, there's a Polosh caff in the Elephant called Mamuśka: they do a dish called potato pancakes : 4 big slabs of fried mashed potato covered with a ladleful of goulash. Totally delicious, extremely filling, £5, bosh. Their pierogis are decent also.

had nice times at yoisho on goodge st also.. again no idea re: authenticity but it was a "izakaya" kind of place so there's a lot of sake and some nice small dishes.

xpost

had v good japanese at akari on essex rd (izakaya-style place) and kikuchi on hanway st (pricier, excellent sushi). tokyo diner is great too.

asakusa is my #1 but pham sushi near old st is also v recommended too

does anyone have any tips on how to actually deal with no-reservations bullshit? attempted to go to burger & lobster the other day, no dice at all, they were like oh you have to arrive at 6pm at the latest, which obv doesn't suit the members of our party who, like, have jobs

Agreed about Pham, I like it there, I'd forgotten.

We only go to no-res places if we manage to get ourselves there early or late, otherwise we just don't even bother. I do undersatand why places do it, but I am starting to hate it.

you have to arrive at 6pm at the latest, which obv doesn't suit the members of our party who, like, have jobs

jobs you can't leave by 6 - or 5 even - is the disgusting, savage thing here imo.

That and presumably a lack of widespread teleportation?

well i'm not the one with one of those awful things but factoring in travel time it seems slightly impossible. who leaves their job as early as 5?!

some of the supposedly crazy no-res places aren't always so bad, eg pitt cue isn't that hard to get into now, at any time really. i walked in at about 7 on a saturday a few weeks back. guess it varies place to place.

way deal with no-res places is wait for the ridiculous hype to die down?

xpost!

otm.

does anyone have any tips on how to actually deal with no-reservations bullshit? attempted to go to burger & lobster the other day, no dice at all, they were like oh you have to arrive at 6pm at the latest, which obv doesn't suit the members of our party who, like, have jobs

― bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Monday, July 16, 2012

Not me, sadly. I headed to Meat Liquor, Pitt Cue Co and Sputino with some out of town friends early on a weeknight last week and was turned away from each.

Ended up at Meat Market which was okay, though the combination of juice, grease, sauce and onions on the burger I had made it extremely difficult to eat with any dignity.

Anyone planning to check out Flat Iron at The Owl & Pussycat? https://www.facebook.com/FlatIronSteak

That can be years, though: still hard to get into Anchor and Hope, for example, without a mega wait or turning up at peculiar times. Likewise Polpo. Have pretty much stopped trying to get into either.

who leaves their job as early as 5?!

dolly parton, sheena easton's baby.

+ me

yeah i had the same problem w/ pitt cue on a monday night, went round the corner to polpo w/ no problem. i dont understand why somewhere like pitt cue cant just let you go to the pub + then text you when yr table's ready.

funny thing is we ended up at spuntino after failing to get into burger & lobster - my first time, the food was pretty great though i could have done with some of the dishes being larger than a canapé

i had no idea polpo was no-res! never had a problem there even at normal lunchtimes, though i've only ever been there when a PR has taken me out so maybe they know tricks that i don't

I believe you can reserve there at lunch.

Lots of the dishes at Spuntino are larger than canape!

i've never had a prob at anchor and hope, i mean my cousin works there so i'm there a lot, but he doesn't jump me into the queue or anything if i walk in when he's working. have got a seat plenty of times.

i've been to pitt cue a few times now, with relatively painless wait, 20/30 mins maybe. first time i went i waited about 80 mins i'd say, half of which was in the bar with a beer.

and there was 0 persons in the queue for the van under the bridge the other night.

I figured I'd be OK at Anchor and Hope at 8 on a Wednesday evening, nope, the earliest they could accommodate us (table for 2) was like 9.30. This hasn't been uncommon there, to the point that I've stopped trying unless I can get there for 5.30 and get my name on the list - why bother with the stress when I can book a table at Great Queen Street like a civilised person?

but prolly cos everyone went to the wahaca place that just opened or something xpost

Also why is it OK to take a booking in person at 5.30 but not OK to take a booking on the phone at 3.30? It makes no sense to me. Added to the annoying process you have to go through to get onto the list as it stands - kinda hanging around the end of the bar in everyone's way, hoping you're the next to catch the list-person's eye, you're queueing but there's no proper queue, it's uncomfortable and unnecessary. I really enjoy eating there but, as I say, have pretty much given up.

I'm finding it hard to deal with your display name, Ken.

In fairness, the only place with a softening of the great British public's love of a queue is at the bar...

imagine every ken c post consists of

sarcasm v

that'd be ironic