london restaurants

second meh experience at the anchor and hope last week

they've been rude a couple of times now. the first time i saw the place i popped in on my lunch break to ask if i could see a menu, grumpy waiter guy: "we don't do menus here" "we don't do bookings here" in such a snarky fucking tone, i rolled my eyes and walked out. just wanted to get an idea of prices / type of food, y'know? i hadn't heard of the place before, i'm so sorry for not being aware of how your institution functions!

anyway, popped in last week for a meal before the steve reich gig, had to wait 30-60 mins for a table, nbd, it was a lovely afternoon. immediately got a funny vibe from the waitress, i'd imagine because my girlfriend and i probably didn't look like the kind of couple that's going to spend a million pounds or something, or because we're young people, i dunno. she'd just got back off tour i'd been helping a friend out in his studio, we weren't dressed up for a big night out or anything, ffs it's a gastropub! don't be so up your own arse.

so the other couple sat opposite us got complimentary bread while they waited and they were also given wine glasses with their wine. we didn't get any bread (for the considerable wait after we had ordered) and were given these pathetic little beaker things that look like ash trays. we politely asked for wine glasses, for our £40 bottle of wine, to which the waitress kind of aggressively obliged?! wine may as well have been a £3.99 screw top according to my gf (i know v little about wine but she goes away on these tasting things and buys for her bar and she's french, she drinks wine every day, she seems to know what she's talking about).

anyway, on to the food. terrine de foie gras was very nice, the boozy prunes matched it perfectly altho there wasn't enough bread (i noticed the couple opposite us who had ordered the same were using their free bread to augment their dish, ha). i love foie gras but it wasn't anything remarkable, M brings back stuff in jars that's just as good as that back from france. we shared some big steak thing for 2 people for the main because we were both starving, again, very nice but not a patch on say, the hawksmoor or gaucho where i've had much better steaks recently. about 1/3 of the steak was inedible chunks of fat. the bechemel sauce, nothing spectacular, standard pub chips and that was it. bit of a letdown!

guess i'll give them one more chance, i do wanna try their sunday roast, but i'm beginning to think it's err, just not the place for me, or something.

Where's fun for a nice solo birthday lunch? Looking to spend no more than £15 really. Sorry to be a cheapskate.

If the snarky waiter was a handsome young blonde boy, I know him and will tell him to buck his ideas up.

Koya on Frith Street?

If the snarky waiter was a handsome young blonde boy, I know him and will tell him to buck his ideas up.

my cousin is a chef there, i may have met your friend.

xpost Ha, I was going to say Koya, I do like it there. I was trying to think about places where the music or vibe or view is reliably good, all or any of which would be good for solo dining. But I couldn't think of anywhere to fit the bill. And I do like eating on my own in Koya. So, Koya.

i don't remember the waiter tbh, i think he was bar staff, this was last summer when i first popped in. the manic ginger girl who runs everything was really great, overall it wasn't a totally bad experience, just disappointing. just want somewhere v chilled out where i can eat amazing food and not feel rushed, squashed or uncomfortable!

anybody tried les trois garcons on bethnal gr road? a friend mentioned a new french place in bethnal green as well, but the name is escaping me- he was v excited about it.

Ronan...does the name Fran ring a bell?

xp i think the new place is the one on mare st right next to the dolphin, but i havent tried it

those a&h beakers are their standard glasses afaik, and they do have menus so dunno what grumpy waiter was on about.

yeah dwight, i have met him once or twice, don't know partic well but my cousin is quite good friends with him, i think.

a friend told me the french place by the dolphin is good. bouchon fourchette i think it's called.

if dotori is shut/busy lex worth trying hana on seven sisters road round the corner... i have never had the bibimbab there mind but their sushis were good and it's run by koreans so i would expect that to be decent..

i had a meal at les trois garcon once (1/2 price groupon deal lol) it was nice.. the meal was good, interesting decor inside. think they have a couple of other places (loungelover is a japanese bar thing or something)

service was great also btw especially considering we were "groupon people"

LG: Wicked...small, small world.

Koya looks wicked, yeah. It'll either be there or I'll be boring and go to Honest Burgers for the first time.

A place I keep meaning to try in that neck of the woods, but I've never managed to find with the necessary space is the Pitt Cue Co... think they have a tiny amount of seating upstairs by the window which might be a good place to perch for a solo lunch.

brawn lunch deal is pretty unbeatable if yr in the bethnal green area

Cheers everyone. Can I ask another question: what's a really nice pub near Whitechapel/Aldgate? Doesn't have to be too close, just somewhere I can meet a mate for a chat over a decent beer before going out for dinner that evening (going here for tea: http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/)?

I go for The Pride of Spitalfields round there, on Heneage St... Lane..., opposite Fashion Street. Lahore Kebab House is still always excellent.

hmm the best, no idea

my favourite is indo, small place, bad service, good music, decent drinks, if you let me know when you'll be there you can most likely have a chat over the ilx beatles covers comp, i tend to pass through most evenings cuz friends work there and stuff

tarfumes's contribution to the beatles comp is now on one of the playlists there, it was quite a hit the other night!

Had a v. good lamb in the Anchor&Hope the other night. Place felt totally chaotic, but in an organised manner. Service was pretty much invisible, in the good way.

Thanks to the chat on this thread I've booked Bistrot Loubet this week.. I second Indo as pre-curry drink, it's my local. I haven't got much to say about restaurants except I've avoided Le Trois Garcons after a spectacularly bad experience a couple of years ago.

yeah i've only heard bad things about that place, ever.

It was great when it opened, but that was more than ten years ago.

I base my judgment of Les Trois Garcons on their snobby sign indicating (pointlessly, as far as I can tell?) that the pub next door is unrelated to them, get tae fuck yous.

I base my judgement on its beyond horrific decor.

is anyone going to the brooklyn lager/street food event tonight? </ hipster>

I intended to but neglected to pick up tickets in time and now it has sold out.

It looks really fun, though my problem with these Street Food things is they have x amount of great traders and you only have one stomach. It doesn't really work as a concept.

The event looks great but I'm not sure there's any food in the world that would persuade me to spend this evening outdoors.

I'm assuming/hoping they have heaters. Few beers into the system it'll be like it's summer.

it was freezing last year(?) when they had a similar thing there.. also the power went out a couple of times (which wasn't good for the rotisserie chicken stall). still was pretty fun as we wrapped up warm (except you can't eat with gloves on)

Managed to find some tickets on twitter. Hope the cold is bearable.

My homepatch of NW5 seems to have become hipster food paradise in recent months, thanks to Friday night street food at the Camden Town Brewery, pop up food at the refurbished Grafton, and the Pizza East/Chicken Shop/Dirty Burger complex up Highgate Road.

Finally tried both the Chicken Shop and the Dirty Burger. Both were nice, but in both cases I thought charged a lot for what they actually were. The former, for example, was £20 more than Nando for a whole chicken, chips and drinks for three – and it was not £20 better. Dirty Burger, for four of us, cost upward of £40 for burgers/fries/shakes - to sit at a shared table in a tin shack in a car park. In a nice room, OK. In a car park, no.

£40 for burgers/fries/shakes

how many did you get?!

when i was there i thought it was about 7.50 or something for a burger and fries. pretty good, would be nice to stumble into on the way home now and again rather than specifically go to.

Four of us. A burger each, a shake each, two fries and two onion rings. Two adults and two kids.

Probably too much food, but - another gripe - serving staff should have said that with kids we wouldn't get through it all. That's part of their job, not just to pocket the money.

Still a lot to share a table in a tin shack in a car park though.

£40 for four diners, for that food, is pretty good - but much better in the summer. I think I paid £9 for cheeseburger/onion rings there.

maybe i'm mistaken, i remember it being quite good value, but the few times i went was just nipping in on my way home from a play down that way. it is cold and uncomfortable for sure. i'd say an elevated takeaway rather than a restaurant. as i say, i'd love to live near it for the late night opening, beats a bad kebab. i hear the breakfast is better than the burger.

you can get a cheeseburger, onion rings and a can for like £2 you know

is anyone going to the brooklyn lager/street food event tonight? </ hipster>

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Didn't have the best time at this last night. Big queues & bottlenecks and so very cold.

I did, however, get to try one of these http://www.burgerac.com/2013/02/street-kitchen-crispy-chicken-burger.html

I know, I know, it's another burger. But it really was excellent. I read on a flyer they have a new regular pitch opposite the tea building starting later this month.

you can get a cheeseburger, onion rings and a can for like £2 you know

you can buy a frozen burger for 30p

Didn't have the best time at this last night. Big queues & bottlenecks and so very cold.

I did, however, get to try one of these http://www.burgerac.com/2013/02/street-kitchen-crispy-chicken-burger.html

I know, I know, it's another burger. But it really was excellent. I read on a flyer they have a new regular pitch opposite the tea building starting later this month.

yeah it was a bit oversold, as is to be expected i suppose, but overall i had a good time, i arrived about 2030 so it was easing and you could stand near a heater. it was quite good value really, 6 quid for a good beer and some food.

i had some meatball thai curry from the bowler, which was very good. and then since queues were long at a lot of the stuff, i got a chicken/potato salad thing from street kitchen. it seemed simple but it was really great, and a decent amount of it for the price.

sounds fucking awful.

thanks for that interjection. certainly more to the point than your usual drivel.

ha ha! yes, little in the way of sunshine over here. standing about in the cold, unless are fireworks, always find problematic. love you too LG.

:)

You'll need a bit of jogging across Victoria Park and Hackney Marshes to burn all that food and beer off, LG.

Just been to Daquise with the parents, we liked it a lot. I don't know if it's faded grandeur or just faded, but they're decidedly unashamed of their bare and decaying plaster walls - one section of which they've gone so far as to preserve in its crumbling state under glass. The head waiter kept on retreating through a doorway leading to the stairs down to the kitchen to sip from what was probably just a cup of coffee, but the shelf the cup was on was some distance along the wall above the stairs so to pick it up without descending he had to lean forward, supporting himself against the door frame in a manner which made one think whatever he was drinking was a lot stronger. And despite an abundance of waiters for such a quiet period (although it was picking up as we were leaving) the food was mostly served by the kitchen staff, from aluminium pots straight off the stove top - at one point we had four of them leaning over us spooning food onto our dishes. The food itself was great, delicious pierogi and wonderfully tender pork knuckle. Excessive quantities though, especially the pierogi, and zero veggie main course options, fortunately my mum eats fish and was happy to have the cod.

oh yes, the knuckle! also love the dill on the mashed potato...