london restaurants

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...

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

it was all v small, and i had like, two beers. plus i ran 5 miles before going and walked from bethnal green to dalston junction and back. think i'm safe!

Ended up going to Franco Manca for lunch, was as tasty as ever. Can't quite get over the value either. Top stuff.

For a quiet pre-dinner pint we ended up at the Old Blue Last which served it's purpose well.

Lahore Kebab House was great. Loved the canteen at Butlins vibe upstairs.

has anyone else been to the northern chinese bbq place on roman road?? it looks pretty generic from the outside but we went last night & it was really nice. also they've highlighted the good things on the menu which means its less likely that you'll come away going 'maybe we ordered wrong'

is that the one just by the market square?

yes! i think so. google tells me that its at 129 and is called 'top taste' but i couldnt see a name in english on the outside, just chinese characters.

Weirdly I went once ages ago for takeaway and it was fairly poor, but the mate who recommended it told me you have to ask for their authentic menu or something, otherwise you get the usual gunge. This seems so weird that I never went back, but I live really near so I will give it a go for sure now.

yep this is the same place, the waitress checked which menu we wanted when we sat down. seems like a good place to go with a group of ppl, get a plate of bbq skewers of various things & then some big bowls of other slow cooked or stir fried things.

ah cool i'll have to ask for the secret menu next time. that's within hangover striking range which could be useful.

someone else has been there > http://meiweifood.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/liao-wei-feng/

it'd been years since i last went, but i'd forgotten how good bedford & strand is http://www.bedford-strand.com/

really top-notch steak tartare & blood pudding salad, bloodies meal i've ever head

Meant to revive this to say the bar at the clove club is awesome. Not tried the restaurant.

Was at ceviche yday, thought it was good but the actual ceviche wasn't great IMO, kind of soggy, flavours not mixed well.

The other dishes were good and it had a great atmosphere.

Anyone been to Kopapa in Covent Garden? Going there for dinner tomorrow and not sure quite what to expect.