london restaurants

i swear the scolt head used to be perfectly pleasant back in the day when it was guaranteed half-empty. i've avoided it for so long that i'd be prepared to believe it's come full circle - à la the price george, which i found myself in recently and it was actually not rammed and quite nice.

have found myself in the old fountain near old st a lot recently as it's one of the boyfriend's favourite pubs. apparently the ale selection or whatever is good but i don't know anything about that. it's nice enough i guess. feel v lucky to have the elderfield in clapton as my local.

looking forward to being in the spaniards inn on hampstead heath this weekend! love that place.

queen's head is a good shout!! thanks I'll email them and check. reserving a couple of tables should be sufficient

a good thing about the queen's head is he kinda unofficially serves till whenever he wants. when i had my 30th there i asked if he'd let us stay a bit later than it was about 0330 when we left, albeit with the hour having changed that night.

the new burnt enz thing is pretty good - less interesting beers tho and it's more expensive. food is similar to last year even tho it's now lucky chip doing it.

yeah we went there the other night after work, food wasnt quite as good as last time but still pretty enjoyable

Hey Dwight, I drink in the Royal Albert all the time, it's an excellent place, and I tend to find Antic pubs hit and miss generally. I tend to sway back and forth on the Marquis, not bothered to go in there for years. Apparently back in the late 60s/early 70s my parents were in there with Hattie Jacques (!!!) who had been doing something at Goldsmiths during the day, and the night turned into this legendarily enormous session. Apparently she liked a drink.

I was in the Granby on Saturday. There's truly not a pub in the world I'd rather be sat in.

I love the Granby, but I don't get in enough.

Feels like there should be loads of pub like it, but there just aren't.

Comfortable london irish pub, dose of art student. Feel at home.

It's because pubs, especially in areas like New Cross, tend to be increasingly polarized in their clientele. Pubs that attract a genuine cross-section and (importantly) seem to keep everyone pretty happy are a pretty rare thing these days.

find it hard to think of the granby with any great personal warmth but it has always done the job without irritating and like matt says that's something ever more worthy of respect as the years go by. it's like the best ever student union or train station pub i guess

maybe i just never feel fully committed to irish pubs idk

Yeah I'm just happy it's there amid all yr New Cross Houses and what have you, not to mention the beyond terrifying looking places a bit further towards Deptford.

perseverance is the only irish pub i like, and i use "like" in a loose sense meaning it's fairly divey but is good for watching sport in and the landlord and landlady are really decent. the regulars are pretty depressing.

is this the one on broadway market. yeah so depressing. so BRIGHT too, i hate bright pubs. was it someone on here that told me it was john salako's local?

why wouldn't you just go to the albion for sport tho. now there's a decent pub

i've seen salako in there alright. i don't mind it being bright, there's something about the room and the bar that actually works pretty well imo. once the spell of a match is broken unless you're with a huge group of mates it quickly is time to go.

i've never been to the albion, must give it a go. howl at the moon in hoxton is actually pretty good too imo.

Doesn't telegraph its irishness (though I feel like there's a connection?) but I've always enjoyed watching football at the faltering fullback in stroud green. Plus the beer garden is v. crystal kingdom dizzy.

Really enjoyed trullo tonight. We were downstairs, which I think helped. Service was just the right side of attentive w/o being overbearing. Menu much more carnivorous than I'd expected (a positive). Got second belated birthday meal on thurs at Newman St Tavern, which I don't really know anything about but sounds good.

after this bank holiday weekend i can fully recommend the duck and waffle breakfast at 6am on a brilliantly clear blue morning having been up all night. the food was nice and all but as an experience - THAT VIEW - it was pretty special. amusingly they quiz you about whether you've been drinking at the door, it was a weird situation because obviously their policy is not to turn away people who have been drinking all night, but they sort of say it is to, i guess, warn you not to misbehave. luckily one of the girls i was with was formidably persuasive and determined in that very posh way, lesser people might have slunk off, chastened

also, riding house café brunch is actually amazing, foodwise http://www.ridinghousecafe.co.uk/

I'll keep that in mind the next time I am piloting the good ship Drunk Friends, though I can't imagine why a chew-with-a-view place right in the middle of the City might want to nudge its play-hard clientele towards basic manners...

Whenever I've been to Riding House, it's always been incredible.

i don't like the room much in riding house, but i didn't eat there, only had a drink.

i wanted to go to barrafina on sunday but it was jammed so i went to brindisa opposite the john snow instead, it was actually pretty good, not as good as barrafina but still decent. great wine.

also bone daddies on friday. probably edges tonkotsu for me.

The one time I went to the Riding House Cafe I thought it fine but un-amazing. Maybe I should give it another whirl.

LG, I read somewhere that the music at Bone Daddies was intrusively loud, and that sounds like misery to me, so I've avoided it so far (also I'm Koya 4 life, obv). Was it noisy?

Yeah it has a "rock" thing going on, I was going to add that Tonkutsu is a bit more dignified really as a room to eat in. The ramen in Bone Daddies was marginally more alive I thought, bit more going on. Great soft shell crab too. The music wasn't too bad but it was thrashy rock stuff.

Apparently Tonkotsu are opening in Hackney soon, in a railway arch somewhere.

that is great news. noodle soup of any kind is hangover food #1 for me

Have asked this before I think, but how much do you have to be earning before you can start dining out at all these nice places on the reg?

Much as I like a good soft-shell crab, I think a restaurant with a rock thing going on is going to be a restaurant I don't enjoy.

I had a proper stinking filthy hangover yesterday following the Hangover Lounge 5th birthday thing on Sunday; we struggled to Cafe East in Surrey Quays, where the giant bowl of bun was exactly what we needed. The food's really good there, but I on entering I remembered why I hadn't re-visited after going there a couple of years back: they have a big sign on the wall saying WE DON'T SERVE TAP WATER which is just totally infuriating. And rude.

xpost DY I don't think there's a straight answer to that question - certainly you have to have *some* disposable income to spend it in restaurants, but the restaurants in this thread hit quite a range of prices. And we're not all eating at all the places mentioned here!

Have asked this before I think, but how much do you have to be earning before you can start dining out at all these nice places on the reg?

the last year or two i've noticed friends generally veering towards more eating out - and less raving, tho some still happens. it's prob a case of priorities i suppose. i guess wages rise too if you're in something steady, and lol being 30.

but yeah, some of the places mentioned aren't necessarily expensive. a bowl of ramen is 9 quid in tonkotsu/bone daddies.

Alex James, the Blur bassist turned gentleman cheese farmer and Sun food columnist, has said: "My 20th birthday party was all about booze, my 30th birthday was about drugs, and now I realise that my 40s are about food."

he really took his time with the drugs.

OK, getting rid of the kids over my birthday. My wife proposed we go away for the weekend. I said let's just spend the money on doing nice things in town. What would be a really fucking nice restaurant - one I don't feel I know all about from endless buzz.

Let's start the foodie backlash

"Food is a brilliant way to connect with anyone. I used to think music was a universal language. But if you go to Africa and play a Blur song, someone might have to translate. Give them cheese, though, and they can instantly taste it and react." I have to read the whole article now.

But if you go to Africa and play a Blur song, someone might have to translate

"he lives in a house, very big house, in the country"

"John's got brewers droop, he gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons, they love a bit of it" - could do with a translation myself tbh.

he really took his time with the drugs.

think of how much booze would have come free at him in his 20s

if yr in chinatown, that place that does the knife shaved + hand pulled noodles by leicester sq tube is also worthwhile

― just sayin, Friday, 18 February 2011 09:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ was in this area for lunch last week & went here a couple of times, this place is still great. get the noodle soup w/ stewed beef for £6.50

My experience at Bone Daddies was that the rock thing was predominantly visual and although there was music playing, it wasn't particularly intrusive. Admittedly this was about 6.30pm before the theatre though. It's not really the sort of place you linger over a meal anyway - high seats and tables and all that.

bone daddies is such an off-putting name for a restaurant, or anything really

It sort of makes sense when you consider how the food is prepared. Also it is seriously good food, although I'd feel pretty unhealthy if I ate it too regularly.

forget if anyone mentioned green man and french horn here before - had a good meal there on friday after going to see the weir at the donmar warehouse, which is amazing btw.

it was a little pricey, if not bad value, but it's really relaxed and calm in the middle of horrible covent garden. can see myself going there anytime i'm at one of the theatres around that way.

xpost it is the ultimate comfort food.

Going to Tayyabs tonight...what's good there?

the lamb chops are a must. i also love the 'dry meat' (a lot better than it sounds trust me). the masala fish is supposed to be great too.

Haven't been for a bit but I used to go quire a lot and often order for the table something like:

Masala fish*
1 seekh kebab per person*
Lamb chops
Chicken tikka

Dry meat*
Karahi chicken keema*
Baby pumpkin curry if they had it
Dhal baigun

1 plain naan each*

* means always, others added if more people were there.

I would generously allow people to choose their own drinks, with a strong recommendation that they join me in a salt lussi.

I'm very boring when it comes to curry so I just had chicken Karahi keema and some form of kebab, both were bangin'. So busy though.

yeah it's too full on for me tbh, even if the food is amazing.

Had a good time at Rotary in Old Street last night. Modish burgers / barbecue stuff but really well executed. Surprisingly empty, though.

I'd been wondering about that place.

i'd be v appreciative of a mini sushi primer along the lines of tim's curry post if anyone can be bovd... many times in life have i stared blankly at the window menu of pham on whitecross street and thought eh fuck it

I've read they have deep-fried soft-shell crab sandwiches that are substantially cheaper than those at Shrimpy's.

You could just go for a sushi bento... but I usually order a mixed sushi set to share as a starter, then a sashimi salad as a main if i'm really feeling the need for fish, or a regular rice or noodle dish if not. Maybe throw a miso soup in there too. Using fingers for sushi is fine, I normally make a little dipping sauce of soy and wasabi which is a bit gauche but whatever.