london restaurants

Anyone been to Five Guys and/or Shake Shack in Covent Garden yet, and if so, is either any good?

Muted reviews in the media so far but I suspect that's because British people have a thing about burgers being "squidgy."

i only ever buy ~street food~ when the stalls are close enough to a park (or my home) that i can eat it there. eating amidst the actual stalls themselves, esp as most street food is quite messy, is not appealing.

meant to say here that i was down at crate in hackney wick at the weekend. had never been. excellent pizza, nice beer, and a nice canal-side setting. really good place.

there's also a new pop-up bar called (awful name) urban sessions. very strong beer selection, quite a nice space. has potential tho it was only soft launch when i was there so a bit rough around the edges.

I might go to that wrap stall at lunchtime actually, never really noticed it before.

Attempted a visit to Shake Shack last weekend but the queue was horrific (though weirdly there were lots of free tables).

feel like i'll be out that way at some point in the future with no other option besides a quick burger.

If either are better than '90s Wendy's I'll be super-surprised.

I remember '90s Wendy's very well. One in Praed Street and another in Shaftesbury Avenue and neither lasted very long but they were really good.

Anyone been to Restaurant Story on Tooley St yet? Booking a table appears to be slightly more difficult than getting a Glastonbury ticket but it's had some amazing reviews.

Been once and enjoyed it, but while the food is good/very good for the most part, it lays on the Fat Duck-ish gimmickry (i.e. rote 'humour' delivered in an entirely humorless manner) so thick that I doubt I'll be back.

Frog on the green was good, i had the sea bream. Beer is good and it's a nice space, will go again for sure

Never been to any of the Old Street banh mi places, recommend?

keu's pretty reliable.

keu is decent, yeah. are there more beyond that? not at the shoreditch end afaik.

How about the one on whitecross street?

There's banh mi 11 on Old St too. Never eaten at that particular one, but their sister restaurant on Gray's Inn Rd does a really good smoked mackerel sandwich.

Used to go to the one on Whitecross pretty frequently, but they tend to run out of bread before I can get there. Nice bread when you can get it though. Crusty/flaky outside and cloudy/soft inside.

My current fave is Chao Now on Clerkenwell Road. Extra points for A&W rootbeer.

My current

I went to banh mi 11. Good, but not been to the others to compare

I also walked past the Red Market that had a bunch of places and wondered if crabbie shack was good

Think a group outing to new and good Iranian restaurant in Chalk Farm must happen, as it is called BARAN.

Anyone been to Five Guys and/or Shake Shack in Covent Garden yet, and if so, is either any good?

shake shack v disappointing, burger not much above mcdonalds standard imo. (i'm guessing, have not been to a mcdonalds or similar in nearly 20 years).

Is there anywhere you can get good Takoyki in London?

i once happened upon a great takoyaki street food stall - http://www.pompomtakoyaki.com/ - but haven't seen it for a while, website seems to indicate they're concentrating on delivery and events

there was a place in chinatown doing it a few months ago - on newport place outside the supermarket next to the car park - dunno if it's still there, also dunno how good it is.

Takoyaki stall in the Brunswick Square food market most Saturdays.

ahh, that's a shame. Might just hold an event in my flat and order a box or two.

I'll have to check out Newport Place.

Great, walk past Brunswick Square everyday for 3 years and had no idea there was a Takoyaki stall.

i also saw someone selling some at that southbank food thing bit on friday night.

the lady looked japanese so must be authentic

i was in my old place on friday night, i forgot to add earlier. much nicer place to eat than gourmet san.

I tried Keu but I think maybe I preferred Banh Mi 11

Nonplussed by Crabbieshack at Red Market/Gallery

Went to upstairs at the Ten Bells again on Friday - the food was exceptionally good (the lamb I had as a main in particular was probably the best, and best-prepared piece of lamb I've eaten), and the service was an absolute joy to watch. I will expand upon this if anyone wants to hear more about the standard of the service. I've barely stopped going on about it.

Also went to Tooting to try the much-blogged-about Apollo Banana Leaf, which I enjoyed a great deal, without being provoked to the raptures I've read in some blogs.

https://twitter.com/FoodPit

<3

http://pickyglutton.com/2013/08/19/the-best-and-worst-american-style-bbq-in-london

*pulls pin, covers ears, waits for lexplosion*

Have we talked about Homa in Stoke Newington before? I have had a couple of really great lunches there recently. Wouldn't travel across town or owt, but if you're nearby it's great.

Why would you give five stars to a place where you found the pulled pork a bit dry?

champor-champor near london bridge is really great, interesting malay-thai fusion food - lots of flavours you wouldn't think would go well together but do

finally made it to pitt cue last week - was wonderful, and reasonably cheap for what we ate/drank.

yeah it's great imo. didn't agree with that reviewer in the thing above, but i've not tried 30 other bbq places nor do i intend to.

was at yauatcha last week, one of my best friends is vegan so we often go for that kind of thing, it was very good really. excellent cocktails, good dim sum generally if a bit safe in some of the flavours. surprised at the value.

one of my best friends is vegan so we often go for that kind of thing

? have always considered dim sum to be the opposite of veggie friendly.

there are always loads of vegetable options - i often wonder about the casings but she tends to ask. i guess if you went for more authentic in chinatown or whatever there'd prob be meat in everything.

*checks their menu* ok yeah, looks v interestin (and non standard). maybe i could persuade my vegetarian and chinese food sceptic girlfriend to give it a go...

i suppose dim sum is vegan-friendly in that a vegan would have multiple choices rather than one sad token nut roast or whatever

*checks their menu* ok yeah, looks v interestin (and non standard). maybe i could persuade my vegetarian and chinese food sceptic girlfriend to give it a go...

i've been to ping pong a lot - as lex says, relatively it at least provides a lot of choice.

if you do go to yauatcha get the lychee martini. incredibly good.

END TIMES WATCH - Seth Troxler has opened a BBQ pop-up in Hackney Wick.

haha i nearly went to that last week but i was knackered and the tennis was on

END TIMES WATCH - Seth Troxler has opened a BBQ pop-up in Hackney Wick.

haha i was tweeting about this on sunday. i said it to a friend "seth troxler has opened a barbecue restaurant in hackney wick" and felt like crying afterwards. a mate has been and apparently it's shit and over-priced, surprise surprise.

incidentally, crate in hackney wick does amazing pizza. really nice place for a hot day. combine with a trip to vinyl pimp.

Trying to work out which DJs I would trust to run a kitchen. Michael Mayer would do a good job I reckon. Worst case scenario = Richie Hawtin.

8 different kinds of turmeric, in varying proportions, for every dish

The Kompakt kitchen is quite well documented I think, they're all vegetarian I believe but a chef works at the label.

Sven Vath's restaurant at his club in Frankfurt has a Michelin star I think.

Feel like there's a pretty strong link between the two worlds.