london restaurants

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.

Big Chill festival --> Big Chill bar/restaurant.

doesn't michael mayer already run a kitchen? iirc all of the folks involved in running kompakt day-to-day have communal vegetarian meals in the office or something, how else to combine one's vague sense of melancholy with tech-house efficiency.

xpost scooped by garda

http://cookingwithskrillex.tumblr.com/

Arthur Baker had a restaurant on Westbourne Grove, I never went and assume it's gone. Dixon has/had a bakery in Mitte, I think?

The pumpkin puffs at Yauatcha are my favourite dim sum ever, I think.

think the congee was actually my favourite thing, tho not dim sum obv.

Congee/venison puffs/mushroom cheung fun/salt and pepper tofu (RIP) are my yautacha faves, but it's mostly really good. It's probably the restaurant in London I've been to the most times.

I was surprised by the price, three cocktails between us and more than enough food for 70 quid, including service. I mean obv not for nothing but given it's quite swanky.

Yeah we rarely go over 25 quid/head all in at lunch, drinking tea, for more than enough food. It's a good place for group meals for that reason, too (although they tend to want to make you do some set menu if there are more than maybe 6 people, but we've managed to talk them out of that in the past).

Where is good for a pre-gig dinner in Camden (or close by) these days?

I was just gonna go to Pizza East Kentish Town but they are fully booked. And Chicken Shop is out as a few of the friends I'll be with are vegetarian.

Do people rate the Kentish Canteen?

Asakusa looks like it might be worth a visit.

Market is great - they may have some sort of early evening deal thing as well

Market seconded, or the Vietnamese place along the same road with a partly-cloudy tromp l'oeil sky painted on the ceiling.

The Queen of Sheba, Ethiopian on Fortess Road near Kentish Town tube - very worth the slight detour.

Went to Silk Road in Camberwell the other night...best chinese I think I've ever had (though I'm used to small town chow mein so I'm probably way, way off the mark when it comes to what's good). Exceptionally spicy. Exceptionally well priced: nine of us ate and had a few beers each for £118.

I've never been but it is worshipped.

Asakusa and Queen of Sheba are both very good - you'll probably want to book for Asakusa.

xxxpost Kentish Canteen is good but if your gig is in Kentish Town (rather than Camden) then the Cardigan Club Cafe (up Fortess Road) is very cute. http://cardiganclubcafe.co.uk/

and you can then pop across the road to Ruby Violet for desert!

My dad's in Aldgate on Friday for a work thing...is there anywhere alrightish around to go for a dinner? Quite up for decent pub grub.

Can't think of anywhere I'd go round there for pubbish food on a Friday (the pubs tend to be rammed with actual drinkers at that point in the week). Obviously there's Tayyabs and Needoos round behind the East London Mosque.

My best recommendation not too far from there would be Upstairs at the Ten Bells (right opposite Spitalfields Market, probably 7 or 8 minutes walk from Aldgate East, I'd guess) if you can get in. It's several cuts above pub grub but not astronomically expensive (mains tent ot be £16-18 kind of range). You'd need to book. We go there as often as we can.

/tent ot/

"tend to", that says.

I often wonder about this place but I've never been: http://www.chezellesbistroquet.co.uk/

Go for a pint at Indo, right opposite the mosque, then a kebab at one of the places Tim recommends or (my favourite) Lahore Kebab House on Commercial Road.

Lahore and Tayyabs are great shouts actually, nice one guys.

oliver conquest aldgate haven't dined there but the grub looks nice

Thanks for all the Camden tips. Much appreciated.

Ended up in Chicken Shop after all, as the vegetarians dropped out. It was okay, but really just a slightly more upmarket version of Nando's. Did the job though.

Happy to have much better options to try next time around.

kentish town: I hear e mono despite the ecoli sounding name apparently does good kebabs (or maybe it's just the decor was good I can't remember - I don't eat many kebabs and I've never eaten there)

queen of sheba was good when i visited.

around chalk farm - if you can stand eating dim sum at any time other than morning/afternoon - this place is surprisingly not shit and decent value with this offer
http://www.yumchasilksandspice.co.uk/offers
but eating dim sum after 5pm makes me want to hurt myself

dwight - did you have any DUMPLINGS! while you were at silk road? think that's their thing (with the old lady making them sometimes), i think they are almost as good as the ones i make.

there is some legendary kebab place in kentish alright - i was there once but i forget the name. it's v near the tube station.