london restaurants

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.

There's a Woody Grill round there IIRC?

xpost E Mono is the king of kebabs in Kentish Town, by an enormous distance. There was a very good one on the eastern side of Kentish Town Road, which used to have a proper sit down bit in the back, but that closed down years ago and the site has been through several different (failed) restaurants since.

xxpost Chicken Shop is fine, but madly overpriced for what it is, just like Dirty Burger round the back.

As a Kentish Town resident, my favourites within 10 mins' walk are …
1/ Market
2/ Kentish Canteen
3/ Tapping the Admiral (when it has pies on; at the mo just doing average Thai)
4/ Viet Anh (the one next to Market)
5/ Bengal Lancer

out of interest, are there any particularly good choices to be made in those situations where you're on brick lane and are faced with a thousand curry houses? every one i've ever found myself going to has been no better than okay.

shampan was the one i used to go to - last visit about four years ago though.

i have never had an amazing curry there but then i go for the one that gives me the biggest discount..

yeah they're all kinda gunge imo

the best choice is to get a salt beef bagel and a can of beer from the shop

otm. or walk 10 mins to any one of the numerous alternatives.

Shampan is probably the best, but you're better off going a bit further into Whitechapel where there are many much better options.

There's a blue neon lit Bangladeshi cafe right at the bottom whose name escapes me that does better curry than any of the actual restaurants. It's one of those ones where they've got everything laid out and literally reheat things though but its usually full of Bangladeshi people, which is a good sign.

i remember having a lovely meal here though (not far from brick lane)
http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/

xposts

ah yeah, i've been there and enjoyed it but had completely forgotten where it was. cheers.

bagel and beer would have been a good option, except when i was on brick lane on saturday some community wardens moved us on for drinking on the street. has it always been that way?

Meraz Cafe just off Brick Lane eastwards on Hanbury Street is pretty good and unusual; it does a dried spinach thing which is ridiculously delicious.

I know people who swear by the Standard Balti House but I've never been.

The Standard Balti House isn't even any good, I went about a year ago for the first time in ages and it was weirdly flavourless. It's the Doric Arch of curry houses.

Sweet and Spicy is the old Bangladeshi men's caff - and it has the best, cheapest lamb samosas.

Yo, Ken C: Yeah, we tried all the DUMPLINGS!, all were great. I wussed out on the egg/leek/shrimp ones but am informed they were really nice as well. The fried ones were...woah. Then we just grabbed a few mains (Big Plate Chicken was the highlight) and some hilariously spicy vegetarian sides. Nice atmosphere in there as well: bustling but you didn't feel overwhelmed.

Sweet and Spicy was grebt but when I walked past a couple of months ago it looked like it was no more. Replaced by a hot dog place iirc.

*cries*

ya srsly :(

hiya

throw some recommendations at me for some mid-level fancyish type places, like say £80ish for two people or maybe a touch over

i have a list but i never shy away from piling indecision on to everything i do

(by fancyish i don't mean decor or anything, just AMAZING FOOD)

Arbutus in Soho is seriously good value for the quality of food you get, or it was two years ago.

Maybe Social Eating House or Bistro Bruno Loubet as well, the latter has the bonus of being attached to the Zetter Townhouse for awesome cocktails before/after.