london restaurants

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.

The Grill at the Dorchester has a set lunch menu for £27 (more on Sundays). Very, very good food indeed and utterly ridiculous decor (tartan carpets, murals of chieftains and lassies).

Andrew Edmunds.

had a great meal there a few years back, really classy little spot.

Last time I went, it was for a dinner given by Tate Britain following an event I was asked to moderate. One of the other guests was Jarvis Cocker, who took us on to an after-hours club where he a) bought us all champagne and b) wound up drunkenly leading the room in a sing-song of various Andy Williams tracks.

Possibly one of the best nights out I've ever had (also followed by a hangover that easily made my personal top five).

Andrew Edmunds is lovely and romantic - but the downstairs is pokey, and the upstairs can be cheek by jowl. used to go there a lot.

i liked duke's brew & cue last night. it felt like a good mix of london and new york. vast range of hoppy beers and the two pork ribs meal is a steal at a tenner. i haven't been to pitt cue but i've eaten a lot of bbq in my life and this was good. also EXTREMELY CLOSE TO MY HOUSE which is U+K.

i also have a soft spot in my heart for any place in london that will do a wedge of iceberg lettuce smothered in bacon bits and creamy dressing (blue cheese is best imo but ranch will do)

don't think they had that rib deal when i was there, my memory is that it was v expensive. maybe they've responded to that.

apart from the sliders everything else was incredibly expensive :(

Tracer we missed each other, we were there for the brunch at 3pm just before the kitchen closed to prepare for dinner.

I had an average eggs benedict. wasn't cheap. it was probably to pay for the staff as there was probably as many staff to people eating at the time.

oh actually you would have been there the night before

Yum Bun in Old Street - fantastic pork bun thing - really the loveliest bun dough I've ever eaten.

The chicken filling tasted like a McChicken sandwich though.

anyone been to soho diner? i was at the notting hill electric diner a few months back and it was pretty good diner food, great room, but the soho one is even better imo. had excellent steak frites, great service, big booths, nicely lit, really classy place.

Any suggestions for a decent cheap/mid-range place in Clerkenwell/Farringdon?

polpo any good?

ooh been wanting to go there for a while, many thanks, good call!

Went to the Duck & Waffle on Saturday afternoon - obviously the view is amazing and it's worth going just to get the glass lift up the outside of the tower. Food is great as well, basically ponced up breakfast foodstuffs but I'd definitely go back.

Also the other week we went to Restaurant Story just down from Tower Bridge - you have the choice of one of two taster menus and the £55 six-course one is seriously good value. Probably the most creative menu I can remember eating - you get like four amuse bouches before the first course and the whole thing is presented with narrative flourish. It takes a while before they let you know that the candle that's been burning on your table is actually dripping you can dip your bread in, one of the courses is listed as having "coal" as an ingredient, but the food is delicious and unexpected throughout - this review is pretty accurate. Really nice space as well.

The “street food” fad kicked off a few years ago and shows no sign of going away. I get that it has become a way for aspiring restaurateurs to get started in the business and I don’t resent that ambition at all. What I do resent is the sheer smugness of the so-called “scene” and the idea of paying over-the-odds for food just because it’s served out of a twee vintage VW camper by some gushing “gap yah” type called Seb, Jocasta or Benji. I’ve christened these toothy toffs “coq au van”.

'Narrative flourish'? (x-post)

Koya.

Koya bar, in fact (which seems to be much quieter than Koya in the daytime even when Koya's full). We caught the very end of the breakfast menu yesterday. I had the Kedgeree, J had the Japanese breakfast. We found both so amazing, we couldn't work out who'd won. I think we decided it was a very high scoring draw.

I was so pleased with the meal that I pointed out that they hadn't charged us for drinks when the bill came.

still not been.

was at brasserie zedel for the first time last week, i thought it was an incredibly fun meal. amazing rhythm to the service, all feels v grand but the prices are low.

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

― just sayin, Monday, 3 June 2013 11:07 (4 months ago) Permalink

cool to see this place get written abt in the ft - http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/42b069ce-1fe4-11e3-8861-00144feab7de.html#slide0

wasn't blown away by the food at duck and waffle (this was last october, mind - felt like it's a load of poncey ingredients mashed together to not great effects) although must say the pig ear snack was really good, but the drinks were nice and view and 24 hour opening (is it still?) were all good things.

is the sushi samba place downstairs any cop? it was very loud

nothing to report on new london restaurants unforch, except to say that going to the mission chinese food in NYC made me want to go back to chilli cool to eat properly.

i am going to nyc in a few weeks, really can't wait to try mission. also really like the look of pokpok.

jealous

any other tips, btw ken?

xpost - i've made a massive hitlist of places but any recs welcome.

probably on your list already but fette sau was very nice.
and "smorgasburg" probably what london street food has been trying to do but without a view to manhatten skyline. although i don't know how far into november it'll run.
and korean fried chicken! kyochon was the one i went to. but "bonchon on john" has $3 beers or something.
baohaus if you like those bao tings.

hope you'll go to the places i never got to go to: shanghai cafe (DUMPLINGS!), momofuku, pies and thighs, and, er .. taco bell.

why is there no korean fried chicken in london!

these guys do it kinda
http://www.kimchicult.com/
although i remember it not being crispy enough for my liking.

japanese kitchen on tottenham court road are offering it as a thing with rice, i haven't tried it yet, maybe today's lunch.