london

Hmmm. Some Stettery suspected.

lol

Rosewood, St. John, Tayyabs, Petrus booked. Will try for Anchor & Hope, Barrafina for non-res meals

This is an A+ few days of eating btw. If you don't fancy the trip to the Anchor & Hope (or are knackered/straight off the plane) then your hotel is 5mins walk max from Great Queen Street in Covent Garden, which has (I think) the same head chef and does very similar food in a similarly casual atmosphere. The bacon and snail salad is available at both and is one of those dishes I go back to time and time again.

Also Great Queen Street allows you to book.

Yep you'll eat v well quincie, though I would say that for your one banker/oligarch type meal Petrus is a bit of an odd choice. Dinner/Hibiscus/Ledbury/Marcus/Ducasse all more reliable and interesting at the price, though none are massively reflective of London.

In Brixton, Kricket is really really great and I'd second Kao Sarn. Shrub and Shutter and Sovereign Loss great for pre/post show cocktails respectively. Went to Nanban once and found it pretty awful, decent sides but the ramen was borderline inedible. Nice beers though.

Yeah Great Queen Street is really nice. The distinugishing factors I guess are location (Anchor v near Old and Young Vic theatres) and the fact that Queen St is more a restaurant whereas Anchor and Hope is very much a pub. If it was a Sunday lunch I'd probably choose Anchor but I'm swayed a bit by memory of having done that before.

If you do go to Great Queen Street, the little cocktail bar downstairs is nice.

Of the ones I've eaten at (and with only one meal as reference point) - Ducasse > Dinner > Petrus > Hibiscus, but all are excellent.

banker/oligarch type meal Petrus

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to beat the record set in 2002 by 6 Barclays Capital traders.

They ran up a bill in Petrus of £44,007. This included three bottles of Petrus Pomerol from 1945, 1946 and 1947 costing £11,600, £9,400, and £12,300 respectively, and a £9,200 dessert wine. It's understood that the food was thrown in for free.

It would of course be de riguer to leave a four-figure tip in thse circumstances. (Very topical as the government has has just launching a consultation on tipping amid concerns that restaurants are confusing customers by not being transparent about the charges and who actually receives any tips)

London! Here I am!

6 hr overnight flight (not bad, really) landed around 11; we arrived at the most excellent Rosewood around 1 and, god love them, they had our room ready for us straight. I had a nice soak in the while spouse had a nap, after which we ventured out for a late lunch. Strolled to Great Queen Street where they had just closed for lunch, but welcomed us in anyway and sat us right in the window where we could keep an eye on some film project set up across the street. No real action, but our waitstaff said that Steve Buscemi had lunched there the day prior so I guess he is involved. Anyhow, we were pacing ourselves meal-wise and just had the smoked eel and bacon salad and nice lamb patties with romesco. Very nice and the waitstaff were a treat.

Continued stroll to Covent Market area which we didn't stick around in too long--crowded, stores you can find anywhere, etc. Back up to Queen Street where spouse had spied gentleman's salon; intrigued and in need of a haircut, he went in for what turned out to be an hour or so of man-grooming (cut, shave, ear-hair burning, eyebrow threading, nose hair trimming). Figuring I needed to up my own grooming game, I got a quick blow-out around the corner. I fell asleep in the chair and, upon waking with a jolt, the stylist laughed and said "jet lag?" Which was indeed hitting me hard despite having slept several hours on the plane (thanking u xanax).

Anyhow by the time we were both groomed it was BARRAFINA time. A+++ would eat entire menu at at future visit, but we exercised restraint knowing that we had St. John ahead in just a few hours. Really enjoyed it, great to get to watch the prep up close and personal.

So now I am cooling my heels at the too-loud (music) but otherwise very nice bar at the Rosewood while spouse investigates the sauna. St. John at 9 after which I am sure we will barely manage to get ourselves home to fall into our meat coma.

Plan for tomorrow is Suzy's recommended Portobello Road stroll, refresh at the hotel, then 9 PM dinner at Tayyabs. Would be happy for FAPing (god knows I owe a round for all or your London planning help) in the vicinity of either! Logistics are difficult only because we refuse to have international phone/SMS/data plans, so we'd need to coordinate in advance during our limited time using WiFi. I'll check e-mail tonight and again in the morning if anyone is interested in naming a place/time for a meet-up.

Otherwise, I'll just continue to liveblog here until someone tells me to piss off.

And hahahaha I have tipping questions but I am honestly not trying to open the ILX tipping can of worms! Would just like guidance from people less random than randoms on google.

Also I meant I will check this thread; my ILX webmail has been dead for ages.

If you go to a restaurant and the service isn't included, you might add on 10-15%, but it's your choice. You might round up a taxi fare. In the unlikely event you're getting a haircut, you might give add a little bit. That's about it.

Apart from bus drivers. You normally slip them a tenner on your way out.

holy moley barrafina and st john's in one day. have fun quincie.

on tipping, an awful lot of bills include it. it's generally polite to tip if not, but no one will shout at you or pursue you down the street if you don't. 12.5% is "normal", 15% decent. i like to tip cash to ensure the person waiting receives it, or has a chance of receiving it, but again, perfectly acceptable to add to your bill/cheque on a card machine (many have options). we're not a huge tipping culture (imo) but more so than italy or france, say, and largesse is never unwelcome obv.

I fucked up and did not tip the guy who did my shampoo/blowout. Spouse tipped his guy like 15%. I will go back and right my wrong for my 25 pound blowout.

Also please laugh along with me that I'm high rolling in London when I just quit my (social worker) job yesterday so ugh this will hurt at some point. But not now! Great 15.5 drinks at the Rosewood!

I don't know how to do a pound sign, sorry for American.

Hooray! At least you're getting a good exchange rate.

12.5% is 2.5% above normal.

(Sits back, wait for accolades of the type "thank god I thought for a second I was just cheap" to roll in, mood shifts very quickly to panic)

Any thoughts on Tayyabs? I'm not a fan personally, finding it a bit stressful and a bit too basic for my liking, but I can see why people like it.

Any gardens visited as yet to work off that food? Holland Park was magnificent yesterday. Also had a great walk at around 9pm Saturday through Kensington Gardens to the Italian Gardens at Lancaster Gate - great summer evening atmosphere.

Tayyabs: food is great, but the quantities it comes in aren't worth the wait, if you've waited 90 minutes

When are people going that they're waiting 90 minutes? I've always been impressed by their efficiency considering how much they've grown in the last 8-9 years since I started going.

Needos, round the corner from Tayyabs, has food of a similar style and quality and is generally a lot less mental.

Re parks, can't recommend Hampstead Heath enough.

Hampstead Heath is great - especially if combined with stopping for a refreshments at Kenwood House and exploring Hampstead "village"as well if time.

I'd also recommend Lahore nearby if you want to eat your body weight in lamb chops, ie the reason people go to Tayyabs.

Hi London! Having a great time doing things that come almost exclusively from this thread. I do thank you for the excellent advice and I will give a rundown of our experiences in more detail soon. With the exception of a few brief (not enough for umbrella shopping) showers today, the weather has been ace and even the rain felt great atop my steed Ivan in Hyde Park this afternoon.

At the moment I am back at the Rosewood getting freshened up for the show in Brixton.

While Ivan the horse and I got along swimmingly, the Rosewood dog growled at me and I therefore keep my distance.

I have met the Rosewood dog and that surprises me! However, I will be walking the world's most chill blue whippet in Lincoln's Inn at about 8am if you want a coffee.

Pretty sure I just caught the rosewood dog at a bad moment. Would absolutely meet you in the morning if there were any chance whatsoever of my waking before noon! Had noontime coffee at Fleet River Bakery today and thought of you!

Have stumbled into popbrixton? Not sure how we landed here but it is lively and drinks are cheapish!

i'll be in london from July 23-30th. anything going on?

When are people going that they're waiting 90 minutes? I've always been impressed by their efficiency considering how much they've grown in the last 8-9 years since I started going.

I've only been in 2007 and 2010 tbf

i'll be in london from July 23-30th. anything going on?

i'm out of town to prolly a good time to visit

You could go and see the Oblivians on the 27th.

I was in the Rosewood bar last week and it looks fantastic.

It is great but not as great as the sublime Zeller Townhouse which I love love love, A+++ rec!

going to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e63p6q

also, seeing Lou Rhodes at St Pancras. Bummed to find that Marianne Faithful at Ronnie Scotts sold out in like 2 seconds. What are the odds of being able to find tickets outside of there?

zetter is the best.

I had my wedding reception in the Zetter so I'm pretty biased here.

I received probably the faffiest martini I've ever seen there (it came with an eyedropper on a saucer) and the staff uniforms are risible but despite all that it is great and I would drink there again in a heartbeat

We were one of only two couples in there, sat by the oddly taxidermied cat wearing a dress, I would live there if I could. Drinks were amazing and stemware to die for. I actually took a picture of my gorgeous and unusual coupe and I never take pictures of stuff!

Anyhow I kind of failed at London today. Slept quite late and by the time we got out it was raining cats and dogs, so instead of gardens we ducked into a nice pub and had fish and chips and true british cask ale. Then hung out in the super-hot sauna to sweat out some of the alcohol that is currently making up a not insignificant part of my bloodstream.

Pop Brixton was quite fun yesterday! And of course the Pixies. Crazy space, that Brixton Academy. Very good sound, but we were seated in the balcony and it was so weird to have all these polite concertgoers around us who stayed seated and for all the world appeared as if attending the symphony.

But a dude did grab my ass on the way out, so I guess there was that.

Petrus tonight. I had narrowed down choices to Dinner, Ledbury, Ducasse, and Petrus and then had spouse make the final call. We have to admit we have a bit of a thing for Ramsey. For starters, he is all over US TV all the damn time so we feel like he is practically our own nutty uncle type. But more significantly, we had the single best airport dining experience of our collective lives at Plane Food at LHR (OK I kind of lied when I said I'd never been to London; I had a long connection at LHR a few months back, but it hardly seems that should count). Beautiful service, nice table overlooking the runways, very decent food. Best of all was a dedicated restaurant bathroom, very nicely appointed. Maybe it is just a US airport thing, but our airport restaurants always have you traipse out to the terminal to use the standard terminal bathrooms with the strollers and screaming kids and diaper changing and stuff. Plane Food was a very comfortable and pleasing way to pass a long layover.

So anyway, there is a soft spot for Ramsey and I was also moved by Matt DC's comment that some of the other fine-dining joints in London had that hushed museum atmosphere. Petrus seemed like it would be a bit more lively.

a few years ago i brought a date to zetter and it was the turning point in a hitherto long series of unrequited platonic nights out with the person in question.

which doesn't trump matt having his wedding reception there but everything is relative. i love the staff there also.

xpost i was just in bordeaux and there's a huge restaurant opposite the opera house with massive posters of ramsey outside it. mainly put me off tbh.

Tayyabs: easy to get a table (I had made reservations but they were not at all necessary during France-Portugal match). Took a cab there which was nice because we got to see a bit more of the city. I'd love to hang out in that neigborhood when things are open--not much was on a Sunday night. Food was enjoyable but not knock-your-socks-off. I admit that I am spoiled by having two very top-notch, absolutely delicious Indian restaurants within a mile of my home, but they lean more toward the fine(r) dining side than Tayyabs so it isn't fair to compare. It was great to BYO and have a bit of relief from the massive hemorrhaging of money that has been our London sojourn.

Had the lamb chops, dry beef, CTM, and a Sunday special called I think hareem? A ground lamb with lentils dish, it was great and our favorite.

Sitting in a pub all afternoon is in no way failing at London BTW. If anything it's doing London properly.