london restaurants

Thanks all - this is a good start! Have been meaning to do Polpo and Zedel since they opened, and haven't been to GQS in about 8 years, so those all sound like good options. Had never heard of RSJ, will investigate.

Yeah Zedel is excellent value for money and feels really fancy even if you're not breaking the bank. You can do that in the American Bar upstairs instead.

Imago, I have passed on your recommendation of Cinquanta to an acquaintance who lives in Sidcup. I will visit myself at some point.

Has anyone come across anything of value in the Medway towns? As tempting as the buffet at Spoon World in Chatham looks there surely must be a few places better.

Thai Four Two on Rochester High Street was surprisingly pleasant a couple of years ago.

Thanks. That's one of the places there I haven't tried yet. It does always seem fairly busy, which is probably a good sign.

slight abuse of the title of this thread but anyone know anywhere nice to eat in birmingham?

i'm in telford with work for a week next week but staying in birmingham sunday night.

i'm assuming there's nothing much around telford so i anticipate a week of eating in nandos or my hotel, or maybe a taxi to a pub somewhere if there are nice ones in the surrounding villages.

I would have said Dosa Mania in Harbourne but according to Trip Advisor it's plummeted over the last couple of months. Purnell's is good value fine dining, especially the taster menu. Adam's is maybe the best fine dining option. The Wilderness had a good rep when it was still called Nomad but I haven't been there. There's a good Ethiopian in the Jewellery Quarter (Blue Nile?) and actually Chinatown is really solid, there aren't that many bad options (and Chung Ying and Cafe Soya are probably the picks).

Clays in Brosley might be the best place in/near Telford. Apart from that there are a couple of OK Indians and I think the Thai is all right maybe?

Thanks a lot! Chinatown sounds like a good bet for Birmingham. Yeah Telford looks slim pickings, I'm staying in a Park Inn, but there is a cinema nearby so that might be a way to spend my evenings.

Your options around the Park Inn are pretty much 100% chains.

yeah so it appears. I might hop in a taxi one night, an ex-colleague works in the HMRC building there. I could have stayed away from Telford but I'd rather walk to the place where I'm working.

best Indian food in central London? (i am not a gourmand, so no luxe nec)

here is good if you want traditional: http://www.rasarestaurants.com/rasa_w1.php

here, in theatreland, if you want something a little different but not too much so: http://www.dishoom.com/

I like Ragam, which is very homely: http://www.ragamindian.co.uk

v close to my lodgings

Still not been to Dishoom - massive queue up the street last time we went past (6pm on a Saturday).

it has got incredibly hard to go - when the shoreditch one opened you could wander in fairly casually, even though it was obv v popular. i tried to go on a tuesday recently and the wait was 90 minutes. strange that a place would boom so slowly.

And for the truly depraved, there's Masala Zone: http://www.masalazone.com

but I recognise that's a heretical view.

King's Cross Dishoom also very queuey but I'll also endorse Ragam.

King's Cross Dishoom also very queuey and I'll also endorse Ragam.

The Sri Lankan place in Soho, Hoppers, also a goodun.

It is, but it's another where you're best picking a quietist time ime, gets v busy / queuey.

Yeah I really want to go to Hoppers (though I find it hard to imagine it's as good as Apollo Banana Leaf), ditto Bao, but ughhhhh Soho queues

Gymkhana does the most amazing Indian food I've had in central but it's £££££

(peak of my Gymkhana meal: BRAINS)

Gymkhana is terrific. We had the early evening tasting menu so it was only £££

hoppers is prob worse queues than dishoom i'd have thought - i just file that with "won't ever go" based on how big the queues have always been.

Trishna in Marylebone is the best Indian I've been to in central London (not been to Gymkhana) and it's also expensive but entirely worth it.

At the cheaper end of the spectrum you can't really go wrong with Rasa (any of them). Dishoom is good but way overhyped now and only worth it if you're going at a quiet time. The Pakistani places in Whitechapel (Lahore Kebab House and Tayyabs) are both great, Tayyabs also has big queues but they run that place like a machine.

I've heard very good things about the Indian in the Strand Palace Hotel but I've never actually been.

Ok, recommendation time:

Corporate dining in September, need to be able to have two separate parties of 5-10. Staying in Limehouse and should be "close" but Greenwich already been floated as a location so for varying values of "close" obviously.
No guide other than it should be "something special and memorable", which I am assuming is something other than just the food. Budget £150pp ish Inc drinks.

Ideas? I maybe thought Rules has a story behind it but it may be in the wrong location and I can't speak to the food.

Is there anywhere actually good in Canary Wharf for example?

The restaurant in Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel is a big fancy fine dining affair, always gets good reviews. The Clove Club in Shoreditch also.

Duck & Waffle? Restaurants with a view aren't usually the places with the best food but it bucks the trend somewhat

I've been to the Typing Rooms in Bethnal Green Town Hall and it isn't that good, the Clove Club is much better. Duck & Waffle is a good shout as well.

Greenwich is pretty convenient from Limehouse in public transport terms but it doesn't have any particularly good restaurants so I'd dissuade them there. Don't bother with Canary Wharf. Docklands in general is a bit of a desert so they'll have to go further afield.

City Social is another lots-of-floors-up possibility, I haven't been but J Atherton's pretty reliable I think. They're surely set up to accommodate a bit of the corporate.

Clove Club is great but may be a bit hushed for the purposes of a corporate thing? Also they have that weird buying a meal in advance thing which may be an obstacle?

Think I said this already but Sager + Wilde right near Bethnal Green tube is astonishingly good, with some of the best cocktails I've ever tasted

The special bit is that it is decorated like a 19th century gentleman's club and smells strongly and pleasantly of candle wax

Yeah, Duck & Waffle was another thought I'd had. I'd also considered Hawksmoor Guildhall because of the £700 beef menu and Butler's Wharf Chop House for the suckling pig and view of London Bridge. Coq d'argent could be interesting?

I suspect I'm working completely at odds with expectations though. :-/

Craft on the Greenwich peninsula is one of those locally sourced own kitchen garden places, featured on masterchef. Never been there mind.

Restaurant Story near London Bridge is also amazing as an experience

Cheers all, good options.

bumping this just to say you should all go to padella in borough market. i can't claim to be a pasta expert but it was the best pasta i've ever had and most of the pastas are 6 or 7 quid for a decent plate.

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I went to Ametsa (full, terrible name - Ametsa With Arzak Instruction) on Tuesday and it was astonishing. The one thing I didn't think you could get in London was really high-end Spanish food, the sort of thing you get in fine dining restaurants in Barcelona or San Sebastian. We had the full taster menu (and this is the sort of place you only go to for a special occasion or blowout) and some of the courses were among the best things I've eaten in London. One of the early courses was an egg steamed in a banana leaf with a kind of chorizo puree and it was one of those dishes that made you reassess how good something made with really simple ingredients can actually be. Made me want to go to San Sebastian big style.

done. going there this afternoon as part of my ongoing birthday celebration. cheers lg xpost

oh wow, ametsa seems incredible. in fact tt and i went to meson don felipe last night and that was awesome, probably the best tapas i've had, but yeah ametsa seems to be the next step

ah yes i recall padella, home of the £6 cacio e pepe cheap eat

that sounds great mdc. i've not been working for the last 4/5 weeks as i'm changing jobs, went to quite a few places in that time. neil rankin's temper in soho is excellent, kind of as you'd expect, a sort of meat temple, but interesting cooking and a great atmosphere. also went to kiln in soho, thought it was okay, some great dishes but didn't blow me away.

you should go to san sebastian btw - i often dream about living near the old town there. i've never gone to the michelin-starred restaurants but the pintxo bars all jammed together is just the easiest way to eat.

has anyone been to the barrafina taco place?

i realise there is a big wave of taco places opening, more by chance rather than intent i have eaten at:

breddos in clerkenwell (thought it was okay, don't really see the hype)
bad sports on hackney road (enjoyed it more than breddos, wouldn't travel across the city to go there but if you live nearby it's nice and not expensive)

tonight i think i'm going to p franco, which i prob should have been to already since it's about two minutes from my flat.

We'll actually be living out of an Airbnb in Clerkenwell for a fortnight while we get some work done on our flat, so any new recommendations in the area greatly appreciated.

not in clerkenwell, but also recommend escosesa in stoke newington - it's not as good as barrafina but still great tapas, apparently the owner is the bloke from altered images.

Padella was really good! The sauces, even more than the pasta, were excellent.

But

I had to queue for an hour. Cinquanta in Sidcup still the best pasta I've had in London. And Padella wasn't particularly superior to Tipicetta, just down the road. In fact I'd give Tipicetta the edge in a few categories (ability to mix and match pasta and sauce, better dessert choices etc).

I think I'm in a sliding doors thing with you lg- I've also been to Temper and Breddos in the last ten days. The bit that made breddos worth it for me was watching my friend's incredulity that sea urchin was supposed to taste like that. Good along temper lines and convenient for Clerkenwell is the Berber and Q Shawarma bar on Exmouth Market.

Second escosesa recommendation too. Have also heard good things about Perilla just up the road on Newington Green, but I haven't made it myself yet..

must try that one - i was in breddos in the day and maybe i didn't order the right things but it was so-so for me.

anyone got recs for simple day-to-day lunch options around victoria/petty france area? anything to avoid a chain really.

feels like a bit of a graveyard apart from a few new things near victoria station, sourced market is nice, and far fancier stuff in pimlico like a wong or hunan, which i still haven't been to. might pop in to a wong after work some night since i worked nearby in smith square for about 2 years without ever doing so.

I've had a couple of good lunches at La Bottega on Eccleston Street - website says it's one of a chain of four, which I didn't realise.

a small chain is prob fine - i guess it's nice to not go to pret, mainly.