london restaurants

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.

I once enjoyed a delicious salad at Zakuski on Greencoat Row. And Sol Campbell was in there.

Has anyone ever manged to get a brunch spot at The Good Egg?

I've been a couple of times on weekdays off work, but have always been put off by the weekend queues

oh multiple xps I only thought breddos was so-so too. My friend was astonished by how much he hated sea urchin, rather than loving it. I didn't word that very well

meeting an old italian friend and her family in hyde park this evening. suspect they may want to eat but i draw a blank around there. chinese places on queensway and lebanese on edgware spring to mind - but any other recommendations?

where did you end up Fizzles?

I have hankering for Korean food, would anyone like to recommend somewhere? Ideally central or points North and East, but all nominations welcome...

Asadal under Holborn Station is reliably great.

thanks Matt, that's up the road from where I work and yet I have never visited. Now might be the time...

Best Korean in London is to be found in the glorious surroundings of New Malden, fwiw, can dig out recs if you care but I understand that it fairly comprehensively fails on the North and East criterion. I've had good luck in the charity shops down there, if that makes it any more attractive?

Matt's right about Asadal; we fairly regularly go to Tohbang in Farringdon for something a bit more homestyle/casual and less restauranty (bus still reliably delicious).

but, not bus. you know what I meant.

Mmmmm delicious bus.

Tohbang seconded (although I wouldn't place it in Farringdon when Chancery Lane is closer).

Dotori has reopened just by Finsbury Park station. Gets very booked up and I'm no Korean food expert, but I really enjoyed my bokumbap there the other day.

What (relatively) inexpensive lunch near Paddington Station can you recommend?

New Malden came up as a notable location on this Time Out list of Korean restaurants: https://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/londons-best-korean-restaurants I love how far-flung bits of London foster these communities for reasons that are opaque (at least to me)- Walthamstow has a large Algerian contingent, for example.

Thanks for your recommendations. Finsbury Park is actually v convenient for me so Dotori could be a good bet.

Tohbang seconded (although I wouldn't place it in Farringdon when Chancery Lane is closer).

Now we wouldn't be using tube station names as local area designations, would we? I don't recognise the validity of a London zone called "Chancery Lane" for the restaurant to be "in".

I reckon the two tube stations are about the same distance from Tohbang fwiw.

What (relatively) inexpensive lunch near Paddington Station can you recommend?

bit of a black hole but this is meant to be good - never been but a friend told me about it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/restaurants/11243387/The-Heron-Tavern-London-W2-restaurant-review.html

That does sound good, though the pic in the article's a bit fluorescent.

I'd be very interested in any recommendations people have for Middle Eastern restaurants on or near the Edgeware Road, since we're talking about the area. I don't know where to start with them really.

Dotori webiste automatically plays some awesome K-Pop (I awesome? Though much more chill than I've known the genre to be) choon that incorporates an old school modem connect noise.

lol, I assume, not awesome

Can confirm The Heron is pretty good, or at least it was when I last went a couple of years ago.

The middle eastern places I've visited around there have been fine, but not as good as you can get elsewhere. Al Dar is the only one whose name I can remember.

Not that anyone's asking about it, but I've been to Bonhams a couple of times recently and it's so fucking good. It was also half empty each time. Ingredient nerd wise I've only had better seafood in London at Hedone. The wine list is amazing and the mark ups are kind (again, for London). I really very strongly recommend it for any fancy meal needs.

koba at the bottom of rathbone st is nice if you don't want to venture out of zone 1

also not far from there HanKang on Hanway street if it's the same restaurant as the one I went once over 10 years ago then it is also a good one.

(but bear in mind that was once, 10 years ago)

i went to j sheekey for the first time ever with my cousin a couple of weeks back. loved it. sometimes it's easy to forget how bad the service is in more modern or hip places. i don't mean actual bad experience or rudeness, just bad in the sense of lacking the warmth and professionalism you get in some ancient institution.

other places i've tried lately:

blacklock: didn't expect to rate this so highly but it is v good - simple concept of many cuts of meat and some excellent sides. v good crackers as starters too.
tacos el pastor: good food but it was all a bit random, dish combinations and sizes and everything arriving slowly to the point that you'd finished the thing before - prob wouldn't go back

Our new ongoing project is basically using a random country name generator and then trying to find + visit a good London restaurant from that country - which doesn't get you much when it pulls up Turks & Caicos Islands or Jersey or wherever but there's some awesome looking places on the list.

So far we've gone Georgia (Tbilisi in Highbury, mentioned very high up this thread, which was excellent) and a place called Cirilo in Shadwell, which is reputedly the best Filipino restaurant in London. Everything was kind of bland and glutinous but I've heard very mixed reviews of the cuisine of the Philippines more generally.

There's a good adobo vendor amongst the Leather Lane food carts.

where did you end up Fizzles?

I have hankering for Korean food, would anyone like to recommend somewhere? Ideally central or points North and East, but all nominations welcome...

i didn't. ended up finding a table at the serpentine cafe, where we drank some overpriced beer and had a v nice time. they then went off to find some fish and chips. her dad is a restaurateur in genoa. he came over to london once to go round to various fish and chip places to work out the business model, as he wanted to open one in genoa. she asked me to come up with a list of fish and chip places to go, so i did a list which included places like fryer's delight in holborn for instance. and then we went round various places with me asking them if they minded having a chat to an italian restaurateur about fish and chips and his daughter translating.

in fact, far from authenticity, which was what i mistakenly felt must be important at the time, he was interested in the frozen fish/bought-in breading and batter model. we had a long conversation with a Greek fish and chip shop owner in South Kensington where he got most of his info. He never ended up opening it though.

I ate Korean in New Malden recently - it was good though we ordered a bit haphazardly. Sun La had been recommended but it was shut, so we went to Ghengis Khan next door.

ooh so pleased to hear Dotori's reopened, had heard it was shut and feared that was permanent. def some of the best Korean food I've had in London but I'd also recommend Jihwaja in Kennington (which I believe used to be located near TCR pre-redevelopment?). Need to get involved in the New Malden ones.

Heron near Paddington also excellent. Century eggs were a highlight last time I went.

Discovered an absolutely fantastic local in SW11 - Augustine Kitchen, really classic French brasserie. Lobster bisque, duck magret, mmm. Also FINALLY got to Silk Road after about a decade of intending to go and it's SO SO AMAZING. Inhaled about ten DUMPLINGS! in five minutes last night. Tripe!

we tried to get a table at Dotori but had no luck, so ended up at a trattoria near Turnpike Lane, of all places, which did excellent Italian food. This review does it justice and it was really cheap- house wine £15 a bottle...

Silk Road is amazing. Went for the first time last year. Keep going back. DUMPLINGS!! yes. Also hand-pulled noodles in a sweet hot broth that I swear gave me a boost for days after.

it is great! i seem to remember a large stew of some kind, potatoes etc, maybe lamb.

Any thoughts on the Ottolenghi restaurants? Will be visiting London in a couple of weeks. I love the man's cookbooks and am curious about the restaurants. I realize they run the gamut in terms of style/price, but would love to hear about anyone's positive/negative experiences with them.

Twice in the last month I've heard a waiter call a (male) customer 'buddy'. Is this a coincidence or a thing?

It's a thing.

It's a definite thing, usually delivered by posh boys who are trying not to be, in a particularly vacant way that signifies a complete lack of engagement with the person they're talking to.

As an aside to Grenfell Tower, one of the residents there runs the open-air fish café on Golborne Road, £7 for a fine plate of pescatarian/crustacean bliss so if anyone is West tomorrow, go spend some quality time and insist Hamid keeps the change from your £10.

anything good near trafalgar studios besides say, barrafina?

i'm guessing probably not...

The Tandoori Chop House on St Martin's Lane is good, although they don't do rice, which is kind of weird. Bit further down but Daawat, the Indian restaurant in the Strand Palace Hotel is excellent - the food there was as good or better than somewhere like Dishoom but without any of the queuing or hype.

The other weekend we went to Henrietta, the new Ollie Dabbous place in a hotel of the same name between Covent Garden and the Strand. That was really good although I think I ordered badly by going for the sirloin, everything else was a lot more creative. Possibly a bit much for a pre or post-theatre thing, mind.

I think Daawat has been replaced by a carvery now.