london restaurants

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.

Fuck, really? That was an absolute banker for me in that part of town.

Yep - just double-checked and it's a carvery.

thanks for the tips - might try tandoori chop house. the dabbous place sounds good for future ref.

while i'm itt should add that i went to that kiln place yesterday, in soho, a thai restaurant. i had been before but it was a lot better the second time, not that the first was bad. very good meal.

I had the same thing - first time thought it was good, second really very good.

that glass noodle dish is great - tbh i can imagine going in and just getting that for a fiver or whatever it is. it was a big enough portion for one person.

Agree it's delicious; can't imagine myself having the self-discipline to go in there and just have that one thing.

one thing that bothers me generally about restaurants, and i think this happened both times there, though not so bad the second time(fool me once etc) is when it's a small plate place and you ask how many you need and they overstate it. way to annoy and embarrass your customer. it's worst when you're solo and they do it, and the amount that arrives is not possible to finish and huge, and feels like a chore.

kiln wasn't the worst like this but they still suggested four things, i got three, and that was easily enough. i guess it's tricky sometimes to make suggestions for one person in a small plates place, but still.

I am greedy enough that I have never experienced that problem.

Dunno if you've already been to Trafalgar Studios but it occurs to me that Terroirs is pretty close by and I think (having been once!) it's good, especially if you are in the market for interesting wine by the glass.

(The size of that glass noodle dish is out of proportion with other similarly-priced things on Kiln's menu also IIRC).

Have been to Winemakers Deptford enough times now to feel confident in championing it to everyone within earshot. Food with big flavours, great cooking but unfussy, interesting wine selection (had a delicious Serbian Muscat a couple of visits ago), great atmosphere.

With that opening up near home and Noble Rot round the corner from work I've struggled to eat anywhere else in the last while.

I work near Noble Rot as well and keep meaning to go. Like the sound of the Deptford place as well.

Any SE Londoners been to Sparrow in Lewisham yet? Reviews have been excellent although full of the usual condescension you get when the writer has to go more than 5mins south of the river.

I didn't think the food in Noble Rot was all that when I ate there. It was good but it didn't blow my mind by any means. I would go back but prob just for wine and charcuterie. Maybe I got it on an off day.

I don't think it's food to blow your mind really. The restaurant as a whole is just the sort of place I want to spend time - nice staff, intimate buzzy atmosphere, simple tasty food and that ridiculous wine list.

It's the opposite of somewhere like The Square - the menu under their new(ish) head chef is incredibly exciting, but it feels so oppressive inside, not relaxing at all.

It's the same with a load of those places, Pied a Terre or wherever, the food can be the best thing you've ever eaten but it can feel like you're eating inside a museum.

Any suggestions for child friendly good food places around central London? Hardly a narrow category I know but taking granddaughter down for the bank holiday weekend.

Turkish restaurants are always child-friendly IME, and Tas is a reliable mini-chain: http://www.tasrestaurants.co.uk/

I don't think it's food to blow your mind really. The restaurant as a whole is just the sort of place I want to spend time - nice staff, intimate buzzy atmosphere, simple tasty food and that ridiculous wine list.

i agree with you yeah - i was actually going to say it was a bit like st john or somewhere, or the delaunay, the food is as good as it needs to be. i do think though that you can have that and have a higher level of food too. eg 40 maltby street.

xpost

How old is your grandaughter, wtev?

xp

I'd go along with that, though I would say that if the food at NR was considerably lower quality than at 40MS then you definitely caught it on an off day.

Has anyone been to the no-waste restaurant Silo in Brighton? Going to the soft launch of the London restaurant they are opening with Mr Lyan and wondering what to expect.

5 Madchen.

Tayyab's has been closed by Immigration!

nice things, can't have, etc

Fuckers! I hear they swept Lahore Kebab too.

Is this being reported anywhere?

Time Out, but mainly a rehash of the info on Twitter.