london restaurants

Sorry, not for doner

It's an Israeli restaurant in Southwark and it is amazing

Go hungry

My favourite dishes were the cauliflower and the aubergine

Go hungry

But with a full wallet.

Where is good with a private dining room seating c. 15 people in Central London? Mid-market only really.

We had a private dining room at Gaucho Piccadilly for a work thing last year and it was pretty good for what was needed.

went to pollen street social recently with a voucher (xmas present from parents) - we still spent more than we ever have in a restaurant even with a £200 discount. fine dining is crazy eh

The Lexington has a private dining room.

Delaunay maybe? I know they have a private room - I guess with drinks etc it could get quite expensive.

Dunno if there are better value places that have private rooms.

While I'm here - what's good near Russell Square/King's Cross? For a quick solo meal - don't really mind what type of place once it fits that bill.

xpost

The French place on corner of Tavistock Place and Marchmont Street

Go hungry

But with a full wallet.

― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Wednesday, October 4, 2017 1:49 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes - it can get expensive if you order as much as they tell you to, but you don't actually need to eat much to be quite full, possibly because of the approx 1/2 pound of butter they cook everything with (seriously, i sat at the bar and it was something else to watch the chefs cook plum tomatoes on the vine with sage and pastis and as much butter as i would use in a week). anyway it is REALLY good.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DL4u8BPXkAA3Pc7.jpg:small

intriguing thread on UK chicken shops named (US State) Fried Chicken

Went to 40 Maltby Street last night, and it was as excellent as LG and others have said. First the staff were lovely - got chatting about cookbooks while I was waiting for my friend, let me charge my phone. The wine recommendations were superb, and once my friend had turned up and we'd ordered the food, that was really excellent as well. I've been making borlotti bean salads recently, as it's the season. Their borlotti bean salad was better than my borlotti bean salad.

Wish I'd had time to stay to drink and eat more, but we had to go. I will definitely be going back again though.

it seems one of the best places for wine - i've never had anything there that wasn't v good.

🖼

intriguing thread on UK chicken shops named (US State) Fried Chicken🕸

Quick plea for recs for Sunday early evening eats either (a) within easy striking distance of Notting Hill Gate or (b) on or near the Edgeware Road?

Hereford Road? A less self-serious St. John, run by one of their former chefs.

Briciole, on the Marylebone side of Edgware Road (but literally two mins from Edgware Road) is good and relaxed.

http://briciole.co.uk

Da Maria on Notting Hill Gate.

^

recently saved from the cinema foyer extension plan as well i think.

These are all good recs, thanks.

Where's a good place to take your (reasonably adventurous) mum for lunch in the bit between London Fields and Victoria Park? I don't know the area at all.

it's a bit of a netherzone between the two parks, but near london fields lardo is really nice - had lunch there recently. or raw duck beside it.

(Notting Hill update - the thing we were at finished earlier than we wanted to eat, and then we were overtaken with an unstoppable urge to get busy with some of the spicy fish sauce chicken wings at Smoking Goat so we went to the Goat instead, and it was excellent as ever. I think I might slightly prefer it to Kiln, for whatever that's worth. Your recommendations still appreciated and noted for future use though.)

re between the parks: i know them better for evening stuff tbh (my sister used to live in beck road, right at the heart of the netherzone), but you'll quite likely find somewhere nice just by eye if you walk along broadway market* (bottom of london fields) or victoria park village (aka lauriston road)**, just north of victoria park

*buen ayre or hill & szrok if you like MEAT and LOTS OF IT
**there's a great fish place, the fish house

(but these may not do lunches)

the fish house does do lunch.

there's a bakery right next to london fields called the e5 bakery which makes tremendous bread, and they also serve lunch.

closer to victoria park your best bet probably is the lauriston road roundabout. you have the aforementioned fish house. there's a vietnamese place called vu viet. and some other stuff. there's a v good deli there.

Pidgin just off London Fields was excellent when I went there last year http://www.pidginlondon.com/

Pidgin is indeed brilliant, maybe my current favourite restaurant in London, but I don't think it has a lunch sitting?

Only Friday to Sunday sez the website.

Thanks all, this is giving us lots of good options.

Just had pretty great brunch at the Lacy Nook, at the border between Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill. Purple jacket potatoe with yoghurt, cheese, avocado, tomato and onion, yum. They also did a mean rarebit but that's been discontinued. :(

Any interesting restaurants around Sloane square?

^^^bourgie scab ;)

there's a nice little trattoria called La Bottega on Lower Sloane Street which is p cheap and tasty tho if you want to keep things humble

yeah I know its a tough ask.

La Bottega migth be ok but its open till 8pm most days, might need a place that's open till later than that..

for all the time i've spent in that area i really can't think of many restaurants i've been to. the one place sort of around there that i can recall, cambridge street kitchen, was massively overpriced

I really enjoyed Hunan the one time I went, but it is pricey and only does the 10ish small plates for £65 format for the dinner menu, you've got to set aside the time

I see there is a branch of Saravana Bhavan in Charing Cross Road now. Has anyone been - or gone to any of their other places in London?

I see them all over the world but can’t for the life of me remember whether I have eaten at one.

I went to the one in Southall but only for sweets - I’m glad to be within walking distance of this branch.

I live within walking distance of the Parisian branch. Haven’t gone yet either, too many other south Asian neighbors restos even closer.

I'm going to have to visit. It's not particularly easy to get irl Indian food at reasonable prices and it looks like they've largely kept the menu as-is from the international branches rather than bastardising it for British tastes.

any recommendations for, well, 'somewhere quiet and calm' is the request to drink in the paddington/marylebone area? i would have said the windsor castle but the fuckers shut it down. doesn't need to be a pub, can be a bar or w/e. in fact i might go to the bar at Durrant's hotel. expensive, obv, but there's a fire and comfy armchairs, and it's usually v quiet.

Barley Mow, Dorset St. https://whatpub.com/pubs/WLD/16750/barley-mow-london

Big fan of the Golden Eagle on Marylebone High Street. Small but if you get there at the right time then it's very comfortable and feels suitably festive.

cheers both. good calls. love the golden eagle. clarence, the main barman, is a moody old bugger but by god he can serve a busy bar in seconds.

never actually been in the barley mow but may give it a shot tonight.

does remind me there’s a v good and surprisingly non-marylebone pub in the mews behind mb high street: the king’s head. well kept, irish landlord, good mix of people, and has that mystical improbability, a decent pint of ipa. manages to be both calm and convivial.

seconding the Barley Mow, they do a good pie & mash if you get hungry

ace. and i should have said “a decent pint of *greene king* ipa” a drink usually so revoltingly kept that it barely qualifies as potable.

any recommendations on places near-ish excel london? would also take any rec's for anywhere specifically great on a saturday night thats ~30 min cab ride of the convention center

environs of excel are most dismal place on earth possibly

i kinda had that sense but was hoping

any general recommendations that are open late then?

Laughing Heart on Hackney Road is open til 2 (you’ll want to check how late the kitchen stays open, I think it’s most of that time) and was excellent the time we went.

The Lahore Kebab House just off Commercial Road was fab years ago, haven’t been for ages, open til 1. Needoos and Tayyabs both 11.30 I think, both reliably very good indeed.