london

there is probably by far the best and most diverse range of regional indian cuisines of any city outside india but much of it is spread out across the suburbs in places like southall, harrow, ilford, tooting, and elsewhere rather than more popular or convenient tourist destinations - and many of the best places will be primarily known to and frequented by locals - I'm not much help here

yeah I feel like there isn't a whole lot of diversity w/ Indian food here, there's a few South Indian spots w dosas, a ton of spots that have the typical tikka masala/vindaloo/biryani/etc, and there's one Indo-Chinese spot (which I loooove). I'd love to explore more.

Left is right, but if you eat meat and leave London without having eaten the Dry Meat at Tayyabs in Whitechapel (Pakistani Punjabi cuisine IIRC) you've made a mistake and that's a famous and central place well-known to unlocals.

if you don't eat meat I used to love diwana bhel poori house on euston rd - haven't been for years but I hope it hasn't changed much

Tayyab’s is obv amazing (as is the Lahore Kebab House down the road, tho it’s considerably more spartan)

no apostrophe.

Sacrilege to suggest that Needoo Grill is maybe even (slightly) better than both?

never been! walked past it often!

Needoo is vg, personally I prefer the Dry Meat in Tayyabs and that wins the game.

Agree about Diwana also, that remains my Drummond St spot.

Yes thanks for the geographic correction

I can second Daniel’s recommendation for Rasa, went on one of my first dates with my now husband there and had about the highest praise I can give for a vegetarian place, ie “I didn’t even miss meat.” Seriously good place. That neck of the woods a little out of your way but if you go there, you can also visit some of the nearby Turkish places.

And yeah the dry lamb chops or w/e at Tayyabs are the best.

(Left sorry if it felt like correcting you, wasn’t trying to be a smartarse)

tayyabs lamb chops (which a table next to me said i wouldn’t be able to eat due to the volume of food i’d ordered: they were RONG) v Lahore Kebab House nargis kebab. filthy massive curry sauce spiced scotch eggs. order in advance.

A third vote for Diwana on Drummond St-- I love all the bhel poori bits and pieces! (vegetarian so not weighing in on the Tayyabs debate)

Diwana on Sunday means paneer thali!

I'm sorry Tim it looks pissier on the page than i felt! I just wanted to acknowledge the specific location for myself as much as anyone

No need to apologise.

I further clarification: gyac is right about tayyabs’s lamb chops, they’re great and justly famous. I’m on about a dish called dry meat, long slow stewed lamb (maybe mutton) and it’s outstanding

okay so Tayyab's is at the top of my list and Diwana is also up there too. In terms of like upscale Briths, I am thinking either St. John, Lyle's, or 40 Maltby St, though it looks like Lyle's is just an £89 prix-fixe so proooobably not that.

i'm sorry TAYYABS

also 100% going to Passyunk Ave. and no one can stop me

St John and Maltby Street are very different propositions, both brilliant. St John is the foundation stone of the re-emergence of taking offal and unusual meats (like hare or whatever) seriously, it's austere and scrubbed down, fairly strictly British (I think) and michelin starred. Maltby Street is primarily a natural wine bar that happens to have an excellent modern european food offer. Go to both IMO.

The William Kentridge show at the Royal Academy is incredibly brilliant by the way. When I went into the first room I thought WTF these are just boring charcoal drawings but it turns out to be a million times more than that, I've been once and I'm going again, at least once more.

oh this is good to know! Where does Lyle's fit into this? I see their lunch menu is cheaper, is that worth making time for as well?

If you visit the Kentridge, try to time it so you can see the puppet shows that are on at 20 past the hour every hour (I didn't but I will next time).

The Michael Craig Martin show at Alan Cristea also great, I laughed and laughed. Pop art takes on great works of art is in no sense a new idea but these really pop.

If you can catch "This Is Not Dying" by Nova Paul, a piece of video art showing at Phyllida Reid on Grape Street (a back street near the top of Shaftesbury Avenue, you will be seeing the best piece of video art I've seen in forever (The fourth para here does a decent job of desribing the technique: http://www.thirdtext.org/?location_id=637 ). The problem is it's on a two hour loop playing in the basement of the gallery so AFAICT it is not possible to tell whether you will see it when you arrive at the gallery. Perhaps the other stuff on the loop is just as good, I don't know.

Lyle's is somewhere between the two, less austere than either, more restauranty than Maltby St, a touch more modern european/less organ meaty than St John. (Not that St John will force feed you tripe or anything). I like Lyle's a lot, I'd say it has more in common with the kind of excellent restaurant I'd be unsurprised to find in Chicago than either of the others has.

When we have American visitors to is Kiln (on Brewer Street in Soho) which is Thai, specifically northern Thai and not really anything like the Thai cuisine I'm used to. It's consistently fantastic; no idea whether it's the kind of thing you could find in Philly, though physically the restaurant would be recognisable to hipsters across the globe, stripped down brick and dining sitting up at the bar. So great, don't miss the stir-friend greens and soy, which doesn't sound exciting but is unbelievable.

That is supposed to read "when we have American visitors I want to impress, a place I generally take them to is..."

nearly went to kiln yesterday. didn’t.

more exciting posting like that whenever you like.

Is Kiln worth visiting even if you have a let's say sensitive stomach?

Yes - the staff will help you swerve the things that are likely to be troublesome, for whatever reason.

another question: where is a great place to do Sunday roast, ideally like relatively straightforward and not too much of a fancy/expensive reinterpretation? Places Eater recommends sort of close to where we're staying incl Harwood Arms, Canton Arms, and Hawkswood, and then farther out are Quality Chop House, Marksman, and Blacklock?

i really don’t know that part of town at all

Harwood Arms is pretty expensive, even compared to places like The Marksman. All the options you mentioned are good, if you want a straightforward roast which doesn’t do anything fancy but does everything well then Blacklock is hard to beat.

Also if you were thinking of going to St John I would suggest either going to Bread and Wine, or (a better option) having dinner at Quality Wines and then going for rarebit, pud and booze at the bar at St John. If you’re in Kensington, Hereford Road is relatively close and does a great impression of St John without the hype.

I’ve never been there myself for Sunday lunch but I’ve heard from friends that Hawksmoor does a good and well priced one. Think the Borough one is probably nearest to you?

xp yes we booked Saturday lunch at St. John B&W, which from what I am reading is just as good as (if not better) than the OG location

Definitely better these days, good choice

Camberwell Arms does a nice weekend lunch

Hawksmoor has always been esolidly excellent when I've gone there, as a treat, which I haven't in years (parenthood). My partner swears by the Quality Chop House.

Hawksman it is! Also it's only 25gbp which seems really inexpensive for a huge meat roast????

interesting detail: the same company that built the Berlin #aquarium that just burst also did the Nine Elms sky pool everyone hates

— Alex Harrowell (@yorksranter) December 16, 2022

I’ve seen that Berlin aquarium! Fucked up.

lol stayed there a couple of months ago for a work conference. they had a robot drinks room service machine called jeeves which i wanted to test out but when we were drunk we hit a few of its buttons and it said “OUT OF SERVICE” for the rest of the stay.

on your side lil fella.

i googled the nine elms sky pool and it's like an outrageous parody of parasitic luxury development, i don't know whether to laugh or cry

it also looks absolutely terrifying.

it should be safely taken down with a controlled explosion, preferably when it's full of rich bastards!

assassination co-ordinates easily found on google!

i feel like a good movie abt the modern city deserted after the great eco-social catastrophe shd include a scene w/a sky pool all busted and forlorn and covered in toxic algae -- this is why i don't much mind "emblems of social inequality", social changes will change the meaning !!

SKY POOL SKULL PILES COLLAPSE
controversial ilxor calzino is in the news once more etc etc