london restaurants

when you asked for small noodle soup it was as big as yr head (if yr head was liquid and in a bowl); i never dared ask for large noodle soup, in case the seas ran dry and it was my greedy fault

As the WCDS is starting soon I will be able to give more info, but Ethiopian Merkato on Caledonian Road is good, Crouch End (wherever the fuck that is) is full of top restaurants but latest discover of BYO curry house just off Marchomont Street in central London has had me going back 4 times in 2 weeks.

The Gate in Hammersmith is better than the one next to my house. Rasa in Stoke Newington is better than the one near Oxford Circus. But the best vegetarian restaurant in London is Manna, on Erskine Road, near Primrose Hill. I love this place (it equals The Gate for tastiness of food, and has a much better atmosphere).

Kulu Kulu sushi in Brewer Street.

Mandola in Westbourne Grove.

Churchill Arms pub thai in Kensington.

but then im with some other people later in the week and we need another recommendation.

They recommend the place you mention sarah

sushi-say is like 15mins walk from my house...

Sarah, sushi-say is fantastic, and the chef thre is very very cool.

I've heard far too many stories about Pollo ever to go back there, which is a shame as I used to like it.

it’s the leading option rn.

Anchor and Hope a great success. we had a lovely time. good atmosphere and drinks were all excellent. thanks everyone for seeing it over the line.

Really enjoyed the food at Honey & Co (Lamb's Conduit Street) last week. Had a sharing menu of mezze then a main and would have been happy with just the former, to be honest. Not as special as Ottolenghi, I don't think ... and felt a bit squeezed in to the venue but would still recommend. Had *bonus wine* across the road at Noble Rot (there's scope to have a relatively priced drink as much as a hideously expensive one). They had a set menu that seemed decent/highly reasonable (but wasn't vegetarian, so no good for me). Seemed a venue where people were happy to dip in for a glass of wine with their book.

Holloway Road people

Have you eaten at Sambal Shiok? Newspaper, Time Out etc reviews seem to contradict user ratings. Google Maps rating is suspiciously low.

There's also a Mexican place nearby that was foisted onto me by the Instagram algorithm, and i'm weighing up the two for drinks with a friend next week. It's called 'Proper Tacos' which is alarm bells, but i think(?) the owner/chef is legit Mexican, and tacos look good, so who knows.

I haven’t eaten there yet, but that’s a big disparity between reviewers and punters. If you want fire in soup form nearby there’s Xi’an Impression but I’m not sure about their licensing situation

I've been to Sambal Shiok, thought it was really good (though I'm no kind of connoisseur of Malaysian food). Not certain I'd choose it as a place to go to for drinks with a friend, it's not necessarily the kind of spot I'd choose to take a lot of time over a meal and relax into having a few drinks before, during and after a delicious laksa.

This is probably not relevant to your decision but is interesting: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/09/costs-independent-restaurants-prices-sambal-shiok-ditto-coffee

If you're looking for great Mexican food in London may I recommend this place...

https://lachingada.co.uk/

Only been to the one in Surrey Quays but just noticed they've open one in Euston...really great authentic food and not too far from Holloway

popping in to say thanks to Tim for the Casse-Croute recommendation. went there for an extremely belated birthday meal with my mum, as my June was wiped out with Covid, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Really excellent. The roast peaches with rosemary was just f'ing great, and also more generally enjoyed the busy *frenchness* of it all.

also went to 40 Maltby Street recently after having had a while off. Its cooking remains my absolute favourite of any restaurant in London - every dish shows invention while feeling like it. I know his writing was one of their models, but it really does feel like Richard Olney's principle of making use of the ingredients that are about and throwing them together with intelligence and play produces interesting menus every time I go.

I'm very wary of natural wines, but I've known them to serve me one of those tongue shrinkers that seem to be the general experience for me - they're always exceptional, interesting and paired very well (as the restaurant was originally a way of promoting the wines it again seems to hew - at least in spirit - to Olney's preference that you should choose the food around the wine rather than in reverse).

I've never known a place that goes about the business of restoring quite so quickly or effectively, and although there are plenty of places that I come out of feeling like I've had a good meal and enjoyable experience, i've never known a place quite so reliably see me leaving feeling just very happy and... well, *restored*.

Pity it's *so damn uncomfortable* though. Jesus. The bar, where I tend to sit, means you're eating with your elbows up around your ears, and there's no part of the place where I think you could happily spend a three hour lunch for instance (unlike Casse-Croute, where my mum and I clocked up four and a half hours). I guess it's not that sort of place, but still.

Ha, I’ve never actually made it to Casse-Croute, J has and likes it, hence the rec.

Agree about the discomfort of Maltby Street, eating at the bar is not pleasant with people ordering from the bar over your shoulder, the table at the back is pretty good if you can get it. I love it there, not sure I’m quite as sold on the food as you are but I think it’s fab. Have you been to Quality Wines on Farringdon St? Also vvg, similar vibes, similar quality I think.

still haven't been to quality wines, keep meaning to go.

and pass on my thanks to J!

oh damn lol, we almost went to Casse-Croute yesterday but got spooked by the lack of online booking and plumped for Andrew Edmunds instead (which was great tbf). will have to head there next time the occasion demands...although it'll have to go some to unseat Les Associes as our favourite (French, or otherwise) restaurant in London. another 'so good we went back' is Velho in Vauxhall, likely the best Portuguese place we've been to here (from a selection of about...7?) and ummm oh yes, we're (slowly) trying to visit every single Georgian restaurant in London as a fun challenge, best experience so far proooobably Little Georgia in Hackney but there's a fair few left

Velho is lovely, atmosphere and general conviviality as much as anything else.

Casse-Croute is not the *most* high end or polished, but it does what it does well, and again, is an enjoyable place to spend time restoring yourself with good food and wine. Though it is also a 'have a free heart attack with every five meals!' place.

Excellent, sounds ideal. Yeah, once food reaches a decent enough standard of execution (and I'll cop to having a soft spot for traditionalism in the culinary arts) it then becomes entirely a manner of interiors, moods, relationship with servers, a general sense of being *transported*. This is why instead of Masterchef I'd be much more interested in a show where budding restauranteurs are allotted a 6x8m space, given a fixed budget and essentially have to employ decorators, upholsterers and yes, a chef to create the best restaurant experience. (They can do it all themselves if they want; the aforementioned Les Associes is a glorious one-man band!)

Speaking of being transported into strange culinary heterotopias, we recently dined at Delia Smith's place inside Carrow Road stadium. It was surprisingly great; you'd automatically think it the naffest place of all time, but with all the blinds closed and the dim-yet-sharp LED lights bathing everything in a hospital glow it turned into a sort of wonderfully surreal zone of innocence, completely sealed off from the world with absurdly friendly servers plonking down the core, the heart food from the 1980s (a theme with me) in what you'd call hearty portions and the whole thing not being nearly as pricy as you might have thought (3-course menu £49pp). So no, it doesn't have to be an intimate throwback to conjure primal delight, although Andrew Edmunds certainly is that and all the better for it (not to mention that the food was straight up some of the best we've had in 3 years together).

absolutely no idea why i didn't spell it 'restaurateur' there. hungover okay

now that i’m old and lazy i can’t have imagined a greater london restaurant gift than dina, a natural wine shop 5 minutes walk from me that has started doing popup dinners on the weekends from a seemingly endless list of absolutely incredible nomadic chefs who make everything on a frankly implausible little collection of hotplates in the back. one weekend will be bengali/italian (!), another will be french, another will be spanish, etc - just amazing. and the guy who runs it is incredibly chill and nice and knows everything about every wine he sells (he is partial to loire and ardèche)

I feel fairly sure I'll like the natural wines at some places, because those words don't have a huge meaning in some places, it's just idk a loose way of saying you will have more choice than Merlots or whatever.

Other places it's more like branded and novel and the wines are more unusual and can be bad. That said, there are some really nice weirder wines also. I just can't really distinguish between natural and not natural wine when idk I drink a lot of natural Beaujolais, Pinot Noir, etc which doesn't fit with any of the archetypal descriptions of natural wine and I could give to my dad and he'd enjoy it.

Then there are more unusual tasting stuff where the natural just seems to mean a looser sense of someone producing stuff in a different way or ageing in steel or something. But these are different to the more youth-branded tastes like cider wines also, lol. It's a messy set of words.

I would recommend Planque in Haggerston along these lines. They do a set lunch for £40 on a Saturday which is excellent.

yeah the "natural wine" labelling has close to zero predictive power for me - I may like it or it may taste like flat beer

wine 2.0

every single Georgian restaurant in London as a fun challenge

I have unintentionally been to three of these! There are two super near each other: Kartuli on Lordship Lane, which is delicious, and Georgian food & wine on Peckham Rye that has an enormous wall of wine if that's your thing. Only had snacks, but enjoyed the vibe, guys running it very helpful.

I also once stumbled upon Entree Kensington which turned out to be great for lunch. They do an incredible pistachio cream filled pain au chocolat.

Kartuli is great and very near where I currently live! We absolutely do go for Georgian wine so ty for the heads-up. Could be our last few weeks/months in Camberwell due to hopeful flat purchase. You'll have to let us know what culinary delights abound in Sydenham (so far my knowledge extends to the pizzas the Fox & Hounds proprietor makes on Tuesdays, which are tbf great, I first had his stuff up by the Anchor and Hope in Charlton as a prematch meal when he told me he was off to run a pub in dreaded Palace country, little knowing I might be moving there a few years later...)

I enjoy the occasional lunch at Mystic Burek in Sydenham.

Well yeah we did try to go there but they seemed to be having some sort of private event. Will be more chances hopefully

I've been meaning to try Mystic Burek, but I'm not really sure Sydenham is a hotbed of culinary delights, especially compared to Camberwell... where are you moving?

*gestures at the vague area north of Wells Park Road*

You mean to say you don't have an equivalent of Theo's or a Greek taverna? Ah well lol, those are only very occasional treats anyway. The falafel and shawarma shacks might be harder to replace though...and as for that Dominican place, La Caribena...

I've only had one Falafel & Shawarma wrap+carrot juice combo this year, right at the start, I do miss being in proximity to it

Recall Theo's crust and homemade chilli paste being v good

Has Silk Road reopened? Last I heard it was moving into where Caravaggio's (RIP) was but I'm very rarely in Camberwell, it still seemed to be possible to order takeout from it the whole time the original location was shut

+ good luck with the flat purchase and Palace season ticket application obv!

Silk Road not something I've noticed! Will have to expressly look at the old Caravaggio's site to see what's been put there instead. Money on another wine bar tbh. My deep and abiding love for the Glaziers has meant I'm already half-divorced from this place in my head, obviously

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/cult-south-london-restaurant-silk-road-has-finally-reopened-022224 ah yeah looks like it went to plan actually? Will have to head back

We've been to Kudu Grill a couple of times and I really like it. It's on an uninteresting stretch of Nunhead Lane (as opposed to the interesting stretches, heh), is the sibling of the bib-gourmanded Kudu on Peckham Road, concentrates as all restaurants must these days on cooking over flames. Everything I've tasted there has been properly delicious and it's unusually comfortable. Not cheap, ut the choice of the sort of champs who like to control their spending is to swerve the wine list (which is fine but unexceptional) and sip on a beer. The bread they do as a "snack" is unreal.

Is Silk Road one of those places where really you have to go mob-handed in order to get the best of it, because you want little bits of lots of things?

silk road is still there, unless i’m imagining things. you can do ok with two. a couple of the signature dishes - the chicken with belt noodles - are min for two, but otherwise the other dishes aren’t massive.

Yeah you can do OK with two, there is a sensible Middle Plate Chicken portion, it is though imo at its best when you have a slightly bigger group so you can have the Big Plate Chicken (if Meat-inclined) and mix and max a decent amount of other stuff like lamb skewers and (will this still auto-capitalise?) DUMPLINGS!

it will

or a Greek taverna

No, but we do have an Italian trattoria that is very well liked. And if you do end up as a local, Gurkha's is a nice Indian/Nepalese option when you aren't feeling flush enough for Babur or Chef Karnavar

Good luck with flat. That area is very near us.

Weirdly enough I just ate at Silk Road tonight. The returb is v nice.

Aw, it gladdens my heart to see talk of Falafel & Shawarma here, they are so lovely - they usually give our son a falafel to munch on while we wait for our order. Their lemonade is so, so good too.

Ohhh right yes that place yes. Weirdly I've been drawn into Well Mix Oriental a few doors down (which is excellent, and cheap) but not Silk Road! Soon...

My favourite Chinese place in the whole area, which I've been to a few times, is Lovely House, aka The Only Place On Bellenden Road That Remotely Appeals* (this is a snap judgement tbf, but there's an awful lot of prissy normcore there)

*okay except Ganapati, that's great, but I mean on the main stretch

Falafel & Shawarma so good that the ripoff/overflow place a few doors down (My Falafel) is still really good! My guilty secret is that I've been there far more than the OG cos there's rarely much of a queue. Then go and eat it in Stormbird cos we're all prissy normies sometimes ffs

but then again how truly prissy is a pub where they let you bring your own food and don't know the prices of half the bottled beers

(gotten some absolute bargains there lol)

Also went to Lina Stores. I liked the hand made pasta but on further reflection...I want more on my plate.

There was a v nice Italian I went to in Camden which did just that. Can't remember the name tho'.

Can you remember which part of Camden?

From a google and the pics I think it was Goodfare (?)

Classic, was George and Nicky’s in the ‘90s and stuffed full of eg. Elastica eating red sauce pasta for lunch because it was 200m from at least five record companies/press offices.

Silk Road absolutely do-able on your own if you like - TEP noodles (the real hero of Silk Road), some cabbage, a skewer or two.

And F&S is so good even their pizza place a few doors down is good.

Bar D4100 in Nunhead is better than Theo’s in my opinion. Good cheap drinks and really nice sides/salads along with solid 8/10 pizzas.

📹

Classic, was George and Nicky’s in the ‘90s and stuffed full of eg. Elastica eating red sauce pasta for lunch because it was 200m from at least five record companies/press offices.

Aren’t you thinking of the Marathon by Chalk Farm station? Goodfare/G&N is on Parkway.

Nah, it was definitely on Parkway.