london restaurants

Was thinking of going to Lina Stores next week, and decided to see if there were any reviews. It's a shame that I did because I read this paragraph from the Evening Standard and now I can't go any more

There was a carnivalesque atmosphere in Soho when we went, on the summery Friday night that kickstarted the bank holiday. My boyfriend, Laurie, says he always thinks of Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? album cover when he walks through the area, and the proud swagger that comes with being in a part of London with a pulse.

Any alternative suggestions very welcome. Going to Wun's Tearoom for cocktails after dinner so walking distance to there. Anyone been to Sola?

TBF the cover shot was taken in Berwick Street...

TBF I’m less concerned by Laurie’s accurate identification of album cover locations and more worried that he might proudly swagger past a particularly pulsating Franco Manca and into the same room as me while I’m trying to eat my tagliolini.

Lina Stores is v good. the decor feels slightly like you're eating in a movie set, but it's not a bad movie.

lina stores looks really dolled up and fake idk if it seemed like an actual place at some point before london turned into a giant pret

lina food stores itself - as in the deli - is great, and i prefer it to camisa’s in the main these days for their homemade pasta.

haven’t been to the restaurant.

Still really miss the Italian deli on Farringdon Road next to the Eagle :-(((

Gazzano’s? Is Terroni’s in Clerkenwell any good?

Yes, Gazzano’s. The family owned the building but developed the upstairs into flats and sold up the business a few years ago to people who kept the name etc, but it shut and is now a Greek deli. Terroni’s is OK, but I miss the Gazzano family.

A few recent places I enjoyed:

Been to La Chingada in Surrey Quays 5 or 6 times in the last month - the only good tacos I’ve had in London, the guys who run the place are really nice too. Jonathan Nunn tweeted about them the other week and they got a mention on Eater so I’d avoid on Saturday nights for the time being.

Kudu in Peckham keeps getting better which is handy as it’s just over the road from me. They’re opening a cocktail bar at Queens Rd station this week.

Chinese Laundry in Brockley - so so good and only there for a few more weeks. £40 for basically the whole menu, no choice so don’t go with anyone who is too fussy or is allergic to anything.

Mei Mei at Borough Market - very delicious, get the chicken rice.

Trivet near London Bridge - great food (especially the sweetbreads and the chicken) and a really interesting wine list, but felt a bit stiff/formal. The potato dessert that was all over instagram was underwhelming.

Lorne near Victoria - had a fantastic lunch here just before Christmas, love this place, their fish cookery in particular is fantastic. Great wines by the glass.

Anyone been to Allegra?

It’s a 10 minute walk from my house. It’s very good food but very expensive and chi-chi to the max. I went there for an anniversary.

There's a nice little Italian deli on cross street in angel but probably not nice enough to be worth the schlep from Bloomsbury

I miss the three out of four delis that used to be in Clerkenwell (plus the Cally Road one and the one in Chapel Market) so badly, but I think the sausages that Gazzano’s sold are still available at McKanna’s on Theobald’s Road - the king of butchers.

Hey twitter! Not one to do this, but my dad owns the oldest Indian restaurant in East London and has been struggling with customers so please show some love! If you're in Aldgate come have a curry, I'm biased but it's the best! Below is my grandad in the 70s vs my dad now❤️ pic.twitter.com/DHFFFMiDBf

— Mehnaz 🙄 (@mehnazmeh) August 5, 2020

I love the top photo

Should have kept that decor!

This may or may not belong here? I found myself subscribing to Vittles, even though my palate is not very adventurous, because I really like the way Jonathan Nunn thinks and writes about food, and his recommendations are usually sound. On a more relevant note, this is about food, labour, culture and the intersection of all these and it’s so good. You want to read about Jewish Londoners’ thoughts on food, culture and family? It’s here. You want to read a brisk analysis of why restaurant critics are bloated and lazy (oh yah)? Here. You want to read about McDonalds where the article title is an obscure left Twitter Wes Streeting reference? It contains multitudes, friends.

But yeah, subscribe to Vittles. It’s good! (Really I should have subscribed after the rice cooker piece, but I always take a while to get around to things).

Seconded. Vittles is for real one of the few things that still make me excited to live in London. The beginner's guides to different ethnic supermarkets were great too.

I've held off because, as good a writer as he can be, his Twitter presence has become unbelievably annoying, also the idea of thinking about restaurants is torture right now. Maybe I'll give it a go.

Partially agree, but only because it’s significantly offset by both the sneering contempt and (in some cases) not so veiled racism directed at him by a lot of people in the industry!

Yeah Vittles is really good, though it gives me the problem I have with LRB, which is that I want to read it all and then never get round to doing so.

No that's true, I've just mentally filed him away with people like, say, Tom Whyman, where they're usually worth reading but you hate yourself for agreeing with them because of how pleased with themselves they are. (Also in JN's case it's just exhausting watching people constantly drag out arguments with people you don't know on Twitter). If there's none of that I'm probably in. (xpost)

Is Mr Nunn the unsigned voice of Vittles, then?

Never got anything out of reading Whyman (don't follow either of them on twitter). The piece he did on dril is one of those things that are better joked about than actually written up whereas Nunn I do like but then again I've never read much writing on food, and I like how it's a gateway to all sorts of life and matter.

Had dinner in a Shoreditch restaurant on Saturday. Quiet when we went in so felt fine, started filling up when we left. Shoreditch itself was pretty busy as you'd expect Saturday evening by now but there are so many places to eat it felt low enough risk.

Nunn is just such a good meeting of writer and subject (I've only read the odd bit from Vittles, assume he is the main contributor but also editor of other pieces). Seeing Whyman try and do culture industry takes is just really not needed and it's just painful in the end. Then again I don't have any patience for post Mark Fisher type writing.

Vittles really has been a consistently fascinating read. JN is seemingly slimming down his intro sections in favour of writing a weekly article of his own only available to people who are paying. He may well be planning to use that to carry on some of his personal beefs if the evening standard debacle of the last couple of days is anything to go by - long may he continue imo

Yeah, Nunn selects the articles and writes intros but none of the articles are actually by him. Also they tend not to be about restaurants. So you're safe on both of your worries, Matt.

No he definitely does write some pieces, it’s just not done by him alone. The two parter about which restaurants get reviewed and why(the one snidely referred to in an ES review this week) was by him. It’s a good piece too.

10,000! https://t.co/5Bk8AhGFER

— someone on twittter (@demarionunn) September 2, 2020

hello London people, how's eating going?

We ended up taking advantage of EOTHO a few times, and it got us to a few new places, which is good. We ended up eating out a lot more than normal for us. Neither of us is up for eating inside a restaurant yet, so it's exclusively been places that have outdoor seating. We've managed to go out for lunch most Wednesday afternoons, as it's a day we can both book time off work. Long post, but thought it was worth mentioning a few places as I don't think I've seen them on this thread yet.

In August we went to:

Rochelle Canteen, which had been on Toby's list for probably a decade or more. It was that super hot week, so I was a bit grouchy, but it was a nice meal. I suspect that, like at St. John, vegetarians who are happy to cook from scratch at home will feel a little underwhelmed-- the veggie main was great, but very similar to what I'd been cooking after shopping at the farmers' market (braised courgette, tomato, and beans). The setup was smooth, and I don't know if it's rain-proof, but sitting outside there was really
nice.

Koya City in Bloomberg Arcade wasn't new for us, just arranged differently, they now take your order at the door and bring you your food sitting outside. This will be a repeat for sure after EOTHO, it's rain-safe and the outside seats are well spread out. Plus, the food is great as always.

We went to Spitalfields Market a few weeks, which obviously has lots of air flowing, but sheltered from the rain, and loads of food choices.

First time we both went to Bleecker Burger for the first time. I'd been wanting to try the "Symplicity" vegetarian burger, and Toby got a double bacon cheeseburger. Both great, I went again the following week. EOTHO definitely helped, it was a little on the pricey side for a fairly small burger and fries. But it was a very different veggie burger from anything else I've had in the UK, and Toby said his hit the spot.

The next week, Toby went to Dumpling Shack, we managed to go when the queues weren't insane, and in fact he managed to eat all of his soup DUMPLINGS! before my Bleecker order came out. He liked it and says he will eat there again, and is especially interested in trying their weekly dinner specials. I was disappointed that they don't have any veggie options other than a scallion pancake and pickles, so can't recommend it if you don't eat meat.

We also went back to Spitalfields on Bank Holiday Monday, I figured I would see what's open and Toby would aim for Dumpling Shack. But the queue for DUMPLINGS! was crazy, I think it could have been close to an hour to order? Luckily Pleasant Lady Jian Bing Trading Stall was open. We'd been to the Soho branch once, and it was a good choice for a nice lunch-- filling but not too heavy, and would be a good price even without EOTHO, felt silly that we both ate for £8. Lovely mix of textures and flavours. Toby had the pork and I had the veggie, and we were both very happy with those.

And yesterday, partly on the Eater recommendation, and partly due to this thread (thanks!), we went to Keu for banh mi, which was new to us both. I haven't had one for months, my go-to spot on Exmouth Market re-opened a few weeks ago, but only noodles, no banh mi. I was skeptical about the aubergine with tofu, but it was basically cooked down and used instead of the pate. Toby had the pork traditional one (I will recommend the mackerel next time), and we both enjoyed it sitting in Hoxton Square. I think this will be one we repeat, and if I end up back in the office, the City location is really close.

Oh, and we went to dinner at Lina Stores at Granary Square, partly because you can book outside tables, and partly because it was halfway between us and the friends we were meeting. Food was really good, and it was nice to be able to sit outside and well spread out, although it isn't rain safe (we were there during the wind storm and couldn't have stemmed wine glasses because they kept nearly blowing away!) Lots of outdoor options around there.

I think there is a pretty noticeable drop off in restaurant business since the promo ended. We'll probably keep going out for lunch once a week if we can make it work in terms of schedule/weather, and getting out to new places is fun.

(um, what the heck happened there-- is there some weird automatic dumpling function that I'm not aware of? I did not type them as all caps and exclamation mark)

lmao indeed there actually is

it's interesting that it works for DUMPLINGS! but not dumpling

!! hi colette !!

I've only been doing outside seating so far too, but feels like that's gonna quickly stop being an option with the Summer over. Might just collect and eat at home.

(I've also only been meeting friends outdoors, and that's a more difficult one to adapt to once it's cold and rainy)

I haven't been to a restaurant since March, when we were going out pretty much all the time, so this is all from a prehistoric age, but the last few places we went:

The Coal Office in King's Cross, Israeli/Middle Eastern place with a superstar chef, and, on a Friday night a real party atmosphere. Largely sharing plates and the food was incredible. I guess it's considerably more restrained now. Also savouring the weirdness of having dinner somewhere where we used to go dancing 13-15 years previously (pretty sure it used to the The Cross). At the time it felt like an illustration of changing eras, we didn't really guess it was the end of another era.

Then the following night, Ekte Nordic Kitchen, a Scandinavian place in the Bloomberg Arcade in the City, pickled herring and dark meats and vodka, that sort of stuff. It was great, but totally empty and I'm guessing it's really struggling right now. We went immediately after sitting in an airless downstairs room in an underground gin distillery, thinking about it it's a miracle we didn't get covid.

Another place from this year I would go back to in a heartbeat is Namak Mandi in Tooting, it serves Pashtun food and straddles both Afghanistan and Pakistan, you sit on cushions on the floor with the 'table' in between you, basically with a small room to yourselves, and they bring up absolutely truckloads of incredible food. The evening ended with six of us literally lying horizontally on the floor unwilling to move. (NB every single aspect of this meal is very unsuited to our new reality but when this is all over I am absolutely going back).

Have a feeling that the changing of the seasons is going to be harder on restaurants than the end of the Treasury scheme, I'm not sure the extent to which people are ready to move back inside yet.

Oh also I forgot about Peckham Bazaar, I know people have been hyping Peckham Bazaar for years but it's with good reason.

Couple of agrees from the places we've been since the lockdown:

- Peckham Bazaar, which we go to from time to time but this time we were outside under an awning in a massive rainstorm. The awning worked, the food was outstanding and the whole thing was a pleasure.

- Koya City which was as good as ever and is a really good place to go if people are feeling nervous about eating inside, because it's in that high and airy arcade and all the tables are outside, also they have their sewing and ordering in good order. (Ekte seemed to have people in it that night also, Matt will be pleased to hear).

We also went to Kiln - the food was as spectacular as the food there always is, and they spaced us customers out along the bar well, but the space felt a bit cramped given the circumstances.

This thread is rapidly becoming 'restaurant reviews that will continue to haunt your thoughts' (at least until the covid era is over).

Namak Mandi sounds like my ideal restaurant. I've long had fantasies about recreating the similar sounding Baghdad House restaurant in the Fulham Road that appears in a few 1960s memoirs, but otherwise seems completely undocumented excepted for a Linda Eastman picture of the Yardbirds outside it.

Namak Mandi also has a more conventional downstairs, with tables etc. It's very much a community hub kind of place, with unidentified football on so you could take the option to sit there amid the grill smoke while old Afghan blokes argue with each other about the game.

Namak Mandi has absolutely mahoosive chapli kebab, I think I made sandwiches with the half I didn't eat for a couple of days.

My EOTHO lunch was at Noble Rot, of course.

I am hopeful that we will be able to keep enjoying Bloomberg Arcade and Spitalfields places for a good few months, just need to wear layers, maybe we'll bring our own little blankets and pretend like we're in Berlin?

Our last meal in the beforetimes was our first visit to 40 Maltby St in mid March. I knew it would be great, and it was. I think things were already dicey enough that it was much quieter than normal, and its the business that has been putting me off for so long.

This weekend, we'll check out this temporary market up in Islington where the big post office used to be. It feels a bit "ick," this is developer-led and part of the problem of private/public space, but then again I do like a St John's donut. https://www.hot-dinners.com/202008189804/Gastroblog/Latest-news/boulevard-market-islington-square-upper-street-st-john-traders-london

That Boulevard Market indeed has an uncanny valley edge to it, totally fake "town square" vibe, with a handful of vendors. I mean, I did get a donut and some cheese, but it's not worth a journey unless you are happy braving the hell of Upper St.

Any recommendations for in or near Chinatown? We're meeting Toby's sister and family this weekend, and they fancy dim sum. So, ideally we're looking for somewhere with outdoor seating, dim sum, and at least a couple vegetarian things (I would be OK with somewhere that does something like a generic veggie dumpling, crispy seaweed and rice). Moon on a stick would be the ability to book that outdoor table, since we'll be with two little kids who don't love queuing. Any ideas?

Leong's Legends on Gerrard Street is reliable and the menu is HUGE so if you have young and/or fussy eaters you should have more than enough options. No idea re: booking or even eating outside but I'm guessing Chinatown has gone big on outdoor eating?

From Private Eye.

i knew i would be in private eye one day and i absolutely knew it would be for something as dumb as this pic.twitter.com/eBjZpKPHt3

— someone on twittter (@demarionunn) September 9, 2020

Thanks, Matt, I'll add that to the list, wondering about doing a recon walk later this week to see what has outdoor seating (and maybe try to book).

I guess Din Tai Fung is also an option, they apparently have some outdoor seating as well, and I know they have stuff I can eat.

We ended up eating at Gerrard's Corner at their family's request, and it worked out in the end. All of Gerrard St restaurants have tables outside, and Gerrard Place has a ton of picnic tables available for eating food you've picked up from takeaway. It was pretty busy, I have to say!

We also got pizzas from ASAP pizza this week, after reading the Vittles interview we realised that you can buy by the pie, not just the slice. Duh. Glad we went on Wednesday, it's basically sold out soon after we collected, and then has apparently been a madhouse every day since then. So we'll have them once, but got enough for three meals of pizza.

Now starting to think about food for our "holiday" near High St Kensington next week. Ideally we'll have either an outside sit-down or takeaway meal on Monday lunchtime somewhere in the Bloomsbury/Fitzrovia/Marylebone area (so we can have a leisurely bike ride there, stop for lunch, ride the rest of the way), as well as a few lunch/dinner ideas in W8 for dining outside, or takeaway/delivery. Any brilliant ideas?

Toby was hoping to try Normah's, but they seem to have disappeared from Deliveroo, and don't have any veg options anyway, so we'll see. I'm wondering about Master Wei in Bloomsbury for Monday lunch, maybe? Haven't been and have wanted to for ages.

Master Wei is great and plenty of vegetarian options 4u.

If you want a fab/special dinner in W11 (but not far from W8 really) try Orasay. I will ask Notting Hill people for recs tomorrow at the farmer’s market - I’ll see my college pal Dodi (her family’s only vegetarian) there so I expect she will have some good ideas.

thanks, Suzy! Yeah, anywhere we could easily get to on a Santander bike from W8 is fair game, I'd say.

And Master Wei is definitely on our list, if not next week, sometime soon.

i'm eating at Cay Tre tonight. feelsgoodman