london restaurants

Previously existing chicken shops re-branding with Korean names or new places?

The local Chinese here is closing at 10 to save on energy bills

I don't entirely know Tim, but I can say these places are v much identical to existing chicken shops, it's not like they add gochujang or something.

Dammit

since I'm unlikely to go out till the end of the year, here's my list of 2022 highlights (mostly lazily in the North-East LDN area)

Set meal at the Clove Club - worth the exorbitant price, loved the shrimp bisque and the pork jowl.
Yangeyon bun and creme brulee cookies at Bake Street
Mixed grill from Numara Bors Cirrik 2
Twice cooked pork belly and Peking shredded pork with sweet bean paste at Old Street Chinese
Hor borek pastry from Yasar Halim
Indo Chinese paneer lettuce cups at Brigadier's
Takoyaki and breaded horse mackerel at Asakusa
The fish set menu at Aun's
Kurdish kebab at Babaan's Nan (this might be bog standard for all I know, never had Kurdish kebab before - love the naan bread, minced meat paste and sauces tho)
Pakistani cheese naan at Ararat Bread
Sweet glazed pork with cabbage and a side of mashed potatoes at Daffodil Mulligan's

Guilty pleasure, trashy section: the cheddar corndog at Myungrang in Angel
Guilty pleasure, bourgie section: the pastrami bun at Gail's

Vittles response to the New Statesman piece criticising the enterprise from a couple of weeks ago, inserted in this review.

https://www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/crispy-bhajia-and-the-golden-thread

had a really nice light meal at the new honey and co in lambs conduit street. middle eastern/levantine cookery v much in the claudia roden style. great menu.

Don’t you find it a bit expensive? I rate Hiba by the tube station much more highly.

oh absolutely, i threw all my money at them and they gave me some very nice food and wine. was heading to the cinema and fancied trying it out as hadn't been before.

hadn't heard of Hiba, but look forward to visiting! two bloomsbory recommendations for the price of one.

bloomsbury

The M&H people have pissed off all the flats on that block because they installed a very loud fan (Cigala, the Spanish restaurant that was the previous occupant, did not keep the neighbours awake with theirs).

Hiba Express (to give its proper name) has a branch in Walthamstow and a wrap place near Goodge Street. They are Palestinian. The first time I got a wrap at Holborn, they made it so quickly, I expressed surprise. The cook beamed at me: ‘we ARE Hiba EXPRESS!’

lol excellent, and good to hear that they've got a branch in walthamstow as well, as i'm sometimes around there.

Have a great sentimental attachment to Honey & Co (which I first heard about in this thread!), have all their books, love their food. I do find the space in Lambs Conduit a bit dull though, miss the buzzy atmosphere of Warren St.

ok so i ended up at honey & co in the end and holy shit was that the right choice. cannot recommend this place highly enough. the food!!!!!!

the mezze set is the best option, like a taster menu for the starters, and if there's a starter not on it they'll happily swap it in (which we did for what turned out to be the star dish of the night - chicken liver baklava with grape molasses). the artichoke heart salad was really incredible too. main courses were so deep and rich and warming (slow cooked chicken in currants and pomegranates for me, slow cooked lamb with rice and almonds for him). the pistachio cake (served with sour cream, which actually really worked) was a hit too. only -ve was that our main courses arrived just as we were finishing our starters - we did take our sweet time over the mezze set but it would have been nice to have a break between courses.

but the food, oh my god, made up for it x 1000.

― lex pretend, Saturday, 9 November 2013 09:18 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

ilx first mentions

New (to me) Ta'mini Lebanese bakery nr Bloomsbury is excellent. Working my way through all the wraps on their menu. Spicy falafel is outstanding. Roast vegetable... Booming. Saisage one great too. All quite distinctive.

And i've seen Mick Lynch eating there. What more do you need?

There's another Honey & Co deli just opened on Store St (i think)

Menu is a bit cheaper. You can do take out.

I’ve been to Tamini, no Mick Lynch sighting yet though.

The Honey & Co deli is on Store Street and I think I prefer it to the restaurant. I know what you mean about the lack of buzz comparing the restaurant with the old Warren Street location.

My other good picks for around there are Chilli Cool (first-wave Sichuan that’s at least 15yo) and Master Wei. Noble Rot or Cafe Deco for OCCASIONS. Fromagerie for meetings. But most of the time when I’m going out I wind up at Eat Tokyo, which in these £25 posh entree times can seem as inexpensive as fast food.

Tim once mentioned a thai restaurant as what he'd show ppl from out of town as an example of London restaurants at their best, I thought it was on this thread but my search lead nowhere, anyone know?

Singburi?

Kiln!

Probably.

Yeah, Kiln sounds right! Thanks.

since I'm at it, 2023 meals (really need to get out of the East more)

Birthday dinner at Mangal 2
Cheese chicken from Good Friend Chicken in Chinatown
Laghman noodles at Etles Uyghur
Shanghai style pork belly on rice at Lulu's
Bueno cheesecake from Bake Street
Bifana from Lisboeta
Great tteopokki at Bi Won London
Dusty Knuckle Bakery bacon sarnie
Turkey pie from Snackbar
Pho at Song Que
Milky tea from Bun House
Potato kugel and apple kugel from Avrumie's
Fried chicken from Seoul 90
Bacon and haggis roll from Scottish Kitchen

Guilty pleasures: jerk chicken bagel from Bagel House, super sugary chai from Chaiwaala

Advice needed:

Going out with my mum in London Bridge on Sunday. She doesn't want to eat anywhere too high end (disappointing). I was *thinking* the Royal Oak, but I'm not sure it's quite right for what she'd like, what other good options are there? There's the Wright Brothers, Brindisa I guess though we went there last time. There's Padella isn't there? Not sure that's right either, plus can't book.

Define “High end”, is it a vibe or a price point, do you have that thing with yr mammy where you can’t take her anywhere cos she’ll complain about the prices

Would Cafe Murano on Bermondsey Street fit the bill? 15 minutes’ walk from London Bridge.

Anyway I never really go there apart from to the Ginger Pig before ILB meets but Eliots comes highly recommended by a mutual friend of ours, I have only had the basque cheesecake there but it’s excellent. Also there’s a Hawksmoor there which I mention as they do a Sunday roast that is supposedly good, also have good cocktails.

No helpful advice, but I took older 2 siblings and a brother in law to Borough Market last year and they hated it at first sight! They couldn’t cope with the food market atmosphere and set up, and demanded to leave almost immediately, and we ended up at the Wagamama at Bankside (not recommended).

Fizzles, I did consult a regional policeman & he says: Hope and Anchor is your only man

Anchor and Hope, even

Gyac’s right, Elliot’s is good, though the times I’ve been there it’s always worked out to be more expensive than I expected.

More or less next door to that is Rambutan, a somewhat fancy Sri Lankan place - I’ve only been once but I thought it was genuinely excellent.

If Bermondsey Street is on the agenda, consider Casse-Croûte, a pleasingly trad French place. Similar distance in the other direction is the Anchor and Hope of course, can’t go wrong there.

Haha XP, I do like agreeing with gyac

excellent stuff, thanks everyone. Anchor and Hope was on my mind and is a really good shout.

And good question about 'high end' - she doesn't want me taking her out somewhere expensive basically. BUT also she is a massive snob and annoyingly fastidious.

Will check out Elliot's and Rambutan - thanks Tim. I was wondering whether to head down to 40 Maltby Street - never been to Casse-Croute.

lol bob six - i kind of know what they mean tbh! (tho Ginger Pig in any forms is a marvellous thing, as gyac says).

At the very least this is giving me a very good list of places to go not with my mum.

Love 40 Maltby St but it’s not terribly comfortable, think I’d have thought twice before taking my mother there. Of course there is no reason to assume Ma Fizzles would react like my mum.

Mater Fizzles is a massive shire Tory iirc so probably not

It is incredibly uncomfortable, and it's annoying because it's my favourite place to eat and drink. It's all elbows and stools. And why is the goddam bar so high? It would annoy her too.

Shire Tory not right tbh. East Anglian lower middle class protestant snobbery mutating into a sort of irritable hodge-podge of it's-nobody's-business liberalism, social conservatism (ie doesn't like people or says she doesn't, turns out she has a good time if she forgets this) and odd outcrops of socialism: fervent supporter of council housing, loathes the police, public transport and cycling infra stan. idk, when you get old you just accumulate a load of incompatible shit and become cranky i guess. would never happen to me ofc.

anyway *we get on* and like a gossip and as long as we steer clear of politics and don't get too twatted actually have a serviceable relationship, so i'll stick with that. Anchor and Hope booked up, unless we want to eat at 12:30. Tempting tho as I've been meaning to go for ages and it seems perfect.

Go to Elliott’s and get the cheesecake

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.