Gul and Sepoy review – prince and pauper Indian dining in Spitalfields
★★★★☆ / Indian / South Asian

Gul and Sepoy review – prince and pauper Indian dining in Spitalfields

Look beyond the marketing spin at this Gunpowder threequel Update 12/3/23: this restaurant has now closed As the end of the year approaches, so does the anniversary of this website and so my feeble mind inevitably ponders all that it has accomplished. While I would like to think that I’ve helped at least a few … Continue reading

Breddos Tacos Soho review – brilliance served with a side of incompetence
★★★★☆ / Eclectic / Mexican

Breddos Tacos Soho review – brilliance served with a side of incompetence

Raffish Clerkenwell Mexican sprouts second branch in Soho Update: 8/02/2018 – added new opening hours A great many things flow through my mind when I’m being ignored at a restaurant, once I become bored with my phone. Will I starve to death in this place, with lunching desk jockeys and freelance debutantes stepping over my … Continue reading

Gilly’s Fry Bar review – the chippy that wants to be a tempura restaurant
★★☆☆☆ / British / Eclectic

Gilly’s Fry Bar review – the chippy that wants to be a tempura restaurant

Finsbury Park doesn’t need more battered fried food I have a confession to make. It’s a deeply unpopular, long-held opinion that will not endear me to many of you. It’ll be even more controversial than the time I disparaged chicken, dismissing it as a soulless meat fit only for children and invalids. I don’t like … Continue reading

Ella Canta review – hotel restaurant brings modern Mexico to Mayfair
★★★☆☆ / Mexican

Ella Canta review – hotel restaurant brings modern Mexico to Mayfair

Mexico City celeb chef opens outpost in the badlands of Park Lane Update 27/8/2018 – corrected erroneous star rating in end-of-review summary If you’ve told me a few years ago that a Mexican restaurant, backed by famed chilango celeb chef Martha Ortiz, would open within the bowels of the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane then … Continue reading

Coal Rooms Peckham review – a train station restaurant that isn’t a dreary chain
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / Steak/chophouse

Coal Rooms Peckham review – a train station restaurant that isn’t a dreary chain

Plus a beast of a bacon sandwich Salvaging, reusing and repurposing old fittings and furnishings to adorn new restaurants is nothing new; it’s been an ongoing trend in the English-speaking world for at least a decade, if not more. Renovating old buildings, while judiciously paying homage to their original purpose, has received less attention but … Continue reading

Miss P’s Barbecue review – proper BBQ comes to Croydon
★★★★☆ / Barbecue/BBQ

Miss P’s Barbecue review – proper BBQ comes to Croydon

Disclosure: I backed this restaurant’s crowdfunding effort on Kickstarter (in the range of £50-£100). Update 17/10/17 – corrected details about the pulled pork and fixed some typos. Unlike some other reviewers, I’m not obsessively critical of the famed Michelin Guide (not that either gives a fig about what I think). While it certainly has its … Continue reading

Hoppers review – Sri Lankan restaurant sequel finally takes reservations in Marylebone
★★★★☆ / Sri Lankan

Hoppers review – Sri Lankan restaurant sequel finally takes reservations in Marylebone

Oxford Street’s eating options get a kick in the pants The little patch of shops and restaurants adjacent to Selfridges known as St. Christopher’s Place used to be one of London’s dining out black spots. Full of tourist traps fronted by touts wielding laminated menus either the length of the Bible or full of badly … Continue reading

El Muro review – Mexican food comes to Muswell Hill. Sort of.
★★☆☆☆ / Mexican

El Muro review – Mexican food comes to Muswell Hill. Sort of.

It’s better than Tex-Mex. Just. Reviewing restaurants means I meander all over London, seeing firsthand the disparate boroughs, villages and neighbourhoods that make up this sprawling metropolis of ours. It’s tempting to think that once you venture outside of the capital’s core restaurant areas (Soho, Islington, Shoreditch and The City, or thereabouts), you would have … Continue reading

Bad Sports review – tacos so good, it’s unsportsmanlike
★★★★☆ / Mexican

Bad Sports review – tacos so good, it’s unsportsmanlike

Hoxton tacos worth travelling across town for Update 27/1/2019 – this restaurant has now closed The phrase ‘Hoxton restaurant’ has become a joke to many. Whatever it may once have meant, prosaically or otherwise, it has now become a byword for shallow, self-indulgent and self-absorbed trend-chasing. Although there may be an element of truth in … Continue reading

Temper City review – meat temple sequel takes on curry and poultry
★★★★☆ / Barbecue/BBQ / Eclectic / Steak/chophouse

Temper City review – meat temple sequel takes on curry and poultry

It’s both different from the original Soho Temper and reassuringly similar too Update 25/8/2018 – this restaurant’s menu has changed drastically. It now closely resembles the one at the original Temper Soho. I try not to write too much about the industry goings-on in London’s restaurant scene. Such gossipy navel-gazing is often transient in its importance, … Continue reading