The new restaurant taking over Spuntino’s place Disclosure: one dessert was offered for free. This was unsolicited and was accepted out of politeness. I don’t envy London’s restauranteurs. Extending hospitality, warmth and service is made all the harder by the compromises needed to open a restaurant in the capital’s cutthroat restaurant market. Soaring rents in … Continue reading
If vegetables are so delicious, then why do so many vegetarian and vegan restaurants insist on making them resemble meat instead? It’s never been easy eating out as a vegetarian in London. Prior to the noughties, your choices were largely divided between Indian restaurants of variable quality and hemp-ridden Mildred’s-type establishments which were almost universally … Continue reading
BBQ Dreamz street food stall settles down in east London Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A street food stall serves up a cuisine barely known to most Londoners, earning plaudits and a devoted following in the process. Following a series of pop-ups, residencies and barn-storming media appearances, it finally finds a permanent … Continue reading
Tucked away in a quiet shopping arcade and full of understated sass Updated 26/11/2019 – tweaked the conclusions slightly Bayswater is a funny part of town. Dotted with hotels, souvenir tat shops and one too many overpriced cafes, it often feels like tourist trap London. But it’s also long been an area where you can … Continue reading
By any other name, this London Bridge railway arch treasure would still be as sweet For a country so beloved by Britain’s middle-class holidaymakers, the food of Portugal has a surprisingly low profile in London. Unless you count the ubiquitous Nando’s (which I don’t), there are surprisingly few Portuguese restaurants in London with most seemingly … Continue reading
No, not *that* Borough street food market, the other one frequented by actual Londoners rather than tourists At first glance Flat Iron Square appears to be nothing more than a cosy, small-ish street food market tucked underneath a series of railway arches just south of Borough Market. Although it has just 12 stalls, it’s also … Continue reading
To Eat Like A Girl is an aspiration, not a slight Update 27/10/2019 – added detail that this is a pop-up at Homeboy I’ve been writing about London restaurants for close to a decade now, so I’d like to think I’m at least a passable writer with decent judgment in what you should and shouldn’t … Continue reading
Eating well on a budget in south east London If you hang around on London Food and Restaurant Twitter (TM) for long enough, then you’ll inevitably come across a peculiar form of griping. For some people, certain words and phrases are considered impermissible in food writing on pain of public shaming. Some, such as ‘melt … Continue reading
Restaurants, rather than street food, dominate this glossy middle-class cafeteria Arcade Food Theatre is a food court taking up the entire street-level annexe of Centre Point, the Tottenham Court Road skyscraper that everyone loves to hate. Even more unusually for a London food court, Arcade Food Theatre isn’t filled with street food traders. Its stalls … Continue reading
It may not be that wild any more, but this restaurant is most definitely sweet In an age where many London restaurants are closing their doors forever, it’s heartening to see that at least a select few are beating the odds. Wild Honey holds a special place in my gluttonous history as it was one … Continue reading
