The best dishes of the year that you haven’t tried yet As another year – and another decade – come to an end, it’s tempting to feel a sense of melancholy. The country as a whole rushes headlong into what will almost certainly be a jingoistically embarrassing debacle, while countless cherished restaurants have shut their … Continue reading
But it’s an island-sized disappointment London’s restauranteurs love a good trend bandwagon to jump upon, whether it’s gua bao or banh mi. So it’s something of a surprise that it’s taken this long for another Sri Lankan restaurant to open up in zone 1 following the runaway success of Hoppers, both the original in Soho … 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
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
Bringing the spice of life to West Berkshire The West Berkshire town of Newbury is notable for a few things. It was the site of two battles in the English Civil War, its neighbours once included a RAF base picketed by anti-nuclear protestors and it’s the headquarters for the UK branch of telecommunications behemoth Vodafone. … 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
In a nutshell: you can do better On the face of it, a menu of small plates intended for sharing amongst multiple people seems like an oxymoron. It’s child’s play to share a heaving slab of roast, a cauldron of casserole or a heap of noodles with your gathered friends and family. It’s much harder … Continue reading
Small plates don’t always lead to big rewards There’s no shortage of places in London to graze on small tapas-sized plates while guzzling wine, places where the list of liver-annihilating beverages is several times longer than the menu, especially around London Bridge and Borough Market. To the untrained eye, there’s little to set Flor apart … Continue reading
Halfway between Elephant & Castle and London Bridge, but nowhere in particular Updated 30/9/2019 – added reviews of new traders and updated the reviews of Badiani, Duman, Little Sicily and Turkish Garden Updated 16/4/2019 – added hyperlinked table of contents, corrected spelling and grammatical errors The weird thing about street food in London isn’t the … Continue reading
The Italian seafood restaurant that moved from Mayfair to Earl’s Court I had eaten my fill, but I was not satisfied. As the hapless staff flailed at even the most basic tasks, the feeling started to drain from my numbed backside and legs from sitting for so long, while my phone – my only bulwark … Continue reading
