Latest Entries
Barullo review – eye-opening paella and tapas in the City
★★★★☆ / Spanish / Tapas

Barullo review – eye-opening paella and tapas in the City

The Spanish restaurant near The Gherkin that truly delivers It’s odd to begin a restaurant review by referring to another restaurant that I haven’t been to and that has closed entirely. But bear with me, as there’s a reason behind my madness. Barullo isn’t just a new Spanish restaurant in the City, within spitting distance … Continue reading

Master Wei review – masterful noodles that you’ve never heard of…
★★★★☆ / Chinese / Chinese Dumplings / Chinese Noodles / Shaanxi/Xi'an

Master Wei review – masterful noodles that you’ve never heard of…

…and there’s plenty more to enjoy at this Russell Square Shaanxi/Xi’an restaurant Update 18/10/21 – added details of autumn 2021 revisit Opening a new restaurant serving Xi’an food (or Shaanxi food, if you prefer) in the seemingly barren concrete wastes of the Holborn-Bloomsbury-Russell Square hinterland appears bafflingly odd at first glance. Despite being wedged in … Continue reading

Max’s Sandwich Shop review – these Finsbury Park sarnies are more than just a middle-class Subway
★★★★☆ / Eclectic

Max’s Sandwich Shop review – these Finsbury Park sarnies are more than just a middle-class Subway

Max’s doesn’t serve BLTs, tuna mayo or Ploughman’s – it’s far more creative than that Sandwiches are everywhere, yet we rarely give them the proper due care and attention that they deserve. Clammy, flaccid supermarket sandwiches barely deserve the appellation, yet many of us not only eat them for lunch but for dinner too. Guiltily, … Continue reading

Yeni review – this modern Turkish restaurant in Soho deserves your attention
★★★☆☆ / Modern European / Modernist / Turkish

Yeni review – this modern Turkish restaurant in Soho deserves your attention

With brill, octopus and beef ribs on the menu, this isn’t your Dalston mate’s idea of a Turkish restaurant Yeni is the London counterpart of a feted Istanbul restaurant, but you wouldn’t know it from the Soho restaurant’s website. For the casual observer, the only clues to its Turkish origins are its somewhat enigmatic name and … Continue reading

Bao and Bing review – Taiwanese street food staggers into Marylebone
★★★☆☆ / Chinese / Taiwanese

Bao and Bing review – Taiwanese street food staggers into Marylebone

Just around the corner from the Chiltern Firehouse, but it’s too little too late London has well and truly fallen for Taiwanese gua bao. From its early days as a street food favourite to the JKS-backed sensation that is Bao, restaurants serving these Taiwanese sandwiches have now opened in farther flung London boroughs such as … Continue reading

Murger Hanhan review – hearty, face-slapping noodles in Mayfair
★★★★☆ / Chinese / Chinese Noodles

Murger Hanhan review – hearty, face-slapping noodles in Mayfair

Plus, one of the best vegetarian dishes I’ve ever had in London Expensive haute cuisine restaurants are common as muck in Mayfair. They’re plastered all over the place and many (but by no means all) are so blandly uniform that you could quite easily stagger from one to the other on some sort of tasting … Continue reading

Pleasant Lady Jian Bing Trading Stall review – the Chinese crepes full of snap, crackle and spice
★★★★☆ / Chinese

Pleasant Lady Jian Bing Trading Stall review – the Chinese crepes full of snap, crackle and spice

The street food stomach liner every Soho pub goer needs Chinese food has come far in London over the past decade or so, leaving behind the takeaway baggage that still weighs it down elsewhere throughout the country. It’s therefore ironic that one of the most delicious Chinese dishes in the capital is served from what … Continue reading

2018 can sod off – the restaurants London has lost and their next best replacements
News

2018 can sod off – the restaurants London has lost and their next best replacements

Closure to the year in restaurants 2018 has been one hell of a year for restaurants in London. While plenty of new restaurants have opened, an alarmingly large number of restaurants have closed their doors forever. Much has been written elsewhere about the perfect storm of conditions that have led to this industry-wide reckoning, with … Continue reading

Din Tai Fung Covent Garden review – people are queuing for hours to order the wrong dish at this dumpling restaurant
★★★☆☆ / Chinese / Chinese Dumplings / Chinese Noodles / Taiwanese

Din Tai Fung Covent Garden review – people are queuing for hours to order the wrong dish at this dumpling restaurant

The biggest restaurant chain you’ve never heard of has opened in central London It should go without saying, but no restaurant is worth queuing for – at least in London or any other metropolis that’s similarly bursting at the seams with other restaurants at your disposal. Queuing for potentially hours on end does nothing but … Continue reading