It’s an import from New York in Covent Garden, but don’t hold that against it ‘Red Farm’ sounds like a Maoist agricultural collective where exiled bourgeoise are forced to hunt sparrows as part of their re-education, but it’s actually the name of a Chinese restaurant in Covent Garden. It’s quite unlike any other Chinese restaurant in …
… but is coming up short. Names can be many things. A descriptive label, a pigeonhole, a statement of intent. It’s therefore striking that Islington restaurant 1251 has such an easily forgotten, easily misremembered name. It may have some significance to someone behind the scenes, especially in light of the fact that chef James Cochran …
Leytonstone’s best kept secret Singburi is a Thai restaurant in Leytonstone, but it’s hardly new as it was established back in the heady, halcyon days of 1999. While hardly unknown, it hasn’t garnered nearly as much fame as London’s new wave Thai restaurants, such as Kiln and Farang. The reasons why aren’t hard to fathom. …
Curry by any other name would taste as delicious Choosing how to describe your restaurant and its style of cooking can be a tricky thing. Masala Wala Cafe is a case in point, describing itself as a Pakistani restaurant on its website. This is notable in of itself when so many South Asian restaurants in …
This Xi’an Impression spin-off brings the spice of life to Aldgate There’s no doubt that London can be a chaotic, stressful place that can drain not only your bank account, but also your tolerance for the continued existence of other human beings. To focus myopically on all the usual big city problems, though, would be …
But don’t tell that to the Nuno Mendes fanboys Update 10/4/18 – added a few new sentences to the conclusion. When you’re one of London’s most feted chefs, responsible for smash hits like the Chiltern Firehouse and Taberna do Mercado, then there’s only one thing left for you to do. You open a secretive supper …
The modern Turkish restaurant that’s far too good for Fitzrovia’s backstreets Although I only spent a day in the modern, nondescript Turkish city of Kayseri a few years back, the mere mention of this central Anatolian metropolis is enough to bring back fond memories. The city’s mod cons were especially welcome after trekking through the … Continue reading
The P Franco sequel hiding near London Fields Even if the UK wasn’t a nation soaked in booze from head to toe, eating out in London as a teetotaller isn’t always easy. While plenty of people also abstain from the bottle, many more drink like it’s going out of fashion and want to know about … Continue reading
The West End’s other Italian restaurants should be pistachio green with envy. You’d be forgiven for thinking that London’s recent spate of pasta-only Italian restaurants materalised out of thin air, but it’s actually just another chapter in the long history of Italian hospitality and catering in the capital. Soho in particular, as well the areas … Continue reading
Mr Bao’s classy sequel There’s an old cliché that second albums are more difficult for bands to produce than their debut disc. All sorts of factors are blamed, from newly inflated egos to overindulgent budgets. None of that appears to have affected Daddy Bao, the follow-up to the rather splendid Mr Bao in Peckham. Although … Continue reading
If there’s an ‘R’ word other than ‘restaurant’ that will elicit fierce emotions and strongly held opinions, then it’s ‘regeneration’ and the associated effects of gentrification that go with it. It’s therefore no surprise that the regeneration of Woolwich’s dilapidated but elegantly vaulted Public Market into Street Feast’s latest street food stall night market was … Continue reading
Street food residency settles down around the corner from Smokestak There’s a well-worn, well-thumbed playbook to opening a restaurant in London serving a previously unknown, or at least little known, cuisine. Choose a name that sounds suitably ‘exotic’, yet isn’t too hard to spell and is preferably based on one of your chosen cuisine’s landmark … Continue reading
