Latest Entries
★★★☆☆ / Chinese Dumplings / Chinese Noodles / Taiwanese

Leong’s Legends Continues review – A small piece of Taiwan in London

For most people Chinese food means the familiar anglicised staples such as sweet and sour pork and chow mein. Saavier Londoners have moved on to more authentic, interesting and healthier dishes. The traditionally Cantonese-dominated restaurants have been making way for eateries serving food from the other regions of China – the country is almost double … Continue reading

★★★☆☆ / Modern European / Modernist

The Larder review – Power Lunching or Powerless Munching?

A Modern European restaurant with an Australian twist. I feel mildly sorry for any City restaurant that happens to be on the same street as the celebrated St John Bar and Restaurant, a celebrated 17-year old fine dining institution. The Larder is one such restaurant, only a few yards away from St John. Whereas St … Continue reading

Humour / Uncategorized

Tipping by John Lithgow and the Reservoir Dogs

Tipping after a restaurant meal involves an intricate web of complex economic issues and social mores. Many of us will remember the deftly articulate (and profanity-laden) discussion on the issue in the prologue to Reservoir Dogs. A less well-known alternative method of tipping was demostrated by Dick Solomon (John Lithgow to his friends) in hit-and-miss … Continue reading

★☆☆☆☆ / French / Modern European / Modernist

Villandry review – Poor quality and insultingly overpriced

Finding a bad restaurant in London is actually pretty hard. The diabolically bad restaurants don’t survive long in London’s commercially competitive environment and most of us have the good sense to avoid the merely awful ones, such as the tourist traps like the Angus chain of steakhouses. What’s left are the sea of mediocre and … Continue reading

★★★★☆ / Indian / South Asian

Cinnamon Kitchen review – No poppadoms here

Ignore the City boys and concentrate on the skilful, modern Indian cooking. Indian food has become so popular in Britain that it’s almost become a caricature of itself. Thankfully there are plenty of enterprising chefs and proprietors willing to innovate with the curries and grills that we’re all so familiar with and give us something … Continue reading

★★★★☆ / Burgers

Byron review – a chain burger that’s actually good

I’m usually very suspicious of chain restaurants. They either serve up bland, uninteresting food or they’re just plain bad. An exception to this rule of awfulness is Byron, a growing chain of burger restaurants all scattered throughout London. Charlie Brooker at The Guardian has his own inimitable take on burgers and chain restaurants. I’ve been … Continue reading

★★★☆☆ / Breakfast

Dean Street Townhouse breakfast review – a hotel breakfast that doesn’t suck?

I’ve detailed my ongoing quest to find a filling, yet gastronomically interesting and inventive breakfast in previous reviews. The latest breakfast place to come to my attention is the Dean Street Townhouse. The Townhouse is actually a small, boutique (i.e. expensive) hotel that also has a bar and dining room that serves all three meals … Continue reading