Latest Entries
★☆☆☆☆ / 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 →

★★★★☆ / Japanese / Japanese Noodles / Sushi/Sashimi

Ten Ten Tei review – The best budget Japanese in London?

Japanese restaurants in London, especially those serving sushi and sashimi, tend to be expensive. Unfortunately, the more reasonably priced ones usually aren’t very good either <cough, Yo Sushi, cough>. An exception to this rule is Ten Ten Tei, a small restaurant in Soho on Brewer Street. The place has a ramshackle, threadbare look to it. … Continue reading →

Uncategorized

The world’s weirdest restaurants…

A small list compiled by  Yahoo UK. “The Japanese are truly the most innovative in the world when it comes to creating a crazy restaurant concept. There’s the creepy Monkey-waiter restaurant in Utsunomiya, where you’re served by a monkey… in a wig… wearing a human mask.” http://uk.travel.yahoo.com/p-promo-3360695 Come across any weird restaurants you think I … Continue reading →

Opera Tavern review – nduja scotch eggs in a revamped West End pub
★★★☆☆ / Spanish / Tapas

Opera Tavern review – nduja scotch eggs in a revamped West End pub

Salt Yard tapas in Covent Garden Updated 14/6/2020 – added details of 2020 meals and updated the Verdict as well as the formatting. Disclosure: I used a publicly available discount for some of my 2020 meals. This discount was available to the general public; as ever I did not seek any special treatment just because … Continue reading →