Macellaio RC Union Street review – the Italian steakhouse that can’t tear itself away from pizza
★★★☆☆ / Italian / Pizza / Steak/chophouse

Macellaio RC Union Street review – the Italian steakhouse that can’t tear itself away from pizza

‘What’s an Italian steakhouse?!’ The answer, of course, is a restaurant that serves steak cut from Italian cows. It’s a revealing response – pasta, pizza and pesto cast such a shadow over the perception of Italian food in our collective imagination, that anything else is literally inconceivable. If goldfish really do have a memory of just three seconds, then our gestalt intelligence is seemingly limited to just three things per subject. Continue reading

Flor review – Lyle’s does British tapas in Borough Market
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / Modern European / Modernist

Flor review – Lyle’s does British tapas in Borough Market

Small plates don’t always lead to big rewards Update 31/01/2022 – this restaurant has now closed 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 … Continue reading

Burger and Beyond review – there’s more to this Shoreditch restaurant than just burgers
★★★★☆ / Burgers

Burger and Beyond review – there’s more to this Shoreditch restaurant than just burgers

Street food stall settles down in Shoreditch Burger and Beyond’s story sounds like such a throwback from the past, that it’s almost quaint in its retro-ness. This burger stall, a stalwart of street food markets such as Street Feast’s Public Market in Woolwich, has now set up shop in the heart of Shoreditch with plans … Continue reading

Two Lights review – this unassuming Clove Club sequel is full of surprises
★★★★☆ / Eclectic

Two Lights review – this unassuming Clove Club sequel is full of surprises

Grouse sausage and a mussels flatbread in Hoxton Update 08/5/2021 – this restaurant has now closed ‘We’ll need the table back in two hours’ is a familiar phrase for restaurant-going Londoners, but is utterly alien to many foreign visitors – especially those from the Continent. For many of our European cousins, the notion of table … Continue reading

Street Feast Woolwich Public Market review: a street food guide
★★★★☆ / ★★★☆☆ / ★★☆☆☆ / ★☆☆☆☆

Street Feast Woolwich Public Market review: a street food guide

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

Hide review – the Dabbous sequel that could only have been born in Mayfair
★★★★★ / ★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / Modern European / Modernist

Hide review – the Dabbous sequel that could only have been born in Mayfair

Upstairs, Downstairs and where the two meet There are restaurants where it’s clear that compromises have been made. Whether due to money, time or stress, or some unfortunate combination of all three, a restaurant’s premises, location or menu sometimes aren’t quite what its proprietor and chef would have liked them to be. I’d be very … Continue reading

Temper review – Soho meat palace serves exquisite beef, lamb and goat
★★★★☆ / Barbecue/BBQ / Eclectic / Steak/chophouse

Temper review – Soho meat palace serves exquisite beef, lamb and goat

Chicken? Where we’re going, we don’t need chicken. Update 25/2/2018 – updated formatting, added details of early 2018 revisit I try not to pay too much attention to a restaurant’s PR push before I eat there, as the nauseating buzzwords, jargon and marketing waffle can colour my view of the place before it’s even opened. … Continue reading