The best thing about Flat Iron Square isn’t the street food stalls I’m sometimes asked how I pick which restaurants to review. The number and range of possible criteria is large and diverse, respectively. Some of the most important is that a restaurant has to be interesting and it should be in some way indicative … Continue reading
Tag Archives: crab
Volta do Mar review – Portuguese food that isn’t just from Portugal
Big issues on small plates from a Salt Yard alumnus Volta do Mar is an unusual restaurant in more ways than one. Founded by an alumnus from the storied yet troubled Salt Yard group, Volta do Mar’s Portuguese-themed menu has influences from all over the former Portuguese empire – or the Lusosphere if you prefer. … Continue reading
Trap Kitchen review – affordable seafood swims into Balham via Instagram
This crab dinner has legs, but it’s running before it can walk The potential of Instagram to power and propel businesses from mere photographic ideas into actual money making businesses is well known. It’s one thing to read about it though and quite to another to sit in a restaurant that has its origins in … Continue reading
Colombo Kitchen review – the Sri Lankan restaurant brightening up Worcester Park
This special events catering company outshines the competition in Tooting Long before the rise of Hoppers, one of the standard bearers for Sri Lankan food in London were the cheap and cheerful restaurants of Tooting such as Apollo Banana Leaf. So much so, that the very idea of Sri Lankan food in London’s suburbs is … Continue reading
Bar Douro review – Portuguese small plates, bar food and tapas
By any other name, this London Bridge railway arch treasure would still be as sweet For a country so beloved by Britain’s middle-class holidaymakers, the food of Portugal has a surprisingly low profile in London. Unless you count the ubiquitous Nando’s (which I don’t), there are surprisingly few Portuguese restaurants in London with most seemingly … Continue reading
Siren at The Goring review – seafood that isn’t fit for a Queen
Overstuffed and underwhelming Update 17/06/2020 – this restaurant has closed as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic Seafood, like many things in life, is subject to the cyclical, ever-changing whims of fashion and finance. Although the details often depend on the specific seafood in question, seafood has – throughout the long history of these … Continue reading
Two Lights review – this unassuming Clove Club sequel is full of surprises
Grouse sausage and a mussels flatbread in Hoxton ‘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 time limits is utterly incompatible with the very … Continue reading
Bob’s Lobster review – from street food van to London Bridge railway arch
But the claws on this seafood beast have been tied Update 18/7/2018 – clarified that the mini lobster roll is the only lobster dish on the dinnertime menu (there is apparently now a second lobster dish – a mac ‘n’ cheese – on the lunch menu) Street food traders have been settling down and turning … Continue reading
Brigadiers review – the City version of Gymkhana smokes and sizzles…
… but the fire is fizzling out. On paper, Brigadiers sounds like a raucous yet soulless Cityboy frathouse. Brigadiers doesn’t just serve Indian-style grilled meats. It serves them in a clubhouse-style setting decorated in a cod British Raj-esque manner. There’s even a room kitted out with a pool table, a TV permanently tuned to Sky … Continue reading
Bright review – the Bethnal Green wine bar full of surprises
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