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
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
Halfway between Elephant & Castle and London Bridge, but nowhere in particular Updated 30/9/2019 – added reviews of new traders and updated the reviews of Badiani, Duman, Little Sicily and Turkish Garden Updated 16/4/2019 – added hyperlinked table of contents, corrected spelling and grammatical errors The weird thing about street food in London isn’t the … Continue reading
This restaurant is my new Vice It takes balls to open a restaurant like St Leonards. Fulsome, dangly ones that sway and jiggle with every sigh and cough. It’s either that or the proprietors’ first choice property was out of reach for whatever reason. Few other reasons can seemingly explain St Leonards, a restaurant located … Continue reading
It’s tempting to dismiss Brat out of hand before you’ve even laid eyes on the place. It’s situated above the newly relocated Smoking Goat in Shoreditch, which makes it sound like the hospitality equivalent of a grubby bedsit or a suffocating flatshare. The kitchen is headed up by Tomos Parry, formerly of the lauded Kitty … Continue reading
Barbecue British-style Update 10/6/2019 – this restaurant has now closed The move from street food maverick to established restaurant can be a rocky one. Even if you somehow tame the logistical and financial maelstrom of setting up a London restaurant, there’s still the task of evolving your menu to keep up with the competition. That’s something The … Continue reading
This review of a Rome restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage Restaurants named after their chefs, celebrity or otherwise, is pretty standard but a restaurant named after its sommelier/proprietor is a new one (for me at least). That’s the case at Pipero al Rex, Alessandro Pipero’s restaurant inside Rome’s Hotel Rex. The … Continue reading
East End brunch and dinner I’m deeply sceptical about the entire idea of brunch. It’s the original naff restaurant marketing gimmick – add some muesli and eggs to get a whole new meal! Charge extra for some mediocre coffee! While Rawduck didn’t change my mind about this bastard relative of the elevenses, I’m still mightily impressed … Continue reading
Hotel food with a twist Hotel restaurants are very different from restaurants in hotels. This may seem like a minor semantic difference, but there’s actually a yawning gulf between the two. Hotel restaurants are identikit eateries serving up a large menu of lowest common denominator dishes designed for weary travellers too tired to care and … Continue reading
A Mexican restaurant of two halves As my fellow restaurant blogger 31_75 pointed out recently, in his own inimitable style, there are very few good Mexican restaurants in London. The situation isn’t nearly as bad as it was two decades ago when all we had were horrid Tex-Mex dives like Chiquito, but it’s still far from … Continue reading
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