Hill and Szrok Pub review – Old Street meat pub is worth a butcher’s hook
★★★☆☆ / Gastropub / Steak/chophouse

Hill and Szrok Pub review – Old Street meat pub is worth a butcher’s hook

Steakhouse and pub all-in-one Update 19/7/21 – this restaurant has now closed The original Hill and Szrok is a butchers in Broadway Market that branched out into catering. Re-purposing its central marble slab into a communal table, the butcher turned into a self-described ‘cookshop’ at night. ‘Cookshops’ are apparently the Regency-era precursors to restaurants in … Continue reading

Bellanger review – French-German mashup wags my tail
★★★★★ / French

Bellanger review – French-German mashup wags my tail

Alsace Islington brasserie on the green Update 16/8/2019 – this restaurant has now closed Britain’s long relationship with France has been a fraught and tangled one, to say the least. Thankfully that hasn’t stopped a surge of new French restaurants opening in London over the past couple of years. Bellanger, from the people behind Brasserie Zedel … Continue reading

Mr Bao review – New York, Taipei, Peckham
★★★★☆ / Chinese / Taiwanese

Mr Bao review – New York, Taipei, Peckham

Peckham Taiwanese small bites Update 25/2/2018 – updated formatting and corrected a few typos We Londoners like to think that we’re very cosmopolitan, open to new things and experiences, but when it comes to food we tend to prefer our exoticism in small, easily relatable bites. Chinese food is a prime example. A wealth of eating … Continue reading

Le Bab review – venison kebabs and a pig’s head
★★★★☆ / Eclectic / Turkish Kebabs

Le Bab review – venison kebabs and a pig’s head

Moo, cluck and oink Disclosure: A 10% discount was applied to the bill for my fourth meal, unsolicited. This was accepted only out of politeness. I originally had no intention of reviewing Le Bab. The first thing that put me off was the location – Soho’s Kingly Court (home of the risible Whyte and Brown) is effectively … Continue reading

Shuang Shuang review – conveyor belt Chinese hot pot
★★★☆☆ / Chinese

Shuang Shuang review – conveyor belt Chinese hot pot

Do-it-yourself food at silver spoon prices Chinese food in London has long been dominated by Cantonese cooking, but that appeared to be changing in the mid noughties with Sichuanese eateries opening up across the city. That move towards better representation of China’s myriad regional cuisines soon stalled, but it appears to have restarted with new … Continue reading

Sushisamba review – sky-high group dining
★★☆☆☆ / Eclectic / Japanese / Sushi/Sashimi

Sushisamba review – sky-high group dining

Glossy, pretty and oh so vacant Tourist guide books often note that London no longer has a high-rise rotating tower restaurant like Berlin’s TV Tower or Toronto’s CN Tower. While thankfully true, this doesn’t mean London is short of skyscraper restaurants – far from it. There are plenty of places where you’re paying more for the … Continue reading

The Ninth review – racing towards first place and falling short
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / French

The Ninth review – racing towards first place and falling short

Fitzrovia French falls forwards While there’s hardly a shortage of expensive fine dining restaurants in London, there has still nonetheless been a general shift away from pricey, starched table cloth restaurants towards less costly, more informal eateries. In most cases, big name chefs and restaurant groups have been content to merely launch spin-offs, such as Dabbous … Continue reading