TV CV only gets you oh so far I have little time for most TV celebrity chefs, but I’ll usually make an exception for Rick Stein. His genteel avuncular charm, childlike wonder and boundless yet measured enthusiasm make him far more watchable than the majority of his arse-clenchingly irritating peers. The big man naturally doesn’t cook in … Continue reading
A waste of Soho real estate Update 19/06/2020 – this restaurant has now closed I haven’t heard the name Bukowski Grill in years – not since my round up of London’s best non-chain burgers. The Shoreditch branch of Bukowski fared poorly in those burger stakes, so it was no surprise when superior burger purveyors expanded far more rapidly … Continue reading
Hidden Shoreditch gem finally gives Mexican food its due Update 14/2/17 – this restaurant has now closed Britain’s continuing love affair with the US manifests itself in our culture in many ways, not least in the number of barbecue and burger restaurants springing up across the capital. The cuisine of America’s southern neighbour has been … Continue reading
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
Another reason to stop being so pissy about Shoreditch London’s restaurant scene doesn’t stand still with an unstoppable cycle of new restaurants replacing old ones. Sometimes it’s for the worse, as when Charlotte Street’s Rasa Samudra, a very civilised Indian seafood restaurant, was replaced with a branch of Côte. A bloody, sodding, unforgivable Côte. Sometimes though, … Continue reading
The Hawksmoor that’s not a Hawksmoor Foxlow is the latest restaurant from the guys behind the Hawksmoor mini-chain of steakhouses, but it tries to be different by concentrating on meats other than steak. I say ‘tries’ quite deliberately, as you can still order various cuts of steak at Foxlow. Even if this wasn’t the case, Foxlow’s … Continue reading
Can posh Peruvian plates placate our proletarian palates? Peruvian restaurants in London are like buses – you wait ages for one, then two turn up in short order. The imaginatively named Ceviche serves up Peruvian food that is, as far as I can tell, fairly traditional. Newcomer Lima, on the other hand, takes a more … 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
Peru’s Soho embassy There are only a handful of Peruvian restaurants in London and the simply named Ceviche is one of them. Located in the heart of Soho, Ceviche’s interior is tastefully decorated with just the right amount of toned down kitsch hanging from the walls, although the effect can go into overdrive when the … Continue reading
Who says vegetarian food has to be boring? I’ve shamefully neglected to cover vegetarian restaurants on this blog despite the fact that two of my most trusted dining companions, The Flame Haired Squelchie and The Prancing Hippy, are vegetarians. That’s easy enough to rectify though as London has a respectable selection of vegetarian eateries, including Orchard, … Continue reading
