Paradise Garage review – the best value tasting menu in London
★★★★☆ / British / Eclectic / Modern European / Modernist

Paradise Garage review – the best value tasting menu in London

This railway arch restaurant will set your heart racing Update 12/02/18 – this restaurant has now closed Unless you walk around London, it’s hard to appreciate just how close many of the city’s neighbourhoods are to each other. Bethnal Green has the City and Shoreditch directly on its western border, while Mile End and Stratford sit … Continue reading

Morada Brindisa Asador review – charcoal-fired tapas comes to Piccadilly
★★★☆☆ / Spanish / Tapas

Morada Brindisa Asador review – charcoal-fired tapas comes to Piccadilly

Big and small plates of charcoal grilled and baked meat Brindisa is one of the older tapas mini-chains in London, having sprouted as an off-shoot of a Spanish goods import operation more than a decade ago. Perhaps because its existence is therefore taken for granted, it’s rarely spoken of in the same excitable or reverential tones … Continue reading

Peckham Bazaar review – oddball Eastern European takes over old pub
★★★★☆ / Eclectic / Greek / Turkish

Peckham Bazaar review – oddball Eastern European takes over old pub

It’s sort of like Turkish food, but even more fun Thanks to UKIP and the generally nasty tone of British politics in recent years, ‘Eastern European’ has become a loaded phrase. Our new neighbours have nevertheless been slowly making their impact on London’s dining scene. ‘Eastern European’ food doesn’t have the greatest reputation though and that nebulous … Continue reading

Oriental Dragon review – hilarious service, good food
★★★★☆ / Chinese / Chinese Dumplings / Sichuanese

Oriental Dragon review – hilarious service, good food

Fitzrovia Chinese reaches new highs and lows Restaurants in London’s Chinatown are renowned for their brusque, hurried service, but this culture of surly indifference has no geographical boundaries. Oriental Dragon on Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia is a classic example. Although the service wasn’t completely charmless, overall it was hilariously unhelpful and it reached the apex … Continue reading

Les Deux Salons review – the Strand’s attractive French brasserie
★★★☆☆ / French

Les Deux Salons review – the Strand’s attractive French brasserie

Cheerful Continental Covent Garden Comfort Chow There’s no shortage of mock French-style brasseries and bistros in London from chains such as Cafe Rouge and Cote to independents such as Les Deux Salons. This two floor restaurant is a mere stone’s throw away from Covent Garden, Charing Cross and The Strand. Les Deux Salons is owned … Continue reading

Story review – a fairy tale or a shaggy dog story?
★★★★☆ / Modern European / Modernist

Story review – a fairy tale or a shaggy dog story?

Tower Bridge gets a classy new neighbour A lot of new London restaurants have adopted some variant of the stripped back ‘industrial’ look common in Shoreditch – bare brick walls, exposed ventilation ducts and naked concrete floors. I’m thoroughly bored of this now cliched aesthetic, so I was pleased to discover that Story has opted … Continue reading

★★★☆☆ / Gastropub

Great Queen Street review – Covent Garden’s best gastropub?

Pub food fit for a queen? Update 16/8/2019 – this gastropub has now closed Going to a restaurant recommended by another blogger is fraught with difficulty. If I agree that it’s great, then either the other blogger radiates unbearable smugness or a collective warm fuzziness, usually only seen during communal sporting events or when swooning … Continue reading

★★★☆☆ / Modern European / Modernist / Spanish

Manairo review – dining in the shadow of dead bulls

This review of a Barcelona restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage. I was attracted to Manairó because of its apparent reputation as a place for ‘snout to tail’ eating where every part of the animal is used. With this in mind, it’s therefore blackly ironic that the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it restaurant is … Continue reading