Islington brisket vs Covent Garden celeriac Traditional Turkish kebabs are nigh-on perfect. Whether you prefer shish, kofte, doner, iskender or beyti, the smoke and sizzle of a charcoal mangal is hard to beat. The wisest restauranteurs know better than to attempt ‘elevating’ or ‘refining’ these timeless classics, but instead attempt to put their own personal … Continue reading
Aye for pie with an eye for pie One should never, ever underestimate the importance of how food looks. Attractive-looking food not only influences how we perceive its taste, but can get otherwise disinterested punters in through the door in the first place. This placebo-like effect can be seen in the social media hubbub surrounding Holborn Dining Room. This previously … Continue reading
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
Smoke is the new black. It’s easy to rant and rail against hipsters and their rapidly gentrifying east London hub. For many, such as my dining companion Vicious Alabaster, they’re all little more than pompous, shallow, fad-chasing Macaroni twits. That may or may not be true, but I generally don’t care. From a utilitarian perspective, they … Continue reading
The successor to Newman Street Tavern I rarely get upset when a restaurant closes, no matter how good it was. At the risk of sounding trite, nothing in this life lasts forever. Even so, I was mortified to hear that Newman Street Tavern, an elegant restaurant serving reliably well-crafted French-ish dishes, was closing to be replaced by a … Continue reading
Market stall BBQ settles down on Commercial Street Market stalls and street food tend to be underestimated and under-appreciated by many visitors to London. That’s their loss as street food vendors can often be far better than more established restaurants, as my group test of American-style barbecue eateries demonstrates. An increasing number of street food vendors are settling down in … Continue reading
The Polpo guys do it again Updated 12/01/18 – this restaurant has now closed. Updated 6/04/14 – set menu details added. It’s mildly myopic to say that there’s no where good to eat on Shaftesbury Avenue as the myriad delights of Soho, Covent Garden and Chinatown are only a few minutes walk away. Still, if … Continue reading
Bar-gain or bar-baric? (Sorry.) I’ve eaten at and written about the Hawksmoor mini-chain of steakhouses at length before on this blog. What makes Hawksmoor so interesting, apart from the sheer quality of most of the dishes, is that each branch is a little different from the others. For example, the Air Street branch does some … Continue reading
Having eaten my way through almost the entire menu, is this domiciled food truck really a bountiful BBQ bonanza? Update August 2013: more up-to-date review published Pitt Cue is a new barbecue restaurant in Soho, just around the corner from Carnaby Street, but it originally started out as a truck underneath Hungerford Bridge on the … Continue reading
Is this gastropub the king of Fitzrovia foodie pubs? Fitzrovia is desperately short of good gastropubs, so I just had to check out the Crown and Sceptre when I found out that the pub has a varied and interesting menu that changes regularly. I dragged along Sue-Ellen, Mumbles and The Pulse as my dining companions. … Continue reading
The Picky Glutton 