london restaurants

when you asked for small noodle soup it was as big as yr head (if yr head was liquid and in a bowl); i never dared ask for large noodle soup, in case the seas ran dry and it was my greedy fault

As the WCDS is starting soon I will be able to give more info, but Ethiopian Merkato on Caledonian Road is good, Crouch End (wherever the fuck that is) is full of top restaurants but latest discover of BYO curry house just off Marchomont Street in central London has had me going back 4 times in 2 weeks.

The Gate in Hammersmith is better than the one next to my house. Rasa in Stoke Newington is better than the one near Oxford Circus. But the best vegetarian restaurant in London is Manna, on Erskine Road, near Primrose Hill. I love this place (it equals The Gate for tastiness of food, and has a much better atmosphere).

Kulu Kulu sushi in Brewer Street.

Mandola in Westbourne Grove.

Churchill Arms pub thai in Kensington.

but then im with some other people later in the week and we need another recommendation.

They recommend the place you mention sarah

sushi-say is like 15mins walk from my house...

Sarah, sushi-say is fantastic, and the chef thre is very very cool.

I've heard far too many stories about Pollo ever to go back there, which is a shame as I used to like it.

Ads for there keep appearing in my feed on Instagram, no idea why. Maybe I should give in.

The American diner vibe is kind of a random choice but who knows, maybe there's dozens of places looking like that in Istanbul.

I never even knew fried fish like that was a thing in Turkey but I guess we only see certain types of food as the dominant or popular imports.

Ed. I take it your classmate (for the 6th form) was Snowdon’s daughter?

― guillotine vogue (suzy), Monday, November 18, 2024 1:15 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It was one of those eton avenue crammers for the nice but dim and to undiverge the divergent - so up to the age of 12 or so.

Went to Nobel Rot this last week and for the first time it... really wasn't very good. service was really friendly but really bad (things arriving in wrong order, waiting ages for a drink, wrongly described dishes) which is a difficult combination, food was mainly *ok* but in one case indifferent to the point of being like school dinners. wines still good and i still love the lamb's conduit dining room, and it was *really* busy. but still. made me wonder if they'd over-reached with their additional openings. hoping it's just a blip.

OMA last night was fantastic however. Inside dining room had been all booked up, so we were on the external terrace, which was preferable tbh. You're high up under the general structure of Borough market, you have the trains clattering away on the high line above you over to one side, the acoustics and the general design mean it felt really lively and fun. the food was amazing – salt cod with labneh and the scallop in chilli oil butter were highlights, but it was consistently of a really high standard, wines also, and was just a really enjoyable, relaxed evening. my boring line that restaurants should *restore* you as per the name rather than just refuelling was delivered exactly.

that's interesting - the first one or two times i went i thought it was good but more for the wine, and my cousin who i eat out with a lot was insistent i'd been a bit unlucky or something, though obv you'd want it to be consistently great. the last three times i've been i've found it as good as anywhere really, very impressed. only ever done lamb's conduit one.

must give oma a go.

yeah, noble rot has been a stalwart standby - my kind of place, so i'd be disappointed if it *has* lost a step. it's earned enough credit though for me to be back next year.

Gah. Sorry to hear that Nobel Rot wasn't very good, Fizzles. Certain I've recommended upthread.

Picked out this thread tonight with a thought of "Right, I've got two days coming up in London - involving Tindersticks at the Royal Albert Hall and a stay in a hotel on Talgarth Road, Hammersmith ... and probably a lunch on one of the days at Nobel Rot on Lamb's Conduit ... any other recommendations involving food/win?"

i would prob still trust noble rot to deliver tbh, might have just been an off night above. lunch special is v good value for the quality tho always the danger of the amazing wine list.

have you been to river cafe? given you're in hammersmith. not been in ages but it was good when i went and is an institution.

nearer the royal albert hall, my cousin was telling my ognisko, a sort of high-end polish restaurant is really good, tho not been myself. the menu looks great.

me*

It is good but there’s something more satisfying about Daquise.

Thanks LG/Suzy. Currently sat with Hoxton Mini Press' "Wine London" and "London Delis", trying to plot a course across two days.

Any recommendations near-ish Marylebone (in a leisurely lunch and not too much of rush to the station, sort of way)?

Half pondering here -

https://www.linastores.co.uk/locations/marylebone-lane

Or maybe a cheese platter and a bottle of wine here -

https://lafromagerie.co.uk/ (though they don't seem to indicate what's vegetarian)?

both are good

lina's is reliably good for a plate of pasta. it's a bright, cheerful dining room. probably the best from the vegetarian angle?

la fromagerie is really great if you want a glass of wine and a snack - i find i break out into cheese sweats if i go overboard on the platter though. probably not *quite* so leisurely either. (though my 'leisurely lunch' tends to be three hours, so we may have different metrics here.

there's a st john's near lina's, but i'm really not sure how much they accommodate vegetarians (it's p meat focused as you may know).

there's also fischer's - great dining room, recreating a hungarian bistro feel. central european theme so again, fish and meat predominate, but i think the vegetarian options are pretty good. it's lost its edge a mite imo, but for 'leisurely' is probably one of the better options. i suspect it will be *busy* though.

I’d recommend Emilia’s Crafted Pasta over Lina Stores. Kima is my favourite in Marylebone but it’s a) mostly fish and b) very expensive. Normah’s on Queensway is brilliant but probably half an hour walk from the station.

St John usually has the one vegetarian main option which is two vegetables and goat curd. Usually only the one starter too, the kohlrabi is lovely if that's on.

never been to emilia's - that sounds good. lina's is kinda *fine* - never really makes my socks go up and down, but is good for a light lunch if you're in town.

Thanks again. Special thanks to Fizzles for introducing me to the phrase "makes my socks go up and down". Very tempted by Fischer's!

Fischer's looks more veg friendly than a lot of places I went to in Vienna. A courgette Schnitzel...

Went to Fischer and took my mother to lunch. Solid recommend.

Apparently Karl Ove Knausgaard eats there a lot. Hope you met him.

No, but now I know I might go there more often now.

Post the selfie here :)

Ah, I never made it there though did do La Fromagerie (who could accommodate vegetarianism).

Also went back to Noble Rot (Did the cheap menu and it did feel slightly "Here are some things we happen to be cooking for other people" in retrospect) - really love the Lamb's Conduit space, though.

There was a table buying lots of wine and going "full menu" and I clocked that they were ignoring the staff almost totally, aside from placing their orders ... as if they'd been taught it was bad etiquette to say "Thanks!" for anything.

the first time i did the lunch menu, at lc, i thought it was brilliant, all three courses. second time, at the soho one, i thought it was still very good but a bit more sparse and less interesting.

Yeah, similar experience.

Went to Masigo (Korean) in Chapel Market on a whim without knowing anything about it and it was pretty good tbh? Shared a portion of fried chicken (ganjang) & bulgogi with my companion and the chicken was the standout by far, think I would go back with more people next time cos the beef bbq the table across had smelled incredible. The portions were very generous, the chicken itself was probably more than sufficient for just two people but it was so so so good.

Good place to take 6 or 7 work colleagues in town from various European countries near Euston / Kings X? They all work in public service media so er there are limits to what can be expensed

idk what the vibe is but if they eat meat, i went to a place called charcoal champ at the weekend, having had it on my list for a good while. chinese bbq with loads of skewers of various nature. not a fancy place but very good and good value.

Went to brigadiers near cannon st last weekend for reasons I won’t go into. We ordered plenty. I liked it, a good bit, but I was also left with the feeling that maybe over a certain price point the diminishing returns for stuff like chicken tikka is particularly in evidence? Which is to say, I have had many orders of chicken tikka in my lifetime but none where I actually cut the chicken up and was trying to establish if it was actually burnt because of how it tasted.

Lamb though, faultless, and had an excellent dessert there. Pretty nice, wouldn’t go there a second time.

I cook a lot of curries at home, mainly bhunas with either beef or lamb. I've given up with chicken because I can never get it right and am neurotic about undercooking it. But with lamb I can always achieve what I consider better than takeaway/lol maybe even mediocre restaurant standard home cooking. It is much harder to fuck up with lamb imo.

Charcoal Champ is on York Way iirc, good shout.

Hoppers for Sri Lankan is great for vegetarians and vegans; larger groups can book Dishoom, Tamil Prince or German Gymnasium as well (if the weather is good that’s a lovely place). The Standard always impresses out of towners and you can do afters on the roof.

is the Standard the hotel that has the weird exterior elevator??

oh i see it is. likely a bit expensive for this crew

It is! And used to be Camden Town Hall. Social housing unit was on the fourth floor of that building.

It’s insane how expensive it is to eat out now.

well i still haven't decided. Around Euston/Fitzrovia may actually be more convenient if that shakes loose any thoughts from people. i feel like there are great places on Charlotte Street that I'm just blanking on. there are some very good, spendy "fine dining" places there but I really just want something comfy and good. sommelier's a deal breaker.

ohh I just remembered Mestizo?? maybe that's the jam.

i do think charlotte street is the sort of street where you think you must be blanking on some very good places but in fact there are not any very good places, and i would probably end up going to Ragam again for reasons of nostalgia.

i'm not really up to speed on restaurants in London these days though tbh.

Any recommends for veggie friendly restaurants around South Ken?

Just popped into Lò Bánh Mì in Borough on a whim cos the pub I was going to wasn't serving food. Goddamn

Went to DanDan the other week during a late notice course in Southwark and I'm prepared to believe the hype. It probably helped I had pigs ears and the blood/offal bowl rather than something more touristy but it did exactly the sort of numbing I wanted.

pigs ears and the blood/offal bowl

I'd been led to believe that english cuisine had improved somewhat?.. it might have been a michael caine interview

DanDan is a Szechuan restaurant, but in any case, offal is popular in most traditional European cuisines!

okay, I was just kidding a bit

Case in point - just down the road from DanDan - Camille does glorious offal. Recently had excellent calves brain, gimmicky but delicious udder schnitzel and a stunning Cou de Canard Farci complete with head/beak garnish.

michael caine said the smell of cooking garlic still freaks him out a little, as it reminds him of chinese soldiers cooking in the distance when he was fighting in the korean war

camille was brilliant the one time i went.

Useful discussion, I work around Southwark/Borough. Meaning to try dandan but can't settle on what I'd want bc the menu is a tome

Colleagues were raving about Yun Gui Chuan noodle place today, for another Southwark option

I think I went fairly standard with twice-cooked pork at DanDan, but it was really good. I've eaten at the one in Aldgate also and it's nice.

Not tried Yun Gui Chuan tho I think they have one nearer me on Brick Lane or similar also.

I ate at One Rice on Brick Lane a couple of weeks ago, it's Teochew food which was new to me. The place itself is a bit sparse and was kind of cold but the food was nice, fairly simple, not spicy, more hearty.