Garfunkel's

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Have you eaten at Garfunkel's?

― admrl, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:27 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, yes, I have.

― Alba, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago)

They bill themselves as a "restaurant and coffee shop". A little disingenous?

― admrl, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

Well, I don't know. The last time was over 20 years ago. We used to persuade our parents to take us when we were in the West End. I think I discovered chicken Kiev and salad bars there.

― Alba, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)

Sophistication has brought me no happiness.

― Alba, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:34 (eighteen years ago)

Chicken Kiev, get you!

― admrl, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:38 (eighteen years ago)

I went there a few times, but only for birthday parties.

― admrl, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:39 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, I only went to Maccy D's for birthday parties.

― Alba, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:41 (eighteen years ago)

Is there a corresponding Simon's? </FuckingObviousJoke>

― HI DERE, Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:51 (eighteen years ago)

I used to work in one. Lucky old me. It *was* the high of sophistication in Inverness in the 80s though :-/

― ailsa, Friday, 27 April 2007 06:27 (eighteen years ago)

Not for at least 15 years.

― Ed, Friday, 27 April 2007 06:39 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah - I was going to say: Garfunkel's was sophistication in the late 80s/early 90s amongst the poverty stricken public sector. I even had a first date in one.

(Was there a sharper divide in wealth between then between the private/public sector then? I remember Pret a Manger being completely out of my budget in the early 90s)

― Bob Six, Friday, 27 April 2007 07:31 (eighteen years ago)

Relativism redefined: Garfunkel's better than Aberdeen Steak House?

(not that I'd know; I've avoided Garfunkel's for Aberdeen Steak House-type reasons)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:12 (eighteen years ago)

(and also Aberdeen Steak House for Aberdeen Steak House-type reasons)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:12 (eighteen years ago)

I have never been to either.

― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:24 (eighteen years ago)

I think there might be no Aberdeen Steak Houses left, and only one Angus (in Leicester Square).

The Guardian did a piece about their passing a few years ago.

― Alba, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:36 (eighteen years ago)

I think my mom and I would go to the Steak House whenever we visited London. We were tourists. That's the only excuse I can come up with.

― nathalie, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:41 (eighteen years ago)

Ever eaten in Maxwell's? There's one in Hampstead - I remember it being really nice int he early 90s when my folks would take us there as a treat if we were in London, but the last time I went it was disappointing.

― the next grozart, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:41 (eighteen years ago)

garfunkels seemed to get superceded by more 'vibey' and gimmicky places like TGI Fridays and Sweeney Todds and suchlike, didn't they? i'm sure we ate there sometimes. but then, my dad would take us on drives up the A3 so we could eat at Little Chef. another treat was hot dogs on the chelsea bridge late at night, when all the bikers were there.

― stevie, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:51 (eighteen years ago)

ah the 80s.

― the next grozart, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:56 (eighteen years ago)

what was garfunkels' shtick anyway? they did burgers, they did steaks, they did gammon... was it just another Harvester style deal?

― stevie, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:04 (eighteen years ago)

We've still got a garfunkels, and TWO Angus steak houses, within about a hundred feet of each other (true story: the second Angus was a vacant, empty abandoned building on December 23, 2005; by the next day's dinner time--i.e., on Christmas eve--the 'restaurant' was 'installed', open for business, and packed with customers).

That said, I live in fucking Paddington.

― G00blar, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:10 (eighteen years ago)

i went once about 20 years ago. parents said it was fkn awful, never going again. i didn't see the problem. closed now.

"I remember Pret a Manger being completely out of my budget in the early 90s"

i had no idea pret even existed in the early 90s.

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:13 (eighteen years ago)

Did anyone ever go to Cleopatra's in Notting Hill Gate? It was huge, tacky, invariably deserted and the food was reportedly rub, but rumour was that it was kept open for more nefarious reasons. The Pharmacy opened on the same site after it eventually closed, but that was a different sort of tack.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:18 (eighteen years ago)

I ate in Garfunkels about 10 years ago - I was old enough to have known better - and every single thing about it was disappointing. Not vastly, offensively so, just "restaurants don't have any excuse to serve this low-quality, badly cooked crap any more". NEVER AGAIN.

― Mark C, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

Garfunkels was definitely better than the Aberdeen Steak Houses. But that is not saying much. I remember queuing to get into a Garfunkels with my parents. Crazy times.

― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

i went to one about 20 years ago, i think, when my family was living in london. my obnoxious uncle had come for a visit and insisted on going there. i had the salad bar. he had a milkshake (strawberry) that was so terrible that i can still recall the taste to this day.

― lauren, Friday, 27 April 2007 14:39 (eighteen years ago)

They were the worse, they tasted like worming medicine.

― Ed, Friday, 27 April 2007 14:42 (eighteen years ago)

worst, yes superlative worst.

― Ed, Friday, 27 April 2007 14:42 (eighteen years ago)

I used go to Maxwell's in Hampstead all the time.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

We knew the bartenders there by name! The shame of it.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

what was garfunkels' shtick anyway? they did burgers, they did steaks, they did gammon... was it just another Harvester style deal?

Yeah, basically, but we out-in-the-sticks folks thought that was exotic stuff.

We had a better version of Garfunkels up here called Littlejohns (nicer decor, slightly wider menu), but I think was just a Scottish thing (we have no Aberdeen Steakhouses though, yay)

― ailsa, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:41 (eighteen years ago)

we had a canadian restaurant in wimbledon called l3 pr35, which my dad would take me and my brother to for dinner after my mum left. they did these hamburgers, which they swore were genuine Canadian style, that were perfect spheres. i don't know if they deep fried them or something, but they were always cooked the whole way through. they were the same exact dimensions as a baseball, and quite difficult to eat.

when i was fifteen, i tried to get a part time job there as a waiter there, as a friend from school worked there, but sensing that they might lose their most regular customers, i didn't get the job. later, i heard the owners, 2 sisters, were quite psycho - one of the waiters had gotten mugged, and while they were visiting him in hospital they threatened his girlfriend with violence if she didn't stop coming to see him.

the food was okay though.

― stevie, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

Stevie, I spent most of 1982-1994 in Wimbledon and I don't remember this place at all! Whereabouts was it?

― Mark C, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

there was a garkunkel's in glasgow. it became "mondo" and is now a "zizzi"

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:22 (eighteen years ago)

these are my favourite kinds of ILX threads.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:29 (eighteen years ago)

I have never eaten at a garfunkel's

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:31 (eighteen years ago)

so many narratives, so much subtext

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)

RJG is (possibly) wrong. Garfunkels in Glasgow is now the Filling Station. That Mondo/Zizzi place was Gaucho Grill (it might have been a Garfunkels before that, but I don't think so)

― ailsa, Friday, 27 April 2007 20:38 (eighteen years ago)

Stevie, I spent most of 1982-1994 in Wimbledon and I don't remember this place at all! Whereabouts was it?

it was where the Walkabout pub is now, diagonally opposite the theatre and on the same side of the road as the blockbuster video... it was on a corner on the broadway a bit further down from the big woolworths!

it was a couple of different unsuccessful restaurants before becoming the Walkabout... i think it would've been Le Pres around 1991-3?

― stevie, Friday, 27 April 2007 20:47 (eighteen years ago)

it was where the Walkabout pub is now, diagonally opposite the theatre and on the same side of the road as the blockbuster video... it was on a corner on the broadway a bit further down from the big woolworths!

what a picture i paint of wimbledon...

― stevie, Friday, 27 April 2007 20:47 (eighteen years ago)

i ve never heard of garfunkels

ive heard of aberdeen steak house though, ive seen it, ive walked past it, i cant remember where it is other htan it is in central london somewhere. it always seems to be empty

― 600, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:01 (eighteen years ago)

How can you have heard of Curt Boettcher and not Garfunkel's?

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:03 (eighteen years ago)

I might also add that Paul Scholes is the sort of down to earth fellow who might eat in a Garfunkel's.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:04 (eighteen years ago)

I think I'm confusing Angus Steak House with Aberdeen Steak House? It's opposite the Trocadero.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:05 (eighteen years ago)

that's angus, i think.

what about big'uns ribs? are those still around?

― lauren, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:07 (eighteen years ago)

you're right, ailsa. managed to confuse them. garfunkel's was on bath st and the place I'm thinking of was the gaucho one, yeah

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

How is Nando's doing? Still going strong?

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

there's one in glasgow. sort of

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:10 (eighteen years ago)

I just checked: there are actually three in glasgow. sort of

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:12 (eighteen years ago)

Did you ever go to those yoga places I found you? You really should.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:13 (eighteen years ago)

haha, no, I never did. I walked past one almost every day, when I was living near it. sort of

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:15 (eighteen years ago)

Fine, but don't come crying to me when your chakra gets compromised.

― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:17 (eighteen years ago)

I assume it already is :(

― RJG, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:20 (eighteen years ago)

I ate at a Garfunkel's as recently as 1998 - it was near Victoria. I was meeting my accountant(!) nearby and I killed half an hour in Garf. I did not barf.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 27 April 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

Great slogan.

we had a canadian restaurant in wimbledon called l3 pr35, which my dad would take me and my brother to for dinner after my mum left. they did these hamburgers, which they swore were genuine Canadian style, that were perfect spheres. i don't know if they deep fried them or something, but they were always cooked the whole way through. they were the same exact dimensions as a baseball, and quite difficult to eat.

This is ringing a very, very distant bell.

― Alba, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:45 (eighteen years ago)

Oh god I think I went to the Garfunkels in the west end when I was in London in 98. I dont recall it being anything special, it reminded me of a Sizzler.

― Trayce, Saturday, 28 April 2007 02:31 (eighteen years ago)

I was at Nandos a few weeks ago. It was the least busy of the food places in the complex it's in - TGIs, Frankie & Benny, Bella Italia etc (I really liked it though)

― ailsa, Saturday, 28 April 2007 09:05 (eighteen years ago)

Stevie, I kinda remember it now. Was it called Le Prês (with a circumflex in case it didn't come out)? I wish I'd tried it now.

― Mark C, Saturday, 28 April 2007 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

aye!

i still don't know how they cooked those burgers. or how i ate them. or why i kept ordering them.

― stevie, Sunday, 29 April 2007 12:20 (eighteen years ago)

I feel like Aberdeen steak houses are totally ubiquitous. How can there just be one left? Maybe I am just walking by the last remaining one over and over again.

There's something very Howard Johnson's-in-Times-Square about that article that's linked up there. Although Ho-Jo's always got a lot more love. (Possibly because it started not as an aspirational rip-off joint but as just another Ho-Jo's.)

Article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/19/dining/19HOJO.html?ex=1177992000&en=2f3aaf99e450b603&ei=5070

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 29 April 2007 12:32 (eighteen years ago)

The Times Square HoJo's resists definition. Cultural hipsters in search of the usual cheap ride down the American highway of bad taste cannot quite get their bearings. The reporters for a Web site devoted to lounge culture penetrated HoJo's during happy hour and retired, shaken. " `Blue Velvet' was a movie," they reported. "This is real."

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 29 April 2007 12:36 (eighteen years ago)

I feel like Aberdeen steak houses are totally ubiquitous. How can there just be one left? Maybe I am just walking by the last remaining one over and over again.

someone linked to a guardian piece upthread about their demise... they were ubiquitous in central london, but i couldn't guarantee that they're still there.

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 29 April 2007 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

The Bourdain article on them is really good (without actually naming them for fear of reprisals)

I could say a lot more about places mentioned on this thread but can't for fear of sackage :(

― Porkpie, Sunday, 29 April 2007 13:12 (eighteen years ago)

nando's! british people love nando's huh? i'm a little scared of it. should i be?

― ^@^, Sunday, 29 April 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

I've never eaten there but I think it's not as bad as what's mentioned above. My impression is that it's a kind of vaguely Portuguese version of Appleby's.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 29 April 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

nando's food is okay, the fries are delicious and the piri piri chicken is not bad, for a chain. is *very popular with south africans.

― stevie, Sunday, 29 April 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

Haha it's got nothing to do with Portugal at all has it.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 29 April 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

only its "theme", oh and piri piri seasoning is Portumaguese. I've only ever eaten at one and it was pretty underwhelming

― Porkpie, Sunday, 29 April 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

i did wonder what nando's was supposed to be, culturally! apparently it's okay.

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 29 April 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

okay according to former coworkers whose taste in most matters i'm not liable to defer to all that often.

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 29 April 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

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