Dining Around London

[LottieM]

One tip is that The Ivy (previously impossible to get into without 6 months notice) now takes on-line bookings....you might not get in at prime time dinner slots, but it has opened up for availibility recently (including lunch) - the food is consistently good there (and not ridiculously priced) and also fun for celeb spotting!

Another place worth trying is The Supper Club for a funky experience (not sure if any SQ Talkers here have been to the one in Amsterdam?)

Or try the Wolsely for fab breakfasts / brunches

I haven't been, but the Pearl Restaurant at 252 Holburn gets fab reviews for fusion type food

And if you like Japanese food, Zuma in Knightsbrige is excellent - warning that it is v pricey though...

If you want anymore tips, or less "high end" recommendations, please feel free to PM me (I live in London so happy to help)

[jhm]

One tip is that The Ivy (previously impossible to get into without 6 months notice) now takes on-line bookings....you might not get in at prime time dinner slots, but it has opened up for availibility recently (including lunch) - the food is consistently good there (and not ridiculously priced) and also fun for celeb spotting!

Another place worth trying is The Supper Club for a funky experience (not sure if any SQ Talkers here have been to the one in Amsterdam?)

I went to the Ivy last year for a weekend lunch with a friend (a Japanese visitor who wanted to go because she read about it in her guidebook as being a celeb spot ) and if I recall correctly, I booked online with only a month or so's notice. However, the impression I had (which may or may not be correct) was that everyone else there for lunch was the same as us (tourists/visitors/plebs like my friend and me) rather than celebs (who presumably turn up for dinner).

I haven't been (London, Amsterdam or elsewhere) but understand there's something similar to the Supper Club in Bangkok - www.bedsupperclub.com

[LottieM]

I have seen plenty of celebs in The Ivy, but during the week rather than at weekends - celebs often tend to be at their country homes at weekends!

[B727]

Another place worth trying is The Supper Club for a funky experience

The new Supperclub London in Notting Hill is quite nice. Try to go when DJ Pathaan is spinning

In Edgware Rd, my fav Lebanese place is Al Arez. Succulent chicken and lamb shawrma this side of Beyrouth. And proper Lebanese taboulli. God, I have cravings now.

My favorite Indian place is a Panjabi restaurant in Southall with an out of this world chicken curry made with fresh fenugreek!

[Pinkfloyd]

W.R.T. to HB, I have always been a fan of his but have never been to the Fat Duck. I find it quite amazing what he does with food (next to Ferran Adrià). Granted I have never been to the Fat Duck and it may not be what I expect but at least once in my life I would like to try the food there.

[jhm]

For Japanese food - sushi - in London, my current favourite is the following tiny place near Euston station (Sushi of Shiori) which I first tried back in January:

http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showpost...&postcount=284

and which I've been back to many times since then. In the last few weeks, it's got various very favourable blog reviews ...

... and today, 4 out of 5 from Fay Maschler (food critic for the London Evening Standard for almost 40 years and one of the most respected/feared in the business)!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/restau...aw-pleasure.do

I think it's going to get difficult to just turn up like I do...

[phaleesy]

Went to Sushi of Shiori twice in October!

Pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2108357...7625185995428/

Yummy sushi. I love the scallops with that little dot of truffle sauce. The tempura sushi is my fav!!! I can sit there all day and eat the same thing. The whole meal was also a feast for the eyes! So much attention was paid to the presentation.

Such a lovely and good looking husband and wife show as well. The chef is strong, silent, stern and strict. The wife/waitress is friendly and chatty. I spent quite a bit of time gassing away with her since we were always the last ones to leave the place.

Definitely THE place to go to London for sushi. A lot better than some places in Japan too.

Dear mods: I was searching for this thread in Destinations chit-chat but I found it here in the Community thread instead.

[jhm]

... and today, 4 out of 5 from Fay Maschler (food critic for the London Evening Standard for almost 40 years and one of the most respected/feared in the business)!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/restau...aw-pleasure.do

I think it's going to get difficult to just turn up like I do...

And a few days later in the Observer (a national newspaper):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...w-sushi-shiori

There are lots of restaurants like Sushi of Shiori. It's just that none of them are in London. Or Britain. To be sure of finding another place like this you will have to head to Tokyo, where they cluster like so many pigeons around a split sack of seed. Here, restaurants with just one chef and seven seats are hardly common. But it really couldn't be simpler: an open kitchen where the young chef, a graduate of Mayfair's buttock-clenchingly expensive Umu, does his intense, detailed, obsessive-compulsive thing.
[...]
[The sushi] looked beautiful and the fish itself really was marvellous. The attention to detail – the way slices of spring onion were balanced here, or shining balls of bright-orange salmon roe were clustered there – beggared belief.

But:

But there is a problem, and it is so glaring, so big, that it needs mentioning early. The problem is this: the rice. [...] Good sushi rice should be just warm, each grain capable of letting go of the next with barely a shrug. Unfortunately the rice at Shiori just ain't all that: cold, claggy, under-flavoured, underwhelming.

Nevertheless, whilst I think the rice is slightly better in some places elsewhere, it's not a big problem IMO and more than compensated for by the other (brilliant) aspects (but I would say that having eaten there 30+ times now!).

They're usually booked out for 1-2 weeks ahead (particularly given that there are only nine seats but it's easier to get a place for just 1 person) so best to plan a bit ahead if 2+ people want to eat there.

[jjpb3]

Dear mods: I was searching for this thread in Destinations chit-chat but I found it here in the Community thread instead.

Moved. I think the thread was started before we created the 'Destinations Chit-Chat' forum.


jjpb3


P.S. Love the sushi pics.

[SQtraveller]

post deleted

[Savage25]

I love a place called Lahore Kebab House on Commercial Road (http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/). On two floors and it's a pretty simple layout. BYOB. Really busy on a Friday night (booking advisable) - good atmosphere, grumpy service (could almost be china town!), but most important excellent (spicy) food. Just having the mixed grill starter is worth it.

When I left around 10 last Friday - there was a queue out of the restaurant!!

They've got the best kebabs I've had anywhere. And I've had a few.

I don't even bother with the main courses there anymore - Seekh Kebabs, Lamb Chops and rotis make for a great meal. And the off-license is just next door

[jhm]

They've got the best kebabs I've had anywhere. And I've had a few.

I don't even bother with the main courses there anymore - Seekh Kebabs, Lamb Chops and rotis make for a great meal. And the off-license is just next door

I finally managed to try Lahore Kebab House last weekend (the original one in Commercial Road and not the newer branch).

Yes, it was busy and noisy. The service was OK. We helped the off-licence offload some of their stock.

However, maybe standards have dropped but I thought the food was only so so. The chicken wings were really salty. The lamb chops were over cooked and too dry. The seekh kebabs were acceptable but I still prefer those in the Karahi King in North Wembley which are juicier and more succulent and hotter too (I can go there just for that and a few starters and some nan - just one main to share is enough)!

[SQtraveller]

post deleted

I finally managed to try Lahore Kebab House last weekend (the original one in Commercial Road and not the newer branch).

Yes, it was busy and noisy. The service was OK. We helped the off-licence offload some of their stock.

However, maybe standards have dropped but I thought the food was only so so. The chicken wings were really salty. The lamb chops were over cooked and too dry. The seekh kebabs were acceptable but I still prefer those in the Karahi King in North Wembley which are juicier and more succulent and hotter too (I can go there just for that and a few starters and some nan - just one main to share is enough)!

[cplh]

I had not been back since the downturn and was pleasantly surprised by how affordable and good the higher end places were compared to singapore which has become distorted by the casino effect.

We had 2 excellent meals at St John's (nose to tail eating), a delightful lunch at the Ledbury (victim of the recent riots) and another spendid lunch at Pied a Terre for under 50 pounds per person including rather good wines.

had to take the kids to legoland (torture) and found solace in dining at the Hinds Head in Bray which is an accessible version of the Fat Duck

[9V-SIA]

I had not been back since the downturn and was pleasantly surprised by how affordable and good the higher end places were compared to singapore which has become distorted by the casino effect.

We had 2 excellent meals at St John's (nose to tail eating), a delightful lunch at the Ledbury (victim of the recent riots) and another spendid lunch at Pied a Terre for under 50 pounds per person including rather good wines.

had to take the kids to legoland (torture) and found solace in dining at the Hinds Head in Bray which is an accessible version of the Fat Duck

Coincidently we dined in both Ledbury & Fat Duck in June.

Shocking to see the Daily Mail pictures of Ledbury shuttered after the riots