Let's do a thread of good london restaurants again...

also, i went to a moroccan restaurant on stroud green road the other day. i dont recommend it

Dave, is Tre Viet any good for vegetarians?

Japanese: Search all the brewer st ones pretty much especially Ten Ten Tei.

Also I keep wanting another sandwich like the one we had at Smith's of Smithfield, mmm.

Recent favourite is Chowki's on Piccaddilly Circus, constantlyschanging menu of regional Indian dishes in a nice settings.

Tom, next time remind us to take you to the Wenlock Arms for its huge Salt Beef Sarnies.

That $ place used to be a proper postie pub - the penny black, now it looks like a ponces boudoir, interesting to hear it does decent food.

we had Italian in Cafe Ole on Upper Street last Friday. small portions, nice but v ordinary. so i guess this isn't a good one.

Bianca's on Green Lanes is a neat Italian but i wouldn't expect anyone to make a special trip to that part of town just for cheap and tasty pizza (or the other stuff on their extensive menu) in reality.

Fino is about the best Spanish restaurant I've ever been to (just off Charlotte street)

Punkum comes closest to the Thai food I had in Thailand (ie v hot and v tasty - and they do proper iced coffee with condensed milk)

Best Spanish? Hmm, Laixero on Columbia Road for me. I'm going to The Gate tonight? Anyone fooded there?

The place is very, very busy though, and I'm considering spending some time trying to find a 'new' favourite curry place.

It's a wondrous place though, the older bit being better than the posh bit

The food in little georgia is good but far too light. All thw georgian I've had in russia has been heavier and more flavourful.

Dhalimar on the corner of new rd and field gate st is an accceptable alternative to tayyab, and a bit cheaper too. More limited selection though. Exellent saag ghost though. Lqahore just off commercial rd has some if the best tandoori lamb chops and lamb chop curries but its got too expensive now.

But I prefer it in winter when it's a really cosy basement place to retreat to away from the wind, rain and unremitting gloom of Tottenham Court Road.

haha wise words, Dave! a better class of freebie too, and there's no need to go traipsing around second-hand food shops to offload your unwanted excess product - you can leave it on the plate, or just, y'know, have a big shit...

There's a great Sicilian place on Charlotte Street. Name escapes me.

Fortunately the stow now has a very good little Chinese/Thai place. Not that I've been in a while, I've been on a Spanish/Latin American kick lately

Has Yaohan still got the really good Sega centre?

Galicia in Portobello Road is full of Spanish locals (the kind who have the local shops, not rich trustas) and is redolent of the best food in Seville, according to half-Spanish pal with mum from there. There are not as many good places as there should be over there, so remember this if you're at Rough Trade and peckish.

Lucky Seven is about as close as you'll get to proper American drugstore diner food as you will likely experience in this country. It's also by Portobello and also handy for Rough Trade.

A good Vietnamese in dreaded Camden is almost at the top of Parkway. The couple who run it are lovely and they've painted a blue sky on their ceiling. Everything's good. They also mentioned they were going to start selling the Vietnamese variant on poitin/moonshine/eek.

You're kidding me!

Anyway dude I dunno, Benjys?

Anyone as fond as I am of Sweet N Spicy on Brick Lane? Great comfort food (though if you want fancy then do Cafe Spice Namaste instead), really nice friendly staff, low low prices, and no attempts at interior decor whatsoever.

If you like crispy things, the crispy pancakes at Song Que on Kingsland Road and the crispy aromatic duck at Kam Tong near Bayswater tube are lovely.

(Of course my list is low-brow, I was a poor student when I lived in London.)

Free wine too. Free headache this morning.

aldo, what about one of those giraffe places? i've never been to one, but heard they cater to children's needs, and have plenty of veggie stuff but also serve meat. and i assume there's one near paddington somewhere (know islington and marlyebone high street locations, but unsure about other places).

This is REALLY disappointing. I was rather London would be able to sate my need for them as you certainly can't get them in oxford!

I was going to say Busan in Holloway Road but I see that other ppl have got there before me! Went there a couple of weeks back and it was terrific. Mind you it was the only time in my life I'd been to a Korean restaurant so I'm not the best judge of these things.

Ken, unless you want a lot of Pizza Express it's not a good idea to look for food anywhere on/near Baker Street. But the Royal China dim sum etc. restaurant is possibly the best of its kind in London.

Lots of nice greasy-spoon cafes (if you want to figure out how good they are, just look at the chicken escalope they're selling and if you're impressed, go in) which will do spaghetti marinara for a fussy child and comfort food for you on the walk from Paddinton to Lancaster Gate, Queensway for Chinese restaurants. Westbourne Grove has every single kind of good, cheap restaurant you'd need.

Thanks for all the tips. The kids generally pick at what gets put in front of them (typical kids, anything that *looks* like food must be vile - they only want processed stuff - and don't actually appear to like vegetables themselves. Don't blame me, their food 'choice' is all their mother's doing.) but will probably go for Middle Eastern stuff (I've had them at a ME place in Bristol before) and will eat chinese stuff if forced on them. Will investigate this giraffe thingy though...

"Cramped, expensive, chaotic, poor service, cannot move for middle class, SUV driving, parents showing off their huge 'stroller' prams.

The whole theme seems to be trying to tap in to the enviromental movement yet there was no sign of any proceeds going to charity.

We left after five minutes."

Although that was of the Hampstead branch...

It's a shame they don't like curries/Indian as it's fun to go to a Bhel Poori place and let the kids watch the guy make the stuff up right in front of them. I think they're much more likely to enjoy that kind of thing if it looks interactive oe customised.

I am taking a (different) young lady out tomorrow evening. I need recommendations of restaurants not too far from where we both work - The City - so, looking at things not too far ie. the West End, Holborn etc. I only have one reco so far, which would be the Royal Exchange, but I don't exactly plan to go £50 quid a head here. Thoughts?

Tomato and cumin soup with fig £5.50
Grilled wild rabbit with new season onions and piquillo peppers £6.50
Home made fresh cheese, anchovy and tomato salad £6.50
Esqueixada – salt cod and summer vegetable salad £6.50Chopped liver, wilted herb and preserved lemon salad £6.50
Marinated girolle and oyster mushroom salad £6.00
* * * * *

Charcoal grilled sea bass with escalivada and alioli £17.50
Wood roasted pork with girolle mushrooms, new season onions and oloroso £17.00
Wood roasted chicken with tabbouleh and pistaccio sauce £16.50
Wood roasted mackerel with braised marrow in yoghurt and lentils £15.50
Charcoal grilled lamb with deep fried aubergines and rosemary honey £16.50
Vegetable mezze £13.50

* * * * *

Yoghurt and pistachio cake £5.00
Chocolate and apricot tart £5.00
Fresh white peaches and raspberries with custard £5.00
Malaga raisin ice cream with Pedro Ximenez £5.00
Idiazabal, Picos de Europa and Retamar de Cabra with membrillo £6.50

i tend to focus on vietnamese and good curries when people visit from north america, since they seem to be less common...

I had an embarassing exchange with the waitress in there once. I'd recently returned from SEA, so I tried to be all flash by thanking her in Vietnamese.

Her: Wot?
Me: Um...It's Vietnamese for thank you, isn't it?
Her: I dunno, I'm from Finchley.

I felt like a right twat.

barima- how about yauatcha? if you stay off the cocktails it's pretty cheap, and probably pretty good for a date, i'd've thought.

very good cheap thai food - http://www.london-eating.co.uk/5695.htm

very good vietnamese food - http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/6602.html there's another great one just by the geffrye museum that I can't remember the name of, but kingsland rd def the best place for viet food in london.

Yauatcha's great but aint cheap. I reckon you're talking 80 quid for 2 easy, but best dim sum I've had in London, alongside hakkasan.

The downside: the NUS politico-types at the next table, all with some sort of former-USSR heritage, discussing branches of lefty politics but behaving like utter hooray twats. Sample: "Well of course I had a fake wallet ready for the Turkmenistan border!Mwah ha ha ha! More wine?"

i recall that i was going to organise a slap-up celebratory meal as soon as my wisdom tooth trauma ended - it is now over (having lasted the entirety of 2006) so i may get round to this now...

"wait a minute, this is just a folded piece of A5 card - guards! seize him" etc.

www.abeno.co.uk

And how is everyone feeling in 2008? I think next time I go out to a restaurant I should look at some new and different ones, not always appropriate to return to the same ones. So what London restaurants have that 2008 feel? Where have you enjoyed eating out so far this year?

Does Putney Common count as London?

Cay Tre has been a bit of a standard recently and has a nice atmosphere and good food (prob not the best of the viet ones tho?)

How about any South American ones? London's South American popn seems to have shot up in the last couple years, must be some new restaurants that have followed?

Sure! Its a little out of my way, but thread is for all London! And don't want to always stick to the same areas anyway

I could do with some new ideas too

Had a really nice Pizza at Furnace, Hoxton again last week. It's like a better pizza express so nothing fancy but worth a go if your in the area and want something simple. For the second time in a year I've had rubbish curry on Drummond Street. Those veggie curry places are poor and over-priced. We were hungry and in the area so it seemed like a good idea but they look so grubby..

had work meal thing at furnace - nice enough

#1: http://www.barrafina.co.uk/
(provided you're ok with waiting 20-40 mins standing and then sitting at bar type deal in exchange for awesome spanish cuisine, sherry etc.)

not been feeling Cay Tre as much as Tay Do on Kingsland Rd

I've only ever had to wait at Barrafina for a very long time once, but HELL YEAH even worth waiting on one's feet for an hour. And that's even if you're having only a tortilla and a glass of wine.

Viet Grill is part of the Cay Tre family and is also good, esp the grill stuff that's supposed to mark it out from the others.

Drummond Street has been disappointing for last couple of years for me too. It's gone the way of Brick Lane.

The cognoscenti tell me that Tooting is the new Drummond Street.

I only ever go to Drummond Street on a Sunday because that's when Diwana does paneer special and Ravi Shankar does paneer thali. Otherwise forget it, Kastoori of Tooting is the way to go.

I live in Bethnal Green, where should I go out for dinner?

Thai seafood/veg restaurant next to the Buddhist Centre on Roman Road, 5 mins walk from BG tube. Pellicci on BG Road for fry-ups and the atmosphere, plus it is currently the only place on BG road worth eating in.

Tayyab and Lahore are both Whitechapel and there seems to be a consensus that Brick Lane now sucks but Sweet and Spicy and Shalamar are still tops.

haha that thai restaurant is 20 seconds from my flat

Globe Road seems also to have a few gastropubs worth going to (I was walking through on my way to Thai with some hippy) but there is always the Approach up by the real Buddhist cafes (not good, but OK for interviewing vegetarians) and friends who live by Columbia Road are recommending the Royal Oak anytime other than Smugpram Sundays.

the vegetarian cafe beside the thai place is good

So I take it you're in the bit of BG with red brick buildings and no WW2 bombing?

went to that Ravi Shankar place a few weeks back for first time and liked it a lot

yep that red brick block there...it's v nice!

::jealous vibes:: one of those buildings (Merceron) is named for an ancestor of mine.

Can anyone tell me of any good Colombian restaurants in London?

Where is good around the Exmouth Market/St John's Road/Rosebery Avenue area these days? I'm looking for something fairly family-friendly so Medcalf/the Eagle etc aren't really ideal.

Moro?

Family friendly do you mean family as in kids or with parents etc. (or both)

I guess with Kids Porchetta is probably your best bet. I have taken parents to Medcalf.

Parent-friendly really - also largeish group friendly as there will be six of us. My one experience of eating at Moro didn't exactly convince me it was worth the price.

3 week waiting list at Moro when I tried to book recently.

I would still pick Medcalf but book early so you can get one of the tables at the back. I had breakfast in the Ambassador and that was pretty good, but not ever had dinner there.

The Medcalf is really more of a bar than a restaurant and not a particularly pleasant one at that, I've spent far too much time in there for work drinks over the years to ever want to go there again.

The Ambassador is the one I was trying to remember - might check that out, thanks.

Very odd, I've always treated and more of a restaurant than a bar, but I'm sure we;ve had this discussion before.