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.

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.