United Kingdom
Darbucka is a Lebanese restaurant. I was in there celebrating my engagement to my fiance on Friday, and my fiance was told to move very rudely in Arabic, as the waiter figured that my guy was from that part of world.
I have going there for the last four years, but I would advise anyone wanting the Middle Eastern experience to go elsewhere.
They effectively ruined one of the most important days of our life.
Darbucka Restaurant/Bar
www.darbucka.com
182 BASEMENT St John Street
Clerkenwell
London EC1V 4JZ
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7490 8772
Wrapid is a new food service brand offering awesome hot food wrapped up with flavours from around the world. Food that has been developed with a focus on flavour.
I'm a huge fan of Wrapid. Their wraps have become a definite daily craving of mine and I would recommend it to anyone, whatever your
taste may be.
I began with the chicken tikka wrap, wrapped in a
delicious flat bread naan. After that I was fascinated and hooked. The menu extends out to a wide variety of global mouth watering flavours, which include assorted pizza, Mexican, and Chinese stir-fry wraps, as well as a very wide range in traditional British food. The full English breakfast wrap is a must.
Just when I thought I was full enough, I
came across the dessert menu. If sticky toffee pudding wrapped in a crepe does not tempt anyone, then I don't know what does. Wrapid also
offers unique vegetarian options and fantastic student offers that you simply cannot resist. The service was superb and there is always a friendly face to help those indecisive minds. Fantastic!
8 D'arblay Street, Soho, London, W1F 8DP
www.wrapid.com
Khaana is a cafe restaurant offering Pakistani/northern Indian/Kashmiri cuisine. The food is excellent- authentic homestyle and a lot of Asians eat in there- it offers great value for money and is very reasonably priced.
The decor is gorgeous- contemporary, stylish and light with mirrored and iridescent mosaic. Free wifi is available and you can just pop in for a coffee or chai and read the newspapers. The desserts are pretty good too. You can also eat and drink al fresco. This is the only decent Indian restaurant in Catford and surrounding areas. Absolutely worth a visit.
123 Rushey Green, Catford, London SE6 4AA (Opposite Argos)
020 8698 0258
Catford Bridge is nearest overground station.
We went there on Saturday February 3 2008 and had a really lovely meal. The staff were friendly, the food was really good, and the presentation, texture and taste were superb. The chef even comes around to all the tables to ask if everything is OK - not something that I have experienced before. We will certainly be going there again in the near future, and have already booked the table.
Beautifully presented dishes, reasonably priced. Simply the best Indian food I've ever had.
www.atmarestaurants.com
Hampstead
Belsize park
Swiss Cottage
Cracking greasy spoon that attracts a high celebrity quota, possibly because of its proximity to London's once-and-future-trendy Shoreditch/Hoxton/Dalston.
Thankfully though, this is unreconstructed full English territory - irony, Day Glo and creative use of hairspray are firmly off the menu, as are the words organic and sustainable.
It's not a depressing relic, however, and its airy and cheerful design has carved it out a niche as a film location. Crews are often spotted filming in there on a Sunday when it's closed and the most recent flick to feature its hallowed interior was Notes on a Scandal.
For an added sprinkling of stardust on your gammon steak, check out the gallery of Polaroids behind the counter showing the legions of soap stars, presenters, actors and reality TV protozoa who have enjoyed a sarnie and a mug of something hot over the years.
Shepherdess Cafe
221 City Road
London
EC1V 1JN
+44 (0) 20 7253 2463
50% off at 500 London restaurants for a year. Also, I picked up a leaflet that gives you £20 off the RRP, use the promotional code TASTY and it knocks the price down to £49.95, for 12 months membership.
B2 is a new retail store specialising in selected brands of urban toys, clothing, street art, books and magazines. The shop also houses the UK's first manga library, filled with Japanese language manga books - the store told me that English language books will be arriving January 2008.
B2 is part of Bodhi gallery and cafe. The gallery has a fast turn around of contemporary art shows. It's turning into a nice cultural centre of art, food and shopping.
B2 / Bodhi
214 Brick Lane, London E1 6SA
t. 020 7749 0750
www.bodhi-uk.com
tube: Liverpool St, Aldgate East, Bethnal Green.
Cozy atmosphere and decent prices.
Sheraton Park Lane, 112 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7BX
One of the things I like in London is the variety of restaurants with so many different kinds of cuisine and flavours. London has everything for everyone's taste. From fish and chips to the most sophisticated dishes. Exotic and ethnic cuisines are to be found in most areas of London. But also traditional English food in many pubs and restaurants like Maggie Jones's in 6 Old Court Place near Kensington High Street .
www.hotelara.com/travel/uk/england/london-restaurants-eating-out.html
The most incredible non-haute-cuisine French food I have eaten outside of France. Excellent wine list, puddings to die for, great service - friendly without being servile - hits all the right buttons with just the right flourish.
Informal atmosphere, yet understatedly stylish and elegant. Loved it so much we chose it as the venue for our wedding reception meal. We couldn't have wished for a better organised and efficient team to take away every stress - I cannot recommend this place more highly.
42 North Audley Street, London. W1K 6ZR
Telephone 020 7491 9988
Email info@trucvert.co.uk
Facsimile 020 7491 7717
A real gem of a bar, with a worn in, non-pretentious atmosphere, a wide range of continental beers and a great gastro restaurant attached.
Better still, they have a lovely little beer garden (more yard than garden) at the back. A great little place a little further afield from where the hordes hang out in Islington.
The Alma, 59 Newington Green Road, London, N1 4QU Tel: 02077047601 URL: www.welovelocal.com/en/london/islington/canonbury/pubs/the-alma-n14qu.html
Nearest Station: Highbury and Islington
A breath of fresh air on the Indian dining scene, just round the Brick Lane on Bethnal Green Road, but so different.
Fantastically fresh food, cooked in an open kitchen in front of you, and they do not use artificial food colouring and use fish from sustainable sources. Their lamb chops are to die for, and the Tandoori Raan (leg of lamb) is the best I ever had, and to top it up the chocolate milkshakes (Jay Rayner's recommendation in Observer) were spot on.
Maida Indian Eatery
148 Bethnal Green Road
London E26DG
Tel: 02077392645
www.maida-restaurant.co.uk
Nearest station : Liverpool st
Fish restaurant. It is by far the best fish I have eaten anywhere. The chef is Mauritian, trained at the George Cinq in Paris, cooks your meal anyway you wish, very accommodating and friendly.
24 Seymour Place London W1H 7NL
www.fishrestaurantlondon.co.uk
Phone 020 7724 5001
Nearest Tube Marble Arch 5 minutes walk
Excellent setting and service, shame about the food. Very bland!
No taste of coconut in coconut rice! Tasteless prawns.
Very disappointing evening considering the location and high prices.
Food needs to match the wonderful décor.
You could walk past 100 times without noticing. You certainly wouldn't go in unless someone recommended it. The restaurant is on the second floor of the Strand Continental Hotel, which was popular with Indian intellectuals in the 1930s, and nothing has been changed since, not even the lino on the stairs.
It takes dinginess into a whole new dimension and the service can be a little odd, but it offers really good authentic Indian food at rock-bottom prices. An unforgettable experience.
143 Strand WC2 (020-7836 0650)
I came across this neat and clean fast food outlet. The nicest thing was the service and food quality, this was a surprise because I have visited many fast food outlets and they are very very different.
They have tasty grilled chicken, bbq sauce chicken and all the normal stuff, they even make homemade smoothies.
212 High Rd, Ilford
They do a great set meal each day, well worth the price, including a little Indian desert. Also have good south Indian dishes.
121-123 Drummond Street Camden London NW1 2HL. Right next to Euston Station.
Fantastic food, particularly the south Indian meals, cheap, and quick service. I always eat there when I'm in the area.
133/5 Drummond Street, London, NW1 2HL
A fantastic curry restaurant, hidden away a few minutes walk from Old St tube station.
Stumbled upon it a few years ago and have been a regular ever since. A great range of traditional Indian food prepared with the best ingredients - mouth wateringly tender meat, delicious mango chutney with cracked black pepper and slivers of chili, even the garnishes are prepared with care and taste delicious.
Attentive, friendly service, the best peshwari naan bread I've ever tasted. Reasonably priced, and due to its location off the main Shoreditch drag it's bizzarely easy to get a table despite how amazing this place is.
20 City Road, London, EC1Y 2AJ, 020 7374 4842, Old St. tube.
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