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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
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.
Just down the road from the mighty Shepherdess Cafe, towards Old St station and on the left-hand side of City Road, is a little street called Westland Place (there's a shop on the corner called Renaissance which sells gothic fireplaces).
This is the home of St. Jamie Oliver's original Fifteen restaurant but also featured in the execrable film, Closer. A door on the left-hand side of the street labelled Westland Place Studios, between the fireplace shop and an old piping company premises, was the Julia Roberts character's front door in the vacuous, self-regarding snorefest.
In this scene, Jude Law's character makes a reference to going to "the pub round the corner". He was talking about the Eagle, a pleasant old boozer behind the Shepherdess Cafe, that features, along with City Road, in a less well-known verse of the nursery rhyme, Pop Goes the Weasel.
Beautifully presented dishes, reasonably priced. Simply the best Indian food I've ever had.
www.atmarestaurants.com
Hampstead
Belsize park
Swiss Cottage
Cozy atmosphere and decent prices.
Sheraton Park Lane, 112 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7BX
This pub, halfway between Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road tube stations, is brilliant. As well as a good range of drinks and a yummy menu, it offers loads of live music events all week (from open mic nights to unsigned indie bands and old-time jazz).
Thanks to a new refurbishment the Spice now looks like a slightly garish, eccentric Highland mansion, and it's extra-cosy for sinking winter pints. And best of all the pub's attractions? Three words: Sticky. Toffee. Pudding.
6 Moor St (by the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Ave - just next to the big theatre)
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
Pretty basic restaurant with the most fabulous authentic curries and biryanies. When I am homesick for my mum's cooking this is where I go and where loads of other Indians and Pakistanis go. Much better than any restaurant in Southall, cheaper and the staff are lovely.
Lahore Spice, 272 Kingsbury Road, Kingsbury, London NW9 0BT, 020 8204 2040 (Jubilee line)
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 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)
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.
One of the best Nepali restaurants in London, arguably the best in west London. There is a wide variety of dishes, including vegetarian, and the knowledgable staff will guide you if necessary.
116-118, Ruislip Rd, Greenford, Middlesex UB6 9RU
Tel: 020 8578 3255
Nearest tube: Greenford, then E6 bus.
This is a hidden gem, set in the greenfields of Fairlop Waters in Ilford. Phenomenal chilli chicken, and excellent veggie options.
The food is supposed to be authentic Mumbai cuisine, which is the one place in India where you can find the whole country's various delicacies united. It overlooks a lake, and you can smoke some great apple mint tobacco in their sheeshas. Great value for money.
It's in the Fairlop Waters complex on Forest Road, Barkingside, Essex, London, IG6 3HN. Fairlop tube (central line) is just a few minutes walk away. I found it here: www.london-eating.co.uk/6766.htm
One of the oldest Indian restaurants in London. Great chicken tikka. Try the mixed grill and the king prawn sag is to die for.
135-137 Whitfield Street, Soho, London, W1T 5EL. Nearest tube - Warren Street (it's a 5 min walk from there)
The food, fragrance, spice, atmosphere, and neighbourhood are all unforgettable. I recommend it to everyone. Such a place becomes an intregal part of sensory memory, replayed over and over again, even across a decade or more.
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