london restaurants

I am still up for the meat easy btw, anyone in?

My cousin works in the kitchen at The Anchor and Hope in Southwark, had a Sunday there last week which blew my mind. So good.

Sunday roast I meant! Tho the Sunday in general was good too.

The Anchor & Hope is the best pub for food in the whole of London. Hell, it beats most restaurants hands-down. Anything game-related there is a winner.

truth bomb

Matt I am mad envious of you, that place just sounds staggeringly great (and i am not normally 'into' fine dining).

Dinner, that is.

re anchor & hope, the cooking there is generally v good and their sourcing or raw product is fantastic but their bullshit no bookings policy (apart from sunday lunch) means I no longer bother chancing it. imo the harwood arms is doing the best pub food in the city, though it's not nearly as well located as h&a

sourcing OF raw product

Ate extremely well at the Anchor & Hope five years ago, so good to hear it's still on form.

Had a fantastic Sunday lunch at St John in Farringdon last weekend. Bone marrow with chard, capers and parsley; you scraped the marrow out of the bone and onto your toast, then added the other stuff on top with a handful of salt. Then braised ox heart (a day ahead of Valentines!) which was amazing - kinda like thin-sliced fillet steak, but smoother. Finally, a huge bowl of rhubarb Eton mess: great big dollops of the stuff, no faffing around with the presentation. Will definitely re-visit.

Love the anchor & hope; don't mind no bookings there, prob bcz I've been lucky with getting a seat generally, and it's near a workplace (& nearish home) for me. Would feel diff if I travelled some & had to drink among braying foodies for hours to eat some stuff (imagine polpo/polpetto being like this at the mo, cld be wrong).

Def still on for Meateasy. Might be going tomorrow, but with girlfriend. Going to avoid 'Darling, here are some people I barely know from the internet', but I imagine I'll be on to go again.

love the a+h, it's almost exactly between work and home and i go there a fair bit for lunch. if you don't mind an early dinner then getting there before six should get you a table, if not straight away then without too long a wait. or it has done in the past...

yeah polpetto is kinda that way at the moment, or at least it has been any time i've wandered past. sworn off any place which simultaneously doesnt take reservations and serves to attract the digital slr brigade since standing for over an hour outside franco manca in brixton after about 2 hours sleep a few months back.

yeah i guess a&h is ideal if you are basically traveling past it twice a day, but for me it isn't the kind of place i would be bothered to rush to immediately after leaving work just to have a hope of being seated in a reasonable amount of time

no-bookings policies are so shit

Yeah, they feel likeable if somewhere's super convenient for a pop-in and you have figured out the rhythms of its custom. Otherwise maddening. (esp when I suspect I am being made to stand around w/ overpriced drinks in order to create a sense of 'buzz' around yr establishment.)

No bookings policies are fine in a pub, which is what the Anchor & Hope is really.

do people really go to a&h just to have a few drinks? in my experience the people at the bar are ALL people who weren't quick enough for a table but were quick enough to be allowed to wait for one inside the building rather than having to leave their number and wander around the cut. think it would be disingenuous of them to claim that they are 'a pub that serves food', they are a restaurant with a bar, and a shitty booking policy.

if you want to book, you can just go to great queen st which is pretty much the same imo

xxp
agree with first half of that, but hesitant about 2nd… looks like a good pub, feels like a good pub, but can't imagine going for a pint there (but only because of the crowds?), also it's just so famous as a food-place. (But as I say, selfishly unbothered about their no-bookings.)

non-veggie friend is going to this intriguing-looking place tonight - http://www.vanillablack.co.uk/ - tbh i think just the peanut butter and chocolate parfait would tempt me along

a+h would be a great local if it weren't quite so busy, which yeah is mostly people waiting for tables.

well i mean it looks like a pub yeah, but it is judged purely on the strength of its food and that is the only reason anyone ever goes there.

lex, i was raised vegetarian and as my parents are veggie i always take them somewhere that they can have plenty of menu options whenever they are in London. vanilla black is def the best non-indian vegetarian food I have had in the city, your friend is in for a treat

sooooo

good chinese restaurants in london?

Barshu in Soho is really good. I also like the much poncier Shanghai Blues in Holborn. And there's a terrific dim sum place near the O2 whose name escapes me. The downside is it's near the O2.

CHILLI COOL CHILLI COOL CHILLI COOL.

http://www.chillicool.com/home-eng.html

dragon castle at elephant and castle
leong's legends
yauatcha? (never been meself)

Chili Cool in Russel Square and Gourmet San in Bethnal Green (xpost)

― Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 15:52 (49 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Did you go together? (xp)

http://londonist.com/2011/02/top-10-chinatown-eats.php

never going to chinatown having known son of proprietor of one such restaurant who wouldn't eat there

ah whatevs, could hear that kinda thing from anyone who knows anyone who's ever had a relative who once worked in a restaurant.

Not sure about 'the best', but if you're nr the scruffy south-east, I enjoyed going to Le Wei Xiang in Lewisham the other week - cheap, nice, big portions, giant menu with loads of stuff I'd rather not eat on it (tendons). Cash only.

barshu is great, def my favourite of the szechuan restaurants that got hyped up a couple of years ago. best dim sum i have had is at dragon castle in elephant & castle, which also benefits from fantastically ott decor and really friendly service. hunan in pimlico does amazing food but is more expensive and less welcoming.

i would be careful to not lump barshu in with the shitholes that make up most restaurants in chinatown. it's very much like people who wont eat a curry anywhere around brick lane, just because the vast majority are fucking foul doesnt mean there arent great meals to be had.

i second leong's legend. also shanghai in dalston.

the szechuan ones are great but i'm a wuss when it comes to spices so most of the menu is wasted on me.

I've been to Le Wei Xiang and while I'm not exactly squeamish about eating bits of animal most of the stuff on the menu just looked outright revolting. No restaurant needs that much tripe on the menu.

yeah I steered clear of most of the offal (i am a bit squeamish) but some potentially disgusting lumps of pig fat in one dish were delicious, so idk maybe they can pull off the tripe and tendons too.

ok yes definitely enjoyed #meateasy. Definitely.

(& another place where I am def not bothered by no bookings.)

chilli cool is good, yes. fish hot pot.
also "szechuan folk" by spitalfields market is really good.. there's a lot of good szechuan places popping up lately

not sure about that londonist list except 4 season is good (don't just have the duck, also have the bbq pork)

chinatown eat: people in the know go to "jen's cafe". "yeung cheng" (or something) are also pretty decent (and i still still do a prix fixe kind of fayre where you order a dish pp and get charged flat price) also the lady who sells you a massive pork meat bun (not the char siu) for a quid from her little stall opposite baozi inn (which is overrated)

if yr in chinatown, that place that does the knife shaved + hand pulled noodles by leicester sq tube is also worthwhile

its fun just watching the dude work his magic

I had a fairly average meal at Le Wei Xiang ("Happy Smell"! in English!) - my companions seemed to enjoy it more than I did, but they were drinking and I was not? Pig blood and tofu soup was the blandest thing I've ever put in my mouth. Reminded me of the Goodness Gracious Me sketch where they order the blandest thing on the menu. Ergh! On saying that, I ate loads, the pork and garlic was very good, and something involving aubergines also tick VG. The DUMPLINGS! were ok, but there are better ones at Silk Road and from "Home" in Lewisham, which did the best DUMPLINGS! hands down.

Tripe isn't offputting, but when combined with the word "bowel"... that item was a little too much for me.

My favourite pork bun is from Kowloon Bakery - I love that place though and rarely bother trying anywhere else!

Matt, you're thinking of Penninsula! It's in a Holiday Inn! I always forget it exists. Hong Kong City on New Cross Road has not done me wrong in the past, but haven't been for ages.

Hold on, what the DUMPLINGS! happened there?

Ha! DUMPLINGS! are very p!o!p! (#oldschoolsinisterjokethere)

DUMPLINGS! are BLUDDY GRATE

any good east suggestions for gastro pubs or other non ethnic food? or at least non viet/indian/pakistani, am having major burn out on that sort of cuisine and want to try some new places.

also a good place i can eat it on my birthday on friday but also invite people who want to drink and hang out?

http://www.albioncaff.co.uk is great!

I have a direct interest in this, but http://www.masonandtaylor.co.uk/ might suit your needs? I think it's fab, but obviously I would. It can certainly accommodate mixed eating / drinking groups.

st john b & w?

(not for yr birthday, just for food)

oh wow i've been liking the look of mason & taylor for ages! never quite the right place/right time yet but i will certainly make the effort now.

albion is v mediocre and overpriced imo.

i went to this place for my birthday: http://www.theeastonpub.co.uk
nice (if slightly poncy) pub that does nice sunday roast and they have massive tables + take bookings

& yeah mason + taylor looks great, will definitely be paying a visit