london

In an attempt to be more informed, I have looked up NSG but as far as I can see it is Northampton School for Girls, which doesn't seem to belong on this thread.

The aforementioned Newport Street Gallery

But this reminds me yeah CRYSTAL PALACE is a must!! For the bizarre Victorian dinosaur statues!

And the aquarium/reptilarium (?) in the town centre

South London is great but southeast in particular is a trek for tourists without a local friend/personal connection there.

It does have Zeret kitchen (excellent Ethiopian) and FM Mangal (excellent Turkish) and Silk Road (excellent Xinjiang/Chinese) though

I wrote that while on a no serve section of train, turns out reptilarium is a word

If I had a friend visiting I'd take them to 40 Maltby St, yes you can get good generically European food in NYC but it's very well done, and fun that it's a railway arch, and the whole area is quite fun. Can be combined with a visit to White Cube Bermondsey (and is only 10 minutes from Borough Market, which is only 10 minutes walk from Tate Modern)

For Stevie and for Londoners that might not know, the London Wall location of the Museum of London is closing forever 4 December! New museum in West Smithfield will open ~in the next few years~ and MOL Docklands remains open, but this is your last chance to see things like the Victorian Walk or the Olympic Cauldron which may or may not make it to new museum as well as a random hodgpodge of history of London from prehistoric fossils to today.

I comprehend the idea that "SE London is a trek". It is what most people think.

Yet it is also a fact that London Bridge or Charing Cross can be considered "central London", and getting from them to notable locations in SE London takes under 15 minutes.

"I mean btwn Philly and NYC I can get amazing Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, etc., but what are the types of things I'd have a hard time finding stateside?"

See Vietnamese, Turkish and Ethiopian have not been listed. There are some good places though ppl here should know better.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, October 26, 2022 4:06 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

We also have a ton of incredible Vietnamese and Ethiopian in Philly :( Turkish, not so much!

Re: restaurants, considering your list includes most of the major diasporas...maybe if you're willing to go posh with it, you could try modern English (please do not laugh) cuisine? Lyle's, The Clove Club and St. Johns are all good representatives of this, tho also all pricey as fuck.

no see this is actually exactly what I would love to try!! A friend recommended St. Johns, I will check out the other two as well.

all of this advice has been exceedingly tremendously helpful so far, tysm!!!!!

It was years ago, but I ate at St. Johns at ilx’s recommendation and really enjoyed it!

St John just opened a new branch in Marylebone.

St John just opened a new branch in Marylebone.

St John's is so good.

Don't feel tied to the restaurant hours either, you can get most of the star items at the bar at any time.

have people been to Singburi? The Vittles/Instagram folks talk about it as near-miraculous

on that topic, subscribing to Vittles for a month and reading your way around London while you eat your way around London might be a pretty good use of four King Charles pounds: https://vittles.substack.com/p/a-newcomers-guide-to-london-food

i live a 15 minute walk from singburi and been there many times. it's great. depends what you get. big chalk menu of specials every day. family run. no nonsense but always packed. you need to reserve a table by 1pm or forget it.

Might be partly through preciously living in walkeable Porto but everything in London is a trek in my book.

previously, though I'm sure I was precious about it too

I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for fifteen years and still haven’t come to terms with the embassy of North Korea being a detached suburban house at the end of the street pic.twitter.com/ppI9j3htne

— Gareth (@Cadmarch) October 28, 2022

I grew up in a north London street with the Ghanaian consulate a few doors along, I think it might be some kind of laundering thing where ill-gotten gains are transferred into overseas property.

Sure this will give visitors an idea or two.

the @vittlesmagazine pub guide continues with south london: co-op pubs, modern desi pubs, jamaican pubs with jerk chicken buffet tables, pubs with boules, the best real ale pub in carshalton, and, of course, skehanshttps://t.co/eOg7JUlQ8i

— axaxaxas lmäo (@demarionunn) October 28, 2022

Consulate buildings aren’t the result of dirty money - they’re necessary for diplomacy. I know exactly where that one is and my friend’s dad used to be posted there.

From that vittles pub guide:

All a pub needs to be special in a city like London is just one thing that marks it out from every other pub that surrounds it. It could be something small, like Glasshouse Stores’ bar billiards table, or The Southampton Arms’ pork bap. At The Prince of Wales, a sliver of a pub on Kennington’s residential Cleaver Square, you might assume it’s the hidden setting, or even the koulibiac I’ve spotted hidden on the menu next to the roasts, suggesting the presence of someone from Eastern Europe in the kitchen. But it’s none of those things. It’s the boules.

:|

okay I'm dialing back on my cuisine sentiments a bit, what are the types of foods London does exceptionally well? I am getting vibes that Indian and Turkish are two of thiese

There were some really nice Latin American restaurants in Elephant & Castle but I think a few have closed since the shopping centre was torn down.

the Vittles central London pub listing was pretty spot on for around us for the ones I've been to, and highlighted a few that are really nearby but I've never been in, so.

I would say the biggest communities foodwise in London are Indian, Pakistani and Turkish.

India of course is a gigantic country featuring tons of different cuisines and I know very little about the matter but will say I love Rasa (vegetarian place in Stoke Newington) and was also quite impressed by Brigadier's (though beware the City of London banker vibes).

At the risk of dropping yet another vittles link here, there's this: https://vittles.substack.com/p/60-south-asian-dishes-every-londoner

Would maybe add Chinese to that list above; certainly the offer is insanely better than what I had in Portugal, but perhaps an American won't be as impressed. Anyway, X'Ian Impressions in Islington (Niang Biang noodles), Silk Road in Camberwell (Xinjiang) and Leung's Legends (Taiwanese) in Chinatown are good places.

Dunno how London Japanese stacks up against elsewhere but Asakusa in Camden has good food and a cool "authentic" Japanese drinking hole vibe.

Some random regions for different local cuisines: Edgware Road (Lebanon), Stockwell (Portugal), New Malden (Korea), Green Lanes (Turkish and Kurdish).

there is probably by far the best and most diverse range of regional indian cuisines of any city outside india but much of it is spread out across the suburbs in places like southall, harrow, ilford, tooting, and elsewhere rather than more popular or convenient tourist destinations - and many of the best places will be primarily known to and frequented by locals - I'm not much help here

yeah I feel like there isn't a whole lot of diversity w/ Indian food here, there's a few South Indian spots w dosas, a ton of spots that have the typical tikka masala/vindaloo/biryani/etc, and there's one Indo-Chinese spot (which I loooove). I'd love to explore more.

Left is right, but if you eat meat and leave London without having eaten the Dry Meat at Tayyabs in Whitechapel (Pakistani Punjabi cuisine IIRC) you've made a mistake and that's a famous and central place well-known to unlocals.

if you don't eat meat I used to love diwana bhel poori house on euston rd - haven't been for years but I hope it hasn't changed much

Tayyab’s is obv amazing (as is the Lahore Kebab House down the road, tho it’s considerably more spartan)

no apostrophe.

Sacrilege to suggest that Needoo Grill is maybe even (slightly) better than both?

never been! walked past it often!

Needoo is vg, personally I prefer the Dry Meat in Tayyabs and that wins the game.

Agree about Diwana also, that remains my Drummond St spot.

Yes thanks for the geographic correction

I can second Daniel’s recommendation for Rasa, went on one of my first dates with my now husband there and had about the highest praise I can give for a vegetarian place, ie “I didn’t even miss meat.” Seriously good place. That neck of the woods a little out of your way but if you go there, you can also visit some of the nearby Turkish places.

And yeah the dry lamb chops or w/e at Tayyabs are the best.

(Left sorry if it felt like correcting you, wasn’t trying to be a smartarse)

tayyabs lamb chops (which a table next to me said i wouldn’t be able to eat due to the volume of food i’d ordered: they were RONG) v Lahore Kebab House nargis kebab. filthy massive curry sauce spiced scotch eggs. order in advance.

A third vote for Diwana on Drummond St-- I love all the bhel poori bits and pieces! (vegetarian so not weighing in on the Tayyabs debate)

Diwana on Sunday means paneer thali!

I'm sorry Tim it looks pissier on the page than i felt! I just wanted to acknowledge the specific location for myself as much as anyone

No need to apologise.

I further clarification: gyac is right about tayyabs’s lamb chops, they’re great and justly famous. I’m on about a dish called dry meat, long slow stewed lamb (maybe mutton) and it’s outstanding

okay so Tayyab's is at the top of my list and Diwana is also up there too. In terms of like upscale Briths, I am thinking either St. John, Lyle's, or 40 Maltby St, though it looks like Lyle's is just an £89 prix-fixe so proooobably not that.

i'm sorry TAYYABS

also 100% going to Passyunk Ave. and no one can stop me

St John and Maltby Street are very different propositions, both brilliant. St John is the foundation stone of the re-emergence of taking offal and unusual meats (like hare or whatever) seriously, it's austere and scrubbed down, fairly strictly British (I think) and michelin starred. Maltby Street is primarily a natural wine bar that happens to have an excellent modern european food offer. Go to both IMO.