london

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.

The William Kentridge show at the Royal Academy is incredibly brilliant by the way. When I went into the first room I thought WTF these are just boring charcoal drawings but it turns out to be a million times more than that, I've been once and I'm going again, at least once more.

oh this is good to know! Where does Lyle's fit into this? I see their lunch menu is cheaper, is that worth making time for as well?

If you visit the Kentridge, try to time it so you can see the puppet shows that are on at 20 past the hour every hour (I didn't but I will next time).

The Michael Craig Martin show at Alan Cristea also great, I laughed and laughed. Pop art takes on great works of art is in no sense a new idea but these really pop.

If you can catch "This Is Not Dying" by Nova Paul, a piece of video art showing at Phyllida Reid on Grape Street (a back street near the top of Shaftesbury Avenue, you will be seeing the best piece of video art I've seen in forever (The fourth para here does a decent job of desribing the technique: http://www.thirdtext.org/?location_id=637 ). The problem is it's on a two hour loop playing in the basement of the gallery so AFAICT it is not possible to tell whether you will see it when you arrive at the gallery. Perhaps the other stuff on the loop is just as good, I don't know.

Lyle's is somewhere between the two, less austere than either, more restauranty than Maltby St, a touch more modern european/less organ meaty than St John. (Not that St John will force feed you tripe or anything). I like Lyle's a lot, I'd say it has more in common with the kind of excellent restaurant I'd be unsurprised to find in Chicago than either of the others has.

When we have American visitors to is Kiln (on Brewer Street in Soho) which is Thai, specifically northern Thai and not really anything like the Thai cuisine I'm used to. It's consistently fantastic; no idea whether it's the kind of thing you could find in Philly, though physically the restaurant would be recognisable to hipsters across the globe, stripped down brick and dining sitting up at the bar. So great, don't miss the stir-friend greens and soy, which doesn't sound exciting but is unbelievable.

That is supposed to read "when we have American visitors I want to impress, a place I generally take them to is..."

nearly went to kiln yesterday. didn’t.

more exciting posting like that whenever you like.

Is Kiln worth visiting even if you have a let's say sensitive stomach?

Yes - the staff will help you swerve the things that are likely to be troublesome, for whatever reason.

another question: where is a great place to do Sunday roast, ideally like relatively straightforward and not too much of a fancy/expensive reinterpretation? Places Eater recommends sort of close to where we're staying incl Harwood Arms, Canton Arms, and Hawkswood, and then farther out are Quality Chop House, Marksman, and Blacklock?

i really don’t know that part of town at all

Harwood Arms is pretty expensive, even compared to places like The Marksman. All the options you mentioned are good, if you want a straightforward roast which doesn’t do anything fancy but does everything well then Blacklock is hard to beat.

Also if you were thinking of going to St John I would suggest either going to Bread and Wine, or (a better option) having dinner at Quality Wines and then going for rarebit, pud and booze at the bar at St John. If you’re in Kensington, Hereford Road is relatively close and does a great impression of St John without the hype.

I’ve never been there myself for Sunday lunch but I’ve heard from friends that Hawksmoor does a good and well priced one. Think the Borough one is probably nearest to you?