Kricket Review: A 4.7, and It Started in a Shipping Container
Kricket Review: A 4.7, and It Started in a Shipping Container | Eleven hundred people, and the cheapest possible room is where almost everything good in London begins
Tag: restaurant review London
Satay Review: A 3.8, and Satay Is a Grill You Can Carry
Satay Review: A 3.8, and Satay Is a Grill You Can Carry | Thirteen hundred people, and a skewer over charcoal is the oldest street food format there is
Park’s Edge Review: A 4.8 on Eleven Hundred People, and That Is Very Nearly Unfakeable
Park’s Edge Review: A 4.8 on Eleven Hundred People, and That Is Very Nearly Unfakeable | Volume punishes, and a number this good on a sample this large is one of the hardest things in hospitality
Tsunami Review: A Tsunami Is Not a Tidal Wave and the Sea Goes Out First
Tsunami Review: A Tsunami Is Not a Tidal Wave and the Sea Goes Out First | It is the whole depth of the ocean moving, and the water withdrawing is the last warning you get
Slice Club Review: New York Pizza Is Thin Because of the Rent
Slice Club Review: New York Pizza Is Thin Because of the Rent | A slice must be eaten standing, folded, in ninety seconds – and every feature of it follows from that
Elondi Review: A 4.7, and the Terrace Is Selling You the Weather
Elondi Review: A 4.7, and the Terrace Is Selling You the Weather | Two hundred and eighty-eight people, and there are forty good evenings in a London year
Carbobar Review: A 4.8, and Carbonara Has No Cream in It
Carbobar Review: A 4.8, and Carbonara Has No Cream in It | Eggs, cheese, pork and pepper – and the cream is a foreign invention that Italians find genuinely upsetting
PizzaLuxe Review: The Margherita Story Is Almost Certainly False
PizzaLuxe Review: The Margherita Story Is Almost Certainly False | A queen, a pizzaiolo, and a flag – and the letter proving it is regarded by historians as a forgery
Casa Manolo Review: Somebody’s House, on the Strand
Casa Manolo Review: Somebody’s House, on the Strand | Casa means house. Manolo is a man. Nearly five hundred people have eaten in his house and not one has met him.
Bella Italia Irving Street Review: The Other One, 0.2 Worse
Bella Italia Irving Street Review: The Other One, 0.2 Worse | The Strand branch has a 4.7. This one has a 4.5. Same chain, same menu, same pasta. The difference is Leicester Square.
Randy’s Review: The Chicken Wing Was Waste and Somebody Made It the Product
Randy’s Review: The Chicken Wing Was Waste and Somebody Made It the Product | It was thrown away, or boiled for stock, and then a bar in Buffalo fried a batch and it became an industry
Condesa Review: Named After a Countess Nobody Remembers
Condesa Review: Named After a Countess Nobody Remembers | La Condesa in Mexico City is named for a colonial countess. It is now shorthand for a certain kind of expensive neighbourhood.
Salt Yard Review: Salt Was Money and It Is Why You Have a Salary
Salt Yard Review: Salt Was Money and It Is Why You Have a Salary | Roman soldiers were paid an allowance for it, cities were built on it, and wars were fought over it
Goldies Review: The Golden Age Is Always the One Before
Goldies Review: The Golden Age Is Always the One Before | Every generation in Soho has been certain that the real Soho was the one they just missed
Penelope’s Review: She Unpicked the Shroud Every Night
Penelope’s Review: She Unpicked the Shroud Every Night | Three years of weaving by day and undoing it in the dark, to hold off a hundred and eight men who would not leave her house
Passyunk Review: The Philly Cheesesteak Has a Grammar and You Must Speak It
Passyunk Review: The Philly Cheesesteak Has a Grammar and You Must Speak It | Wiz wit, wiz witout – a four-syllable ordering language, and getting it wrong is the entire point
Black Tap Review: A 4.7, and the Milkshake Is the Product
Black Tap Review: A 4.7, and the Milkshake Is the Product | It sells burgers and beer, and it is famous for a milkshake with an entire cake on top of it
Red Dog Saloon Review: A Saloon Is a Drawing Room
Red Dog Saloon Review: A Saloon Is a Drawing Room | The word is French, it means the grandest room in a great house, and America gave it to a shed with a piano in it
Bar Kroketa Review: The Croqueta Is Made of Leftovers and It Is Perfect
Bar Kroketa Review: The Croqueta Is Made of Leftovers and It Is Perfect | Thick bechamel, cold overnight, breadcrumbed and fried – and it was invented to use up yesterday’s dinner
The Abingdon Review: The Same Town as the Speckled Hen
The Abingdon Review: The Same Town as the Speckled Hen | A Kensington gastropub with a 4.5, sharing its name with the Oxfordshire town that gave Britain a beer named after a filthy car
Riding House Review: A Riding House Was Where You Taught a Horse to Dance
Riding House Review: A Riding House Was Where You Taught a Horse to Dance | An indoor school for haute ecole – and the movements were battlefield techniques before they were displays
Capeesh Review: The Word Is Italian and It Means Do You Understand
Capeesh Review: The Word Is Italian and It Means Do You Understand | Capisci, filtered through Italian-American, and it has become an English word for a threat
Urban Food Court Review: One to Ten Pounds, and a 4.8
Urban Food Court Review: One to Ten Pounds, and a 4.8 | The cheapest venue in the City, and the highest-rated cheap venue in four postcodes, and there is a lesson in it
Casa do Frango Review: Piri-Piri Is a Chilli From Africa
Casa do Frango Review: Piri-Piri Is a Chilli From Africa | The Portuguese took it from Brazil to Mozambique and Angola, and it came back to Lisbon as something else entirely
Ukai Review: Fishing With Cormorants, for Thirteen Centuries
Ukai Review: Fishing With Cormorants, for Thirteen Centuries | Ukai is a Japanese practice in which trained birds catch fish and are prevented from swallowing the big ones. It has been going since the 7th century.
Lillie’s Review: 4.9 From Seventy-One People
Lillie’s Review: 4.9 From Seventy-One People | A very high score on a small sample, and another woman’s name on a sign that nobody has enquired about
Wild Review: 4.7, and the Word Means Almost Nothing Now
Wild Review: 4.7, and the Word Means Almost Nothing Now | Wild is the most overused word in British food, and this is one of the few places in the file that has earned it
Sunday in Brooklyn Review: A Neighbourhood, Imported Whole
Sunday in Brooklyn Review: A Neighbourhood, Imported Whole | A Williamsburg restaurant has opened in Notting Hill, which is either a joke about gentrification or an extremely confident one
1 Lombard Street Review: The Lombards Are Why Pawnbrokers Have Three Balls
1 Lombard Street Review: The Lombards Are Why Pawnbrokers Have Three Balls | Italian bankers set up on this street in the thirteenth century, and their emblem is still hanging over every pawnshop in Britain
Oak and Smoke Review: Smoking Was Preservation and Now It Is a Flavour
Oak and Smoke Review: Smoking Was Preservation and Now It Is a Flavour | The compounds that make it taste good are the same ones that kill the bacteria, and that is not a coincidence