[Food] Restaurant 2019 Thread

[Goldstone1976]

I'd still suggest the same place I mentioned when you last asked!

https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/show...-2019-Thread&p=8959893&viewfull=1#post8959893

I’ve no excuse, boss. It’s my memory, you see.

Ta!

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

We're the Boathouse, in Littlehampton marina, thanks for asking. You'll know you're in the right place because there's lots of Albion paraphernalia on the walls!

We have booked in for dinner tomorrow night so looking forward to trying your food.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Few more closures in Brighton with Bus Stop and Pabellon both shutting. Not surprised with the first as it's a terrible location there and they never pushed themselves out there.

Pabellon was also a weird location, you would barely know it was there if looking for it.

Shame though, both independents.

 

[Yes Chef]

We have booked in for dinner tomorrow night so looking forward to trying your food.

Good man, should be a nice evening with the weather, I'll say hello if I'm not running around too much!

 

[Guinness Boy]

Few more closures in Brighton with Bus Stop and Pabellon both shutting. Not surprised with the first as it's a terrible location there and they never pushed themselves out there.

Pabellon was also a weird location, you would barely know it was there if looking for it.

Shame though, both independents.

Perhaps telling that I'd never heard of either!

 

[ForestRowSeagull]

Went to El Pastor in Borough Market on Wednesday. Some of the best Mexican food i've eaten outside Mexico - homemade tacos to die for. Recommended

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I seem to have spent most of the last week eating out. First off, a couple of updates from previous places.

I ate in Craft Beer on Thursday evening for the first time in a while. The new burger kitchen in there was very good with very meaty burgers and good toppings. We had one of the specials which was breakfast on a burger and came with a huge lump of very good black pudding, egg, bacon, hash browns, onions and salad. Not cheap but one of the better Brighton pub burgers.

Tonight was another visit to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] s favourite Worthing pizzeria, Fiordilatte. The food in there was as good as ever but it seems to have new management and staff who struggled with it being busy. Pizzas are definitely a bit smaller than they were and for the third visit in a row there was a mistake with our order – nothing major but annoying all the same. Hopefully the new management will settle things down again.

Also, a couple of new places to be reviewed here from the last couple of days.

First up, Jonny's in Worthing. Yet another café in Warwick Street but we thought we’d give them a go for brunch. All of our food was good quality and the prices are on a par with the other cafes along the strip. Tea was from TeaPigs so not using a catering pack of Tetley like some places. Would go back again.

Finally, the review I was most scared about. We took a family visit to the Boathouse, Littlehampton Marina – home of NSC’s own [MENTION=34109]Yes Chef[/MENTION] – for a birthday meal. It was a Tapas night and we sat out on the terrace to enjoy the Mediterranean evening. It’s fair to say we had about 3/4s of the menu between us and really enjoyed the food. Highlights were the Chorizo and Ham Hock Terrine, the slow roasted pork and black pudding and the tortilla. I think we also had four bowls of the chorizo which was cooked in lemon and garlic. Only dish we weren’t keen on was a bubble and squeak that had a bit too much sage for our taste but still disappeared.

We also had pudding – not something we usually do as they are expensive as a family. All were very good with a special mention for the strawberry and lemon posset which had a great balance of flavour and great home made shortbread.

It is a bit out of the way but definitely worth making the effort to visit and we will be going back again in the future.

Don’t forget to say hello to the chef as well – he’s quite a nice bloke you know

 

[Yes Chef]

I seem to have spent most of the last week eating out. First off, a couple of updates from previous places.

I ate in Craft Beer on Thursday evening for the first time in a while. The new burger kitchen in there was very good with very meaty burgers and good toppings. We had one of the specials which was breakfast on a burger and came with a huge lump of very good black pudding, egg, bacon, hash browns, onions and salad. Not cheap but one of the better Brighton pub burgers.

Tonight was another visit to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] s favourite Worthing pizzeria, Fiordilatte. The food in there was as good as ever but it seems to have new management and staff who struggled with it being busy. Pizzas are definitely a bit smaller than they were and for the third visit in a row there was a mistake with our order – nothing major but annoying all the same. Hopefully the new management will settle things down again.

Also, a couple of new places to be reviewed here from the last couple of days.

First up, Jonny's in Worthing. Yet another café in Warwick Street but we thought we’d give them a go for brunch. All of our food was good quality and the prices are on a par with the other cafes along the strip. Tea was from TeaPigs so not using a catering pack of Tetley like some places. Would go back again.

Finally, the review I was most scared about. We took a family visit to the Boathouse, Littlehampton Marina – home of NSC’s own [MENTION=34109]Yes Chef[/MENTION] – for a birthday meal. It was a Tapas night and we sat out on the terrace to enjoy the Mediterranean evening. It’s fair to say we had about 3/4s of the menu between us and really enjoyed the food. Highlights were the Chorizo and Ham Hock Terrine, the slow roasted pork and black pudding and the tortilla. I think we also had four bowls of the chorizo which was cooked in lemon and garlic. Only dish we weren’t keen on was a bubble and squeak that had a bit too much sage for our taste but still disappeared.

We also had pudding – not something we usually do as they are expensive as a family. All were very good with a special mention for the strawberry and lemon posset which had a great balance of flavour and great home made shortbread.

It is a bit out of the way but definitely worth making the effort to visit and we will be going back again in the future.

Don’t forget to say hello to the chef as well – he’s quite a nice bloke you know

Thanks for coming over to eat and thanks for the generous review. It was lovely to meet you and your family, hopefully we'll see you again soon.

Looks like I was a little lucky having to miss the game on Saturday!

Edit : just seen your nice review on TA as well, thanks so much!

 

[Goldstone1976]

The GLDHI and I are off to Endo on Friday. Giles Coren recently gave it 10/10 and said it was the best meal he’d ever had in 20 years of being a food critic. Personally, I’m not sure how it can be better than Sushi Tetsu, though Endo does cooked stuff as well as sushi/sashimi.

I can’t decide whether I’m excited at the the prospect or trepidatious.

 

[Machiavelli]

Went to El Pastor in Borough Market on Wednesday. Some of the best Mexican food i've eaten outside Mexico - homemade tacos to die for. Recommended

I'm not as up on Mexican food as you are, and wish I was, but I agree, very impressed with El Pastor. Handily placed for London fixtures too.

 

[Machiavelli]

The GLDHI and I are off to Endo on Friday. Giles Coren recently gave it 10/10 and said it was the best meal he’d ever had in 20 years of being a food critic. Personally, I’m not sure how it can be better than Sushi Tetsu, though Endo does cooked stuff as well as sushi/sashimi.

I can’t decide whether I’m excited at the the prospect or trepidatious.

Be excited. Enjoy. We'll look forward to the review.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Nandine Camberwell Church St, SE5

After dropping off my Mum (yes, she who clapped Boro when they scored at the AMEX a few seasons ago "Well we clap a good shot at bowls" - no, she hasn't done it again, thank God - and now has a ST sitting next to me) at her place yesterday afternoon, I met the GLDHI for a cocktail at the Crooked Well pub (decent cocktails, but the food is always too salty no matter who the chef is).

"What do you fancy for dinner?" she asks. "What have you got in the fridge?". "Nothing except half a pint of milk and some very old eggs". "Hmm. Let's eat out then".

"OK", she says, "There's this new place I saw on Monday; let's try there".

We pop into Church St - a veritable haven of decent places: Theo's pizza, Silk Road Xinjiang Chinese, Van Hing Vietnamese, and Falafel and Shawarma (err, falafel and shawarma) all being destination restaurants with excellent and very cheap food - and rock up at Nandine.

Nandine is owned and run by an Iraqi Kurdish family who originally opened a newsagents in Elephant and then decided to open a restaurant in Camberwell. As you do. Dishes range from £4 to £11 and we were advised by our waitress* to order 5 between us with only one of the larger dishes.

Up came some top notch grub, with stand out dishes being the 7-spiced chicken (moist, but charred beautifully), a magnificent hummus, a great red pepper-based dip and some good rice dumplings, all accompanied by brilliant flat breads.

£20pp for as much food as one could eat and very tasty it was too.

Turns out that Jay Rayner had reviewed it a couple of weeks ago (how on earth did he find out about it - it only opened 4 weeks ago?) and liked it too.

*The waitress was the prettiest woman** I've seen in the flesh for many a year. "Are you part of the family?" I ask. "No, I'm Bulgarian, which is quite close to Iraq". 1500 miles away. I let her off - it seemed the least I could do.


** Other than the GLDHI. Obviously.


EDIT: Oh, we finished with quite the best (home-made) baklava I've ever had - crispy, and sweet enough without being over-powering. A real treat.

 

[Fitzcarraldo]

Turns out that Jay Rayner had reviewed it a couple of weeks ago (how on earth did he find out about it - it only opened 4 weeks ago?) and liked it too.

I suspect he must live locally. He has reviewed FM Mangal, Silk Road, Crooked Well and Nandine (possibly Camberwell Arms as well?) down Camberwell Church Street. He's also reviewed Louie Louie and a non-descript Korean restaurant up the Walworth Road AND a load of places in Peckham. I understand that he is a restaurant critic but that still seems like a high concentration of local restaurants in quite a small area.

 

[Goldstone1976]

I suspect he must live locally. He has reviewed FM Mangal, Silk Road, Crooked Well and Nandine (possibly Camberwell Arms as well?) down Camberwell Church Street. He's also reviewed Louie Louie and a non-descript Korean restaurant up the Walworth Road AND a load of places in Peckham. I understand that he is a restaurant critic but that still seems like a high concentration of local restaurants in quite a small area.

Ah. That would explain it.

I should have added the Camberwell Arms to my list of very good places - modern British gastro-pub; very good. I used to like FM Mangal until they made me wait 90 minutes between ordering and bringing me any food. We left before the food came without paying for our drinks (though I did offer to pay for them), and haven't been back since.

Not tried Louie Louie - any good?

There's a well-regarded Ethiopian place on Walworth Road near Camberwell Green. We weren't that impressed. Though we do quite like Dragon Castle for cheap and OK+ dim sum on Walworth Road up near Elephant.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Nandine Camberwell Church St, SE5

After dropping off my Mum (yes, she who clapped Boro when they scored at the AMEX a few seasons ago "Well we clap a good shot at bowls" - no, she hasn't done it again, thank God - and now has a ST sitting next to me) at her place yesterday afternoon, I met the GLDHI for a cocktail at the Crooked Well pub (decent cocktails, but the food is always too salty no matter who the chef is).

"What do you fancy for dinner?" she asks. "What have you got in the fridge?". "Nothing except half a pint of milk and some very old eggs". "Hmm. Let's eat out then".

"OK", she says, "There's this new place I saw on Monday; let's try there".

We pop into Church St - a veritable haven of decent places: Theo's pizza, Silk Road Xinjiang Chinese, Van Hing Vietnamese, and Falafel and Shawarma (err, falafel and shawarma) all being destination restaurants with excellent and very cheap food - and rock up at Nandine.

Nandine is owned and run by an Iraqi Kurdish family who originally opened a newsagents in Elephant and then decided to open a restaurant in Camberwell. As you do. Dishes range from £4 to £11 and we were advised by our waitress* to order 5 between us with only one of the larger dishes.

Up came some top notch grub, with stand out dishes being the 7-spiced chicken (moist, but charred beautifully), a magnificent hummus, a great red pepper-based dip and some good rice dumplings, all accompanied by brilliant flat breads.

£20pp for as much food as one could eat and very tasty it was too.

Turns out that Jay Rayner had reviewed it a couple of weeks ago (how on earth did he find out about it - it only opened 4 weeks ago?) and liked it too.

*The waitress was the prettiest woman** I've seen in the flesh for many a year. "Are you part of the family?" I ask. "No, I'm Bulgarian, which is quite close to Iraq". 1500 miles away. I let her off - it seemed the least I could do.


** Other than the GLDHI. Obviously.


EDIT: Oh, we finished with quite the best (home-made) baklava I've ever had - crispy, and sweet enough without being over-powering. A real treat.

I assume the GLDHI isn't an NSC reader ? Or I hope not for your sake !

 

[Fitzcarraldo]

Ah. That would explain it.

I should have added the Camberwell Arms to my list of very good places - modern British gastro-pub; very good. I used to like FM Mangal until they made me wait 90 minutes between ordering and bringing me any food. We left before the food came without paying for our drinks (though I did offer to pay for them), and haven't been back since.

Not tried Louie Louie - any good?

There's a well-regarded Ethiopian place on Walworth Road near Camberwell Green. We weren't that impressed. Though we do quite like Dragon Castle for cheap and OK+ dim sum on Walworth Road up near Elephant.

Agree re FM Mangal. Used to be VERY good when I first moved round there circa 2012 but not so good service when I have been there over the last couple of years. Still worth gritting teeth through the patchy service for that bread and onion/blood dip thing before the meal, to my mind.

Louie Louie I just went for breakfast and it is decent for the area (although Electric Elephant café ok too, bit more homespun). Not many of the places round there you can get kimchi, avocado, feta and fried eggs on toast. Been put off going in the evening as the local pub selection has been non-existent so prefer eating out round Camberwell/Peckham. That is changing though as Dioneges the Dog (wine bar) and The Tap In (craft beer) have both opened up locally recently. Manor pub is a bit of an empty vessel and must be one of the worst of the Antic pubs.

I am expecting an influx of good places to eat now the replacements for the Heygate Estate are beginning to be finished. Pizza Pappagone (the original is near Finsbury Park) has opened near Elephant station which is definitely worth a visit. Might just be better than Theo's (available round the other side of the E&C roundabout).

 

[CHAPPERS]

I’ve been for late lunch at the Urchin and had a very decent warm octopus and potato salad followed by African mussels and chips and a carafe of Viognier and a pint of Long Man Best and a Marlboro for pudding then listened to the XX on the way home and life has been alright for a few hours.

9/10

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Nandine Camberwell Church St, SE5

After dropping off my Mum (yes, she who clapped Boro when they scored at the AMEX a few seasons ago "Well we clap a good shot at bowls" - no, she hasn't done it again, thank God - and now has a ST sitting next to me) at her place yesterday afternoon, I met the GLDHI for a cocktail at the Crooked Well pub (decent cocktails, but the food is always too salty no matter who the chef is).

"What do you fancy for dinner?" she asks. "What have you got in the fridge?". "Nothing except half a pint of milk and some very old eggs". "Hmm. Let's eat out then".

"OK", she says, "There's this new place I saw on Monday; let's try there".

We pop into Church St - a veritable haven of decent places: Theo's pizza, Silk Road Xinjiang Chinese, Van Hing Vietnamese, and Falafel and Shawarma (err, falafel and shawarma) all being destination restaurants with excellent and very cheap food - and rock up at Nandine.

Nandine is owned and run by an Iraqi Kurdish family who originally opened a newsagents in Elephant and then decided to open a restaurant in Camberwell. As you do. Dishes range from £4 to £11 and we were advised by our waitress* to order 5 between us with only one of the larger dishes.

Up came some top notch grub, with stand out dishes being the 7-spiced chicken (moist, but charred beautifully), a magnificent hummus, a great red pepper-based dip and some good rice dumplings, all accompanied by brilliant flat breads.

£20pp for as much food as one could eat and very tasty it was too.

Turns out that Jay Rayner had reviewed it a couple of weeks ago (how on earth did he find out about it - it only opened 4 weeks ago?) and liked it too.

*The waitress was the prettiest woman** I've seen in the flesh for many a year. "Are you part of the family?" I ask. "No, I'm Bulgarian, which is quite close to Iraq". 1500 miles away. I let her off - it seemed the least I could do.


** Other than the GLDHI. Obviously.


EDIT: Oh, we finished with quite the best (home-made) baklava I've ever had - crispy, and sweet enough without being over-powering. A real treat.

She must have been absolutely stunning, given I introduced you to the Frau last weekend

 

[Goldstone1976]

Agree re FM Mangal. Used to be VERY good when I first moved round there circa 2012 but not so good service when I have been there over the last couple of years. Still worth gritting teeth through the patchy service for that bread and onion/blood dip thing before the meal, to my mind.

Louie Louie I just went for breakfast and it is decent for the area (although Electric Elephant café ok too, bit more homespun). Not many of the places round there you can get kimchi, avocado, feta and fried eggs on toast. Been put off going in the evening as the local pub selection has been non-existent so prefer eating out round Camberwell/Peckham. That is changing though as Dioneges the Dog (wine bar) and The Tap In (craft beer) have both opened up locally recently. Manor pub is a bit of an empty vessel and must be one of the worst of the Antic pubs.

I am expecting an influx of good places to eat now the replacements for the Heygate Estate are beginning to be finished. Pizza Pappagone (the original is near Finsbury Park) has opened near Elephant station which is definitely worth a visit. Might just be better than Theo's (available round the other side of the E&C roundabout).

Oh wow - some new places for us to try - thanks v much.

Between Camberwell and Peckham proper there's a couple of places we've tried - Ganapati is always decent. The Begging Bowl is very highly rated but the GLDHI and I disagree about it - she thinks it's pretty good, I think it's only meh+. You might want to try?

In East Dulwich we like the French place - The French House, and there's a decent bakery/cafe just off Lordship Lane - Brickhouse Bakery, with another - BlackBird bakery just around the corner.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Endo - Television Centre, White City

The GLDHI and I were really looking forward to this trip, based mainly on Giles Coren's glowing review ("the best meal I've had in 20 years as a food critic"), and expectations were high. Sushi is never cheap, but even so £150pp for the 15 course omakase and £180 for the 18 course is crazy high - this further heightened our expectations.

The restaurant is located in the rotunda at Television Centre on the 8th floor and it is a very lovely space, though very cramped between the entrance door and the bar at which the 18 guests sit in two sittings. So cramped that on arrival one of the many staff suggested that we might like to sit out on the roof terrace and have a cocktail while they cleared down the bar from the previous sitting rather than stand around watching men with clothes wipe down a sushi bar.

"You won't forget we're there, will you? You'll come and take our drinks order in a minute, won't you?" I said. Prescience is not usually my strong suit, but I had a bad feeling.

"No, no. I'll be back to take your order in two minutes".

He wasn't.

After about 15 minutes another chap came out to us and asked us to follow him to our allotted two seats at the bar. There followed 30 minutes of barely controlled chaos as various people came up to ask us whether we wanted to order drinks - at least four different people asked. Oddly, I had given our cocktail order to the first person who had asked me. The chaos continued as I tried to ensure that a chef knew that the GLDHI had an oyster intolerance. Not once did I feel confident that that message had been received. They just assumed that we'd chosen to have the 18 course menu and they plonked down the set menu list in front of us and walked off. It would have been nice if they'd actually asked us.

Then I asked for the sake list. Big mistake. There were six sakes on the list - only one of which had listed the quality "daiginjo" listed. The others did not. So, I asked the wine guy "are any of these other sakes junmai daiginjo?".

"Umm. Well we're changing the sakes tomorrow".

"Oh? Well are any of the sakes on this list (you know, the list you put into my hands to order from two minutes ago) junmai daiginjo?"

"Umm. Well this one is daiginjo..." he said, peering at the list and pointing to the word "daiginjo", "...and that's better than junmai daiginjo, umm."

I stared at him in disbelief. I was about to launch into a description of the sake grading system (it's really not hard), but could see him looking desperate and took pity on him.

"Well, we'll try this one", say I, pointing to a different sake (I had at least heard of the maker, and I generally like the sake from that prefecture).

"Sorry, that one's off. We sold the last bottle a couple of days ago". A couple of days ago, and you haven't updated the list? FFS.

"How about this one?"

"Yes, I think we have one bottle of that left".

"Well, perhaps you'd better go and get that one before someone else buys it?"

"We don't get much in the way of people knowing anything about sake in here; I doubt anyone else will have ordered it".

I'm sorry? The second highest priced sushi place in the country (behind the Araki), and no customers know anything about sake? Seriously?

It was about now that the GLDHI whispered to me, "It's a different crowd of customers in here compared to Sushi Tetsu, isn't it?". I hadn't noticed, but now took a minute to have a look around.

She was right. To our right, two couples who had come as a foursome, with one Essex-facelifted woman who told the chef that she couldn't eat shellfish and didn't like wasabi (and who later said to Endo "that's too big, can you please make me a smaller piece of sushi"), and one man who talked to his mate about Arsenal and said that he wanted to go to the AMEX, but didn't know the name of our manager. To our immediate left, a couple of Indian-looking chaps, one of whom was constantly tapping away on his phone, even when Endo was trying to hand him a piece of nigiri. (I later asked him what he did for a living: "I'm a banker", he said. "I'd guessed that might be the case", I politely replied.)

It was indeed a different crowd. They had little interest in the quality of the food. They were there because they wanted to be able to say that they'd been. Truly obnoxious people in the main.

"Well, it's really utterly chaotic - which you wouldn't expect given they've been open for a few months now", I said to the GLDHI. "But, I'll forgive that if the food is great".

It wasn't.

I mean, it was fine - mostly. But absolutely nothing to write home about. We ate each piece of nigiri as it was presented to us, vaguely enjoyed it, looked at each other and shrugged.

Sushi Tetsu is 10 times as good at about half the price. And you don't get entitled ****s as your fellow diners.