Where should I eat in London?

mos dan

fact music
El Rincon is the only restaurant in London aside from lunchtime sandwich shops where I get recognised by the staff, which is nice. Brilliant people, only reason to go to Cla'ham.

don't anyone make the mistake of confusing it with Carmen by Clapham Common station, which gave me food poisoning once and then wouldn't admit it/refund me after my night of vomiting hell.
 

luka

Well-known member
even koreans agree korean beer is awful... but they drink shots of that rice wine stuff, cant reemmber the name...
 

Krasner

Well-known member
I went to an Ecuadorian restaurant called Costa Azul on Old Kent Road last week. They do all the standard Latin American fare (pork, steak, beans, patacones...) plus loads of really tasty seafood dishes. I shared a huge seafood platter which had Squid, massive prawns, mussels, tuna, tilapia & lemon sole and it was fucking tasty.

There's a proper good vibe in there too. We went on a Friday was an amazing group singing and playing drums along to what sounded like midi cumbia with load of other diners dancing. The also played some sort of Arabic autotune pop over the radio - great stuff.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Chili Cool at the back of King's X. Amazing Szechuan food, aubergine to die for.

Goign there tonight and hopefully to Silk Road in Camberwell (mentioned upthread) tomorrow...weekend promsies to be tasty.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Went to Silk Road; had the middle plate chicken, some dumplings, hot chilli greens and double cooked pork. All was excellent, really excellent. Gets my vote for best mainland Chinese in London.

I went back to Gourmet San and didn't like it at all; maybe it was having a bad day but what I got was greasy and kinda over-priced I thought. Sorry, I know it's a fave; I'll reserve judgement and go back again.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
got to make the short trip to silk road now! maybe on thursday...

Anyone know of any good Middle Eastern restaurants that aren't the standard Lebanese (which I like, but am tiring a bit of)? Have been to an Iranian on Edgware Road, but that was rubbish. Of course the 'Middle East' is a wide geographical area...

Haven't been to anywhere in London to match this kebab shop I went to once in West Acton, but that was years ago...
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Went to the Curry Leaf on West Green Road near Turnpike Lane last night - it was pretty ace. Indian / Sri Lankan with a good range of stuff like koththu and dhosas and the like. Plus hoppers, which are great. Very tasty and quite reasonably priced (about £12.50 a head for main courses, a couple of sides, more bread than we could eat and drinks). Only downside was that the food took a while to arrive, although I guess that's cooking for you - the service wasn't bad there was just quite a gap between ordering and eating.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Went to the Curry Leaf on West Green Road near Turnpike Lane last night - it was pretty ace. Indian / Sri Lankan with a good range of stuff like koththu and dhosas and the like. Plus hoppers, which are great. Very tasty and quite reasonably priced (about £12.50 a head for main courses, a couple of sides, more bread than we could eat and drinks). Only downside was that the food took a while to arrive, although I guess that's cooking for you - the service wasn't bad there was just quite a gap between ordering and eating.

Ha! that's on the very street in which i sit right now (well, i'm catsitting for a friend, not actually sitting in the road). I went there for dinner on Saturday night....their aubergines are good.

Edit: Just for anyone else, you can eat a lot cheaper than £12.50 too!
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
hehe check out the letter I got from this restaurant the other day; any suggestions as to what I should write back?

* I don't usually complain; this was an exceptional example mainly cos of the attitude of the guy who wrote back to me; it was like we hated each other on sight.

here's what I sent :

Dear Simplicity,

I just spent 3/4 of an hour of wasted time in your restaurant after you fucked up our order for 3 breakfasts - and finally left 10 minutes after you'd told us our order would be with us in 10 minutes. I'm furious at your lackadaisical approach to your customers, and frankly, at the prices you demand I expect a much, much higher quality of service.

Top Table 2008 recommended? I don't think so.


and here's his reply :

15th December 2009
Dear Mr Hollands:
Thank you for your email of the 12th December 2009. We take very seriously any complaint made. I will respond to your email addressing each point as you made them.
You say you waited 45 minutes. We always try to ensure meals are dispatched from the kitchen within approximately 25 minutes. As you are aware we were unexpectedly very busy when you arrived, I’d hope any customer would ask a member of staff sooner if they’d been waiting such a long time. Once I was made aware of your complaint, I ascertained your food ticket had been misplaced. Sadly, mistakes are sometimes made in this industry. I came to see you and explained that your food would be 10 minutes. Unfortunately, as you left the restaurant your food was being delivered to your table. At the time I told the waiting staff concerned that mistakes are sometimes made, so long as lessons are learned from the experience everything would be ok.
I understand you are upset about waiting such a long time but there really is no need to swear and use such offensive language. Under no circumstances would I or any of my staff use such language and I’d appreciate it if you’d make your point without being so offensive. No one at Simplicity would ever knowingly want to upset any customer or colleague.
I am not lackadaisical and take your complaint extremely seriously. I’m sad your experience was not a good one at Simplicity. Thankfully, these occasions are rare. However, after receiving your email, the waitress responsible for taking your order and ensuring the kitchen receive it has now been given notice to leave and will no longer work at Simplicity.
With regard our prices? I feel very proud that we were listed last year in the top 3 best cheap eat restaurants in London. If our prices are too expensive for you I’d suggest you try H’s Cafe where you get a reasonable meal at half the price.
I hope my reply has gone some way to placating your anger. I hope at sometime in the future we have the opportunity to provide you with a positive experience at Simplicity

Sincerely,


Lawrence Lingard. General Manager, Simplicity
 
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luka

Well-known member
the waitress responsible for taking your order and ensuring the kitchen receive it has now been given notice to leave and will no longer work at Simplicity.

hope you feel good about yourself
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Ha! that's on the very street in which i sit right now (well, i'm catsitting for a friend, not actually sitting in the road). I went there for dinner on Saturday night....their aubergines are good.

Edit: Just for anyone else, you can eat a lot cheaper than £12.50 too!
Yeah, we had a couple of beers each and went a bit nuts on the bread (classic case of having one or two of everything because it was the first time we'd been there and everything sounded nice, I think). You could eat well on one of the massala dhosas for about four quid.
 

luka

Well-known member
although if she was good at her job they wouldn't have got rid of her on your say so. im sure she'd fucked up enough times....
weird telling you that though like you'd be pleased about it....
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
although if she was good at her job they wouldn't have got rid of her on your say so. im sure she'd fucked up enough times....
weird telling you that though like you'd be pleased about it....

I feel awful about it; in the 'restaurant' on the day, she said it was her first day there. My beef wasn't about her - I never asked for her to be sacked! and certainly didn't anticipate a letter of complaint leading to a sacking - is that normal? - I was expecting an apology from him and a free dinner, to be honest. We worked it out and we were in there for an hour and a quarter all told.
My main anger was with the attitude of the maitre'd or the owner or whatever he was - you can tell what type of person he is from the tone of the letter he wrote. He was a fucking cunt. So in some ways I can't help thinking she's better off not working there, but no, it doesn't make me feel better.

The worst thing is having no recourse at this point that I can think of. I feel he fired her to get back at me, which may be arrogant but I kinda think it's the truth, in which case writing to him again asking him to give her her job back would just make him feel better about himself than he already does. Maybe writing back and apologising for swearing, whilst adding that he's a sanctimonious heartless power-playing patronising fucking cunt would suffice.
 
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