Petek – Stroud Green, London

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Can you book? Yes
Food: 10/10
Atmosphere: 10/10
Price paid per person: £25

Quickly becoming one of my favourite neighbourhoods, Stroud Green has no shortage of good restaurants. According to Google and TripAdvisor, one of the best is Petek on Stroud Green Road. We squeezed past people waiting for a table to claim our reserved one, to be greeted by very friendly and accommodating staff despite our being half an hour late. We were given menus to look at whilst we waited, then seated a few minutes later and instantly presented with olives. Continue reading →

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Lima Floral – Covent Garden, London

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Can you book? Yes
Food: 6/10
Atmosphere: 5/10
Price paid per person: £40

A few years ago I went to the restaurant that occupied what is now the Lima Floral site. The food was very good but the lack of other people and atmosphere was disappointing. Oddly enough, years later something similar can be said of Lima Floral. Is it the fact that it’s on a cobbled side road and doesn’t get much passing trade? Or is it just timing, and had I gone a significant amount of time after Christmas it would have been heaving? Continue reading →

Anima e Cuore – Kentish Town, London

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Can you book? Yes (via their Facebook page)
Food: 9/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Price paid per person: £27

It was a cold December’s night. Being a little tardy for my friends, I scurried along Kentish Town Road looking for Anime e Cuore, what i imagined to be a busy and alluring Italian restaurant. Something seemed off when I found it; the door sign said closed, all I could see through the window was ice-cream and there were no people in sight. Confident I was at the right address though, I went inside and low and behold, there was a tiny restaurant hiding at the back. Continue reading →

A Nets Catch – Aberdovey, Wales

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Can you book? No
Food: 7/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Price paid per person: £5

‘Where is Aberdovey’ I hear you ask? Well, as I learnt this festive season it is a fishing village at the bottom tip of Snowdonia, Wales. It is tremendously cold and rainy, but very picturesque and the starting point of several mountain hikes, at the top of which one can observe the superb scenery.

After today’s hike we were much in need of some warming up so took ourselves to A Nets Catch, the village’s finest vendor of fish and chips, named after Annette, the lady who runs it along with her husband. Continue reading →

North London Tavern – Kilburn, London

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Can you book? No
Food: 6/10
Atmosphere: 5/10
Price paid per person: £35

My latest offering is a collaborative effort brought to you by myself and an excellent group of local restaurant goers, namely Jonathan, Nicky, Tom and Philip. Featuring in West Hampstead Life magazine…

Jo
North London Tavern; a tavern, in North London (Kilburn to be precise) offering “traditional British meals.” It has recently been refurbished but I am glad that the ambience has not changed. It is still busy, friendly and noisy with intellectual conversation. Continue reading →

Shoe Shop – Tufnell Park, London

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Can you book? Yes
Food: 9/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Price paid per person: £30

Shoe Shop is a new(ish) restaurant just a minute away from Tufnell Park tube station. There are very few tables, little ornamentation and no music (if I remember correctly). So if the food had been disappointing, it wouldn’t have had any saving graces. Luckily this wasn’t the case and the food was very good!
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Parlour – Kensal Rise, London

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Can you book? Yes
Food: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Price paid per person: £17

“Guys, help yourself to toast over on the bread table. Any spread you could imagine. Only £1.” Well if that isn’t a good start to a brunch I don’t know what is.

I just had a hearty breakfast at Parlour in Kensal Rise (next door to well known Paradise). I had smoked salmon with “that soda bread” to quote the menu, and side of mashed avocado. The soda bread did actually warrant its prefix; it was warm, crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside and really tasty. The smoked salmon was good quality and the mashed avocado seasoned well. Continue reading →

L’Anima Cafe – Shoreditch, London

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Enticed by the open flames and busy tables, I dined this evening at L’Anima Cafe on Worship Street. We were met with a pained facial expression when we said we hadn’t reserved a table, and no certainty could be given as to whether one would become available. For it to be so busy I thought we must be in for a treat. In hindsight the lack of reservation issue may have been a marketing ploy since miraculously a table became available in seconds. Continue reading →

Rabbit – Chelsea, London

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‘A goats cheese shot of loveliness’ is how I would describe the beetroot crisp with goats cheese, quince and chick weed ‘mouthful’ at Rabbit, the seven-week old sister restaurant to The Shed in Notting Hill. The restaurants are run by three brothers who are all about bringing the food from farm to table. In their words, they “farm, forage and produce seasonal British food.” Whilst there were a few crossovers with the menu from The Shed (both do tiny ‘mouthfuls’ to amuse one’s bouche) the focus here is more on wild foods, such as rabbit, or partridge.

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