Cafe Bintang

up_shiraz

We were looking for a spot to eat quickly before a Manu Chao gig (5 stars for that one!) at the Forum in Kentish Town and this really fit the bill well. It's small, atmospheric and quick. This is proper fast food.

And unlike other fast food, you can bring your own booze here. If you haven't worked it out by now...then yes, this is something i get pretty excited about. Nothing like a good credit crunch to make you wonder about the size of restaurant booze mark-ups!

We arrived early, before a couple of Christmas-looking parties and got stuck in. Beer and wine cost 50p and £2 per bottle corkage respectively so it's gloriously affordable. Mixed starters were fine, if unexciting. The mains from the mixed Thai, Malaysian and possibly Indonesian menu, were all lovely. Pad Thai was juicy and plentiful, if a bit more tomato-ey than I ever remember in Thailand. A spicy chicken dish was fruity and interesting (foolishly i hadn't read the reviews below - but we didn't suffer, they were fine chunks of breast). A Malay beef dish was probably the stand-out. Delightful flavour.

So probably a strong 3 stars for the food. The service was good, and the beachside shack atmosphere is very cool. That BYO box gets a big tick though and pushes it up to 4 stars. Only £13 a head. Lovely jubbly!

azriel84

Was there yesterday too with Poromenos...I was the lucky one to order the duck (pwned Poro:P). No, seriously, it's a really nice place, quiet and tasteful, ideal for relax after a day's hard work. Atmosphere is nice, although the use of candles provides limited lighting to the place, had to use my mobile's screen to read the catalogue. Service was excellent and fast, food was what I expected from a Thai restaurant and even better if I may say so but avoid chicken in this place at any cost. Both in Poromenos' plate and in the appetizers, chicken was a huge dissapointment. So as Poro said, nice place, don't order chicken though for any reason:)

Poromenos

Went there yesteday. Charming atmosphere, good service. Had the Gili Gili chicken, I doubt it was either Gili Gili or chicken.
It was probably the foulest thing I have ever tasted, but I thank Cafe Bintang for the character-building experience. Having eaten that, I will never again go hungry. Rats must taste better.
I tried their spicy duck, THAT was a nice dish. I should have sent my plate of offal back but I was afraid that the chef might castrate me and feed my testicles to me, Gili Gili style.

To sum up, DO NOT ORDER THE GILI GILI CHICKEN FOR ANY REASON. Otherwise, nice place.

janie_lou

I LOVE BINTANG!

It doesn't look much from the outside and its on a bleak stretch of Kentish Town Road next to a few run-down shops. Yet inside it really reminds me of a Thai beach bar. They've clearly put a lot of effort into getting the right atmosphere. There's bamboo all over the walls and some bizarre wall hangings. Pancake's Review pretty much hit the nail on the head with that description!

The tables are a bit, erm, compact and at the weekends it can get quite busy. You should probably always book anyway, it doesn't hurt and saves disappointment. The ground floor takes only about 20 covers but there is a basement eating area which is larger, and in summer....a garden! Its really peaceful back there and there's plenty of room. I recently enjoyed a good old Bintang feast outside!

The menu is quite typical south-east Asian fare, lots of different curries, various noodle and rice dishes, and great starters. One particular favourite is the whole chicken. Excellent value for money and delicious too.

You will need to bring your own booze (there is a small corkage charge) but if you've forgotten there is an off-licence a little further up the road.

There probably are better Thai places but Bintang feels authentic and quirky. The staff are fantastic and very patient when you sit there for about 4 hours trying to decide what to have. I've never had a bad experience here. Or even a slightly poor one for that matter. Its consistently good and has been for the 3 years that I've been coming here.

Its a great little place and I'm sure it has a lot of fiercely loyal customers who just can't beat a bit of Bintang.

pancake

This small tucked away place has good Thai / Malaysian food, cheap-ish. The decor is a cross between South Pacific and Apocalypse Now. You can bring you own wine. Good veggie selection. Lovely.