http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1e56o6h/leon <b>Leon</b><br />London, 73-76 The Strand, WC2R 0DE, United Kingdom en http://trustedplaces.com/uploads//trustedplaces.comaPlacePic['name']}.140.jpg http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1e56o6h/leon http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1e56o6h/leon/1s4fy8
Review by patheticshark

Rating: 4.00
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There are loads of Leons around now, which is mostly a Good Thing. The food is fresh and organic and really tasty, especially the cakes. They have a kind of 'tapas' philosophy, so you can try small amounts of lots of different things. This only falls down when you get a really tiny portion of something and feel slightly cheated (but that's only happened when I've bought takeaway from there, rather than in the restaurant). Their branding is done very well, not that it makes a particular difference to the eating experience but the restaurants are all nicely designed with fun books on organic gardening and that kind of thing.]]> Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:05:33 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1e56o6h/leon/1s4fy8160850215 patheticshark 51.509967 -0.122579 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1e56o6h/leon/185777
Review by coldclimate

Rating: 4.00
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Leon is well know for its "food thatâ¬"s good for you and quickly" ethos, and much of this is due to it's founder's (Allegra McEvedy and Fred Dickieson) outlook on food.

Leon on the Stand was very handy on my way back to the hotel, and having both eaten in and taken away, I was quietly impressed. The food is really very simple, with rices and salads being very dry and not running with oils, and flavours not cluttered with 47 different ingredients. The service is super quick, partly because the majority of the food is actually cooked elsewhere and then simply constructed and heated on the premesis - but at least they are open about this unlike the majortiy of fast fooid which strives to get you to think that everything have been made there on the premises from milling the corn upwards.

The deserts are worth mentioning, as was the coffee. I had the warm lemon and ginger cake with icecream and it was mindn bendingly wonderful. Not strongly flavoured, but with a great sticky base and a texture not unlike ground almonds. My dinner companion had the lemon cheesecake, and it too was just great. A biscuity base with a couple of inches of set lemon on top, not the "shaving foam on a digestive biscuit" which always gets passed off as the real thing.

Coffee was dark and strong, smelled great and even came with the wedge of lemon I requested (yeah, know, I'm odd). The total bill, less than £30 for two people eating as much as they want, in very pleasant surroundings.
]]> Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:10:47 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1e56o6h/leon/185777822450923 coldclimate 51.509967 -0.122579