Latest reviews by Angel_Bury

The Bear Hotel

Angel_Bury — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:58:38 +0000

Rating: 5.0

Location: High Street, NP8 1BW, Crickhowell, United Kingdom

Phone: 01873 810408

Website: http://www.bearhotel.co.uk

Tags: lively, british, gastro pub, family & home feel, beer garden, traditional pub, independent pub, good value, romantic

welsh rare bitWhat a wonderful place! The Bear provided us the perfect retreat on our recent visit to the Greenman festival. This ye olde coaching inn has cosy rooms and the oportunity for fine dining in their restaurant or decent pub grub in their bar.
We took full advantge of both during our stay. The food in the restaurant was excellent altough service a little haphazard. The waiting staff were young and exeperienced but did a reasonable job. Foodwise, we were impressed with the scallop and cauliflower puree starters and immaculately cooked welsh steak, despite the fact it came with an odd bit of blue cheese ravioli. The following night's pub grub was fair but slightly over priced in comparison to the restaurant (which was only a few quid more for three courses). The bar food is extremely popular with the locals.
Rooms at the hotel vary from small cottagy little hidey holes to grander suites complete with four post beds and jacuzzi. Again, they've got the price points wrong here - the larger posher rooms are excellent value for money but for only a few pounds less (and no jacuzzi)you get a third of the space and trappings. Certianly worth pushing the boat out for a bigger room.

Black & Blue

Angel_Bury — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:34:58 +0000

Rating: 2.3

Location: 1-2 Rochester Walk, SE1 9AF, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7357 9922

Website: http://www.blackandblue.biz/

Tags: expensive, crowded

Frozen Chips! What a cheek, I was aghast when my £20 fillet was served up accompanied by a scattering on greasy fat frozen chips. For that much money the least they could do is cut up their own potatoes. The steak was pretty avarage too, staff were in different, and our cheese board dissapointing.
Other irritants included a steak knife to eat with that was almonst the size of a carving knife, it was cumbersome and blunt, or was that Â£20 steak just too tough? The wine was ok but overpriced, our large bottle of water appeared and was a miserable 50cl worth. There was no toilet paper in the loo! Need I say more? Avoid this place like the plague. If you want a decent steak go to Smiths of Smithfield.

Frank's Cafe

Angel_Bury — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:58:39 +0000

Rating: 3.5

Location: 132 Southwark Street, SE1 0SW, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7928 3850

TheMoth is right about them there queues! Franks is a proper good old fasioned no thrills greasy spoon/sarnie bar. Run by a family of friendly Italians who can whip up a ham salad bap faster than you can say spaghetti.
Breakfast here is the forte though, any combinations of fri-up you can imagine gets gobbled up by local builders hunched over cool formica 60's tables and benches. The toast here really is something else, freshly cut bloomer bread makes for a crispy crust and fluffy white insides, AND they have just the right touch with marmite too, not too little, not too much, masterful! All washed down with proper tea the colour of bricks, it's a joy.

The Narrow Boat

Angel_Bury — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:30:35 +0000

Rating: 2.5

Location: 119 St. Peter's Street, N1 8PZ, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7288 9821

well yeah it's a nice enough spot to stop for a canal-side pint, if you don't mind being driven off the tow-path by the incessant greedy path grabbing cyclists and three-wheeled yum-mums constantly beevering by.

I used to come to this boozer, when it was just a boozer, frank, honest and waterside, no gastro pretences, just a good honest pub. It's defenitley gotten a bit up it's arse since they've started serving things on foccacia (sp?)

anyhoo....quite nice but do head on up that tow-path, get off at the next bridge, head up Wenlock St to the Wenlock arms for some proper old fashioned old stylee old street drinking. You'll have to make do with porkscratchings or a sausage sarnie, but THAT boozer it a gem...seek it out!

Feng Sushi

Angel_Bury — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:17:16 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: 13 Stoney St, SE1 9AD, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7407 8744

Website: http://www.fengsushi.co.uk

almost open air sushi ala Borough Market. This offering from the Feng Sushi chain isn't bad, but it's not great either.
I had a pretty tasty plate of buckwheat noodles with teriyaki salmon whilst my dining partner scoffed down a pleasant looking selection of sashimi and various sushi. Capped off with some tasty green tea ice cream and washed down with amusing sake served in what I can only describe as a groovy yoghurt pots.
Staff were pretty grumpy and didn't seem to bothered about what they were doing. Nice enough though....

Mediterranean Kitchen

Angel_Bury — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:28:14 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: 334 Upper Street, N1 0PB, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7226 7916

One giant creche! You'll have to battle your way past hoards of Islington yummy mummys and their crayon weilding offspring if you're thinking of visiting the Med Kitchen for a Saturday afternoon mid-shop luncheon.
But, it's not bad at all. Reasonable value and pretty decent food. My naked lamb burger was a flavoursome variation on the usual lump of mince and evil fry combo. Topped off with a cheeky little affogato, I left a pretty happy bunny.

Berry Bros & Rudd

Angel_Bury — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:37:16 +0000

Rating: 5.0

Location: 3 St James's Street, SW1A 1EG, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7396 9600

Website: http://www.bbr.com

yes it is the best place to buy a bottle in town. Be sure to check out the spirit room, ask very nicely and you might get to sample a thing or two if you're a lucky puppy...

Lorelei

Angel_Bury — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:12:58 +0000

Rating: 4.7

Location: 21 Bateman Street, W1D 3AL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7734 0954

Tags: italian, BYO, bargain, cheap eat, pizza, lively

Hoorah for anywhere you can have a three course meal for £10ish.

Don't expect anything too special, but good old Lorelei can't be beaten for a cheapo pizza and a dolop of tirmisu for a few quid.

What you've got here is a groovy little beaten up cafe flogging pizza's and a few 70's style starters and puds. It's fantastic.
It's a BYO too, so nip round the corner to the Vintage House for a bottle of plonk to wash your garlic bread down with.

I usually opt for the avacodo prawns, followed by a 'lorelai' anchovy/sardines pizza, real comfort food.

Lorelai has been a tucked away on Bateman St for many years, I doubt the menu has ever changed, and long may it stay that way.

The Wolseley

Angel_Bury — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:34:24 +0000

Rating: 3.9

Location: 160 Piccadilly, W1J 9EB, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7499 6996

Website: http://www.thewolseley.com/

Tags: lively, architecture, good value

I LOVED it here. The Wolseley fits all sorts of occasions from breakfast through to high tea and the good old fasioned grandly done up dinner.

I didn't mind the black shirt/tie thing, it's just a uniform, and they weren't pretentious, they were just high end waiting pro's with sense of pride in their restaurant. We had a good laugh with our waiter who was happy to tell us anything was wanted to know, even getting us bits of stuff to taste before we made up our minds.

The food is good, and the building incredible, who cares if it was once a car showroom! What a showroom it would have been, it's exquisit.

I think this is what proper London dining is all about, sorry that Thriller had such a terrible time, but The Wolseley and it's ninja waiters tick all my boxes!

Andrew Edmunds

Angel_Bury — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:11:59 +0000

Rating: 4.6

Location: 46 Lexington Street, W1F 0LP, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7437 5708

Tags: romantic, good value, french

An utter delight, cosy, romantic and damn tasty.

You get what I see as proper classic French style food here brilliantly cooked with not irritating frills and tidbits. I had some good old fashioned foie gras with brioche and a brilliant pork and clam casserole, so delicious and finished off with awesome ginger icecream for pudding with which the waiter was incredibly helpful when it came to picking out a glass of matching sherry. Actually, this is the only place I've ever been to where they ask you if you'd like you're PX on your icecream on in a glass, hoorah!

The wine list here is massive and the proprietor doesn't believe in the usual 2-400% mark up system employed by most. If you're keen to drink really decent wine with your meal but break out in a cold sweat at the prospect of arranging an overdraft to fund your Puligny's then here's your place. You'll be guaranteed to find quality tipple for most budgets.

One last note - do ask for a table downstairs when you book, it's far more romantic and cosier than the upstairs section. This really is a legendary place, have it!

Little Bay

Angel_Bury — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:53:58 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: 171 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3AL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7278 1234

This is a curious little place, well worth a look. After a few visits it can be a tad variable in quality. It is incredible value for money though. You'll be presented with a menu of rather posh sounding grub for bafflingly low prices and although the execution of said dishes doesn't always hit the mark, for the money - you just can't complain. Look out for the goose fat chips for a tasty greedy little side. The wine list is rather ropey but again, fairly priced. A great place for eating out with bigger groups of mates on a tight budget. Little Bay has amusingly gaudy decor and fairly rowdy clientele, don't take a date here to impress unless you're stony broke that is....

The New Culture Revolution

Angel_Bury — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:42:17 +0000

Rating: 3.5

Location: 42 Duncan St, N1 8BL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7833 9083

Website: http://www.newculturerevolution.co.uk

Clean, quick and friendly, never fails to please. I like to nip in here for a bowl of pre cinema noodles, and decent noodles they are too. Not usually a fan of chow mein, the folks at NCR somehow make this Chinese staple an artform. It's big, it's delicious and it's an utter bargain. The grilled chilli garlic prawns are pretty good too. Everything here is fresh and wholesome, no monosodium glutamite in sight. The staff are happy and helpful, the surroundings spartan but reassuringly functional. Happy days!

The Table

Angel_Bury — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:36:58 +0000

Rating: 3.2

Location: 85 Southwark Street, SE1 0HX, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7401 2760

Website: http://www.thetablecafe.com

Tags: quick bite

oh dear this was a fishy disaster...I work just around the corner from the table and popped in last summer to have lunch fresh off their barbeque -which was parked out the back from about noon till 2.30 weekdays. I went for the fish kebabs served up with a taboubelish offering along with a melon and mint salad for pud.
I did rock up pretty late - just after 2 and I was bleedin starving! So I scuttled back to my desk clutching my Â£10 lunch near dribbling at the prospect. What I got was a couple of undercooked tentacles masquerading as squid clinging to a charred wooden skewer and one solitary unidentifiable lump of white fish.
What a swindle! They were clearly running short of supplies so had slipped quarter sized postions into take away boxes and hoped for the best. The melon and mint salad was delicious though, but not exactly rocket science.
Hopefully Shaun the chef of Walid's review is a new recruit and has put a stop to such shady practices. I've never bothered with setting foot in the place again.

Gordon's Wine Bar

Angel_Bury — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:44:10 +0000

Rating: 4.3

Location: 47 Villiers Street, WC2N 6NE, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7930 1408

Fist sized scotch eggs! mmm tasty, but they're not the main pull to Gordon's. This Fagin's lair of a wine bar is best enjoyed on a rainy afternoon, holed up away from all the loopy tourists, sipping a glass or ten by candelight. The last time I was here we made friends with a very cute cat, so bonus points there. Alas for Gordon's though - the secret is out, it's busy as a Japanese beaver most evenings so cosy conspiritorial tables are hard to bag. And yes you WILL bang your head on the ceiling...love it!

The Ivy

Angel_Bury — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:06:55 +0000

Rating: 4.7

Location: 1 West St, WC2H 9NQ, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7836 4751

Website: http://www.the-ivy.co.uk/

aaw, I like these guys! The whole difficult to book bit is not a ploy but is governed by you want your supper. If you want a table for 4 at 8pm on the last Friday of the month, you'll have to book up a long time in advance, but slip in where ever they've got space then there's no need to wait. They do have a save a certain percentage of tables at all times for 'regulars' policy - so yes you may show up to find an apparently unfilled dining room. The food is reasonably priced and well executed without too many thrills and embarrassments that your average Joe would have no idea how to eat. What you do get here is service, the creme de la creme of it. Although dining slots are tight - usually two hours, they somehow manange to get you through your meal without feeling it however many courses you opt for, utterly seamless. They've got a kicking wine list too. Check out the other restaurants owned by the same group (Le Caprice, Sheekeys, Scotts) for the same slick, charming surprisingly affordable experience.