Latest favourites and wishlist by mif

La Tasca - review by ocean0201

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:48:51 +0000

La Tasca - review by ocean0201

Rating: 3.0

Location: Leven, E14 4AE, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7531 9990

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

Tags: spanish, family & home feel, good value

The La Tasca near canary wharf is part of the La Tasca chain but the one in canary wharf has an advantage of location. It has outdoor seating perfect for sunny days and plenty of space inside when it starts raining. The food is same as in any other La Tasca (Spanish Tapas) and yes you do get Sangria. The service is ok and depends on how busy it is.

Overall, a glass of sangria in the sun with water and the tall buildings of canary wharf in front of you, this La Tasca makes a good dining option for the summer.

Ronnie Scott's - review by jlonners

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:53:18 +0000

Ronnie Scott's - review by jlonners

Rating: 4.0

Location: 47 Frith Street, W1D 4HT, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7439 0747

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

ok so everyone has heard of ronnie scotts, but what is it actually like. well since it was done up a few years ago i rather like it. it still have the table lamps and dark underground feel to it and there is still a great selection of performers to be seen here. its not cheap of course, i have drinks but i always steer clear of the food. i remember by friend insisting on having some and what amounted to nothing more than cheese and crackers (2 slices of basic cheddar and 3 crakers) were brought to her for over 10 quid. aslo we often have to ask for our wine about 3 times before we get it. at the end of the day you come here because its ronnies and one of very few places you can see like jazz or bosa nova etc. i wish it were less expensive but have enjoyed it every time i have been.

The Narrow - review by vexille

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:45:02 +0000

The Narrow - review by vexille

Rating: 3.0

Location: 44 Narrow Street, E14 8DP, London, United Kingdom

Tags: relaxed, pub chain, modern pub, gastro pub, mature, young professionals, standard pub food, beer garden, independent pub, friendly

With it being a 'Gordon Ramsey' pub, you'd expect it to be situated in the central of town and not by Limehouse, which unfortunately is a bit of a dive.

Still, doesn't do the pub any disservice, nicely situated by the river, so summer nights outside drinking and eating are great.

The menu is typically classic post English pub grub, all at remarkably reasonable prices. I actually came here when it had recently opened and the service was sub-standard. Gave it another chance a few months later and it was certainly better but by no means of Maze / Claridges standard, but then you can't expect that.

As a general pub for food and drink, it's excellent. As a Gordon Ramsey pub, it's a big of a let down.

Yauatcha - review by sue

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:48:40 +0000

Yauatcha - review by sue

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: lively, tea, dim sum, cakes, cocktails, chinese, unique, expensive, trendy, good service

Why did it take me so long to visit Yauatcha? I think because I thought it was some sort of pretentious, expensive place where only the 'beautiful' people could get a table. I was so wrong, well they let us in didn't they!

Booking in advance, we got a table at Yauatcha for a Sunday lunch. After some serious browsing in Carnaby Street before hand we were ready to sample what we hoped would be some pretty special dim sum, and happily our experience lived up to expectation.

We had booked a table on the ground floor, and I'm glad we did. The downstairs, whilst interestingly decorated, looked a bit cramped and dark, especially on a sunny day. The service was friendlier than I was expecting and I was impressed with their efficiency considering how busy the restaurant was.

Knowing the menu was going to be large, and not being dim sum experts, I did some research in advance to see what dishes others recommended. This did indeed make the ordering process easier, though we still took our time, starting with a couple of interesting sounding cocktails - the Kumquatcha and the Lalu (or something like that), neither of which I was too keen on.

The food we ordered was:
Har Gau
Scallop and Kumquat Dumplings
Baked Venison Puffs
Prawn Cheung Fun
Pork, Prawn and Tofu balls
Pork and Century Egg Congee

My favourites were the Prawn Cheung Fun and the Venison Puffs - those tasty little venison parcels were as good as everyone says. The congee wasn't something I had had before - a type of creamy, rice soup with pork and preserved egg, the latter tasting better than it looked!

Can't believe we didn't have room for dessert, as they have amazing looking cakes on display which you can buy to take away too. My next visit may well just be for tea and cake sampling. And perhaps a cheeky serve of Venison Puffs too...

Yauatcha - review by chrisp

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:03:35 +0000

Yauatcha - review by chrisp

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: lively, good value, chinese, crowded, romantic

It's certainly been a month or two of ups and downs around these here parts. I had barely got over the shock that the once-great Fox and Hounds gastropub on Latchmere Road seemed to be no long able to cook duck properly when my other favourite restaurant the Food Room was taken over by a semi-celebrity chef who constructs dishes out of a revolutionary new ingredient called "bland". It was all very upsetting, and coupled with my new self-imposed budget I could see no easy way of the restaurants of London redeeming themselves any time soon. And then, out of nowhere, a delightful meal at an unpromising location in Parson's Green got the whole thing back on track, and this weekend the successful streak continued with a pleasing and pleasingly inexpensive meal at Yauatcha, Soho.

The word for the interior is "glamorous" - Yauatcha is a stunning room, all blue glass and tasteful lighting with a huge aquarium along one wall. And, hilariously, glamorous is the word they used themselves when we called to make the booking and enquired about a dress code. "Casual glamorous" they specifically replied - presumably this doesn't apply in quite the same way to the male diners, although this is Soho after all so who knows. Perhaps they just felt they couldn't get away with saying "no riff raff". I managed to sneak in under the radar anyway.

The menu was huge and baffling, but fortunately we had with us someone of Chinese heritage (who had also scoured the internet for tips beforehand) to guide us through and I was happy to leave most of the ordering up to them. I won't describe every dish in detail as there were about 100 of them, but highlights included crispy venison pastry puffs which I think had chocolate in there somewhere, impossibly light and silky prawn dumplings, astonishing scallops topped with bitter kumquat and some superb Cheung Fun (sort of a long floppy ravioli - that's them at the back of this shot):

Once the dim sum were over with we were presented with a rather more prosaic Chinese dish of beef noodles, although even this had its merits. Also I should say that the jasmin tea-smoked spare ribs were a bit tough although the flavour was good. But the best surprise of all was that the whole kit and caboodle (including a cocktail and a few beers) came to little over Â£25 each including tip. Considering the effort that must have gone into each individual dish, this is very reasonable - and particularly in comparison to Hakkasan where I spent twice that on food which wasn't any better.

Desserts - and apologies for the lack of photos but I was probably too busy eating - were very pretty and the best by common consensus was one involving passion fruit. Another tasted like Southport public baths and was somewhat less successful but at least they looked the part. All the desserts, along with a mouthwatering selection of macaroons, are displayed in the front window and the takeaway service appeared to be doing a roaring trade throughout the evening.

So add in smiley and attentive service (itself somewhat of a minor miracle in a Chinese restaurant in the UK) and you have yourself a great evening out. Yauatcha, along with Barrafina and Busaba Eatthai, has just been added to my list of places to eat in Soho, and is probably the best Chinese restaurant in London at the moment so you can do at lot worse than mosey on along and check it out for yourself.

Yauatcha - review by gogmagog

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:21:28 +0000

Yauatcha - review by gogmagog

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: lively, oriental, chinese, expensive

We went for lunch and were seated downstairs in the sumptuous basement. Sleek and stylish but without being stuffy. The bar with in-built fishtank is great. Possibly not the best place for a lunch on a sunny day - it is one of those rooms that you could happily emerge from hours later, half-cut and wondering what happened to the day.

Other reviews below have mentioned bad experiences with waiting staff? There was no sign of this when we went. None of us at lunch were experts on dim sum so we asked the waiters to suggest dishes for us. They were helpful and polite, even though, out of a table of four, there was one vegetarian who did eat fish and one meat-eater with a serious allergy to seafood. A tricky situation when eating dim sum. Not only did they advise us well, they also remembered to point out exactly what was in each dish as it came to the table.

So, is it expensive? Yup. It is. But it's supposed to be a step or several up from your standard Soho dim sum house and that's what you're paying for. Was it value for money, though? Well, I guess my view is coloured slightly. I'm not a huge fan of dim sum, as a rule. It's easy for it to end up greasy and stodgy and although Yauatcha's food was never either of these things, I can't say that it was a Damascene revelation for me. It was beautifully cooked and very tasty, but ultimately rather unmemorable.

The venison puffs (as mentioned by other reviewers) were fine, but not to die for. Various prawn and chicken dishes went past, although it's now 2 weeks later and I'll be damned if I can remember anything about any of them. There was nothing wrong with them; in fact I remember them as being nice, but nothing stood out for me. An ostrich chow mein was interesting, but mainly because it was a first try of ostrich, rather than because it was an incredible dish. There was also crispy duck, but it was no better or worse than one you could get on your local high street, unfortunately.

Take a fan of dim sum and I'm sure they'll love you for it. It's a beautiful restaurant, with friendly and attentive staff. And the food is, well... fine.

Mestizo - review by chernandezg

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:27:18 +0000

Mestizo - review by chernandezg

Rating: 4.5

Location: 103 Hampstead Road, NW1 3EL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7387 4064

Website: http://www.mestizomx.com

Tags: mexican, tequila, family & home feel, good value

Being Mexican, I might be biased towards my country's delicious food... This is NOT your usual overpriced-taco Tex-Mex restaurant (ahem Crazy Homies). It has some of the best and most authentic Mexican food I have ever tried outside of Mexico.
For Mexican Independence week (Sept 15) they had a special menu with some of the most exquisite plates... think 24hr slow roasted lamb.
That and amazing tequila and margarita selection make this one of my favorite places in London. They also have a "club" downstairs that plays Latin Pop and seems to have quite a following on Thursdays.

Yauatcha - review by MartyDiBergi

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:57:01 +0000

Yauatcha - review by MartyDiBergi

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: lively, good value, chinese, crowded

It's crazy to say Yauatcha is expensive - what do people expect to pay for some of the best cooking in London, certainly of its kind?

When put into the context of other similarly feted places - River Cafe, Nobu etc - it really is not expensive at all. Ok so it's more expensive than Busaba but the quality and obvious care and attention is much higher too.

I've eaten there on many occasions and the best advice i would give is to just try various things off the menu that you like the sound of, you will rarely be disappointed.
Having said that, the Venison Puffs are a must.

Other Prawn (and indeed all the other) Cheung Fun, prawn and date dumpling, salt and pepper squid, jasmine smoked ribs, mango spring roll, Shumai, duck and shitake dumpling, prawn toast - are all excellent and i would go on if i could remember them!

Just try it - it's great.

When busy service can sometime be variable but on the whole they are very prompt and the little desserts in the tea parlour are great too. In spite of the much famed 90 minute table time, i've never yet been asked to move on and i must have been 10 times now.

Also best to go in a number divisible by three as almost evry dish comes in 3's.

And anotehr tip - a lot of the wine list can be pricey but there is a very reasonable fizzy pink whose name escapes me for about Â£26 a bottle i think? Good value for London and brightens up the meal without costing the earth.

Enjoy

Yauatcha - review by russ9595

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:21:22 +0000

Yauatcha - review by russ9595

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: chinese, good value

Excellent service, delicious food, and reasonably priced given the quality.

After some last-minute Christmas shopping on a late Sunday afternoon, I popped in here because I felt like indulging myself. It was relatively quiet here at this time day and time, and was seated immediately on the ground floor.

I ordered the pork and Century egg congee, kumquat scallop dumplings, pan-fried turnip cake, mango spring roll, and Dragon Well green tea, which came to Â£30 including service.

I have a large appetite, and I had been shopping on an empty stomach, so you can imagine how hungry I was. Regardless, I have to say that my appetite was definitely satiated by the end of my meal.

The portions here were welcomingly larger than expected. The congee is deliciously flavoured and appropriately garnished. The turnip cake was definitely a dish to share for two and was just like the ones I had in Singapore. The scallops were okay, a little tough for my liking, and I felt the mango spring rolls could have done with 30 seconds more in the oil.

The atmosphere on the ground floor is calm, and perfect for people watching. The chairs are nicely designed, with an arm rest on one side, which I thought was a nice touch. When you sit back, the angle of the back of the chair is just right so that it supports you without falling into a slouch.

I've read a lot of negative reviews about the service here ever since it opened in 2004. In almost all of the reviews, these people came on a Saturday evening. My advice: come here on an early Sunday evening, order the congee, turnip cake, and tea, and you will have a enjoyable experience. I know I did.

Shampers - review by ceedoubleu

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:50:19 +0000

Shampers - review by ceedoubleu

Rating: 4.2

Location: 4 Kingly Street, W1B 5PE, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7439 9910

Website: http://www.shampers.net/

Tags: lively, british, family & home feel, good value, french

another vote for Shampers. Had lunch there today and there were at least four early Christmas parties taking place. Service and food were just fine, no pressure at all. One of my favourites.

Yauatcha - review by lenalouise

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:20:06 +0000

Yauatcha - review by lenalouise

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: romantic, dim sum, cocktails, chinese

I've been wanting to go to Yauatcha for ages and was put off by how expensive everyone claims it is...oh why did I listen? lol. This place is great! I'm not sure I like the decor though, it feels like sitting in the jazzed-up courtyard of a church and the fishtank set into the bar is too brightly lit up.

The food is spot on. The dishes that I tried that I haven't had elsewhere were delicious and the ones I have regularly in other places matched the level of dim sum in China. Plus the accompanying chilli sauces were mouthwateringly divine. For me, a good chilli sauce is something with flavour as well as being fiery and they certainly managed to achieve this. I ended up just eating the chilli sauce by itself :p

We had pork and prawn shu mai, prawn and enoki mushroom dumpling, pork and century egg congee, prawn cheung fan and fried taro cake. We were trying intentionally not to order too much because I usually do but we knew the dishes were more expensive. However, this amount was actually enough to fill us up.

One thing I was surprised about was how big some of the dishes were. The fried taro cake was one big square (about the size of 2 normal portions) and the dumplings were huge. They crammed so much prawn into them that they were well worth the Â£4.80 we paid really. The congee was more flavoursome than the watery stuff you usually find in Chinatown and I was glad to see they had some authentic toppings on it. For those who don't know what congee is, it's basically rice cooked for ages in loads of water until the rice grains break down and you end up with a sort of porridge. (It's also what the chinese eat when they're ill lol).

They don't have any desserts in the restaurant (I was disappointed to see they don't do egg custard tarts) but we were allowed to go upstairs and choose some cakes to eat downstairs because there was a private function on in the teahouse. They look so pretty! I didn't really want to dig in and ruin it. They were nice but they tasted quite similar to each other. Both of them were some sort of mousse with a raspberry coulis centre. I definately think that they look better than they taste.

Anyway, all the food with green tea came to about Â£50 which is not bad for a 1 star michelin restaurant! It is twice as much than your normal dim sum but it's probably twice as nice in the majority of places. Will be back to try more of their exciting menu!

P.S. Almost forgot to add that I've tried their scallop shu mai at taste of London and it's highly recommended!!!

Shampers - review by sue

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:34:26 +0000

Shampers - review by sue

Rating: 4.2

Location: 4 Kingly Street, W1B 5PE, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7439 9910

Website: http://www.shampers.net/

Tags: lively, british, good value, noisy, bistro, friendly, french

After a few hours of shopping on Oxford Street, it was cold and dark and we needed a drink and some nourishment. The problem was it was Friday night and we hadn't made a reservation. Would we find a table at somewhere other than a chain restaurant? Thankfully we did, and Shampers was that place.

I had read the great reviews about Shampers on TrustedPlaces and added it to my mental list of places to try next time I needed a meal in WeHo (as my friend ramanauskas calls it!). Shampers is a lively, cosy bistro and wine bar, with a big wine list, and a good value menu with plenty of daily specials.

Rocking up just after 7pm, we were very happy to be given a prime table, though advised that we would have to vacate it by 9pm. The room was buzzing with after-workers unwinding after a hectic week. It was noisy, but the right kind of noisy.

We wasted no time in ordering. A basket of tasty baguette appeared not long after, and although our first wine choice was unavailable, the waiter suggested a similar one which was excellent (and cheaper).

To start we shared the Grilled goats cheese with bacon and salad. Mmmm....I do love goats cheese! Main course was the Roast Grouse with vegetables for me, and the Grilled Quail with meat balls for Alex. Talk about value for money - the serves were big, and the prices much less than the norm for these types of dishes. Oh, and they tasted very good too. Fiddly to eat though.

Dessert was a disappointment - we shared the Bread & Butter Pudding which was incredibly bland. Thankfully I had saved a mouthful of that delicious wine to wash it down with.

Yauatcha - review by nikosk

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:15:04 +0000

Yauatcha - review by nikosk

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7494 8888

Tags: lively, good value, chinese

I was surprised to see people suggest Yauatcha was expensive for what it is...sure, prices are higher than most Chinese restaurants in China Town, but then again none of the restaurants in China Town have a Michelin star... When compared to other places in its league, I would say that, if anything, Yauatcha is quite reasonable. And with pots of tea starting at Â£3-4, one could get away with less than Â£30 a head without wine, for fine dining quality food.

As far as the food is concerned, Yauatcha is excellent. The traditional dim sum dishes are made to perfection, and the menu features a wide range of more unusual options that are well worth trying. I would recommend trying the following dumplings:

steamed plain prawn
fried prawn and date
some of the cheong fun
venison puff
crispy duck roll
the one with lobster and something else

I would normally not bother with the noodle dishes. Not that they were bad, but they never impressed (and were always far inferior to the dim sum).

Also, the cocktails are very good. Try the kumquatcha (there's another really good one but can't remember the name...something with "lai" in it).

Finally, the cakes at the tea room upstairs taste nearly as good as they look. Although not for daily consumption (due to their price being somewhat higher than a block of cadbury's), the chocolates and truffles are also really good.

Table-turning can be a bit annoying, service is sometimes on the cold side, the basement can sometimes be a bit noisy and I still don't get why they insist on not serving the upstairs cakes in the basement. The quality of the food though in my opinion more than compensates these relatively minor problems. Have been there numerous times and I expect I will continue to visit yauatcha semi-regularly.

Centre Point Sushi Cafe - review by lenalouise

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:23:56 +0000

Centre Point Sushi Cafe - review by lenalouise

Rating: 4.3

Location: 20-21 St Giles High Street, WC2H 8LN, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7379 3369

Tags: japanese, hidden, family & home feel, sushi

Initially, we were just gonna pop in and order some takeaway but the restaurant looked so inviting we decided to sit down after all. The staff are attentive and it was interesting watching the sushi chef expertly cut perfect slices of sashimi :D

We had some miso soup, gyoza and a selection of nigiri with some green tea. I especially enjoyed the scallop, eel and the sea bream. The scallop was just melt-in-your-mouth delicious...smooth and creamy with a natural sweetness. Unfortunately, they didn't have any toro that day but most places I've been to don't seem to have it that often.

The bill wasn't that cheap. I think it was about Â£60 for 2 but we could have eaten more. I'd definately come back again though.

Shampers - review by ramanauskas

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:30:35 +0000

Shampers - review by ramanauskas

Rating: 4.2

Location: 4 Kingly Street, W1B 5PE, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7439 9910

Website: http://www.shampers.net/

Tags: french, good value, crowded, brasserie

This wine bar is a deservedly popular fixture in WeHo (West Soho - I just made that up).
Wine list is much longer than even that very tall Chinese guy's arm and at a very reasonable mark-up. The verdicchio is especially tasty and a steal at Â£15 a bottle.
The food is generally comfort staples - steak and chips, sausage and mash etc. with a variety of daily specials. Last time we were there I had roast grouse for the stunning price of Â£16 - half the price of any other restaurant in London.
So, drop by any time and try and squeeze into a table, but definitely go in late August.