• Added: 22nd of November 2008
• Area: Farringdon
• Category: Restaurants

London EC1N 7ST
020 7404 9665

Mexter said
Fab Japanese hidden on Leather Lane
If you find yourself on Leather Lane market and have had enough of shopping or if you work around Chancery Lane, this restaurant in a 1960's looking industrial complex is a wonderful surprise.

A friend treated me to lunch there and from the outside, I thought, "Mmmmm this will be interesting", but once inside it looked much more like a cosy & well decorated Japanese restaurant.

The food was fantastic. You can't really say much about miso soup, apart from that "it's miso soup", but the bento boxes came into their own.

I had a chicken teriyaki bento box. There was a wonderfully spicy sweet egg omelette (like the omelette you get on a Californian Roll) and some lightly fried vegetable & prawn tempura in a wafer thin batter, which was yummy.

The teriyaki itself was perfectly cooked and came with a separately bowled portion of rice.

When I'm next in the area, I'll be back like a shot.

• Added: 2nd of November 2008
• Area: Temple
• Category: Restaurants

London EC4A 2BP
020 7353 6761

Mexter said
Big Beautiful Burritos
The first thing you notice when going into Chilango is a riot of clean bright primary colours. As one of the other reviewers said, it's like a cross between Subway & small Wagamama's but for be the food was miles better than either of those two.

It's a Burrito restaurant with canteen style tables where you get to choose your own accompaniments to go with the main meat selection. So you have chicken, pork or beef, with a ton of rice as the base, then you can choose between three strengths of salsa sauce (only go got the hot if you can really cope with fiery) and then you can choose refried beans or pinto beans, and sour cream, guacamole, or grated cheese and onions, lettuce and other salad stuff.

This creates some of the largest burritos I've ever tried to get my mouth round. But they're not just big, they're yummy and extremely good value for lunch in the City.

Apparently Chilango is Mexican slang for someone who has moved to the bright lights of Mexico City looking for fun and excitement. If you're in London's City looking for big beautiful burritos look no further than Chilangos.

• Added: 6th of April 2008
• Area: Richmond Upon Thames
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Richmond Upon Thames TW9 3NG
020 8940 2220

Mexter said
Sunday Best at Kew
Local pubs tend not to get reviewed as they're your local, so you forget that some people make a trek to come to this pub purely for the food.

Years ago The Kew Gardens Hotel (as it was then called) was a blot on Kew's landscape. The only people who drank there were people who wanted to play snooker and the odd person staying in the hotel who couldn't be bothered to stagger down to The Railway a few 100 yards down the road.

Now it's all changed - a massive refurbishment in 2004 turned it into a large comfortable gastro pub that is friendly and is the place where you can hang out with lots of mates, but you'd also be happy to bring your family for Sunday lunch, dinner or even have a family party there.

When you enter it looks like a traditional pub. Lots of weathered leather sofas, hardy looking bar tables that look like they've been there for a 100 years. There's a blackboard with yummy bar snacks - the house burger rivals GBK burgers not as large but the meat literally melts in your mouth and is served with a delicious tomato relish & rocket (my favourite weed).

They also do large club sandwiches, stacks of house chips - now in crinkle cut stylie, and some very tasty hand cooked pork scratchings with apple sauce.

Moving to the back of the pub though and it turns into a restaurant or more of a gastro-pub. It's much lighter and airier in the back and has more of a family atmosphere. There's also a really cute beer garden - like the huge hanging baskets outside it's what you would expect of a pub so close to Kew's Botanical Gardens.

Everytime, I've eaten here the food's been excellent. The menu changes every week and the ingredients are fresh and prepared (usually) very quickly in a busy kitchen, with the staff ringing bells and saying "chef" all the time. The Sunday Roast is delicious with a light and airy Yorkshire Pudding that is so enormous you'll need to share it. The beef was tender & succulent and the roast beetroot gave it an unusual touch.

There's also a cool mezzanine upper floor with even more leather sofas and a widescreen TV if you feel you have to watch TV.

I prefer to sit downstairs with a glass of wine, a burger and a stack of papers, happy in the knowledge that I live a stone's throw from one of the best pubs in Kew.

Now the pub's landlord Jay has introduced Jazz on Wednesday nights. It's a local band and I'm sure it will turn the Inn at Kew Gardens from a superlative gastro pub to the hottest god damn joint in Kew.

• Added: 9th of August 2007
• Area: Covent Garden
• Category: Restaurants

London WC2N 4HG
020 7240 1883

Mexter said
Mexican Food, Lancashire Cheese
Very bright and airy comparable to Wagamama's with long tables set out canteen style. Some of the tacos were tiny and would be a good taster, but the burritos were enormous, tasty and very filling. Chili sauce on the table is red hot so take with caution.

Tortilla chip bowls were filled up regularly and my colleague had an interesting cranberry drink called Agua Fresca, flavoured with Mexican flowers apparently.

Fortunately they didn't have fried crickets on the menu as I sampled in Oaxaca (Wahaca being a pun on the real city in Mexico)

Locally sourced food means all the fruit an veg are from New Covent Garden Market, cheese from Lancashire and chillies from Dorset.

• Added: 6th of August 2007
• Area: Soho
• Category: Restaurants

London W1F 9AN
020 7494 1634

Mexter said
Spot the veggie celeb
Good place to celeb spot, as I've seen Margherita Taylor, Trigger from Only Fools & Horses and also Gina McKee.

The menu won't be a disappointment whether you're a veggie or not. Stir fry is amazingly filling and fresh. Desserts are not for the faint hearted and worth sharing.

• Added: 3rd of June 2007
• Area: Covent Garden
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London WC2H 9BX
020 7240 4810

Mexter said

Went once with an American blogging friend of mine who bravely did the open mike slot.

Compare had a great rapport with the audience and although there were clearly a number of old faces and regulars there, newbies like myself felt very welcome.

Seems to be bad form to read your poem and then just clear off - a form I heartening agree with.

Will definitely go back