• Added: 19th of July 2007
• Area: Spitalfields
• Category: Restaurants

London E1 6DW
0845 686 1122

PhotographyJim said
Nice food...shame about the service.
Meeting up with a good friend for dinner, we decided to choose somewhere different from our regular haunts and thought the Canteen looked rather interesting.

When we turned up it was packed and I suddenly realised that it wouldn't have been a good idea to have booked before hand. However, within a couple of minutes a waitress had found us some space on a communal table and presented us with some menus featuring some rather promising food.

All the food sounded good and it didn't take long to pick from the relatively small menu (Not that this is a bad thing. I'd rather a restaurant do a few things really well, then a lot of dishes badly. ) Mains included Macaroni cheese, roast chicken, tarragon and walnut salad, freshly baked pies and smoked haddock, spinach and mash.

So while we waited for someone to take our order, we started to have a chat and a gossip.

And we waited...and we waited some more...

After about 15 minutes, we realised that no-one had asked us if we would like a drink, let alone asked if we wanted to place our order. Admittedly, the restaurant was rather busy, but this seemed to be rather poor, especially from a place which had won Best Restaurant in an Observer Food award.

My friend managed to grab the attention of the manager and explained the situation and to his credit he looked a bit shocked, apologised and immediately brought us our drinks order as well as fetching a waitress to take our food order.

I ordered the rump steak with roast tomatoes and chips and my friend ordered haddock with chips. The food arrived pretty quickly and my steak was good and a decent size....nothing outstanding, but perfectly acceptable. I didn't try the haddock, but my friend said it was rather good.

So we finished our mains and then waited, and waited some more, and waited some more.

We eventually caught the attention of the manager and asked for the bill.

The bill came and we noticed that they had lumbered us with a service charge...With a large group of people I think service charge is acceptable, but charging 12.5% extra (If I remember rightly) for bringing two main courses and one round of drinks (throughout the meal no-one asked if we wanted any more drinks) rather stuck in my throat.

We decided to pay the service charge, but not leave a tip as I don't believe in tipping poor service.

Overall I had a good night, but that was largely the company I was with, rather than the location.

So summing up...The food was fine, but the slow service would put me off from returning, which is why the place gets such a low grade in this review.

My advice for those who are thinking of going would be: If you aren't in a rush and you want some good quality traditional food then Canteen is fine....having said that, I would suggest finding a nice gastropub in the area and order food there. The food will probably be just as good, you won't have to pay service charge and you can get your own drinks!!

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

London W1F 8WR
020 7287 4243

PhotographyJim said
Inexpensive India resturant with great food and near Soho
My first experience of Imli was when I saw its website. Clean design, uncluttered navigation and great images...things looked promising, especially after I read it had been awarded Best Indian Restaurant in the UK by the Good Curry Guide.

The question was, how would it fare in reality?

Situated at the top of end of Wardour Street (the part closest to Tottenham Court Road), Imli's location has two distinct advantages:

1) It is easy to get to on your way into Soho for a night on the town, but
2) It is unlikely to be discovered by drunken lads and lasses who have spent several hours on the lash and now want a "ruby murray" before they stagger off home.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's nice to think that people are visiting the restaurant for the food, rather than they've got the munchies and want to get into an competition with their mates about who can eat the Phal.)

As with most restaurants in this area, if you go on a Friday or Saturday night it's advisable to book...although we only had to wait 10 minutes before getting a table - which gave me and my mate a good opportunity to see what was on the menu and try to get our heads around the concept of Indian tapas - it turns out its rather like Spanish tapas...you order a series of dishes which turn up when they're ready and you share them with your friends.

The menu was pretty broad and divided up into "Light and Refreshing" (e.g. mushroom tikki, spiced potatoes cakes and samosas), "New traditions" (e.g. seafood platter, grilled coley fish and masla grilled beef) "Signature Dishes" (e.g. Goan Pork and Southern Lamb curry), a "Taste of Imli" (four dishes selected by the chef which changes each week) and of course deserts - everything from rice pudding to carrot fudge and chocolate and orange zest ice cream.

Drinks are reasonably priced for a restaurant central London and range from Cobra and Kingfisher beer to passion fruit and mango & strawberry lassis.

Service was friendly and efficient - all our tapas had arrived with 5 minutes of each other meaning you could mix dishes together if you wanted.

And as for the food...the chef obviously knows what he's doing. The dishes were delicious and full of flavour and lacked the excessive fiery heat I've experienced some other Indian restaurants, which not only obliterates the true taste of the dish, but makes also makes it more a challenge rather than a pleasure.

Individual portions weren't massive, but even a committed foodie such as myself couldn't finish everything. (Personally I would go for the five dishes between two people, rather than the recommended six)

And six of the main dishes, wine and a couple of beers will probably set you back around 25 a head - a bargain!

A great place if you want to impress, but don't want have to spend too much money doing it!