• Added: 7th of September 2007
• Area: Clapham
• Category: Restaurants

London SW4 7AB
020 7622 1758

alevy said
Thai-licious, fast-tacular
The trend has subsided somewhat, but a few years back every pub wanted to serve Thai food. A great idea in theory, but in practice, this led to a slew of cheap but extremely crappy Thai kitchens in London.

The Pepper Tree keeps the cheap, but gets rid of the crappy.

Mains average 6 at this place, which would be a hidden gem if everybody didn't already know about it. You can rely on there being a queue, but the queue always moves quickly.

All the standard dishes on a Thai menu can be found. I like the Tord Mun (fish cakes) as a starter and any of the curries (except their bland Massaman) as a main. The Pad Thai is also among the best you'll find in London.

The queue is one downside, and if you're looking for a leisurely dinner, look elsewhere. You'll be in and out of this place in under an hour.

But for a quick, cheap, and very delicious bite before (or after) a night out in Clapham, it's hard to beat.

• Added: 11th of January 2007
• Area: Fulham
• Category: Restaurants

London SW6 1AA
020 7385 6595

alevy said
Nice Decor... Lousy Food
I seriously don't know what the other reviewers are on about. I'll grant that this place looks great... but a restaurant doesn't earn stars on decor alone. It has constantly mystified me why people bother with the Blue Elephant.

I know food, I know thai food, and the food here sets a new standard for sub-mediocrity and poor value for money.

A few tips if somebody clubs you over the head and drags you here:

1. Avoid, at all costs, the temptation to order the "set menus." The food will be even worse than usual, and if my suspicion is correct will have been sitting under a heat lamp for quite some time.

2. Set aside some time. Like, a lot of time. Because the servers will forget you're there. And then they'll remember and choose to ignore you for a while. And then they'll forget again. And then they'll get your drink order wrong. And then they'll forget to bring your replacement drink.

3. Take a valium before you go. Because this place will be much more tolerable if you're half-asleep.

All joking aside, there are better places to get thai food in London. If you want the gourmet experience, try Patara. If you want cheap, try the Churchill Arms on Kensington Church St. I'd personally recommend the Market Bar Thai at the corner of Portobello Rd & Lancaster Rd.

Don't waste your time with the Blue Elephant.

• Added: 29th of December 2006
• Area: Holland Park
• Category: Restaurants

London W11 2EU
020 7727 9957

alevy said
Eh, not so much
I recently descended on Osteria Basilico again for the first time in many years. From the outside, very little had changed. Same crowds, same queue (even during the week between Christmas and New Year), and pretty much the same menu. I remembered this place as being cosy yet lively, with very good food, and decent value for money.

Well, to be fair, maybe I'm what changed, but after my last visit, I was none too impressed. The food was respectable, but certainly nothing to write home about. I started with a beef carpaccio, which was ok but the beef lacked flavour. And I continued with grilled calamari, which was passable but over-spiced (not to mention over-small as far as the portion went).

The service was pleasant, if inattentive. The food was ok, if not great. The overall experience was, well, mediocre.

Which would be fine... except at 15-19 for mains, you don't have to go far to find better-than-mediocre Italian.

And I suppose that's precisely what I'd recommend that you do: go elsewhere, do better.

• Added: 13th of December 2006
• Area: Clerkenwell
• Category: Restaurants

London EC1N 8UH
020 7430 1503

alevy said
Clerkenwell Italian
Fabrizio is from Sicily. I mention this because Southern Italy has a tradition for peasant food that differs significantly from the wealthy north, where fine ingredients about. But in the south, chefs have to do more with less. Take those chefs out of Southern Italy, and they still have the, erm, chops to bring the most out of the ingredients... but put them here in London they have a richer pallette of ingredients to work with.

At Fabrizio's, you'll benefit fully from this blend. On the menu alongside a braised venison in a juniper/red wine reduction, you'll find speck-wrapped monkfish over a bed of spinach. Fabrizio brings together the best tastes from all around Italy, mixes it with solid execution, and serves it at a very reasonable price.

An interesting thing to note about Fabrizio's is the location -- it's tucked away in Clerkenwell, right where you might find yourself heading out for a night of drinks and/or dancing. Far too often, we all go out on an empty stomach (I can still hear my friend Al saying "You don't put solid fuel in a liquid engine.") But Fabrizio's location makes it the perfect stop before a long night out... for those of us who don't choose alternative fuel to propel us through a night of clubbing. And for those who are in cars, there's ample parking in the neighbourhood at dinner time.

• Added: 11th of October 2006
• Area: Notting Hill
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London W11 3HG
020 7221 7776

alevy said
Awesome
If it's not clear from my reviews, I'm a snob. Or, as my friend Manolo would say, I'm an eh-f@#%$ing snobbish guy.

Among the many things I'm snobbish about is pizza.

(a) I consider myself a connaisseur
(b) I grew up in the New York area
(c) I'd rather eat no pizza than bad pizza... that's just how I roll

So I was walking down the street in Notting Hill and I saw this place selling pizza slices. Normally, I just walk by and snicker -- this is London, slice pizza here is for tourists and other people who don't know better, right? My experience tells me that most places in this town have some evil recipe for pizza that goes something like cardboard+ketchup+cheese.

But lined up on wooden planks in the front window were these beautiful pizzas that looked every bit like they were flown in from Napoli this morning.

I was intrigued.

So I go in and have a look at the different varieties, take a slice of fresh tomato, buffalo mozzarella, and fresh basil, and head back up the road to where I'm staying.

Only problem is, I'm so intrigued that I'm not prepared to wait until I get home to try it.

I took a bite as I stepped on to Portobello Road.

By the time I crossed Westbourne Grove, it was gone.

If there's a better place for slice pizza in London, I'm not aware of it. Arancina is so good, it's worth making a special trip for.

• Added: 3rd of October 2006
• Area: Chelsea
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London SW10 0RJ
020 7352 6645

alevy said
Excellent Pub Food
Gastropubs in London have evolved to the point of ubiquity... if you can't find one in your neighbourhood, you're probably too drunk.

However, the popularity of the category has predictably led the term to become meaningless. Nowadays, I'm pretty sure the only qualification for the term gastropub is that you have a menu which: (a) contains at least one item with chorizo, and (b) where the description for Bangers and Mash has been rewritten to read "Fresh English Pork Cumberland Sausage with Roasted Garlic Puree and Sweet Onion Jus."

I guess what I'm saying is there's a fine line between pretense and reality, and Lots Road is on the right side of that line.

First things first: Lots Road makes a great hamburger. Not only that, but asking that it be cooked a certain way (i.e. rare) is not a futile exercise... the burger will come back the way you requested it. Seems simple, but I can't tell you how very exceptional this is in London.

The rest of the menu varies, but I've been several times, and as of yet, nobody at my table has been served a clunker.

Service is extraordinarly nice and attentive, and they even bent over backwards to get my visiting mom's absurdly complicated and obscure drink order right.

The only caveat is that they have some kind of chocolatey treacle pudding that they advertise as something you must not miss, which advertisement is false. It's not that this dessert is horrible, it's actually just OK, but rather it's a case of the build-up setting expectations too high and then the actual product being disproportionately mediocre when contrasted against the now-elevated expectations.

I guess the only other caveat is that from Thursday to Saturday, I'd strongly recommend you book in advance.

But it's good, and the prices are reasonable. And even if you don't live in the neighbourhood (Chelsea Pier), you've certainly travelled farther for worse food.

• Added: 3rd of October 2006
• Area: Chelsea
• Category: Restaurants

London SW3 5UU
020 7559 1000

alevy said
Not so much.
Here's the problem with Bluebird: It's trying so hard to be fine dining, but it isn't fine dining. They charge fine dining prices, but Bluebird is what somebody completely uninitiated would consider fine dining.

The food is good, but it's not going to set your world on fire. Any competent bistro has a menu that's at least as inventive -- and would probably execute on it better. The Bluebird kitchen, probably owing to its size, is a factory. They just can't provide the attention to detail that a smaller (or better staffed) kitchen would.

Beyond that, one function of Bluebird's space is that it puts the "din" back in "dinner." That is to say, it's loud. Which is fine, if you don't mind having to yell to be heard.

Look, it's stylish and nice, and probably a good place to take your American aunt and uncle who are in town for a couple of days -- as long as they're not gastronomes, and as long as they're buying.

Apart from that, it's just poor value for money. You can do better.

• Added: 27th of September 2006
• Area: Shoreditch
• Category: Food and Drink

London E1 6SB
020 7729 0826

alevy said
Honestly, Pretty Good
I'm originally from the New York metro area, and I have a thing about bagels. That is to say, most of what is called a "bagel" in this world is not actually a bagel, but rather a mediocre bread roll with a hole in the middle.

(Note to Montrealers: I love Montreal bagels as well, but you will certainly admit it's a different product, and in any case that ain't what I'm talking about here).

Bagels are special. They require extra gluten in the flour, they need to be boiled in a special solution, and then they need to be baked in a piping hot oven. I can make a pretty damned good one myself, and I believe I've debunked the "it's about the water" myth by having done so in places far and wide.

So, admittedly, I was skeptical when a friend told me about this place. I assumed that you'd find the same crap one finds in the Bagel Factory, or any other place that uses the term bagel, ahem, loosely.

But I made the trip to Brick Lane on a Sunday morning, and to my surprise and delight, the bagels were actually good. The place *smells* like a proper bagel bakery. You can see that they boil before they bake. The bagels are chewy on the inside and not quite crispy on the outside.

They only come in plain (can somebody please ship them some sesame and poppy seeds?), but they do the job.

And the other reviewer is right about the rye bread -- it's great.

• Added: 27th of September 2006
• Area: Pimlico
• Category: Restaurants

London SW1V 3EB
020 7976 5309

alevy said
Mediocre At Best
Call me a Spanish food snob if you must. I'm an American, but I've lived in Spain, and for all of the Spaniards working here, they ought to be able to do a better job.

I used to work in this neighbourhood, and would occasionally be coerced into going for lunch.

I could forgive them if it was just the Pulpo a la Gallega that was not great -- fresh octopus is really hard to come by in London. However, Tortilla de Patatas is the simplest of Spanish dishes to do and should work anywhere, and inexplicably theirs does not. It tastes like microwaved cardboard with onions.

Other plates are hit-or-miss... they manage not to do too much harm to the chorizo, and as for paella -- well, I'm not a huge fan in general, but I'm definitely not a fan here.

Unless you're right in the neighbourhood and really have a jones for Spanish, I'd give it a miss.

• Added: 27th of September 2006
• Area: Sloane Square
• Category: Restaurants

London SW1W 8NL
020 7730 9046

alevy said
Very good Italian food
I'll start out by saying this: the food at Como Lario is fantastic. They specialise in quality ingredients prepared simply... my personal favourites are their fresh fish grills.

That said, the location in Belgravia just off Sloane Square means you can expect to pay quite a bit for your meal. And at those prices, you might expect to get a little bit more room to spread out than you get.

But the service is fantastic and so is the food.