• Added: 26th of September 2008
• Area: Finsbury
• Category: Restaurants

London EC1R 5DP
020 7278 6661

messydesk said
дн вверх
I love Russian food and Potemkin is pretty much the best place I've found for it. The upstairs is a pretty standard vodka bar but it has a good selection of vodkas and large, clear windows onto the street. It's a good place to meet someone before going down for dinner.
The restaurant is downstairs and they've chosen to decorate with subtle whites and browns with the occasional splash of colour and the effect is restful and contemporary. It's also comfortable, even if you stay there for hours and hours, and the staff are friendly and efficient.
They have the expected huge range of vodkas and despite not normally drinking alcohol at all, I often have a few glasses as they're so delicious and interesting, a favourite being tarragon, cucumber or the slightly more standard but no less delicious warm honey.
Best of all though, is the food. It's simple with strong traditional flavours and unusually, they serve a good vegetarian dish, even though the choice is pretty limited it's better than you usually get for food from this region. The borscht is fabulous, definitely the best in London and my meat-loving partner recommends the pork. They've also managed to deal with the common problem in Russian cooking, blandness and stodginess with excellent spicing and spot on cooking times. I love it here.

• Added: 26th of September 2008
• Area: Islington
• Category: Shops

London N1 2BB
020 7288 1160

messydesk said
Tiny, lovely knitting shop
There's a Loop knitting shop in New York and a London branch has been opened by an American ex-pat and very lovely it is. It's a tiny, white-washed room stuffed to the gills with yarn, knitting books and needles. Like most knitting shops the staff are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, but in Loop they are particularly so. I was taught the magic loop and intarsia there, I've even had help with projects where no part was bought in their shop.
They seem to specialise mostly in small runs of artisan yarn all of very high quality (with accompanying high price) and have a few knitting books. Their magazine selection is pretty good and they always seem to have Rowan Studio which is not always easy to find. Where they really excel though is needles, they have every kind and every size in every material you could want, all of which are good quality, even the plastic ones.
It's a lovely shop but don't go expecting to be able to buy yarns you know, they most liekly won't sell them, but if you want to find some interesting yarns that you would usually have to buy online or at craft fairs or if you need some knitting advivce, Loop is great.

• Added: 26th of September 2008
• Area: Waterloo
• Category: Shops

London SE1 7AB
020 7261 1338

messydesk said
Large boutique knitting shop
Iknit has recently moved from its original site in Vauxhall to the current location in Waterloo and is a million times better for it. The new shop is by far the largest speciality knitting shop in London (and I've visited them all). Due to all the space in the new location they've been able to extend their range massively, keen knitters will know how many knitting shops only carry a small range or stick to one particular brand of yarn so the expanded stock is a real point in Iknit's favour. I think their greatest asset however is their book selection, as well as a really wide range of standard knitting books they source copies of very hard to find but classic titles, they're the only place in the UK I've ever seen selling new copies of Barbara Walker of Elizabeth Zimmerman, for example. They fall down slightly in their needle selection though, they only straight needles they sell are wooden and though they sell quality Aldi circulars they're often out of stock in many sizes. My other complaint, and the thing that stops me giving them the fifth star, is that the guy who works there is stunningly rude and unhelpful (there's a lady works on a Friday morning though who is as lovely as the other guy is nasty so I stick to going only when she's working). A great shop for knitters, make sure you leave a whole day and go as close to payday as you can. It's almost the perfect knitting shop, if only I felt able to take advantage of their sofa and library, but the sarky, rude guy puts a stop to that.

• Added: 26th of September 2008
• Area: Covent Garden
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London WC2H 9AJ
020 7419 2996

messydesk said
good coffee, bad cake, cheesy kink.
This odd little place near the Tottenham court Road end of Covent Garden had not yet closed down, despite the notice on the info part of this page. Apparently, (eavesdropping ago-go) their lease won't be continued after the current one lapses but the landlord doesn't seem in too much of a hurry to boot them out. Anyway Coffee, Cake and Kink is a fetish and S/M styled coffee shop, the upstairs has lots of books and other sex positive paraphernalia lining the walls with a few tables and chairs dotted here and there, it's really quite pleasant and has a good, relaxed vibe. The majority of the seating however is downstairs, which is a bit of a different story. You have to negotiate the most difficult and dangerous set of stairs I've ever come across, so much so that the staff won't let you carry your own food down with you. They've done their level best to make it bareable in the low-ceilinged, windowless basement but to my taste they've not succeeded. Apart from two sofas the seating is very uncomfortable and every table or footstool area is too close to the next, couple that with the claustrophobic, natural light free feel of the room and it becomes just too oppressive. They have different erotic art exhibitions decorating the walls but both of the times I've visited the quality has been extremely low favouring cheesy, fantasy-esque and entirely predictable styles when they could have gone in a more interesting path.
The coffee is really, really good in large cups but the cake is bad, dry and overpriced. The chocolate fondue is a great idea but in reality tastes of wax to the extent that it's inedible. It's a fun place to go, but avoid the food and stay upstairs.

• Added: 26th of September 2008
• Area: Farringdon
• Category: Food and Drink

London EC4M 7LH
020 7489 5916

messydesk said
Great food, ouchy prices
I go to Crussh a lot for my breakfast, but only for the first week after payday. They're a small chain, primarily of juice bars but with a small selection of ultra-healthy food. The smoothies really are awesome, not too thick, not to apple-juicy, unusual and tasty combinations with interesting ingredients, I can't get enough of them. The other thing that really draws me to them in the mornings is their porridge. They sell two varieties, normal hot porridge (made with soya milk, but not actually vegan at last asking although they told me they were considering changing the recipe) and 'summer porridge' which seems to be made with yoghurt rather than milk. They are both really excellent and you can have toppings such as honey or fresh banana to go with it. It's so good and just what I need to start the day.
The rest of the food is very good, they have good salads, wheat-free sandwiches and some noodle meals. All taste really good but are shockingly expensive. The superfood salad is about £8 for example, it's a good dish with fresh tasting, varied ingredients but my god, there's just no need for that sort of price tag.
Alas, I keep going back. Healthy food is my biggest weakness and it seems that I will pay for the privileged.

• Added: 26th of September 2008
• Area: Euston
• Category: Restaurants

London NW1 1JB
0207 3837444

messydesk said
Sushi cafe
Mai Sushi is a small family restaurant in a quiet, but central location. The place itself has a very basic décor, more like a cafe than a restaurant really but it's plain, clean and unfussy which is no bad thing really. The staff are really very lovely, they seem genuinely friendly and are both helpful and knowledgeable. They've recently started putting a few tables outside on the pavement under their awning which we really enjoyed. The street is wide and there seems to be a lot of interesting stuff going on.
Food wise, the sushi is excellent, there's a wide range of to choose from and it's made fresh and delicious. One slight downside is that the non-sushi dishes I've had there are really quite awful, the noodles are bland and tasteless for example but if you stick to the sushi and it is, of course, a sushi restaurant you'll be more than fine. Particularly good are the bento boxes where you get a huge amount of different types of fish for a very reasonable £12. My partner was really knocked out by the soft shell crab. That brings me to one of the most excellent things about Mai Sushi - the price. It really is very reasonable, particularly for the area and the quality of the cooking.
If you're stuck at Kings Cross or Euston and don't fancy any of the over priced corparate fare on offer, just pop a couple of street over to Mai Sushhi, it's a really lovely, simple and unpretentious place.

• Added: 16th of September 2008
• Area: Brighton
• Category: Hotels and Travel

Brighton BN1 2FG
01273 722123

messydesk said
My favorite hotel
The Royal Pavilion Townhouse is a really special place. It's quite small, with only 8 rooms, but that seems to allow the staff to concentrate on brilliant service for the guests that they do have - I have genuinely never seen such good service in any other hotel. I don't know how the owners manage to make their employees care so much about their work, but I do know that whatever it is, it works.
Each room has a different theme, the Chinese Dragon room being the most ostentatious, the Chinoise being the prettiest, Camera Valencia being the most stylish and the tiny but lovely Beach Cove being my favourite. There's something beautifully quirky about the whole place, but not in a hipper-than-thou, cutesy way, (something you can find quite a bit in Brighton). The rooms seem like they've been designed by a non-professional designer but with real flare and imagination. The effect is both winning and rather unique, something you don't often find with hotels. The four largest rooms have big en suite bathrooms with jacuzzis and the beds in every room I've stayed in wonderfully comfortable, you seem to keep sinking into the mattress for about 5 minutes after you climb in.
The breakfast in bed is awesome and they do a really fantastic eggs florentine. The food is a little pricey, but worth every penny. There's simply nothing they've missed out.

• Added: 16th of September 2008
• Area: Edinburgh
• Category: Restaurants

Edinburgh EH1 2QN
0131 225 7069

messydesk said
masssshhhhhh
Ah, Monster Mash, what better than sausage and mash after a long day in a cold, wet, hilly city like Edinburgh? It's a lovely looking place, very simply decorated with lovely booth tables but the best thing about the place is the food. Sausage and mash is pretty good even if it's bad but at Monster Mash they've taken the art to a higher level. It's one of the few places I visit a lot where I've only ever tasted one dish, the vegetarian sausages with the mustard mash and onion gravy. It's so good that I can't bear not to order it no matter what else looks good on the menu. They have different sausages every day I remember things like leek and cheese, rosemary and mint and once even a carroty affair. The rest of the menu seems to be mostly different kinds of pie and the puddings are school dinner faire like steamed pudding but like I say, I just can't tear myself away from the sausage and most particularly, the mustard mash. It gets a really busy but I always go off peak as it's so good to go there really really hungry and stuff your face with their warm, delicious comfort food.

• Added: 15th of September 2008
• Area: Edinburgh
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

Edinburgh EH1 2QZ
0131 220 6880

messydesk said
Favorit!
Favorit is another one of those places you go because it looks so lovely. It's an old style diner with booths and black and white tiles where you can just sit for hours. One idiosyncratic thing about it that I love is how it's always quite dark inside. I hate really bright, harsh places so sneaking into a booth with my back to the window and snaffling a ben and jerrys milk shake is a great pleasure. The menu is a bit limited, but what is does have is good, I love the goats cheese and sweet chilli thing most of all and the ice cream milkshake I mentioned earlier is a fatty dream of loveliness.

The service is a bit rubbish, but at the same time, I prefer it to forced cheerfulness and over-friendliness, but if you need someone to be happy and friendly when they serve you, don't visit Favorit. They don't make a fuss if you sit there nursing a tea for 5 hours though and if you're really desperate, you can just go up to the counter and order there.

It can get absolutely packed in the evening and don't even *think* about it during festival time, but a diner open till 3am is going to be a big popular draw, specially as it's so close to all the university buildings.

• Added: 15th of September 2008
• Area: Marylebone
• Category: Restaurants

London W1U 5HN
020 7258 8595

messydesk said
Looks nice, but that's about it.
I love Marylebone High Street,I know I shouldn't because it's dead wanky and overpriced, but I just can't help myself. I usually find myself working in the area about twice a month so I was really pleased when Eat and Two Veg opened a few years ago.

Eat and Two Very really looks lovely inside and I've gone back and back over the years primarily for that reason. There's cafe tables in the window (often full though), a canteen style table down the middle of the room and booths along the edges, they're all comfortable and the staff never squish you too close to other diners on the canteen table. The design is an odd mixture of American Diner and Art-Deco but, as I say it works really well and is just lovely. It's restful and tasteful, but still interesting and unusual.

Unfortunately, the food is really quite average and is most certainly over-priced. The menu seems pretty wide and interesting when you're choosing from it, but the quality of the cooking is often very poor and the taste can be bland and uninspiring. Another gripe is the speed of the service. All the waiters and waitresses are informed and helpful but there's simply not enough of them, when you finally do get to order, the food takes a long time to arrive, especially considering how underwhelming it often is. Have to admit though, the cocktails are ace.

I think I could forgive Eat and Two Veg the food and just have the vege burger, enjoy the atmosphere and treat it like a snack place if it were not so fearfully expensive. I had a halloumi sandwich there once that cost me eight quid and wasn't even very good. For that, I'll get a sandwich from tesco and drink in the design and atmosphere by sitting on the opposite side of the road and looking in.