• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Stratford
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London E15 4PH

worst_trip said
Ho-hum
What with a hundred nations of the world all selling fast food takeaways in the area, Stratford doesn’t really – do café society for some reason, although I suppose Café Mondo is in its own way, a brave attempt. But it’s brave, cramped and flawed. There are too many tinny, easily-knock-overable tables crammed into too small a space, and the staff don't seem to make a very great effort to actually serve the customers either. I found the food / beverage ordering process in itself to be a bit of a mystery and somewhat frustrating. Are you supposed to wait at a table? If you do, nobody seems to take much notice of you. Are you supposed to wait at the till? In that case someone is guaranteed to ask you to please sit down again.

Maybe things have improved since I last visited. Maybe a visit’s more enjoyable if you’re already familiar with the ins and outs of the place. Goodness knows it certainly has enough old-hand devotees, and they all seem very fond of it for some reason.

• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Leytonstone
• Category: Restaurants

London E11 3AA

worst_trip said
Good value
This is a buffet-style Chinese restaurant so there’s as much food as you can eat and the vast majority of it falls in the class – good - to pretty good - to OK. There are many deep-fried types of savouries – some potato or vegetable-based so you can see there is a trend going on for fillers here, and a good selection of Chinese-restaurant style staples although some of these sometimes tend to be on the slightly gloopier side. There are also various desserts. Its main selling point is probably that it is very reasonably priced. It also does a take-away option from the buffet if you don’t want to eat on the premises. I believe they may also offer a restaurant menu – although we’ve never tried this.

• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Leytonstone
• Category: Restaurants

London E11 4RD

worst_trip said
Well worth a visit
The Swaad is an absolute delight of a place. The staff were friendly and charming and especially accommodating to our slightly boisterous 18-month-old (this was during a fairly quiet Sunday afternoon visit at the end of lunchtime so I should stress that other diners didn't suffer) and we were made to feel most welcome. The food was very good, with a pleasantly unexpected selection of dishes and some excellent vegetarian options too. It might not be the fanciest restaurant in town but it has a very pleasant atmosphere and is a good bet of all the eateries in Leytonstone for a visit.

• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Leytonstone
• Category: Restaurants

London E11 4RD
020 8556 7591

worst_trip said
Terrific value, excellent food
It seems slightly churlish for me to think of awarding the Ichiban only four out of five stars in this review, since I’ve now read the glowing write-ups everyone else has been giving it – and there is only one reason I’d even think of knocking a star off this restaurant’s rating and that has nothing to do with the food – which is abundant, of excellent quality, inexpensive and beautifully served (some dishes in gorgeous lacquer boxes) or the ambience – which is small-restaurant cosy, and very nice. No, the only possible negative point anyone could think of raising regarding this restaurant concerns its rather unexpected opening schedule. You’ll need to check this before going, as I don’t think it’s open every evening of the week - we have certainly been caught out before, trying to arrive for a meal on spec.

• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Wotton-Under-Edge
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Wotton-Under-Edge GL12 8AD

worst_trip said

A nice country pub, albeit one that’s off a slightly busier road that the ideal country pub might be. There’s seating indoors in a old-style pub setting, and a few tables outdoors in the courtyard and across the lane on the green. If you’re in the area it’s a good standby for a visit – the food is fine (if nothing spectacular) and the lunch menu includes a number of hot and cold baguette / wrap style sandwiches that come in at around a fiver. A selection of hot dishes / more substantial mains are also available. The pub accepts card payments (I think for purchases over £5) which is handy as cash-points are few and far between in this part of the countryside.

• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Loughton
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Loughton IG10 4AA

worst_trip said

A Thai restaurant with a Nottinghamshire-themed name nestling a stone’s throw away from London in Epping Forest? Might seem slightly incongruous, but I can’t recommend this place highly enough - it really is worth a visit. The Thai food is of excellent quality and reasonably priced, and features a range of curries and mostly meat-based main courses. There are also a number of special fish dishes (some based around a whole sea-bass) that are well worth trying. The pub website (also worth a look for further details – just AltaVista ‘Robin Hood thai restaurant Loughton’) has pictures of the interior and mentions a traditional Sunday roast they serve – and although I have never tried this as the Thai food alternative is so good, I have no doubts that it’ll be excellent also. There is a smallish car park with an adequate number of spaces – the restaurant is just off a roundabout, and the roads in this area are extremely busy (especially with motorcycles at weekends) so it’s worth taking care when leaving or entering the car-park.

• Added: 6th of October 2008
• Area: Stroud
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Stroud GL6 7QA

worst_trip said

This is reputedly the 'Cider with Rosie' pub, the book 'Cider with Rosie' being based in and around the beautiful Slad Valley. This is a country pub that does a good selection of beers / ales and a decent pub lunch featuring the usual staples. The setting is gorgeous and it’s a stone’s throw from the town of Stroud – the place is especially popular with country walkers (who occasionally arrive in ramblers’ association packs) as there are many hiking tracks in the area and also with car-driving day-trippers coming out for a pub lunch. This means it can get busy at popular times - especially the weekend. There is not a vast amount of car parking however and the narrowness, and twistiness of the road in this area makes trying to retrace your tracks a slightly hairy business. Arrive early-ish to avoid parking disappointment!

• Added: 1st of October 2008
• Area: Dursley
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Dursley GL11 5SN
01453 860502

worst_trip said

It’s a nice pub with an incredibly ancient – in a nice way – feel to it. There’s a main bar and restaurant, which serves a selection of local ales, with a sort of a side / games room with pool table next door. We go there sometimes, usually when friends / relatives visit us, because Uley is – as our current heir to the throne Prince Charles has already noted – pretty much your picture perfect (Cotswold) village and The Crown is its main village pub.

It’s on, or just off the Cotswold Way, which is a hiking path going…..somewhere picturesque to somewhere else just as nice…..and it’s a popular stop for walkers. This means the parking for cars isn’t excellent, as Uley is also a long, narrow, picture-perfect Cotswold village and it’s situated on quite a steep slope, but there’s some parking available in the village triangle nearby (if you’re careful) and a bit round the back as well. I think the Crown has changed hands recently but as before, it still does very decent, and reasonably priced, good pub grub, of the sausages and mash and steak-and-ale-pie variety. An excellent country-pub-eating experience for everyone. Highly recommended.

• Added: 1st of October 2008
• Area: Dundee
• Category: Restaurants

Dundee DD1 4AA

worst_trip said
Chung-tastic eatery
It is, in its own way, the eternal question – (or at least it would be if the eternal question was based entirely on the theme of buffet-style Chinese restaurants located in the City of Dundee): should we go to Jimmy Chung’s or The City Harbour?

My Scottish relatives would opt for the latter mainly because The City Harbour has abundant car-parking spaces available right next to it. My other relatives, the ones of Chinese descent, go for Jimmy Chung’s every time, because although you can’t easily park right outside, or even particularly near it, the food generally tends to be quite a lot better.

These days it’s probably racist in some way to say so, but if you’re in Britain and you see a Chinese restaurant in which Chinese people are happily paying to eat, odds are you’re onto a good thing. Jimmy Chung’s could well be such a restaurant. There is lots of food as it’s an all-you-can-eat, and it’s also pretty darn good. Personally I still hanker for the tasty deep-fried chunks intended for being lemon-sauce chicken – sublime, and something I haven’t been able to find anywhere else.

So, it has a respectable selection of Chinese-style starters and mains, and a dessert section catering for British tastes – there's cheesecake and gateaux, as well as the fruit, agar-jelly and sesame-coated deep-fried things that you get in Chinese restaurants usually. The restaurant is quite spacious and seems well-run. And the aquaria, as you enter, are particularly impressive. What more could you want, really?

• Added: 1st of October 2008
• Area: Dundee
• Category: Restaurants

Dundee DD1 3JA
01382 228891

worst_trip said
Sardine-a-rama
Four stars, for the home of the deep-fried peanut-butter sandwich? You've got to be kidding. Eating in this place is a claustrophobic experience, where at busy times you'll be crammed closer, cheek-by-jowl with rather more well-fed Dundonians than is comfortable for anyone (like sardines, hence this review’s title). Admittedly it a while ago when I went so things might've changed all round - but when I read another review on this site which likened the restaurant’s décor to that of a hospital canteen – great description, by the way - it gave me instant flashbacks to my only visit there (so apologies if I’m remembering the details wrong) where my abiding impression was of yellowish cream coloured walls and a long, narrow dining room - steaming hot and teeming with too many people. The best and to my mind only redeeming feature of this place was its easy accessibility by car – easy to get to and there is free parking in the regenerated waterfront area on which this restaurant is situated. Ample parking in fact, as many of the other businesses there seem to have failed. It serves mediocre nosh but it's cheap though. If you’re up for all-you-can-eat dining in Dundee, I’d advise you to go the nearby and also inexpensive Jimmy Chung's (to which I am in no way affiliated) instead.