Review: Royal Thai Restaurant London

Amazing Thai food tucked away near King's Cross

King prawn pad kee mao - noodle heaven! 

I've never lived in London long enough to discover its hidden secrets, those amazing little places tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the big city. Instead, I've done the next best thing, which is to rely on my more local friends for their insider information. And that's how I found Royal Thai. A friend suggested we drop by one night, promising that I'd be impressed by the food despite my teenage years in Thailand. And indeed I was, so much so that I insisted that we come here for dinner again the next time we met. The venue has now become a regular fixture for me - I've made several visits with friends and family, and its the first recommendation I make for Thai food in the British capital.  

Review: Darjeeling Express

Home Comforts in Soho

Methi Chicken, polao and a side salad

I’m glad central London finally has an Indian restaurant like Darjeeling Express. I’ve been eating at various Bengali (read: Bangladeshi) restaurants in the British capital for a while, and most of what I’d recommend is in East London. While many of these places do great food, like Amar Gaon or Dhaka Biryani, they’re small and geared towards casual meals. But Darjeeling Express is a fully-fledged restaurant, and somewhere I could go if I needed a smarter dinner venue. Even better is the fact that I wouldn’t be making any compromises on the food - the kitchen here produces amazing Bengali (and other Indian) dishes, despite its trendy Carnaby Street location. 

Review: Nopi

Impressive cooking with a big price tag

Grilled trout with labneh, yuzu kosho and a colourful radish.
A simple but delicious small plate at Nopi

I discovered Nopi the cookbook before Nopi the restaurant. The book, a birthday present, was my first of complex restaurant recipes. I've spent multiple weekends putting it to use, embarking on culinary adventures of exciting flavours. I learned how to retrofit familiar ingredients in service of the venue's cooking style, which combines the Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian, to create new-to-me flavours. Having enjoyed the recipes so much, I’ve now made multiple trips to eat at the actual establishment. I'm surprised to say that the hype (in my own mind of course!), was indeed worth it. 

Review: Dhaka Biriyani

The Best Biriyani in East London

Dhaka Biryani on Mile End Road
(Yes, it seems we disagree over the
spelling of biriyani)

Dhaka Biryani is right on Mile End road, and the name makes it hard to miss if you're Bangladeshi. I've walked past several times while promising myself that I'll visit, and spending the day with friends in East London last weekend provided the perfect excuse. This review will be short and sweet, much like the others that I've done for Bangladeshi eateries in London. And just like these other places, Dhaka Biryani is a casual venue, serving up food from a counter with some basic chairs and tables laid out over a small space. In fact, despite the smart facade Dhaka Biryani is probably the most basic of the Bangladeshi places I've been to, including the shop-cum-eatery Amar Gaon. But like Amar Gaon, I'd encourage you not be deceived by looks, as the food here is excellent.

Review: Gram Bangla

More Bengali Food in Brick Lane

Left to right: biriyani, chicken curry, daal, tomato "tok",
lotar shutki and piazu

Forays into East London are rare for me, given my southeast England base is in Surrey. But I escape when I can, and last weekend I used my freedom to try out another Bangladeshi joint. Gram Bangla in Brick Lane follows a well-known recipe: a basic restaurant space, a little traditional decor, and the day's menu served canteen-style from a counter. The food is the main reason anyone would come here, and so that's what I'll focus on right away. Find yourself a table, drop off your bags and coats, then walk up to the counter to find out what's on offer. There is no written menu to be had, so ask the staff for descriptions of anything you don't recognise. The selection isn't vast (the whole place is half the size of Amar Gaon, my favourite in Brick Lane), but adequate. Between two, we asked for servings of chicken curry, lotar shutki, lamb biriyani, daal and plain rice, while our server also upsold us a plate of piazu.

The food counter (or about two-thirds of it)

We sat back down at our table, grabbing drinks from a fridge on the way. Our food arrived in batches, in a mostly sensible order. The piazu was served with onions and chilli, which I thought was a nice touch, and I've filed the idea away for future salads. It was well spiced, had a hard crunch, and would have been excellent when fresh - a limitation of the canteen format. The biriyani was a similar story - all the right flavours but obviously made a while ago. A better recipe than what I've had in say, Kolapata, but less fresh. It was also very generously meaty - uncommon in any Bangladeshi restaurant that I've visited so far. It was vastly improved by the daal, a mixed grain affair with a lovely cumin-onion shombar. The basic chicken curry was also good - but it was hard to get excited by something I can do better at home. The shutkir lotha was a bit disappointing - quite tasteless despite the generous amounts of prawns and shutki cooked into it. I would guess this is because the actual vegetable is not grown locally, and loses it's potency during import.

The interior

Our meal was satisfying, but I can't get recommend Gram Bangla as a "find" for great, authentic Bangladeshi food as I did for Amar Gaon a few months ago. The food cost £21 with two cans of coke though, so Gram Bangla is definitely the cheaper option if you want a Bangladeshi meal in London. Service wasn't particularly great - I feel like we only got words out of the man at the counter because we spoke Bengali and Sylheti, and even then he wasn't all that interested. It was empty on the Saturday night we visited - this place doesn't serve alcohol and doesn't aim for the weekend party crowd. This is something of a mixed blessing, as you'll definitely get a table, but they won't have bothered to keep the food fresh. I imagine the quality improves during the week, when the target market of local workers and families are more likely to visit. The verdict: consider this a cheap and cheerful lunch spot more than anything else - but be prepared to provide the cheer yourself. 

Food: 6.5/10

Service: 6.5/10

Atmosphere: 6.5/10

Value: 8/10

Final Score: 6.5/10

Contact Information

A: 68 Brick Lane, Shoreditch, London E1 6RL United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 7377 6116
W: www.facebook.com/Gram-Bangla

NB. The final score, while influenced by the sub-scores, is a qualitative reflection of my overall impression of the establishment.

Review: Romulo Cafe London

A Holiday Substitute

Suman latik: fried rice cake with coconut cream,
dark coconut sauce and coconut ice cream

I've wanted to make my way back to southeast Asia over the last few years, but work-life commitments keep getting in the way. So I’ve turned to another solution: finding solace in food from the region. Queue a visit to Romulo Café, a newish Filipino restaurant on Kensington High Street. A smart, medium sized restaurant, the venue is divided into themed rooms like the Library and the Diplomat’s Dining Room, each with their unique touches of funky decor. We visited for lunch on a Sunday, and the fragrance of Filipino food wafted through the air as we sat down to our table.   

Patotim: slow-cooked duck in a steamed bun

On the left, tuna kilawin. A tune ceviche marinated in cane vinegar,

with red onion, cucumber and red pepper.

On the right, pork belly with a fried egg, pickled apples and 

caramelised shallots. 

The menu at Romulo is designed to be shared, and at the recommendation of our hostess, we ordered three starters and three mains between 4. Service was slow, in the sense that both our starters and then our mains took quite a while to arrive. However, we were brought a little something during these lulls – first bread and butter, and later pork scratchings – to pass the time. And the food that did arrive was excellent. Amongst the starters, the winner for me was the patotim: a steamed bun filled with sweet and sticky slow-cooked duck. My friends were full of praise for the pork sisig, while the tuna kilawin - imagine a spicy tuna ceviche - divided opinion at the table between those who liked raw fish and those who didn't. I loved it though, especially for the spicy-onion flavours that reminded me of salads from Bangladesh. 

Lamb kaldereta: stewed lamb with peppers, potatoes, garden peas,
slow cooked in tomato sauce and topped with parmesan

On the left, chicken relleno: roast chicken with pork stuffing

On the right, flying dish: deep-fried tilapia with dips. I ate the eye.

Our mains, while still good, had a little less star power. The deep-fried tilapia kept things simple and classic, arriving at the table butterflied and accompanied by well-chosen sauces. The chicken relleno, a dish of roast chicken with pork stuffing, was fought over by my friends. The lamb kaldereta was the last dish: a meat stew with peppers, potatoes and peas cooked in tomato sauce. It reminded me of my mom's own tomato sauce based dishes, but it wasn’t particularly popular with the rest of the table. We had two sides of garlic rice to round off our meal,  and washed everything down with nostalgia-inducing calamansi cooler. However, we didn't feel done by the end of it. Some portions, like the lamb kaldereta and garlic rice, were small, and in the future I’d much order one main per person.  

Sans rival, served with ice cream

Still hungry, we ordered desserts. My friends had the sans rival, which was nice, albeit a bit tougher than it should be. Unfortunately a number of items on the menu were unavailable, and my dreams of having halo halo were crushed. That may have been for the best, as the suman latik I ordered instead was perhaps the best part of my meal. A fried rice cake with coconut cream, dark coconut sauce and coconut ice cream, it was a delicious, moreish dessert. I am generally a fan of coconut, and I also loved the contrast between the crunchy, warm cake versus the soft, cold ice cream. 

Finally satisfied, we asked for the bill. At £101 for 4 people, this seemed like very good value for money, until we remembered we’d under-eaten. Starters at Romulo are priced £7 onward, and mains £13 onward. Add the cost of rice and drinks and you’ll easily spend £30 per head here, which is unsurprising given the Kensington location. And judging by how busy it got, this a venue for planned, perhaps special meals rather than pit stops. Staff were very friendly and enthusiastic throughout, and always on hand to refill our water or drinks. I hope that as the restaurant finds its feet, the speed of the service and the availability of menu items will get better. There’s a lot of potential here, and I would definitely like to return to see how things have evolved. 

Food: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Value: 6/10

Final Score: 7/10

Contact Information

A: 343 Kensington High Street, London W8 6NW, United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 3141 6390
W: www.romulocafe.co.uk

NB. The final score, while influenced by the sub-scores, is a qualitative reflection of my overall impression of the establishment.

Cake & Biskie in Soho

Review: Cutter & Squidge

Biskies: a Cutter & Squidge creation.
Think of a soft cookie & cake dessert sandwich :)

Some of the earliest reviews I posted on this blog were about cake in Bangladesh. I've written (and complained!) about dessert at many venues since, but I've never really posted about any other bakeries or confectioners. I admit I've gotten into a habit of depending on chains and supermarkets. Trouble is, while I know independents that do good coffee, their sweets are rarely worth a special mention. Cutter & Squidge bucks that trend completely. They serve amazing cake and a nifty invention of their own called a biskie - best described as a mini cookie and cake sandwich. I first found them by chance one night in Soho, when we were walking around after an early dinner in search of something sweet. This was always a normal thing to do in Asia, where cafés and the like open late, but everything shuts so early in the UK! Luckily Cutter & Squidge had the right idea, and their then pop-up was still open around 8 pm. I bought myself a huge slice of their Choc O'Berry Dream Cake, which turned out to be extremely delicious. The cake itself was rich and moist, with generous helpings of flavoured cream filling the layers and covering the outside. Fast forward a few months and they now have a permanent store on Brewer Street in Soho, which is great news for anyone with a sweet tooth. Their new store opens later than most cafés, which remains a plus, though bear in mind it's not late enough for post-dinner dessert. 

The interior, bright and expressive.
More seating than some of the other similar shops
in the area, but I can see it getting busy.

I've visited several times with friends, squeezing into the relatively small space. The venue has a few tables at the back, along with some counter-style seating by the windows. The interior, as seen in the photo above, makes me think "bright-plastic-happy", and while I realise it won't be to everyone's taste I feel its true to Cutter & Squidge's overall branding. The store operates the usual pick and pay at the counter approach, and staff will bring over your drinks or order if it's not something they can just hand you over the counter. Apart from cakes and biskies, the menu on the wall lists a small selection of hot and cold drinks, as well as a few sandwiches. Notably, they do a salted caramel matcha latte - which is great as even today there are too few places in London that serve matcha lattes. If you order one just remember to stir the drink properly, as otherwise you'll finish a rather bland cup like my friend, only to discover all of the caramel left at the bottom!

"OMG It's Green":
green tea and raspberry "Dream Cake"

Eating as a group meant has meant I've sampled quite a bit of what Cutter & Squidge has to offer, and almost everything has been as impressive as that first Choc O'Berry cake. Amongst the cakes, the Banoffee and the Chocolate and Hazelnut stand out as excellent takes on classic flavours. I've also tried the OMG It's Green pictured above, and while I liked it, I remember wishing for a slightly stronger flavour flavour. Amongst the biskies, the rich Salted Caramel Brownies or lighter S'mores are safe choices. I'm torn between what I like more here, the cakes or the biskies, but a Key Lime Pie biskie my partner once had is definitely my favourite. Imagine two layers of soft biscuit with a filling of lime curd and vanilla cream cheese, finished off a crunchy meringue topping! Unfortunately this was a special edition, and I've not seen it since. This is something to bear in mind about Cutter & Squidge - they do rotate what's on offer any given day, and not all the flavours you see online are always available at the store. 

Close-up: a S'more biskie

There is also the issue of almost Marmite-like personal preferences to the food they serve. I love my cakes to be lavished drenched in cream and frosting, but I know not everyone does. I also love the soft cookie dough texture of the biskies, along with their cream/sauce/curd garnishes. Yet I have friends who aren't fans - apparently the biskies' soft and hard textures feel odd. Just a little something to be aware of before making a visit. And speaking of visiting - a note on the costs. Biskies cost around £4.50 each and a slice of cake will cost almost £6. These prices won't come as a surprise once you experience (i.e. have trouble consuming) the generous portions, but they're still a bit higher compared to other stores. Given the quality of the confectionery, I wouldn't have minded, but prices for their full cakes online verge on the ridiculous and they lose points for that. Carry outs cost a little less, and the price of hot and cold drinks are quite competitive. But of course, you're not coming here for drinks!


Food: 8/10

Service: 7/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Value: 5/10

Final Score: 7/10

Contact Information

A: 4 Brewer Street, Soho, London, W1F 0SB
T: +44 (0)20 7371 7056
W: www.cutterandsquidge.com

NB. The final score, while influenced by the sub-scores, is a qualitative reflection of my overall impression of the establishment.

Review: Benares Restaurant

An Indian Michelin

Bite-size poppadoms with gooseberry, tomato
and pineapple dips.

I like to keep an eye out for Indian fine dining recommendations. The cuisine is often similar to Bangladesh's, and I like the idea of being able have a special occasion meal that isn't European. I was in London last month, and decided to drop by for lunch at Benares for a mini-celebration. I admit my choice of restaurant was mostly based on its proximity to a prior appointment, but I should also say that the Benares lunch menu was more interesting than the nearby Gymkhana's. £35 for three courses and some extras seemed perfectly reasonable for gourmet cuisine around central London, and there were Bengali style fish cakes on the menu that I felt I really should judge for authenticity! 

Review: Amar Gaon

Authentic Bangladeshi Food in Brick Lane

King prawns with spinach, sprinkled with coriander

Finding a good Bangladeshi food joint in the UK has been a long-elusive personal goal. There was Grameen Khana during my time in Birmingham, and then Kolapata when I moved to London. The former was more a curry house serving a limited selection of Bangladeshi dishes, while the latter leaned towards being a proper Bangladeshi restaurant. However, neither was very good, and so I'm glad I finally made it to Amar Gaon in East London. 

An unassuming storefront

Given its Brick Lane location, it may be hard to believe Amar Gaon serves anything other than generic curry house fare. But the store sits within a cluster of typically Bangladeshi shops on the road, away from gentrified Shoreditch. And yes, I did write store: Amar Gaon is actually something like a general store combined with a canteen style eatery, where food is pre-prepared and served from a counter. There's quite a variety on offer, with everything from simple chicken curries to dishes with more obscure regional ingredients on display.

Review: Kolapata

Something Bangladeshi

Lunch spread in Kolapata, Whitechapel
Authentic Bangladeshi fare in London

Update (30/12/16): 
I've changed the value score here from 7 to 6.5, given there are definitely other places in East London that do better food for a lower price. 

A Bangladeshi restaurant in the UK is a rarity, despite what the touts in Brick Lane would have you believe. Granted, a few of the British-Bangladeshi curry houses have started advertising themselves as Indian and Bangladeshi nowadays, and I'm glad to see this emerging confidence in "Bangladeshi" as a brand. But the reality is no South Asian label completely describes the dishes these restaurants serve, which remain firmly British innovations. Kolapata stands in complete opposition to this narrative, however, by not only branding itself as Bangladeshi but actually dishing up authentically Bangladeshi cuisine at the same time. I assume it is well known by Bangladeshi folk in and around London, as even my parents managed to hear about it in the short time they spent in-country.

Review: Barrafina Frith Street

Snap Decisions

Cecina de León, or air dried beef at Barrafina

I'm spending a few days near London before flying to Bangladesh for the winter, and so I'm taking the chance to catch up with friends in different parts of the city. I stopped at Barrafina last night with a friend - completely unplanned and more as the first stop of many during the night as we met up with various other friends. As such, we didn't have a full meal but I wanted to write a quick review nonetheless. Barrafina had always been on my recommended list for good tapas, but until recently I flew to Spain so often I never really made the effort to visit. 

The interior is small, brightly lit and seats no more than a couple dozen people on stools around a bar/kitchen while people queue near the wall behind them. There are another three or four tables outside, with overhead heating for the winter. I hadn't realised the nature of the venue before walking in, and it was close to Christmas so the queue was long. We were quoted an hour waiting time, but were offered drinks and nibbles to pass the time. Normally I would have left due to both the length of the queue and the seating arrangements, but while we stood around thinking about alternatives we were told they had a table free outside. Living in Scotland makes London feel quite summery (even in December!), and we though why not since we weren't going to be there for more than an hour.

Review: Spuntino

The London to-do list, part 2 of n

Three 3 oz mini burgers, or sliders, from Spuntino

Spuntino was another one of those places I'd read rave reviews about when I first moved to London, but their gimmicky website - which lists their address and nothing else in flickering text - did them no favours in terms of motivating me to visit. Minus half a point right there. I should also mention their stools-around-a-bar approach to seating: another reason I stayed away for a while. I use restaurant meals to catch up with friends and being perched around a bar doesn't offer the most effective setting.

The interior

However, a friend and I arrived here drenched to the bone after an unsuccessful attempt at checking out the Notting Hill Carnival. The day was far too wet to enjoy anything outdoors so Spuntino was my suggested back up plan. We walked in around lunchtime and found the space conveniently deserted. The guys at the bar were friendly and affable, and one quickly got us some popcorn and tap water as we dried off and decided what to order.

Review: The Delaunay

The London to-do list, part 1 of n

Based on what I've tried, the Delaunay is possibly the best
confectioners in London

So it seems that my time in London is coming to an end. My job brought me here two years ago and now it's moving me away again. I'm sure I'll be back - London isn't one those cities that people never come back to. I've actually kind of slacked off on reviewing London restaurants. This is partly because my schedule has meant I've spent a lot of time eating in random places that have been quite good, but not good enough to motivate an immediate review. However, over the last few months I've been trying to rectify this by trying out places that have either come to me highly recommended or are special to me in some way. As with any to-do list, it's been growing ever since its inception and I'm not sure when it's going to end, but expect this to be the theme for the next few posts.

The interior: vast, with dark wooden furniture and panelling,
white table cloth and smart service.

I found the Delaunay online while looking for a place to brunch. Central London is a bit far from Richmond though and I'd never made the trip until recently when I popped in for cake after dinner at Koya with a friend. The cakes, I have to say, were the best I've had in London and will be heavily influencing the food score for this review. The Delaunay is a great place to keep in mind for something sweet and a coffee late at night. I vowed to come back for a fuller meal, and so made plans for brunch with two other friends I'd have had to come to Central London to meet anyway. I'd made a reservation online and upon coming in we were shown straight to our table. The main interior of the restaurant, past the bar and it's few tables, is a rather grand room of gleaming wood and white table cloth bustling with people. A bit noisy, which I suppose can be a good or bad thing depending on what kind of vibe you're in the mood for. 

Review: Dishoom

Upper Limits

"Thumbs Up do not do diets" 

I wish I meant upper limits in terms of food and experience. I don't. I mean upper limits in terms of patience. Don't get me wrong, my meal at Dishoom in Covent Garden was by no means a negative experience - kudos to the staff who handled an amusing hiccup in our meal very well - but I cannot recommend this place without adding a few words of warning. The first warning is about the queues. One Friday night, the hostess told me a table for two had an hour and fifteen minute wait. I laughed and left. This is a restaurant that does not take reservations for groups smaller than 6 - a seemingly effective marketing tactic that sees queues snaking all along the pavement outside. I've never understood why people put up with this. Plan ahead and book. If for some reason you haven't or couldn't, there are plenty of nice restaurants around that won't make you stand outside as advertisement. If you really do want to try the food, come back during a quieter period. As both friends in real life and bloggers online had recommended this place, this is what I did and dropped by for lunch on a weekday.

Top left, rose and cardamom lassi. Top right, water in steel
glasses! Bottom, Tamarind dip, didn't recognise the others.

Even then, the place was pretty full and we were shown to a table downstairs. I don't know what an Irani cafe should look like, but Dishoom gave me contemporary London vibes. A friend from Mumbai confirmed this - the interior was the closest imitation he's seen to an Irani cafe but it's not quite there. Initially there seemed to be a lot of pressure to order: we picked out drinks very quickly and were then asked about food orders twice in rapid succession. After turning our wait staff away for the second time things seemed to calm down. My rose lassi arrived, and I'm happy to report that it's the best I've had in England, dethroning Pushkar of Birmingham from the top spot. 

Review: Nobu London

Finally a Michelin

Black cod with miso. Apparently Nobu's signature dish, but mixed feelings round our table.

I've wanted to eat at a Michelin starred restaurant for while. There's a lot of talk about starred restaurants in the culinary world, and I've always wondered if these establishments are worth that discussion. I finally got the chance to investigate a few weeks ago when I booked a table at the one starred Nobu in London for a family meal. My parents and little brother were visiting me for Eid, and I wanted to take them somewhere nice. We'd already planned the Red Fort for Indian and Gaucho for steak. I was thus tasked with finding something different, and was guided by my parents who made helpful noises about Japanese.