Restaurants
Restaurant Reviews
All of our reviews are the result of independent and anonymous visits to London restaurants. These reviews don't pretend to be the 'final word' on any restaurant, just our impressions of their food, service, and ambience on any given visit.
Bar Meze has a motto of "Eat, Drink, Share", with the menu encouraging this by featuring a range of meze or starters that can be passed around. Cypriot food is the mainstay of these modern eateries, blending delicious Mediterranean recipes that feature the traditional and also the less familiar. Bar Meze branches can be found in Muswell Hill, Clerkenwell, and further afield in St. Albans and Hitchin.
462 Muswell Hill Broadway, London N10 1BS.
Telephone 020 8442 2661.
Rating: 4/5
Bella Pasta is one of those bright and cheerful chains serving reasonable (if unremarkable) pasta and pizza dishes in pleasant (if generic) surroundings. Part of the Whitbread Group, Bella Pasta restaurants have sprung up around the UK.
Check out www.bellapasta.co.uk for branch details.
Rating: 3/5
The Gate is a modern but unpretentious vegetarian eaterie in the heart of Hammersmith. Fine food at affordable prices - check out the ever-changing Pasta of the Day.
Visit the website at The Gate.
Kerala Restaurant is that rare thing - an affordable restaurant within a stones throw of Oxford Circus. Offering a combination of Cochin, Malabar Coast, and Travancore cuisines, the Kerala offers quality to match the affordability.
Fans of Indian cuisine who wish to sample a delicious variation on the familiar theme will enjoy the Kerala, and on our visit we sampled a range of subtly different starters and mains. A wide range of seafood and vegetarian dishes are also available.
15 Great Castle Street, London W1N 7AD.
Telephone 020 7580 2125.
Rating:4/5
Maquis, located at 111 Hammersmith Grove, W6, has been receiving a lot of attention lately, and deservedly so. You would be advised to book a table, such is its popularity. You will enjoy an unpretentious French restaurant with simple yet stylish decor.
A really popular choice among diners is that 70's favourite - the Fondue. A cauldron of molton aged Gruyere with Calvados cider is accompanied by pieces of rustic bread - a great starter to share with a friend.
There is a fairly limited choice of mains, but they all got the thumbs up. My choice for the night was the Coquilles St Jacques - juicy scallops nestled in their shells on a bed of wild mushrooms with piped mashed potatoes around the outside. Companions enjoyed the roast rack of lamb - tender chops with a creamy gratin of pumpkin & salsify.
The food was well received all around, as were the prices. Most starters were around £5 and the mains around £12. A decent bottle of white wine will also set you back about £13.
Rating: 4/5
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Masala Zone is the new Indian kid on the block - a 'casual Indian Restaurant' (as it bills itself), with a modern approach to food and decor. No patterned wallpaper and faded Elephant tapestries here - just great, reasonably-priced food.
A great spot to watch the action in the kitchen is the 'singles' bench, and there are a choice of booths and tables as well. Service is attentive, even if few of the staff seem to have English as a first language.
9 Marshall Street, W1. Phone 020 7287 9966.
Rating:4/5
Poons of Leicester Street - just off the Square - is a hardy perennial on the Asian food scene. Serving good quality food at reasonable prices, Poons is a good spot for a pre-movie meal - just don't expect an 'all you can eat' for £4.95.
4 Leicester Street, just off Leicester Square.
Rating: 4/5
Raaz Brasserie is a small gem of a suburban restaurant. If you happen to be visiting the Camden Markets or the ice rink at Alexandra Palace, then you should head to Muswell Hill to sample the Indian cuisine of this tandoori restaurant.
For around £15 per head you can enjoy a starter, a main curry dish, pilau rice, naan bread, a pint and service of 10%. Not bad for London.
As a nice parting gesture, you are offered a hot towel to refresh your face and to cool you down, as well as an after dinner mint to sweeten the journey home.
Rating: 4/5
The Thai Pot Express is an old favourite, but - as they say - revisiting the scene of former glories is risky, and so it proved...
Visibly, little had changed at this modern eatery near the Courtald's Gallery end of the Strand, and even a bomb scare that had us locked in the restaurant didn't dim our enthusiasm. But when the starters arrived - a mix of delicacies shared by two - the emphasis on oily, battered vegetables overpowered the admittedly tasty kebabs and other treats that had formerly been the strength of this dish. Passable only.
Unperturbed, we ordered our favourite mains, but the glutinous, flavourless noodles shattered our remaining illusions. An old friend off form.
148 Strand WC2. Phone 020 7497 0904.
Rating: 2/5
Vasco & Pieros Pavilion Italian restaurant in Soho is a special place where you can have real home made Italian food that comes with a warm and friendly atmosphere. And to top it all off, the pasta is made in-house, and the freshest ingredients from Umbria are used wherever possible. The Pavilion is truly a small slice of the Italian heartland in London's busy restaurant district.
This was our third visit to the Pavilion, and as always, the food was exquisite, the service extremely delightful and the atmosphere excellent. This is definitely one of those 'must visit' places if you want to enjoy a fine dining experience.
The Pavilion has its own website with menu details - check it out at www.vascosfood.com.
Rating: 5/5
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Wagamama burst onto the London restaurant scene in 1992, and has never looked back. Several branches of this trendy Japanese noodle emporium have sprung up around town, further afield throughout the UK, in Dublin, and in Amsterdam. The success of the Wagamama brand can mean queues, although it never seems to take too long to get a spot.
On our most recent visit we were seated at the trademark benches, serviced by the trendy waiting staff and their handheld computer ordering gizmos. All very modern and minimalist, but thankfully falling well short of pretentious. Orders are taken quickly and efficiently, and even scribbled down on the placemat in front of you - a Wagamama quirk that apparently dates from the time the high-tech ordering system went down.
The food - which comes when it's ready, not necessary for your group as a whole - is a fusion of the best of Japanese cuisine, with noodles being the emphasis . A comprehensive menu has something for everyone, and is a great antidote to the sameness of many Soho eateries.
Wagamama has an interesting website with branch location and menu details - check it out at www.wagamama.com.
Rating: 4/5
Wong Kei restaurant in Wardour Street has recently reopened after a refurbishment. To be honest, aesthetics aren't obviously that high on the agenda, and this crowded, bustling restaurant is not a great place for a romantic night out or conversation. To be fair though, most of the clientele don't come here for anything other than cheap food served in plastic dishes.
On our visit, the food was a bit of a let down. Each of our dishes were palatable enough, although the Won Tons were all batter and the Spring Rolls were lukewarm. The mains were an improvement, but the hair in the rice was by this stage the last straw.
41 Wardour Street W1. Phone 020 7437 8408.
Rating: 2/5
Restaurant Guides
As we develop this section further, we're happy to refer you to the following on-line guides:
www.taste.co.uk
www.london-restaurants.com
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