At first, it was a hamburger truck. Back then, the Meatwagon had enough buzz that I started following its updates in the hopes of some day intersecting it. Then the truck was stolen. What could have been sheer disaster for such a small-scale business was saved by someone's bright idea: a pop-up restaurant in a room over a closed pub (under ( Read more... )

Location: 18 Almeida Street in Islington, about a 10 minute's walk north of Angel. London.

For Chocolate Week, Almeida, a restaurant, coordinated with Paul A. Young, chocolatier, to create a three course menu for the second year running. We went with cwjat who, as it happens, is allergic to chocolate and so ordered off of the regular menu.

( Richly chocolatey, with a really nice bit of pork belly.... )

I went down to Southank today, to meet swisstone for lunch. As a result, I have experienced the singing lift in Royal Festival Hall, in which a recorded choir mark the rising and falling of the elevator with steady increases or decreases in their notes, singing the name of the floor at the same pitch when the doors open. They could barely squeak out "level ( Read more... )

Location: 152-154 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, in London. Moderate walk from Old Street or Liverpool St. Stations.

In a spacious chic-industrial space full of light, Saf's bar serves up some impressive and innovative cocktails. I drink a praise to England's Rhubarb Triangle, while C. is on the tarragon & tonic, and doctorvirago tries out the "Pick of the Garden ( Read more... )

Location: 3 Hereford Road. Ossington Road becomes Hereford, heading north from Notting Hill Gate. West London.

The main dining room of Hereford Road is down the stairs, a well beneath a rounded skylight. Above us grow grasses and the sun is clear and warm. Here, capacious maroon booths, comfortable for four, ample for two as we sprawl our ( Read more... )

Clear blue skies, clement temperatures, talented chefs, good food, and lots of freebies: my annual four hours at the Taste of London flew by in a whirl of decadence, scribbled notes, and sporadic light conversation ( Read more... )

Location: 118-120 Shaftesbury Ave, south side, by Chinatown. London ( Read more... )

Location: 1a Langton Street, at World's End. Chelsea. London.

A cheese-themed restaurant: how could I not check it out? Under the slightly confused "Cheese Gourmet Restaurant" sign, L'art du fromage looks Chelsea-elegant from without, but is more casual within. Bare wooden walls and tables, and a tasteful stained-glass window to hide the view out ( Read more... )

Location: 12 St. George St., London, southwest of Oxford Circus. London.

pittenweem was off at the annual medieval congress in Kalamazoo, having dinner with my friends, so I spent Wednesday evening having dinner with hers. Fair trade. siusaidh was en route back from Botswana. Judah was over from Paris for the night. I dragged them around London for pastries ( ( Read more... )

Location: 167 Wardour Street, London.

Imli was the restaurant I thought I was going to when I had an amazing dinner at its more expensive sibling Tamarind, all those months ago. Better-informed this time around, I joined C, and visitors (previously unknown to each other) austengirl and gleodream for a long, loitering dinner in this fairly casual central Soho Indian ( Read more... )