Best London Restaurants---Page 2

The names that move are world-class for food, wine and service.    These are top-quality places, top value---but NOT top price.   British, French, Seafood, Spanish, Cuban, Arabic, Turkish,,Chinese, Indian, other SE Asian, Wine Bars, Other.    Addresses in grey boxes are branches that we have not visited, yet.

Top value for money places are in bold green in the price column

Indian

Opening Hours

Location (U=nearest Underground station)

Phone

The top Hindu vegetarian place, consistently voted the top Indian and/or the top vegetarian restaurant in the UK.    Dishes from all round India.    One meal we particularly like is sev-puri, then Kashmiri kofta, sakkariya, palak, raita, parathas, followed by shrikhand.   They do not use a lot of oil, so the food is crisp.   It is what they would give guests in their homes, NOT a marketing ploy.   Good range of beers including Indian, also wines.    Quality has remained superb for 29 years (founded 15 December 1973).

1830- 2230

Closed Monday

(U: Willesden Green or Dollis Hill)

Superb ambience---linen cloths, good-sized tables well spaced, light and airy with arched glass roof, lot of plants.   Service and Keralan (SW India) food excellent, meat, lot of fish and a lot of vegetarian (separate vegetarian chef, and utensils kept separate from non-veg).    Dishes are well described on the menu.   65 dishes, 8 rices, 8 breads, + accompaniments.    Try specialities, such as uthappam, uppuma, Malabar fish curry, fish moilee, Cochin prawn, parippu, Malabar potatoes, cheera kootu, avial, vendakka poriyal and semiya payasam creamy pudding.    Cobra (Indian) and other beers, and wines.    Lovely bar in basement, including proper cocktails, and snacks.    Air-con.   Very convenient after West End theatre.    Must book evenings.

Set meals 8.50 veg, 9.50 non-veg

1200- 1500

1800- 2330 (2300 Sun)

(U: Tottenham Court Road)

Fax: 0-207 436 9942

Superb Keralan food.    Veg, meat and seafood very good.    Masala dosa, uthappam, avial, dahi vadai, kaalan, chicken Malabar, breads all excellent.    Owned by same Keralan family as Malabar Junction.    Air-con.    Very convenient after West End theatre.

1100- 1500

1800- 2315 -2350Fri 2330 Sat

Another place in the Malabar Junction group.   Just like the others.

Family-run place giving excellent, authentic Keralan food.   Quite large, 80 seats in 3 rooms (one smoking).   Main courses divided into Syrian Christian specialities (meat), Coastal seafood, Malabar biryanis, Keralan vegetable curries, Dosas from the Coral Coast.   Try mussels ularthu, dahai vadai, konju masala (huge prawns in beautiful thick, spicy sauce), erachi curry Malabar (mutton curry with fresh Malabar spices), spinach + dhal curry, cabbage + carrot thoran, avial (veg in yoghurt, coconut milk and spices), brinjal ularthu (fried aubergine with herbs and tomato).    Biryanis are unusually real, compared with most so-called Indian restaurants---the different layers of rice have been separately cooked.   Home-made pickles.    Desserts include gulab jamun, plantain fritters with honey and ice-cream, green gram payasam (green lentils with jaggery, sultanas, nuts---a sort of milk pudding).   Masala tea, lassi.    Wines and Indian beers (Kingfisher, Cobra, Kama Sutra).   Excellent service.   Very convenient before/after West End theatre.

Buffet lunches 4.95, 5.95, 6.95

1730- 2300

(U: Oxford Circus)

100 yards/ metres north of Oxford Circus, on the right.

fax- 0-207 436 0715

Been very good since 1964.    Excellent South Indian specialities.    Meat, fish and veg.    Cobra, Kingfisher and other beers, wines.    Convenient after theatre, Fri-Sat.

1200- 1445

1800- 2245 -2345 Fri/Sat

(U: Kilburn)

Chinese

We and the Financial Times think this the best Chinese restaurant, with very good game.    Mainly Cantonese.  Try carp, crispy fried eel, sizzling veal.    Air-con.  Very convenient before/after West End theatre.

carte 20-25

1200- 2330

The other of the two best Chinese restaurants, mainly Cantonese, excellent seafood.    Huge menu.   Air-con.    Very convenient before/after West End theatre.   

carte 20-25

1200- 0145

Large, modern design and décor.   Many tables, well spaced apart.   Huge menu, including many set meals.   Starters, such as sesame prawn toast, fried seaweed, satays, spring rolls, etc.   Many people then have a second course (eg crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, lettuce wrapped meat and veg), then go on to the main courses (lots of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, seafood, veg).   Desserts include wonderful toffee apples and bananas, as well as fruit, ginger, excellent icecream.   For each course, there are menu options of combinations of the dishes (2 people portions).   All cooking is superb.   Service is excellent.   Air-con.

Other SE Asian

The top Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants.    Winner of 1999 Best Oriental Restaurant Award in Carlton competition.   Eat preferably the Singapore specialities (like squid blachan, prawn sambal, rojak, ayam curry, tauhu goreng, laksa) or the daily specials.    There are also lots of good Chinese dishes.   Over 120 dishes on the menu--- seafood, beef, pork, poultry, vegetarian.    Five set menus.    For dessert we recommend sago melaka (tapioca with palm syrup and coconut milk) or chendol (refreshing drink of coconut milk and palm syrup with tiny red beans and jelly strips).   32 very good cocktails, Tiger and other beers, wines.    Large, lovely rooms and furniture, very smart waiting staff.   Excellent service.   Very welcoming and helpful to children.   Air-con.   Must book.   Fairfax Road very convenient before/after the Hampstead Theatre.   Both convenient after West End theatre Friday, Saturday.

Set lunch 5.50 dinner 16

1200- 1445

1800- 2245  

-2315 Friday Saturday

(U: Swiss Cottage) 

624 8233

fax- 0-207 624 0656

(U: Paddington)

One of the two top Indonesian restaurants in the whole of Europe----The other is Tempo Doeloe in Amsterdam.   In Melati, herbs/spices are properly used with distinct flavours.    Rather an exciting café, tables close together, friendly atmosphere, and the food is superb.…arguably better than in Jakarta, because the produce is higher quality, while the cooking is as good.    Large menu--20 starters, followed by 11 rice, 9 noodle, 13 chicken, 10 beef, 6 mutton, 26 seafood, 18 veggie, 18 desserts.   Tiger and other beers, wines.    Difficult to get in, must book, even then may have to wait 5-10 minutes.    Service excellent, but not obsequious.    Air-con.    Very convenient before/after West End theatre.

1200- 2330 -0030 Friday Saturday

Closed Sunday

Just off Piccadilly Circus and Shaftesbury Avenue.

(U: Piccadilly Circus)

fax- 0-207 734 6964

Excellent Korean food.    Nice ambience, good service.    Food is presented wonderfully decorated and arranged.    Good value.  Lots of veggie options.   Air-con.    Very convenient after Almeida Theatre.

1200- 1430 1800- 2300 Closed Sat/Sun lunch

(U: Highbury & Islington)

Cuban

A bar and restaurant that serves good Cuban food, a wide range of cocktails (including tropical fruit juice mixtures), beers and good wines.   Cuban food is a lovely blend of Spanish, African, Caribbean, with Creole influences.   Cubana has seafood, meat, veggie, salads, sandwiches and lovely desserts.   Dishes include croquetas con plátanos y yucca con salsa (plantain and cassava croquettes with spicy, tomato-ey sauce), pechugas de pollo rellenas de coco con salsa de crema (free-range chicken breast stuffed with coconut and served with plantains, rice, black beans and a light creamy sauce), rueda de atun con salsa dulce de pimientos rojos (tuna steak with sweet red pepper sauce), tortita con coco fresco y salsa de fruitas tropicales (pancakes with fresh coconut and a tropical fruit sauce).    All the sauces are different.    Very good Cuban coffee served in nine ways (including espresso and capuccino).   Excellent service, relaxed atmosphere.    Several small, inter-connecting, spaces.   Waterloo branch is very convenient before/after Old Vic theatre, Royal Festival Hall, National Film Theatre, or Royal National Theatre.

2 course lunch 5.95, three course 7.95

(Saturdays in winter, opens at 1830)

Happy Hour 1700- 1900

Sunday 1130- 1830  brunch

(U: Waterloo)

Their Web Site

(U: Paddington)

Turkish

A very attractive restaurant, physically and gastronomically.   Large dining room, seating at least 100 (another room in basement for around 50) nicely decorated.   Wooden tables and very nice chairs, excellent table cloths, glasses, crockery, cutlery, dishes.   Huge menu, with 4 soups, 12 cold starters (meze), 12 hot meze, 10 salads, 10 rice, 4 sides, 6 pasta, 12 vegetarian mains, 14 grills, 10 casseroles, 16 seafood, 10 desserts.   Half the dishes are veggie---TimeOut award for Best Vegetarian restaurant in 2000.   Dishes have Turkish names, but the menu carefully and completely explains what they are in English.   Very broad range of ingredients, eg, meat dishes include steak, lamb, chicken, kidney;  seafood includes sardines, mackerel, squid, mussels, cod, swordfish, bass, prawns, salmon, dorade.   Quality is superb, with good contrast of flavours, herbs, textures;  beautifully decorated food.   We think the Renk menu is an excellent deal---the size of the dishes is so great that we do not quite finish it.    If you don't know much about Turkish food, Renk would be a good introduction.   It includes meat, seafood and veggie dishes, and is also available in a totally veggie option.   Excellent white and brown homemade bread for everyone.   Good wine list;  try Turkish, especially Yakut Kavadlidere red.   Air-con.   Smoking, except pipes or cigars.   Convenient before/after Royal Festival Hall, National Film Theatre, or Royal National Theatre;  very convenient for Old Vic theatre.

Yaz menu (8 meze) 7.95

Renk menu (10 meze) 9.95

Sahan menu (2 courses) 7.95

Aslan menu (3 courses + coffee) 18.50

Yaz, Renk, Aslan for minimum of two people

(U: Southwark)

Their web site

(U: London Bridge, Borough)

Wine Bars

Most people think that English wine bars are a recent innovation.   But, in AD 1364, King Edward III granted Royal Letters Patent to the Mistery of Vintners to open wine bars, etc.    Gordon's is very old, but The Archduke is modern.

Luis Gordon has 'rescued this bar from modern development and preserved it to sell wine in the surroundings of our forefathers'.    Sir Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh used to come here.   Rudyard Kipling and G K Chesterton wrote some of their works here.   As Chancellor, Kenneth Clark used to come with his Treasury team.   It is underneath Kipling House, where Samuel Pepys and Rudyard Kipling lived and Francis Bacon was born.   It is a high-ceilinged basement in dark wood, plus a candle-lit, romantic cellar with low arched roof.   Tables, wine barrels, etc, are old.   There are lots of old photographs and framed old newspapers-- including the Daily Sketch of 1 December 1936, reporting the burning down of Crystal Palace.   Tables outside under the trees by the Embankment Gardens.   Wide range of wines (from many countries) and ports.   Good house wines £ 3.45 a glass.   Pâtés, smoked fish starters, home-cooked meat and fish with self-service salads, 4-5 hot dishes, treacle tart and other desserts.   Large range of cheeses (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish).    Very good, fresh, bread.    Convenient before West End theatre and Royal Festival Hall, National Film Theatre, Royal National Theatre (from the South Bank, cross the river by Hungerford foot-bridge).   Also convenient before/after visiting the National Gallery or Whitehall/Houses of Parliament.

Mon-Sat 1100- 2300

Sun 1200- 2200

food all days 1200- 2200

Entrance is just a brown door, with staircase to basement.  Also entrance from path by Embankment Gardens.

(U: Embankment, 50 yds/m;   Charing Cross, 300 yds/m)

Wine bar (ground floor) and restaurant (balcony).    Good food, wines, service, ambience.    About 50 wines, many by the glass.   In two arches under Hungerford railway bridge, next to the South Bank concert halls.   Been here since 1980.    The walls and arched roofs are the original dark bricks forming the arches.    Lot of plants hanging in pots.   Good, live jazz most evenings (not loud).    Meat, fish, vegetable dishes, very good salads (crisp, and excellent dressing).   Sausages (choice of three, including game) and mash, fish cakes, salmon very good, as are the chips.   Lovely desserts (eg tarte au citron with raspberry sauce and cream, bitter chocolate mousse).    Very convenient before/after Old Vic theatre, Royal Festival Hall, National Film Theatre or the Royal National Theatre--- you can leave your car in South Bank carparks until 1am.   Air-con.

10.95 shorter 2 course menu + coffee, at  lunch and before 1930

1200- 1415

1730- 2300

Closed Saturday lunch + Sunday

(U: Waterloo)

Their web site

fax: 0-207 928 0839

Other

Very good Italian.    Ground floor restaurant, plus basement wine bar with less extensive menu, but same quality.    Good for vegetarians.    Very convenient before/after West End theatre, or visiting Covent Garden.

1200- 1500

1800- 2300 Closed Sunday

fax- 0-171 836 1868

We have eaten in these restaurants for years---some for over 30 years.    They have ALWAYS been excellent for us.   We have a reputation that, if we ever receive poor food, wine or service in any restaurant, we NEVER return.