‘Stuffed after six slices’ When is a pizza joint not a pizza joint? No, this isn’t a Schrödinger’s domed oven deal. It’s more of a question on the nature of the food scene, answered audaciously by Bing Bong Pizza. You Call The Shots (YTCS) is an egalitarian bar that has been rebranded and open since January. It is crouching across ...
‘Flavour fiesta’ Starting a review with an adage might be pretentious, but here we go: the age-old “too many cooks spoil the broth” is a worry for any pop-up. Tasca at Câv, a fledgling of only a month, could easily fall into this over-engineered soup, but thankfully sidesteps it with enviable grace. In a vaulting industrial semi-circle under the clomping ...
‘Like Italy and New York have made sweet love’ I believe it was Aristotle who once said: “A day with pizza is a better day.” I concur wholeheartedly. However, how does one differentiate between the many pop-ups now hawking Italy’s finest export around London? Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with food-nerd jargon about heritage grains, leopard spotting (the burnt ...
‘A temple of festivity.’ There are Irish pubs, there are very Irish pubs, and then there’s Skehan’s. The family-run joint doesn’t have a monopoly on the Irish blend of comedy, revelry, and hospitality (known as craic), but it certainly wears the crown. Perched on Telegraph Hill, overlooking all of London’s splendour, sits this temple of festivity. Publican and Limerick man ...
‘Accomplished pizza!’ World firsts are rare in our jaded and desensitised metropolitan food scene. So, when an email tumbled into my inbox about a restaurant, Unlock, that blends of two of my favourites (pizza and tacos), I had to tootle along and try it with my very own mouth hole. Fitting for this culinary fusion, the site of the reaction ...
‘Reinventing the idea of British cuisine’ There is a saying, recently imported like other Chappell Roan-ims, that states you shouldn’t waste a Friday night on a date. This need not apply to long-term couples, over 30s, or those of us who don’t own a glittery one-piece. Sometimes all you want is dancing candles, white tented tablecloths, goo goo eyes, and ...
‘Much more than quite good’ How do you make Zone 2 of London, less than 15 minutes’ walk from the cacophony that is Dalston Junction, feel like a village? As a restaurant owner, you cannot simply transplant a duck pond, beaming locals or rolling hills. What you can do is craft a cafe seemingly built of pure sunlight and balanced ...
‘An utterly smashing time’ ‘Smashing’ is the new hot food term, the casual dining obsession. But how does something originating in the truck stops of the Great Lakes region settle into our hyper-polished metropolis? Growing up vegetarian, and in the depths of rural Devon, McDonald’s and Burger King were a forbidden world of meaty, smoky sin – only glimpsed on ...
‘It’s the little touches that count’ This is a tale of food, fire and flood. Let me explain. My predecessor reviewed TA-KO in 2018 when it was already doing a roaring trade in literary-themed cocktails and a fiery combination of Asian-Mexican influences, focused around the little cylindrical taco (did you just get the name?). But now for the flood. Nine ...
‘London’s biggest meat festival’ I am neither psychic nor gifted with particularly good skills of prediction. I am astounded every Wednesday by the recycling trucks’ reappearance on my street and more often than not miss it. Neither am I a vegan, or anti-smoking, although after you have read this article, you might disagree. I am simply a neurotic, hypocritical, incurably ...