Bow Wharf, 221 Grove Rd., London E3 5SN Chicken wings are having a moment, aren’t they? No longer just an abbreviated snack, they have been fused and fancied up, fussed over, and high-fluted to an unrecognisable level. I mean they have a whole festival! Your reviewer even lives above one of these temples to the queen of meat’s limb. Equally Korean-Mexican fusion is ...
Broadway Market : ‘Colour, flavour, and pounds of gorgeous bread’ What makes a restaurant a perfect refuge from the nibbling insecurities of life? Why, for instance, is a café, sausage rolls and all, not a restaurant? How about a food truck outside a brewery or a hotdog stand manned by two entrepreneurial 11-year-olds? The line between different purveyors of food ...
Mare Street: ‘Come for the bar, stay for the barbecue delights’ The scrabble for the sun has begun. Londoners starved of warmth stagger out from the dark interiors of pubs like zombies growling in the harsh rays. But sometimes the option of slowly swaying into inebriation outside your local while dodging Deliveroo drivers isn’t so appealing. You are an adult, ...
Zones 1-3 Delivery Being ethical isn’t easy. I know we are meant to lie and say that it is: skipping through a field of native deciduous woodland picking violets for our home infusions, wearing cotton weaved from reclaimed sea kelp. But it’s expensive, arduous and at times unrewarding. So why do we do it? Well, if you like me have ...
2 night pop up at Friends of Ours, 61 Pitfield St, London N1 6BU Bong Bongs Manila Kitchen are certainly friend’s of mine. Which practically writes my intro as they pop up in the Australian coffee shop/brunch spot Friends of Ours. Back in Hoxton for two nights only after a sojourn in central, I catch up with Lee and Sinead ...
6-month residency at TT Liquor, 17B Kingsland Road, London E2 8AA What two nations spring to mind when I mention hospitality? I can wait… ok not that long. Maybe something about the optimising cheering rays of the sun means that the countries that pop up are mainly warm, no? Italy? Thailand? Greece? Australia? If you said the last two, then you would have ...
‘A stylish step in the right direction’ Mare Street has long been a boardwalk of cool new dinner spots – including a couple I’ve reviewed in the last few months. But an architect-cum-restaurateur opening a vegan fine dining experience in an old factory building – now that, my friend, is cool. Edit founder Elly Ward’s passion for the planet isn’t just ...
‘An infinitely pretty space to get classily trollied on aperitivos’ The pub is dead. Maybe a touch hyperbolic but stay with me. What I mean is the blueprint of an evening spent downing lukewarm pints until you can’t stand is becoming less tempting for many people. Nightlife has changed. But what steps into the void? What does a good time ...
‘One to watch’ Did you know that up until this time Shoreditch has somehow struggled along without a natural wine bar? Scandalous, I know. The eco-wing of the vino movement has been sweeping the capital, and now Jasper Delamothe has turned his 2000-square-foot space into a dark monument to the low intervention method. Well, it would be more accurate to ...
Shoreditch, 78 Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3JL What to you, is sexy? No don’t worry I am not trying my hand at agony-aunt-ing, but the concept of sexiness and food have always danced an ancient jig. What can warm the cold wet streets, and the colder wetter hearts of these misted isles? Fire and death are Temper’s answer! So, if your ...