Benjamin's reviews
Review of Lemon Monkey
08 Mar 08, 13:38
Stokey High Street Goes Upmarket 
Lemon Monkey is a little gastro-cafe-shop with a big communal table in the window and shelves stocked high with the fanciest organic, fairtrade, rainforest alliance certified, local produce. A typical Stoke Newington affair, really.
The atmosphere is relaxed and quiet, especially considering the location on a busy bendy-bus route, at least when I visited on a Sunday afternoon. Most of the clientele seemed to have drifted in from the organic supermarket and trendy homewares stores on nearby Church Street.
The range of both packaged and freshly prepared food is impressive, but the ethical and healthy ranges stocked come at the usual premium.
Overall, a pleasant spot worth a visit to pick up some ethical mozzarella, have a cup of tea and work on the Guardian crossword.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of The Spence Cafe
05 Jan 08, 17:53
Orange = Good 
Fantastic neighbourhood cafe with a distinctive orange shopfront. The main advantage this place has over its competitors is the fresh bread shipped in from the bakery over the road. Nip in at closing time for armfuls of bagels for under a quid.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Yum Yum
05 Jan 08, 17:45
Tongue Thai'd
An enourmous, modern Thai eaterie based on the rapidly gentrifying High Street in Stoke Newington.
Food ranged from fatty but delicious deep-fried veg to spectacular (and perhaps a little gimmicky) fish dishes.
As other reviewers have pointed out; the decor, design and attention to detail are something to behold.
The waiting staff are efficient and friendly, even when the place is full.
Yum Yum gets very busy in the evenings, making for a good fun atmosphere, although its probably not the place for a romantic candlelit dinner.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Pick More Daisies
30 Sep 07, 19:53
Yanks for the Memories
Pick More Daisies came as something of a suprise - a Californian cafe in the heart of Crouch End?
Eschewing the normal inclinations of UK american restaurants (50's diner interiors, enormo-steaks and waiters called Bud) this busy, light and modern cafe serves up all that is great about modern food in America, but doesn't shy away from the classics.
For breakfast you could opt for granola, fresh fruit, bagels & lox (smoked salmon) or go for the less healthy plates of huge tex-mex beans and eggs, fry-ups and pancakes.
The gourmet burgers looked interesting but, as a vegetarian, I had to opt-out of the 10oz Kobe Beef burger.
If you're out shopping in Crouch End its definitely worth popping in to this friendly cafe.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Peyton and Byrne
09 Jul 07, 21:00
Traditionalesque Delights
From the people that brought you Inn The Park and the cafe at the National Gallery, this tiny bakery (sandwiched between Heal's and Habitat on Tottenham Court Road) is a masterpiece of retro styling and canny 21st century presentation.
The shop's self declared aim to bring “old-school” baking into a modern environment is manifested in classic british cakes, post-modern 'builder's tea' and incredibly luminescent cupcakes (perhaps the day-glo green icing is an attempt to cash in on the new rave movement?).
What saves this place from being a traditionalesque nightmare is the quality of the produce on offer. The aforementioned cupcakes are incredible and wouldn't be out of place in the most du jour bakeries in NYC. Trust me - bring some of these into the office on your birthday and Julie from accounts will be a mate for life.
In summary, top quality cakes served up from a contrived, yet lovely, shop.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Muji
03 Jul 07, 20:42
Mugenius
This particular branch of Muji is a two-floor affair (mainly clothes upstairs, mainly stationary downstairs) and operates much like the many other stores in the chain. Highlights on offer include fantastic minimalist furniture, pencils and photo albums. Lowlights are the slightly less than fantastic cut-to-size rain macs and odd-flavoured Japanese fizzy pop.
Muji is especially reccommended at Christmas time - for those hard-to-buy-for relatives nothing says "merry christmas" like a Muji lint roller.
Random fact - in Japan you can buy a Muji house.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Review of Robert Dyas
29 May 07, 12:20
The best 
This is a great little chain of shops, a self-styled ironmongers that actually has more in common with Richer Sound's "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" ethos. This particular branch is very handy for City types looking for all the bits and bobs that make modern life function - TV signal boosters, SCART splitters, desktop crumb hoovers in the shape of pigs; that sort of thing. In the summer they do a great line in collapsable chairs of the type that annoy everyone at Glastonbury. The real secret of these shops is their incredible deal on bin bags - their prices on the indespensible black plastic sacks make their rival's efforts seem, well, rubbish.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Apple Store
25 May 07, 14:30
Podtastic
The Apple Store on Regent Street is everything you might expect from Apple - shiny, modern and innovative. More than just a store - they have dedicated customer service computer geeks at the "genius bar", regular talks and presentations on Mac-related things and a rather impressive transparent staircase. There's lots of opportunity to get hands-on with the various ipods and Macs on display (even if this does mean there's usually a lot of foreign students using Hotmail on the store's broadband connection!). In a rather cool break from retail convention, if you buy a product on the shop floor (from one of the Apple staff with a portable till) they will email you your reciept. The store is sometimes extremely busy at the weekends and there are often long lines to have a go on the various hands-on toys, but generally this is a good shopping experience.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Morrisons
25 May 07, 12:25
Less Reasons To Shop at Morrisons 
Sean Bean may make great stay of the fact that there are 100s of reasons to shop at Morrison's - but as far as this branch goes, there are only two things that make it worth going: 1. The cheap prices on everyday essentials (sponges, tomato ketchup, the Islington Gazette) 2. The branch is very near to a Marks and Spencer's and a Waitrose, so when Morrison's inveitably either run out or do not stock what you're after; you can simply nip next door and pick up what you're after.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Oliver Bonas
22 May 07, 11:24
Performance Bonas
Yet another quirky furnishings/gifts/clothes shop on Upper Street; joining the ranks of Aria and Revel Lloyd. This branch of the upscale homeware retailer is very pleasant for a quick browse after picking up your Brioche and Lattes from Euphorium Bakery, down the road. Oliver Bonas is worth popping into if you're looking for a quirky gift (its all a bit girlie so you'll probably find something for your mum or girlfriend). They're currently selling a rathe rnice Cake Stand for 20 or a Pearl Choker for 49.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.