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 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 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 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.
Review of Snappy Snaps
20 May 07, 18:05
Snappy Snaps
This a great little branch of the Snappy Snaps phot developing chain. Its hidden away in a tiny unit in historic Leadenhall Market, just off Lime Street in the heart of the City. The quality of prints that the staff churn out is consistently higher than most other high street developers and they have no problem in adapting to white borders, black and white prints or printing from old negatives. They also have good deals on bulk processing of digital images.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of The Bombay Bicycle Club
09 May 07, 17:56
Freewheelin' Curries
If all bicycle clubs were like this I might be tempted to buy a bike. Delicious modern curries, cracking poppadoms and all the usual glorious flavours of the sub-continent sit cheek-by-jowl with oh-so-21st century graphic design, web ordering and heat-retaining packaging. Truly a takeaway for the Monocle magazine generation. Swaad!
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.