Pete's reviews
Review of Eat 17
24 Jan 08, 18:16
Worth a visit 
Located in Walthamstow Village, a mere three minutes walk from the nearest tube/overland station, this small restaurant prides itself on "real, locally sourced food with no funny stuff".
I visited on a Saturday, just after lunchtime and with a particularly fuzzy hangover. The staff were welcoming and managed to find us a seat in the busy restaurant. It was somewhat overflowing with young mums and baby buggies, and there were some oldies in there too, always a sure sign of a relaxed atmosphere, albeit noisy!
The food was very good, and although it was a half-hour wait before it was served, the waitress did give warning of the potential delay as we were ordering. I had the chicken and leek pie with mashed potato, while my dining partner opted for the club sandwich. Both were up to scratch, and not too expensive. Coffee was excellent.
Eat 17 seems to specialise in waffles, so I may come back in the summertime for a breakfast in their walled back garden.
Attached to the restaurant is a shop selling all sorts of weird and wonderful local produce. Well worth a visit if you happen to be in the locality.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Review of The Sun and 13 Cantons
31 Aug 07, 12:46
Sunny Delight 
Often derided as one of the more "meeja" pubs in Soho, the Sun and 13 Cantons is conveniently located on Great Pulteney Street, Soho. Extremely busy on Thursday and Friday evenings, at other times it's a great place to stop, relax, and enjoy a pint.
There is a good selection of beers on tap and a fairly extensive wine list, all at relatively reasonable prices for Soho. In the summertime a section of the pavement is cordoned off, so smokers can enjoy their pints without being barged by tourists.
For those people who have been waiting for decent and affordable Thai food in Central London, The Sun and 13 Cantons is a blessing. The attached Thai Lemon Restaurant supplies punters with everything from superbly spicy soups to the most amazing curries. Highlights are the fish cakes (sumptuous and perfectly cooked), the pad thai (great size, awesome flavours) and the green curry (spicy). Prices are reasonable too, at about a fiver a main course.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Review of The Jazz Cafe
20 Aug 07, 14:56
Nice
Not as old or as famous as most of London's other jazz venues, the Jazz Cafe has a good reputation and deservedly so. Founded in 1990 and bought by the Mean Fiddler organisation in 1992, it treads a tricky path between live music, all sorts of jazz, artists other big venues can’t or won’t risk booking, and club culture. It is conveniently located just outside Camden Town tube station.
Laid out with the stage along a side wall and the bar at one end, there is a seating area behind the bar and room upstairs for diners. Cloakrooms and the often talked about toilets are downstairs.
The real appeal of the Jazz Cafe is the fine selection of artists and support bands who play there. I have recently been to see 70s rare-groove band Cymande, and Italian movie jazzmeister extraordinaire, Nicola Conte. Although never sampling it myself, I do hear the food is good too.
On the other hand, drinks are expensive for a Camden venue, service is sometimes slow ( no wonder with 2 barpersons serving the whole venue!) and sometimes tickets can be had cheaper on the door than at the pre-booked prices.
Overall, a good place for a night out with a difference.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Bodeans BBQ
17 Aug 07, 17:37
Those that know ... 
... will book a table in the downstairs "Rib Room".
The upstairs section seems to have been reviewed quite thoroughly already, so I'll concentrate on the Rib Room.
Far away from the madness of the busy upstairs section, the Rib Room is a sumptuous wood panelled basement restaurant - the portions are considerably larger than upstairs. Highlights are the Burnt Ends - deliciously meaty chunks of slow cooked brisket which are then roasted for a short while to crisp them up a bit. Superb, but only available on Monday or Wednesday.
Tuesday night is a good time to visit as the steaks are half price - the 14oz ribeye is particularly good value. You must book a table to avoid disappointment!
In addition to the fine selection of american beers, root beer is available too! Of the new items on the menu, I have only tried the pecan pie, which was well above average. Apparently the lamb ribs are divine and the cajun crab cakes very good too.
I have only ever had three very slight issues in all my mealtimes here (probably more than 30 times now!) - the pepper steak sauce is weird, the key lime pie is not the best in town, and the staff occasionally try to serve my espresso with brown sugar. Nit-picking, I know, but it still gets five stars.
For meat lovers this is one place you must visit in London.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Munch
17 Aug 07, 16:37
Good Mood Food
Located halfway along Wardour Street in the centre of Soho, Just Falafs is ideally placed to cater for hungry workers looking for something a bit different.
Priding themselves on using organic local produce wherever possible, the vast selection of scrumptious looking salads is the first thing the customer is confronted with.
The menu itself is large and varied, offering falafel sandwiches (small or large) in various guises, soups and salads, various meal deals, smoothies, and some of the best coffee to be had in Soho.
Ordering can be tricky - your choice of food should be requested from one of the preparers, then reported to the cashier who will tax you accordingly. Mmmmm falafels. There's nothing quite like these little green furry parcels of joy. Chickpea-tastic!
Well worth a visit at any time, with great food at a very reasonable price.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Hummus Bros
17 Aug 07, 15:13
Give (chic) peace a chance!
The secret to Hummus Bros is their hummus. No big surprise there then, eh?
They make it fresh every morning and manage to ensure that the finished article is very smooth and creamy. The reason it tastes so good is that they don't put garlic in the hummus but give you a separate tiny container of mysteriously garlicky substance.
As well as the traditional chickpea topping (go for the hard-boiled egg option!) there is the choice of fava beans (mashed brown mexican beans), vegetable salad, mushrooms (stewed button mushrooms with caramelised onions), guacamole (ripe avocado blended with crunchy red, peppers, tomatoes & red onions), chunky beef (a seasonal, slow cooked stew with tender beef), and chicken (chicken sautéed in a light tomato sauce). There are usually a couple of specials which change daily. In the past the Chinese chicken and curried chicken have been particularly mouthwatering.
When Hummus Bros first opened it was an excellent venue for lunch. Nowadays it gets very busy at lunchtimes, often with a queue right out the door. It's best to get there before 12:15 or wait until after 14:30 if you want some peace!
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Perfect Blend
17 Aug 07, 12:11
Service? What Service? 
In the service industry, the customer is king - once you have a customer, you need to keep them. Perfect Blend is a perfect example of how not to go about this.
I have visited Perfect Blend on no less than six occasions but have only managed to stay for one coffee. The reason why? I give up if there is no service within 10 minutes.
In any other cafe in the world, a waiter or waitress would be across to take your order, or at least say they are a bit busy, but not in Perfect Blend. Oh, no. The routine there is to bustle about, staring at the floor or ceiling, avoiding all eye contact with the customer, pretending they don't exist.
The coffee is good, if a little overpriced, and apparently the food is okay.
Avoid unless you have plenty of time to kill. There are other better options nearby.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Carlisle Arms
16 Aug 07, 16:00
A real gem in the midst of Soho's plastic pubs
A straight-up boozer, with no frills. Unless you call a dart board a frill, or maybe a toilet?
This pub looks very traditional from the outside, but on the inside is less so. A few old paintings and photos adorn the walls, but nothing majorly historic or interesting. Its main attraction is the lack of the usual tourists and Soho groupies, and its proximity to other bars, clubs and events in the centre of town.
More of a working man's pub, it can easily get crowded due to it's small size, but serves a decent pint.
Prices have gone up since re-opening in July 2007 - now around the £3 mark. Still, a pleasant enough place to while away a balmy summer evening, or get cosy in the wintertime.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Canton
16 Aug 07, 15:49
The original and best
Snappy service, great food, even better price!
Canton is one of Chinatown's oldest restaurants and is absolutely superb. Offering a large and varied menu, meat dishes are the house speciality. Vegetarians are catered for, with a friend of mine recently commenting that it was the best chinese vegetarian food in London.
The restaurant has a very old feel to it, with floors and tables that at first glance look grubby, but on closer inspection are actually just worn down from years of non-stop action, and spotlessly clean.
The service is superb - none of the frostiness so commonplace in the tourist trap restaurants is in evidence here. Smiles all round! Being tucked round the corner from the main drag of Gerrard Street, Canton is slightly away from the tourist trail and this is reflected in the prices.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Mongolian Barbecue
16 Aug 07, 15:21
Authentic ...
... in the way that all Mongolian barbecues are - for those of you who haven't had the fortune to visit Mongolia, I can reliably inform you that this is almost the exact opposite of typical Mongolian food.
Mongolians invariably eat boiled mutton. Sometimes in big lumps, sometimes small. For very special occasions they are wrapped up in a pasta-like shell. But they never use any spices, salt or pepper, and the one month of the year when vegetables are available is called "green month". I digress - back to the matter in hand!
Mongolian Barbecue is an excellent idea which works very well in practice too. You choose your raw ingredients from a large selection, hand your plate to one of the two chefs, who then cooks it for you. A choice of pork, lamb, chicken, beef, prawns and fish, as well as a multitude of herbs, spices and (gasp) vegetables can make for a very tasty dish indeed. Or not. There are recipes on show for guidance, for the culinary challenged.
With wine and beer at normal prices instead of tourist rates, this is a great place to meet lots of friends for an evening of food and fun.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.