Rik's reviews
Review of Islington Green Dental Practice
11 May 07, 22:20
Recommended 
What with the NHS being in the state it is, when it was time for my yearly (well, 18-monthly) check-up, I found no dentists would take any adults on the NHS, so I decided to go private. Having never gone private before, I was expecting to get completely ripped off. Luckily I didn't. In fact, my check-up only cost slightly more than I would have expected to pay on the NHS, and rather than being treated like the next patient on a conveyor belt, I felt the dentist seemed genuinely interested in what was going on in my mouth. My teeth had never felt as clean and I could actually do one of those cheesey smiles like the people on the leaflets in the waiting room!
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Hamburger Union
11 May 07, 13:53
If you want a burger, go to Maccy D's 
You can polish a turd, but it's still a turd. Should be Hamburger Union's motto, really. That's not to say their hamburgers are like eating turds. They're actually quite nice. Only quite nice though. No, what I mean is that you can make a hamburger place look a million dollars, but it's still always going to be a hamburger place. That's not to say Hamburger Union looks a million dollars either. It's merely a more middle-class family's version of McDonalds. With it's free range ingredients, and posh wines, you wonder if you are in a burger bar at all. But then they bring you the burgers and reality strikes. If you really really want a burger, then I would advise a trip to McDonalds. Yes, Maccy D's (as it's known on da streetz) isn't the most eco-friendly, or most hygienic, but it does make better, tastier burgers for half the price of Hamburger Union. If you don't want a McDonalds, then at least go to a proper restaurants. It's not as if there aren't loads around Soho.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Mongolian Barbecue
10 May 07, 23:35
Do-it-yourself Barbecue! 
I don't know what a Mongolian barbecue actually is. For all I know, it could be completely different to this restaurant, but if they're anything like the do-it-yourself buffet of its namesake, then that's a good thing. At most buffet places, the food is usually cooked before you stick it on your plate. Here, however, you pick and mix your ingredients in a bowl. You choose all the spices and sauces you want in your meal, which you leave at the barbecue place to get cooked. If you mess up the taste of your meal, then there's no one else to blame but yourself.
For example, my first dish here had far too much pepper and spice, mainly because I put a whole spoon full in. It's a good idea to follow the example menus behind the counter. Obviously, with this type of place, there's no particular skill and no kind of chef wizardry involved, so you might have a nice meal or completely mess it up. The price is quite reasonable for Covent Garden, drinks are particularly cheap, and the staff are friendly. The place itself isn't amazingly pretty, but it does have rather distinct decor. I did enjoy eating here, it was quite exciting to see if my masterpiece of a bowl did add up to a tasty dish, and it was certainly a different restaurant experience.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Superdry
10 May 07, 17:32
Trendy but not achingly trendy 
Everyone wants to be ahead of fashion. Be a bit of a trend setter and wear clothes that your mum would think would be a bit out-there. Most people would think of Topman/Topshop for these types of clothes, but the trouble with Topshop is that most of the clothes are dire and you have to sort though the rubbish to get the good clothes that don't make you look like you hang around bus stops late at night. Luckily they sell a Japanese brand of high-quality (take note, Topman) mens and womens clothes. Yes, they are a bit more expensive, but they don't fall apart after two washes, and not only that, they look better. They look smart, less generic and still look trendy. Some of the clothes can tend to either make you look like a Manga cartoon or one of those overly-trendy guy with crap haircuts. Which is generally true of most mens clothes shops too. But here, there's a lot less crap to sort though. Oh, and the missus says the womens clothes are good too.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Subway
10 May 07, 12:38
Avoid! 
It's rare to go into a Subway and expect a really nice sandwich. You tend to go in and want an okay sandwich, rather than some total mess of a meal that looks closer to modern art. I didn't know whether to send it to the Tate or eat it. I've never seen a sandwich made so messily. No wonder they call them sandwich artists. Not only that, but I had to shout my order across the queue because the 'artist' couldn't be bothered to wait for the people in front to move down. Service with a smile, this definitely isn't. I then sat at a dirty table. Not by choice but because all the tables were dirty, and I went for the cleanest one. So that's dirty tables, rude staff and a sandwich that looks closer to a salad. Don't bother!
0 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Wagamama
10 May 07, 11:08
Awful service
I am a fan of Wagamama's food - they do very nice Japanese noodles - and the Islington branch is my local branch, which I tend to go quite a lot. So why am I giving it two stars? The service there is, on a very good day, of an average standard, on a normal day, mediocre, and on a bad day, absolutely abysmal. You can wait ages to be served. Ages to get a bill. Wrong meals. Wrong drinks. Overcrowding. Forgotten orders. Lukewarm meals. It's as if the staff are playing some kind of Beadle's About stunt, but the sad thing is that they're not. And yet, I still go, and each time I come out slightly more disappointed. They would have received a single star normally, but the food pumps them up one.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of All Bar One
09 May 07, 16:51
Nice, but lacks character
On Wikipedia, it says that the All Bar One chain is "criticised for its lack of character, with each bar looking almost identical and its cynical owners buying up charming pubs and converting them into a city slickers' hell hole". You can definitely see what they mean by this, but All Bar One is quite a nice place with nice drinks. But that's all it is. Nice. Nothing really outstanding or memorable about it. You couldn't say anything about it that's remotely interesting. The decor is pretty if not a bit Ikea-lite. The drinks are good, if not a bit dear. The staff are nice, if not a bit lazy and slow. The people who go there are friendly, if not a bit dull. It's good for a quick stop off, but if you do forget it next morning, don't blame the beer, blame the lack of character the place has.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Cafe Gallipoli
08 May 07, 22:28
Nice food, but cramped
Gallipoli have three restaurants on Upper Street, all within very short walk distance. It's quite easy to get confused about which one you booked. Luckily, we did go in the correct one after some debating. We got led through a mass of tables, right to the back of the restaurant into a little alcove, which would have been nice if it wasn't for the table of 4 and the other table of 2 right next to us. Talk about cramped... the waiters had to serve food over my table to other tables. The restaurant owners equivalent of how many clowns can you fit in a mini. We ordered some food - a meze - which arrived lightening fast, and a bottle of house red wine, which was average. The meze was good, lots of bowls of food kept arriving, with no room left on the table to fit them all on. That's a good thing, I like lots of food. The food itself ranged from delicious to average. Nothing bad though, which you kind of expecting from such a range of food, so that was a bonus. As we were eating, we noticed how warm the place was. For a winter month, it was decidedly hot in the restaurant, not made any more comfortable by the fact we were sat next to a radiator pipe. We were in and out in an hour. That could either mean that the service was quick or they wanted us out as soon as possible. I was expecting more of a meal from the meze, but I did leave very full due to the sheer amount of bowls there were. I think the place would be much nicer at a less busy time, not Friday nights for instance. Maybe, I should call back then.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Topman
07 May 07, 17:57
Stupidly trendy
Topman is one of those places where you really have to browse through the piles of fashionable shite before you get to a nice top.
Obviously, this place can be full of 16 year old twats looking for the latest trendy piece of rubbish (e.g. smiley faced day-glo tops or white skinny jeans at the moment) but if you can ignore them, you can find nice clothes of pretty high quality for cheap, cheap prices.
This place is pretty big too, taking up the top floor of Oxford Street Topshop, so the range is extensive. Being slap bang of the west end does mean it can get packed full of trendy knobs though, so be prepared to go at a quieter time.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Scotts Sandwich Bar
07 May 07, 12:58
Two thumbs fresh
There's a lot of sandwich shops around town. Some being really good, some being... not so good. Luckily, Scott's is one of the really good ones. It's a cliche to say that it's like the sandwiches your mother used to make, but it's quite true in this case. Rather than boring, flimsy butties, you get big, chunky, delicious sandwiches that fill you up properly. No surprise that it's always busy there. They don't just do sandwiches either. They do jacket potatoes and a range of salads, all of which look very nice too. The price is quite reasonable at £3-4 a sandwich considering how large and how tasty they are. The staff are always friendly, if not a bit quick to ask what you're eating if you sit in.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.