This one is going to be short and sweet. There’s 2 branches of this particular restaurant, and I tried the one near Clapham J. Thai restaurant + cheap + BYOB = can’t really disappoint can it? It certainly didn’t – the food is amazing (FYI thai is my favourite cuisine). They don’t have a corkage charge either (no where should have a corkage charge; its absolutely preposterous. Day time robbery.) We went in a group of 5 and it was perfect for the event: friends birthday dinner.

I ordered the Thai green curry but asked for prawns instead of the chicken or tofu they offered on the menu, I also replaced the normal steamed rice for coconut rice – would definitely recommend this combo. The portions don’t look massive but let me tell you they are very filling. We also shared a variety of starters and the total bill came out as £16 per head – v decent. You don’t realise how much alcohol ups the price of the meal until you don’t order it.

Now for the down sides:

1. They try and rush you out (they asked us 4 times what we’d like to eat, and after pushing back for the final time they said we had to be out by 9pm due to other bookings. It was 7.30pm..)
2. Cash only. Not really a downside but just one extra step of prep

As you can see these aren’t really downsides, so go get yourself there as soon as you can. Over and out x

First and foremost, I ❤ steamed buns, so it should go without saying that I love flesh & buns. I had eaten at the Covent Garden one a few months back, however last week was I lucky enough to try the new Fitzrovia branch pre-launch, which also meant 50% off all food (god bless signing up for random email newsletters, which, once in a while actually offer something special).

It has to be said though, despite being half price (which should make the food taste better, right?) I still prefer the Covent garden branch – although this could simply be due to the dishes that were ordered and the dinner guest sat opposite me. Lets break it down…

Covent Garden: From the minute we walked in, we got lucky (Actually, before we walked in we got lucky as you can actually book!!!). As we sat down, the couple next to us offered their saki, so a great start. A great middle and end as well, as every dish we ordered topped my expectations. And a lovely bottle of wine to top it off. Here are my recommendations: the mixed sashimi set, korean fried wings, soft shell crab, crispy duck leg buns. This is legit making my mouth water right now. Simply delicious. Oh, and this was a date as well – great company and great food – there’s actually nothing better on this earth.

At this point, having eaten at Covent Garden but not Fitzrovia, my expectations were as high as a monkey in a tree. Maybe this is why I prefer Covent Garden?

Fitzrovia: A lovely interior. There is even a button on your table reading “pisco sours” (which we did press by the way, they make a big fuss and push a cocktail trolley to your table, and make it in front of you which is fun). We tried another cocktail which combined gin, prosecco and lychee. It was nice but thinking about it maybe the 2 sweet cocktails didn’t help our stomachs with the meat heavy dishes we chose. We got tuna sushi (nothing special), tempura (recommend), Korean wings (their signature dish, a must try) and then the pork belly buns and the short rib buns (most expensive but we had 50% off so why not?)

The food was delicious but again, pretty meat heavy, plus the bun sizes are big enough portions to share one between two (another mistake). On top of that my dinner guest said the food wasn’t her thing, which may have put me off more? I am a great believer in finishing your food, and going with someone who doesn’t eat as much as me, I was inclined to finish the lot – delicious at the time but not a pleasant feeling after. My eyes have always been bigger than my stomach so nothing new there. The bill came to nearly £50 each – pretty pricey seeing as we had half price knocked off. Despite all this, I would 100% eat here again. F&B I am sorry for some of the negative comments that I only have myself to blame.

All in all, both were great experiences. If there is one thing for you to take away, have wine with the food, not cocktails. Have them afterwards. Oh, and go with someone who has an open mind and loves food as much as you do.

This place has been on my mind a lot today, partly because I ate here ~a year ago, but mainly because I was trying to find a crowd pleasing but affordable place to eat with work friends in a couple of weeks. Also a little bit because it recently featured as number 26 on Timeout’s top 100 restaurants, and rightly so; this golden gem often gets forgotten about, with all the “trendier” (sorry such a mum word) or “more suitable for a date” places coming to mind first. But don’t be put off by its casual fast food dining persona…

Their Google slogan reads “the best fried chicken in town”. I know this probably won’t make you remember them any more than KFC, but let this show stopper make you remember them: you can get a whole deep fried chicken. Buttermilk brined & free range with chilli vinegar & Gochujang mayo (whatever that is, but it sounds appealing). Even more delicious if you’re hungover and ravenous on a Sunday.

Other dishes I would recommend: The aubergine side and the watermelon salad. Oh and get the sriracha and sour cream dip – it makes it even better.

Next time I’ll try the sour cocktails, and will give you my verdict. It was rude I didn’t last time, but I was hungover and it was Sunday (and had been at Printworks the night before) so give me some credit. I shall be eating there soon and will leave further updates/comments below.

I should probably point out sooner rather than later that these posts might/will be a wonderful mismatch of different time points, some will be recalling events from last year and some from earlier this evening, but don’t worry your little head, I’ll explain everything you need to know as time won’t be an important aspect of these food stories and non-food stories. FYI my thoughts run this way, as I’ve been told on several occasions, so rather than try and get myself ordered, I’m just going to go with this and regurgitate what feels right. I promise the next post will finally be food related… thank you for your heartwarming patience.

So as you probably already know, I love food and everything that comes with it, and if you’re reading this you probably do too. Having just passed the 3rd year anniversary of my job (depressing), its made me think that everything and nothing has changed in that time (someone told me this was a v profound statement but its true); thinking back to my self 3 years ago, having just graduated from Nottingham Uni and no clear direction in my life except the logical next step of coming to London, I soon after broke up with my boyfriend, well he broke up with me (twice) and in that time I built up a life here, learned a lot, but am still essentially the same person (read profound quote again).

Essentially what I’m trying to say is, I’ve accomplished a lot and not very much in my time in London so far, but if there is one useful thing I’ve learned, and will continue to learn about and post on here, its eating and food in London. So you’ll be getting a slice of that, and a pinch of whatever else I feel like relaying to you (I won’t do any more puns ever again I promise), there will be other bits…mainly evolving around food though. As life tends to anyway.

Food Club is born

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton