Welcome to the round-up – with a couple of extra bloggers this week, which was quiet on the dead-tree front.
Charmaine Mok says Caravan, a new all-day caff in Exmouth Market, ‘feels as if it’s been open for months’. Service is ‘friendly without being cringingly overwrought’ and the food is ‘inspired’. Mok enjoyed a fry-up, baked eggs with tomato and red pepper ragout and a selection of cakes – hopefully not all at once.
‘Steer clear of Babbo,’ says Giles Coren. Along with Cipriani and Dolada, it’s another Mayfair Italian serving ‘competent food at ridiculous prices’. Melanzane parmigiana was ‘dry’, and although risotto and pasta were both ‘good’, the maitre d’ was too busy ‘kissing arse’ elsewhere to pay Coren sufficient attention.
Matthew Norman has a light meal at Ba Shan, having mistakenly eaten at its sister restaurant Bar Shu. Something called ‘lacy bamboo pith fungus in a gentle broth’ was made with ‘superb pork stock’, while ‘pot-sticker dumplings’ were ‘plump, juicy parcels of porcine goodness’ and dry wok prawns were ‘suffused with freshly crushed spices’.
Tracey Macleod visits the weirdly-consonanted Crabshakk and the uninspiring-sounding Dining Room, both in Glasgow. ‘Friendly service’ and ‘decent prices’ are in Crabshakk’s favour – you can guess the kind of food it serves. The Dining Room’s truffled Jerusalem artichoke soup and rump of lamb both ‘shone’.
Jasper Gerard has a good meal at Dinings, the terrific, pricey sushi restaurant by Edgware Road. ‘The chef is uncompromising in his use of ingredients’: crab spring roll was ‘wonderfully soft’, hobayaki duck breast with miso and sandalwood was ‘incredibly smoky’; and only lobster tempura was a ‘mild disappointment’.
Marina O’Loughlin says Circus’s food is ‘calorific’ and ‘shame-inducing’ but ‘actually pretty good’. They put on a show (heavy on ‘nipple-tassles’) while she eats fillet steak, pulled pork, ‘pillowy’ cornbread and a ‘filthy beast’ of a brownie. ‘It’s a long time since I’ve had quite so much fun in a West End restaurant’.
An American in London heads to Needoo Grill in Whitechapel. She echoes Chris Pople when she says the lamb chops aren’t quite as good as Tayyabs’, but overall it was a ‘pleasant experience’. Paneer was ‘wonderfully smoky and spicy’, ‘and you definitely can’t beat Needoo’s prices’.
At the London Review of Breakfasts, ‘Cher E. Jamm’ has good things to say about Dean Street Townhouse. It feels like the ‘type of place you want to move into’, even if you are sitting among ‘Soho’s media contingent’. A full English was ‘artful’, its black pudding ‘elegance on a plate’, while smoked salmon with scrambled eggs was ‘delicious’.
I also commend to you Kang Leong’s write-up of his trip to Taipei. The London Eater’s photos are as stunning as ever, and he ate some fascinating food – ginger tripe or fishy jellied pizza-pancake, anyone?