f1insburyparker

Review #97 Vapiano, Great Portland Street

Charmless queueing? No thanks.

Review #96 MI+ME, St Pancras

Scouting out a walk for Belgian clients I arrived at St Pancras ravenous. Options in St P are becoming fairly limited towards the end of the year so I gave MI+ME a go. Given its name I was half expecting some Marcel Marceau action from the waiting staff. Alas, no. The name remains irritating without…

Review #95 Amphitheatre Restaurant, Covent Garden

Eating at the opéra, in my limited experience, is always expensive and often a bit of a shot in the dark, whether you're getting some sandwiches and a glass of wine or going for the full gut-busting blow out with gallons of booze on the side. But the Amphitheatre proved a winner.

Review #93 Ragam, Fitzrovia

Another Friday, another Friday night curry. Ragam gives as good product as Gaylord round the corner but without the expense.

Review #94 The Old Dairy, Stroud Green

It might just have been an off night for the resto but for over forty quid a head I expect a bit better.

Sarko, fascos and jihadis

Two things prompted me to write this post in appreciation of Louis Malle’s Lacombe, Lucien. The first was a mundane training exercise for a new teaching job. The other was a two page spread in Le Monde discussing Olivier Roy’s new book on jihadism, Le Djihad et la Mort.[1] Roy's book arrives at an opportune moment, with the Paris and Nice atrocities (among many others) still painfully recent, and the ongoing military campaign against Islamic State in the Middle East appearing in the news daily.

Review #92 Barrica, Fitzrovia

No Dickie Fitz but chorizo dog dicks in the bustle of Goodge Street. And a gratuitous Ray Wilkins reference.

Review #91 Taste of India, Drummond Street

Coming to review a restaurant when the intervening 48 hours have seen a bacchanalian 60th birthday party and a 6 hour police assisted face off with somebody with mental health issues (not mine (this time at least!)), one could be forgiven for not exactly remembering the details of the cuisine on Friday night.