Restaurant – Page 7 – A London Journal

Resto 5 Franco Manca, Kings Cross

If you want to survive in the Italian market you've got to do better than that.

Resto 4 Saigon, Northampton

Saigon does the business - high quality Vietnamese and a wonderful proprietor. 'Year of pig! VERY LUCKY!!

Resto 3 – BFI Riverfront, Waterloo

A vast improvement in food, service and atmosphere, I'd like to go back some time and try out the rest of the pizza. Alas, we didn't have the time to linger and watch some Antonioni, spontanaiety being more elusive thanks to marriage to Mrs Woof.

Resto 2 – Holborn Dining Room, Holborn

A weird one this - I had an excellent dining experience (that cost me a packet) yet I couldn't wait to get back to my usual milieu amongst the Pitmen of The Whippet for a digestif and a good chat about home.

Resto 45 Winchmore Hill Tandoori, Wichmore Hill

Having watched Granit Xhaka and his inept chums only just fail to sabotage a fine attacking display by Arsenal's front five in a lunchtime kick off by the time we'd reached the food part of our post-match festivities in Winchmore Hill stomachs were empty but we were bonhomie full.

Resto 44 The Betjeman Arms, St Pancras

Trying to remember the prices of the food (a key part of a review being the price/quality quotient) I looked at the JB's website to find that they weren't as high as I recalled. But I also discovered atrocious grammar and an insidious whiff of nostalgia-laden commercial bullshit in the copy.

Reminiscent of 1920’s nostalgia and times gone by; a charming spot to wait for your train to Paris whilst soaking up the iconic atmosphere of The Grand Terrace.

Were one of mys students to have written this guff I would have been forgiving of youthful lapses in grammar, syntax, honesty and style. The misplaced apostrophe, the redundant semi-colon, the appearance of the hideous 'i' word, and the frankly idiotic use of the word charming to describe a 'spot' usually inhabited by drunks of varied income and states of dishevelment.

Ah but that 1920's (sic) nostalgia! Who wouldn't yearn for the days of chronic unemployment, Armenian genocide, the rise of fascism and sterile, bat-dominated cricket? Really they could have gone much further back for the authentic whiff of nostalgia. Their toilets need no linguistic gloss, being truly mediaeval most of the time.