“MAAD – Plant Based” just opened their second vegan take-away

Ellie & I got the munchies last night. We felt like burgers. Five Guys, whom we used to love, had disappointed us too many times during the past year and none of the other big chains had done much for us lately. So we ended up ordering vegan burgers for the first time in a while. We had not heard about “MAAD – Plant Based” before, but the food on all their pictures on Deliveroo looked delectable. A quick google search revealed that they had only opened their first take-away in Wood Green a few months ago. “Our” venue in Strutton Ground, half-way between Victoria Station and Westminster Palace, a minute’s walk from St James’s Park tube station, was their second venue and brand-new. Three more burger joints are going to open within the next few months in Hackney, Richmond, and Ilford, an amazing success story so far.   We […]

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Guste Remo – Delicious Pizza in Bayswater

I’ve just returned from dinner at Guste Remo (gusteremo from gustare, to relish) in Bayswater. The restaurant was founded by two local Englishmen of Italian descent three years ago and has received some excellent reviews. Most of the staff are Italians, and while the founders aim to accommodate a wide range of preferences, including vegetarian, gluten-free, and dishes being available in different sizes, they make an effort to mainly use traditional cooking techniques and ingredients. I had not made a reservation and had only decided to give it a go, when I randomly passed by them in the street on my way to a meeting with an hour to spare. Initially I was told that unfortunately no table was available, but they turned out to be flexible, when I promised I just wanted to gobble down one of their pizzas and then be gone. I was given a table for […]

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Berners Tavern – We are starting to warm up to this former favourite of ours again

This upmarket restaurant in Berners Street in Central London’s Fitzrovia used to be our go-to place for Sunday brunch for a few months, until we had several bad experiences in a row. Rude staff, long waits, and major cock-ups on the food, to name just a few of the issues. So for a whole year we avoided Berners Tavern. A few months ago, a couple we’re friends with suggested we meet up there, and we were curious, so agreed to the location. We’ve been back for brunch two more times after that, and overall we enjoyed ourselves each time. Located inside boutique hotel inventor Ian Schrager’s Edition Hotel, the main dining hall is one of the most beautiful spaces on the London restaurant scene. Two huge chandeliers, inspired by the ones in New York City’s Grand Central station, dangle from the nearly 6m tall ceilings, counteracting the pompousness of the […]

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Our second visit to Beso, Covent Garden, now re-invented as Italian restaurant

Earlier this year, in January, to be precise, Ms B & I had been invited to check out the then still relatively new Beso in Covent Garden (review here) and we rated it 5 out of 5. The food back then had been labelled Moorish, basically a mix of Moroccan, Spanish, and other Mediterranean cuisines. There were distinctly Moorish design elements including an ornamental nine-seater table with traditional tiles. Recently I was on the way to a meeting in Covent Garden and passed by the restaurant. To my great surprise they had re-invented themselves as Italian Mediterranean restaurant and changed their interior decoration accordingly. When checking their menu I could see that these were not the only changes: the prices had gone up significantly too (their pre-theatre three-course ‘deal’ sets you back £24.95 and included no combination of even only vague interest to me).   After some deliberation I decided […]

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Boisdale, Mayfair – Lovely Steak

Last Saturday for lunch, Ms  B & I decided it was time for a juicy steak, so we walked the short distance over to Boisdale Mayfair, next to Marble Arch. Ms B, or voucher-chick, as her schoolfriends used to call her back in the day, had found a 50% off deal on Open Table. She had already visited the Boisdale Canary Wharf a few months ago with work colleagues and highly recommended the steaks (I had previously only been there for drinks). There are two more branches, one in Bishopsgate and one in Belgravia. Boisdale is the brainchild of self-styled enfant terrible Ranald Macdonald  , a man admiringly described by Tatler, the pompously posh periodical or manicured millionaires’ magazine, as “the most politically incorrect restaurateur in Britain.” The younger of Clanranald and eldest son of the 24th chief and captain of Clanranald, Macdonald’s background sounds as if he spends his […]

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