London food – Berkeley Square Barbarian

Benares Restaurant – Best Indian in Town

My wife Ms B and I have just returned from a tapas sharing platter lunch at Benares, Atul Kochhar‘s Michelin-starred Indian restaurant on Berkeley Square. The 5-dish street food sharing platter cost a mere £30 for the two of us and we topped it up with two cocktails for another £10 in total. A mind-boggingly marvellously brilliant deal. You pay more at most pubs in this town to get two portions of rubbery, battered cod with sliced, oily, deep-fried potatoes and some luke-warm IPA. Right from the moment we arrived at the ground-floor reception, the service staff were very friendly, polite, helpful, relaxed, unpretentious and knowledgeable, a true delight. The atmosphere is also very pleasant, with dimmed light, sound-absorbing décor, warm colours, a nicely decorated bar and a lounge area with a little pool where lovely gerberas were peacefully floating around. It was in the lounge area where we […]

Duck & Waffle Local in St James’s Market

We like the Duck & Waffle and enjoy the experience of delicious food with perfect views of London. It’s a popular place, and is quite hard to get a table without a reservation. So when we heard the Duck & Waffle were opening a “Local” branch near Piccadilly Circus, we were keen to visit. The Duck & Waffle Local is in the snazzy new St James’s Market area near Piccadilly Circus, among other new restaurants (for example Michelin-starred Aquavit, which we’ve reviewed here). The Local is a casual walk-in with a modern, fast-food vibe. No reservations required. We met at the bar, where they serve cocktails on tap. I tried the millennial mojito – a lightly carbonated drink mixing Bacardi carta blanca, preserved mint and lime. Refreshing! From the bar we were shown to a table. We then ordered and paid at the counter. The counter displayed the menu on […]

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