Local Expert
Lulu P.
At the tender age of 31, I decided to quit my cushy life in Toronto to see if I could move to London successfully. Much to my surprise, things worked out well and I'm looking forward to being a…
At the tender age of 31, I decided to quit my cushy life in Toronto to see if I could move to London successfully. Much to my surprise, things worked out well and I'm looking forward to being a long-term tourist in my adopted city.
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Review Articles
So I drink a lot in Shoreditch. Well, I drink a lot most everywhere in London as I’m not a picky lady, but my friends tell to drag me out to Shoreditch most often. While I like my friends and I do like the bars in Shoreditch, it is sometimes too cool and crowded for the likes of me.
Which is why I find it really odd that I like barmusichall so much. The service is bad. On Saturday nights there is always a line-up to get in. It’s filled with hipsters. All bad stuff, right?.
Well, unlike most places in London, the place is massive. And the line up only really exists from about 10-11PM. It serves booze until 1AM, which in London is a real treat. It plays fun, danceable, indie-ish electro-up music. It’s got a great selection of beers, including some kick-ass Belgian beers on tap. It’s got an espresso martini on the menu.
What’s not to love?
Every year my friend Mike waits for Restaurant magazine to announce its World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. He then plans his next year of holiday around the cities that house the top 10 restaurants. Since the list includes the likes of El Bulli, Fat Duck and The French Laundry — all of which are well out of my price range — I tend to admire from afar.
Well this year #16 on the list was St. John, a restaurant that happened to be in my price range and in London. You’d think it’d be an easy sell to most foodies, but of my foodie friends, I could only find two people who would go with me. Why is that, you ask? Well St. John, founded by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver, specializes in nose to tail dining. That’s right, the whole hog. Or cow. Or chicken. You get the picture. It’s very fittingly located near the former Smithfield market, London’s historic home of meat and butchery.
The menu changes daily, so you’re really never know what you’re going to get. The night we went, there was eel, ox tail, lamb shank, grouse, and pigeon. One thing that does remain a staple is their signature starter of roast bone marrow and parsley salad. Every table has at least one order on the table. It is truly sublime and like everything else on the menu, it’s prepared simply, so you can really taste every nuanced flavour of the meat.
While it’s definitely for the more adventurous foodie, St. John is a great place to go for a nice meal with an intimate group of friends. At £40 to £60 per person, it’s also one of the more affordable fine dining experiences London has to offer.
I hate myself for loving Loungelover. I really do. It’s in Shoreditch, which is quite honestly so hip that it’s annoying. The drinks are expensive (£10 a pop for the most part). And it is crowded with bankers who have essentially overrun Shoreditch as of late.
Nevertheless I love this place.
The room itself is both opulent (think rich burgundy, plush velvets, dark wood and elaborate chandeliers) and relaxed (think dark corners and sectioned off nooks). The bartenders are not only highly skilled, they are actually very nice and dare I say — a touch flirty. The cocktail waitresses are pretty and unpretentious. And of course the drinks. Well. There are pages and pages of inventive cocktails and they are totally worth the prices they charge.
Self loathing is much more tolerable while sipping on one of their Lotus Position cocktails.
When you go on a trip, everyone’s always brimming with recommendations on where to find a good meal. While I adore dining suggestions, lately I’ve really been happy to take suggestions on places to avoid as well. In a city like London this becomes even more necessary. There are a lot of chains here and while some are good, there are just as many that aren’t so good.
Here is my list of chains to steer clear of while in London.
1. Garfunkels (The TGI Fridays of London.)
2. Slug & Lettuce (Generic and bland.)
3. Feng Sushi (Over-priced and under-flavoured.)
4. Ping Pong (Dim sum steamed to the point of disintegration.)
5. All Bar One (Great for drinks, horrible for food.)
In 2004 Edouard de Broglie and Etienne Boisrond opened up a restaurant in Paris where they served up a three course meal in a pitch-black dining room. Within months, it was a dining sensation.
So it came to London.
I had read about this concept a while back and when I first got to London, I really wanted to try it. My culinary partner in crime shot down the idea immediately. However, when her brother-in-law booked the place for her sister’s birthday, she had no choice in but to go.
In a nutshell, the concept is that by dining in the dark your sense of taste is heightened and should allow you to experience the food in a different way. You get a choice of menus (anything goes, no seafood or vegetarian) and a choice of courses ( 2 or 3). Apart from that, you don’t really know what you’re eating until it’s over.
So here are some highlights from our night at Dans Le Noir:
• Of our party of four, one us had a really bad claustrophobic reaction and had to leave immediately. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to stay. She came back after calming her nerves with one more drink at the bar. She kept her eyes closed the entire time.
• Pouring wine in the dark is damn hard.
• Using a knife and fork in the dark is hard. No surprise that I ate most of my meal with my hands.
• Despite the fact that your sense of taste is supposed to be sharpened, the folks at Dans Le Noir didn’t seem to put much emphasis on the food. It was not horrible, but not really worth the £40 for a 3 course meal.
• After the first course, I was so disoriented that I got really nauseous and almost threw up.
• We’d all had enough after the second course and left.
• I threw up when I got home.
While it was certainly a really interesting experience, I don’t reckon I’ll go again. I do recommend it for those of you who are looking for a different experience and have about 50 quid to burn.
Londoners love exclusivity. It’s for this reason that there are so many members’ only clubs in this city. While a lot of members’ clubs will require you to write an essay and send an 8x10, there are few that aren’t quite so pretentious.
One of those is The Player. Part of the Milk & Honey group of members’ clubs, The Player is only members’ only after 11PM — a requirement for bars looking to serve booze after 11PM. I’ve spent many a late night here and I’ve not once been asked to leave because I’m not a member.
The drinks at The Player are nothing short of awesome. My favourite is the Whoopsy Daisy, a sublime mixture of Woodford Reserve bourbon shaken with lemon, blackberries and mure, with a ginger beer top. Beer drinkers beware. The Player only has about three beers in a bottle — all by a brand called Proof. It’s really more a cocktail lover’s paradise.
What I love most about The Player is that it totally reminds me of a basement bar that someone like Walt Frazier might have had in his house. Drinking here always makes me want to listen to The Spinners and play spin the bottle.