[Translate] The new tTraditional Bombay (Irani) cafe serving Thumbs Up cola, chai and Indian snacks such as chili cheese toast, roti wraps and grilled kebabs all day. After all, a chai mojito will liven things up if the Bollywood music doesn’t. 12 Upper Saint Martins Ln., London WC2H 9FB +44-20-7420-9320 ...
Kick back on the colourful recycled furniture at the first London outposts of the low-carbon fast food chain and enjoy international veggie dishes like meatless Tex Mex burgers, roasted vegetable lasagna and biriani, as well as wraps and salads.
Guilt-free eating: the carbon footprint for each dish appears on the menu next to the equivalent for the meat version.
Two locations: 190 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JL and 181-183 Wardour Street, London W1V 3FB
Excellent, recently opened no-fuss Japanese restaurant in Soho serves authentic hot and cold udon noodles made on-site using imported Japanese wheat flour and served with toppings such as crispy tempura batter, thinly sliced beef or seaweed.
And, some people say getting good Japanese food in London is virtually impossible…
No reservation necessary.
49 Frith Street, London W1D 4SG
Keeping on an old name can be a good business move — you maintain customer recognition, and if you’re the Dalai Lama, you avoid getting carded for beer, because your ID says you’re like six-hundred and eighteen. Keeping the name, but changing everything else, the all-new Kyashii, opening today.
The upscale Japanese restaurant’s swinging open the doors with new management, a new chef, and a new, uber-chic look: white walled & black floored, with an upstairs champagne bar rocking DJ decks & 18 plasmas, a ground-floor brasserie where fresh fish is prepped before your eyes, and an underground rentable space encircled by seven tropical aquariums, so your sushi can serve as a warning to the others. Starters see crispy spicy squid with Japanese chilli pepper, a five-variety Pacific oyster platter (from spicy radish to a sake shooter), and honey-glazed baby-backs with a “caramel net”, which must be how they catch jelly fish. Signature rolls include the avo-wrapped tempura prawn Dragon, the seared salmon-wrapped crab & mustard seed-mayo Tataki, and a massive, seven-fish Rainbow, which is even tougher to stuff in your mouth when it’s been zipped up by that damn pink hippo.
Kyashii’s also serving up robata like a Japanese chilli-sauced lamb rack , peppercorn scallops with spinach & shimeji mushrooms, and a fillet slathered with a mustard sauce dubbed “dynamite” — a name you should recognize as signifying “reincarnation or not, this mustard is going to kill you”.
4a Upper Saint Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9NY 0207 836 5211 Kyashii.co.uk
Map powered by MapPress
It’s almost autumn, and your plan for a summer-perfect body has yet to take hold. But the prospect of salad, salad, salad makes you want to eat another cupcake.
Go Japanese. Specifically, go to the new Sushi Cafelicious — the Golders Green cafe from the owners of Cafe Japan. The food is so tasty (and beautiful), you’ll barely notice it’s healthy.
Order at the counter and takeaway, or perch on a stool overlooking the chefs and nibble on delicate temari — sushi balls topped with shiitake mushroom, prawn, salmon or tuna. Our favourite: ikura (salmon roe) and rice served in half a lime. Also on the menu: sushi cups filled with organic brown rice and served with a shot of collagen jelly (it’s big in Japan).
There’s no soya sauce (too much sodium), so dress your rolls with teriyaki, spicy sesame or basil sauce. Take home a sushi cake — a mix of rice, vegetables, egg and green seaweed flakes. It won’t replace dessert, but you will be able to zip your jeans.
2 North End Road, London NW11 7PH +44 20 8381 4704 or sushicafelicious.co.uk
Map powered by MapPress
Towering accomplishments aside, there were two things Napoleon did not not achieve: invading England, and five foot seven. Now a Corsican’s storming our shores with the ultimate weapon: pizza, at Sandy’s.
Just opened in Marble Arch, Sandy’s proudly touts itself as the UK’s first and only emissary of Corsican ‘zza, which it serves in a nook made cozy with low-hung lights, red leather banquettes, multitudinous Mediterranean window shutters, and old b/w pictures depicting traditional family life in the founder’s hometown — from a time when people still had traditional families, and window shutters. Generously bequeathed by the island’s ancient stalwart Pizza Chez Nadine, the basic recipe uses gruyere instead of mozz, plus a secret flour blend that results in a bubbly, “neither thin nor thick” crust; further piling on produces the likes of the chorizo, green chilli & red pepper Piccante, the lamb & beef sausage Habibi, and the deli-meat frenzy (coppa, figatellu, lonzu) that is the Pascal Paoli — perhaps an inappropriate tribute for the first president of Corsica’s “Executive Council of the General Diet”. Less meat-mad are the smoked salmon/persillade (parsley sauce) St Erasme, the gruyere/ mozz/ goat/ roquefort 4 Fromages, and the cheese-free anchovy, caper, & olive “Sicilliene” — order it on this, the day of its daughter’s wedding , and ask it the favor of not making your breath smell.
Sweetness is provided by pistachio macaroons w/ cherry sorbet, as well as Fiadone (Corsican crustless cheesecake) w/ honey & rosemary ice cream. There’re also rare Corsican beers like the chestnut flour-brewed Pietra, and the herb-brewed wheat beer Colomba — you’ll like it so much, you’ll try to sneak it out with your hand stuffed deep in your jacket.
14 Seymour Place, London W1H 7NF +44 207 723 8833 Sandys.uk.com
Back in the nineteenth century, Shaka Zulu used revolutionary, sometimes brutal techniques to create two seemingly unstoppable, but ultimately crippled institutions: The Zulu Kingdom, and Michael Caine’s career. Paying the great leader homage by uniting eating, drinking, and shopping: Shaka Zulu.
Shaka’s officially the world’s largest South African venue, encompassing two restos, a lounge, and an exotic purchasing opportunity across two floors of a huge Camden Stables space that’s been filled with African-inspired artworks, masks and colourfully tribal chairs & tables, as well as hand-carved murals and mosaics covering 60-foot-high walls, thereby “capturing the essence of the great King Shaka” — because according to the biographer who survived, he really was that tall. Ambitiously executed fare starts with the Oyster Bar, where you’ll find everything from Rooibos smoked salmon to Mozambican langoustines; for a fuller meal, head to the Baraii (Afrikaans for “roasted meat”) restaurant, serving up such bushmeat stylings as ostrich fillet, kudu steak, and marinaded springbok, all available in one South African Game Skewer, now more commonly known as a Vuvuzela. Drinks from the Lounge Bar include a huge range of classic cocktails, plus “Zulu Innovations” such as the tequila, thyme, papaya & lime “Pappayed”, the raspberry vodka, pomegranate, rosemary & lemon “Shark Alley”, and the white grape, raisin, scotch, lemon chestnut, egg white “Simba”, whose boozy regalness will make you a Lying King.
True royalty can abscond to the members-only King’s Club with its VIP hospitality and preferential access to the Chef’s Table for multi-course, wine-matched tasting menus hosted by the head chef himself. As for shopping, there’s everything from to-go bushmeat and South African wine to “artefacts” like tribal shields and masks — a fitting gift for yourself, The man who would be King.
The Stables Market, Camden, London NW1 8AH +44-203-376-9911 Shaka-Zulu.com
Opened in Battersea by an ex-Ritz Carlton manager, this Viennese-style chow-house is set inside a minimalist space split between starkly contrasting black & white wall tiles, where you’ll feast on fare like merguez & nürnberger sausage w/ green puy lentils, Saint-Jacques gratinée scallops w/ brown butter & mixed leaves, and homemade “schlutzkrapfen” — a ravioli-like pasta, or a slurred rant against the creator of Peanuts.
124 Northcote Road, London SW11 6QU +44-207-924-3566 BistroDelicat.com
Everyone agrees “Takin’ it to the Streets” is one of popular music’s most inspiring calls for unity, except maybe the Doobie Brothers’ original lead singer, who took it as a sign that he should keep on rolling. Uniting the hungry by taking dim sum to the streets: NOW, officially launching…now.
From mini-food maestros Ping Pong, this concept eatery slings take-out “inspired by today’s urban China” from a nook where Blade Runner-style neon walls face off against a more old-fashioned Chinese-tile floor and casual dine-in seating’s provided by curved, temple-like wooden stools, hopefully not the result of someone eating way too much fibre. The sum’s all hand made in the open kitchen, then served individually, or in baskets like the chive/chicken shu mai/chicken cashew Classic, the Seafood (mixed s’food, plus har gau & coriander), and the Vegetarian, with a spinach, a mushroom, and another stuffed with spicy & “golden” vegetables (Krugerplants?). A plethora of sides include classic pork buns, crispy prawn balls, seafood sticky rice, duck rolls, and hot & sour soup, plus yet-smaller goodness like pork crackling, seaweed prawn crackers, and white sesame & ginger snaps, which is bound to happen when people refuse to see the human being underneath that terrifying demon hair.
NOW’s also serving beers like Tsing Tao and Sun Lik, plus innovative juices (wasabi virgin mary, melon & lime bubble tea, mango & mint cooler…) whose kooky recipes they’ll be constantly tinkering with — no matter what they come up with, it’ll be a favorable alternative to Black Water.
22/23 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 7PD NowStreetFood.com
Just opened off Oxford Street, this white-walled Italian joint slings Roman style “pizza al taglio” on long wooden boards or by-the-slice, using homemade ingredients whenever possible for numbers like roasted fennel/finocchiona salami/olives, artichoke/pancetta/roasted garlic & thyme, and tomato/spicy salami/Laverstoke Park buffalo mozz/rocket. There are also pastas such as macaroni with veal & pork meatballs and sage, clearly not deeply contemplating the fact that he’s about to get eaten.
12 Great Castle Street, London W1W 8LR; 0207 636 6560 Melito.co.uk
Map powered by MapPress
While the fashion world may not observe normal eating habits, even the most devoted shoppers get a little peckish.
So to cater to the belles of Bond Street, all-day eatery Bond & Brook has opened on the second floor of Fenwick (the revamp is finished — and yes, it was worth the wait).
The restaurant’s conveniently situated right next to the women’s wear display and furnished with a mini fashion library to peruse over a macchiato. Chef Daniel Taylor (Le Cafe Anglais) offers a menu filled with couture-size portions, so you can mix and match to create the perfect meal.
Start the day with a full English breakfast washed down with shot of Virgin Mary; move on to small dishes, ranging from summer vegetable frittatas to tuna ceviche with tortilla chips or tomato jelly with goat’s cheese — all designed for sharing.
And if you can’t halt your spending before teatime — fondant fancies and scones with clotted cream are sure to replace any calories you might have burned in the day’s pursuits.
Fenwick, 63 New Bond Street, London W1A 3BS +44-20-7629-0273
