Dining near Gloucester Road Tube? [London]
Hello
We'll be staying at a hotel near this tube station. We'll be travelling and eating in all areas. However, does anyone have suggestions for restaurants near our hotel for the times that we're feeling tired or lazy?
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Great suggestions here, the only places I see that are missing are:
- Wodka (Fab Polish restaurant just down the street from Launceston Place)
- Bumpkin (Mod British cuisine - I hear mixed things about it for jumping on the bandwagon of British Farm Foodieness, but the food is really good, great wine list, etc and I can't think of any other place in the area that serves anything similar.
- Noor Jahan: Though Star of India is good, I think it is really expensive for only being good not great, go to Noor Jahan (just around the corner from Star of India) instead. The walk through the residential streets to get to Noor Jahan from GR is a lovely walk (when GR ends turn right and Noor Jahan is at the end of the next street on your left), be sure to stroll the neighborhood to walk off your full belly.
- I usually avoid pubs nearest the tube station, but The Stanhope Arms pours a good pint. Also one of the few places in the area that can't be accused of being poncy. Mixed crowd, quite a few tourists though but the people watching is priceless. I haven't eaten there (can't eat gluten and their menu is gluten rich), but it is apparently better than most for standard pub far. This isn't a gastropub though, it is just a boozer that serves food.http://www.wodka.co.uk/
http://www.bumpkinuk.com/great-country-food/restaurants/
http://www.noorjahanrestaurants.co.uk/›2 Replies -
howler
Feb 1, 2011 07:12 AM
there is so much to choose from, you'll be spoiled for choice.
at the high end, as zuriga mentions, min jiang in the royal garden hotel for superlative duck, dumplings (check out limsters posts) and launceston place, particularly for lunch. the bombay brasserie, right behind gloucester road tube, has a superb lunch buffet on weekends. for 20 odd quid, you'd be hard pressed to find proper (mainly north indian) food as good as this.
for less schmancy options, there is jakobs on gloucester road for delicious armenian dishes, with lots of great veg choices and a couple of doors down from jakobs is a very nice italian deli. actually, a better italian deli is la piccola dely on stratford road, which is a 5 minute walk from you. opposite is chez patrick, which is a very competent and enjoyable little french restaurant, a bit of a local secret.
near south ken tube station is the cheap but extremely delicious bosphorus kebab house which sells er turkish kebabs. hard to spend over 7 pounds a head. around the corner is brindisa, which is a smart tapas place and daquise, which has been taken over by gessler (warsaw) and gets rave review for its food. again, check out this board for reviews.
theres sichuan at no 10 hogarth place, but the main chef is in china and won't be back till march. still pretty good. and i would certainly take the 5 minute cab ride to go eat at mohsen, an iranian on warwick road.
finally, if you like artisanal chocolate - the most amazing chocolatier has arrived at the ottoemezzo deli on thackeray street. it's close to you, but a bit tricky getting to it, so make sure you have a good map.
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re: 28glen
howler
Feb 1, 2011 09:41 AM
they only do sunday (typically a roast) lunch as far as i can remember (edit: no i'm wrong - i just looked at their website, they have dinner as well). its not the regulat 20 quid lunch deal, but it'll still be very reasonable and should be marvelous. that neighborhood (ok its mine) on a sunday is like being in a long lost london of a century ago. it is very, very special and i think you will enjoy it very much.
also, look up their website and see if it floats your boat. where are you from originally?
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re: howler
limster
Feb 2, 2011 03:43 PM
Regret to say that Min Jiang no longer serves the superlative Shanghai style shumai (and neither does the main branch in Singapore, but that's another board). The xlb is still as good as ever, as are the puffy flaky crust of the egg custard tarts, and the wonderful texture of the translucent crab dumpling skins - delicate and chewy. The new thai-styled pandan chicken is skippable, pleasant but not great. I still need to go there for the duck.
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I live very near Gloucester Road tube station and rarely eat nearby due to a dearth of good options. That being said there are a few places I go semi-regulalrly.
(1)Nando's (really annoying and mediocre but close Chicken restaurant which has ok food on its best days, and pretty bleh food on its worth),
(2)Beirut Express (decent Lebanese from the Maroush family of restaurants; good for a schwarma sandwich)
(3)La Bouche (very nice french brasserie with a very good dinner special before 7 I think)
(4)Star of India (great indian restaurant -- highly recommended)
(5) Tartine (a bit further past South Kensington station but very good and lively sandwich restaurant)
(6) Aubaine (as above)
(7) No. 10 chinese in Earls Court (good sichuan food)
(8) Da Mario Pizza (pizza isn't London's strong point but I like this)
(9) Khob Khun (thai restaurant; very bleak inside but the pad thai can be amazing; eat other dishes at your discretion)
(10) Pain Quotidian (near S. Ken station; bread, soups, sandwiches)Good luck!
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re: brokentelephone
howler
Feb 2, 2011 10:24 AM
oh i actively hate frenchified indian cuisine. i could accept it if there were many representatives of the singing regional cooked at home cuisines, of which there must be well over a couple of hundred? thousand?
fresh, vibrant, minimally spiced, working with the ingredients, mainly vegetarian ..
instead, what do we get? a restaurant cuisine (moghlai) even more primped up and gussified. a pox on them all.
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re: howler
limster
Feb 2, 2011 01:30 PM
A bit of a digression, but it's worth checking out the Mauritian-styled seafood at Chez Liline near Finsbury Park. Not so much Frenchified Indian, but classical French technique with a whole range of Indian, SE Asian and African influences, cooked so well and so seamlessly, one would think they have been doing these dishes for centuries.
For example, marinated slices of (what I thought was) snapper, dressed in luxuriant oil, the raw intensity of the fish cut by gorgeous coriander leaves (and perhaps other herbs) as well as by a savoury and vinegary acidity. Or remarkably tender octopus in a sauce of cream balanced with tomato, along with a bold but intricate spicing. Superb pickles with perfectly grilled fish (marlin, sea bass, salmon) in a tomato based sauce. Scallops perked up with a slaw of spicy mango (just slightly green for the right level of sweet//sour). etc. etc.
Nothing wrong with fusiony approaches, but it's got to be done right, and usually it's not.
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re: limster
howler
Feb 2, 2011 03:14 PM
as usual, limster is the voice of reason.
when tamilian cuisine collides with indigenous cooking in singapore, mauritius and in latter day dubai, wondrous dishes result.
for example, i ate some deeply delightful dishes in bangalore a few years ago, dishes evocative of karnatakians homesick for the middle east.
but that is fusion born in the crucible of necessity. what the frenchifiers do is self conscious, and fake. its an attempt to upmarket an cuisine that doesn't need to be.
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zuriga1
Jan 30, 2011 01:09 PM
I used to stay in that area years ago, and I think most of my suggestions would be outdated by now. One place that comes to mind is the good, weekend buffet at The Bombay Brasserie. Probably, people who are in that area a lot more than I am will have some other suggestions. South Kensington is just around the corner (or one Tube stop), and there are lots of restaurants there including La Buchée, which a friend of mine likes a lot. Take a look down Brompton Road.
