Hallie

[. Ah well, I’ve have worse & paid more. ←

As promised, my experiences at Andrew Edmunds: In a nutshell: good. Its the type of place that I would categorise as serving reliable, interesting food for a reasonable price. Someone in one of the posts above mentioned that it was essentially gastro-pub grub - a very good description. In terms of food and atmosphere the entire place is like a gastro-pub, just minus the pub. The atmosphere was quite buzzing and cosy, though I think the intimacy of the place would make it a more suitable venue for a cold winter's evening. I had carpaccio to start. I must say that perhaps this wasn't the best place to order carpaccio. I've had much better. The beef was a bit too thickly sliced and not hugely flavourful. However, my main course; smoked haddock with a poached egg and hollandaise on wild rice was very nice and very filling. I will be recreating this dish at home. Others at the table had duck confit and daube of beef. I think most people rated similarly. I wouldn't go out of my way to rush back but would probably visit again. I'll chalk this one up as a good stand-by.

Great news. I'll let you know how my dinner goes tonight.

A friend of mine booked this place for her birthday tomorrow. I'd never heard of it (then again, there are many things I've never heard of). Anyone been?

An interesting story about Michael Winner and the Ivy... A good friend of my husband's who is not only totally inept at the game of celeb spotting but completely indifferent to the appeal of celebrities in general (God bless him), went for Sunday lunch at the Ivy with a friend of his. At about 3:00 that afternoon, my husband received a frantic phone call from Matthew who was ringing from the men's toilet. 'Frank,' he begged in a hushed voice 'who is Michael Winner? Is he anyone important?' Frank explained that 'No, Michael Winner was not someone of any importance' (among their set the only people of importance are MPs and high court judges), 'but that he did make a couple of extremely bad films and fancies himself as a restaurant critic'. 'Shit!' Matthew exclaimed, 'He just spilled a glass of red wine on me and I...was rather off with him'. Matthew's gut reaction it seems was to tell the august film director that he was 'a fucking wanker' after he had completely ruined a new tie and an expensive shirt. Winner had then offered to buy him a drink, whereupon matthew, still bristling refused him point blank. In a final attempt to salvage the situation, Michael Winner resorted to using the phrase 'do you know who I am?' Matthew, at that point was so unimpressed (particularly as Winner didn't do the gentlemanly thing of offering to pay his dry cleaning bill) that he snapped at him 'i don't care who you are, you're still a fucking wanker!' Winner was silenced.

Simurgh is good - though rather hit and miss at times. They do really nice grilled meats and Iranian stews. I particuarly like the rice that accompanies their main courses - orange, cardamon, cumin flavours make them quite unique. Its a good atmosphere and I would recommend a visit if you're in the area. Generally, I've found Covent Garden quite a difficult place to find somewhere to eat - which is strange, as the location seems ideal for excellent restaurants to flourish.

So thrilled about this. There's hope for Belfast yet.

Its a shame about this. I went here for my birthday several years ago and thought it was outstanding. I was a bit surprised at its emptiness at the time. Its poor location probably hindered its success - though I did hear that it was a favourite lunch place for Millbank types... (you know who I mean ).

I agree - there are far worse gastronomic black spots than Muswell Hill. My complaint was about the lack of a delivery service or decent take away places within very short walking distance, because basically, if I want a take away its because I'm feeling far to exhausted to drive/hop on the bus/ walk to a local establishment. This also relates to your comment regarding the calibre of restaurants in the area. We could also do with a very good deli. The problem is that I've been spoiled by living in NW3 where good take away (either collected personally or delivered) was in abundance. And yes I agree, Lemonia is v. disappointing (...no great loss there). I will particularly miss Basilico pizzas and the Weng Wah Chinese restaurant. I did however get a mailing through the letter box yesterday for a pizza place that does wood fired pizza and delivers called Treviso: www.treviso.co.uk - the menu doesn't look that bad so there might be hope yet...

Suzi, I'm so sorry to hear that Room Service let you down - though this probably had more to do with Silks and Spice than the delivery service. We had one bad experience with a Greek restaurant we ordered from via Room Service. I don't think Room Service can guarantee that all of the places they use are actually up to e-gullet standards . A bit of trial and error has to be factored in, however, its still better than opening the yellow pages, offering a prayer to the patron saint of take aways and hoping for the best.

An arm and a leg is a small price to pay in exchange for saving a tongue and a stomach from a terrible take away experience. Please Moby, send me the details...

Oi boys! When I said north I didn't mean that far. I will try the Parsee Bapi. But PLEASE what I really need are recommended safe take away places! Pizza? Chinese? Certainly they must be out there somewhere. In a fit of annoyance I sent an e-mail to the bloke who runs Room Service and asked them if they had plans to expand in this direction. He replied by basically saying that they hoped to have the service in this area by the end of the year. If they can pull that off then I think we'll be alright. When we lived in NW3 we had a whole range of choices - everything from fairly decent sushi (Hi Sushi, Yo Sushi), to very good Chinese (Weng Wah), excellent pizza (Basilica), and deliveries from Zuccato if we wanted Italian. I don't understand why places like Room Service and Deliverance never thought of extending their service here when they would have a complete monopoly on food delivery. So I beg you once more for your helpful suggestions...

What have I done. Tuesday was the day of official relocation from NW3 to our new abode in Muswell Hill (N10). I'm now starting to wonder if leaving behind my 0207 area code was such a good idea. Tuesday night - totally exhausted from our move, too tired to go out for a meal and no identifiably safe take-aways within a 5 minute walk. I ring up 'Room Service' and 'Deliverance' only to find that they don't service our area. Ring Scoot to find out that we are in a take away black hole serviced only by Dominios (bleck!!!) and a few other dodgy sounding establishments. This bodes quite badly for the future as we generally rely on delievered or very good take away for one meal a week. What I need are recommendations - anyone who can suggest good places that deliver or do take away nearby. This would include decent pizza, Chinese, Indian, and or anything else. It doesn't have to be the ultimate (though that would be nice) - just reliably good food. Help!

Well, I might have guessed all along...

I would second this. I love Nigel. I have come to the belief that the world is divided into two types of amateur cooks - those who adhere to Nigel and those who prefer Nigella. The 30-Minute Cook was the first cookbook I bought when I moved to London eight years ago and was launched into the world of the commuting professional. It totally revolutionized my approach to making meals after spending an hour stuck on the Northern Line. You didn't need lots of fancy-pantsy cordon bleu techniques, just damn good ingredients put together with a bit of individuality. Nigel teaches a genuine appreciation for food, for texture, colour, smell and taste. He taught me that a satisfying meal could be a pot of butter beans cooked with bacon, wine and mustard and served with a beautiful loaf of bread from a local bakery. I am a complete convert. My old weathered stand-by is also, believe it or not, Delia's 'Complete Cookery Course'. It sits on my shelf of cookery books as a dictionary fits into most people's bookcases of paperbacks. Its always there in case I need to look up something British and basic; steamed pudding, dumpling batter and just yesterday, chilled soup recipes. She's never failed me yet.

Yes, this was my general impression of the place as well. I walked by the other day and noticed that the sign had changed and immediately peeked through the window to see if they had done something about the interior. All I could make out were what looked like colourful ribbons hanging from the ceiling. Then again, maybe I was hallucinating.

Now that the sun is shining (or it was about 10 minutes ago and it did manage to shine on Saturday for at least part of the day...but I digress)...my thoughts have turned to raspberry and blackberry picking. Its probably a bit too late for strawberrys but I wouldn't mind picking those too out in the sunshine. Living in London does make finding these places rather difficult and as my other half doesn't share my enthusiasm for driving 2 hours (1st hour sitting in traffic in central London in order to get out of town) back to the place we visited in Kent in order to do this last year, I was wondering if there might be another pick-your-own place somewhere a bit nearer to the M25 (though not too near). Please, no suggestions that I raid some poor bugger's allotment. I wish I could remember the name of the place we visited last year - it was brilliant as it not only was virtually empty (just us, the wasps, the raspberrys and a toothless hippy couple) but it also had a fantastic home-grown and local produce market. Not only was there fresh produce from their farm and neighbouring ones, but cheeses, eggs, milk and butter from producers within a 5 - 10 mile radius. They also had game but claimed they had a much better selection in the autumn. At the end of the summer/early autumn the pick-your-own side of the enterprise moved over the hill to their orchards where the apples and plums were waiting. We intended to return in September but never got a chance to. Does anyone know of another place like this, that doesn't require several hours in the car to find?

This and worse. I'm convinced that I'm suffering from post museum stress disorder - but I worked for another well-known national gallery, who shall remain nameless (but I'll give you a hint, the place is wall to wall portraits...) I'm not sure if it was the psychological torture of the curator's department, the belittling behaviour experienced at private views or the turps that passed for wine at these events, but I'm scarred for life. What is it about these gossipy, back-stabbing, bully filled places? I can count the number of happy museum/gallery employees I know on one hand (and even then I have several fingers left over...)

Yes. My sentiments exactly. Not a place to go and let your hair down if you are part of the museum fraternity. In my previous life as a member of the above, I used to meet with a friend who worked at the V & A there for dinner. After having our conversation reduced to whispering and anxious looks over our shoulders one too many times we went elsewhere.

Great place to take kids as long as they don't need to use the loo... might prompt a premature 'where-do-babies-come-from' conversation.

...also has, without a doubt some of the best coffee in that neck of the west end.

Eat soups are amazing. I live off of them in the winter. My favourite is their chili con carne - they give you tortilla chips to sprinkle over the top and a dollop of sour cream. I don't know what they put in there but the black beans and pieces of beef are incredible. Their Tuscan bean is also wonderful. I used to be a huge fan of Soup Works. There used to be one on Monmouth Street - now gone, and what a loss it is. Their soups were on a par with Eat's soups. The Soup Opera has never been able to cut it in my book. Like Pret, I find that they seem not to be able to get the balance of flavour or consistency right. On another note, I noticed the other day that Pret seems to have changed its packaging and portion sizes. I became really bored with their salads last year - they were so miserly. Now they come in huge round containers. Obviously, enough people like me were turned off by it. Their coffee however, remains faithfully horrific.

This very well may fly in the face of every good intention behind this post, but this is my two pence about sandwiches shops, for what its worth; * On a whole, I find many of these highly praised hole-in-the-wall places to be vastly over-rated. This is quite frankly because; a.) I hate baps, b.) I hate sliced plastic-sawdust bread, and c.) the heaps of mayo used to bind sandwich fillings together make my skin crawl and my stomach tighten. I also find a lot of these places dirty, run-down and stinking of cigarettes and the ever present stench of sandwich fillings bound up with mayo and liberal lashings of gelatinous marg-butter. Right. I think most people would be inclined to agree with me here. Now for the bit you'll hate me for... * One of my favourite places from which to buy my lunch is Eat. This is why I like Eat; a.) In general, I would rather have noodles, interesting salads, great soups, sushi and wraps filled with crayfish than sandwiches, b.) when I want a sandwich I like them on different types of bread, farm-house style, foccacia, etc., c.) they have really nice desserts - summer pudding, and big American style cookies, d.) I like their lattes, e.) they are easily accessed from my place of work and Degustibus isn't (neither is Villandry - you lucky people who work in Marylebone...). * I also like the Japanese Canteen - who do nice sobas, bentos and sushi * I have also heard good things about Apostrophe, a place called Tiffin - in the City (that does Indian lunches to take away), and an Italian place that also does take away near Ludgate Circus. Do not shun the chain entirely...lunch geography in London has been greatly improved by the appearance of such places...in my humble opinion at least. * And before you think I'm a complete no-hoper-chain-embracer; When I have the time I do often stroll down to Neal Street and have the people at the Deli Counter of Carluccio's restaurant make up a box of their mouth-watering delights, which not so long ago included stuffed squid along with a broad bean salad. Knocks the socks off a sarnie, if you ask me.

I'd say cheap to moderate. Cod and chips was 7 quid something. Tuna was slightly more. Total bill for dinner which included a shared starter, two main courses, mineral water, a filter coffee and a liquour coffee (...don't fault me, I had a long day...), came to 41.00. Glad you liked it, Blind Lemon!

...Hummm...yes...many a gem has been located accidentally in this very same manner. I'll be looking forward to receiving my prize money