angelman

why on earth are people so keen on horrible american donughts. Dunkin Donuts et. al are just horrid dry things, not a patch on traditional english(maybe they were once american in origin but never seen them in the states like this) jam filled juicy sugary coated balls of lovliness. You can get them at any bakers and its pretty rare to get a bad one. Better still are the Italian donughts (bomboloni) filled with custardy creme anglais on the beach... delicious!

would be interested to hear your opinion of the place basildog... hope you have a better experience than I. If its crap be afraid.. be very afraid to complain.. you might be given a lecture on 'real italian cuisine...' funny my first thought about the place when I went in was that it was owned by 'the mob'... good luck.. I am sure your meal will be great, your customer delighted and that mine was just a one off experience with a manageress on a bad night...

glad you liked S&M. Funny most of the staff there are american as far as I can tell in the islington branch. Which branch did you go to. I kind of hope you went to the one in islington in the old alfredos greasy spoon. It does have that kind of american diner vibe of 20 questions but as with all these things its easy when you know how. They also do a reasonable bakewell tart, though the American waitress had no idea what it was. I made her try some to educate her a little! good luck on the rest of your time here

thanks for info.. looks like roussilon is the best bet then!

Ah interesting you mention Incognico. I have wanted to go there for a while but was put off by lack of vege options...

Indian is an obvious choice. Sadly however despite curry being her favourite food, after a bout of food poisoning (a lettuce leaf from a restaurant in paris!) she can no longer eat anything at all spicy! You can imagine the pain, like being a chocoholic and allergic to chocolate...

I am always on the lookout for nice places to take my girlfriend who is vege. no meat or fish. I of course love meat and some fish. We both love eating good food. Because of this we always end up at italians since that seems to provide a good compomise (taking her to locanda locatelli for her birthday). However it gets a bit monotonous always have pizza/pasta/risotto. Likewise in other restaurants whilst vege selection has improved it generally tends to be the same mushroom in puff filo pastry or risotto kind of deal. Its very hard to go some where posh and pricey for a special occasion with a vege. Any suggestions where I can blow some cash and have a memorable meal gratefully apreciated. I want to go to gordon ramsay one day but not sure about what may be available for the girlfriend...

Has anyone been to this restaurant in pimlico.. just wondered what it was like Looks attractive since my girlfriend is veggie and it can be hard to splash out on posh dinner for a veggie. Rousillon apparently has a whole menu (same price I think as other menus) for veggies. sometimes you just want to spend a good amount of cash on food. I am a bit bored of going to italian restaurants where it seems the posher they are the less veggie friendly food they have other than risotto...

well I am off to write to timeout and metro...

Recently went to a restaurant called sweet basil in spitafields market and had the most mind blowing experience, almost surreal. Turned up late at around 10:30pm just looking for a bite to eat. The place seemed like a pizza express kind of place. around £9 for bowl of pasta, £10-15 for meat. Seemed pleasant enough. Food came within about 5-10 minutes of us ordering... never a good sign especially when you have ordered chicken with roast potatoes. The bread was fairly tasty though stale (it tasted home made though). The food wasnt disgusting but was far from satisfactory. My potatoes tasted stale, the chicken was incredibly dry. My whole dish was swimming in balsamic vinegar which seemed like a desperate attempt injecting some flavour. The mountain of rocket was so strong that I couldnt taste anything else anyway. The bowl of pasta was fairly unpleasant too and seemed little more than a packet of pasta and some dolmio sauce. All in all hardly worth the money. I never complain... I have only ever once complained in my life and that was at ASK pizza where they at least apologised and refunded me the money. (The bechamel sauce was curdled and actually tasted revolting). I was hungry so didnt complain. However when the bill came I did say to the waitress that I thought the food was pretty awful. She got the manageress who just went crazy. I said that I thought the food tasted microwaved (my food was eye wateringly hot and then suddenly cooled down after a couple of minutes). The manageress lost it big time. Shouting at me, telling me how they cook the food from the finest ingredients, how the customer doesnt know anything and is not right, that they had never had a complaint in 10 years etc. I couldnt believe it! I pointed out that there werent actually any chefs in the kitchen since they had all gone home. I said that all she had to do when we arrived was tell us that the kitchen was closing and food may not be freshly prepared. She went on to tell me how italian bread is supposed to be stale and that everything was freshly cooked. I asked her how they could cook roast potatoes freshly in 5 minutes... she didnt have much of a reply. Is it any wonder that the english dont complain about food as much as they do in other countries such as the States. God help this place if they get any upset american customers. Am I being unreasonable or is this an example of the worst restaurant management ever!

well I would rather have sausage and mash take over the high street than many other chains... good to see them succeed...

Sausage and Mash! Cant get more english than that You MUST go to the wonderful Sausage and Mash cafe, preferably the Islington branch (there is another in Portobello Road under the overpass). This place is doubly interesting because it used to be a true greasy spoon called Alfredos (I think) which was established in about 1927. It only changed hands very recently. As a diner it was really quite famous. Fortunately they sold to S&M (sausage and mash) who retained all or most of the period features. Red vinyl banquettes, zinc/steel surfaces, little formica tables. The food is excellent and cheap. Don't know where they get their sausages from but they have different specials every day. Very simple you just choose 2 or 3 different sausages, 1 of 4 different kinds of mash and 1 of 4 different kinds of gravy... mmm... I am feeling hungry already.. Here is a link to the location... http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?X=5....y=8&scale=5000 its on essex road, a little down from the junction with upper street. nearest tube is Angel