places to be curious about - uk edition

[Diancecht]

if you are headed to the uk anytime soon, you might want to give this restaurant review blog a quick look.

some of you may remember andy lynes from egullet; seems like andy is a follower of the author on threads.

the below is an excerpt from a lengthy post on a gastropub in islington:
 

The menu changes every day and they publish it on the website, so it was much as I’d expected. It’s curious how some menus present you with very difficult choices while some, despite making all the right noises, are devoid of dilemmas. I would say that, however well it read, the Drapers Arms menu was the latter. Nine starters, all of which seemed to be either gutsy and rustic or, for my money, a little too virtuous. It was all a tad binary for me. You had the same number of mains, although four of them – the fun ones – were to be shared between two.

That made the whole thing a little more restrictive than I’d have liked and if you didn’t like offal or bone marrow, both of which made an appearance, I think you might have found things trickier still. Starters generally clustered between eight and fifteen pounds, mains started just shy of twenty but climbed, for the sharing dishes, up to ninety quid.

[MitchW]

Had a reservation for Drapers Arms this afternoon, but cancelled it and decided to stay within walking distance of our airBnB in Marylebone (we have an annoyingly early departure tomorrow morning).

We’ve had some quite good meals at Noble Rot (the Mayfair one), BRAT, St. John Bread and Wine, and Planque.

[Diancecht]

behold the most divisive restaurant in london:

“Restaurants are not public benches,” he wrote on Instagram, chastising people for splitting entrees and singling out those who do not drink alcohol. “You are there to spend some money.”

[small h]

Now I feel like going and getting an appetizer and a glass of water.

[Diancecht]

Last year, the London culinary institution St. John, run by the chef Fergus Henderson and known for its nose-to-tail British cooking, celebrated its 30th anniversary. Now the younger chefs who’ve passed through its kitchen and that of the similarly influential Rochelle Canteen, founded in 2004 by the chef Margot Henderson, Fergus’s wife, have begun to open their own restaurants, offering fresh takes on the canon. “Everyone criticized [us] because our food was so brown,” says Margot, 60, of the response to her and Fergus’s early dishes. “But we love brown food. It’s about letting it be.” She’s become known for remastering English standards like boiled ham with parsley sauce and Lancashire hot pot, a stew of lamb, potatoes and onion. “British food is gentle and so simply [made],” she says. But “simple is not easy.”

is british food still a joke?

[Anthony Bonner]

Wow. StJ alums opening restaurants. The NYT is on it

[MitchW]

Didn't most people give up the British food is a joke stuff like 25 years ago?

 

[small h]

I thought so, but some trends take a while to die.

[Wilfrid]

Strongly in favor of brown food. Brown food on a white plate.

[small h]

4 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

Strongly in favor of brown food. Brown food on a white plate.

Will you settle for a green plate and a white bowl?