Showing 1-16 of 16 results
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Awana
London's (and perhaps the northern hemisphere's) first fine-dining Malay restaurant, Awana has all our favourite dishes (beef rendang, Hainan-style chicken, butterfish wrapped in banana leaves with herbs and char-grilled) in a dining room done up to look like a relaxed kampong (village) house. (The uninitiated may want to consider the Malaysian Journey sampling menu at around £36 .) The Satay Bar serves delicious skewers of chicken, beef, lamb and prawns accompanied by the restaurant's own spicy peanut sauce. We'll be back.
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Bam-Bou
This listed Georgian house attracts the media darlings from all over Fitzrovia with its winning colonial French-Vietnamese cuisine. It can feel a little cliquish and some of the staff are less than welcoming but the mostly modern Vietnamese fare (sesame prawns, pan-fried duck) is a regular winner.
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Blue Elephant
The sumptuous surroundings, attentive staff and excellent food of this Fulham institution with branches around the globe make dining at the Blue Elephant a memorable (if expensive) experience. The atmosphere is romantic, with candlelit tables, fountains and lush 'jungle' foliage though the 'gift shop' at the front is a bit naff. The best time to come is for the fab Sunday brunch (around £22 ).
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Busaba Eathai
It's harder to get a seat at this, the original branch of this popular Thai chain, than at its Store St equivalent. Still it's busy and full of life.
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Busaba Eathai Bloomsbury
This is a 21st-century Wagamama-style noodle bar - a bit more stylish with it, but brought to you by the same man, Alan Yau. Below ceiling fans and golden buddhas, customers lap up delicious Thai curries and soups on dark wood benches and communal tables. There's another branch on Wardour St in Soho.
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Busaba Eathai Fitzrovia
We prefer the slightly less hectic Store St premises of this West End favourite, but there are also a couple more locations, including a Wardour St branch. Here the sumptuous Thai menu greets you via an electronic screen outside and the über-styled interior is softened by communal wooden tables. This isn't the place to come for a long and intimate dinner, but it's a superb option for an excellent and (usually) speedy meal of stir-fries and noodles.
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C&R Café
When we're in the mood for a bit of Asian, we know of no better place than this hole-in-the-wall serving fairly authentic Singapore noodles, laksa (soup noodles with seafood) and gado-gado (salad with peanut sauce). For those who answer to a higher authority, it's halal. There's a larger Westbourne Grove branch.
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Cay Tre
As much as we'd like to, we cannot recommend any of the Vietnamese cafés or restaurants in Little Hanoi on Kingsland Rd north of here. Trust us; they smell more of faux than pho . Instead stay with your mates in Hoxton and head to the 'Vietnamese Kitchen' for classic Vietnamese beef noodle soup, banh xeo (a kind of pancake with prawns, chicken and vegetables) and wonderful pan-fried basa fish with lemongrass and shallots.
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Churchill Thai Kitchen
This leafy little restaurant in a conservatory behind a traditional English pub renowned for its Sir Winston memorabilia (and, bizarrely, chamber pots suspended from a great height) serves some of the most authentic (and reasonably priced) Thai food in west London. All dishes are uniformly around £6 .
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Esarn Kheaw
Welcoming you back into the 1970s is the very green interior of this superb restaurant serving food from the Esarn (or Issan), the northeast of Thailand where people munch on chillies like chewing gum. The house-made Esarn sausage and green papaya salad are sublime. If you can handle it the 'Tiger's Cry' of grilled strips of ox liver served with a fiery chilli sauce is as authentic a northeast dish as you'll find west of Nakhorn Ratchasima.
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Green Papaya
This oasis just south of the landmark Hackney Empire music hall serves Vietnamese food of very high quality and tends to put a 'modern' spin on many of the dishes. Try the banh tom (lightly fried strips of sweet potato and king prawns), the banana flower salad and the 'Mama's Pork', slow-cooked with mushrooms and vegetables. The staff are enthusiastic and helpful.
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Mandalay
Despite looking not unlike a greasy spoon and being located on this particularly grim part of Edgware Rd, Mandalay is actually one of the capital's most wonderful secrets, not to mention its only Burmese restaurant. Burmese cuisine is never going to win any awards on the world culinary stage but the crispy a kyaw fritters of vegetables and shrimps and the spicy bottle gourd soup with noodles make great starters, while the twice-cooked fish curry with tamarind and lime is delicious.
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Nahm
Australian chef David Thompson is the man behind the excellent tucker at this hotel restaurant, the only Thai eatery in Europe to have a Michelin star. On offer are Thai classics like tom yam gai (hot and sour chicken coconut soup) as well as more exotic fare such as minced trout curry with basil and stir-fried pigeon with bamboo. The surrounds may be somewhat sterile but the leafy views are worth a booking alone. Go for lunch.
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Namo
This very bohemian place takes the Vietnamese dishes so characteristic of nearby Dalston and pulls them into the 21st century; expect things like chilli jam with your slow-cooked pork and a new take on bo bun hue (around £7 ), the signature beef noodle soup. Seating is a bit cramped, but the array of plants and flowers brings nearby Victoria Park even closer.
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Nyonya
One day in the not-too-distant future the world will discover nyonya (or peranakan) cuisine as prepared and enjoyed by the so-called Straits Chinese of Malaysia and it will be bigger than Thai and sushi combined. Neither Malay nor Chinese but both, nyonya highlights include laksa (soup noodles with seafood), Penang char kway teow noodles, bean sprouts with salt fish and fiery sambal dipping sauce.
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Shiok
Any place whose name means 'fantastic' in Malay slang gets our vote, especially when it serves chilli crab (around £15 ), Singapore curry and char kway teow (fried flat noodles) as authentic as this. The surrounds are comfortable in a 'minimalist canteen-style' kind of way. Come here for lunch or a mid-afternoon fix of rice or noodles.
Showing 1-16 of 16 results
