All posts tagged: restaurant

Celebrating Diwali with Kricket at Pop Brixton

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Where Kricket, POP Brixton What An evening to celebrate Diwali with Indian restaurant Kricket and British light artist Rupert Newman. Experience POP Brixton is a playful courtyard of bars, restaurants and shops housed in old shipping containers near the arches of Brixton train station. It is also an event space and Indian inspired restaurant Kricket, who normally occupy one of the shipping small containers upstairs, took over the decidedly more grand barn like building for a night to celebrate the ancient Hindu festival of light, Diwali, in collaboration with British light artist Rupert Newman. The placed looked pretty incredible. There were 3 long tables set with runners and stoneware plates and Rupert’s colourful bespoke visuals bouncing around the room. I was dubious about how well British chefs were going to be able to carry off the diverse and intricate Indian cuisine but they weren’t trying to imitate. The food was Indian inspired but considerably meatier and served with lots of different flavoured mayonnaises and dips to suit the English taste. The spiced rum and masala popcorn …

Chinatown Trail for London Food Festival

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Where Chinatown, London What For the second year running Chinatown has taken part in the London Food Festival, putting together six of its best restaurants to form a specially guided food trail with the aim of allowing visitors to experience a variety of the Malaysian, Vietnamese, Szechuan and Classic Cantonese meals the area has to offer. Experience The decision to go on a Chinatown food crawl with a relatively significant hangover could obviously have gone either way. I did the food trail last year with Sarah so I knew what was in store. There were no taster sized portions but each restaurant offered up an entire meal (that’s six meals each with a beer…) so we came out the other end feeling a bit sleepy and delirious but quite drunk and happy. To start we headed to Dumpling’s Legend because I love dumplings and I didn’t want to run out of room. They seemed a bit confused as to why we were there, and we were sashayed around a few tables before being seated upstairs …

Innovation and Imagination with Rootdown

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Where Rootdown, East London What New restaurant and bar Rootdown shares its innovative and imaginative menu with East London. Experience A few weeks ago I celebrated my day of birth by renting out a bar my friend had preached about relentlessly since moving to East London. I arrived at Rootdown early doors in order to greet my guests and sneaked a peak at the food menu – I was so impressed that I came back to try it with my old friend (and new house mate) Rachael. Rootdown may be one of many new restaurants popping up on Lower Clapton Road, but their seasonal menu and unpretentious style ensures it outshines their rivals. Rootdown takes food very seriously. Becca Scales said “Our ingredients are seasonal, locally sourced and largely organic”. Head Chef Ben Lourjane is a champion of vegetables. Their vegetarian dishes are always a hearty and competitive alternative to the meat options. I knew from my birthday party that Rootdown did a cracking cocktail, but my attentions were drawn to the chilli pear caprioska. …

A Lone Diner in Melbourne: Gensuke

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Where Gensuke, Hawthorn   Experience Gensuke doesn’t do much for my longing to go to Japan. Having popped into work to take a few snaps of a beer tasting on Thursday night, I decided that going home to cook my solitary aubergine just wasn’t going to cut it. I was going to try a new pizza joint, but as I approached I stopped in my tracks, turned around and headed to my car. I had remembered my friend telling me about an amazing Hawthorn ramen shop on Glenferrie Road, so I whipped out my phone and with a minute had tapped the address of Gensuke into my sat nav. The first thing that struck me about Gensuke was the lighting; the glow was so bright that I could see it from where I parked my car a good 50 meters away. Undeterred, I ventured through the door and was greeted by a chorus of Japanese waiters and chefs communicating to each other in harmony. A smile emerged across my face and I knew I had …

Table for one? A Solo Diner in Melbourne

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He’s back, I thought to myself as I saw Omar being seated at the kitchen bar. The last time I saw him, he was about to embark on a five week work/fun trip around Asia. Little did he know that during his time away, a series of solo dinners were taking place and a blog series idea was bubbling away, all inspired by him. When I told my friend who worked at the restaurant before my time that I was inspired by a guy that comes in on his own most weeks, he knew exactly who I was talking about. Our conversation reinforced the fact that I had developed a soft spot for Omar’s style. And I wanted in. Most of the friends I have made since arriving in Melbourne work in hospitality, which means that evening rendezvous are usually out. It was only when I started working full time in PR that I was able to hold the knife and fork to eat with again, rather than to polish, and rather than wait around …