Franco Manca Pizzeria 4 Market Row, Electric Lane, Brixton SW9 8LD London Open from Monday to Saturday 12-5
A revisit to Franco Manca was needed to compare it again to Pizzeria Rustica, since we have been to the latter recently. At our last visit we learnt to come there for about 11:40 to secure our seats (you cannot book) and indeed the restaurant got quickly full by 12 with a queue already starting to be long at 12:20, creating some congestion to that end of the market.
We sat on the opposite side of the fishmonger to avoid the fish smell (read the previous review here) and it was better indeed but unfortunately it was quite windy and we were even feeling cold. They must have read our thoughts as they put the heater above us on
We ordered their pizza #1 (Tomato, mozzarella, basil) and their pizza special of the day which was like the Bianca we had last time but without the ham, and with aubergines instead. Last time we ate here we were quite impressed by the quality of the organic sourdough. This time it was not really the case. The base was not very moist on the inside and not crispy on the outside either. It was not bad but it was average. We were a little disappointed by that, since it is their only selling point for us. To be fair, it is still great to have organic food that cheap: organic tomatoes from Italy, organic cheese from Somerset, organic oil from Spain and Italy, organic sourdough etc and even a homemade organic lemonade (£2.80) which was ok (served cold and not too sweet), and certainly better than the Hepworth organic beer I had last time (it has been replaced by another beer by the way).
Organic lemonade
Pizza #1
Pizza "Special"
Overview of the two pizzas
Cost and conclusion: for about £14 in all for two people it is still a great value for money. The only problem for us is we had better value for money last time when the pizzas were better, even fantastic! The service was still friendly. My preference for pizzas in London still goes to Rustica in Richmond. We have been there about 10 times and they consistently have excellent pizzas. Recommended if you are in Brixton but I would not do the trip just for the pizzas.
Thai Restaurant The Pepper Tree 19 Clapham Common Southside London SW4 7AB Tel 020 7622 1758
The Pepper Tree
Located close to Clapham Common tube station, the Pepper Tree is quite a popular Thai restaurant by judging the queues outside of it. Inside, it is like a canteen with long tables and benches you share with other people. A little like at Wagamama. Not much privacy, and it is very noisy. There must be some kind of bad acoustic in the room. Anyway, we had to yell to have a conversation.
We ordered the Chicken Satay (Chunks of barbecued chicken on a skewer with peanut dip– £3.15) and the Dim Sum filled with minced pork, prawn and water chestnuts with soy and ginger sauce (£2.95) as starters. The main courses were the Red Chicken Curry (a creamy Thai curry cooked with coconut milk, bamboo shoots and sweet basil – £4.80) and a Pepper Tree Curry (a vegetable curry with Thai aubergines, krachai, fresh chillies, lime leaves and sweet basil – £4.50). We also ordered two portions of steamed rice (£1.80 each) that could be useful in case of seriously hot curry, and two great Singaporean Tiger beers (£2.90 each). Talking about the curry and how hot they can be, the red chicken curry was rated as medium hot while the pepper tree curry was rated hot.
The Chicken Satay with peanut dip was very good. The chicken was nicely barbequed with a crispy outer, but still nice and moist inside and the peanut satay sauce was an excellent accompaniment – not too heavy, nor sweet as is sometimes the case with peanut sauces. The three chicken skewers were quite a generous portion. The Dim Sum were quite good with nice flavours. I quite like Thai cuisine and its abundant distinctive aromas.
The Thai red curry was excellent – one of the best I’ve had. It was lightly spicy, and very nice and creamy – just the way I like it The chicken in this curry was very tender, and had been well marinated in the coconut milk. The dish had many subtle flavours, which were well balanced. I’d certainly order this again. The pepper tree curry was seriously hot! I am into hot food but that one was hot to the point it was difficult to eat. I managed to eat all of it but I suffered. Even two hours after lunch my stomach was still burning. That said, the waiter did warn about it and now I know at the Pepper Tree that hot really means hot! Just as well we had the rice!
They had interesting desserts like yellow beancake (home-made Thai beancake served warm with vanilla ice cream – £2.95) or sliced bananas in warm coconut milk (£2.50) but we did not try them because it was becoming too noisy. It was nice to go out to the Common just in front of the restaurant for enjoying some peace.
Tiger (Singapore) beer
Chicken Satay
Dim Sum
Overview of the two starters
Red Chicken Curry
Pepper Tree Curry
Overview of the two main courses
Details of my plate with a mix of the two main courses
Cost and conclusion: for about £25 (service charge not included) it is a great place for a quick lunch. The food is good and well priced. The service was fine too. Despite the rush, everything came in time and they were attentive. No need to yell to get the bill 😉 Recommended if you are looking for a quick meal in the area!
Japanese restaurant Tokyo Diner 2 Newport Place London WC2H 7JJ
Tokyo Diner
Tokyo Diner is probably the largest Japanese restaurant located in Chinatown. At first it looks small but there are rooms downstairs and upstairs. I used to go often there, especially from 2005 to 2007, then I had 3 not so good experiences and decided to go to Zipangu next door. I still go to Zipangu now named Akasiro but I wanted to check how Tokyo Diner was doing. We ordered 2 Asahi beers (£3.80 – that is a very good price) and 2 Kara Fry Bento boxes (£31.80). I used to take the Kara Fry Bento box in the past so it was a good way to use it as a benchmark. I was quite disappointed and it is sad to see this place going down. In the past the pieces of chicken were so large that I could have trouble eating it all. They were also freshly cooked with a nice crispy skin. Now they were not really warm with a chewy texture (even the skin) which makes me wonder how long ago were they cooked… The salmon sashimi used to be 3 larges slices. Now it was ridiculously small, like the size of a single slice in the past divided into 3 pieces. Worse, they were room temperature instead of being on the cold side. The only thing that did not change size was the rice but it was dry, and was long grain rice which really isn’t suited to Japanese cuisine. The pickles and the aubergine agé bitashi were good while the su-no-mono was not. The beer was not very cold too. They used to do so much better.
On the upside: the service is friendly and I like they give you the bill when they serve your meal so after eating you do not have to wait and can go directly to the counter to pay. Also, they give you green tea for free and refill it too. If you like green tea, you do not have to order any drink. They have a no tipping policy, like in Japan, which is nice.
Asahi beer and green tea
Kara Fry bento
Details of the bento box
Pickles and aubergine agé bitashi
Cost and conclusion: it was £35.60. The Kara Fry bento is way overpriced at £15.90 for what you get now. It is the price for two pizzas and two drinks at Franco Manca (in Brixton), it is currently the price for a two course set menu at Bellevue Rendez-vous (in Wandsworth Common) where the quality of food is high. It is also a lot more than the other Japanese restaurant Akasiro next door. It is now the 4th consecutive time I have had a bad experience at Tokyo Diner in the last 2 years. I have also friends who have noticed the same problem and we did not eat together. Also, they do claim they are open 365 days a year from 12 till 12 but we got refused at 11pm one night. There were still people eating and it was far from being full.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen 44 Northcote Road, Battersea SW11 1NZ London Telephone (020) 7228 3309
Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Battersea
Have you ever tried a Kiwiburger? It is a burger with beef, cheese, salad, egg but also some beetroot. It originated in New Zealand hence the name. The idea for Gourmet Burger Kitchen originated in New Zealand and this can be seen by the presence on the menu of not only the kiwiburger but also from several wines and beers coming from there. It happened I was wearing a flashy green fluo t-shirt with New Zealand on it so I fitted in well in the restaurant 😉
The restaurant is quite simple inside, a little crammed but there is a terrace so you can eat outside if you wish. Our table was next to the counter so it was getting a little busy with all the people ordering their food especially since they also do take away.
We ordered a Kiwiburger made of 100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef, beetroot, egg, pineapple, cheese, salad, mayonnaise & relish (£7.95) and a Habanero made of 100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef, hot and spicy sauce, mozzarella cheese, salad & mayonnaise (£7.65) plus two NZ brewed beers, a Steinlager (£3.30) and a Mac’s Gold (£3.30). We also added two portions of fries (£2.75 each).
The burgers were excellent! They were also massive, so only for very hungry people (or could alternatively be shared). The burger bun was nice and fresh, and lightly grilled so it was crispy on the outside whilst remaining nice and fresh inside. All the burgers are cooked to ‘medium’ (unless you ask for something different) – medium was perfect. In addition to the meat, the kiwiburger has cheese, egg, beetroot and pineapple, plus the usual salad and tomato. That means about 3-4 full rings of pineapple and at least half a beetroot – so really not a small meal. It had a little too much tomato for my taste, but that is easy to expel. The only complaint/comment here is that there is no way in the world to eat this thing other than dissecting it with knife and fork. It is a seriously large burger – about 20 cm in height.
The Habanero burger was very good too and the spicy sauce was a little sweet and surprisingly spicy (hot). I like that! Apparently it is a novelty on their menu. The fries were good. They were still crispy while being quite large. Do not order two portions unless you are very very hungry! We managed to finish one only. The mustard provided with the fries was incredibly hot, be moderate with it 😉
The macs gold beer is a pleasant lager and the Steinlager was fine too if you are into bitter beer – both were served properly cold as they were designed to be, not the semi-cold (too warm) bottles you get too frequently in London pubs.
Not very large inside
2 NZ brewed beers! Mac’s Gold & Steinlager
Kiwiburger
Habanero burger
Details of the Habanero burger
Overview of the table
Details of the massive Kiwiburger
Done! Nap time required now...
Cost and conclusion: it was £27.70 in all. It is possible to have offers like two for one etc if you do some search online. We did not know at that time since we tried it just because the burgers looked good while visiting the area. It is not exactly the refined food but the quality was there and it was good. What else to ask for burgers? The service was very good too. Definitely recommended!
Wetherspoons Pub Terminal 2 Landside, Heathrow Airport Hounslow, Middlesex TW6 1EW
Reviewed Thursday 18 June 2009
"Gourmet burgers"
Heathrow Terminal 2 Landside is really bad if you wish to eat there before security. The choice is only between Costa the Italian coffee chain and Wetherspoons pub. Being hungry we go for the pub described on BAA Heathrow site as “The relaxing, children-friendly pub that offers exceptional value. Choose from a wide choice of ales and wines, plus a choice of classic pub food.”
The pub is located upstairs and is quite large and is divided in two areas. It is spacious and there is enough room between tables for fitting luggages. We ordered two San Miguel beers (£3.10 each) and two Gourmet burgers (£8.99 each), more precisely the Butterfly chicken breast burger, topped with bacon slices, spicy Monterey cheese & pepper sauce and six beer-battered whole onion rings.
Menu
The waitress came after 5 minutes to tell us they had no onion rings and asked what we would like instead. I was quite annoyed by that because you would think they could have that in stock with some minimum management. We asked for a simple salad instead. The food arrived 10 minutes later and without the salad! Well, I did not bother to remind her about it because that was the worst food I’ve had in a long time. Where to start? The burger bun was dry and horrible – it certainly wasn’t fresh, and had a tendancy to crumble as you tried to eat it. The chicken was dry and incredibly hard. It was smothered in a revolting sauce that tasted like packet mushroom soup, and totally overpowered anything else (including the “taste” of the chicken). The only thing I could eat were the fries, thanks to the little mayonnaise sachets and to the fact I was hungry. The bottles of beer were not cold.
Overview of the two meals
Yucky! What's in there?
Very dry and hard chicken
Hopefully the food in the plane will be better...
Cost and conclusion: £24.18 for that! The food was cheap expensive and nasty, the beer not cold… I think they forgot the word bad when they wrote this place offers “exceptional value”. There’s not really much else to say – except don’t go there! You’ll enjoy far more a sandwich at Boots downstairs.
