Having said that, yesterday I went to Golden Day with a friend who isn't allowing herself to eat any pork. The Chinese people eating there seem to be grad students enrolled locally and the decor is much nicer. If you're not prepared to go back to Gourmet San on a less busy night (you can approximate that experience by turning up there at 7pm instead of any later), the service is always better at Chilli Cool in Bloomsbury and two people can eat for about £30-£40 if dinner is a shared fish hotpot, green beans, ribs/lambsticks and DUMPLINGS!/noodles. FWIW it gives me The Rage when I agree on a restaurant with a friend only to find they can't or won't eat what's served there, but only remark on same after five minutes of staring at a menu. You should have been rocking the green beans, lamb skewers and dan-dan noodles the green beans in particular are a good gateway item for fussy/chiliphobic dining companions and all of these things are actually Szechuan. normal? Meaning, not rude but leaning towards the 'shy' side and certainly not invasively bossy like you've described. Xp Oh no! The last time I went to Gourmet San the service was. X-post yep agree with Tim completely.you can't order lots of dishes with two people cos eg the ribs was this huge mountain of food. The menu is intimidatingly large and my friend i was with wasn't keen to experiment much, i think if you were with a large group who were willing to order lots of things and go a bit wild it might be better, also my timing was poor, i was massively hungover and starving, hence the usually appealing thought of eating pig guts in eyewatering chilli didn't quite grab me. i know you don't expect great service in a place like this but i'd expect even bare bones politeness when you're paying over 20 quid each by the time the bill comes. i'd be more inclined to order takeaway again than actually sit down in there, the service was truly awful, a waitress came over and without saying anything proceeded to move our table so someone else could be squeezed in beside us, while we were eating. i prob wasn't adventurous enough but had crab with spring onion and ginger, it was really good, we also got some szechuan ribs, the portions are gigantic but it wasn't ultra cheap. Hmm yeah, it was really busy and extremely unpleasant to sit in, very hot and cramped and the service is appalling. All the same, I'd still rather eat chocolate-covered scorpions than ever go to the Exmouth Market Sofra (which might, ironically, be your best bet for a veggie dinner). It has a few branches and although it offers the same meals at every one, the EC1 branch is more expensive.Ĭolette, veggies don't do well in Clerkenwell because of the Smithfield factor but at least Edible, the restaurant where they served BUGS, has closed. I'm glad the NYT didn't discover Metcalf, and it can KEEP the Little Bay - part of a chain of restaurants with cheap three-course meals where one of the courses is always bitty and one of the puddings offered is always banoffee pie.

And cheap.Ĭlerkenwell trufax: it's not that the Chophouse has gone downhill, it's just been kicked into touch by Moro/Metcalf and the ever-reliable Eagle. Try a chirashi box at Taro instead - best new place since Kulu Kulu.

Although I must admit that I have agedashi tofu, chicken toriage and Japanese potato salad with miso more often than sushi, and nowadays having eaten the menu I prefer a hand roll and miso soup. Gareth, Kulu Kulu is always excellent on a Thursday, or when it's REALLY busy.

Hashtag hashbrown huntdown