Mama Lan - Freshly made Beijing dumplings in Brixton

I always wanted to try Mama Lan’s freshly made dumplings in Brixton Village. The mother and daughter team from Beijing started with Chinese supperclubs, which gradually turned into this much loved restaurant. It’s a really small place with more sittings outside than in and surrounded by food stalls selling unusually yellow Jamaican yams. The menu is really simple, 4 options of dumplings and 2 types of noodles. The dumplings are £4.50 per plate for 5 dumplings and noodles start from £7.50.

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Bill’s - Rise and Shine at Soho

Soho has become rather American in recent months. Burgers are served from everywhere while new ones open on a weekly basis. I admit, the pictures just surfaced from Honest Burger does look irresistible with the melted cheese dripping over the 35 day dry-aged Ginger Pig steak. Among this heated burger buzz, Bill’s seem almost too simple to succeed. It serves an all day, unpretentious British menu in a garden/greengrocer setting and possibly the best breakfast in London. The first cafe in 2001 did sell mid range grocers but Soho’s high rent may have discouraged it. Considering the constant queue for weekend breakfast at the Covent Garden restaurant, it’s a wise idea to free up more space for tables and open another cafe at Piccadilly to ease the queue.  

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Hereford Road - Nottinghill Gate’s Local

Visiting new restaurants can be exhausting, you have to decipher the menu, find a good table and determine whether to book or not. We all know how hard it is to book a decent restaurant last minute in London. Most of the time after work, I simply prefer to eat at home or go somewhere nice and local. If I lived at Nottinghill Gate, Hereford Road would be the ideal place. Seasonal fare, honest food with locally sourced ingredients and cooked by the former head chef at St John Bread and Wine. Not only is the restaurant always chilled, the lunch special is also one of the best valued in London. The express lunch including a main course, wine and coffee is only £9.50, cheaper than Pret. The set lunch is only £15.50 for 3 courses, what a bargain. 

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Maggie Jones - cozy Kensington tavern

I’m probably over reliant on Twitter these days with foodies actively shouting the latest restaurant openings, the best places to eat and the most trendy doorways to queue for 2-3 hours. But for the local and often hidden places that I walk by everyday, it’s my friends who actually recommends them and they are just as good. On a weekend afternoon, three of us struggled to find a quiet, cosy and not too expensive place for lunch. The criteria is the usual, no queue, no wait and can stay as long as we want. One friend remembered Maggie Jones, a traditional British restaurant that’s been hidden in Kensington for over 40 years. 

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Royal China - Dim Sum

I’ve previously blogged Royal China’s dinner but the focus of this place has always been the cheap dim sum. Every weekend, crowd piles on for the queue which could easily take over 2 hours unless you start queueing before it opens. Best option is to avoid the weekend queue and enjoy a no-wait, no-crowd pushing afternoon with one of the best dim sum in town without breaking the bank. 

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Song Que - For Best Pho

One’d give anything for the best pho in London. Song Que, the Vietnamese restaurant that Timeout highly recommended and for all the right reasons. It’s a strange phenomenon to walk down Kingsland road where Vietnamese restaurants lined up one after another. Some completely full while others without a single customer. Song Que is as casual as a restaurant can get, tables so close you could easily touch other diners and noise so loud it could easily be a food court. Service is so fast the long queue clears like the speed of space invaders. I have to say, without the recommendation, it’s not a place I’d just walk in.

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Corner Room - Affordable First Date

Corner Room would be the ideal place for a first date if your criteria were: affordable, romantic but not cheesy, and exemplary food. Located in the same Town Hall hotel, Viajante shows off Nuno Mendes’s genius creations into a lengthy list of small plates, often clean, subtle and very complex. A 6 course menu (£65) requires three hours and the 12 course requires four (£90). In most cases, this is too lengthy and expensive for a first date, what if she/he turn out too boring?! Corner Room has almost the same dishes as Viajante but a fifth of the price and you could easily leave in an hour. Remember to impress with pre or post dinner drinks at the stylish Town Hall bar, again at affordable prices. 

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Satsuma - gigantic orange booths

My previous ‘it’ chicken katsu curry in London, Satsuma, has just returned to Soho after a summer of refurbishment. During it’s absence, I’ve turned my craving to the nearby Japan Centre for a fix, but as good as Japan Centre is, it never delivered to what I remembered at the Royal China Group owned Satsuma. My memories of the perfect chicken katsu curry involved perfectly breaded chicken breast smothered with a classic Japanese mild yet sweet curry sauce – would the newly revamped Satsuma live up to my  expectations?

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