David Gulbransen

Wise Up, Suckers

  • All About Dave!
    • The Basics
    • Simpsonized!
    • My Tattoo
    • My Motorcycle (R.I.P)
  • Professional Info
  • Friends
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Preaching to the Perverted (Blog)
You are here: Home / Archives for england food london personal restaurants travel

Chowki

August 10, 2005 by Dave!

I had a chance to explore some of the curry houses of Brick Lane before my wife arrived. However, she wanted to try some Indian while in London, so we hit some review sites and found a place very close to a theatre we were going to see a show at. That place was Chowki.

The decor at Chowki was a little on the hip-for-the-sake-of-hip side for me, but it doesn’t matter. I would highly recommend the place, especially if you are out for a night of theatre. It’s less than a block off Picadilly Circus, so it’s very convenient to an amazing number of theaters and it’s also some of the most unique Indian food I’ve had.
For reasons I won’t go into here *cough*imperialism*cough* London is swimming with Indian/Bangladeshi restaurants. I couldn’t find decent Mexican there to save my life, but man, the variety of food from the Asian subcontinent was amazing.

Chowki features a rotating menu that showcases different regions of India each month. So there were only a few dishes on the menu that I recognized from the traditional Indian fare we get around Chicago. The August menu featured cuisine from Bangladesh, Gujarat and Karnataka.

We began with starters from Karnataka that featured a chili-chicken dish with onions and coconut that was so flavorful, with just a little kick. For our main course, we went hog wild, with some Chicken Kori Gassi, and another dish of flageolet beans and peagon peas, all rounded out with a “meat” kebab selection. We left very full and very satisfied.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Kulu Kulu Sushi

August 6, 2005 by Dave!

Sushi Night!

Anyone who knows me knows that I loves me some raw fish on rice! So with the help of some recommendations, I found Kulu Kulu Sushi near Soho/Covent Garden and decided to give sushi in London a shot. I was not disappointed.

For some reason Kaiten sushi places seem to be more rare in the States than in Japan, or in Britain for some reason. In fact, all of the places in Chicago are Sushi-ya or Izakaya (as far as I know). If you’ve never been Kaiten are “conveyor belt” sushi restaurants, where instead of ordering from an Itamae, you grab what you want off a giant conveyor belt that keeps new and tempting pieces rolling past you all evening long. If you haven’t been to one, go.
Kulu Kulu was quite tasty and as far as sushi is concerned, quite affordable. There was a good mix of nigiri and I had a really excellent soft-shell crab temaki that was out of this world.

I won’t compare sushi in London (or the U.S. for that matter) to eating Sushi in Japan–it’s just not fair. However, I will say that Kulu Kulu was as good as many of the places I’ve had sushi in the States, although not quite as good as the best sushi I’ve had in the states. Since my experience with sushi in London was limited, I can’t say how good Kulu Kulu is in relation to other London offerings, but I will say that it was good quality, tasty and affordable, which means I wouldn’t hesitate to go back again.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Refettorio

August 4, 2005 by Dave!

Do you normally associate great restaurants with hotels? I don’t. Maybe you do, but I don’t. Tonight we hit Refettorio though, which is located in the Crowne Plaza hotel, not far from our hotel in London (The City). The place came recommended for its cheese and salami selections, and I’m a cheese fiend. So we gave it a shot…

We weren’t disappointed. The cheese was outstanding–especially this creamy Gorgonzola that was the most amazing Gorgonzola I have ever had. It was phenomenal. The pasta was out of this world too, all hand made. I had a linguine with pesto and some Sangiovese and ended up going back to the hotel a well fed man.

It wasn’t the best restaurant I’ve been to on this trip, but it was a solid restaurant that I would go to again, hotel or not.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Barcelona

August 3, 2005 by Dave!

Tapas tonight! And I mentioned to one of the Brits at work and they said, “You’re going to a topless bar with your wife??” Nice to know that the English use the same stale jokes we do.

Anyway, we went to a tapas place called Barcelona, which apparently has multiple locations, but we didn’t know that at the time. We went to the original, which is on Bell Lane not terribly far from Brick Lane (Indian central). From the outside, you would think it was a total dive. And from the inside it has the most uncomfortable bar stools ever. But the decor is still very bright and lively. And for what it lacked in decor, it made up for in quality. On the whole, some of the best tapas I’ve ever had. Everything we sampled was delicious… the Mejillones con Sofrito (mussels) were absolutely fantastic and the patatas bravas were just the right balance of flavor and spice. I could go on-and-on about the menu, but since we had so many dishes, it would take forever. Just go check out the menu on their website.

I was speaking with another co-worker about Spain–I’ve never been. He was saying how great it was to walk out of work at 9:30-10:00PM into the warm night air as restaurants are just beginning their first seatings and to feel the cool Mediterranean breeze. He did a great sales job; Spain has moved way up on my “must visit” lists. Any place that believes that dinner shouldn’t start until 10pm and that thinks mid-day naps are an important part of life gets a huge thumbs up from me.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Tiffinbites

July 28, 2005 by Dave!

The work days have been very long this week, since it’s the new opening of the facility. Students are now here, and we’re still behind schedule, so we’re working all day, trying to squeeze in little bits here and there, and arriving early/staying late in order to work when they are not around.

So no time to do much, including eat out. However, at Mooregate Station I discovered (thanks to a co-worker) fast food that is pretty damn cool: Tiffinbites. It’s a fast-food Indian place. So they have your standard Indian dishes, lamb rogan josh, briyani, various tandori, etc. in these little takeaway dishes (plastic tiffin, actually). You pick out what you want and they heat it up, make you some fresh naan, and you are good to go. Or you can pick from a selection of “snacks” like samosa, aloo, poppadums, etc. three for two pounds.

It’s a damn good deal for London and tasty to boot.

Speaking of London pricing… everything here is numerically equivalent… so a t-shirt at the Gap that would be 9.99 dollars in the states is still 9.99 pounds here. Which sucks. With an exchange rate hovering around 1.75, it makes London a pretty expensive city, even if it is really world class.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Brick Lane

July 25, 2005 by Dave!

Tonight it was time to sample some of that delicious Indian food that London has been tempting me with since I deplaned. So I hoped on the tube and made my way to Brick Lane.

If you haven’t been to Brick Lane, it’s several blocks of Indian eats. All types, including a lot of Bangladeshi places as well. Tonight, I opted for Bangladeshi. I chose this place called City Spice, I will admit, mostly because they had a good “tout” and they had good reviews from Time Out London in their window. I was not disappointed.

The place was pretty reasonably priced for the food, all in all, I spend £12 on dinner, and it was worth every pence.

I started off with some Aloo Chop, which is lamb and some vegetables wrapped in a nice spicy potato mixture and fried to a crisp. It was really fantastic! It was served with a sweet yogurt sauce that was the perfect compliment, really a great starter.

After that, I had chicken Ureebisi Gatta, which is chicken cooked with green chili coriander, onion, many other spices and the seeds of Runner Beans. It started off pretty mild, but had a real nice spice build to it, so by the time I was finishing, I had some nice sweat coming off my upper lip. Good stuff.

The waiter told me it was an authentic Bangladeshi dish, which I have no reason not to believe, although, the most popular Indian dish in London is this stuff called Chicken Tikka Masala, which is an entirely British creation. Still, I might try it. After all, when in London…

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel
www.flickr.com
My Photo Stream...

Recent Blog Posts

  • The Most Important Person in Your Family
  • Ribs
  • Blawg Review
  • Blawg Review #321:
  • SodaStream. Now I’m carbonating everything!

Categories

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2022 David Gulbransen · All Rights Reserved

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.