Reviews by Punkaj

Manna (Restaurant)
28 April 2008

Finally a place that is about good-tasting veggie food and not just about veggies wanting healthy food. The Thai falafel starter is brilliant and on Sunday lunch they do a veggie roast which is stunning. Don't over-fill on these as their desserts are also good. They also have an organic cola called Kick Kola - a fizzy bottled drink with apple and grape juice - which tastes great too. Service was good and on Sundays parking nearby is easy. I'd recommend it to both veggie and non-veggie alike. Bill for 2 of us came to about £80, but we did eat a lot!

Mango Tree (Restaurant)
26 September 2007

Mango Tree is not quite how I remembered it from a few years back. We arrived and had a couple of cocktails, which were very good as were the bar nuts. We had booked for 11 people and they took us to a table for 9. After 10 mins they finally managed to get another 2 place settings squeezed onto this table. The service was slow (but polite), the place was too noisy, the starters were poor and main course was also bad. The only good things were the dessert and the wine. We had veggie and non-veggie people at the table and both were disappointed with the quality of food. People in our party said that Thai Square and Blue Elephant would in hindsight have been better choices. Personally, I think our local Thai takeaway would have been best.

Mildred's (Restaurant)
09 July 2007

Veggie heaven! I've never had so much to choose from. The service is friendly and the location great for a few drinks after.

Busaba Eathai (Restaurant)
23 January 2006

I find this place over-rated. The food, atmosphere and price are good but never great. It's a quick lunch type of place but no more than that.

Blue Elephant (Restaurant)
23 January 2006

While the food and service are both superb, as a venue it does feel a bit like the sort of place that I would want to organise my little girl's 10th birthday party. Still, at least it isn't the bland over-styled approach to interior design that most new restaurants seem to adopt these days.

Maze (Restaurant)
23 January 2006

The food is exceptional. We had a 7-course set menu that included the best risotto that I have ever had and a peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich that was out of this world. I was expecting the wine bill to outweigh the food bill, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they have an exceptional list that covers all budgets - even the lower cost wines (£30 per bottle) were very good.

Hamburger Union (Diner)
17 November 2005

I disagree with the review below, the chips are awesome too.

Being a veggie I always thought that I may not be well catered for, but they have 3 veggie options including a superb Haloumi burger.

Also try the milkshake...

Yauatcha (Restaurant / Restaurant)
11 July 2005

My favourite place for Dim Sum, but at a price. If money is an issue then perhaps Ping Pong (which is a 5 min walk) may be a better call. If you have the cash to spend then Yauatcha is great, the food is stunning and the tea cocktails are really special.

But in the 5 times I have been I have to say that the service was poor twice - particularly for the prices we were paying. If you can't do dinner or lunch then dessert and tea is definitely worth a go.

Hakkasan (Restaurant / Restaurant)
11 July 2005

One of the best restaurants I've been to in a long time. I would suggest going with a handful of people so that you can order a variety of dishes to sample. Whatever you do don't forget dessert and start with their signature cocktail, The Hakka.

Ping Pong (Restaurant)
11 July 2005

Popped in at lunch time and made use of this site's 2 set menu lunches for the price of one offer. The set menu included 3 superb courses.

Ping Pong is a place that I'm sure that I will visit again. The service was efficient, the decor good and for the price the food was outstanding. They have a good vegetarian selection and some great fruit juices and cocktails too. Definitely worth a visit.

The Zetter (Hotel)
05 July 2004

The Zetter is a very nice contemporary hotel with a great Italian restaurant attached. The foyer, atrium, corridors and rooms are stylish and clean in design. But I feel that to really get the "ooohhh" feeling you probably need to spend the night in one of their 7 rooftop studios. We stayed in one of the corner rooms one floor below, but alas no decent view!

The room itself is well designed and features a great entertainment system with 10s of films on demand and thousands of music tracks from lots of different genres of music. The bathroom has a beautifully lit shower. Each floor has a vending machine with beer, champagne and toothbrushes. There was also a complementary fresh coffee machine which did serve a lovely cuppa - pity it wasn't working at 10.30am when I really needed one.

Overall it just seemed to lack unique charm. Don't get me wrong - it is a lovely place to stay but I think this could be a case of my expectations being much greater than the place itself, probably because of the reviews I read before going there. I think it will remain popular for a while... or at least until the next hotel is built.

Mint Leaf (Restaurant / Restaurant)
10 April 2004

I've now been a couple of times - once for dinner on a Friday night and once for lunch on a Thursday.

Dinner on Friday - fantastic atmosphere, stunning drinks mixed by the ex-Che Bar posse followed by a superb dinner. Although I am a veggie I was really well catered for. The starter were well presented and the main courses were spicy and tasty without being too heavy or rich, which can often so be the case with Indian food. I wasn't paying, but it didn't look cheap.

Lunch on a Thursday - The place was empty. Must have been 25 people in the place, 10 of which were with my party. They have what they call a "Thali" menu at lunchtimes. Bit misleading if you know what a real Mumbai Thali is like! This was not a large steel plate containing a little taster of about 10 different dishes - instead this was just one main course with bit of raita-style yoghurt and some dal with veg in it. That said, the meal was still stunning and the service solid.

The only thing that I would suggest to the management of Mint Leaf is that they make their cocktail menu a little more "Indian" in feel; maybe a couple of exotic fruit cocktails. Maybe they could copy Akbar on Dean St (like they've copied Hakkasan on the decor!)

The Player (Bar)
10 April 2004

Definitely was my favourite bar in London and may still be that, the only thing is that it has got way too popular now - as all great things do. So Fridays and Saturdays you'll never get a table unless you reserve one in advance and the bar area gets very crowded. That said the people who go there tend to be friendly and polite so you never have any bother even when its packed. The cocktails are great (I recommend a Raspberry Collins every time) and start from about £6 up which means that they are truly great value for a bar of this status. It gets regular awards for being so great - Time Out Bar of the Year, etc. The music's funky and quite laid back and they have table service so you need never move once you are in. Its sister bars are Milk and Honey and the 2 Match bars - The Player is definitely the best of the four.

Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (Park / Tourist Attraction)
08 April 2004

If you like parks, flowers and plants from around the world this place is an absolute must. Truly a great place to get away from all the hustle and bustle of London. The tropical glass Palm House building should not be missed.

Lab (Bar)
23 March 2004

I agree that drinks are amazing but I personally prefer somewhere with more space and a less claustrophbic atmosphere.

Tate Modern (Public Art Gallery / Tourist Attraction)
10 March 2004

Always a great way to spend an afternoon. Although you may look like a complete tourist I would really recommend hiring the handset that tells you about all the pieces on show - it's much better than trying to work out what the artist is trying to say, in my opinion. They have a cafe / restaurant at the top which serve good coffee and food with great views across London.

Foliage (Restaurant)
08 March 2004

Foliage is one of the restaurants in the Mandarin Oriental hotel. And as would be expected with a hotel chain of that calibre, the experience was great. We started with a couple of drinks in the bar. I wouldn't say the cocktails were the best in London but they were certainly very good. The cocktails start a price of about £10 each and they have all the traditional cocktails but also a number that I've never heard of before. You can go to the bar and order but better than that is to get a table and have one of the waiters serve you. The service is very polite and extremely professional. Once we had lubricated ourselves with a couple of drinks we went to our table in Foliage.

The decor of the restaurant is not particularly unique but that doesn't really matter as the service is perfect and the food is out of this world. Myself and my partner are both vegetarian and normally these sorts of restaurant don't really cater for non-meat and fish eaters. Although we only had the choice of about 2 or 3 starters and main courses I have to say that what we had was cooked to perfection. Every single element of each course was wonderful and the flavours were perfectly balanced and rich. It was all very well presented and the wine list was as long as the Channel Tunnel. We ended the meal with a few cups of Jasmine tea. I'd recommend Foliage to anyone with plenty of money or to people with less money who have a special occasion. The final bill for cocktails, wine, 2 main courses and desert can to about £150. The 2 things that really stood out were the quality of food and the service.

Regent's Park (Park)
08 March 2004

Great park in the summer. A playground for the kids. Opera in the park. A theatre that plays Shakespeare as well as comedy nights. A cafe. Rowing boats for hire. A band stand. Plenty of flat grass areas to play games. And some lovely gardens too. Once in a while they even have the odd movie showing (Stella Artois sponsored) and the odd festival... Indian Summer a couple of years back (Channel 4 sponsored). Plus just a short walk away is Baker Street with a few average restaurants, bars and pubs.

And best of all there is a zoo at the top end of the park!

Natural History Museum (Museum / Tourist Attraction)
08 March 2004

What a great place. You'll remember all those wonderful science and geography lessons you had at school. Photosynthesis... the water cycle.... If you have kids or nieces and nephews then it really is a great day out. Most of the pieces are interactive as well as educational - which isn't a bad thing for some adults too!

Shakespeare's Globe (Theatre / Tourist Attraction)
08 March 2004

If you haven't been here once you've missed out. Even if you aren't a fan of "Big Will" you'll get into the play and you'll have a great experience.

If you are in the pit then pray it doesn't rain. If you are in for the whole play then try and book a seat.