Restaurant Spy

On Saturday 05/05/07, I booked a table for 7 people for a birthday celebration.

Whilst the service was quite good, the same cannot be said of the food.

Portions extremely miniscule and each plate was unnecessarily overly decorated.

The food was undercooked and tasteless. The wine was extremely expensive.

The menu was priced in accordance with a London restaurant. The whole experience

Whitechapel is full of "Indian" restaurants, and 90% of them are run by Bangla Deshis. Nothing wrong with that, but Lahore gives the impression of being truly Indian, and the menu certainly has few of those run of the mill staples we all know and love. The clientele was 90% male and a wonderful ethnic mix, I guess most of them worked at the nearby London and Barts hospitals. We were seated quickly, every table gets a salad and raita straight away (excellent) There's also a bottle of Hildon water on each table, but if you check the menu it's £2 (not excellent at all) We asked for a jug of tap water and got one - no fuss.

I've eaten here twice. The first time my Ugandan friend brought me because we wanted East African food and she recommended this place. The parking is lousy, but that's not the restaurant's fault - the little side street of Hackney look like a cruising spot for twocers, and I was nervous about leaving my nice little car there.

Anyway, once in the restaurant, the owners were nice to us, and soon brought us Tusker beers, which made me forget about my car. My friend had lots of meaty things and I had tilapia fish. We had little samosa starters, and we ordered the African beans in rich tomato sauce as well. The portions were generous. It wasn't long before I couldn't move, and was forced to drink another beer. Overall very enjoyable, and afterwards my car was just where I'd left it.

Now I know we can't all go to Whitechapel to taste probably the best Indian food in the world, but take it from me - if you're visiting London this is a destination restaurant.

Its BYO - bring your own wine, etc - so its all eyes down for the food menu. You almost cannot spend too much money here. I went with a group of people, ate far too much until I was fit to burst and it came to twelve quid each.

This is a first class restaurant, the staff are friendly beyond belief and the cooking is sublime. The restaurant is situated on the bank of the Thames, with great views over the river and the Dome in the distance. The interior is tasteful (unlike most Indian restaurants I've visited) and the price is amazingly average considering the quality of the food. Choose from the 'old favourites' and get your Chicken Korma/Chicken Tikka Masala, etc or go for a special such as the Reicardo. The dish is gorgeous trout stuffed with spicy prawns. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone as it is the best Indian I've ever visited, plus set in a delightful environment. Go there and enjoy! From a regular.... Kate

Popped into this fairly new place on the off chance on a Friday early evening - and they just had one table for two un-booked! Initial impressions were quite favorable - reasonable airy decor, and the tables not too close together. Quite small - only ten tables, but I discovered that they also have seating on the first floor - from the number of people who went up there, I assume this must have been bigger. Staff were friendly and efficient - even if one of them did trip and send our starter of bread skidding across the floor! (she wasn't hurt, and our food was replaced speedily - so no hard done!). The kitchen, also on the ground floor, hoot on a hooter when dishes are ready - quite disconcerting at first, but after a while it somehow it added to the charm! The menu includes pasta and pizzas, but my partner and I went for their more expensive main meals - I had Tuscan Chicken (chicken fillet with Tuscan beans (?) on a bed of potato), and she a Saumon Aux Crevett (salmon steak with prawns), both priced at £10.95. Luckily, these were brought to our table without mishap. My Chicken was, I thought, somewhat bland, although the whole dish came over well, she said the salmon was perfect, but wouldn't let me taste it, so we have to take her word! Not too many sweets on the menu, So I decided on a liqueur with my coffee, but my partner went for the "lazy sundae" - which is peach ice cream, cream and strawberries. She did let me have a taste of this - and the ice cream was amazingly tasty - unfortunately, she only let me have one taste - insisting that I had decided against pudding! Service was not included, and they presented me with a closed Credit card bill, so we tipped in cash - not a problem, but somewhat unusual. Overall a very good addition the Chingford repertoire of restaurants - but remember to book to ensure you get a table on a Friday night! Dark Knight

Very unusual to find this in England. Georgia is on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, bordered by the Russian Federation, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is where the story of St George and the dragon started. Georgian food is influenced by several European and Asian cuisines. Georgians live longer than most of us. In Tbilisi (capital city) in 1969, I met a Georgian man aged about 110, who attributed his longevity to "local food, local wine and local women". They have made good wines for over 5000 years.

I usually have a bit of a problem with tapas bars, because I have a theory that they are cunningly designed to make the English, who are often unfamiliar with the tapas concept, spend a lot more than they thought they were going to, especially when in a large group. However, at Laxiero there were only two of us and we had the paella for two, which cost £16, and a side salad. Both of them were very good indeed (and my companion was half Spanish so she ought to know) and also extremely good value. Laxiero is in a little restaurant oasis in a largely residential area, next to Columbia Rd flower market. On Saturday night when we went it was jammed to the rivets, but the atmosphere is still laid back and friendly. The room is quite small so tables are fairly close together but not obtrusively so and the service is good. Two of the waitresses are actually Spanish as well - and the place is sometimes patrolled by a very cool black cat. Harry

A monday night stopping at the Tower Thistle Hotel led a large group of us in search of somewhere more interesting than the hotel rstaurant to eat. One of the party had eaten at Il Bordello before and recommended it so we rang ahead and booked then took a short cab ride to the restaurant. Italian run and owned this has to be one of the best restaurants in the area. Packed with people when we arrived at 7.30 this 200 cover restaurant describes itself as 'where fine Italian cuisine, quality, service and ambience meet.' They're not wrong. The menu is huge with another 20 items on the blackboard. All the usual stuff you would expect plus lots of of others. Pizzas, pasta, lobster you name it there is something for everyone. We ordered huge portions of food, endless drinks and the service was top notch. Every need was met and the place was marvellous. The food came in double quick time and was perfect all round. This isn't like the legendary Al Duca, it's a different type of Italian catering to a different market, but it is very very good at about £35 a head with drinks. Approved without question.
The Tallguy

We (me, my Dear Wife, Son (who is at university, but came home when a paid for meal was suggested) and Daughter) visited Crabs for a family meal. The booking was interesting - they seem to do "sittings", so we chose to go at 7:30, the other option being 9:30 - much too late for me! The place was not full when we arrived, and I liked the way we were seated - the groups of 2 or 4 mostly had empty tables between them. When the 9:30 people arrived it was getting a lot busier - but I don't think they would have been too crowded. The menu is, of course, mainly fish - but they had some meat & poultry. DW loves squid, so her choice of Calamari for starter was no surprise - and she pronounced it very good. My Crab Cakes (chosen in haste because I couldn't decide! - and actually only one - so why cakes?) were fine, but a bit bland. My son had Brushetta and daughter Garlic mushrooms & prawns - the speed with which they disappeared presumably meaning they were OK! In terms of main courses, I have recently decided that I am addicted to tuna, so DW correctly guessed I'd have this - described as "quickly grilled", I was surprised that it was not pink inside, which I had expected, but cooked through and almost flaky - I started to say it was not as good as the tuna I'd had in Madeira, but DW told me not to be a place-name dropper! Her Swordfish was, she said, up to a very high standard. My Daughter could not decide what she would like - it must be admitted that fish is not a common visitor to our house - but she eventually chose steamed Halibut - this looked beautiful on the plate, and she decided that it was a good choice. The Son had grilled marinated salmon fillet - no real comment from him, but he did eat it all! As well as the vegetables that came with the dish (for example, my tuna was on a "bed" of baby spinach leaves) we were presented with a plate of vegetables to share - as DW pointed out, this looked very portion controlled - we had 8 potatoes, 8 broccoli florets and some carrots that I'm sure must have been in a multiple of 4! Drinks are always a problem when we dine as a family - my choice is always wine, but as it's really only my Son and me (well, mostly me!) that really like it, I decided to stick to the house white. It turned out to be an ordinary French wine - but quite acceptable. Sweets and coffee completed the meal, and a good time was had (oh you know this bit.) In terms of prices, I thought that they were on the high side for an out of town establishment - starters from £3.25 to £5.95, Fish mostly around £12/£14 - not too dear, admittedly, but not cheap either. Overall Impression? - I enjoyed it - it was a nice change from the usual sort of food in the area, and I'd probably go again. - 8/10 DK