Chilango: plus ça change....

In the three years we were away from London much has changed (like the arrival of Boris bikes and hundreds of new cyclists on the roads) and much has stayed the same (like the seemingly interminable escalator closures at Bank). Favourite restaurants have shut, but new gems have sprung up. Some changes though have been, at most, skin-deep.
Chilango was a new name on Angel's main drag, attracting long queues of office workers on weekday lunchtimes whenever I passed it.
Not a fan of queues, I am nonetheless intrigued by their destinations and resolved to check the place out on a quieter day.

Inside, I was struck by deja vu.
Turns out that Chilango is a name-changed, redecorated Mucho Mas, which I reviewed 3 years ago. The same owners, the same Subway-style production line, the same free water and expensive Negro Modello, the same extra charge for guacamole (£1). The menu is broadly along the same lines, offering the choice of burritos, tacos, salad or totopos. I went for the latter as I liked the name :-)
The internet suggests totopos are a slightly different type of cornflour flatbread, but here the dish consisted of tortilla chips topped with black beans, lettuce, cheese, sour cream and chicken (£6.30). The online menu also mentions salsa, but I don't recall any and can't spot it on the photo either. It really wasn't great, coming across as a bland and soggy mess, despite the kick of the chilli. May be I should have gone for the burrito, but for that kind of money, I'd say it was a disappointing rip off.
Seems sometimes queues are wrong.

Chilango, 27 Upper Street, Islington, N1 0PN; Tel. 020 7704 2123 www.chilango.co.uk

Breakfast at Carluccio's

To me, they are a completely alien species.
They don't appear to have the live alarm clocks in the shape of kids, nor do they seem to have come from the early morning church service. And yet there they are, at 10am on a Sunday, queueing -- yes queueing -- for breakfast. I honestly don't know if they've always been there or if it's a new trend. Pre-baby, I was rarely if ever out at that time on a Sunday morning.
In Islington, they have pretty good taste, snaking along Camden Passage outside the Breakfast Club, or further up Upper Street, crowding into Ottolenghi. Both serve good food but I would question whether either is worth queueing for (especially if you consider that people rarely rush their Sunday breakfasts, so you could be waiting for quite a while).
I do hunger badly and possibly do queueing even worse. So we went to Carluccio's, which, mercifully, had plenty of free tables.

From the fairly compact breakfast menu I chose the eggs benedict (£7.65). The yolk in the poached eggs was golden and beautifully runny, the ham was thick and flavoursome and the hollandaise was quite passable. I am not sure why they put olive oil on the bread but it didn't really harm the dish.

The husband went for scrambled eggs and mushrooms on toast (£6.75). Carluccio's does mushrooms especially well (I love their mushroom pasta) and this time they also didn't disappoint.
The coffee was a little bitter for my taste, but it was nothing that a bit of sugar couldn't fix.
The service was quick, the baby was asleep and there were plenty of Sunday papers to linger over -- bliss that you don't have to queue for.


Carluccio's, 305-307 Upper Street, Islington, N1 2TU; Tel. 020 7359 8167; carluccios.com

Menelik

The table cloths are stained, decorations include a dusty Eiffel-tower-shaped brandy bottle and the place is empty around 7.30 pm on a Friday night.
Plus, in my mind 'Ethiopia' was always more linked with television images of famine than with cuisine.

But stereotypes and appearances can be deceptive.



We order their taster selection. The first to arrive is a large tray covered in traditional injera bread - a pancake like thing with a slightly vinegary taste. Upon it, the waitress ladles out half a dozen or so different dishes. I particularly enjoy some beans and a mix of barely cooked mince with (I think) spinach. All is eaten with your hands, scooped up with more injera bread, and washed down by surprisingly good Ethiopian larger.
The only dish that we fail to finish is the Ethiopian take on steak tartrare - large chunks of raw beef in a thick, spicy sauce. It's not bad, but the consensus is that the chunks are a bit too big to chew/digest raw.

Still, we leave a couple of hours and many beers later, absolutely stuffed and amazed to have paid only about 15 quid for this feast. Sure, you might not want to eat here once a week, or even once a month, but it's definitely worth trying at least once.

Menelik, 277 Caledonian Road, London, N1 3EF; Tel. 0207 700 7774; Tube: Caledonian Road

Mucho Mas

Months after everyone else, I finally get around to trying Mucho Mas, a modern-looking (no longer very) new cafe in the centre of Upper Street's hustle and bustle.

On a sunny weekend lunchtime the outside tables provide a top people-watching spot -especially as they serve Negra Modello, one of my favourite dark beers.
It's a casual kind of place, so you have to order at the bar and they only take cash (cue mad dash to the cash point).

The menu is short, featuring burritos (the small portion is called 'Mexican', the large is 'American', which makes me smile), tacos and a few salads. They make the stuff up in a production line in front of you which reminds me of Subway, though the contents of the metal pots look more appetising here. Unless you want a salad, the choice is essentially very limited: whether you want one big piece of tortilla wrap or several small ones, and whether you prefer your chosen meat (or veg) accompanied by rice and beans or cheese and salsa. Either way, you have to pay extra for guacamole.



We tried a chicken burrito (for the record a 'Mexican' is plenty big enough) and some beef tacos. The flavours were fresh, and the medium sauce gave them plenty of spice.

They get bonus points for the jug of tap water and cups on the counter, but minus marks for making diners use plastic cutlery and eat out of cardboard boxes. For the two dishes and the two beers we got about a quid change out of a twenty, which I reckon is a bit steep for eating out of cardboard, but then I seem to spend most of my time these days gasping in horror at restaurant and bar bills.

(It must be a sign of the times that the spit-and-sawdust dump on Old Street that was called Bar £1.50 when we first moved to London has, after progressing to Bar £1.70 and then being renamed as something non-numeric, now shut altogether. These days, unless I am in a Sam Smith's or Wetherspoons, I am lucky to get a pint for under £3.)

So, Mucho Mas is a great spot for a shopping break/casual lunch on a sunny day, but I am not sure I would go as far as backing the unrelentingly rave write ups it seems to be getting on public review sites.

Mucho Mas, 27 Upper Street, N1 9LQ; Tel. 020 7704 2123; Tube: Angel; www.mucho-mas.co.uk (site under construction)

Yelo

After Exmouth Market, Hoxton Square is perhaps my favourite place for eating - the odd beggar aside, it's great people watching on a summer's day.
As usual, we wonder round the square, looking at the menus and dithering.

And then the specials board outside Yelo tempts us in with promises of duck or seabass for under £7. The vibe is cheap (metal tables) and cheerful (bright yellow laminated menus). Our New Zealand Sauvingon blanc (£16.95) is served in glass tumblers of the kind you get in school canteens. I kinda like that, and for the sheer incongruence, wish we'd ordered champagne.



The Thai dim sum (£3.95) features two plump dumplings of chicken and two of pork. They are dense, with none of the delicate flavour fireworks I've had in serious dim sum joints, but they aren't too bad. And I enjoy sprinkling them with crumbled peanuts and chilli flakes from the table's condiments selection (I skip on the pickled chopped carrots though).



But I am jealous of the husband's tom kar galangai soup (£3.95, which is packed with creamy, herby, coconuty flavours, absorbed into sliced mushrooms and a couple of juicy prawns, with a strong kick of spice.



There are lots of big prawns in the salad -- especially considering the modest £5.45 price tag -- piled upon zestily-dressed leaves, onions and tomatoes. My only complaint is that the plate is too small - at least one prawn ends up as a casualty on the floor.



The special features well-cooked seabass (complete with tail!) in a green curry sauce (£6.50), though note that rice is extra (£1.80 for coconut rice).

All in all, it's not a romantic or lingering kind of a place, but seems like a good bet for a delicious and keenly-priced meal. They also do takeaways (so you can save on the booze mark up and sit on the grass) and deliveries.

Yelo, 8-9 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU; Tel. 0207 729 4626; www.yelothai.com

The Elk in the Woods

The location: Amid expensive boutiques and junk antique stalls in Islington's Camden Passage. We were actually planning to try The Breakfast Club after it was recommended in Time Out, but there was a queue snaking out of the door and patience is not one of my virtues.

The spec: A friendly elk head looks at us from a wooden slatted wall. There is a distant aura of a trendy ski chalet. It's not quite a bar, not quite a restaurant and there's a good mix of people from an old lady daintily sipping tea to young couples brunching on cocktails. The staff are friendly, joking.

The good: The chips - a huge bowl of thin, crispy, hand-made, skin-still-on deliciousness for £4. The bloody Marys (off menu) come with a good kick of spice, and a good range of alcohol-free concoctions (£3.50). Plus, I like the decor and the service.

The bad: The rest of the food - it's pretty blah. The husband plays adventurous with South African kudu – a rather majestic-looking antelope -- and zebra skewers (£4.75). It's a tiny portion - but then it did come from the "smalls" section of the menu - and fails to score any sparks in the taste department.
If memory serves, that’s our second disappointing experience with zebra, the first being in a French restaurant on Upper Street. On the other hand, I’ve had perfectly nice horse before, for example in T’Kelderke in Brussels.



My wild mushroom, potato and artichoke pie is very bland. It's basically a pastry case filled with boiled new potatoes. It needs something to liven it up - cheese perhaps, or sausage, or both. The menu promised parmesan but I can't spot it. And for £12 this is hideously over-priced. About the only thing I like about it is that it comes with sour cream.

The verdict: Great place for cocktails (£7) and chips, but go elsewhere for a proper meal. Hardens, again, is pretty much spot on.

The Elk in the Woods, 31 Camden Passage, N1 8EA; Tel. 0207 2263535 Tube: Angel, www.the-elk-in-the-woods.co.uk

Camino

The location: Very handy - just a few paces away from King's Cross station (and a few more from St. Pancras). And very clever, hidden away in a court yard, which means you can enjoy the sun on the outdoor tables without inhaling (too much) of the traffic fumes.

The spec: A tapas joint with a funky, warehouse-like look. Voted Britain's Best Bar in this year's Observed Food Monthly awards.

The good: The outside terrace. The price - two huge tapas plates and two rounds of soft drinks come in at just over 30 quid. The beer selection, which includes lots of unusual bottles (I'm being good this time though, so don't try any.)

The bad: The decidedly average: The food. I can't taste the olive oil or the garlic in the limp pan con tomate, and the sprinkling of dried chives doesn't win any bonus points. The cheese and spinach croquettes are pretty tasteless (though the meat ones aren't half bad), and the calamari are overpowered by the batter. I didn't much like their olives either. The tortilla, the chorizo, the sliced meat selection and the slice of manchengo are pretty nice though, if nothing special.

The verdict: I'll come back to try the beer next time I'm in the area. But for tapas in London, so far Barrafina has no challengers (that I've visited).

The post script: I've been a bit busy with work and things recently, so the restaurants in need of posting have been piling up. This new, shorter format is a bit of an experiment to get me through the backlog.

Camino, The Regent Quarter, King's Cross N1 9AF; Tel: 020 7841 7331; Tube: King's Cross; www.camino.uk.com

The Waterhouse

After pigging out at Broadway market, we decided to walk home along the canal, and stumbled upon the newly-opened Waterhouse restaurant. Brother to the ultra-eco-friendly Acorn House. The house water is filtered from the canal outside, there are solar panels and even a wormery to recycle the kitchen waste!
There was fresh produce lined up against a wall, and the chef came along to pick out some authentically muddy carrots out of a basket. (Though I was less sure that the pineapple displayed on the shelf above came from a near-by allotment.) Otherwise, the room looked a bit like a modern cafe – wooden tables with metal legs, neatly adorned with Heinz ketchup and HP sauce and bordered by air-dynamic plastic chairs, and a long bar on one side. Though admittedly this was brunch time, and it a few candles could easily give it a more sophisticated air in the evening. The brunch menu offers various healthy options along the lines of granola (I guess most eco warriors are also health freaks). The less healthy selection is limited to variations on fry ups, omitting my own personal favourites like eggs benedict or cheese on toast. Either way, we were too full for any more food, but stopped for a drink.


We chose the two English options from the short list of wines by the glass – the Chapel Down Bacchus, one of our favourites (6.25), and the Primrose Hill rose (4.50), which apparently actually comes from Kent rather from Kate Moss's corner of London. The service was friendly, and it's a pleasant location for watching the world amble/cycle past along the canal through floor-to-ceiling windows (decorated with cute little pictures of water droplets). Plus there is a terrace, so in the summer they might let you sit outside. We'll have to come back for dinner once the nights get longer/lighter and find out (in the dark, the canal is a less friendly, unlit kind of place where it's not unknown for local kids to push cyclists into the murky water).
The Waterhouse, 10 Orsman Road, N1 5QJ; Tel. 0207 033 0123; www.waterhouserestaurant.co.uk;; Tube: Old Street (then about 15-20 min walk).

Electricity Showrooms

You have to love any pub entered through a rotating wooden door topped with an old fair ground horse. The Regency ceiling is painted red and some of the flowers have had their centres replaced by twinkling light bulbs. There's a billiards table at the back (more Brownie points) and ahip in a bottle behind the bar.
Throw in big windows, an ad-hoc collection of wooden tables, a bewildering selection of spirits behind the centre-piece bar, and chairs and a selection of old prints on the wall (including a depiction of the Faringdon fight from the National Police Gazette, in which all the audience looks back at you rather than at the fight to show all the celebrities present).
The overall look is a cross between a fair ground and a gin palace. So lets face it I would have loved the place regardless.


But luckily I didn't have to.
They served well-kept ale in glass tankards and offered a short menu of modern comfort foods. Sorry, but I wasn't feeling brave enough to try the one odd ball dish -- the lamb and quince soup. Instead I had the steak and chorizo pie (8.50), a nice flavoursome pile of meat with lots of juicy gravy to soak through the pasty and penetrate the accompanying mound of creamy but uninspired mash.
The husband's fish fingers (7.50) were Jamie Oliver style - slightly odd shaped, home-made looking and good enough to cure my age-old hatred of the things based on the bright orange stuff that sells for 99p in the frozen food section. The accompanying chips were even better - home-made, with skins on, crunchy and treading the perfect middle ground between skinny and jenga-sized. Give me some aioli and I would have been happy to make a meal of the chips alone. Instead we were served a pot of tartare sauce, which I thought was too heavy on the capers, but the husband absolutely loved.
There's a lot of good places clustered around Hoxton Square, but this one is well worth adding to the visiting list. Oh and according to their website they have music etc on at the basement where they have a 1980's 'Pans People' light-up dance-floor. I have no idea what that is but it sounds very cool!
Electricity Showrooms, 39a Hoxton Square, N1 6NN; Tel: 020 7739 3939; www.electricityshowrooms.co.uk

Metrogusto - a new discovery

We had been to see Ratatouille at the cinema and, craving some hearty French or mediterranean fair, set off up Upper Street towards Sacre Coeur or Le Mercury. Just before reaching the former though, our attention was caught by a place that looked a bit like an art shop but actually seemed to be full of people eating food at candle-lit tables. And so, only about 5 years after it opened, we discovered Metrogusto.

Inside, the walls are decorated with dozens of large, colourful canvasses. My favourite was the giant squirrel with a manic look in his eye. The atmosphere is warm, romantic even. We ordered a bottle of prosecco (£24.50) and tucked into some delicious warm bread rolls with sun-dried tomatoes. The yeasty dough pleasantly reminded of Russian pasties, pirozhki .

(photo from another visit)

On Sundays and pre-theatre they have a good value two-course menu with two courses for £14.50. From this, the husband's grilled aubergine with pesto sauce & toasted walnut bread was luscious and earthy - comparable perhaps, we thought, to Rémy's ratatouille. My eyes (and belly) had been tempted by the a la carte, so I started with the "flat asparagus pancake with parmesan sauce" (£7.50). Perhaps foolishly I had actually envisaged a green pancake made from asparagus (I've made some lovely aubergine pancakes at home), sprinked with parmesan shavings. Instead, I got some normal asparagus tips wrapped in a pancake and smothered in a creamy balsamic sauce. It was nice, but not as nice as the grilled aubergine (plus I couldn't taste the parmesan - never a plus for a cheese fiend).

And, darn him, the husband won with the main course as well - baked chicken breast with gruyere & oregano sauce. Now here the cheese was very clearly present in all its melting gooey gorgeousness. But best of all was the chicken itself - beautifully juicy, and cooked not for a second longer than was needed to stop it from being pink.
That said, my veal ravioli with butter and sage sauce (£12.50) was also very good. Aong with chicken (so easy to overcook), I think ravioli make a good test for truly great cooking, as all to often they just taste of stuffed pasta and you can't quite tell what the stuffing actually is. Here though, I could both see and taste juicy shreds of gamey veal inside the large discounts of home-made tasting pasta.

The people at the table next to us were raving about the basil ice cream which came with their chocolate cake. But sadly we were too full to even contemplate trying this (I knew we shouldn't have had the popcorn). On the plus side though, that gives us a very good excuse to come back - and soon.

Metrogusto, 13 Theberton Street, N1 0QY; Tel. 020 7226 9400; Tube: Angel; www.metrogusto.co.uk

The Eagle - worth pawning for

Another favourite which has hitherto evaded a review is The Eagle. Firstly, any pub that stars in a nursery rhyme -- and in a depraved one at that -- deserves serious kudos.
Up and down the city road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel
It all sounds innocent enough, but actually the last line is said to refer to local workers pawning their tools at the end of a working week (a weasel is apparently some kind of yarn measuring device) to fund a few rounds down the pub. Very educational.

I'm not sure many people pawn stuff to drink here these days, though it's not the cheapest place in the world. But it has plenty to recommend itself. There's a great selection of drinks, including regularly changing cask ales. Inside, lights twinkle around the dark wood bar. There's pretty wall paper and chandeliers. And best of all there is a huge (by central London standards) beer garden, with ramshackle furniture and leafy trees. During the last world cup, they found lots of old portable tellies somewhere (some black and white!) plonked one on each table in the garden. Seeing as this is a food-reviewing blog, I suppose I'd better mention that too. The menu features burgers, snacks, roasts etc -- all simple, but good stuff that you'd expect in any gastro pub these days. Last week, we sampled the salads (£8ish). Mine featured warm new potatoes, chorizo, cheese, sundried tomatoes and green leaves. It was gorgeous. The husband's Caesar salad had iceberg lettuce, generous shavings of parmesan and chunks of char-grilled chicken. Normally though I skip the salad and go for potato wedges -- either with cheddar and chorizo or with stilton. For about £3.50 you get a large plate which perfectly soaks up the beer without denting your night out budget too much.

Incidentally the other Eagle , the so-called original gastro pub on Farringdon Road, is somewhere I haven't taken to. We visited twice over the years and it always felt a bit chaotic and rushed. The menu above the open plan kitchen seemed limited (last time I had something which turned out to be not dissimilar to philadelphia on toast, which for about £6 was a bit much). But may be I am just uncouth - I'd rather pawn my wares for good old potato wedges.

The Eagle, Shepherdess Walk, City Road, N1 7LB; Tube: Old Street

Frederick's - Diet-breaking amid Islington antiques

With an old-fashioned sign and an unassuming window revealing a darkened bar, Frederick’s is well camouflaged among the antique shops on a tiny Islington side street. So much so in fact, that we'd almost forgotten it existed and returned for the second time only this week - years after our first visit. Past the dark bar, you find yourself in an airy, conservatory-like dining room, with glass ceiling and white walls decorated with giant, brightly-coloured abstract canvases. The staff are numerous and friendly, but subjected to that irritating hierarchy where you ask one for something only for them to scuttle off in search of a colleague qualified to fulfil your request (eg take the order). The menu offers about a dozen choices of starters, in the slightly luxurious vein of modern European dining. My warm slab of foie gras was silky smooth gluttony on a plate. The mushroom tart with poached egg and hollandaise featured a good pile of flavoursome wild mushrooms, though to my taste they could have been a bit more generous with the sauce. The plate of scallops featured three juicy examples of the species, sat in their shells on a bed of potatoes - each with its own morsels of accompaniments: mushrooms, leeks and spinach. The carpaccio of beef was also good, and the dressing on the accompanying salad got particular praise from its eater. For mains, we succumbed to the day's special - a melt-in-the-mouth two-person portion of chateaubriand, with skinny crispy chips, home-made mayonnaise, béarnaise sauce and spinach. The diet will have to wait for another day, but it was well worth it! The other special, an open whole lobster, tasted as good as it looked. Personally I am not a big fan of fennel, so wasn't that keen on the wild halibut which included it, but the others liked it well enough. The beer selection was pretty good for a restaurant, including Leffe and various European lagers. From the wine list, both the sancerre and the house red got big thumbs up. Next time we will linger a bit longer, may be squeezing in a desert (I was sorely tempted to re-live childhood treats with a banana split!) and sampling some of the ports....

Frederick’s, 106 Camden Passage, Islington, N1 8EG; Tube: Angell; Tel: 020 7359 2888

The Duke of Cambridge

Hidden in Islington side streets, The Duke of Cambridge was one of the original gastro pubs, and probably the first to devote itself entirely to all things organic. The first time we visited, some 5 or even 6 years ago, the concept was still quite novel (at least to us). The food was nice enough as was decor with plain wooden tables that are now firmly associated with such establishments. But we very found it pricey and had not felt any great urge to go back. The other night we stumbled across it again, by accident, and I was keen to give it another go. Perhaps we were more anesthetised to London prices and the way of pretentious gastro pubs? Yes and no. The prices did not make us balk, but (for example) £14 for a moderately sized portion of lasagne with some salad leaves on the side still seems over the top. Some of the food is on the hippy side, so you may well not find much on the menu that appeals. We shared tapas sized plates of chorizo and tortilla slices (around £3 each) and a not hugely inspiring platter of three cheeses - cheddar, an under-ripe brie and a Shropshire blue (£8). The organic bitters (from a selection!) washed it down nicely, the place was cosy enough and the food was nice enough. But I stand by my initial assessment and it will probably be quite a few years before stumble across this pub again.

The Duke of Cambridge, 30 St Peter's Street, N1 8 JT; Tel. 020 8986 5384; Tube: Angel; http://www.dukeorganic.co.uk/

Sacre Coeur

I am back!!! That's not to say I haven't been pigging out all over London for the last few months, I've just been too busy pigging out to write aout it! Last night we braved a little French restaurant off Upper Street. I say braved because it came with a very damning condemnation from a fellow pigger, which kept us away for some time. But feeling adventurous (and cold) we caved in. The place was cosy, with twinkling lights and chairs glued to walls covered in music posters. We were offered tap water (bonus points from the off), and ordered a nice bottle of Crozes Hermitage to go with it (£20) from a shortish but quite interesting and reasonably priced wine list. The food arrived quickly - buttery, garlicy snails for me and a creamy celeriac and mushroom soup from the specials board for my companion (about £4-5 each). I liberally dipped in to both with my bread! (Be careful how muc you dip though: we were charged £1.60 for two bread rolls.) The mains of duck with mash and guinea fowl with saute potatoes (about £11 each) were both tender and delicious, though the latter inexplicably came with a handfull of glace cherries. The atmosphere in the place was very convivial, and complete with authentic French waiters. The main menu also features cheaper options such as crepes (£7ish) and interesting sounding sausages with things like duck and wild board (£8-9). Conclusion: we are going back, pleased at having discovered a cosy corner of France just off Upper Street.

Sacre Coeur, 18 Theberton Street, N1. Tube: Angel

Mem&Laz

A surprisingly good find on an Islington side street. Mem&Laz stands out thanks to a bright orange sign and promises a dauntingly long menu of mostly Mediterranean style dishes. But unlike a lot of other places, the food it delivers manages to be delicious as well as cheap. Inside it's cosy and charming, with candles and oldish furniture. It also stays open late, even on Sundays, which is handy. The menu includes tender fish dishes, olives to start, a wide selection of tempting vegetarian options, and meat too. Mains come in comfortably under the £10 mark and the house wine is perfectly drinkable. Well worth popping in to soak up the booze on a night out on Upper Street. Especially if you're propping up the lovely bar at the Bull across the road but want to avoid its abysmal food.

Mem & Laz Brasserie, 8 Theberton Street, London, N1 0XX

Bastille

This gastropub in north Islington has tried, with some success, to recreate a Bohemian Parisian feel. There are stained wooden tables, some graffiti on the chalk menu boards (apparently on our visit they were offering free male genetalia) and big white church candles you can play with if the conversation dries up. The kitchen is open plan, behind the bar counter, but somehow fails to entice. That considered, the food is surprisingly good. I had the steak rossini, which was a good, rate slab of beef fillet topped with melting foie gras (served somewhat necessarily on top of toast) and accompanied gloriously cheesey potato gratin. The roast lamb was traditional but perfectly nice and the honey glazed duck was not overly sweet. All came accompanied with a generous serving of (free) salad. There is a selection of beers on offer, though the wine list is not very exciting - especially given the French connection. Service is OK, but a little inexperienced. But this is the sort of place where you could lounge away an afternoon or an evening, starting with some good food and then working on your drinks bill.

Bastille, 100 St Pauls Rd, London, N1 2QP; Telephone: 020 7704 2345; Tube: Highbury & Islington

Browns

As old, England-wide chains go, Browns works surprisingly well. It has branches in some impressive old buildings, where the large windows and high ceilings add to the old-school colonial feel created by the brown leather seats and marble topped bars. The food is better than you might expect and Browns is not a bad place to take foreign visitors in search of something English. There is a decent selection of cocktails, fruit juices, and bottled beers, as well as wines. Dishes on offer include fish cakes and salmon pasta with vodka, and there are usually a couple of daily specials. Mains are around the £10-15 mark. Service charge not included.
Browns Restaurant and Bar, 9 Islington Green, N1 8DU; Tel 0207 226 2555; Tube: Angel. And other branches across England, including Bristol and Cambridge. www.browns-restaurants.com

Bull

We really like this pub a little way up Upper Street - it's cosy, always quite busy, and has friendly staff and a fantastic selection of beers, with about 4 different wheat brews on tap! Previous attempts to eat here were foiled by lack of tables, but the other day, after crowding menacingly round a couple who'd finished their drinks, we got lucky. And were soon very disappointed. You order food at the bar from paper menus help in wooden clip boards and featuring about 6 starters and mains. We commenced with a shared mezze platter (£7.50), which between four of us offered little more than a few bites of good calamari (unusually the batter was nice), spicy kofta, chunky (but otherwise unremarkable) potato wedges and rather bland mini pizzas. These were accompanied with a yoghurty dip for the kofta and a chilli one - described rather ambitiously on the menu as a 'selection of dips'.
Of the mains (all about £8), the gnocchi in tomato sauce with spinach and wild mushroom was a disaster - the sauce tasted of Heinz ketchup and there were only about 2 mushrooms in the entire dish. I gave up after a couple of mouthfuls. There is probably a reason why gnocchi are usually served with cheesy sauces, but that still doesn't justify the horribleness of this dish. (They should go try the divine home made gnocchi at the Well on St John Street to see how things should be done!)
The lamb, mint and passion fruit sausages were actually quite tasty, with all three flavours standing out in a surprisingly harmonious way. But they swam in a sea of watery horrible mash.
The quesadilla (off the starters menu, £4.75) was nice enough given the foolproof ingredients of cheese spinach and cherry tomatoes. But it was a bit on the dry side and generally uninspiring.
The pesto chicken wrapped in Parma ham and served with vegetable ragout was probably the nicest dish but the chicken was dry and overcooked.
Overall, we had really wanted to like the food here but couldn't. Don't be tempted by the menu or you too will be disappointed.
We'll still come back for the beers though!
Bull, The, 100 Upper Street, London, N1 0NP; Tube: Angel

Le Mercury

This is a fantastic find on the trendy and now chain-filled Upper Street - a great-value cosy French restaurant. The decor is simple and cosy, with those dripping candles in wine bottles. The menu has about 5 starters (at £3.45) and 10 main courses (at £5.95) and there are (slightly pricier) daily specials too. Even with a side order (£1.95), you could manage a meal with a bottle of wine for £30. And a good meal in a romantic setting at that - this place is ideal for dates on a budget. The rooms upstairs have a bit less atmosphere but are good for larger groups.
On a recent visit, I had a warm goat's cheese salad, followed by fish cakes, with salad and chips. My companion went for the specials - a prawn and avocado salad and fish. It's all good honest food - nothing spectacular, but fantastic value. There is a nice shortish wine list too, going up to about £30.
Le Mercury, 140a Upper Street, London, N1; Tel. 0207 354 4088; Tube: Angel or Highbury & Islington