Easter getaway guide
This Easter is expected to be one of the busiest on road and rail, as millions make the most of the four-day break
Noma world’s best restaurant – again
Copenhagen eatery retains accolade from Restaurant magazine while chefs from Russia and Peru make list for first time
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Read Jay Rayner's blog on the world's 50 top restaurants
The celebrated Copenhagen restaurant Noma has retained its status as the world's best place to eat, according to the annual list compiled on behalf of Restaurant magazine, a distinction which arguably draws in more diners than Michelin stars.
René Redzepi's influential cooking, with a heavy reliance on seasonal and foraged Scandinavian ingredients, ousted Spain's El Bulli in 2010 from four consecutive years of dominance, a feat which Redzepi said prompted 100,000 overnight booking requests.
El Bulli itself, which has never been out of the top three since the list was created in 2002, is entirely absent this year; this is not because Catalan chef Ferran Adrià's cooking has waned, merely that he has decided to close the restaurant later this year.
Spanish gastronomy remains prominent in the views of the 837 judges worldwide – a mixture of chefs, writers and restaurateurs – with second spot taken by El Celler de Can Roca, the three Michelin-starred Girona restaurant run by three brothers. Behind this was Mugaritz, in the Basque country.
It's a more mixed picture for UK dining. The Spanish pair's ascent helped push Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, from third to fifth on a list it topped in 2005. Last year's lowest-ever tally of just three British restaurants in the top 50 is now four, with London's Ledbury – the highest new entry at no. 34 – joining the Fat Duck, Hibiscus and St John.
The 2011 list is also notable for the geographical spread, with the first sighting in the top 50 of restaurants in Russia – Moscow's Vavravy, famed for its £160-a-head tasting menu – and Peru, where Lima's Astrid Y Gastón serves up haute cuisine incarnations of traditional South American dishes such as "chupe" stews. Perhaps more notable still is a Brazilian eatery, DOM in Sao Paulo, at seven, while Mexico has two restaurants on the list.
"We do have a global reach," said William Drew, editor of Restaurant magazine. "It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. In places like Sao Paolo, Mexico City and Lima, the best restaurants are as good as anywhere in the world."
Nonetheless, some traditional cookery powerhouses predominate, with almost half the list comprising restaurants in France, Italy, Spain and the US. Following last year's Gallic anguish, when only six French outlets made the list, there are now eight, with Parisian super-bistro Le Chateaubriand rising to reach the top 10.
However entertaining the list, many food critics doubt the validity of such arbitrary rankings. "My worry is that I don't see how you can compare such different types of restaurant, doing such different things," said Charles Campion, who writes about food for London's Evening Standard. "If something stimulates debate and interest about food and gastronomy then it's a good thing, but it shouldn't be taken seriously at all. You can't take a great experience and just put a number on it."
The gradual slippage down the list of the Fat Duck did not mean it was becoming a worse restaurant, said the food writer William Sitwell, editor of Waitrose Food Monthly.
"I believe Heston's at the top of his game," he said. "A lot this is simply about novelty. This list isn't about the dining most people do. It's food couture. These are places you save up to go to. These are not the sort of places you go to when you're hungry, it's food as an event, as theatre."
What isn't in doubt is the economic impact getting a high place, as shown by Noma, which went from having regular free tables at lunch to an queue of would-be diners that would fill the restaurant for 15 years. This has brought concern at open lobbying, for example tourist boards flying judges to sample free meals at their city's top dining spots.
"We're not in a position to say to tourist boards that they can't lobby, or tell critics they can't take press trips, but we devolve a level of trust," said Drew. "Judging restaurants is a fundamentally subjective activity but they realise when they are being lobbied and should take this into account."
RestaurantsFood & drinkRestaurantsPeter Walkerguardian.co.ukNorth London’s top 10 budget eats
In part four of our guide to the best places to eat well in the capital for less than £10 a head, Tony Naylor chooses 10 north London venues that are light on the wallet but big on taste
See our interactive map of Britain's best budget restaurants
If we've missed your favourite tell us on our Word of Mouth blog
The main road that runs through Harringay, Green Lanes, is home to several great Turkish restaurants. Three in particular are regularly namechecked by local authorities on such matters: Yayla (429 Green Lanes), Hala (29 Green Lanes) and this gem. Antepliler is actually three premises: a cafe, the restaurant and a patisserie, whose various pistachio and walnut baklavas, made with good quality floral honeys, are not to be missed. The restaurant – plain and sturdy, a solid traditional Ottoman space – majors on charcoal-grilled kebabs and dishes cooked in the huge wood-fired oven that squats by the entrance. At £1.50 (takeaway), the lahmacun, a kind of thin, crisp Turkish pizza, topped with a hugely tasty, quietly fiery mix of minced lamb, chilli, garlic, onions, fresh herbs and pulped tomato, is exceptional value. It is the kind of food to which a man could easily become addicted.
A main meal portion of six juicy, generously seasoned kofte patties, served over a stock-cooked mix of fat, squat rice and chickpeas, accompanied by salad and a half-loaf of ultra-fresh Turkish bread, is similarly brilliant. That dish is arguably enough to feed two, on its own, and costs just £6.50 (takeaway; eat-in prices are a pound or two more). Throw in some of that baklava and you have not just a bargain feed, but a meal that will live long in the memory.
• Takeaway, snacks/starters, £1.50-£3.75, mains £5.50-£7.90. 46 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, N4 (+44 (0)20-8802 5588)
Camden's Market – as opposed to Camden Market – is the kind of place that every neighbourhood needs. It's a neat, simply designed restaurant (zinc table tops, open kitchen, exposed brick walls, recycled school chairs at the tables) that specialises in delivering honest, crowd-pleasing food at keen prices. The £10 two-course lunch is particularly good value. The starter, a bowl of lamb broth, is interestingly broken up by tiny blobs of mint sauce. The main is a similarly solid plate of linguine, pork fillet and good mild chorizo. It is lifted by little details: scattered flecks of lemon zest, fresh chilli and parsley; the precise firm but yielding texture of the pasta; the way the pasta isn't drowning in sauce, and the way said tomato sauce has been carefully whizzed and blended to give it a lightly aerated creaminess.
There is nothing about the two courses that would be beyond a skilful, attentive home cook perhaps, but it is good, tasty, unfussy food, patently prepared with pride. Throw in some good (free) bread and unsalted butter, Prince's Purple Rain album on the PA, the notably efficient, friendly service, and Market adds up to a winning proposition.
• Two-course set lunch £10. 43 Parkway, NW1 (+44 (0)20-7267 9700, marketrestaurant.co.uk)
If you are heading to nearby Hampstead Heath, this is a great place to pick up an impromptu picnic. As the name suggests, it is primarily a butcher's shop, but this providore also comprises a kitchen, headed by chef Guy Bossom, that produces myriad foods to eat now or take home. Friends should pool their resources to take advantage of any deals – when I dropped in there was a six-for-five (£10) offer running on Meantime's London Lager – and to make sure that they try the various tortilla, pies, sophisticated quiches and gourmet salad tubs – for instance, puy lentil, butternut squash and tarragon; or French bean, almond and smoked bacon with walnut dressing (by weight, from £1.55 per 100g).
As well as pre-prepared baguettes (£3.50), you can also assemble your own sandwiches mixing and matching various breads and charcuterie from the meat counter. Alternatively, pick up a few hundred grams of Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire or Cornish Yarg in the cheese room. Particularly recommended are the large Scotch eggs (£2.95) and the warm sausage rolls (£2.50). The former are sat in small, promising pools of fat on a rectangular slate and have an almost pork pie density, while the sensational sausage rolls pack expertly seasoned meat into air-light, lavishly buttery puff pastry. The fat cakes and sweet tarts also looked fantastic.
• Snacks from £1.55-£3.50. 56 Rosslyn Hill, NW3 (+44 (0)20-7794 9210, hampsteadbutcher.com)
Bright, buzzy and a little bland in its design, this canteen is a useful all-day address for the budget traveller. At night, you will find several main dishes available at £8.95-£9.75, such as fish and chips or pork chop with roasted Cox's apple and a white bean cassoulet, while by day it serves an affordable brunch (midday-4pm), smaller "larder" dishes and superior, jazzed-up salads, such as broccoli and cauliflower with sweet black sesame sauce and a good butternut squash and feta. Even a small plate of the latter (£3.95) will fill a lunchtime hunger hole, and it is to Kentish Canteen's credit that if you drop in for just a small plate, there is no pressure to eat or buy more. It is the flexible food station it claims to be.
The sharing platters (for two, £15) and the lunch and supper deals (two courses plus drink, £12, before 7pm Monday-Friday) offer good value. On the downside, a cranberry and pecan cookie from the cake counter was a surprisingly dry disappointment, and, irritatingly, they were out of the local Camden Town Brewery's lager when the Guardian visited for this article.
• Small plates, salads and brunch dishes £2.75-£6.50, mains £8.95-£12. 300 Kentish Town Road, NW5 (+44 (0)20-7485 7331, kentishcanteen.co.uk)
Delhi Grill styles itself as a kind of dhaba, the workaday, no-frills canteens that proliferate in India. Such dhabas generally offer short menus of key dishes, in this case flavoursome marinated grilled meats (try the unusually light, vibrantly seasoned sheekh kebabs) and delicious slow-cooked standards like channa masala and aloo gobi. Purists may quibble with certain minor details (are tomatoes permissible in a rogan gosht?), but Delhi Grill certainly delivers on taste and price.
It also sees its concept through to its logical conclusion. You can eat in the restaurant – all chunky wood fixtures and walls plastered with Indian newspaper cuttings – but, during the day, it also runs a takeaway street stall, directly outside, on Chapel Market. The stall serves fresh filled roti wraps (£3.50) – say, paneer tikka with salad and beetroot chutney – samosas (two pieces, £1.30) and chicken, lamb and vegetable curries (£4.50).
• Restaurant starters from £1.95, mains with rice from £6.25. 21 Chapel Market, N1 (+44 (0)20-7278 8100, delhigrill.com). Takeaway available in the evenings
You don't get a lot for £10 a head in Hampstead, so make sure you spend your money wisely. This small, busy cafe, on a pretty mews off the high street, is the kind of place that goes that extra mile. The kitchen even makes its own peanut butter and "smoky" baked beans for the breakfast menu. The baking is a real highlight. The carrot cake, in particular, is a light, moist slice of gingery genius. Meanwhile, Ginger & White's flat white (£2.70, full of winey, dark berry flavours) is possibly the best coffee I've tasted throughout this London series.
Given the inflated prices that come with the NW3 postcode, a salt beef sandwich, featuring a thick layer of outstanding coleslaw, just about justifies the £5.95 price tag, but a breakfast sausage bap is a little sloppy. All the constituent parts are good but the sausages are a touch overdone and they're in danger of drowning in Hawkshead relish. Hit Ginger & White on a Saturday morning, incidentally, and you may well find that you have to queue to get in. After that wait, you may then find yourself slouching on a sofa while you eat, or sharing the large communal table with other people's children. Which won't suit everyone. It's notable, however, that even in the midst of such hustle and bustle, the staff are unflappable. They are personable, eager to please and winningly enthusiastic about the food that they are serving.
• Cakes £2-£4, sandwiches £3.50-£6. 4a-5a Perrin's Court, NW3 (+44 (0)20-7431 9098, gingerandwhite.com)
Say what you like (or rather dislike) about Gordon Ramsay, but no one would dispute that he can cook. Nor that his venues generally maintain rigorous standards on the plate. Nonna is a deli-cafe attached to the York & Albany restaurant which, until recently, was overseen by Ramsay lieutenant Angela Hartnett. Her influence and love of Italian food is still very much in evidence. The deli-cafe itself is done up as some kind of faux-rustic Tuscan farmhouse, albeit one decked out in rather cheap, lightweight garden furniture.
The food takes in meat and cheese platters, soups, colourful salads, attractive baked goods and pizzas (£9-£12) which, reassuringly, the staff on duty declined to serve to the Guardian before lunch because the pizza oven had not yet got up to the right temperature. The sit-down, eat-in lunch menu is almost deceptively pricey, with, for instance, two of the three listed gourmet sandwiches topping £10. However, I was charged just £4.50 for a delicate, luxuriously creamy slice of quiche and a very creditable, well balanced cappuccino. So don't be put off by the headline prices. And most products are also available to take away, making this a useful place to stock up before exploring Regent's Park.
• Takeaway snacks, sandwiches and salads £2.25-£6, eat-in meals £6-£12.50. 127-129 Parkway, NW1 (+44 (0)20-7388 3344, gordonramsay.com/nonnasdeli)
Remarkable value is restaurateur Peter Illic's USP. At the original Kilburn branch of his Little Bay mini-chain, all main dishes are £5.45 before 7pm and £7.25 thereafter. If you are lucky, you may even find Illic during one of his periodic publicity drives, when he asks guests to simply pay what they think their meal was worth. On that basis, I would have certainly paid him £5.45 for my lamb steak main. £7.25, however, might have been pushing it. An unexpected side dish, that included some OK cabbage and an anaemic, unappetising block of potato dauphinoise, was superfluous, and, being picky, the steak tasted predominantly of its char-grilling, not lamb. However, the crushed potatoes, the old school peppercorn sauce and the julienne of peppers and carrots were all accurately rendered.
In the round, it was a perfectly serviceable, tasty plate of food. One which, at no extra cost, came with a basket of decent bread and good unsalted butter. The plates going out to other tables – a delicately arranged soy-marinated duck salad; chicken breast with tarragon mash and mushroom sauce – looked good too, and the Kilburn branch is an appealingly odd, atmospheric place. It looks less like a north London bistro and more like the sort of ancient, elaborate cafe you might stumble across in some labyrinth Istanbul market. The verdict? Don't expect the earth from Little Bay, but go before 7pm and, for the money, it should deliver.
• Starters £2.25/£3.25, mains £5.45/£7.25. 228 Belsize Road, NW6 (+44 (0)20 7372 4699, littlebay.co.uk) Other branches at 171 Farringdon Road, EC1, and 32 Selsdon Rd, South Croydon
A handsome Grade II-listed pub, the Bull & Last is increasingly well known for its good food. At lunch, that reputation is no bar to the budget traveller. There are various affordable bar snacks available and several dishes on the daily-changing menu – soup, sandwich and chips, ambitious salads, a pasta dish, small plates like stuffed roasted lamb's heart – that come in at well under £10. The only problem may be finding a seat. On the first sunny Saturday of the year, this place was packed. If you're happy to share, try the superb homemade charcuterie board (pictured) for £10, which includes, among others, a couple of sensational deep-fried brawn balls, a thick slice of properly creamy chicken liver parfait and some beautiful duck prosciutto, served with an impressive array of pickled grapes, salted radishes, caperberries, remoulade, chutneys and toast. It isn't a huge portion, between two, but it is explosively tasty. You will find four real ales at the bar (from £3.60 a pint), and some interesting local drinks on the list too, such as Camden Town Brewery's pale ale. The staff, incidentally, are refreshingly knowledgeable and energetic.
• Snacks £3-£6, select dishes £6.50-£10. 168 Highgate Road, NW5 (+44 (0)20 7267 3641, thebullandlast.co.uk)
Atari-Ya's parent company, T&S Enterprises, is a trade supplier of premium seafood, and aficionados rate Atari-Ya's maki rolls and nigiri as some of the best value sushi in London. This small chain includes, among others, two north London sushi bars (in Hendon and Swiss Cottage) and this supermarket where, as well as shopping for ika no shiokara (fermented squid) and Hello Kitty confectionery, customers can pick up takeaway sushi or, possibly, squeeze in at one of the six seats at the kitchen counter.
You can have your takeaway sushi made to order of course but, due to arriving during the chef's 3-4pm break, I had to sample some of the pre-prepared plates. It was nonetheless quality stuff. A sea bass and spring onion hand roll (£2.70 for six pieces) was as fresh as sea spray, the florid pickled ginger and a rip-snorting dab of wasabi adding further layers of flavour. The inan – exceptionally sticky sushi rice wrapped in sweetened fried bean curd, its flavour halfway between caramel and soy sauce – was surprisingly moreish; while an elaborately marinated little tray of almost luminously green seaweed salad delivered a sensational wallop of umami. Washed down with a can of Yebisu (£2.43), a rich malty beer reminiscent of Breaker or Colt 45, it made for an interesting, filling lunch.
• Takeaway sushi rolls £1.80-£3.90, nigiri £1-£2.40 per piece. Set mixed lunch boxes from £7.50. 15-16 Monkville Parade, Finchley Road, NW11 (+44 (0)20-8458 7626, atariya.co.uk). Other branches in Finchley, Hendon, Swiss Cottage, Ealing Common, West Acton and Kingston
Tony travelled from Manchester to London with Virgin Trains (virgintrains.co.uk)
LondonUnited KingdomRestaurantsFood & drinkRestaurantsFood and drinkBudget travelTop 10sTony Naylorguardian.co.ukLa vida España: what’s new in Spain
A Niemeyer arts centre in Asturias, Ferran Adrià's new bar in Barcelona, a stylish retro train and the reinvention of Málaga – Spain is still at the cutting edge of European design
Art in AsturiasIn Asturias, Avilés's new arts centre – designed by Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer – opened last week. The building is stunning, with a grand auditorium 26m high, a massive dome exhibition space (currently showing Luz, film director Carlos Saura's exploration of light) and a programme of art, music, cinema and exhibitions. It has involved collaboration with Woody Allen, who is the honorary president of the film centre, and Stephen Hawking, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Vinton Cerf, one of the inventors of the internet, who are all on the centre's international advisory board. Sadly the website (niemeyercenter.org) is only in Spanish at the moment.
Paramount comes to MurciaIt's a long way off completion, but a Paramount Pictures-branded themepark is set to open in Murcia in 2015. The plan for the park was announced last week, revealing that zones will be themed on Paramount movies, such as Star Trek and Mission Impossible, on a site between Mazarrón and Alhama de Murcia, 15 minutes from the beach and the marina resort of Puerto de Mazarrón. At least five hotels will be built on site, along with shopping malls, bars, clubs and an auditorium that will take 15,000 people.
Reinventing MálagaAnother boost to Málaga's reinvention as a hip cultural city-break option comes in the form of the new Carmen Thyssen Museum (carmenthyssenmalaga.org), which opened last week in the restored 16th-century Villalón Palace in the centre of town. It features 230 works – worth around €700m – from the collection of Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, the widow of the Dutch art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. She said she was "in love with" her new museum. The first temporary exhibition opens on 11 April, with classic 20th-century Spanish artists including Picasso, Antonio Saura and Francisco Bores.
Retro railway journeysJourneys on the new luxury, vintage-inspired La Robla train have been included in a choice of new "railway cruise" itineraries in northern Spain from Kirker (020-7593 1899, kirkerholidays.com). A week including three nights on the train's Bilbao to Léon route costs from £1,149 including meals on board and excursions.
Seven-star luxuryThe development of Spain's first seven-star hotel is under way in Almuñécar, and is set to bring some high-class glamour to the Costa Tropical, the Costa del Sol's less famous eastern sibling. The Bahía Fenicia resort (bahia-fenicia.com) and spa will be operated by the Banyan Tree group, but won't be ready until 2013 (it takes a while to source all those scented candles and Thai masseuses) and is estimated to cost €230m, with 200 rooms.
Barcelona's mega tapas barIs there life after El Bulli? The famous restaurant is due to close this July to be turned into a creative cookery foundation school, and isn't taking any more reservations. If you never managed to get a table, turn your attention instead to Ferran Adrià's new tapas bar in Barcelona, Tickets (ticketsbar.es), run with his brother Albert. Its bars and eating areas include La Presumida, doing Mediterranean cooking: Galician oysters, Joselito ham, grilled crabs. Nostromo 180286, a futuristic bar, serves xuxis – small dishes that go down in three bites, with typically wacky Adrià flare. Manchego cheese ice-cream, hedgehog (!) with avocado and mint jelly, and salads featuring almond blancmange or grilled watermelon feature here. There is also the 41˚ (41grados.es) bar serving snacks (mini-mozzarellas with basil, Parmesan with lemon), oysters and caviar. Reservations necessary, even for drinks.
Green MadridThe banks of the Manzanares river in the capital have been reclaimed for a new urban park area, Madrid Rio (west8.nl/projects/parks/madrid_rio). A four-mile stretch south of the city centre that was once wasteland now features landscaped gardens and sandy "beach" areas.
SpainEuropeCultural tripsRail travelBarcelonaFerran AdriàGemma Bowesguardian.co.ukEast London’s top 10 budget eats
Guardian Travel is currently compiling a thorough overview of London's best budget eateries. In his second instalment, Tony Naylor heads out east, into Shoreditch, Hackney and beyond
If we've missed your favourite tell us on our Word of Mouth blog
Part one: Central London's top 10 budget eats
On the face of it, let alone in a "budget eats" feature, £5.70 seems an awful lot to pay for a bacon butty. It is one of the themes of this series, however, that – particularly when you're eating on a tight budget – value is more important than cost. And the St John bacon butty is indisputably worth every one of those 570 pennies. It comprises two large chargrilled slices of proper artisan bread from the on-site bakery, thickly buttered and liberally stuffed with Gloucester Old Spot bacon. The rashers have a good three-quarter-inch rim of gloriously silky translucent fat around their outer edge. In its generosity, its use of supreme ingredients, in its hilarious disregard for anything you might describe as healthy eating, it is Fergus Henderson (owner of this and the more famous parent restaurant, St John) on a plate. There are also kippers, pikelets or, if you really insist, porridge and prunes available for breakfast, but that bacon butty will set you up for the day like nothing else. From 11am, Bread & Wine – a pleasingly spartan former bank – serves elevenses, cakes and whatnot. Then, from lunch onwards the menu consists of small 'n' large plates (£4-£15), which people mix 'n' match, splashing the cash. That said, if you can squeeze in for a simple bowl of celeriac and bacon soup, do (£5.90).
• Breakfast £2.60-£5.70, elevenses cakes £2.90. 94-96 Commercial Street, E1 (+44 (0)20-3301 8069, stjohnbreadandwine.com)
The tile work at this Brick Lane bakery has seen better days, but then you might look a bit tired yourself had you been serving fresh breads, pastries and filled bagels to hungry Londoners, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since the late 1970s. Beigel Bake is a legendary stop-off for late-night revellers, but you will find queues of varying lengths here whatever time of day you drop by. In a place where filled bagels start at 90p, spending £3.50 on one may seem rash. But the warm salt beef bagel is worth it. Tasty, moist, gelatinous thick-cut braised brisket on a fantastic dense, chewy bagel, served with peppy mustard, it is simple but satisfying stuff.
Filled bagels from 90p. 159 Brick Lane, E1 (+44 (0)20-7729 0616)
There is not a lot of individuality or joy in Canary Wharf. People are too busy making money. Escape its soaring glass and steel boulevards, however, and, a short walk away, you will find Tom and Ed Martin's polished gastropub, the Gun. An oasis of laughter, clubbable informality and good food, it is also a fine place in which to consider the mad folly of the Millennium Dome, visible across the Thames from the pub's waterside terrace. There is a proper restaurant section at the Gun, but the budget traveller should grab a table in the back – by the toasty open fire – and give the bar menu the once-over. There, you will find the likes of homemade fish finger sandwiches, a cheeseboard, devilled whitebait or a half a pint of prawns at under £10 a head. A sausage roll (£4.50) is a substantial slab, more lunch than a snack. A hunk of soundly sage-seasoned, smoothly ground, juicy sausage-meat in a perfectly bronzed, buttery thin pastry, it is seriously good stuff. It's like the best Christmas Day stuffing ... ever. A sample pint of Fuller's London Pride (£3.50) is as lively as it can be, which is not very. It is a definitive boring brown bitter.
• Bar menu available for lunch and dinner, from £4.50. 27 Coldharbour, E14 (+44 (0)20-7515 5222, thegundocklands.com)
This cafe at Hackney City Farm is a refreshingly rough 'n' ready, slightly ramshackle place. But for the steady stream of young mums and toddlers coming through the door, you might mistake it for some arty, hipster hang-out. Which, this being Hackney, it kind of is as well. There is a small deli section and ice-cream counter, but it is worth settling in and sampling Italian chef Eddy Ambrosi's blackboard specials, such as pappardelle pasta with a slow-cooked pork ragu, pressed organic brawn terrine or a wild British mushroom risotto. Much of the produce comes from farms in Kent and Essex, and, depending on seasonal availability, Frizzante's own veg patch. A portion of lightly cured salmon and scrambled eggs, topped with a particularly zingy creme fraiche and chives, is huge (£6.50). Bright swirls of orangey yolk suggest good eggs, although personally I think they could have been creamier. There is a fine line between scrambled eggs and omelette.
• Food served until 4pm. Breakfast £4-£7. Daily specials from £5. Hackney City Farm, 1a Goldsmiths Row, E2 (+44 (0)20-7739 2266, frizzanteltd.co.uk). Second branch at Surrey Docks Farm, Rotherhithe, SE16, open Wednesday to Sunday
From breakfast to late-night cocktails, this trendy cafe-bar is, laudably, trying to do lots of important things well. Food-wise the emphasis is on labour-intensive, from-scratch making and baking, running the gamut from bar snacks, like the Pearl's little pots of homemade pork scratchings (90p), to fantastic, fragrant apple, cinnamon and clove muffins (£1.80). A bowl of parsnip soup is warm, wholesome, properly seasoned and vibrantly fresh in flavour, and arrives with good bread. That day's chalkboard menu includes appealing dishes such as lamb and caper hash with fried egg (£8.20). Breakfast includes the kitchen's own granola, sweetcorn fritters with chilli jam, and bubble 'n' squeak. A sample coffee was disappointing – buying Square Mile coffee is one thing, treating it with the respect it deserves is another. Note: the evening menu is more expensive, with most main dishes topping £10.
• Breakfast £3.50-£7.50, soups/sandwiches around £4.50, daytime mains £7-£9. 11 Prince Edward Road, E9 (+44 (0)20-8510 3605, thehackneypearl.com)
An utterly predictable choice, perhaps, but there is a reason why everyone raves about Tayyabs. This Pakistani grill and curry house is very, very good. How can you not love a restaurant where, on a sunny Tuesday lunchtime, the staff have to throw open the doors in order to let out a sudden build-up of aromatic smoke from those famous tandoor ovens? Tayyabs' long-marinated grilled lamb chops (four for £6) remain one of life's great savoury pleasures, the meat essentially a delivery vehicle for a complex hit of sweet 'n' smoky, hot 'n' spicy flavour, edged with a crisp, blackened strip of fat. Don't be surprised to find yourself gnawing the bone long after the meat has gone. There is no standing on ceremony at Tayyabs and eating in here can be a pretty quick turnaround experience. On busy weekend evenings particularly, you are not encouraged to linger at your table. But at these prices (curry and rice around £7-£8) this is exceptional food: conscientiously cooked, sparkily spiced and lifted by liberal use of fresh herbs. Seeing it in daylight for once, Tayyabs is quite a smart space these days, too.
• Starters from 95p, mains from £5.20. No alcohol sold, BYO no corkage. 83-89 Fieldgate Street, E1 (+44 (0)20-7247 6400, tayyabs.co.uk)
Such is the cluster of Vietnamese restaurants around the Kingsland Road/Old Street junction, they probably deserve a feature in their own right. Cay Tre is a good place to start your exploration. With its fashionable black 'n' white wallpaper and multicoloured lighting, the space itself is very modern Shoreditch, but in terms of its accumulated knowledge and skill, the cooking harks back generations. You could spend a long time trying to discern exactly what has gone into the clear, light broth that makes Cay Tre's pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) stand out. Packed with fresh coriander, spring onions and, in my case, beef, it is neither as salty nor as hot as you might imagine, but instead reveals new ingredients (star anise, garlic, roasted onions, cinnamon, some sort of base meaty, umami flavour) with each mouthful. It is a delicate clean soup with a nonetheless serious depth of flavour. The accompanying noodles are great, too. As a takeaway, this "small" pot of goodness is enough for a solid lunch or light dinner and costs just £3.50, which makes it all the more remarkable. Eating in at Cay Tre, the pho dishes are affordable throughout (around £7), but, at night, a main meat or fish dish plus rice might nudge £10. If you need to stick rigidly to a budget, then at lunch and before 6pm, the menu offers various "one-dish meals", such as lemongrass-marinated barbecue pork with bun (cold vermicelli noodles) or mixed seafood with jasmine rice, at £6.50-£8.
• Takeaway dishes £3-£8, starter/main deal £9.50. 301 Old Street, EC1 (+44 (0)20-7729 8662, vietnamesekitchen.co.uk)
Victoria Park is currently in the midst of major renovation work, which means this lakeside cafe is currently lacking its lake (it's been drained) and its usually picturesque views (unless you love mud and industrial diggers). But still, on a dull Wednesday morning it is packed, such is the quality of the food. Superior, seasonal ingredients are confidently handled in everything from sandwiches to a beef shin stew with turnips, sprouts and rye bread. The Pavilion will prick the interest of vegetarians, too, with unusually thoughtful dishes like sprouting broccoli, crushed artichokes and soft boiled egg on toast, with a hazelnut dressing. A plate of eggs Benedict easily passes muster, although it has been left to linger on the pass. It is lukewarm rather than hot. It is also worth noting that the Pavilion gets very busy with mums, giddy toddlers and buggies. Anti-social singletons who want to eat at its communal tables in peace may want to take a paper (the Guardian, of course) and an iPod.
• Breakfast £2.50-£8.50, sandwiches £4, hot dishes £5-£8. Takeaway available. Victoria Park, corner of Old Ford Road and Grove Road, E9 (+44 (0)20-8980 0030, the-pavilion-cafe.com)
If confirmation were needed that Shoreditch has lost its edge, the arrival of Terence Conran's boutique hotel and restaurant, the Boundary, is surely it. Its gentrification is now almost complete. Still, on the upside, the site's newer ground-floor deli-cafe, Albion, is a great place to eat. And we can always do with more of those. Look beyond the shelves of HP Sauce and Yorkshire Tea (we get it, the Albion is a celebration of Englishness) and you will find some good, and good value, food here. You can eat in the "caff" – a big Conranesque canteen space – for under £10 a head if you're careful, but with so many good things to take away from the deli section, why bother? There are made-to-order sandwiches, savoury pies and tarts, biscuits and cakes, and chilled drinks of a Meantime Brewery/Fentiman's quality. A sample pork and chutney pie in thick, glossy pastry is superb. A slice of Bakewell tart is, whilst an expert bit of baking, possibly a bit too refined for its own good. The jam is spread a little too thinly along the base and, consequently, the almond filling lacks the requisite sweet fruity tang. But still, overall, well worth a visit.
• Cakes and biscuits from 55p, snacks/sandwiches £2.50-£5. 2-4 Boundary Street, E2 (+44 (0)20-7729 1051, albioncaff.co.uk)
There are no end of places on Stoke Newington Road cooking kebabs on traditional Turkish ocak grills. Opinions vary, of course, as to which ocakbasi restaurant is the best, but Mangal – a 1993 entrant in the Good Food Guide and still listed in the 2011 edition – has a proven track record of producing superlative meats over many years. The restaurant proper is a little expensive for this piece (main dishes from £9), but, out front, takeaway customers can choose from 13 types of kebab (marinated lamb, chicken wings, lamb chops, quail, etc), which the grill chef then moves up and down a great trough of hot charcoal with patient authority. It is worth getting a takeaway just to watch him at work. Boldly seasoned with chilli, garlic and parsley, the minced lamb beyti kebabs are sensational, an explosive combination of heat, carbon and hot lamb juices. Moreover, you get two eight-inch kebabs, a small, discus-like loaf and a great mixed salad (it includes everything from gherkins to pickled radish) for £6. It could easily be split between two for lunch.
• Takeaway kebabs from £5.10. Arcola Street, off Stoke Newington Road, E8 (+44 (0)20-7275 8981, mangal1.com)
Tony travelled from Manchester to London with Virgin Trains
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