With summer slowly reaching its climax, SquareMeal readers are making the most out of what’s left of the warm weather by exploring London’s restaurant scene, regularly rating and slating the capital’s hotspots. Diner reviews, which can be left on our site by anyone, secure SquareMeal’s status as a one-stop shop for keen eaters. This is our chance to highlight your views, as well as a way for you to collate and compare the experiences of other diners.
West London is home to a number of great restaurants, making it difficult to pick just one to dine in. Leave it to SquareMeal readers, however, to stumble upon the tastiest joints in the area. Over in Notting Hill, Gourmand Gunno popped into seafood restaurant Bucket (top). Gunno found it’s easy to “believe you’re at the seaside” while at the restaurant, as he tucked into the likes of “a cockle and chorizo appetiser”. In West Hampstead, Rose K had dinner at Ham, where she found the set menu price of £45 a head to be “very reasonable”. For her meal, Rose enjoyed a “delicious tempura veg with a lovely creamy hollandaise sauce” and a main of beef which was “perfectly pink”. Nick A, however, ventured to Mayfair’s Stem, where he found the food and service to be “absolutely excellent”. For Nick, the highlight was “the best cheese on toast of all time” paired with “onion soup and the creamiest, richest mash potato imaginable”. We also loved Stem on our visit, awarding it two SquareMeal stars.
Not every restaurant fared so well this month though, with some diners left feeling disappointed with their meals. Alice M paid a disheartening visit to Pink Turban in Harrow, where she found the service to be “disrespectful” and “unprofessional”. At Salt Yard (above) in Bloomsbury, David H found that the “food could have been conceived better, sourced better and cooked better”, as none of his dishes wowed him. Amanda D had a similarly dissatisfying experience at Le Pont de la Tour Bar & Grill over in South Bank. She experienced a meal mix-up as she and her company were given “the meal the next door table had ordered”. It just goes to show, service with a smile can go a long way.
Despite occasional disappointments, many Londoners have their restaurant favourites which they return to again and again. Rachel S paid a visit to South Bank’s Thai Silk, where she’s eaten many times and claims the food is “always good”. Ristorante Frescobaldi (above) in Mayfair never fails to disappoint either, as Gourmand Gunno notes that the restaurant “has survived four years” in the city’s “cutthroat dining scene” due to its “excellent” food and drink. The Mercer in the City is another favourite, as Chris H’s “director had a breakfast and lunch” there with everything being served “to his satisfaction”. We also love this tried and true favourite, awarding it two SquareMeal stars on our visit.
Register with us here to join in, search for a restaurant and then leave your comments. We’re constantly rewarding our diner reviewers with prizes, search #SMDinerReview on Twitter to see how you can win cookbooks and bottles of Champagne. Regular reviews will also make you a contender for our Critic of the Quarter prize, where you could win a £200 meal in a select range of top London restaurants.