This is not a food blog, even though cooking/food is one of my hobbies. Neither is it a restaurant review blog. (Nor is it an actively maintained blog — but that’s a whole different story). Yet I felt that sharing some nice restaurant experiences is a good thing to do, hence here it goes.
During my last few visits to London I have treated myself a trip or two to very nicce and not very touristy places. None of them were of a fish’n chips variety (although you could get some variation of these in all of the places).
First of a Japanese place called Yoshino. While by far not a cheap place, nor the most “authentic” looking, it is one of the best sushi places I have ever come around. A bit small (but there’s additional sitting on the second level), it stays away from the big street (you have to turn into a narrow pass way right after Le Meridien Piccadilly hotel) and big signs (there’s only a small neon light saying “Sushi”). On my first visit there the feeling of authenticity was emphasised by the fact that staff had a bit of problem with English — this has (unfortunately?) been fixed now.
Rasa is another little gem. This is, in fact, a small network of restaurants — four or so of them in various parts of London serving South-West Indian (Kerala) cuisine. It is a very nice departure from North India cuisine that is far better known around. This is also a place if you want to find out how can a person live a totally veg life — Kerala is very veg (although there are beautiful meat dishes there as well).
Speaking of meat, my last little accidental find is Suze. They offer a great selection of meats coming from the New World — New Zealand and Australia. These are greatly complimented by the same bias in wine selection (Suze doubles as a wine bar). I found service to be excelent, wine very much enjoyable, and the food to be delicious.