Last night Sam unexpectedly had dinner time off in his 9 am- 10pm rehearsal schedule. As you can imagine Monday-Saturday working those hours means that our time together is slim. Dinner plans, nope. Reservation, hell no. Going away for the weekend, you’ve got to be kidding me. Soon we’ll be in Stratford where he’ll be doing the show every day except for Sunday until November. Of course, that’s amazing for his career but that makes me an acting widow. (I wish that was a real thing- I should make a facebook group and find people to commiserate with.)
I digress. He unexpectedly got a few hours off and nicely took advantage of them and arrange to go out for dinner. We went to Franco Manca in Clapham Junction which is a famous kitsch-London woodfire pizza restaurant. If we were both being classy we would never admit that pizza is both of our favourite foods. (It is.)
This inspired me to make a list of my other favourite places to get food in London. Obviously I’ll post updated versions of this list as inspiration strikes! Here are my London Restaurant Recommendations:
Pizza Metro Pizza (Clapham Junction)- Hands down the best pizza in London
Ben’s Cookies (multiple locations)- Giant freshly baked cookies in millions of different flavours
Brew (Northcote Road)- Killer brunch!
Mishkins (Covent Garden)- A jewish deli with incredible cocktails.
The Popeseye Steak House (Putney and Olympia)- For steak. It only serves steak
The Breakfast Club (multiple locations)- Its always PACKED on weekends, but weekday lunch is perfect! The breakfast burrito is my favourite.
The Maze Grill (Bond Street)- Steak again. A la Gordon Ramsay.
The Pavement (Clapham)- Brunch in a quaint and very small place.
The Plough Bar and Kitchen (Strath Terrace, Clapham Junction) Amazing, amazing Sunday roasts.
Rick’s Cafe (Tooting Broadway)- Go there on Steak Tuesday for the deals.
Bodean’s (Multiple)- It’s like I’d died and gone to heaven. Great BBQ and whiskey sours. To be honest, the food is great but I’d happily go there just for drinks.
Bocca di Lupo (Soho)- Have the orecchiette. Just do it. Then thank me.
Hummingbird Bakery (South Kensington) – Cupcakes galore! The Red Velvet is very popular.
Ottolenghi (Islington)- Vegetarian and delicious. The salads are all divine if a bit pricey.
Monmouth Coffee Company (Multiple locations)- Sam swears by it.
Chez Bruce (Wandsworth)- French, expensive but soooo good. They have an incredible lunch time deal though!
Montezuma (Multiple locations)- The mother-load of delicious chocolates.
La Bodega Negra (Soho)- Okay, so you have to go through a sex shop to get there…but it’s worth it for the upscale Mexican.
The Big Easy (King’s Road)- BBQ. Yes, yes, yes!
Joe Allen (Soho) – Where all the theatre crowd go. Have a burger…an expensive one.
Places I’ve been really meaning to go and haven’t yet:
Bubbledogs
Tommi’s Burger Joint
