West End

Now Playing in London’s West End: the Maserati of Espresso Machines & Stradivarius of Pizza Ovens

If real wizardry was what the people wanted, November’s red carpets would have been diverted from the Harry Potter premiere at Odeon Leicester Square to a great new coffee shop on St Martin’s Lane and a superb new pizzeria restaurant on Great Newport St.

Notes Music & Coffee is home to the UK’s first La Marzocco Strada, the Maserati of espresso machines. Sartori bakes its Neapolitan-styled pizzas in the wood-fired brick forno crafted by Strazzullo Michele, the Stradivarius of pizza ovens. [Read more...]

2 December 2010 By Daniel Young 3 Comments

Filed Under: coffee, London, pizza Tagged With: brick oven, espresso, Fabio Ferreira, Has Bean, Kicker, La Marzocco, Leicester Square, Margherita, Michele, Naples, Neapolitan, Notes Music and Coffee, pizza oven, pizzeria, pressure profiling, Sartori, Strada, Strazzullo, Trafalgar Square, West End, wood

The Ivy’s £13.75 Burger Bowls Me Over

setting the table for london's most overpriced burger My interest in The Ivy had nothing to do with stargazing at that famous celebrity haunt in London’s West End. I had asked Dino Joannides, whose passion is gastronomy and not astronomy, to meet me there for lunch to help answer a single question:

Was The Ivy burger good enough to justify its £13.75 (about $21) price? [Read more...]

16 July 2010 By Daniel Young 7 Comments

Filed Under: burgers, London, meats Tagged With: celebrity haunt, Soho, The Ivy, West End

Best hot salt beef sandwich in London?

UPDATE: VERY SORRY TO REPORT THE NOSH BAR HAS CLOSED FOR BUSINESS.
best salt beef sandwich in London UpTHE NOSH BAR is back in lights on Great Windmill Street and that alone is cause for celebration, if not a detour from New York, Newcastle or even New Oxford Street. But wait: surprise of surprises, this is not just another West End revival looking to cash in on the imagined nostalgia of gullible tourists or Londoners too young to remember the dearly missed Soho institution. The brand new Nosh Bar, opened on the goodest of Good Fridays by Paul Jonas and his sons Billy and Jody, began by serving the very best hot salt beef sandwich in London. Although the consistency has slipped some since the opening, The Nosh Bar remains a must stop on every food tour of London’s West End. [Read more...]