PEARL LANG VOTED BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT IN THE UK

Last night we went along to the Tsingtao Legacy of Taste competition at The Courthouse Doubletree. The annual competition sees 500 nominated Chinese restaurants battle it out to become the best Chinese restaurant in the UK. The event was hosted by celebrity chef, Ching He Huang, and included a private screening of the four finalist restaurants - Sweet Mandarin in Manchester, Pearl Liang in Paddington, Gourmet Garden in Hendon and Chop Chop in Edinburgh.

The winner was our very own Pearl Liang in Paddington. We’d like to say a big congratulations and we hope to come along and try you soon!

Pearl Liang, 8 Sheldon Sq,W2

http://www.pearlliang.co.uk/

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CHEWING GUM FACTORY...

Avant-garde jelly artists Bompas & Parr have gone one step further and created an Artisanal Chewing Gum Factory. Inside you can learn how chewing gum is made at the world’s first mirco-factory. Willy Wonka eat your heart out!

Each visitor will be able to choose and combine 200 flavours including iris, Hendricks Gin and tonic, curry and beer yeast. In total 40,000 flavour combinations are possible!

Tickets can be purchased from the main atrium of Whiteleys Shopping Centre and are priced at £2.50. We suggest getting down there early as we have a sneaky feeling this one is going to be popular.

25^th – 31th  October 12pm - 6pm

Whiteleys Shopping Centre , Bayswater, W2 4YN

http://www.jellymongers.co.uk/

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REVIEW: ACES & EIGHTS

‘Rock, Liquor, Pizza.’ – The slogan painted on the mysterious black-clad new venue opposite Tufnell Park tube station. Now in its fourth month of opening Aces & Eights has somehow become part of the north London furniture. Within walking distance of Camden and Kentish Town ‘Aces’ is fast becoming the preferred late night hang out for music lovers.

For those familiar with its sister venue, ‘Slim Jim’s Liquor Store’ on Upper Street, Angel, The Decor of Aces & Eights will come as no surprise, very low lighting (individual candles preferred on every table instead of overpowering ceiling lights), large booths, big enough to fit you and all your mates in and vintage gig posters covering the walls!

Aces does exactly what it says on the tin: Rock – A jukebox jam packed with your favourite records, from The Doors through to Death From Above 1979 and everything in-between. Liquor – A wide range of draught beers, wines and spirits specialising in whisky, (see their whisky menu for a range or rare bourbon, malts and scotch) as well as a more than impressive cocktail range (we recommend their take on the ‘Old Fashioned’ – the best we’ve found across London). And Finally Pizza - My oh my the pizza! Serving about 15 different pizzas, handmade fresh to order, in a range of sizes that are ideal to share, the pizzas are yet another reason to visit. And, at only £7-£8 for a 12” they’re great value.

With all this going for it looks like Aces & Eights will go from strength to strength and with plans to start putting on live music and open a basement bar in the New Year it won’t be rock n roll’s best kept secret for much longer……

Happy hour 5pm-8pm everyday (cheap drinks and 2-4-1 cocktails), DJs on Fridays and Saturdays check out the website for more details: http://www.acesandeightssaloonbar.com/

Aces & Eights, 156-158 Fortress Rd NW5

Si

HAWKSMOOR SOFT OPENING...

The mighty, meaty Hawksmoor opened in Spitalfields in 2006 and ever since has been serving up the finest beef to carnivores all over the city! This week Hawksmoor launched a second restaurant in Seven Dials with 50% off food during the ‘soft opening’ week. But following their win for ‘best Sunday lunch’ at the OFM awards, these were the hottest tables in the city and sold out fast - the Hawksmoor received 1400 emails!

Because we love you all soooo much, LondOntheInside are giving you our table for four this Friday at 19:30. This means a whopping 50% off your food bill! To score these four seats all you need to do is create a tweet mentioning LondOntheInside, HawksmoorLondon and beef, the more imaginative the better!

Our example (@LondOntheInside have massive beef with @Hawksmoor)

Good Luck people! We will choose the winner on Thurs 28th at 12pm.
Hawksmoor, Seven Dials, 11 Langley St, WC2H 9JG
www.thehawksmoor.co.uk

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ALERT: MOVEMBER AT BYRON

Bring back the tash we say! Well at least for ‘Movember’, the month long yearly event in which participants commit to growing a moustache for the whole of November. The aim of the game is to register online and gain sponsors for moustache growing. All proceeds go to The Prostate Cancer Charity, so joking aside it’s all for a good cause.

To help the cause Byron Burgers are giving participants who raise at least £25, a free hamburger at any Byron restaurant, every day of Movember, from 3–7pm. What more of a reason do you need? Now just to work out how to grow a tash...

http://www.byronhamburgers.com/movember/

http://www.movember.com/

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ALERT: BEAT THE BARTENDER

No, no not with a stick at Ping Pong silly! The Zebrano Bars in Soho are ‘betting their bar’ by challenging customers to a game of ping-pong. Playing against Zebrano’s owner contests can slog it out to win 20% off their Christmas party. Imagine the bosses face when you tell him....Brownie Points galore!

So for your chance to win head along to either of the Zebrano bars in October, November and December and grab yourself a racket. Sports attire is optional.

Zebrano, 14 Ganton St, W1F & Zebrano, 18 Greek Street, W1D

www.zebrano.uk.com

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REVIEW: PARADISE FISH BAR

LondOntheInside loves Fish and Chips. In fact we love most food but that is beside the point. Imagine our delight when we tried our new local chip shop and found out it was ace. The Paradise Fish Bar is located in Newington Green. There is usually a queue inside and now we know why. The fish and chips are cooked to order but well worth the wait. We went for the large cod and chips to share, just under £6 but even between two of us we couldn’t finish them. The fish, a large piece of flaky white cod was enclosed in a crispy batter without a trace of greasiness. The chips were half crispy, half soft and again not greasy in the slightest. The perfect hangover cure and the best take away fish & chips we have eaten for a long time….

Would we go back? Erm I think we already have, twice!

Paradise Fish Bar, 141 Newington Green Road. London N1 4RA

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REVIEW: FOX & ANCHOR

The Fox and Anchor is a traditional English pub, stepping inside feels like your stepping back in time. Ale is served in Pewter Tankards, old framed photos decorate wood paneled walls and the menu features some good old fashioned comfort food. Located on Charterhouse Street, Clerkenwell, an area which is often deserted on a weekend, the pub serves up a cracking Sunday Roast to keep the punters coming.

LondOntheInside got a good roasting on Sunday and we quite liked it! We started with the scampi, a generous portion of crispy, juicy scampi, it was as good as any we have tasted back home in Whitby and that is saying something. We ordered one Pork and Beef roast which were served with homemade soup and a tankard of ale for under £14 – not bad.

After the scampi we were served mushroom soup with bread. The creamy mushroom soup was very tasty, served with a tankard of ale you could really imagine people sitting here hundreds of years ago. In our snug for two we felt like royalty.

Starters finished the roasts arrived. The beef cooked meduim, rare was a generous helping of tender, juicy meat, not surprising given the pubs proximity to famous Spitalfields meat market. Both meats were served with the tallest, straightest Yorkshire puddings we had seen in our lives - an achievement in themselves! Roast carrots, roast potatoes, green beans and a gravy boat completed the roast.

The roast carrots were sweet and soft, the roast potatoes cooked in goose fat were crispy on the outside but delicous and fluffy on the inside. The gravy was thick and full of flavour, so many places get this wrong so it’s a treat to find somewhere which does it well. The homemade Yorkshire puddings were ACE. Huge, a major plus - we love a Yorkshire or two!

The only grumble we had was the belly pork was a little too fatty and there really wasn't alot of meat on it. Apart from that everything else hit the spot - the location, food, service and the live band, although we did nearly knock ourselves out on the guitar as we turned the corner!

Will we return? We certainly will. There is so much to try - the pies looked amazing, as did the burgers and we have heard the hotel rooms are something else.

Fox and Anchor, 115 Charterhouse St, EC1M

www.foxandanchor.com/

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REVIEW: TOMMYFIELD

Housed on the corner of a busy junction The Tommyfield offers big portions of comfort food your gran would be proud of....

Inside the pub is one huge room, the main dining areas are raised by the windows, letting you watch people and traffic whizz by, whilst you tuck into a big pie! The Tommyfield prides itself on being a proper pub, cask ale, pies, fish and chips, steak, sausage rolls and good old scotch eggs are just some of the British Food on offer.

Sat by the window we spent five minutes looking from menu to blackboard and blackboard to menu deciding on what to have. The British Meat Board won us over; Ox tongue, sausage roll, scotch egg, mature cheddar, onion chutney and piccalilli. For mains we opted for the Sirloin Steak served with Chips, a side of Sautéed Greens and the Chicken and Bacon pie served with Sautéed Greens and Gravy.

It wasn’t long before the meat board arrived, the sausage roll and scotch egg served warm were moist and full of flavour. The homemade chutney was tangy and sweet, dipping everything that was available in to it seemed to work. You could easy manage one of these each, sharing one just wasn’t enough and left us wanting more....

With the mains on the table the site of the chicken and bacon pie made our eyes pop out, a huge ball of golden brown pastry, sitting on top of a bunch of greens. Inside the pie was jam packed full of chicken pieces, carrots, bacon and sauce, cooked to perfection. It was so big we couldn’t finish it, no matter how hard we tried.

The steak was also a generous size, the homemade chips served in a bowl were fluffy and crispy, proper chips like your mam used to make. The sauce complimenting the steak had a nice kick to it, although we still aren’t sure what it was.

The only fault was that the food could have been a little hotter, both dishes were served warmish and went cold quickly.

We enjoyed our food but it wasn’t just the food, we also liked the staff who were well informed and friendly without being pests.

Our starter would set you back £7 which is the highest price of all the starters, the mains on the black board vary daily but expect to pay around £9 to £15. Deserts which we failed to feed on sound good banoffee pie, apple and berry crumble all at a fiver each.

If your around during the week from 5pm-7pm the pub offer free bar snacks and bottles of wine for £10.

All in all a pleasant meal with good service. Would we go back? Damn right, but next time we'll try the Roasts.

TommyField, 185 Kennington Lane London SE11

www.thetommyfield.com

Ben

ALERT: INTERNATIONAL FOOD FAIR

The International food fair returns to Canada Square Park next Monday following its success at the Summer Sounds event. Twenty stalls have already confirmed including Wahaca, Gourmet Chorizo and Cookies and Cream. So head along to fill your face full of treats from around the world!

18th October 11am – 3pm

Canada Square Park, E14

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REVIEW: MARKET

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the quality of Camden eateries prompted by the opening of Shaka Zulu, Kentish Canteen and the coming soon Made in Camden. It seems everyone has heard of Market but not many people have tried it. So we did just for you….

Market is located on the Parkway, bang in the middle of a swarm of mostly non descript restaurants. Inside Market is a million miles away from the busy Parkway with its exposed brick walls, open kitchen, wall booths, wooden chairs and relaxed vibe. The staff are friendly, the menu changes daily, the dishes are made from sustainable produce and the food, well the food is excellent!

For starters we ordered the Mussels, Samphire and Cider and Pork Belly, Pea Shoots and Apple Sauce. Both starters were great, the mussels were a good size and the Samphire, a plant neither we nor spell check have heard of was crunchy and fresh, a nice contrast in textures. The Pork Belly was another winner, the homemade apple sauce was sweet without being overly tart and the pork belly was crispy and full of flavour.


For main we opted for the Seabream, Sprouting Broccoli, Chilli and Almonds and the Rib Eye, Fries and Aioli. Both dishes were faultless. The fish was cooked well, soft and flaky whilst the crispy almonds added a nice crunchy texture. The Rib Eye was a great piece of meat, cooked rare as requested and served with homemade skinny fries which still had the skin on. I feel hungry at the thought of it.

For desert we shared the Lemon Posset, Elderberries and Shortbread. The desert was clearly as well thought out as the rest of the meal. The sweet lemon flavour worked well with the sourness of the Elderberries and the shortbread was an added bonus.

You can tell a lot of thought and effort has gone into every dish on the menu, the flavours and textures have been masterfully combined to really complement each other. We really don’t know what else we can say about Market, it was one of the best meals we have eaten in London and there has been a few. The only small grumble we had was that there wasn’t enough pork in the starter but that’s because we’re greedy!

For an a la carte meal the prices aren’t bad either: £5-7 for a starter, £15 for a main and £5 for a dessert. They also have a lunch offer through the week and a roast on Sunday, something we will be trying and we suggest you do to….

Market, 43 PARKWAY, NW1 7PN

www.marketrestaurant.co.uk

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ALERT: TOWPATH FOOD FESTIVAL

This weekend the Towpath on Regents Canal will host a mini food festival. As well as food from the Towpath Cafe some of London’s best street food stalls will be serving up special treats. The Meat Wagon will also be there – the hottest Wagon in London right now!

The free festival takes place from noon till midnight on both Saturday and Sunday. There will be DJs, bonfires and tents to shield you from the lovely British weather. This is the last time the Towpath will play host to an event as we are told the builders will be moving in on Monday, so expect a great atmosphere!

October 9th and 10th (12pm – 12am)

Regent's Canal towpath, between Whitmore Bridge and Kingsland Road Bridge, N1

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LRF & THE MEXICANS...

To celebrate London's second annual Restaurant Festival which opens today, (4-18 October) Mexican restaurants around the capital will be offering special Festival Menus. Boho Mexica, Cantina Laredo, Santo,
Mestizo, Benito's Hat, Chilango, Taqueria, Tacuba, Café Pacífico and La Perla are just some of the restaurants taking part.

Mexican food will also be one of the highlights at the LRF six day food market (October 11-13 and October 15-17). The market taking place in Old Spitalfields Market will showcase suppliers and selected Mexican restaurants. As well as lots of free samples visitors will be able to buy Mexican food and supplies from the likes of Chilango, Mestizo, Boho Mexica, Lupita, Santo, Mission Foods, Organic Exotic, Mex Grocer, Cool
Chile, Taqueria, Rico Mexican Kitchen and Costeña Mex Trade! Quite a list….

For more information and for tickets to this year's Festival events visit www.londonrestaurantfestival.com

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REVIEW: GUERILLA BURGERS

Guerilla Burgers is located on a buzzing back street, away from the chaos of Oxford Street. Inside the place is full of life, staff yell 'hello' as you walk through the door, there are images of burgers strapped to balloons, weird drawings and signs claiming 'Power to the Patty'. This place boasts about good food and apparently has the best margarita in town.

It was tough choice – we nailed it down to the LA burger and either the Hot Dog served with sweet and sour onions, jalapenos, slaw and pickles or the Cheese Burger. The Cheese burger won although we will be going back soon for that dog.…

The burgers are cooked medium, a little pink on the inside just the way we like them. With the LA Burger we swapped the beef for chicken. That's the deal here, you choose your burger then your meat, beef, chicken or turkey. The LA burger consisted of avocado, cottage cheese, raw slaw and house salsa. Crinkly fries, sweet potato fries, two chocolate shakes and we were good to go!

The shakes are thick, creamy and chocolaty, so good we could have slapped the waiter! And for only £3.25 they come in a fair bit cheaper than other diner shakes.

The burgers were up next. Not ones to hang about we dived straight in. Served in a seeded bun with a side dish of salsa the meat was cooked to perfection. The crinkly chips were indeed crinkly, the sweet potato fries were crispy and a great alternative, more places should serve these! The LA chicken burger was a lean, clean burger although as a burger lover the chicken lacked the beef a true burger needs. This sparked a heated debate about healthy eating in burger joints. Don’t get us wrong we like healthy eating but if you’re going to order a burger in a burger joint stick with the beef. We learnt that the hard way, so you don’t have to!

Burgers set you back between £4.50 - £6.85, fries from £2 - £4. There a few other choices for sides and you can go to town on relish and dips. Not in the mood for a burger then choose from hot dogs, fish tacos, grilled chicken and various salads. A good place to come if your other half wants a burger but you’re a dieter/veggie/vegan.

All in all a pleasant meal, in nice surroundings with a great rock n roll soundtrack played throughout. Check out the Cheese Burger combo Monday to Wednesday including crinkly fries and a small wine or red stripe for only £9.95.

Guerilla Burgers, 35 James Street, W1U

www.guerillaburgers.com

Ben