Newtown food and cafes

Bangkok Bites

Address: 273 King St, Newtown NSW 2042

Phone: (02) 9565 2555

My favourite meal - Seafood Pad Thai, Prawn and calamari salad and the Garden Barra

212 blu (cafe)

Australia Street

Newtown, New South Wales

info

(02) 9516 0115

Great coffee, brunch and day food

Black Star Pastry

Home of the Watermelon Cake

222 Australia Street

Newtown

Also good coffee, but the long queues are a huge drawback

Five Edinburgh cafes for coffee 'holics

Kilimanjaro Coffee

This is the favourite, fantastic full English breakfast with what is an incredible lack of grease.  I know that sounds kind of terrible, but it's really good.  Plus we all loved the coffee here.

104 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9EJ, Scotland

This photo of Kilimanjaro Coffee is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Dovecot Studios Cafe
Yummy home made cakes, soups and other fare.  Plus good coffee.
 
http://dovecotstudios.com/cafe/
10 Infirmary Street
Edinburgh EH1 1LT
Check opening hours I think its Monday to Saturday.

Black Medicine
I frequented the one on Nicholson Street.  Coffee pretty decent.
http://www.blackmed.co.uk/#aboutbm

Peter's Yard
Scandinavian, but with pizza. Sounds bizarre, but it works.  Baked goods, soups and other yummy stuff.  Not sure what the coffee was like as I didn't have one, but its' definitely worth checking our for the food. 

 

 

Quartermile
27 Simpson Loan
Edinburgh EH3 9GG
Area: The Meadows

0131 228 5876

http://www.petersyard.com

Spoon
Interesting beverages like fresh mint and chilli tea. Light and airy, an all day place where you can grab a coffee.
 6a Nicolson Street, 0131-557 4567
spooncafebistro.co.uk.
Open Mon-Sat 10am-11pm

Eating in London

After a few years away from London we were pleasantly surprised by the explosion of fantastic places to eat, both high and low budget.

Here are a few we would definitely visit again. 

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal - www.dinnerbyheston.com

Dinner

We couldn't afford the Fat Duck, so we opted for a Heston fix, by a visit to Dinner.

We weren't disappointed. The meal we had was delicious.

This is the famous meat fruit. Definitely worth eating.




Al Boccon di'vino Non Solo Vina Ltd

Al Boccon di'vino Non Solo Vino ltd  www.nonsolovinoltd.co.uk/

Course after course, keeps coming to the table.  Once you take your seat, a Venetian feast is served.  Apparently modelled along the lines of an Italian wedding banquet.

This restaurant is in Richmond.  This is our main course, by this stage we were totally stuffed, having already had pasta, antipasto and more.

I think going for lunch would be a good idea, as you could at least try to walk it off.

Hansen and Lydersen www.hansen-lydersen

Street food from the markets.  Malby Street on a Saturday.

This is just one of the many tastes on offer.

Lots of food to grab on the go. From jamon to Norwegian salmon, cheeses and jams.

Polpo www.polpo.co.uk

Polpo.  This was one of our favourites, the Soho restaurant was friendly and the food was fresh and delicious.

One catch is that there are no reservations.


Noodle Oodle for a cheap and cheerful bite to eat, just outside the borders of Chinatown.  Hand pulled noodles www.noodleoodle.com.  Its not that far from the British Museum.

Campania -no website

Bethnal Green

95 Columbia Rd
Bethnal Green, UK E2 7RG

Campania is at the end of Columbia Road.

Southern Italian food: the owner and the majority of the staff hail from Naples.

The inside is small with rustic mismatched furniture.  Staff are friendly and it is frantic.
Simple, short menu.  Great fresh food.

Finally, last but not least, was Ev Restaurant, this is a chain of Anatolian restaurants.  However the restaurant itself did not feel or look like part of a chain.

Food was fresh and delicious.  this restaurant was tucked away at the back of Waterloo and felt like a find for locals.  Large outdoor eating area and also atmospheric restaurant with railway arches.
Ev Restaurant

More Melbourne finds

Catch great wine bar Cabinet in Swanston Street, if you can find the entrance. Must have are the eggplant fries, great big melt in the mouth eggplant with crunchy skin and yummy sauce. Pizza is also good.

Entrance is in the laneway just at the back of Swanston.
11 rainbow alley
melbourne, victoria.
03 9654 0915

Mekong says on the sign, that Bill Clinton ate here. It is busy, you share tables and sauces. It is cheap as chips, well actually good cheap Pho in Sydney is about the same price. This one is on Swanston street as well.
Ground 241 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Mekong

Also a good place to catch for a coffee is Sensory Lab in David Jones. Photo to come, but what struck me is the single coffee tables or booths, is that for loners who want to savour their coffee?


And one of my favourites is Journal in the library. Good coffee and good food in a cosy cafe.
Journal
253 Flinders Lane
Melbourne
9650 4399

Just remember not all coffee is good in Melbourne. I had apalling coffee in Degraves Lane. They didn't even use the machine and just poured me a latte from the dregs. bah, humbug Melbourne coffee.