The Arts Theatre Club

Soho's hidden gem

Soho is full of top bars, but there isn't one quite like The Arts Theatre Club, a hidden cocktail bar located on Frith Street. The Art Theatre Club is sandwiched between the ever popular Japanese restaurant Koya Bar and the hot in demand Sri Lankan restaurant Hoppers. A little red door will lead you to an underground speakeasy cocktail bar with plenty of retro vibe and classical element. The decor tells a story: the lower level ceiling, moody red lights, vintage piano... Stepping inside felt like stepping back in time and visiting a secret member's club. 

Frenchie

Classy French Lunch

Spring leeks, pickled shittake, vinaigrette

It wasn't long ago I had a fantastic dinner at Frenchie in Covent Garden, a slick modern French restaurant by Grégory Marchand. Lunch is a lot different to its dinner menu, with only a set menu on offer with 3 courses to choose from starters, mains and desserts. Price is a lot more affordable with 2 courses costing £22 (A single main course for dinner would set you back to £25.) and 3 courses at £28. My big question is, would the quality downscale due to money factor? Given the cheaper price I wouldn't mind the kitchen using cheaper ingredients, but I do expect the cooking standard and execution should be just as good.

Dirty Bone Carnaby

Premium fast food 

baby back ribs

This is Dirty Bone's second site after its original was founded in Kensington two years ago. I was not overly impressive with neither of the fried chicken or hot dogs from Kensington when it was newly launched. The menu has since expanded with plenty of new starters and burgers, plus a weekend brunch menu too. Dirty Bone Soho is located on the top floor of Carnaby food hub, and once again with a large selection of specially designed neon light to give the restaurant a dark and night club vibe. The starter of salt and pepper squid was decent enough, smooth, tender with finely seasoned crispy edge, however at £8 is a very questionable dish as the portion was tiny. The hot wings were seriously challenging on the palate, the Louisiana-style hot sauce packed a punch with its burning hot flavours. 

Bocca di Lupo

Regional Italian

Roast suckling pig with chestnuts,
muscat grapes, white wine 

Bocca di Lupo has long been a household name in the London dining scene, framed for its simple regional Italian cuisines. Founded by Jacob Kenedy, this Soho Italian restaurant has always been a firm favourite for both locals and tourists from the start. It is an extremely difficult place to secure a table unless you book well in advance. The restaurant offer counter seating behind the bar as well as a more formal table setting at the back with table service. I was pretty impressed with my first dinner experience at Bocca di Lupo four years ago and wondered if much has changed since then.

Secret Brixton

It's a SECRET by the way...

So... the cool people at Yelp has come up with yet another fun, interesting and unique event. For one week (18th to 23rd April), Yelp helps you to discover (or re-discover) the best of Brixton's local gems through a series of secret events, exclusive offers & unique secret menu items in some of Brixton's most iconic and unique venues. 

So whether you're local to Brixton, live in a nearby neighbourhood or you'd just like to come on down and explore Brixton. But, remember it's a secret so shhhh! 
Now, to unlock Brixton's hidden gems you will first need to: 

1. Create a Yelp account, if you are not yet lucky enough to have one already. 
2. Select the shiny red RSVP button to secure your spot. 
3. Once RSVP'd you will receive some information from #secretbrixton HQ as to where to collect your secret MAP. 

Yelp is granting you access to 3 secret events. We recommend you don't miss out... Your adventure has begun. -- 

Secret event #1 - BOYS vs GIRLS: yelp.co.uk/events/london… 
Secret event #2 - Make it POP, Brixton: yelp.co.uk/events/london… 
Secret event #3 - Brixton Street Party: yelp.co.uk/events/london… -- 

Yelp, the urban local city guide helps you discover Brixton like never before with #secretbrixton. 

To find out more, please visit: http://www.yelp.co.uk/events/london-secretbrixton

Smokehouse Islington

Smoking joy

Prawn toast, smoked bone marrow & kimchi onions

I only have a small collection of London restaurants that I would be happily to return to over and over again, Smokehouse, is definitely one of them. The affordable gastropub produces some of the most exciting meat dishes in London, cooking up BBQ by taking inspirations from around the world, using good quality British ingredients. Co-owner plus chef Neil Rankin has since launched Smokehouse no2 in Chiswick and it was just good as the original site in Islington. For this 4th visit, I was hoping to try out some of the new dishes as well as visiting the old classics.

Koba

Korean BBQ

seafood for the BBQ

Koba has long been a household name for any Londoners who are into Korean food, it was shut down earlier this year for refurbishment and relaunched in March. It is my first ever time visiting Koba so I couldn't compare. But on arrival, I was impressed with the decor and layout out, it had a slick bar counter sitting at the front while the back had a more traditional feel to it. The in-trend fried chicken dish was a major let down, the batter was far too thick and the spicy dressing was not a great deal of difference to the instant version you would find in a supermarket. We opted for a range of BBQ meat that is more rare to find in usual Korean restaurants. The thinly sliced ox tongue was underwhelming, lacked flavour and richness as you would expect from such a fine cut of meat. 

Native

Chef table 

Picked pear, poacher, pennywort

My second visit back to Native at Covent Garden, a tiny restaurant specialised in using wild ingredients as much as possible, turning out some very exciting modern British cuisine with a light creative touch. My reason for returning? Simple, the cooking standard is high, the quality of ingredients are great and the hospitality is outstanding. Not to mention, the price is seriously fantastic value for money. This time around, I booked in at its chef table, over looking the kitchen as the chefs cook and serve up our dishes, similar to Kitchen Table inside Bubbledogs.