The Tamil Crown, Islington, London desi pub review

I've said it before but I’m a huge fan of desi pubs. After all, delicious Indian food and well-kept beers are a match made in heaven.

Tap and Tandoor in Solihull and the Soho Tavern in Gateshead are both places where we've eaten and drunk very well on our travels. 

On our most recent trip to London, we managed to squeeze in a visit to The Tamil Crown in Islington. Whilst it stretches the definition of a pub as most of its space dedicated to restaurant dining, there’s still room for a few people at the bar to enjoy a pint alongside an onion bhaji or two.

Owned by former Roti King executive chef Prince Durairaj and ex-Market Halls general manager Glen Leeson, the Tamil Crown is currently ranked as the 35th best gastropub in the UK in the ever reliable Top 50 Gastropubs list. Alongside its stablemates The Tamil Prince and Tamila, the Tamil Crown leans towards Southern Indian cooking, as that’s where Durairaj hails from.

We weren't drinking after a craft beer holiday in Tallinn but I think it’s fair to say that the Tamil Crown’s beer selection isn’t the most inspiring, especially when there are London breweries on its doorstep like The Kernel and Pressure Drop. Harbour’s Beach Party Pale Ale (£8 a pint) and Purity Session IPA (£8) are about as exciting as it gets. Instead, I enjoyed a bready alcohol free Lucky Saint lager (£6.50) and Mrs G saw off a fruity and fragrant Desi Spritz alcohol free cocktail (£11.50).

Snacks kicked off the meal, and okra fries (£9) were probably the best I've ever eaten. Hyper crisp and grease free, their potently spiced batter surrounded thin fronds of vegetable.

Beef masala uttapam (£12.50) was the standout dish of the meal. A light and crisp rice flour pancake was topped with slow-cooked, headily spiced shreds of beef which had been fried to a golden crisp on their surface. It was joined by a creamy and fiery coconut chutney.

Finally, a gorgeously juicy and crisp-skinned lime leaf scented chicken thigh (£13.50) was delicious dunked in a pot of fresh and fruity pineapple chutney. It had lux Greggs mango chicken oval bite vibes, and I was fully sold.

Onto mains, and the other standout dish of the meal was a corker of an aubergine curry (£13.50) with soft and sticky chunks of the meaty vegetable and long cooked sweet onions. It was a rich, deeply spiced and decadent curry.

A Chettinad lamb curry (£16) had a well-spiced and meaty gravy and a decent amount of soft and tender pieces of meat. But it was no better than similar dishes I’ve eaten at Cardiff’s myriad excellent southern Indian restaurants.

On the carb front, coconut cream was stirred through pilau rice (£6.50) to give it a sticky rice-like decadence. Its creaminess also worked exceptionally well to balance the punchy spicing of the other dishes.

A good roti (£4.50) was light and elastic, but it didn’t quite live up to the exemplars at Roti King – it just wasn’t as flaky or crisp.

With its combination of big-flavoured southern Indian cooking in a laid-back pub setting, we had an excellent meal at the Tamil Crown. I can see why it’s a contemporary London desi pub success story. 

The Details:

Address - The Tamil Crown, 16 Elia Street, London N1 8DE

Web - https://www.thetamilcrown.com/

Telephone - 020 3342 0709

Three Flames, Cathays, Cardiff, Nashville hot chicken takeaway review

We very rarely eat takeaway anymore. In part, it’s because we enjoy the whole experience of visiting a restaurant. The dining room, the service, and the ambience, all add to the sense of occasion. The day that going out for a meal stops feeling like a special treat is the day that I give up writing this blog. 

The other reason is because takeaway food quality is inevitably compromised on its journey from a restaurant kitchen to a punter’s home. Especially things that are supposed to be crisp, which quickly become soggy whilst steaming away in a takeaway container. I like to eat a food business's food as it's supposed to be be rather than after its been sat on the back of a delivery bike for half an hour. 

Which brings me to Three Flames, a recently opened Nashville hot chicken takeaway joint that’s located down a back lane in Cardiff's Cathays area. Whilst there’s no way you’d ever stumble across it and their passing trade must be non-existent, you can be rest assured that I’m not going to describe it as a covert trinket, stealth sparkler or some other insufferable cliché.

Having used Google Maps to track them down to their home in what looks like a converted garage at the back of 98 Crwys Road, I was mightily impressed to find a crowd of people waiting for orders at 8.30pm on a Sunday evening. 

Specialising in Nashville hot chicken, Three Flames’s menu comprises of sandwiches, sliders, wraps and loaded fries, all of which are available in a variety of heat options ranging from Spark (mild) to 3rd Degree (extreme). If hot chicken isn’t your thing, then they also offer a selection of beef burgers and a veggie option too. 

I'd preordered my meal on Three Flames’s website, which allows you to live track your meal, and was looking forward to waltzing to the front of the queue to collect my dinner. However, when I arrived on time, the tracker showed that my order had already been collected, and I then had another 10 minutes to wait for it to be cooked. The friendly front of house team was very apologetic but there’s not much point in whizzy technology if it doesn’t work. 

As I was ravenous, and a little bit tipsy, I decamped to the nearest street corner to eat my dinner within a few minutes of it being cooked. 

My Nashville sando (£10.99 including fries and dip) saw a run of the mill toasted St Pierre brioche bun overflowing at the edges with a colossal and supremely juicy buttermilk marinated chicken thigh that was coated in an uber-crisp gnarly crumb and topped with creamy slaw and cleansing pickles. I’d opted for the mild spice level, and it delivered a big hit of flavour with just a delicate kick of heat. 

Served on the side was a mound of exemplary spice dusted crinkle cut chips, and a pot of tangy, creamy and spice-twanged Flamer Fuel dip. 

Even taking into account the unremarkable bun, this was a first-rate fried chicken sandwich meal.

On a second visit during the middle of the week, I had no such issues with the pre-order technology. In fact, quite the opposite as when I arrived a few minutes before my allotted collection slot, my meal was already sat waiting for me. I’m not sure for how long. 

By the time I’d made the 10-minute walk to Roath Park to guzzle my dinner on a park bench, the condition of my chicken tender meal (£9.99 including fries and dip) was somewhat compromised. 

Whilst the pair of mahoosive chicken breast tenders had thankfully retained their heat, tenderness, and crispness, the crumb coating started to fall away when I picked it up. They were sat on a token slice of toasted brioche that was a little bit too sweet for the job – cheap white sliced bread is clearly used in most Nashville hot chicken joints for a reason. 

Whilst the chicken had held up pretty well on its journey to the park bench, the same couldn’t be said for the pile of crinkle cut chips that were sadly tepid and limp.

This time around, I’d ordered my chicken at a medium heat level and whilst it was full of flavour, it was still pretty mild, even in comparison to mild Nashville chicken heat levels that I’ve had elsewhere. I’d certainly go hotter next time. 

An accompanying pot of ranch dip was pleasingly creamy and tangy – it was an ideal foil for all that spicy deep-fried stuff. 

So, what can I say about Three Flames? At its best and when consumed immediately, they serve generous portions of cracking value, top notch Nashville hot chicken. However, after ten minutes sat in a takeaway container, it’s a much more mediocre experience. 

But, I guess that’s the inevitable challenge for a business that operates exclusively as a takeaway. Unless you’re planning on eating your dinner in your car or on a street corner, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be tasting Three Flames at their very best, which would be a shame as their very best is very good indeed. 

The Details:

Address - Three Flames, Rear of 98 Crwys Road, Cardiff CF24 4NQ
Web - https://threeflames.uk/
Telephone - 029 2297 4007

Picton and Co, Cardiff Bay restaurant review

Dinner and a show – it’s a great way to spend an evening.

After all, it’s basically a classier version of what we do every night anyway – guzzle some food and then slob out on the sofa for a few hours before bed.

When it comes to places to see live theatre and comedy, there aren’t many finer venues in the UK than Wales Millennium Centre. And with the new arena set to open in 2028, there’ll be no shortage of places to see a show in Cardiff Bay.

But, the area’s shortage of great independent restaurants makes the dinner part of the night a bit of a challenge. Whilst the Sultan, Yakitori #1, and Tiger Yard are all very good options, I think the Bay has been missing somewhere with a bit of style for pre-theatre dining.

Picton and Co, an all-day deli-café-restaurant, previously looked like it might have fit the bill. But, the last time we saw a show, back in 2024, they didn’t start serving dinner until 6pm. So, it would have been a bit of a rush to get our bums on seats in time for curtain up.

Thankfully, they’ve since got their act together, and now serve dinner from 5pm, meaning there’s plenty of time for a bite to eat. So, we decided to check it out before a Saturday night trip to see James Acaster.

Picton and Co is owned by veteran Cardiff hairdresser Ken Picton, and he clearly knows more about style than just wet perms and mullets. The bright and modern venue, with a big central bar as a focal point, has a great vibe.

Whilst Picton and Co’s daytime menu leans towards brunch dishes, focaccia sandwiches, and Japanese rice bowls, their evening menu offers eclectic small plates with influences drawn from across the globe. Duck leg bao, Moroccan lamb chops and smoked octopus pintxos were a few of the dishes that didn’t make it onto our final order.

Much like our last visit, we kicked off the meal with a couple of cocktails. This time around, they were made by multi award-winning mixologist Jamie Lock, who you may well recognise from Cardiff venues like Penny Royal, Heaneys and Dead Canary.

A Chutney Collins (£11) and Dirty Margarita (£13) were both seriously drinkable yet delivered layers of complexity and palate warming chilli heat. The former combined vodka, manzanilla, mango, pickled chilli and ginger whilst the latter saw a classic margarita zhushed up with olive brine and pickled chilli.

We followed them up with a boozy yet classy Manhattan (£14) and a Pear-shaped Sour (£12), with plenty of fragrant citrus and floral notes.

Picton and Co’s dishes are billed as plates rather than small plates and I can see why. We ordered five dishes between the two of us and were absolutely stuffed.

A mound of meaty AF oyster mushrooms (£14) were coated in the crispest of crumbs and drenched in a savoury and spicy gochujang sauce. Freshness came from a garnish of coriander, heat tempered pickled red chillies and spring onion.

Whilst Cardiff has its fair share of excellent carrot dishes, Picton and Co's carrot ceviche (£10) can hold its own among the best. Sweet and charred edged carrot slices had a nice bite and were lifted by the freshness of lime. The clincher was a pool of intensely umami and nutty hazelnut butter that added a wallop of flavour with every mouthful.

There was tons going on with smoked jeyuk pork belly dish (£20), but it worked. The slab of char crusted meat, which an excellent flesh to fat ratio, was accompanied by sweet and sharp apple puree, charred apple, and a background thrum of spice. Taleggio cheese sauce was perhaps one ingredient too many but I rather enjoyed the creamy and funky note it brought to the plate.

Smoked patatas bravas (£10) were an elite version of the Spanish classic. Colossal, ruggedly crisp and tender bronzed spuds had a beguiling smoky note and were served with pools of honking alioli and sweet pepper ketchup and a drizzle of sticky honey.

Finally, grilled buffalo chicken (£16) was a huge-flavoured hot mess. Despite looking like Jackson Pollock had thrown the ingredients at the plate, they were all natural bedfellows - charred yet tender chicken thighs, poky and sharp buffalo sauce, shards of crisp chicken, funky blue cheese nuggets and sweet yet cleansing charred apricot.

Despite being stuffed there was no way I was going to pass on the s’mores parfait (£9). It very much lived up to its billing. Not too sweet frozen chocolate parfait was coated in squidgy toasted meringue and topped with glossy hot chocolate sauce with a nice bitterness. Piles of buttery biscuit crumb completed the excellent riff on the American campfire classic.

We had an excellent meal at Picton and Co with its whopping flavoured flame-licked food, creative cocktails and friendly service. It’s a classy Cardiff Bay indie and a belter of a venue for a pre-show meal. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we’d happily make a trip to the Bay just to eat there, even when we’re not seeing a show.

The Details:

Address - Picton and Co, Unit 9 Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay CF10 5BZ

Web - https://www.pictonandco.com/

Telephone - 029 2066 2080

Agora, Borough Market, London Greek restaurant review

Despite Agora and Oma both being Greek restaurants, and one being upstairs from the other on the edge of Borough Market, they're both quite different.

Whilst Oma is light and airy, Agora is dark, moody and intense.

Whilst Oma riffs on its high-end Greek cuisine, Agora more closely follows tradition with its rustic Greek cooking.

Whilst Oma is owned by David Carter (the restaurant supremo behind Manteca and SmokeStak), Agora is also owned by David Carter.

And whilst Oma is great value for a Michelin-starred restaurant in Central London, Agora is ridiculous value for a London restaurant with a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Okay, I guess they’re not really that different, but you catch my drift.

Billed as souvlaki bar, Agora’s menu is divided into spreads, skewers + grill, salata, braises, wood-oven flatbreads, and wood-burning rotisserie.

On a dreary Tuesday lunchtime during the middle of a tube strike, Agora’s industrial dining space still filled up swiftly when they opened at midday. It’s a good indicator that it’s still one of London’s hottest tables even after being open for a couple of years. Most of Agora is given over to walk-ins, and we perched at one of their many counters that surround the bars, windows and kitchen.

As we'd been boozing a lot lately, we stuck to the soft drinks - a fresh and fragrant rhubarb lemonade (£3.50) and an even better sinus tickling ginger soda (£4).

Hummus and crisps (£5) is a picky bit classic and here a silky version of the dip was topped with crunched up paprika spiked crisps. It was a lovely idea and meant the whole thing could be gobbled up with a spoon rather than needing hands.

Oma's take on tirokafteri (£5) saw tangy feta mixed with sweet roasted peppers and the gentle fieriness of pickled chilli. It was another excellent dip.

Freshly baked breads were ideal dipping implements - an airy and slightly elastic Wildfarmed flatbread (£3.50) was the pick of the two.

A sesame seed dotted koulouri pita (£3.50) was in more familiar soft bread roll territory.

Onto the skewers, and a pair of pork souvlaki (£5 each) were beautifully crisped around the edges with blushing pink interiors and well dusted with oregano.

Even better were a pair of gorgeously juicy and crisp-skinned slow cooked chicken thighs (£6 each), scattered with herbs and squeezed with lemon.

The Greek summer holiday vibes kept coming with a salata (£10.50) made with nutty and crisp carob rusks and a big dollop of thick and creamy galomizthra cheese.

Finally soft and tender chickpeas (£9) bobbed in a light vegetable broth which was zhushed up with the addition of verdant green zhoug.

All in, our bill came to £75 with ample food for two, a drink each, and 12.5% service. I’d say this is good value anywhere, let alone the middle of London. We had a delicious lunch of summery Greek flame cooking at Agora. I already had a lot of love for Oma and its more casual sibling downstairs is another big winner of a restaurant.

The Details:

Address - Agora, 4 Bedale Street, Borough Market, London SE1 9AL

Web - https://www.agora.london/

Go Asia, Cardiff city centre, banh mi review

It's fair to say there's been a gap in the market in for a banh mi joint in Cardiff. 

This Vietnamese baguette is one of the very best sandwiches in the world and until a few weeks ago you couldn't buy one in Cardiff. 

Whilst the banh mi from Hanoi 1991, which used to be located in Cardiff's Royal Arcade, were good, I wouldn’t describe them as top tier. 

Enter Go Asia, which has opened on Barrack Lane on the former site of The Grazing Shed. 

This café, which also functions as an Asian supermarket selling a range of dumplings, sauces, drinks and instant noodles, serves both banh mi and zhushed-up Korean instant noodles.

Whilst I was very much interested in the banh mi, the instant noodles are less my bag for two reasons. Firstly, as a subpar home cook, one of the dishes I regularly make is packet ramen with toppings. Secondly, if I’m going out for noodles, I’d much rather go somewhere that makes them from scratch like Matsudai or Hatsu Udon.

Go Asia serves six different types of banh mi, including original, fish cake, grilled pork and tofu & eggplant. Each cost £8.99 and for just 50p extra there’s an option to add a soft drink into the mix.

Having placed our order with the exceptionally friendly front of house team, we pulled up a couple of chairs outside the shop and had just a short wait for our sandwiches to be prepared. 

The key thing to say about both banh mi is how impressive the baguettes were. Gorgeously crisp, airy and soft of crumb, they were a joy to eat. 

The original combined plenty of slices of workmanlike ham and pork roll, a slather of light and smooth liver pate, shreds of lightly pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber batons and fresh coriander. It was a delicious banh mi and the only thing really missing was a bit of advertised fresh chilli heat.  

The other sandwich we ordered was lemongrass beef, which was laden with thin slices of hot and tender meat that sang with citrusy herb. The other accompaniments, which were pretty much the same as the original except for the curious absence of coriander, worked very well. Mrs G thought this was the winner, but the classic just pipped it for me. 

We had delicious banh mi at Go Asia and they’re comfortably the best I’ve eaten in Cardiff. It’s a great option for a quick lunchtime pitstop and as they’re located near some of Cardiff’s biggest offices, I reckon they’re going to be on to a winner. 

The Details:

Address - Go Asia, 1 Barrack Lane, Cardiff, CF10 2FR
Web - https://www.instagram.com/goasiacardiff/
Telephone - 07593123678

Impala, Soho, London restaurant review

The Strasbourg Dancing Plague (1518). The Hammersmith Ghost Hysteria (1803). The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic (1962). The Opening of Impala (2026).

All of these are examples of mass hysteria.

To say that there's been a fervour around the opening of Impala on Dean Street in Soho is an understatement.

Grace Dent described it as "like no restaurant I’ve ever been to”, the Evening Standard called it “a brand new type of restaurant in a copycat world” and Hot Dinners exclaimed “there's nothing remotely like it in London”.

If these kinds of proclamations have you conjuring surreal images of inhaling a gaseous meal from the backside of a giant inflatable impala or sitting on the tables whilst eating off the chairs, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

Because I can confirm that Impala cooks food in a kitchen, which you order off a menu and eat in a dining room.

Inevitably, my curiosity about Impala was piqued by all these rave reviews. So, I can most certainly see the irony in also being swept along by the hype.

The man behind Impala is Meedu Saad, the classically-trained former head chef of Kiln. With Egyptian heritage and having grown up around the Cypriot kebab houses of North London, Meedu has distilled his life experiences into the restaurant’s menu.

Impala is backed by Super8, the team behind the hip, buzzy London restaurants Brat, Smoking Goat, Kiln and Mountain. Combined with the rave reviews, it means that Impala is currently one of the hottest tables in the city.

From the trendy yet friendly front of house staff wearing matching cream pant suits and the mid-century industrial dining space centred around colossal charcoal grills and wood-fired ovens to the retro hi-fi system that is as much a work of art as a soundtrack provider, Impala is very London cool.

On the day of our visit, Impala was buzzing just minutes after opening at midday on a Tuesday. Whilst I’d booked our table as soon as reservations were released, Impala keeps some tables back for walk-ins and there were still a couple of spaces left even by the time we finished our meal.

We were originally sat on the counter by the bread oven, where flatbreads were being continuously belched out. However, as we quickly realised that it was hotter than a World Cup game in Florida, we were kindly moved to a table.

Impala’s lengthy menu is divided into untitled sections that I’ll roughly interpret as breads, snacks, small plates, smaller grilled items, larger plates, and grilled items. We picked an item or two from each section, checked with the front of house team if we’d Mr Creosoted it or not, and were good to go.

Wines by the glass started surprisingly reasonably at £7 a pop. I knocked back a couple of glasses of Parabolic Blanc (£7), a crisp blend of Macabeo and Xarel-lo whilst Mrs G loved the Sebastien Brunet sparkling Vouvray (£13). Red berry-laden Mee Godard Beaujolais (£15) and Domaine Boucabeille Grenache Syrah (£9) blend with dark fruits and spice followed.

Aish baladi (£6), a whole grain Egypt flatbread with a bran dotted exterior, was gorgeously soft and airy with a toasty lick of char. I can see why that bread oven is churning out so many flatbreads.

It was accompanied by a minimalist looking yet maximalist flavoured pool of olive oil with a blob of fiery harissa sat in its centre.

Another excellent accompaniment for that bread was a silky white bean dip (£8) with a vibrant green herb salsa and slivers of salty bottarga.

Crab kibbeh saw fragrant shiso leaves wrapped around sweet white crab, nutty grains of sun-dried wheat and a good hit of herb and chilli heat. From everything I’ve read about Impala, I can see why this dish has been getting so much love. 

Molokhia (£14), one of Egypt’s most famous dishes, saw long-cooked pieces beef in a thick, earthy and meaty spinach-like braised jute leaf stew. That dark and glossy sauce was particularly excellent with more of the aish baladi flatbread. However, arguably the beef was a little delicate in flavour, especially when it was billed as “aged”.

A pot of birds tongue pasta (£18), essentially orzo, was jumbled together with slow-cooked, spoonably soft oxtail pieces and a warming cinnamon and allspice scented tomato sauce. This was as comforting a bowl of food as it gets on a rainy day in London.

Caul fat wrapped Tamworth pork Cypriot sheftalia sausages (£14) were kissed with smoke from the grill, coated in a sticky glaze, and laden with coarse fat-flecked meat that sang with herbs.

For main, we passed on the remarkable looking duck roasted in molasses (£68) In favour of sweetbreads. Soft, tender, char-kissed and stickily glazed, it was a hell of a bit of meat and it was lovely accompanied by a salted onion and pickled chilli salad, which was a little bit like eating a large pile of lightly pickled onions. But at £35 for two smallish pieces of sweetbread, it did seem a bit stingy.

A pile of smoky and nutty freekeh (£12) that was topped with fronds of crisp pickled onion ensured there was no risk of me going home hungry.

There's only one dessert (£12) on Imapala’s menu so they clearly back it. I can see why as it’s one of the best tarts I’ve ever eaten. A golden and super crisp thin pastry case was home to distinct layers of sweet date jam and custard topped with vivid green dusted pistachio. The effect was unmistakably like jam sponge and custard, a mainstay of school dinner menus up and down the country.

Accompanying the bill were excellent pieces of wobbly strawberry fruit jelly.   

We had a superb meal at Impala with its spice-packed flame-cooked food, friendly service and delicious wines. But it’s a bit of a stretch to say that it’s unlike any other restaurant in London – in fact it’s fairly easy to see the similarities with other vibey live fire, sharing plate and flatbread hawking establishments across the capital.

The Details:

Address - Impala, 13-14 Dean Street, London W1D 3RS

Web - https://impalasoho.com/