The Diner (Soho)

The Diner has many branches in London that serves American style food. We visit the Soho branch which is located in Carnaby Street area.

Baby back ribs (£13) comes served with fries and slaw.

The diner has a large range of burgers to select which are all under £10. Each one don’t come with sides and you will have to order this separately. This does give you the options on the choice of sides you want or none at all.

I went for the most healthy option that I could find on the menu, a Cheeseburger salad (£10). This was a bunless beef patty where the bun is replaced by salad. The salad consisted of lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, croutons, shredded cheese with Diner burger sauce and mustard.

As well as the original fries, The Diner also has other fries to choose. I found the Wet Fries (£3.40) disappointing as for me the gravy was too water down and did not have much flavour.

The Chilli cheese fries (£5) was better the the wet fries but it was not the best version I have had in London.

For drinks, I tried The Diner’s super berry iced tea (£2.20). It was a refreshing drinks but not sure how natural it was.

Overall, the food was okay but nothing special. It would not been a place I would choose to dine but considered this dining evening as an opportunity to add on to the places visited in London.  When I looked around that evening, I felt like I had a mirror of seeing myself dining here in my younger days. For me this would had been a restaurant that I would had gone in thoses days.

(Not sponsored. Menu and prices correct at the time of dining)

The Diner (Soho)
18 Ganton Street,
London,
W1F 7BU,
UK

http://goodlifediner.com

Bukowski (Soho)

Bukowski recently opened their third branch in Soho and offer modern American inspired food. I got the opportunity to visit Bukowski when I was looking for a restaurant to cater a large group to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

The Soho branch is a spacious and is suitable for large party. They also take reservation which is another added bonus. It is a casual restaurant with large variety of dishes to choose on the menu and it is not just all burgers and ribs. You will find duck, lamb and salad on the menu.

We started off with the Puck nuggets served with Kimchi remoulade (£5.95) – These were deep-fried confit pork and duck with Korean spices. These were gorgeous nuggets with a soft creamy meaty centre, but it is on the spicy side.

There are a selection of chicken wings including a smoked chicken wings in barn burner sauce XXX HOT XXX (£6.25). They are free if you can finish them all and that is exactly what one of our brave friend did that evening. He managed to finish these burning chicken wings.

The rest of us kept on the safe side with the smoked chicken wings in bourbon BBQ sauce (£6.25). The chicken wings are moist and succulent in a smokey tangy sauce

For main, I shared the special of the day, 900g 28 day aged Longhorn wing rib steak (£48). This was aimed to be for two person, which came served with a range of sauces and tobacco onions (thinly sliced onions floured and sprinkled with their spice mix).

The wing rib steak is quite chewy and is similar to a rib eye steak. We ordered two portion on the table and one of the wing rib steak was mainly fat. There was not much lean meat to eat and the fat was too unhealthy to eat. So for me, it is not worth the £48 and I would had preferred one of the dish on the main menu which I thought had some good choices.

I enjoyed two of the sides we had that evening, one is the tabacco onions which tasted like onion rings but with a slightly different texture. The other side was the chilli cheese fries (£4.95) which is chips with chilli con carne, grated cheese and sour cream. The portion size is for sharing, although I could enjoy this as my main.

Bukowski offers spiked milkshakes (£5.95 each) which is milkshakes mixed with alcohol. There are three different flavours to choose – Dulce de leche and kahlua/Peanut butter, banana and bourbon/Chocolate and rum.

The dulce de leche and kahlua tasted like a coffee milkshake. The peanut butter, banana and bourbon was strong in bourbon flavour. Both milkshake tasted nice and I do recommend to try.

The service at Bukowski was friendly and the staff were patient with answering our queries about their dishes. I felt they did well in serving a group of 14 people.

(Not sponsored. Menu and prices correct at the time of dining)

Bukowski (Soho)
10 D’Arblay Street,
London,
W1F 8DS,
UK

http://bukowski-grill.co.uk

Meat Liquor (London)

If you looking for a greasy burger where the grease drips from your hands, Meat Liquor will be just one of these places that will offer you that dirt. This place is not for the healthy soul.

The music is really loud in every part of the restaurant. It is definitely not the place to go if you want to have a conversation where you do not need to shout.

I have heard from others how long the queue but when we visited there not a long queue. In minutes we got through the door in to the dark and noisy restaurant to wait at the bar. We waited around 15 minutes for a table of two people. But it could be that it been around many years and there are so many burgers restaurant to choose in London.

All the food is served on a tray lined with a grease paper.

The burger was not very pretty in presentation and it does make McDonald’s burgers look better. The beef patty at Meat Liquor is moist and I love the melted cheese. But it was greasy and messy to eat.

As well as a burger we shared a selection of sides – portion of fries, onion rings and deep-fried mac ‘n’ cheese. The onion rings were the biggest onion rings I have seen. Each one was in a crispy battered coating but I prefer my breaded onion rings.

Going once for the experience is okay, but I don’t intend to return. Mainly due to the loud music more than the food.

(Not sponsored. Menu and prices correct at the time of dining)

Meat Liquor London
74 Welbeck Street,
London,
W1G 0BA,
UK

http://meatliquor.com

Wing Zone UK

American fast food chain Wing Zone has landed in UK, opening its first store in Finsbury Park. It is less than a minute walk from Finsbury Park. A fellow food blogger friend invited me to join him to attend the grand opening of Wing Zone. A great opportinity  to find out more about what it brings to UK.

Wing Zone specialise in serving chicken wings and it is about their range of signature sauces. There are nine different flavours to choose, although in America there are many more. In the UK there are currently the choice of Buffalo Bliss, Hot Shot, Nuclear Habanero, Liquid Gold, Honey Q, Sweet Samurai, Thai Chili, Mango Fire and Garlic Parm. Six out of the nine flavours are spicy. But my favourite is actually one of the non-spicy flavour, Honey Q.

The most deadly one has to be the Nuclear Habanero which is the flavour for the brave and for those who can stand up to firey spice. The one that took me and many by surprise has to be the Mango Fire. It started off with a fruity mango flavour and not long before you realise a spicy sensation appears.

The chicken wings comes in the option as original (with the bones) or boneless. I actually prefered the bonless version which was tender and less messy to eat and it went well with the Honey Q flavour.

As well as chicken wings, Wing Zone also serves beef or chicken burger with the choice of Wing Zone’s signature flavours as mentioned above. To go with all the meat, there are a range of sides and my favourite of the evening were the chips and potato wedges.

Wing Zones has a few tables for those who want to eat in. But they also do takeaway and delivery service. It is the place that you need to visit for a box of chicken wings. Just as if you go to Kentucy Fried Chicken for a bucket of chicken. One is about the disntinct flavour of the batter coating of the chicken and Wing Zones is about their sauces.

Wing Zone UK
4A Clifton Terrace,
Finsbury Park,
London,
N43JP

http://www.wingzone.co.uk

Crab Tavern

As the name gives it away, Crab Tavern serves crab as the focus of their menu. The restaurant is near Liverpool Street station and is part of the Boardgate Circle family member.

Although the restaurant speciality is crab, you will find non-crab dishes such as chicken, steak and fish. This caters diners who prefer other choices than crab. I wanted to stick to what was the focus of the restaurant and that was the crab. Between me and my friends we started with the Crab Tavern Platter (£10 per person, minimum of 2 people).

We ordered the platter for two people and each person gets one of each item, which consisted of crispy soft shell crab, crab tartare on toast, king crab, crab caesar sub. I thought this was nice platter that showcase the different ways that you can serve crab.

Following from our sharing appetiser we went on to a sharing main, West Coast Bucket Boil (£35 per person and minimum of two people). The dish contained Crab claws, mussels, lobster, potatoes, sausage and corn on the cob.

It was nice and you have to prepare to get your hands dirty. But for what we got in the pan for £35 per person I thought it was expensive, even though it is seafood. There was loads of potatoes that lined the bottom of the pan and mussels was the main seafood that dominated.

However, I felt the West Coast Bucket Boil was better than the Best Legs In Town (£39), which is the King crab legs served hot or cold with a choice of herb mayonnaise or hot garlic butter. I thought this was expensive for three crab legs which was bigger than the usual crab, but each one did not have a lot of meat. It definitely would not be a dish I would re-order.

A more resonable priced crab dish on the menu would be the Soft Shell Crab Burger (£15). This was quite a favourite with a few people on our table.

There are sides that you could order to go with all the dishes, including fries and salad. Although we probably did not need it, but we wanted to try and ordered the King Crab & Bonito Mash (£8). This was mash with sprinkle of king crab on top.

Crab Tavern offers a range of drinks and if there isn’t one on their such as mocktails the bar is happy to create one to suit your taste.

I visited Crab Tavern when they were doing a 50% soft launch during Summer of 2015. Although we had half price from the original prices that quoted above, the bill for each person was still expensive. I probably would not return on full price as it was not special enough for me to pay the original price.

(Prices and menu correct at the time of dining)

Crab Tavern
Unit 7,
Broadgate Circle,
London,
EC2M 2QS

http://crabtavern.co.uk