Mango Tree

Sa's everyone,

So.... Vege and I decided to go for an early dinner at Mango Tree on Grosvenor Place, this is the sister resaturant to Awana and after speaking to them on the phone they confirmed that their beef, lamb and chicken is halal. Good enough for me and vege so as we have done before we booked through top table and got our 50% of the WHOLE BILL. So this is what we had...

To start I had a sirloin steak salad which in a word was gorgeous, proper 'I am coming back to this place just for this dish' gorgeous. It was a spicy, herby sauce with a kick. Thin slices of beef served at room temperature really did melt in the mouth. Vege usually never has any kind of meat which has not been 'burnt to a crisp' well done, being the red blooded male that I think I am when not looking at the furniture in wallpaper magazine, the words 'well done' do not exist in my vocabualry and I ordered it medium. Yet even Vege thought the beef was "de-lish".

Vege had tofu skewers (obviously) which came with grilled vegetables and a peanut sauce. The tofu was as it should be crisp on the outside and soft in the middle with the peanut sauce having just the right amount of crunch. As satay's go it was fine and did the job but nothing compared to Satay House in Paddington (review coming soon!)

For the mains we both decided to be a little less adventerous. I ordered the thai corn fed chicken green curry and steamed jasmine rice whilst vege ordered the phad thai gai (chicken). My green curry was very good with the chicken being tender and the curry sauce having lots of flavour with the my only crticism being that it could have been a little hotter! We have just come back from Thailand so we know that the curry's should be a lot hotter even for our Indian palates! Also nice to see that they were not stingy with the chicken by any means!

Vege's phad thai was not so great while the actual noodle dish wasnt bad with a nice touch of the egg lattice on top, the chicken was a bit too 'chickeny'.

For desert I had a chocolate pudding with clotted cream. This was unnecessary and way too rich...in fact I think the pudding was something they bought from tesco value. Go for one of there interesting ice creams next time I thought!

What shocked us was the bil.....with the 50% off it came to £28!!! did u get that?? £28!!! that is a flippin bargain!!! Will be going again soon. In fact since Thai food is my favourite after mama's kitchen cuisine, this may be my favourite restaurant in London (only with top table though!) Busaba and XO (who do the best vege phad thai in London) come very close!

Awana - Posh Malaysian food on Sloane Avenue

Ok, so me and veggie went to awana on sloane avenue last thursday joined by her cousin and her cousin's hubthband. VERY busy when we got there which was a few minutes later than our 8:30 reservation. Pretty sure that most of the people there were on the 50% off top table deal, as Johny Vaugh says, "these are uncertain tiiiiimes"

Gilgamesh!

Apparently gilgamesh in camden is halal!!! still have to confirm though as this info comes from a friend asking a waiter ("We use a halal butcher, chicken lamb and beef is halal")

This is an amazing pan-asian restaurant with a great choice and variety....will post when halal confirmed and will review once munched....

Btw...best chinese restaurant in London...Yauatcha (not halal) best tofu dish and best prawn dish I have ever had (ok the prawn dish was £25 but it was worth it, wont be getting it again though!) Gonna go there for mine and veggys anniversary!

Pizza, Burger Kebab!!

Best burger in London:

Tinseltown in Hampstead (Leicester and Farringdon: Waff)

Parking is a mission, not far from the tube but who wants to take the northern line!!??

Best Pizza in London:
this one is a REAL find: L'Artista on Edgware road. Try the American Hot (basically pepperoni using turkish soujouk sausage) I never used to be a halal sausage fan, just the thought of it is too much like pork, but you have to try this! they do deliver but if you live far the quality will not be as good as if you eat in.

Subway Sandwhiches:

Halal branches on edgware road (marble arch), queensway (bayswater) and commercial road (aldgate east or liverpool street) Woo!!!

Shawarma:

The best and only shawarma worth having on edgware road....Cafe Helen £5 for a large mixed..totally worth it. It has the most random opening times ever though.. open late in the day to late at night mostly

Yes I knowI have gone a bit off my remit here and these places arent exactly 'posh nosh' but I just wanted to get some thoughts down to get the ball rolling!

SA's everyone!

Ok, here we go....my first post will be about Ping Pong Dim Sum. As I am sure alot of you already know they no longer serve halal meat in any of their dishes. Yes I know, I have read all the reviews and this dim sum compared to the traditionaly rated place like Royal China, is supposed to be waff! (Mixture of whack and naff made in Bournemouth). But hey, we like it and we used to go aaall the time. Veggy (as I will refer to the Mrs. from now on) still loves it as she loves all the vegetarian dishes and I really enjoy the prawn dishes as well. full review to come soon....
I had a brief email convo with the marketing dept of ping pong and basically they said that they changed the supplier. In the future I am planning on doing some kind of petition type thing to send to these people to try an get them to revert (no pun intended).