Restaurants Are Everywhere, So Where Is Best To Eat? (My 10 Favourite Restaurants)

Member Name: witchwaysup

Product:	My 10 Favourite Restaurants
Date:	08/07/01 (1533 review reads)
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I like to eat out quite regularly, I like a wide range of different food. Here is a list of my top ten restaurants in North London.

It isn’t easy to decide which should come first, as my favourite restaurant will be any of these, depending on what type of food I fancy on any one day, so these are listed in random order.

Welcome Café
177 Ballards Lane
Finchley
N3

This may look like cheating, as it is a café and not a restaurant. This place is, however, the ideal place to eat if you are very hungry and on a tight budget.

The food is mainly traditional English , such as roast beef with all the trimmings, steak and kidney pie, hot pot and the like. The venue is a basic greasy spoon, but it is clean, good food and very popular. Many a truck driver makes a 2 mile detour off the North Circular especially to eat there.

As you would expect of a café, they also serve fry-ups and a range of sandwiches and rolls.

Desserts are really puddings, the type you will remember from school. Good old spotted dick, jam roly-poly, apple crumble etc. Tea and coffee come in a huge mug, if requested, and it is always service with a smile, even when they are flat out.


Chopstix Xchange
1312-1316 High Road
Whetstone
N20

When this place first opened, about 6-7 years ago, it quickly became THE place to be. As a result, the food, which is served buffet-style (this is an ‘eat as much as you like’ place), had a fast turnover, so it was always hot and freshly produced.

Unfortunately, nowadays, it all depends on how busy it is as to whether it is a good idea to dine there.
The food is varied and can include as many as forty different dishes. Generally food will be Vietnamese, Singaporean, Thai, Cantonese, Korean and more.

Chopstix positively welcome children, even providing an entertainer during some weekend lunchtimes/afternoons, who goes from table to
table amusing any children present. Once, when there were not enough children around to amuse, I allowed myself to be taught how to make balloon animals! I believe I even left the restaurant with a balloon poodle hat on, I am not too sure, as I used to like the cocktails a little too much in those days!

Talking of cocktails, do beware, they have a wide range available, they are very tempting but they will bump up the bill rather a lot if you develop a taste for them.

Desserts that are included in the price are pretty dire, although the wide range of main course food provided to tempt you is unlikely to leave you room for afters. They do however have a dessert menu now, which again bumps up the bill, so again beware!

All in all, worth checking out. Always make sure they have at least a third of the restaurant full before you go in, so that the food is replaced regularly, otherwise it gets dry and gives you tummy upsets.

At its worst it is dire, at its best sublime, try them when they are busy, weekends etc. I can recommend them.


Pefka Taverna
45 High Street
Barnet
Herts.

020 8441 7377

An award-winning restaurant without award-winning prices!

Think back to any greek holiday you have ever had, to the friendly welcome you received from your local taverna. Think of the homely atmosphere of the interior, the mouthwatering aroma, maybe even a balalaika player adding to the ambience? Well, forget airport strikes, plane delays etc., because I have found that same place, here in the outskirts of London.

The owners, Nick and Helen, are genuinely pleased to see their customers, the interior is very greek, with beautiful traditional touches providing the décor.

The food, well that is again traditional, with a comprehensive wine list, chosen to compliment your meal. For a very special event, I can recommend their champagne, it is not too dry and is very reasonably pri
ced for a restaurant, as most really bump up the price, this place doesn’t.

As you might expect, Pefka’s can get busy, due to the high number of regulars that frequent this place. Therefore I have included the telephone number, as it is always best to book first, especially at week ends.

I can recommend the meze, a greek feast that is served for two or more people. I challenge you to finish it all, I never have. You will need to contend with a huge selection of cold starters, served with pitta bread, all delicious, all different, then comes a selection of hot appetisers, followed by a main course meat dish, with rice or roast potatoes, a seasonal fish course, and usually traditional greek yoghurt (thick and creamy) topped with greek honey, which tastes much nicer than english honey to me.

The general menu is often complimented by seasonal specials. Ask about these, it can be well worth it.

For a meal that is full of flavour, inexpensive and unhurried, with a venue that is relaxing and welcoming, this has to be my favourite, even though I wasn’t going to choose a favourite! Only now I have let my secret out, please don’t all go there at once, or there won’t be any room for me!


Welcome Restaurant
High Road
Nth. Finchley N12

Another Chinese restaurant, this time more intimate, with good food and friendly staff. I can recommend their crispy duck, which is served with all the trimmings, even a vegetable sculpture!

In fact, as I have been there quite a few times now, I can vouch for about 60% of the menu, as between us we must have tried most dishes. The food is always hot and aromatic.

I like the little touches here, from the prawn crackers and saurkraut served as soon as you arrive, to munch whilst you peruse the menu, to the slices of orange served after your main course and the hot lemony towels to clean up afterwards.

The décor is sem
i-traditional and semi-modern and strangely enough it works very well. Again it is best to book at this venue as they can get very busy. I will add the full address and phone no. when I find them!


The Prince of Ceylon Restaurant
Watford Way
Hendon NW4

This is just up the road from Brent Cross shopping centre, and well worth visiting if you are in the area and like curries.

Mainly Sri Lankan cuisine, which gives a very different flavour to most indian curries, this restaurant provides a very authentic menu for lovers of such foods.

There is a wide ranging menu, with certain dishes you are unlikely to have come across in the average ‘curry house’. The food can range from medium hot to very hot, so do check before you order or you might get a bit overheated.

The service in this place can often let them down. I have found that when we have a ‘girls night out’ there, the service is slow and we are treated like second class citizens. If there are men around the service is much better. If I didn’t like the food so much I wouldn’t go back.

The food is not always spectacular, sometimes it is average, yet still I go there, because it is the best restaurant of its type in North London and when they are good they are excellent!

I can recommend the onion bhajis as a starter, they are the best I have ever found anywhere, ever! The best dessert is kulfi, without a doubt. An icecream with a difference, made with condensed milk, it is sickly yet the perfect thing to finish off a hot and spicy meal.


The Cock Pub
Cockfosters
Herts.

A pub with a difference, they have a full-sized restaurant for evening use and a very popular lunchtime menu with a mix of traditional ‘pub grub’ and Thai cuisine, which is delicious.

The venue is an authentic looking country house, with lots of space and light. The resta
urant is very stylish, and you will be served by waitresses wearing traditional Thai dress, a nice touch. The food is fragrant and the portions are generous.

The lunchtime waiting staff leave much to be desired, they are perhaps overworked and underpaid, but that is not my concern when I go out to eat. If I get good service I always tip as generously as I can, bad attitudes will keep these people poor! The food, even at lunchtime is, when you get it, served piping hot, and is exquisite. The prices are very reasonable for what you get. My advice? Ignore the attitude and take a leisurely lunch there if you are in the area!


TGI Fridays
Watford Way
NW7

In fact, this could apply to any TGI’s. They rarely differ.

The food is above average for a fast-food restaurant, and the prices, although a bit steep, are not too bad.

The portions are very American (i.e.huge), and the staff are always too bright and bubbly to be true. Still, because they are all much of a muchness, these places are at least predictable for their menu, prices and reasonable quality. They do provide excellent and naughty desserts, but don’t think that is why I go there, oh no, no, no, no, no, erm….well maybe.


La Tavola Restaurant
1357 High Road
Whetstone N20

Thanks defiler for reminding me, how could I miss out an Italian restaurant?

This is my favourite. I'm sorry but it has to be said, only Italian restaurants can be trusted to cook pasta just right. No matter how good the sauce etc. accompanying pasta, if the pasta ain't right nothing is!

La Tavola is a busy bustling small eaterie, very popular as the food is good, the location is good, the service is good and the prices are very good.

I love their pasta, I love their pizza's, although they have a lot of local pizza places competing for business, their pizza is somehow more homemade and tasty to me.


The tables are close together, but the customers put up with this as the food is worth the lack of privacy. If you want to chat privately, then eat here first then go home for coffee, the food is too nice to shovel in between sentences, eat now talk later!

If you do go there, have a closer look at the pictures. On close inspection you will realise that they are all made from different coloured pasta, ingenious!

DO check the blackboard for seasonal specials, in addition to the basic menu.

DON'T breathe too much on other people when you leave, as you are sure to reek of garlic.

Sorry, I have run out of restaurants, there are a few others I like but they are not good enough to get a mention, I will add two more as and when, so do check back in a few weeks.

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