Even though this was my first visit to Sen Nin, it definitely won me over! This was an evening of whole entertainment! We were lucky to be seated around one of the areas where the chef and the hot plate were. The food was fresh and cooked right in front of us.

Full marks goes to the chef who made the dining experience very unique. He was so talented in his cooking skills and also in entertaining us! The chef, apart from cooking the food on the hot plate next to the table, was able to accurately throw pieces of omelette into the diner’s mouths and also throw eggs up into the air and catch them in the top of his hat!

The chef at the start of cooking, dimmed the lights down, as he started off the hot plate with a huge flame! All very impressive! The chef was a jolly chap who made conversation with us while we were having our meal, but we also had time to talk amongst ourselves!

The food was delicious, filling and very moreish! I went for the Teppanyaki vegetarian set meal. This was a great combination of Japanese miso soup, vegetarian sushi, grilled vegetables and Sen Nin grilled rice. I chose the inoki mushroom dish as my main for the set meal.

The miso soup had good amounts of tofu in it and it was a good start to the meal. The mushroom dish looked like a plate of thin noodles! The sauce that the mushrooms had been cooked in gave the dish a lovely sweet taste. A perfect combination to go with the grilled rice and vegetables. I didn’t want to have the sushi, so asked the waiter if I could have edamame beans instead. He was fine with this suggestion!

Sen Nin have a range of drinks, from teas, cocktails and wines. The non alcoholic cocktail, Sen Nin cooler, was a good choice. I also had to have some tea and went for the classic Jasmine tea! This was served in a heavy metal teapot!

To go with the drinks, we had a couple of starters! I am a big fan of dumplings, so we had the Tori Gyoza chicken dumplings. These had a great flavour; the only thing was that they were a little spicy as they had some spice sprinkled on them. My brother loves his calamari, so his starter had to be the Calamari Tempura. The tempura batter was crispy and the calamari had been cooked to perfection!

The staff at Sen Nin were very friendly and the service was great! There was nothing to fault with this Japanese restaurant. Everything at Sen Nin was perfect: a clean, sophisticated restaurant, fantastic food, great chef and wonderful staff! All in all, a very unique dining experience and a place that I would highly recommend! On a practical note, it is always worthwhile to make a reservation if you want to be seated by the cooking area!

Sen Nin, 206 Upper Street, London, N1 1RQ

Our Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

The soup of the day was lentil soup. It was a good bowl of soup in both size and taste! I was expecting the Sigara Borek to be triangle shaped pastry filled with feta cheese and parsley. Instead, I was presented with thin crispy rolls with the feta filling, cooked to perfection and served with houmous!

The last dish that made up my selection of meze was the Mantar Guvec. This dish consisted of mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and onions in a red wine and tomato sauce. The flavours worked well together and was even better with the cheese that it was topped with! The warm pitta bread was great to dip into the sauce and also to go with the soup and the houmous!

The restaurant was so warm and welcoming! The staff were superb, friendly and gave service with a smile! The decor in Bakko was interesting; it had lots of original items and treasures from Eastern Turkey! The wooden chairs and tables gave a nice contrast with the plants and the colourful wall decorations! Bakko also has some comfy seats at the far end of the restaurant! This is truly a gem of a restaurant in the heart of Muswell Hill!

Bakko, 172-174 Muswell Hill Broadway, London, N10 3SA

Our Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

The roasted Mediterranean vegetables with couscous and chickpeas was very filling and tasty. It had plenty of strips and chunks of courgettes, peppers, red onion and aubergine. It was supposed to have harissa  in the dish but I wasn’t sure if it would be too spicy for me. So the waitress kindly suggested that I could have it separately on the side. That was great as I could add it to my suit my taste buds. The whole dish and the flavours worked well together. I was glad that the couscous was not coated in olive oil, as it did not need it at all.

My friend had the slow roasted lamb, feta and onion stew and she thouroughly enjoyed her meal too. The chunks of lamb were perfectly cooked and were tender. This dish was served with sesame and onion flatbread. This fresh bread was perfect to dip into the gravy of the stew!

The waitress that was serving us was really honest and we truly appreciated this. When I asked her if the fish was fresh, she told us that it was on some days but on other days, it could be a day or so old. Also, when it came to the coffee, I was originally going to order a mocha. I asked her if this was going to be a big drink, like a latte usually is, but she told me that it was more like an espresso. So, I had a cappuccino instead.

As I mentioned I had the cappucino to end the meal. It was a really good rich, creamy hot drink. A nice touch was that the hot drinks were served with a little biscuit! The tea was served by the pot which is something that I always prefer!

Med Kitchen was a relaxing place to come for our evening dinner. But I can see it being a good restaurant to come to for breakfast or lunch as well. The atmosphere was nice with the soft music playing in the background. There was a range of seating with the cosy cushioned seats along the back wall. I also liked the open kitchen area making up part of the restaurant area. It was great that the waitress was so truthful and didn’t just give us false information so that we would order quickly. It made a huge difference to our whole evening dinner. It made us feel that it was a more of a personal and friendly evening out.

Med Kitchen, 370 St John Street, London, EC1V 4NN

Our Rating:
4 out of 5 stars

The food seemed fresh as it took them a little time to make it.  The vegetarian dumplings were really tasty and you got six of them, so enough to share! Even though it said on the menu that they were steamed, they had crispy edges, so I’m not sure if they had been fried a little. Either way, they were good and they went well with the fried garlic and soya sauce.

It was a tough choice to decide whether to go for the Thai green curry with rice or the Pad Thai! Finally, I decided to go for the vegetarian Pad Thai noodles! Great fried rice noodles with carrots, bamboo shoots, baby corn, egg and crushed peanuts. This dish was just a bit too saucy towards the end of the dish. If I had to change anything about the Pad Thai is that I would make it a little less sweet and also I would add some tofu to it.

Thai Pepper is a small intimate restaurant with lovely friendly staff. One thing to note is that Thai Pepper is only open during the evenings and not in the day time.

Thai Pepper, 115 Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage, London, NW3 6HY

Our Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars

The vegetable samosas had a thick crispy pastry and were not oily. I’m not quite sure what the filling was but it did contain cashew nuts. The samosas were good and it made a nice change to the usual potato filled ones. They were served with chickpeas in a tasty sauce.

The dahi puri were great little balls of puff pastry filled with tangy yogurt. They were topped with pomegranate seeds. This was a cold starter dish.

We had no complaints at all with the grand vegetarian thali! This is called the balanced meal and it consisted of little bowls of different curries and accompaniments. It was a really good selection of dishes. It was great as you were able to taste a variety of dishes altogether and it was surprisingly filling!

We got to choose the two main curries of the thali. I preferred the Gujarati dish of undhiyo and lentil khichdi. This was made up of sweet potato, purple yam, baby aubergine, raw banana, val dal and snow peas. It also tasted like it had some coconut in it. The second curry that we had was paneer makhanwalla which was paneer in a creamy tomato sauce. It was ok but not outstanding.

The other items in the thali were aubergine pakora, lentils, cauliflower curry, spinach and potato curry. It said on the menu that those dishes are changed daily. The lentils and cauliflower curry were particularly tasty. The final touches to the thali were rice, chapatti, raita, salad, poppadom and chutney. It was all nicely presented!

The grand thali was definitely enough for two people although the staff said that it would be just good for one person. The chapatti tasted homemade and very fresh. It was also perfect as it was made from wholewheat! The thali only contained a little bit of chutney and kachumber (salad). The Indian canape was just one piece of pakora. Saying that, I would still highly recommend the thali for the main meal!

For dessert, I had the falooda. This was a sundae made up of strawberry ice cream, pistachio kulfi, vermicelli and milk. It was a very rich and creamy dessert.

Falooda is traditionally served in tall sundae/milkshake glasses and it also usually contains tapioca. Masala Zone served the falooda in a dish! When we asked the waiter about this, he told us that they used to serve it in tall glasses, but then customers told them that it was not easy to eat from such glasses. So that’s why they changed the way that they served it.

Masala Zone have a range of hot and cold drinks. One of the things that we were intrigued by was the masala coke. This was coke with added spices; not something that I would have again. The orange and mango juice was a lot nicer! They also do masala chai – a milky spicy sweet tea. 

This restaurant had quite an individual feel to it. It had quirky decor with lots of retro posters on the walls! There was the open kitchen at one end of the restaurant. The staff were really friendly, helpful and efficient. We experienced great service with a smile!

It was nice that at the end of the meal, the waiter asked us if there was anything that they could improve on with the food. We told them that the dahi puri’s pastry balls were a little soft due to the yoghurt and we would have preferred to have them crispy. The waiter said that he would mention that to his manager. It felt like Masala Zone does value their customer’s opinions.

Masala Zone, 25 Parkway, London, NW1 7PG

Our Rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars

The main dishes were also very flavoursome. The risotto verde was quite a big portion. It had a light fresh taste to it, mainly because of the fresh green vegetables. The risotto had lots of broad beans and large slices of courgettes. It didn’t really have much spinach or green beans.

The penne alla casa was a baked pasta dish with chicken, pancetta, spinach in a mushroom sauce. We were surprised at how oily and greasy this dish was; something that we would not have expected when referring to pasta. It still had a good taste to it though.

We went for the full three courses and had dessert to complete our meal. The sorbetti was specified on the menu as being two scoops of sorbet. It was nice that the waiter let me have one scoop of ice cream and one of sorbet. The flavours were all good!!! We had refreshing mango sorbet, creamy strawberry ice cream and my friend had the blackcurrant sorbet. She said that the blackcurrant one was quite sharp.

The biggest problem that we had this particular Zizzi was that the service was extremely slow. All in all, we were there for hours and that was due to us waiting so long for the attention of the staff and for our food to be served. It was not like the restaurant was that busy or that they were understaffed. It was a good job that we had the starter right at the beginning of the meal, otherwise we would have been totally starving by the time the rest of our food would have come.

Zizzi, O2 Centre, 255 Finchley Road, London, NW3 6LU

Our Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars

New Culture Revolution make their noodles fresh everyday and none of their dishes contain MSG! It really does feel like you are having a healthy meal and you can definitely tell the high quality of the food. I found that the food was not oily and the portions were big. It’s a good place to go for a satisfying lunch!

The vegetarian Chow Mein was great with its pieces of tofu, carrots, celery, baby corn, onions, mushrooms, mange tout and pine nuts. It was not laden with soy sauce like you would get in most restaurants. It also made a refreshing change as the noodles were the thin rice vermicelli ones instead of egg noodles. It was a filling meal without the heaviness that you normally get with noodle dishes. I would say that New Culture Revolution has got this Chow Mein perfect!

If you fancy something a bit more warming and hearty, then the Tong Mein is a good choice. This is a soup based dish with thick noodles, mange tout, spring onions, carrots, Chinese leaves and chicken. There were big pieces of chicken and plenty of vegetables too.

The staff were really friendly and it was a relaxing atmosphere. The decor is very simple with beige furniture and white walls but it works! Look out for the philosophical quotes that are hung on the walls!

New Culture Revolution, 42 Duncan Street, London, N1 8BL

Our Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

The yakisoba noodles were a bit too greasy for my liking and they also could have done with more vegetables in it. It really only had grated carrot and sliced red onion in it.

I wanted to try the pumpkin korroke which was breaded pumpkin croquettes but they did not have any on this particular day. I was recommended the vegetable tempura instead. This was fried aubergine and sweet potato and it was ok but not something that I would have again.

The Japanese potato salad was better and it was not too overloaded with mayonnaise. It was stated that it had edamame in it but there wasn’t any. It only consisted of potato, sweet potato, cucumber and onion.

The only other dish that I tried on this particular visit was the vegetable firecracker rice. It had quite a kick to it but was still enjoyable.

The small portion sizes of the dishes are great as it means  you can get to try quite a few different dishes and flavours in one visit to Yo Sushi!

Yo Sushi, Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Prince Charles Drive, Hendon, London, NW4 3FP

Our Rating:
3 out of 5 stars

The soup of the day that we had was carrot and ginger. It was ok but nothing that special. It was lukewarm when it was served to us and within five or so minutes, the soup would have been cold. The soup had to be sent back to be heated. We were waiting a very long time for it to be brought back out to us. At least the soup was piping hot when we got it back.

The wedge of toasted sourdough bread that came with the soup was tasty. It was a nice change to having white bread. The staff were good when we asked them for an extra portion of bread. We got this as Tootsies don’t serve baskets of bread.

The second dish that we had was the mushroom rustica. We had no complaints about these. They were portobello mushrooms topped with mixed beans in a tomato based sauce. It was served with salad. This starter was very flavoursome.

All in all, the staff were nice but the service was a bit slow at times. It is a shame that I have to give Tootsies such a low rating, but I feel that it is justified as we had to send food back to the kitchen.

Tootsies, Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Prince Charles Drive, Hendon, London, NW4 3FP

Our Rating:
2.5 out of 5 stars

The basket of pesto and tomato pizza bread was really good. They were six big pieces. We could definitely taste the quality of the pesto that was used. I would not recommend having the pizza bread as a starter if you were going to have a pizza for the main meal, as they are very similar.

I chose to have the starter of the gnochhi instead of the main course. The portion was the more like a main dish so I wasn’t disappointed. The gnocchi came with cherry tomatoes, cheese and a tomato sauce. It was a nice alternative to pasta although I don’t think the dish really needed the cubes of cheese.

Originally, one of the dishes that we wanted to order was the green vegetable risotto. But then the waiter came and told us that they had run out of that. So the next best alternative was the pumpkin and butternut squash risotto. This risotto was really tasty and it also had wilted spinach and pine nuts. We had it made without the panchetta so that it was a vegetarian dish.

The other risotto that we got to taste was the seafood one. It was also a good choice and had plenty of fish in  it. A nice side dish was the rosemary roasted new potatoes. A small portion but enough to go with the main meal.

On this occasion, we could not have any hot drinks as both the hot water machine and the coffee machine was not working.

All in  all, I liked the food at Strada but felt that dining here would have been nicer if the decor was a little lighter.

Strada, 105-106 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 1QN

Our Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars