London Restaurant Tips by Gyppo

The Real Greek: The Real Greek, Putney

The Real Greek is part of a small chain of greek restaurants in London. I've only been to the one in Putney. It was Sunday afternoon when we went, so pretty quiet. The interior is ok, no more, no less. The waitress was pretty good, but it looked as if she might be overwhelmed when it's busy, as it appeared to be just her serving (and the manager upstairs).

We had mezze, which were all fine. We were there on a 'buy one dish, get another free' deal, so the total for 6 mezze and bread was £24 including a couple of drinks. We were both very full when we left...

****This chain has the terrible policy of adding a service charge to the bill, then using it to top up wages to the minimum wage. If you do eat here, I recommend you ask the manager to take the service charge off, and then you can leave whichever tip you choose in cash so it actually goes to the person who serves you and not the owner's pocket.****

Favorite Dish: The tiropitakia (feta, leek and spinach pastries) were very good. I'm a sucker for anything which involves deep frying cheese and spinach.

Address: Putney High St

Comparison: about average

Directions: Across a junction from Putney Odeon cinema, on the high street.

Phone: 02087883270

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 3

Theme: Other

The Speaker: The Speaker, Westminster Speaker pub, Westminster Review

The Speaker is a small pub in between Pimlico, Westminster and Victoria. The staff are friendly, and the place feels like a proper pub. This is helped by the fact they serve quite a good variety of beers, and occasionally have little beer 'festivals', when they provide a choice of a variety of examples of a particular beer type.

The food is mixed, but not expensive. As a rule, cold food such as sandwiches and salads are pretty good, as they are big and well prepared, while hot meals are cooked in a microwave and should be avoided!

Favorite Dish: Ploughman's with cheddar and stilton. Exactly what you want in a Ploughman's - granary bread, big bits of cheese, pickled onions, grapes, apple, peppers, onions, celery, pickle and piccalilli. Probably more stuff too! They even made it without lettuce for me.

Address: Great Peter St, Westminster

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: Near Strutton Ground off Victoria St.

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 3

Theme: Pub/Brewery

Buffet V: Vegan oriental buffet, West End Buffet V Review

Buffet V is an all you can eat Oriental buffet restaurant in the West End, with the twist that it’s a vegan place. They do a pretty wide variety of meat substitutes and vegetables cooked in different sauces, all the usual stuff. In my opinion, while all the dishes were OK, none of them was quite right. However, I still left feeling full for £6.50 (£5.50 at lunchtime). Good value overall. Pic to come later.

Favorite Dish: No favourite dish - just try a bit of everything, as you can.

Address: New Oxford St/Bloomsbury Way

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Use Tottenham Court Road tube, then it's 15 mins walk along New Oxford St.

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 3

Theme: Vegan/Vegetarian

The Montagu: Hyatt Regency London Montagu Review

We visited The Montagu for their special evening menu, which consists of 2 courses and 1/2 bottle of wine for £18 plus service. Each course has a choice of three dishes from the set menu, and between us we tried all the starters and main courses. I'm vegetarian, but will report others' opinions.

Starters: Tomato soup - nothing special, just blended tomato. Montagu Salad - a salad, with no distinguishing features. Salmon mousse - apparently very good, however topped with orange marmalade, which some did not enjoy.

Main Courses: Vegetarian option, 3 slices tomato, 2 slices potato and a lettuce heart stuffed with pureed vegetables - uninspired, but adequately flavoured. Pork medallion - good, but small portions. Lemon sole - the favourite dish of those who eat fish, again small.

Wine: House red - not good. House white - OK.

Atmosphere: it's a hotel restaurant, so this was not particularly atmospheric.

Service: attentive, if slightly patronising ("The white wine sir? It's like a Chardonnay." Turns out to be Viognier, so not very much like Chardonnay!). Overall, good.

In brief, I wouldn't go back here, but it wasn't terrible.

Favorite Dish: The Lemon sole was favoured.

Address: Portman Square

Comparison: more expensive than average

Directions: Use Bond St tube station, and it's about 5 mins walk.

Phone: 44 (0) 20 7299 2037

Price: US$41 and up

Rating: 2

Theme: Eclectic/International

Website: http://london.churchill.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/restaurants/index.jsp;jsessionid=Z5EN2JL1SGSTDTQSNWIVAFOOCJWYYUP4