The Frisian Islands, an archipelago off the coasts of Holland, Germany and Denmark are famous for their shifting sands; an impediment to navigation but an inspiration for Riddle of the Sands.
London restaurants similarly shift, change or just vanish. In Covent Garden Orso has closed, Joe Allen has moved; in St James’s Le Caprice has closed. New restaurants come and go. Some go on less elegantly than in the old days.
Let’s start at the very beginning, as Julie Andrews might sing. In 1900 Michelin guides were born and morphed into the red books sold today. In 1957 the first Egon Ronay restaurant guide was published beginning a trend for restaurant guides named after their founders not a tyre company. Zagat, the brainchild of husband and wife Tim and Nina Zagat, started in 1957. In 1991 brothers Richard and Peter Harden launched their eponymous restaurant guide. There seems to me little point in buying a hard copy of a restaurant guide that will be out of date in no time. Unless you want to keep it for fifty years and compare prices.
The free online Harden’s is the answer. Usually I am looking for a restaurant close to an exhibition, theatre or cinema. No problem, simply put in the post code and all the options nearby are listed. Next week I’m trekking north to Canonbury Square and need somewhere for lunch.
Harden’s offers fifty shades of grub. We decided on number seven.
7. Llerena Spanish restaurant in Islington 167 Upper Street – N1
2019 Review: Opening at the start of 2018, this Islington tapas bar is related to one of Spain’s top producers of jamón ibérico (Jamón y Salud, from Extremadura) and initial feedback is enthusiastic – “a stand out for its product quality and, equally, value for money”.
Reviews in Harden are submitted by the public but there are enough contributors to give a fair picture. A plus is that all the entries are re-assessed annually. Here’s the entry for an old favourite of mine since the 1970s: Sweetings.
“Sitting cheek by jowl at a counter that dates from the 19th century… bliss!” – this “City legend amongst fish restaurants” is “such a haven of bygone days, which gives it its special ambience and devoted following”. Founded in the 1830s, and on its current site since the 1920s, it’s “still serving sensational oysters (washed down with a pewter tankard of Black Velvet) after all these years”alongside “very traditional fish cooked simply and well” (e.g. “divine whitebait”). “It’s a bit pricey and you can’t book but otherwise excellent.” A fair review that is too kind about the kitchen but that comes out in the final score, marks are out of five: food 3, service 2, ambiance 4.
Ah, what a film! What music! What a cast!
A visit to the Estorick Collection perhaps? Really interesting as the Futurists are so little known here, partly because they were a little too supportive of Il Duce. Other great troughs are Prawn on the Lawn and Trullo. As you would expect of a socialist paradise, the food is the best in London and quite out the financial reach of the workers.