Come Dine With Me... at The Diner

With restaurants in Camden, Shoreditch and Soho, The Diner is fast becoming a mini-chain in its own right, clearly targeting London’s indie scenesters in their glorious vintage clothing.

The Camden branch, located just off the high street on the slightly nondescript Jamestown Road certainly grabs your attention with its red neon signage and black exterior, much the same as the Soho Pizzeria in fact and inside it’s a similar story with clever black tiling creating a cool, moody atmosphere.

The American influence is most evident however when scanning the vast menu, where ‘fries’, ‘shakes’ and ‘dogs’ abound. Worried that a ‘(hot) dog’ would not suffice, I joined my sister and ordered a medium cooked Cheese Burger at £6.50 and a side of fries to share, from our pencil-thin waitress.

Given that this was a Thursday night at seven o clock, I was most disappointed to find that with the exception of two other tables we were the only ‘diners’ in the place. To make matters worse, the music had been turned down almost as low as the lighting, making for a rather quiet and dark restaurant.

Considering that staff appeared to outnumber customers, the burgers didn’t exactly race out of the kitchen, eventually arriving in rather grubby looking black plastic baskets with Diner branded paper.

First impressions were good however, with cheese melting nicely on top of a thick, juicy ‘pattie’, as those in the burger trade (but certainly not I) like to call them. A decent looking bun sat beneath with the related lid adorned with lettuce, a slice of beef tomato, red onion and a token gherkin.

Quickly seeing off the salad element of the meal I was now left with a manageable burger that could in theory be eaten by hand, without the risk of spilling relish over a fresh pair of cream chinos.

Unfortunately the burger could no longer be classed as medium, having been charred around the edges and ultimately arrived at the table ‘well-done’. This was a shame given the quality of the meat and the excellent sesame seed topped bun, which was obviously fresh and when served warm, tasted fantastic.

The chips were equally delicious with a nice golden colour to them. Heinz tomato sauce bottles are placed on every table as well as a bottle of mustard and cellar of salt, with vinegar appearing to be the elusive condiment. The small pot of relish that arrived with the burgers also proved to be tasty enough.

With room still for dessert nothing seemed to jump out at me from the selection on the menu so we decided to leave it for today and simply ask for the bill. Annoyingly, for what is only a burger joint in Camden, a 12.5% discretionary service charge was added, which I reluctantly chose to pay.

Whilst not somewhere I would rush back to, if I ever happen to find myself in Camden sporting a pair of skinny jeans and looking for something a little more than a ‘Big Mac’ then I would certainly give the Diner another whirl.

Soho Pizzeria proves to be Soso good

With its funky combination of black paint and red neon signage, the Soho Pizzeria is visually one of the most memorable restaurants in Central London, yet sitting within the labyrinth of achingly cool streets that is Soho, remembering just which prominent corner it sits on is still something of a challenge.

Meeting my Dad for lunch on a Friday, I was worried of having to wait for a table, yet we were quickly seated right in the thick of the action and given menus by our waitress. The clue should be in the name but pizza is very firmly the favourite dish here and as such I decided against either pasta or salad.

Looking around the restaurant and my immediate impression was that the pizzas were actually quite small, which usually leans me back towards a pasta dish but in this instance only made up my mind to go for the Calzone of ham, olives, capers, pepperoni sausage, tomato and mozzarella in a folded pizza.

Inside, the Soho Pizzeria is every bit as intriguing as it is from the outside, with its many photographs and posters that sit alongside more red neon’s in this large attractive space. There is even a stage area for live music in the evenings, which is surely only another reason for a night-time return to Soho.

After the olives at Paradiso the previous evening, I was dubious as to whether our starter of mixed olives would be able to compete, but yet again they were delicious, with the stones removed and this time with strips of red pepper to compliment them. The larger green varieties were particularly impressive.

The calzone arrived soon after and it was time to swap cocktail sticks for knife & fork. With no side salad the plate looked bare and my earlier concern over portion size looked like coming back to haunt me, yet nowhere have I thought the phrase ‘quality not quantity’ to be more apt than at the Soho Pizzeria.

The folded pizza base was golden brown, marvelously light yet with a nice crisp edge. Cutting into the middle and there was ham and pepperoni sausage spilling out like treasure from a chest, not the usual deflating of air as happens at Zizzi. The tomato sauce was thick and well seasoned with Italian herbs.

The Quattro Stagioni chosen by my Dad was similarly demolished in record time and cleared away before the dessert menu was brought over. Whilst all of the options looked good, it seemed only right to have the Chocolate Fudge Cake, served hot of course and with an extra scoop of ice cream at £1.10.

With the coke long since gone, my tap water was topped up and a latte brought over for my Dad. Whilst this time the fudge cake was huge, the quality remained the same, with a rich and moist cake topped with hot chocolate sauce and accompanied by a scoop of topnotch if extortionate vanilla ice cream.

The Soho Pizzeria proved to be every bit as good as it looks and will certainly be seeing me again soon!