A Sunday afternoon hot chocolate and cake following swimming and korfball. This place is always packed in the mornings so we were intrigued about what it was like inside.
The food – hot chocolate was delicious. Good consistency and not too hot. The carrot cake was yummy too.
The atmosphere – quiet on a Sunday afternoon. The uncomfortable benches mean that it’s not somewhere that you want to hang out for too long.
Value for money – £8 seemed fair for what we had. Made it feel not to indulgent to go out. Though next time we might stay on sofa and not miss 3 goals in the late Sunday kick off!
Next stop traditional cafe for a full English Breakfast.
The food – what you would expect but surprisingly good. Jon’s veggie sausage was particularly tasty and none of the food felt greasy. Also love the soft white bread that comes with the set breakfast. Some how didn’t get that overly full feeling…
The service – friendly and efficient. Jo was recognised from her younger days turning up at 1 pm on a Saturday after “just one” Friday night drink.
The atmosphere – chilled. Real mix of people having or taking out their breakfast.
Value for money – £18 for two set breakfast was great value and set us up for the day.
Next up the best football pub in the area – the Stapleton Tavern! The sign for a new menu increased expectations of the food.
The food – Standard pub menu with the usual mix of burgers, pies and sausage and mash. Jo had the sausage and mash and was unimpressed. Very bland. The saving grace were the halloumi fries. Which were delicious (when are they not!) The pie was strong on quantity and texture but weak on flavour.
The Service – ordered at the bar with friendly staff. They should have table numbers as it is difficult to describe what table you are on as tough to describe where you are sitting in an empty pub.
The atmosphere – chilled hipster vibe – very different from when the football is on. Group next to us playing board games!
Value for money – £40 for two drinks, two meals and a side was definitely good value when joined up with the great company!
We will stick to coming for the football and eat elsewhere. Except for maybe the halloumi fries
Following a tough morning of playing football or sofa shopping what better way to recover than cake!
The food – We chose banana cake along with a pistachio Lemon and courgette cake. The banana cake was nice but if you really like bananas it could have been a stronger taste. The pistachio was fantastically moist with delicious flavours.
The tea was loose leaf which was light and refreshing. The flat white coffee was strong and smooth (not sure about stable).
The service – No drama, ordered coffee and it arrived…
The atmosphere – It was very busy with not much space between tables. There was no laptop policy with the aim of discouraging people from sitting in all day.
Value for money – A bit pricey at £12 for tea, coffee and two slices of cake.
Tonight reaffirmed why we started this. Our usual choice for a Friday night Italian would be Pappagones so with trepidation we went to Il Piccolo Diavolo. It excelled on all accounts.
The food – We had a delicious three course dinner. No dish disappointed and every plate was wiped clean. And the jug of house red was quickly polished off.
To start we shared the anti pasta between four. Good variety of veg, cheese and meat. With the stand out being the pecorino.
Next up the mains. The pasta dishes had delicate flavours with a hint of chilli. The gnocchi was executed well. And the pizza was well just delicious.
The pull of homemade tiramisu and coffee cake was just to good an offer to turn down. Both were melt in the mouth tasty.
The service – We had a good laugh with the waitress. From thinking Jon was a child to “the look” when Jo’s dad asked if the pizza was any good!
The atmosphere – Cosy, welcoming and un-pretentious. Making for a relaxed meal after a busy week.
Value for money – £100 for three course dinner for four.
The only bad thing is – we are disappointed we won’t be back until we have been to the other restaurants on the street.
Feeling decadent on our second night out in a row this time at Mexicali. Arrived late after a few drinks at home with friends.
The food – following a recent trip to Mexico we had low expectations for Mexicali. However, we were pleasantly surprised. Mexican food is very different from Mexico City and feels more Tex Mex. The nachos were for two to share but plenty for four. Everything tasted nice – feels standardised like a chain – even though it’s not… The pitcher of Margarita was great.
The service – kind of left us alone. One of our party was not happy to have his plate taken away after demolishing his burrito in double quick time. (Or we are just slow eaters…)
The atmosphere – we created our own atmosphere (see reference above to pre-drinking)
Value for money – Great!! At £18.50 a head for pitcher, nachos and main this felt like a steal. Also quantity was immense.
An enjoyable night out. In no way did it live up to the amazing variety of tacos we ate in Mexico… but a lot closer to home. We will be back.
Emba Soira is named after the highest mountain in Eritrea, however this East African enclave is at the bottom of Crouch Hill. Eritrea in the Horn Africa on the Red Sea.
The food – Neither of us had tried Eritrean food previously although it was much looked forward to from walking past on the way to Crouch Hill station everyday.
Food ordered with for four to share as we were joined by guests on week two of our quest. Three stews ordered – two Zigni (spicy stew) one with lamb shank the other with beef, and a Dorho chicken. Food is on served on a large tear and share Injera, which is a sourdough flatbread with spongy texture. This is used to scoop the food. The bread is the national dish of Eritrea and its southern neighbour Ethiopia.
Mountains of food
Tasty flavours throughout the stews and veggie sides! Although nothing to compare it to, the meat was super quality with all elements enjoyable with nothing that you didn’t want to eat.
Drinks, we all had the only beer on the menu brewed in Eritrea. Generic larger, but quite refreshing when drunk super cold.
The Service – Very friendly service with a smile and seemed genuinely pleased that we enjoyed the meal. Although when we arrived a little hesitant with providing recommendations.
The Atmosphere – There was none and pleased they turned the music on.
Value for money – £60 between four including drinks seems good value to us.
Disappointingly there were no photographs of surely the most
famous Eritrean – Daniel Teklehaimano aka the Tickler (a
cyclist that wore the King of the Mountains jersey in the Tour de France)
First stop – Yak and Yeti. (Yes we resisted the temptation to go to Pappagones first!). We ordered too much… so much so that it didn’t fit on the table…
The food – was delicious. The Nepalese influenced dishes at Yak and Yeti seem to be the best. The Zimbu Chicken is our favorite as it is basically a Tikka Masala but more exciting.
The atmosphere – when we arrived (7pm on a Friday) there were waiters then customers. However by 8 o’clock they were busy.
The service – friendly not to attentive. Despite it being empty when we arrived they still managed to forget the poppadoms. Made up for it by giving us an extra one.
Value for money – for the quality and quantity of the food we ordered, we felt the £50 for the two of us was good value.
Overall, a great start to our journey. We would thoroughly recommend eating a Yak and a Yeti.
Welcome to Jon & Jo’s quest to eat every establishment on Stroud Green Road
Having on lived on Stroud Green Road on road for 4 months (Jon) and 5 years (Jo) our firm choice for eating out is always Pappagones, To broaden our horizons we have challenged ourselves to eat at all restaurants, cafes and pubs on Stroud Green Road.
Criteria: When doing the count we had 2 criteria. Serves hot food or drinks and could sit in. We started with just Stroud Green Road itself from Twelve Pins pub to Cafe Carmel. However, as this would missing out on the Old Dairy and Max’s Sandwich shop we extended the road to Crouch Hill Station.
Before we did the count we both estimated the total number. Jon guessed 47 and Jo 63. As of the 31 December 2018 the count was at 62. (Jo was not smug at all! :-).) However, this has been thrown into contention as we have been informed that Traiteur doesn’t do sit in, and haven’t seen inside The Black Hamburg for a while so cant remember if there are seats!
Feeling decadent on our second night out in a row this time at Mexicali. Arrived late after a few drinks at home with friends.
Eat Stroud Green 