The Way We Used To Eat

What were you doing in 2002? Were you at school, college or university? Or maybe you'd just started work. Me? I was, as I am now, living and working in London. I was just about hanging on to my twenties. I had more hair, and it was largely black. I'd like to say I was slimmer, but that would be a lie. Was I as obsessed about food as I am now? Probably not, but I did enjoy eating out to the extent that I was the proud owner of the 2002 Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide. I came across my copy when I was having a tidy up. Needless to say, this meant that I spent a good few hours flicking through it instead of clearing out crap in my flat.

Browsing through the guide, I was particularly fascinated by the changes over the last decade or so in how we eat and what we eat in London's restaurants. Take burgers, for example; the options in 2002 would absolutely horrify the burgerati of today. Without irony, Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood and TGI Friday's all appear in the 2002 guide as do Ed's Easy Diner and the long-departed Tootsies.

Back then, there was no Patty & Bun, no Byron and no spawn of Meatwagon. In fact the best in class was the original, and in those days, sole Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) outlet on Northcote Road. In the words of Time Out: 'We're talking better than Eds, better than Hard Rock'. I was a big fan, and while GBK has since lost its lustre through over-expansion, it was a harbinger of better things to come. Whilst GBK might not be the godfather of the burger revolution that we have seen in the 21st century, it can certainly be considered a stepping-stone.

It's not just the burger scene that has changed beyond all recognition; London's Chinese restaurant scene has evolved, too. Dim sum was just beginning to break out of its for-us-by-us-Chinatown-ghetto with the opening of Hakkasan in 2001. Other signs of this sea-change included the expansion of the Royal China mini-chain and the likes of Phoenix Palace opening up in not-particularly-Chineser parts of town such as Marylebone. Fast-forward to 2013, and there is little doubt that pretty much all of the capital's finest dim sum eateries are found outside of Chinatown.

Going back to 2002, London's best Chinese restaurants were dominated by Hong Kong-style Cantonese joints serving up authentic dim sum, seafood and roast meats in parallel with a menu serving westernised dishes for the perceived tastes of the non-Chineser. While this style of restaurant still predominates today, there is so much more variety with many regions of China represented in the capital. In particular, as in China itself, Sichuan cuisine has emerged as the main challenger to the Cantonese hegemony. In turn, many Cantonese places now translate their menu in full to showcase their hitherto hidden delights. So, while not quite up to the standards seen in New York, Toronto or Sydney, there has been a big improvement in the quality and diversity of Chinese cuisine in London.

If you thought the burger scene was a bit crap in 2002, it was positively buzzing compared to what passed as ramen in London. Then as now, Wagamama was the mainstream option, but there were very few specialist indie ramen shops. In fact, scouring the Time Out guide, the only joint that seemed to put ramen first in those days was Ramen Seto. I reviewed it in 2009; it was decent enough but compared to the new generation of ramen shops, it now seems all a bit old-fashioned.

Every era has its culinary trends and places-to-be-seen-at. Looking back at the early-noughties, it would seem that I was more a dedicated follower of fashion than I am today. Atlantic Bar & Grill, Bank and numerous Terence Conran restaurants were all ticked off my list. And knowing what I now know, I am a tad horrified that I was a big fan of Smiths of Smithfield, which had a certain John Torode in charge of the kitchen. In my defence, he hadn't appeared on MasterChef at that point in time, and the cocktail bar was brilliant.

Many of these places served up food, which fused Middle Eastern, South Asian and East Asian flavours into dishes served the European way. Sometimes this worked, other times it didn't. Plus ça change. And while the quality of the food was often variable, all of these places had a fantastic buzz. All of which makes me wonder if Balthazar's arrival on the London scene is at least a decade too late in that punters nowadays place as much emphasis, if not more, on the food than the atmosphere.

The last decade or so has seen the rise and fall of a certain Gordon Ramsay. Back in 2002 he hadn't quite reached his commercial peak, but it could be argued that the restaurants in his stable were at their creative peak. In particular, Petrus, which in those days was an intimate restaurant in St James, operated by his then best mate, Marcus Wareing. I had the privilege of eating there around that time (I did tell you I was a restaurant whore back in the day) and it remains one of the best meals I've ever had.

Original Petrus is a rare instance of when things were better back in the day (another one is Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street Restaurant – what the capital would give nowadays for a centrally located Italian restaurant of that quality) but on the whole, London's restaurant scene has just got better and better. Whether it's up there with the best in the world, well that's another question for another day.

Review: Time Out Eating & Drinking 2010

The Time Out Eating & Drinking guide is the only London restaurant guide I've ever bought and I usually buy a copy every 2 or 3 years. Time Out's magazine and website provides invaluable advice on eating out in London and it's no surprise that their guidebook is equally comprehensive. In particular, I enjoy their detailed and knowledgeable coverage of non-European restaurants which is far superior to what other critics knock up.

The guide follows a set formula opening with a readers' survey, some editorial (eating out in the recession), review of the year, awards, Hot 100 and a 'where to' guide before launching into the reviews proper. The main body of the guide is split into sections either by cuisine e.g. Chinese or by genre e.g. Gastropubs. There are also sections for cheap eats and drinking.

The guide is easy to follow with red stars awarded to very good restaurants and green stars denoting cheap eats. My favourite feature is the menu guide for different cuisines that translates and describes foreign food terms. It's thoughtful touches like these that set Time Out apart from the competition as well as encouraging diners to be adventurous.

Now this wouldn't be much of a review if I didn't have a moan and the first thing that irritates me are the awards. I'm not sure why the awards place so much emphasis on the new with 'Best New....' comprising eight out of ten of the awards. In particular, 'Best New Design' really riles me as trendy design often masks deficiencies in the kitchen especially in London. This award is a bit like a best costume design Oscar – nice but not what you go to the cinema for.

I'm not sure how I'm going to review the rest of the book as guidebooks aren't really meant to be read cover to cover. Also there are whole sections; I rarely dip into (vegetarian – no thanks). So I'm going to mainly focus on the 'Noodlesphere' – apart from Japan & Korea as my knowledge of these cuisines is patchy at best.

Despite the Chinese guide being one of the larger sections, I was disappointed to see the lack of coverage of the emerging mainland Chinese dining scene. For example, are there really only two Sichuan restaurants in London, Bar Shu and Snazz Sichuan worthy of mention ? In the case of the latter, it isn't even the best Sichuan restaurant in its neighbourhood (that's Chilli Cool – review soon). Although I haven't checked them out yet, a quick reccie on the blogosphere identifies more Sichuan places worth trying such as the imaginatively named Sichuan and No 10.

The other non-Cantonese places featured are the bleeding obvious such as Ba Shan and Baozi Inn whilst more earthy places like My Old Place are absent. There's also no mention of places serving Dongbei (North East China) and Fujian cuisines. The Cantonese places listed are less contentious although I can’t believe Hung's is ignored whilst the inferior Cafe de Hong Kong and HK Diner are featured (I promise I’m not in the pay of Hung's). For dim sum, all the usual suspects are listed with some far flung outposts such as Golden Palace in Harrow and Mandarin Palace in Ilford also present. A useful guide to dim sum is also included.

What hacked me off the most was the inclusion of Cha Cha Moon and Ping Pong – dreadful places that are examples of trendy design taking precedence over culinary excellence. The review of Cha Cha Moon reads almost like a PR release and bears no resemblance to the place I tried last year. I remember the XO vermicelli – a couple of prawns in a gloopy sauce (with only a hint of XO sauce) with bits of pork scratchings scattered on top of vermicelli – being particularly hideous. Other dishes fared little better with tasteless stock in the soup noodles and dumplings that fell apart. And don't even get me started on the idiot staff who work there. At least Ping Pong's take on dim sum gets a bit of a shoeing which then begs the question what the hell is it doing in the guide.

There are no obvious omissions in the Malaysian, Indonesian & Singaporean section but there really aren't that many places to miss out. But I can't believe that only three places on the 'Pho Mile' are listed in the Vietnamese section. The Oriental section also bugs me as it consists mainly of places that master none of the cuisines featured on their menus. I'm pretty sure that many of the featured restaurants e.g. Dim T would fail to make the guide if this section didn't exist.

Time Out laments the prevalence of dumbed down Thai food in the capital and whilst the Thai population in London is relatively small, I think more of an effort to track down authentic places where Thais visit could have been made. Some research on the blogosphere reveals 101 Thai Kitchen and Addie's Thai as places to try. I also have an idea where the Thais might go but I'm keeping this a secret for the time being ! Overall, the Thai section is a bit disappointing with few red stars awarded. Mind you, the red star restaurants featured aren't all that special, in particular I can't believe that Busaba Eathai was awarded one – it's good but not red star good.

On the rest of the guide, favourite Indian and Italian places of mine are missing as are a couple of gastropubs I like but for some reason I feel less strongly about this. As I reach the end of the review, I realise I may have been too hard on Time Out - whilst it's easy to moan about a few omissions, it's takes a lot of hard work and dedication to compile and maintain such a comprehensive guide. OK - it isn't flawless but the Time Out guide is definitely worth buying for its insightful and incisive reviews.