The team behind Terroirs and Brawn (who also own a third place called Soif in Battersea Rise) have just opened their 4th establishment called Green Man & French Horn on St Martin's Lane in Central London (ironically close to Terroirs in fact). It specialises in seafood and wines of Loire. Since it just opened it is not ridiculously crowded the way their other restaurants can get. If you go, Max is your man for wine (whom you might find at Brawn as well) while Oli and Cecile are running the front of house. If you go to Terroirs and need wine advise, ask for Damiano (tall Italian dude) as he should be working this weekend.
Otherwise you would be seriously amiss if you did not get over to 40 Maltby St (name and address -
www.40maltbystreet.com), by far the best wine bar in London. It is the operation of wine importer Gergovie Wines, who import some of the most interesting natural wines into London. Raef runs both and is a really nice guy. By the time you read this it will probably be too late to go tonight (Friday) but it is open Saturday from 11-5pm when there is also a food market on the surrounding streets. FYI the Maltby St Saturday market, although not quite as cool as it once was, is still much more relaxing and fun (IMHO) than Borough Mkt which can be seriously over-run on Saturdays.
Also second 259 Hackney Rd (run by super nice couple), St Johns, and Ledbury. Re Bubbledogs, it is a bit cheeky but kind of fun. However it is already ridiculously popular and unless you go at an off hour, you'll certainly have a long wait (for just hot dogs after all, albeit with nice grower Champagne).
Finally, if you're a burger lover and want to try something unique (at least in origin), there is a place that just opened in cental London called Tommies Burger Shack. The owners are actually from Iceland and have a small chain of Tommies there. Although Iceland would probably rank somewhere around 187 on my list of great burger loving countries, I must say their burger is seriously good, and cheap. Best of all, they are also BYO. Just be warned there are very few seats inside (maybe 20) as it is also a takeaway place, and they have no stemware to speak of; in fact they only have styrofoam cups! (so bring your own drinking vessels as well)
Oh finally I should mention Brixton Village. It's a covered market in south London with just about any type of dining option you could want (and many are BYO). Just buy your wine elsewhere, as there is only one little wine shop there with a not super interesting selection.
PS: I might also mention that I am a newbie to posting here, so by all means please feel free to heap your abuse and vitriol upon me.
