London is one of those places where I would not expect to find any BBQ cooking, not withstanding any of those American chains that serve an average affair. After a bit of research I uncovered a few little gems and so, this weekend, I went to Bodean’s BBQ in Soho for lunch.

As you walk in the door, their ground floor does not appear like your typical London restaurant, with the long tables surrounded by rotating high chairs and retro diner-like decorations making it feel like a casual American diner. Downstairs holds more table seating and they serve food with proper table services, opposed to the cafeteria and take away style upstairs. A number of TVs show American basketball and NHL most days and the rest of the décor, though not fancy, is extremely well suited for this place.

The food on offer is what you would expect for a BBQ smoke house restaurant including BBQ baby back ribs, pork spare ribs, beef back ribs, BBQ chicken, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Pulled Pork and Beef Brisket. They also serve a number of other American foods like Buffalo Wings and Clam Chowder. I ordered the half slab of baby back ribs that were both deliciously tender and quite filling. The best thing about this restaurant is their own brand of hickory smoked BBQ sauce, with each table equipped with at least one bottle for easy access.

Details: Bodean’s BBQ Smoke House
Found on: 10 Poland Street/16 D’Arblay Street, London, W1F 8PZ (Soho) and 169 Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7SS (Clapham)
Contactable on: 020 287 0506 (Soho) 020 7622 4248 (Clapham)
Highlights: Good place for American ribs and their distinctly branded BBQ sauce
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Gastropubs have become one of the more popular places to eat in London, with an emphasis on high quality ingredients presented in a distinctive manner but typically served at finer restaurants. London has an abundance of these dining places, a reflection on the importance that both good food and the pub culture have to the city. It was only fair that, when our fellow Australians (and honourary US residents) Gerrod and Kristy visited us, we take them to experience a reasonable one, and so we had dinner at The Academy, a gastropub nestled in the streets of Notting Hill.

The Academy is not overly large, decorated more to be a restaurant than your typical London pub. It has a small room out back with tables and a long but rather narrow bar out front, accompanied by a roaring fireplace at the entrance. The quality of food was exceptional and the price of the main meals (ranging from £8-£12) was reasonable for the food on offer. Desserts are comparatively more expensive, with many of them almost half to a third of a main, but is worth it if you are feeling indulgent.

A consequence of its reasonable prices and excellent menu offerings is that the people who dine at this place are a little more silver-lined and sedate, but also reassured me that the visit was worthwhile. The only downside to this gastropub is that it does not prohibit smoking in their dining room, meaning you might have an awful night depending on who your neighbours for the night are.

Details: The Academy
Found on: 57 Princedale Road, Notting Hill, W11 4NP
Contactable on: 020 7221 0248
Highlights: Excellent food at reasonable prices in a little bit of a classier atmosphere than your typical pub.
Room for improvement: Could have a separate area for non-smokers and beer prices were a little more expensive than your average pub.
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

Dim Sum (or more affectionately known as Yum Cha back home) can be a relatively expensive meal in London but you will have no trouble finding a restaurant that serves it when in Chinatown. Aptly located in Soho you can find Ping Pong, one of the trendiest and upmarket Dim Sum places around London. If you enter any time around lunch, you will have to wait in a queue, but the turnover seems reasonable and it’s unlikely you won’t be waiting any longer than you would at any other Chinese restaurant.

When you first enter, its most striking feature is probably the restaurant’s seating arrangement. Two huge circular black marble bars provide communal seating for up to twenty (or more) people who come to dine by themselves or as a pair. A separate bar is located between them for people still waiting for guests and for the bartenders to create the spectacular cocktails listed in its drink menu. Downstairs you will find larger tables, but if especially busy, would no doubt be shared amongst small groups of diners as well.

Dim sum is ordered by filling out a piece of paper and handing it to your waiter. Although Ping Pong is supposed to be well known for its Dim Sum, if you really want a proper selection, this restaurant is not the place to go with only about twenty different dim sum offerings opposed to the twice or thrice you would find at any other Chinese restaurant. It is obvious the menu was carefully selected to appeal to a less adventurous palate, with only chicken feet being the most out of the ordinary on the menu. The quality of the dim sum is excellent, both in presentation and in flavour, but at £2.80 each, you would certainly hope it was.

The best thing that we ordered probably wasn’t the dim sum, but the fresh jasmine tea to accompany our meal. Tall glasses arrive filled only with a large flower bud. The waiter pours the hot water into your glass, and in only a matter of seconds, the bud literally flowers and starts to infuse the water. It’s a great novelty but once again, an expensive one at £1.75 per glass.

I had read several reviews of this place before I came and was prepared for the apparently bad service. I wouldn’t necessarily call it bad service, but rather non-existent as waiters were just difficult to locate at times. When you did get their attention, the service was actually quite pleasant and fairly prompt.

If you are a local to London, or even if you want to experience Dim Sum differently, then I recommend you visit Ping Pong at least once yourself and decide if it is what appeals to you. For me, it doesn’t quite represent the same sort of table-messing and noisy yet modest dining that Dim Sum means to me.

Details: Ping Pong
Found on: 45 Great Marlborough Street, Soho, W1F 7JL
Contactable on: 020 7851 6969
Highlights: Trendy atmosphere (good music) ideal for crowd watching and all dim sum is good quality. It provides a refreshing way for presenting dim sum to a greater audience and it’s jasmine tea is something to be seen.
Room for improvement: Dim sum selections were quite small and had a distinct lack of service. Not fantastic value for money.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Taking Rohan’s advice I ended up having a meal at Mela, an Indian restaurant just around the corner from the office. This place can be found walking up past the Oasis sports centre, and a little bit down along Shaftsbury Avenue towards Soho/Chinatown. On initial appearances, Mela comes across more like a Chinese restaurant, more so than an Indian one, with long sticks of meats hanging in the window. Like most other London restaurants, the tables are pretty close together, but have enough room to feel like you’re not sitting right next to other tables. The décor is bright and colourful and everyone in the restaurant was fortunate that night to be entertained by some musicians playing traditional Indian instruments live such as the Sitar. The service was excellent most of the time and the offerings of food are quite broad and different compared to most other Indian restaurants. More to the point, the quality of the food was excellent with strong flavours and lots of heat that was well soaked up by pilau rice and some fresh naan bread.

The servings seemed a little on the small side compared to many other places I had been to, with us having to order two naans and rice serves instead of just our normal single serves, but the quality of food made up for it. We were a little surprised that the total cost was as much as it was when the bill came up, so it is best surmised as something a little bit pricier for better quality than most other ones out there. It was a good dining experience and at least I know where a decent Indian restaurant is now.

Details: Mela
Found on: 152-156 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8HL
Contactable on: 020 7836 8635
Highlights: Excellent atmosphere and a wide selection of quality Indian foods. Service was attentive without being in your face for most of the night.
Room for improvement: Rice and naan serves seemed a little small for the price they were charging.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10

London’s pub food has improved a lot with age and although finding your typical Bangers and Mash at any pub is not a difficult task, you will also find they now offer a much wider range of cosmopolitan cuisine. One that I ate at last Saturday is The Dove that can be found on the East side of London. Not to be confused with The Dove at Hammersmith that is most well known as the smallest bar in London, this pub is much bigger that also doubles as a Belgian Pub. The menu can be overwhelming serving English food, Belgian essentials including Moule and Frites, and a surprisingly great selection of Thai food but is definitely worth the effort.

You will find this gastro pub located nearest to the Bethnal Green tube station but you may have to catch a bus to more easily get there. Unlike most pubs, this once offers a separate dining area that is also smoke free. It also has a sister pub called The Dovetail that can be found closer to the city that I have also heard about good things for this place.

Details: The Dove
Found on: 24-28 Broadway Market, Hackney, E8 4QJ
Contactable on: 020 7836 4751
Highlights: Fantastic variety of food, reasonable prices, huge selection of beer, non-smoking dining area in a pub
Room for improvement:A little out of the way for people from the West and South side of London
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

I rarely write reviews about restaurants and cafes that are simply average, or just so-so because, well frankly, there are too many of them and it would take up too much of my time. A consequence of this is that most of my reviews end up pretty positively skewed towards the higher end of the rating scale. Last night I dined at a restaurant that I thought deserved to be reviewed, but this time, not so positively.

Mahal Indian Cuisine is located almost half way between the Notting Hill Gate and the Queensway tube stations. From the outside it looks to be quite decent, with nice cloth napkins and fairly large wine glasses welcoming people to their tables. I’d walked by there a few times on my way to the tube station, and so on an early Sunday evening, my sister and I decided to have dinner there. A couple more tables were filled but by no means could you call it busy.

We caught glimpses of the poor quality of service we were about to receive when we first placed our order, or at least tried to. Despite having only two tables in the restaurant at the time, and closing our menus right in front of the waiters, it still took them about ten minutes before they came around. After another fifteen minutes, apparently the average time to pour some juice from a bottle, they finally delivered some drinks but somehow got our order confused with the only other table right next to us. We were quite pleased that the curries were quite good when they finally arrived but beware the rice and naan for which you pay above average prices for below average serves.

Despite business remaining fairly quiet throughout the night, the two waiters still managed to ignore all solid attempts at pleasing their customers. It seemed to take at least two requests before anything arrived (both the request for water and the bill) and took even longer to be able to make eye contact or a gesture at one of them to come over. It got so bad that I was almost at the point of having to tap one on the shoulder.

I highly recommend other people staying clear of the place – there are much better curry houses to spend your money in London.

Details: Mahal Indian Restaurant
Found on: 6 Wellington Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, London, W2 4LW
Contactable on: 020 7229 3553
Highlights: The chicken in the Makhini was surprisingly tender and the lychee juice was quite nice.
Room for improvement:A terrible attitude from the waiters, leading to discourteous service, and an appalling response from any requests made by customers.
The Kua Rating: 3 out of 10