Westbourne grove is a trendy street in Notting Hill, stretching from Ladbroke through to Bayswater and crossing Portobello Road, most famous for its diverse markets. This street is a joy for strolling along, with wide paths that are relatively quiet for the area and filled with dozens of nice stores and cafes. One of the more kitsch places to visit on a Saturday or Sunday is 202 Westbourne Grove, a place that is both a fashion store and café in one.

The polished wood floors host the decently numbered marble and wood topped tables that are all set in the back half of this large store. They have a nice garden out back, filled with six tables as well as the sidewalk tables out the front of the store, under the terrace and Italians heaters that people no doubt enjoy the most during the summer months. Depending on what time you arrive, you are most likely to be waiting for a table, particularly if you are with a party more than two, but fortunately our party of four (consisting of Karl, Caroline, Nathan and myself) managed to beat the busy lunch period and secured ourselves a table within ten minutes of arriving.

The brunch menu is simple with no more than, maybe, eight different choices that you can also compliment with a number of sides. The items are modern breakfast dishes and you pay standard prices for them (up to about £8), as is the decently made coffee at £2.50. The prices for the juice and bottled water on the other hand, are especially steep with a large (i.e. standard tall glass) OJ costing you a hefty £4.24 and a 750ml bottle of water costing you just over £6. The 12.5% service charge is actually quite worth it in this place, with the white shirted and jeans clad staff being prompt and efficient without the over bearing or intolerable attitude you can find at just as trendy cafes. Take for instance, my situation this morning when I accidentally spilt a little bit of my coffee onto my plate of French toast and extremely tasty bacon. Although the incident was not too loud, a staff member upon witnessing the incident promptly offered me a napkin to soak up the coffee and a clean plate for me to transfer my now, slightly soggy toast. It was a lovely way to spend the morning and fill up on food for the day.

TheKua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Al is having a brief visit, and what better way to welcome him to London than to take him to the heart of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown. Ben, Michelle and my sister accompanied us to tuck into a great dim sum feast, even though it took us a long time queuing to get a table. Service was poorer than normal because of the crazy number of people that just continually flowed through the restaurant’s doors but was made up for easily by the traditional dancing lions entering the restaurant to bring good luck to the place.

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