January 2017 – a new year and a new job, working in central London for the next month or two. On my first lunch break (I get a whole 40mins), sitting in Pret a Manger on Carnaby St, found myself struck by the number of places to eat in the area. Thus began my “Eat at a Different Lunch Place every day when working in London Challenge 2017“. There were/are no rules really, except no take-aways, you must sit in the place to eat! Also, I do try to keep the cost as cheap as possible, which has become to mean, less than £10 – blame the location. Originally I aimed at 30 places, as that would be a month’s worth, but then I (surprisingly) got re-hired and decided to keep it going. Despite the walking distances and difficultly of find places increasing and a desperately strong desire to go back to previous establishments, I have persisted and been rewarded with a surprisingly good and varied cuisine for lunch. So, here is my 2017 lunch-challenge diary so far…
Notes: Yes, I’m still updating this list – as it comes from my phone and I’m still trying to workout/remember some of the places.
Also Yes, I will add quite a lot of these to Trip Advisor at some point – already a Level 4 contributor 🙂
| When: | Where / What / Any Good? : | Notes: |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 4.1.17 | Pret a Manger, Carnaby St | Where it all begins… |
| Thu 5.1 | Asian cafe round corner pork noodles | |
| Fri 6.1 | Hipster sandwich bar | |
| Mon 9.1 | Cafe Pomodoro chips? | |
| Tue 10.1 | Leon, Carnaby St – green curry | |
| Wed 11.1 | Itsu on , chicken & rice – | |
| Thu 12.1 | Work from home day | |
| Fri 13.1 | Wasabi on Wardour St. – Katsu curry – good as always from Wasabi | |
| Mo 16.1 | Work from home day | |
| Tu 17.1 | Italian cafe on Wardour St – had v good lasagne | |
| We 18.1 | Italian cafe chicken panini | |
| Th 19.1 | Vital Ingredient on Golden Square – pork rice – nice tasty healthy food | |
| Fr 20.1 | Hawaii Poke bowl, Kingly St – an unusual lunch of fish and rice in a bowl. Surprisingly tasty and good. | |
| Mo 23.1 | Carbon – rice & lamb – not many seats in the place(maybe 3 or 4) but the food was fresh and good. | |
| Tu 24.1 | Flatplanet pizza flatbread – pretty good, but a bit expensive for a flat piece of pizza, still the service was very good. | |
| We 25.1 | Mother Mash (pie shop), Ganton St – sausages and mash – excellent fayre | |
| Th 26.1 | Burgeri, Great Marlborough St – burger and chips – good place, they give you a machine that buzzes to let you know when your order is ready, think this place is Qatar version of McDonalds. | |
| Fr 27.1 | Cafe by salt beef and cheese panini | |
| Mo 30.1 | Crush – beans wrap | |
| Tu 31.1 | Hummus Wardour St – bowl chicken | |
| We 1.2 | Bao – 1 X chicken Bao 1 X xaio Thai chicken – good food, but expensive and I don’t quite get what’s so great about it, but it’s very popular. | |
| Th 2.2 | Urban Tea Rooms – chorizo panini | |
| Fr 3.2 | Vietnam noodles soup | |
| Mo 6.2 | Work from home day | |
| Tu 7.2 | Toi & Moi Cafe place – bacon guacamole panini | |
| We 8.2 | Koti Roll, Poland St – very good value and a tasty eat. | |
| Th 9.2 | The Diner, Ganton St – pork burger & fries – wasn’t bad, but expensive for what it was, also the service was awful, the waitress did’t return with my change, which was quite annoying. | |
| Fr 10.2 | Joe and the Juice, Carnaby St – a sandwich -a loud trendy place, the loud trendy version of Costa really, would’ve preferred not to be quite so loud, even the serving guy shouted at me when my order was ready. | |
| Mo 13.2 – Th 16.2 | Worked from home and went on trip to Scafell Pike. | |
| Fr 17.2 | Eat |
My contract ended at this time and so far had clocked up 28 eating places in total by this point…Then I amazingly got re-hired, so the “Work lunch challenge” started again…
| When: | Where / What / Any Good? : | Notes: |
|---|---|---|
| Mo 3.4 | Wok to Walk – Excellent place | |
| Tu 4.4 | Dunkn Donuts – chicken baguette – always wanted to go to this place, but never have done til now, not bad. | |
| We 5.4 | Mister Lasagnia – fab potato lasagne. This was a real random find and glad I did find it. | |
| Original Goal Reached: 31 place(an entire month’s worth) | ||
| Th 6.4 | Wok on fire 18.4 | |
| Fr 7.4 | Chilangos – burito! | |
| Mo 10.4 | Tuk Tuk noodle bar | |
| Tu 11.4 | Ma Plucker | |
| We 12.4 | Thai Street Food place | |
| Th 13.4 | &Pasta 19.4? | |
| Fr 14.4 | Good Friday | |
| Mo 17.4 | Easter Monday | |
| Tu 18.4 | Princi Italian bread place | |
| We 19.4 | Ten Ten Thai – 40th place | |
| Th 20.4 | work from home | |
| Fr 21.4 | Cotton Cafe | |
| Mo 24.4 | Herman Ze German | |
| Tu 25.4 | Jumbo Eats | |
| We 26.4 | Itenburi | |
| Th 27.4 | Shoryu Ramen | |
| Fr 28.4 | Billy & the Chicks | |
| Mo 1.5 | Bank holiday | |
| Tu 2.5 | Taro – Japanese yakisoba | |
| We 3.5 | Cafe near ronnie scott’s – chicken escalope wrap thing good £6 | |
| Th 4.5 | Subway – yes I was getting restaurant-outed at this point and just wanted a Subway! | |
| Fr 5.5 | Lingo Japanese – not bad | |
| Mo 8.5 | Poppies – Fish & Chip shop – chicken pie & chips £12 v good | |
| Tu 9.5 | Work from home day | |
| We 10.5 | Rasa Sayang Malaysian – the chicken was not great in this place £10 | |
| Th 11.5 | Melt Room cheesy sandwich place – top place £5 | |
| Fr 12.5 | Masala Zone – not bad, considering I asked them to rush serving me £10 pretty good | |
| Mo 15.5 | Rosa’s Thai good £10 | |
| Tu 16..5 | Cafe TPT – did not like this much Kung po chicken £12 | |
| We 17.5 | Bodeans Soho Special Sandwich v good £7 | |
| Th 18.5 | Thai cottage restaurant – excellent noodle dish and only £5 | |
| Fr 19.5 | Tommi’s burger place – the burger & fries were a bit expensive, but good, only thing this place played very loud music for such a small place | |
| Mo 22.5 | Taiwan Street food in soho old tree Daiwan bee – Taiwan need noodle soup | |
| Tu 23.5 | Potato people – duck in jacket – v good | |
| We 24.5 | BGR burger place – nice burger | |
| Th 25.5 | Jamie Oliver’s diner burger – a surprising bargain at £6 | |
| Fr 26.5 | Butifara Peru sandwich thing – unusual cuisine in this place | |
| Mo 29.5 | Bank holiday | |
| Tu 30.5 | T Gerrard’s Corner Chinese chicken noodles – a giant restaurant, but with wonderful service and lovely noodles £9 | |
| We 31.5 | Caffe Nero – time and wanting something a bit plain meant a cheese panini here | |
| Th 1.6 | Vital Ingredient, Berwick St – my rules allow me to visit the same chain, BUT it must be a different location and the Sri Lankan chicken and quinoa here was v good. | |
| Fr 2.6 | Libanis restaurant – remarkably good lunch dish | |
| Mo 5.6 | Tombo poke and matcha – | |
| Tu 6.6 | Katsu curry china town Matsoki – this was a good katsu curry. | |
| We 7.6 | The Breakfast Club – had “huevos rancheros”(eggs) at this trendy hugely popular cafe | |
| Th 8.6 | Leon china town – chicken burger meal | |
| Fr 9.6 | EAT on Golden Square – Coconut chicken noodle soup + brie and ham baguette | |
| Mo 12.6 | Hungs Chinese – really not the most pleasant restaurant, was almost sitting in the kitchen, but the shredded chicken noodles sure were good £7 | |
| Tu 13.6 | Pret on soho road – wahey – always reliable for a sandwich | |
| We 14.6 | Costa coffee – a gloriously sunny day, so ended up walking to The Mall and sat and had a cheese panini on the way back. | |
| Th 15.6 | Bap – burger restaurant – it was indeed a burger and fries, not much else to say really | |
| Fr 16.6 | Pepe’s Italian – on Old Compton St – Pepe herself served me and was a top Lasagne £7 nice | |
| Mo 19.6 | Shelley’s cafe hot – it was the hottest day of the year and this place was like a sauna, but the £7 large katsu curry was worth sweltering for, Amazing! | |
| Tu 20.6 | Yoobi suishi £9 expensive for 6 bits of salmon | |
| We 21.6 | Tostado £5 v good Ecuador lunch | |
| Th 22.6 | Yoshimo Gyoza £5 v good rice curry sauce and 6 X pork Gyoza | |
| Fr 23.6 | Smack Lobster Roll – £8 + 2.95 chips shrimp roll – nice | |
| Mo 26.6 | Muslim cafe Shaftsbury – chicken escalope and chips – | |
| Tu 27.6 | Simit sarayi chicken roll not great nice pretzel | |
| We 28.6 | Work from home day | |
| Th 29.6 | Wholefoods buffet £8 for 500g but has to be said was delicious | |
| Fr 30.6 | Cafe Buon Gusto – Frith St. – marvelous |
