Picking up from my last post about why Stratford doesn’t completely suck, I consider the fine dining options available to Stratfordians. Once this is done I can get on with blogging about places I like to go to to get away from Stratford without feeling too guilty…
Don’t come here unless you really love Pizza Express. There’s not really anywhere else to eat out except fast foody joints like Nando’s, Pizza Hut, KFC et al and a couple of good curry houses. On the subject of which, India Gate, we love you! Thank you for shamelessly currying our favour (geddit?!) with your endless freebies – not one small sweaty bag of salad in our takeaway, but two! Praise be! In all seriousness we like them a lot. Tasty food, friendly staff, a discount if you’re a member of the cinema… They have stolen our hearts away from the Spice Inn, who comically refused to serve my friend her beer in a pint glass, we assume because they were afeared her spindly ladywrists would snap under the weight of all that manliness.
Another place we sometimes go is a gastropub type affair called King Eddie’s. It’s a bourgeois oasis on Stratford Broadway. I’m not slamming the fact that Stratford is poor here, but the contrast is shocking, I’m still not totally convinced that the door isn’t just a portal to a pub in Hampstead. If you ever want a concise visual representation of social inequality and lingering class divisions (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) go for a drink in King Eddie’s, then go over the way for a drink in Wetherspoons.
In spite of myself I love it though. It’s a beautiful pub, an ex-coaching inn with green walls, a saloon bar and many quiet corners. Sitting with a good friend and some mulled wine or cherry beer in a dark and cosy nook while it pisses down outside is up there in my top ten loveliest things to do. I warn you though, it’s not cheap. It is still cheaper than most places in the centre, but once you’ve adjusted to Stratford prices it seems extortionate. The food is consistently tasty, traditional English fare, using seasonal gourmet-type ingredients but doesn’t offer much for vegetarians unfortunately. The wild mushroom risotto is delicious, but that’s often all there is for my not meateaty friends.
Our final dinner destination, although we more commonly go there for lunch at the weekend is the new Londek Cafe. It’s right at the top of the Grove, if you head towards Maryland station from Stratford centre you’ll pass it on the left. Londek serves Polish home-cooking, and is full of Polish people eating it, so one can only assume they’re doing it well. I certainly like it a lot. The staff have been very friendly, not to mention surprised, as me and my friends troop in on a regular basis (and once ordered one piece of every kind of cake – all in the interests of research, you understand).
Again they’re not brilliant for vegetarians but there are two or three different options. It is incredibly cheap – a plate of extremely filling pierogi is around £3.90 – so you could eat like a king for well under a tenner *and* they have no license to sell alcohol so you are welcome to bring your own free of charge. We had a fairly raucous night a while back fuelled by cheap wine and cabbage parcels. It was awesome.
It’s all black leather chairs in strange shapes and art on the walls, but totally unpretentious. There’s internet access too. A bit further down Roman Road, moving away from central London, there is Fiesta Cafe which is pretty unexceptional I suppose but I think it’s the best greasy spoon in the world ever, as their friendly staff and vast omelette breakfast (hash browns! onion rings!) has nourished me through many a hangover. The market itself is quite lively, and has lots of cheap clothes, though the highlight has to be the Brazilian donuts – they are basically a sort of test tube made of doughnut, which gets filled with flavoured goo (or apple sauce) I love them primarily because they are the most phallic piece of confectionary I have ever encountered and that makes me laugh. Every damn time. There’s also Bow Idea Store (which means \”library\” in regeneration speak) which has a cheap cafe where you can sit with some lemon meringue pie and read a book without having to take it out first. This may be more common in London, I’m not sure, but certainly in my local library in Cornwall the idea of food in the library would bring the librarian running out of his office flailing and screaming \”the books! the books!\” before launching himself at the offending comestible and covering it like a bomb. Buddhist Village Globe Town, on Roman Road, nearest tube Bethnal Green or No8 bus. This is a collection of shops and cafes that are linked to the London Buddhist Centre, comprising of: Wild Cherry Cafe – sells lovely vegetarian and vegan food Sudana Charity Shop – a *proper* charidee shop, where all sorts of random items are piled high in total confusion and most things cost £1 A second hand bookshop – have a big sofa, plus 2nd hand records and books on Buddhism Evolution Gift Shop – sells all sorts of nice ethically-traded bits and bobs, gifts, stationery, cushions, incense Friends Organic – your standard-issue health food shop