Profil von yepmynameiswill

I’d never been to a comedy club but for some reason I was thinking Jongleurs in Bow would be akin to.. Seinfeld? I couldn’t be more wrong.

You turn up at an area so fenced it would probably put a prison to shame and walk also a row of new build but derelict businesses to get to a large building at the end resembling a chain pub. You’re then ushered up a lot of stairs and into a function room.

Have you ever been to a wedding? Ever been to a really bad wedding? Ever been to a really bad wedding with bad food and drink? Hopefully you’re getting the picture here. Jongleurs in Bow is basically a function room with temporary chairs and tables vacated by people who really don’t get out much.

If you do go there, don’t eat. Please. Don’t order the food. It’s the lowest quality food you could ever imagine. Little Chef seems like paradise compared to what comes out of the fat fryers at this place.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention the comedy. That’s because there wasn’t any. Some men did get on stage but the only time I laughed was when I got out the place and realised the joke was on me. I don’t know who will ever read this but if you’re thinking of going here, find a crappy wedding to crash instead - you’ll have more fun.

I thought I would also add to all the reviews here that apart from being a leisure centre with turkish baths, this place also has a laundrette!

When my kitchen was being fitted, I had to come here with my dirty washing to get it all scrubbed up. The laundrette is just to the left of reception and has a number of large washing machines, dryers and 4 huge roller ironing machines. You have to pre-book your slot, which can be done online, and then pay at reception for a token.

While you wait, there is a TV (the reception was always pretty bad) or you can go and sample the delights of.. Old Street?

As Laundrettes go, this one is brilliant because a) it’s so large and b) they have the roller irons, which make ironing a breeze!

From what I can see, this is the third Scoff to open in or around London. Their motto is “real food fast” and their marketing and website focus on using British sourced products to create restaurant quality meals for you to eat at home.

I was tempted to order due to a £10 offer on the website’s blog but when I called they hadn’t heard of this offer so I had to direct them to where the offer on the site was. I always hate it when you have to tell a company about their own promotions.. it makes me feel like I am being extra cheap and feels embarrassing.

I ordered penne beef bolognese, 3 seasonal veg, chocolate brownie and a ciabatta roll. It took about 45 minutes to arrive, which was less than the hour they’d told me it would take. The delivery guy was perhaps the most polite I’d ever had - he even greeted me by my name, which was very novel but nice.

The food arrived in a large cardboard box with a handle, which was another impressive touch.

Sadly the food that arrived wasn’t quite what I’d ordered: tagliatelle rather than penne with my bolognese and 2 veg rather than 3. Generally speaking, the food was of good quality and I was particularly impressed by the hot crispy bread roll. The brownie seemed a little microwave scorched in the middle but was still very tasty and the bolognese wasn’t as flavoursome as I hoped but this was such a nice departure from Thai/Pizza/Indian that it wasn’t much of a hangup.

I will try them again and would recommend others to do so too!

This soho institution, home to mother of all modern fashionista clubs, NagNagNag, recently made the move to Old Street.

We visited on a Saturday night and the place is definitely suffering from teething troubles. Previously Play, Ghetto uses both floors as a club cum bar but the layout is pretty flawed. Basically the entrance which is no bigger than a metre squared serves as an admission booth, a queue to go outside for smokers, the exit and the only way to navigate from upstairs to downstairs. Because of the residential location, security work hard to make sure there are only a few people outside smoking and that the internal and external doors aren’t both open at the same time to prevent noise escaping. So the moment you try and enter (once security are sure the internal door isn’t going to be open to let the sound from the club out) you hit chaos.

The wonderful thing about this place is that the staff are all so patient and nice - if I was working in this sort of chaos there is no way I could be like them. It’s because of their attitude alone that I didn’t leave in a bad mood.

So a cold winter night, we arrived with thick coats and needed to put them away but… the coat check couldn’t accommodate all the coats so there was no option but to continue wearing our coats or hold them! Argh!

We left pretty quickly. I don’t want to give this place too much of a negative wrap as it is just it’s first week and they will inevitably have a lot of teething troubles but it feels like they’ve gone from a spacious roomy venue into somewhere much smaller and less well designed.

If you go, arrive early!

I’ve been here a few times at lunch and am slightly surprised by the first comment.

Being a few minutes from Liverpool Street station means there is no shortage of hungry people at lunchtime - the queues in most of the cafes, shops and restaurants at lunchtime are testament to this. The odd thing is that Habibi is never busy, it’s always a bit quiet. I wondered why so I paid a couple of visits.

There is a wide selection of sushi available to eat in or take away. The thing is, the place doesn’t feel as clean as it should be. The lids covering the sushi often seems a little… musty and if an item is too large for the plate (typically the stuff on skewers) it drags across the display of soft drinks in the middle (check out all the missing pain on the cans!)

To add to this general feeling of uncleanliness, there were a lot of little flies in the restaurant which would occasionally land on the uncovered plates on the conveyor belt. It seems the electric fly catcher, situated right next to the Miso soup pot, isn’t doing its job well enough.

Given the place has been so quiet on my few visits, the staff weren’t really that attentive and you had to shout to get their attention.

I did notice that a few people came in for takeaways during my lunches. I felt a bit sorry for them, as during my second visit the chef was taking unsold sushi from the plates and boxing this up for takeaway.

It could well be that both my visits were uncharacteristic and believe me, in a world of homogenised dining brands such as Yo!, I strongly want to support the independent restaurateur, but I think they need to smarten their act if I’m to ever consider going back.

Famous hotel originally designed by Philippe Starck but since redecorated.

I was fortunate enough to stay in a suite for a week. The room was well appointed with iPod dock, flat screen TV, very comfortable bed, a good amount of space (for a New York hotel!) and an amazing bathroom.

Service here was as efficient as any equivalent hotel but I did find the concierge really unhelpful when it came to restaurant suggestions or table reservations. The internet was more helpful!

The hotel is very dark inside. From when you enter the very discrete entrance (there isn’t a sign with the hotel’s name, which I thought was quite cool but potentially confusing if it’s your first visit). There’s a long bar and seating area with a restaurant at the far end.

Due to the hotel’s location, even with double glazing, the room wasn’t totally silent inside so I’d suggest you try to get a room as high as possible to avoid the street level noise.

I don’t think this hotel represents great value for money, hence the lower rating but if you’re coming on business it’s worth trying. If it’s your own money, I’d consider looking elsewhere!

Located on the same street as a hotel I stayed in recently, I’d read on many an internet site that this was the best place to come to for breakfast.

Service is diner-fast and generally without a smile but the range of food available is really impressive if you’re looking for some fuel to start a heavy day of work/sight seeing/shopping.

I did go for dinner on one occasion and was quite disappointed, as the menu is the same whatever time you go and heavily greasy/fast/stodgy.

However, the cheesecake I had was unbelievable. Baked without any sort of base. Delicious!

It’s not the cheapest of diners but the location’s great and the service is really quick, so my advice to you would be try it!

I find it very, very, hard to believe that this place justifies the 4/5 rating it has. The score was the only reason I came here as I was staying on 44th and feeling a little hungry. The rating and reviews made me think this would be on par with Whole Foods. I got it so so wrong.

The selection, I will agree is large-ish but its freshness and quality leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the food from the self service was pretty untouched and had that hard crusty gloss on it. The cookie I had looked delicious but tasted like cardboard.

Also, if this is “gourmet” I would hate to see what it’d be like if it wasn’t!

I suggest you come here only if you it is really really hard to find an alternative eatery. In fact, I’d rather walk to the nearest Whole Foods than eat here again!

You know what Argos is, right? You can literally buy anything that's not perishable in this place. You spend ages flicking through their catalogues in the store, or on their website (www.argos.co.uk), jot down the product numbers, pay and then wait for your products to be fetched.

The thing is, in theory this sounds lovely and straightforward but a trip to Argos on any given day is more akin to being in a doctor's waiting room where one doctor has 50 people waiting. There's that awful feeling of gloom and depression in there. People sit, cough, eat, shout, sniff, sigh and wait. And wait.

The staff are as helpful as they can be but I'd be as miserable as they look if I worked there, so I can't really give them a hard time.

I've often found myself waiting for 20 minutes upwards for a single item and this is when I've reserved in advance (which you can do by phone or internet), so that excludes the time spent trying to pick the items out and pay. It's really not enjoyable.

Then again, I've never been to an efficient or enjoyable Argos. Old Street Argos manage to do everything I'd expect from an Argos store: sell thousands and thousands of products with poor service in grim conditions but their added bonus is they manage to make you wait much more than you'd ever want.

Can someone actually review a cash machine? I’m going to give it a try!

This is a free cash machine located just outside the Texaco garage. It’s not too prone to breakdowns but be aware that this is quite an exposed area, so the usual rules of avoiding distractions, protecting your pin and looking after yourself apply.

The cash that comes out is legal tender, as far as I am aware but it can sometimes take AGES to payout.

You can even print out a receipt - cool eh!