Steve's reviews
Review of The Dragon Bar
06 Aug 07, 17:49
Rocks. 
Packed with arty types with asymmetric haircuts, tattoos and skinny jeans, a no-suits policy, Banksy stuff on the walls, graffiti covered toilets with no ladies/gents markings just to confuse the newbies, loud, eclectic music, could be dancehall or heavy rock or electro, usually packed, no room to move let alone dance. You'll know from that right away if you'll hate it. I love it and have never had a bad night there.
The only bad thing I have to say about it is that I usually regret it the next day.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Home
06 Aug 07, 17:26
The stalls are all full, the urinals all empty. 
Smart decor, but the bar layout is poor and it means people are always pushing through the dancefloor. Music was ok but nothing special, fairly standard housey stuff. Service was really slow, but not that bad for a Friday. Biggest problem was that it was full of coked-up 20 year old City boys. Fine if you like coked-up 20 year old City boys I guess, or you are one, but not for me.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Indian Veg Bhelpoori House
06 Aug 07, 16:04
Cheapest restaurant in London I reckon. 
I think it's now gone up to a shocking £3.50 for all you can eat. Capitalist scum. Still, for that you get to help yourself to a veg curry, a dhal, a couple of types of rice, salad, some breads, popadoms, onion rings and pakoras. And then you can do the same again 15 minutes later. And again, until you can't walk. It's pretty tasty, if rather lacking in choice, and costs about the same as a pint.
The exhortations to go vegetarian that cover every inch of wall space are pretty cool too.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Anam
06 Aug 07, 15:16
A shame. 
A year or so ago I would've given 4 stars at least, maybe even 5. On a weeknight you could sit at the bar, chat with the staff and drink £8 cocktails that were so good and so boozy you actually felt you were ripping them off by not paying twice that. The cocktail menu was about 12 pages long, with all manner of obscure ingredients and interesting combinations. My favourite was the Chilli Chocolate - chillis, chocolate and about 5 types of booze. Mmm... Chilli Choclate...
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, Anam as it is now. In the past year it's changed management, they've reduced the cocktail menu to a fairly standard one, and turned the music up just a bit too loud for the size of the place. It's not bad, the cocktails are still above average, they still do the Chilli Chocolate (mmm... Chilli Chocolate...), but it just makes me remember how good it was before.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of The Artillery Arms
06 Aug 07, 14:54
Boozer
Good quality boozer. Good beers, good burgers, friendly staff and landlord. Perfect for those "I'll just come for one" sessions after work where you end up leaving at chucking out time. As a huge bonus, you might see Bob Fossil out of the Mighty Boosh drinking in there if you're lucky.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Tommy Guns
06 Aug 07, 14:20
Don't ask for a geek pie.
So Hoxton it even got parodied in Nathan Barley, but don't let that put you off. I've never had anything less than a great haircut, and it always manages to look all right for a month or two. I have naturally rubbish hair so this is no mean feat.
It's also worth a visit if you need to know what shade of fluorescent is in this week, or which unremembered 80s electro-pop act is undergoing a revival. On the downside, they don't have video screens instead of mirrors yet, nor tablet PCs for your to sketch the haircut you want on. Possibly this is some ironic retro statement though.
As a caveat I must mention that I am a boy, but I've seen plenty of girls leave with excellent haircuts too. They can even do good grown-up haircuts if you ask them.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Review of Rooburoo
03 Aug 07, 14:17
yum
Always excellent quality, but not especially cheap. They've recently expanded their menu, so there's a lot more choice now (I think I'd eaten everything on the old one at least twice).
The lamb dishes have always been particularly good - top notch meat cooked just right, hot but not at the expense of genuine flavour. The Malabar seafood curry I had the other night was excellent - light, coconutty south Indian cooking of a kind that's hard to find in London.
(My tip would be to get a children's meal to complement your main for a bit of variety)
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.