Ben L.'s Profile

I absolutely loved this place.  To begin with, I had a £30 steak, without any sides, and I don't regret that at all (and I am not a spendy diner.)  It was delicious and had a delicious peppercorn sauce.

The staff was extremely pleasant, and seemed not to mind that we came in late and ended up being the last table by a good bit of time.  The owner came over and chatted with me and my family about where we were all from, told us about Sardinia, and seemed like more of a host than the average restauranteur at the end of a night.

If I had the money, and I were in Woodstock more, I would spend a lot of time here.  It is a fine dining experience without the snobbery, a locally sourced menu for many of the options, and a culinary gem in a quiet setting.

I am a big fan of independent book shops, and this one epitomizes why.  It is a great little shop, with a smiling (and reading) face to greet you when you come in.  The selection is more like a curated collection than a warehouse set up for convenience.  Yet it is just by the bus stop, so I suspect it is a convenient stop when you've arrived just as your bus is pulling away.  Spend your half an hour here and buy some brain food.

This is one of my favourite restaurants, anywhere.  I don't know if I can convey why I love it in text.  It has good food, but you pay for it.  It has good German and Austrian beer, but nothing too unusual there.  Saxophones, lounge singers, and all sorts of awesome fun music?  No, but that is a factor.

It is just always fun there.  I first went about 8 years ago, and I found myself there a lot back then.  Then a dry spell of not visiting London, followed by going there every time I can to check in and be sure it is still awesome.  It is.  

I think why I might like it so, could be the friendly and fun atmosphere.  The family that owns the place really hosts you, and the staff is great.  The food really is delicious and the beer is well matched.  The entertainment is entertaining, without taking itself too seriously.  I think you should just get a group of your friends together and go there right now, relax, and have fun.

Nice little hotel and bar, well updated.  Free WiFi in the bar is a plus for me.  I stayed in a nearby rental, but we checked out the bar and had a grand time.  Half priced champagne on Wednesday is an event worth stopping in for!

The Kings Arms is not a pub I seek out, but in my time at Oxford it was a chosen meeting place by many of my friends, and it works pretty well as that.  It's food, beer, service, and atmosphere are all pretty good.  I think it may not be a favourite of mine, because it doesn't have the same character as the nearby Turf, nor the food of the Royal Oak.  So, in a competitive sense, it is pretty good at everything, but not the best at anything enough to draw me there.  Compared to pubs that aren't moderately capable on all those metrics though, this is definitely a 4-star stop.  Certainly worth a visit if you've made it to the best ones also.  Nice to have a beer on the street with the view of Broad Street and all.

This place is great.  Delicious sandwiches at reasonable prices.  The selection of cheese, bread, drinks, and general groceries is gourmet at least.  The menu is interesting and has plenty of seasonal treats.  Take away or eating in will make you happy, I think.

Last time we went there we ordered:
Goat's cheese, honey & green apple panini
Olive, sun-dried tomato, and pesto panini
Falafel & hummus baguette
Cucumber & brie baguette
Various baked goods
Various bottles of beer and wine

And we had a memorably delicious picnic.

I quite like the Co-op, and the one in Woodstock is rather standardly full of delicious things.  Also rather standardly crowded and slightly confusing with regards to queuing for the cashiers, but such is the way of the Co-op.

Not poorly priced to stay in Kensington, but we came across a couple things that could have been better.

First of all, the shower didn't drain, and the shared WC in the hallway was out of order.  They couldn't fix it when we told them, and the next person on the desk didn't even know about it after the shift change.  I gave them a third star because they did put some money back on our card after making the shuffle of 4 people trying to get to the airport less than easy.

Next was the room itself.  Online it said it was a "3 bedroom", which seemed odd for London, but it also said it was an online price for half off.  Well, when we realised that the online price at half off was actually more than the on site price, it seemed less odd that the "3 bedroom" was actually a 3 bed room.  So we were a bit cozier than we expected, and a bit less thrifty than we thought.

Finally was a small detail, but they have WiFi that doesn't reach beyond the lobby.  Not the most convenient thing for getting work done, and as I was trying to conduct some business, I wouldn't recommend this to other business travelers unless you are bringing your own data connection.

The food was great, the people were great, and the atmosphere was most enjoyable.  We did not get out of there cheaply, but I don't regret it at all.

I think perhaps the most memorable bit aside from the atmosphere is the house wine.  Order a 1.5l bottle of house and they will charge you for how much you drink, rather than the full bottle.  A great way to just have as much or as little as you want... though we perhaps drank more of it than intended...

Nice little pub with a great updated feel.  Customer-operated taps are a really effective gimmick and what brought us out to Chelsea.  

The front pub is calm enough to relax and neat enough to enjoy.  The food is tasty enough and the back room dining room is quite nice actually!