Mandarin Cheesecake
The Gate Islington

The Gate Islington

370 St John Street Islington London, EC1V 4NN, United Kingdom

Pizza • Juice • Global • Italian


"Would like to add that all the other staff, especially our server, Fatima, were brilliant. Advised food intolerances during booking process and received great email the day before: “I have come across your booking notes and wated to share our menu with you. We have a few gluten free options for all courses and we also have a three course set menu £38pp our guests can also opt for. The Set Festive Menu does not offer GF options for starters, however we welcome our guests to choose this course from out A La Carte.” However, on ordering, the server fed back that I would not be able to choose a starter from the A La Carte and could not have the Festive Menu. She offered to bring the person who had said this to the table to explain. Oh wow bad move. This turned out to be the defensive and accusatory owner manager: This restaurant does not cater for “people like you” who “demand” things outside of what is available and “expect to get them”; and that “the system will not let him order” a starter from the A La Carte for the Festive Menu. “If I wanted to have the Festive Menu I would have to have the Aubergine starter from it”. Blah blah blah blah blah . . . The Aubergine starter was not marked GF on either menu (as per the email). I pointed out that his accusation about people like me making demands applied to him: he was “demanding” I eat the 1 item he selected for me from the menu and it was something I could not eat. Additionally, a quick estimate showed the order would come in a few pounds below the £38 for the Festive Menu. I didn’t bring up the email, because my patient companion asked if they could give their order, which included the aubergine dish. Owner Manager suddenly realised that this might work with the technology and clearly felt a need to share every step of his thinking process about swapping our starters with us. With much huffing and puffing he messed around with the order terminal for several minutes right at the table. After 2 failed attempts, he eventually muttered he’d “have to just write the order by hand” and stalked off. When the order arrived, we received a cup of salad instead of the broccoli side that had been ordered. When the broccoli arrived, it was steamed not sautéed as described in the menu so it was sent back. If having diners in your restaurant is an inconvenience for your technology, business and self, then maybe you’re in the wrong business? We didn’t need to know all the drama and detail about whether our starters can be swapped so that it can be input in the technology and we didn’t need to be party to all the huffing and puffing too. Finally the food: excellent margarita and Oyster mushroom starter. Highly recommend these. The Wild Mushroom rotolo mains was not as great as the starter but still very good. The festive snow bombe dessert presented beautifully, with the bombe melting under a pour of hot chocolate sauce, but tasted average. My take is that the pear filling was bland and didn’t complement the chocolaTe"

Courthouse Shoreditch

Courthouse Shoreditch

335-337 Old Street, London, United Kingdom

Pizza • Vegan • British • Italian


"I have wanted to go to Homeslice for some time now, after seeing the size of huge slices from fellow bloggers on Instagram. This week, a last minute impromptu dinner date landed me here and I honestly cannot believe I haven’t been before. Stepping inside you’re greeted by a burning furnace of fire, their massive wood-fired oven. Stupidly, we decided to sit at the bar right in front of this beast. Two cold pints of beer were ordered to try and stop my face from reflecting a pizza slice and melting on the bar. The menu offers a range of different pizza toppings, and you can order three of the pizzas by slice for £4. A whole pizza will set you back £20, but trust me when you see the size of these bad boys you’ll realise the price is reasonable. A whole pizza is big enough to share between two people and you can choose two toppings and do half and half. Normally I’m a big peperoni fan, they do have a salami option and it did look pretty tasty. However, I was feeling daring, so opted for something a little different. We went for half and half and had the aubergine, cauliflower cheese, spinach and harissa and oxtail, watercress, horseradish and sorrel cream toppings. Aubergine and cauliflower cheese had a delicious sauce, cheesy and creamy. If you like a good savoury mouthful this is the one for you. The aubergine gave an added texture with the harissa giving a smoky, yet subtle kick. The oxtail had a lovely tomato base and the meat itself gave a nice depth of flavour to each bite. I’m not a fan of horseradish, so wasn’t sure what it would taste like with sorrel as a cream. It was extremely good and not overpowering and cleansing to the palate. The pizza here is colossal! Each slice was bigger than my head, the dough was salty, but in a really good way, not too much. The fact that they sell by the slice is a great idea. If I was drunk and fortunate enough to stumble across Homeslice, I’d be a very happy drunk person. I think this is possibly the best pizza in London. Anyone in disagreement, please feel free to contact me. Homeslice has a buzzy and good vibe about the place, but very chilled and relaxed. It is a great place to hang out with friends, sup some beer and demolish pizza. The waiting team were all extremely friendly and it’s cool to be able to watch your pizza get made right in front of you. If you like pizza, lots of pizza, then you need to get your teenage mutant turtle bums down here!"