Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break.
Here's our look back at the good, the bad and the hungry of 2007. Since starting What’s for Lunch? in May, we have reviewed forty lunch venues throughout London. We tried the arty, the hearty and the terribly farty. We stirred up a bit of controversy with a mildly approving review of an evil hot dog vendor. And, we discovered an underground Pret a Manger appreciation society lurking among our readers. Can we do lunch? Absolutely.
Overall, the 2007 London lunch scene provided us with an abundance of exceptionally good dining options. Indeed, the vast majority of our lunchtime destinations received a rating of 7 (out of 10) or higher and only two spots came in with a below 5 rating. Seven eateries tied for the year’s best, each with a rating of 9.5. Although not technically all East Enders, they are quite coincidentally all located east of center. Two of them, the pie and mash stalwart F. Cooke on Broadway Market and the classic Shoreditch caff Castle Sandwich Bar, demonstrated our love for tradition and simplicity and our appreciation for London’s yesteryears. Two antiquated pubs, Clerkenwell’s Dickensian and rustic Jerusalem Tavern and Chancery Lane’s Seven Stars (that beloved Elizabethan wonder) exposed our penchant for mixing history and beer with our midday repasts. Santoré, Exmouth Market’s proper wood-burning oven pizzeria, left us reeling in ecstatic bouts of religious zeal while Laxeiro’s superlative tapas kept us wondering when we could dine again at this Columbia Road marvel. Rounding out our list of most favoured meals, Hackney’s heroic “vegan worker’s cooperative” Pogo Café wowed us with its healthy and flavourful alternative to London’s ever encroaching corporate lunchscape.
As we remember the best of this past year we realize all the places we haven’t hit or just haven’t found the time to write about yet. We foresee no problems discovering new spots to review in ’08. Thanks for joining us for lunch. Happy Christmas and see you next year.
