Restaurant Karma

Saying goodbye to beloved restaurants is always a sad experience for me--the knowing of deeply-held cravings never to be fully satisfied again.

I had to say "vaarwel" to my favorite Surinamese-Chinese in Delft this winter, forever leaving me to quest for a new contender for "world's best Fried Rice". But losing London's Gili Gulu and Crocker's Folly this trip really hurt.

Gili Gulu was a rare London restaurant which hit a happy trifecta of price, presentation and portion. A fixed-price conveyor-belt sushi joint with colour-coded plates (the veggie green plates included yummy noodles with bean sprouts), it served as a beacon from its St. Martins Lane location for those seeking limitless soy sauce and wasabi. Its replacement, called Pomodoro something-or-other, a dire-looking anglo-Italian place, offers no such succour. Sob sob...

Further sobs ensued when I landed at the now derelict Crocker's Folly in Maida Vale. Seeing this grand Victorian house-sized edifice stripped of it furnishings hit me in the solar plexus. Once home of London's most satisfying Sunday Roasts (carving most of the world's mainstream beasts), Crocker's was particularly popular among my London Business School colleagues as an alternatingly peaceful suburban retreat from the pressures of MBAing, and as an unusually raucous of place to watch the world's least raucous sport, cricket.

Crockers had a strong Australian undertone, though unlike most London pubs, Crocker's Aussies congregated in front of rather than behind the bar. It was where I tried Victorian Bitter and the Cooper's ale range from Down Under. And it was a place where I entertained and had great conversations.

But change is life. And today's recovery from the loss of Crockers led me miles away in terms of culinary paradigm, if but a mile on foot: Khan's Iraqi Grill. Coming from the Netherlands where "shoarma" is made from hideous pork shavings (a preparation developed by someone undoubtedly plumbing the lowest depths of Hell), the Iraqi Grill's succulent and sweetly spiced shwarma proved a revelation with its flavor. Khan's Iraqi Grill can be found at 355 Edgware Road, W2.
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