In this series we are working our way through the alphabet trying different restaurants. It's easy to fall into the habit of visiting the same place again and again, whilst I'm a fan of having a select few favourites, it never hurts to step out of your comfort zone once in a while...
It's a bit of a running joke that my life plays out in a 1 mile radius. With my home, work and the gym all being within a 15 minute walk and with most regularly required amenities being available somewhere in between it's true, I rarely leave Angel. So much so that my wonderful boss at work jokingly apologises on the very odd occasion I might be required to take some form of transport to a meeting (god forbid!).
While it may seem weird to some, I like my life. Screw it, I love my life and whenever I'm questioned about my being geographically-challenged I point out that there's no reason to leave, I have everything on my doorstep. We love it here so much that we hope to never leave and despite insane property prices we're planning in the not so distant future to put down more permanent roots. Could we get a 4 bed with a garden further out for the same price of a 2 bed with maybe a balcony (if you're lucky)? Yes - but what you lose in space you gain in convenience and opportunity. And who wants a big house anyway, more rooms to clean!
Recently I have found myself questioning how little we take advantage of having so much at our fingertips. One thing Islington has a lot of is bars and restaurants, we aren't big drinkers but we do eat out maybe twice a month and find ourselves returning to the same familiar places again and again (here's looking at you #Bellanger). It's easy, you know you like the food, the service is good and you aren't going to be shocked when the bill arrives at the end of the meal.
Habits aren't easy to break, so when I saw a post by a friend about #alphabetdating it gave me an idea. The notion is pretty simple: you and your partner take it turns to come up with #dateideas, each one inspired by a different letter of the alphabet - it's a great formula for mixing things up. Jez and I don't really 'date' and are very much food driven so I thought this could be applied to trying different restaurants.
We decided the criteria for our 'Alphabet Eating' should be as follows:
1. Has to be in Islington (we are lazy).
2. Can't have visited before (making 'F' very difficult, see list below!)
3. Ideally not a big chain restaurant - nothing against chains, we just thought that if we're staying local we should try to support local businesses.
4. Try to mix up cuisines.
After some research the list below is what we have so far and once we've been to each one I'll #review our visit. It may change as we go through as new places open up.
A: Afghan Kitchen
B. BaBa-Boom (Kebabs)
C: Comedor
D: Desperado
E: El Inca Plebeyo
F: no idea! We've been to Fredericks (yummy) so any ideas welcome
G: Gem
H: Hot Stone
I: Isarn
J: ???
K: Kilis Kitchen
L: Little Georgia
M: (le) Mercury - I know this is sort of cheat but it's the best we could come up with.
N: ???
O: Oldroyd
P: Petit Auberge
Q: ???
R: Radici
S: Smokehouse
T: Trullo
U: ???
V: Vita e Bella (la)
W: Wild Food Cafe
X: X-Upper
Y:
Z:
If you have any ideas please let me know on Instagram @HappyGeekUK
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