Restaurants

Oh the salt and pepper squid, squid of such delightful texture, I cannot recall having ever eaten in my life. How you do that squid is a mystery to me and how you sell it at under £5 is even more so, but please keep doing it, because it shows humbleness and generousity of spirit. The Pad Thai was gloriously fresh, homely and crunchy all at the same time, not a dollop o grease to be seen, showing that London chefs can teach new tricks to their homeland compatriots. The Hairy Italian liked his mussaman curry, the man actually liked it and in fact, ate the lot of it. This is the same man who after being informed that he was eating bamboo and water chestnuts, went a shade of white hitherto unseen and ran off to call his mother and add another point to his ongoing list of ‘terrible things my girlfriend made me do this week’, alongside of washing the dishes and folding his own underwear. My soup however, was the only downfall at a table-full of culinary delight. A note to the Busaba prep chef; one cannot actually eat lemongrass. Yes, it is hip, yes it is flavoursome, but lemongrass itself, is not actually edible so why then pour about 200grams of the stuff, finely chopped into pretty little arrowheads into my soup and force me at every mouthful to unattractively peel lemongrass off my tongue and spit it back onto my plate? Just leave it in its rolled scroll shapes and you’ll get the same lemony effect. Really, I promise. Another thing, there is such thing as too much galangal. Really, there is. While you might be hoping that your average punter thinks that the presence of large, deformed galangaly shapes looming at the bottom of the soup looks authentic, it just makes the soup taste really crap. Sour. Like running shoes soaked overnight. Bad. Finally, the noodles. You know and I know that they could be better. Let’s go with some opaque white flat rice noodles for the next run. Bar the noodle soup, Busaba’s owners have a lot to be proud of - thank you for providing homely, affordable and incredibly tasty eats in a sometimes cruel city.

Find the portions a bit small here but the food is still good, especially the Pad Thai with very fresh sprouts. Not a place for sit down meals but rather to eat and go. The service is ok, and staff don't smile much. Feels a bit grim sometimes.