neil_davey's Qype profile

N3 isn't exactly the sort of area to which people make food pilgrimages. There are some 'solid' options - Two Brothers, various Turkish grills - but something worthy of a specific journey to Finchley Central? Probably not. However, the newly opened Vy Nam may just change that.

Authentic? No idea. Tasty, excellent value, fresh & vibrant and smiley? Oh hell yes. Having never been to Vietnam, I can't comment on the 'authenticity' but I can comfortably say Vy Nam trumps everything I've tried on Kingsland Road and the soft shell crab would hold its own against similar offerings from some Michelin-starred Asian restaurants.

Some unusual choices - char grilled goat for example - dot the menu, the expected dishes - summer rolls, papaya salads, etc - are excellent and zingy, and the 12 hour pho is a deep flavoured triumph and packed with decent chunks of protein. The only slight misfire on our second visit was a slightly underpowered (to these spice-addicted taste buds) curry. It was still good though and the service and setting are both charming enough to make such niggles almost irrelevant. I am, frankly, utterly delighted that it's in my neck of the woods but would also happily travel an hour or more to get there. Go. Soon.

"Oof". Personally, that's a noise I like making while eating because it generally means I'm meeting my match, spice-wise. I made that noise a lot during my meal at New China.

Szechuan is, famously, a fiery cuisine. I love spicy and, save for a surprising run-in with a habanero chili earlier this year in Texas, these days I don't often get to that involuntary sweating stage. It took two mouthfuls at New China. Now that probably won't be a recommendation many will appreciate but those of us who like food with an endorphin rush should probably head down there now. Service was friendly and helpful - they attempted to warn the two English faces off the "three chilli" rated Bullfrog Soup - prices are pretty decent and, for me, there was also the nostalgia value: when it was a Dive Bar, this was one of my favourite places in London.

Best Chinese food in the area? No. Fun and eventful and memorable? Definitely.

Couldn't agree more. I got dragged along to Auchentoshan in 2008. It wasn't a whisky I knew particularly and I'd done any number of distillery tours before so my enthusiasm levels were somewhere below microscopic.

And, wouldn't you know it, the people were lovely, the stories were fascinating, the new visitor centre was beautifully laid out and the whisky - the only Scottish single malt to be triple distilled, dontyouknow - is as smooth as a baby's nether bits and absolutely beautiful. I now regularly wear my Auchentoshan baseball cap with considerable pride.

Actually, on second thoughts I should hate the place. It's cost me quite a lot in whisky purchases since...

Yeah, like, what they all said...

Another dangerous North London discovery for those of us who work from home and can be there in about 20 minutes door-to-door. Or "me" as I'm also known around these parts.

Simple, straightforward and, at lunchtime, incredible value. A mere £6.20 for a generous Bento box? Another quid for actually quite good green tea that gets topped up every three minutes?

Actually, the only "downside" is the service: while attempting to get the bill, we were, instead, offered tea another four times. Not much of a downside as downsides go, more just pleasantly shambolic - although one of our party had to wait another five minutes or so for her main, which is a little silly.

But hey, at these prices, you can forgive them a lot. The vegetable curry Bento - seriously, what is it about Japanese curry? it's like crack - was hearty, filling and accompanied by decent pickles and fresh salad. The pork katsu looked damn good too.

I'll venture back for dinner / sushi one of these days and report but it's probably the best lunch I've had in Camden. Which isn't necessarily saying much, but is meant as a compliment.

Mid Christmas drink, someone suggested we go and eat something. Does anyone know anywhere around Kings Cross?

Happily, someone did - Addis which satisfied pretty much everyone. For those who'd fancied a curry, the spicing in Ethiopian cuisine tends to be a little more, ahem, robust than your average Indian restaurant. For those on a budget, the prices here aren't going to terrify: eight of us overordered terribly and quaffed some Ethiopian beer for around £15 a head. And for those of us who like new experiences, well, how often do you get Ethiopian food eh?

The actual dishes are pretty damn good, particularly the "wot" - a feisty curry and not the subject of assorted stupid jokes by a group of merry blokes, oh no - and the kitfo, a bowl of raw, beautifully spiced, minced beef and herbs. The problem, for this western palate, was the injera, the big flat, bland bread that you eat with. Six mouthfuls in, you're pretty full, and have barely made a dent in the fantastically meaty things that have been upended over this giant communal pancake. There comes a point when, actually, you just want a fork. Sorry to get so philistine-y over a fascinating and fabulous cuisine, but that's the way it is.

Would I go back? Absolutely. Just I'll have cutlery and a little screen to protect me from fillthy looks...

In the space of a few months, a year or two ago, an idea was born.

First of all, I went to a great restaurant in Toronto that did fresh pasta. It was cheap, cheerful, massively busy, and I thought "now there's a concept that would work in London."

Shortly afterwards, I got invited to a pasta making event which showed just how quickly you can knock up a batch of fresh dough. It also showed just how much pasta you can make with a few eggs and a bag of flour. Suddenly the restaurant idea took on new legs: with those sorts of margins, it must be feasible. All I had to do then was win the Lottery. And hope that someone else didn't think of the idea first.

So damn you, Jamie Barber, damn you to hell. The rather talented Mr B, the man behind the rather nice Hush, has just opened his second branch of Kitchen Italia and yep, it's pretty much what I'd envisaged for my place: buzzy atmosphere, shared tables in that Wagamama / Busaba style, good value food, little carafes of decent and sensibly priced wine...

Critics will no doubt find things to niggle at, not least Kitchen Italia's very obvious "concept" approach. Like Wagamama's, this is the sort of design / build that could be rolled out now to every major city centre, and probably will be. The thing is, if they opened another 30 tomorrow, every branch would survive because it gives the people what they want. Very decent food, at decent prices.

Bread sticks are dusted with polenta and served warm. Risotto balls - oh how I love risotto balls - are genius: deeply satisfying and, one suspects, a thoroughly efficient way of using up the previous day's leftovers. And the pasta is excellent. Because it's fresh, it takes no time to cook, which puts Kitchen Italia properly into the fast food bracket. That also means they can spend a bit of time on the sauces, and the Salsiccia Piccante - slow-cooked spicy sausage with fennel breadcrumbs - that smothered my Mafaldine was excellent. Portions were so generous that I couldn't finish it, and it's not often I say that.

Vegetable side dishes were excellent - crisp, fresh, big flavours - and the table "decoration" includes a selection of good flavoured olive oils and a fresh basil plant so you can customise your meal. Nice touch.

Grudgingly, then, I have to say that Jamie's a better man to do this than I would have been. And just to show there are no hard feelings, I'll be popping back on a very regular basis.

I like Ping Pong, honest I do. It's just that, well, it's not the most authentic of experiences, is it? I know that sounds snobbish and foodie and all that malarkey, but why let a chain serve you dim sum when there are so many options in Chinatown?

Actually, I know the answer to that: you know where you stand with Ping Pong and that you won't point to the wrong thing and get a plate of deep fried things that come from the, er, south end of a chicken. Plus, there are a lot of bad restaurants in Chinatown and wheedling the wheat from the chaff in this stretch of town is a project that would cost a fortune and take a month or two to complete.

Happily, I lucked into Imperial China thanks to a friend's research and a cracking and filling dim sum lunch - with tea - was both delicious and excellent value: we were stuffed at less than 15 quid a head.

Service is friendly enough but a little rushed. As we were on a limited time scale that suited us, but it would be interested to see how those looking for lingering grazing experience would find it. Mind you, at these prices, for food this decent, you can't really complain.

Oh, and the Koi pond is really cute too.

After a slightly disappointing time at Maroush, I'd started to question the logic of turning Lebanese food into a higher end dining experience. The joys of Ranoush and Yalla Yalla are well documented elsewhere but it is, clearly, a cuisine that lends itself very well to grazing and informal eating.

I won't say I entered Laya'Lina with trepidation - that would just be silly: it's a restaurant not a sadistic challenge from a Saw movie. But I was, I suppose, prepared to be underwhelmed. A glass of excellent house wine in - in the "understated bling" of the bar - I was warming to the fact that there's more to Lebanese wine than Chateau Musar. Three forkfuls in to the meze selection, and I was convinced that, yes, actually, this is a food that can be done at the higher end of the scale.

If further proof was needed, a group of 35 extremely well-heeled people arrived for a champagne-swigging private party in the room downstairs. The worst dressed was wearing a suit that was approximately twice the value of my entire wardrobe - and that includes the actual wardrobe. That sort of wealthy diner isn't exactly short of choices in Knightsbridge...

Meat was tender, flavoursome, and perfectly grilled. The vegetable dishes were light, spicy, rich. Breads... were a little unexciting but served to mop up all the lovely bits of sauce and oil and stuff. And the red house wine was even better than the white.

Pudding was an impossibility so we went the baklava and mint tea route. Interestingly, the baklava were less sticky and sweet than you usually find and, as a result, blooming gorgeous (and didn't stick to your teeth for the next three hours).

Next time we're Albert Hall bound, I sense a wee diversion to Beauchamp Place is in order... Nice one.

While the jury is still out on the relative joys - or otherwise - of the bahn mi, the capital's sandwich culture gets a much needed kick up the wholemeals with the arrival of Mooli's.

If you need a hook then we're basically talking curry burritos but the execution - and the bread - is much better than that makes it sound.

Fresh Indian fillings and vibrant salads are served in generous measure in rolled Indian breads. The whole package is filling but deceptively light. You know how some spicy meals leave you bloated and feeling like you're moving through treacle? A Mooli lunch will leave you energised and nourished. Mind you, that could just be the unapologetic spicing: this probably isn't a place for the sensitive of tastebud. But if you like heat and big flavours, you'll find this properly portable, properly zingy Indian food very much up your small connective passage.

The lunch deal - a sandwich, lovely roasted poppadums and some eye-popping chutney, a drink (and the mango lassi with ginger is superb)- is a fiver. It's about the best way of spending a small blue one in the area.