Tender beef lips

As I sit and type a long overdue post (I've been on holiday) on my new Blackberry Bold (it's sick) I find it hard not to salivate about the topic of this tale: tender cuts of beef, lovingly served with expertise in exclusive surroundings. Yes, I am writing about Gauchos.

Any of you who know me may be shocked at this point - not a fan of style for style's sake, I usually consider places that I lovingly refer to as (s)wanky as exactly that, but with the brackets and their content removed. But somehow someway, Gaucho bowled me over. Perhaps it was the company, perhaps it was the superb waitress, or indeed my excellent selection of New Zealand red, but something changed my thinking toward central London dining.

A shrine to beef consumption, Gaucho Piccaddily is high end class and value to money to boot. 50 quid per person delivered beer, wine, perfectly cooked steaks and delightful sides, cheese and port...well of course it would be rude not to old boy. The seductively dark decor made any sense of time disappear and my dining comrades and I were lost in a hedonistic black-hole of rare meat indulgence, but avoided any unfortunate anti-matter (except for a family introducing crying babies at the end).

So the tide of the Pond may have been turned. There is, however, a Gaucho in Hampstead - if that's up to par, I'll be able to consume cattle without leaving the North London raunch. The only down side is the planet. Cows are one of the most ecologically unsound animals to breed. Perhaps I'll offset this environmental injustice, if only I could do the same for my gut.

Locked down

Down at the lock. As the sun starts to threaten over the Camden sky, an obvious spot to chill at is by the lock, but with a multitude of venues to choose from, what is one to do? Well the good news is that most spots are good, obviously different venues for different purposes. Starting on the Camden side of the lock, we have Lloyds, a cheap drink haven that feels like you are drinking in any regional city centre; Peterborough, Watford, Leeds. Now, this is not necessarily a 100% bad thing, there is a time and place for being chavtastic, but it is not on a Friday night as I recently discovered by going there in error…,But with beers at a pound, it’s a reasonable afternoon drinking and sports watching spot.

Crossing the fairy bridge (although unfortunately the fairy lights have been removed from the tree...) we first come to the Lockside Lounge. A long bar, the atmosphere does not suffer from the shape and it also has a decent outside area where you can sit and overlook the going-ons of the food market. I ate here for the first time the other day and was very happy – solid pub grub done well. Across from here we have Lock 17, an old time favourite. The beers on tap are not to my preference, and it is sometimes difficult to get served, but this place has great DJs – formerly liquid D&B on a Thursday and this awesome old(er) chap on a Friday. With three floors an outside space, there’s plenty of nooks and crannies to explore in here, and the drinks are reasonably priced.

Crossing the road, you could come to In Spiral Lounge, a kind of hippee-festival vibed place that only sells vegetarian, organic food and organic drinks to match – try their special beers. The music in here is wicked and you can sit down by the canal, so it makes a great end-of-evening spot, in my opinion.

Going back in to the Stables area, we come to the Proud Gallery – a trendy spot for trendy kids, but also worth checking out. The building is divided in to three areas – a photo gallery, a large, open-plan live music space and then an actual stables area – where you and your chums can sit inside a stable like a horse and admire the cobbled streets. Drinks are not cheap here and beer is only in bottles, which is a no-no in my book. But if you are looking for a bit of fun and a change to the typical Camden watering holes, pop in.

So there’s some comments on a few of the venues immediately by the lock. Obviously a short walk away are other venues such as the Hawley Arms, the Lock Tavern and the Bar that Flies, all of these shall be discussed in later instalments. I’d also like to talk about Dingwalls and Jongleurs, both within the same building as Lock 17, so eyes will be peeled for a suitable gig and a suitable comedy night.

And let’s just hope the sun comes out.

Crawl was the result rather than the action

The pondman inaugural camden pub crawl took place last weekend and was a marvellous event indeed. Although we only completed a third of the course and didn't progress from the green zone, much fun was had by all.

A punctual arrival by the Scot guaranteed an early start, but seeing as the rest of the crew were not yet in Camden, the start was defined by a spot of breakfast in the Camden Kitchen. Very well cooked bacon and eggs were devaoured but at the cost of 10 quid per person, I felt somewhat done.

The crawl assembly point was the Edinboro Castle on Delancey st, where we were greeted by friendly staff proactively looking for feedback on the venue. I told them that the main issue was the slowness of service, otherwise it's an awesome pub. They reassured me that measures were in place to address this, including the addition of a self service beer pump in the garden. You heard it here first....

Having exceeded the allocated time in this venue by 300 per cent, we progressed to the Dublin Castle, full of teenagers, this is a camden trendy spot with matching grit and stinky toilets. A big floor allowed the Scot to bounce around like the madman that he is.

Thoughts turned to the football and eating so we progressed to the Spread Eagle where the attornery-pix had burgers that looked delicious. The availability of Red Stripe on tap was a welcome relief from the standard five per-centers, and the quiz machine provided a reason to re-engage the brain.

Crossing the road to the Earl of Camden, a table was miraculously secured to watch the football, which was a result considering there were about ten of us. The arrival of the Cynic initated the consumption of spirits, and the inevitable descent in to crawling. A sterling effort on jagger-bombs was put in by all, which saw the first leavers depart at about nine.

A hardcore crew of five people remainded to the end and then progressed to a house party, where a cab was very quickly required for my goodself.

A good first run, the pondman pub crawl saw a top group of people reunited and having a booze-filled Saturday afternoon of fun. Hard on the wallet and even harder on the liver, this may well become a bi-annual event - pencil in Saturday 1st of August for the next one.

The route will remain the same until it is completed and no man or woman is left standing. crawling is the new walking, don't you know.

Not a wack job.

On Friday night, my good self and side kicks, the monster, the pixie and the attorney, went to Sushiwacka, the most excellent Japanese restaurant, located on Parkway in Camden.

I can not praise this marvellous establishment enough. By far and away the best sushi I have had in London, this place is small, cosy, super-friendly and authentic. The fish was amazingly fresh, the tempura was light yet crunchy and the udon soup tasted just like it did in Japan.

A small family run operation, this place is focused on delivering quality, at a fair price. By far and away my favourite restaurant in north London.

Virgin Media is attempting to bleed me

We have the Virgin Media package at home - telephone, broadband and TV - it does the job but is apparently more expensive than Sky, which is a shocker considering how satisfied all of my friends are with the Sky offering.

In contrast, Virgin Media has been an absolute pain from the get-go. The customer service is shocking, the TV service is unreliable, the phone line is sometimes crossed and the inferface looks like it has not been updated since the acquistion of NTL; this is not even mentioning some of the ridiculous clauses in the Ts and Cs. However, after months of problems the service settled down and so did my feelings toward it - I accepted it, I thought it was ok, I didn't want to change.

Until yesterday. In through the postbox comes a letter notifying us that all of the prices are going up. How very dare they?? I am absolutely outraged by this considering Sky are doing super deals at the moment, including free provision and installation of dish and box.

And so Virgin Media, with one piece of paper you have destroyed a year's work of reputation reconstruction and probably lost a customer too.

It's a recession, don't you know. Cut your profit margins and retain your customers, best to have steady cash flow. You tools.