The Best Hi Protein Vegan Kimchi Jjigae

This film is all about the best places to eat and drink in London right now. That's smooth, baby. We have interviewed over 130 of the leading chefs, hospitality kingpins and celebs on their favourite London spots. And we've done a fair bit of research ourselves. We're super proud of this list. Everything from pizza to fine dining. Over the next two days, we're going to show you some of our most loved spots in our hometown. It's so good. Hey, I'm Jesse, behind the camera as well, and together we are Top Jaw. If you're a Londoner and you haven't been to the Regency Cafe, you're doing it wrong. Now, we're probably not the first people to tell you about this place, but it's an absolute institution. I'm having a really nice time in here. It's a reasonably militant operation in there, so I recommend you get your order ready. It's the first time for both of us, isn't it? No, I've been here before. All right, fair enough, just me then. No, I've been doing it wrong. Even if you haven't been to Regency, you might recognise it. It's been a film set for so many things, like Rocketman, Layer Cake, Brighton Rock, and loads of photo shoots and stuff. It's a real time warp in here, and the prices feel pretty night and night and night too. We're paying like six quid for sourdough bread these days in restaurants. They'll do your whole breakfast here for that. Yay. Though there's nothing they won't serve you. You could just have a plate of beans or a bean or toast if you wanted to. Dip the chip. But we went for set breakfast, and then the black pudding, the mushrooms, the bubble and squeak are extras that you can add on. Bubble and squeak is like potato and cabbage mashed up, fried. Tell you what, it's a pretty good banger, isn't it? So still in the same family, and right now it's with Marco in charge. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Marco. Best pizza. Crisp. Crisp, obviously. Crisp pizza. Yeah. It's worth the trip to W6. It is crisp. Unbelievable pizza. When asked where the best pizza in London is, there is no doubt in our mind, is there, Will? It's not, it's crisp. And that's probably the quickest answer we can give to any restaurant-related question that London threw at us. Chefs love this place, and it's not in central town. It's out in W6, out at Hammersmith, in a residential area. It's a little sleepy pub, has been for a long time, until Carl came along with his magical pizza. This was your nan's pub. Yes. 41 years? 40 years February, it would have been. So this kind of feels like home to you. Yeah, massively. Here we go. First pint of the 14 hours in. It's not even 11am yet. That's mental. That's disgusting. That's really bad. Walk me through these components. So how would you make Italian ingredients crisp up like you do? It's just trial and error. It was just years and years of trying every flour. German, American flour, Italian flour. I tried bottled water, tap water, filtered water. Tap water's the best. And we use salt, obviously, and oil, you know, Neapolitan places don't use. So I think it's the oil that crisps it up. Where are you starting? Well, I haven't tried the picante. This was meant to be a little limited edition, much like the Weckner. Yes. And then it went down really well. Yeah, that's my favourite now. That's nice. Right, so this is the Weckner. So this was a Halloween-spec Weckner off of Stranger Things, and this was the first and only hot honey pizza that Carl did, and it's really gone down a storm. It's a lot of people's favourite. Yeah, massively. It's always been my fave. Still the best pizza in London. Jess, what are your top tips for someone coming down to Crispy? It's not an impulse place. Book it a couple of weeks in advance, and when you do come, picante and Weckner, I reckon. Yeah, picante and Weckner. This is like Axeman Gal, aka FKA BAM. It's approaching its 10th year of being an essential London restaurant. Lee Tiernan spent many years as head chef at St. John Bread and Wines, and he's got great provenance, but it's in this place that he's let his imagination really run wild. Black Axe originated in Copenhagen. It was a nightclub called Backen. We played really loud music, people were moshing. It was supposed to be just quick kebabs, and it essentially was, and by the time it came to open our own spot, we couldn't think of another name, and we'd had quite a bit of traction, so Black Axe Mangal stuck. So Lee says this place isn't for everyone. Absolutely no circumstance. It's Coldplay... What did you say? Coldplay, Oasis and The Cure. Anyone plays those, they're sacked. I hope you're hungry, bruv. Oh my god, look at that. That's smoked cod's roe. You should cut into it fairly soon before the yolk seizes up. That is incredible. This is one of my favourite salads we've come up with recently. It's a smoked pork neck with a tomato sauce. Do you need a plate? Lamb offal flatbread, that's predominantly liver and heart on there. It's got testicles on it. All you can really taste is like really tender, soft lamb meat. These are what you could smell when we walked in. All that like cumin and stuff. I mean, they're not the most glamorous thing to eat, but hell, they are tasty. One of my favourite things to do is to eat food and not choose off the menu. So original, so delicious. You're lucky enough to meet Lee, make sure you chew his ear off and get some stories. For the best burger in London question, Black Bear does get called out sometimes. Nowhere near as much as it should. It is so good. Is it underrated? Yes. Is it the best burger in London? Yes. Narrowly perhaps beaten by Elliot at Legom, and that burger has to be tried. However, for a absolutely banging, you know, dirty, indulgent burger, Black Bear is where I like to go. Why did you start Black Bear and why burgers? Burgers was like at the centre, and we wanted to do the best burger that we could like ever do. People come for the burgers, but then they try the sides, and then that's what they start talking about. So we designed chicken nuggets, brisket spring rolls. We do like this rabbit crumpet now as well. Yeah. I always forget how good that is. Give me that death row burger. Thank you very much, Stu. Mama. The proportions of this single burger is just right. Such beautiful beef. You have that like rich velvety cheese and the tangy onion jam. I love how sesame heavy these buns are, and they're made specifically for Black Bear. This is their beef brisket bun. The beef is braised for 12 hours in beer, no less. Little pink pickled onions, garlic mayo, cheese. I think we need to get out of here, or else we'll be keeling over. Mate, next on the list. I don't think we've been here before. If you've even watched the smattering of our stuff on Instagram or TikTok. Best bar or pub? I've been going to the Devonshire quite a lot. Have to be Devonshire. The Devonshire. Yeah. You'll be no stranger to the fact that we love the Devonshire, yes. Quite simply, pour us an amazing pint of Guinness. Best Guinness you're going to get, at least in England. From Dublin, please don't come hunting me. But it's way, way more than just Guinness. The food upstairs is fantastic. Ocean Rogers, best pub I could ever. It's from the Guinea. Again, another great Guinness pub. Was there for seven years as manager. This is his own place. The smell is starting to become nostalgic to me, which is worrying. This place has only been open three months, and I walk in and I'm like, ah, I'm home, baby. These are killer few things to start. So yeah, these nice chunky lardons and the buttery scallops. It's got a beautiful crunchy crumb. This is the brawn toast. And these are little pork ribs served with a bit of embers, just to get that extra smoky flavour up your schnoz. Yes, the Guinness is fantastic. And so are the toasties and the steak sandwich and the scotch egg and the sauce just downstairs in the bar. And that's worth a trip alone. But upstairs, they're cooking on oak, cooking on the embers and doing incredible meat dishes. And little beautiful side plates like this. Oh my God, that cut, that fat content. We also don't have like real estate for plates. So we're just raw dogging it. Look, it's not easy to get a table, but it is worth the fight. In my opinion, Bar Crispin in our interviews comes up a shockingly small amount, right? I love this place. It could be my most underrated in London. Could maybe be a contender for my best restaurant in London. Big on their wines and their natural wines. If you come as a four, just order everything and then reload on whatever you like the most. It is tiny in there, it's 14 seats. So we don't have enough room for our four person crew. So we're eating outside. That's right, there we are pacing ourselves. Oh yeah. Big balls over there, got a bottle of wine for himself. Yeah. This is the Bronsando. This is the Bronsando, dude. Like it's a great little starting dish. Yeah. Cod's roe on very crispy sourdough with hazelnut. This tastes like really high end bacon frazzles. We've got smoked aubergine, creme fraiche, jalapenos, charred mackerel. Get a bit of everything. I mean, mackerel is pretty toilet fish. Do you know what I mean? But the way they cook that with that sweet beautiful char on top. This gorgeous little number here is the aged beef tartare on a crumpet. Everything's just like really well presented and the pacing is like this. They come out one dish at a time. You eat it, you enjoy it, you move on. So you almost have like your own little tasting menu. Oh man, it's beautiful. It's like cumin and curry leaf. That's fantastic. And then there's pork rib, barbecue sauce. Everything they do is just so goddamn interesting. Where are we going, bro? The Four Seasons. Got a bit more space. This is the Gigi Four Seasons and we're here for Pavillon Bar Antoine. On this one floor, you have Pavillon and you have Bar Antoine. Bar Antoine, you have the cocktails, you have the wine. They do these like Japanese bar snacks. This whole place is a Yannick Heleneau restaurant. It's got 15 Michelin stars. They're hugely successful and celebrated chef. This is first London restaurant. This is one of my favorites. There's mezcal, vodka, shisholive and like a pineapple reductionism. Oh yeah. Oh, oh, instant saliva. Both sides of the mouth, bam. That is gorgeous. It's like a really classy whiskey. You're bringing out these cocktails faster than we can consume them. They're a little submission here, cheese souffle. But on top, they've put their foie gras, which is très sexy. You can't get a more French dish. 110% French. Very Yannick. Very gorgeous. Oh my goodness. Beef fillet, pepper crust, confit pear and salted butter and a cafe de prune sauce. That is unreal. It doesn't get more French than that. So this right here is the chocolate souffle. There's a bit of flambéed amaretto at the table. Topped off with some beautiful vanilla ice cream. Oi, yikes. Oh, come on. It's like getting a s***. I feel like I need a dark room, you know, with some tissues. I feel like I was probably a bit dressed down to be in there. I really like that. We need to have a night time hug. Good morning, mate. Now I'm here for Popham's, one of the absolute, undoubtedly best bakeries in London. Best bakery. Popham's for sure, mate. Yeah, you know Popham's? Popham's bakery. Popham's. Popham's, just like the best time. This is their London Field site. Doubles up in the evening as a pasta restaurant. Oh my god. It started about seven years ago by the croissant whisperer, Ollie Gold. When and why did you start Popham's? When October 2017. On the basic premise of trying to be more innovative and creative with croissant dough. You can't go wrong with like anything really on their pastry team sheet. Like these guys. Schlossburger. Schlossburger cheese. Spring onion and marmite. Oh, hello. Then we have this guy. Maple and bacon. It's not little bacon bits. It's just actually quite thick cut bacon just wrapped around. And this, their apple crumble paired with ozone coffee. Expertly made. It's so good. If someone's visiting London, they pop into Popham's, what should they get? Essential order, black Americana. And then I would probably go with this guy, cardamom bun. Go on, give it a tear. So nice and gooey on the inside and then you crunch into the top. That was magnificent, mate. Now, Popham's don't do wholesale. Popham's only serve pastries in Popham's. So they're baking at like 6, 7 a.m. So super duper fresh when you're having it at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m. It hasn't been baked the day before. And that's important because that's where that beautiful light, unbelievable bake comes from. Honestly, I'd give anything to be here. Old Compton Street in the 60s. From what I've heard from people who were around here at that time, it was basically a 24-7 party here, yeah? And a few iconic spots remain who are still flying the flag for what once was. Like French House, Bar Termini, Bar Italia. But there is one place that long predates those. Algerian coffee stores. Now, this place has been here since 1887. So this shop's been in the same ownership since the 40s. Dynamic sister duo. So you have Marissa and Danielle. There's Marissa. Come on, come on. You've worked here basically your entire life. I started when I couldn't see over the counter. I had to have a little set so I could use a till and put things in the grinder. Child labour, don't worry about it. I think I got paid in chocolate. Oh, and my treats go to McDonald's on the corner. Oh, nice. Over 80 coffees and 120 teas are served from this little busy shop. And what I really like is they're serving coffees that are not from the known growers. They have like Australian coffee, Malawi, Thai coffee, Vietnamese coffee. This is one of the only places that will serve you a really high quality espresso for £1.20. Little authentic, original shops like this in London are few and far between. So I think it's really important that us as we're here is to support businesses like this. Luke Hunn's head chef at Chiltern Firehouse, who we love dearly, said his best burger in London was the Manor. Like an American smash style burger. And one of the places to get those is in Arcade. There are a few food halls like this in London, but this is like quite a well-branded jujy one. Home to Manor, where we want that smash burger. But you've also got Indian food, Cantonese, Nepalese. There really is something for everyone. This is the double platter. I'm sure some people take these down on their own. Chicken tenders, waffle fries, three little sauces, and some gherkins for good measure. Single patty smash, not too, too thin. Loads of gherkins, hot sauce. F***ing hell. Chup chup. Can we get a slow-mo replay on that? Chup chup. This is the normal Manor smash. American style, mustard pickles. It's a very enhanced nostalgic taste, you know. Manor is one of the eight food vendors on the ground floor. Upstairs, in the middle of Mezzanine Plaza. Home to some really spicy Thai. Okay, so Luke Farrell from Speedboat Bar. This is another one that hits. This place, right, it has a Michelin bib. It's seriously good food in a pretty low-fi setting. Right, so this is a betel leaf around a little cashew nut salad. It's very fragrant. It's very Thai. And a little bit spice. How's it going, Christmas? What are you doing? What's this? This one, musselman beef. Oh, this is your famous... And it's the only one that people can order downstairs as well. Yes. Without coming here. Would you like to try one, though? I have to. Okay. Yeah. I mean, what I mean is, yes please, Christmas. This is a beautiful hot sea bream dish. We've then got a massaman curry with beef and potato. They're beautiful, light, melt in your mouth, pork belly. What's this spicy-looking bastard? This one's the spiciest on their menu. That is not a special menu. This is a seven-spice chicken curry, I think they call it. This is some morning glory. That is going to help us with the spice. We've got some fried eggs, some roti, and of course, some nice fragrant rice. Unapologetically authentic and original. And it's just a flavour profile that you don't get elsewhere. Oh no, you f***ing bastard. Okay, we're at the Connaught Bar. Now, in our interview series, so many chefs say this is the best cocktail bar in London. Best cocktail spot. Connaught Bar, come on. The Connaught. I like the Connaught. Connaught Bar. It's got everything you want, I think. Connaught Hotel. You've got to go down to the Connaught. The Connaught Bar, I think, is amazing. And yeah, there are lots of five-star hotels in London with beautiful bars. What sets this place out is Giorgio and Ago. Okay, what are you going to order, mate? What's going on? I feel like I should have a martini because yours are like, well, they're like mythological, you know? I don't want to say iconic, but mythological will do, yeah? It's a real... Every martini at the Connaught Bar is special. We stir our very own Connaught Bar gin, 75 milliliter. And then we have a blend of three different driver moods to add dryness as well as complexity. We have a selection of five different bitter essences. We paint the glass with our bitter. Don't forget the smile. Look at that. What the hell was that? I've got skills. I've chosen my bitters. I went for tonka, a mouthy lemon, and an olive because I'm special, apparently. That's smooth, baby. That is, I mean, it doesn't really taste like you're drinking completely neat booze. It's a refined and elegant cocktail, my friend. I've been told. So Magnitum is the marriage of two elements. We have a clarified milk punch on the bottom based on dry sherry, lavender, lemon verbena. On top, we have scotch whiskey together with sweet sherry. So this is a Magnitum. I'm about to drink it in the world's fifth best bar. Jesus Christ. I could have that on intravenous drip, I think. There's a lot of booze in there and it tastes like a lovely, beautiful meadow. Oh, that's so good. That one. That's brilliant. Okay, Carnaby Street, super central, super touristy. But there's a little thing here called Kingly Court. All food places. Most people just hit the ground floor. But right here, Doña. Beautiful Filipino home cooking. You have the very gorgeous Florence May. This is her restaurant. It's just flavor profiles that I haven't had anywhere else. That's what I'm going to say. This is their signature cocktail, the pepino. Oh, that's good. Gin, lime, cucumber, and coconut syrup. About time we had a cocktail. This is their prawn and pork dumplings with white crab on top in a brown butter sauce. Oh, you didn't see nothing. You didn't see nothing. Love that. Let's go for some sea bream ceviche with avocado cream and chive oil and a bit of chili. Oh, I can't wait to get involved. So this is the Turbot Bicol Express. Bicol is a region of the Philippines and it's like a known spicy coconut creamy sauce. And again, this is pork lechon. Oh my goodness. In like a liver peppercorn sauce. Go on, look at the state of this lobster. Yeah. Butternut squash, coconut. Hello. Cheers, bro. Let's go for it. Ube choux. This is a choux pastry and in it is ube ice cream. And ube is this sweet potato. Very popular Filipino dessert. Donya, you're brilliant. Really like you. And your ube choux. For our final stop of tonight and this film and this wonderful journey, we're checking into our beloved cocktail bar, Soba. Okay, so upstairs, Cricket, an Indian restaurant, one of the world's absolute faves. Down here, this is their like speakeasy cocktail bar. Their cocktail menu does have also that Indian influence. So we've ordered a turmeric cocktail with sesame oil and we're going for a chaat. It's like an Indian margarita. In your chaat, you have mezcal, chaat masala, gooseberry and kumquat. One of my favourite words to say. Cheers, sister. And I have a turmeric, which is vodka, sesame oil, turmeric and lemon syrup. Damn. I've got the leaf, right, which is a virgin curry leaf. Curry leaf. Lime. Pink peppercorn. It's called a cashew. It's like their version of agroni. So you have mezcal, carpano bitters, burnt cashew and vermouth. Oh man, Soba's got a whole lot of love on our chef interviews. Best cocktail bar. Best bar. It has a very unassuming entrance. Everyone gets a hard-on floor, you know what I mean? Good night, everyone. Big love. Okay, see you next time. Bye.