Grub Crawl! | Carnaby Street

I lived in London for the first 18 years of my life. However, it wasn't until I actually moved away that I started to explore what the city had to offer. It's like the blinkers have come off and I can suddenly see all the wonderful things the city has to offer. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way considering moving back - unless I marry a wealthy entrepreneur willing to cover all my living costs because living in London is way to expensive - but I appreciate the opportunity my trips to London give me to try something new. Like this weekend, I decided to do a grub crawl!

What's a grub crawl, I hear you ask? Well, my lovelies, imagine the classic pub crawl, swap out overpriced alcohol for overpriced food and there you have it - a grub crawl! I made up my own set of rules but essentially you eat at one restaurant/eatery per course and there are 4 courses: starters, mains, desserts & drinks. It's the ultimate test of endurance and willpower that any eating experience has to offer. Okay, I'm pretty sure there are harder food challenges out there but my stomach was feeling some type of way by the end of the night. There was no reason for choosing to put both myself and my friend through this torture except I wanted to eat at as many places as I could in one go. And guys, it was so worth it.

Starters - Inko Nito

Lets start at the beginning of the night at Inko Nito. Nestled in one of the many side streets in the Carnaby area, Inko Nito are offering small plates that fuse Japanese and Korean cuisine. This menu is designed for sharing so was the perfect first stop on the crawl. We only ordered two plates - there was the mistimed error of ordering a hot dog and fries an hour before our booking but in our defense we had tried to hold out but our rumbly tummies were protesting quite profusely. (On a side note, shout out to Oh My Dog, their 'Yum Sauce' is frickin' amazing). Anyways, the dishes we ordered at Inko Nito were the Crab Meat Maki Rolls & Japanese breadcrumb fried chicken with peanut, chilli garlic yoghurt. The maki rolls were nice but nothing to write home about. The same goes for the fried chicken. The saving grace was the chilli peanut oil. I don't even like peanuts but the silky mouthfeel and warmth created when spicy oil swirled in garlic yoghurt hit your tongue was lovely. The restaurant also has tables surrounding the chef's grill station so you can watch them work which is always a bonus for me. I assured the staff that I would return to try their other goods but after paying our bill we were headed to venue number two.

Mains - Pizza Pilgrims

Once I realised that there was a Pizza Pilgrims restaurant on Carnaby Street, it was a done deal that I was eating there. I have wanted to eat one of their pizzas for a while and pre-panorama (aka pre-pandemic) I had ordered one of their pizzas on Deliveroo whilst in London. It wasn't great. By the time it got to me the pizza was cold and quite battered and bruised. That day I promised that I would give Pizza Pilgrims a fair shot and try a pizza fresh if the chance arose. Fast forward to this weekend and I am sat at a tiny corner table in a very busy restaurant with a fresh from the kitchen pizza waiting to be devoured. Now I admit the pizza was colder than I would have preferred but that was because I had to manouevre my way to the neighbouring restaurant to use their accessible toilet and by the time we got back our pizza was already served. We ordered the Double Pepperoni & Spicy Honey pizza with the pepperoni swapped out for a halal version. Halal pepperoni was a revelation to me - it was salty and spiced and had a good chew. The pizza was base beautifully thin with wonderful pockets of charred goodness that added a needed bitter note to the sweet tomato sauce. The only let down for me was the spicy honey. I love the combo of salty, sweet and spicy but the sweet role that the honey was meant to fill was lacking. I knew it was there because every few bites I would get a spicy kick but it just wasn't sweet enough.

However, I would 10/10 return on my next trip to London for two reasons: 1) I want to try every other pizza on their menu and 2) the vibes in that restaurant were amazing! I think the best word to describe it is wholesome. The staff genuinely looked happy, all the customers were smiling and laughing over their meals and the playlist on the speakers was pure nostalgia. They were playing tunes I hadn't heard in ages and people (mainly me) were singing along. Yes it is extremely busy and tables are close together but all it does is create an environment that makes you want to put your phone down and say hello to the stranger sat next to you.

Dessert - Gelupo

Not going to lie, at this point in the evening our physical and social battery were starting to get low. I am not ashamed to say that I have the spirit of a 50 year old trapped in the body of a 26 year old. Therefore, once the sun goes down, my body is also ready to hunker down for the night. However, we powered through and after wading through the all the young'uns who were "out out", we ended up at Gelupo. A gelato bar that are open well into the night. I didn't get a peak inside the shop because it wasn't very wheelchair friendly (although shout out to the server who tried to grab a ramp from the restaurant opposite) so we sat on their outside bench. The flavours on offer were mixed. Some classic and familiar - pistachio, salted caramel, strachietella - while others were new to me - saffron vanilla, anyone? I ordered a scoop of saffron vanilla and pistahio whilst Anu had ricotta and sour cherry. The saffron vanilla was beautifully golden yellow and made me appreciate the taste of saffron itself. I've been guilty of thinking it is just a pretentious way to make a dish yellow but it actually tastes quite heady and floral which made it a good pairing with vanilla. The ricotta sour cherry does not taste sweet at first bite but the ricotta makes it feel super creamy. As those fats melt away, the pleasant sweet of the cherry swirled throughout starts to creep it's way onto your palate. I highly recommend this spot if you are in need of a late night pick me up because we left feeling rather good but also rather full.

Drinks - The Rum Kitchen

At this point, my mind was willing me on but my body begging me to stop. However, I decided to ignore my stomach's pleas and headed over to our final destination - The Rum Kitchen. The bar/restaurant is tucked away on the second floor of Kingly Court but be warned, this venue is SUPER loud. I mean, so loud that if you took away the tables it could easily pass for a nightclub but I'm guessing that was the point. We arrived just beforee 9pm on a Saturday in Soho so of course they were creating a party vibe with afrobeats and bashment being blared from the speakers. Unfortunately, my inner-old lady was getting rather annoyed as I could not hear my own thoughts. We decided to order one or two drinks and then head out ASAP.

I don't drink alcohol so I always appreciate it when it seems a bar/restaurant has put some thought into their mocktails. We both ordered the Passion No Mojito which was a mix of passion fruit, grapefruit, lime, mint and soda. It was a very zingy drink which I liked but nothing about it blew me away. To be fair, I can't judge them too harshly as their specialty is rum which I actively avoided so if you have ordered a boozy concontion from there, please let me know in the comment section how it tasted.

I would return - on a quieter Thursday afternoon - because their food menu looked really good. I love Caribbean food when it is done properly and I was getting serious food envy at the plates of jerk chicken passing me by.

Final thoughts

I had the best time doing this grub crawl! My highlight had to be Pizza Pilgrims - the energy of that place was off the charts. I think I'll definitely do a crawl again as it is a really good way to explore foodie hubs or hotspots when you want to try a bit of everything. I definitely recommend doing it with a friend or two so you can share plates but if you are brave - or mad enough - please feel free to go it alone. This was my first time properly exploring Soho and there are so many other restaurants that I would like to visit.

If you want to see my entire vlog of the day, have a look at my Instagram @diaryofahopefulcook. It's also the best place to get a sneak peek at upcoming blog posts and my other antics!

Also drop a comment below if you have done or have been inspired to do your own grub crawl. And if so, where did or would you go?

See you in the next post!

Mary xx