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Chinese Roast Duck is one of those things that you either love or you hate. For some people its the fatty duck skin and the corresponding greasy flesh that turn them off, while for others, the crispy and the juicy tasty flesh is what they enjoy the most. If you have never had roast duck before, it certainly helps to go to some place where prepare it well and serve excellent quality birds.

Four Seasons is one of those Chinese restaurants in London most well known for their duck. I am lucky enough to live almost directly opposite it as well and I know how long their queues can get – even for takeaway. Like many Chinese restaurants, the window starts filling with deep red hanging ducks and other types of BBQ or roast meats just before lunch. In this particular restaurant, queues form rapidly on weekends cascading onto the already bustling Queensway.

The cost of simple roast duck and rice served with cabbage is not exorbitant at only about £6, although a whole roast duck will obviously cost a lot more. Their BBQ meat is extremely tasty and you can get the combination of the two for the same price (but you obviously get less duck). I will be honest about this restaurant’s duck being slightly fatty, but maybe that is how they get the skin so crispy and full of flavour. As a local I don’t really want to make the duck a regular meal, and reserve it only for special occasions because it really is worth it.

I am yet to actually eat inside just because there are plenty of other great eateries and waiting for a table can be exhausting. I bet that they, like many other more upmarket or popular Chinese restaurants do, charge the more excessive 12.5% service on the end (which might be worth it for all I know).

Details: Four Seasons
Found On: 84 Queensway, London, W2 3RL
Contactable On: 0871 3328297
Highlights: Fantastic duck and a busy atmosphere to dine in directly opposite a very central tube station.
Improvements: Its popularity and small size means queues are inevitable
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

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Last night I attended the October meetup of the London Ruby User Group. I’m glad to see that it is an active community in London and last night apparently held the biggest turnout with about 40 (ish) people turning up. The meetup hosted two guest speakers who both spoke about DSLs (a popular topic that apparently came up in August as well). The first speaker, Robert Brooks took an admittedly less technical approach and spoke of the impact that they had at his work for some new shared department between the House of Commons and House of Lords, where he is using both Ruby on Rails and Ruby in several ways. The second speaker, Damien Turner gave a little bit more of a hands on approach to DSLs as inspired by a number of blog entries by Jay Fields.

Like most English meetups, eventually the night turned to the pub where you got to chat and meet the rest of the attendees. Interestingly a lot of them were java programmers who either wanted to use ruby, or are using ruby in some support form, but a few are doing ruby or Ruby on Rails as part of their day job. I thought the community was great, and I’ll definitely be trying to make it along next month. If you want to come along, check out the LRUG website or check out the next event on the London upcoming site.

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London’s temperature has dropped significantly over the last few weeks and I can’t help but think that the end of summer is truly gone. Thankfully yesterday’s weather was quite good despite the cold temperatures with generally cloudless blue skies and so I thought it would be nice to take a trip out to the London Zoo. I have heard many great things about the zoo so it was off to Camden for the morning.

The Zoo is nestled inside Regent’s Park with the entrance walking distance from the Camden Town tube station. The zoo is not as big as many other ones around the world, but considering where it is located and the number of animals they have on show, it still occupied a good part of the day and you could easily spend more time here if you lazily walked around.

We managed to see almost all of the animal enclosures and I think that next time I would skip the Aquarium part, especially considering it is nothing like Underwater World back home, or that the London Aquarium is on the other side of town.

I really enjoyed the caterpillar-shaped butterfly enclosure that was filled with so many of them that more often than not a butterfly would land on you. The pink flamingos were also quite a nice site, and even more so, the strangely pink-tinged White Pelicans (who apparently turn pink in spring).

The zoo even has a couple of native Australian animals such as the Kangaroo and the Emu, but like at most zoos I’ve been to, the Kangaroo was simply nestled comfortably in one corner of the ground soaking up some rays.

They also run a number of shows throughout the day, and we caught the ‘Animals in Action’ one where we could see animals doing all the things that they normally do, including a South American Macaw, a Vulture, a number of rats, and a Lemur. Each of the animals involved obviously looked extremely well trained with a couple of them even really taking to all the attention and the limelight of the stage.

The trip to the day was a great thing to do when you’re in the middle of London and feel like escaping all the people (though be prepared to be surrounded by screaming or crying children instead). There’s even in the middle of building the Gorilla enclosure that will be finished in 2007 sometime which is already looking quite impressive.

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Lucky 7 is another restaurant run by Tom Conran (son of Terence Conran), just down the road from the other restaurant (The Cow) I visited a while back. Unlike its more ritzy sister, Lucky 7 goes for the other end of the spectrum, with an outlandish attempt to recreate the classic American diner, complete with tack memorabilia, red leather seating booths and Michael Jackson music (all the good classic ones mind you) blasting in the background.

The menu is simple with all types of burgers the main staple with sides of shoestring fries, onion rings and various delicious shakes and American beers (the first time I’ve seen Sam Adam’s beer served in the UK). The burgers are massive (almost on the verge of impossible to pick up) and it’s obvious from their inhomogeneous form that they are made on the premises. The burgers are not the cheapest ones you can find, but their wide variety and freshness barely justify the steep prices. Their sides are generously sized and the freshly made and authentic onion rings I had were truly tasty. The shakes are also pretty good (though you’d expect them to be for their price) and can be ordered in three types of thicknesses and a few different flavours.

I’m not sure if you can book ahead in this place, but its small size and popularity certainly mean this place is busy. I ate here for a late lunch (3pm) on a weekday and I still had to share one of the booths with other people.

The service I received was friendly and quite prompt, though once again it would be hard to give poor service when your customers are sitting right in front of you.

Details: Lucky 7
Found On: 127 Westbourne Park Road
Contactable On: 020 7727 6771
Highlights: Cheesy American diner serving gourmet burgers (at gourmet prices) all served with truly home made and delicious sides. Also serves the widest selection of American beers I’ve seen in the UK so far. Booths are great for a party of four or six.
Improvements: It’s a little bit more pricey than a trip to GBK. If you go a couple or greater than six, you will have trouble getting seats.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10

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Yesterday I went out for a friend’s 30th birthday for a leisurely lunch lasting well over four hours. We ate at a fantastic and affordable French place called Galvin, tucked away by a non-descript entrance on Baker Street. Our three course lunch cost only £16.50, extended to a fourth with the intense chocolate birthday cakes baked specially for the two celebrants of the day.

The interior is beautiful and surprisingly spacious, with simple white clothed tables and wooden chairs inviting guests to sit down. I’m surprised by the large number of staff present, even when the restaurant was not at full capacity. Given the large number of staff, I found the service slightly off that day with barely anyone around when you wanted something, and several times a number of dishes either not making it to the table at the same time, or several of the wrong dishes arriving instead.

Having said that, I found the food simple, very well presented and wickedly delicious. Admittedly I shouldn’t have been too surprised given two brothers trained at Michelin starred restaurants own the restaurant.

Details: Galvin Bistrot De Luxe
Found On: 66 Baker Street, London W1
Contactable On: 020 7935 4007
Highlights: Extremely affordable Prix Fixe menu served in a spacious traditional looking restaurant.
Improvements: Service for the day wasn’t too bad, but not exactly perfect.
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

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