Clerkenwell lunches | The grub worm

Giant Robot

Posted on 18 June 2010 by The Grubworm

45 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1M 5RS, 020 7065 6810, www.gntrbt.com

C’mon guys, where’s the fricken robot? If you’re going to call a place ‘Giant Robot’ you’ve gotta have a big old metal beastie in there somewhere. On further questioning, it seems like this Match Bar facelift was named for a robot that appeared in the square opposite for a while, before marching off to terrorise biological lifeforms elsewhere.

So, there is no robot in Giant Robot, but there are plenty of other attractions. Not least some tasty old balls, giant prawns (almost as good as a robot) and cucumber flavoured water. Continue reading →

Cafe VN

Posted on 26 May 2010 by The Grubworm

144 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DP 020 7278 4123 www.cafevn.co.uk

Like the proverbial buses, Vietnamese restaurants seem to be appearing all at once. For a long time, you had to travel to Shoreditch or Mare Street to get your Pho fix but now you can score a summer roll all over London.

Cafe VN is emblamatic of the new breed of Vietnamese style cafe-restaurants. Following the lead of Pho restaurant they are eschewing the canteen-like and or mock Indochina decor you find in most established joints in favour of a more contemporary feel. The menus are shorter too, but still cover the basics of summer rolls, bun cha and pho. Continue reading →