5 Restaurants to Try at Home This Bank Holiday Weekend

Five to try returns for the bank holiday weekend.

Pho Thuy Tay Cafe

One of London’s most accomplished Vietnamese restaurants, Thuy Nguyen’s Pho Thuy Tay may now be without the hardcore Hanoi blackboard specials that attracted south-east London’s Vietnemse students, but there is still a huge amount to love about the main menu which is available to pick up or order via Deliveroo. The pho is the best in the city, in the Northern crystalline style, but the pho chien trung is something rarely seen in London’s Vietnamese restaurants: noodles shaped into little rosti style patties and stir fried with beef, egg and vegetables. Don’t miss the beef and mustard green rice, the raw beef salad, or the pork belly stew, replete with one perfect and still runny deep fried boiled egg. (Thuy’s phone number is 0788102988 — order by text) —Jonathan Nunn
899 Old Kent Road, SE15 1NL

Pollo Feliz

This is a practical recommendation. Pollo Feliz, the northern Mexican flour tortilla specialist opened in Netil Market in February. Since then, they’ve been hit with torrential storms and, like everyone else, the coronavirus crisis. After briefly considering shutting up shop completely, owners Michelle Salazar de la Rocha and Sam Napier decided they would deliver 10-packs of pork fat, goose fat, and vegetable oil tortillas. They hoped to sell a couple, which might make their way onto Instagram, and people wouldn’t forget they existed. They’re now delivering about 1,200 per week. Because — especially the pork and goose — the tortillas are fantastic; this is a unique product in London. They taste great, they’re easy to “cook” (just warm them and watch them inflate), they keep well (in the fridge or freezer), and they’re unusually versatile. Yes, make tacos with them at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. But try them with a curry, too. Or some salt fish, prepared with tomato, chilli, and garlic. Or even just think of them as a bread skin for any sort of sandwich. You won’t look back. Pack of 10 costs £5. Order (loads) by DMing Pollo Feliz on Instagram. —Adam Coghlan

Blue Ocean

Fish and chips is only really complete with the nostalgic seasoning of sea air whipped up by a coastal wind, and the Bao-bothering queue that would normally snake out of this Pitshanger stalwart is gone, but it’s still an excellent restaurant to try in Ealing. Cod, huss, haddock, plaice, and skate are all fried to order — always to order, always in good oil — chips will be soused in vinegar and dredged in salt; the curry sauce is croaky and perfect; jumbo sausages, battered if desired, and rubber-glove-snapping saveloys are present and correct. This place remains a neighbourhood reliance, and with eating on the sofa now mandatory, pick up a package of gnarled, crisp-battered fish and chips steaming itself up in its paper, pleading to be unwrapped on the long walk home. —James Hansen
151 Pitshanger Lane, Ealing W5 1RH

Squires

This Nigerian restaurant is still delivering homestyle cuisine from 12:30, making it the ideal indulgent lunch break option. There are special lunch packs available like jollof and meat meals or asaro (yam pottage) and fish. The fiery pepper soup with tilapia or the delightfully named “executive catfish” comes as a mammoth portion which would ensure leftovers for dinner as well. —Shekha Vyas
272 Barking Road, East Ham, E6 3BA

Sorella

A cheer went up across SWs 4, 8 and 11 earlier this week when Robin Gill’s Manor Street Italian reopened as a general store. The veg comes from Natoora (courgettes, artichokes, Jersey Royals, and bundles of asparagus), the salumi and coppa are cured in house and there are plump balls of burrata and fat wedges of truffled Baron Bigod cheese on offer, plus very fairly priced Italian wines (including a lovely low-intervention Pecorino) and vermouths. The “ready meals” are in a league of their own, with generous servings of aubergine parmigiana, fresh pasta and sauces and bagna cauda on rotation. But the biggest joy is the restaurant’s famous truffled mushroom arancini, bigger than golf balls and £1 a pop, which have sold out every day so far. This weekend Sorella is open Friday and Saturday — get in early to be assured of bagging some. —Emma Hughes
148 Clapham Manor Street, Clapham Town, SW4 6BX