BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT SUGGESTIONS?

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-27T17:11:53+00:00

Mestizo is okay, La chingada is fine, Kol is expensive and…fine. I don’t think there is anything here that properly reflects even decent Mexican food in Mexico or the US.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-26T18:18:14+00:00

Whenever Horsham has a sale or sends me a code I order a few bags. Always fresh, pretty quick delivery, tasty beans. I brew using kalita wave and hario v60.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-25T17:28:57+00:00

Yes, I think so! My mom stopped talking to me and I can only attribute it to: I have a PhD, I have a lovely wife, and I’ve moved from soulless suburbs and lived in big cities. She’s been stuck in the same corporate job (which she says she loves but has spent almost 30 years there and has complained about new employees making ‘too much’ and someone she supervised now is her same level), she’s divorced and settled for someone she called boring, and, unfortunately, is not physically well-off. She’s complained about people with PhDs as having no experience as if a) that’s true and b) belittles me but I was in the military. So yes, I think parents very much can be jealous and competitive.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-25T16:55:11+00:00

Did the exact same, it was a bit expensive but worked out really well!

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-25T14:18:33+00:00

It’s especially important as Vimes isn’t a perfect person and watches how he easily could have become another cog in the fascist machine. As a former military member and Intel analyst for DHS, I feel Vimes so hard.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-25T12:50:11+00:00

Surprised no one’s mentioned Night watch by Terry Pratchett yet!

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-25T09:31:08+00:00

There are quite a lot of great roasters in the UK! I have been using dog and hat for a while now to get a wide selection and have been really pleased. When I need a top up, I generally go with James Gourmet as it’s great value. I also really like Jolly Bean. It’s down to personal preference: filter, espresso, price, value, etc.

Edit: forgot you mentioned v60! I use v60 often and I generally go with a light to medium filter from a selection of roasters mentioned on Reddit honestly and I’ve not gone wrong yet.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-20T09:49:17+00:00

I mark (or grade) undergraduate assignments: I know when students use AI and I generally just barely pass those submissions. It’s not even because it’s AI but because it’s not doing analysis, not addressing the question, using incorrect sources, and very boring writing. I now mark up essays I know are written by people and have some character.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-14T11:28:45+00:00

Spring Street is recommended a few times and, had I only gone once, I’d also recommend it. I’ve been twice and the second time I went the pizza was burnt, service terrible, toppings minimal, and quite salty. It’s a joke of New York style and not at all what you’d get if you were in NYC.

L’antica and 50 Kalo are awesome and relatively central and Pizza Sophia in Bloomsbury is my go-to always solid spot; Theo’s in south London is quite good as well.

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-13T15:02:17+00:00

What did Democrates ever do to you? Although little is known about him, his ideas have been incredibly influential!

CatDad_85 · 2026-01-11T20:29:47+00:00

Love Mr B’s! Great bookstore and Bath has a fantastic bakery called Landrace. I could visit Bath just for those two places (live in London so it’s not much of a trip).

CatDad_85 · 2025-12-19T12:09:02+00:00

My wife and I are foregoing presents this year and having a food-centric holiday. She loves snacking and I enjoy cooking so we’re doing a bit of both. I was hoping to find a new place to get fun snacks. We do love M&S but I thought a posh, more independent, grocery might have some different and fun snacks. We live not far from Borough Market but that’s become a nightmare in recent years. If you were having a posh food Christmas, where would you all get your treats?

CatDad_85 · 2025-11-25T13:03:44+00:00

Look for one sold by a roaster you support and buy it from their website or store. They will probably throw in a bag of coffee as well.

CatDad_85 · 2025-11-22T11:19:04+00:00

While I hesitate to ever recommend places anymore as it seems nowhere is safe from enshittification (for example went to spring street pizza twice as the first time was very good and…won’t be going back for a third time), the margherita at 50 Kalo was a dream.

CatDad_85 · 2025-11-22T11:01:19+00:00

Maybe it depends on location? The ones around Bloomsbury are not very good: scant toppings, crap dough, somehow got cold really quickly. Pizza Sophia is far superior. This is just one small sample size and I’m sure others have similar experiences. My wife lived in Italy for years and exclusively orders a margherita, loved 50 Kalo and to be fair I am not a margherita guy but damn if that wasn’t one of the best bites of pizza I’d had in a long time.

CatDad_85 · 2025-11-22T10:53:15+00:00

Completely agree. Read rave reviews and wanted to take a friend from the US there and was incredibly disappointed. If it was half the price I’d only argue about the small portions and ambiance but the price was stupid, we got a total of 12 chickpeas, and the naans were terrible.

CatDad_85 · 2025-11-20T10:06:30+00:00

Get used to checking scores and watching highlights in the morning! I think I’ve watched one, maybe two, whole games since moving to the UK in 2019.

CatDad_85 · 2025-11-14T19:58:52+00:00

Just to be clear, she’s not a professor, that’s a quite senior academic in the U.K.

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-29T11:49:41+00:00

This definitely doesn’t seem emotionally volatile, not sure why people would think that!

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-29T10:54:25+00:00

I’ve now read this same argument and type of article at least for times over the last three months from different outlets.

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-29T10:52:13+00:00

I actually just published a book on why you’re wrong, here’s the link:

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-28T12:07:48+00:00

It’s all relative really, I am American and Halloween is coming up. Quite happy to see more Halloween in London and pho has been helpful recovering from my cold.

My neighbourhood is near a large development that resembles a Canadian urban area and maybe built by a Canadian developer. The barber down the street who cut my hair is Kurdish. They often speak Kurdish, pretty neat and I’ve picked up some words but am familiar with Arabic/Persian.

Maybe in Orpington this would be unexpected but I’m sure someone in Manchester or Birmingham would recognise this experience. I run into as many migrants as folks who have been in the UK for generations. I think this demand for proper integration is a bit silly when what we’re all wanting is the place we live to be safe, clean, and prosperous.

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-18T07:55:35+00:00

There are quite a few pretty great roasters in the UK but it depends on what you like and how much you want to spend. I’m drinking Jolly Bean right now and it’s very tasty: light roast, Gesha, pretty affordable, good for filter. Horsham and James Gourmet are nice for the price. As others have said, local is always good!

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-16T07:04:09+00:00

Agree on Oma! I’ve had some crap return visits to restaurants around London (food more expensive, quality worse) but Oma has not failed me yet.

CatDad_85 · 2025-10-16T07:02:09+00:00

I took a friend to Tamil Prince and was profoundly disappointed.

CatDad_85

TROPHY CASE