North London Food & Culture

Just what are Alastair Campbell’s top 3 local restaurants?

The writer and podcaster dished up a trio of local choices on Jessie & Lennie Ware's Table Manners podcast

We love Table Manners, the addictive food podcast that Jessie Ware presents with her mum Lennie (surely the best mother ever).

It’s one of the few, in fact, that we always keep up to date with. This week’s episode was with longterm Gospel Oak resident Alastair Campbell, whom at one point the pair asked for local restaurant recommendations.

Here’s how this part of the chat panned out:

Alastair_Campbell_-_Chatham_House_2012_crop
Alastair Campbell. Photo: Wikipedia

Jessie: “Do you have any favorite spots that you go out and eat locally?”


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Alastair: “It’s quite interesting as we live in Gospel Oak which is in NW3, right on the corner of Hampstead Heath, and I don’t think my area’s that well served.”

Lennie: “Kentish Town is just down the road.”

Alastair: “It’s not bad. But where we go most is a place called Mimmo La Bufala in South End Green (45A South End Road NW3 2QB) and it’s an Italian guy who is a former motor racer who gave up because he had an accident; and so it’s currently being managed by his lovely daughter. The food is really good. It’s a classic, quite traditional Italian, but with lots of other stuff going on as well. And he’s a massive character.

“There’s another one we go to locally called Ravel’s Bistro (4 Fleet Rd NW3, main pic above) which is quite old fashioned, and[my daughter] Grace thinks I like it because it’s the nearest to the house – it’s like a 100-yard walk. Michael Palin’s a regular there. One of my favourite foods is the red cabbage (after fish soup): I absolutely love its red cabbage.

“And finally there’s a place called Hazara, an Indian we go to in Belsize Village (44 Belsize Ln, Belsize Park, London NW3 5AR).”

And that was that; the conversation splintered off onto other topics. But what do you think of Alastair Campbell’s choices? Are you a fan of the longstanding Ravel’s Bistro (read our 2017 review here)? And do you agree that the area’s “not well served”? In fact, where do you like to eat? Let us know @kentishtowner on Twitter and Facebook, @londonbelongs on Instagram.

Listen to Table Manners from wherever you get your podcasts or find out more here. Alistair Campbell co-presents The Rest is Politics.

Main image: Vicki Martin

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The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.