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Looks like it’s going to be even more difficult to concentrate in the office today than normal but at least it’s football to blame.

Yep it’s coming home and I came back home from holiday last week with all the joy of being in the office to excite me. Yeah I was grumpy.

So I decided to have fried chicken. Surely if fried chicken is superb at 1am, it will be so at 1pm?

Chicking on Edgware Road was my destiny. The menu consists of fried chicken and things like wraps with fried chicken in. I kind of had the intention of a fried chicken wrap but the greasy venue didn’t scream top quality salad, so I stuck to chicken pieces.

Except they only had one ready and bollocks was I spending longer in this pit of misery than I had to, so I had some (un)tenders too.

I cannot remember what was worst, I think the chicken piece was driest and oldest, but the tenders felt pretty manufactured and old. Not sure I’ve ever had fried chicken when drunk that is this bad.

Rating of 1.2 out of 10. So bad I went to Gregg’s after.

Moral of the story? Don’t go to the chicken shop at lunch.

Ok I’ve found a real winner this week…Cawnpore, even if it does sound like a dodgy internet site. @cawnporepaddington

I was a bit moody and tired, and just needed some Indian spice. You know that feeling? Ideally I wanted something like a paratha wrap that I could take away and walk back to my office with, but I couldn’t find anywhere of the sort.

So I sat down at Cawnpore.

Chicken tikka was me being unadventurous, sure, shoot me…or worse, force me into an office twice a week, but it was delightful. Chicken thigh which is the best part, and all the spices came out as they should. Properly succulent chicken too.

However the Gobi Shimla Merch was one step better. Cauliflower and green pepper in a gorgeous spicy sauce with some real warmth. I could eat that forever. Wow.

Some difficulties with the card machine on the way out but otherwise this was ace. I should probably give up this page and just come here every week.

Rating of 8.8.

Mostly I’m a half-full person but not feeling it by getting the last available desk at 9:05am.

Was this luck or doom?

This week I went to Venice. No, they didn’t charge me €5 to go through the door. And it’s yet another Lebanese restaurant… though in disguise.

The menu was wraps, makazines and breakfast…I went for the chicken fajita wrap as I thought it would be quick to make, and I didn’t have much time.

Cute inside, though the person smoking next to the door and blowing it inside made it less pleasant.

The wrap was well stuffed and plentiful for £7.95. Alas there wasn’t a lot of flavour. A hint of cumin perhaps but I’d expect this to have more of a kick. The salad was ordinary…but nothing wrong here other than a bit of blandness. And plenty of people like bland.

Rating of 6.8 for Venice.

Pleasant enough but could do better.

Don’t panic. I’m back to hating being in the office…this week my office chair had a choice of near horizontal or lean forwards. As much as I’m constantly told to lean into things, my current corporate buzzword hate, I had to go for the horizontal effect.

And then I booked a meeting room that doesn’t exist. Cool.

But I can always lean into lunch and this week I took a walk down the Edgware Road, as far as I dared…or as until I saw somewhere vaguely appealing which was Soor…yes another Lebanese restaurant.

Serving around 5,000 dishes, from breakfast to manakish (must try one time… Lebanese pizza apparently), fatayer, various starters, mains, salads and wraps.

I asked for a recommendation…the mixed grill apparently. You mean the most expensive thing on the menu? Aha. Don’t want to suggest something more interesting to me?

I had a fattet because… I’m getting fatter. Warm yoghurt, crispy pitta, fried onions, chicken shawarma and salad.

I’m not sure I’d order it again, perhaps too much yoghurt but I still enjoyed it. Lots of chicken shawarma, the standard orange Lebanese spicy sauce was delightful, with a kick. The crispy pitta was fresh and the dish worked.

Salad was decent too.

Rating of 7.3. Definitely worth a visit and they had plenty of tables for lunch too.

I’m going to let you into a secret. I don’t hate being in the office. I do still hate commuting, the waste of my time and it costing me £50 a day just to tick a box.

I’m going to let you into another secret too…that of Harrison Coffee @harrisoncoffee_uk, down a side street near Paddington station.

A Chilean colleague tipped me off on this…the name makes it sound like just another coffee shop but actually it’s a delightful little Chilean restaurant, with a glorious selection of empanadas.

I wasn’t feeling red meat so I stuck to the vegetarian side of things…so perhaps I haven’t tasted their best offerings.

Chilean ensalada is mostly tomato, onion and coriander…this was fresh feeling yet arguably the tomatoes weren’t ripe enough to do this dish justice. Oh for Sicilian tomatoes…or Chilean?

The empanada was more of a star. There was depth to the pastry, the cheese and tomato worked as well together as you likely have experienced.

Harrison Coffee is one of only two places that I’d happily go back to around Paddington…I need to try the steak sandwich, and the Pino empanada. 🥩

Rating of 7.5…I’m sure it would be higher if I’d tried non-veggie food…and 100% I’m going back to do so.