I've been twice now, don't live in London but have been a regular visitor to the city for 10 years and I can honestly say this is head and shoulders the best restaraunt I've eaten in. The food and service are top quality and the prices are so reasonable!
Food recommendations on today's menu would be the chicken liver popcorn starter and the beef short rib (again comes with chicken liver and sizzling hot!!).
Awesome place to eat and I hope anyone else who goes enjoys it as much as I do!
I must say if your a huge foodie this place is highly recommended-top quality wholesome food with a modern twist & tasty as anything! Nice,comfortable atmosphere & besides it more about the food then the venue with great staff-can get a little busy in there at times so pre booking is a must! Well done bintang the food was 10/10...will defiantly be coming again!
Bintang in Kentish Town is the little spot with a big voice. Further up from the tourist mecca and party paradise that is Camden, is this star. Yes, in Indonesia Bintang means star, so star by name, star by nature. What first strikes you is just how down to earth the place is. It is certainly not about being the great pretender here. Out goes the fancy schmancy decor or attempt at too much Asian design authenticity; what remains is real and raw with an emphasis on practicality and comfort. There is even a secret garden at the back if you fancy braving the ever changing UK elements.
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Bintang in Kentish Town is the little spot with a big voice. Further up from the tourist mecca and party paradise that is Camden, is this star. Yes, in Indonesia Bintang means star, so star by name, star by nature.
What first strikes you is just how down to earth the place is. It is certainly not about being the great pretender here. Out goes the fancy schmancy decor or attempt at too much Asian design authenticity; what remains is real and raw with an emphasis on practicality and comfort. There is even a secret garden at the back if you fancy braving the ever changing UK elements.
The restaurant opens onto Kentish Town Road so your entertainment is a mixture of your dining companions, fellow diners and the colourful characters that sashay past the window. Kentish Town is very residential. This bit specifically, is quite urban, so there is a melting pot of class and culture who live side by side. Bintang appears to follow the same theme with a diverse Asian menu covering places like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Indonesia. What they have done here is taken the best bits of what is the largest continent and put it in a pretty little package for you to enjoy near the comfort of your own home. No long haul flights for this treat.
There are a couple of things to note about this magical place. You can bring your own wine and pay corkage of £5 a bottle. Conveniently, there is an off licence two doors down. They only accept cash. Again, the off licence ticks that box with its machine which unfortunately charges £1.89. Now the basics are covered (and you have booked a table because it is popular), you can settle down to scan through the menu.
As I said, the menu is like the Eastern portion of the Silk Route (an ancient trade route from China to Europe specialising in Chinese Silk). For my starter I went for chicken and spring onion dumplings (Chinese). Now this gyoza was very interesting, in that it was much slimmer and transparent than ones I have had before. In fact, I really enjoyed it as the filling was as prominent as the sticky case holding it together. Jacki had salt and pepper squid with taramind (Chinese). Delish with lashings of lime squeezed over it.
My original main was supposed to be the baby chicken inasal, which is a pandan marinated dish from the Philippines with notes of lemongrass, ginger and soy. Unfortunately they had already served the last portion, so having pouted a little, I got over it and ordered Pad Thai. Yes, I know that this is the go-to Asian option more most people, so one should be more experimental. Especially when one is writing a review! However, their take on this dish surprised me. Firstly, there was a solid quota of king prawn. Then, for me Pad Thai can normally be too dry but this had a moistness and sauce to it, which made it more interesting. Jacki had the lamb rendang (Malaysian). Now, this piece of meat was slow cooked on the bone, so it literally melted away as she pierced it with her fork. Rendang carries some weight having been voted the no 1 dish on an online poll of 35,000 by CNN back in 2011. Having had a taste of the tender pink lamb meat, I could understand why Jacki was prepared to go back in time to log her vote.
Sides were unnecessary as the portions are huge! Not knowing that, we had some coconut rice and garlic spinach. The great thing about ordering too much, is that you get to take it home. This made for a great lunch at the office the next day thank you very much.
A fantastic food journey across Asia from the comfort of this smart little friendly joint. The menu is halal, vegetarian and vegan friendly, so it pleases just about everyone. The staff are sweet with a very funny Irish waitress who had us in stitches with an anecdote about apple sauce and tomato ketchup. Bravo.
Charming little place. Very friendly and great food for a low price
Very warm. Walked into a diff country in a small little room. Very small restaurant.. couldn't really walk around.. but very friendly and warm. The food is very tasty! Especially the fish dish!
You can bring your own beer (with no charge!)
My friend recommended the food here and I thought I might give it a chance. I'm always up for trying new things.
The place looks average for a restaurant, in fact it's more like a cafe with very few seats and a small garden.
The food was nice, full of flavour with many selections in the menu. I've been there 3 times already and tried different dishes and every time I was very pleased with the food. It has a particular taste which makes me go back even though I don't like the decor and it's very cold in the winter.
The service is slow but the staff is friendly.
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There's pretty much nowhere in North London that does quite as well as Bintang in balancing good food and great value. Located on the south end of Kentish Town Road, the restaurant is tiny, darkly lit and nicely decorated - there are very few tables, so booking in advance (especially for a large group) is a must.
The main virtue of the place is that it's BYOB, allowing you to have a boozy dinner on the cheap, and I don't think I've been to a BYO place that does food as well as this. They have a huge number of special offers - the group menu is £18 for a main and an array of starters, the happy hour menu only £10 for two courses - but the a la carte is still very reasonable, given that drinks-wise you're only paying for corkage. For something special, I'd definitely recommend the crab bun and the deep fried sesame seed ice cream as a dessert - both excellent. If you're planning a dinner for 10 or so people and are looking to drink, eat and still have cash left over for the pub afterwards, this is the place to go.
I've been there was, and I like their take on serving small Filipino plates in a format that makes it easy to try a lot of things and to share. Last time we got the liver popcorn, which were cooked just right still creamy on the inside. Got the slider as well, where the beef was cooked just right, and in a bun that was as tasty as the filling. We also had the lamb ribs, which were tender with a nice sweet sauce.
Service is quick and attentive, many vegetarian and gluten free options available.
Amazing, delectable Asian food here!!! After trying it the first time for happy hour and dinner, was back within a week with the entire family for lunch! Lovely atmosphere and super friendly service. Fabulous cocktails, too! An hour’s commute for us to reach but definitely worth it!
The food is flavorful and amazing, especially the half chicken and garlic rice, most important is the cocktails are so damn good.
The bartender is so nice and cute. Really love the vibe, service and drinks here. Although it’s a little bit far from the city center, it close to underground station westminster. Highly recommended to those who want to try Asian food.
The food was ridiculously good. Friendly staff. Stayed outside but think downstairs is nicer. Cocktails are pretty good too.
Elite experience for me, great setup & location & all dishes were superb - highly recommended!!!.
Also want to note that I went during lunchtime when it was less busy - I always recommend that if you want to check if the food is really up to par.
Best experience in London. Loveliest staff, delicious food, cocktails are incredible. I wanna move in 🤤💙
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I went here for the first time last week and had very positive experience
We ordered beef sisig, garlic rice, Kare kare and the pandesal slider. For drinks I had the clarified calamansi margarita and my friend had the pink cocktail ( can’t think of the name) the pandesal slider was very very nice, it was very tasty was glad I split it with my friend
It felt very rich and heavy, the beef sisig was very good as well. I was initially hesitant on ordering it as traditionally it had chopped liver but the waiter assured me it was there to add flavour and you wouldn’t see it in chopped pieces.
The oxtail Kate Kare wasn’t the traditional kind your mum would cook, firstly it was in a very small bowl and the oxtail had not enough of meat on it in my opinion but it was still very tasty and tender.
They lose a star as I wished the Kare Kare taste was more peanuty in a bigger serving bowl.
Overall my friend who has never had Filipino food was pretty impressed, we ended on Milo pandesal icecream sandwich, that’s a must if you want a dessert to finish off your meal. Very delicious!
AB FAB FOOD! Tasty af, great service - you can’t go wrong with anything you order.
They take card (even Amex!)
This was the perfect intro to Filipino food.
We loved the pandesal slider with asmr-able buns (my mother doesn’t love burgers but named it as her fave!)
The lamb rendang was tender and flavourful; same goes for the oxtail kare kare.
The chicken inasal was juicy, tofu bites were tasty too!
The mama son’s (young black coconut) buko pie with ube/buko/queso ice cream also slaps
ALSO currently have the independence special drinks, including corn sour and ube clarified colada - drool. Even non-die hard corn fans loved jt.
It was a really busy day around Camden, so we were strolling around Kentish Town looking for a quieter place to eat, and we bumped into this place, that I had saved on my want to go list for a long time. And it didn't disappoint! We had the tofu for starter, and was super super crispy and full of flavour. For main dishes, we shared pad thai, which was quite good. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with pad thai. And then we tried the lamb ribs with banana bbq sauce, and wow! They were outstanding! Meat was crispy but also, inside, was super super tender. The sauce was sweet, different and great. Loved them, I really recommend ordering them if you pass by! Good food, totally recommend this place!
Update: after such a lovely time came back with friends and we decided to BYOB, and for this I have now dropped them a point. The corkage charges are a discrace. £6 per bottle of wine and £3.50 per large bottle of beer. It was almost the total cost of the alcohol we bought. This really needs reviewing
Went for an early dinner tonight after a recommendation from a friend. Absolutely loved it, the lamb skewers as a starter were awesome, could have eaten loads more. The mains were great and probably one of the best roti I have has, so flakey.
The staff were so friendly, knowledgeable and passionate. I Will definitely be coming back.
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