Come. Come ye Gods of Silicon Valley. Come to Londinium. Leave your spacious glass campuses. Fly from the blue skies of California. Take a break from your R&D, just briefly, and come, visit and invest in Silicon Roundabout. The next tech start-up frontier. Yes, come to Old Street.
Oh.
Over the last few years there must be have been a fair few investors visiting this area confused, bemused and disappointed, not least by the ‘take-out’ options they faced when they stepped out of meetings in the Old Street area. That’s right guys: it really is just a skanky roundabout.
I imagine they ended up at a nearby Pret, or, if they fancied a tepid salad and an ice cold glass of pinot grigio, perhaps they pottered down to Moorgate’s well classy branch of Albaroney.
Things are changing though: good independent coffee roasters, shops, cafés and restaurants seem to be appearing on a weekly basis in the area.
My One Good Reason to grab a bite to eat in the vicinity of Old Street roundabout, however, is the relatively recently opened Yum Bun. The well renowned East London street cart purveyors of awesome, award winning pork buns now have a proper little shop. And you should go.
Steamed cushions of soft white dough, filled with banging pork belly, a smudge of hoisin sauce and a scattering of spring onions. Nuno Mendes reckons they’re at least as good as the Momofuku buns they mimic. Praise indeed, and yours for £3.50, sir. Now get back into that meeting and invest in our nation’s most forward thinking entrepreneurs / Macbook Air wielding procrastinators.
Where
31 Featherstone Street, EC1Y 2BJ. Just to the South of Old Street Silicon Roundabout.
What
Yum Bun. Or, more specifically, their superb steamed pork bun. Their bento box (2 buns, 2 gyoza, miso soup, salad) is strong value at £7.50. Lunchtimes Mon-Friday 11:30-14:30. Evenings Thurs-Saturday 17:00-22:00.
That pic has made me well hungry!
Had Yum Bun at Streetfeast/Kerb very, very nice!
Not forgetting BahnMi11 at Shoreditch, still superb!
I concur with Nuno completely- they are spectacular. As for Old St -the husband still maintains that the Taylor St Barista in the shed behind the Reuters offices does some of the best flat whites in London.