Over time you come to grasp that London, despite its embarrassment of riches and peerless position on the world map, can try too hard to be cool.
From jam jar-only bars in the east end to cafés specialising only in cereal or avocado, an exhausting race in being as different as possible while still maintaining the all important "edge" is unfolding every day.
So it was hard not to be a little cynical about what is claimed to be the world's first Emoji Only Menu at The Little Yellow Door - a pop-up restaurant - in Notting Hill.
Through Wednesday's and Thursday's this summer, guests can order food by sending a WhatsApp message to staff in the form of emojis - thus guessing the precise nature of your dish.
Want chicken? Send over a chicken bone emoji. Strawberry sour cocktail? Just ping over a strawberry, glass and the uncomfortable-looking-face emojis.
Given The Little Yellow Door is busy, and loud, I actually quite liked the idea of ordering food on my phone - were it to be effective.
Except the whole concept just didn't work very well - and I just can't grasp the advantage of ordering my food with emojis in the first place.
My friend Will and I enter to loud music - to the point of making conversation a challenge - combined with the painfully awkward moment the waitress has to tell diners at our pre-booked table - two seats fit around a small stand - that it's time for them to go.
Onto my phone and I attempt to order the only starter on its menu - featuring the likes of a cow emoji, chicken emoji and carrot emoji.
But our attempts fail to come to fruition, following a failure to find the emojis on our phones in the first place and the confusion as whether you pick and mix, or type in all the emojis you can see in one go (it turned out to be the latter).
After receiving a message saying "Hi Dave your order is incomplete," we decided to call over a waiter and order food through more conventional means.
Only halfway through my friend tucking into the starter was I told it was supposed to serve two people and not one - a detail that would have proved somewhat useful had it been mentioned on the menu.
A shame given that, by all accounts, it's a tasty dish - comprising chicken wings and vegetables.
Similar praise can also be aimed towards its mains, presenting four flavoursome chicken rolls fit with cheese, bacon, tomato and onion - a decent snack a few notches north of KFC.
Onto the cocktail menu and I opt for the strawberry sour cocktail - presented on the menu with a strawberry emoji and the uncomfortable-looking-face emoji, which sums up exactly how I feel while drinking this awful beverage.
The verdict
The Little Yellow Door, while upbeat, is uncomfortable to eat in and loud - making it a less than ideal environment to experiment with new, technology-driven ideas that don't seem to work very well.
£15 is a fair price for a starter, main and cocktail and there are moments of tastiness - but I'm afraid to say the new emoji menu gives me little to text home about.
"Thumb down emoji."
