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Chi Kitchen
If I were to tell you that Debenhams on Oxford Street is the place to go for a really great meal, you would probably laugh in my face. To be fair, I wouldn’t blame you. Department store eateries are generally a little bit sad. Old ladies and bored husbands huddled around weak coffee and dry cake, surrounded by beige formica. No thank you. And Debenhams? A middle-of-the-road shop with about as much character as a clothes peg; the one that’s not as classy as John Lewis. But…department stores are realising that shopping habits are changing and that it’s going to take something extra to get customers through the door these days. And that something is…
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Miusan
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Rum and dancing: Valentine’s Day in Cuba
The best Valentine’s Day I ever had didn’t involve hearts, flowers and chocolates. It didn’t even include a card. The best Valentine’s Day I ever had was spent with one of my closest friends, getting drunk in a rooftop bar in Santiago de Cuba. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city in Cuba and is located in the south-east corner of the island. While Havana is swiftly becoming sanitised, Santiago has all the faded elegance of the capital but feels grittier, grubbier, seedier. It’s sweaty and tropical, closer to Haiti and the Dominican Republic than it is to Havana – both in terms of geography and atmosphere. Reggae mixes…
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Cottons: Bringing the sunshine to Shoreditch
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Where to eat on Seymour Place
Once upon a time, I had a truly terrible job working for a company on Seymour Place. I think I lasted all of four months, and they felt like the longest four months of my life. There wasn’t even anything exciting in the area to make up for the work woes. I spent my free time eating claggy pasta salad from the local caff or drinking cheap wine in one of the old man pubs nearby. So, funnily enough, it’s not a part of town that I tend to frequent much these days. But, London being what it is, Seymour Place has evolved and developed over the years into somewhere really rather interesting. The…
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Ognisko
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Ognisko
I generally try to avoid South Kensington as much as I can. Despite the plethora of world-class museums in the area, it still manages to feel like bit of a soulless wasteland. When I’m not being helplessly swept along by the tourist hoard, I’m aimlessly wandering around looking for a decent place to eat. Somewhere that’s not a chain or life-ruiningly expensive. So when my friend suggested we go to an exhibition at the V&A, I immediately went into panic mode. A day out is just not complete without a bloody good lunch and there was no way we were going to end up in Carluccios. Fortunately, I think I’ve managed to find the…
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Where to eat on Seymour Place
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Taking A Bite Out Of…..Rye
With cheap flights to Europe seemingly a dime a dozen, it’s easy to overlook the delights of our very own green and pleasant land. For a start, travel in Britain is expensive! So, of course, it’s tempting to forgo a trip to the English countryside in favour of something a little more…well…foreign. That’s a real shame though, because there are some darling destinations right on London’s doorstep. The historic town of Rye, on the border of East Sussex and Kent, rises up out of the endless flats of Romney Marsh as if it wants to flaunt its medieval beauty to the world. And rightly so, because Rye is movie-set stunning. What’s more, it…
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Boulogne Bar
A few months ago I wrote about the “London bubble“. How it’s easy to get complacent, shuttling along from home to work to home, rarely visiting new areas. Or maybe that’s just me? Anyway, as per previous post, I have lived in London for a long time but there are still parts of town that I have never been to. One of these is Kentish Town. Which is a bit embarrassing actually, as it’s not like it’s on the furthest fringes of the city, like Edgware, or in a public transport vacuum like most of south-east London. Although, in my defence, I’ve never really had any reason to go there. But then I…
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The Best Food and Drink of 2016
Yes, everyone keeps saying that 2016 has been the worst year ever. But when it comes to food and drink, this year has been a cracker. With more new restaurants and more foodie entrepreneurs than ever, there is no excuse to eat badly. Here are the best things that I snaffled into my greedy face this year: Chicken and pistachio shish from Arabica Bar & Kitchen I wanted to eat everything on Arabica Bar & Kitchen’s menu. I’ve eaten a lot of samey mezze over the years, but these guys really know how to sex it up. It’s easy to be bamboozled by choice; however, you should definitely include the…
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Tub 4 Grub/The Collective
I have a confession to make. I hardly ever cook. For someone who writes about food, this is a little embarrassing. The thing is, I used to love cooking. I’m a total feeder. I cooked for friends, colleagues and loved ones, and I would always go crazy, making more food than they could possibly eat. I cooked for my boyfriend all the time. In fact, I became a proper little domestic goddess, enjoying nothing more than getting out of bed at the crack of dawn to cook him an amazing breakfast. We hosted parties together and I would push myself to produce fantastic dishes to impress his friends. I baked…
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The Holly Bush
Picture the scene. You plan a long-overdue visit to one of your favourite restaurants. You sit down, browse the menu and immediately spot an amazing sounding dish. This is definitely what you are going to order and you can’t wait to tuck in. But then – disaster! The waitress informs you that it’s not actually available. A mistake was made and the menu is incorrect. Sad times…. This is exactly what happened on my visit to The Holly Bush in Hampstead and, needless to say, I was more than a little irritated. However, all was not lost. This story does have a happy ending… The Holly Bush is a wonderful pub.…
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The Manor, Clapham
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The Plot Twist
Beans on toast. Steak and chips. Wine and cheese. All pretty familiar meal time combinations. But Hungarian food together with Italian food? Never heard of that one before! While both of these cuisines rank pretty highly on my list of favourite foods, I’ve never eaten them in the same sitting. There may well be a reason for that, which I shall come to later. However, I found myself indulging in the staple food of both of these great nations thanks to The Plot Twist and their new pop-up restaurant in Holborn. If comfort food is your thing then you need to hit these guys up because you won’t be disappointed. The…
