Italian
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Firebrand Pizza: Potato pizza anyone?
I don’t need any excuse to stuff my face with carbs. I do it on a daily basis. The Atkins Diet? Forget it. Cauliflower rice? WTAF?? I’ve accepted the fact that I’m never going to be Giselle Bundchen and, having seen what she eats, I wouldn’t want to be. Bring me all the bread, pile high the potatoes and pass me the pasta because I am carb-tastic. So when I saw that Firebrand Pizza use roast potatoes as a pizza topping, I knew that I had found my place. Firebrand is located just a few minutes away from Marylebone Station, in one of those strange parts of central London that has…
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Coach and Horses: Where everybody knows your name
“La la la….where everybody knows your name”. The theme song for Cheers set out the show’s premise of that friendly local boozer where you’re surrounded by friends. But of course that isn’t the real world, is it? Maybe in a small village where there’s only one place to go drinking and you have no choice but to get to know the bar staff, but in London?? That most unfriendly of places?? You’re kidding. So when I visited the Coach and Horses in Clapham for the second time, handed my card over the bar to start a tab and the barmaid couldn’t spot my name, it was a pleasant surprise to hear her…
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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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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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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…
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Mercato Metropolitano
Every now and then, a magical night happens in London. They are little gems, strung together like a Swarovski bracelet, that remind you why you love living in a big, chaotic city. I recently experienced one of those nights at, believe it or not, a disused factory down the road from Elephant and Castle station. Sounds a bit odd? Well, this old factory has been transformed into the most wonderful food market called Mercato Metropolitano. If Italian food is your thing, then this is the place to be. And if Italian food just makes you yawn and shrug your shoulders, then this is definitely the place to be, because your mind will be changed. Mercato…
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Artusi
London’s a strange one. You move here all bright eyed and bushy tailed, excited by the endless variety and eager to explore all that the capital has to offer. Fast forward several years and you find that the city has shrunk to a bubble of “home” and “work”. That’s why it’s great to suddenly find an excuse to venture beyond the borders of your own little world. For me, that excuse has been flat-hunting – and my search took me to Peckham and Artusi. Peckham’s association with Only Fools and Horses is long gone. These days you’re more likely to find a beardy hipster sipping on a Negroni instead of Del Boy knocking back…
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Cafe Murano
Mondays suck. There is very little doubt about this. Dragging yourself out of bed at an unreasonably early time, squishing onto the sweaty tube, dealing with emails before you’ve had a cup of coffee. No thank you. However, there are one or two things that can improve a Monday. Leaving work at lunchtime always helps. A visit from your mum and lunch at a top restaurant, like Cafe Murano, pretty much guarantees a better start to the week. Here’s the thing. Cafe Murano isn’t actually a cafe. It’s a rather sophisticated restaurant from Angela Hartnett, former chef-patron of The Connaught. The “cafe” element comes from the fact that it’s a more laid-back version of…
