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Medlar: Disappointing dining in Chelsea
I’m often asked why I started a food blog. There are actually several reasons ranging beyond simply “I like to eat”, and one of these was motivation. Motivation to get off my sofa and experience London’s wonderful food scene. So one of the main “objectives” behind this blog was to work my way through the Time Out Top 100 restaurants list. Clearly I had ambitions way beyond my budget because, before I realised it, a brand new Top 100 had been published and I’d ticked perhaps one restaurant off the list… I’m still trying to hit them all but these days I use the list more as a guide than a…
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Aquavit
Not long before we moved to London, my then boyfriend and I visited for a week’s holiday. We stayed in one of those old fashioned hotels in Paddington, delighted by how cheap it was, not realising that the area was a notorious red light district. I was so in love with London then. It was unlike anywhere I’d ever been before; a place fat with possibility. We visited a pub not far from Hyde Park and I was thrilled by how buzzy it was, how it felt like an integral part of a neighbourhood that I wanted to be a part of too. That pub has long since closed, like so many…
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Miusan
Contentious as it may have been, the Night Tube is a thing of great excitement for this Londoner. No longer do I have to limit myself to nights out in south west London. No longer do I have to make that mad dash for the last tube, bringing brilliant evenings to an abrupt end. The city has opened up to me and it’s great. Weirdly, I quite like grubby, touristy old Camden for the occasional night out but I’ve so often had to cut those nights out short. Taxi from Camden to Tooting? No chance. But, thanks to the Night Tube, I can now relax and enjoy what Camden has to…
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Jackdaw and Star/We Serve Humans
I have a theory regarding burgers which goes a little something like this. If you need to eat it with a knife and fork then it’s a good burger. Of course, that theory does fall down from time to time. I’m sure there are plenty of burgers that are stacked high and stuffed full and still taste rank. But in general, a good burger is one that you most definitely can’t pick up in your hands. Case in point: McDonalds and their teeny, shrivelled “burgers”. I can easily eat a Big Mac one-handed and my hands are positively Donald Trump-esque in their dimensions. So I don’t care if I look silly or genteel or “posh” with…
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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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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
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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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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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…