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Bordelaise: French vibes in Tooting
Before I say anything else, you need to know this. The chef at Bordelaise is a very bad man. Despite being dangerously full after having demolished two large rounds of food, he insisted that my friend and I each have a pudding, rather than going down the more civilised route of sharing one. What’s more, we were “coerced” into the richest, most decadent dessert on the menu. But more of that later… Bordelaise is the latest offering by the power team behind The Little Bar and The Little Taperia in Tooting. These guys can’t seem to put a foot wrong, so I was pretty confident that Bordelaise would be a…
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5 top places to drink a Negroni in London
I discovered the pleasures of a well-mixed Negroni a couple of years ago and have been addicted to them ever since. A Negroni is a cocktail made with one part gin, Campari and vermouth, served over ice, usually with a slice of orange. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Dry and packing a pretty punch, with no mixer this is all thriller, no filler. The last few years have seen Negronis become increasingly fashionable, and you’ll likely find one on most cocktail menus throughout town. Here are 5 of my top picks: Bar Termini Bar Termini is THE place to go for a Negroni. It’s the where I popped my Negroni cherry…
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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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5 London travel hacks all tourists should know
After living in London for 12 years I’m now able to navigate this vast city with relative ease. But I still remember how it felt arriving here as a total newbie. London can feel like a pretty intimidating place at times. Working out where to begin, navigating public transport and the sheer volume of people swirling around you at 100mph can be enough to make your head spin. So here are my top 5 travel hacks to help you get the best out of your time here in the Big Smoke. 1. Rush past rush hour I cannot stress this enough. It’s called “rush hour” for a reason and trust me…
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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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Chi Kitchen
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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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BRGR.CO: Going back to basics
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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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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
