Restaurants

Art, food and wine (the good things in life) are all linked and the interplay between them is fascinating. There were two events of interest in our neck of the West Country last weekend. Firstly there was the opening of a superb exhibition of drawings by Lucinda Rogers called 'Industrious' at Rook Lane Arts (www.rooklane.org.uk) […]

A couple of days before Christmas, I managed to find a few hours to meet up with two old friends and visit Bellanger, the most recent opening from the consummate restaurant team, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King. Messrs Corbin and King opened The Ivy (in 1990) and restored Le Caprice and J. Sheekey around the […]

  To 45 Jermyn Street for a 'working lunch' with the talented artist Toby Ward (www.tobyward.net) with whom I am collaborating on our next wine list, to check out the latest restaurant venture from the enlightened team at Fortnum & Mason. After hastily snapping a shot of the exterior I was greeted by a genuinely […]

A recent trip to visit friends and relatives on Cape Anne in Massachusetts provided the opportunity to revisit one of my all-time favourite restaurants 'Woodman's of Essex'. Happily, although I had managed to clock a full decade between visits, it hadn't changed one iota. Founded in 1914 by 'Chubby' and Betsy Woodman and still run […]

To number 39, James Street, W1, to check out the latest star in Jason Atherton's burgeoning restaurant firmament 'Social Wine & Tapas' before I have to read what Jay Rayner, Giles Coren or Marina O'Loughlin think I should think of it. It is hard to believe that ten years have passed since Atherton first came […]

Like the French, the Spanish love their food and right now they are setting the pace for others to follow. The recently-published Top 100 restaurants in the world included 5 Spanish entries in the Top 20 (France, UK, Peru & USA were next with 2 each) and El Celler de Can Rocca (in Gerona) took […]

    113 Great Portland Street, London W1W 6QQ www.portlandrestaurant.co.uk   To Portland, a restaurant named after a location, named after a Duke, named after a location (I digress) which is a hot ticket in London's fashionable and fickle dining firmament at the moment. Like the Chiltern Fire House and Dabbous before it – it […]

As someone who spends an indecent amount of time browsing and sluicing under the pretence of working I am frequently asked to name my favourite restaurants. Of course it is tempting to rattle off a list of ultra-fashionable, Michelin be-starred dining establishments where mortals cannot obtain a table at a time anyone would actually want […]

The Seaside Boarding House in Burton Bradstock has just thrown its doors open to the great unwashed and is the most keenly anticipated restaurant or hotel opening since the Chiltern Fire House last year. Located on Dorset's suddenly über-fashionable Jurassic coast (blame Broadchurch) above Chesil Beach and conceived and brought into being by Tony Mackintosh […]

To the impressive new 'Chef's Library' private room at Le Gavroche to meet with Michel Roux, Silvano Giraldin and head sommelier David Galetti for a marathon of food and wine matching to make our selections for our annual Autumn lunch this Thursday. That may sound like a first class ticket on the gravy train but […]