Restaurants

To Otto’s Restaurant at number 182 on the Gray’s Inn Road last night to sample a dazzling vertical of Domaine de Trévallon accompanied by a decadent menu of specially selected dishes. The eponymous Otto and I go way back to the days when he was buying wine for a grand fin de siècle restaurant called […]

In the summer time, before the schools break up for the holidays, the team here at Yapp Brothers like to get together and put the world to rights over a meal and a few glasses of wine. We have long established that it is impossible to find a date that is universally convenient but as […]

To 43 Upper Brook Street, London, W1 at Le Gavroche for my bi-annual bean-feast with front of house legend Silvano Giraldin to select the food and wines for our sell-out Spring lunch. If I had £1 for every time I’d been told that this was an enviable task I wouldn’t have to sit here and […]

Ron & Elva Laughton of the legendary Jasper Hill Winery in Heathcote, South Australia, both delighted and surprised us with their arrival in the UK the other day. They revealed that the reason for the secrecy was that they were celebrating their wedding anniversary and Christmas with a European tour and to quote ‘didn’t want […]

  Our annual Autumn lunch at Le Gavroche which takes place tomorrow is always a highlight of the epicurean calendar but this year Michel Roux, Silvano Giraldin and their team have upped the ante with a superb seasonal menu. Silvano, it has to be acknowledged, is a persuasive fellow and he had little difficulty in […]

  Le Chaudron, which is tucked away in a basement in the back streets of Tournon, is an old Yapp favourite and regular watering hole of some of the most celebrated wine makers in the Northern Rhône. There is no frou-frou French flim-flammery here. It is a pretty basic offering of wholesome seasonal staples but […]

If you fancy tucking into some Canard de la Rouen à la Presse there is only one establishment in the UK that will oblige you – Otto’s Restaurant (service à l’ancienne) at 182 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8EW. The eponymous patron Otto Tepasse and I go back a long way as he has worked […]

  Last week I finally managed to pay a visit to one of this year’s most exciting London restaurant openings at The Quality Chop House at the top of the Farringdon Road near Exmouth Market. I am very familiar with its heavily-listed Victorian exterior and interior as it was a regular haunt of mine in […]

Barcelona makes a great location for a city break at the tail-end of a seemingly interminable British winter. To feel the sun on ones face and sand between the toes after months being enshrouded in coats, scarves and gloves is truly uplifting. The Ciutat Comtal offers a mine of cultural diversions from the fabulous Museo […]

One of the constant delights of London living is that no matter how long you have lived there you are always discovering ‘new’ places to visit and things to do in areas that you thought you already knew inside out. I had such an occasion last Saturday when I was looking for a suitable restaurant […]