Koyal, Surbiton
Cheese and Biscuits
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1d ago
I rarely make any journey without the promise of a nice meal. This applies to short breaks, long-haul holidays and day trips alike - I have no interest in beaches, ski slopes, cruise ships or campsites, and although I'm very partial to a long walk in the countryside when the weather allows, how much better is that long walk with a gastropub lunch at the end of it? Or at the start of it. Or at any point in-between, for that matter. Plus there is just no point, in this country at least, relying on the weather to enjoy a day out because you have a very good chance of your plans being thwarted ..read more
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Lita, Marylebone
Cheese and Biscuits
by
4d ago
The food at Lita is very nice. I'm saying that up front because I worry that the list of things I didn't like about the place threatens to overwhelm the main message which should be that, despite everything, the food is very nice. And maybe if you went to Lita yourself, and you got a better table and didn't mind the prices and could put up with the general feeling that your presence was an inconvenience then you might have had a better time than we did. Maybe. I mean, I tried to enjoy myself, I really did. The problems began almost immediately. Now, I appreciate that not every table in ev ..read more
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Holy Carrot, Notting Hill
Cheese and Biscuits
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1w ago
I don't know about you, but the concept of a 'vegetarian restaurant' brings to mind a certain set of expectations, not all of them good. I suppose it's because traditionally, vegetarian food has been, at best, just 'normal' restaurant food with the meat either taken out, or replaced by meat substitutes such as Quorn or tofu or certain types of mushroom. Sometimes, admittedly, this approach does work - the Shake Shack 'Shroom burger is just their normal cheeseburger with the beef replaced with a breaded, fried portobello mushroom, but it works remarkably well. But too often you're presented w ..read more
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Tarim Uyghur, Bloomsbury
Cheese and Biscuits
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3w ago
Quite often all you need to know about a restaurant is the smell that greets you as you walk through the door. The smoke and fat of a busy ocakbaşı, The burned onions and masala spices that cling to your clothes after an evening at Tayyabs, the intoxicating mix of funky aged steak and charred lobster shell that fill the upper dining rooms of the Devonshire, these are all indicators enough that you're in for a good time even before you see a menu. The inside of Tarim Uyghur restaurant on Theobald's Road sent me right back to trips Silk Road in its heyday, when the charcoal grills were suffic ..read more
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Etch by Steven Edwards, Hove
Cheese and Biscuits
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1M ago
Hove is a very acceptable place to spend a day. I was last in the area when visiting the Urchin, a seafood-specialist gastropub and microbrewery (I bet there aren't too many of them around) which made the (pretty easy actually) journey down from Battersea more than worth my while. Since then, I've discovered that we paid way too much for our train tickets (apparently we should have gone Thameslink, not Southern) and also that etch by Steven Edwards has opened, thus giving me another great excuse to travel. This time on a much cheaper train. The fact that Hove is so well connected to the ..read more
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Vetch, Liverpool
Cheese and Biscuits
by
1M ago
The best way of experiencing 90% of the fun and frolics of a top-end restaurant whilst shelling out less than 50% of the usual cost is to go for a weekday lunch or early bird menu. Some of the most exciting dining spots in the country have some remarkably reasonably priced off-peak offers, designed to fill tables at times where otherwise they'd be empty, and as we all know there's nothing worse - from a diner's or restaurant's perspective - than an empty restaurant. These special menus come with an understanding, however - that there will necessarily be cheaper ingredients used (cod inste ..read more
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Vatavaran, Knightsbridge
Cheese and Biscuits
by
1M ago
It was Trishna in Marlebone, all the way back in something like 2009, that opened many Londoners' eyes - not least my own - to the possibilities of modern Indian fine dining. Now, I'm sure Vivek Singh (Cinnamon Club, 2001), Sriram Aylur (Quilon, 1999) and Cyrus Todiwala (Café Spice Namasté, 1995) will each have something to say about that, and clearly these places are just as much of a part of the journey of this cuisine (or rather, cuisines - India is a big country) as anything that has come since, but there was something about Trishna, the way it wore its fine dining credentials so lightly ..read more
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The Hightown Inn, Liverpool
Cheese and Biscuits
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1M ago
Despite spending the first 20 years of my life about 100m up the road from the Hightown Inn (then the Hightown Hotel), I never really considered this grand old Victorian building to be much of a "local". I was far more likely to get the train to the Railway in Formby where most of my friends lived, or the Grapes in Freshfield if we were feeling particularly Footballer's Wives. The Hightown contingent did - occasionally - persuade others to join us in L38, but the building's constant change of ownership, focus and purpose (was it a pub with food, a food pub, or just a plain old boozer? A hote ..read more
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Tuétano Taqueria, San Diego
Cheese and Biscuits
by
1M ago
On the shortest day of the year, in the middle of the gloomiest and wettest of England's gloom and wet, I thought it might be fun to review a taco shop in southern California, because it's days like this you need to remind yourself that there are places in the world where the sun always shines. Tuétano is Spanish for 'bone marrow', and so if you call yourself 'Tuétano Taqueria' this brings with itself a certain set of expectations. I remember being very disappointed as a child when it turned out central Liverpool chippie The Lobster Pot didn't serve lobster (yes, I was that kind of kid) but ..read more
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Crispin at Studio Voltaire, Clapham Common
Cheese and Biscuits
by
2M ago
Although my useless photos hardly do it justice (let's just get that out of the way from the start), Crispin at Studio Voltaire is a lovely space to eat in. The candles on each table aren't the only source of light, but provide a romantic accessory to the tealights dangling above the bar and some tasteful candelabras near dark curtains towards the back of the room - it's all very theatrical and cozy and Christmassy, a perfect setting for seasonal dining. All of which would mean nothing if the food served wasn't up to scratch but fortunately the team behind Crispin have some form in this d ..read more
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