Matthew

Author's details

Date registered: 11 September 2011

Latest posts

  1. Review: Rockfish, Brixham — 16 August 2025
  2. Review: The Club House, West Bexington — 16 August 2025
  3. Review: Da Mario, Kensington — 16 August 2025
  4. Review: Chisou, Mayfair — 3 August 2025
  5. Review: The Vine Tree, Crickhowell — 3 August 2025

Most commented posts

  1. TripAdvisor gives me indigestion — 13 comments
  2. Spicy beetroot soup — 11 comments
  3. Review: Noma, Copenhagen — 10 comments
  4. Spaghetti alla carbonara, essentially — 10 comments
  5. A gourmet and his gout — 9 comments

Author's posts listings

Review: Sticky Walnut, Chester

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

7 April 2019

Pig's head

Should I spend the intro waffling about Gary Usher, the owner of the Sticky Walnut who has crowd-funded four more well-loved bistros around the north-west of England on a wave of social media street cred and chutzpah? Nah, I’d rather talk about Chester. You need to come and chill for a weekend in this city. …

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Review: The Hare & Billet, Blackheath

Categories:

London, Pubs, Restaurant Reviews

7 April 2019

Roast chicken

Chicken is almost always at the bottom of my menu choices. It’s just… chicken. I sometimes get the feeling chefs put it on the menu with a big implicit label: “For Nervous Diners! The Safe Option!” because it tends to get put on a plate with some fairly boring accompaniments too. Then of course sometimes …

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Review: A Wong, Victoria

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Restaurant Reviews

4 April 2019

Goldfish dumplings! Awwww!qGoldfish dumplings! Awwww!

I could not stop laughing at the goldfish dumplings. An awful lot of effort had gone into artfully crafting something so beautifully naff. And I just didn’t get the dish either. The little goldfish had minced prawn inside them, which was a bit boring, and were accompanied by a piece of seared foie gras. Why? …

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Review: Copper and Ink, Blackheath

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Restaurant Reviews

4 April 2019

Choc tart AND BASIL SORBET OF GOD!

There’s a helluva lot of care and attention that goes into fine dining – even informal fine dining – that you only notice when it’s absent. When our dessert showed up at Copper and Ink, with two cubes of chiffon cake, there was plenty of jealous comparing going on; lucky me, my cubes were nearly …

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Review: The Rattle Owl, York

Categories:

Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

18 March 2019

Beef

Hey, front of house folks. If you have a table of braying, cackling, bellowing morons dining in your restaurant then I totally understand that there’s not much you can do about it. The other tables seated nearby trying to enjoy a friendly Sunday lunch really do just have to put up with the raucous, ear-shattering, …

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