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Review: Kuch, Bristol

Sardines

Kuch is yet another smashing place to eat in Bristol’s Cotham Hill area. I’ve reviewed Bellita and Pasta Loco too, and I’m wondering what the next culinary smash hit to open here will be. Kuch is straight-up, generous, flavour-packed Persian cooking. The interior has been decked out in a modern and colourful style that emulates …

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Review: Pasta Loco, Bristol

Bugatini pasta

They’re turning them away in droves at Pasta Loco, and you’ve got more chance of finding Heinz Spaghetti Hoops on the menu than you have of getting a table on a Saturday evening! Determined to find out what all the fuss is about, we found a lunchtime excuse for a visit. Pasta Loco is tiny …

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Review: Le Cercle, Bourges

Nice fish

What is it with French fine dining and puddings? Sorry, desserts. Are there other food writers out there properly bemoaning the complete lack of decent pastry chefs in French provincial 1 Michelin star restaurants? Or am I just dismally unlucky to have had crap desserts in the last five French provincial 1 Michelin star restaurants …

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Wine tasting in the central Loire

Sancerre

The Loire changes as you head upstream. Down near the sea it’s awash with Muscadet, head upstream and it becomes a broad flow of Chenin Blanc, but keep going and eventually you’ll be swimming in pure Sauvignon Blanc. This is the grape of Sancerre, Poilly-Fume and Reuilly. And Menetou-Salon but I’ll come back to that. …

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Review: The Fordwich Arms

Fordwich Arms

Kent is super-beautiful. Seriously got some of the most stunning countryside in the UK. I’m using the word bucolic here, and I’m meaning it sincerely. So many of the villages are staggeringly pretty. Visit Chilham, Ickham, Wickhamburgh, Fordwich and Lenham, then tell me it ain’t true. Actually there’s a mistake in that list: Fordwich isn’t …

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