Matthew

Author's details

Date registered: 11 September 2011

Latest posts

  1. Review: Laxsa, Soho — 7 May 2025
  2. Review: The Horse Guards, Petworth — 26 April 2025
  3. Review: Chet’s, Shepherd’s Bush — 19 April 2025
  4. Review: Mamapen, Soho — 15 April 2025
  5. Review: The White Horses, Rottingdean — 5 April 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: The White Spoon, Cheltenham

Categories:

Fine dining, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

28 September 2015

The White Spoon

There’s a bunch of good places to eat in Cheltenham. Our nearest, a pub called The Tivoli, ain’t one. Of course we tried it as soon as we moved here; two dull starters, Maureen had a stringy bit of lamb she could have chewed all week, and I had some argumentative fish that disagreed with …

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Review: Historical Dining Rooms, Bristol

Categories:

Fine dining, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

28 September 2015

Note the lard... and bacon bits! Phwoar!

If there’s one restaurant in the UK that you should dress up for, it’s surely this one. The Historical Dining Rooms, above the Star & Dove pub, goes the whole hog in decor, service and menu to cast you back into the past. In that it trumps Heston’s Dinner, which showcases historical food but is …

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Review: Lake Road Kitchen, Ambleside

Categories:

Fine dining, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

27 September 2015

Lake Road Kitchen

UPDATE Oct 2016 – just been back to LRK and it’s better than ever. They’ve switched to a no choice tasting menu, 5 or 8 courses, and we enjoyed snails braised in homemade grain miso, slow-cooked octopus with fresh cheese and lovage oil, best piece of guinea fowl I ever tasted with hedgehog mushrooms and …

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Review: The Black Swan, North Yorks

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Pubs, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

20 August 2015

Neat bar snacks

They seem to be having a good time at the Black Swan, rummaging the fields and hedgerows for wild ingredients and making all kinds of concoctions and decoctions out of them. As it was a balmy day I enjoyed a bright green and refreshing glass of apple marigold lemonade to begin with. Other enticing cordials …

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Review: Fraiche, Birkenhead

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

19 July 2015

Aubergine with lamb, lovely

Interesting. Sometimes, as a sort of car-crash voyeurism, I like to check out the bad TripAdvisor reviews of restaurants. Not because I’d ever trust them, but because some people’s semi-literate views are hilarious. And for Fraiche I fully expected the same kind of comments I saw for Casamia; “I was so hungry afterwards I had …

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