Matthew

Author's details

Date registered: 11 September 2011

Latest posts

  1. Review: Chisou, Mayfair — 3 August 2025
  2. Review: The Vine Tree, Crickhowell — 3 August 2025
  3. Review: Skof, Manchester — 23 July 2025
  4. Review: Juliet, Stroud — 1 July 2025
  5. Review: Counter 71, Shoreditch — 1 July 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: Rock-a-Nore Kitchen, Hastings

Old Hastings is a bit of a discovery – a beautiful little coastal town scattered with old buildings, tucked into a deep valley on the south coast. Not to be confused with plain-old-Hastings, the newer and very ordinary coastal town that sprawls to the west of Old Hastings and eventually turns into St Leonards. Of …

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Review: Pine, Northumberland

There’s a strong breed of restaurants now with some shared characteristics and in need of a catchy name. Wish I was good at catchy names. They are emphatic about local sourcing of excellent produce, usually with a strong element of foraging mixed in. They embrace seasonality and delve extensively into ancient, and particularly Japanese, techniques …

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Review: Solstice, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

How has it taken me so many years to visit Newcastle? It’s a lovely place. Handsome centre and riverside, lovely revitalised ex-industrial art district, loads of friendly people, lots of good food ‘n drink. Recommended: Deep North for ace doughnuts and coffee. It also has a blindingly good restaurant in Solstice. I’ve meant to visit …

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Review: Joia, Battersea

Joia has one very good thing going for it: huge floor-to-ceiling windows with 15th storey views out over Battersea Power Station and beyond. It’s a light and spacious dining room and it feels lovely to be here. That said, on arrival we had a similar experience to La Goccia: the lady on the door took …

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Review (again): Paradise, Soho

I reviewed Paradise a few years ago when we first went and enjoyed our best Sri Lankan meal in London to date. We’ve been back a few times since, whenever we’re longing for punchy whole-hearted spice and cool cocktails. So this isn’t a full review, I just wanted to highlight that they’ve now switched focus …

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