Category Archive: Fine dining

White linen, silver service, but not in Mr Michelin's book

Review: Two Cats Kitchen, Birmingham

What is “New Baltic Cuisine”? Well, one answer is: it’s the tag line that’s meant to intrigue you into eating at Two Cats Kitchen. Another answer might be: it’s a themed menu that sticks pretty rigidly to the idea of only using things grown or found in northern Europe, with a couple of nods towards …

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Review: The Man Behind The Curtain, Leeds

Okay, look, if your tasting menu is described as “12 courses” and two of those courses are the petit fours, you’re actually grasping a bit. I’m just saying. Felt a bit silly ordering a second glass of dessert wine in anticipation of another dessert, only to have it put in front of us and then …

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Review: Castle Terrace, Edinburgh

At some point I just got bored and stopped eating my skate. Which is, really, one of the worst things you can say about a restaurant when you’re forking out over a hundred per person. This was my main course, “seared skate grenobloise with crushed pink fir apple potatoes and sea kale”. Seared implies flame-kissed, …

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Review: The Clove Club, Shoreditch

Restaurants are clearly getting sneaky. Our waiter approached us after starters were cleared to ask “so which one of you is Salty Plums?” Given that I’d booked using my proper name and email address, and neither my Twitter account or this blog give away my email address… I’m a little curious how they found out! …

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Review: Kondo, Tokyo

Kondo is a Michelin 2-star tempura restaurant in Tokyo. We all know tempura – a plate of veggies and/or prawns in a crisply light batter, to be enjoyed as part of any Japanese meal in the UK. Well, in Japan there are dedicated tempura restaurants and at those the whole deal is tempura. The head …

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