Category Archive: Fine dining

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

Review: Septième Péché, Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a delight for foodies of a certain stripe. If your idea of pleasure runs to chocolate, macarons, cheese, patisserie and fine wine then this is the place pour vous. It also has oodles of interesting looking places to eat, once you get over the standard set that appear in all the “Top 5 …

Continue reading »

Review: Le Gabriel, Bordeaux

Look, this is just getting ridiculous. Here’s a general request to all the fine dining restaurants I’ve tried in France over the last couple of years: pop out, buy one of the delicious little gateaux from any of the fine patisseries within a few yards of your restaurant, pop it on plate and present it …

Continue reading »

Review: Loves, Birmingham

I’m still trying to fall in love with Birmingham. Okay, I know where to find a decent coffee and a bite of lunch. I’ve also found a couple of (yes, two!) independent shops that I like. The Custard Factory is trying hard to be a bubbling little bohemian hotspot for artists and media types, it’s …

Continue reading »

Review: Story, Tooley Street

Customer: “That was a really good tasting menu. X and Y were particularly brilliant. I must admit though, we all thought the four desserts were a bit repetitive, all basically ice cream. One dish with a pastry element or a bit of cake might have been good…” Waiter: “To be honest sir, you’d never get …

Continue reading »

Review: Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall

Sometimes I like to fool myself that I’m a local when I visit Cornwall. After all, I must have visited a dozen times. I know all the obscure villages; Praze an Beble, Indian Queens, Perranzebuloe, Mabe Burnthouse. I know how to pronounce Fowey and Mousehole (Fo’y and Mowz’l). And I never, ever, ever have brown …

Continue reading »