Category Archive: Rest of UK

Outside of London

Review: Opheem, Birmingham

I wonder to what extent labelling a dish “Winning dish on Great British Menu” skews the punters to order it? I’m willing to bet that a lot more of them fly out of the kitchen than the other mains or starters they’re sharing the menu with. And chef Aktar Islaam has two “winner on GBM” …

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Review: Tierra and Mar, Cirencester

This little restaurant in a tucked-away corner of Cirencester is really hard to pin down. Is it fine dining or casual? Is it modern or trad Spanish? Is it brilliant value or a bit confused? Is it tapas or tasting menu? I’m not sure I can answer all these questions, but Tierra and Mar is …

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Review: The Coach House, Exmoor

Or to give it its proper title: “The Coach House by Michael Caines“. In the interest of full disclosure, this kind of thing really gets on my wick so I was likely to be skeptical going into this meal! Is it really necessary to suck people in with a name? All I can find on …

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Review: Moksh, Cardiff

If you are an Indian restaurant with pretensions of fine dining, please learn this lesson first: portion sizes should be smaller on tasting menus. When a full sized curry with a complete portion of rice and naan rocks up after I’ve already eaten 3 amuse bouches and 4 starters, I just know I’m going to …

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Review: Root, Bristol

We’re seriously contemplating getting a flat overlooking the floating harbour in Bristol. Just nosing around the Cargo complex of re-skinned shipping containers it feels like we could have a great bite to eat at a different place every night for two weeks and still not run out of options. Today we had lunch at Root, …

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