Just a quickie, this. The Montpellier Lodge is a relatively new opening in Cheltenham, up in the top corner of the Montpellier Gardens. It’s a nice spot, and they’ve got a glass-walled outer dining room and a cosier indoor room beyond the bar. Modern decor, nicely done. My first problem is the service. We’ve been …
I’ve already reviewed Purnell’s and it definitely still stands up in my top ten fine dining experiences in the UK for inventiveness and deliciousness. So it seemed worth a punt at his lower-end Purnell’s Bistro just around the corner when we were needing a pre-show bite to eat one evening. The place is stylish, long …
Ah, the unplanned Sunday lunch! An opportunity to spend the morning phoning all the best local pubs and restaurants to the resounding reply of “sorry, we’re fully booked!” Or perhaps to live even more dangerously and drive out into the countryside? Stopping at all the good looking country pubs to be told “sorry, we’ve got …
I’ve used the Hardens Guide as a bit of a bible for years now. It’s very handy when you’re heading somewhere unfamiliar and wouldn’t mind finding something half-decent to eat. In theory it’s a clever half-way house; they are crowd-sourcing reviews which means they can have much better coverage than a purely professional guide like …
Quickie this, and no photos, totally forgot. Well, all we were looking for was a bite of lunch on our way down to Winchester. Stockbridge is a postcard-perfect little town in the Test Valley in deepest Hampshire. For me, the Test Valley is perhaps the most beautiful bit of rural countryside in the whole south …