Category Archive: Rest of UK

Outside of London

Review: Smoke, Hampton-in-Arden

It being January and miserable, we took ourselves off to a country house hotel in darkest Warwickshire to do nothing but indulge. Recommended. And specifically I recommend Hampton Manor as a great place to unwind. It’s a big ol’ Victorian pile that has been given a warm country vibe with a mixture of big statements …

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Review: Thomas, Cardiff

I’m writing this review a bit late, really. It’s a good couple of weeks since we ate at Thomas – Tom Simmon’s Cardiff restaurant – and I didn’t take notes at the time. But! It was too good a meal not to record, so here are just a few thoughts and recollections… It’s got a …

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Review: Gwen, Machynllyth

Gareth Ward strikes me as a really good guy. He’s opened this new 8-cover restaurant in the middle of Machynlleth high street, named Gwen for his mum, and put chef Corrin Harrison in charge, and then backed him to the extent of letting him create and evolve the whole menu without any input at all …

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Review: Muse, Cheltenham

When we walked in and scoped out the decor, the clientele and the menus I think we both felt reasonably confident that we’d pegged Muse. There’s a kind of up-market provincial brasserie with over-enthusiastic decor and well-dressed middle age punters where the menu is typically brave and full of all the right words (including last …

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Review: The Set, Brighton

The Set is a tasting menu place in Brighton that has somehow escaped my notice for a few years, even though it sets out its stall as “meat, umami and fat driven cooking” which is, frankly, my kind of thing. It was time to rectify this. They take over a place called Cafe Rust in …

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