Tag Archive: review

Review: Pine, Northumberland

There’s a strong breed of restaurants now with some shared characteristics and in need of a catchy name. Wish I was good at catchy names. They are emphatic about local sourcing of excellent produce, usually with a strong element of foraging mixed in. They embrace seasonality and delve extensively into ancient, and particularly Japanese, techniques …

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Review: Solstice, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

How has it taken me so many years to visit Newcastle? It’s a lovely place. Handsome centre and riverside, lovely revitalised ex-industrial art district, loads of friendly people, lots of good food ‘n drink. Recommended: Deep North for ace doughnuts and coffee. It also has a blindingly good restaurant in Solstice. I’ve meant to visit …

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Review: Joia, Battersea

Joia has one very good thing going for it: huge floor-to-ceiling windows with 15th storey views out over Battersea Power Station and beyond. It’s a light and spacious dining room and it feels lovely to be here. That said, on arrival we had a similar experience to La Goccia: the lady on the door took …

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Review (again): Paradise, Soho

I reviewed Paradise a few years ago when we first went and enjoyed our best Sri Lankan meal in London to date. We’ve been back a few times since, whenever we’re longing for punchy whole-hearted spice and cool cocktails. So this isn’t a full review, I just wanted to highlight that they’ve now switched focus …

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Review: Mollie’s Diner, Oxford (ish)

“Mollie’s Diner, Oxford” is actually beside the A242 about 20 minutes drive from Oxford. Just in case you thought it was a useful hotel for visiting Oxford! It’s a roadside diner and motel (hotel, really) and we found it very handy for two days of walking along the Thames Path nearby. As a hotel I …

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