‘You’ve been shortlisted’, it read, and actually I knew that I had been, I’d been keeping a date free in my diary for months. This was my invitation to The Roof Gardens in Kensington for a formal(ish) four course dinner to celebrate the UK launch of the McGuigan range of award winning wines, The Shortlist.
Black Gold, Shimmering Sky
Douglas Blyde heads to Islay, island of eight distilleries and one golf course. There he discovers his disinterest in golf is not a handicap.
Café East
More like a canteen than a café, even today there are more tables full than empty, quite a feat when you consider it’s a Friday afternoon and, as I may have mentioned already, we’re in the middle of a leisure park. The dining room is bright, clean and ever so slightly clinical and runs a ticket system when it’s even busier.
King Prawn
Mark Hix and frozen seafood are not words you would necessarily associate. I still have trouble now. But here he is, in the smart and sexy underground bar below his Soho haunt, dressing that most prawny of dishes, prawn cocktail, for Birds Eye’s emperor king prawn launch.
Sex In A Cone
The Icecreamists, although a playful brand is anything but, these people are serious about ice cream! Sex, drugs and rock and roll, if it isn’t in their ice cream, it’s in their ice cream cocktails. Merging the innocence of ice cream with an injection of alcoholic sin, The Icecreamists have created a contemporary way to enjoy ice cream. Priyanka Kara learns how to create some of their recipes and gets the scoop.
Twelfth Grand Union arrives at Paddington
Not unlucky for Grand Union, the canal-biased burgeoning chain opened its twelfth venue on Friday 13th May in the heart of newly-regenerated Paddington Basin. The space, a stagger from Edgware Road tube station, is massive and was created from a retail unit as part of a £400,000 refit with a capacity of 400 people.
Singapore Takeout is set to sizzle on the Southbank
London is to become the first city in the world to host the Singapore Takeout – a mobile pop-up kitchen and restaurant housed within a specially-customised shipping container.
Vegetarian ramble round Soho and Hoxton eating ethically
You don’t need to be a vegetarian or vegan to join in with this year’s Ethical Eats Restaurant Ramble – round three of London’s most well known vegetarian/vegan restaurants. We reckon carnivores won’t notice the lack of meat – and will feel justifiably smug for eating more sustainably.
The Real Greek London Restaurant in Covent Garden
The Real Greek in Covent Garden, London, just how real is it? Do I care? I’m eating lunch not writing a thesis for a sociology degree. What’s on the plate is what counts and despite dire warnings, I found the Real Greek really not bad at all.
A taste of Italy on the fifth floor at Harvey Nichols
Valentina, a very good Italian deli with branches in West London, has set up a kind of pop-up restaurant at The Taste Lab on the Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols until May 22nd offering a selection of deli products to eat there and then at the ten seat counter.